Browsed by
Category: Politics

GOP states quit the program that fights voter fraud. Now they’re scrambling

GOP states quit the program that fights voter fraud. Now they’re scrambling

Politico reports: Over the past year and a half, eight Republican-led states quit a nonpartisan program designed to keep voter rolls accurate and up to date. Top Republican election officials in those states publicly argued the program was mismanaged. The conspiracy theorists who cheered them on falsely insisted it was a front for liberals to take control of elections. But experts say the program, known as the Electronic Registration Information Center, was among the best nationwide tool states had to…

Read More Read More

From the Jenin raid to settlements, Biden is giving Israel’s far-right government a green light

From the Jenin raid to settlements, Biden is giving Israel’s far-right government a green light

Mairav Zonszein writes: On Monday July 3, while Israeli forces were raiding the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, in a ground and aerial assault that forced thousands of Palestinian civilians to evacuate their homes, U.S. Ambassador Tom Nides hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a Fourth of July event in Jerusalem. They talked about the close bond between the United States and Israel, and smiled for the cameras. During the Israeli military’s two-day raid—the largest in…

Read More Read More

Joe Biden should embrace all seven of his grandchildren

Joe Biden should embrace all seven of his grandchildren

Maureen Dowd writes: Even my Republican sister is not immune to Joe Biden’s gregarious Irish charm. She met him at media holiday parties over the years and was so impressed that she got seduced to the other side for a time, voting for the Obama-Biden ticket in 2008 and writing in Biden’s name for president in 2012. She sent out a Christmas card one year with a picture of herself cheek to cheek with Biden — and some of her…

Read More Read More

Twitter Blue accounts fuel Ukraine war misinformation

Twitter Blue accounts fuel Ukraine war misinformation

BBC News reports: False and misleading posts about the Ukraine conflict continue to go viral on major social media platforms, as Russia’s invasion of the country extends beyond 500 days. Some of the most widely shared examples can be found on Twitter, posted by subscribers with a blue tick, who pay for their content to be promoted to other users. Many misleading posts have been shared online about the recent riots in France, but one viral post last week focused…

Read More Read More

What history reveals about the biggest new power player in U.S. politics: Moms for Liberty

What history reveals about the biggest new power player in U.S. politics: Moms for Liberty

Nicole Hemmer writes: When Moms for Liberty met in Philadelphia last week, they attracted the kind of attention, and controversy, that they have become accustomed to courting. Founded two years ago in the wake of President Joe Biden’s election, the organization attracted the leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, including former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. They also drew a crowd of protesters and activists who oppose the group’s reactionary political projects, such as book bans…

Read More Read More

Abducted Princeton student’s friends warn ‘lies’ could get her killed

Abducted Princeton student’s friends warn ‘lies’ could get her killed

The Daily Beast reports: Friends and colleagues of Elizabeth Tsurkov, a dual Russian-Israeli citizen who was kidnapped by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq earlier this year, are slamming what they describe as dangerous lies spreading online about the Princeton doctoral student. Tsurkov, 36, went missing in March after traveling to Iraq on a research trip for her dissertation, Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement this week, adding that she was abducted by Kataib Hezbollah, a notorious militia group…

Read More Read More

The U.S. and China must work together to combat climate change, says Yellen

The U.S. and China must work together to combat climate change, says Yellen

Reuters reports: The United States and China, as the world’s two largest economies, must work together to combat the “existential threat” of climate change, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Chinese government officials and climate experts on Saturday. During a visit to Beijing, Yellen said previous cooperation on climate change between the U.S. and China had made possible global breakthroughs such as the 2015 Paris Agreement, adding that both governments wanted to support emerging markets and developing countries as they…

Read More Read More

There have been an average of almost two mass shootings every day in the U.S. so far this year

There have been an average of almost two mass shootings every day in the U.S. so far this year

ABC News reports: The United States has faced at least 351 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. This averages out to almost two mass shootings a day. Mass shootings are defined as an incident in which four or more victims are shot or killed, according to the archive. Though mass shootings don’t make up the majority of gun violence incidents in America, their impact on communities and victims is evident. Incidents like the mass…

