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Category: Politics

White House agrees with Dr Johnny Bananas and Dr Person Fakename that coronavirus should be allowed to spread

White House agrees with Dr Johnny Bananas and Dr Person Fakename that coronavirus should be allowed to spread

The New York Times reports: The White House has embraced a declaration by a group of scientists arguing that authorities should allow the coronavirus to spread among young healthy people while protecting the elderly and the vulnerable — an approach that would rely on arriving at “herd immunity” through infections rather than a vaccine. Many experts say “herd immunity” — the point at which a disease stops spreading because nearly everyone in a population has contracted it — is still…

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Trump’s Covid-19 task force is now openly rebelling against him

Trump’s Covid-19 task force is now openly rebelling against him

The Daily Beast reports: Standing outside one of the main buildings on the University of Connecticut campus last week, Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, let out an exasperated sigh through her peach-colored face mask. Birx had been traveling almost non-stop since June, working with local and state officials to develop area-specific strategies for slowing the spread of the highly contagious virus. Connecticut was her 32nd state and, as in the others, she was peppered there with…

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Rudy’s questionable Hunter Biden emails from a questionable source

Rudy’s questionable Hunter Biden emails from a questionable source

Jonathan Chait writes: Rudy Giuliani has spent at least two years attempting to find some kind of Ukrainian dirt that can be used to discredit Joe Biden. Now he has unveiled his October surprise: emails, or images of what purport to be emails, between Hunter Biden and Burisma officials. The conservative New York Post has a credulous account of how Rudy came across these emails. The Post claims somebody brought the computer to a repair shop in Delaware, but then…

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How a more conservative Supreme Court could impact environmental laws

How a more conservative Supreme Court could impact environmental laws

E&E News reports: Barrett, who currently serves on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has a relatively slim record on climate and environmental matters. But if she is confirmed to the high court, Barrett, 48, likely would lock up a conservative coalition there, legal experts said. That bloc could smooth the path for future environmental rollbacks or make it more difficult to expand emissions regulations through a broad reading of statutory authority. “I view Barrett being added to the…

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Writing off Trump, GOP allies focus on one last big win

Writing off Trump, GOP allies focus on one last big win

Politico reports: As news of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death rippled across Washington on the evening of Sept. 18, some of President Donald Trump’s conservative allies likened the sudden Supreme Court vacancy to an eleventh-hour bailout. Besieged by slipping poll numbers and new accusations that he misled Americans about the dangers of Covid-19, Trump — and his closest aides and allies — saw a Republican-led confirmation fight as a welcome detour to galvanize his base in the final month before…

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Fauci: Trump’s rapid recovery, while welcome, ‘amplifies’ public misunderstanding of Covid-19

Fauci: Trump’s rapid recovery, while welcome, ‘amplifies’ public misunderstanding of Covid-19

STAT reports: Health officials have struggled to convey the seriousness of Covid-19 to many Americans. President Trump’s rapid recovery from the disease, while welcome by all, makes the challenge even more difficult, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases acknowledged. Trump’s quick bounce-back from his infection will likely underscore the mistaken belief some people have that the disease does not present significant health risks, Fauci said in an interview with STAT. “We’re all glad that…

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My job was to keep Americans safe and Trump was my biggest obstacle

My job was to keep Americans safe and Trump was my biggest obstacle

Elizabeth Neumann writes: Everything we saw during the first presidential debate is indicative of how President Donald Trump behaves in the White House. His business model is chaos. He has no organization, no leadership, and sees every interaction as a contest or a battle, even when it doesn’t have to be. Chris Wallace now knows how so many administration staffers feel — and how I felt when the president got in the way of me doing my job. He is…

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Facebook rolls out a new vaccine misinformation policy — but leaves out misinformation super-spreaders

Facebook rolls out a new vaccine misinformation policy — but leaves out misinformation super-spreaders

