One of my favorite quotes is from the British historian A.J.P. Taylor, who was referring to the aborted democratic revolutions of 1848: “History reached its turning point, and failed to turn.” Will the week of July 15, 2018, be remembered in the same way? By all rights, this should be the beginning of the end of Trump’s presidency. Republican defenders can swallow a lot, but flagrant treason is a bridge too far. Or is it? Polls now show that [...]
Vladimir Putin has to be heading home scratching his head. His meeting with Trump was choreographed to be cordial. But why on earth did Trump need to repeat, in even stronger terms, that he believes Putin’s denials over the extensive investigations of the entire U.S. intelligence establishment? “They said they think it’s Russia; I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia,” Mr. Trump declared at the joint press conference—right after Putin admitted that he had favored Mr. [...]
Poor Prime Minister May. She has not been able to get her Conservative Party to agree on a Brexit formula, members of the cabinet are deserting her left and right (mostly right), and now she gets sucker-punched by Donald Trump. May, braving broad hostility to Trump throughout Britain, went out of her way to host a friendly visit for our lunatic president, assuming that Trump might reciprocate with a bit of gratitude. But Trump doesn’t do quid pro quo [...]
OK, it’s not exactly news when Trump contradicts himself, but consider this doozie: Trump is excoriating America’s NATO allies for failing to meet the agreed-upon target of spending at least 2 percent of GDP on the military. The U.S. spends close to 4 percent, and Trump has just urged NATO members to double their target to 4 percent, too. But hold on. If memory serves, NATO was created to protect Western Europe against Soviet Russia. The Kremlin is no longer [...]
Question for today: What exactly is the difference between the way Poland’s autocratic rulers have disabled its Supreme Court and the way the Republicans have taken over the U.S. courts? Poland, where the governing party has an absolute majority in Parliament, is in trouble with the leaders of the European Union and many of its own outraged citizens for jamming through a measure requiring mandatory retirement at 65 for Supreme Court justices. This thinly disguised coup will force the [...]
Are the centrists in the Democratic Party actually missing the labor movement now that the Supreme Court has dealt public-employee unions what Republicans hope will be a knockout blow? Noam Scheiber of the Times has a really smart piece detailing all of the ways the unions help Democrats and grassroots advocacy groups, and how weaker public-sector unions will set back not just workers but progressive politics generally. This belated discovery by centrist Democrats of the value of a strong [...]