Recommend an article, report, blog or video - politics - left/right, leave/remain, Trump/Clinton, liberal/authoritarian

[WrongTrouser]

I don't know if this will work but I have read lots of interesting articles, blogs, reports etc recently that MNetters have posted on various threads.

There is so much interesting stuff out there but it's not always easy to find it unless someone recommends it, so I wanted to ask if people would be interested in a thread to recommend resources they have found interesting on any aspect of politics including any of the most currently debated areas leave/remain, Trump/Clinton or anything else.

I thought the thread could just be for recommending with no dialoguing as there are lots of other threads for that.

Suggested format: link to resource, why it's interesting, short quote (if want to), or just a link if you don't want to say any more.

Obviously people may completely ignore my suggested format (or indeed my entire post).

I am thinking reports, research, blogs, articles from magazines, videos etc but not newspaper articles.

Anyone interested in recommending anything?

[WrongTrouser]

Facing the Unknown: Building a Progressive Response to Brexit

www.fabians.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/FABJ4808_Europe_Report_130916_WEB_2.pdf

Fabian Society report by various senior Labour Party figures. Lots of interesting chapters. It cheered me up - some very good articles.

Despite the Labour party campaigning for Britain to remain in the European Union, a majority of people in swathes of Labour’s heartlands voted to leave. This lays bare the problem that sits at the heart of Labour’s current travails: the gaping chasm between Labour members and too many present and former Labour voters. If the party aims to continue to be a parliamentary voice for the working classes, a “party of the producers” as set out in its founding constitution, then Labour members need to ask themselves some difficult questions

[WrongTrouser]

Jonathon Pie rant on Trump

If anyone hasn't seen this yet, it's fabulous, very funny and very true. Lots of swearing.

My favourite line:

and if my mansplaining is triggering you, you can either fuck off back to your safe space or engage and debate me and telling what I'm getting wrong

[WrongTrouser]

Probably a bit anal daft to start a thread and request no dialoguing.

It's just that sometimes I want to read about politics but don't have the energy for the inevitable argy-bargy and occasional personal attacks on many threads. So I rescind my "recommending only and no dialoguing" request but hope we can keep any discussion friendly

I forgot to say in my OP, my reading tends to be on the left and from a leave perspective. But I am interested to read good writing from other political viewpoints and hope other people will be. There is a danger of the echo chamber effect and I think it's good to read or listen to lots of views, particularly at the present time when the left - right spectrum is really seeming less able to explain what is happening politically.

So all and any good and interesting political articles etc welcome.

[WrongTrouser]

Political Compass

www.politicalcompass.org/

Attempting to understand politics in terms of both a right-left economic spectrum and a libertarian-authoritarian social spectrum. With graphs. You can do a test to see where you lie. Analysis using this method of the 2015 general election
www.politicalcompass.org/uk2015

and EU referendum
www.politicalcompass.org/uk_eu_referendum2016

I can't decide if it's a useful analysis or not.

[Spinflight]

Dr Pippa Malmgren - Signals.

Serving as bipartisan economic advisers to Presidents is the family business and this the result. Difficult to class it as a book on economics as that would be dull. It's a page turner.

[Spinflight]

www.youtube.com/channel/UCKRw8GAAtm27q4R3Q0kst_g

Juice Rap Media.

A few kids messing around on youtube have created something funnier than spitting image and almost as informative as newsnight.

www.sldinfo.com/

Defence think tank staffed almost entirely by beltway insiders.

[WrongTrouser]

Spinglight Thanks for your recommendations. Signals looks very interesting, I've ordered a copy. I've been enjoying the Juice Rap News - entertaining and thought provoking stuff.

[WrongTrouser]

Sorry, Spinflight not Spinglight

[Spinflight]

"I've been enjoying the Juice Rap News - entertaining and thought provoking stuff."

Glad you enjoyed it, there isn't much out there from the alt left which is philosophically consistent though someday those whingeing millennials will start taking positions in power. Note the medium and format though, rap with it's slaying put downs and un PC nature and foul language is an excellent way of lampooning a political debate. Also with modern tech they can create something the equal of the networks on a shoe string all funded by Patreon which is just people pledging a dollar per video for content that they like.

Another example..

[WrongTrouser]

Thanks Spinflight. I think I have seen you talking about WikiLeaks on other threads. Would you have any suggestions where's a good place to start for someone who doesn't know a great deal about American politics - the WikiLeaks website itself or elsewhere?

[Spinflight]

There is a reddit forum dedicated to wikileaks, basically when a leak is announced people pounce on it to find anything juicy.

www.reddit.com/r/WikiLeaks/

Tends to be a bit partisan and knee jerk, though the partisanship shifts depending upon what the leak is! Most of the threads on there have summaries of the best bits, though bear in mind that sometimes the definition of best bits is things immediately usable or salacious rather than in depth analysis.

Wikileaks own twitter feed also summaries some of the findings.

You won't see too in the mainstream press about them, other than denunciations or opeds linking them to Russia. Of course when wikileaks was publishing cables which showed the Republicans in a poor light they were the darling of the same press sources. In fact many news organisations now use their software hoping that someone will leak to them instead. The software guarantees anonymity, in other words the publisher does not know the source.

To understand American politics the best place to start is the constitution. Once you understand the separation of powers and that every supreme court decision and every political battle is framed by the constitution you can cut through 95% of the fluff spouted by either side.

The Podesta emails are particularly illuminating. Not only chairman of HRC's campaign he also runs lobbying firms with his brother so is a key figure in the hierarchy of American power.

Not sure whether there is a well documented summary as I went straight from the raw data, the emails as they were released.

[Chris1234567890]

This wasnt my link, but posted by Tropezienne on another thread. (Thank you Tropezienne)

Its specifically about free speech on campus. Its interesting to those who feel political correctness has closed down healthy debate, and is an interesting view from 'the inside' of US academia.

Not a light read, but for those interested, or like me, confused about the whole PC/free speech issue, its a great view of the impact of PC policy in our universities.

thesmartset.com/free-speech-the-modern-campus/

[WrongTrouser]

Thanks Spinflight - I'm off to have a rummage round the world of WikiLeaks.

Chis That's an interesting article, and ties in with the wider issues of identity politics and the dearth of open debate these days.

A link from me:

Thoughts on the sociology of Brexit

www.perc.org.uk/project_posts/thoughts-on-the-sociology-of-brexit

Will Davies is a political economist with particular interests in neoliberalism, history of economics and economic sociology at Goldsmiths.

I particularly like his point 4. We now live in the age of data not facts.

’Evidence-based policy’ is now far too long in the tooth to be treated entirely credulously, and people tacitly understand that it often involves a lot of ‘policy-based evidence’. When the Remain camp appealed to their ‘facts’, forecasts, and models, they hoped that these would be judged as outside of the fray of politics. More absurdly, they seemed to imagine that the opinions of bodies such as the IMF might be viewed as ‘independent’. Unfortunately, economics has been such a crucial prop for political authority over the past 35 years that it is now anything but outside of the fray of politics.