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A second firm hired by Trump campaign found no evidence of election fraud

A second firm hired by Trump campaign found no evidence of election fraud

The Washington Post reports: Former president Trump’s campaign quietly commissioned a second firm to study election fraud claims in the weeks after the 2020 election, and the founder of the firm was recently questioned by the Justice Department about his work disproving the claims. Ken Block, founder of the firm Simpatico Software Systems, studied more than a dozen voter fraud theories and allegations for Trump’s campaign in late 2020 and found they were “all false,” he said in an interview…

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Founder of the We Build The Wall group linked to Steve Bannon is sentenced to 4 years

Founder of the We Build The Wall group linked to Steve Bannon is sentenced to 4 years

NPR reports: The co-founder of a fundraising group linked to Steve Bannon that promised to help Donald Trump construct a wall along the southern U.S. border was sentenced to four years and three months in prison on Wednesday for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors. Brian Kolfage, a decorated Air Force veteran who lost both of his legs and an arm in the Iraq War, previously pleaded guilty for his role in siphoning donations from the We Build…

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Reality has no ultimate building blocks

Reality has no ultimate building blocks

Tuomas Tahko writes: Philosophers and scientists alike often talk about “fundamentality” or the “fundamental level”. We might say that, fundamentally, everything is made of waves or that quantum field theory is as close to a fundamental theory as we currently have. More colloquially, we might say that ultimately everything is made of the fundamental “building blocks” of reality, whatever they may be – fields, particles, or something else. The thought is that these building blocks compose everything else, and so…

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The coming Biden blowout

The coming Biden blowout

David Frum writes: The Republican plan for 2024 is already failing, and the party leadership can see it and knows it. There was no secret to a more intelligent and intentional Republican plan for 2024. It would have gone like this: (1) Replace Donald Trump at the head of the ticket with somebody less obnoxious and impulsive. (2) Capitalize on inflation and other economic troubles. (3) Offer plausible ideas on drugs, crime, and border enforcement. (4) Reassure women worried about…

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Trump at risk of being jailed for contempt

Trump at risk of being jailed for contempt

Politico reports: The federal judge overseeing the civil trial in which Donald Trump is accused of rape admonished the former president for a social media post in which he called the lawsuit “a made up SCAM.” Trump could be “tampering with a new source of potential liability,” U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan told one of Trump’s lawyers in court on Wednesday. [Continue reading…] Commentary from former federal prosecutor, Harry Litman:  

The real reason for the Supreme Court’s corruption crisis

The real reason for the Supreme Court’s corruption crisis

Ian Millhiser writes: The Supreme Court has run out of excuses. Earlier this month, after ProPublica revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas frequently takes lavish vacations funded by billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow, Thomas attempted to defend himself by claiming that this sort of “personal hospitality from close personal friends” is fine because Crow “did not have business before the court.” As it turns out, that’s not true. As Bloomberg reports, the Supreme Court — including Justice Thomas — did briefly consider…

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Senators to introduce bipartisan bill mandating code of ethics for Supreme Court

Senators to introduce bipartisan bill mandating code of ethics for Supreme Court

The Wall Street Journal reports: Sens. Angus King (I., Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) will introduce a bipartisan bill Wednesday that would require the U.S. Supreme Court to create its own code of conduct within a year, following media reports that raise questions about whether Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch properly disclosed their financial activities. “It’s pitiful that we’re having to introduce this bill—it’s pathetic that the Supreme Court hasn’t done this itself,” Mr. King said. The senator,…

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Justice Thomas helped kill eviction ban threatening his benefactor’s business

Justice Thomas helped kill eviction ban threatening his benefactor’s business

The Lever reports: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas voted to end federal tenant protections that his billionaire benefactor’s company says threatened its real estate profit margins, according to corporate documents reviewed by The Lever. Thomas did not disclose his relationship with real estate billionaire Harlan Crow, nor did he recuse himself from the 2021 case, despite its potential impact on Crow Holdings. Now, rent control — which Crow Holdings’ documents also say threatens the company’s business — could come before Thomas, and there…

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Senators join House lawmakers in pushing for bold Ukraine victory resolution

Senators join House lawmakers in pushing for bold Ukraine victory resolution

Yahoo News reports: At a time when many Americans, and some of the legislators who represent them in Washington, are growing weary of supporting the defense of Ukraine, a new bipartisan House resolution introduced Tuesday calls on the United States to support an outright victory over Russia. “We must not repeat the error of Sept. 1, 1939,” the resolution’s chief sponsor, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., told Yahoo News, referencing Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland, which followed desperate efforts to appease…

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China’s Xi calls Ukraine’s Zelenskyy, after weeks of intensifying pressure to do so

China’s Xi calls Ukraine’s Zelenskyy, after weeks of intensifying pressure to do so

NPR reports: Chinese leader Xi Jinping called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, over a month after Xi’s summit in Moscow with Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin. Xi made the call to Zelenskyy after weeks of intensifying pressure from Western leaders to use his influence with Putin to broker a deal toward ending the war in Ukraine, which began with Russia’s invasion in late February 2022. It was the first call between Xi and Zelenskyy since the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian government said….

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The analyst who saw through 2022’s red mirage has a prediction for Biden 2024

The analyst who saw through 2022’s red mirage has a prediction for Biden 2024

Greg Sargent writes: Throughout the 2022 elections, Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg offered up a counterintuitive diagnosis: Confident GOP predictions of a “red wave” weren’t just wrong, they were designed to deenergize Democratic voters with “negative sentiment.” He insisted Democrats would ignore this script and that MAGA extremism would alienate the mainstream. Rosenberg was vindicated when Democrats vastly overperformed expectations last year. Abortion rights fired up Democratic voters, and MAGA’s hostility toward democracy and embrace of Donald Trump drove swing voters away from the GOP, puncturing the red-wave fantasy….

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Democrats relish Trump-Biden rematch

Democrats relish Trump-Biden rematch

Politico reports: Democrats see former President Donald Trump’s post-indictment political resurgence as alarming for the country … and great for Joe Biden’s reelection hopes. Take it from Sen. Debbie Stabenow. The Michigan Democrat had front row seats to the former president’s shocking win in her state in 2016, and then to his loss to Biden four years later. She thinks a 2024 rematch would look more like the 2020 outcome. “Trump’s obviously an extremely dangerous person who would be very…

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Trump is losing the E. Jean Carroll rape case even before it starts

Trump is losing the E. Jean Carroll rape case even before it starts

The Daily Beast reports: With the rape trial of former President Donald Trump just days away, his effort to prevent jurors from hearing about another incident—when Trump allegedly forced himself on a different journalist—fell flat Monday. The federal judge overseeing the case ruled that Trump’s legal team made their appeal too late. And now jurors are poised to hear about a separate incident that could show a pattern of sexual assault from the former president. It’s the latest sign that…

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Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s leadership is viewed negatively by the majority of the global public

Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s leadership is viewed negatively by the majority of the global public

VOA reports: In the aftermath of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last year, global attitudes toward Russia’s leadership have shifted dramatically, with large majorities of the population in dozens of countries reporting disapproval of the Kremlin. Data compiled from surveys of thousands of people in 137 countries and regions showed a marked decline in approval of the Kremlin, according to a report released by the Gallup organization on Tuesday. Globally, 57% of respondents reported that they disapprove of…

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