LT #9 - Top Links - Jan 2023
LT #9 - Top Links - Jan 2023
Brazilian insurrection, India in trouble, ponzi hospital schemes, Biden border policy, political AI, carbon capture, electric cars, Russian twitter bots, aging populations, intellectual property...
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Top Articles
The Intercept: Those Russian Twitter bots didn’t do $#!% in 2016, says new study
The Intercept: Biden’s border plan drapes Trump’s policies in liberal rhetoric
The Biden administration continues to claim to stand against Title 42… At the same time, however, the administration has deployed and continued to expand Title 42’s use to expedite migrant expulsion.
FAIR: The right turns anti-LGBTQ hate up to 11
Real News Network: From Tesla to Twitter, wherever Elon Musk goes, lawsuits and alleged worker abuses follow
The Nation: The Department of Defense has delivered another massive intelligence failure
Chinese emissions represent at least as great a threat to US security as the multitude of weapons enumerated in the Pentagon’s 2022 report—so why was it not addressed?
Jacobin: The terrorism charges against cop city protesters are ominous
Jacobin: The medieval crusade against the Cathars supplied a template for modern oppression
Brazilian Insurrection
Bad Faith Podcast: Are you like, over the first amendment? Why the Brazilian insurrection is far more serious and dangerous than the American Jan 6th.
Jacobin: Jeremy Corbyn: Brazil’s insurrection plotters are trying to destroy democracy
Criminal Justice Reform
A detailed argument why the US spends *too little* on police, judges, and prosecutors AND *too much* on incarceration.
India on the brink?
In 2019, ahead of COVID, India was sometimes describes as a developing country suffering from rich-country banking problems. COVID displaced those concerns to the margins. With the crisis at Adani issues of financial stability come very much back to the fore. Adani’s group has been at the very forefront of the good news narrative that has yielded a series of decisive election victories for Prime Minister Modi. As Mihir Sharma points out, the Indian public is under few illusions about the extent of corruption and feather-bedding, what they expect from the likes of Adani and Ambani is delivery. But that depends on preserving at least a veneer of financial probity and stability. If the panic spreads, if there are huge losses to be absorbed, it is an open question which balance sheet will absorb the damage.
Climate change and energy
Grist: A new EPA proposal is reigniting debate about what counts as ‘renewable’
While renewable fuel standards have gained a stamp of approval from industry producers and the federal government, environmental groups see increased investment in ethanol, biomass, and biogas as doubling down on dirty fuel.
New to LeftTimes, Sustainability by Numbers, on why even though electric vehicles are more carbon-intensive to manufacture - they’re still better for the environment.
Matt Yglesias on why we need to invest in carbon capture:
The Economy
These Ponzi-like schemes are pervasive at this point in the U.S. economy, and they are going to unravel over the next year. And that brings me to health care, and in particular, hospitals. This is not an area where you would expect Ponzi financing. Most Americans think highly of hospitals and doctors, imagining them as the good guys you see in TV shows like Scrubs or Grey’s Anatomy, caring professionals doing the best with what they can. A lot of hospitals are nonprofits, and many hospitals in the U.S. - especially ‘safety net’ hospitals that serve poor or rural communities - are on the brink of insolvency. Since 2010, 140 rural hospitals have closed.
AI, Politics, and Ideology
Why are better AI’s both more liberal and more conservative?
https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-244-are-77445423
Top Videos and Podcasts
Dean Baker talks about how intellectual property distorts the economy/competition and enriches elites - and proposes how to fix it.
And finally, Sarcasmitron breaks down the events that led to the invasion of Ukraine - making a detailed argument why threat of NATO expansion had nothing to do with it.