Weekend Reading
What fresh hell is this? #Incompetence #Corruption
“But in the aftermath of this apparent triumph, a more fateful reckoning awaits Netanyahu over the war in Gaza. The conflict has flattened much of the territory, killing at least 55,000 people, including Hamas combatants but also many civilians, nearly 10,000 of them children under the age of 11. Even if negotiations finally bring Israel’s strikes to a halt in the coming days, it is already the longest high-intensity war in Israel’s history — longer than the wars surrounding its establishment in 1948, longer than the Yom Kippur War that defended its borders in 1973 and far longer, of course, than the six-day Arab-Israeli war of 1967 that brought Gaza and the West Bank under its control. As the war has dragged on, the global sympathy that Israel earned in the aftermath of the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust has instead transformed into growing ignominy on the international stage. The International Court of Justice is weighing claims that Israel has committed a genocide. In America, President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s failure to end the war split the Democratic Party and helped spur the upheaval that returned President Trump to power. And in Israel, prolonged war has heightened bitter disagreements about the nation’s priorities, the nature of its democracy and Netanyahu’s legitimacy as a leader. Why, after nearly two years, has the war yet to reach a definitive conclusion? Why did Israel frequently turn away chances for de-escalation, instead expanding its military ambitions to Lebanon, to Syria and now to Iran? Why has the war dragged on, even as the leadership of Hamas was decapitated and more Israelis called for a cease-fire? For many Israelis, the war’s protraction is mainly the fault of Hamas, which has refused to surrender despite Palestinians’ suffering unfathomable losses. Most Israelis also see the war’s expansion to Lebanon and Iran as an essential act of self-defense against allies of Hamas that also seek Israel’s destruction. But many increasingly believe that Israel could have struck an earlier deal to end the war, and they charge Netanyahu — who wields ultimate authority over Israel’s military strategy — with preventing that deal from being reached.” (Patrick Kingsley, Ronen Bergman and Natan Odenheimer/NYT)
“Beside the beer-pong table on the roof terrace of a Maga party on 5 July, a finance bro asked me for a cigarette and a light, and then said that Britain should become a fascist country. He had a skittish, rat-like energy. I demurred and wondered aloud whether he had read much PG Wodehouse. He thought the national reluctance to don black shorts lay in the uncomfortable fact that Britain was simply not ‘cool enough.’ The irony curdled in the tobacco smoke. He then added with an eerie grin, ‘Aristotle was right when he spoke about natural slaves.’ You could find such charm at one of the many parties held in Washington to celebrate Independence Day. These festivities in the capital are now essential to the Maga project in a similar way that mass rallies once defined Donald Trump’s campaign. In his speech ‘What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?’, which he gave on the same day as the party 173 years ago, Frederick Douglass caustically said that, ‘Your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy licence; your national greatness, swelling vanity… your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery.’ Downstairs, there were only earnest shouts of ‘USA!’ and ‘Trump! Trump! Trump!.’ The Maga youth lolled backwards on the grand piano as the hip hop artist Soulja Boy rapped about ‘super soaking hoes’ to the receptive crowd. Their aesthetic – the women wore italicised eyebrows, blonde locks and severe heels; the men had brash watches and slicked-back hair – will be familiar to anyone who grew up in Essex or, like me, Cheshire. Aspiring fascists aside, the room was filled with right-wing influencers, White House staffers and young Republicans, most there for the dancing and hard seltzers, not politicking. Maga’s youth culture, a decade in the making, now flourishes independent of actual events. It’s a social scene, a place to be seen, as much as a political movement. For once, culture lies downstream of politics.” (Freddie Hayward/New Statesman)
“In his first major diplomatic move with Africa during his return to the White House, President Trump is set to welcome the leaders of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal at a three-day summit in Washington, D.C. from July 9-11. The presidents of these five countries will meet with President Trump in bilateral discussions and a working lunch. The United States has made clear that it seeks partnerships grounded in mutual economic benefit, especially in trade, investment, and critical minerals. While the emphasis might appear to be strictly economic, the summit reflects a broader strategic ambition of reasserting U.S. power and influence in a region where rivals have surged ahead. This effort aligns with the administration’s foreign policy approach, as discussed in my ‘A new US-Africa blueprint for Trump amid China’s rise’ policy brief. The brief recommends a transactional approach within four foreign policy goals (the ‘four Ps’): ‘[R]eclaiming leadership in global trade (prosperity), advancing American influence in a competitive world (power), strengthening regional and global stability (peace and security), and promoting core American ideals (principles).’ The current administration seems to be emphasizing two of these goals in particular: Power and prosperity … This approach is vital at a time when China has outpaced the United States in both economic and political influence in many African countries—including those invited to the summit. China is now among the top trading partners for the five invitees and has established a dominant position in infrastructure, extractives, and strategic sectors. Gabon, for example, supplies 22% of China’s manganese imports and signed over $4.3 billion in investment deals with the country last year. In Guinea-Bissau, China has built the country’s only highway, its key fishing port, and much of its core infrastructure. Meanwhile, the U.S. lags behind in trade and investment. According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in 2003, 18 African countries (35%) traded more with China than the United States. By 2023, this number jumped to 52 out of 54 African countries (97%).” (Landry Signe/Brookings)
“Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is asking for an art curation assist, calling on her social media followers to help choose a Western-themed portrait of her that will be on display in South Dakota’s state Capitol building. ‘Which one do you like for the official Governor’s portrait to hang in the South Dakota State Capitol?’ Noem asked her nearly 500,000 Instagram followers in a Monday post. Noem, the Mount Rushmore State’s former governor, shared a series of three paintings she credited to artist David Uhl. Each of the portraits showed Noem sporting a cowboy hat while riding a horse. Noem, 53, has described horseback riding as a relaxing way to ‘detox.’” (Judy Kurtz/The Hill)
“Yet there have been problems on the Senate recruitment front for Republicans, especially in New Hampshire and Georgia. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is facing a serious primary challenge next year. GOP leaders also are hoping that Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) run for reelection.On top of that, Sen. Thom Tillis’ (R-N.C.) decision to retire makes it more difficult for Republicans to hold that seat. Tillis is publicly railing against the reconciliation bill in ways that completely contradict Thune and other top Republicans. Thune took concrete steps to mitigate the political fallout from cutting Medicaid. But he acknowledged to us that this is an issue Republicans are ‘pregnant’ with. In our interview, Thune argued that delaying the implementation of many of the Medicaid changes ‘minimized the political impact’ for 2026. That theory will soon be put to the test … Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. It should be no surprise that Democrats — especially Schumer — see the Republican reconciliation bill as a political gold mine. But Democrats need to net four seats in 2026 to retake the majority, a tough undertaking even with the GOP recruitment issues.An emboldened Schumer told us Thursday that the OBBB’s passage — especially the Medicaid cuts and reversal of clean energy tax credits — puts Republicans’ Senate majority at risk. Schumer said the GOP legislation placed additional states in play and helped with candidate recruitment, though he wouldn’t elaborate. ‘It affects people right where it hurts — losing your health care. Horrible,’ Schumer said. ‘Losing your job. Horrible. Costs going up dramatically because of this bill — and people will talk about it everywhere.’ Schumer pointed to Tillis as one of the most effective messengers against the GOP package. Tillis has been warning that the bill will harm Republicans in 2026, which is music to Schumer’s ears. ‘You will see what he says [blasted out] all over the country, not just by us, but by other people too,’ Schumer said. ‘He spoke truth to power.’” (Andrew Desiderio and Max Cohen/PunchbowlNews)
“(Rep. Jamie) Raskin went on to mention a more publicized case. It involved one of the most respected House Republicans, Oklahoman Tom Cole, who is the chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee. Cole’s constituents were also now at risk. ‘(Elon Musk’s DOGE) shut down a whole bunch of federal functions and programs in his district.’ Cole did not quietly plead for help. ‘He raised hell with them behind closed doors and then he announces on Twitter that all of these jobs have been restored. Suddenly, there was no waste, fraud, and abuse there.’ The entire operation seemed perverse, not only because of the misspent time and accumulated waste in the name of ‘government efficiency’ but, more striking still, the deliberate campaign to plant fear in the hearts of loyal constituents: The 14 counties Cole represents voted overwhelmingly for Trump (80 percent or more in some districts). The purpose, however, was not to inconvenience Cole, recently reelected to a 12th term. It was to remind weaker Republican legislators, backbenchers, that every GOP-sanctioned penny directed their way comes from one place. And no protest would be tolerated. Raskin sympathized—or at least understood the position they were in. ‘If you’re a freshman Republican, and they’re telling you Elon Musk will spend $5 million in a primary to defeat you, and you’re already scared because you’ve only been in office for a year, two years, and you’re able to save some people their jobs or save some federal project that they were about to shut down, you’re not going to mess with them anymore. You’re just going to get in line like sheep. But remember, the longer it goes on, the more power they have over you.’ The question—ever present in the current frazzled moment—was, to what lengths would they go? Raskin has never met Musk and doesn’t expect to. Politics no longer works that way. Raskin and company, like most of the rest of us, live in a world of guesswork, speculation, and unverifiable rumor. One such rumor going around, Raskin told me, was ‘that they’re going to use their control of the Treasury’s payment system to pay the red states, pay their friends, and not pay the blue states.’ Of the 10 states most dependent on federal dollars, at least seven are red. Supporters were being reduced to supplicants. ‘That,’ said Raskin, ‘is a Mafia operation.’” (Sam Tanenhaus/VF)
