Linkage

• Has the New America Foundation Lost its Way? (Washingtonian) It never had a way.
• 5 Reasons Horrible Dictators Always Catch Us Off Guard (Cracked) Dictators are not born psychopaths, it's that being a dictator is a psychopath petri dish.
• Trump's Brutality Is Part of Obama's Legacy Now (Truthdig) Noting that the worst acts of Trump have precedents in his predecessor.
• Comparing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Donald Trump Is Absurd (Rolling Stone) Taibbi.  Just read it.
• Trump's Brutality Is Part of Obama's Legacy Now (Truthdig) I think that this misses the bigger picture. It's not the casual brutality of past presidents, which is real, but rather the ratchet effect. With no prosecutions, the next administration always go further.  The next guy is always worse.
• Payday-Loan Mogul Indicted for Masterminding Phantom Debt Scheme (Bloomberg) Hundred of million dollars in fake debt. I hope that this guy ends up in a truly nasty correctional facility.

I just want to note that while he was a good Doctor Who, that was not Peter Capaldi's finest role. Rather it was his marvelous profane Malcomb Tucker in the In the Loop.