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Category: Politics

Trump’s response to protests in Portland is damaging to our government and our democracy, says former DHS spokesperson

Trump’s response to protests in Portland is damaging to our government and our democracy, says former DHS spokesperson

David Lapan writes: I believe deeply that how our government’s security forces are seen by the American public is critical to their ability to protect us and our ability to maintain a healthy democracy. That belief comes from experience: I served for decades in the U.S. Marine Corps, as a Department of Defense spokesperson, and as the Trump administration’s first Department of Homeland of Security spokesperson. It’s as an American who cares profoundly about the missions of both DOD and…

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There’s nothing conservative about what Trump is doing in Portland

There’s nothing conservative about what Trump is doing in Portland

Paul Rosenzweig and Arthur Rizer write: Twenty years ago, Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist—not generally thought of as a radical liberal—said: “We can think of no better example of the police power, which the Founders denied the National Government and reposed in the States, than the suppression of violent crime and vindication of its victims.” Last week Attorney General William Barr went full interventionist, telling the press that he was deploying federal law-enforcement officers to Chicago and Albuquerque, New…

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Trump is on the prowl for enemies of the state in American cities. And who will stop him?

Trump is on the prowl for enemies of the state in American cities. And who will stop him?

Ellis Cose writes: When Trump ran for president, he promised to take America back to greatness. I assumed he wanted to return us to the 1950s, when minorities and women supposedly knew their respective places, and coal and tobacco were king. He apparently had an earlier period in mind: the years right after World War I. In that era, federal agents stormed across America, arresting and deporting presumed enemies of the state. The effort was led by Attorney General A….

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Less punishment, more justice

Less punishment, more justice

David Cole writes: The mass protests spurred by George Floyd’s killing have been more sustained and widespread than any this country has seen before in response to police abuse. When the initial ones prompted even more police violence—officers driving cars into peaceful demonstrators or beating them with truncheons, using chemical agents and flash grenades to clear crowds for a presidential photo op, pepper-spraying young and old alike—the aggression, much of it captured on video, only inspired more people to join…

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Trump’s private army

Trump’s private army

Elizabeth Goitein writes: It doesn’t take a legal expert to know that what’s happening in Portland, Oregon is an abuse of power. When unidentified federal forces dressed as soldiers pull people off the streets into unmarked vans, something is gravely wrong. What’s less apparent is that this abuse is part of an ongoing effort by the administration to get around “posse comitatus”: the principle that the president cannot use the military as a domestic police force. The implications for the…

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Is it time to shut down the Department of Homeland Security?

Is it time to shut down the Department of Homeland Security?

Jonathan Blitzer writes: In early June, after the killing of George Floyd, when tens of thousands of mostly peaceful demonstrators assembled in cities across the country to protest police brutality, the Department of Homeland Security sent hundreds of its agents to patrol the crowds. They cleared space for a Presidential photo op in front of St. John’s Church, in Washington, D.C., by forcibly removing demonstrators, and in New York City they reportedly made at least one arrest at gunpoint. The…

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How California went from coronavirus success story to disaster — and how it can regain control

How California went from coronavirus success story to disaster — and how it can regain control

George Rutherford writes: In the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, California seemed to be a success story. Today, however, the state’s case count is surging, recently topping 400,000 total and surpassing New York. Compared with levels around Memorial Day in Southern California and around the second week in June in Northern California, daily cases have increased fourfold. In recent weeks, the average number of daily deaths statewide has increased by 50 percent. What is driving this surge, and how…

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Coronavirus ravaged Florida, as Ron DeSantis sidelined scientists and followed Trump

Coronavirus ravaged Florida, as Ron DeSantis sidelined scientists and followed Trump

The Washington Post reports: As Florida became a global epicenter of the coronavirus, Gov. Ron DeSantis held one meeting this month with his top public health official, Scott Rivkees, according to the governor’s schedule. His health department has sidelined scientists, halting briefings last month with disease specialists and telling the experts there was not sufficient personnel from the state to continue participating. “I never received information about what happened with my ideas or results,” said Thomas Hladish, a University of…

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Protests swell in Russia’s far east in a stark new challenge to Putin

