Weekend Reading
Long reads for a deep summer weekend
“In naming Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has begun to redress a major deficit in the party’s leadership. After a generation-plus of recruiting Ivy-matriculated coastal knowledge professionals to lead the party, the Democrats have laid aside that dead-end class geography in favor of a prospective vice president who has logged decades as a union member after graduating from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. It’s true that Joe Biden was educated at the University of Delaware—but it’s also true that Biden duly proceeded to Syracuse University Law School before launching his political career and embedding himself within the Delaware business establishment. Walz, amazingly, is the first Democrat on a presidential ticket in half a century not to have attended law school—going back to the 1976 run of Naval Academy physicist Jimmy Carter. The longtime high school social studies teacher and principal is also the first former long-term union member on a presidential ticket since former Screen Actors Guild president Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign. (Technically, Reagan’s own vice president and later successor, George H.W. Bush, logged a weeks-long stint as a member of the United Steelworkers during his apprenticeship in the oil industry, but it was a footnote to his later career as a patrician boss.)As we sized up the presidential prospects in 2019, veteran campaign reporter Walter Shapiro referred with dismay to the Democrats’ emergence as the ‘Advanced Placement’ party—a development that paralleled the broader collapse of union organizing in the private sector workforce and the party’s embrace of global free-trade policies at the dawn of the Internet age.” (Chris Lehmann/The Nation)
“It appears that yet again, in the past few days, the Ukrainians have surprised Russia, and observers in the west, with their latest operation. Over the past 72 hours, we have watched as Ukraine has launched a significant cross-border assault into Russia’s Kursk region. Initially viewed as another raid into Russia, similar to the previous Ukrainian operations in May 2023 and March 2024, it has become clear that this is something slightly different, particularly in its use of conventional Ukrainian ground forces. Just how different this new Ukrainian operation is from those previous raids remains to be seen. The following is my quick assessment based on what we have seen so far. I am the first to admit that we are seeing only a small part of this operation at this point … First, this is a multi-brigade operation. At least two Ukrainian brigades have been identified so far: the 22ndMechanized Brigade and the 82nd Air Assault Brigade. These are both quality formations. It appears that unlike in the 2023 southern counteroffensive where fresh brigades were employed, the Ukrainians have allocated experienced formations to this attack. This already appears to be paying dividends with the depth of the Ukrainian penetration so far. But, if we can see two brigades, there may be even more allocated to the operation which are ready to assume the lead on the advance into Russia. However this will depend on the operation’s objectives and how long Ukraine thinks it can sustain its attack before Russian defences are able to effectively respond. Second, the Ukrainians have attacked with a highly mobile, mechanised force. This is different to the Russian dismounted attacks into Kharkiv in recent months … Third, the Ukrainians appear to have deployed a significant amount of air defence capability. At least one Russian fighter aircraft and two helicopters have been claimed to have been shot down by the Ukrainians. There have been, as of this point, limited reports of Russia being able to use glide bombs or even large numbers of drones to counter the Ukrainian assault. This is indicative of a more effective air defence environment for the Ukrainians than was created for their 2023 counter offensives.” (Mick Ryan/Futura Doctina)
“Potato-size metallic nodules strewn across the Pacific Ocean seafloor produce oxygen in complete darkness and without any help from living organisms, new research reveals. The discovery of this deep-sea oxygen, dubbed "dark oxygen," is the first time scientists have ever observed oxygen being generated without the involvement of organisms and challenges what we know about the emergence of life on Earth, researchers say. ‘When we first got this data, we thought the sensors were faulty, because every study ever done in the deep sea has only seen oxygen being consumed rather than produced,’ study lead author Andrew Sweetman, a professor and leader of the seafloor ecology and biogeochemistry research group at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), said in a statement. But when the instruments kept showing the same results, Sweetman and his colleagues knew they ‘were onto something ground-breaking and unthought-of,’ he said. The results, published Monday (July 22) in the journal Nature Geoscience, suggest that small metallic nodules found in the north Pacific's Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) produce oxygen through seawater electrolysis, where seawater splits into oxygen and hydrogen in the presence of an electric charge. This charge may come from the difference in electric potential that exists between metal ions within the nodules, which leads to a redistribution of electrons, according to the study. So-called polymetallic nodules are common on the ocean's abyssal plains, which are flat regions of the seafloor between 10,000 and 20,000 feet (3,000 to 6,000 m) below the ocean surface. These nodules mostly contain oxides of iron and manganese, but they also hold metals like cobalt, nickel and lithium, as well as rare earth elements such as cerium that are essential components of electronics and low-carbon technologies.” (Sascha Pere/LiveScience)
“Among political figures Franklin D. Roosevelt was probably the greatest explainer in modern times. The young Bill Clinton could help voters of any education level share his view of how the economy worked, and why different policies would be better all around. Pete Buttigieg has had this talent since he came onto the national scene. Gavin Newsom has developed it. Media and comic figures with an interest in politics, from Mark Twain or Will Rogers through John Oliver and Steven Colbert, can be the best explainers of all. And Tim Walz is a good explainer. My post last week was about his background as a geographer and his impressive command of GIS-style mapping and analytical tools. It was with these tools, he told a rapt audience of some 20,000 geography experts at the Esri user conference last month, that he had helped high-school students in Nebraska understand genocide, past and future. As a new Fast Company article points out:
In 1993, his high school students in Nebraska built a global map that included layers with details about food insecurity, drought, and colonialism to try to predict where the next genocide could be. “They came up with Rwanda,” Walz told the crowd [at Esri]. “Twelve months later, the world witnessed the horrific genocide in Rwanda.” Many of the students went on to work at nonprofits.
