Pondering the Pundits

Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from> around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

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Paul Krugman: Bumbling Into a Trade War

“Trade wars are good, and easy to win.” So declared Donald Trump a few weeks ago, after announcing tariffs on steel and aluminum. Actually, trade wars are rarely good, and not at all easy to win — especially if you have no idea what you’re doing. And boy, do these people not know what they’re doing.

It’s odd, in a way. After all, trade is clearly an issue about which Trump is truly passionate. He tried to kill Obamacare, but to all appearances his main concern was tarnishing his predecessor’s legacy. He wanted a tax cut, but more to score a “win” than because he cared about what was in it. But reducing the trade deficit has been a long-term Trump obsession, so you might expect him to learn something about how world trade works, or at least surround himself with people who do understand the subject.

But he hasn’t. And what he doesn’t know can and will hurt you.

Eugene Robinson: Block Gina Haspel. Don’t reward her for torture.

President Trump vowed during his campaign to bring back torture as a weapon against terrorism. Now the Senate must stop him from installing as CIA director a woman whose résumé includes overseeing a disgraceful episode of torture — and then joining in a cowardly effort to cover it up.

This should not be a close call. In other respects, Trump’s nominee, CIA veteran Gina Haspel, seems to have been an exemplary public servant. But that’s like saying that except for one unfortunate incident, Mrs. Lincoln had a lovely night at the theater. The torture of suspected terrorists was a singular transgression of this nation’s values — as well as a violation of U.S. and international law — and it simply cannot be rationalized or ignored.

This obscene chapter in our history took place during the George W. Bush administration. For a time, Haspel was in charge of one of the CIA’s secret overseas prisons — a “black site” located in Thailand. She is credibly reported to have been the boss there when a detainee named Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged planner of the deadly attack against the USS Cole, was subjected three times to the torture known as waterboarding.

Tim Wu: If You Love High TV Bills, This is the Merger for You

With so much attention on tech giants, it is almost possible to overlook the doings of AT&T, the once fearsome telephone monopolist. Even in an age of bigness, it is a behemoth. Its revenue, $160 billion in 2017, is four times that of Facebook. And AT&T boasts 166 million paying wireless and video subscribers in the United States.

And yet the company wants to build an even bigger empire. AT&T is seeking to acquire another giant, Time Warner, the owner of HBO, CNN, Turner Networks, the Warner Bros. studios and DC Comics, among other media properties. Their planned merger would create a union of pipes (AT&T) and content (Time Warner) that would be the largest such company in the world.

After years of approving far too many mergers — consider the airline industry — the Justice Department has challenged AT&T’s plan under antitrust laws and delivered its opening arguments against the merger in Federal District Court in Washington on Thursday. According to the department, the merger is broadly anticompetitive and would raise the costs of television for consumers across the nation by an estimated $436 million per year, or 45 cents a month per subscriber. AT&T calls that number “insubstantial” and “negligible” relative to what Americans pay for television.

Catherine Rampell: Trump embraces the dumb way to deal with China

Look. The Trump administration isn’t entirely wrong about China and trade.

For years, U.S. companies — as well as foreign ones — have been victims of Chinese intellectual property rights policies, including being forced to hand over their technology if they wanted access to the Chinese market.

But there’s a smart way and a dumb way to deal with this misbehavior. Unfortunately, in its pursuit of sweeping new tariffs on Chinese imports, the Trump administration is once again choosing the dumb way — as markets suggested when they closed down nearly 3 percent on Thursday.

Rick Wilson: Only Ryan and McConnell Can Pen in Tyrannosaurus Trump

Of course, he’s going to fire Mueller.

Of course, it’s going to trigger a constitutional crisis.

Of course, Republicans will do nothing.

Every single day, Tyrannosaurus Don tests the limits of his enclosure. Every day, he pushes against the walls, looking for weak spots and for places where the electric fence isn’t working. Outside, the zookeepers in this Jurassic political park toss a cow carcass over the wall, praise their big boy dino, and marvel how large his fingers look. They smile and congratulate themselves that they’ve appeased the monster for another day, managing its violent, ravenous urges. [..]

Trump repays loyalty with betrayal, obedience with abuse, and compliance with humiliation. Inaction, silence, acquiescence on firing Mueller and the political firestorm to follow is inevitable unless Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell personally step up, give Trump a clear warning even the slowest president in modern history could understand, and pass legislation to protect the special counsel’s work.