Must Read

• Daniel Larison, Our Addiction to Global Primacy
• Phillip Sego, Ex-lobbyist reveals how the [Massachusetts House of Representatives] really works (Forget what you saw in ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’)

Should Read

• Matt Taibbi, The French [Yellow Vest] Protests Do Not Fit a Tidy Narrative
• Dean Baker, Trade: It’s Still About Class, Not Country
• J.W. Mason, A Demystifying Decade for Economics
• Jackie Wong and Madhur Boloor, DOE Stalls Clean Energy R&D: Risking Jobs & Competitiveness
• Sarah Kliff and Dylan Scott, We read Democrats’ 8 plans for universal health care. Here’s how they work.
• Alex Press, Case Study of 1

Worth Reading

War and Peace

• Daniel Larison, Save the INF Treaty
• CNBC, Trump calls US defense spending ‘crazy!’ months after signing bill to increase it; seeks talks with Xi and Putin to halt the arms race

Politics

• Jennifer Senior, Sheryl Sandberg Can’t Have It All
• Lawrence DiCara and Michael Nicholson, Mass. cities losing clout in ed funding fight (Shift in voting power to suburbs changes the political dynamic)
• NECN, [Massachusetts State Rep-elect Nika] Elugardo on Racial Tensions in Mass. Democratic Party
• David Sirota, Beto O’Rourke is the new Obama. And that’s the last thing we need
• Paul Rattner, Car culture and suburban sprawl create rifts in society, claims study
• Chris D’Angelo, Protecting public lands was a winning platform in elections out West

Political Economy

• Eduardo Porter, The Hard Truths of Trying to ‘Save’ the Rural Economy
• Marie Donahue and Stacy Mitchell, Dollar Stores Are Targeting Struggling Urban Neighborhoods and Small Towns. One Community Is Showing How to Fight Back.
• The Guardian, Group led by Thomas Piketty presents plan for ‘a fairer Europe’
• Jo Confino, Beyond capitalism and socialism: could a new economic approach save the planet?
• Mike Konczal, The Green New Deal Is Good for the Planet—and the Democratic Party

Environment

• Katharine Hayhoe, The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: talk about it
• Boston Review, Forum:  The New Nature
• Eric Levitz, Is a Green New Deal Possible Without a Revolution?
• Mike O’Loughlin, Resisting Consumerism, One Discounted Shirt At A Time
• Charlotte Du Cann, Flight Path (On Reading David Fleming’s ‘Surviving the Future’)
• Jason Mark, What Do the Election Results Mean for Climate and the Environment?
• Bruce Mohl, [New England] Region’s electricity market in trouble
• William Driscoll, Five new governors aim for 100% renewables
• Christian Roselund, Massachusetts’ SMART program fills up fast
• WBUR, Watertown Becomes 1st Town In New England To Require Solar Panels On New Commercial Constructions

Science

• Chad Orzel, The Unsinkable Karl Popper
• Michael Nielsen, What does the quantum state mean?
• Regenerative Design Group, Integrated Urban Farm Design
• NASA, Sunset in Mars’ Gale Crater

Ending on a Positive Note

• John Cleese, A Divine Pat  [Ed.:  It’s a sermon.]