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Category: Politics

Trump challenge to Biden win exposes massive democracy flaw

Trump challenge to Biden win exposes massive democracy flaw

Chris Truax writes: If members of Congress vote to reject valid presidential electors for invalid reasons, there’s nothing anyone can do about it. While we’ve never fully appreciated it until now, the ugly truth is that, despite a nationwide vote fenced with elaborate legal and technical safeguards, the president of the United States is actually elected on the honor system by 535 members of Congress. Despite the unprecedented number of Republicans willing to uphold a challenge, the House is controlled…

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Leading health officials reject Trump’s false claim that the Covid death toll is exaggerated

Leading health officials reject Trump’s false claim that the Covid death toll is exaggerated

CNN reports: US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams on Sunday said he has “no reason to doubt” the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid-19 death toll, contradicting President Donald Trump’s claim that the agency has “exaggerated” its numbers. “From a public health perspective, I have no reason to doubt those numbers,” Adams told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” when asked about Trump’s claim. “And I think people need to be very aware that it’s not…

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Palestinians excluded from Israeli Covid vaccine rollout as jabs go to settlers

Palestinians excluded from Israeli Covid vaccine rollout as jabs go to settlers

The Observer reports: Israel is celebrating an impressive, record-setting vaccination drive, having given initial jabs of coronavirus shots to more than a 10th of the population. But Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza can only watch and wait. As the world ramps up what is already on track to become a highly unequal vaccination push – with people in richer nations first to be inoculated – the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories provides a stark example…

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As understanding of Russian hacking grows, so does alarm

As understanding of Russian hacking grows, so does alarm

The New York Times reports: On Election Day, General Paul M. Nakasone, the nation’s top cyberwarrior, reported that the battle against Russian interference in the presidential campaign had posted major successes and exposed the other side’s online weapons, tools and tradecraft. “We’ve broadened our operations and feel very good where we’re at right now,” he told journalists. Eight weeks later, General Nakasone and other American officials responsible for cybersecurity are now consumed by what they missed for at least nine…

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With limited surveillance of Covid-19 variant, it’s déjà vu all over again

With limited surveillance of Covid-19 variant, it’s déjà vu all over again

Helen Branswell writes: As health officials in the United States announced a second and possibly a third person infected with a new, more transmissible strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, infectious diseases experts are feeling a sense of déjà vu all over again. A little less than a year ago, the early response to the coronavirus crisis was stifled by an inability to scale up testing to detect the virus and curb its spread. Now, once again, it’s unclear how prevalent…

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Covid-19 vaccine’s slow rollout could portend more problems

Covid-19 vaccine’s slow rollout could portend more problems

The Wall Street Journal reports: Three weeks into the most ambitious vaccination campaign in modern U.S. history, far fewer people than expected are being immunized against Covid-19, as the process moves slower than officials had projected and has been beset by confusion and disorganization in many states. As a result, the federal government came nowhere close to vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020, as it had promised. Of the more than 12 million doses of vaccines from…

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Airline workers battle mask resistance with scant government backup

Airline workers battle mask resistance with scant government backup

The Washington Post reports: As the man returned from the lavatory with a mask dangling from one ear, a flight attendant asked him to put it on properly. “Why? Is something going on that I should know about?” the passenger asked, before grabbing the mask and ripping the string. “Damn it, I guess I can’t wear it now.” Other passengers have verbally abused and taunted flight attendants trying to enforce airline mask requirements, treating the potentially lifesaving act as a…

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Britain’s departure from the EU, decades in the making

Britain’s departure from the EU, decades in the making

John Harris writes: Our step away from the EU confirms that any idea of Britain as a country with an essentially European destiny is over, for a generation at least. The UK’s institutional arrangements are now in line with the vision of Britain that narrowly won the 2016 referendum – what Brexiters see as a proudly sovereign country, and their adversaries malign as an inward-looking, crabby place, eternally fixated on its past. If you ever had a hopeful vision of…

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Once a model, California now struggles to tame Covid-19

Once a model, California now struggles to tame Covid-19

The Associated Press reports: Ambulances waited hours for openings to offload coronavirus patients. Overflow patients were moved to hospital hallways and gift shops, even a cafeteria. Refrigerated trucks were on standby, ready to store the dead. For months, California did many of the right things to avoid a catastrophic surge from the pandemic. But by the time Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Dec. 15 that 5,000 body bags were being distributed, it was clear that the nation’s most populous state…

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Virus numbers are surging. Why is New York’s vaccine rollout sluggish?

