Awash with Ideas

**"Let’s run a depressing thought experiment.

It’s the fall of 2017, and Russian forces have just swept into Estonia, a NATO member and strong US ally. The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Pentagon’s other top brass remind President Trump that the US is treaty-bound to send troops to help beat back the Russian advance. Trump flatly refuses.

The new president may have legitimate reasons: a belief, perhaps, that he could use his personal relationship with Putin to persuade the Russian leader to withdraw without further bloodshed. Trump might also decide that Putin is so hell-bent on conquering Estonia that trying to stop him could send the two countries down a slippery slope toward full-blown war, a price he doesn’t think America should pay.

This is the truly depressing part: Regardless of Trump’s reasoning, US allies around the globe and a significant chunk of the American public would see it as proof that Putin had hacked the US electoral system to help get a friendly president into office — and was now reaping the rewards."**

read more: I’ve spent 15 years covering national security. I’ve never seen anything like the Russia hack.

"Despite some post-election gains, Trump likely will take office with a lower approval, and higher disapproval, rating than any of those predecessors. In recent Gallup and NBC/Wall Street Journal surveys, only about half of Americans gave him positive marks for his transition, far lower than the share for previous presidents. [...] if anything near that precedent holds, Trump will become the first modern president to start with less-than-majority public approval."

read more: Trump Is Preparing for His Administration As if He Won in a Landslide

Good thing I always whip my own.

"The short supply is due to an August explosion at an Airgas Inc facility in Florida that killed one worker and disrupted the supply of nitrous oxide, the gas used to propel whipped cream from containers and keep it airy and light."

read more: Where's the Reddi-wip? ConAgra lowers product profile during shortage | Reuters

**"unreported securities filings and estimates by the Apollo spokesman, could provide Apollo and Metropoulos up to $400 million for the next 15 years or more.

"Looking out over those next 15 years, nothing seems guaranteed to Mr. Popovich, the former Hostess worker from Toledo. [...]

"The idea of searching for work at age 58 is daunting. He has been sending out his résumé, but has not received a call back."**

read more: How the Twinkie Made the Superrich Even Richer

"These are the questions that confronted the U.S. press after the ascendance of fascist leaders in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s."

read more: How American journalists covered the rise of Hitler