Reading List: December 28, 2016

RIP Carrie Fisher, drowned in moonlight and strangled by her own bra.

Fisher died yesterday at the age of 60. Lindsey Adler writes about her role as Princess Leia in the Star Wars movies and her dislike of the “slave girl costume” from Return of the Jedi at The Concourse.

Carrie Fisher, who endured questions about a single costume from a single scene in a long career for over 30 years, had no qualms about making it clear that she hated that goddamned metal bikini you all got your rocks off to as horny teenage boys.

Chris Christie still holds out hope he’ll be in the Trump administration, reports Adam K. Raymond for New York Magazine.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spent much of the summer debasing himself for Donald Trump’s pleasure in an apparent attempt to ensure his place in a Trump administration, should such a thing exist. But now, with Inauguration Day less than a month away, Christie remains on the outside. After a summer as Trump’s whipping boy, his constituents despise him and his political future looks less promising than it has in years.

And Allan Nasser writes about the conflict between the interests of the US and China for CounterPunch. Nasser’s analysis is in-depth and worth the read — make time for it, there’s a lot in there.

Washington has recently initiated major war games in the neighborhoods and on the borders of Russia and China, the most intense martial exercises since the end of the Second World War. The old Cold War ante has been upped, and the danger of military confrontation between Washington and Russia and/or China looms large….

No less an authority than Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned that Hillary Clinton’s promise to implement a no-fly zone over Syria would entail war with Russia. Some have claimed that Trump’s reluctance to impose no-fly in Syria is the silver lining on the dark cloud of his coming presidency. But more impressive commentators have argued that war with China is an equally horrific possibility.

May the Force be with her.