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Category: Politics

The complicity of Republican leaders in support of an immoral and dangerous president

The complicity of Republican leaders in support of an immoral and dangerous president

Anne Applebaum writes: In English, the word collaborator has a double meaning. A colleague can be described as a collaborator in a neutral or positive sense. But the other definition of collaborator, relevant here, is different: someone who works with the enemy, with the occupying power, with the dictatorial regime. In this negative sense, collaborator is closely related to another set of words: collusion, complicity, connivance. This negative meaning gained currency during the Second World War, when it was widely…

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Retired top general who advised Trump is among nearly 500 national security experts endorsing Biden

Retired top general who advised Trump is among nearly 500 national security experts endorsing Biden

CNN reports: A former senior military adviser to President Donald Trump has endorsed Joe Biden for president. Retired Gen. Paul Selva, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is one of nearly 500 national security experts and former officials who signed a letter in support of Biden over Trump in an open letter to America. Selva was re-nominated to the Joint Chiefs by Trump in 2017 after being first appointed by President Barack Obama in 2015. As vice…

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A post-Ginsburg Supreme Court could be one more climate obstacle

A post-Ginsburg Supreme Court could be one more climate obstacle

Bill McKibben writes: Among its many other tragic consequences, the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg may dramatically complicate the process of finding a legislative solution for the climate crisis. It now seems possible that a Democratic White House and Congress could convene in January, with a commitment to finally—after three decades of ducking—taking federal action on global warming. Indeed, after this record season of flame and gale, new polling shows that three out of four Americans blame climate change…

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China has built 380 internment camps in Xinjiang, study finds

China has built 380 internment camps in Xinjiang, study finds

The Guardian reports: China has built nearly 400 internment camps in Xinjiang region, with construction on dozens continuing over the last two years, even as Chinese authorities said their “re-education” system was winding down, an Australian thinktank has found. The network of camps in China’s far west, used to detain Uighurs and people from other Muslim minorities, include 14 that are still under construction, according to the latest satellite imaging obtained by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. In total ASPI…

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What if Trump refuses to concede the election?

What if Trump refuses to concede the election?

Barton Gellman writes: There is a cohort of close observers of our presidential elections, scholars and lawyers and political strategists, who find themselves in the uneasy position of intelligence analysts in the months before 9/11. As November 3 approaches, their screens are blinking red, alight with warnings that the political system does not know how to absorb. They see the obvious signs that we all see, but they also know subtle things that most of us do not. Something dangerous…

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CIA clamps down on flow of Russia intelligence to White House

CIA clamps down on flow of Russia intelligence to White House

Politico reports: The CIA has made it harder for intelligence about Russia to reach the White House, stoking fears among current and former officials that information is being suppressed to please a president known to erupt in anger whenever he is confronted with bad news about Moscow. Nine current and former officials said in interviews that CIA Director Gina Haspel has become extremely cautious about which, if any, Russia-related intelligence products make their way to President Donald Trump’s desk. Haspel…

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Trump’s team is bracing for a humiliating loss at next week’s debate

Trump’s team is bracing for a humiliating loss at next week’s debate

Politico reports: Donald Trump will face Joe Biden within days for the first of three presidential debates, and some of the president’s supporters are already bracing for a humiliating loss. White House allies, Republican donors and some of Trump’s closest advisers worry that a recent, frenzied push by his top lieutenants to portray Biden as a seasoned debater — with the goal of raising expectations for the Democratic presidential nominee — is too late and too disingenuous to have an…

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Biden faces growing pressure on Supreme Court reform and ending the Senate’s legislative filibuster

Biden faces growing pressure on Supreme Court reform and ending the Senate’s legislative filibuster

Politico reports: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who was not previously a prominent face of the Supreme Court reform movement, jumped on board on Saturday, the day after Ginsburg died. “We should leave all options on the table, including the number of justices that are on the Supreme Court,” she said. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) tweeted that if Mitch McConnell violates his own precedent of not filling vacancies in a presidential election year, “when Democrats control the Senate in the next…

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Pro-Trump activists plotted violence ahead of Portland rallies

Pro-Trump activists plotted violence ahead of Portland rallies

The Guardian reports: Leaked chat logs show Portland-area pro-Trump activists planning and training for violence, sourcing arms and ammunition and even suggesting political assassinations ahead of a series of contentious rallies in the Oregon city, including one scheduled for this weekend. The chats on the GroupMe app, shared with the Guardian by the antifascist group Eugene Antifa, show conversations between Oregon members of the Patriots Coalition growing more extreme as they discuss armed confrontations with leftwing Portland activists, and consume…

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Facebook says it may quit Europe over ban on sharing data with U.S.

