TLP Week in Review, 12/10-12/16
Your weekly summary of what we've been up to here at The Liberal Patriot.
What We’re Reading (and Watching and Listening To…)
“Conflict, competition, and containment will shape the contours of the MENA region in 2024”: A package of pieces from the Middle East Institute looking back on developments in the region over the past year and looking forward to their implications for the year to come. Big regional trends look unlikely to change, though much will depend on the course of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza as well as the nature of U.S. policy toward the region during an election year.
“COP28’s Dramatic but Empty Nuclear Pledge”: The Breakthrough Institute’s Ted Nordhaus applauds the recent pledge by 22 nations at the COP28 climate summit to triple their use of nuclear power, but argues these announcements—though they indicate a shift in the zeitgeist around nuclear power—but these pledges remain “a far cry from building nuclear plants.” High interest rates, rising commodity prices, and regulatory red tape will likely combine to make it much more difficult for these nations to make good on their pledges to increase their use of nuclear power.
“Lina Khan’s Rough Year”: New York magazine legal affairs reporter Ankush Khardori surveys anti-trust wunderkind Lina Khan’s first year as head of the Federal Trade Commission and finds her approach severely wanting, with a spate of failed high-profile lawsuits against tech giants and low morale among the agency’s staff. “If her tenure at the head of the FTC turns out to be a failure,” Khardori writes, “it could deal an existential blow to the movement that she has devoted her career to.”
“Campus Speech Codes Should Be Abolished”: In the wake of post-October 7 controversies on elite college campuses—particularly Ivy League institutions like Harvard and Penn—James Kirchick argues in the New York Times that campus speech codes should be abolished altogether, not further extended to cover more and more identities and groups. “If the problem with campus speech codes is the selectivity with which universities penalize various forms of bigotry,” he writes, “the solution is not to expand the university’s power to punish expression. It’s to abolish speech codes entirely.”
“Gett Off”: Prince’s scorching 1992 live performance of one of his nastiest post-1980s jams at his Glam Slam club in Minneapolis, included in the recently released super deluxe edition of his 1991 album Diamonds and Pearls. “If it ain’t from Minneapolis, it ain’t shit.”
What We’ve Posted
“‘I Don’t Really Have an Opinion About That’” by TLP executive editor John Halpin.
“Swing-State, Working-Class Blues” by TLP politics editor Ruy Teixeira.
“Three Observations from Doha” by TLP senior managing editor Peter Juul.
“Tuned-Out Voters are the Most Negative on the Economy” by TLP executive editor John Halpin.
“Looking Beyond Tax Incentives,” the latest in a series on place-based policies by TLP contributor and Upjohn Institute senior economist Timothy J. Bartik.
“Avoiding a Nuclear Chain Reaction in Asia” by Harvard Kennedy School fellow and Middle East Institute scholar Nishank Motwani.
Just one more thing…
Iron Man and Oppenheimer star Robert Downey, Jr. reflects on his life and career in Vanity Fair ahead of what he sees as its third and final act.
