This week, I have been mostly reading:

• The Cruelty Is the Point — Adam Serwer at the Atlantic: Trump’s only true skill is the con, his only fundamental belief is that the United States is the birthright of straight, white, Christian men, and his only real, authentic pleasure is in cruelty. It is that cruelty, and the delight it brings them, that binds his most ardent supporters to him, in shared scorn for those they hate and fear: immigrants, black voters, feminists, and treasonous white men who empathize with any of those who would steal their birthright. The president’s ability to execute that cruelty through word and deed makes them euphoric. It makes them feel good, it makes them feel proud, it makes them feel happy, it makes them feel united. And as long as he makes them feel that way, they will let him get away with anything, no matter what it costs them.
• Michael Lewis's new book 'The Fifth Risk' exposes the real decay under Trump — The Australian Financial Review publishes an excerpt: Trump's first budget eliminated ARPA-E altogether. It also eliminated the spectacularly successful $70 billion loan program. It cut funding to the national labs in a way that implies the laying off of 6000 of their people. It eliminated all research on climate change. It halved the funding for work to secure the electrical grid from attack or natural disaster. "All the risks are science-based," said John MacWilliams when he saw the budget. "You can't gut the science. If you do, you are hurting the country. If you gut the core competency of the DOE, you gut the country." But you can. Indeed, if you are seeking to preserve a certain worldview, it actually helps to gut science. Trump's budget, like the social forces behind it, is powered by a perverse desire – to remain ignorant. Donald Trump didn't invent this desire. He was just its ultimate expression.
• Uri Avnery, the Israeli optimist who played chess with Yasser Arafat, has died – he was one of my few Middle East heroes — Robert Fisk at the Independent: Uri Avnery suffered a massive heart attack at the weekend and died on Monday morning, but he was himself a Zionist, or at least a believer in a left-wing, courageous but humble “light among the nations” Israel; the kind many of us, in our heart of hearts, would like to believe in. He was the sort of Israeli that we bleeding heart liberals go and see when we arrive in Israel because they say what we want to hear.
• Last Survey — Bizarro by Dan Piraro: