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Monday, December 4, 2017
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[David Leonhardt]
David Leonhardt
Op-Ed Columnist
First, if youâre curious about that map above, you can learn more [in myÂ]( this morning about âlost Einsteins.â](
He alone. You recognize the presidentâs pattern by now, donât you?
This weekend, President Trump blasted the F.B.I. on Twitter as a biased institution whose âreputation is in Tatters - worst in History!â (The capitalization choices are his.)
He is casting the men and women of the Federal Bureau Investigation as unreliable if not worse, just as he has previously done with C.I.A. agents, federal judges, scientists, Congress Budget Office analysts and journalists, among others. The president wants to undercut just about anybody who is an independent source of information.
Itâs a classic tactic of autocrats, as people who have spent time in modern Russia, China or Venezuela can tell you. âThe attacks on institutions that check his power continue,â [the political scientist Brendan Nyhan wrote this weekend]( âWhat would you say if you saw it in another country?â
Fortunately, we live in a democracy, with institutions that have the ability to push back against his attempts to monopolize information â including the F.B.I. But Trumpâs tactics should alarm everyone. Our democratic institutions wonât remain strong unless the country fights for them. They are under attack in a way they never before have been during our lifetimes.
Related: Billy Bush has [an op-ed in todayâs Times]( about the âAccess Hollywoodâ tape, in which Trump bragged to Bush about molesting women.
Tax cuts, Medicare cuts. Just before 2 a.m. Saturday, the Senate passed a tax bill without giving many members time to read the bill and without holding hearings on the billâs major provisions.
âIâm trying to think of a historical precedent for this, but Iâm coming up completely blank,â [the historian Kevin M. Kruse tweeted](. When some people responded by asking about Obamacare, [Kruse calmly enumerated]( the months of debate and hearings over it â all of which are a stark contrast to what just happened.
Now that the tax cut is headed toward becoming law, the focus of Congress is turning to spending cuts, including to Medicare. Iâm quite curious whether Senator Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who says she opposes such cuts, will really be willing to vote for the final bill.
Lost Einsteins. The map at the top of this newsletter comes from a big new academic study that offers the clearest picture yet of where American inventors come from. And itâs a worrisome picture.
Even when low- and middle-income children excel in school, theyâre very unlikely to grow up and become patent holders â much less likely than affluent children. Women are also much less likely to become patent holders, as are African-Americans, Latino and people who grew up in the Southeast.
Thatâs why the headline [on my column uses the phrase âLost Einsteins.â]( This isnât just a matter of fairness. Itâs also about the societal cost of the innovations weâre losing. The Congressional tax plan, by the way, will aggravate the problem.
The Flynn plea. The most consequential charges against Michael Flynn were [the ones Mueller didnât levy]( against Flynn, writes former F.B.I. agent Asha Rangappa in The Washington Post. Mueller âwould offer this kind of a dealâ â potentially letting off Flynn easy â âonly if he could get testimony that helps his caseâ against the most senior campaign officials.
In The Times, the [editorial board]( along with [Richard Painter and Norman Eisen]( offer their takes on Flynnâs guilty plea.Â
How Trump-friendly media reacted. Breitbartâs Joel Pollak [defended Trump]( denouncing Muellerâs probe as âthe swampâs political revengeâ and arguing that Flynnâs Russian back-channel âis not illegal, and may even have been a good idea.â
But â in a move Trump-friendly media [has used to shield the president from blame on other issues]( â Pollak did fault members of the administration. He mocked Ty Cobb, the White House counsel, as a âBeltway lawyer,â calling Cobbâs prediction that the Mueller inquiry is nearing its end âborderline delusion.â Despite âno evidence of collusion,â as Pollak [claimed on MSNBC]( âTrump might want to sue his lawyerâ¦for malpractice.â
The presidentâs defenders also seized on a Times report that Mueller had [dismissed a possibly anti-Trump F.B.I. official from his team]( as proof of bias. âYou get a picture that this investigation is out to get the president,â said Newsmaxâs [Chris Ruddy, a Trump confidante, on ABC yesterday](. Still, he acknowledged that Flynnâs plea deal âposes an existential threat to the Trump presidency.â
The full Opinion report from The Times follows.
