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Category: Politics

Laura Loomer has emerged as a blunt enforcer of allegiance to Trump

Laura Loomer has emerged as a blunt enforcer of allegiance to Trump

Politico reports: President Donald Trump’s second term White House has been marked by far less palace intrigue and personnel drama at the senior staff and Cabinet level than his first. And yet, the firings are piling up. More than a dozen high ranking officials across the administration have been forced to leave their jobs or had their nominations or promotions derailed in the first six months of Trump’s return to Washington. Nearly all of the ousters have come after individuals…

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The silence of DOJ’s inspector general concealed a crucial whistle-blower complaint concerning Bove

The silence of DOJ’s inspector general concealed a crucial whistle-blower complaint concerning Bove

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department’s internal watchdog lost a crucial account from a whistle-blower detailing wrongdoing by political appointees for more than two months, prompting criticism that the agency’s inspector general has been inactive and silent during a time of deep turmoil. The complaint, submitted in early May, accused top Justice Department officials like Emil Bove III of overseeing an effort to mislead judges and skirt or ignore court orders, according to people familiar with the filing….

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Federal judges say the White House needs to tone down attacks

Federal judges say the White House needs to tone down attacks

Politico reports: A group of federal judges decried a series of politically charged attacks from the White House Thursday, saying the broadsides are emboldening bad actors and leading to death threats and political intimidation. “Now, it’s at a level that I have to honestly say is different. We’re seeing things coming out from the top down, from White House spokespeople, calling us crazy, leftist, unconstitutional judges,” Esther Salas, a U.S. District Court judge in New Jersey, said at a judicial…

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The controlled demolition of American science

The controlled demolition of American science

Ross Andersen writes: Roald Sagdeev has already watched one scientific empire rot from the inside. When Sagdeev began his career, in 1955, science in the Soviet Union was nearing its apex. At the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, he studied the thermonuclear reactions that occur inside of stars. A few lab tables away, Andrei Sakharov was developing the hydrogen bomb. The Soviet space program would soon astonish the world by lofting the first satellite, and then the first human being, into…

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Zev Shalev uncovers the Epstein money trail

Zev Shalev uncovers the Epstein money trail

Conspiracy theory in the sense that the expression is universally used, is a misnomer. These are not theories. They are narratives that hook their targets by making this claim: the story you’ve been told is false; this is the real story. They entice their audience with the promise of unveiling secrets. They appeal to the vanity of their audience by offering access to secrets about which the rest of us have been fooled. They help outsiders feel like insiders. A…

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The starvation of Gaza is shameful. Crippling sanctions on Israel are needed, say Israeli public figures

The starvation of Gaza is shameful. Crippling sanctions on Israel are needed, say Israeli public figures

The Guardian reports: A group of high-profile Israeli public figures, including academics, artists and public intellectuals, has called for “crippling sanctions” to be imposed by the international community on Israel, amid mounting horror over its starvation of Gaza. The 31 signatories of a letter to the Guardian include an Academy award recipient, Yuval Abraham; a former Israeli attorney general, Michael Ben-Yair; Avraham Burg, a former speaker of Israel’s parliament and former head of the Jewish Agency; and a number of…

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France and Britain’s recognition of a Palestinian state won’t end Israel’s onslaught

France and Britain’s recognition of a Palestinian state won’t end Israel’s onslaught

Hussein Agha and Robert Malley write: Almost two years into a conflict that has cost tens of thousands of lives, amid an Israeli military campaign and humanitarian blockade that have reached apocalyptic proportions, and faced with their own powerlessness as they bear witness to what growing numbers of experts call a genocide, Emmanuel Macron has announced France’s dramatic next step: it will recognize a Palestinian state in September. Keir Starmer quickly followed suit, stating that the UK would do likewise…

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The Columbia deal with Trump is a blueprint. All of higher education should fear what comes next

The Columbia deal with Trump is a blueprint. All of higher education should fear what comes next

Vox reports: One by one, elite universities are signing away some of their autonomy to the Trump administration after it has accused them of civil rights violations and withheld federal funding. The University of Pennsylvania banned transgender women from participating in women’s college sports as part of an agreement with the Trump administration earlier this month. Columbia University agreed last week to pay $200 million in penalties and fulfill a laundry list of other demands, from slashing diversity, equity, and…

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How Trump’s crackdown on law firms is undermining legal defenses for the vulnerable

