George Packer's Blog, page 73

Emmanuel Macron’s French Lessons for Donald Trump

The first meeting between Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron, at what was billed as a “lengthy lunch,” during the NATO summit in Brussels—complete with veal filet, chocolate mousse (though no reports yet on whether Trump demanded his usual double share of dessert), and a super-strong competitive handshake—is a reminder that the French Presidential election resembled its American counterpart in every way but one. Well, two, counting the result. In France, as in America, the election pitted an extreme right-wing nationalist against a moderate technocratic liberal, but in France the leaders of the “Republican” right recognized the extreme nationalist right as a threat to democratic values and, after one round of voting, supported Macron, a man of the center-left who had served in a Socialist government. In this country, the leaders of the Republican Party made the opposite choice.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
At NATO Headquarters, Trump Fails Another Leadership Test
The Republicans’ War on Medicaid
Eulogy for America

The British Are Stung by Leaks in the Manchester Bombing Case

New developments, unforeseen and unwelcome to the British government, have emerged in the wake of Monday’s bombing in Manchester. The name of the suspect, Salman Abedi, was made public on May 23rd, just hours after the attack—sooner than is customary in such incidents, and much sooner, it turned out, than the authorities had planned. The reason for this haste became clear; the British had shared information with colleagues in the United States, who in turn passed it on to the media. Abedi was named by CBS, NBC, and the New York Times. British authorities then had no option but to follow suit, although even then they waited two hours before naming Abedi.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
At NATO Headquarters, Trump Fails Another Leadership Test
The Republicans’ War on Medicaid
Emmanuel Macron’s French Lessons for Donald Trump

The British Stay Calm After the Manchester Attack, for Now

Many British people pride themselves on their equanimity and tolerance. Their motto could be “Live and let live.” But Monday’s horrendous suicide-bomb attack at Manchester Arena, which killed twenty-two people, many of them young girls who had been attending an Ariana Grande concert, has tested this resolve. The bomber, Salman Abedi, a twenty-two year old Mancunian whose parents are Libyan, appears to have been a homegrown militant jihadi, one of a significant number of young Britons who have become radicalized in recent years.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Does the Manchester Attack Show the Islamic State’s Strength or Weakness?
Manchester’s Recent History of Tragedy
Responding to Terror in the Aftermath of the Manchester Attack

An Ode to Bartolo Colón, the Oldest, Stoutest Player in Baseball, on His Birthday

The only way to begin talking about Bartolo Colón, the unlikely star pitcher who now plays for the Atlanta Braves, is with his age and his figure. As of today, May 24th, he is forty-four, the oldest player in professional baseball, and thus, for a not insignificant number of American men, all that stands between them and that grave day of reckoning when the entirety of the league is younger than they are.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Smart Things I Have Done While You Were Watching Sportsball
The Cartoon Lounge: The Home Team
Maria Sharapova Is Turned Away by the French Open

Trump’s Damning Responses to the Russia Investigation

In September, 1972, about ten weeks after the Watergate break-in, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward huddled in the vending-machine room at the Washington Post’s old headquarters, on Fifteenth Street. Most days, the two reporters met there before presenting their latest scoops to the top editors. This was a particularly nerve-racking meeting. They had confirmed that John Mitchell, Richard Nixon’s former Attorney General and the manager of his reëlection campaign, had controlled a secret fund that paid for the break-in.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Amid the Chaos, Trump’s Appointees Push His Agenda
Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, May 24th
The Trump Administration’s Budget Charade

Amid the Chaos, Trump’s Appointees Push His Agenda

For those who hope (or fear) that the Trump Administration has been shell-shocked by the Russia scandals and paralyzed by the health-care mess, the past fortnight offers bracing reminders of the enduring power of the Presidency. The executive branch is a huge bureaucracy, which lumbers forward, pushing the incumbent’s policy agenda, regardless of localized chaos in the White House. Two new initiatives demonstrate how Trump’s appointees are advancing the goals of his Presidency.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Trump’s Damning Responses to the Russia Investigation
Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, May 24th
The Trump Administration’s Budget Charade

Does the Manchester Attack Show the Islamic State’s Strength or Weakness?

Ten hours after Salman Abedi blew himself up outside the Manchester Arena, where the American pop star Ariana Grande was performing, ISIS claimed a grisly attack that killed twenty-two people and injured dozens more. “With Allah’s grace and support, a soldier of the Khilafah (caliphate) managed to place explosive devices in the midst of the gatherings of the Crusaders in the British city of Manchester,” the group boasted on social messaging apps, in multiple languages. The odd thing—for a group that has usually been judicious about its claims and accurate in its facts—is that it got key details wrong.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The British Stay Calm After the Manchester Attack, for Now
Manchester’s Recent History of Tragedy
Responding to Terror in the Aftermath of the Manchester Attack

The Trump Administration’s Budget Charade

In March, the Trump Administration released a so-called skinny budget, which contained the broad outlines of its spending plans. The proposed cuts in domestic and international programs were so draconian, mean-spirited, and misguided that I termed it a Voldemort budget, and many other commentators offered similar reviews. On Tuesday, the White House released the full version of its budget, and, if anything, the details are even more disturbing.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Trump’s Damning Responses to the Russia Investigation
Amid the Chaos, Trump’s Appointees Push His Agenda
Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, May 24th

What Roger Ailes Figured Out

Twenty years ago, Roger Ailes launched Fox News with a simple but effective premise: most news outlets were liberal, and most Americans were not. “I think the mainstream media thinks liberalism is the center of the road,” he once said. “I really think that they don’t understand that there are serious people in America who don’t necessarily agree with everything they hear on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.”

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
How Roger Ailes Degraded the Tone of Public Life in America
What Will Become Of Roger Ailes’s Fox News?
Listening to Sean Hannity

At a Vigil, Manchester Gets the Poem It Needs

Who would have thought that a poet could have offered succor on a day like this? But he did. His name is Tony Walsh, a Manchester writer who goes by the handle “Longfella”—because of his greater-than-average height, one assumes. In front of a crowd of many thousands in Albert Square, in the civic heart of Manchester, as late-afternoon sunshine bathed the Victorian façade of the town hall, and as people in the crush climbed on statues to find a better view, and as a few held up homemade banners expressing love and solidarity, and others held bunches of flowers that they had brought to the ceremony, Walsh delivered a performance of a poem so resonant that the crowd cheered and laughed, and the eyes of the grown men who stood on either side of me grew glassy.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Manchester’s Recent History of Tragedy
A Soft and Vulnerable Moment at Ariana Grande’s Manchester Concert, Destroyed by Terror
Responding to Terror in the Aftermath of the Manchester Attack