Author Archives: FletcheBrandow

The Color Line In Books About America

by FletcheBrandow Posted on October 29, 2016

Mother Jones

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This is a few days old, but the Atlantic asked eleven people to recommend three books each “to help make sense of the state of U.S. democracy.” Aside from one child’s book that I discarded, they ended up with 33 books. The recommenders included five people of color and six white people. Since I’m a chart guy, I have summarized the recommendations in the chart on the right.

I don’t have a big ol’ essay in me about this, but it’s pretty remarkable. If you want to understand America, people of color apparently think you need to read about race and people of color, but nothing much else. White people think you need to understand class, poverty, religion, and so forth, but nothing much about race or people of color. And these are all pretty high-IQ folks who are well read and presumably understand perfectly well the complexity of American history, culture, and politics.

I wonder what books I’d choose if I were limited to three?

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The Color Line In Books About America

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What We Know So Far About the Newspaper Massacre in Paris

by FletcheBrandow Posted on January 7, 2015

Mother Jones

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Hooded gunmen carrying automatic weapons opened fire at the offices of French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people and seriously injuring 10. The Guardian is reporting that three attackers are still at large, after they were seen escaping in a car.

French President François Hollande said the shooting was “undoubtedly a terrorist attack.” France has since raised its terror alert to the highest level.

According to several news reports, the gunmen were heard shouting “we have avenged the Prophet Muhammad” as they stormed into the magazine’s offices armed with Kalashnikov rifles. Charlie Hebdo, a newspaper known for its caustic, no-holds-barred cartoons, has previously sparked ire from some Muslims for its satirical take on Islam, including several caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. (The publication of the likeness of the prophet is forbidden under Islam). In 2011, the magazine was firebombed after publishing an issue “guest-edited” by the prophet.

President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have both condemned Wednesday’s attack.

Several prominent cartoonists, including Jean Cabut and the magazine’s editor in chief, Stephane Charbonnier, were among those killed.

Since news broke of the attack this morning, the hashtag #JesuisCharlie has been spreading on Twitter in support of the victims. The US Embassy in France also changed their Twitter profile photo to include the hashtag.

Cartoonists around the world have also shown their solidarity with Charlie Hebdo with powerful images:

We will update this post as we learn more about the attacks.

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What We Know So Far About the Newspaper Massacre in Paris

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Bad News For Obama: Fracking May Be Worse Than Burning Coal

by FletcheBrandow Posted on September 8, 2014

Mother Jones

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If you’re a politician, science is a bitch; it resists spin. And a new set of studies—about, of all things, a simple molecule known as CH4—show that President Obama’s climate change strategy is starting to unravel even as it’s being knit. To be specific: most of the administration’s theoretical gains in the fight against global warming have come from substituting natural gas for coal. But it looks now as if that doesn’t really help.

In a very real sense it’s not entirely the president’s fault. When Obama took office in 2008 he decided to deal with health care before climate change, in essence tackling the biggest remaining problem of the 20th century before teeing up the biggest challenge of the 21st. His team told environmentalists that they wouldn’t be talking about global warming, focusing instead on ‘green jobs.’ Obama did seize the opportunity offered by the auto industry bailout to demand higher mileage standards—a useful move, but one that will pay off slowly over the decades. Other than that, faced with a hostile Congress, he spent no political capital on climate.

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Bad News For Obama: Fracking May Be Worse Than Burning Coal

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