STAT reports: Facebook rolled out a new policy on Tuesday aimed at cracking down on vaccine falsehoods, a ballooning problem for the social network as a growing number of users with neutral views about vaccines appear to turn into vocal opponents. The new policy prohibits formal advertisements that discourage people from getting vaccinated, reversing a years-long trend in which such ads were widely permitted. The site also said it will amplify factual messages from international public health authorities including the…

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Republican hypocrisy is destroying trust in Supreme Court

Republican hypocrisy is destroying trust in Supreme Court

Donald B. Ayer and Alan Charles Raul write: When a vacancy on the Supreme Court arose nine months ahead of the election in 2016, Sen. Mitch McConnell said in no uncertain terms: “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President.” Now, after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg less than two months before Election Day, as voters are…

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On Facebook, misinformation is more popular now than in 2016

On Facebook, misinformation is more popular now than in 2016

The New York Times reports: During the 2016 presidential election, Russian operatives used Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms to spread disinformation to divide the American electorate. Since then, the social media companies have spent billions of dollars and hired tens of thousands of people to help clean up their act. But have the platforms really become more sophisticated at handling misinformation? Not necessarily. People are engaging more on Facebook today with news outlets that routinely publish misinformation…

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Microsoft takes down massive hacking operation that could have affected the election

Microsoft takes down massive hacking operation that could have affected the election

CNN reports: Microsoft has disrupted a massive hacking operation that it said could have indirectly affected election infrastructure if allowed to continue. The company said Monday it took down the servers behind Trickbot, an enormous malware network that criminals were using to launch other cyberattacks, including a strain of highly potent ransomware. Microsoft said it obtained a federal court order to disable the IP addresses associated with Trickbot’s servers, and worked with telecom providers around the world to stamp out…

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Syrians ravaged by war are now dying from a pandemic the Assad government has downplayed

Syrians ravaged by war are now dying from a pandemic the Assad government has downplayed

Asser Khattab writes: A few days after Abu Maher was admitted to a hospital in one of Syria’s coastal cities, he felt like he was suffocating. He had managed to secure the small, private room after exhibiting serious COVID-19 symptoms. After struggling to get out of bed, he made his way to the door, where he cried out for someone to help him. Not long afterward, Abu Maher (not his real name) was found lying on the floor by the…

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Trump campaign ad twists Fauci comment to wrongly suggest praise of the president

Trump campaign ad twists Fauci comment to wrongly suggest praise of the president

CNN reports: Dr. Anthony Fauci did not consent to being featured in a new advertisement from the Trump campaign touting President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert told CNN his words were taken out of context. “In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate. The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a…

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‘I feel like I have dementia’: Brain fog plagues Covid survivors

‘I feel like I have dementia’: Brain fog plagues Covid survivors

The New York Times reports: After contracting the coronavirus in March, Michael Reagan lost all memory of his 12-day vacation in Paris, even though the trip was just a few weeks earlier. Several weeks after Erica Taylor recovered from her Covid-19 symptoms of nausea and cough, she became confused and forgetful, failing to even recognize her own car, the only Toyota Prius in her apartment complex’s parking lot. Lisa Mizelle, a veteran nurse practitioner at an urgent care clinic who…

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The rise of Gen Z could foretell the fall of Trumpism

The rise of Gen Z could foretell the fall of Trumpism

Laura Barrón-López reports: The evidence all points in one direction: Americans born after 1996, known as Generation Z, could doom not only Trumpism but conservatism as the country currently knows it. Members of Generation Z who are of voting age — 18- to 23-year-olds — want more government solutions. They rank climate change, racism and economic inequality consistently in their top issues, according to polls, and they participated in greater numbers during their first midterm (in 2018) than previous generations…

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Inspired by ruthless authoritarians, Trump turns power of state against political rivals

Inspired by ruthless authoritarians, Trump turns power of state against political rivals

David Sanger writes: President Trump’s order to his secretary of state to declassify thousands of Hillary Clinton’s emails, along with his insistence that his attorney general issue indictments against Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr., takes his presidency into new territory — until now, occupied by leaders with names like Putin, Xi and Erdogan. Mr. Trump has long demanded — quite publicly, often on Twitter — that his most senior cabinet members use the power of their office to…

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