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Category: Politics

How Trump’s DOJ gave Biden a major assist in the coming impeachment probe

How Trump’s DOJ gave Biden a major assist in the coming impeachment probe

Politico reports: Joe Biden has a literal Trump card to play against the House’s new impeachment inquiry. In January 2020, the Donald Trump-led Justice Department formally declared that impeachment inquiries by the House are invalid unless the chamber takes formal votes to authorize them. That opinion — issued by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel — came in response to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to launch an impeachment inquiry into Trump without initially holding a vote for it….

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The real aim of McCarthy’s impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden

The real aim of McCarthy’s impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden

Molly Olmstead writes: Republicans have threatened to impeach President Joe Biden so many times that it’s become natural to tune out every new attempt. The calls started before his presidency even began, when right-wingers put credence behind the false narrative that Biden had “stolen” the 2020 election. Since then, Republicans have called for a Biden impeachment over—among other things—immigration policies; military decisions; COVID-related restrictions and measures; classified documents; and accusations of abusing the FBI and other agencies for Biden’s own…

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Biden impeachment inquiry gives White House a fight it’s ready for

Biden impeachment inquiry gives White House a fight it’s ready for

CNBC reports: The White House’s oversight and investigations war room finally got the battle on Tuesday that they’d been arming themselves for. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s announcement that he has directed GOP led House committees to open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden was the long anticipated retribution that White House aides had been waiting for, after House Democrats twice impeached Donald Trump during his one term in office. Ever since Republicans retook the House majority last year, the…

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Coming together as things fall apart

Coming together as things fall apart

Astra Taylor writes: Since 2020, the richest 1 percent has captured nearly two-thirds of all new wealth globally — almost twice as much money as the rest of the world’s population. At the beginning of last year, it was estimated that 10 billionaire men possessed six times as much wealth as the poorest three billion people on Earth. In the United States, the richest 10 percent of households own more than 70 percent of the country’s assets. Such statistics are…

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Iran’s researchers increasingly isolated as government prepares to wall off internet

Iran’s researchers increasingly isolated as government prepares to wall off internet

Science reports: Last year, a machine learning expert in Silicon Valley embarked on a long-distance partnership with two neuroscientists in Tehran, Iran. They planned to gather data on how neurons respond to visual cues, hoping to develop a marker for early detection of Parkinson’s disease. “I’d handle the modeling and analysis, and we’d co-author papers,” says the U.S.-based computer scientist, who asked to remain anonymous because he has family in Iran. Then, on 16 September 2022, Mahsa Jina Amini, a…

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These concerned Colorado citizens want to stop Trump using the 14th Amendment

These concerned Colorado citizens want to stop Trump using the 14th Amendment

Noah Bookbinder and Donald K. Sherman write: Donald Trump currently faces four criminal prosecutions, a momentous and historic fact that can hardly be overstated. But a civil suit brought this week by six courageous residents of Colorado is another important step in the quest to preserve the viability of our democracy. The suit, filed on Sept. 6 in Colorado District Court by Republican and unaffiliated voters, seeks to compel Colorado’s secretary of state to bar Trump from the state’s ballot,…

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Trump seeks recusal of Judge Tanya Chutkan in federal elections case

Trump seeks recusal of Judge Tanya Chutkan in federal elections case

The New York Times reports: In a motion filed in Federal District Court in Washington, John F. Lauro, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, cited statements Judge Chutkan had made about the former president at hearings for two defendants facing sentencing for crimes they committed at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. At one of the hearings, in October 2022, Judge Chutkan told the defendant, Christine Priola, a former occupational therapist in the Cleveland school system, that the people who “mobbed”…

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Democrats inch toward House majority with recent court wins

Democrats inch toward House majority with recent court wins

Politico reports: The fundamentals of the 2024 campaign are still taking shape, but one thing is already clear: A flurry of court actions might cost Republicans the House majority. In the past nine days, state and federal judges threw out two congressional maps — and helped Democrats avoid a worst-case scenario in Ohio — kicking off an unusually busy redistricting calendar heading into the election year. All told, a dozen or more seats across at least six states could be…

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What Russia got by scaring Elon Musk

