Extra, Extra
Thanks, But No Thanks: “Throughout Joe Biden’s presidency, there was a notion that a politician can win votes by delivering benefits to voters — also known as ‘deliverism.'” It turns out that delivering, even bigly, for communities often didn’t make the slightest dent in voting patterns. Everything that you’d assume matters doesn’t matter at all. NYT (Gift Article): Democrats Delivered Millions to Texarkana. It Didn’t Matter One Bit.
+ Right Here, Right Now: “For the first time in modern history, far-right and populist parties are simultaneously topping the polls in Europe’s three main economies of Germany, France and Britain.”
+ Mine Shaft: Reuters takes you to the other side of the supply chain that led to the device you’re reading this on. Inside the mine that feeds the tech world – and funds Congo’s rebels.
+ Order Up: “At least 63 people, mostly women and children, starved to death in the past week in the besieged city of El Fasher, the last major urban center in the sprawling Darfur region to not fall to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Local officials told reporters that number accounted only for those who made it to medical facilities in an area beset by battles and bombings. Aid has not entered the city for a year.” WaPo (Gift Article): Sudan’s calamity and ‘the end of the liberal world order.’ If you missed it last week, don’t miss Anne Applebaum’s piece on this topic. Out of Order.
+ Lone Ranger: “For three days in Georgia this spring, those culture wars felt very far away, in part because what I saw at Best Ranger belies the idea that the Army is weak or ‘woke’; in part because among the 104 soldiers on the starting line at Fort Benning was a 25-year-old first lieutenant named Gabrielle White, a West Point graduate who was the first woman to compete for the Best Ranger title; and in part because, to her opponents on the course, the fact that she was a woman did not seem to matter. The only thing that mattered to the Rangers I met was that she had qualified for the competition.” Kevin Maurer in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Is This the Hardest Physical Contest in the World?
+ Crime Waive: “The heart of D.C. was in a state of lawlessness. Roving mobs of wild men smashed windows, threatened murder and attacked the police … a mob committed a month’s worth of crime in the span of about three hours. The F.B.I. has estimated that around 2,000 people took part in criminal acts that day, and more than 600 people were charged with assaulting, resisting or interfering with the police.” But that non-imaginary DC crime wave didn’t result in Trump calling in the National Guard. Trump Deploys National Guard for D.C. Crime but Called Jan. 6 Rioters ‘Very Special.’
+ Kiss the Ring: Sylvester Stallone and KISS are among the new Kennedy Center honorees. And you’ll never guess who’s hosting the show. (Trump could be the only man in the world who wears more makeup than KISS.)
