SCOTUSwatch
The Overview
The six SCOTUS rulings of the day. Dylan Matthews at Wonkblog.
Affirmative Action/Fisher
The Fisher decision. "A broad majority of the Court reinforced that affirmative action must be strictly reviewed, but it did not outlaw those programs ... A university’s use of race must meet a test known as 'strict scrutiny.' Under this test, a university’s use of affirmative action will be constitutional only if it is 'narrowly tailored.' ... Courts can no longer simply rubber-stamp a university’s determination that it needs to use affirmative action to have a diverse student body. Instead, courts themselves will need to confirm that the use of race is 'necessary' ... Because the lower court had not done so, the Court sent the case back for it to determine whether the university could make this showing." Amy Howe at SCOTUSblog.
The Supreme Court punts on affirmative action. "The Supreme Court just issued its widely anticipated decision in a major affirmative action case. And it sidestepped the core question ... In a 7 to 1 decision, the Court vacated and remanded the case back to the Fifth Circuit ... asking the lower body to reconsider its assumption of good faith on part of the University of Texas, and examine the procedures ... to see if they meet the established standard of strict scrutiny. On the broader question of whether ... the state can say it’s a good thing for schools to strive for racial diversity, and whether it’s constitutional to gear policy towards achieving that goal — the Court is silent." Jamelle Bouie at the Plum Line.
Things could have been worse. "The Supreme Court's decision on affirmative action Monday wasn't much of a decision. In a 7-1 vote, the justices sent the case, Fisher v. University of Texas, back to a lower court for reexamination (Justice Kagan recused herself). Yet civil-rights advocates celebrated the result as a huge win for their side ... Why were they so happy? ... The fear was that the court might broadly declare any consideration of race in college admissions unconstitutional. The Court didn't do that, and its decision allows the University of Texas's race-based admissions process to continue, at least for now." Molly Ball at the Atlantic.
The next affirmative action case is coming next term. "The court has already decided to hear a case next term about whether it was constitutional for Michigan to bar racial preferences ... What, if anything, does today’s ruling ... suggest about the outcome of this new case next year? I bet the court’s conservatives plus Justice Kennedy uphold Michigan’s law. And with 10 states now banning affirmative action, that will matter a great deal in the long run for how colleges do admissions." Emily Bazelon at Slate.
Public opinion is discouraging. "In the latest NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, 45 percent said that they believe affirmative action programs are still needed to counteract the effects of discrimination against minorities. That was the lowest reading since 1991, when the question was first asked. An equal 45 percent said they felt that the programs have gone too far and should be ended because they unfairly discriminate against whites." Pete Williams and Erin McClam + Video at NBC.
Appointment Powers
The appointment wars continue next term. "The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to define when the President can act alone to fill vacant government posts. The case ... is due to be decided in the Court’s next Term. The specific issue is the scope of the Constitution’s grant of presidential power to put an official temporarily into office without Senate approval ... Answering that could require the Court to define when the Senate ... goes into recess ... The outcome ... could give a resistant Senate a chance to nearly take away the president’s recess appointment authority, or it could give the White House a way to get around filibuster-driven obstruction of nominees." Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog.
Business
The Roberts Court is as business-friendly as ever. "Focus ... upon three thematic rulings today that will be otherwise under-reported. In each case, the Court's five-member conservative caucus, already arguably the most pro-business in 75 years, voted in favor of corporate interests and employers over the interests of consumers and employees. In each case, the Court's four liberal members dissented." Andrew Cohen at the Atlantic.
Freedom of Speech
Another case for next term - the rights of abortion protestors. "The Court granted cert. today in ... a Massachusetts case regarding the permissibility of buffer zones around abortion clinics. Specifically, Massachusetts has a law making a crime to 'enter or remain on a public way or sidewalk' within thirty-five feet of the entrance, exit, or driveway of a 'reproductive health care facility.' The law exempts any employees or agents of such a clinic ... acting within the scope of their employment. Petitioners challenged the constitutionality of the law under the First and Fourteenth Amendments ... This is a potentially significant case regarding the free speech rights afforded to abortion protesters." Mike Gottlieb at SCOTUSblog.
