Hillary Clinton’s Thursday speech on Donald Trump and the so-called alt-right movement tossed a number of life preservers to Republicans who might want to disassociate themselves from Trumpism, Will Saletan writes. “The speech was Clinton’s clearest signal yet as to how she plans to govern the country,” Saletan argues. “She’s not using Trump to try to take down the whole Republican Party. She’s not going to tie him around the necks of House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the rest of the congressional GOP. She plans to work with these men.”
In the Arizona Republican Senate primary, Kelli Ward’s tactic of reminding everyone that her opponent John McCain is super old isn’t working to gain her traction in the polls. Donald Trump’s attempt to get everyone to think of Hillary Clinton as a doddering senior citizen isn’t working in the national election, either—so why do the candidates persist with this strategy? Jim Newell has a theory: “Conservative media has been the lifeblood of Ward’s campaign, and with Trump’s hiring of Steve Bannon, it is in direct operational control of the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign,” Newell points out. “And so crappy attacks, workshopped inside the conservative tabloid media bubble, get greenlit even if they confuse 70 percent of the electorate.”
Nike’s danceable “Da Da Ding” ad, which ran during the Olympics, features a parade of beautiful, empowered women of color. But in Vietnam, where a large portion of the company’s shoes are made, female workers at Nike suppliers find themselves belittled and threatened in the workplace, unable to put their children in safe day care, and powerless to make change. Maria Hengeveld spoke with 18 of them.
Advice for all college students: The one thing you should never say to a professor is “I need this grade.” Rebecca Schuman explains why.
For fun: Ransom Riggs, author of the Miss Peregrine trilogy, interviewed by an 11-year-old superfan.
Most peculiar,
Rebecca
