Reading List: December 7, 2016

Hey now, it’s midweek.

I wrote about online harassment for Paste, specifically how independent journalist Al Giordano is building what can only be described as an enemies list.

“I have not declared any intention to use information,” continued Giordano. “But I would like to know the names and identities of the anonymous cowards who seek to harass, silence and intimidate me and so many others.”

By his own admission, Giordano is building a list of the names, addresses, and other personal information of his political adversaries. That Giordano is just an independent journalist makes his list less dangerous and have less reach — but it’s still a cudgel hovering over the heads of those who publicly disagree with him.

Amber A’Lee Frost reviews Margon, a Times Square Cuban restaurant, for Current Affairs.

I went to Times Square to eat at Margon, the last real diner from before the Disney “cleansing” — at least that’s what everyone says, and my research turned up no others. Margon is a Cuban restaurant, currently staffed and managed entirely by 17 members of the Rivas family. It has occupied its current location since 1987, when a former dishwasher and Dominican immigrant, Rivas senior, took over the restaurant. Before that the space was a go-go bar.

I made my roommate Nick come with me because he is competent and thoughtful and hungry. I believe that while food is not necessarily best experienced socially, it certainly is best evaluated in the company of others. Also I didn’t want to brave the maddening crowds alone.

Roqayah Chamseddine interviewed PissPig Granddad, an American fighting for the YPG, for Shadowproof.

“War is the crucible for revolution, and as all of Syria is in turmoil we will create a new and just society from the rubble. [Buenaventura] Durruti said something like, “We have always lived in slums and holes in the wall…we are not least afraid of ruins; we are going to inherit the Earth,” and anyways, that’s why I’m here, to struggle with comrades for a communal society in the ruins.”

Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman released a study on inequality for The Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

The rise of economic inequality is one of the most hotly debated issues today in the United States and indeed in the world. Yet economists and policymakers alike face important limitations when trying to measure and understand the rise of inequality.

One major problem is the disconnect between macroeconomics and the study of economic inequality. Macroeconomics relies on national accounts data to study the growth of national income while the study of inequality relies on individual or household income, survey and tax data.

And finally, at Washington Babylon, Ken Silverstein reflects on one positive moment from the last four weeks of the Trump transition: the humiliation of Mormon patrician Mitt Romney.

Donald Trump has filled much of his cabinet, but the key post of secretary of state remains open. There have been about a dozen candidates who’ve crawled on bended knee to meet with Trump in the hopes that he would pick them for the job, including Mitt Romney, who Trump had no intention of hiring. The entire purpose of his interviewing Romney was, I’m told, to make him grovel for the position and then publicly reject him.

Silver linings.