Reading List: It's (Nearly) The Freaking Weekend And I'm Regretting Forgetting to Make Bread Dough Last Night.
Darlings! It’s Friday and I am pretty sure we all need a break, so here are a bunch of long reads for you to sink your brain teeth into. Is it cheerful stuff? For the most part, no! Do I still think you’ll enjoy them? As a matter of fact, I do!
TO THE LONGREADS!
Dan Diamond, Trump officials celebrated efforts to change CDC reports on coronavirus, emails show (The Washington Post) - Political appointees of the former guy bragged to each other that they bullied contagious disease experts to change language in their public-facing documents, with one jerk even saying “yippee!!!” And let me say, as someone who says “awesome!!!” and “YAYAYAYAYAYAY!” in at least one work email a day, these malicious jerks are making us enthusiastic and dorky workplace cheerleaders look bad, and I will not tolerate it. And a reminder that former guy’s government appointed an ally that “had not previously worked in public health before Trump installed him to oversee the health department’s communications in April 2020” DURING A PANDEMIC. coolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcoolcooooooooool.
Catherine Rampell, Republicans are learning that there’s more to capitalism than tax cuts (The Washington Post) - Rampell does a delicious job of running through why the GOP “burn it down” response to companies speaking out against the shady anti-democratic tomfoolery happening in GA is absolute nonsense. Case in point, “what had recently been an extremely anodyne stance for companies to embrace — that voting is good — is now, somehow, construed as worthy of political retaliation.” And she reminds us of a pretty key tenant of the faith that the GOP used to prostrate themselves tp: “This is, in fact, how capitalism works: Customers get to ditch you if they’re unhappy with your brand.” YUP.
Michael Mechanic, Research Proves It: There’s No Such Thing as Noblesse Oblige (The Atlantic) - Especially living in a world in which “just 8 men own same wealth as half the world” (and that was win 2017! Imagine what it is now!) I cannot wait to read the book this piece is excerpted from, Jackpot: How The Super Rich Really Live—And How Their Wealth Harms Us All.
Perry Bacon Jr., Why The Republican Party Isn’t Rebranding After 2020 (FiveThirtyEight) - This thorough recount of all the reasons this two-party country will likely be living in some form of Trumpland for a while is both fascinating and absolutely depressing.
Warren Rojas et al, Republicans are unloading on Rep. Matt Gaetz in gossipy texts and snide asides amid reports of a DOJ sex investigation: 'He's the meanest person in politics' (Insider) - Because we all need a bit of cathartic schadenfreude this morning, methinks.
Katie Hill, Matt Gaetz Defended Me When My Nudes Were Shared Without My Consent. Now He’s Accused Of Doing Just That (Vanity Fair) - On that note, former Rep. Hill’s behind-the-scenes look at an unlikely Congressional friendship gone sour complements the above piece well.
Anthony Breznican, Justice League Screenwriter Chris Terrio Is Super Pissed Off (Vanity Fair) - I watched the Zack Snyder cut over a couple of evenings the weekend it came out on HBOMax and didn’t hate it, so I’ve been following the drama of how this bloated epic in a weird aspect ratio came to be, and let me tell you, I have not been disappointed.
You’re lovely. Be kind to yourself, keep wearing that mask, and enjoy your weekend.
Xoxo Amy