“Archaeological excavations in the ancient city of Olympos, located in the Kumluca district of Antalya, Türkiye, have uncovered new mosaics and inscriptions at the entrance and floor of a fifth-century church. The finds were made during ongoing excavations that have been carried out year-round for the past four years, with support from Türkiye’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The ancient city of Olympos, known for its well-preserved remains from the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, has been the focus of systematic excavations since 2006. Key discoveries to date include churches, a bishop’s palace, monumental tombs, a Roman bridge, and richly decorated structures, including buildings with mosaic floors. The most recent work focused on Church No. 1, where teams uncovered a new mosaic inscription directly in front of the church’s main entrance. The text reads: ‘Only those on the right path may enter here,’ a clear message intended to direct the conduct of those entering the sacred space.” (Turkiye Today)
“There’s nothing good to say about the mammoth spending bill that Donald Trump and his dutiful underlings rushed through Congress last week, but here’s one promising bit of collateral fallout: The regressive and authoritarian effort to further transform the United States into a plutocratic police state has sealed Elon Musk’s defection from the GOP. Over the weekend, Musk debuted plans to launch a third political party, with an announcement on his social media site, X, after apparently polling users on their support for such a venture: ‘By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it! When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy.’ Of course, a third party conceived and captained by the world’s richest man is scarcely a model to reclaim our imperiled democracy—particularly given Musk’s own well-documented affinities for white nationalist agitprop. And like many Muskian undertakings, his newly christened “America Party” is little more than vaporware, without even a filing in motion with the Federal Election Commission. Yet, in the broader dialectical sweep of things, Musk’s latest intervention in US politics should be welcomed—if only for serving as a high-octane proof of concept for the futility and stupidity of billionaire-driven politics. You wouldn’t think such a demonstration would be necessary in the dismal antidemocratic excrescences of a second Trump term, but as they are fond of saying on X: ‘Here we are.’ The grotesque tax cuts, life-destroying rollbacks of basic income and healthcare protections, and police-state border crackdowns instituted by the perversely named One Big Beautiful Bill should stand as devastating indictments of governance by the finance-and-rentier class. And yet the bogus branding of MAGA as a working-class insurgency rolls blindly on, stoked mostly by feckless symbolic flourishes such as a meaningless suspension of taxes on tips and the interest on car loans, and Trump-sanctioned lies about Social Security benefits going untaxed. (Even if the GOP’s feeble sops to hospitality workers and new-car buyers had significantly improved their spending power, those features of the bill sunset in a few years, while the bill’s trillions in tax cuts benefiting the wealthy are permanent.) Musk’s dissension from the spending bill, of course, doesn’t touch on its status as the single greatest upward distribution of income effectuated in the history of American lawmaking—but you wouldn’t expect such criticisms from someone who’s amassed a galactic-scale fortune on government contracts.” (Chris Lehmann/The Nation)
“We went into this administration with a seemingly durable baseline assumption that, whatever his unpopularity in other areas, President Trump had durable if not overwhelming support for his hardline immigration policies. But something started to show up in polls in the late spring or early summer. While his numbers on ‘immigration’ were still reasonably robust, we saw a dramatically different picture when pollster’s asked about ‘deportation’ or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. Not surprisingly, ‘immigration’ is a very big word and covers a vast range of policy territory. Looked at from a different vantage point, Trump retained a bare majority of public support on ‘border security’ but his ‘deportation’ policy had the support of barely one-third of the population. G. Elliott Morris wrote about the big ranges of opposition and support within the “immigration” catchall as early as April. And the pattern and trajectory has only accelerated as ICE raids have intensified across the country. As noted, ‘immigration’ covers a hugely broad range of beliefs and policy questions. Among other things, the politics of the deportation crackdown become almost indistinguishable from public fears and anger over the rule of law, authoritarianism and civil chaos. Indeed, the opposition to his increasingly lawless and thuggish crackdown is even pulling down his support on the ‘immigration’ catchall question generally. A new Gallup poll taken over the month of June shows Trump support on ‘handling the immigration issue’ now stands at 35% with 62% opposing. Needless to say that’s a very, very low level of support, especially on what is viewed as Trump’s sheet anchor issue.” ( Josh Marshall/Talking Points memo)
