The Guardian: The 'deep state' is real. But are its leaks against Trump justified?

The truth is that the deep state, which is a real phenomenon, has long been both a threat to democratic politics and a savior of it. The problem is that it is hard to maintain its savior role without also accepting its threatening role. The two go hand in hand, and are difficult to untangle. [...]

But even if we focus narrowly on the intelligence bureaucracies that conduct and use information collected secretly in the homeland, including the FBI, National Security Agency (NSA), and National Security Council, there is significant evidence that the deep state has used secretly collected information opportunistically and illegally to sabotage the president and his senior officials – either as part of a concerted movement or via individuals acting more or less independently. [...]

These leaks probably mark the first time ever that the content of foreign intelligence intercepts aimed at foreign agents that swept up US-person information was leaked. They clearly aimed to damage US persons – ones who happen to also be senior US government officials.

They were unlawful and, beyond that, they violated two until-now strict taboos about leaks – first on revealing the content of foreign intelligence information collected through electronic surveillance, and second on revealing the content of incidentally collected information about American citizens.

Many people, including many who are not in the Trump camp, have interpreted these leaks to violate a third taboo by marking a return to the Hoover-era FBI’s use of secretly collected information to sabotage elected officials with adverse political interests.  [...]

If surveillance comes to be seen through a domestic political lens, with domestic political winners and losers, the intelligence community will have a very hard time acting with needed public credibility. And that in turn means it will have a harder time doing what it needs to do to keep us safe.

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Politico: Andrea Nahles: German SPD’s last hope

To revive the party, Nahles will have to keep both centrist and left-wing factions on side and find ways to give the party a distinctive profile even as it serves in a government led by Merkel’s conservative bloc. In previous stints as Merkel’s junior partner, SPD members have complained that the chancellor takes credit for their achievements while their voters are alienated by conservative policies pursued by the coalition. [...]

Nahles, who already leads the SPD group in the Bundestag, is viewed as being on the left of the party, but has shown a pragmatic streak. She is also known for remarks that are unusually blunt for a German politician.  [...]

She is also considered a gifted political operator responsible for some of the biggest milestones in the party’s recent history. As labor minister, she put in place Germany’s first minimum wage laws. [...]

At a tense congress in January, Nahles was widely credited with stewarding the party toward another partnership with Merkel. Following a long and meandering address by the party’s then-leader Martin Schulz, she woke up the room with a short, rousing speech in which she exhorted delegates to approve coalition talks.

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The Atlantic: White Evangelicals Can't Quit Donald Trump

A new survey released this week by PRRI, where I serve as the CEO, finds white evangelical support for Trump remains strikingly high, with 75 percent holding a favorable view of the president and only 22 percent holding an unfavorable view. This level of support far exceeds his favorability among all Americans, which is at 42 percent. Among all non-white evangelical Americans, Trump’s favorability is only 36 percent. [...]

Even with the recent allegations of infidelity—with adult-film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, whose respective lawsuits have become tangled in the Russia investigation—white evangelical Protestants are showing no signs of a sunset on their support. By a margin of 3 to 1, or 69 percent versus 23 percent, white evangelical Protestants who identify with or lean toward the Republican Party say they would prefer Trump over another candidate to be the GOP nominee for president in 2020.  

A PRRI poll conducted in the fall of 2017 suggested how unshakeable the white evangelical-Trump connection has become: Among the 72 percent of white evangelical Protestants who approved of Trump’s job performance at the time, approximately four in 10 agreed with the following statement: “There’s almost nothing President Trump could do to lose my approval.” [...]

As the Trump and white evangelical movements become increasingly intertwined, young people are increasingly at odds with both. In this week’s PRRI poll, only 33 percent of young adults ages 18 to 29 rate the president favorably. Nearly two-thirds, or 65 percent, hold an unfavorable opinion, including a striking 41 percent who report they hold a very unfavorable view. While white evangelicals as a whole are still fighting the late 20th century culture wars, young adults are moving on: Nearly eight in 10 support same-sex marriage and approximately two-thirds say abortion should be legal in all or most cases and available in their local communities. And while, generally speaking, Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric resonates among white evangelicals, young adults overwhelmingly support policies like the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and a path to citizenship for immigrants living in the country illegally. White evangelicals’ association with Trump’s alleged indiscretions, divisive speech, and policy priorities will likely make retaining and attracting younger members to the faith even more difficult than it would otherwise be.

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The Atlantic: Post-Parkland Unity Is Officially Over

That Friday’s walkouts were organized by a student with little connection to gun violence shows how post-Parkland activism has morphed into a thriving national student movement. But as the movement expands, it’s also becoming clear just how hard it is to find a unified student voice. A student’s personal background—including race, class, and past connections to gun violence—shapes his or her relationship with the movement, and youth are navigating the difficult task of finding common ground. A movement that first framed itself as a call to action from young people to adults is now just as much a dialogue among different factions of the country’s youth.

When the post-Parkland movement first sprung up, some observers questioned whether the tremendous attention it garnered was attributable in part to the students’ relative affluence. Friday’s walkouts are another case of large-scale activism organized by students from privileged schools: Fewer than 4 percent of students at Murdock’s Ridgefield High receive free or reduced-price meals. Youth organizers have certainly endeavored to make their protest inclusive, demonstrating their solidarity with communities that suffer from daily gun violence in part by encouraging walkout participants to wear orange, a color that has come to symbolize gun reform after teenagers used it to memorialize a 15-year-old shot and killed in Chicago in 2015. For their part, students in Chicago planned a citywide school walkout in conjunction with Murdock’s campaign. But despite their efforts to involve schools in neighborhoods with varying income levels and racial makeups, organizers—who attend Walter Payton College Prep, a selective-enrollment magnet school, and the private Francis W. Parker School—struggled to bring the walkout to fruition at most of the city's schools. [...]

It’s also worth noting that students at Columbine High School are not participating. The school has commemorated the day annually by having students engage in community-service work rather than attend classes—an approach that its principal promoted this year as an alternative to walkouts. Some Columbine students expressed disappointment that the Connecticut organizers chose the anniversary of the 1999 massacre for their national protest. “This is the worst day for our community,” said Kaylee Tyner, a junior who believes in the protest’s cause and helped organize Columbine’s participation in the March 14 student walkouts. “It was like using our anniversary to push this political agenda … It could’ve been on the 19th or something,” she said. A student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland told The New York Times that MSD administrators are urging students not to walk out out of respect for the Columbine students.

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Ministry Of Ideas: Forbidden Fruit

Contemporary diet culture is only the latest manifestation of a long history of religious fervor about food.

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