I'm devoting this weekend's news post to thoughts on the GOP and to decreasing gun violence. If you have additional articles to contribute, please share them in the comments. Maybe, eventually, republican politicians can be shamed or pressured into getting in touch with their consciences saying "no more" to the NRA.
Politics
Our Shared Blame for the Shooting in San Bernardino (The New Yorker)
Cover of The New York Daily News
Only in America, as the song says—only in America are there enough mass shootings in a single week to allow pundits and philosophers to make complicated points about the nature of responsibility and guilt that elsewhere might exist only in the realm of gruesome thought experiments. Having instructed us that the first of this week’s mass shootings was free from any ideological taint at all—that the Planned Parenthood killings were the work of a lone nut, completely uninfluenced by their rhetoric—the Republican candidates then ordered us to understand that the next mass shooting was nothing but ideology, that the horrific killings in San Bernardino were, as Ted Cruz instantly insisted, an act of Islamic terrorism that should place us in a “time of war.” (That phrase either means nothing at all, since in some sense we have been in “a time of war” since at least 9/11, or else means something so doomed and horrific—full-scale permanent warfare in the Middle East—that, as the historian Andrew Bacevich has explained, it could be achieved only by changing everything once admirable about American life.)
So God bless an American tabloid for doing the work that their headlines have long done (“Ford To City: Drop Dead” comes to mind from the past)—putting a complicated point into simple language. In this case, the headline is on the cover of this morning’s New York Daily News, announcing that Syed Farook, one of the two San Bernardino killers, and a Muslim-American, is a terrorist—and that all the other mass murderers of recent memory are terrorists, too, and (many bonus points for courage here) that Wayne LaPierre, of the N.R.A., ought to be thought as one as well.
The New York Times just published its first front-page editorial since 1920 — and it's slamming gun violence in America (Business Insider)
For the first time since 1920, The New York Times has published an op-ed on its front page.
The editorial, titled "The Gun Epidemic," takes aim at gun control in the US, a topic that has frequently become front-of-mind, amid a sharp rise in high-profile mass shootings over the past several years.
In the piece, The Times' editorial board writes: "It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency."
The op-ed, set to be published Saturday, comes days after a husband and wife opened fire at a social-services agency in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and wounding 21 others. Officials have said they werearmed with four guns: two semiautomatic handguns and two .223-caliber assault rifles, all of which were purchased legally.
The GOP on the Eve of Destruction (Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, Moyers & Co.)
From left, Fatima Berrahal and Educardo Burkhart, of West Palm Beach, listen to billionaire Donald Trump as he addresses a crowd at the 2011 Palm Beach County Tax Day Tea Party on April 16, 2011 at Sanborn Square in Boca Raton, Florida. (Photo by John W. Adkisson/Getty Images)
For reasons hard to fathom, the Republicans seem to have made up their minds: they will divide, degrade and secede from the Union.
They will do so with bullying, lies and manipulation, a willingness to say anything, no matter how daft or wrong. They will do so by spending unheard of sums to buy elections with the happy assistance of big business and wealthy patrons for whom the joys of gross income inequality are a comfortable fact of life. By gerrymandering and denying the vote to as many of the poor, the elderly, struggling low-paid workers, and people of color as they can. And by appealing to the basest impulses of human nature: anger, fear and bigotry.
Turn on your TV or computer, pick up a paper or magazine and you can see and hear them baying at the moon. Donald Trump is just the most outrageous and bigmouthed of the frothing wolf pack of deniers and truth benders. As our friend and colleague Tom Engelhardt of TomDispatch writes, “There’s nothing, no matter how jingoistic or xenophobic, extreme or warlike that can’t be expressed in public and with pride by a Republican presidential candidate.”
What does gun violence really cost? (Mother Jones)
HOW MUCH DOES gun violence cost our country? It's a question we've been looking into at Mother Jones ever since the 2012 mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, left 58 wounded and 12 dead. How much care would the survivors and the victims' families need? What would be the effects on the broader community, and how far out would those costs ripple? As we've continued to investigate gun violence, one of our more startling discoveries is that nobody really knows.
[Keep reading What does gun violence really cost?]
Syed Farook’s Arsenal Is As American as Apple Pie (The Nation)
This photo provided by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department shows ammunition carried by suspects at the scene of the shootout in San Bernardino, California on December 2, 2015. (San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department via AP)
How unusual is it for a gun owner to have two AR-15 assault rifles and 2,500 rounds of rifle ammunition—the “arsenal” police found in the possession of Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik? Many in the media say it suggests a level of planning typical of terrorists. But, in fact, millions of Americans have that kind of “arsenal” at home. The AR-15 is the most popular gun in America—around 8 million have been sold. Two thousand five hundred rounds of ammo for the AR-15 seems horrifying to an anti-gun, middle-class liberal like me—that’s enough bullets to kill 2,500 people!—but, in fact, ammo is sold in 1,000-round boxes, and it’s not unusual for gun owners to buy several boxes when the price is low.
