Music: Avishai Cohen — ‘The Ever Evolving Etude’
How robots helped Trump win
Brian Alexander writes: “We used to laugh at the robots,” Rickey’s buddy said. “When they first came in, they were so slow. We would sorta hurry and outproduce them. But one of the lines was about 18 people, and now they can run it with, like, five.” Rickey and his friend were echoing, almost word for word, two other men with whom I’d shared one-dollar beers in the Agenda Sports Bar, not far from the Toledo Assembly Complex. Both 30-year…
The world is shocked not just by Trump but by the silence of most Americans
Molly K. McKew writes: A little more than a week ago, as President Trump completed his world mini-tour, my Ukrainian researcher emailed me. She witnessed some of the violence of Ukraine’s latest revolution and tends to be clear-eyed about the state of the things. Watching Trump’s behavior at the G7, and then with Kim Jong Un, she couldn’t shake that something profound had occurred. “Every time I hear fireworks at night,” she wrote from Odessa, “my first thought is that…
The more Trump is criticized, the closer his supporters stand
The New York Times reports: Gina Anders knows the feeling well by now. President Trump says or does something that triggers a spasm of outrage. She doesn’t necessarily agree with how he handled the situation. She gets why people are upset. But Ms. Anders, 46, a Republican from suburban Loudoun County, Va., with a law degree, a business career, and not a stitch of “Make America Great Again” gear in her wardrobe, is moved to defend him anyway. “All nuance…
Breaking up families? America looks like a Dickens novel
Almost 1,500 immigrant boys, aged 10 to 17, were separated from their parents and brought to stay at Casa Padre in Brownsville, Texas. Department of Health and Human Services By Sarah Bilston, Trinity College The news has been full these past few weeks of disturbing stories from the nation’s borders. The Trump administration has separated immigrant children from their parents precisely to discourage others from trying to enter the country. Trump has signed an order to end the practice. But…
Chinese investment in the U.S. has plummeted 92% this year
CNN reports: Chinese investment in the United States nosedived in the first five months of 2018 amid mounting tensions between the world’s two largest economies. For years, Chinese companies pumped growing amounts of money into the United States, deepening ties between the countries. But Chinese investment totaled only $1.8 billion between January and May. That’s a 92% drop compared to the same period in 2017, and the lowest level in seven years, according to a report released Wednesday by Rhodium…
Music: Antonio Castrignanò — ‘Fomenta’
A new revolution in Mexico
Jon Lee Anderson writes: The first time that Andrés Manuel López Obrador ran for President of Mexico, in 2006, he inspired such devotion among his partisans that they sometimes stuck notes in his pockets, inscribed with their hopes for their families. In an age defined by globalism, he was an advocate of the working class—and also a critic of the PRI, the party that has ruthlessly dominated national politics for much of the past century. In the election, his voters’…
In America, naturalized citizens no longer have an assumption of permanence
Masha Gessen writes: Last week, it emerged that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (U.S.C.I.S.) had formed a task force in order to identify people who lied on their citizenship applications and to denaturalize them. Amid the overwhelming flow of reports of families being separated at the border and children being warehoused, this bit of bureaucratic news went largely unnoticed. But it adds an important piece to our understanding of how American politics and culture are changing. Like many of…
Record-high 75% of Americans say immigration is good thing
Gallup: A record-high 75% of Americans, including majorities of all party groups, think immigration is a good thing for the U.S. — up slightly from 71% last year. Just 19% of the public considers immigration a bad thing. The latest findings are based on a Gallup poll conducted June 1-13, a key time for immigration reform in the U.S. as the House of Representatives debates the issue. The House will vote this week on two pieces of legislation that address…
Trump aide Stephen Miller, meet your great-grandfather, who flunked his naturalization test
Lisa Belkin reports: A photo of Nison (aka Max) Miller stares out from the screen, sullen and stern, in faded black and white. “Order of Court Denying Petition” is the title of the government form dated “14th November 1932,” to which it is attached, the one in which Miller is applying for naturalization as an American citizen. And beneath the photo, the reason given for his denial: Ignorance. Nison Miller is the great-grandfather of White House adviser Stephen Miller, who…
Yes, Obama separated families at the border, too
McClatchy reports: President Barack Obama separated parents from their children at the border. Obama prosecuted mothers for coming to the United States illegally. He fast tracked deportations. And yes, he housed unaccompanied children in tent cities. For much of the country — and President Donald Trump — the prevailing belief is that Obama was the president who went easier on immigrants. Neither Obama nor Democrats created Trump’s zero-tolerance policy, which calls for every illegal border crosser to be prosecuted and…
Dear journalists: Stop being loudspeakers for liars
Dan Gillmor writes: An open letter to my friends and colleagues in journalism: Please, just stop. Please stop giving live airtime to liars. Stop publishing their lies. Please examine what you’re doing. You are letting liars use your traditional norms — which made sense in different times and situations — to turn you into amplifiers of deceit. You know you are doing this, and sometimes you even defend it. Please stop. But but but but, you say, he’s the president and we have to…
Images of distressed children please Trump adviser ‘Waffen-SS’ Stephen Miller
Gabriel Sherman writes: White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller has all but become the face of the issue, a development that even supporters of Trump’s “zero-tolerance” position say is damaging the White House. “Stephen actually enjoys seeing those pictures at the border,” an outside White House adviser said. “He’s a twisted guy, the way he was raised and picked on. There’s always been a way he’s gone about this. He’s Waffen-SS.” Making matters worse, Trump doesn’t seem to have…
Trump has no plan to reunite the families he ripped apart
The Daily Beast reports: Immigrant families won’t be separated anymore, thanks to a new order from President Trump, but that doesn’t mean families will be reunited. Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday ending the practice of taking children away from parents who enter the U.S. illegally. Already, though, more than 2,000 children have been separated, according to the government, and advocates and attorneys for them fear they will never see their parents again. Despite Trump’s order, there is no…
Trump’s racism is impossible to hide
David A Graham writes: One of the paradoxes of modern-day American politics is that white identity politics can be a potent political platform, as long as you don’t call it that. Policies with racist effects are often popular; explicit racism is verboten. Thus Donald Trump can win the presidency while running, as my colleague Adam Serwer documented, on a program of discrimination, but when Corey Stewart, a Republican politician in Virginia, makes his white-identity politics too explicit he gets shunned…