As Donald Trump prepares for his surprise nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the world be watching to see whether Trump scuttles America’s 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran. Would it really be possible to make a deal with one country while killing a deal with the other? Via The New York Times.
The November midterms are about so much more than who controls which house of Congress, writes David Remnick in The New Yorker. They are a stress test measuring the health of liberal democracy in America.
Where is Barack Obama? It may be traditional for presidents who have just left office to step away from the politics of the day. But there’s nothing traditional about Donald Trump’s presidency, and Julian Zelizer writes in The Atlantic, Obama can’t afford to be traditional in opposing it.
From The National Review, George Will asks how we can still be fighting the war in Afghanistan when — 6,000 days, a trillion dollars and 2,200 lives in — no one can really say what the objective is or how the war can ever end.
The Democratic Party is moving left — except when no one is looking. In which case, a dozen or so Democrats, including Sen. Michael Bennet, can join Republicans in supporting a bill to gut certain banking regulations. Via New York magazine.
If you didn’t see Trump at his Trumpian best in his untethered, let-Trump-be-Trump speech the other night in Pennsylvania, Chris Cillizza has compiled the 64 most outrageous lines for your reading pleasure (or, just as likely, displeasure). Via CNN.
Anderson Cooper has done his interview with porn star Stormy Daniels for 60 Minutes. The big question now is not so much what she will say about the president, but whether the president’s lawyer will be able to keep the segment from airing. Via The New York Times.
Is Amazon really looking for the city that will write them the biggest check to house their second headquarters? It’s more likely, writes The Washington Post, that it’s looking for the kind of city that all tech companies, big and small, are looking for. And, in case you’re wondering, in the Post rankings, Denver lands fourth. Austin is first.
Dana Milbank: Remember the steel tariffs imposed in 1992? Guess what: They didn’t work either. Via The Washington Post.
It’s Trump vs. California as Trump gets set to make his first presidential visit to the state. At this point, it’s still not clear who’s winning. Via The Los Angeles Times. Or to put it another way, as Joe Mathews does in The Sacramento Bee, is California becoming America’s Taiwan?
U.S. and Japanese fighter planes and bombers in a show of force after a North Korea missile launch. Photo posted by Robert Sullivan, via Flickr: Creative Commons
No job for you!! That’s what the New York Times told Quinn Norton six hours after they offered her a position on its editorial board. That’s right, six hours! Why? Well, the tolerant, understanding, and compassionate New York Times’ readership was uncomfortable with a woman who described herself as “a bisexual anarchist pacifist, prison abolitionist, & vegetarian (who is currently) fretting about fair trade standards and ethical food.” They immediately let the Times know that there’s a limit to their tolerance, understanding and compassion and Norton had exceeded it.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/all-the-news-thats-fit-for-our-readers-sensitivities/article/2011785
Speaking of jobs, in February companies added 235,000 jobs exceeding Wall Streets’ 195,000 estimate.” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s, said in a statement. “With government spending increases and tax cuts, growth is set to accelerate.” “
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/07/adp-us-private-sector-february-2018.html
Big blue Congressional wave? Not so fast says Musa Al-Gharbi in a New York Times opinion piece. For example, while Democrats had near-record turnouts in the recent Texas primaries Republicans had actual record-breaking turnouts “Republicans had nearly 50 percent more voters take part in their primary than the Democrats in theirs.” And the reason Democrats’ numbers seem so impressive is because their previous benchmarks in the state have been relatively low.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/opinion/texas-primary-results-blue.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fopinion
President Trump’s not half-bad! That was the sentiment of Matt Gillow who, writing in the Independent, admitted early in the article, “I wouldn’t have voted for (President Trump) if you’d paid me” but upon further review conceded that as a direct effect of President Trump’s tax cuts the stock market was up, employment was down, business confidence had grown and that, “ maybe, just maybe, Donald Trump isn’t the devil we all thought he’d be.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/donald-trump-north-korea-steel-tax-gun-control-not-that-bad-a8247821.html
“It’s time to give socialism a try”. In a Washington Post opinion piece millennial Elizabeth Bruenig believes capitalism has failed so, like, why not. Ms. Bruenig believes socialism will solve many of the problems created by capitalism such as inequality.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-time-to-give-socialism-a-try/2018/03/06/c603a1b6-2164-11e8-86f6-54bfff693d2b_story.html?utm_term=.4ab9dfa5c7e8
“The more we learn about #Russiagate, or what we might now call #Dossiergate, the more the whole affair comes to resemble a Ken Kesey novel.” So says Roger L. Simon who believes those running the Russia investigation are ashamed of their effort.
https://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/russiagate-second-time-farce-tragedy/