Michael Cohen/Boston Globe:
I’m the ultimate optimist. I’ve written countless articles about how the world is getting safer, freer, wealthier, and healthier — and it is. But the collective effect of Trump’s presidency has caused me — and many I’ve spoken with — to question our belief in and hopefulness about America. Reactionary forces that we all know existed, but many of us believed were on the decline, have been unleashed on the country. Racism, anti-Semitism, and misogyny, which of course have always existed, have become normalized and part of the political discourse in ways that are completely alien to our experience of American politics. Public corruption, the shredding of political norms, and a deficit of public compassion now seems to define our body politic. The presidency, which so many of us were raised to revere or at least respect, has become a punch line as we watch, in horror, a president who is unhinged, clearly unfit, and utterly incapable of doing his job.
WaPo:
Trump and Republican allies defended the [ACA subsidy withdrawal] move as removing a giveaway for insurance companies, and they blame rising premiums on fundamental flaws in then-President Barack Obama’s signature health-care reform law. But Democrats called it an act of sabotage against the ACA for which the GOP will be held responsible at the polls.
The dispute sets the stage for another wave of political battles over the nation’s health-care system, as Republican lawmakers will need to decide whether to authorize the subsidies through legislation as well as whether to once again attempt a broader repeal of the ACA, popularly known as Obamacare. Democrats could also use a Dec. 8 appropriations deadline to threaten a government shutdown if the subsidies are not restored.
The Economist:
There are 9m Americans who buy coverage in the individual market but do not receive tax credits. Mr Trump is poised to cause a lot of pain to this group—a Republican-leaning constituency—in 2018, an election year. He is gambling that voters will continue to blame high premiums on Obamacare, not on the Republicans, and that Democrats will be spooked enough by the sorry condition of the market to start negotiations on health-care reform. But Democrats have never expressed much concern about these better-off, unsubsidised buyers, who have been suffering from high premiums for a while. Mr Trump’s gamble is a risky one.
Chaos Agent/The Hill:
Ex-Obama defense chief: Trump likes to ‘blow up’ agreements but doesn’t have a strategy
"It really raises questions about our going it alone in the world, and not working with our allies, and working with others to try to make sure that we try to get Iran to address these other concerns. I just think it creates a dangerous example of a president who is anxious to blow up agreements, but doesn't quite have a strategy as to where we're going once he does that," [Leon] Panetta told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room."
Chaos Agent/AP:
Analysis: Trump embraces turmoil as strategy
Unable or unwilling to completely erase his predecessor’s signature initiatives, President Donald Trump this week turned to another approach: wreaking havoc.
Trump’s back-to-back body blows against President Barack Obama’s health care law and nuclear agreement with Iran demonstrated the president’s embrace of turmoil as strategy. In both cases, he plunged a pair of policies with broad domestic and international implications into a state of confusion and uncertainty, hoping that the disorder will force Congress to take action.
We knew this would happen. We said so. Not enough people listened.
CBS says maybe everyone doesn’t want Chaos:
The latest CBS News Nation Tracker finds that most Americans continue to call for deals and cooperation in the back-and-forth between the president and Congress. And that includes many of the president's strongest backers and most Republicans. Some even want to see Congress assert itself more. Most do not want Republicans in Congress to simply do what the president wants.
Among the president's supporters, nine in 10 either like or are willing to accept the idea of the president making deals with Democrats, in principle. On the other side, a majority of the president's opponents like or would accept Democrats cutting deals with him, with many saying "deal-making is how Washington should work."
Americans in general, and Republicans in particular, voice a somewhat cynical view of the current relationship between congressional Republicans and the president. The poll found 39 percent of Republicans feel their party's congressional representatives "don't like" the president and are actively trying to undermine him, while another 37 percent think congressional Republicans don't like Trump "but pretend to" in order to try to get their agenda passed.
Jonathan Bines/HuffPost:
Trump Or Weinstein? Take The Quiz!
Test your wits against these 20 allegations – each from a different woman – and see how you stack up!
Think you can tell the difference between the kind of sexual harassment that destroys your career and the kind that gets you elected president? Test your wits against these 20 allegations – each from a different woman – and see how you stack up! After each, mark “T” for Trump or “W” for Weinstein. Answers are at the end. Good luck!
Will Bunch/Philly.com:
Trump, Weinstein, and the enormously high cost of doing nothing
Pssst…wanna hear another open secret – one that’s more widely known and of even more consequence than Weinstein and his prey? Donald Trump is clearly not fit – temperamentally, intellectually, or, it seems increasingly clear, psychologically – to continue serving as president of the United States. Just like Weinstein, there are days when it feels like it’s only the comedians who are willing in a time of broken politics and broken journalism to tell the nation that the emperor is wearing no clothes. Just like Weinstein, the Trump unfitness-for-office story has its own Courtney Love figure in retiring Tennessee GOP Sen. Bob Corker, who did go public to express his worries that the president’s top aides, like chief of staff John Kelly, are babysitting a commander-in-chief who could launch World War III.
But unfortunately, also like Weinstein, we’re told by the media that there are many, many more Republicans on Capitol Hill and elsewhere who feel exactly the same way that Corker feels – that Trump’s unfitness for the Oval Office not only endangers the country, but risks a catastrophic war – but who are afraid to speak out for many of the same reasons people in Hollywood have stayed silent. Trump could retaliate against them. It could hurt their careers. It’s a lot safer to keep your head down and say nothing. Right? Yet it’s all but guaranteed there will come a day for Trump, exactly like the moment we’re experiencing this weekend with Harvey Weinstein, with a flood of people suddenly going public with their behind-closed-doors Trump stories that things were even worse than anyone imagined.