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Category: Politics

White House unveils $2 trillion infrastructure and climate plan

White House unveils $2 trillion infrastructure and climate plan

The Washington Post reports: The White House’s unveiling of a $2 trillion jobs, infrastructure and green energy proposal to reshape the U.S. economy met a chorus of opposition late Wednesday, with Republicans panning it as a partisan wish-list, some liberals challenging it as not sufficient to combat climate change and business groups rejecting its proposed tax hikes. Under what the administration calls the American Jobs Plan, President Biden aims to tackle some of the nation’s most pressing problems — from…

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N.Y. prosecutors seek Trump insider’s records, in apparent bid to gain cooperation

N.Y. prosecutors seek Trump insider’s records, in apparent bid to gain cooperation

The New York Times reports: State prosecutors in Manhattan investigating former President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization have subpoenaed the personal bank records of the company’s chief financial officer and are questioning gifts he and his family received from Mr. Trump, according to people with knowledge of the matter. In recent weeks, the prosecutors have trained their focus on the executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, in what appears to be a determined effort to gain his cooperation. Mr. Weisselberg,…

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Silicon Valley investors want to oust San Francisco’s reformist district attorney

Silicon Valley investors want to oust San Francisco’s reformist district attorney

Mother Jones reports: San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was at home cooking dinner on a Thursday evening in January when he opened a new app called Clubhouse that lets people drop into virtual “rooms” and listen to live, unrecorded conversations. Someone had messaged Boudin to let him know that tech investors were hosting an “interesting” conversation about the “Future of SF.” As he prepared his food, some of them were speaking critically about San Francisco’s liberal political leaders. Soon,…

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Brazil is rocked by political turmoil as pandemic outlook darkens

Brazil is rocked by political turmoil as pandemic outlook darkens

The Washington Post reports: Six cabinet members are out. The military’s top leaders are also gone. And it’s only Tuesday. First came the Monday morning exit of Brazil’s foreign minister, a right-wing ideologue blamed for failing to secure enough coronavirus vaccines. Then the defense minister was gone. Then the justice minister was replaced. Tuesday morning brought still more tumult: the departures of the navy, army and air force chiefs. The exits have sent political shock waves across Latin America’s largest…

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The quest to unseal the papers of the architect of the modern anti-immigration movement

The quest to unseal the papers of the architect of the modern anti-immigration movement

Isabela Dias writes: In the days following the 2016 presidential election, then–Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and President-elect Donald Trump posed for photographs at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey. Kobach, an anti-immigration hardliner whose name was being floated to lead the Department of Homeland Security, held a binder and a stack of papers on his left hand. Zoomed-in images revealed the title—“Kobach Strategic Plan For First 365 Days”—and bullet-pointed agenda items that included reinstating a…

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This is what happens when a political party turns against democracy

This is what happens when a political party turns against democracy

Jamelle Bouie writes: The most outrageous provision of the Election Integrity Act of 2021, the omnibus election bill signed by Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia last week, is one that makes it illegal for anyone except poll workers to offer food or water directly to voters standing in line. Defenders of the law say that this is meant to stop electioneering at the polls; critics say it is a direct response to volunteers who assisted those Georgians, many of them…

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The Taliban are confident they have already won, peace deal or not

The Taliban are confident they have already won, peace deal or not

The New York Times reports: The Taliban’s swagger is unmistakable. From the recent bellicose speech of their deputy leader, boasting of “conquests,” to sneering references to the “foreign masters” of the “illegitimate” Kabul government, to the Taliban’s own website tally of “puppets” killed — Afghan soldiers — they are promoting a bold message: We have already won the war. And that belief, grounded in military and political reality, is shaping Afghanistan’s volatile present. On the eve of talks in Turkey…

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The Kremlin may be slowly killing Alexei Navalny in prison. The world must not let it happen

The Kremlin may be slowly killing Alexei Navalny in prison. The world must not let it happen

Vladimir Kara-Murza writes: There are many ways to kill an opponent. Sometimes it’s done out in the open, for the whole world to see — as happened with Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down in plain sight of the Kremlin by an Interior Ministry officer. Often it’s done with techniques that aim to maintain plausible deniability, such as poisoning — a favored method practiced by Soviet and Russian security services against opponents at home and abroad. Sometimes…

