John Cassidy's Blog, page 9
June 5, 2017
Trump���s London Tweets: How Low Can He Stoop?
Trump’s London Tweets: How Low Can He Stoop?
The American Embassy in London is currently leaderless. In January, Donald Trump said that he would pick his friend and supporter Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets, as Ambassador to the Court of St. James. But as with many other appointments in the Trump Administration, this one has yet to be made official. On Sunday night, when the Embassy put out a series of tweets in response to this weekend’s terrorist attack in London, they were issued in the name of Lewis Lukens, the charge d’affaires and acting Ambassador, a career diplomat who has served in Australia, China, Ireland, Iraq, and the Ivory Coast. (From 2008 to 2011, Lukens ran the executive secretariat at the State Department.)
See the rest of the story at newyorker.com
Related:Why More Troops Won’t Help Afghanistan
Trump’s “Travel Ban” Tweets Show His Disdain for the Law
In the Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, the Koch Brothers’ Campaign Becomes Overt
June 2, 2017
Jeremy Corbyn Is Surging by Using Bernie Sanders���s Playbook
Jeremy Corbyn Is Surging by Using Bernie Sanders’s Playbook
Jeremy Corbyn, the sixty-eight-year-old leftist who heads the opposition Labour Party in the U.K., wasn’t scheduled to appear at the BBC’s televised general-election debate this week. With Theresa May, the Conservative Prime Minister, and the hot favorite to gain reëlection, skipping the event out of a super-abundance of caution, Corbyn’s aides didn’t think that it would do him any good to debate the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, who was standing in for May, and the leaders of five smaller parties: the Liberal Democrats, the U.K. Independence Party, the Greens, the Scottish National Party, and the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru.
See the rest of the story at newyorker.com
Related:After Manchester, the U.K. Weighs Security and Freedoms
The British Are Stung by Leaks in the Manchester Bombing Case
The Return of Tony Blair
June 1, 2017
Donald Trump���s ���Screw You��� to the World
Donald Trump’s “Screw You” to the World
On Thursday, a fine spring day in Washington, D.C., Donald Trump took to the podium in the White House’s Rose Garden and announced that he was pulling the United States out of the Paris climate-change agreement. In doing so, he was ignoring the advice of his senior economic advisers, many of his fellow-businessmen, and, reportedly, his own daughter and son-in-law. Ivanka Trump was nowhere to be seen at the announcement event, but Steve Bannon, the President’s chief strategist, was strutting around. That was the tip-off for the sort of address that Trump was about to deliver.
See the rest of the story at newyorker.com
Related:Angela Merkel and the Insult of Trump’s Paris Climate-Accord Withdrawal
Calling Earth a “Loser,” Trump Vows to Make Better Deal with New Planet
Au Revoir: Trump Exits the Paris Climate Agreement
May 31, 2017
Donald Trump Can’t Turn Back History
The United States is no stranger to isolationism or the willful rejection of international agreements. After the First World War, the Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles because many senators didn’t want the country to join the fledgling League of Nations, which was part of the treaty, and which President Woodrow Wilson had played a big part in conceiving.
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Related:Trump’s “Good Job” Call to Roger Stone
Trump Says Sleeping Only Four Hours a Day Not Affecting His Ability to Cljjryff
Trump Is Wrong on Trade, But Right That Germany’s Surplus Is a Problem
May 30, 2017
Six Reasons Why the Trump Reset Won’t Work
The latest Trump Administration reset has begun, or so we are being asked to believe. On Tuesday, Mike Dubke, the White House communications director, confirmed that he was leaving his job after just three months. There is also talk of the Administration setting up a “war room” to deal with the Russia scandal, and assembling an all-star legal team to defend President Trump. Names like Ted Olson and Paul Clement, two former Solicitors General, are being bandied about. And rumors continue to circulate about who else will be coming or going. The potential exit of Sean Spicer, the White House spokesperson, has been the subject of whispers for weeks. And, according to Politico, on Monday Trump met with his former campaign aides Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie.
See the rest of the story at newyorker.com
Related:Trump’s Budget Contains a Warning Shot for Sanctuary Cities
Trump Says He Does Not Know Jared Kushner Very Well
Donald and Melania Trump’s Last Judgment
May 25, 2017
The Republicans’ War on Medicaid
Many people who don’t use Medicaid think of it as a federal health-care program for the impoverished and destitute, but it’s much more than that. In the past couple of decades, as incomes have stagnated and health-care costs have accelerated, Medicaid has turned into an essential support mechanism for millions of Americans who can’t be classed as poverty-stricken, strictly speaking, but who also can’t afford to bear the costs of private health coverage.
See the rest of the story at newyorker.com
Related:At NATO Headquarters, Trump Fails Another Leadership Test
Emmanuel Macron’s French Lessons for Donald Trump
Eulogy for America
May 24, 2017
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
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