- Trump and Staff Rethink Tactics After Stumbles (NYT) "Until the past few days, Mr. Trump was telling his friends and advisers that he believed the opening stages of his presidency were going well. But his opinion has begun to change with a relentless parade of bad headlines. Mr. Trump got away from the White House this weekend for the first time since his inauguration... By then, the president, for whom chains of command and policy minutiae rarely meant much, was demanding that Mr. Priebus begin to implement a much more conventional White House protocol that had been taken for granted in previous administrations: From now on, Mr. Trump would be looped in on the drafting of executive orders much earlier in the process. Another change will be a new set of checks on the previously unfettered power enjoyed by Mr. Bannon and the White House policy director, Stephen Miller... Mr. Priebus has told Mr. Trump and Mr. Bannon that the administration needs to rethink its policy and communications operation in the wake of embarrassing revelations... But for the moment, Mr. Bannon remains the president’s dominant adviser, despite Mr. Trump’s anger that he was not fully briefed on details of the executive order he signed giving his chief strategist a seat on the National Security Council, a greater source of frustration to the president than the fallout from the travel ban."
- The very peculiar isolation of Donald Trump (WaPo) "...the image of Trump as an almost entirely solitary figure, riveted to a TV set and his phone is a revealing and important window into the man and the life he now lives. The simple fact is that Trump has never had real friends in the sense you or I think of the term. What is also true is that Trump is, in an odd sort of way, a reclusive family man. He is someone who likes routine and likes to be around his family. That family bubble has been disrupted by Trump's election. Without the comfort of Trump Tower and robbed of the proximity of his family, Trump is a man apart. He has cable TV, his phone and Twitter. But he lacks a group of friends or confidantes — again, outside of his immediate family — with whom he can have dinner or just chat. He is isolated — and in the most high-powered and high stress job in the world. That's a very tough place to be."
BUSINESS:
- After Trump moves to undo financial regulations, Sanders calls him ‘a fraud’ (WaPo) "'This guy is a fraud,' Sanders (I-Vt.) said on CNN’s 'State of the Union.' 'This guy ran for president of the United States saying, ‘I, Donald Trump, I’m going to take on Wall Street. These guys are getting away with murder.’ Then suddenly he appoints all these billionaires, his major financial adviser comes from Goldman Sachs, and now he’s going to dismantle legislation that protects consumers.'"
- When the Feds Went After a Hedge-Fund Legend (New Yorker) "On November 4th, Bharara announced that the government and S.A.C. had reached a final settlement. The firm had agreed to pay $1.8 billion. The settlement would also include a guilty plea by S.A.C.— an admission, in court, that the firm had done what the government was accusing it of. A few days later, S.A.C. registered its guilty plea before a federal judge. In 2016, he [Steve Cohen) reached an agreement with the S.E.C. that allowed him to return to the hedge-fund business in 2018. And, of course, Donald Trump won the Presidency, promising to drastically cut back on financial regulation. According to news accounts, Cohen’s new legal counsel worked briefly as part of Trump’s transition team. The result of the government’s nearly ten-year battle against Cohen’s empire was looking increasingly like a momentary setback."
IMMIGRATION EXECUTIVE ORDER:
- Kerry, Panetta, ex-CIA officials tell court Trump order will ‘endanger troops in the field’ (WaPo) "The 6-page joint declaration was addressed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in support of the temporary order blocking implementation of Trump’s ban on entry for travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries. While the declaration by the officials is not part of the formal pleading in the case, it is clearly meant to counter the government’s argument that continuing to block Trump’s executive action will cause great harm to the nation’s security. Numerous 'friend of the court' briefs have been filed in case as well, the latest by 97 major tech companies."
- 97 companies file opposition to Trump’s immigration order (TechCrunch) "The amicus brief will highlight the contributions of immigrants to the tech economy while stressing the immigration controls already in place. The companies intend to argue that Trump’s order is discriminatory and will have a negative impact on American businesses."
