Interesting NYT piece on how the James Damore furore has put Google, Facebook, Airbnb et al firmly in the crosshairs of the alt-right crowd.

There is a certain poetic justice in the alt-right, largely an internet-based political movement, turning against the companies that enabled it in the first place. Like most modern political movements, the alt-right relies on tech platforms like YouTube and Twitter to rally supporters, collect donations and organize gatherings. In that sense, Silicon Valley progressivism isn’t just an ideological offense to the alt-right — it’s an operational threat.

The Silicon Valley crowd now face a pincer movement — from outraged feminists on one side and the Trump crowd on the other. Couldn’t happen to nicer people.

The caption: “While the effects of an exit from the European Union are beginning to be felt, the UK may be trying to turn around and ask for its readmission.”

Hmmm… Voeu pieux?

The Economist has a good leader (and an extended article) about the biggest possible catastrophe on the horizon. Sample:

The most serious danger is not that one side will suddenly try to devastate the other. It is that both sides will miscalculate, and that a spiral of escalation will lead to a catastrophe that no one wants. Our briefing this week lays out, step by step, one way that America and North Korea might blunder into a nuclear war (see article). It also lists some of the likely consequences. These include: for North Korea, the destruction of its regime and the death of hundreds of thousands of people. For South Korea, the destruction of Seoul, a city of 10m within easy range of 1,000 of the North’s conventional artillery pieces. For America, the possibility of a nuclear attack on one of its garrisons in East Asia, or even on an American city. And don’t forget the danger of an armed confrontation between America and China, the North’s neighbour and grudging ally. It seems distasteful to mention the economic effects of another Korean war, but they would of course be awful, too.

The linked article is an imaginative — and sobering — scenario on how the worst could happen.

From Dave Winer:

Thinking about General Kelly today. Assumption — he’s an honorable person. He’s also now inside at the White House. There isn’t anything that’s secret from the Chief of Staff. So how long before the complete picture of the criminality of this White House is revealed to him? Hard to believe it hasn’t already happened. So if he’s honorable, he has to come clean, make a statement to the special prosecutor and ask for instructions. If not that, is there a backroom deal? Can’t imagine there is. Who would want to make one if they didn’t have to. Priebus was a clown, in way over his head. Kelly has had a chance to watch it from the Cabinet and he chose to go in. Puzzling….

Lovely image in a Financial Times OpEd by David Rothkopf

“When I was a boy, my parents fixed a toy steering wheel on my car seat to allow me to pretend I was driving alongside my dad in our ageing Oldsmobile. It was a joy. I have always wondered where that seat went. Now I think I know. It has been given to John Kelly. It is the new seat from which he will try to bring order to the White House as Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff. Like me, he will spin that wheel. And like me, he may revel in the illusion of control. But in the he will discover, as I did, that someone else is really driving the car.”