A Crazy Amount Of Crazy Rich Asians
October 22, 2019
“One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.”
“All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.”
– Sophocles
The Istanbul Project
Now that the Turkish president has successfully bamboozled the American president into letting its military waltz into the Kurds’ homeland and snatch up part of Syria, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is dreaming about bigger and more powerful things — like nukes.
In September Erdogan told his governing party: “Some countries have missiles with nuclear warheads. [But the West insists] we can’t have them. This, I cannot accept.” Because Erdogan’s feeling really bold about now, does that threat take on new meaning? After all, if Trump is correct when he says Turkey was going to invade Syria anyway and the US couldn’t have prevented it, how would he prevent Turkey from building a bomb?
Ankara even has a clear partner, should Erdogan move ahead to develop a nuclear program, as Iran has done since Trump exited the JCPOA. Russian president Vladimir Putin has agreed to build four nuclear reactors in Turkey, beginning with a $20 billion plant on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. The construction of this plant, together with Putin’s export of an S-400 air defense system to Ankara — also over American objections — means a NATO member is dependent on Russia for technology, and thus is more beholden to Putin.
Turkey characterizes its program just as Iran has — an effort to develop civilian nuclear power. But Turkey already has the makings of a bomb program: uranium deposits and research reactors, as well as mysterious ties to the nuclear world’s most famous black marketeer, Abdul Qadeer Khan of Pakistan.
DIY Government
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abandoned his bid Monday night to form a new government in the wake of last month’s election. Netanyahu, who leads the conservative Likud party, had been given 28 days to secure the 61 seats necessary to achieve a functioning majority by building support from smaller parties in the 120-member Knesset.
- Had the scandal-plagued prime minister been able to obtain a majority it would have secured his fifth term in office. The opportunity to form a coalition government now goes to Netanyahu’s primary rival, Benny Gantz, a former army chief of staff and leader of the centrist Blue and White party. (NPR)
Talk About A Bad Breakup
- Thailand’s King Vajiralongkorn has ordered his royal consort, whom he appointed just three months ago, stripped of all her royal titles, decorations, status in the royal guard and her military ranks. Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi was a major-general, trained pilot, nurse, bodyguard, and the first person to be awarded the title of Royal Noble Consort in nearly a century.
- An official announcement said Sineenat had been “ambitious” “disrespectful,” and tried to “elevate herself to the same state” as Queen Suthida, the king’s fourth wife. Sineenat’s removal — the true cause of which may never be known given the secrecy surrounding palace affairs in Thailand — echoes that of two of the King’s former wives.
- In 1996, Vajiralongkorn denounced his second wife, who fled to the US, and disowned four sons he had with her. In 2014, his third wife was similarly stripped of all her titles and banished from court. (BBC)
- When Snakes Slither Into Bangkok Homes, This Is The Wrangler Who Gets Rid Of Them (NPR)
A Crazy Amount Of Crazy Rich Asians
- According to a report by Credit Suisse, the number of wealthy Chinese people has overtaken the number of rich Americans for the first time. The bank’s annual wealth survey found there were 100 million Chinese people among the world’s top 10 percent of richest people, compared with 99 million in the US.
- The “rapid transformation of China from an emerging nation in transition to a fully fledged market economy” helped create a record number of rich people. Even so, the number of dollar millionaires in the US increased by 675,000 last year to 18.6 million; that means about one in 14 adults in America is a millionaire.
- The survey also showed there were 27,000 fewer millionaires in the UK, thanks to the Brexit-led decline in the value of the pound. (Guardian)
LebaNot Gonna Take It Anymore
- Lebanon is experiencing the largest protests in 14 years as people revolt against a weak government, ailing services and a looming economic collapse. On Sunday demonstrators took to the streets for the fifth day to rail against officials who they say are preventing badly needed reforms that would increase taxes on the ruling class. Instead, it appears the government is trying to recoup state revenues by taxing the poor.
