Browsed by
Category: Politics

Columbia ‘deal’ with Trump regime amounts to a legally formulated extortion scheme

Columbia ‘deal’ with Trump regime amounts to a legally formulated extortion scheme

David Pozen writes: Earlier this evening, Columbia University announced an agreement with the Trump administration in which Columbia makes a host of concessions in order to restore its eligibility for federal funding. The agreement is already being described as “unprecedented,” “the first of its kind.” These descriptions are true but ambiguous, because the agreement breaks new ground on any number of levels. For instance, the agreement marks the first time that antisemitism and DEI have been invoked as the basis…

Read More Read More

The Supreme Court is now asking lower courts to do the impossible

The Supreme Court is now asking lower courts to do the impossible

Mark Joseph Stern writes: The Supreme Court expanded Donald Trump’s power yet again on Wednesday, granting him the authority to fire Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission in direct violation of federal law. Over the liberal justices’ dissent, the conservative supermajority greenlit the first step of Trump’s systematic destruction of the agency—a plan that collides with many other federal statutes. The court’s action imperils the CPSC’s ability to ban products that may maim or kill consumers, including children,…

Read More Read More

Trump’s AI strategy is set to benefit American tech companies and investors

Trump’s AI strategy is set to benefit American tech companies and investors

The Washington Post reports: Silicon Valley’s risky bet on President Donald Trump is starting to pay dividends. Trump on Wednesday revealed the White House’s plan to help the United States lead a global race to develop artificial intelligence. He also signed three executive orders that will facilitate exports of U.S. technologies and boost the build-out of data centers — advancing the agenda of executives and investors seeking to cash in on an AI gold rush. Trump delivered the plan at…

Read More Read More

An EPA rule change would eliminate the government’s ability to fight climate change

An EPA rule change would eliminate the government’s ability to fight climate change

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration has drafted a plan to repeal a fundamental scientific finding that gives the United States government its authority to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions and fight climate change, according to two people familiar with the plan. The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule rescinds a 2009 declaration known as the “endangerment finding,” which scientifically established that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane endanger human lives. That finding is the foundation of the federal government’s…

Read More Read More

Governments are legally required to address climate change, top global court says

Governments are legally required to address climate change, top global court says

Inside Climate News reports: Tuesday’s landmark advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on climate change came as residents of some island nations are already “scraping barnacles off our grandfathers’ graves” as sea-level rise accelerates, said Julian Aguon, an Indigenous human rights lawyer and writer from Guam, in a poem he recited outside the Peace Palace as the judges started their two-hour presentation. That sense of urgency for action also came through in the 15-judge panel’s unanimous opinion. The…

Read More Read More

As starvation grips Gaza, skeletal children fill hospital wards

As starvation grips Gaza, skeletal children fill hospital wards

The Guardian reports: Mohammed’s skeletal arms stick out of a romper with a grinning emoji-face and the slogan “smiley boy”, which in a Gaza hospital reads as a cruel joke. He spends much of the day crying from hunger, or gnawing at his own emaciated fingers. At seven months old, he weighs barely 4kg (9lbs) and this is the second time he has been admitted for treatment. His face is gaunt, his limbs little more than bones covered in baggy…

Read More Read More

Albuquerque takes the lead in standing up for immigrants

Albuquerque takes the lead in standing up for immigrants

City Desk ABQ reports: Mayor Tim Keller signed an executive order July 21 reaffirming Albuquerque as a city of refuge, directing police to help residents identify immigration agents and limiting city cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Unveiled at City Hall with immigrant advocates, city councilors and state leaders, the order puts new limits on how the city works with federal immigration enforcement. It tells police to clarify when immigration agents are in the area and bars city departments from helping…

Read More Read More

DOJ told Trump in May that his name appeared multiple times in the Epstein files

DOJ told Trump in May that his name appeared multiple times in the Epstein files

The Wall Street Journal reports: When Justice Department officials reviewed what Attorney General Pam Bondi called a “truckload” of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year, they discovered that Donald Trump’s name appeared multiple times, according to senior administration officials. In May, Bondi and her deputy informed the president at a meeting in the White House that his name was in the Epstein files, the officials said. Many other high-profile figures were also named, Trump was told. Being mentioned…

