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Category: Politics

GOP senators weigh go-big-or-go-home strategy on Ukraine

GOP senators weigh go-big-or-go-home strategy on Ukraine

Politico reports: From Mitch McConnell on down, the Senate’s pro-Ukraine coalition is trying to reassure the U.S. ally that help will soon be on the way — even after a bruising GOP confrontation over keeping the government open snuffed out billions in immediate new aid. But for that bipartisan group — which has served as a bulwark against growing House Republican opposition to continued aid — the past week has been a rude awakening. Not until now has the depth…

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Leaked U.S. strategy on Ukraine sees corruption as the real threat

Leaked U.S. strategy on Ukraine sees corruption as the real threat

Politico reports: Biden administration officials are far more worried about corruption in Ukraine than they publicly admit, a confidential U.S. strategy document obtained by POLITICO suggests. The “sensitive but unclassified” version of the long-term U.S. plan lays out numerous steps Washington is taking to help Kyiv root out malfeasance and otherwise reform an array of Ukrainian sectors. It stresses that corruption could cause Western allies to abandon Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion, and that Kyiv cannot put off the anti-graft…

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Laphonza Butler will be the first Black, openly LGBTQ+ woman in the Senate or House

Laphonza Butler will be the first Black, openly LGBTQ+ woman in the Senate or House

HuffPost reports: Laphonza Butler, who California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) appointed Sunday to finish out the late Dianne Feinstein’s Senate term, will make history when she’s sworn in. She will be the first Black, openly LGBTQ+ woman to serve in either chamber of Congress. “Today she shatters a rainbow ceiling in becoming the first out Black LGBTQ+ U.S. senator and she will serve knowing her presence and impact will be felt in countless ways,” Annise Parker, the president and CEO…

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The rightwing intellectuals who are laying the groundwork for ‘post-Constitutional’ autocratic rule

The rightwing intellectuals who are laying the groundwork for ‘post-Constitutional’ autocratic rule

Jason Wilson writes: In June, rightwing academic Kevin Slack published a book-length polemic claiming that ideas that had emerged from what he called the radical left were now so dominant that the US republic its founders envisioned was effectively at an end. Slack, a politics professor at the conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan, made conspiratorial and extreme arguments now common on the antidemocratic right, that “transgenderism, anti-white racism, censorship, cronyism … are now the policies of an entire cosmopolitan class…

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How a ‘Trump train’ attack on a Biden campaign bus foreshadowed Jan 6 — and echoed bloody history

How a ‘Trump train’ attack on a Biden campaign bus foreshadowed Jan 6 — and echoed bloody history

Diane McWhorter writes: The bane of raw intelligence – and history – is that you can always look back and find the signs, but you can’t necessarily look ahead and see where they’re pointing. Many questions remain about the intelligence failures that enabled an insurrectionist mob to lay siege virtually unimpeded to the US Capitol. But here’s one sign that’s been flashing in my head since 6 January 2021. Four days before the 2020 election, a “Trump Train” of motorists…

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How the right’s elevation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could now backfire

How the right’s elevation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could now backfire

Aaron Blake writes: The American right’s efforts to elevate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were as transparent as they were cynical. The idea, as advanced by Stephen K. Bannon and the like, was clearly to try to embarrass President Biden in the Democratic primary. So they used Kennedy’s inflated early poll standing as an excuse to treat the primary challenge from a fringe figure as something real and threatening. Fox News picked up the ball and ran with it, publishing many dozens of stories…

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‘No turning back’: How the Ukraine war has profoundly changed the EU

‘No turning back’: How the Ukraine war has profoundly changed the EU

Patrick Wintour writes: “The EU has changed. There is no turning back. We have turned out the lights behind us and there is basically only one way.” The words of the Danish politician and EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager at a conference in May neatly reflect the mood among the Brussels elite, taken aback at their own ability to shed EU bureaucratic torpor, defend Ukraine, embrace enlargement and move closer to fulfilling Ursula von der Leyen’s ambition for the EU to…

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Fulton County court: The first domino falls in RICO case. How many more defendants might flip?

Fulton County court: The first domino falls in RICO case. How many more defendants might flip?

