Michael Boyle's weblog
Really? Seems like cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face, no?
On Thursday, the U.S. State Department announced that it expected to run out of special visas by June 1. The visas are for Afghans who are in danger because they assisted the U.S. mission.
This is an optimistic article, but there are already conspiracy theories that Obama is running a “shadow government” and derailing everything Trump tries (or not) to do. So it’s not clear to me that this administration can’t insulate itself from such practical but mundane problems.
What President Trump has done and said in his short time in office is bad enough. But Democrats may find that it is what Trump has failed to do — and is likely to continue to fail to deliver — during his tenure that provides the most powerful case against him.
Source: The winning argument Democrats have against Trump – The Washington Post
Another interesting article from Foreign Policy:
The shallow state, on the other hand, is unsettling because not only are the signs of it ever more visible but because its influence is clearly growing. It is made scarier still because it not only actively eschews experience, knowledge, relationships, insight, craft, special skills, tradition, and shared values but because it celebrates its ignorance of and disdain for those things. Donald Trump, champion and avatar of the shallow state, has won power because his supporters are threatened by what they don’t understand, and what they don’t understand is almost everything.
Source: FP: The Shallow State
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Intelligence Committee has sent formal requests to more than a dozen organizations, agencies and individuals, asking them to preserve all materials related to the committee’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and related issues, according to a congressional aide.
Source: Aide: Senators Want Materials Saved For Probe Into Russian Election Interference
This is an important piece on the new reality from media thinker extraordinaire Jay Rosen:
Trump is thus revising the Presidency before our eyes. In his grip, it no longer attempts to muffle anxiety about the President and make people around the world feel okay about granting one person such enormous, unthinkable and inhuman powers. Instead, a new model is proposed: the president keeps everyone in a constant state of excitement and alarm. He moves fast and breaks things. He leads by causing commotion.
Source: Jay Rosen – PressThink
