Browsed by
Author: From elsewhere

Sanders has an advantage, and it’s not about economics

Sanders has an advantage, and it’s not about economics

Jamelle Bouie writes: Bernie Sanders’s most prominent message is economic, organized around a critique of capitalist inequality, an indictment of the ultrawealthy and a call for expansive new social programs. It helped propel him to a strong second in the 2016 Democratic primary campaign and has returned as the marquee message for his 2020 campaign, which he announced on Tuesday with a promise to “complete the revolution.” Unfortunately for his 2020 campaign, Sanders is less distinct on economic policy than…

Read More Read More

Norwegian mass murderer inspired white nationalist Trump supporter charged in terrorism plot

Norwegian mass murderer inspired white nationalist Trump supporter charged in terrorism plot

Heavy reports: A 49-year-old active duty U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant arrested on gun and drug charges has been accused by federal prosecutors of being a “domestic terrorist, bent on committing acts dangerous to human life that are intended to affect governmental conduct.” In a court filing, prosecutors say the lieutenant was inspired by far-right Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik and has corresponded with known white supremacists. He identified himself as a “white nationalist” who has advocated for “focused violence” in order…

Read More Read More

The splitting of the Tories and Labour could redefine British politics

The splitting of the Tories and Labour could redefine British politics

Martin Kettle writes: Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston are not the first MPs to break away from the Conservative party. The list of Tory resigners goes back to Winston Churchill in 1904 and beyond. And they are unlikely to be the last. Back in October I had a coffee at the Tory conference with a cabinet minister who confessed: “Part of me is longing for Boris Johnson or Jacob Rees-Mogg to become leader so the rest of us…

Read More Read More

White House forms panel to look at national security threat posed by climate change led by adviser who claims climate science is a ‘cult’

White House forms panel to look at national security threat posed by climate change led by adviser who claims climate science is a ‘cult’

The Washington Post reports: The White House is working to assemble a panel to assess whether climate change poses a national security threat, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post, a conclusion that federal intelligence agencies have affirmed several times since President Trump took office. The proposed Presidential Committee on Climate Security, which would be established by executive order, is being spearheaded by William Happer, a National Security Council senior director. Happer, an emeritus professor of physics at Princeton…

Read More Read More

How the world got hooked on palm oil

How the world got hooked on palm oil

Paul Tullis writes: Once upon a time in a land far, far away, there grew a magical fruit. This fruit could be squeezed to produce a very special kind of oil that made cookies more healthy, soap more bubbly and crisps more crispy. The oil could even make lipstick smoother and keep ice-cream from melting. Because of these wondrous qualities, people came from around the world to buy the fruit and its oil. In the places where the fruit came…

Read More Read More

CNN’s hiring of a GOP operative as political editor is even worse than it looks

CNN’s hiring of a GOP operative as political editor is even worse than it looks

Margaret Sullivan writes: A few months before the 2016 presidential election, Sarah Isgur tweeted some advice to Donald Trump: “The only 3 words that should be coming out of Donald Trump’s mouth this week are: ‘Clinton’ ‘foundation’ ‘emails.’ ” But that kind of helpful counsel wasn’t enough. In early 2017, Isgur was summoned to meet with President Trump in the Oval Office, where she needed to pledge her loyalty to be named the Justice Department’s spokeswoman by Attorney General Jeff…

Read More Read More

‘Sustained and ongoing’ disinformation assault targets Democratic presidential candidates

‘Sustained and ongoing’ disinformation assault targets Democratic presidential candidates

Politico reports: A wide-ranging disinformation campaign aimed at Democratic 2020 candidates is already underway on social media, with signs that foreign state actors are driving at least some of the activity. The main targets appear to be Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), four of the most prominent announced or prospective candidates for president. A POLITICO review of recent data extracted from Twitter and from other platforms, as well…

Read More Read More

Microsoft says it has found another Russian operation targeting prominent think tanks

Microsoft says it has found another Russian operation targeting prominent think tanks

The Washington Post reports: For the second time in six months, Microsoft has identified a Russian government-affiliated operation targeting prominent think tanks that have been critical of Russia, the company said in a blog post Tuesday evening. The “spear-phishing” attacks — in which hackers send out phony emails intended to trick people into visiting websites that look authentic but in fact enable them to infiltrate their victims’ corporate computer systems — were tied to the APT28 hacking group, a unit…

Read More Read More

Obstruction of justice: Inside Trump’s two-year war on the investigations encircling him

Obstruction of justice: Inside Trump’s two-year war on the investigations encircling him

The New York Times reports: As federal prosecutors in Manhattan gathered evidence late last year about President Trump’s role in silencing women with hush payments during the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump called Matthew G. Whitaker, his newly installed attorney general, with a question. He asked whether Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York and a Trump ally, could be put in charge of the widening investigation, according to several American officials with direct…

Read More Read More

Labour MPs have no other choice than to stay with Corbyn or leave the party

Labour MPs have no other choice than to stay with Corbyn or leave the party

Rafael Behr writes: When does a church become so broad that its congregants no longer profess the same faith? For Labour, that challenge goes beyond the present rows over Brexit and antisemitism. It drills into deep ideological faultlines. Corbyn’s party has no leftmost boundary. There is no form of radical socialism that it deems taboo. It welcomes people who wave hammer and sickle flags, whether they are unaware of atrocities committed under that banner or simply relaxed about them. It…

Read More Read More

Bernie Sanders hires seasoned progressive, Faiz Shakir, as campaign manager

Bernie Sanders hires seasoned progressive, Faiz Shakir, as campaign manager

The Daily Beast reports: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has tapped Faiz Shakir to serve as his campaign manager for his second run at the White House, The Daily Beast has learned. In hiring Shakir, Sanders brings into the fold one of the Democratic Party’s better-traveled operatives—an official with limited campaign experience but with ties to the party’s think tank infrastructure, its Hill operations, and the larger progressive universe. Shakir joins the Sanders operation from the American Civil Liberties Union where…

Read More Read More

Alabama newspaper editor incites murder. Calls on KKK to go to Washington to lynch Democrats

Alabama newspaper editor incites murder. Calls on KKK to go to Washington to lynch Democrats

The New York Times reports: The editor and publisher of a small Alabama newspaper called for the Ku Klux Klan “to night ride again” against tax-raising politicians, prompting a fierce backlash and calls for his resignation. The editor, Goodloe Sutton, published the editorial in the Thursday edition of The Democrat-Reporter, a weekly newspaper in Linden, Ala., that had about 3,000 subscribers in 2015. The editorial went largely unnoticed until Monday, when two student journalists shared photographs of it online and…

Read More Read More