Walz loves maps as explanatory tools, but he is also very good just with stories, and words.” (James Fallows)
“This week, federal district court judge Amit Mehta delivered a landmark decision finding that Google holds an illegal monopoly over the search market, in violation of the Sherman Act. It’s a massive victory for the Department of Justice’s multiyear legal battle in the first major monopolization trial in over 25 years. More broadly, the decision affirms that the movement to rein in corporate concentration in the tech sector and across the economy has legs to stand on in court. Judge Mehta effectively deemed Google’s illegal monopoly to be a function of an exclusive anti-competitive arrangement with Apple and other browser and mobile device companies, exchanging search engine default status for a mountain of money in revenue sharing ($26.3 billion in 2021). In so doing, Mehta tore up the secret master contract that had been choking the internet for decades, stifling commercial innovation and enshittifying the consumer experience. Based on this ruling, the DOJ and the judge have an opportunity to write a new charter for the future of the internet, at a time when it’s reaching an inflection point with artificial intelligence. Winning this case is only the first front in the battle, however. Google has already appealed the decision. If it is upheld, it will enter the remedy stage where there are a range of potential outcomes: some good, some bad. And a change in power in the executive branch will take place well before we get a final decision.In many ways, we’re right back to where we were during the last major monopolization case against Microsoft in the late 1990s.” (Luke Goldstein/TAP)
“In 2009, the arch-libertarian Cato Institute published an essay from Peter Thiel, an infamously right-wing venture capitalist, in which he confessed to some of his biggest political disappointments. ‘I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible,’ he wrote, making clear his distaste for elections. Thiel complained that ‘the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women’ had been difficult for the libertarian cause. He was also frustrated that an ‘unthinking demos’ – that is, ordinary voters – guided electoral politics. When Thiel was later accused of opposing women’s suffrage, Cato published a response from the author in which he seemed to double down on his desire to somehow escape democracy: ‘While I don’t think any class of people should be disenfranchised, I have little hope that voting will make things better.’ It would be one thing if Thiel, with his reactionary, anti-democratic beliefs, were an obscure tech investor with a blogger’s interest in politics. But Thiel is far more than that – he’s a billionaire financier for whom political struggle is the main event. A longtime Republican donor, Thiel praised Donald Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention. He is singularly responsible for the rise of J.D. Vance, pouring a record $15 million into his Senate campaign. And while some tech elites have lately emerged as vocal Trump backers, Thiel was there first.” (Jacob Silverman/Zeteo)
“‘I never called one person, but people were calling me saying that there was a challenge there. So there had to be a change in the leadership of the campaign, or what would come next.’ (Pelosi’s) goal, she added, was simple: ‘That Donald Trump would never set foot in the White House again.’ To those around her who were saying her appearance on ‘Morning Joe’ gave them the ‘space’ to call on Biden to leave the campaign—the ‘permission structure,’ as D.C. lingo now has it—she counselled, Wait for the NATO summit to end; no need to embarrass the President with so many foreign leaders in the country. But then, ‘We need the President to make the decision.’ Which is precisely what happened. On July 21st, ten days after the NATO summit ended, Biden issued a statement via social media announcing his withdrawal. Pelosi said she has not been in contact with the President since that dramatic Sunday, and I asked her if she thought her long relationship with him would survive. ‘I hope so,’ she said. ‘I pray so. I cry so.’ Do you worry about it? ‘I lose sleep on it, yeah.’ Do you think he’s angry at you? ‘I don’t know. We haven’t had a conversation. But . . .’” (David Remnick/TNY)
