[Christine M. Flowers] Attack on Scalise was a hate crime

I just got finished writing a column about how the internet is vile and vicious and people have become poisonous vipers in the privacy of their basements. It was in direct reaction to the blowback I received this week to my Bill Cosby essay, which, as my editor noted “broke the internet.”I think she gives me too much credit, because I have it on good authority that the internet is like the child-proof seal on over-the-counter medicine and can never be broken, but I appreciate the shout-out.And t

June 19, 2017

[David Ignatius] When there’s a family quarrel in the Middle East, ‘let Rex handle it’

The sudden embargo on Qatar pushed this month by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia has peeved the State Department and Pentagon, drawing sharp criticism of those two close Gulf allies.The Qatar flap has also opened a fascinating window on the inner workings of the Trump administration’s foreign policy. It’s a rare instance in which Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the quiet man in the Trump team, appears to have convinced the president to back off his initial course and, as a White Hous

June 18, 2017

[Noah Smith] The robot takeover is greatly exaggerated

There’s lots of fretting these days that automation will displace huge numbers of workers. It makes sense to be worried. Although adoption of machines in the past didn’t make human labor obsolete, there’s no guarantee that future technology will work the same. Maybe this is an issue in the long-term, but for now, at least, automation probably isn’t taking away many jobs.To hear me confidently declare that may come as a surprise to some, given the steady flow of articles sounding the alarm about

June 18, 2017

[Bernard-Henri Levy] Emmanuel Macron and the post-revolutionary idea

No, Parisian voters are not “vomitatious,” as the pathetic Henri Guaino proclaimed Monday after losing his seat in the National Assembly. Staying home from the polls, which we have been told for 30 years benefits the National Front, cannot now be used to explain the surge of La Republique en Marche!, French President Emmanuel Macron’s new political party. And no, Macron is not beginning a dictatorial career at 39, any more than Charles de Gaulle did at 67.In short, pretty much nothing said about

June 18, 2017

[Other view] How Asia can take the lead on climate

Ever since the US announced its withdrawal from the Paris agreement, China and India have been hailed for firmly recommitting to the global emissions pact. The praise is fair: It’s good that two of the world’s three biggest greenhouse-gas emitters have renewed their promise to act. But if they really hope to lead on climate, they’ll have to be more ambitious.Both countries were climate laggards until recently, prone to blaming the West for rising concentrations of greenhouse gases. Now they’re g

June 18, 2017

Is US ready for another Russian hacking?

Let’s put aside for a moment the question of whether anyone connected to President Donald Trump colluded with Russia in its attempts to hack the 2016 election. Let’s not get into an argument about whether the effort changed any votes, not to speak of the outcome. Let’s not even worry about whether Vladimir Putin himself was involved. The fact is, the hacking was massive, sophisticated and far more widespread than previously thought. According to a new report from Bloomberg, hackers broke into th

June 16, 2017

[Tyler Cowen] Economists’ view of Qatar cutoff is a little scary

Experts on international relations typically approach foreign affairs using different tools than economists use. The analysts -- with their knowledge rooted in a deep study of a particular country or region -- deploy complex, interdisciplinary models with many moving parts and less formalism. Economic models of foreign policy are more likely to assume some kind of rational behavior, use more game theory and treat the capture of wealth as a significant political end.Suffice to say, economic model

June 15, 2017

[Satyajit Das] The old are eating the young

Edmund Burke saw society as a partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are yet to be born. A failure to understand this relationship underlies a disturbing global tendency in recent decades, in which the appropriation of future wealth and resources for current consumption is increasingly disadvantaging future generations. Without a commitment to addressing this inequity, social tensions in many societies will rise sharply.Central to the issue is that the rapid

June 15, 2017

[Philippe Aghion & Benedicte Berner] How Macron keeps winning

Emmanuel Macron’s one-man revolution in French and European politics continued this weekend, as he will soon be able to add a huge parliamentary majority to his cause, if the results from the first round of the French parliamentary election hold. Such an outcome appears to be very likely.Eliminating the old “right-left” divide in French politics by uniting “reformists” of the left, the right, and the center, was the challenge that Macron set for himself when he created his En Marche! movement in

June 15, 2017

[Other view] Open protest against Putin is notable

Demonstrations in the streets of Russian cities and towns Monday, directed against the rule and culture of President Vladimir Putin, contradicted the image and role of him and his government in recent relations with the United States.The demonstrations were allegedly directed against Putin and the corruption and heavy-handed nature of his rule. He has been in power since 1999.They were allegedly directed by Putin’s best-known, relatively youthful opponent, Aleksei Navalny. On Monday he was promp

June 15, 2017

[James Kirchick] Britain’s election demonstrates perils of too much democracy

In this social media age, when every minutia of our lives can be voted thumbs up or down, the notion of there being “too much democracy” offends modern sensibilities. So conditioned are we to exalt individual choice that anyone who suggests certain policy decisions are best left to elected representatives (or -- gasp -- experts) risks the accusation of being a dread “elitist.”But Britain’s election last week reminds us that there is, in fact, such a thing as too much democracy.That some things s

June 14, 2017

[Adam Minter] China’ skyscraper age is over

At more than 600 meters, Shanghai Tower is the world’s second-tallest building. It looms over its neighbors -- the world’s ninth and 19th tallest buildings -- in a supercluster of supertall structures unlike any other in the world. The only problem? Finding people to work there: Only 60 percent of Shanghai Tower is rented out, and only a third of current tenants have actually occupied their leased space.In this sense, Shanghai Tower signifies the end of an era. Its plight suggests some major cha

June 14, 2017

[Jonathan Allen] Trump should admit his actions were wrong

Perhaps President Donald Trump didn’t technically obstruct justice when he fired James Comey, the FBI director who was investigating his associates and campaign. Maybe he did.Either way, Trump’s actions were scandalous. The US Congress and the American public should expect a higher standard of conduct from the American president than the bare-minimum bar of “it wasn’t technically illegal.”Comey, who at the time was the nation’s top criminal investigator, decided to take notes after his unusually

June 14, 2017

[Other view] Harvard unaccepts: The Ivy League school rejects for online awfulness

It’s amazing that 10 high school seniors smart enough to get into Harvard were also dumb enough to join a Facebook chat group called “Harvard memes for horny bourgeois teens.” 　According to the Harvard Crimson and other published reports, at least 10 acceptance letters for the Class of 2021 were rescinded after admissions investigated a tip that some incoming students were exchanging disturbing memes and images in a private Facebook chat room.　One can safely assume that the 10 now-uninvited stud

June 14, 2017