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The importance, and incoherence, of Twitter’s Trump ban

The importance, and incoherence, of Twitter’s Trump ban

Andrew Marantz writes: After Twitter permanently suspended Donald Trump’s account, earlier this month, the reactions were quick, ubiquitous, and mostly predictable. Many of the takes seemed canned, the way an obituary of a terminally ill celebrity is often pre-written. On the Trump-apologist right, the suspension was denounced as Orwellian tyranny, deep-state collusion, or worse. (Glenn Beck, during a segment on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show, compared the Trump ban and other Big Tech crackdowns to “the Germans with the Jews…

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Post Trump, Republicans are headed for a bitter internal showdown

Post Trump, Republicans are headed for a bitter internal showdown

The New York Times reports: As President Trump prepares to leave office with his party in disarray, Republican leaders including Senator Mitch McConnell are maneuvering to thwart his grip on the G.O.P. in future elections, while forces aligned with Mr. Trump are looking to punish Republican lawmakers and governors who have broken with him. The bitter infighting underscores the deep divisions Mr. Trump has created in the G.O.P. and all but ensures that the next campaign will represent a pivotal…

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Off-duty police were part of the Capitol mob. Now police are turning in their own

Off-duty police were part of the Capitol mob. Now police are turning in their own

The Washington Post reports: During the chaos at the Capitol, overwhelmed police officers confronted and combated a frenzied sea of rioters who transformed the seat of democracy into a battlefield. Now police chiefs across the country are confronting the uncomfortable reality that members in their own ranks were among the mob that faced off against other law enforcement officers. At least 13 off-duty law enforcement officials are suspected of taking part in the riot, a tally that could grow as…

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Biden swells the ranks of his White House climate team

Biden swells the ranks of his White House climate team

The Washington Post reports: President-elect Joe Biden added more than a half-dozen climate staffers to his White House team Thursday, drawing from the ranks of green groups, environmental justice advocates and former Democratic administration officials to grow an inner circle that will help him try to slash the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. The new hires include David J. Hayes, who served as Interior deputy secretary under Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama; Cecilia Martinez, a prominent environmental justice advocate based…

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The coronavirus is evolving before our eyes

The coronavirus is evolving before our eyes

James Hamblin writes: In the final, darkest days of the deadliest year in U.S. history, the world received ominous news of a mutation in the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Scientists in the U.K. had identified a form of the virus that was spreading rapidly throughout the nation. Then, on January 4, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a lockdown that began almost immediately and will last until at least the middle of February. “It’s been both frustrating and alarming to see the speed…

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Trump’s Warp Speed leaders waited months to approve vaccine distribution plans

Trump’s Warp Speed leaders waited months to approve vaccine distribution plans

The Wall Street Journal reports: Operation Warp Speed leaders waited more than two months to approve a plan to distribute and administer Covid-19 vaccines proposed by U.S. health officials, administration officials said, leaving states with little time to implement a mass-vaccination campaign amid a coronavirus surge. State and local officials had been clamoring for months for help preparing for the largest vaccination program in U.S. history when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a playbook in September to…

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Joe Biden’s looming war on white supremacy

Joe Biden’s looming war on white supremacy

Ronald Brownstein writes: For four years, Donald Trump downplayed the risk of white-supremacist violence and denied that racial bias is pervasive in law enforcement. In a single, searing day, the assault on the U.S. Capitol exposed the price of both of those choices—and may have provided Joe Biden new political momentum for reversing direction on each front. At once, the rioters demonstrated how much the threat of white extremism has metastasized under Trump, while the restrained police response vivified a…

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Trump supporters had been declaring, at rally after rally, that they would go to violent lengths to keep their leader in power

Trump supporters had been declaring, at rally after rally, that they would go to violent lengths to keep their leader in power

