Music: Emil Brandqvist Trio — ‘From Now On’
Trump’s Epstein problem is real: New poll shows many in base disapprove of handling of files, some having second thoughts about electing him
Pollsters found that 47% of 2024 Trump voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the Epstein controversy. These supporters are at a rally in Doral, Fla., on July 9, 2024. Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images By Tatishe Nteta, UMass Amherst; Adam Eichen, UMass Amherst; Alexander Theodoridis, UMass Amherst; Jesse Rhodes, UMass Amherst, and Raymond La Raja, UMass Amherst Has President Donald Trump survived the latest and most serious firestorm of controversy over the Epstein scandal? Or has the Trump administration’s handling…
In Trump’s America, child sex predators go free but children whose lives could be saved are kept out
Axios reports: MAGA is pushing the Trump administration to explain why an Israeli official who was arrested in an undercover child sex sting in Nevada was allowed to leave the U.S. after posting bail. Why it matters: The outrage marks the latest fissure between Israel and MAGA, which already faces a generational divide over how much the U.S. should support Israel amid the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Driving the news: Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, a senior Israeli cybersecurity official, was arrested during an undercover operation in…
Poll indicates Trump’s ICE raids are backfiring in California — even among Republicans
Politico reports: Donald Trump’s immigration raids may be backfiring in California, even among Republicans and independents who otherwise support tougher border security, according to a new poll from POLITICO and its partners. Nearly three-quarters of registered voters in the state — including roughly half of Republicans — said removing millions of undocumented immigrants from the workforce would hurt California’s economy, the latest POLITICO-Citrin Center-Possibility Lab poll found. And roughly 80 percent of voters, including a majority of Republicans, said undocumented…
How deceit, delusion, and the inexorable pull of the past killed the two-state solution
Hussein Agha and Robert Malley write: The war that has engulfed Israel, the Gaza Strip, and well beyond since October 7, 2023, has confronted the world with much on which it had never set eyes before. In scope and brutality, Hamas’s assault on Israelis exceeded any prior Palestinian act. Israel’s military attacks and forced starvation in Gaza are an onslaught governed by unusual rules, in which the death of Palestinian fighters seems like collateral damage, while the widespread, indiscriminate slaughter…
The United States is no longer a reliable, predictable place to do business
The New York Times reports: Through recessions, wars, financial crises and political turmoil, the U.S. economy has maintained its reputation as the safest place in the world for investors to put their money and for entrepreneurs to build their businesses. That has given the United States a nearly incalculable economic advantage, allowing it to borrow more cheaply, grow more quickly and emerge from downturns more successfully than nearly any of its global peers. President Trump may be chipping away at…
Federal Judge orders Florida to tear down Alligator Alcatraz within 60 days
Mother Jones reports: A federal judge in Miami has ruled that operations at the controversial detention facility Alligator Alcatraz must begin to wind down, ordering state and federal officials to stop transferring detainees there and relocate current detainees within 60 days. Two weeks after US District Judge Kathleen Williams, an Obama appointee, ordered a temporary pause on any new construction at Alligator Alcatraz, in response to a suit by environmental groups, she has now ordered the dismantling of equipment at…
The Trump regime’s assault on science feels eerily Soviet
Lois Parshley writes: In the fall of 1925, agronomist Trofim Lysenko arrived on the dusty plains of what is now Azerbaijan, hoping to keep cows from starving to death over the winter. The young scientist, who learned to read as a teenager during the Russian Revolution, dismissed the rapidly advancing field of genetics. He believed nature could be bent to human will. Lysenko denounced the idea that genes pass traits down as a “degradation of bourgeois culture,” and couldn’t understand…
Music: Toco — ‘As Vezes’
Israeli army database indicates at least 83% of Gaza dead were civilians
+972 reports: Data from an internal Israeli intelligence database indicates that at least 83 percent of Palestinians killed in Israel’s onslaught on Gaza were civilians, an investigation by +972 Magazine, Local Call, and the Guardian can reveal. Figures obtained from the classified database — which records the deaths of militants from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) — contradict by a huge margin the public statements of Israeli army and government officials throughout the war, which have generally claimed a…
Trump’s takeover of D.C. is authoritarian power grab that Democrats are failing to resist
Monica Potts writes: The military parade in June was just practice, it turns out. For more than a week, the nation has watched federal officers and even camouflaged troops patrolling the streets of Washington, D.C., causing increasing amounts of violence and mayhem. Videos of agents pulling a delivery driver off his moped and stopping to lecture a Black man smoking a cigarette on his own stoop have gone viral, while Republican governors from West Virginia, Ohio, South Carolina, Mississippi, and…
The Orwellian nature of Trump’s push for ‘Americanism’ at the Smithsonian
Erasing history is a deeply Orwellian thing to do. Elen11, iStock/Getty Images Plus By Laura Beers, American University When people use the term “Orwellian,” it’s not a good sign. It usually characterizes an action, an individual or a society that is suppressing freedom, particularly the freedom of expression. It can also describe something perverted by tyrannical power. It’s a term used primarily to describe the present, but whose implications inevitably connect to both the future and the past. In his…
Ukraine: All the Russians need to do is go home
Olga Rudenko writes: Vladimir Putin looked like he loved every minute of it. Mr. Putin, the president of Russia, the man who has proclaimed that my country shouldn’t exist — that it’s a historical mistake, to be fixed by Russian soldiers — was welcomed effusively to Alaska by the president of the United States. Mr. Putin exited his plane and diplomatic isolation and walked a red carpet like an honored guest. His smile was triumphant. Was it confidence that he…
A Texas county cuts over a hundred polling sites as Trump attacks mail-in voting nationally
By Drew Shaw, Fort Worth Report This story was originally published by ProPublica Officials in a large North Texas county decided this week to cut more than 100 Election Day polling sites and reduce the number of early voting locations, amid growing concern about GOP efforts to limit voting access ahead of next year’s midterm elections. The 3-2 vote on Tuesday by commissioners in Tarrant County, which includes Fort Worth, came one day after President Donald Trump vowed to end…
FBI association accuses Kash Patel of violating due process in high-profile firings of agents
CNN reports: The FBI Agents Association is warning lawmakers that recent firings at the agency have “purposely violated” the due process rights of agents, expressly calling out FBI Director Kash Patel for what the association sees as flagrant policy violations and potential political retribution. “We want you to be aware that Director Patel is making personnel decisions without providing the due process protections promised to the recently terminated law enforcement officers under federal law,” the association’s president, Natalie Bara, wrote…
DNA from extinct hominin, the Denisovans, may have helped ancient peoples survive in the Americas
University of Colorado at Boulder: Thousands of years ago, ancient humans undertook a treacherous journey, crossing hundreds of miles of ice over the Bering Strait to the unknown world of the Americas. Now, a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder suggests that these nomads carried something surprising with them—a chunk of DNA inherited from a now-extinct species of hominin, which may have helped humans adapt to the challenges of their new home. The researchers published their results…