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Category: Politics

Amazon wages secret war on Americans’ privacy, documents show

Amazon wages secret war on Americans’ privacy, documents show

Reuters reports: In recent years, Amazon.com Inc has killed or undermined privacy protections in more than three dozen bills across 25 states, as the e-commerce giant amassed a lucrative trove of personal data on millions of American consumers. Amazon executives and staffers detail these lobbying victories in confidential documents reviewed by Reuters. In Virginia, the company boosted political donations tenfold over four years before persuading lawmakers this year to pass an industry-friendly privacy bill that Amazon itself drafted. In California,…

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The terrifying future of the Republican Party

The terrifying future of the Republican Party

David Brooks writes: Rachel Bovard is one of the thousands of smart young Americans who flock to Washington each year to make a difference. She’s worked in the House and Senate for Republicans Rand Paul, Pat Toomey, and Mike Lee, was listed among the “Most Influential Women in Washington Under 35” by National Journal, did a stint at the Heritage Foundation, and is now policy director of the Conservative Partnership Institute, whose mission is to train, equip, and unify the…

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Say goodbye to swing districts. Lawmakers are drawing easy wins in dozens of states

Say goodbye to swing districts. Lawmakers are drawing easy wins in dozens of states

Politico reports: When most voters go to the polls to elect members of Congress next year, the general election will essentially be meaningless. That’s because winners are being determined right now, by a small number of party officials who are surgically ensuring preordained victories in the majority of the nation’s congressional districts. The current redistricting cycle is garnering more interest and scrutiny than ever because the power of the process has become so clear: When politicians control redistricting, they have…

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GOP can’t escape ‘self-inflicted injuries’ as they fight to reclaim House

GOP can’t escape ‘self-inflicted injuries’ as they fight to reclaim House

Politico reports: House Republicans should be riding high: The majority is in their grasp and President Joe Biden’s poll numbers are tanking. Instead, they’re getting in their own way, again. Ahead of a vote on Democrats’ biggest agenda item, the GOP conference is embroiled in messy internal spats that have spilled into public view, including the censure Wednesday of a far-right House member, the first such vote in more than a decade. At the same time, some rank-and-file Republicans are…

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First known Covid case was vendor at Wuhan market, scientist claims

First known Covid case was vendor at Wuhan market, scientist claims

The New York Times reports: A scientist who has pored over public accounts of early Covid-19 cases in China reported on Thursday that an influential World Health Organization inquiry had most likely gotten the early chronology of the pandemic wrong. The new analysis suggests that the first known patient sickened with the coronavirus was a vendor in a large Wuhan animal market, not an accountant who lived many miles from it. The report, published on Thursday in the prestigious journal…

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You can’t beat climate change without tackling disinformation

You can’t beat climate change without tackling disinformation

Amy Westervelt writes: In the past month or so, climate disinformation has been making its way into the news more than usual. There was the House Oversight Committee’s climate disinformation hearing in October, and then, just days later, leaked documents from Facebook revealed its role in spreading climate denial. The Oversight Committee’s investigation continues, as does the work to fully understand social media’s role in disinformation, about climate and otherwise. But for all we know about disinformation and how dangerously…

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Democrats shouldn’t panic. They should go into shock

Democrats shouldn’t panic. They should go into shock

Thomas B. Edsall writes: The rise of inflation, supply chain shortages, a surge in illegal border crossings, the persistence of Covid, mayhem in Afghanistan and the uproar over “critical race theory” — all of these developments, individually and collectively, have taken their toll on President Biden and Democratic candidates, so much so that Democrats are now the underdogs going into 2022 and possibly 2024. Gary Langer, director of polling at ABC News, put it this way in an essay published…

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Poll: Voters’ doubts rising about Biden’s health, mental fitness

Poll: Voters’ doubts rising about Biden’s health, mental fitness

Politico reports: Voters have increasing doubts about the health and mental fitness of President Joe Biden, the oldest man ever sworn into the White House, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. Only 40 percent of voters surveyed agreed with the statement that Biden “is in good health,” while 50 percent disagreed. That 10-percentage-point gap — outside the poll’s margin of error — represents a massive 29-point shift since October 2020, when Morning Consult last surveyed the question and found…

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Sinema speaks up — and shakes off her critics

Sinema speaks up — and shakes off her critics

Politico reports: Watch the Senate floor enough and you’ll notice Sen. Kyrsten Sinema regularly chatting with Mitch McConnell and his top deputy John Thune. Republicans have even tried to recruit her to their conference, and throw the Senate to the GOP. Don’t worry though, Democrats: Sinema’s not becoming a Republican. “No. Why would I do that?” the moderate Arizonan says in her trademark deadpan. Thune, the GOP whip, wishes it were otherwise, confirming in an interview he’s pressed Sinema to…

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Can Russia’s press ever be free?

