Politics

Trump’s mission to remake the GOP, the coming music pervnado and other comments

GOP watch: Trump’s Mission To Remake the Republican Party

American conservatives are engaged in a generational struggle, American Greatness publisher Christopher Buskirk argues in The Washingtion Post. Though depicted as “a mere clash of personalities,” with Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon “in one corner” and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in the other, the “battle is bigger” than them. At the “fulcrum in this war of ideas”: President Trump, who instinctively “sided with the base, channeling its anxieties and aspirations and becoming its tribune.” But as president, he needs to make “the intellectual and the political cases for a new conservatism.” Buskirk believe Republicans can “build a lasting majority if they act decisively to enlarge and strengthen the beleaguered middle class,” which means “a pro-citizen immigration policy, a pro-worker trade policy and a foreign policy that is more circumspect of foreign military commitments.” And that, he concludes, “requires a reformation of the party.”

Conservative take: No Armageddon for the ’Net

Forget what you’ve been reading: The “world won’t come to an end” because the FCC is doing away with net-neutrality rules put in place in 2015, asserts Carl Arbogast at Red State. “Net neutrality sounds great. ‘Hey, why shouldn’t the internet be neutral? FREEEEEEDOM!!!’ ” Dig deeper, though, and “you’ll find the term doesn’t have much meaning.” The concept emerged “mainly because some people began hyping the notion” that Internet Service Providers were going to “take over the Internet and price it according to their whims and desires,” leading to “exorbitant” fees for access. In fact, he says, the “system thrived in a competitive environment” before the rules were changed in 2015. “People have so many choices in determining what content they want to watch and how they want it delivered. Everybody benefits. Everybody will continue to benefit once the rules get lifted.”

Culture critic: Expect a Sex-Harassment Bombshell in the Music Biz

A total of 11 women have accused music-industry mogul Russell Simmons of sexual harassment or assault. But a “half-dozen” sources say they’re expecting “the anvil to drop” on the music business “any minute,” reports The Daily Beast’s Marlow Stern. One longtime music publicist says, “Men have been taking advantage of women in music for a long time” and “Russell Simmons is just the beginning.” Indeed, for years, Stern observes, “sexual misconduct — in particular statutory rape — was not only permitted, but glamorized in music.” He cites numerous allegations over the years, including from female musicians overseas. “We will no longer be silent,” reads an open letter from 2,192 women in the Swedish music industry. “We know who you are.”

From the right: Trump Is Losing the Support of Fox Viewers

“The most important poll number to come out this week concerned Fox News and Donald Trump,” Jonah Goldberg writes at National Review. The number: 58 percent. That’s Trump’s favorability among Fox viewers, based on a Suffolk University and USA Today poll. “Among people who trust Fox News the most, the president’s approval rating has been sinking,” notes Goldberg: In June, it was 90 percent. In October, 74 percent. Trump’s “pander-to-the-base approach still does wonders for [Sean] Hannity Co.’s ratings,” Goldberg concedes, “but ratings aren’t votes.”

View from above: Best To Avoid Soda in Outer Space

Eating in space is an “almost alien process,” says The Atlantic’s Marina Koren, after talking with Vickie Kloeris, who runs the International Space Station food-systems lab. Meals consist of “thermo-stabilized or freeze-dried entrees and snacks in disposable packages and pouches.” And though astronauts consume many of the foods they would on Earth, they stay away from carbonated beverages: “When you burp, you’re burping through that sphincter at the top of your stomach,” Kloeris explains. “That is not a full closure. So in microgravity, when you eat, the food floats high in your stomach.” Burping in microgravity, she argues, “is probably not something you want to do a lot of.”

— Compiled by Adam Brodsky