Trumpism: The Ideology (Jeffrey A. Tucker, The Foundation for Economic Education)
Since World War II, the ideology he represents has usually lived in dark corners, and we don’t even have a name for it anymore. The right name, the correct name, the historically accurate name, is fascism. I don’t use that word as an insult only. It is accurate.
Though hardly anyone talks about it today, we really should. It is still real. It exists. It is distinct. It is not going away. Trump has tapped into it, absorbing unto his own political ambitions every conceivable resentment (race, class, sex, religion, economic) and promising a new order of things under his mighty hand.
You would have to be hopelessly ignorant of modern history not to see the outlines and where they end up.
The Second Amendment Was Never Meant to Protect an Individual’s Right to a Gun (The Nation)
(Picture by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence)
In common with the other big rightward swerves by the Roberts Court, the 2008 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller was an aggressive exercise in mendacity. By upending the well-established meaning of the Second Amendment, the Court made the country less safe and less free. It did this under the guise of a neutral and principled “originalism” that looks to the text as it was first understood back in 1791 by the amendment’s drafters and their contemporaries.
Heller’s 5–4 majority decision, written by Justice Antonin Scalia and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito, was less in sync with the founding generation than with the top priority of a powerful interest group closely aligned with the Republican right. The National Rifle Association had been waging an intense 30-year campaign to secure an individual’s constitutional right to keep and bear arms by winning over members of the public, high-level politicians, and, ultimately, the Supreme Court. Mission, to an alarming degree, accomplished.
The Real Reason We Can’t Have Gun Control (The Nation)
I hate to pick on Carly Fiorina, since she’s dropping in GOP presidential polls, but she’s the most avid purveyor of falsehoods in the 2016 Republican field next to Donald Trump. She spewed some whoppers Thursday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. They’re worth examining because they show the way GOP cynics, most of whom know better, are exploiting anti-government hysteria on the right as they close their ears to overwhelming public demand for tougher gun laws.
Donald Trump's Destruction Test of the Republican Party Continues Apace (Mother Jones)
I think he got bored one day and came up with an idea that tickled him: "I wonder just how deranged you can get and still retain the support of the tea party wingnuts?" So he made a $1 bet with some of his Democratic friends and performed a test run in 2012 with his maniacal birther stuff. But all that did was show the depth of his challenge. He'd have to do a lot more than that in 2016. He started off slow with wild claims about immigrant Mexican rapists, knowing it would draw in the rubes. Then he laughably claimed that he'd get Mexico to pay for a border wall. Nothing happened. He insulted John McCain for being a POW. Nothing happened. He started telling obvious lies. Nothing. He lied on national TV and was called on it a few minutes later. Nothing. He all but admitted that he knows diddly about the Bible. Nothing. He called evangelical darling Ben Carson a nutcase liar. Nothing. He claimed that thousands of Muslims in Jersey City celebrated 9/11. Nothing. He mocked a disabled reporter in front of the cameras. Nothing. He suggested taking out terrorist families. Nothing. He appeared on the radio show of a crackpot conspiracy theorist. Nothing. Now he's insulted an audience of conservative Jews.
Here’s Why Donald Trump’s December Poll Numbers Matter (Time)
Here’s some good news for Donald Trump fans: History is now on his side.
For months, members of the Republican Establishment have dismissed Trump’s chances at snagging the party’s presidential nomination. But he’s still ahead in the December polls, a signal that has boded well for GOP candidates in the past.
Financial Markets and Economy
The Invisible Spill Spewing the Gases of a Half-Million Cars (Bloomberg)
Call it the invisible spill.
Investors to Look Beyond ECB Letdown as Yield Rally Offers Value (Bloomberg)
Don’t write off European bonds just yet.
There is one force reshaping the entire world, and Wall Street is catching on (Business Insider)
It is called technological deflation.
Moelis & Co. Chief Executive Ken Moelis was on CNBC's Closing Bell on Thursday and brought it up.
According to Moelis, we're in a deflationary world. That would normally be reason to be concerned: Deflation is considered by central bankers as a destructive force. That is because a reduction in the price of goods is usually associated with a slowing economy and increased unemployment.
Volatile week may set stocks for year-end rally (Business Insider)
This week's back-to-back equities selloff might have been a chance to ride a U.S. stocks rally toward the end of the year, amid the goldilocks economy scenario of a strong jobs market and falling oil prices.
BOE Seen Giving Pound Little Respite as Investors Await Clarity (Bloomberg)
Pound bulls looking for a boost from the Bank of England’s final meeting of 2015 may be disappointed.
Yahoo Board Is Quiet on Any Shake-Up Plans (NY Times)
With a crucial deadline looming next week, Yahooshareholders still do not know how — or if — the board plans to restructure the technology giant.
Yahoo’s directors ended three days of deliberations on Friday without announcing whether they will proceed with plans to spin off its $31 billion of stock in the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba or adopt an activist shareholder’s recommendation to spin off or sell Yahoo’s core business, or do something else entirely.
