Historian: Trump Is the Anti-Wilson
President Trump is closing the curtain on the Wilsonian century, . At National Review, Herman quotes former President Woodrow Wilson’s worldview: To fight “for a universal dominion of right by which a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.” But to Trump, the purpose of US power is “to advance American interests, not humanity’s.” That’s not to say Wilsonianism has always been a disaster — Herman points to the r𒅌ighteous battles engaged by US intervention in the two World Wars, the Cold War and the war on terror — but Wilson turned the United States into a “globocop.” In Trump’s mind, “America is not a great cause, but a great power.”
Skeptic: Bitcoin Is Still Mainly for Scum
In 2014, bitcoin — the virtual currency beloved by drug runners and money launderers — dead. Yet now the value of an individual bitcoin is closing in on $10,000. So was Last wrong? Nope, he writes: “what’s behind the sudden rise in bitcoin’s valuation? Institutional investors and hedge funds have been drawn in by speculation.” Which means bitcoin “isn’t even really a currency anymore. It’s a commodity.” Best case for bitcoin is that it becomes digital gold — but “the economy already has actual gold.” Thus “bitcoin will probably settle on a value at some point ꧟and go back to being the go-to method of bartering for hackers, drug dealers, and prostitutes.”
Entertainment reporter: Oscar Needs To Hide Casey
Each year at the Oscars, the previous year’s winners award the new honors. So Casey Affleck’s status as reigning Best Actor leaves him set to announce the Best Actress award this year. Problem: Affleck’s been accused of sexual harassment and settled two such lawsuits, and we’ಌre still in the midst of a raft of high-profile Hollywood sex𓆉ual-assault scandals. “Kevin Spacey, Brett Ratner, Louis C.K., Jeffrey Tambor, Charlie Rose and a red carpet’s worth of men accused of inappropriate or abusive behavior — in some cases criminal in nature — have faced severe career consequences because of their actions,” . What to do about Affleck? “The idea of any of the mad-as-hell women in the industry forced to grin-and-bear congratulations from a man dogged by sexual harassment allegations is, tradition be damned, borderline cruel.” The solution, Fallon says: Forget tradition; send the message that “Things are changing.”
Election watch: No Love for Mitch
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon’s “war on the establishment” means🍌 candidates he recruits for the Senate are likely to oppose Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. But even in “red and purple states represented by Democratic senators where McConnell is hoping to pad his majority . . . the leading candidates are dodging questions about McConnell’s leadership or threatening to oppose him,” . One reason, Robillard explains, is that President Trump has “blamed him for the slow pace of Republican legislating, including the failure to repeal ObamaCare.” So even non-Bannonites want to keep tꦯheir distance. But Team McConnell says it’s seen this act before, and isn’t worried about McConnell’s leadership spot. Of course, if Republicans can push through some of the president’s agenda before the midterms, it will mute much of the criticism of McConnell’s ineffectuality.
Libertarian: How Hillary Helped the Slave Trade
“Black Africans are being sold in open-air slave markets, and it’s Hillary Clinton’s fault,” . Libya has be𒆙en mired in chaos ever since the 2011 NATO-led overthrow of Moammar Khaddafy, pushed for by then-Secretary of State Clinton. “We came, we saw, he died,” she joked in 2015. But Libyans aren’t laughing: “Libya, before Clinton got involved, was comparatively stable and no strategic threat to the United States or its allies. Now it’s a shambles, with people literally being sold in slave markets♛.” Says Reynolds: “It’s surprising the extent to which Clinton has gotten a pass for this debacle, which represents a humanitarian and strategic failure of the first order.”
— Compiled by Seth Mandel