Read More Read More

‘Sound of Freedom’: Box office triumph for QAnon believers

‘Sound of Freedom’: Box office triumph for QAnon believers

Miles Klee writes: “Based on a true story,” I heard from somewhere across the theater. The familiar words had appeared on screen, and an elderly man had taken it upon himself to read them aloud, to the rest of a sizable audience seated for a matinee showing of the anti-child-trafficking thriller Sound of Freedom, starring Jim Caviezel. For the seasoned moviegoer, this phrase is a joke — we know that cinema will stretch almost any “truth” to the breaking point — and the rank…

Read More Read More

How nationalist movements paved Ukraine’s way to freedom

How nationalist movements paved Ukraine’s way to freedom

Alexander Query writes: When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many in the West, and in the Kremlin too, expected the Ukrainian state to crumble in weeks, if not days. The government would flee, the state would be carved up – some lands absorbed by Russia, the rest perhaps being made into a Moscow-dominated puppet state. The war might continue, but it would be an insurgency in an occupied country, so the experts said. They were wrong, and part…

Read More Read More

Turkey’s Erdogan says Ukraine deserves NATO membership

Turkey’s Erdogan says Ukraine deserves NATO membership

CNN reports: Ukraine deserves to have NATO membership, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a joint press conference in Istanbul alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. During the press conference Erdogan also said he hoped the Black Sea grain deal, which Turkey helped broker with Russia, will be extended. The deal, seen as vital for world food security, is expiring in just ten days. The Turkish president went on to say he will support the rebuilding of Ukraine and that…

Read More Read More

Biden approves cluster munition supply to Ukraine

Biden approves cluster munition supply to Ukraine

The Washington Post reports: President Biden has approved the provision of U.S. cluster munitions for Ukraine, with drawdown of the weapons from Defense Department stocks due to be announced Friday. The move, which will bypass U.S. law prohibiting the production, use or transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of more than 1 percent, comes amid concerns about Kyiv’s lagging counteroffensive against entrenched Russian troops and dwindling Western stocks of conventional artillery. It follows months of internal administration debate…

Read More Read More

Prosecutors in Trump classified documents case are facing threats

Prosecutors in Trump classified documents case are facing threats

The Washington Post reports: Individual prosecutors involved in the classified documents case against former president Donald Trump are facing substantial harassment and threats online and elsewhere, according to extremism experts and a government official familiar with the matter. At the same time, two officials said, federal agencies have not observed a general increase in threats against law enforcement in the weeks since Trump was indicted in South Florida — a sharp contrast from the surge of violent rhetoric in the…

Read More Read More

The brain-rotting contrarianism of the billionaire tech bros

The brain-rotting contrarianism of the billionaire tech bros

Paul Krugman writes: But for [Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s] last name, nobody would be paying him any attention — and despite that last name, he has zero chance of winning the Democratic presidential nomination. Yet now that Ron DeSantis’s campaign (slogan: “woke woke immigrants woke woke”) seems to be on the skids, Kennedy is suddenly getting support from some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley. Jack Dorsey, who founded Twitter, has endorsed him, while some other prominent tech figures…

Read More Read More

That woman from Michigan would be amazing against Trump

That woman from Michigan would be amazing against Trump

Jonathan Martin writes: Democrats in Michigan’s congressional delegation have pleaded with [Gov. Gretchen] Whitmer to run [for president], I’m told by officials familiar with the conversations, and the lawmakers have themselves been nudged by colleagues from other states to push her. Notably, that roster of congressional Democrats from other states eager for a Whitmer bid included members of the Congressional Black Caucus. These backstage conversations have taken place as Biden’s approval ratings show little sign of improvement and increasingly appear…

Read More Read More

Restricting the govt. from speaking to tech companies will spread disinformation and harm democracy

Restricting the govt. from speaking to tech companies will spread disinformation and harm democracy

Leah Litman and Laurence H. Tribe write: On July 4, federal Judge Terry A. Doughty in the Western District of Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction in Missouri v. Biden, a case that basically turns some elected Republicans’ fixation on social media censorship into legal reality. The impetus behind the case is the now thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that the government is somehow strong-arming Big Tech into censoring conservative speech and speakers in violation of the First Amendment. While there are, in theory, interesting questions about when…

Read More Read More