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17 states and Trump join Texas’ lawsuit. It’s still a doomed Supreme Court stunt

17 states and Trump join Texas’ lawsuit. It’s still a doomed Supreme Court stunt

Steve Vladeck writes: For all of the (many) lawsuits that President Donald Trump and his supporters have filed challenging the 2020 election results, the new winner for hubris and cynicism may be the action that the state of Texas filed directly in the Supreme Court late Monday night, asking the justices to throw out the results in four (but only four) battleground states: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. So far, 17 states have filed motions backing the Texas attorney general,…

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Even in defeat, Trump tightens grip on state GOP lawmakers

Even in defeat, Trump tightens grip on state GOP lawmakers

The New York Times reports: Last week, allies of President Trump accused Republican leaders in Pennsylvania of being “cowards” and “liars” and of letting America down. Mr. Trump himself called top Republicans in the General Assembly in his crusade to twist the arms of officials in several states and reverse an election he lost. The Pennsylvania lawmakers told the president they had no power to convene a special session to address his grievances. But they also rewarded his efforts: On…

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Antitrust lawsuits: U.S. and states say Facebook illegally crushed competition

Antitrust lawsuits: U.S. and states say Facebook illegally crushed competition

The New York Times reports: The Federal Trade Commission and more than 40 states accused Facebook on Wednesday of buying up its rivals to illegally squash competition, and they called for the deals to be unwound, escalating regulators’ battle against the biggest tech companies in a way that could remake the social media industry. Federal and state regulators of both parties, who have investigated the company for over 18 months, said in separate lawsuits that Facebook’s purchases, especially Instagram for…

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How ‘neutral theory’ altered ideas about biodiversity

How ‘neutral theory’ altered ideas about biodiversity

Christie Wilcox writes: If you had braved the jungles of China’s Fujian province in the early 20th century, various accounts say you could have witnessed a stunningly unexpected animal: a blue tiger. These tigers were described as “marvelously beautiful” with bodies “a deep shade of Maltese, changing into almost deep blue on the under parts.” As late as the 1950s, hunters reported spotting their blue hairs alongside the traditional orange fur of other South China tigers on trails. Then the…

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Over the last week, Covid-19 killed more than twice as many Americans as 9/11 and Pearl Harbor combined

Over the last week, Covid-19 killed more than twice as many Americans as 9/11 and Pearl Harbor combined

Deadliest days in American history: 1. Galveston Hurricane – 8,0002. Antietam – 3,6003. 9/11 – 2,9774. Last Thursday – 2,8615. Last Wednesday – 2,7626. Last Tuesday – 2.4617. Last Friday – 2,4398. Pearl Harbor – 2,403 — 𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 (@Sundae_Gurl) December 9, 2020 According to Worldometers, between December 1 and December 7, 13,433 Americans died from Covid-19.

This winter, fight Covid-19 with humidity

This winter, fight Covid-19 with humidity

Joseph G. Allen, Akiko Iwasaki and Linsey C. Marr write: We have a great set of tools that can help slow the spread of this virus: masks, social distancing and hand-washing, as well as healthy building strategies such as ventilation and filtration. And there is one more healthy building tool that we can use this winter: maintaining relative humidity in the 40-to-60-percent range. Relative humidity is the term for how much water vapor is actually in the air compared to…

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Trump blows a hole in the GOP on his way out

Trump blows a hole in the GOP on his way out

Politico reports: Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the presidential election have met with defeat in every swing state and in nearly every court where his cases have been heard. But Trump’s campaign to pressure GOP elected officials to support his baseless claims of a rigged election — and his success in convincing a majority of the party that widespread voter fraud occurred — is already showing signs of having far-reaching effects that will reshape the Republican Party for years to…

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Arizona GOP asks followers if they’re willing to die in effort to overturn election results

Arizona GOP asks followers if they’re willing to die in effort to overturn election results

Arizona Republic reports: The Arizona Republican Party has asked its followers if they are willing to die for the cause of overturning the presidential election results, eliciting alarm and criticism in response. The party’s official Twitter account on Monday night shared a post from Ali Alexander, an activist with an organization called “Stop the Steal” that has protested election results. “I am willing to give my life for this fight,” Alexander wrote. When sharing the post, the GOP asked followers:…

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Republicans were already at odds with reality long before Trump took control of the party

Republicans were already at odds with reality long before Trump took control of the party

Paul Krugman writes: President Trump’s continuing attempts to overturn an election he lost decisively more than a month ago is, like so much of what he’s done in office, shocking but not surprising. Who imagined that he would go quietly? What some people may not have been fully prepared for is the way Trump’s party as a whole has backed his dangerous delusions. According to a survey by The Washington Post, only 27 Republican members of Congress are willing to…

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The data economy is facing a social reckoning

The data economy is facing a social reckoning

MIT Technology Review reports: Each innovation challenges the norms, codes, and values of the society in which it is embedded. The industrial revolution unleashed new forces of productivity but at the cost of inhumane working conditions, leading to the creation of unions, labor laws, and the foundations of the political party structures of modern democracies. Fossil fuels powered a special century of growth before pushing governments, companies, and civil society to phase them out to protect our health, ecology, and…

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The hidden carbon footprint of influence-peddling businesses

The hidden carbon footprint of influence-peddling businesses

Bloomberg reports: For an invisible, odorless gas, carbon dioxide turns out to be somewhat straightforward to track. Businesses now routinely report their carbon dioxide emissions in three categories: Scope 1 for the direct burning of fossil fuels in generators, facilities, and vehicles; Scope 2 for purchased energy, such as electricity or heat; and Scope 3, the most complicated, for supply chains and customers. For as much CO₂ as that system covers, it’s still incomplete. Many businesses pollute very little themselves…

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The Covid-19 vaccines were designed almost a year ago

The Covid-19 vaccines were designed almost a year ago

David Wallace-Wells writes: You may be surprised to learn that of the trio of long-awaited coronavirus vaccines, the most promising, Moderna’s mRNA-1273, which reported a 94.5 percent efficacy rate on November 16, had been designed by January 13. This was just two days after the genetic sequence had been made public in an act of scientific and humanitarian generosity that resulted in China’s Yong-Zhen Zhang’s being temporarily forced out of his lab. In Massachusetts, the Moderna vaccine design took all…

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Leading Covid-19 vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna decline invitations to White House ‘Vaccine Summit’

Leading Covid-19 vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna decline invitations to White House ‘Vaccine Summit’

STAT reports: Both Pfizer and Moderna, the two major drug manufacturers likely to receive emergency authorizations for a Covid-19 vaccine in the coming weeks, have rejected invitations from President Trump to appear at a White House “Vaccine Summit” on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the event’s planning. The Trump administration has openly feuded with Pfizer in recent weeks over its involvement in Operation Warp Speed and the timing of a data release showing its vaccine to be highly…

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The pandemic’s final surge will be brutal

The pandemic’s final surge will be brutal

Whet Moser writes: In the spring, during the first COVID-19 surge in the United States, the rising death toll reached a sobering peak in April—a seven-day average of 2,116 daily deaths. This past weekend, the seven-day average of U.S. deaths from COVID-19 broke that record twice, at 2,123 on Saturday and 2,171 yesterday, according to the COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic. Yesterday, the seven-day averages for all four of the primary metrics that the COVID Tracking Project follows—tests, cases,…

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