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The common misconception about the meaning of ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’

The common misconception about the meaning of ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’

Frank O. Bowman III writes: “High crimes and misdemeanors” is surely the most troublesome, misleading phrase in the U.S. Constitution. Taken at face value, the words seem to say that impeachable conduct is limited to “crimes”—offenses defined by criminal statutes and punishable in criminal courts. That impression is reinforced by the fact that the phrase follows the obviously criminal “treason” and “bribery” in Article II’s list of the kinds of conduct for which the “President, Vice President and all civil…

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Putin and Hungary’s Orban helped sour Trump on Ukraine

Putin and Hungary’s Orban helped sour Trump on Ukraine

The Washington Post reports: President Trump’s effort to pressure Ukraine for information he could use against political rivals came as he was being urged to adopt a hostile view of that country by its regional adversaries, including Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, current and former U.S. officials said. Trump’s conversations with Putin, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and others reinforced his perception of Ukraine as a hopelessly corrupt country — one that Trump now also appears to believe sought to undermine…

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Trump’s ‘lynching’ comparison shows there’s no bottom to his sense of victimhood

Trump’s ‘lynching’ comparison shows there’s no bottom to his sense of victimhood

Eugene Scott writes: President Trump apparently fears an impeachment could be so destructive to his presidency that he has frequently described it in terms of an epic injustice, taking that habit to a new level Tuesday by calling the impeachment efforts a “lynching.” And in doing so, the president has solidified the perception that he is completely insensitive to the United States’ history of racism and violence. So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the…

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Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal did not really win approval

Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal did not really win approval

Politico reports: MPs dealt a fresh blow to Boris Johnson as they voted against his breakneck timetable to pass Brexit legislation. The House of Commons voted by 308 to 322 to reject his plan to pass the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, which turns Johnson’s Brexit deal agreed with Brussels into U.K. law, in just three days, despite a majority voting to support the deal as a whole just moments before. Too many thought three days was not enough time to scrutinize…

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U.S.-China trade war threatens renewable energy

U.S.-China trade war threatens renewable energy

The Financial Times (via Inside Climate News) reports: Leaders of the wind power industry are warning that the global trade war could endanger progress on renewable energy, as slowing growth in clean energy projects puts the goals of the Paris climate accord at risk. “Trade wars do real damages to business by inflating prices,” said Henrik Andersen, chief executive of Denmark-based Vestas, the world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturer. “When tariffs impact new technologies like renewable energy, it makes them less…

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New evidence that an extraterrestrial collision 12,800 years ago triggered an abrupt climate change for Earth

New evidence that an extraterrestrial collision 12,800 years ago triggered an abrupt climate change for Earth

The muck that’s been accumulating at the bottom of this lake for 20,000 years is like a climate time capsule. Christopher R. Moore, CC BY-ND By Christopher R. Moore, University of South Carolina What kicked off the Earth’s rapid cooling 12,800 years ago? In the space of just a couple of years, average temperatures abruptly dropped, resulting in temperatures as much as 14 degrees Fahrenheit cooler in some regions of the Northern Hemisphere. If a drop like that happened today,…

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Ocean acidification can cause mass extinctions, fossils reveal

Ocean acidification can cause mass extinctions, fossils reveal

The Guardian reports: Ocean acidification can cause the mass extinction of marine life, fossil evidence from 66m years ago has revealed. A key impact of today’s climate crisis is that seas are again getting more acidic, as they absorb carbon emissions from the burning of coal, oil and gas. Scientists said the latest research is a warning that humanity is risking potential “ecological collapse” in the oceans, which produce half the oxygen we breathe. The researchers analysed small seashells in…

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John Roberts won’t let Mitch McConnell derail a Trump impeachment trial

John Roberts won’t let Mitch McConnell derail a Trump impeachment trial

Bruce Ackerman writes: On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported on a closed-door session among Senate Republicans discussing the way they should conduct a trial if President Donald Trump is impeached by the House. According to at least one senator, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated that he is aiming for a rapid process that might start around Thanksgiving and end by Christmas. There are many reasons, though, to think that such a rush to judgment will fail. The Constitution explicitly…

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The prospect that Congress might impeach Trump is no longer just a fantasy

The prospect that Congress might impeach Trump is no longer just a fantasy

Jonathan Chait writes: Throughout Trump’s presidency, I’ve dismissed the possibility that he could be removed from office. In all likelihood, the Senate will come nowhere close to mustering the 67 votes needed to do so. But over the past few weeks, the outline of a removal scenario has begun to take shape. The prospect is no longer a fantasy. The Republican Establishment has largely submitted to Trump, and its acquiescence has come to seem like an immutable fact of this…

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‘Like rats, America is running away’

‘Like rats, America is running away’

Stones and rotten fruit for the withdrawing US force. What a farce this has been. pic.twitter.com/PN82C6I18a — Adam Harvey (@adharves) October 21, 2019 The Associated Press reports: Residents have pelted apparently retreating US troops with food as they drove through a Kurdish-dominated city in Syria. A video by a Kurdish news agency, posted on Monday, shows a convoy of US armoured vehicles driving through Qamishli. Angry residents pelted the vehicles, shouting “No America” and “America liar” in English. “Like rats,…

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Russian hackers disguised as Iranian spies attacked 35 countries

Russian hackers disguised as Iranian spies attacked 35 countries

Kate O’Flaherty reports: Russian cyber actors disguised themselves as Iranian spies so they could stealthily orchestrate attacks on countries across the world, the U.S. and U.K. said today (21 October) in a joint statement. The so called Turla group, which is also known as Snake or Uroburos, hid in plain sight by acquiring Iranian tools and infrastructure to perform their attacks, the U.K.’s Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and U.S. National Security Agency said. In total, 35 countries were attacked, including…

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China overtakes U.S. in rankings of world’s richest people

China overtakes U.S. in rankings of world’s richest people

The Guardian reports: The number of wealthy Chinese people has overtaken the number of rich Americans for the first time, according to a report by Credit Suisse. The Swiss bank’s annual wealth survey found there were 100m Chinese people among the world’s top 10% of richest people, compared with 99m in the United States. The report says the “rapid transformation of China from an emerging nation in transition to a fully fledged market economy” helped create a record number of…

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Trump campaign floods Web with ads, raking in cash as Democrats struggle

Trump campaign floods Web with ads, raking in cash as Democrats struggle

The New York Times reports: On any given day, the Trump campaign is plastering ads all over Facebook, YouTube and the millions of sites served by Google, hitting the kind of incendiary themes — immigrant invaders, the corrupt media — that play best on platforms where algorithms favor outrage and political campaigns are free to disregard facts. Even seemingly ominous developments for Mr. Trump become fodder for his campaign. When news broke last month that congressional Democrats were opening an…

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Trump’s relentless effort to promote his personal business interests while conducting U.S. foreign relations

Trump’s relentless effort to promote his personal business interests while conducting U.S. foreign relations

Politico reports: President Donald Trump was sitting beside Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office in March when he fondly recalled his luxury golf resort on Ireland’s west coast. He gushed about his two tony Scottish resorts months later while standing next to French President Emmanuel Macron in France. And in August, while meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he first suggested that he just might bring the G-7 summit of world leaders to one of his own…

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