Новости за 05.06.2017

Terrorist attacks are usually occasions for the United States to rally behind its allies, but President Donald Trump has his own way of doing things. In the morning after three men in a van ran over pedestrians and then went on a stabbing spree in London, leaving seven people dead (along with three accused terrorists, who were shot dead), Trump tweeted critically of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who had advised the public, “Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days. Читать дальше...

If Americans increasingly derive their senses of identity from partisan politics, and research suggests they do, it’s reasonable to infer that more and more public acts will be colored by politics over time. This thesis may explain the strange spectacle from July 2014, in which the Environmental Protection Agency felt compelled to comment on an online video craze featuring drivers who’d modified their vehicles to make them visibly more polluting.

Progressives have fallen into a familiar pattern early in Donald Trump’s presidency: wait for him to screw up, and then, depending on the severity of the offense, react with mockery or outrage. This applies to the trivial, as when Trump tweeted “Despite the negative press covfefe,” and to the consequential, as when he withdrew the United States last week from the Paris climate agreement.

The “Brexit” referendum in June 2016, when voters in the United Kingdom chose to depart the European Union in a campaign shot through with anti-immigrant fervor, was seen by many as the first hint for many that Donald Trump could win in the United States. In Europe and here, right-wing nationalism was on the rise, riding a wave of xenophobia in the years since the 2008 financial collapse. Meanwhile, liberal and social-democratic parties were splintering apart, with forgotten leftists like Bernie... Читать дальше...