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Category: Politics

White House blocked CDC from requiring masks on public transportation

White House blocked CDC from requiring masks on public transportation

The New York Times reports: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drafted a sweeping order last month requiring all passengers and employees to wear masks on all forms of public and commercial transportation in the United States, but it was blocked by the White House, according to two federal health officials. The order would have been the toughest federal mandate to date aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus, which continues to infect more than 40,000 Americans a…

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Lessons from embedding with the Michigan militia – 5 questions answered about the group allegedly plotting to kidnap a governor

Lessons from embedding with the Michigan militia – 5 questions answered about the group allegedly plotting to kidnap a governor

A search warrant and a list of seized property from an FBI raid related to the alleged kidnapping plot. Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images By Amy Cooter, Vanderbilt University Details are still emerging about the men arrested on federal and state charges related to an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Federal prosecutions can take months and even years, so it will be quite some time before a full analysis of this situation becomes possible. But as a…

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The Taliban endorse Trump: ‘We hope he will win the election’ and withdraw U.S. troops — updated

The Taliban endorse Trump: ‘We hope he will win the election’ and withdraw U.S. troops — updated

CBS News reports: President Trump’s reelection bid received a vote of support Friday from an entity most in his party would reject: the Taliban. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told CBS News in a phone interview, “We hope he will win the election and wind up U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.” The militant group expressed some concern about Mr. Trump’s bout with the coronavirus. “When we heard about Trump being COVID-19 positive, we got worried for his health, but seems he…

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Trump’s tax records expose more than $21 million in highly unusual payments

Trump’s tax records expose more than $21 million in highly unusual payments

The New York Times reports: Donald J. Trump needed money. His “self-funded” presidential campaign was short on funds, and he was struggling to win over leery Republican donors. His golf courses and the hotel he would soon open in the Old Post Office in Washington were eating away at what cash he had left on hand, his tax records show. And in early 2016, Deutsche Bank, the last big lender still doing business with him, unexpectedly turned down his request…

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Trump’s $21 million tax break for saving the forest outside his NY mansion is under investigation

Trump’s $21 million tax break for saving the forest outside his NY mansion is under investigation

The Washington Post reports: Five years ago, Donald Trump promised to preserve more than 150 acres of rolling woodlands in an exclusive swath of New York suburbia prized for its luxury homes and rural tranquility. In exchange for setting aside this land on his estate known as Seven Springs, Trump received a tax break of $21.1 million, according to court documents. The size of Trump’s tax windfall was set by a 2016 appraisal that valued Seven Springs at $56.5 million — more…

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The metaphors of strength that Trump and other use are making the pandemic worse

The metaphors of strength that Trump and other use are making the pandemic worse

Ed Yong writes: On Monday, as President Donald Trump left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia tweeted a doctored clip of the president tackling and punching the wrestler and WWE CEO Vince McMahon. In the edited version, McMahon’s face has been replaced with a picture of a virus. “COVID stood NO chance against @realDonaldTrump!” Loeffler wrote. Similar sentiments, trumpeting Trump’s strength and fighting spirit, have poured forth since he tested positive for COVID-19. “#TrumpStrong,” Twitter…

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Court packing can be an instrument of justice

Court packing can be an instrument of justice

Jamelle Bouie writes: Much of the point of the Republican alliance with Donald Trump was to establish control over the federal judiciary as a whole and the Supreme Court in particular. The deal was simple: Republicans would support him and his agenda, such as it was. He would nominate a cadre of reliably conservative judges, handpicked by the Federalist Society and backed by groups like the Judicial Crisis Network, to lifetime positions on the federal bench, where they would write…

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The Michigan plot wasn’t about Trump — it goes deeper than that

The Michigan plot wasn’t about Trump — it goes deeper than that

Fred Kaplan writes: The most striking thing about the six domestic terrorists arrested on Thursday for conspiring to kidnap the governor of Michigan isn’t that they actually took steps to carry out their plot—though that is unusual and frightening (most groups of this ilk talk big but do little). More, it’s what the gang reveals about the steep rise in American militia activity this year. Some of these groups—including this one, which, had it succeeded, would have been the season’s…