Read More Read More

Trump foe GOP Rep. Thomas Massie wins over MAGA allies with his push for Epstein files

Trump foe GOP Rep. Thomas Massie wins over MAGA allies with his push for Epstein files

NBC News reports: Once fighting a lonely battle against President Donald Trump, GOP Rep. Thomas Massie has found an issue that is winning him more Republican friends and political allies than he has had all year: his push to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. Many of Trump’s MAGA allies on and off Capitol Hill are frustrated with Trump and top officials in his administration for dragging their feet in releasing the government’s remaining documents and records related to Epstein, the…

Read More Read More

Republican voters are breaking with Trump over Epstein files, polls show

Republican voters are breaking with Trump over Epstein files, polls show

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration’s recent decision to backtrack on releasing new details about the investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has prompted something exceedingly rare: Republican voters have begun to break with the president. Mr. Trump has long engendered unwavering loyalty from his followers, who tend to shrug off even his most extreme controversies. But recent public polling suggests even such fervent support may have a limit. While 40 percent of Republicans approve of…

Read More Read More

Powerful Americans are acting with no more courage than their Hungarian counterparts

Powerful Americans are acting with no more courage than their Hungarian counterparts

David Pressman writes: As the most recent U.S. ambassador to Viktor Orban’s Hungary, I’m often asked if the Trump administration’s tactics and policies feel familiar. The short answer is yes. But the more important — and unsettling — question is this: Does the way Americans are responding feel familiar, too? After years watching Hungary suffocate under the weight of its democratic collapse, I came to understand that the real danger of a strongman isn’t his tactics; it’s how others, especially…

Read More Read More

There is no safe place for legal immigrants in Trump’s America

There is no safe place for legal immigrants in Trump’s America

The American Prospect reports: The federal agents stationed outside immigration courtrooms at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan wore face coverings, either medical masks or neck gaiters pulled up over their noses. Some obscured their identity further with sunglasses and baseball hats. None displayed their names or badge numbers, though one wore a T-shirt with a picture of a skull and the words “we the people defend liberty.” Assembled in three separate groups, they lingered casually as they waited for their…

Read More Read More

Trump’s job approval has been remarkably stable. That might be about to change

Trump’s job approval has been remarkably stable. That might be about to change

Carroll Doherty writes: Throughout Donald Trump’s decade in politics, his critics have reacted predictably, almost reflexively, to his string of seeming career-ending statements, precedent-shattering policies and perceived missteps. This is it. This time, Trump has finally done something so outrageous, so over the line, that his popularity will plunge and never recover. But it’s never really happened. Compared with past presidents, Trump’s job approval ratings have, for the most part, moved within a narrow range. The reason is simple: He…

Read More Read More

Tulsi Gabbard shows how far she’ll go to politicize intelligence to help Donald Trump

Tulsi Gabbard shows how far she’ll go to politicize intelligence to help Donald Trump

David Corn writes: The Trump administration has launched a war on former Obama administration officials, and to do so, it has engaged in one of the most egregious and obvious acts of politicizing intelligence in decades. On Friday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released formerly classified US intelligence reports about the 2016 election that she said were evidence of an Obama administration “conspiracy to subvert President Trump’s 2016 victory and presidency.” In a hysterical press release, she accused former…

Read More Read More

After major law firms bent the knee, a corps of ‘little guys’ jumped in to fight Trump

After major law firms bent the knee, a corps of ‘little guys’ jumped in to fight Trump

The New York Times reports: President Trump’s executive orders seeking to punish big law firms have led some of them to acquiesce to him and left others reluctant to take on pro bono cases that could put them at odds with the administration. But as opponents of the White House’s policies organized to fight Mr. Trump in court on a vast range of actions and policies, they quickly found that they did not need to rely on Big Law. Instead,…

Read More Read More

National Park Service dragged into Trump’s effort to cover up America’s ugly past

National Park Service dragged into Trump’s effort to cover up America’s ugly past

The New York Times reports: At Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina, the Trump administration is set to review, and possibly remove or alter, signs about how climate change is causing sea levels to rise. At Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, the administration will soon decide whether to take down exhibits on the brutality of slavery. And at Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in Florida, Trump officials are scrutinizing language about the imprisonment of Native Americans inside…

Read More Read More