NSA
The Overview
Technology, secrets, and privacy. "Secrecy is what is known, but not to everyone. Privacy is what allows us to keep what we know to ourselves ... As a matter of historical analysis, the relationship between secrecy and privacy can be stated in an axiom: the defense of privacy follows, and never precedes, the emergence of new technologies for the exposure of secrets. In other words, the case for privacy always comes too late. The horse is out of the barn. The post office has opened your mail. Your photograph is on Facebook. Google already knows that, notwithstanding your demographic, you hate kale. The particular technology matters little; the axiom holds." Jill Lepore at the New Yorker.
Edward Snowden
This detail seems important. "For the first time, Snowden has admitted he sought a position at Booz Allen Hamilton so he could collect proof about the US National Security Agency's secret surveillance programmes ahead of planned leaks to the media. 'My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked,' he told the Post on June 12. 'That is why I accepted that position about three months ago.'" Lana Lam at the South China Morning Post.
He's a spy, not a whistleblower. "That's a spy. Period. True, he did not do the usual spy thing of selling the information ... Snowden is a sort of post-ideological Philby. If he's committed to an -ism, it's probably a vague kind of techno-post-nation-ism in which the nation state is perforce a tyrannical entity and must therefor become a thing of obsolesence ... A jerk. But more importantly, a run-of-the-mill lawbreaker. The 'whistleblower' case was always ... dodgy. Whistleblowers expose criminal acts. He just didn't like his country's policy. That's fine. Millions agree with him. But we can't live in a world where citizens are allowed to do what he's done without repercussion." Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast.
China wanted Snowden gone. "China orchestrated U.S. fugitive Edward Snowden's flight from Hong Kong at the weekend to avoid an extradition battle that would have embarrassed both Beijing and Washington, several sources said on Monday. Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor wanted for exposing secret U.S. government surveillance programs, flew to Moscow on Sunday as Washington sought his arrest, and asked for asylum in Ecuador." James Pomfret and Benjamin Kang Lim at Reuters.
Why is Snowden so interested in asylum from Ecaudor? "It makes sense that Edward Snowden is asking Ecuador for asylum ... First, the country has an enviably loopholed extradition treaty with the United States. Outlaws wanted for offenses 'of a political character; can dodge extradition ... Second, the ruling regime in Ecuador doesn't really care what America thinks ... Giving asylum to people who make America look weak, and spill its secrets, is easy politics." David Weigel at Slate.
Whistleblowers are frustrated with Snowden. How ironic. "When Edward Snowden first started revealing secrets about the National Security Agency's massive surveillance operations, the small community of U.S. government whistleblowers and their advocates publicly leapt to Snowden's defense. But now that the world's most famous leaker has apparently left Hong Kong for Moscow ... that support has begun to erode. Some of the best-known whistleblowers of the past decade are now concerned that Snowden's flight to America's geopolitical rivals will make it easier to brand tomorrow's whistleblowers as enemies of the state." Noah Shachtman at Foreign Policy.
Leaks
The seven men indicted under the Espionage Act by the Obama administration. Elias Groll at Foreign Policy.
Wikileaks
Wikileaks is back on stage. "WikiLeaks once again seized the global spotlight on Sunday by assisting Edward J. Snowden in his daring flight from Hong Kong, mounting a bold defense of the culture of national security disclosures that it has championed and that has bedeviled the United States and other governments ... The group’s assistance for Mr. Snowden shows that despite its shoestring staff, limited fund-raising from a boycott by major financial firms, and defections prompted by Mr. Assange’s personal troubles and abrasive style, it remains a force to be reckoned with on the global stage." Scott Shane at the New York Times.
