Browsed by
Category: Politics

Special counsel proposes January date for Trump’s election interference trial

Special counsel proposes January date for Trump’s election interference trial

The New York Times reports: The prosecutors overseeing the indictment of former President Donald J. Trump on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election asked a judge on Thursday to set a trial date in the case for early January, laying out an aggressive schedule for the proceeding. In a motion filed to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is presiding over the case in Federal District Court in Washington, the prosecutors said they were ready not only to go…

Read More Read More

How Clarence Thomas enjoys ‘the lifestyle of a billionaire’

How Clarence Thomas enjoys ‘the lifestyle of a billionaire’

ProPublica reports: During his three decades on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has enjoyed steady access to a lifestyle most Americans can only imagine. A cadre of industry titans and ultrawealthy executives have treated him to far-flung vacations aboard their yachts, ushered him into the premium suites at sporting events and sent their private jets to fetch him — including, on more than one occasion, an entire 737. It’s a stream of luxury that is both more extensive and from…

Read More Read More

Christianity Today editor: Evangelicals call Jesus ‘liberal’ and ‘weak’

Christianity Today editor: Evangelicals call Jesus ‘liberal’ and ‘weak’

The New Republic reports: The editor in chief of Christianity Today is warning that evangelical Christianity is moving too far to the right, to the point that even Jesus’s teachings are considered “weak” now. Russell Moore resigned from the Southern Baptist Convention in 2021, after years of being at odds with other evangelical leaders. Specifically, Moore openly criticized Donald Trump, whom many evangelical Christians embraced. Moore also criticized the Southern Baptist Convention’s response to a sexual abuse crisis and increasing…

Read More Read More

Private jets are awful for the climate. It’s time to tax the rich who fly in them

Private jets are awful for the climate. It’s time to tax the rich who fly in them

Sen. Edward J Markey writes: The climate crisis is not in transit, it’s arrived at the gate. It’s in our skies, our water, and our land – with record-shattering heat waves, increasingly severe wildfires and flooding from superstorms and rising seas. We have no time for delays. Tackling this crisis and protecting frontline environmental justice communities will take all of us. And the tax-dodging ultra-wealthy need to stop fueling the problem and start supporting first-class solutions. That’s why, this July,…

Read More Read More

Ohio vote shows abortion’s potency to reshape elections

Ohio vote shows abortion’s potency to reshape elections

The New York Times reports: Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, a Republican, argued that Tuesday’s vote over how to amend the State Constitution was about protecting the state from a flood of special interest money. Secretary of State Frank LaRose, another Republican, urged voters to protect the “very foundational rules” of their constitution. But Ohio voters clearly didn’t buy it. About three million of them showed up for a vote dominated by the debate over abortion rights — an issue…

Read More Read More

Ex-federal judge and prominent conservative, J. Michael Luttig: ‘There is no Republican Party’

Ex-federal judge and prominent conservative, J. Michael Luttig: ‘There is no Republican Party’

  CNN reports: J. Michael Luttig, a conservative retired federal judge and key adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, declared on Wednesday that “there is no Republican Party” and said former President Donald Trump is even more dangerous than he was in the aftermath of the 2020 election. “American democracy simply cannot function without two equally healthy and equally strong political parties. So today, in my view, there is no Republican Party to counter the Democratic Party in the…

Read More Read More

Special counsel obtained search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account

Special counsel obtained search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account

Politico reports: Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, earlier this year, according to newly revealed court documents. Twitter’s initial resistance to complying with the Jan. 17 warrant resulted in a federal judge holding the company, now called X, in contempt and levying a $350,000 fine. A federal court of appeals upheld that fine last month in a sealed opinion. On Wednesday, the court unsealed a redacted version of that opinion, revealing details…

Read More Read More

Previously secret memo laid out strategy for Trump to overturn Biden’s win

Previously secret memo laid out strategy for Trump to overturn Biden’s win

The New York Times reports: A lawyer allied with President Donald J. Trump first laid out a plot to use false slates of electors to subvert the 2020 election in a previously unknown internal campaign memo that prosecutors are portraying as a crucial link in how the Trump team’s efforts evolved into a criminal conspiracy. The existence of the Dec. 6, 2020, memo came to light in last week’s indictment of Mr. Trump, though its details remained unclear. But a…

Read More Read More

‘Weak dictator’ Ron DeSantis ousts another elected prosecutor he dislikes

‘Weak dictator’ Ron DeSantis ousts another elected prosecutor he dislikes

The Daily Beast reports: The Orlando-area prosecutor ousted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday hit back at the shock suspension, calling the stunt a “smokescreen” to distract from DeSantis’ spiraling presidential campaign. Monique Worrell is now the second democratically elected state prosecutor to lose her job to a DeSantis power grab. The governor attributed Worrell’s suspension to her being too forgiving on crime, despite her comfortably winning 67 percent of the vote in Orange and Osceola counties in 2020….