How Trump’s crackdown on law firms is undermining legal defenses for the vulnerable

Reuters reports: When the Texas Civil Rights Project needed lawyers to help dozens of people arrested during U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, legal director Dustin Rynders turned to a familiar strategy. He contacted major law firms that for decades had provided free legal services to nonprofits like his. On that April day in Houston, he called his usual contacts, many at firms that had previously handled challenges to Trump’s immigration policies. Before Trump’s return to the White House, they…

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Trump is turning the White House into Mar-a-Lago with a private $200 million ballroom

Trump is turning the White House into Mar-a-Lago with a private $200 million ballroom

The New Republic reports: Donald Trump is finally getting his wish to turn the White House into the gaudy resort he calls home by adding a $200 million ballroom. The White House announced that it would begin construction in September on a 90,000 square foot ballroom that can seat 650 people. Yes, Trump is laser focused on the issues that matter most to Americans: Replacing the “large and unsightly” tent that typically hosts guests just 100 yards away from the…

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For Israel’s warfare-based economy, peace isn’t an option

For Israel’s warfare-based economy, peace isn’t an option

The Financial Times reports: Since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, the best-performing major stock market in the world is … Israel. After taking an initial hit, the market recovered fully in four weeks, and since then is up around 80 per cent in dollar terms. This ascent continued through the recent 12-day war with Iran, when most geopolitical experts thought their worst fears of a wider conflict were coming to pass. The stock market, in contrast, kept signalling…

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Emil Bove’s confirmation was only possible because of the cowardice of Democrats

Emil Bove’s confirmation was only possible because of the cowardice of Democrats

Jay Willis writes: On Tuesday evening, the Senate voted to confirm Emil Bove, President Donald Trump’s criminal defense attorney-turned-Justice Department hatchetman, to a life-tenured judgeship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Bove first made headlines for firing dozens of January 6 prosecutors shortly after Trump took office, parroting the president’s description of these cases as a “grave national injustice.” According to multiple whistleblowers, in March, Bove told his Justice Department subordinates that they might need to say “fuck you” to judges who were…

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Venezuelan men sent to CECOT on what they endured and reuniting with their families

Venezuelan men sent to CECOT on what they endured and reuniting with their families

By Perla Trevizo, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, Melissa Sanchez and Mica Rosenberg, ProPublica, Ronna Rísquez, Alianza Rebelde Investiga, and Adrián González, Cazadores de Fake News, photography and additional reporting by Adriana Loureiro Fernández for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune This story was originally published by ProPublica Now that he’s free, Leonardo José Colmenares Solórzano, a 31-year-old Venezuelan, wants the world to know that he was tortured over four months in a Salvadoran prison. He said guards stomped on his…

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Senate Democrats are using a 1928 law to pressure Trump to release the Epstein files

Senate Democrats are using a 1928 law to pressure Trump to release the Epstein files

Greg Sargent writes: Desperate times may call for desperate measures, but they also call for creative ones. Faced with a criminal president and a GOP congressional majority that’s wholly devoted to shutting down any and all transparency and accountability for him, Democrats will have to get increasingly resourceful in their efforts to crack through that facade. The very tentative good news is: They actually have options to do just that. This is why you should pay attention to the news…

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The clowns leading the FBI ‘have no idea what they’re doing’

The clowns leading the FBI ‘have no idea what they’re doing’

Quinta Jurecic writes: Michael Feinberg had not been planning to leave the FBI. But on May 31, he received a phone call from his boss asking him about a personal friendship with a former FBI agent who was known for criticizing President Donald Trump. Feinberg, an assistant special agent in charge at the FBI’s field office in Norfolk, Virginia, realized right away that he was in the crosshairs of the bureau’s leadership at an unusually chaotic time. If his 15-year…

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Peter Beinart: Why do some American Jews believe equality is good for us but not for Israelis and Palestinians?

Peter Beinart: Why do some American Jews believe equality is good for us but not for Israelis and Palestinians?

  Editor-at-large of “Jewish Currents,” who writes “The Beinart Notebook” on Substack, Peter Beinart sits down with Jon Stewart to discuss his book, “Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning,” and speaking out against Israel. They talk about learning from Jewish history to be the saviors rather than the oppressors, America and the U.N.’s failure to hold Benjamin Netanyahu accountable, the urgency of engaging in critical discourse with other Jews, and how listening to Palestinian stories can illuminate…

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