Browsed by
Author: From elsewhere

Trump’s claims about Biden aren’t ‘unsupported’ — they’re lies

Trump’s claims about Biden aren’t ‘unsupported’ — they’re lies

Michelle Goldberg writes: On Sept. 24, 2015, Geoffrey Pyatt, then the American ambassador to Ukraine, spoke in Odessa about the scourge of corruption. It was about a year and a half after what is sometimes called the Revolution of Dignity, when Ukrainians overthrew the kleptocratic, Russian-aligned regime of Viktor Yanukovych. The country was trying to move in a more liberal, European direction. Corruption, said Pyatt, threatened to hold the new Ukraine back. Pyatt called out the office of Viktor Shokin,…

Read More Read More

While Boris Johnson plays games, the EU prepares to move on

While Boris Johnson plays games, the EU prepares to move on

Rafael Behr writes In a normal game of poker, a bluff cannot continue once it is called. But for Boris Johnson an exposed bluff can just be re-bluffed. The stakes get higher even when the poor hand lies open on the table. Before entering Downing Street, Johnson claimed that deficiencies in Theresa May’s Brexit deal were caused by failure of nerve, not weakness in the UK’s position. The theory was that Brussels needed to see kamikaze intent in British eyes:…

Read More Read More

No, Israeli democracy is not ‘fine’

No, Israeli democracy is not ‘fine’

Peter Beinart writes: Last week, Bret Stephens penned a New York Times column entitled, “Israel’s democracy is doing just fine.” With their “rebuke” of Benjamin Netanyahu at the polls, Stephens declared, “Israelis showed that demagogy doesn’t work.” This week, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin gave Netanyahu the opportunity to form Israel’s next government. Netanyahu could fail to do so, in which case his center-right rival, Benny Gantz, would likely get the chance. But there’s a real possibility that Netanyahu — a…

Read More Read More

Your brain chooses what to let you see

Your brain chooses what to let you see

Jordana Cepelewicz writes: Last week, Quanta reported on the filtering mechanisms that allow us to focus our attention on stimuli of interest — that let us tune out the music in a room to listen to a nearby conversation, or disregard greens, blues and yellows in a crowd when searching for a friend wearing red. That kind of processing, which involves the suppression of some sensory data to highlight signals that are more relevant, is directed by a goal. But…

Read More Read More

Trump and his supporters spread misinformation about requirements for whistleblowers to file urgent complaints

Trump and his supporters spread misinformation about requirements for whistleblowers to file urgent complaints

Kevin Poulsen reports: It began late Friday with a story from the conservative website The Federalist headlined “Intel Community Secretly Gutted Requirement Of First-Hand Whistleblower Knowledge.” The article claimed “the intelligence community secretly revised the formal whistleblower complaint form in August 2019 to eliminate the requirement of direct, first-hand knowledge of wrongdoing.” “It seems like they are jumping to a lot of conclusions based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the law, the regulatory framework, and the language on one form,”…

Read More Read More

Trump invoking ‘civil war’ over impeachment is ‘beyond repugnant’ says GOP congressman

Trump invoking ‘civil war’ over impeachment is ‘beyond repugnant’ says GOP congressman

The Washington Post reports: As Democrats begin an impeachment inquiry, President Trump spent Sunday vigorously defending himself on Twitter and sharing cable news clips of his most ardent devotees insisting that he did nothing wrong in asking the Ukrainian president to investigate his political rival, former vice president Joe Biden. Trump highlighted one quote from a longtime evangelical pastor warning of particularly dire consequences if the Democrats follow through. “If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office…

Read More Read More

There’s still time to save your souls, Jeff Flake tells fellow Republicans

There’s still time to save your souls, Jeff Flake tells fellow Republicans

Jeff Flake, a Republican and former senator, writes: I would have preferred to represent the citizens of Arizona for another term in the Senate. But not at the cost of supporting this man. A man who has, now more than ever, proved to be so manifestly undeserving of the highest office that we have. At this point, the president’s conduct in office should not surprise us. But truly devastating has been our tolerance of that conduct. Our embrace of it….

