RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
May13toMay19 Featured Investigation With the death of Tom Wolfe this week, attention focused anew on the American obsession with status - and the anxiety that goes with it. And though that great observer of class is gone (more on Wolfe later), the need for constant confirmation of status is far from forgotten; rather, it's evolving. As JohnMurawskireports forRealClearInvestigations, credit card companies have moved to the forefront of prestige reassurance in recent years, marketing cards withregal names - such asChase Sapphire Reserve, Hilton Honors Aspire, Citi Prestige, CitiAAdvantageExecutive World Elite- and status-conscious benefits. He writes: The cards illustrate the evolution of status-seeking in an era when consumer goods have become so cheap and plentiful that they have lost their cachet. Even some card perks have become emblematic of "masstige," the democratic twin of prestige - as when airport travel lounges get so congested at peak travel times the buffet line can feel more like Golden Corral than the Four Seasons. What the well-heeled card-carriers seem drawn to is technicolor life experiences over conspicuous consumption, a trait identified in the late 19th century by economist and sociologistThorsteinVeblen, a pioneering theorist of status-seeking. "Tastes have changed to become more experiential and less focused on physical goods," said GaryLeff, a travel blogger and frequent flyer expert from Austin. "A friend of mine used points from Starwood Hotels to have his wife take tennis lessons from Andre Agassi,"Leffadded. "He couldn't just call up Andre Agassi and arrange that." Murawskinotes,however, thatthis status-seeking is subsidized by others: Someone picks up the tab for all these pricey benefits, and those people are hardly a secret. Banks charge merchants a transaction fee for swiping their cards, and the merchants pass on the cost to all customers, rich and poor, imposing an invisible fee even on customers who pay with cash. On top of that, financial institutions collect monthly interest payments from the majority of card holders who don't, or can't, pay off their bills every month. The effect this funding redistribution has on the poor is complex and disputed, but the riches flow back to credit card spenders in a pattern that consumer advocates call the reverse Robin Hood effect. Uncle Sam also plays a part, albeit a largely passive one. Credit card rewards - even cash-back awards - are considered rebates rather than income by the IRS and are not taxable. Business owners, for example, can charge hefty expenses to their cards and enjoy all the benefits themselves tax free. Read Full Article The Trump Investigations: Top Articles 2 Colleagues Contradict Brennan's Denial of Reliance on Dossier
RealClearInvestigations
Former CIA Director John Brennan's insistence that the salacious and unverified Steele dossier was not part of the official Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 election is being contradicted by two top former officials -recently retired National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers and former Director of Intelligence James Clapper. This discrepancy is one more piece of evidence suggesting how a lack of candor, and political concerns, have driven the Trump/Russia probe. Abundant further evidence poured forth this week: Crossfire Hurricane: FBI Investigated 4 in Trump Campaign New York Times 'Bigger than Watergate': Trump Joins Push to Expose FBI Source Washington Post
Cambridge ProfWithCIA, MI6 Ties Met With Carter Page, Papadopoulos Daily Caller Secret FBI Source Met 3 Trump Campaign Advisers Washington Post DOJ Knocks Source Outing, Deliberately Outs Source Federalist Was Trump's Campaign 'Set Up'? Wall Street Journal Other Noteworthy Articles and Series Malaysia Jet's Disappearance Laid to Pilot Murder-Suicide
60 Minutes Australia
The fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which mysteriously disappeared over the Indian Ocean, may have been solved. "60 Minutes Australia" is reporting that experts believe the pilot intentionally crashed the plane, hours after rendering everyone else on board unconscious by depressurizing the cabin. N.Y.: Schneiderman, His Ex-Wife and Her Connected Law Firm
Daily Caller
When Eric Schneiderman resigned as New York's attorney general on May 7 amid revelations he engaged in a pattern of alleged physical abuse of women, his ex-wife, New York-based lobbyist Jennifer Cunningham, jumped to his defense. Although they divorced in 1996, the couple has stayed close. Cunningham has served as a close political adviser, and Schneiderman has given her clients generous access, raising conflict of interest concerns.
The High Cost of Electric Vehicle Subsidies
Manhattan Institute
A new report finds that the broad-based adoption of electric vehicles will do little to reduce climate change or pollution. The most noticeable impact will be a reverse Robin Hood effect, as "subsidies for these [vehicles] and the required infrastructure to support them benefit the higher-income consumers who can afford to purchase them at the expense of lower-income consumers who cannot." Unpacking the Congressional Baseball Shooting
Last June, a man who hates Republicans brought a semiautomatic rifle to a field where GOP lawmakers, aides and others were practicing for the Congressional Baseball Game. The political assassin, James Hodgkinson, opened fire, wounding several people, including Rep. SteveScaliseof Louisiana, before being shot and killed byCapitolPolice. This in-depth story recreates the events that day, especially the heroism that saved lives. Now the Law in Kansas: No Cop Sex During Traffic Stops
Wichita Eagle
DiionLeflerreports: "A new Kansas law makes it a crime for police to have sex with people they pull over for traffic violations or detain in criminal investigations.… Nowyou may be asking, wasn't that illegal already?Actually, it wasn't.Kansas was one of 33 states where consensual sex between police and people in their custody wasn't a crime." Planet or Plastic? 'Miracle' Stuff Now Chokes Waterways
National Geographic
No one knows how much unrecycled plastic waste ends up in the ocean, Earth's last sink. One scholar puts the figure at between 5.3 million and 14 million tons each year just from coastal regions. It's unclear how long it will take for that plastic to completely biodegrade into its constituent molecules. Estimates range from 450 years to never. Meanwhile, ocean plastic is estimated to kill millions of marine animals every year.
Ex-NYT Pulitzer Winner LeDuff Now Works Hot Dog Joint
Weekly Standard
Charlie LeDuff has gone native. The throwback reporter who made his bones writing gritty stories about forgotten men (and women) - and was accused of plagiarism along the way - is now employed at a Detroit hot dog stand. LeDuff insists it's not a reporting stunt. Matt Labash writes: "He's too proud to wear the paper hat while working at the Coney. Nor will he work the register. 'I'm not a greeter,' he says. But otherwise, he's all-in as handyman and troubleshooter for Grace Keros, the third-generation owner." Investigative Classics: Tom Wolfe Skewers 'Radical Chic'
Back to Tom Wolfe: His death led us to revisit his classic 1970 article about a fundraiser the Black Panther Party held at Leonard Bernstein's Park Avenue duplex. Wolfe illustrates his great theme of worlds colliding in the third paragraph, which begins, "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. These are nice. Little Roquefort cheese morsels rolled in crushed nuts.Very tasty.Very subtle.It's the way the drysackinessof the nuts tiptoes up against the dour savor of the cheese that is so nice, so subtle. Wonder what the Black Panthers eat here on the hors d'oeuvre trail?" Read on. It's a biting classic indeed. | 