“The Pentagon is in the midst of a massive $2 trillion multiyear plan to build a new generation of nuclear-armed missiles, bombers, and submarines. A large chunk of that funding will go to major nuclear weapons contractors like Bechtel, General Dynamics, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. And they will do everything in their power to keep that money flowing. This January, a review of the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program under the Nunn-McCurdy Act — a congressional provision designed to rein in cost overruns of Pentagon weapons programs — found that the missile, the crown jewel of the nuclear overhaul plan involving 450 missile-holding silos spread across five states, is already 81% over its original budget. It is now estimated that it will cost a total of nearly $141 billion to develop and purchase, a figure only likely to rise in the future. That Pentagon review had the option of canceling the Sentinel program because of such a staggering cost increase. Instead, it doubled down on the program, asserting that it would be an essential element of any future nuclear deterrent and must continue, even if the funding for other defense programs has to be cut to make way for it. In justifying the decision, Deputy Defense Secretary William LaPlante stated: ‘We are fully aware of the costs, but we are also aware of the risks of not modernizing our nuclear forces and not addressing the very real threats we confront.’ Cost is indeed one significant issue, but the biggest risk to the rest of us comes from continuing to build and deploy ICBMs, rather than delaying or shelving the Sentinel program. As former Secretary of Defense William Perry has noted, ICBMs are ‘some of the most dangerous weapons in the world” because they “could trigger an accidental nuclear war.’” (Helmut Aboukhater and William Hartung/Responsible Statecraft)
“To most of us, the ocean is a no man’s land — a vast, bottomless and uncharted void. Three-quarters of the ocean has never been seen by humans, and only a quarter of its floor has been mapped in detail, which means we have a better understanding of the surface of Mars than we do of the seas on our own planet. It is this lack of exploration and appreciation — particularly of the layer of cold, dark water that begins where light fades, known as the ocean’s twilight zone — that has led us to a very precarious place. Recently, scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution wrapped up the most comprehensive study of the twilight zone in history, helping to establish that some 11 billion tons of microorganisms, crustaceans, squid, fish and gelatinous animals that live there are helping to draw down a third of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity, likely saving us and our planet from catastrophic climate change … Mass migration of life in the twilight zone — which can be found in the deepest parts of the ocean, between 650 feet deep and 3,300 feet deep — was first discovered in World War II, when sonar operators on the U.S.S. Jasper recorded an acoustic signature of what looked like the seafloor rising up. After studying the signature further, they realized the layer was alive, and that it rose and fell with the cadence of Earth’s rotation. What they were witnessing was the largest migration of animal life on the planet: trillions of creatures (copepods, bioluminescent lanternfish and basking sharks) swimming to the surface at night to feed, then sinking at dawn to hide in the depths.” (Porter Fox/NYT)
“Maduro’s blatant steal marks a dark new chapter in Venezuela. Until July 28, the country was authoritarian with a patina of democracy, holding periodic unfree, unfair elections. Now that Maduro knows he lacks the popular support to win even on a tilted playing field, he is scrapping the facade and going full totalitarian, exceeding even his previous crackdowns. Maduro’s government has arrested more than 2,000 people without trial since election day; deployed Russian Wagner group mercenaries, Cuban secret police and other forces; and promised to send critics to ‘reeducation camps.’ At least twenty-four people have been killed since election day. Venezuela’s descent into authoritarianism and a coinciding economic collapse in the 2010s pushed about eight million Venezuelans into exile abroad, more than half a million of whom came to the United States; fueled Colombia’s internal armed conflict by providing rebels with a haven on Venezuelan territory; and polarized Latin American politics into pro- and anti-Venezuela camps. The lurch toward full-fledged totalitarianism could prove even more destabilizing. Pre-election polls suggested about 3.7 million additional people planned to migrate if Maduro remained entrenched. Given Venezuela’s abundance of armed groups and Maduro’s naked lack of legitimacy, it’s not hard to imagine his government losing control as warring forces vie for territory.” (Will Freeman/CFR)