Further Reading: May 8, 2018

More pieces worth reading.

An Israeli private intelligence firm tried to gather compromising information on Obama officials behind the Iran nuclear deal. Lots of people want that deal dead, and a nice little war.

In the last two years, half the Great Barrier Reef has died.

“You like to breathe?” Crosby asked. “Estimates are that up to 80 percent of the oxygen you are breathing in right now comes from the ocean. It doesn’t come from the land. In order for you to continue to breathe, you have to have a healthy ocean.”

Might be that this matters. Coral die-offs correlate to great die-offs, and in the past, no apex predator has ever survived a great die-off. (A commenter pointed this out, but I do not remember who, my apologies.)

Civil forfeiture, where police take money or another asset, even though no crime has ever been proved, now takes more from Americans than robbery. This piece on how customs and borders took forty-one thousand from an American (she sued to get it back, and will eventually) includes a lot of interesting background.

This short piece at Emptywheel, by Ed Walker, talks about the political gift economy: How corporations and rich people give politicians gifts; politicians enact legislation or policies favorable to the rich, and everyone pretends there is no actual exchange going on.

This older news piece talks about how Britain’s spies are to use social media to disrupt “misinformation”. Do I have to say how much asking spies to decide what is misinformation or not seems dubious and anti-democratic?

What are you reading that other people should read? Tell us in the comments.