- Not Everyone in Tech Cheers Visa Program for Foreign Workers (NYT) "In other words, it’s true that cheaper labor helps employers increase profits and grow, and having more skilled workers in the United States contributes to economic innovation. But at the same time, individual American employees do face more salary pressure from newcomers who will work for less. And in some cases, they risk losing their jobs entirely, especially older employees who earn higher salaries."
NEWS:
- The big lesson of Trump's first 2 weeks: resistance works (Vox) "Not only have the resisters already markedly altered the trajectory of public policy, they have begun to make a difference in each other’s lives and their own conceptions of themselves. And this is the greatest threat to the Trump movement. For the moment, Trumpism holds the vast preponderance of political power despite its thin electoral base. That means Trumpism will make progress, even in the face of effective resistance. Republicans control the White House, the Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives, and liberals will find that on many issues there is simply nothing they can do to halt the advance of conservative policy. The Republican Party is in a position of enormous power but also tremendous vulnerability."
- President Trump’s simplistic, illogical worldview, in one tweet (WaPo) "'Any negative polls are fake news.' This is Trump signaling to his supporters that they are to dismiss any bad news about him. Never mind the methodology of a given poll or how Trump is actually doing as president; if something is negative, it has to be wrong. Trump insists in his next tweet that he relies on the 'accumulation of data' to make his decisions, but in this tweet, he is expressing contempt for any data that don't fit his preconceived notions or desires. Poll-doubterism is an increasingly popular practice in this country, given how wrong some polls were in the 2016 election. But his approach just has no basis in logic. It's almost alogical, rather than illogical.The total picture is of a president who simply isn't doing all that well in the eyes of the American people — to varying degrees. On this point, the polls are almost completely united."
- The Finger on the Nuclear Button (NYT) "Scientists who study the risk of nuclear war recently moved the hands of the symbolic Doomsday Clock to 2½ minutes before midnight — meaning they believe that the world is closer to nuclear catastrophe than it has been since 1953 after the United States and Soviet Union tested hydrogen bombs. Mr. Trump came to office with little knowledge of the vast nuclear arsenal and the missiles, bombers and submarines it contains. He has spoken, alarmingly, about deploying this weaponry against terrorists and about expanding America’s nuclear capabilities. He has said he values unpredictability, meaning presumably that he wants to keep other nations on edge about whether he will use nuclear weapons. 'Let it be an arms race,' he told a television interviewer in December. During a debate three months earlier he contradicted himself, saying that 'I would certainly not do first strike,' then adding, 'I can’t take anything off the table.' What’s worrisome about all this is that it is the opposite of what Republican and Democratic presidents have long sought, which is to ensure that these weapons are not used precipitously if at all."
- Executive Power Run Amok (NYT) "As an official in the Justice Department, I followed in Hamilton’s footsteps, advising that President George W. Bush could take vigorous, perhaps extreme, measures to protect the nation after the Sept. 11 attacks, including invading Afghanistan, opening the Guantánamo detention center and conducting military trials and enhanced interrogation of terrorist leaders. Likewise, I supported President Barack Obama when he drew on this source of constitutional power for drone attacks and foreign electronic surveillance. But even I have grave concerns about Mr. Trump’s uses of presidential power."
- I Was on the National Security Council. Bannon Doesn’t Belong There (NYT) "In my experience there are very few — if any — meetings of the principals committee at which the input of the military and the intelligence community is not vital. The second much needed adjustment to Mr. Trump’s arrangement of the council is the removal of Mr. Bannon from the principals committee. Putting aside for a moment Mr. Bannon’s troubling public positions, which are worrisome enough, institutionalizing his attendance threatens to politicize national security decision making."
- The Trump administration has sprung a leak. Many of them, in fact (WaPo) "Every presidential administration leaks. So far, the Trump White House has gushed. The pattern of leaks to these organizations suggests the leakers are seeking not just wide distribution of confidential information but are hoping to gain the credibility conveyed by establishment news organizations... They also suggest the extent of rivalries and some possible misgivings within Trump’s inner circle about policies and would-be policies. Other reporters say the leaks reflect a certain degree of chaos within the new administration, with factions warily circling one another. But others see the leaks as whistleblowing — an effort to expose Trump’s initiatives before they become policy. Of course, the leaks could also be trial balloons launched by the administration."
