Not China, Not Russia: Our Most Threatening Enemy is…Europe?

This week, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss what will happen as the Supreme Court considers whether a president can remove leaders of independent agencies without cause, how the overt signals about immigration and “erasure” in the new National Security Strategy are meant to stir up cultural anxiety in Europe, and the high-stakes merger drama between Netflix, Paramount, and Warner Bros. with guest Tim Wu, professor at Columbia Law School and author of the new book The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity.

Here are some notes and references from this week’s show:

Amy Howe for SCOTUSblog: Court seems likely to side with Trump on president’s power to fire FTC commissioner

Abbie VanSickle and Shane Goldmacher for The New York Times: Supreme Court Grapples With Whether to Lift Campaign Finance Limits

Adam Liptak for The New York Times: A Key Question for the Supreme Court: What About the Fed?

The Editors of National Review: There Is No Such Thing as an Independent Agency

Ellen Francis for The Washington Post: Trump’s team sees Europe’s ‘erasure.’ Europeans see a hostile U.S.

Thomas Wright for The Atlantic: A Strategy That Ignores the Real Threats

Rebecca Lissner for Council on Foreign Relations: The First MAGA National Security Strategy

The Editors of National Review: Trump’s National Security Strategy Document Is a Curious One

Peter Beaumont for The Guardian: New Trump doctrine identifies ‘weak’ Europe’s problem: not enough racism

Jamie Dettmer for Politico Europe: Trump’s new strategy marks the unraveling of the Western alliance

Willem Marx for NPR: EU hits Elon Musk’s X with $140 million fine over business practices

The Editorial Board of The New York Times: Overmatched: Why the U.S. Military Needs to Reinvent Itself

Lauren Thomas for The Wall Street Journal: Paramount Makes $77.9 Billion Hostile Bid for Warner After Netflix Struck Deal

Tim Wu for The New York Times (Opinion – Guest Essay): Both Plans to Buy Warner Bros. Are Illegal

Charlie Savage for The New York Times: Asserting a Personal Role in Warner Bros. Battle, Trump Seeks to Expand His Powers Again

Judd Legum, Rebecca Crosby, and Noel Sims for Popular Information (Substack): Kushner and Saudis back hostile takeover of Hollywood giant

Josh Harlan for The Wall Street Journal (Opinion): The Netflix-Warner Bros. Deal Could Revive Hollywood

Here are this week’s chatters:

Emily: Cannonball with Wesley Morris: My Favorite Performances of the Year (Hosted by Wesley Morris, Featuring Sasha Weiss); Blue Moon (official trailer on YouTube, 2:16)

John: Jonathan J. Cooper for the Associated Press: Trump once denied using this slur about Haiti and African nations. Now he boasts about it; John Dickerson for CBS News: Face the Nation: Full transcript: Face the Nation on January 14, 2018

David: Find out more about David Plotz’s monthly tours of Ft. DeRussy, the secret Civil War fort hidden in Rock Creek Park; Moss & Fog; Moss & Fog: Watching a Tire Roll Down a Mountain Shouldn’t be so Compelling

Listener chatter from Barron YoungSmith in Washington, D.C.: Michael Waters for Atlas Obscura: The Macaroni in ‘Yankee Doodle’ Is Not What You Think; Elaine Thornton for Historic UK: The Macaroni Craze; Debbie Elliott for NPR (All Things Considered): Reason Behind the Rhyme: ‘Yankee Doodle’

For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, John, and David discuss a Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collective investigation that found Instacart quoting massive price differences for the same products, which they claim result from AI-enabled pricing experiments.

In the latest Gabfest Reads, John talks with journalist and author Andrew Ross Sorkin about his new book, 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How It Shattered a Nation — the story of speculation, debt, and the human drives that fueled the Wall Street crash that changed everything.

Email your chatters, questions, and comments to [email protected]. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Nina Porzucki

Research by Emily Ditto

You can find the full Political Gabfest show pages here.

Want more Political Gabfest? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Political Gabfest show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or visit slate.com/gabfestplus to get access wherever you listen.

Find out more about David Plotz’s monthly tours of Ft. DeRussy, the secret Civil War fort hidden in Rock Creek Park.