Photos: Two Adorable New Mountain Lion Kittens Were Found In The Santa Monica Mountains LAist
The songs of Saturn: Astrophysicists convert the gas giant’s moons and rings into music Daily Mail
We Said Google Was Dangerously Powerful, Then Google Proved Us Right. Matt Stoller, Buzzfeed
Google-Funded Think Tank Fired Google Critics After They Dared Criticize Google The Intercept. We need real “scholars,” with academic tenure, precisely to avoid this sort of situation.
A leading Google critic’s firing from a Google-funded think tank, explained Matthew Yglesias, Vox. “[T]he case sheds light on the growing tendency of companies to use think tanks as essentially stealth lobbyists.” “Growing.” Really?
The Dumb Fact of Google Money The Atlantic
Barnum Presidents and Benevolent Monopolists: Mark Twain, Amazon, and the Futility of Antitrust LA Review of Books
Inside the Massive 711 Million Record Onliner Spambot Dump Troy Hunt
New Uber chief aims for IPO within 18-36 months FT
Ex-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was key in picking his replacement USA Today. Or so he says. “Khosrowshahi, who initially was not interested in the Uber post, describes how his mind ultimately was changed by the power of Kalanick’s pitch.” For more on “the pitch,” see NC here.
This letter from an angry Uber investor reads like a piece of modernist poetry Quartz. So Quartz formatted it that way. Hilarity ensues!
New Worry in ‘Repo’: Just One Bank for $3.5 Trillion Market FOX Business
Brexit
Minimal talks progress as Brexit sides play cards close FT
Get out, and go quick: Brexit heartland stays defiant Euractive
French Bike Couriers Give Macron’s Economy a One-Star Rating Bloomberg (Re Silc).
Syraqistan
Emirati Ambassador: Qatar Is a Destructive Force in the Region The Atlantic (Re Silc). Yousef Al Otaiba.
The Sordid Double Life of Washington’s Most Powerful Ambassador The Intercept. Yousef Al Otaiba (!)
JARED KUSHNER THE REASON WHY TRUMP IS LETTING NAJIB OFF THE 1MDB HOOK? SWISS BANK SURRENDERS DOCUMENTS LINKING UAE ENVOY, A CLOSE FRIEND OF TRUMP’S SON IN LAW, TO JHO LOW TO 1MDB INVESTIGATORS Malaysia Chronicle (Furzy Mouse). Yousef Al Otaiba (!!).
The Saudi Trillions LRB (Re Silc).
* * * U.S. has more troops in Afghanistan than previously disclosed, Pentagon reveals Los Angeles Times
What the West Got Wrong in Syria Foreign Policy
China?
China’s Big Banks Beat Profit Estimates as Bad Loans Curbed Bloomberg
Sharable luxury cars the latest sharing craze in China People’s Daily
Doklam: Who won? Lowy Interpreter
India demonetisation failed to purge black money FT
Hurricane Harvey
Another Harvey Catastrophe: Extreme Flood Emergency in Port Arthur Weather Underground
The Red Cross Won’t Save Houston. Texas Residents Are Launching Community Relief Efforts Instead Democracy Now! (See also How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars for Haiti — and Built Six Homes Pro Publica (2015), and this thread from Pro Publica too.)
Harvey Has Many Asking: How Hard Is It to Evacuate a Major City? Governing
The Legal Crises to Follow in Hurricane Harvey’s Wake The Atlantic
Now Comes the Uncomfortable Question: Who Gets to Rebuild After Harvey? The Intercept
Best Buy Apologizes After Picture Spreads Online of TX Store Selling Cases of Water Bottles for $42 Mediaite. Looting!
Arkema expects chemical fire at flooded Texas plant Reuters
As Historic Flooding Grips Texas, Groups Demand Nuclear Plant Be Shut Down Common Dreams
Early signs of ‘incompetence at every level’ went unheeded as South Carolina rushed toward ‘sexy’ nuclear future Post and Courier. Appalling.
A New Citizen’s Revolution? COHA (MT). Ecuador.
Imperial Collapse Watch
Army planners solve Korea tensions with proposal to move Seoul 300 miles south Duffel Blog
Is the US Navy a hazard to Asian commercial shipping? Lloyd’s List
Maybe today’s Navy is just not very good at driving ships Military Times
Erik Prince: Contractors, Not Troops, Will Save Afghanistan NYT
Our Famously Free Press
Opinion: Trolling is not opinion The Outline. From the URL, we infer the author’s title: “the-nyt-opinion-section-is-bad.”
New Cold War
New Russian ambassador to U.S. calls for resumed military contacts Reuters
Trump Transition
How to Get Rich in Trump’s Washington Nicholas Confessore, NYT
The incredible shrinking president Axios
What Happened to Making America Great Again? The National Interest (Re Silc).
With a drama-filled White House, Mattis has shown deft political touch WaPo
Mattis’ transgender policy review is just ‘following orders’ Federal News Radio
Opinion: The deep, deep cynicism of ‘tax reform’ Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Furzy Mouse).
Trump admin reportedly hires a former for-profit college dean for fraud enforcement MarketWatch. Seems legit.
The FDA’s Consumer Protection Warnings Are Falling Under Trump Bloomberg
AFL-CIO president: Trump White House split between ‘racists’ and ‘Wall Streeters’ USA Today
Health Care
Letter to Senator Sanders from Physicians for a National Health Program (PDF) PNHP. “While we would welcome the proposed reform as a useful step forward in advancing health justice, the persistence of copayments would unacceptably compromise the legislation’s ability to improve health and foster equality in care. We urge you to reconsider the inclusion of copayments.” Here is contact information for Senator Sanders (phone numbers at bottom).
Kamala Harris announces she will co-sponsor single-payer healthcare The Hill. I certainly hope Harris is not to the single payer bill as Cuomo was to tuition-free college.
NHS ‘leaking millions’ in PFI contracts BBC. That’s not a bug…
5 Outside-The-Box Ideas For Fixing The Individual Insurance Market KHN (MT). It’s still a pretty small box.
A history of why the US is the only rich country without universal health care Quartz
9 Solutions to Secure America’s Elections CAP. Not including, naturally, hand-marked paper ballots, hand-counted in public.
Free to Choose? Violent vs. Nonviolent Resistance and the Limits of Choice Political Violence at a Glance (MT).
Class Warfare
After decades of pushing bachelor’s degrees, U.S. needs more tradespeople The Hechinger Report
Not at That Price n+1. DACA.
Rural America Is Building Its Own Internet Because No One Else Will Vice
The Internet of Hate Slate. “The movement’s goal is to own its own servers and run its own web hosting, domain registrar, DDoS protection software, cloud storage services, and encryption technology, not to mention social networks like Gab and other ‘free-speech’–centric alternatives.”
Terry Pratchett’s unfinished novels destroyed by steamroller Guardian
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
