"Conscious Tool. Useful Idiot. Those Are the Choices"

"Whatever the balance of motivations, what mattered was that Trump's answers were indistinguishable from Putin's, starting with the fundamental claim that Putin's assurances about interference in U.S. democracy ('He was incredibly strong and confident in his denial') deserved belief over those of his own Department of Justice ('I think the probe is a disaster for our country').
I am old enough to remember Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon telling lies on TV, about Vietnam in both cases, and Watergate for Nixon. I remember the travails and deceptions of Bill Clinton, and of George W. Bush in the buildup to the disastrous Iraq War.
"But never before have I seen an American president consistently, repeatedly, publicly, and shockingly advance the interests of another country over those of his own government and people."

James Fallows at The Atlantic reacts to Donald Trump's bizarre press conference with Vladimir Putin.

"This Isn't About Big Government, It's About Smart Government"

"The United States is its own country, and no one expects it to become a Nordic utopia. But Nordic countries aren't utopias either. What they've done has little to do with culture, size, or homogeneity, and everything to do with figuring out how to flourish and compete in the 21st century. In the U.S., supporters of not only Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, but also of Donald Trump, are worried about exactly the kinds of problems that universal social policies can help solve: worsening income inequality, shrinking opportunity, the decline of the middle class, and the survival of the ordinary family in the face of globalization. What America needs right now, desperately, isn't to keep fighting the socialist bogeymen of the past, but to see the future—at least one presidential candidate should show them that."

Anu Partanen in The Atlantic explains how Scandinavian social policies are driven by enlightened self-interest.

And Marian Tupy connects Sanders to social democracy..

A Bird in Flight

"Referring to the Miesian 'glass box' idiom popular at that time, he said, 'I cannot help but think that it's only the ABC of the alphabet, that architecture, if we're to bloom into a full, really great style of architecture, which I think we will, we have to learn many more letters.'"

Witold Rybczynski in Slate presents a slideshow about architect and designer Eero Saarinen.