Good morning.
The week winds down in Whitewater with partly cloudy skies and a high of sixty-six. Sunrise is 6:52 AM and sunset 4:28 PM, for 9h 36m 11s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 79.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
Worth reading in full:
Brendan Nyhan asks Is the Slide Into Tribal Politics Inevitable?: “Donald J. Trump’s victory could well push the American party system toward a clash between an overwhelmingly white ethnic party and a cosmopolitan coalition of minority groups and college-educated whites….Mr. Trump’s campaign may set in motion a process that reorients American politics toward the cosmopolitanism versus nationalism divide that he emphasized, reconfiguring our party system and shaping our politics for decades to come. The power of social identity suggests that such a dynamic could be difficult to stop once set in motion…Despite all the attention paid to economic anxiety as the basis for Mr. Trump’s appeal, the evidence to date is more consistent with his brand of identity politics being the most important cause of this shift in voting patterns from 2012 (though of course economic anxiety and group animus are not mutually exclusive).”
Conservative Jennifer Rubin wonders Who will stand up to Trump?: “Over and over again during the campaign, GOP Senate and House incumbents and challengers swore up and down that they would speak up and act as a brake on Trump. They have done virtually nothing so far. If they don’t keep their word, voters in 2018 and 2020 should boot them out. Conscientious center-right candidates should be prepared to challenge spineless Republicans in the primaries or general elections. There may even be instances in which a sensible centrist Democrat needs defending or support to bolster the backstop against Trump excesses. Millennials, in particular, should be prepared to go up against the new insiders, the Trumpkinized GOP. Remember, dissent can be the highest form of patriotism.”
At Reason, Shikha Dalmia explains Why Minorities Will Save American Constitutional Traditions in the Age of Trump: “The American right has long been telling itself a simple morality tale that goes something like this: The white Christian establishment is the original source and continuing guardian of America’s tradition of liberty, free markets and limited government and minorities are a threat to it because they don’t share the same attachments. One of the major arguments that restrictionist right-wing pundits make for clamping down on immigration is that immigrants, hailing from Big Government countries, dilute these American principles. This has always been nonsense. But Donald Trump’s election has turned this story on its head given that whites are the ones who voted for him because they wanted economic nationalism and protectionism….Trump is a natural authoritarian who ran on a platform that blended populist economic policies with an aggressive law-and-order state. So he has promised to shut down trade and immigration to protect the American working class and use the strong arm of the government to bend businesses to his will – forcing them to stay in the country and hire workers at wages he mandates. (Hence his flirtation late in the campaign with a $15 minimum wage, even though it departs from his party’s orthodoxy.)”
For Russia, The Hacking Must Go On: “The U.S. election may be over, but Russia is still hacking the United States. But the goal appears to have shifted from sowing chaos to gathering intelligence — at least for the time being. According to cybersecurity experts, the November 9 attacks was carried out by the hacking group known as Cozy Bear, which is believed to be tied to the FSB. It targeted think tanks, NGOs, and academic researchers focusing on international security issues. And according to the same experts, it specifically targeted people who may be associated with the incoming U.S. administration…Vladimir Putin clearly believes he is on a roll, racking up one victory after another over the West. He sees his goal of undermining NATO, the EU, transatlantic relations, and the post-Cold War security order as being in sight. And he’s not going to let up until he reaches it.”
Visitors to Central Park will notice a new welcoming committee:
A giant gang of 22 raccoons are taking over Central Park: https://t.co/N0Yfvvlfsy pic.twitter.com/V4magka3aV
— Time Out New York (@TimeOutNewYork) November 17, 2016
@TimeOutNewYork @iceblinkIuck this is no lie pic.twitter.com/oIaqlVPP15
— :O) (@sweetcartilage) November 17, 2016