GE Investors Said to Fight Forced $5 Billion Securities Exchange (Bloomberg)
Holders of preferred shares in General Electric Co.’s finance unit are revolting against the company’s decision to exchange $5 billion of the securities for notes the investors say are less valuable, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Fed's Yellen faces battle in 2016 after getting all clear for December hike (Yahoo! Finance)
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has the evidence of U.S. labor market health she wanted in order to raise benchmark interest rates for the first time in a decade this month, but she may have a tougher time selling further hikes. Yellen's arguments against potential dissenters at the Dec. 15-16 Fed policy meeting were strengthened by Labor Department data on Friday that showed employers hired 211,000 people in November while even greater numbers joined the workforce. Federal funds futures contracts imply a 79-percent chance that the Fed will end seven years of near-zero interest rates at its December meeting and about even odds of a second rate rise by March.
Martin Shkreli, the Bad Boy of Pharmaceuticals, Hits Back (NY Times)
Martin Shkreli was trying to explain himself, so he turned to YouTube.
In the conference room at Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company he heads, his fingers flew across a laptop keyboard, and up popped a YouTube video on a large wall screen. It was a heartfelt appeal from three young brothers in North Dakota who suffer from a degenerative and often fatal brain condition. “Only 300 people in the country have this disease,” Mr. Shkreli said.
Why show the video? “I invented a new drug,” to treat the disease, he said, shrugging nonchalantly. “But it’s hard to sell a drug for 300 people, to go through the process. You have to charge a lot per person to make it a viable product.”
Silk Road Gold Demand Taking All New Mine Production and More (Jesse's Cafe Americain)
Nick Laird of goldchartsrus.com has provided the latest statistics on the consumption of gold by the 'Silk Road' countries.
Once hot fintech company Monitise is going downhill fast (Business Insider)
The slow motion implosion of mobile banking company Monitise continues.
The company announced on Tuesday that its CFO, Brad Petzer, is leaving after 2 years in the role. His exit follows the departure of two CEOs this year, one of whom was founder Alastair Lukies.
Technology
Grocery stores are using spy technology to get you to spend more money (Business Insider)
From Target to Kroger, grocery stores want to figure out what makes customers tick — and they're using methods that seem straight out of a James Bond movie to find out.
In November, Target expanded its test of beacons installed in LED light bulbs that track and guide customers to relevant products via their cellphones in 100 stores.
Social media companies step up battle against militant propaganda (Reuters)
Facebook, Google and Twitter are stepping up efforts to combat online propaganda and recruiting by Islamic militants, but the Internet companies are doing it quietly to avoid the perception that they are helping the authorities police the Web.
On Friday, Facebook Inc said it took down a profile that the company believed belonged to San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik, who with her husband is accused of killing 14 people in a mass shooting that the FBI is investigating as an "act of terrorism."
Japan’s ambitious hydrogen-vehicle plans stumble, with bureaucracy to blame (Venture Beat)
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ambitious plans for hydrogen fuel-cell infrastructure are stumbling, thanks to bureaucratic red tape.
Abe is a serious supporter of hydrogen fuel-cell cars. He’s pushed through measures to cut taxes on them, and encouraged construction of a network of fueling stations.
Porsche’s Electric Mission E Is Poised to Whoop Tesla’s Model S (Wired)
In September, Porsche showed off the Mission E, a fully electric and fully beautiful concept made to dethrone Tesla motors as the EV industry’s king of cool.
Today, Porsche announced it’s investing more than a billion dollars to bring the Mission E to production. As in, you’ll be able to buy one. We’re light on details—like the size of the battery, or when we’ll actually see one on the road—but we’ve got the most important numbers.
Health and Life Sciences
Another Downside to Diabetes: Tooth Loss (Medicine Net)
The physical toll associated with type 2 diabetes includes tooth loss, a new study finds.
The risk of vision problems and amputations for people with diabetes is well-known. Now, research shows diabetics lose twice as many teeth on average as those without the disease.
Life on the Home Planet
Jaw-dropping photos of Brazil's worst environmental disaster that unleashed 50 million tons of toxic mud (Slate, via Business Insider)
Last month, a dam burst at an iron ore mine in southeastern Brazil, unleashing 50 million tons of highly toxic mud and mining waste, covering an area the size of 25,000 Olympic pools.
California Farmers Will Intentionally Flood Their Fields This Winter (Scientific American)
California is parched. Rivers that usually surge now trickle, and once large reservoirs stand as puny pools. Those most critically affected by the state's four-year drought are the Central Valley's farmers, whose livelihoods are threatened. Without rain to irrigate croplands, growers repeatedly turn to underground aquifers, but the overpumping has taken a toll, causing water tables to drop dramatically.
Climate delegates agree draft deal text (BBC)
Delegates at a UN climate conference in Paris have approved a draft text they hope will form the basis of an agreement to curb global carbon emissions.
The 48-page document will be discussed by ministers on Monday.
