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Month: February 2019

Court records reveal a Mueller report right in plain view

Court records reveal a Mueller report right in plain view

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The Associated Press reports: Donald Trump was in full deflection mode. The Democrats had blamed Russia for the hacking and release of damaging material on his presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton. Trump wasn’t buying it. But on July 27, 2016, midway through a news conference in Florida, Trump decided to entertain the thought for a moment. “Russia, if you’re listening,” said Trump, looking directly into a television camera, “I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing” —…

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Dueling dates for Deccan Traps volcanic eruption reignite debate over dinosaurs’ death

Dueling dates for Deccan Traps volcanic eruption reignite debate over dinosaurs’ death

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Science News reports: Which came first: the impact or the eruptions? That question is at the heart of two new studies in the Feb. 22 Science seeking to answer one of the most hotly debated questions in Earth’s geologic history: Whether an asteroid impact or massive volcanism that altered the global climate was mostly to blame for the demise of all nonbird dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The dinosaur die-off is the only known mass extinction that coincides with two…

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Youth carry the moral authority in dealing with climate change

Youth carry the moral authority in dealing with climate change

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Bill McKibben writes: One imagines that Senator Dianne Feinstein would like a do-over of her colloquy with some young people on Friday afternoon. A group of school students, at least one as young as seven, went to the senator’s San Francisco office to ask her to support the Green New Deal climate legislation. In a video posted online by the Sunrise Movement, she tells them that the resolution isn’t a good one, because it can’t be paid for, and the…

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85-year-old Sen Feinstein responds to children imploring her to support the Green New Deal: ‘I know what I’m doing… I just won a big election’

85-year-old Sen Feinstein responds to children imploring her to support the Green New Deal: ‘I know what I’m doing… I just won a big election’

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This is how @SenFeinstein reacted to children asking her to support the #GreenNewDeal resolution — with smugness + disrespect. This is a fight for our generation's survival. Her reaction is why young people desperately want new leadership in Congress. pic.twitter.com/0zAkaxruMI — Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) February 22, 2019

If Mueller is done, states could file their own charges — even against Trump

If Mueller is done, states could file their own charges — even against Trump

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Asha Rangappa writes: News reports that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is close to completing his investigation have raised the question of whether anyone who hasn’t yet been charged with a crime won’t ever be. Mueller has brought 199 charges against 37 defendants in less than two years — including six members of President Trump’s campaign. Some key figures, though, such as Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr., would appear to be off the hook: If Mueller’s work is…

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The dirty secret of the political purists is their attachment to the status quo

The dirty secret of the political purists is their attachment to the status quo

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Suzanne Moore writes: Splitters. Traitors. The People’s Front of Judea. I am quite enjoying the current shenanigans of those people who say they just can’t take it any more. Some are sick of Brexit. Some want a people’s vote. Some are disgusted at the acceptance of antisemitism. Some are probably terrible careerists out only for themselves, though this seems a rather unlikely way to do it. Some may be people you want to go to the pub with. Some you…

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Corbyn’s Labour Party ‘tougher on the people complaining about antisemitism than it is on the antisemites,’ says ninth MP to quit

Corbyn’s Labour Party ‘tougher on the people complaining about antisemitism than it is on the antisemites,’ says ninth MP to quit

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The Guardian reports: Ian Austin has become the ninth MP to quit the Labour party this week, although he told his local newspaper he had no plans to join the Independent Group (TIG), founded earlier this week by some former colleagues and Tory defectors. The MP for Dudley North in the West Midlands has been disaffected with the party leadership for a couple of years and told the Express & Star newspaper there was a “culture of extremism, antisemitism and…

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John Ruskin: A prophet for our troubled times

John Ruskin: A prophet for our troubled times

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Philip Hoare writes: In 1964, Kenneth Clark set out the problems of loving John Ruskin. One was his fame itself. Like his sometime pupil Oscar Wilde (who, along with other of his Oxford students he persuaded to dig a road in Hinksey in order that they learn the dignity of labour), Ruskin defined the art and culture of his century. “For almost 50 years,” Clark wrote in his book, Ruskin Today, “to read Ruskin was accepted as proof of the…

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World’s food supply under ‘severe threat’ from loss of biodiversity

World’s food supply under ‘severe threat’ from loss of biodiversity

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The Guardian reports: The world’s capacity to produce food is being undermined by humanity’s failure to protect biodiversity, according to the first UN study of the plants, animals and micro-organisms that help to put meals on our plates. The stark warning was issued by the Food and Agriculture Organisation after scientists found evidence the natural support systems that underpin the human diet are deteriorating around the world as farms, cities and factories gobble up land and pump out chemicals. Over…

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U.S. cities burn recyclables after China bans imports

U.S. cities burn recyclables after China bans imports

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The Guardian reports: The conscientious citizens of Philadelphia continue to put their pizza boxes, plastic bottles, yoghurt containers and other items into recycling bins. But in the past three months, half of these recyclables have been loaded on to trucks, taken to a hulking incineration facility and burned, according to the city’s government. It’s a situation being replicated across the US as cities struggle to adapt to a recent ban by China on the import of items intended for reuse….

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Sanders has an advantage, and it’s not about economics

Sanders has an advantage, and it’s not about economics

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Jamelle Bouie writes: Bernie Sanders’s most prominent message is economic, organized around a critique of capitalist inequality, an indictment of the ultrawealthy and a call for expansive new social programs. It helped propel him to a strong second in the 2016 Democratic primary campaign and has returned as the marquee message for his 2020 campaign, which he announced on Tuesday with a promise to “complete the revolution.” Unfortunately for his 2020 campaign, Sanders is less distinct on economic policy than…

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Norwegian mass murderer inspired white nationalist Trump supporter charged in terrorism plot

Norwegian mass murderer inspired white nationalist Trump supporter charged in terrorism plot

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Heavy reports: A 49-year-old active duty U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant arrested on gun and drug charges has been accused by federal prosecutors of being a “domestic terrorist, bent on committing acts dangerous to human life that are intended to affect governmental conduct.” In a court filing, prosecutors say the lieutenant was inspired by far-right Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik and has corresponded with known white supremacists. He identified himself as a “white nationalist” who has advocated for “focused violence” in order…

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