Readers, we have now entered one of our two yearly comments holidays, beginning today and continuing through and including Sunday, September 9.
Reduced Arctic Sea Ice May Be Suppressing July Tornadoes Weather Underground
Centuries-Old Plant Collection Now Online — A Treasure Trove For Researchers NPR (DL).
Fire Devastates Brazil’s Oldest Science Museum National Geographic and The Absurd Loss of the National Museum Lifts the Veil on Brazil’s National Project RioOnWatch
Trying To Make Sense Of The Troubles At JetSmarter Forbes. Entertaining! File under The Bezzle.
The baroness, the ICO fiasco, and enter Steve Wozniak FT Alphaville. Also entertaining. First sentence: “Earlier this year, we brought you news that Scottish lingerie entrepreneur-turned Conservative peer Michelle Mone and her businessman boyfriend Doug Barrowman were launching an initial coin offering (ICO).”
NASA explores product endorsements and rocket naming rights Engadget (KW). Next up, David Foster Wallace’s “subsidized time,” like the Year of Elon Musk’s Tiny Cave Submarine. And so forth.
The Collapse Of Venezuela’s Imaginary Oil Currency OilPrice.com
Brexit
Brexit is estimated to have wiped 2% off the UK’s GDP even before the exit date CNBC
Leavers and Remainers are uniting to kill a Chequers Brexit FT
Informal trade is ubiquitous in Africa, but too often ignored The Economist
Syraqistan
Facebook blocked in Tripoli and other cities as fighting rages: residents Reuters
Leak From Censored Israel Lobby Film Exposes Anti-Palestinian Operatives TRNN
How Iran Could Counter U.S. Sanctions Bloomberg
Drug-resistant superbug spreading in hospitals: study Agence France Presse
China?
Chinese Bonds Feel the Chill as Deadly Swine Fever Spreads Bloomberg
Smaller Chinese manufacturers hit hard by trade war in August, new data shows South China Morning Post
Sino-US trade war prompts rethink on supply chains FT
Interview: Leta Hong Fincher The Diplomat
The “Call”… Alibaba and the 8 Analysts Wolf Street (EM). EM: “[A]s a public service, we deploy my patented Dick Fuld Banker-Speak Translator (BST), to fully analyze the implications of the analyst Q&A on the Alibaba investor call.” Hilarity ensues.
Asia’s Shifting Alliances Counterpunch
Asia’s order beyond the great powers The Interpreter
New Cold War
Moscow can handle US sanctions. How far will Washington go? Asia Times (KW).
Human Rights Reasoning and Double Standards in the Rules-Based Order Irrussianality (CL).
Rich Russians: From Oligarchs to Bourgeoisie, by Elisabeth Schimpfössl FT
At Asia’s heart, Lake Baikal stirs Russians to protect nature Christian Science Monitor
Trump Transition
Norwegian Police Launch Investigation Into Disappearance of WikiLeaks Associate HuffPo. Hmm…..
Trump levels a new blast at Sessions for not shielding indicted GOP lawmakers, including Hunter Los Angeles
GOP leaders scramble to avoid pre-Election Day shutdown Politico
How the FISA Court Really Works Lawfare. Not like any “court” I’ve ever heard of.
READ: Former President Barack Obama’s eulogy for Sen. John McCain CNN. Full text of Obama’s eulogy. “… [W]hen all was said and done, we were on the same team. We never doubted we were on the same team.” Exactly!
My Fellow Prisoners n+1. One more for McCain Holy Week.
George A. Romero’s ‘Dawn of the Dead’ Turns 40! Bloody Disgusting
Democrats in Disarray
What Democrats Still Don’t Understand About Winning Back the White Working Class Alternet
8 questions for the midterm elections: A blue wave or not? WaPo. Wall-to-wall identity politics and horserace handicapping, nothing on policy.
New Yorker Festival Pulls Steve Bannon as Headliner Following High-Profile Dropouts NYT
Religious competition was to blame for Europe’s witch hunts The Economist. And they didn’t even have social media!
The Crash Ten Years After
The Financial Crisis Ten Years Afterwards Yale School of Management Program on Financial Stability
Class Warfare
A Labor Day tribute to restaurant workers, cooking and serving food they can’t afford to eat Salon
data for politics #18: Unions are Good as Hell Data for Progress
Writing the Unions’ ‘Fight-or-Die Survival Chapter’ Sarah Jaffe, NYT
Which Side Are They On? The Baffler
The economy may be booming, but nearly half of Americans can’t make ends meet Los Angeles Times
The battle between two elites: the haves and have-yachts Simon Kuper, FT. Clever Brit thinks Hillary Clinton is on the left.
Beyond Strange Bedfellows Political Research
Genetic analysis of social-class mobility in five longitudinal studies PNAS (KS).
Editorial: The Mistaken Universalism R.L. Stephens, DSA Weekly
The Impact of Chief Diversity Officers on Diverse Faculty Hiring NBER. You can guess, I’m sure…
French kids are heading back to school today without their most beloved possessions Quartz. Ditto.
Antidote du Jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