Protests swell in Russia’s far east in a stark new challenge to Putin

The New York Times reports: Watching the passing masses of protesters chanting “Freedom!” and “Putin resign!” while passing drivers honked, applauded and offered high-fives, a sidewalk vendor selling little cucumbers and plastic cups of forest raspberries said she would join in, too, if she did not have to work. “There will be a revolution,” the vendor, Irina Lukasheva, 56, predicted. “What did our grandfathers fight for? Not for poverty or for the oligarchs sitting over there in the Kremlin.” The…

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Videos show how federal officers escalated violence in Portland

Videos show how federal officers escalated violence in Portland

  The New York Times reports: After flooding the streets around the federal courthouse in Portland with tear gas during Friday’s early morning hours, dozens of federal officers in camouflage and tactical gear stood in formation around the front of the building. Then, as one protester blared a soundtrack of “The Imperial March,” the officers started advancing. Through the acrid haze, they continued to fire flash grenades and welt-inducing marble-size balls filled with caustic chemicals. They moved down Main Street…

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The federal police in Portland don’t even understand what ‘arrests’ are

The federal police in Portland don’t even understand what ‘arrests’ are

Andrew Manuel Crespo writes: This past week, the Department of Homeland Security held a news conference to clear up a few things about the federal paramilitary police force grabbing protesters on the streets of Portland, Ore. If the goal was to reassure everyone that these armor-clad agents were acting lawfully, it did not go well. Instead the conference revealed, with painstaking clarity, a very big problem: The deputy director of President Trump’s new federal police force does not know what…

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Homeland Security was destined to become a secret police force

Homeland Security was destined to become a secret police force

Masha Gessen writes: In a press conference on Tuesday, Chad Wolf, the acting head of the Department of Homeland Security, responded to media reports that unidentified federal agents using unmarked vehicles have been arresting protesters in Portland, Oregon. Since early July, men in military-style uniforms have waged battle against protesters there, using tear gas and nonlethal munitions; video and photographs coming out of Portland have shown scenes of urban warfare, with what looks like a regular army moving on unarmed…

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Media coverage of the 2016 campaign was disastrous. Now’s the last chance to get 2020 right

Media coverage of the 2016 campaign was disastrous. Now’s the last chance to get 2020 right

Margaret Sullivan writes: How did the news media mess up in the 100 days leading up to the 2016 presidential election? Let me count the ways. Journalists relied too much on what opinion polls were saying and often presented a skewed interpretation of their meaning. That fed the sense that Hillary Clinton would be the inevitable winner. They vastly overplayed the Clinton email story, particularly the “reopened investigation” aspect in October. Given Donald Trump’s background and behavior, the emphasis was…

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Corporate insiders pocket $1 billion in rush for coronavirus vaccine

Corporate insiders pocket $1 billion in rush for coronavirus vaccine

The New York Times reports: On June 26, a small South San Francisco company called Vaxart made a surprise announcement: A coronavirus vaccine it was working on had been selected by the U.S. government to be part of Operation Warp Speed, the flagship federal initiative to quickly develop drugs to combat Covid-19. Vaxart’s shares soared. Company insiders, who weeks earlier had received stock options worth a few million dollars, saw the value of those awards increase sixfold. And a hedge…

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Italy’s illnesses could be contagious

Italy’s illnesses could be contagious

Rachel Donadio writes: In Europe, Italy was hit hardest by the pandemic because it was hit first. Hospitals filled up with patients; one local newspaper was so overwhelmed with obituaries that it published only thumbnail-size ones. The entire country was subject to draconian restrictions, the strictest in the West. Still, Italy rallied: Infections are now under control, a contact-tracing system is in place, and its economy and borders have reopened, although not to visitors from the United States. Tourist-dependent cities…

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The silent majority stands against Trump

The silent majority stands against Trump

Jamelle Bouie writes: President Trump believes he represents the “silent majority” of the country against a dangerous, radical minority. He says as much on Twitter, frequently yelling “SILENT MAJORITY” at his followers. Accordingly, his campaign for re-election has tried to appeal to this “majority” with displays tailored to its perceived interests. Because Trump believes that this silent majority is protective of Confederate statues and other monuments, he marked Independence Day with a speech on July 3 denouncing “angry mobs” for…

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