January 26, 2017

It’s hard to know what to say when the biggest, most powerful speaker in the world prefers hyperbole to normal speech, and tends to lie. / factcheck.org

A brief primer for the curious about the evolution of America’s dollar bill, from 1862 to the note that’s used today. For example, did you know American banks printed paper money prior to the Civil War? / history.com

“Let’s get her some sex.” Many of today’s progressives are too young to remember the Mary Tyler Moore Show, which brought feminism, sex positivity, homosexuality, birth control, and pay equality to the small screen like never before. / New York Times

A service called Magnises, offering “elite services” to elite urban millenials—for $250 a year—so the FOMO-ridden can “take their lives to the next level” and “always live life as an insider,” appears to consistently fail to provide its promised services. / magnises.com, Jezebel

“He is the older brother of a man convicted of murder, serving a life sentence without the chance of parole; the uncle of a young man shot execution-style in his own home; the father of a boy who, at age 16, woke up one night while traveling with a group of campers, got out of bed and stabbed his roommate to death while he was sleeping.” John Edgar Wideman—MacArthur genius, member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters—has a new book out about the father of Emmett Till, and the echoes are haunting. / New York Times Magazine

Some images to salivate over: old pictures from The Hifi Book, the ’80s catalog for Tech Hifi, a stereo component chain store. / Public Collectors

“It is now two and a half minutes to midnight.” Citing Trump, atomic scientists update the Doomsday Clock—we’re one step closer to man-made destruction of our civilization. / Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

In its 2016 Democracy Index, the EIU has lowered the US’s rating from “full democracy” (accepts credit cards) to “flawed democracy” (no gluten-free). / eiu.com

The general sense among the elite is that they’ll just be able to ride this one out. After all, the elites have always ruled (and always spawned fear). / New Statesman

“If [Trump] were to impose punitive (and unjustifiable) tariffs on Chinese imports, the EU is likely to follow suit in order to protect its producers from a surge of Chinese imports. China would then feel obliged to retaliate. The system of trade rules could collapse.” Opinion: The hubris of “Davos man” led to overreach—but the reaction from populists will be even more destructive. / Financial Times

Know your right: The InfoWars perspective on Davos is now in the White House, after all. / YouTube

The new administration has drafted drastic executive orders that would pull funding from the United Nations and potentially pull the US out of the Paris Agreement, causing alarm at international organizations that wonder if their operations (including health, peacekeeping, and development) can continuee without US funding. / The New York Times, The Guardian

For a quarter-century, the Washington Consensus provided the paradigm for the international orientation of the United States. Coined by an economist in 1989 to refer to 10 points of neoliberal-ish economic theory agreed upon in practice by the IMF, World Bank, and US government, several are now openly flouted by Trump: / Wikipedia

—“Invoking language not heard since the 1930s,” he won’t continue to support development efforts or international cooperation. / policyforum.net

—He has promised to return manufacturing to American shores by reversing free trade, even though “unfair” free trade isn’t to blame for the sector’s decline and his policies will only benefit billionaires. / socialistworker.org

—The rejection of the TPP, supported by the centrists in both parties, might be the single biggest blow to the Washington Consensus (and China’s gain). / Vox

“Davos participants can elect to imitate what the organization presents as the average refugee experience—women are forced to wear headscarves and banned from talking to men they don’t know, everyone is given identity cards and a family history, and then they are told to run into the dark.” Jamie Dimon, who made $28 million last year, said at a closed-door lunch in Davos: “Make elites great again!” This is not how that will happen. / BuzzFeed

“In the 1940s, America First was an antisemitic group that called on the US government to appease Adolf Hitler in World War II. Today, it’s become the de-facto tagline of American policy.” American nationalism is a compelling narrative, and too powerful to ignore any longer. / In These Times

“Once you’ve done the Masonic handshake, they’ll be, like, ‘Oh, you know, I have a broker who sells old ICBM silos, and they’re nuclear-hardened, and they kind of look like they would be interesting to live in.’” This Evan Osnos story on rich Doomsday preppers helps put in perspective how crazy rich people are. / The New Yorker

Major TV networks spend about $100 million on pilot production a year, but few of the pilots they make ever get picked up into full series—for example, Jim Henson’s NewsRadio-meets-Muppet Show oddity Puppetman. / Los Angeles Times, tedium.co

“As far as foreigners go, Poland is possibly the ‘cleanest’ country in the world.” A dispatch from nearly homogenous Poland, in the wake of a manufactured anti-refugee hysteria. / Granta

“It’s the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember.” And these aren’t people who can be quickly replaced. / The Hill

Among the better tidbits in this lengthy feature about Nazis in Washington is that Gavin McInnes, Vice’s co-founder and original id, has founded a “fraternal organization” for Washington’s fascists called the “Proud Boys.” / Politico

“We totally understand it’s going to be America First. But can we just say ‘the Netherlands Second?’” / YouTube

“He just he made our race look… beautiful.” Black teenagers who grew up with Obama in the White House reflect back and look forward. / The Boston Globe

Skiier makes the wrong left turn. / Instagram