Op-Ed Contributor
[Billy Bush: Yes, Donald Trump, You Said That](
By BILLY BUSH
The president is currently engaging in some revisionist history.
Op-Ed Contributors
[Why the Trump Team Should Fear the Logan Act](
By DANIEL HEMEL AND ERIC POSNER
The potential hammer at the heart of the Michael Flynn plea.
Op-Ed Columnist
[Lost Einsteins: The Innovations Weâre Missing](
By DAVID LEONHARDT
Income and gender make a big difference in who winds up inventing.
Op-Ed Columnist
[A Fractured 2017](
By ROGER COHEN
As the world lurches into a new year, peace feels fragile, the truth is blurred and spectacle has taken over.
Op-Ed Columnist
[The Ghost of Steve Bannon](
By CHARLES M. BLOW
He is still guiding Trumpâs ideology.
HOW ARE WE DOING?
Weâd love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [leonhardt@nytimes.com](mailto:leonhardt@nytimes.com?subject=Opinion%20Today%20Newsletter%20Feedback).
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Op-Ed Contributor
[How the G.O.P. Tax Bill Will Ruin Obamacare](
By J. B. SILVERS
Eliminating the individual mandate will likely mean the end of affordable care for all.
Op-Ed Contributor
[To Stop North Korea, Act Like Israel](
By NITSANA DARSHAN-LEITNER
Negotiations and sanctions havenât stopped the Kim regime. Financial warfare of the kind the Jewish state has waged against Hamas might.
In Case You Missed It
Editorial
[Flynn Flipped. Whoâs Next?](
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Michael Flynnâs guilty plea raises obvious questions: What did President Trump know? And when did he know it?
Op-Ed Contributors
[After Flynn, Are Kushner and Don Jr. Next?](
By RICHARD W. PAINTER AND NORMAN L. EISEN
The Flynn deal opens the door to charges against the presidentâs inner circle â and his family.
Contributing Op-Ed Writer
[The Men Who Cost Clinton the Election](
By JILL FILIPOVIC
Many of the journalists who stand accused of sexual harassment covered the 2016 presidential campaign.
Simone Noronha
[Op-Ed Contributor](
[Trumpâs Racist Tweets. My Growing Patriotism.](
By KASHANA CAULEY
The upside to him attacking outspoken black people? We can fight back and declare what America really stands for.
Editorial
[Art, Freed From Guantánamo](
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
The military seems unsettled by the attention an exhibition of prisoner art has garnered from news organizations.
Editorial
[The F.C.C. Wants to Let Telecoms Cash In on the Internet](
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Ending net neutrality and letting companies charge more, or block, certain services, will enrich them and strangle the web.
Contributing Op-Ed Writer
[Whatâs a Bigger Threat, âNormalizationâ or Alarmism?](
By IVAN KRASTEV
Right-wing populists thrive in a culture of tense polarization. We shouldnât help them.
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
[We Catalans Owe the World an Explanation](
By ALBERT RIVERA
Coexistence and union are the best options to articulate a common project for the future of Spain.
Op-Ed Contributor
[No Longer a Haven for International Terrorists](
By MICHAEL P. DEMPSEY
Even if the United States withdraws troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban are unlikely to host foreign fighters determined to attack other countries.
The Stone
[In Dark Times, âDirty Handsâ Can Still Do Good](
By JOHN KAAG AND CLANCY MARTIN
To transcend our complicity in the worldâs worst crises, we need self-knowledge and humility.
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Sunday Review
[How the Republicans Broke Congress](
By THOMAS E. MANN AND NORMAN J. ORNSTEIN
We used to blame both parties for our poisonous political environment. Not anymore.
Sunday Review
[The Cost of Devaluing Women](
By SALLIE KRAWCHECK
We all lose because of the biases of Wall Street and Silicon Valley.
Sunday Review
[Soil Power! The Dirty Way to a Green Planet](
By JACQUES LESLIE
Regenerative agriculture can help mitigate climate change.
Letters
[Justice and the Balkan War Crimes Tribunal](
A reader urges sensitivity to the survivors of war crimes; another says the Yugoslav tribunal compares favorably to Nuremberg.
SIGN UP FOR THE VIETNAM â67 NEWSLETTER
Examining Americaâs long war in Southeast Asia [through the course]( of a single year.
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