Read More Read More

Secrecy in China

Secrecy in China

Michael Schuman writes: The disappearance of Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has generated a torrent of speculation about what might have happened to him. The mystery points to a larger, and disconcerting, truth: We understand very little about the inner workings of Chinese politics at a moment when we need to know more than ever. China’s Communist regime has always been opaque. But the more China’s global power rises, the more problematic the Communist Party’s secrecy becomes. The decisions made…

Read More Read More

DeSantis’s Florida approves climate-denial videos in schools

DeSantis’s Florida approves climate-denial videos in schools

E&E News reports: Climate activists are like Nazis. Wind and solar power pollute the Earth and make life miserable. Recent global and local heat records reflect natural temperature cycles. These are some of the themes of children’s videos produced by an influential conservative advocacy group. Now, the videos could soon be used in Florida’s classrooms. Florida’s Department of Education has approved the classroom use of material from the Prager University Foundation, a conservative group that produces videos that distort science,…

Read More Read More

Florida schools will restrict access to Shakespeare in English classes

Florida schools will restrict access to Shakespeare in English classes

The Messenger reports: Some Florida educators don’t plan on teaching William Shakespeare in full this fall. Instead, they’re required to teach only excerpts of the plays in an effort to comply with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ conservative education policies. Joseph Cool, a teacher at Gaither High School in Hillsborough County, told the Tampa Bay Times, “There’s some raunchiness in Shakespeare,” and he hardly blames the district for taking the “safe” route in limiting Shakespeare. However, he still thinks the new…

Read More Read More

Special counsel still scrutinizing finances of Trump’s PAC

Special counsel still scrutinizing finances of Trump’s PAC

Politico reports: Special counsel Jack Smith’s probe of efforts by Donald Trump and others to subvert the 2020 election remains ongoing — with at least one interview this week that focused on fundraising and spending by Trump’s political action committee. Meanwhile, the grand jury that indicted Trump last week was spotted meeting Tuesday in the federal courthouse in Washington. In a closed-door interview on Monday with Bernard Kerik, investigators asked multiple questions about the Save America PAC’s enormous fundraising haul…

Read More Read More

UAE tests it’s relationship with the U.S.

UAE tests it’s relationship with the U.S.

The New York Times reports: The ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, is a key American ally who counts on the United States to defend his country. But he has traveled twice to Russia over the past year to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin, and in June, his country was celebrated as the guest of honor at the Russian leader’s flagship investment forum. Later this month, the Emirati and Chinese air forces plan to train…

Read More Read More

The Hunter Biden problem isn’t going away

The Hunter Biden problem isn’t going away

Jill Lawrence writes: It’s time to get nervous about Hunter Biden. It’s tempting to try to dismiss or ignore it all—the constant “Biden & Son” and “Biden Crime Family” emails, the intrusive attempted shaming over the seventh grandchild, the drug addiction, the unpaid taxes, the illegal gun, the investigation by a prosecutor who was named by Donald Trump, the plea deal that’s now on hold. And why not just tune it out? House Republicans can allege wrongdoing by President Joe…

Read More Read More

Just how fast will clean energy grow in the U.S.?

Just how fast will clean energy grow in the U.S.?

Dana Nuccitelli writes: To slash U.S. emissions of climate-warming carbon pollution, many experts have settled on a plan that can be largely described in two steps: Clean up the power grid and electrify everything. If electric vehicles, heat pumps, induction stoves, and some industrial processes can be powered by clean electricity and replace fossil-fueled alternatives, that transition will do most of the work toward decarbonizing the economy and helping the U.S. meet its commitments under the Paris climate agreement. Carbon…

Read More Read More