And they're picking up Snowden's tab - along with new problems. "Fugitive National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden is now traveling and lodging at the expense of WikiLeaks, according to the group’s founder, Julian Assange—a move that lawyers say could expose the whistleblowing organization to new legal charges. WikiLeaks paid for Snowden’s travel from Hong Kong to Moscow, his lodging, and also his legal counsel, Assange said on a call with reporters ... The acknowledgement from Assange that his group is aiding Snowden could place WikiLeaks and its founder in new legal jeopardy for aiding and abetting a fugitive." Eli Lake and Miranda Green at the Daily Beast.
Politics
Campaign Finance
The public is much more campaign-finance reform friendly than the Supreme Court. "Half of Americans would support government-funded federal campaigns, a new poll finds. According to a Gallup poll posted on Monday, 50 percent of Americans say they would support a law banning campaign contributions from individuals and groups, which would instead have government fund federal campaigns ... Americans also overwhelmingly support limiting congressional campaign contributions, the poll found: Seventy-nine percent said they would support such limits." Katie Glueck at Politico.
And we need it more than ever. "More than a quarter of the nearly $6 billion in contributions from identifiable sources in the last campaign cycle came from just 31,385 individuals ... one ten-thousandth of the U.S. population. In the first presidential election ... since ... Citizens United ... candidates got more money from a smaller percentage of the population than any year for which we have data ... One sign of the reach of this elite '1% of the 1%': Not a single member of the House or Senate elected last year won without financial assistance from this group. Money from the nation’s 31,385 biggest givers found its way into the coffers of every successful congressional candidate." Lee Drutman at the Sunlight Foundation.
Norm Ornstein smacks down Mitch McConnell on campaign finance. Norm Ornstein at the Atlantic.
DOD
Sexual assault isn't just a women's issue. "Sexual assault has emerged as one of the defining issues for the military this year. Reports of assaults are up, as are questions about whether commanders have taken the problem seriously. Bills to toughen penalties and prosecution have been introduced in Congress. But in a debate that has focused largely on women, this fact is often overlooked: the majority of service members who are sexually assaulted each year are men. In its latest report ... the Pentagon estimated that 26,000 service members experienced unwanted sexual contact in 2012, up from 19,000 in 2010. Of those cases, the Pentagon says, 53 percent involved attacks on men, mostly by other men." James Dao at the New York Times.
The Economy
Turns out it's basically impossible to defend the one percent. "Mankiw believes rich people deserve to keep their money, regardless of economic consequences. Now, many conservatives share this belief, but since it is unpopular, they instead argue that higher taxes on the rich hurt the non-rich. Mankiw, to his enormous credit, does not conceal his agenda ... In so doing, Mankiw ... bravely — ventures completely outside his area of expertise, economics, into moral philosophy. The result is — well, there’s no other way to put it. It’s an embarrassing piece of ignorant tripe." Jonathan Chait at New York Magazine.
The effect of birth outweighs that of education. "You are 2.5x more likely to be a rich adult if you were born rich and never bothered to go to college than if you were born poor and, against all odds, went to college and graduated. The disparity in the outcomes of rich and poor kids persists, not only when you control for college attainment, but even when you compare non-degreed rich kids to degreed poor kids! Therefore, the answer ... is that you are better off being born richregardless of whether you go to college than being born poor and getting a college degree." Matt Bruenig.
Congress has the wrong priorities. "Washington’s relentless focus on deficit reduction has made it harder, not easier, to create good middle-class jobs and boost economic growth. In a rational world, Washington would be able to work simultaneously on bringing down the long-term debt and creating good jobs now. But the past three years have proven that lawmakers are not very good at walking and chewing gum at the same time. We’ve enacted nearly $4 trillion worth of deficit reduction since 2010 — when the sequester is included — but few policies to help the economy grow." Neera Tanden and Michael Linden at the Washington Post.
Elections
2016 is hugely important for the future of the Supreme Court. "Antonin Scalia ... is ... 77 years old. Kennedy is 76 ... Ginsburg is 80 ... Breyer turns 75 in August ... The years 2017 through 2021 ... could see quite a shake-up on the bench. A Republican president will mean a strengthening of the conservative majority and the final and total end of race as a remediating factor in society and ... obstacles to the basic federal right of marriage for same-sex couples for decades to come. A Democratic president ... will almost certainly mean that the Supreme Court will flip to a liberal majority... It should simply give liberals the resolve to ensure that the future is very different." Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast.