- After the Cedar revolution of 2005 led to Syrian forces leaving Lebanon it was thought a new era of governance would emerge in which officials were freer to manage national affairs. But rampant corruption and nepotism took hold across state institutions, and the gap between a privileged elite and the rest of the country widened.
- Currently Lebanon’s national debt is 150 percent of GDP and rising, central bank reserves have plunged 30 percent in the past year, and the local currency is slipping against the dollar. (Guardian)
Additional World News
- Which Countries Do Best – And Worst – At Keeping Big Tobacco Out Of Politics (NPR) and Marijuana and Vaping: Shadowy Past, Dangerous Presen (NYT, $)
- New gene editing tool could fix most harmful DNA mutations (Guardian)
- Chile protests: Cost of living protests take deadly toll (BBC)
- Coddling of ‘Gold-Spoon’ Children Shakes South Korea’s Political Elite (NYT, $)
- Revtown is making your new favorite pair of jeans. And why is that?
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A Mitt By Any Other Name Will Still Tweet As Sweet
- Last week, on the Senate floor, Mitt Romney (R-Utah) harshly criticized President Trump’s decision to withdraw US forces from northern Syria, describing the move as “a bloodstain in the annals of American history.” It was a forceful denouncement from someone whose previous criticisms had been lukewarm at best.
- Then it was learned over the weekend that Romney had, in fact, been more critical of the president in the past, on Twitter, but he’d done it under a nom de plume — Pierre Delecto. And he’s not the first politician to use a pseudonym or have an anonymous Twitter account.
- Former FBI Director James Comey tweeted as Reinhold Niebuhr. Trump himself has reportedly had multiple pseudonyms through the years, including John Miller, John Barron and David Dennison.
- Other public officials, going back to the founding fathers, had their own versions of anonymous subtweeting, including James Madison, who used Publius when writing the Federalist papers, and Alexander Hamilton, who pretended to be Phocion when criticizing Thomas Jefferson. (WaPo, NPR)
Additional USA News
- Defense Secretary Esper Arrives In Afghanistan To Devise A Way Forward In 18-Year War (NPR)
- Ambassador Defends New Requirement That China’s Diplomats Report Meetings In U.S. (NPR)
- Syrian residents pelt retreating US troops with food and insults (Guardian) and ISIS Reaps Gains of U.S. Pullout From Syria (NYT, $)
- How propaganda works in the digital age (Vox)
- How Warren would boost traditional K-12 schools, attack charter schools (Politico)
Most People: I Can’t Dance, I Can’t Talk … But I Can Walk
- Following on the heels of last week’s Daily Pnut evolutionary lesson — primates were born to clamber and climb; humans were born to walk and run — comes Bill Bryson’s essay on the History of Bipedalism, or Why No One Really Knows Why Humans Can Walk.
- Bryson explores the age-old puzzlement of why, out of some 250 primate species, humans are the only ones who move around exclusively on two legs.
- “Some authorities think bipedalism is at least as important a defining characteristic of what it is to be human as our high-functioning brain.” (Literary Hub)
- Genesis – I Can’t Dance (Official Music Video)
Additional Reads
- How meritocracy harms everyone — even the winners: A new book challenges one of our most persistent illusions. (Vox)
- The city trying to make urban living good for your health: Glasgow is notorious for the same ills that plague city dwellers everywhere. Is urban life itself harmful to humans – or can we rethink cities so that they can help us to thrive? (BBC)
- The rise of ‘Japandi’ style: Clean, calm and harmonious, the blending of Japanese and Scandi designs is increasingly sought-after. So what are the factors that makes them so compatible, asks Clare Dowdy (BBC)
- When do the clocks change around the world? And why?: We examine where daylight saving time came from and why it doesn’t actually save daylight at all (Guardian)
- Keeping Your Blood Sugar In Check Could Lower Your Alzheimer’s Risk (NPR)