Newsletter 10.23.18

Dearest Patrons,

We hope you've been enjoying the new episodes of Citations Needed - we've got plenty more on tap to keep your earbuds warm this winter. But first, we're taking this week off to refuel the tanks and mix as many metaphors as possible.

In the meantime, please share your favorite past episodes with your closest friends and check out this reading list of recent articles that caught our attention these past couple weeks.

Thanks agin for all your support - we couldn't do any of this without you. We'll be back with a new show next Wednesday.

Cheers,

Sophia, Nima, Florence and Adam

*****

The Harvard admissions plaintiffs are being used - Christine Emba, The Washington Post (10/18/18)

As the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard trial continues in Boston this week, Christine Emba points out that white people are the only ones who stand to gain from race-blind admissions. As we discussed in our recent episode, ‘Attacks on Affirmative Action and the Commodification of Diversity,’ the litigation against Harvard is led by Edward Blum, a notorious anti-civil rights crusader obsessed with destroying affirmative action.

NYPD Unit That Monitored Proud Boys Event Has Troubled History - Ashoka Jegroo, The Appeal (10/19/18)

The NYPD’s Strategic Response Group was established in 2015 to control disorder and counter terrorism, but in practice it focuses on everything from Broken Windows policing to protest suppression. 

Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh, and the Rule of Pampered Princelings - Naomi Klein, The Intercept (10/10/18)

Intergenerational transfers of wealth are one of the strongest and most insidious pillars upholding social stratification in today’s America, and no one exemplifies this more strikingly than Donald Trump and Brett Kavanaugh.

How Pro-War Democrats Use Russiagate To Bloat the Military--And Why That’s Dangerous - Sarah Lazare, In These Times (10/18/18)

Lazare cautions against the Democrat’s overwhelming focus on Russian interference in the 2016 election, arguing that whatever the aim, the result is increased military spending.

UN Says Climate Genocide Is Coming. It’s Actually Worse Than That. - David Wallace-Wells, New York Magazine (10/10/18)

In case you needed to be more alarmed by the impending climate disaster, Wallace-Wells details the ways in which the new IPCC report is actually the best case scenario for our climate in 2040, following up on his NYMag cover story from July 10, 2017. He references this single conventional-wisdom fact sheet, which everyone should have on hand. 

What Is A Rogue State? - Paul Pillar, LobeLog (10/11/18)

Former CIA officer Paul Pillar details the ways in which the Trump administration operates as a rogue state, which he defines as using methods, “contrary to accepted standards of international behavior and contrary to international law...cheating or reneging..the use of violent methods when peaceful ones are available.”

How Real Estate Segregated America - Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Dissent (Fall 2018)

Fifty years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, housing remains overwhelming segregated, as a result of the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Act also of 1968, which inextricably linked private real estate interests with public housing in the United States.

My grandfather Nelson Mandela fought apartheid. I see the parallels with Israel - Nkosi Zwelivelile, The Guardian (10/11/18)

This year marks Nelson Mandela’s hundredth birthday. Mandela’s own grandson, African National Congress MP Nkosi Zwelivelile, takes the opportunity to outline the similarities between South African apartheid and the Israeli state, most recently its passage of the “nation state law.”

The Washington Post, as it Shames Others, Continues to Pay and Publish Undisclosed Saudi Lobbyists and Other Regime Propagandists - Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept (10/15/18)

Fred Hiatt, longtime editor of the op-ed page at the Washington Post, poses the question, “Why do you work for a murderer?” to unnamed Washington statesmen and lobbyists. Greenwald responds by sending the question back, and pointing out that some of those closest to the Saudi regime are those on staff at the Post. (Also, this other Greenwald piece on media favorite and UAE lobbyist David Rothkopf.)

Secretive Campus Cops Patrol Already Over-Policed Neighborhoods - Ryan Briggs, The Appeal (10/15/18)

University campus cops are notorious for existing in a grey-zone between city police and private security. Briggs reports on the growing pushback to increasing militarization of these units in over-policed neighborhoods in Philadelphia and Baltimore.

Israeli Spy Firm That Approached Trump First Proposed Dirty Tricks against BDS - Josh Nathan-Kazis, The Forward (10/11/18)

Psy-Op, the Israeli private intelligence spy firm that offered to help the Trump campaign manipulate social media, had previously attempted to undermine the BDS movement through social media.

Nearly Every Member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Still Takes Corporate PAC Money - Ryan Grim, The Intercept (10/14/18)

The Congressional Progressive Caucus announced that they would no longer accept corporate PAC money, but almost all of its 78 members still individually accept corporate money. Only four members have pledged not to: Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.; Ro Khanna, D-Calif.; Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii; and David Cicilline, D-R.I.

No, Carbon Taxes Aren’t Socialist - Scott Edwards, Jacobin (10/10/2018)

While some people on the Left have come out in support of a carbon tax, Scott Edwards argues that it would be counterproductive, harmful to the working class, and that there are alternatives much more in line with socialist politics.

Facebook’s and Google’s Breaches Show It’s Time for an Internet Bill of Rights - Ro Khanna, TIME (10/11/18)

California Democratic Representative Ro Khanna drafts and publishes an Internet Bill of Rights in hopes of encouraging urgency on the topic in Congress.

Thousands of Amazon Delivery Drivers Won’t Be Eligible for the $15 Wage - David Dayen, In These Times (10/12/18) 

Despite the success of Amazon workers’ campaign for a $15 minimum wage, workers employed by Amazon through third party delivery service partners (DSPs) won’t be covered by the wage standards.