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Trump can still be the Republican Party’s future. Just look to Arizona

Trump can still be the Republican Party’s future. Just look to Arizona

BuzzFeed News reports: State Republican parties throughout the country reshaped themselves during Trump’s presidency — which might prove one of his most significant legacies. In the past several weeks, a number of state parties have stepped in to punish Trump’s critics in his stead. The Wyoming Republican Party censured Rep. Liz Cheney, the third highest-ranking House Republican, for her January vote to impeach Trump, and the Louisiana and North Carolina state parties censured their Republican senators who voted to convict…

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The coronavirus is here to stay — here’s what that means

The coronavirus is here to stay — here’s what that means

Nature reports: For much of the past year, life in Western Australia has been coronavirus-free. Friends gathered in pubs; people kissed and hugged their relatives; children went to school without temperature checks or wearing masks. The state maintained this enviable position only by placing heavy restrictions on travel and imposing lockdowns — some regions entered a snap lockdown at the beginning of the year after a security guard at a hotel where visitors were quarantined tested positive for the virus….

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Blaming the wind for the mess in Texas is ridiculous

Blaming the wind for the mess in Texas is ridiculous

Wind turbines in Antarctica. Spoiler: they work in the cold. pic.twitter.com/Ws2nItJLhF — ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) February 17, 2021 Bill McKibben writes: Sometimes, all you need is a map. In the wake of this week’s power failures in Texas, which have left millions without heat in subfreezing conditions, right-wing politicians and news networks decided that the emergency was down to “frozen wind turbines,” a phrase that has now been repeated ad infinitum on all the various ganglia that make up the…

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Texas mayor tells residents to fend for themselves during power outage: ‘Only the strong will survive’

Texas mayor tells residents to fend for themselves during power outage: ‘Only the strong will survive’

The Washington Post reports: By Tuesday morning, the residents of Colorado City, Tex., were getting anxious. More than 24 hours had passed since a deadly Arctic blast knocked out power across the state, leaving them without heat or electricity in below-freezing temperatures. To make matters worse, many also lacked running water, forcing them to haul in heavy buckets of snow each time they needed to flush their toilets. Residents turned to a community Facebook group to ask whether the small…

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The coming war on the hidden algorithms that trap people in poverty

The coming war on the hidden algorithms that trap people in poverty

Karen Hao writes: Miriam was only 21 when she met Nick. She was a photographer, fresh out of college, waiting tables. He was 16 years her senior and a local business owner who had worked in finance. He was charming and charismatic; he took her out on fancy dates and paid for everything. She quickly fell into his orbit. It began with one credit card. At the time, it was the only one she had. Nick would max it out…

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46,218 news transcripts show ideologically extreme politicians get more airtime

46,218 news transcripts show ideologically extreme politicians get more airtime

Joshua Darr, Jeremy Padgett, and Johanna Dunaway, write: Committee assignments are normally a blessing for new House members. But some of today’s newer members, like freshmen Republican representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Madison Cawthorn, seem to be more interested in punditry than policy. When Greene was stripped of her committee assignments on Feb. 4 for a series of past statements that included threats directed against her Democratic colleagues, she replied by tweeting that she woke up “literally laughing” that “a…

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Rush Limbaugh taught Republicans to love an angry, racist bully

Rush Limbaugh taught Republicans to love an angry, racist bully

Jonathan Chait writes: Donald Trump’s connection to the conservative movement to this day remains a subject of acrimonious dispute among the right-wing intelligentsia — some have embraced the 45th president as the movement’s authentic leader, while others regard him warily as an interloper, a New York Democrat who captured the party from the outside. Nobody on the right ever disowned Rush Limbaugh. Throughout his career, they agreed he was a pure representative of conservative thought. George Bush courted him with…

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Bitcoin is now worth $50,000 — and it’s ruining the planet faster than ever

Bitcoin is now worth $50,000 — and it’s ruining the planet faster than ever

Eric Holthaus writes: You might have already heard, but Bitcoin hit $50,000 this week. A lot of anarcho-nerds are very rich right now. What you might not have heard – and what I wrote about a couple of times (1, 2) the last time Bitcoin’s price surged three years ago – is that the massive computer network that created and maintains the Bitcoin system uses an incredibly huge amount of energy. Nothing fundamental has really changed since then. In fact,…

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Trump and Giuliani sued for alleged violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act

Trump and Giuliani sued for alleged violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act

The New York Times reports: The N.A.A.C.P. on Tuesday morning filed a federal lawsuit against former President Donald J. Trump and his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, claiming that they violated a 19th century statute when they tried to prevent the certification of the election on Jan. 6. The civil rights organization brought the suit on behalf of Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi. Other Democrats in Congress — including Representatives Hank Johnson of Georgia and Bonnie Watson Coleman of…

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As the pandemic ushered in isolation and financial hardship, overdose deaths reached new heights

As the pandemic ushered in isolation and financial hardship, overdose deaths reached new heights

STAT reports: Among the unrelenting death statistics flowing from the CDC last month, one grim non-Covid-19 statistic stood out: 81,003 deaths. That’s the number of people who died from drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending last June: a 20% increase and the highest number of fatal overdoses ever recorded in the U.S. in a single year. The drug deaths started spiking last spring, as the coronavirus forced shutdowns, and more recent statistics from cities throughout the U.S. and Canada…

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Trump attacks McConnell in fiery statement

Trump attacks McConnell in fiery statement

Politico reports: Former President Donald Trump issued a caustic and highly personal statement against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday, effectively declaring war on the Kentucky Republican for failing to back his attempts to undermine the 2020 election. “Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again,” Trump said in the statement released by his PAC. McConnell publicly soured on the former president after…

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How the largest energy-producing state in the U.S. failed in freezing temperatures

How the largest energy-producing state in the U.S. failed in freezing temperatures

WFAA reports: Many Texans are rightfully asking why the largest energy producing state in the country cannot produce enough energy to get through a week of below-freezing temperatures. So, what happened? Equipment failure turned out to be a big part of the problem. “Beginning around 11:00 p.m. [Sunday night], multiple generating units began tripping off-line in rapid progression due to the severe cold weather,” said Dan Woodfin, senior director of system operations at ERCOT, the organization that manages the state’s…

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America’s other forever war

America’s other forever war

Peter Beinart writes: “It is past time,” Joe Biden pledged last year, “to end the forever wars.” He’s right. But his definition of war is too narrow. For decades, the United States has supplemented its missile strikes and Special Operations raids with a less visible instrument of coercion and death. America blockades weaker adversaries, choking off their trade with the outside world. It’s the modern equivalent of surrounding a city and trying to starve it into submission. Wonks call this…

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Biden team downgrades Saudi crown prince to ‘recalibrate’ ties

Biden team downgrades Saudi crown prince to ‘recalibrate’ ties

Bloomberg reports: President Joe Biden intends to “recalibrate” the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia while emphasizing outreach to King Salman, in a move that signals a downgrade in ties with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the country’s de facto ruler. “We’re going to recalibrate our relationship with Saudi Arabia,” Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday. “Part of that is going back to engagement counterpart-to-counterpart. The president’s counterpart is King Salman.” Instead of engaging primarily with Biden, the crown…

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