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The decades-long radicalization of the Republican Party

The decades-long radicalization of the Republican Party

Jackie Calmes writes: Since before he became president, Joe Biden has told crowds, “Folks, this is not your father’s Republican Party.” As a political reporter, I’d been hearing that lament since the late 1990s, from far better sources — those Republican fathers’ sons and daughters. The radicalization of the Republican Party has been the biggest story of my career. I’ve been watching it from the start, from the time I arrived in then-Democratic Texas just out of college in 1978…

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Why are women more prone to long Covid?

Why are women more prone to long Covid?

The Observer reports: In June 2020, as the first reports of long Covid began to filter through the medical community, doctors attempting to grapple with this mysterious malaise began to notice an unusual trend. While acute cases of Covid-19 – particularly those hospitalised with the disease – tended to be mostly male and over 50, long Covid sufferers were, by contrast, both relatively young and overwhelmingly female. Early reports of long Covid at a Paris hospital between May and July…

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Why it matters that seven U.S. states still have bans on atheists holding office

Why it matters that seven U.S. states still have bans on atheists holding office

Above the Tennessee State Capitol, only skies. In it, any atheists? AP Photo/Mark Humphrey By Kristina M. Lee, Colorado State University Tennessee’s Constitution includes a provision that bars three groups from holding office: atheists, ministers and those engaging in duels. Efforts are under way in the state legislature to remove this exclusion for ministers, but not for duelists – or atheists. In January 2021, Republican Tennessee State Senator Mark Pody proposed Senate Joint Resolution 55 to amend Article IX of…

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Garland declares voting rights expansion ‘central’ to democracy

Garland declares voting rights expansion ‘central’ to democracy

Politico reports: Attorney General Merrick Garland affirmed Friday the expansion of voting rights as a “central pillar” to American democracy, building upon the Biden administration’s commitment as the issue has gained prominence in the aftermath of the 2020 elections. “We know that expanding the ability of all eligible citizens to vote is a central pillar,” Garland said. “That means ensuring that all eligible voters can cast a vote; that all lawful votes are counted; and that every voter has access…

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New Trump scandal shows the depth of his assault on American democracy

New Trump scandal shows the depth of his assault on American democracy

Stephen Collinson writes: New revelations suggesting that the Trump administration abused Justice Department powers to target his political enemies underscore just how far the ex-President went to destroy cherished principles of American republican government. They show that the true extent of assaults on democracy by Donald Trump are still coming to light and are probably even now not fully known. But this is not just a drama about the alleged misbehavior of a former President. Taken together with the Republican…

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After the Keystone XL pipeline, the next target is Line 3

After the Keystone XL pipeline, the next target is Line 3

Bill McKibben writes: The announcement this week from the Canadian company TC Energy that it was pulling the plug on the Keystone XL pipeline project was greeted with jubilation by Indigenous groups, farmers and ranchers, climate scientists and other activists who have spent the last decade fighting its construction. The question now is whether it will be a one-off victory or a template for action going forward — as it must, if we’re serious about either climate change or human…

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With Facebook’s knowledge, right-wing firm posed as leftist group to divide Democrats

With Facebook’s knowledge, right-wing firm posed as leftist group to divide Democrats

The Guardian reports: A digital marketing firm closely linked to the pro-Trump youth group Turning Point USA was responsible for a series of deceptive Facebook ads promoting Green party candidates during the 2018 US midterm elections, the Guardian can reveal. In an apparent attempt to split the Democratic vote in a number of close races, the ads purported to come from an organization called America Progress Now (APN) and used socialist memes and rhetoric to urge leftwing voters to support…

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How private equity firms avoid taxes

How private equity firms avoid taxes

The New York Times reports: There were two weeks left in the Trump administration when the Treasury Department handed down a set of rules governing an obscure corner of the tax code. Overseen by a senior Treasury official whose previous job involved helping the wealthy avoid taxes, the new regulations represented a major victory for private equity firms. They ensured that executives in the $4.5 trillion industry, whose leaders often measure their yearly pay in eight or nine figures, could…

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The newly approved drug that could break American health care

The newly approved drug that could break American health care

Nicholas Bagley and Rachel Sachs write: Earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration overruled—to much criticism—its own scientific advisory committee and approved the Alzheimer’s treatment Aduhelm. The agency made this decision despite thin evidence of the drug’s clinical efficacy and despite its serious side effects, including brain swelling and bleeding. As a result, a serious risk now exists that millions of people will be prescribed a drug that does more harm than good. Less appreciated is how the drug’s…

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Russia’s Federal Security Service poisoned another Putin critic

Russia’s Federal Security Service poisoned another Putin critic

In an editorial, the Washington Post says: Dmitry Bykov is a prodigious polymath of Russian letters and journalism. He has written prize-winning biographies and was part of a team that created “Citizen Poet,” a hit series online and on television offering biting political satire. For a decade, he has been a leading voice in opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin. On April 13, 2019, traveling with his wife, Ekaterina Kevkhishvili, he arrived at Novosibirsk in Siberia for the first stop…

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The world is horrified by America’s broken democracy

The world is horrified by America’s broken democracy

Brian Klaas writes: It’s official: America is no longer a “shining city upon a hill.” Data released Thursday from Pew Research shows that our allies are beyond delighted that the Trump presidency has ended. Confidence in U.S. leadership has soared. Our friends are breathing a sigh of relief. But buried in that story about the United States’ post-Trump redemption is some seriously bad news: U.S. allies see our democracy as a shattered, washed-up has-been. We used to provide a democratic…

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America must rethink its unique and contradictory advocacy of Israel’s Jewishness

America must rethink its unique and contradictory advocacy of Israel’s Jewishness

Shibley Telhami writes: As a new Israeli government takes shape, the Biden administration must rethink its messaging about Israel and the Palestinians, especially in the absence of a clear path to ending their conflict. Beyond offering humanitarian aid to Gaza and dispatching Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the Middle East to solidify the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, President Joe Biden offered two principles: that both Palestinians and Israelis “deserve equal measures of freedom, prosperity, and democracy”; and that the region must…

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While Manchin preaches bipartisanship, democracy is already dying in the states

While Manchin preaches bipartisanship, democracy is already dying in the states

Ronald Brownstein writes: While senator Joe Manchin is demanding that both parties agree on any further federal voting-rights legislation, a new study quantifies how completely Republicans have excluded Democrats from the passage of the restrictive voting laws proliferating in red states. In places such as Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, and Montana, the most restrictive laws approved this year have passed on total or near-complete party-line votes, with almost all state legislative Republicans voting for the bills and nearly all…

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Campaign of fear: Trump-inspired death threats are terrorizing election workers

Campaign of fear: Trump-inspired death threats are terrorizing election workers

Reuters reports: Late on the night of April 24, the wife of Georgia’s top election official got a chilling text message: “You and your family will be killed very slowly.” A week earlier, Tricia Raffensperger, wife of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, had received another anonymous text: “We plan for the death of you and your family every day.” That followed an April 5 text warning. A family member, the texter told her, was “going to have a very unfortunate…

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