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Category: Politics

Former counterterrorism chief: Trump defeat may prompt right-wing terror attacks

Former counterterrorism chief: Trump defeat may prompt right-wing terror attacks

Yahoo News reports: The former head of the National Counterterrorism Center said he would not be surprised if right-wing domestic terrorist groups stage attacks in the United States around this November’s presidential election. “It certainly wouldn’t surprise me, particularly if the administration loses,” said Russ Travers, who was the center’s acting director when he was fired by President Trump’s hand-picked acting director of national intelligence. Trump, who is behind in all national polls, has repeatedly claimed that the expected widespread…

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Paul Manafort was a ‘grave counterintelligence threat,’ had repeated contact with Russian intelligence, Senate panel finds

Paul Manafort was a ‘grave counterintelligence threat,’ had repeated contact with Russian intelligence, Senate panel finds

The Washington Post reports: President Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman posed a “grave counterintelligence threat” due to his interaction with people close to the Kremlin, according to a bipartisan Senate report released Tuesday that found extensive contacts between key campaign advisers and officials affiliated with Russia’s government and intelligence services. In its nearly 1,000-page report, the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee found that Trump’s then-campaign chair Paul Manafort worked with a Russian intelligence officer “on narratives that sought to undermine evidence that…

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Former senior Trump administration official endorses Joe Biden

Former senior Trump administration official endorses Joe Biden

Miles Taylor writes: After serving for more than two years in the Department of Homeland Security’s leadership during the Trump administration, I can attest that the country is less secure as a direct result of the president’s actions. Like many Americans, I had hoped that Donald Trump, once in office, would soberly accept the burdens of the presidency — foremost among them the duty to keep America safe. But he did not rise to the challenge. Instead, the president has…

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Jared Kushner has become his father-in-law’s most dangerous enabler

Jared Kushner has become his father-in-law’s most dangerous enabler

Franklin Foer writes: When Kushner showed up for work on March 11, he was summoned by Mike Pence. The vice president had been designated by Trump to preside over the government’s response to the virus. With the economy on the verge of collapse, his efforts could hardly be characterized as a triumph. Now Pence dumped the problem on Kushner’s desk. As he grasped the magnitude of the challenge before him, Kushner is said to have felt an uncharacteristic jolt of…

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Trump finalizes drilling plan for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Trump finalizes drilling plan for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration said Monday it will open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, a move that will allow oil and gas rights to be auctioned off in the heart of one of the nation’s most iconic wild places. Achieving a goal Republicans have sought for 40 years, the action marks a capstone for an administration that has ignored calls to reduce fossil fuel consumption in the face of climate change. The move will…

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Rewriting the limits of presidential powers

Rewriting the limits of presidential powers

CBS News reports: The power of the president is enormous – and this president is not bashful in describing powers that go well beyond simple declarations. In April, when discussing guidelines to be issued to governors about reopening states during the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump said, “When somebody is the President of the United States, the authority is total, and that’s the way it’s got to be – it’s total.” There are, it’s true, some restraints on most presidential…

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House accelerates oversight of Postal Service as uproar grows, demanding top officials testify at ‘urgent’ hearing

House accelerates oversight of Postal Service as uproar grows, demanding top officials testify at ‘urgent’ hearing

The Washington Post reports: The House Oversight Committee will hold an emergency hearing on mail delays and concerns about potential White House interference in the U.S. Postal Service, inviting Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Postal Service board of governors Chairman Robert M. Duncan to testify Aug. 24, top Democrats announced on Sunday. Democrats have alleged that DeJoy, a former Republican National Convention finance chairman, is taking steps that are causing dysfunction in the mail system and could wreak havoc in…

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The Postal Service scandal doesn’t belong only to Donald Trump. Mitch McConnell played a big role

The Postal Service scandal doesn’t belong only to Donald Trump. Mitch McConnell played a big role

Mark Sumner writes: Once upon a time, most Americans would have been hard-pressed to name the postmaster general. That fabled time was any time before May of this year, when Donald Trump replaced Postmaster General Megan Brennan with Louis DeJoy. And yes, I had to look up Megan Brennan. What position of power did Brennan occupy before taking over the Postal Service under Barack Obama? None. Brennan started as a mail carrier at the Postal Service in 1986, delivering letters…

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Sanders defends Harris as vice presidential pick

