The Days’ Reading, 1/14–15/17

4 min readJan 16, 2017

Going to San Diego to see Rachel Bloom!

Went to San Diego to see Rachel Bloom!

Authoritarianism

Hannah Levintova, Mother Jones, Trump’s shouty press conference reminded Russians of…Putin

Healthcare

Robert Costa, The Washington Post, Trump vows ‘insurance for everybody’ in Obamacare replacement plan — “How?” “You’ll see.”

John Lewis

Aaron Blake, The Washington Post, John Lewis says Donald Trump isn’t a legitimate president, and Trump hits back hard — among other things, I don’t think Trump knows that congresspersons are not members of the local city council, county board, or state legislature.

Tara Culp-Ressler, ThinkProgress, Trump’s attack on John Lewis is also a racist smear against black communities

Abby Phillip, The Washington Post, Trump-Lewis feud could be harbinger of new round of hyper-partisanship

Workers

Jason McGahan, LA Weekly, Day Laborers Have Become an Easy Target for Anti-Immigrant Vigilantes — a good, and important, feature that isn’t limited to the vigilante issue, despite the headline, but generally delves into the various issues faced by day laborers, who are largely immigrants and largely undocumented, how those issues have changed over the last 20–30 years, and what they might be looking at from a Trump administration

Erik Loomis, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Right to Work a Man to Death — on the origins of the right to work for less movement

Andrew Strom, On Labor, When They Talk About Joint Employers, Republicans Are Either Lying or Confused — could replace “joint employers” with nearly anything, but hey

Trump v. Intelligence

Cathleen Decker, Los Angeles Times, CIA Director John Brennan takes aim at Donald Trump for his criticism of the intelligence community

Ethics

Abby Phillip, The Washington Post, Trump aide Reince Priebus warns ethics chief to ‘be careful’ — a transparent attempt to influence him into not doing his job. You’re not slick, Reince.

Scott Lemieux, Lawyers, Guns & Money, In Retrospect, Perhaps His Claims Should Have Been Treated With More Skepticism — Jason Chaffetz, that is, who brings great dishonor to a wonderful name.

Media

Callum Borchers, The Washington Post, He’s with her: Donald Trump revives Hillary Clinton’s idea about kicking media out of White House — the stakes of this idea aren’t clear to me. What’s the difference, in real terms, between reporters working in place X vs. place Y? (I mean the question literally, not as an expression of doubt about the existence of a difference — I just can’t identify it as obvious or self-evident and want it explained by someone who knows.)

Hannah Gold, The Slot, Donald Trump Is Reportedly Considering Kicking the Press Out of the White House — I guess it would be entirely symbolic?

Rachel Vorona Cote, Jezebel, Donald Trump Gets Pissy Over SNL’s ‘Pee-Pee Party’ Press Conference Bit

Education

Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post, Jeb Bush may have won something in the election after all: the U.S. Department of Education

USDA

Juliet Eilperin & Anne Gearan, The Washington Post, Vilsack departs a week early, leaving top USDA post vacant with no successor in sight

Dinesh D’Dumbshit

Erik Loomis, Lawyers, Guns & Money, D’Souza — I know, my section title is very mature

Lawsuits

Eriq Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter, Directors Guild Denies Violating Obamacare

Eriq Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter, SAG-AFTRA Wants to Become a Defendant in Lawsuit Over Actors’ Ages on IMDb — the union is being represented by Douglas Mirell, who is a law partner of Charles Harder, who you may recognize as Peter Thiel’s personal hitman.

Pomona

Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Car crashes into frontyard in Pomona; 2 found fatally shot inside

TV

Tim Goodman, The Hollywood Reporter, ‘Taboo’: TV Review

Meredith Blake, Los Angeles Times, PBS’ ‘Victoria’ is good, but not as royally entertaining as ‘The Crown’

Movies

Chuck Wilson, LA Weekly, The Latest Underworld Reminds Us That the Series Was Once Capable of Great Moments

Alicia Christoff, Los Angeles Review of Books, Minimal Care in Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester by the Sea” — art has to be evaluated in its context, but I’m not sure it’s fair to criticize, versus more value-neutral forms of discussion, a work differently than you would in a context that’s radically different from the one you expected it to be released in (i.e. if you wouldn’t write this piece had Clinton won the election, should you write it now?). I think there’s a way to explore these ideas without bringing Kenneth Lonergan in for criticism, in other words, for events he didn’t occasion.

Jay Weissberg, Variety, Film Review: ‘Befikre’

Jay Weissberg, Variety, Film Review: ‘Nut$’

Serena Donadoni, The Village Voice, Maybe It’s Best to Keep the Tiresome Romantic Drama ‘Between Us’ to Ourselves