Luke Mogelson writes: By the end of President Donald Trump’s crusade against American democracy—after a relentless deployment of propaganda, demagoguery, intimidation, and fearmongering aimed at persuading as many Americans as possible to repudiate their country’s foundational principles—a single word sufficed to nudge his most fanatical supporters into open insurrection. Thousands of them had assembled on the Mall, in Washington, D.C., on the morning of January 6th, to hear Trump address them from a stage outside the White House. From where…

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‘He has an obligation to them’: Attorney for ‘QAnon shaman’ asks Trump to pardon rioters

‘He has an obligation to them’: Attorney for ‘QAnon shaman’ asks Trump to pardon rioters

Politico reports: The lawyer for the “QAnon shaman” who was part of the deadly siege of the Capitol last week publicly petitioned President Donald Trump on Thursday to pardon his client. In an interview on CNN, attorney Albert Watkins said his client, Jacob Chansley, “felt like he was answering the call of our president” when he stormed the nation’s seat of government last Wednesday during a riot that resulted in the deaths of at least five people. Chansley, a 33-year-old…

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GOP in bind over Trump as corporate donations freeze

GOP in bind over Trump as corporate donations freeze

The Hill reports: Republicans are in a bind as they consider how to move on from President Trump, who has passionate support from a large chunk of the party but has become completely toxic in the eyes of more traditional Republicans. Washington Republicans are urging the party to cut ties completely with Trump over his role in the deadly riot that consumed Capitol Hill last week as corporations halt donations. Some say Trump and his brand can have no future…

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Trump will try to make his impeachment about free speech

Trump will try to make his impeachment about free speech

Noah Feldman writes: With the House of Representatives having voted to impeach President Donald Trump for incitement to insurrection, it’s time to start contemplating what Trump’s defense will be in a Senate trial. The answer can be summed up briefly: Trump’s lawyers will argue that Trump did not commit a crime of incitement and that his words were protected by the First Amendment. But wait, you may say, if you can remember Trump’s 2020 Senate trial 12 months ago (so…

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Despite expert warnings, Facebook let the Boogaloo movement grow and become deadly

Despite expert warnings, Facebook let the Boogaloo movement grow and become deadly

The Guardian reports: One hundred days before Dave Patrick Underwood was murdered on 29 May, a group of analysts who monitor online extremism concluded that an attack like the one that killed him was coming. An anti-government movement intent on killing law enforcement officers had been growing rapidly on social media, the analysts at the Network Contagion Research Institute warned. Building on the work of other analysts, the researchers had identified Facebook groups where thousands of members obsessed over the…

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Air pollution will lead to mass migration, say experts after landmark ruling

Air pollution will lead to mass migration, say experts after landmark ruling

The Guardian reports: Air pollution does not respect national boundaries and environmental degradation will lead to mass migration in the future, said a leading barrister in the wake of a landmark migration ruling, as experts warned that government action must be taken as a matter of urgency. Sailesh Mehta, a barrister specialising in environmental cases, said: “The link between migration and environmental degradation is clear. As global warming makes parts of our planet uninhabitable, mass migration will become the norm….

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How Facebook incubated the insurrection

How Facebook incubated the insurrection

Stuart A. Thompson and Charlie Warzel write: Dominick McGee didn’t enter the Capitol during the siege on Jan. 6. He was on the grounds when the mob of Donald Trump supporters broke past police barricades and began smashing windows. But he turned around, heading back to his hotel. Property destruction wasn’t part of his plan. Plus, his phone had died, ending his Facebook Live video midstream. He needed to find a charger. After all, Facebook was a big part of…

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How Trump’s worldview is ingrained in state and local Republicans

How Trump’s worldview is ingrained in state and local Republicans

The New York Times reports: In Cleveland County, Okla., the chairman of the local Republican Party openly wondered “why violence is unacceptable,” just hours before a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol last week. “What the crap do you think the American revolution was?” he posted on Facebook. “A game of friggin pattycake?” Two days later, the Republican chairman of Nye County in Nevada posted a conspiracy-theory-filled letter on the local committee website, accusing Vice President Mike Pence of treason and…

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