Sanders defends Harris as vice presidential pick

Politico reports: Sen. Bernie Sanders defended Sen. Kamala Harris on Sunday, saying that despite Democratic Party infighting over policy proposals, a majority of progressives understand the importance of defeating President Donald Trump come November. Sanders spoke highly of Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick, noting that she’s “incredibly smart [and] incredibly tough.” “I think she’s an asset for the Biden campaign, and I think she’s going to do great on the campaign trail,” the Vermont independent said of the California senator…

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American democracy cannot survive four more years of Trump

American democracy cannot survive four more years of Trump

Ronald Brownstein writes: President Donald Trump’s open admission yesterday that he’s sabotaging the Postal Service to improve his election prospects crystallizes a much larger dynamic: He’s waging an unprecedented campaign to weaponize virtually every component of the federal government to partisan advantage. Trump is systematically enlisting agencies, including the Postal Service, Census Bureau, Department of Justice, and Department of Homeland Security, that traditionally have been considered at least somewhat insulated from political machinations to reward his allies and punish those…

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An inland hurricane tore through Iowa. You probably didn’t hear about it

An inland hurricane tore through Iowa. You probably didn’t hear about it

Lyz Lenz writes: On Monday, Iowa was leveled by what amounted to a level-two hurricane. But you wouldn’t know that from reading, listening to or watching the news. While the storm did garner some coverage, mostly via wire stories, its impact remains underreported days later. The dispatches, focused on crop damage and electrical outages, have been shouted down by the coverage of the veepstakes and the fate of college football. Conservatives’ consternation over the new Cardi B single has gotten…

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Trump’s attacks on the Postal Service deserve sustained, red-alert coverage from the media

Trump’s attacks on the Postal Service deserve sustained, red-alert coverage from the media

Margaret Sullivan writes: Can something as dull-sounding as the workings of the Post Office compete with former Trump attorney’s new tell-all book, whose foreword includes lines like: “From golden showers in a sex club in Vegas, to tax fraud, to deals with corrupt officials from the former Soviet Union, to catch and kill conspiracies to silence Trump’s clandestine lovers, I wasn’t just a witness to the president’s rise — I was an active and eager participant.” Can it break into…

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UPS, FedEx warn they cannot carry ballots like U.S. Postal Service

UPS, FedEx warn they cannot carry ballots like U.S. Postal Service

Reuters reports: United Parcel Service and FedEx on Friday shot down social media calls that they step in to deliver mail-in ballots from the U.S. Postal Service, which is warning states of potentially “significant” delays. “State ballots must be postmarked to be considered valid and only the USPS has lawful postmarking status. Therefore UPS, FedEx and other private parties cannot technically be involved in shipping ballots,” UPS told Reuters in a statement. “FedEx does accept individual ballots, and we advise…

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Israel-UAE deal could open up U.S. weapons sales to Gulf kingdom, experts say

Israel-UAE deal could open up U.S. weapons sales to Gulf kingdom, experts say

Reuters reports: Normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates could pave the way for more U.S. weapons sales to the Gulf Arab country, according to experts. Israel and the UAE announced on Thursday that they will normalize diplomatic ties and forge a broad new relationship under an accord that U.S. President Donald Trump helped broker. The agreement makes the UAE only the third Arab state after Egypt and Jordan to make such a deal with Israel, which…

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Postal Service warns 46 states their voters could be disenfranchised by delayed mail-in ballots

Postal Service warns 46 states their voters could be disenfranchised by delayed mail-in ballots

The Washington Post reports: Anticipating an avalanche of absentee ballots, the U.S. Postal Service recently sent detailed letters to 46 states and D.C. warning that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted — adding another layer of uncertainty ahead of the high-stakes presidential contest. The letters sketch a grim possibility for the tens of millions of Americans eligible for a mail-in ballot this fall: Even if people follow…

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Obama: Trump trying to ‘actively kneecap’ Postal Service to affect 2020 election

Obama: Trump trying to ‘actively kneecap’ Postal Service to affect 2020 election

NBC News reports: Former President Barack Obama, in an interview released Friday, slammed President Donald Trump for trying to “actively kneecap the Postal Service” to affect mail-in voting in the 2020 election and urged lawmakers and citizens to take actions to “protect the integrity” of the election. Obama, speaking on the podcast of his former campaign manager David Plouffe, was responding to recent comments by Trump, who said earlier this week that holding up emergency funds for the U.S. Postal…

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