Must Read

• Wendell Potter and Nick Penniman, The Lobbyist Who Made You Pay More at the Drugstore
• Mark Buchanan, Economists Are Blind to the Limits of Growth
• Gaius Publius, The Goal of the Neo-Liberal Consensus Is to Manage the Decline
• Anthony Brooks, [Bernie] Sanders Got His Start In Burlington, And His Policies Continue To Shape The City

Should Read

• Matt Taibbi, Why Trump’s Endorsements Should Scare Your Pants Off
• David Neiwert, Violence Begets Violence — Just the Way They Like It
• Hunter Blair, Introducing the People’s Budget
• Mark Buchanan, Humanity’s Race Against Itself
• Mark Buchanan, Steaming slowly toward the limits of growth [Ed.:  A rebuttal to this column.]
• Tom Murphy, Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist [Ed.:  Link fixed 3/23]
• Nelson Schwartz (NYT), Carrier Workers See Costs, Not Benefits, of Global Trade
• Joseph Stiglitz, The New Generation Gap
• Cathy O’Neil, Resist the evil of the selfie password

Health Care

• Mike the Mad Biologist, So What Exactly Is the ACA/Obamacare Doing?
• Adam Gaffney, How Liberals Tried to Kill the Dream of Single-Payer
• Dean Baker, Bernie Sanders Health Care Plan Could Save the Country $20 Trillion

Trade

• Robert Reich,  The New Truth About Free Trade
• Dave Dayen, The Job-Killing Trade Deal You’ve Never Heard Of: The China Bilateral Investment Treaty
• Eduardo Porter (NYT), On Trade, Angry Voters Have a Point
• Dean Baker, Trade Lessons for Thomas Friedman
• Jared Bernstein (NYT), The Era of Free Trade Might Be Over. That’s a Good Thing.
• Dean Baker, Trade Treaty Propaganda Goes Into High Gear

Foreign Policy

• Jeff Faux, ISIS War Debates I: Why Is This Our Fight?
• Jeff Faux, ISIS War Debates II: Doubling Down on Disaster
• Daniel Larison, Why I Won’t Miss Obama
• Daniel Larison, The ‘Credibility’ Argument Isn’t Credible
• Charlie Pierce, Surprise! Ted Cruz’s Foreign Policy Team Is F*cking Psycho.
• Neil MacFarquhar and Anne Barnard (NYT), Putin Orders Start of Syria Withdrawal, Saying Goals Are Achieved
• Tyler Rogoway, Putin Orders Immediate Draw-Down Of Russian Forces In Syria
• Tyler Rogoway, As Russia’s Tactical Jets Leave Syria, Its Most Advanced Attack Helicopters Arrive

Economics

• Elise Gould, Some good news and some bad news in today’s JOLTS report
• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), Balanced Budget Amendment “Very Unsound Policy,” Leading Economists Warn [Ed.:  Never mind what leading economists say, it really is a terrible policy.]
• Jared Bernstein, CDSH or CDSD? [Ed.:  The intelligent alternative to balanced budget fetishism.]

Politics

• Thomas Frank, Bill Clinton’s odious presidency
• Dean Baker, E.J Dionne Is Far Too Generous, “Moderate Progressives” Were Promoting Inequality
• Matt Taibbi, How the ‘New York Times’ Sandbagged Bernie Sanders
• Ryan Lizza, The Great Divide: Clinton, Sanders, and the future of the Democratic Party.
• David Graham, How North Carolina Explains Trump’s Rise
• Robert Kuttner, Election 2016: Nightmare or Daybreak?
• John Cassidy, What Bernie Sanders Has Achieved
• Luke Savage, Social Democracy Without the Struggle

Supreme Court Nominee Merrick Garland

• Garrett Epps, Merrick Garland Is a Great Pick; That May Not Matter
• Rob Hunter, Cut-and-Run Liberalism
• Mike the Mad Biologist, Obama’s SCOTUS Appointee Opposed Congressional Representation For D.C.
• Samantha Page, Merrick Garland Knows He’s Not A Scientist

Science and Environment

• MIT Lincoln Laboratory, TROPICS (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats)
• Lauren Sommer, In California, Dealing With A Drought And Preparing For A Flood

Ending on a Positive Note

• Even though I finished last of the 24 candidates for Democratic Town Committee* I still got more than twice as many votes as Trump did – he polled first by a wide margin.  (*Q: What do you call the person who finishes 24th of 24 in the Democratic Town Committee race?  A:  Democratic Town Committee member.)
• Robert F. Kennedy, Remarks to the Cleveland City Club, April 5, 1968
• Maria Russo (NYT), Mo Willems and the Art of the Children’s Book