The enablers: Ivanka Trump, it appears, sees herself as a force for good in the White House, a “formal-yet-informal ambassador for generalized human kindness.” But there’s no real proof that she and her husband have done anything positive for the country, Dahlia Lithwick writes, and ultimately it boils down to this: Ivanka and Jared legitimize and humanize Donald, and they are complicit in his actions.
When the world almost ended: Many experts are concerned that the United States and Russia could stumble into a war. But why? J. Peter Scoblic and Nate Jones report on an episode in 1983 when the U.S. simulated a nuclear war with Russia and almost triggered a real one. It’s worth revisiting a situation with modern parallels to understand the importance of humility and restraint in tense moments of conflict, they write.
Puppy-haters and Lincoln-bashers: On Tuesday, three North Carolina legislators filed a bill that would outlaw same-sex marriage in the state—and that had no hope in passing. Mark Joseph Stern wanted to know what kind of people would waste their time and energy drafting legislation that was so clearly destined to fail, so he gathered their most noteworthy insights and achievements, including bashing Lincoln and supporting abusive puppy mills.
Fearless Girl should go: The sculptor behind Wall Street’s Charging Bull statue called on New York City to remove Fearless Girl, a symbol of women braving a male-dominated field, which directly faces his artwork. Mayor Bill de Blasio criticized the sculptor, but Christina Cauterucci argues that the artist is right: The statue has unfairly altered the nature of his work. Further, Fearless Girl only represents a shallow, apolitical version of feminism anyway.
For fun: Rex Tillerson can’t stop photobombing carefully composed photos of rooms and tarmacs.
Fearlessly,
Molly