“One bright September morning in Rome, when it still felt like summer, Her Serene Highness the Principessa Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi stood with half a dozen Japanese tourists and a German couple under ‘Jupiter, Pluto, and Neptune,’ the only painting Caravaggio is known to have executed on a ceiling … The Principessa speaks English with a slight Texas twang. She was born Rita Carpenter, in San Antonio, and grew up in Austin. She spent five years in Washington, D.C., married to Representative John Jenrette, a South Carolina Democrat; shortly before their divorce, in 1981, she appeared in Playboy, in photographs that featured a feather boa and a brandy snifter. She lived in Los Angeles next, and pursued an acting career—she appeared on an episode of ‘Fantasy Island’ as a character called Nurse Heavenly, and in a film entitled ‘Zombie Island Massacre’—and subsequently moved to New York City, where she worked as an on-camera reporter for ‘A Current Affair,’ and then as a real-estate broker. Her biggest deal was the sale of the General Motors Building to Donald Trump, in 1998 … Last summer, the Prince and his wife happened upon a trove of a hundred and fifty thousand pages of historical documents, including letters from Marie Antoinette and King Louis XV, in a storage room. The Principessa put on a pair of white gloves and spread a few of the letters on a table for us to see. ‘This is from Maria Theresa, written in Latin,’ she said, and pointed to the bottom of the page. “Here’s her crest. Marie Antoinette was her youngest daughter, married to Louis XVI when she was only fourteen.” She showed us the adolescent queen’s swooping signature at the bottom of a letter, and declared, ‘She never said ‘Let them eat cake!’ She got a bad rap.’ The Caravaggio is upstairs, in a little foyer that Cardinal del Monte used as an alchemist’s laboratory. ‘It’s quite obscene,’ the German man observed. Caravaggio rendered all three figures in the composition nude, and—possibly to prove to his detractors his facility with the most difficult type of perspective, di sotto in su, or looking up from below—he put Neptune at such an angle that the viewer must look directly up into his crotch. ‘In-your-face sexuality,’ the Principessa said, nodding vigorously. ‘His penis and everything else! He was courageous. You’re talking about post-Reformation, when they were still burning people at the stake!’” (Ariel Levy/TNY)
“I remember the invasion of Iraq clearly. Immediately after 9/11, I was promoted to a one-star rear admiral’s rank and head of the Navy’s new tactical antiterrorist think tank, called ‘Deep Blue.’ My mission was to come up with ways to defeat al-Qaeda forces who had perpetrated the attack on the US. Given our focus on finding and eliminating terrorist groups in Afghanistan, I was surprised to hear more and more discussion in the Pentagon about invading Iraq. Operational plans were underway to remove Saddam’s regime, on the presumption that he had a capable program for weapons of mass destruction. That intelligence turned out to be wrong. But at the time, the objective for the military was to destroy what we believed was an extensive Iraqi nuclear program. I remember reviewing those plans, and they were far, far from a series of precision strikes. They included an initial force of more than 150,000 ground troops (US and British); another 200,000 supporting troops; almost 2,000 combat aircraft for 24,000 sorties in the first six weeks, with 65,000 airmen supporting; and more than 100 naval warships 60,000 sailors. Several thousand highly trained special forces members were also to be engaged. Ultimately, nearly 40 nations participated in the operation that began in 2003, including a major North Atlantic Treaty Organization training mission which I would eventually command. The plan also envisioned that Shiite Muslim militias — opposed to Saddam’s Sunni-led regime — would rise up and fight alongside our forces. I recall another rear admiral speaking in football parlance that ‘Shias go long,’ like NFL wide receivers. Wishful thinking aside, here's the point: This was a massive undertaking that ultimately cost the US trillions of dollars, thousands of combat deaths and tens of thousands of life-changing wounds, and countless Iraqi civilian lives. It was costly, bloody and painful. Nonetheless, every government lab was inspected and neutralized; key scientific personnel were identified, interrogated and placed under surveillance. Machinery was destroyed and factories converted to other uses. But this required, above all, boots on the ground. It simply could not have been done in Iraq with a handful of airstrikes and clusters of Tomahawk missiles. Now let’s look at Iran. It is nearly four times the size of Iraq, with a population roughly twice as large. Unlike the case in Baghdad, we know with absolute certainly — because of international inspectors — that Iran has an active and impressive program to build not only nuclear weapons but also ballistic missiles to deliver them. Thus, the challenge to obliterate that capability is immense, far greater than in Iraq. It would require invading Iran with hundreds of thousands of ground troops, occupying the country and systematically dismantling the state. Could we do that? Yes, but the costs would be enormous.” (James Stavridis/Bloomberg)
Great roundup as always.