Can Russia’s press ever be free?

Masha Gessen writes: Around noon every workday, Dmitry Muratov, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, sits down at the head of a long table in a large round room in the paper’s office, in Moscow, to chair a planyorka, or planning meeting. On October 11th, the Monday after the Friday when the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that it was awarding this year’s Peace Prize to Muratov and the Filipina journalist Maria Ressa, ten people gathered at the table, joined by fifteen…

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Xi Jinping’s terrifying new China

Xi Jinping’s terrifying new China

Michael Schuman writes: China’s social media was briefly aflutter this fall about an impressive feat in the popular online fantasy game Honor of Kings. A player had completed a “pentakill,” or five kills in a row, but something just smelled wrong: The user in question was 60 years old, according to the verified account information—hardly the type to be an expert gamer. Even more mysterious, why was this person brandishing digital weaponry at 3 a.m.? Was the player in fact…

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This next-generation nuclear power plant is pitched for Washington State. Can it ‘change the world’?

This next-generation nuclear power plant is pitched for Washington State. Can it ‘change the world’?

The Seattle Times reports: Near the Columbia River, Clay Sell hopes to launch a new era of nuclear power with four small reactors, each stocked with billiard ball-sized “pebbles” packed full of uranium fuel. Chief executive officer of Maryland-based X-energy, Sell aims to bring the project online by 2028 as part of a broader attempt to develop safer, more flexible reactors to redefine the nation’s energy future. These efforts have gained support in the nation’s capital where many Democrats eager…

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New Russian satellite-killer produces decades of fallout

New Russian satellite-killer produces decades of fallout

Cosmos reports: The International Space Station is going into lockdown every 93 minutes. Satellite operators are scrambling to see if their assets are at risk. All thanks to a “most irresponsible” Russian orbital weapons test. The world’s space agencies and industries went into high alert overnight and ground-based radars had begun issuing warnings about the appearance of a deadly new hail of debris in low Earth orbit. It was quickly determined that this was not the result of a random,…

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Could a new government report spell felony charges for Trump?

Could a new government report spell felony charges for Trump?

Slate reports: Last week, the Office of Special Counsel released a report finding that 13 senior Trump administration officials violated the Hatch Act, a statute prohibiting federal officials from using their positions to influence the outcome of partisan elections. In August 2020, we filed a Hatch Act complaint with that office against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for, among other things, using a diplomatic mission to Jerusalem to broadcast a speech to the Republican National Convention in which he advocated…

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Mnuchin and Pompeo reportedly discussed a plan to oust Trump from office on January 6

Mnuchin and Pompeo reportedly discussed a plan to oust Trump from office on January 6

Rolling Stone reports: Steve Mnuchin and Mike Pompeo discussed a plan to remove Trump from office after the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to Jonathan Karl’s new book Betrayal, which chronicles the final days of the former president’s time in office. Then-Treasury Secretary Mnuchin reportedly called then-Secretary of State Pompeo on the evening of Jan. 6 to suggest using the 25th Amendment, which outlines the protocols for how to replace the president or vice president in the event of their death,…

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Tucker Carlson’s January 6 ‘documentary’ is his most nakedly fascist piece of propaganda yet

Tucker Carlson’s January 6 ‘documentary’ is his most nakedly fascist piece of propaganda yet

HuffPost reports: Tucker Carlson’s “Patriot Purge,” a revisionist history of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, clocks in at an easily binge-watchable 70 minutes, spread over three episodes. It’s produced with the aesthetics and narrative suspense of an action thriller. The good guys are the “patriots” who stormed the Capitol. The bad guys are those in the media and government who are persecuting them. “The left is hunting the right,” Carlson warns his viewers. It is the most…

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