variety
An Engineer, an Economist, and an Ecomodernist Walk Into a Bar and Order a Free Lunch . . . [Stan Cox / Green Social Thought]
A rant about “ecomodernist” fads like urban farming or vertical farming, which are not a real benefit in terms of energy use. One opposing point I’d make is that leading people (esp. wealthy people) to take an interest in farming and sustainability is a critical starting point for something our entire society needs to do.
Health Care Lobbyists Secretly Secure Democrats’ Opposition to “Medicare For All” [Lee Fang & Nick Surgey / Intercept]
https://theintercept.com/2018/08/02/healthcare-medicare-for-all-hawaii/
Surprise… or not. On Health Care, Congress, and Lobbyists. Talks about the “Healthcare Leadership Council”, an industry group trying to prevent single payer healthcare in the US.
China says willing to assist Assad in fighting IS in Syria [staff/Asia Times]
As if the Syria conflict isn’t confusing enough. At the moment this is just talk, and would probably be a tiny symbolic armed presence if anything. But potentially serious implications, in light of brewing antagonism between US and China.
Taking a well-worn page out of the IR playbook, this is about “fighting terrorism”, with Chinese Uyghur separatists allegedly becoming involved with IS etc. Location: Idlib province, northwest Syria. Area of Turkish influence.
Plug for upcoming book “Crashed, how a decade of financial crisis changed the world” by Adam Tooze (Columbia University) – about the financial crisis [Policy Tensor Blog]
https://policytensor.com/2018/08/02/someone-finally-gets-the-gfc-right-crashed-by-adam-tooze/
Gets into details of finance and systemic instability of the 2008 “Great Financial Crisis”, whose aftereffects we are still feeling.
Pete's Politics and Variety 
I look forward to reading the Adam Tooze book. He’s a Britisher educated in Germany and he sees events from a world perspective. He wrote two previous great (though very long) books – The Wages of Destruction, about Nazi economic policy, and The Deluge, about the world debt crisis of the 1920s.