Farm Bill
The Federal Reserve
Farewell, Bernanke. "President Barack Obama hinted ... that he may be looking for a new chief of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, saying Ben Bernanke has stayed a lot longer than the current chairman had originally planned ... Bernanke, who has tried to nurse along the ailing U.S. economy through the 2008 financial crisis, is widely expected to step down when his second term as chairman expires at the end of January ... Obama is said to be considering a number of monetary experts for the job, including Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, and former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. An announcement could come as early as this fall." Steve Holland at the Huffington Post.
Foreign Policy
Maybe we'd get better results in Afghanistan without the contractors. "A new report released last week suggests that shoddy contracting practices are fomenting discontent and distrust among Afghan contractors, damaging efforts to foster Afghan businesses, and undermining the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction ... reported that $69 million in unpaid bills owed to Afghan subcontractors have led to death and kidnapping threats, work stoppages, fraud, at least one car chase, and the use of local police forces to extract payment ... The pervasiveness of these ... disputes ... is 'eroding support for US and coalition forces.'" Thomas Stackpole at Mother Jones.
Guns
Gun liability laws need to be changed. "Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, severely reducing the legal liability of gun manufacturers, distributors and dealers for reckless acts that send guns to the black market ... This ... legislation encourages arms dealers to turn a blind eye ... and rewards ... irresponsibility ... There is a basic principle of law that imposes liability when someone’s unreasonable act results in foreseeable harm to someone else ... That ... principle was gutted when Congress caved to the gun lobby ... Congress should ... end this unique legal protection for the gun industry. Until it does so, there will be no incentive for the industry to act reasonably." Robert Morgenthau at the New York Times.
Here's one potential solution. "Gun manufacturers have gone to great lengths to avoid any ... legal accountability for the social costs of gun violence — the deaths and injuries of ... victims, families torn apart, public resources spent on gun-related crime and medical expenses incurred. But there is a simple ... way to make them accountable ... For every gun sold, those who manufacture or import it should pay a tax. The money should then be used to create a compensation fund for innocent victims of gun violence. This proposal is based on a fundamentally conservative principle — that those who cause injury should be made to 'internalize' the cost of their activity by paying for it." Lucinda Finley and John Culhane at the New York Times.
Health
Obamacare's 99 problems. Sarah Kliff at Wonkblog.
The public can love the ACA while hating Obamacare. "Obamacare is ... permanently unpopular. A problem for supporters of health-care reform? Not really ... the Affordable Care Act ... could become just as untouchable as Medicare or Social Security ... Republican opposition has rarely been focused on what’s actually in the ACA ... See, the funny thing about the Affordable Care Act is that a whole lot of it will either be invisible or ... won’t be identifiable as 'Obamacare.' The core of the program is the system of health-insurance exchanges and subsidies, but little or none of these operations will have the words 'Affordable Care Act,' much less 'Obamacare,' attached to them." Jonathan Bernstein at the American Prospect.
New strategies for capping healthcare costs. "Hoping to cut medical costs, employers are experimenting with a new way to pay for health care, telling workers that their company health plan will pay only a fixed amount for a given test or procedure, like a CT scan or knee replacement. Employees who choose a doctor or hospital that charges more are responsible for paying the additional amount themselves. Although it is in the early stages, the strategy is gaining in popularity and there is some evidence that it has persuaded expensive hospitals to lower their prices." Reed Abelson at the New York Times.
Immigration
Boehner has a difficult upcoming decision. "Boehner’s choice—and his legacy—will come down to the question of whether or not he is willing to waive the Hastert rule. If he does, Democrats will surely provide enough votes to get the final bill through the House and onto the president’s desk ... But breaking with his caucus ... will infuriate the absolutists—and could well cost Boehner his speakership ... Boehner’s legacy will rest on what he decides to do about immigration reform ... Survive and be forgotten? Or save his party and risk being cast out? His decision will determine his own fate, along with the fate of millions of others." Joshua Green at Bloomberg.