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Biden’s massive infrastructure plan is also a climate plan

Biden’s massive infrastructure plan is also a climate plan

Vox reports: The White House is preparing for its next big swing on the economy. Shortly after passing his $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package, President Joe Biden is preparing to unveil his “Build Back Better” plan Wednesday during a public address in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The White House discussed an approximately $3 trillion infrastructure package on a call last week with Senate Democrats, but the price tag and final details are still under discussion, a person familiar with the plan told…

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Inside the Koch-backed effort to block the largest election-reform bill in half a century

Inside the Koch-backed effort to block the largest election-reform bill in half a century

Jane Mayer writes: In public, Republicans have denounced Democrats’ ambitious electoral-reform bill, the For the People Act, as an unpopular partisan ploy. In a contentious Senate committee hearing last week, Senator Ted Cruz, of Texas, slammed the proposal, which aims to expand voting rights and curb the influence of money in politics, as “a brazen and shameless power grab by Democrats.” But behind closed doors Republicans speak differently about the legislation, which is also known as House Resolution 1 and…

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White House dramatically increased tax proposal as it sought to address tensions over next big spending plan

White House dramatically increased tax proposal as it sought to address tensions over next big spending plan

The Washington Post reports: When President Biden’s team began putting together his infrastructure and jobs package this February, the White House National Economic Council circulated an internal proposal calling for about $3 trillion in new spending and $1 trillion in new tax hikes, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. But soon enough, some members of the economic team second-guessed themselves, concerned that the plan could jeopardize the nation’s long-term financial stability. The officials worried that the large…

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Biden task force to probe science manipulation under Trump

Biden task force to probe science manipulation under Trump

NBC News reports: A new White House task force will examine instances where the Trump administration may have distorted or suppressed science in critical government decisions, with an eye toward creating fail-safes to prevent it from happening again, the White House said Monday. In a letter to federal agencies, obtained by NBC News, the White House said the task force’s mandate would include identifying whether current policies effectively “prevent improper political interference in the conduct of scientific research” and “prevent…

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Remote work is here to stay. New York City faces a cataclysmic challenge after the pandemic ends

Remote work is here to stay. New York City faces a cataclysmic challenge after the pandemic ends

The New York Times reports: Spotify’s headquarters in the United States fills 16 floors of 4 World Trade Center, a towering office building in Lower Manhattan that was the first to rise on the site of the 2001 terror attacks. Its offices will probably never be full again: Spotify has told employees they can work anywhere, even in another state. A few floors down, MediaMath, an advertising tech company, is planning to abandon its space, a decision fueled by its…

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The unlikely team of prosecutors hunting Trump in Georgia

The unlikely team of prosecutors hunting Trump in Georgia

The Daily Beast reports: A sheriff’s deputy who went to law school but remained a cop for another two decades. A prosecutor best known for tackling juvenile offenders. And the guy who literally wrote the book on racketeering cases against mafia goons. This is the team Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is assembling to investigate Donald Trump—to go after his advisers and their attempts to manipulate election results in Georgia. In interviews with Willis, her staff, five former members…

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Sidney Powell’s ‘just kidding’ defense is seriously, literally nuts

Sidney Powell’s ‘just kidding’ defense is seriously, literally nuts

Matt Lewis writes: During the 2016 presidential campaign, journalist and author Salena Zito observed that when it came to Donald Trump, “the press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.” Zito deserves credit for coining a memorable phrase that certainly sounded plausible back when we were all trying to fathom how Trump won. By 2020, however, it was clear that Trump’s fans were, in fact, taking him literally. The Capitol insurgency that occurred…

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‘He’s toast’: GOP leaves Raffensperger twisting in the wind

‘He’s toast’: GOP leaves Raffensperger twisting in the wind

Politico reports: The former president is obsessed with defeating him next year. He’s getting mauled by his own state party. Last week alone, a Republican congressman announced he’d challenge in the primary and the state legislature voted to strip his office of some official powers. By most accounts, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger doesn’t have a prayer of being reelected. “He’s toast,” said Jay Williams, a Georgia-based Republican strategist. “I don’t know that there’s a single elected official who…

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