Foreign desk: How ‘Collusion’ Became an ‘Israeli Plot’
The report that ex-Trump adviser George Papadopoulos risked being named by Robert Mueller as an agent of the Israeli government has set conspiracy theorists off. Typical was former National Security Agency analyst John Schindler, who quotes an intel colleague wondering whether the Trump campaign was “an Israeli operation masquerading as a Russian one” in the Observer. When in 2016 Papadopoulos told an Australian official the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton, an Israeli supposedly introduced them. At Tablet, Lee Smith notes why conspiracists eventually blame the Jews: “As the conspiracy theorists struggle to explain or reconcile contradictions in their accounts, the pull towards the deus ex machina of all conspiracy theories — the powerful, wealthy, rootless, cosmopolitan wanderers of the earth — only gets stronger.”
From the left: Suicide Rash Shows US Culture Is Sick
At USA Today, Kirsten Powers takes aim at American culture’s habit of “pathologizing” the despondence many feel, as illustrated by the rise in suicides. It’s not that all such cases are the same, but that the widespread epidemic is evidence that something is rotten in our culture itself. “We exist largely disconnected from our extended families, friends and communities — except in the shallow interactions of social media — because we are too busy trying to ‘make it’ without realizing that once we reach that goal, it won’t be enough,” she writes. Indeed, such “emotional suffering” is actually a “rational response to a culture that values people based on ever escalating financial and personal achievements.” The culture, not just individuals needs healing.
Physicist: Search for Life on Mars Just Got Boost
“NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered organic compounds — molecules containing carbon and hydrogen, along with other elements — on Mars, and this is good news in the search for life,” reports Cornell prof Jonathan Lunine at CNN. While this isn’t proof of life itself having existed on Mars, he notes, it is a significant step in determining whether it once did because it means these organic molecules “survived only inches below Mars’ surface, a surface where the radiation that penetrates the thin Martian atmosphere easily destroys organic molecules.” The question is whether the molecules, likely preserved by sulfur in the soil, got there via biology or geology. “Curiosity’s discoveries . . . have in a single stroke made the Red Planet a much more interesting target in the search for life.”
From the right: Trump Follows His Predecessors’ Norms
On Friday, the Trump administration announced it would stop defending provisions of ObamaCare it deemed unconstitutional. The Washington Post, New York Times and others portrayed this as an unprecedented abandonment of President Trump’s constitutional duties. Both are wrong, according to David French at National Review. Trump should defend the law unless it’s truly frivolous — but the problem is Trump following precedent, not breaking it: “In 2011, the Obama administration declined to defend Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act — which defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman for purposes of federal law.” Same goes for Trump’s “politicized” pardons, investigations into journalists and military strikes without congressional authorization. Says French: “It’s becoming increasingly clear that America actually needs the federal government to depart from previous norms and restore constitutional values.”
Culture file: You’re Not Who You Are Online
Are you the person you appear to be on social media? Probably not, says Julieanne Smolinski at The Cut. “The gap between public and private personae used to be the exclusive concern of entertainers,” but now that discrepancy applies widely — and it’s having a negative impact on the dating scene, so centered on online engagement and presentation. “I’ve had to defend friends to the friends I’m trying to set them up with by saying things like ‘She’s not like this in person.’ It is possible to excessively photograph your cat and be lovely to spend time with. It would be cool if we could just maybe start giving people the benefit of the doubt on this.” Of course, she concludes, it’s normal to promote a certain version of yourself, just remember others will, too.
— Compiled by Seth Mandel
