Новости за 17.07.2017

Paul Begala, the Democratic consultant and longtime adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, is a reliable bellwether for the party’s centrist wing. As such, Begala rarely surprises, but last week he made a startling remark about how the U.S. should respond to Russian interference in last year’s presidential election. “We were and are under attack by a hostile foreign power,” Begala said on CNN, where he’s a contributor. “We should be debating how many sanctions we should place on Russia or whether... Читать дальше...

Each Monday, Clio Chang, Sarah Jones, Alex Shephard, and Ryu Spaeth will discuss the newest episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones, which is in its seventh and penultimate season. Join us as we chat about the latest plot developments, Ed Sheeran, and the possibilities of ice dragons.

“I have a natural horror of letting people see how my mind works,” a 23-year-old John Ashbery wrote to the painter Jane Freilicher in 1950. It’s not a surprising sentiment. Ashbery, who will turn 90 at the end of this month, has always been a notoriously elusive poet. His work combines a tone of intimacy and revelation with an intractable obscurity: It is just forthcoming enough to make you realize how much is held back.

In 1656, in the aftermath of the English Civil War, the political theorist James Harrington outlined an ideal form of government. In The Commonwealth of Oceana, he imagined a country that, like his own, had overthrown its monarch and was now governed by its own people in their common interest. Harrington recognized that it would be hard to divide power equally throughout this new society. In “class warfare” constitutions—those that split power between the nobility and the people—one group inevitably came to dominate the other... Читать дальше...

If a government’s finances, as economist Joseph Schumpeter once wrote, strip away rhetoric to lay bare the true “spirit” of a people, then President Donald Trump’s first full budget proposal reveals a nation that is bombastic and fearful, grandiose and uncertain. Regardless of what actually makes it through Congress, the suggested cuts—$616 billion from health insurance for the poor, $140 billion from student loans, more than $190 billion from food stamps—outline a vision of government based on... Читать дальше...

Like all Republicans these days, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan can’t avoid questions about President Donald Trump. He’s just worked, more assiduously than most, to avoid answering them. During a recent Fourth of July parade, a reporter asked for his opinion about a White House commission’s request for states to hand over extensive personal information on voters. The day before, Maryland’s Board of Elections had denied the request.

Andrew Cuomo should be riding high. As a two-term Democratic governor of one of America’s biggest states, he is considered one of the few clear frontrunners for his party’s 2020 nomination. Earlier this month, in fact, Politico published a profile that framed Cuomo—“a muscular, messy, rough-edged leader shouting for the common man,” in David Freedlander’s description—as the Democrat best positioned to beat President Donald Trump. Cuomo seems to agree. After making a great show of refusing to even entertain the idea of running for president... Читать дальше...

We are now well into a phase of the Trump-Russia collusion scandal where denials are giving way to ridiculous and in many ways contradictory forms of spin and excuse-making.