Browsed by
Author: From elsewhere

AG Barr should recuse himself from Ukraine-related issues, or resign, or be removed from office, says New York City Bar Association

AG Barr should recuse himself from Ukraine-related issues, or resign, or be removed from office, says New York City Bar Association

Law & Crime reports: The New York City Bar Association has called on U.S. Attorney General William Barr to stand down and recuse himself from any further review by the Department of Justice (DOJ) of issues related to the Trump Administration’s massive and snowballing Ukraine scandal. In a statement, the organization blasted Barr’s continued presence. The DOJ “has a unique role in safeguarding the rule of law under the Constitution,” the statement’s summary begins. “Barr has undermined that role,” by…

Read More Read More

Sondland seeks to align himself with Taylor after bombshell testimony

Sondland seeks to align himself with Taylor after bombshell testimony

Politico reports: What did Gordon Sondland know and when did he know it? The bombshell testimony of veteran diplomat William Taylor, President Donald Trump’s top envoy to Ukraine, has raised a crucial question of whether Trump admitted to Sondland that he was withholding military aid in exchange for an investigation into political rivals. Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the E.U., indicated as much in a phone call between the two in September, Taylor says. Sondland, however, had said previously he…

Read More Read More

Economists greatly underestimate the price tag on climate change

Economists greatly underestimate the price tag on climate change

Naomi Oreskes and Nicholas Stern write: For some time now it has been clear that the effects of climate change are appearing faster than scientists anticipated. Now it turns out that there is another form of underestimation as bad or worse than the scientific one: the underestimating by economists of the costs. The result of this failure by economists is that world leaders understand neither the magnitude of the risks to lives and livelihoods, nor the urgency of action. How…

Read More Read More

How to halt global warming for $300 billion

How to halt global warming for $300 billion

Bloomberg reports: $300 billion. That’s the money needed to stop the rise in greenhouse gases and buy up to 20 years of time to fix global warming, according to United Nations climate scientists. It’s the gross domestic product of Chile, or the world’s military spending every 60 days. The sum is not to fund green technologies or finance a moonshot solution to emissions, but to use simple, age-old practices to lock millions of tons of carbon back into an overlooked…

Read More Read More

Trump’s top Ukraine envoy testifies about deep-seated push for quid pro quo

Trump’s top Ukraine envoy testifies about deep-seated push for quid pro quo

Politico reports: President Donald Trump’s top envoy to Ukraine told House impeachment investigators on Tuesday of intense efforts by administration officials to secure politically-motivated investigations of Trump’s rivals in exchange for a White House meeting with Ukraine’s president and critical military aid, according to sources in the room for the testimony. William Taylor prompted sighs and gasps when he read a lengthy 15-page opening statement, two of the sources said. Another person in the room said Taylor’s statement described “how…

Read More Read More

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…

Read More Read More

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…

Read More Read More

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…

Read More Read More

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…

Read More Read More

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…

Read More Read More

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,…

Read More Read More

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…

Read More Read More

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…

Read More Read More

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…

Read More Read More