IRS
This is a conspiracy theory, not a scandal. "Scholars at the American Enterprise Institute came out ... with a study that ... the IRS’s program of scrutinizing conservative organizations applying for 501(c)(4) status played a significant role in ... the outcome of the 2012 Presidential Election ... It’s utter nonsense ... and ... it has no more intellectual value to it than the ridiculous 'skewed polling' meme ... The right didn’t lose in 2012 because ... of some vast conspiracy involving the Internal Revenue Service. It lost because President Obama ran a better campaign, because Mitt Romney ran a bad one ... and because the Republican Party found itself out of step with the public." Doug Mataconis at Outside the Beltway.
LGBT Rights
Public opinion on same-sex marriage. "Public opinion on gay marriage has shifted faster in recent years than almost any other topic ... A poll this year by the nonpartisan Pew Forum ... found that 50% of Americans support gay marriage ... 'For a social issue in recent decades, that is quite unique,' ... Even among religious and demographic groups largely opposed to gay marriage, more people support the idea today ... When Prop 8 passed in 2008 ... only two other states permitted gay marriage. Today, 12 states plus the District of Columbia do so. U.S. voters had always chosen at the ballot to ban gay marriage until last fall, when they approved measures in Maine, Maryland and Washington." Geoffrey Fowler and Vauhini Vara at the Wall Street Journal.
Patents
Bad patent law, bad court decision. "Forget patenting an invention. These days, companies patent conceptual categories forfuture inventions. Recently, companies have patented concepts such as scanning documents to an e-mail account, clearing checks electronically and sending e-mail over a wireless network. The problem with these kinds of abstract patents is that lots of people will ... infringe by accident. Then the original patent holder ... can sue. That allows for the kind of abusive litigation that has been on the rise in recent years ... A key appeals court ... gave such patents its endorsement on Friday, setting the stage for rampant patent litigation to continue unchecked." Timothy Lee at Wonkblog.
Social Security Administration
And you thought you were good at preventing errors. "Social Security's total outlays are slightly above $750 billion per year. To keep erroneous payments at $31 million -- .004% of spending!! -- is an astounding administrative feat. To put this another way, imagine a median middle-aged household earning $65,000. To keep their improper payments as low as the SSA, they would have to keep waste down to $2.60 per year. That's a single error on a single bill. Nobody watches their spending this closely. If a private business managed to keep improper payments this low, they'd be ecstatic." Nicholas Beaudrot at Donkeylicious.
Texas
New record for the death penalty in America. "On Wednesday, Texas is scheduled to execute its 500th death-row inmate since the Supreme Court restored capital punishment in 1976. The state has executed nearly five times as many people as Virginia, the second state on the list. Texas’s death penalty system is notorious for its high tolerance of ineffective counsel for defendants, overly zealous prosecutors, and racial discrimination in jury selection." Lincoln Caplan at Taking Note.
Transportation
Deadline for rearview cameras pushed back to 2015. "The Obama administration is again delaying regulations that could require new cars and trucks to come equipped with rearview cameras to protect against drivers backing over people in blind spots behind their vehicles, a victory for automakers who say the cameras are too costly ... Congress passed a law in 2008 requiring the government to issue final regulations aimed at protecting against back-over accidents by Feb. 28, 2011, and that the changes be in place for model year 2014 vehicles. But the regulations have been delayed repeatedly." Joan Lowy at the Washington Post.
Trayvon Martin
International
Global
The global failed states 'top ten' list. "The annual list of Failed States is out at Foreignpolicy.com. My reaction as always: any country above Afghanistan must be truly f@#$%-ed. This year, that list includes Yemen at 6, Chad at five, South Sudan (4th) is actually just a smidge behind Sudan so secession works (?), DRC at two, and Somalia at number 1. Zimbabwe lost its 'worse than Afghanistan' status from last year and fell to tenth in the world." Steve Saideman at Saideman's Semi-Spew.
Five effects of global warming that will hit the rich and wealthy. Joshua Keating at War of Ideas.
