The theme that unites Donald Trump’s major initiatives so far is their unnecessary cruelty.　His new budget, for example, comes down especially hard on the poor -- imposing unprecedented cuts in low-income housing, job training, food assistance, legal services, help to distressed rural communities, nutrition for new mothers and their infants, funds to keep poor families warm, even Meals on Wheels.　These cuts come at a time when more American families are in poverty than ever before, including 1 i

The House Intelligence Committee hearing Monday marked the end of the opening installment of “The President,” the must-watch reality/horror show that has transfixed the nation and the world. Now the plot gets more serious, perhaps darker, with some new characters likely to emerge in key national-security roles.　President Trump should be less of a stage hog going forward, and his Twitter storms less intense. He is often described as a narcissist, but he’s not suicidal. He knows he has been rebuff

Talk about taking a bazooka to kill a fly: a US general reported last week that an unnamed ally used a $3.4 million Patriot missile to shoot down a hostile $200 commercial drone. General David Perkins’s point wasn’t that this was a technically remarkable feat -- although it certainly was given the tiny target -- but to point out yet another asymmetric advantage global terrorists’ hold: It costs the West an unconscionable amount of money to combat even the most basic ad-hoc threats.　For the wars

The great question of Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency was whether he could pull off the slick political move known as “the pivot.” Specifically, could he as a candidate win followers with hyperpartisan language, but once in office downshift to an inclusive, effective style of governance?　We had serious doubts from the start. Plenty of people had doubts, given Trump’s impetuous temperament, his lack of political experience and his campaign trail success making big promises and incendiary co

China’s Communist government has never shown much concern for the privacy of Chinese citizens. If you have something to hide, the thinking goes, we probably need to know it. In one form or another, surveillance and monitoring have evolved into a well-honed form of social control. And as a result, neither companies nor consumers have traditionally had very high expectations for individual privacy.　That might’ve been fine before more than 700 million Chinese went online, and before the government

At the height of the Cuba travel frenzy, unleashed by the restoration of diplomatic relations and relaxed US travel rules, not a day went by without an onslaught of photos on social media of Americanos cruising Havana in antique convertibles and puffing on cigars. The island was pronounced awesome, unique — a must-see. The US-born could buy an instant visa at the airline counter and hop on a plane to Havana for the weekend as if it were the Bahamas.The rush had airlines and cruise lines salivati

White House strategist Steve Bannon understands how narrative works. In Hollywood films, at least the assembly-line models, plot points are inserted to send the hero off on a quest and, later, to send the action veering in an unexpected (well, sort of) new direction. They explain the hero to himself and others, give him a goal and erect obstacles (drama) in the path of achieving it.Bannon, who made documentary films before becoming chairman of the propaganda website Breitbart, has offered report

President Donald Trump is a reckless bully with authoritarian leanings and a craving for attention. Kim Jong-un is a reckless bully with dictatorial powers and a craving for attention. Oh yes, and both have fingers on nuclear triggers. That’s why so many national security experts of both political parties struggle to think of a scarier pair.　It’s not just that Kim’s outlaw North Korean regime has accelerated its nuclear weapons capacity and delivery capability, or that Kim sees nuclear weapons a