Issue March 17, 2017 - The Week Magazine (2024)

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In This IssueEditor’s letterIn the age of Trump, there’s no escape from partisan politics. Americans can’t even work out without witnessing squabbles over the president. A YMCA gym in Greater Scranton, Pa., banned 24-hour news networks from its TVs last week because members kept having heated political quarrels that threatened to turn into fistfights. “Turning off the news,” the YMCA said, “could help lower stress levels.” The workplace has become another battleground. Since the election, nearly 50 percent of workers have seen political discussions between colleagues turn into arguments, according to a survey by software firm BetterWorks. Those clashes continue outside office hours. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 16 percent of Americans had stopped talking to a family member or friend because of the presidential contest. Gayle McCor mick, a 73-year-old retired…1 min

NEWSTrump accuses Obama of illegal wiretapWhat happenedPresident Donald Trump once again threw Washington into an uproar this week when he accused his predecessor of orchestrating a “Nixon/Watergate” plot to tap his phone during the election. “Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory,” the president tweeted at 3:35 a.m. on Saturday. “Bad (or sick) guy!” The incendiary allegation, offered without any evidence, was immediately denied by President Obama, who released a statement declaring that neither he nor any White House official “ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen.” Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he was unaware of any wiretaps placed on Trump Tower. FBI Director James Comey reportedly urged the Justice Department to publicly refute the allegations of wiretapping. Trump’s spokesman Sean Spicer said…4 min

NEWSWhat next?The congressional investigations into Russia’s meddling are now “in full swing,” said Austin Wright and Martin Matishak in Politico.com. The House Intelligence Committee has scheduled its first public hearing for March 20, and has asked for testimony from Comey, Clapper, and former CIA Director John Brennan. Democrats are planning to use that hearing to ask Comey directly about Trump’s wiretapping allegations, said Katie Bo Williams in TheHill.com. “We should be able to determine in fairly short order,” says Rep. Adam Schiff, “whether this allegation is true or false.”…1 min

NEWSRepublicans face a revolt over health billWhat happenedThe long-awaited House GOP bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act was met with fierce opposition from across the political spectrum this week, with staunch conservatives denouncing it as “Obamacare lite” and Democrats warning that it would strip millions of Americans of coverage. The new bill, known as the American Health Care Act, keeps some popular Obamacare features, like prohibiting insurers from denying policies for pre-existing conditions. But it replaces the existing system of income-based premium subsidies with age-based tax credits of $2,000 for a young person to $4,000 a year for those in their 60s. Because those credits are lower than most subsidies, analysts estimate that between 2 million to 20 million people might become uninsured because they could no longer afford coverage. The bill scraps…3 min

NEWSIt wasn’t all bad▪ An Alabama teenager is being▪ For a 5-year-old, Edith Fuller sure has a way with words. The little Oklahoman last week became the youngest-ever competitor to secure a spot at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which begins May 28. Edith clinched her place by correctly spelling jnana—ammy asks me a word, and every time I misspell one,” she says, “I will look at it.”▪ When Johnny Jennings was 18, he made a life-changing visit to a Georgia Baptist children’s home. Several children ran up to him and asked to be adopted. “That took my heart, right there,” he says. While Jennings wasn’t ready to adopt, he promised to do everything $400,000,” says Jennings’ son, Brent. “He sees the faces of those kids.”…1 min

NEWSTrump and Russia: What do we really know?The full story of President Trump’s cozy connections to Russia has yet to be revealed, said Jonathan Chait in NYMag.com, but the available evidence is damning. We know that Russia tried to swing the 2016 election to Trump by hacking the Clinton campaign’s emails and distributing them via WikiLeaks. We know Trump adviser Roger Stone boasted of “advance knowledge” of WikiLeaks’ schedule for publishing the hacked emails and even who would be targeted. We know that many of Trump’s inner circle—including former campaign chief Paul Manafort—have business ties to Russia. We know that J.D. Gordon, a Trump campaign official, now admits he engineered a change in the Republican Party platform to remove a recommendation that the U.S. send weapons to anti-Russian forces in Ukraine. And we know that despite earlier,…3 min

Issue March 17, 2017 - The Week Magazine (2024)

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