Obstruction Inquiry Shows Trump’s Struggle to Keep Grip on Russia Investigation

By Michael S. Schmidt @ NYTimes.com, 25 minutes ago

• The special counsel’s investigation has uncovered several incidents involving President Trump that raise questions about whether he obstructed justice.
• Mr. Trump is said to have instructed the White House’s top lawyer to stop Attorney General Jeff Sessions from recusing himself.

Many have compared Trump's administration to House of Cards, but Michael Wolff's reporting suggests that it's more like Veep--if Selina Meyer were a doddering nincompoop. The White House is plagued not by Machiavellian intrigue but by petty feuds and backstabbing that has flourished in the leadership vacuum like e coli in petri dish.

Reigning over all of this was Trump, enigma, cipher and disruptor. How to get along with Trump — who veered between a kind of blissed-out pleasure of being in the Oval Office and a deep, childish frustration that he couldn't have what he wanted? Here was a man singularly focused on his own needs for instant gratification, be that a hamburger, a segment on Fox & Friends or an Oval Office photo opp. "I want a win. I want a win. Where's my win?" he would regularly declaim. He was, in words used by almost every member of the senior staff on repeated occasions, "like a child." A chronic naysayer, Trump himself stoked constant discord with his daily after-dinner phone calls to his billionaire friends about the disloyalty and incompetence around him. His billionaire friends then shared this with their billionaire friends, creating the endless leaks which the president so furiously railed against.

My Life as a New York Times Reporter in the Shadow of the War On Terror

by James Risen

Congratulation time for the Narcissist in Chief ! Exquisite, fantastic, the best !

Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018

Trump’s first year in office revived an age-old debate about why some people choose race over class—and how far they will go to protect the system.

By Joshua Zeitz for "How Trump Changed History" series @ Politico Magazine, Dec 31

[....] This Politico Magazine series, to be published in three installments over the next few weeks, will look at three historical debates that simmered on low heat for years, until the historic presidential election of November 2016 brought them back to a boil. These debates are foundational. They concern race and identity. National character. The dark side of populism. They drive at the core meaning of American citizenship.

The first in this series, perhaps the most fundamental, centers around the white working class. Are working-class white voters shooting themselves in the foot by making common cause with a political movement that is fundamentally inimical to their economic self-interest? [....]

Don't call it "atheism" - that's tainted. But Trump will be the last (scandalized and hypocritical) hurrah for American religion. They gambled their future on a huckster, and you can't put that genie back in the box, certainly not in the internet age, even if a generation of post-millennials weren't already going to kill it.

But look at the revolt in Iran - same thing. Decades lost trying to revert to medieval times. The kids are pissed - they know how to Google and chat - they can look at history and what's important.

God may not be dead, but he/she's being marginalized and secularized every day. Probably 2/3 of those getting the vote each year don't seriously believe in God, and 90+% of thise dying each year do. God is beeing overtaken by math.

By Abigail Geiger @ Pew Research Center, Dec. 26

Pew Research Center studies a wide array of topics both in the U.S. and around the world, and every year we are struck by particular findings. Sometimes they mark a new milestone in public opinion; other times a sudden about-face. From an increase in Americans living without a spouse or partner to the impact of Donald Trump’s presidency, here are 17 findings that stood out to us in 2017: [.....]