Music: Nala Sinephro — ‘Space 1’
Conservative constitutional scholars present case that would disqualify Trump from holding office
The New York Times reports: Two prominent conservative law professors have concluded that Donald J. Trump is ineligible to be president under a provision of the Constitution that bars people who have engaged in an insurrection from holding government office. The professors are active members of the Federalist Society, the conservative legal group, and proponents of originalism, the method of interpretation that seeks to determine the Constitution’s original meaning. The professors — William Baude of the University of Chicago and…
Special counsel proposes January date for Trump’s election interference trial
The New York Times reports: The prosecutors overseeing the indictment of former President Donald J. Trump on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election asked a judge on Thursday to set a trial date in the case for early January, laying out an aggressive schedule for the proceeding. In a motion filed to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is presiding over the case in Federal District Court in Washington, the prosecutors said they were ready not only to go…
How Clarence Thomas enjoys ‘the lifestyle of a billionaire’
ProPublica reports: During his three decades on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has enjoyed steady access to a lifestyle most Americans can only imagine. A cadre of industry titans and ultrawealthy executives have treated him to far-flung vacations aboard their yachts, ushered him into the premium suites at sporting events and sent their private jets to fetch him — including, on more than one occasion, an entire 737. It’s a stream of luxury that is both more extensive and from…
Christianity Today editor: Evangelicals call Jesus ‘liberal’ and ‘weak’
The New Republic reports: The editor in chief of Christianity Today is warning that evangelical Christianity is moving too far to the right, to the point that even Jesus’s teachings are considered “weak” now. Russell Moore resigned from the Southern Baptist Convention in 2021, after years of being at odds with other evangelical leaders. Specifically, Moore openly criticized Donald Trump, whom many evangelical Christians embraced. Moore also criticized the Southern Baptist Convention’s response to a sexual abuse crisis and increasing…
We are in an age of fire
Caroline Mimbs Nyce writes: To see fire weather—hot, dry, windy conditions—in Hawaii this time of year is not unusual, Ian Morrison, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Honolulu forecast office, told me. The NWS had issued a red-flag warning for the area, which indicates to local residents and officials alike that wildfire potential is high. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the majority of Maui is also abnormally dry or in drought; the western side in particular was parched,…
Private jets are awful for the climate. It’s time to tax the rich who fly in them
Sen. Edward J Markey writes: The climate crisis is not in transit, it’s arrived at the gate. It’s in our skies, our water, and our land – with record-shattering heat waves, increasingly severe wildfires and flooding from superstorms and rising seas. We have no time for delays. Tackling this crisis and protecting frontline environmental justice communities will take all of us. And the tax-dodging ultra-wealthy need to stop fueling the problem and start supporting first-class solutions. That’s why, this July,…
Researchers dig deep underground in hopes of finally observing dark matter
The inside of the LZ outer detector. The LZ is a super sensitive machine that may one day detect a dark matter particle. Matt Kapust, SURF, CC BY-SA By Hugh Lippincott, University of California, Santa Barbara Physicists like me don’t fully understand what makes up about 83% of the matter of the universe — something we call “dark matter.” But with a tank full of xenon buried nearly a mile under South Dakota, we might one day be able to…
Music: Nala Sinephro — ‘Space 4’
Ohio vote shows abortion’s potency to reshape elections
The New York Times reports: Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, a Republican, argued that Tuesday’s vote over how to amend the State Constitution was about protecting the state from a flood of special interest money. Secretary of State Frank LaRose, another Republican, urged voters to protect the “very foundational rules” of their constitution. But Ohio voters clearly didn’t buy it. About three million of them showed up for a vote dominated by the debate over abortion rights — an issue…
Ex-federal judge and prominent conservative, J. Michael Luttig: ‘There is no Republican Party’
CNN reports: J. Michael Luttig, a conservative retired federal judge and key adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, declared on Wednesday that “there is no Republican Party” and said former President Donald Trump is even more dangerous than he was in the aftermath of the 2020 election. “American democracy simply cannot function without two equally healthy and equally strong political parties. So today, in my view, there is no Republican Party to counter the Democratic Party in the…
Special counsel obtained search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account
Politico reports: Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, earlier this year, according to newly revealed court documents. Twitter’s initial resistance to complying with the Jan. 17 warrant resulted in a federal judge holding the company, now called X, in contempt and levying a $350,000 fine. A federal court of appeals upheld that fine last month in a sealed opinion. On Wednesday, the court unsealed a redacted version of that opinion, revealing details…
Previously secret memo laid out strategy for Trump to overturn Biden’s win
The New York Times reports: A lawyer allied with President Donald J. Trump first laid out a plot to use false slates of electors to subvert the 2020 election in a previously unknown internal campaign memo that prosecutors are portraying as a crucial link in how the Trump team’s efforts evolved into a criminal conspiracy. The existence of the Dec. 6, 2020, memo came to light in last week’s indictment of Mr. Trump, though its details remained unclear. But a…
‘Weak dictator’ Ron DeSantis ousts another elected prosecutor he dislikes
The Daily Beast reports: The Orlando-area prosecutor ousted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday hit back at the shock suspension, calling the stunt a “smokescreen” to distract from DeSantis’ spiraling presidential campaign. Monique Worrell is now the second democratically elected state prosecutor to lose her job to a DeSantis power grab. The governor attributed Worrell’s suspension to her being too forgiving on crime, despite her comfortably winning 67 percent of the vote in Orange and Osceola counties in 2020….
Winter heatwave in Andes is sign of things to come, scientists warn
The Guardian reports: Exceptional winter heat in the Andean mountains of South America has surged to 37C, prompting local scientists to warn the worst may be yet to come as human-caused climate disruption and El Niño cause havoc across the region. The heatwave in the central Chilean Andes is melting the snow below 3,000 metres (9,840ft), which will have knock-on effects for people living in downstream valleys who depend on meltwater during the spring and summer. Tuesday was probably the…
Secrecy in China
Michael Schuman writes: The disappearance of Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has generated a torrent of speculation about what might have happened to him. The mystery points to a larger, and disconcerting, truth: We understand very little about the inner workings of Chinese politics at a moment when we need to know more than ever. China’s Communist regime has always been opaque. But the more China’s global power rises, the more problematic the Communist Party’s secrecy becomes. The decisions made…