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There is no ‘scientific divide’ over herd immunity

There is no ‘scientific divide’ over herd immunity

Matt Reynolds writes: On October 4, in a wood-panelled room at an event hosted by a libertarian think tank, three scientists signed a document that they say offers an alternative way of responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. The signing of this so-called “Great Barrington Declaration” was greeted with clinking champagne glasses before the signatories jetted off to Washington DC on the invite of White House coronavirus advisor Scott Atlas. Aside from the three lead signatories, there is little about the…

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Twitter upends retweets in bid to stop spread of election misinformation

Twitter upends retweets in bid to stop spread of election misinformation

Politico reports: Twitter is making sizable changes to retweets and other features aimed at making it harder for politicians and other users to spread misinformation about the Nov. 3 election, the company announced Friday — the latest attempt by Silicon Valley platforms to protect the vote. The changes are part of a push to protect the “critical dialogue” on Twitter “from attempts — both foreign and domestic — to undermine it,” said Twitter’s general counsel Vijaya Gadde and head of…

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Trump incited insurrection in Michigan; militia members then plotted to kidnap Whitmer, overthrow government

Trump incited insurrection in Michigan; militia members then plotted to kidnap Whitmer, overthrow government

Trump issued this command on April 17: LIBERATE MICHIGAN! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020 The Detroit News reports: Federal agents said Thursday they thwarted a plot to violently overthrow the government and kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — a conspiracy that included visits to her home in northern Michigan and training with explosive devices. The alleged plot involved conspirators who met during a Second Amendment rally at the Capitol in Lansing in June and reached out to…

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Trump calls in for rambling and ugly post-hospital interview

Trump calls in for rambling and ugly post-hospital interview

CNN reports: Dialing in for his first interview since being hospitalized, President Donald Trump went on an hour-long ramble that devolved into vicious and sexist attacks on the Democrats running against him, desperate claims against old enemies and dangerous boasts about his own apparent recovery from coronavirus. Trump’s appearance did little to reverse impressions of a candidate in denial about the country’s health situation or lost in a web of old grievance and comes just weeks before a presidential election…

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The U.S. debt is now projected to be larger than the U.S. economy

The U.S. debt is now projected to be larger than the U.S. economy

CNN reports: As the United States continues its struggle with the pandemic-induced economic recession and a sputtering recovery, the country’s burgeoning debt is not anyone’s top concern these days. Even deficit hawks are urging a dysfunctional Washington and a chaotic White House to approve another round of badly needed stimulus to the tune of trillions. “The US federal budget is on an unsustainable path, has been for some time,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said this week. But, Powell added,…

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Ex-Trump fundraiser charged with illegal foreign lobbying

Ex-Trump fundraiser charged with illegal foreign lobbying

Bloomberg reports: Elliott Broidy, a former top political fundraiser for President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, has been charged as part of a wide-ranging federal probe into back-channel efforts to influence the Trump administration on behalf of foreign interests. Broidy participated in a scheme to illegally lobby the Trump administration to stop investigating the embezzlement scandal at the 1MDB Malaysian state investment fund, according to charging documents unsealed on Wednesday. Jho Low, a Malaysian fugitive who was charged as…

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How Amy Coney Barrett’s religious group helped shape a city

How Amy Coney Barrett’s religious group helped shape a city

Adam Wren writes: In 2002, when Amy Coney Barrett moved [to South Bend, Indiana] to begin her academic career, she joined the faculty at the law school where she’d been a student, attended Notre Dame football games and eventually joined a Primal Fitness gym where she’s currently known for her fierce pullup workout. She also connected with one other local community: People of Praise, a charismatic Christian group founded here in 1971. Many aspects of her life dovetail with a…

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New England Journal of Medicine: The Trump administration turned a crisis into a tragedy

New England Journal of Medicine: The Trump administration turned a crisis into a tragedy

In an editorial, the New England Journal of Medicine says: Covid-19 has created a crisis throughout the world. This crisis has produced a test of leadership. With no good options to combat a novel pathogen, countries were forced to make hard choices about how to respond. Here in the United States, our leaders have failed that test. They have taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy. The magnitude of this failure is astonishing. According to the Johns Hopkins…

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