Facebook says it may quit Europe over ban on sharing data with U.S.

The Guardian reports: Facebook has warned that it may pull out of Europe if the Irish data protection commissioner enforces a ban on sharing data with the US, after a landmark ruling by the European court of justice found in July that there were insufficient safeguards against snooping by US intelligence agencies. In a court filing in Dublin, Facebook’s associate general counsel wrote that enforcing the ban would leave the company unable to operate. “In the event that [Facebook] were…

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Covid-19 has killed more Americans than died in battle from five wars combined

Covid-19 has killed more Americans than died in battle from five wars combined

CNN reports: What happened today seemed impossible to many Americans six months ago. When Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted in March that Covid-19 could kill 200,000 people in the US, skeptics lambasted him and accused him of fearmongering. But Fauci was right. And the US reached that bleak milestone much earlier than some experts predicted. Since the first known US Covid-19 death on February 6, an average of more than 858 people have died from the disease every day. Many of…

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Trump’s alliance with the enemies of democracy

Trump’s alliance with the enemies of democracy

Jonathan Chait writes: Hungarian president Viktor Orbán announced yesterday that he was endorsing President Trump’s reelection campaign. It is fairly uncommon for sitting American presidents to receive election endorsements from foreign leaders, and yet the endorsement fits into a pattern of sorts. Trump has already been endorsed by Russian president Vladimir Putin. He has worked openly with Russian intelligence agents in Ukraine, who represent the corrupt, Russophile wing that was deposed, despite the efforts of Trump’s former campaign manager Paul…

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Secret CIA assessment: Putin ‘probably directing’ influence operation to denigrate Biden

Secret CIA assessment: Putin ‘probably directing’ influence operation to denigrate Biden

Josh Rogin writes: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top aides are “probably directing” a Russian foreign influence operation to interfere in the 2020 presidential election against former vice president Joe Biden, which involves a prominent Ukrainian lawmaker connected to President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, a top-secret CIA assessment concluded, according to two sources who reviewed it. On Aug. 31, the CIA published an assessment of Russian efforts to interfere in the November election in an internal, highly…

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How Ginsburg’s death has reshaped the money race for Senate Democrats

How Ginsburg’s death has reshaped the money race for Senate Democrats

The New York Times reports: For much of 2020, Al Gross’s Senate campaign in Alaska has proceeded as something of an afterthought for most Democrats, a distant contest that was off the radar in terms of determining control of the U.S. Senate. After all, Mr. Gross is not even technically running as a Democrat, an affiliation that might doom him in a conservative state. But in the hours after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death on Friday, Dr. Gross’s campaign as…

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Rank-and-file union members snub Biden for Trump

Rank-and-file union members snub Biden for Trump

Politico reports: Joe Biden has pitched himself to voters as a “union man,” a son of Scranton, Pa., who respects the dignity of work and will defend organized labor if he wins the White House. To rank-and-file members in some unions, especially the building trades, it doesn’t matter. They’re still firmly in Donald Trump’s camp. Labor leaders have worked for months to sell their members on Biden, hoping to avoid a repeat of 2016 when Donald Trump outperformed among union…

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Pentagon has been diverting pandemic-related money to defense contractors

Pentagon has been diverting pandemic-related money to defense contractors

The Washington Post reports: A $1 billion fund Congress gave the Pentagon in March to build up the country’s supplies of medical equipment has instead been mostly funneled to defense contractors and used to make things such as jet engine parts, body armor and dress uniforms. The change illustrates how one taxpayer-backed effort to battle the novel coronavirus, which has killed about 200,000 Americans, was instead diverted toward patching up long-standing perceived gaps in military supplies. The Cares Act, which…

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