This week: Fighting white nationalism / How House of Cards survived / Orson Welles is back / The private Hemingway / The nuclear secret during the Vietnam War
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1. U.S. Law Enforcement Failed to See the Threat of White Nationalism. Now They Don’t Know How to Stop It
By Janet Reitman | The New York Times Magazine | November 2018
“For two decades, domestic counter-terrorism strategy has ignored the rising danger of far-right extremism. In the atmosphere of willful indifference, a virulent movement has grown and metastasized.”
2. Michael Kelly credits Robin Wright with saving House of Cards
By Mary Elizabeth Williams | Salon | November 2018
“Kelly’s character … was already grappling with a world of change at the end of last season, when Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) had assumed the presidency. Now, as the show launches its sixth and final season, things are about to shake up even more.”
3. Orson Welles’ Wild Final Film Offers a Haunting Glimpse of a Fading Mastermind
By Natalia Winkelman | The Daily Beast | November 2018
“Orson Welles’ long-delayed, pseudo-autobiographical opus The Other Side of the Wind premieres on Netflix … cementing the legendary director’s legacy.”
Also see, from Salon: Director Morgan Neville on They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead and the last years of Orson Welles
4. Iraq: The Economic Consequences of War
By William D. Nordhaus | The New York Review of Books | December 2002
“The difference between good and bad cases does not depend on who will win, for there is little doubt among military specialists that the United States will prevail if it enters with overwhelming force and is willing to persevere through all obstacles. Rather, the difference lies in the duration of the conflict, the total damage to Iraq, civilian casualties, the potential for unconventional warfare, and the spread of the conflict outside Iraq.”
5. The Vulnerable Private Writings of Ernest Hemingway
By Sandra Spanier | Scribner :: LitHub | October 2018
“Hemingway’s published work is painstakingly crafted, but his letters are unguarded and unpolished. They chart the course of his friendships, his marriages, his family relationships, his literary associations, and his business dealings. The letters are striking for their sense of immediacy.”
6. The FBI of the National Park Service
By Rachel Monroe | Outside | October 2018
“The 33 special agents assigned to the Investigative Services Branch handle the most complex crimes committed on NPS land. When a day hike in Rocky Mountain National Park ended in a grisly death, ISB veteran Beth Shott hit the trail, where she began unraveling a harrowing case.”
7. Why we have an emotional connection to robots
By Kate Darling | TED Talks | September 2018
“Learn more about how we’re biologically hardwired to project intent and life onto machines — and how it might help us better understand ourselves.”
8. Reversal of Fortune
By Pamela Colloff | Texas Monthly | September 2004
“Forty-two residents of the struggling cotton-farming town of Roby band together to enter the lottery. They buy 430 tickets. Then — on the eve of Thanksgiving, no less — they hit the jackpot, winning $46 million. You might expect a happy ending. Not even close.”
9. The invasion that wiped out every man from Spain 4,500 years ago
By Manuel Ansede | El Pais | October 2018
“New research indicates all local males on the Iberian peninsula were killed by hostile invaders with superior technology”
10. U.S. General Considered Nuclear Response in Vietnam War, Cables Show
By David Sanger | The New York Times | October 2018
“In one of the darkest moments of the Vietnam War, the top American military commander in Saigon activated a plan in 1968 to move nuclear weapons to South Vietnam until he was overruled by President Lyndon B. Johnson, according to recently declassified documents cited in a new history of wartime presidential decisions.”
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stillness of heart 