Virus numbers are surging. Why is New York’s vaccine rollout sluggish?

The New York Times reports: As the final hours ticked away in a harrowing year, New York City on Thursday once again found itself in a worrying position in the pandemic: Hospitalizations were climbing for the fourth consecutive month, the positive test rate in some areas had doubled and vaccinations that were supposed to bring normalcy had gotten off to a slow start. Across the city, where the positive test rate over a seven-day average reached 8.87, the virus continued…

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Trump administration falls far short of vaccination goals as new virus variant looms

Trump administration falls far short of vaccination goals as new virus variant looms

The Washington Post reports: Logistical problems at the heart of the federal government’s faltering rollout of coronavirus vaccines came into sharper view Thursday as the Trump administration fell vastly short of its goal of delivering an initial shot to 20 million people by the end of December. On the final day of a bleak year, only about 2.8 million people had received the shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the first of two doses needed…

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How Trump tried, but largely failed, to derail America’s top climate report

How Trump tried, but largely failed, to derail America’s top climate report

The New York Times reports: The National Climate Assessment, America’s premier contribution to climate knowledge, stands out for many reasons: Hundreds of scientists across the federal government and academia join forces to compile the best insights available on climate change. The results, released just twice a decade or so, shape years of government decisions. Now, as the clock runs down on President Trump’s time in office, the climate assessment has gained a new distinction: It is one of the few…

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‘Exercise in futility’: Republicans lambaste Hawley’s push to challenge election

‘Exercise in futility’: Republicans lambaste Hawley’s push to challenge election

Politico reports: Multiple Senate Republicans unloaded on an effort led by Sen. Josh Hawley to challenge Joe Biden’s election victory as the party hurtles toward its most consequential confrontation with Donald Trump of his entire presidency. Hawley (R-Mo.) denied that he was trying to overturn the election by challenging the certification of at least one state and forcing the Senate into an up-or-down vote on Biden’s wins. He said he was merely trying to voice his frustration with the election…

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Trump’s failure to rise to the Covid challenge

Trump’s failure to rise to the Covid challenge

The New York Times reports: It was a warm summer Wednesday, Election Day was looming and President Trump was even angrier than usual at the relentless focus on the coronavirus pandemic. “You’re killing me! This whole thing is! We’ve got all the damn cases,” Mr. Trump yelled at Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, during a gathering of top aides in the Oval Office on Aug. 19. “I want to do what Mexico does. They don’t give you a…

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The unbearable weakness of Trump’s minions

The unbearable weakness of Trump’s minions

Peter Wehner writes: Those hoping for a quick snapback to sanity for the Republican Party once Donald Trump is no longer president should temper those hopes. The latest piece of evidence to suggest the enduring power of Trumpian unreality is yesterday’s announcement by Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri that he will object next week when Congress convenes to certify the Electoral College vote. Hawley knows this effort will fail, just as every other effort to undo the results of the…

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Pence urges court to throw out lawsuit aiming to help him overturn 2020 election results

Pence urges court to throw out lawsuit aiming to help him overturn 2020 election results

Politico reports: Vice President Mike Pence has asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit brought against him by Republicans seeking to empower him to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The suit, brought by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and 11 Arizonans who would have been electors for President Donald Trump, was aimed at throwing out the rules of a Jan. 6 session of Congress — with Pence presiding — intended to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory….

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