Andrew Varsanyi

This week – Articles of the Week for July 13 2025

I have returned after my lengthy holidays over and will be back with a short essay next week. It was a lovely holiday and I am refreshed and excited to be teaching a class studying the history of American Populism starting this fall.

Each week I share the articles and essays that I found most interesting, annoying, challenging, or important. Hope that you check them out too.

• My fears over Prime Minister Carney continue to deepen. He’s in a tough spot, but what has to happen here is that the Canadian, the EU, and Mexico should announce their own agreement without the US. The sooner they do that, the sooner President Trump will change his tune. Trump bullied Canada over ‘digital taxes’ – and Ottawa submitted by Joseph Stiglitz in the Guardian at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/08/trump-bullied-canada-over-digital-taxes-and-ottawa-submitted?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
• Exclusive / Times pushed ahead to avoid being scooped on Mamdani Columbia story by Max Tani in semafor.com at https://www.semafor.com/article/07/06/2025/times-pushed-ahead-to-avoid-being-scooped-on-mamdani-columbia-story
• Opinion | Israel Is Fast Alienating the Democratic Base – The New York Times by Peter Beinart in New York Times at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/opinion/zohran-mamdani-democrats-israel.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
• In Today’s GOP, There Is No Choice at All by Jonathan Martin in POLITICO at https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/07/04/republicans-megabill-vote-jonathan-martin-column-00439333
• Trump’s foreign and domestic policies are effectively the same — Madman theory at work. Unfortunately, as I fear we will see soon, Madman Theory won’t work in economics. How Trump is using the ‘Madman Theory’ to try to change the world by Allan Little in BBC News Afrique at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czxww2kez0go
• Musk announces arrival of new ‘America Party’ after Trump split by Politico in POLITICO at https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/05/elon-musk-third-party-00440033
• Opinion | In Trump’s America, Who Gets to Call Themselves American? – The New York Times by Greg Grandin in New York Times at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/opinion/trump-america-.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
• But at Least Capitalism Is Free and Democratic, Right? by Erik Olin Wright in jacobin.com at https://jacobin.com/2016/04/democracy-capitalism-freedom-friedman-wright-socialism
• The search for the MAGA intellectual continues and American media is desperate for it. All they end up doing is showing that they don’t exist. The Phoniest Job in Trump World – The Atlantic by Yair Rosenberg in The Atlantic at https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/07/tucker-carlson-america-iran/683413/?gift=Y5UOGK3oJJO3esRHvDP7ocTcnCMfCiKXcfMVz9nVfxg&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
• C.I.A. Says Its Leaders Rushed Report on Russia Interference in 2016 Vote – The New York Times by Julian E. Barnes in New York Times at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/us/politics/russia-trump-2016-election.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
• Keir Starmer faces war on all fronts by Andrew Marr in New Statesman at https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/06/state-of-emergency-2
• The Triumph of the American Moron by Peter Shamshiri in String in a Maze at https://stringinamaze.net/p/the-triumph-of-the-american-moron
• Why Did the Novel-Reading Man Disappear? – The New York Times by Joseph Bernstein in New York Times at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/style/fiction-books-men-reading.html
• I like Ackerman. He’s right about how the Forever Wars damaged American culture and led us to this horrible place. He’s wrong here though. This Is The Beginning of The End of The 9/11 Era by Spencer Ackerman in FOREVER WARS at https://www.forever-wars.com/this-is-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-9-11-era/
• Surveillance pricing lets corporations decide what your dollar is worth (permalink) by Cory Doctorow in pluralistic.net at https://pluralistic.net/2025/06/24/price-discrimination/#
• Opinion | The Story of Antisemitism Needs to Be Rewritten, Starting in New York – The New York Times by M. Gessen in New York Times at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/opinion/antisemitism-new-york-city-mayor.html
• Opinion | Autism Rates Have Increased 60-Fold. I Played a Role in That. – The New York Times by Allen Frances in New York Times at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/opinion/why-autism-rates-increased.html
• Iran at the precipice by Vali Nasr in Financial Times at https://www.ft.com/content/858b354e-c9ce-4ea0-b4cf-f0989d1ea18c?accessToken=zwAAAZeW0mMqkdOFizVOyc5OoNO0z_CYnR6hjA.MEUCIQCMk8m4do-FXlG_-d9Qq2BZrnsNdn_TdsN24nQeDu6upAIgXN3ILNMs8hnMnCML_pgabIRCwUKPyNSettz8VDVT7dY&segmentId=e95a9ae7-622c-6235-5f87-51e412b47e97&shareType=enterprise&shareId=72018ef5-1461-4eec-97d2-e81f5e494602
• I find this a compelling piece. Feudalism Is Our Future by Cullen Murphy in The Atlantic at https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/07/government-privatization-feudalism/682888/?gift=NXi3_pdmbnIFddYEU4kBKdwsM1qF2AtseDGjwVkKo8M
• Democrats could do a lot better with the power they hold by The Economist in The Economist at https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/06/19/democrats-could-do-a-lot-better-with-the-power-they-hold?giftId=d527232e-cf21-4481-a22e-4372f7f60074
• Opinion | The One Way Trump Hasn’t Changed the G.O.P. – The New York Times by Ross Douthat in New York Times at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/opinion/trump-republican-budget.html
• The Fire This Time by Lee Smith in Tablet Magazine at https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/fire-this-time-military-trump-presidency
• TV Meets Fruit Machine by William Davies in London Review of Books at https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n11/william-davies/tv-meets-fruit-machine
• The regime change maniacs are back by Sohrab Ahmari in UnHerd at https://unherd.com/2025/06/the-regime-change-maniacs-are-back/?us=1
• Opinion | Antisemitism Is an Urgent Problem. Too Many People Are Making Excuses. – The New York Times by The Editorial Board at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/14/opinion/antisemitism-jewish-hate.html?unlocked_article_code=1.PE8.ObTt.I8H-AelhsyPv&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare