Weekend Reads

What I've been reading

Hi there, and happy Friday!

Let’s jump right into the articles and essays that will keep you informed through the weekend.

Afghanistan

• New York Times: “We Have to Try”: Lawmakers Rush to Assist in Afghanistan Evacuations

• New York Times: Pentagon Leaders Wary of Working with Taliban

• New York Times: Restoration of Kabul’s Closed Airport Begins as Some Afghan Aid Resumes

• NYT Opinion: Joe Biden’s Critics Lost Afghanistan

• NYT Opinion: The Right-Wingers Who Admire the Taliban

• NYT Opinion: The Airlifts Have Stopped, and the Taliban Are Looking for Me

• NYT Opinion: Let’s Not Pretend That the Way We Withdrew From Afghanistan Was the Problem

• AP: Last Troops Exit Afghanistan, Ending America’s Longest War

• AP: Split UN Security Council Urges Taliban to Allow Travel, Aid

• AP: “It Looked Apocalyptic”: Crew Describes Afghanistan Departure

• Politico: Biden Tries to Move Past Afghanistan Fiasco

• Newsweek: After Afghan Withdrawal Debacle, Biden’s Counterterrorism Plan Draws Fire

• NBC News: Taliban Cooperation Included Protecting Americans from Possible Terrorist Attack at Airport

• CBS News: US Housing 20,000 Afghan Evacuees in 5 States, with Another 40,000 Overseas

• Vox: [Daesh]-K, Explained by an Expert

• Lawfare: Who is the New Leader of [Daesh]-Khorasan Province?

• National Review: Biden’s Disgrace

Republicans

• AP: Tea Party 2.0? Conservatives Get Organized in School Battles

• AP: AP Sources: Intel Shows Extremists to Attend Capitol Rally

• Axios: Scoop: Trump Wants Equity in Jason Miller’s Social Media App

• ProPublica: Heeding Steve Bannon’s Call, Election Deniers Organize to Seize Control of the GOP— and Reshape America’s Elections

• CNN: Liz Cheney Named Vice Chair of the January 6 Select Committee

The Climate Crisis

• NYT Opinion: Worrying About Your Carbon Footprint Is Exactly What Big Oil Wants You to Do

• NYT Opinion: Corporate America Is Lobbying for Climate Disaster

• AP: US Climate Envoy in Japan to Push Efforts to Cut Emissions

• The Atlantic: The Would-Be Savior of Patagonia

Roe

• New York Times: Supreme Court, Breaking Silence, Won’t Block Texas Abortion Law

• New York Times: Answers to Questions About the Texas Abortion Law

• Politico: Texas Abortion Ban Spawns Look-Alike Laws but Could Be Short-Lived

SCOTUS in the Shadows

• New York Times: Texas Abortion Case Highlights Concern Over Supreme Court’s “Shadow Docket”

• NYT Opinion: The Supreme Court’s Secret Decisions

• The Guardian: The US Supreme Court Is Deciding More and More Cases in a Secretive “Shadow Docket”

Housing

• NYT’s The Upshot: The Downtown Decade: US Population Density Rose in the 2010s

• CNN: Goldman Sachs Says 750,000 Households Could Be Evicted This Year Unless Congress Acts

• The Markup: The Secret Bias Hidden in Mortgage-Approval Algorithms

Esoterica

• New York Times: The Silent Partner Cleaning Up Facebook for $500 Million a Year

• NYT Opinion: Gavin Newsom Is Much More Than the Lesser of Two Evils

• CNN: Social Security Won’t Be Able to Pay Full Benefits by 2034, a Year Earlier Than Expected Due to the Pandemic

Lastly…

Politico profiles Beto O’Rourke as his political celebrity rises and he considers running for governor or US Senate to turn Texas blue. Cheers to that.

Thank you for caring enough to read.

Be safe. Enjoy your weekend. You are loved.

Talk to you Monday.