Last Week This Week 5-8-16

Wrath /ræθ/ noun

            1
:  strong vengeful anger or indignation
 (chiefly used for humorous or rhetorical effect)

            2
:  retributory punishment for an offense or a crime: divine chastisement
        

On WBT

Carson reviews David Rieff's In Praise of Forgetting—find out why it might be worthwhile to think about the merits of forgetting.

WBT Friends

Peter Molin at Time Now reviews Matt Hefti's A Hard and Heavy Thing.

Editor’s Recommendations

Advocacy

Pennsylvania courts and a Philadelphia jury did something bold and rare, and if others would follow suit, maybe our police forces would be less corrupt. 

All Art is Propaganda 

Why be an artist and write short stories no one reads when you can write short stories that shape how an entire country thinks? An essay at the Times wonders at how the gutting of news agencies has made us susceptible to not only Trump but pretty much anything. This response at the Post calls BS on the piece's literary and journalistic tropes and says there's nothing interesting or new to see here.   

Fascinating interview with Adonis, the celebrated Syrian poet, about the Syrian Civil War, Daesh, East vs. West, and the Holocaust.

Robots 

An AI “robo-investor” that takes annoying human meddling (and ethics!) out the stock market – surely a profitable advance to humankind (published March 31, discovered and read this week) 

Politics

Trump has become the Republican nominee, short some kind of convention fuckery, or him striking a cynical deal with party leadership—and Don Cheney says he’s got the Trump-man’s back (Donald, don’t go hunting with him!). 

A great look at how the Democratic Party could really fail against Trump.