The G-8 might do something about corruption. Maybe. "British Prime Minister David Cameron pushed hard to convince his colleagues of the virtues of his transparency agenda, which he believes will foster global prosperity by curtailing tax evasion by multinational companies and the use of so-called 'offshore centers' by businesses, corrupt officials, and organized crime ... The measures ... add up to a ... specific attack on the financial and legal mechanisms that facilitate corruption and tax evasion. Cameron received modest support from ... the United States and France, and ... muted backing from Germany, Japan, and Italy ... The outcome was sufficient to create a credible base for future action." Laurence Cockcroft at the Democracy Lab.
The global fast food industry - six of America's competitors. Joshua Keating at Foreign Policy.
Africa
Nelson Mandela is still in bad shape. "Nelson Mandela's condition ... remained critical for a second straight day Monday, said South Africa's president ... Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president after the end of apartheid in 1994, was hospitalized on June 8 for what the government said was a recurring lung infection. This is his fourth hospitalization since December. Mandela was jailed for 27 years under white racist rule and was released 23 years ago, in 1990. He then played a leading role in steering the divided country from the apartheid era to an all-race democracy, becoming South Africa's first black president in all-race elections in 1994." Christopher Torchia at the Associated Press.
And away we go. "Ever since the revolution, Libyans have been waiting to see how the court system is going to settle accounts with Qaddafi-era officials. Now the first verdict has finally arrived -- but it clearly wasn't what ... people were expecting. A Libyan court in Tripoli has acquitted two former officials in Colonel Qaddafi's regime of wasting public money by spending $2.7 billion on payments to the families of those killed in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing ... Despite being acquitted ... both men will remain in custody while further investigations take place ahead of a wider trial in August, where allegations of war crimes, including mass killings and incitement to rape, will be put to the court." Mohamed Eljarh at the Democracy Lab.
Asia
China's leaders are playing monetary hardball. "The Chinese central bank has taken a hard line on the country’s cash crunch, spurring a stock market rout ... The People’s Bank of China said the onus was on lenders to better manage their own balance sheets ... Analysts said the central bank’s unyielding position suggested that ... China’s new leaders, are determined to address financial risks that have built up in the country’s banking system, even if this leads to a steep economic slowdown ... The central bank has allowed money market rates to spike in order to force banks to rein in excessively fast credit growth and to channel less of their assets into risky off-balance-sheet vehicles." Simon Rabinovitch and Josh Noble at the Financial Times.
5 iPhone apps that you can't use in China. Isaac Stone Fish at Foreign Policy.
Burma's presidential election is on. And it's not until 2015. "The 2015 presidential election campaign in Burma is already underway. During his visit to the United States in last week, Shwe Mann, the former junta's No. 3 and now speaker of the house in Burma's parliament, has officially announced that he will run for president two years from now. Since the current president, Thein Sein, is unlikely to campaign again for the job, this means that Shwe Mann ... is now set to become the presidential nominee of the ruling USDP party ... Mann will be entering the race against opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who also recently announced that she'll be running for the presidency." Min Zin at the Democracy Lab.
Europe
Greek tragedy. "The troika of lenders ... demanded billions in budget cuts as well as reforms. To make the troika's deficit targets, a succession of governments hacked away at public-sector wages, pensions, and social services budgets. The result? The unemployment rate is now 27 percent, a record; for Greek workers under age 25, it's more than 60 percent ... Tens of thousands of businesses have closed. The number of suicides has doubled in three years. Nearly a quarter of Greeks say they can't afford food ... State hospitals have been especially hard hit; they have been short staffed and often have run out of lifesaving drugs." Joanna Kakissis at Foreign Policy.
Berlusconi convicted. "Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's flamboyant former premier, was sentenced to seven years in prison and banned from politics for life Monday for paying an underage prostitute for sex during infamous 'bunga bunga' parties and forcing public officials to cover it up. It was the most damaging setback yet for the 76-year-old Berlusconi, who has been tried numerous times for his business dealings but never before for his personal conduct ... Berlusconi's high-stakes judicial woes are far from over. He faces a final appeal in a tax fraud conviction for which he has been sentenced to four years in jail and a five-year ban from office." Colleen Barry at the Associated Press.
