‘Sex, power, money and “Mr. McMahon”‘
Jessica Grose at The New York Times
WWE founder Vince McMahon was “able to skate away from accusations against him and his organization for two reasons: He was making boatloads of money for a lot of people, and wrestling is seen as sordid in the first place,” says Jessica Grose. It can “feel as if a shocking percentage of Americans simply do not care about sexual assault, especially when the perpetrator is rich and powerful and allows them to feel vicariously powerful.”
‘Pro-Palestinian efforts to rally behind Jill Stein will backfire’
Zeeshan Aleem at MSNBC
If the Green Party’s “efforts to abandon Harris en masse succeed, then the activists behind it will have done a great disservice to their cause: Trump will undoubtedly lead to more suffering in the Middle East,” says Zeeshan Aleem. Harris’ “signals on the issue have not been promising for those pushing for change” in the Middle East, “and yet, as frightening as it is to contemplate, things could still get worse if Trump is elected president again.”
‘The US must learn to leave Iraq’
Reid Smith and Jason Beardsley at Foreign Policy
The U.S. is “preparing to leave Iraq, in keeping with the concluding mission’s changing scope and objectives,” but “as usual, the Pentagon is already hedging,” say Reid Smith and Jason Beardsley. The “human and financial costs of a continued military presence outweigh the benefits,” and a “shift toward diplomatic efforts, intelligence sharing, and the empowerment of local forces would reduce American vulnerabilities.” The U.S. “can withdraw from Iraq because the counter-Islamic State mission is largely complete.”
‘How hurricanes are a profit center for insurers’
Robert Kuttner at The American Prospect
Even as “climate change has increased the ferocity of storms, the insurance industry has stayed well ahead of the game” by “hollowing out coverage,” says Robert Kuttner, and it’s “homeowners who will lose big.” In “virtually every state, there is no meaningful appeals process” for coverage. It “doesn’t make sense to keep rebuilding in areas prone to repeated floods and massive tropical storms,” but this is an “issue for public planning, not for unaccountable and self-interested private insurers.”