Browser Daily Newsletter 1346
The Absolutist
Jeffey Toobin | New Yorker | 23rd June 2014
Full-length portrait of Ted Cruz, US Senator, Tea-Party Republican, likely presidential contender in 2016, brilliant debater, "best appellate litigator in the state of Texas". He denies man-made climate change, opposes comprehensive immigration reform, rejects marriage equality, wants Obamacare repealed. "His message is that, on the issues, a Cruz Presidency would be roughly identical to a Sarah Palin Presidency" (8,570 words)
The Hedge Fund That Ate Argentina
Felix Salmon | Foreign Affairs | 24th June 2014
A BROWSER BONUS: Our content partnership with Foreign Affairs allows us to bring Browser subscribers the full text of selected FA articles. Here, Felix Salmon explains how an American hedge fund's claims against Argentina, upheld by US courts, threaten national sovereignty and the international financial system (Our link takes non-subscribers to the Foreign Affairs website, which has a metered paywall) (2,430 words)
The Ninety-Minute Anxiety Dream
Simon Critchley | New York Review Of Books | 22nd June 2014
A football-loving philosopher writes: "Soccer is a collective game, a team game, and everyone has to play the part which has been assigned to them, which means they have to understand it spatially, positionally, and intelligently and make it effective. Talk of national tactics, national behaviors, national pathologies is overblown and misplaced. There is one way to play soccer and that is well" (1,680 words)
The Story Of Thaksin Shinawatra
Richard Lloyd Parry | London Review Of Books | 19th June 2014
If, like me, you have internalised the idea that there is a long-running semi-interesting political crisis going on in Thailand about which one ought to know more, here is a deeper dive into the people and principles. It's a class conflict — nobs vs populists. And it's an archetypal political drama: In a supposed democracy, how does the establishment get rid of an elected but indigestible leader? (3,340 words)
Obituary: Felix Dennis
Telegraph | 23rd June 2014
"A former jail bird, crack fiend, serial womaniser and sometime poet and arboriculturalist, he built a publishing empire worth hundreds of millions of pounds". His titles included The Week and Maxim. He began his career as business manager of Oz, the counter-cultural magazine of the 1960s. He survived Legionnaire's disease, but crack almost killed him. His chauffeur brought it home "by the bucket load" (Metered) (1,845 words)
Philippe Legrain Explains Europe
Sophie Roell | Five Books | 23rd June 2014
Former economic and strategic adviser to European Commission president José Manuel Barroso makes clear why he quit this year: "Particularly within the Eurozone, under instructions from Berlin, the EU has imposed catastrophic policies — excessive collective austerity that has caused a terrible recession, a failure to tackle the banks and opposition to debt write-downs — that has led to a plunge in support for the EU" (3,790 words)
Video of the day: What's A Robot?
What to expect: Panel discussion. Unless you work directly with robots, your ideas are probably out of date
Thought for the day:
"Never look a gift lion in the mouth" — Lemony Snicket
London friends: The Browser invites you to an evening with one of our favourite science writers, Philip Ball (http://www.philipball.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=3&Itemid=4) , in conversation with the Gulbenkian Foundation's Sian Ede, hosted jointly with Aeon magazine (http://aeon.co/magazine/world-views/beauty-is-truth-theres-a-false-equation) , on Monday July 7th. Please click here for details and ticketing (http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/beauty-and-truth-a-false-equation-tickets-12028436377)