Iceland opts out of joining the EU. "Iceland has withdrawn its bid to join the European Union, announced its foreign minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson. Three weeks after being installed in his position by the newly elected Icelandic government, the foreign minister said that 'this is how democracy works'. He explained that the new coalition government in Iceland was against the idea of joining the EU at present." IceNews.
On the other hand, Turkey wants in. But Germany doesn't seem interested. "Germany has blocked the start of EU talks with Turkey in the wake of Ankara’s crackdown on mass demonstrations this month, a move some Turkish officials suggest could lead to an irreparable break with Brussels. The impasse highlights the possible international consequences of Ankara’s use of police force on peaceful demonstrators." Daniel Dombey, James Fontanella-Khan, and Quentin Peel at the Financial Times.
The return of Polish cuisine. "Communism collapsed, and in its wake, Polish food began to change rapidly. In fact, the food culture probably changed even faster than the politics because the transformation was already happening: The economic collapse of the 1980s had produced a generation of food entrepreneurs who, by 1990, were delighted to come out of the shadows ... With political stability came national self-confidence, and with that came a revival of Polish cooking on a national scale." Anne Applebaum at Foreign Policy.
Middle East
The lesson of current events. "Turkey is certainly not Iran, and vice versa. But comparing current developments in the two countries yields lessons that resonate across the Middle East and North Africa. Most important, in a world that at least pays lip service to democracy, the voice of “the people” matters. It confers a kind of legitimacy that simply cannot be acquired by force and that is ultimately the surest guarantee of investment and growth." Anne-Marie Slaughter at Project Syndicate.
Transfer of power in Qatar. "Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the absolute ruler and emir of Qatar, who used his tiny nation’s oil and gas wealth to alter the course of events across the Middle East, siding with rebels in Syria and Libya, negotiating peace in Lebanon, hosting a United States military base and backing the militant group Hamas, told his family that he would abdicate and transfer power to his 33-year-old son, a Qatari official confirmed on Monday." Rod Nordland at the New York Times.
South America
On the multi-faceted web of causes behind the Brazil protests. Colin Snider at Lawyers, Guns, and Money.
Economics
Cookbook economics. "Just try looking for foreign cookbooks in any American bookstore: The shelves will be littered with French and Italian fare, East Asian and Indian selections, and a smattering from places south of the equator. The very geography tells a story: Call it the cookbook indicator of economic development. First consider global cuisines like Mexican or Chinese ... It's not just that we're all suckers for guacamole or stir-fry. It's development economics in practice -- a foodie measure of how much these societies have moved toward greater commercialization, large-scale production, and standardization of production processes. Quite simply, it's the recipe for economic progress." Tyler Cowen at Foreign Policy.
Science
Why Europe was once scared of tomatoes. "In the late 1700s, a large percentage of Europeans feared the tomato. A nickname for the fruit was the 'poison apple' because it was thought that aristocrats got sick and died after eating them, but the truth of the matter was that wealthy Europeans used pewter plates, which were high in lead content. Because tomatoes are so high in acidity, when placed on this particular tableware, the fruit would leach lead from the plate, resulting in many deaths from lead poisoning. No one made this connection between plate and poison at the time; the tomato was picked as the culprit." K. Annabelle Smith at Smithsonian Magazine.
Miscellaneous
Pictures from the 2013 Paris Air Show. John Reed at Foreign Policy.
Well, this is a bit freaky. "Bosses at Manchester Museum have been left puzzled by the mystery of an ancient Egyptian statuette which - a video has revealed - seems to turn itself around 180 degrees in its display case. The 10-inch tall statue of Neb-Sanu, which dates back to 1800 BC, was found in a mummy’s tomb and has been at the Museum for eighty years. And now a time-lapse video clearly shows it turning on its axis during the day, apparently of its own volition. During the night, however, it remains still." James Legge + Video at the Independent.
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