Crash Course

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The Race to Control the Arctic Oct 31, 2023

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Alaska has been an object of fascination, exploration, and exploitation for nearly two centuries, but its most inhospitable reaches – those that creep toward the Arctic Circle mile by frozen mile – have managed to hold on to their secrets for a very long time. Ice, plunging temperatures, and brutal tundras have kept outsiders at bay. That’s all shifting now: Climate change has warmed the Arctic’s formidable barriers, sparking a geopolitical and commercial footrace. Liam Denning is an energy and climate columnist for Bloomberg Opinion who has repeatedly traveled to the Arctic to report on the military, oil and gas, and fisheries.

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Israel vs. Hamas Oct 24, 2023

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Gaza is now a war zone. In the wake of Hamas’ recent grisly attack that left more than 1,400 Israelis dead and about another 200 taken hostage, Israel’s military forces appear poised to occupy Gaza to try obliterating the Islamist terrorist group. Ancient religious and cultural animosities and contemporary geopolitical jockeying are the backdrop for this conflict, but this newest iteration appears to have been sparked by Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the US seeking to normalize diplomatic relations. Hamas, apparently fearful of being isolated in the Middle East, may have opted for mass murder to derail those talks. Other factors are at play. Marc Champion and Andreas Kluth are Bloomberg Opinion columnists with deep experience covering the Middle East and international affairs.

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Polling vs. The 2024 Election Oct 17, 2023

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Polling – the very inexact science that is the lifeblood of political analysis and guesswork – is very much with us. Built upon a series of queries that asks respondents, essentially, “What do you think about X,” polling aims to make the intangible, concrete. It is the stuff from which predictions are made, the data that fuels a political marketplace aiming to artfully respond to voter’s preferences and priorities. But polling, via its siblings – “focus groups” and “messaging” – also aspires to shape voter’s preferences; to, in the best interpretation, understand and serve them with greater clarity. In the worst interpretation, messaging makes voters more malleable, more easily swayed. Frank Luntz is a political and communications strategist and pollster who has spent most of his career working for Republicans and specializes in leveraging the emotional content of language to win campaigns.

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The Promised Land vs. White Supremacy Oct 06, 2023

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“We White Christians no longer represent the majority of Americans,” writes Robert P. Jones, a White Christian. “We are no longer capable of setting the nation’s course by sheer cultural and political dominance. But there are more than enough of us to decisively derail the future of democracy in America.” That’s from Jones’ new book, “The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy,” an exploration of the historical foundations of White supremacy in the United States. The book is wide-ranging, incisive and, ultimately, a call to action – from someone steeped in the same culture and mores he examines. The fault lines Jones examines affect every facet of American life: individuals, families, communities, politics, the economy and institutions ranging from courts to corporations. Jones is a widely published and award-winning writer, a well-regarded pollster and president and founder of the Public Religious Research Institute.

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Rupert Murdoch and Alternative Facts Oct 03, 2023

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There are no such things as alternative facts. We can disagree about how to interpret facts, but there they remain. Stubborn things. When stubborn people collide with stubborn things – when the likes of Rupert Murdoch assembles a media empire largely designed to embrace and disseminate disinformation – you have the makings of a Crash Course episode. Murdoch, the 92-year-old progenitor of the Fox News miasma, recently retired from his perch atop Fox Corp. and News Corp. Fox is likely to define Murdoch’s legacy – a legacy some of his former executives now reject. Three of them jointly noted in a recent public statement: "We never envisioned, and would not knowingly have enabled, the disinformation machine that, in our opinion, Fox has become.” For his part, Murdoch seems untroubled: “Bury your mistakes,” he likes to say. Molly Jong-Fast is a special correspondent for Vanity Fair and the host of the Fast Politics podcast.

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Party Politics vs. The 2024 Presidential Race Sep 26, 2023

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Have voters, politicos, analysts, and the media focused before with such intensity on a presidential race in the US more than a year before the actual vote? Perhaps. But I’m willing to say: Probably not. The reasons why this race is so magnetic are overt. Trump and Trumpism are in the air. Democracy is on the table. Pivotal policy issues are in play: reproductive rights, immigration, jobs and the economy, health care, public health and public safety, education, national security, the rule of law, and the funding and future shape of the federal government. Social media chews on all of this 24-7. Information – and disinformation – is ubiquitous. Partisanship is at a boiling point and Democrats and Republicans are maneuvering for position. Peggy Collins is the Washington bureau chief of Bloomberg News and a veteran national and local news reporter.

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Nukes, Russia, and Our New Cold War Sep 19, 2023

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Ever since Vladimir Putin sent Russian tanks rolling into Ukraine in early 2022, assumptions about the possibility of war in the 21st Century have been turned on their heads. A long absence of conflict in Europe gave way to a bloody and sustained ground war. Russia has even warned it might unleash nuclear missiles. China, rattling its own saber in Asia, looms large in the background – just as it did in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. Nukes are the new normal. Hal Brands is a foreign policy professor at Johns Hopkins University, co-author of "Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China," a member of the State Department's Foreign Affairs Policy Board, and a Bloomberg Opinion columnist.

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Elon and Zuck vs. Grown-Up Management Sep 12, 2023

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Silicon Valley is the centerpiece of a very specific kind of bro culture – a culture that has had a certain winner-take-all mojo over the years, but which may be running its course. To test this thesis, I present you with Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, founders of such landmark companies as Tesla, SpaceX, and Meta (aka Facebook). They are both innovators, admirable risk-takers, and bazillionaires. They’ve also struggled to evolve; to have early, vaunted reputations as wise men correspond with equally wise management and wise decisions as the world around them changed. Kara Swisher is the host of the “On With Kara Swisher” and “Pivot” podcasts, and an editor-at-large at New York magazine.

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Mother Nature vs. Life As We Know It Sep 05, 2023

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Weather is fickle and climate-related catastrophes have become all too common – in the US and around the globe. Deadly, rain-induced flooding, interspersed with deadly, heat-induced fires have also visited the Koreas, Ethiopia, Australia, Pakistan, India, Brazil, the UK, Canada, Greece, and other countries during this still new 21st century. We now live in a climate-changed world in which every season or region is host to the hottest, the driest, the coldest or the wettest moment of the modern human era. We are the authors of the disasters and victims of the consequences. Mother Nature has had enough. Mark Gongloff is a columnist with Bloomberg Opinion who specializes in covering the environment and climate change.

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The First GOP Debate vs. The Guy Who Wasn’t There Aug 29, 2023

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Any time Tim O’Brien sees a Republican presidential candidate (other than Donald Trump) on television, he’s reminded that they and their party look like they’re in a hostage video. They are all trapped by Trump, and none of them have convinced Tim that they can escape. Trump's Republican challengers held their first national debate recently, offering an array of pols trying to make a case for themselves and the GOP’s future. Meanwhile, Trump counter-programmed, sitting down with former Fox News propagandist and conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson. Susan Del Percio is a Republican political strategist and an adviser to a variety of political and corporate campaigns.

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