Issue December 9, 2016 - The Week Magazine (2024)

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In This IssueEditor’s letterA friend of mine is an immigration attorney. She personally abhors Donald Trump’s positions on deporting undocumented immigrants and building a border wall, but she’ll be the first to admit there’s been a silver lining to his victory: Her office phone has been ringing off the hook. She’s not the only anti-Trumpist to encounter a startling business bump over the past few weeks. Therapists in deep-blue enclaves can’t keep up with the demand for counseling from despondent Hillary voters. Journalists openly fret about a coming assault on press freedoms, but publications like The New York Times and The Washington Post have reported a surge in subscriptions. And Wall Street banks, which wanted nothing to do with Trump during the campaign, have been delighted by an unexpected—and record-breaking—market rally.Who else stands…2 min

NEWSTrump fills out a conservative Cabinet ...What happenedDonald Trump named a series of nominees for major Cabinet posts this week, stocking his administration with a mix of hard-line conservatives, Wall Street veterans, and GOP establishment figures. To head the Department of Health and Human Services, the president-elect chose Rep. Tom Price, a Georgia doctor who has authored a 242-page plan to replace the Affordable Care Act and who advocates overhauling Medicare and other entitlement programs. Trump tapped Hollywood financier and former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin for Treasury secretary and selected billionaire Betsy DeVos, a major Republican donor, to lead the Department of Education. Mnuchin, who served as finance chair of Trump’s presidential campaign, says his chief priority is lowering corporate and personal tax rates. DeVos is a longtime foe of teacher’s unions and a staunch…5 min

NEWS...and rages as recounts advance in three statesWhat happenedWisconsin officials this week began a recount of the state’s nearly 3 million presidential election votes, following a last-minute filing by Green Party nominee Jill Stein, who is also seeking recounts in the closely contested states of Michigan and Pennsylvania. Stein has alleged that there were unspecified voting irregularities on Election Day and that Russian hackers may have interfered with voting machines, but she has not provided any evidence for the claims. President-elect Donald Trump won the three states by a combined margin of 100,000 votes; if all three flipped to Hillary Clinton—a highly unlikely scenario, given that past statewide recounts have tended to shift only a few hundred votes—the defeated Democratic nominee, who currently leads the popular vote by nearly 2.4 million votes, would claim an Electoral College…3 min

NEWSIt wasn’t all badWhen Illinois repo man Jim Ford went to repossess a 1998 Buick belonging to Patty Kipping, 70, and her 82-year-old husband, Stanford, he was distraught to learn that the couple was mired in debt from medical expenses and had only $30 to last until their next Social Security check. Taking the car broke Ford’s heart, so he set up an online fundraiser to help the Kippings out. In a single night, he raised $3,500: enough to pay off the car, which he also repaired, and put $1,000 toward the couple’s bills. “It was a miracle come true,” said Patty. Pray. Eat raw eggs. Stay single. Those are the keys to a long life, according to Emma Morano, who celebrated her 117th birthday this week. As the world’s oldest person—and the…1 min

NEWSTrump: Flip-flopping on campaign promisesIs Donald Trump a hypocrite? asked Michael Gerson in The Washington Post. “For the nation’s sake, let’s hope so.” Only days after winning the election, Trump elicited howls of protest from his more rabid supporters when he walked back his chilling campaign pledge to prosecute Hillary Clinton. He then went on to praise President Obama (formerly “the worst president in history”) and say that he was open to preserving some elements of the Affordable Care Act. Last week, in an interview with The New York Times, Trump retreated even further toward “realism and good sense.” On climate change, the president-elect now claims to have “an open mind” about the Paris agreement to slash emissions, which he once “threatened to tear up,” and is apparently no longer convinced of the need…5 min

NEWSThe U.S. at a glance ...Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, N.D.Deadline approaching: A face-off was looming at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation this week, as North Dakota’s governor ordered a mandatory evacuation of the Dakota Access Pipeline protest site, citing the harsh weather. State law enforcement also threatened to block any people or supplies from entering the camp. Thousands of Native Americans and environmental activists have vowed to spend the winter at the site to protest the proposed 1,170-mile pipeline stretching to Illinois, saying the project threatens the reservation’s water supply and sacred burial grounds. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the site, has set a Dec. 5 deadline for protesters to clear out, but said it would not remove demonstrators by force. The corps said it had decided to close the camp when…4 min

Issue December 9, 2016 - The Week Magazine (2024)

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