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Afternoon Links: The Perils of Free Gifts, the Ice Cream of the Future Expands, and the Torment of Ajit Pai

By Jim Swift

There’s no such thing as a free gift! When I worked in Congress as an aide, I took a meeting with representatives of a foreign government about trade issues. They gave us all little business card holders as de minimis gifts. An older colleague, after the meeting ended, took all of them and threw them in the office freezer and told us to leave them there for a few days. Why? In case they had listening devices installed in them. I still have the business card holder to this day, and I thought it was a bit much, but you never can be too careful. Case in point? The Taiwan News reports:

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As many as one fifth of the 250 USBs given away as part of an event to promote cyber security, held at the Presidential Office last year, were reported to have contained a virus. It turned out that the virus had been transmitted from a computer during testing.

The Ice Cream of the Future, indeed. Sean Spicer (wrongly) hates Dippin’ Dots. It’s not the world’s most delicious ice cream, but it’s fun and futuristic, despite remaining the same for decades. Looks like the ice cream maker is making a move into cryogenics:

The company said in a press release that it will be launching Dippin’ Dots Cryogenics, L.L.C., which will leverage “its 30 years of experience and its intellectual property in cryogenic processes and machinery” to help outside companies keep their products in better condition for longer periods of time.

Thankfully, they’re avoiding cryonics.

The Decline of Anti-Trumpism. At the New York Times, David Brooks has an interesting take on how the Trump White House is evolving:

It’s almost as if there are two White Houses. There’s the Potemkin White House, which we tend to focus on: Trump berserk in front of the TV, the lawyers working the Russian investigation and the press operation. Then there is the Invisible White House that you never hear about, which is getting more effective at managing around the distracted boss.

One thing that Brooks gets right about some Trump haters is this:

The anti-Trump movement suffers from insularity. Most of the people who detest Trump don’t know anybody who works with him or supports him. And if they do have friends and family members who admire Trump, they’ve learned not to talk about this subject. So they get most of their information about Trumpism from others who also detest Trumpism, which is always a recipe for epistemic closure.

Being from Ohio, I have many close friends and relatives who are very happy with the current state of affairs. And believe me, working in Washington is basically an open invitation for anyone back home to let you know how wrong you are and why you don’t get it. I suppose there is a difference between understanding why people feel or think one way and agreeing with it, but Brooks’s conclusion is on point:

There’s a hierarchy of excellence in every sphere. There’s a huge difference between William F. Buckley and Sean Hannity, between the reporters at this newspaper and a rumor-spreader. Part of this struggle is to maintain those distinctions, not to contribute to their evisceration.

In the era of President Trump, at least to me, these sorts of distinctions are becoming more clear by the day. Some see different distinctions, of course, but distinctions nonetheless.

Decline is a choice. Teen Vogue is celebrating Lactatia, a 9-year-old drag queen. No, this is not a parody. Click through at your peril, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Tax reform to lower D.C. power bills? Only if the government OKs it, naturally. Economic conservatives often point out that taxes are priced into goods and services, but what happens if taxes are lowered? What happens? Lots of things can happen, of course. Corporations can buy back stock (as some have), others can raise salaries (as others have), some can give bonuses, or, prices can be lowered. Much-hated energy provider PEPCO has announced a plan to provide a credit to lower bills to residents of Washington, D.C. That is, if the D.C. Public Service Commission signs off on the plan.

The Torment of Ajit Pai. At Commentary, Noah Rothman has a column looking at how the left responded to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s move to undo Obama-era net neutrality guidelines. It’s not a good look:

For all his autonomy, Pai and his family have nevertheless endured a campaign of stalking and intimidation for merely serving the country in his capacity as FCC chairman. This sorry display is unbecoming of a mature republic. The activist left is incubating the kind of potentially violent radicalism that they cannot control. If Democrats truly fret for the norms of civil conduct that are supposedly being lost in the Trump era, they might devote some attention to their own supporters.

Read the whole thing.

Cliven Bundy and Misconduct. At National Review, David French has an interesting take about the recent legal victory for Cliven Bundy. French observes: “Sometimes even wild tales are true. And every American — from the angriest antifa activist to the leader of “Y’all Qaeda” — is entitled to the full protection of the United States Constitution.” You can still think Bundy handled things poorly and the government did, too. You don’t have to pick a side.

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