Read More Read More

Democrats see impeachment as landmine for Republican Senate

Democrats see impeachment as landmine for Republican Senate

Politico reports: Democrats insist that their march toward impeaching President Donald Trump is simply about doing the right thing. But a growing number of them see a real political upside, too: It might help them win back the Senate. Senate Democrats are growing increasingly giddy at the prospect of seeing a half-dozen vulnerable senators squirm for weeks and months about Trump’s behavior before eventually being forced to go on the record to convict or acquit Trump if he’s impeached by…

Read More Read More

Founders: Removal from office is not the only purpose of impeachment

Founders: Removal from office is not the only purpose of impeachment

Benjamin Franklin was a leading voice in the debates framing the Constitution. Howard Chandler Christy/Architect of the Capitol By Clark D. Cunningham, Georgia State University As Congress moves toward a possible formal impeachment of President Donald Trump, they should consider words spoken at the Constitutional Convention, when the Founders explained that impeachment was intended to have many important purposes, not just removing a president from office. A critical debate took place on July 20, 1787, which resulted in adding the…

Read More Read More

Why the Republican Party debased itself through servile loyalty to Donald Trump

Why the Republican Party debased itself through servile loyalty to Donald Trump

Peter Wehner writes: As a conservative-leaning clinical psychologist I know explained to me, when new experiences don’t fit into an existing schema — Mr. Trump becoming the leader of the party that insisted on the necessity of good character in the Oval Office when Bill Clinton was president, for example — cognitive accommodation occurs. When the accommodation involves compromising one’s sense of integrity, the tensions are reduced when others join in the effort. This creates a powerful sense of cohesion,…

Read More Read More

Partisan divide creates different Americas, separate lives

Partisan divide creates different Americas, separate lives

Even in the physical world, it’s hard to cross partisan lines. igorstevanovic/Shutterstock.com By Robert B. Talisse, Vanderbilt University When people try to explain why the United States is so politically polarized now, they frequently refer to the concept of “echo chambers.” That’s the idea that people on social media interact only with like-minded people, reinforcing each other’s beliefs. When people don’t encounter competing ideas, the argument goes, they become less willing to cooperate with political opponents. The problem goes beyond…

Read More Read More

Intelligence whistleblowers often pay a severe price

Intelligence whistleblowers often pay a severe price

Blowing the whistle carries major risks. BlueSkyImage/Shutterstock.com By Jennifer M. Pacella, Indiana University When President Donald Trump likened a whistleblower’s White House sources to spies and made a lightly veiled reference to execution, he highlighted a longstanding peril facing those who come forward to alert the public to governmental wrongdoing. In many instances, whistleblowers find the abusive power they have revealed turned against them, both ending their careers and harming their personal lives. In the private sector, whistleblowers are often…

Read More Read More

Trump had three attorneys working ‘off the books’ to dig up dirt on Biden

Trump had three attorneys working ‘off the books’ to dig up dirt on Biden

Fox News reports: Rudy Giuliani was not the only attorney trying to get damaging information on Joe Biden from Ukrainian officials, and President Trump’s decision to withhold aid from Ukraine this summer was made in spite of several federal agencies supporting the aid, Fox News’ Chris Wallace revealed on “Fox News Sunday.” In addition to Giuliani, Washington, D.C., lawyers Joe DiGenova and his wife Victoria Toensing worked alongside the former New York City mayor. According to a top U.S. official,…

Read More Read More

Hunter Biden’s dubious business foray into Ukraine

Hunter Biden’s dubious business foray into Ukraine

The Washington Post reports: When then-Vice President Joe Biden’s son joined the board of an obscure Ukrainian gas company half a decade ago, it was a stunning coup for its owner, a former Ukrainian minister working to remake the company’s image as he faced a money-laundering investigation. For Hunter Biden, the job came with risks: Ukraine was in the throes of political upheaval, and there was building scrutiny of former government officials profiting in the lucrative gas industry. His father…

Read More Read More