Music: Derrick Hodge — ‘Message Of Hope’
Bernie’s message and media machine could be potent against Trump
Peter Hamby writes: The Bernie bed-wetting has reached full-blown rubber sheet mode. With Bernie Sanders hanging on to a slim polling lead in Iowa and an even bigger one in New Hampshire, panicked Democrats are sounding the alarm that Bernie Sanders could surf a wave of unstoppable momentum all the way to the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee. Nominating Sanders to run against Donald Trump would be an “Act of Insanity,” according to New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait. “Dems Tormented…
Republicans now say Trump did what he was accused of — they just don’t care
BuzzFeed reports: After days of arguments and questioning in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, many Republican senators have come to the same conclusion: The president did it, and they don’t care. House Democrats voted to impeach Trump on claims he abused his power by withholding military aid to Ukraine in exchange for an announcement the country would investigate political rival, Joe Biden. Democrats also argued the president stonewalled the House’s investigation leading to the second article of impeachment, obstruction of…
Trump told Bolton to help his Ukraine pressure campaign
The New York Times reports: More than two months before he asked Ukraine’s president to investigate his political opponents, President Trump directed John R. Bolton, then his national security adviser, to help with his pressure campaign to extract damaging information on Democrats from Ukrainian officials, according to an unpublished manuscript by Mr. Bolton. Mr. Trump gave the instruction, Mr. Bolton wrote, during an Oval Office conversation in early May that included the acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney,…
Brexit is alarm signal for Europe, warns Emmanuel Macron
The Guardian reports: Emmanuel Macron warned Europeans that Brexit was an “alarm signal” of huge historic significance as the EU flag was hauled from the flagpole outside the UK government’s main office in Brussels, marking the end of Britain’s membership of the bloc. Speaking in Paris, the French president referenced the defining nature of the British decision to turn its back on 47 years of membership. “There is a long history between France and Britain, one made of blood, freedom,…
Don’t call it a peace plan
Daniel Levy writes: From the mid-1990s to the early noughties, much of my professional life was spent in a rather niche pursuit that came flooding back to me with yesterday’s release of President Trump’s “Peace Vision.” The drafting of Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements became my thing—sometimes in uniform serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), sometimes as a concerned citizen in informal and often clandestine talks, and sometimes as an adviser in the offices of the Israeli prime minister and then…
The conservatives trying to ditch fake news
McKay Coppins writes: Jonah goldberg, the conservative author and longtime fixture at National Review, used to have a go-to metaphor he’d deploy whenever he found himself defending one of his noisier compatriots in the right-wing media. “I had this whole spiel about how the conservative movement is like a symphony,” he told me in a recent interview. “You need the fine woodwinds like Yuval Levin or Irving Kristol, but you also need that guy with the big gong who just…
Simone de Beauvoir’s authentic love is a project of equals
Kate Kirkpatrick writes: The desires to love and be loved are, on Simone de Beauvoir’s view, part of the structure of human existence. Often, they go awry. But even so, she claimed, authentic love is not only possible but one of the most powerful tools available to individuals who want to be free. So what, exactly, is this authentic love? In The Second Sex (1949), Beauvoir argued that culture led men and women to have asymmetrical expectations, with the result…
Music: Edmar Castaneda & Gonzalo Rubalcaba at Caramoor Center
Yes, abuse of power is impeachable
Noah Feldman writes: As Republicans scramble to argue that they don’t need to call witnesses in President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, one argument seems to be gaining traction: that witnesses are irrelevant, because even if Trump did everything he’s accused of doing, abuse of power is not an impeachable offense. This argument isn’t merely wrong. It is the single most dangerous argument that any of Trump’s defenders have made during the entire impeachment process. If abuse of power isn’t…
New recording shows access Parnas and Fruman had to Trump at Mar-a-Lago donor event
The Washington Post reports: Ten days before Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman dined with President Trump at his Washington hotel, they were part of a small group of Republican Party donors who met with the president at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, a new recording shows. The two men — who later assisted Rudolph W. Giuliani’s efforts in Ukraine — were part of a gathering held in an ornate room of the property and also attended by Republican National Committee Chairwoman…
Democrats are already bracing for a ‘hostile’ Trump transition
Politico reports: Democrats are bracing for the possibility that if President Donald Trump loses the 2020 election, he and his aides will bungle a smooth handover of power — and maybe even try to outright sabotage the transition. At least one outside group that works with the 2020 Democratic campaigns has quietly launched a transition-related effort designed to offer an early look at the landscape that awaits them if they oust Trump. Separately, a prominent good government organization, the Partnership…
Britain’s Brexit odyssey is far from over
Anand Menon writes: Dawn, 24 June 2016. College Green. That small patch of grass opposite the Palace of Westminster. A flag-waving group of men – Nigel Farage and co – celebrates raucously. An ashen-faced Jeremy Corbyn arrives to tell the prime minister that article 50 should be triggered immediately. A senior FT reporter runs past, gasping that “the PM’s resigned and it’s only the third story on our website”. And so, the post-referendum odyssey began. In the sun, on the…
Frontline youth fighting for climate justice
Black and Brown youth speak for themselves to tell their stories as a part of an intergenerational movement for liberation from all extractive systems and industries. This 7 minute video showcases the beauty and joy of young people who come from a long legacy of intergenerational leadership, grounded in community. They are fighting against the culprits of climate change and climate destruction in their own communities, and winning! Frontline youth are also an integral part of the creative and…
How much of Harvard’s $40 billion endowment is invested in fossil fuels?
Devi Lockwood writes: Figuring out exactly how much of Harvard’s endowment is invested in oil, gas and coal companies is a near-impossible task. Harvard is required to disclose only direct investments in which the university owns shares of a specific company. Harvard says its direct investments amounted to $394 million as of May 2019, or roughly 1 percent of the endowment total. Divest Harvard, a student group, determined that of that approximate amount, $5.6 million was invested in companies that…
Were Neanderthals more than cousins to Homo sapiens?
By Josie Glausiusz Around 200,000 years ago, in what is now northern Israel, a small band of tech-savvy humans dragged home and dismembered a bounty of wildlife. Using exquisitely pointed flint spearheads and blades, they hunted and butchered myriad prey, including gazelles, deer, and now-extinct aurochs, the ancestors of modern cattle. In the cool, humid climate of the coastal plain, these early Homo sapiens foraged for acorns in nearby forests of oak, olive, and pistachio. They ate the saline leaves…