September 14, 2016
Duterte has made waves for targeting drug users, but he also plans to go after Abu Sayyaf, a jihadist group that has pledged allegiance to ISIS. Recently they beheaded a teenage ransom, and affiliates claimed responsibility for a bombing in Duterte’s hometown that killed more than a dozen. / newsinfo.inquirer.net, rappler.com
Duterte’s crackdown and its reliance on armed pseudo-governmental forces acting beyond the scope of the law recall the nearby example of Suharto, whose purges were harrowingly relived in the award-winning documentary The Act of Killing. / YouTube
Meet a woman who kills drug dealers for a reward from the Filipino government. / BBC
“Statistics show what any visitor to the country may easily see: Filipinos are not degenerates, who need to be protected from themselves, but are mostly a nation of decent, sober, law-abiding and God-fearing people.” Opiate abuse is a hundred times greater a problem in the United States than in the Philippines, where it can get you killed today. / TIME
When a writer pitches a biography of Puerto Rico’s Julia de Burgos—poet and national hero—her editor suggests Cuban Jose Marti instead, saying Cuba is “sexier.” / poetryfoundation.org
Two of the seven members appointed by President Obama to Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Control Board, the body responsible for emergency governance on the island, were previously executives at a bank that engaged in viscious predatory lending and oversaw $2.5 billion in Puerto Rican predatory debt deals—raising the question of whether the Fiscal Control Board is looking out for Puerto Rico’s citizens or creditors. / The Hill
Continuing his pivot away from American allies, Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte ordered the US military out of the nation’s unrestful southern zone of Mindanao, despite a January high court ruling that they should stay, and without any prior consultation with the United States. / The Sydney Morning Herald, The New York Times
Tyler Cowen writes in Bloomberg, “I worry that the spreading out of Brexit costs over time will lead the British people to feel invulnerable, to demand too much from their politicians, and to limit their ties with the EU too much and too quickly.” / Bloomberg
Speed record for person on a skateboard reaches 89.41 mph—and our feet sweat just thinking about that fact, let alone watching it happen. / YouTube
A single chart by Branko Milanovic paints a picture of the global economy—managing to cover income changes, demographic changes, the story of recent global history, the degree to which the rise of China (and India) have changed the world, and the fact that “lower income households in the West have largely not participated in the remarkable global growth over the two decades”—that also resembles an elephant. / principlesandinterest.wordpress.com
“It used to be basketball and barbecue were the two areas where North Carolinians shared common ground regardless of politics. Now we’re down to barbecue.” North Carolina’s HB2, considered among the country’s most anti-LGBT legislation, costs North Carolina its NCAA tournaments. / The News & Observer
“When President Obama took office, two-thirds of his top aides were men. Women complained of having to elbow their way into important meetings. And when they got in, their voices were sometimes ignored. So female staffers adopted a meeting strategy they called ‘amplification.’” To be heard in high circles, women learn to echo their peers’ best points, even in the White House. / Washington Post
Scores die every year in the meter-wide shafts that form a web of gold mines under Johannesburg. / cnbcafrica.com
Reading the headline, we figured this was a paean to CrossFit fanatics? Paleo toilets? / theshovel.com.au
Beautiful voyage, ugly cargo? Here’s a conflicting photo essay of the voyage of the Crystal Serenity, the first cruise ship to venture through the newly-opened Northwest Passage. / Bloomberg
When San Diego city police find anyone under 18 years old outside after 10 p.m., “officers can swiftly detain, handcuff, and haul them away on curfew violation charges.” / voiceofsandiego.org
Is it just us, or does the new White Stripes video, directed by Michel Gondry, look a bit like someone filmed Christoph Niemann taking his morning shower? / christophniemann.com
Dominic Tierney in the Atlantic: Critics of rejecting nuclear preemption misunderstand its logic. / The Atlantic
The Trump Organization’s business dealings (and failings) with politically-connected figures in India, Turkey, Russia, South Korea, the UAE, Libya, Azerbaijan, and other countries would, upon Trump taking office, immediately force President Trump to make decisions that could hurt his wallet in one way and American interests in the other. / Newsweek
Related: Apparently the Trump campaign repeatedly solicits donations from politicians and residents of foreign nations, in clear violation of Federal Election Commission rules. / csmonitor.com
“You might say that it’s a pretty big leap from ‘why I ride my bike’ to ‘channeling fundamental human experience.’ To those skeptics, I would ask: ‘When is the last time you encountered your physical limit?’ I’ve always been amazed at how quickly most social norms and habits disintegrate when you’re surrounded by people during these moments.” Amateur endurance athletes aren’t in it to win. They aren’t even in it for the fun. They can’t be in it for the medical bills. So why ride? / Eephus