The Daily Beast reports: [A] plea agreement puts [Scott] Hall [the former Fulton County Republican poll watcher and bail bondsman] on probation for five years in exchange for a guilty plea on the five misdemeanors. He will also pay a $5,000 fine, issue a letter of apology to Georgia voters, serve 200 hours of community service, and agree to avoid activities related to polling or administering elections. Perhaps most crucially for his 19 co-defendants, he also agreed to testify truthfully…

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Trump’s attack on Milley fuels special counsel’s push for a gag order

Trump’s attack on Milley fuels special counsel’s push for a gag order

Politico reports: Special counsel Jack Smith’s office argued Friday that Donald Trump’s recent attacks on Gen. Mark Milley and one of their own newly appointed prosecutors bolster their case to put a gag order on the former president ahead of his trial in Washington, D.C. In a 22-page filing, senior assistant special counsel Molly Gaston said prosecutors rejected Trump’s claims that their proposed gag order was an attempt to silence him on the campaign trail. Rather, she said, it was…

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Trump calls for summary execution of store robbers

Trump calls for summary execution of store robbers

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump called for shooting store robbers on Friday in a bleak speech to California Republicans –and warned “this country will die!” if Joe Biden remained president. During the address to GOP members, Trump also railed that wealthy Beverly Hills residents smell because of water denials, and repeated election fraud lies, according to the Associated Press. “We will immediately stop all of the pillaging and theft. Very simply: If you rob a store, you can fully expect…

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How to stop AI deepfakes from sinking society — and science

How to stop AI deepfakes from sinking society — and science

Nicola Jones writes: This June, in the political battle leading up to the 2024 US presidential primaries, a series of images were released showing Donald Trump embracing one of his former medical advisers, Anthony Fauci. In a few of the shots, Trump is captured awkwardly kissing the face of Fauci, a health official reviled by some US conservatives for promoting masking and vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was obvious” that they were fakes, says Hany Farid, a computer scientist…

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Milley says the military doesn’t swear oath to a ‘wannabe dictator’ in apparent swipe at Trump

Milley says the military doesn’t swear oath to a ‘wannabe dictator’ in apparent swipe at Trump

CNN reports: In an impassioned and at times furious speech, departing Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley defiantly proclaimed that the US military does not swear an oath to a “wannabe dictator.” It was a bitter and pointed swipe that appeared unmistakably targeted at former President Donald Trump, who has in recent days accused Milley of “treason” and suggested that he should be put to death for his conduct surrounding Trump’s bid in 2021 to remain in office despite losing…

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Trump’s campaign machine is bleeding cash for legal expenses

Trump’s campaign machine is bleeding cash for legal expenses

Reuters reports: Donald Trump’s political operation has helped pay the legal expenses of more than a dozen people contacted by prosecutors investigating the former president, tying up millions of dollars that otherwise could be used for his 2024 White House bid. Reuters has identified 13 potential witnesses or co-defendants who were represented by law firms that received payments from a political group run by Trump, based on interviews and a review of court records and campaign finance disclosures. The payments…

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Twitter fires election integrity team ahead of 2024 elections

Twitter fires election integrity team ahead of 2024 elections

Rolling Stone reports: Next year will see dozens of elections around the globe, but X (formerly Twitter) has seemingly abdicated responsibility for protecting users from misinformation during these democratic processes. Several European staffers working on a threat disruption team for the social platform, including senior manager Aaron Rodericks, have been fired this week, according to a report in the tech publication The Information that cited anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Site owner Elon Musk confirmed the termination of the…

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Elon Musk attacks German support for migrants and promotes support for far-right extremist party

Elon Musk attacks German support for migrants and promotes support for far-right extremist party

Insider reports: Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, attacked Germany’s center-left governing coalition for supporting migrants on Friday and boosted a call for the German people to support a far-right extremist party instead. Earlier this month, Germany’s foreign ministry announced it was dispersing funds to two nonprofit organizations that assist asylum-seekers, including a group that conducts search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea. Already this year, more than 2,500 people have died or gone missing while trying to…

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Flawed reports paint erstwhile Iran negotiator Rob Malley and his colleagues as patsies of Tehran

Flawed reports paint erstwhile Iran negotiator Rob Malley and his colleagues as patsies of Tehran

Jonathan Broder writes for SpyTalk: The leak of the email exchanges [reported by Semafor and Iran International earlier this week] appears to be a third shot at Malley by [Iranian] hardliners who want him removed from any further Iran diplomacy. The first shot was fired in July, when the Iranian regime-affiliated Tehran Times mischievously asserted that “Malley’s overly close proximity to his non-official Iranian assistants and advisers created the ground for the fall of this experienced diplomat.” In August the…

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