- Donald Trump’s Big League Balkans Problem (Foreign Policy) "These growing tensions boiled over suddenly this month when Serbia tried to send a new, Russian-donated train from Belgrade to Mitrovica. The train, adorned with icons from Serbian Orthodox monasteries in Kosovo and plastered with the provocative slogan 'Kosovo is Serbia' in 21 languages, was stopped just before the disputed border, after Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said ethnic Albanians had put dynamite on the tracks. The Kosovo government sent special police units to the border to block the train from entry. Regardless of the reason for the escalation, however, Bieber said the progress made since 2011 in the EU-brokered negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia, which are intended to result in 'normalization of relations,' could now be upended. Keeping negotiations on track requires a strong EU, supported by the United States. 'If the U.S. sends other signals, that brings ambiguity, and there is at least a risk that the process might falter,' Bieber said."
- Trump’s populism is about creating division, not unity (WaPo) "Trump's brand of populism thrives in this climate of hysteria and fear. It is allergic to talk of pluralism or multiculturalism, notes Jan-Werner Müller, a Princeton political scientist and author of a widely-acclaimed recent book on populism. 'It is actually in Trump’s interest to see clashes on America’s streets,' he warns."
- Information is garbage (TechCrunch) "The milieu in which Technopoly flourishes is one in which the tie between information and human purpose has been severed, i.e., information appears indiscriminately, directed at no one in particular, in enormous volume and at high speeds, and disconnected from theory, meaning, or purpose."
SCIENCE:
- Is a mission to Mars morally defensible given today’s real needs? (Aeon) "Musk estimates the cost of the Mars mission at around $10 billion per person. His goal is to reduce that cost to $200,000 per person. He said this would allow ‘almost anyone’ to save up and buy a trip to Mars. At the risk of labouring the obvious, aren’t there better ways to spend the money? For $10 billion dollars, the U.S. could fully deploy positive train-control systems that would avoid such tragic accidents as recently seen in Philadelphia and Hoboken in New Jersey. For $1.5 billion, we could upgrade the lead-contaminated water infrastructure in Flint, Michigan; for $400 billion, we could repair the water infrastructure of the entire U.S. Lucianne Walkowicz, an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and a critic of the ‘hubris’ of using Mars as a ‘backup planet’, puts this point simply and directly: ‘The idea that Mars will somehow save us from the decisions we’ve made is a false one.’ If we ‘truly believe in our ability to bend the hostile environments of Mars for human habitation, then we should be able to surmount the far easier task of preserving the habitability of the Earth.’"
SPORTS:
- Tom Brady rejected NFL’s medical culture. At almost 40, he’s never played better (WaPo) "Brady’s far more revolutionary act has been to seize control of his own body... Somewhere around a decade ago, Brady told the NFL doctors and trainers to get their hands off him... Credit for his remarkable longevity goes, whether anyone likes it or not, to the fact that he sought out an unconventional eastern-medicine masseuse-trainer, Alex Guerrero, at whom NFL doctors look askance."
TECHNOLOGY:
- A history of the Amiga, part 10: The downfall of Commodore (Ars Technica) "At its announcement in 1985, the Amiga was years ahead of its time. It had features like preemptive multitasking, a color GUI, and hardware graphics and sound acceleration that would not become mainstream on computers until over a decade later. In the end, Commodore imploded, and it was a sad thing. But the Amiga itself, although it would never challenge for market share again, would survive the death of its parent company. It was a dream given form: a personal computer that was fast and friendly and responsive, that multitasked well, that played great games, and that behaved in a way that made its owners not just fans but fanatics. Today, it is neither gone nor forgotten."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- Forget lessons, these smart skis are loaded with artificial intelligence (Mashable)
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