What Russia got by scaring Elon Musk

Anne Applebaum writes: One evening in September 2022, a group of Ukrainian sea drones sped out into the Black Sea, heading for Russian-occupied Crimea. Their designers—engineers who had been doing other things until the current war began—had carefully targeted the fast, remote-controlled, explosive-packed vessels to hit ships anchored in Sebastopol, the home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. But the drones ran into a problem: Starlink, the satellite-communications system that Ukraine had been using since Russia invaded early last year, unexpectedly…

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Saudi Arabia on ‘relentless killing spree,’ Amnesty International says

Saudi Arabia on ‘relentless killing spree,’ Amnesty International says

Deutsche Welle reports: Authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have executed at least 100 people in 2023, according to human rights watchdog Amnesty International. In a statement on Friday, the activists said they documented several cases in which people had been sentenced to death for social media posts or drug-related offenses in “grossly unfair trials that fell far short of international human rights standards.” “The authorities’ relentless killing spree raises serious fears for the lives of young men on…

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The Supreme Court could send the U.S. back to the 1950s

The Supreme Court could send the U.S. back to the 1950s

Ronald Brownstein writes: The struggle over the sweeping red-state drive to roll back civil rights and liberties has primarily moved to the courts. Since 2021, Republican-controlled states have passed a swarm of laws to restrict voting rights, increase penalties for public protest, impose new restrictions on transgender youth, ban books, and limit what teachers, college professors, and employers can say about race, gender, and sexual orientation. Some states are even exploring options to potentially prosecute people who help women travel…

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As GOP investigates prosecutors, experts worry about judicial independence

As GOP investigates prosecutors, experts worry about judicial independence

The Washington Post reports: Investigate the investigator. That has been the operating thesis of the GOP’s playbook to counter the myriad criminal investigations into Donald Trump, the de facto leader of the Republican Party. Interrogating investigators’ methods and scruples is a strategy that has been utilized by both parties during tumultuous moments, and is a well-worn tool for lawmakers seeking to appease constituents hungry for the appearance of oversight on polarizing issues. The strategy has been effective in shaping public…

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Trump asked to move lawsuit seeking to boot him from 2024 ballot in Colorado to federal court

Trump asked to move lawsuit seeking to boot him from 2024 ballot in Colorado to federal court

NBC News reports: Former President Donald Trump asked to have a Colorado lawsuit aimed at kicking him off the 2024 ballot in the state moved to federal court. In a court filing on Thursday, lawyers for Trump argued the suit brought earlier this week by a group of six voters should be moved from state court to federal court because it centers on the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which holds that no person shall hold any office if…

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What divides political parties? More than ever, it’s race and ethnicity

What divides political parties? More than ever, it’s race and ethnicity

Dan Balz writes: In a polarized United States, what divides Democrats and Republicans the most isn’t gender or education or income or religion. It is the issue of race, whether in regard to the backgrounds of the voters who make up the two parties’ coalitions, or the conflicting agendas and priorities each side advocates in the pursuit of power. That reality is brought home in a report produced by the American Political Science Association (APSA) in partnership with the organization…

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What Ginni Thomas and Leonard Leo wrought: How a justice’s wife and a key activist started a movement

What Ginni Thomas and Leonard Leo wrought: How a justice’s wife and a key activist started a movement

Heidi Przybyla writes: The Supreme Court’s decision in the 2010 Citizens United case transformed the world of politics. It loosened restrictions on campaign spending and unleashed a flow of anonymous donor money to nonprofit groups run by political activists. In the months before the ruling dropped in January of that year, a group of conservative activists came together to create just such an organization. Its mission would be to, at the time, block then-President Barack Obama’s pet initiatives. The activists…

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The prosecutions of Donald Trump are something to celebrate, not lament

The prosecutions of Donald Trump are something to celebrate, not lament

Donald Ayer writes: Several distinguished individuals have recently expressed grave reservations about the prosecutions of former President Donald Trump. Notably, they appear to have no dispute about the seriousness of his wrongdoing. Rather, their main concern is that “terrible consequences” may result, because the prosecutions “may come to be seen as political trials … and play directly into the hands of Trump and his allies.” Although many Trump supporters will view the situation in just this way, any suggestion that…

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