First of all, as a proud half-Jewish person, I'm looking at this…
President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Wednesday to interpret Judaism as a nationality and not just a religion, a move that the Trump administration believes will fight what they perceive as anti-Semitism on college campuses, a White House official said.
I understand neither the reasons nor the possible ramifications for this and as far as I can see on the Internet, that quandary's kind of unanimous. The folks in favor of it are in favor of it because Trump's in favor of it. The ones opposing it are opposing it because Trump's in favor of it. And an insufficient number of Jews seem to have been consulted before the decision was made.
Meanwhile, you may have heard that two articles of impeachment are in Mr. Trump's future. Daniel Larison of the American Conservative explains why they are not only valid but necessary. Here's an excerpt…
The case for Trump's impeachment seemed quite strong more than two months ago, and the evidence provided to the House's impeachment inquiry has strengthened it further. The president's abuse of power is not in dispute. It is clear that he used the powers of his office in an attempt to extract a corrupt favor for his personal benefit, and this is precisely the sort of offense that impeachment was designed to keep in check. It doesn't matter if the attempt succeeded. All that matters is that the attempt was made. It is also undeniable that he has sought to impede the investigation into his misconduct. The president has committed the offenses he is accused of committing, and the House should approve both articles of impeachment.
No, they probably have no chance of passing the Senate…but then the articles voted against Bill Clinton had no chance of passing that Senate and were about a lesser matter and not one Republican thought that was a reason not to go to trial. My guess is this is not the only time this president will be impeached. My guess is the narrative will become "He commits crimes, Republicans protect him, he commits more crimes…" And the 2020 election becomes about only whether the country is fine with that.
As Jonathan Chait points out, when the charges against Trump were first made, prominent Republicans assumed they could never be proven with any certainty so they said, "That would be troubling if true." Now that the charges have been proven with as much certainty as there is about anything in Washington, they've had to switch to "No, that is not troubling."
Meanwhile: The Justice Department has released a 434-page inspector general's report on the origin of the FBI probe into the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russia. It's a something-for-everyone bonanza and everyone's out there spinning whatever they can spin to their advantage. It's amazing how one report could be so right about everything bad it says the other side did and so wrong when it says my side did anything bad. Glenn Kessler straightens out a lot of the spin for us. And so it goes…