TLP Week in Review, 7/8/23-7/15/23
Your weekly summary of what we've been up to here at The Liberal Patriot
What We’re Reading (and Watching and Listening To…)
“Thousands of Ukraine civilians are being held in Russian prisons. Russia plans to build many more”: Associated Press reporters Lori Hinnant, Hannah Arhirova, and Vasilisa Stepanenko document the string of prisons run by Russian occupation forces detaining thousands of Ukrainian civilians in brutal conditions. Moscow may be planning to expand this new gulag complex even further, with Russian government documents detailing “plans to create 25 new prison colonies and six other detention centers in occupied Ukraine by 2026.” These plans come on top of legal decrees signed by Putin that would allow Russia “to deport Ukrainians who resist Russian occupation deep into Russia indefinitely”—a process already under way.
“The new era of big government: Biden rewrites the rules of economic policy” and “A global subsidy war? Keeping up with the Americans”: In this two-parter, a sextet of Financial Times reporters detail how the Biden administration’s industrial policy—including some $200 billion in manufacturing investment that will create an estimated 85,000 jobs—marks a break from almost four decades of markets-always-know-best orthodoxy. Despite some encouraging initial signs, obstacles and potential drawbacks remain, including permitting reform and Chinese dominance of critical mineral supplies. Still, “Asian companies are now in the vanguard of investors coming to the US, with South Korean giants such as Hyundai, LG, SK and Samsung pledging tens of billions of dollars to make battery plants” while manufacturing jobs are up 800,000 since Biden took office.
“This Is One Republican Strategy That Isn’t Paying Off”: New York Times columnist Thomas Edsall surveys new academic research indicating that restrictive Republican-sponsored voting laws don’t seem to suppress turnout or have the partisan effects their proponents hoped or their opponents feared. As Edsall concludes, “What this suggests is that the American electorate is determined to exercise the franchise and is resistant to legislated hindrances — more so than many would expect. This does not bode well for a Republican Party that for the moment has applied its money, energy and strategic skill to reducing Democratic turnout and suppressing Democratic votes.”
“Protest’s Lesson for Anti-occupation Left: Mobilize Israelis, Not International Community”: Haaretz columnist Anshel Pfeffer observes that recent broad-based protests against the right-wing Israeli government’s judicial coup show how the Israeli left—or what remains of it—chose to focus on cajoling foreign governments and non-governmental organizations rather than winning the support of the Israeli public. While activists refused to do “the tedious, boring, thankless work of trying to campaign outside of their comfort zone in Hebrew,” recent protests that mobilized ordinary Israelis have achieved results that “thick human-rights reports and passionate speeches at international conferences” never could.
Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One: Tom Cruise rages against our algorithmic overlords in this edge-of-your-seat latest installment of the Mission: Impossible series. The movie essentially amounts to a series of taut and increasingly over-the-top fights, car chases, and skin-of-their-teeth escapes, all exceptionally well-executed by Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie—the production even built a train from scratch to destroy it in the film’s climactic stunt sequence.
Colter Wall, “Little Songs”: Pour a few fingers of rye and enjoy some new cowboy songs and prairie yodels from a Canadian lad with a distinctive voice.
What We’ve Posted
“The Greatest Show on Earth: Taylor Swift’s electrifying Eras Tour brings people together like nothing else—and reveals our need for basic human connection,” by TLP senior managing editor Peter Juul.
“The Democratic Party Left vs. the Center: The Two Are Not Compatible,” by TLP politics editor Ruy Teixeira.
“A Warning Order from Florida: How a new state law fosters xenophobia, harms America's national security, and offers an ominous preview of a possible DeSantis presidency,” by former FBI agent and federal prosecutor Christopher Hunter.
“Introducing the 2024 Patriot Index: First results from wave one of the new TLP/YouGov presidential election tracker,” by TLP executive editor John Halpin.
“America Still Has an Elon Musk Problem: The mercurial billionaire’s ongoing courtship of Beijing raises serious national security questions for America,” by TLP senior managing editor Peter Juul.
“Will Asian Americans Retreat from Democrats?” by Seth Moskowitz, editor at Persuasion.
Just one more thing…
Meet the Cistercian monks running England’s only Trappist brewery at an abbey in the town of Coalville with a little help from their neighbors. “It’s a gentle product, and we hope that when people are drinking it at home, they can tap into the abbey a little bit,” head brewer Father Joseph Delargy says.
