George Packer's Blog, page 68

The Comey Testimony Live Blog: What the Former F.B.I. Director Said About Trump

John Cassidy and Ryan Lizza live-blogged during the former F.B.I. director James Comey’s testimony on Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

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Related:
Comey’s Revenge: Measuring Obstruction
White House on Lockdown After Television Is Hurled Out Window
Daily Cartoon: Thursday, June 8th

James Comey’s Remarkable Story About Donald Trump

President Trump appears to be guilty of obstruction of justice. That’s the only rational conclusion to be reached if James Comey’s opening statement for his planned testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Thursday, is to be believed. The lurch of the Trump Presidency from one crisis to the next scandal produces a kind of bombshell-induced numbness, but that should not prevent us from appreciating the magnitude of Comey’s statement.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Comey’s Revenge: Measuring Obstruction
White House on Lockdown After Television Is Hurled Out Window
Daily Cartoon: Thursday, June 8th

Terror Strikes Tehran

Terrorists, on Wednesday, attacked two of the most important symbols of Iran’s Islamic government—its well-guarded parliament building and the lavish shrine where the revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is buried. The basic facts, as reported by Iranian media, followed a familiar pattern: mid-morning, four gunmen penetrated security in the parliament’s Hall of Visitors and opened fire, sparking a dramatic standoff with security forces, which spanned four hours. Government snipers took up positions around the imposing Majlis building and helicopters hovered overhead as people inside tried to drop out of windows to safety. At least one attacker detonated a suicide vest. At Khomeini’s tomb, two people—one a woman—opened fire on pilgrims and then detonated a bomb at the entrance. In the twin attacks, the deadliest in Iran in at least a decade, thirteen people were killed, plus six assailants, and forty-three were injured.

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Related:
Why More Troops Won’t Help Afghanistan
How Different—and Dangerous—Is Terrorism Today?
Trump’s London Tweets: How Low Can He Stoop?

The Loneliness of LeBron James

The first two games of the N.B.A. finals matchup, between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors, were nothing, really, to remember for long. In the first game, the Warriors, led by Kevin Durant—whose change of uniforms, from the Oklahoma Thunder’s electric blue to the bright yellow of the Warriors, still disorients me from time to time—coasted to a merry, almost tossed-off trouncing, beating the Cavs by twenty-two points that looked like they could have been forty. Cleveland’s defense, which has been questionable all season, was to blame: LeBron and company couldn’t figure out how to guard Stephen Curry at the three-point line—the site of so much of his freewheeling demolition—and simultaneously pay attention to the painted area near the net. The result was a flurry of unworried fast-break dunks and layups for Durant, who, once limber, showed off the other aspects of his game—a slick, subtle stutter-step here, a blasé three-pointer there. The best thing about watching Durant play is his utter ease on the court. His much-vaunted scoring efficiency is more than simply statistical; he never seems to move his wispy body a flicker more than is absolutely necessary. At his best, he looks half-asleep. In Game 1, this effortlessness was a model for his entire team: for most of the night, the Warriors floated more than fought.

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Related:
An Ode to Bartolo Colón, the Oldest, Stoutest Player in Baseball, on His Birthday
Smart Things I Have Done While You Were Watching Sportsball
Maria Sharapova Is Turned Away by the French Open

A Celebration of Black Lawyers, Past and Present

In the past year, I have been asked many times to reflect and comment and commiserate on the state of our country. Each time, as I recount my own experience, I try to stress how important it is that when we doubt or disagree with our leaders we are not governed by them. We are governed by laws. When those we elect seek to subvert norms of behavior, we have rights and laws to fall back on. And, when elected officials seek to subvert the rights and laws of this country, we have lawyers, judges, and courts to fall back on. That has been our history and our journey as a nation, and it has been my journey as well.

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Related:
Trump Sabotages His New Middle East Alliance
James Comey’s Intellectual History
What Do White House Ethics Rules Mean If They Can Be Circumvented?

Trump Sabotages His New Middle East Alliance

Less than three weeks ago, on his first trip abroad as President, Donald Trump greeted the young Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who was swathed in white robes and headdress, with effusive warmth. “We’ve been friends now for a long time, haven’t we?” Trump said. “Our relationship is extremely good.” The President announced that the two leaders would discuss “the purchase of lots of beautiful military equipment, because nobody makes it like the United States. First, that means jobs,” he said, adding, “It also means, frankly, great security back here” in the Gulf. The same day, at the summit in Riyadh, Trump warmly welcomed Qatar into his new coalition of conservative Sunni regimes, designed to confront Islamic extremism and contain Iran.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
A Celebration of Black Lawyers, Past and Present
James Comey’s Intellectual History
What Do White House Ethics Rules Mean If They Can Be Circumvented?

James Comey’s Intellectual History

More than three decades before the F.B.I. began investigating whether members of Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign had colluded with the Russian government, James Comey—the Bureau’s recently fired director—envisioned a Russian conquest of America. He was then a senior at the College of William & Mary, in Virginia, with a column in the school paper, the Flat Hat. His commentaries satirized everything from crooked politicians to classmates who fretted about life after graduation.

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Related:
A Celebration of Black Lawyers, Past and Present
Trump Sabotages His New Middle East Alliance
What Do White House Ethics Rules Mean If They Can Be Circumvented?

The Toll That the Mexico City Policy Will Take in Africa

A couple of weeks ago, we learned from the Congressional Budget Office that the House Republicans’ health-care bill, which Donald Trump celebrated with a toast in the Rose Garden, would leave an additional twenty-three million Americans uninsured over the next decade. The President’s budget proposals would also cut or eliminate nearly every major health or welfare program designed to protect the neediest among us. We can only begin to imagine the damage that such measures would inflict if they were to become law.

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Related:
Daily Cartoon: Tuesday, June 6th
While Trump Tweets, Assad and Putin Advance in Syria
Daily Cartoon: Monday, June 5th

What Do White House Ethics Rules Mean If They Can Be Circumvented?

“It is time to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C.,” Donald Trump said last October, before presenting his “five-point plan” for improving ethical standards in government. “This is why I’m proposing a package of ethics reforms to make our government honest once again.” On January 28th, shortly after his Inauguration, Trump signed an executive order intended to show just how serious he was about ending the cozy Washington dealings of lobbyists and government officials. Among other things, the order imposed limitations on Administration officials, preventing them from working, for two years, on issues in government that they had previously advocated for as lobbyists, and mandating a five-year hiatus from lobbying after leaving government.

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Related:
How to Influence Trump
Theresa May’s Donald Trump Problem
“What to Expect When You’re Expecting Fascism”

How to Influence Trump

George Conway, the wealthy conservative lawyer and husband of Kellyanne Conway, President Trump’s counsellor, prefers to stay in the background. In the nineteen-nineties, he was the hidden author of a successful Supreme Court brief that argued that Paula Jones’s sexual-harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton should be allowed to proceed while Clinton was in office. Last year, while I wandered around a debate spin room, interviewing Kellyanne, George followed a few paces behind, holding her purse but refusing to talk. When CNN’s Dana Bash recently went to the Conways’ New Jersey home to profile Kellyanne, Bash joked that George “hid upstairs.”

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
What Do White House Ethics Rules Mean If They Can Be Circumvented?
Theresa May’s Donald Trump Problem
“What to Expect When You’re Expecting Fascism”