There’s a New York Times Magazine feature out today on Rex Tillerson that’s worth your time, the latest in what’s now a long series of horrifying reportage on the dismantling of America’s diplomatic system. “I’ve lived in a lot of countries where conspiracy theories abound because people feel like they lack self-determination,” a recently retired Foreign Service officer told reporter Jason Zengerle. “And a great many people inside State are now hypothesizing about what the goal of all this is. Why are they firing people and shrinking the department down? It can’t simply be a budget-cutting exercise. If it were purely for reform, they would have done it differently.” [NYT Magazine]
The Trump administration’s latest travel ban has been struck down yet again in court. US District Judge Derrick Watson, who sits in Honolulu, wrote that the September rule “plainly discriminates based on nationality” and blocked travel restrictions on Chad, Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia; the ban continues to effect travelers from Venezuela and North Korea. [BuzzFeed]
The governor’s race in Virginia, a crucial election that was expected to be a shoo-in for Democrats, is polling neck and neck. [Politico]
Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander and Democrat Patty Murray have reached a bipartisan deal on healthcare that would fund the subsidies Trump blitzed last week, a move that was anticipated to send the insurance markets into a spiral. It’s not clear if the deal will make it through Congress, though, because it is—have you heard?—filled with enormous assholes. [New York Times]
Here are some tweets the president was allowed to publish:
