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Category: Politics

Whistleblower accuses Trump appointees of downplaying Russian interference and White supremacist threat

Whistleblower accuses Trump appointees of downplaying Russian interference and White supremacist threat

CNN reports: A whistleblower is alleging that top political appointees in the Department of Homeland Security repeatedly instructed career officials to modify intelligence assessments to suit President Donald Trump’s agenda by downplaying Russia’s efforts to interfere in the US and the threat posed by White supremacists, according to documents reviewed by CNN and a source familiar with the situation. The whistleblower claims that acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf instructed DHS officials earlier this year to “cease providing intelligence assessments on…

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Emails show HHS official trying to muzzle Fauci

Emails show HHS official trying to muzzle Fauci

Politico reports: A Trump administration appointee at the Department of Health and Human Services is trying to prevent Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, from speaking about the risks that coronavirus poses to children. Emails obtained by POLITICO show Paul Alexander — a senior adviser to Michael Caputo, HHS’s assistant secretary for public affairs — instructing press officers and others at the National Institutes of Health about what Fauci should say during media interviews. The Trump adviser weighed…

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One cure for an ailing American economy: Legalize cannabis

One cure for an ailing American economy: Legalize cannabis

Tom Daschle writes: America’s next president will face an unprecedented array of challenges, chief among them an economy in ruins and an ugly social divide. Having served in government for nearly three decades, including as Senate majority leader, I know that there’s no silver bullet that can magically solve all of these problems. However, I’ve also learned that progress comes from unexpected places and that states often see the future before the federal government. Legalizing cannabis — as 40 states…

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Will the United States belatedly fulfill its promise as a multiracial democracy?

Will the United States belatedly fulfill its promise as a multiracial democracy?

Adam Serwer writes: After George Floyd was killed, Donald Trump sensed an opportunity. Americans, anguished and angry over Floyd’s death, had erupted in protest—some set fires, broke the windows of department stores, and stormed a police precinct. Commentators reached for historical analogies, circling in on 1968 and the twilight of the civil-rights era, when riots and rebellion engulfed one American city after another. Back then, Richard Nixon seized on a message of “law and order.” He would restore normalcy by…

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White supremacy is ‘most lethal threat’ to the U.S., DHS draft assessment says

White supremacy is ‘most lethal threat’ to the U.S., DHS draft assessment says

CNN reports: White supremacists will remain the most “persistent and lethal threat” in the United States through 2021, according to Department of Homeland Security draft documents. The most recent draft report predicts an “elevated threat environment at least through” early next year, concluding that some US-based violent extremists have capitalized on increased social and political tensions in 2020. Although foreign terrorist organizations will continue to call for attacks on the US, the report says, they “probably will remain constrained in…

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At least 37 million people have been displaced by America’s war on terror

At least 37 million people have been displaced by America’s war on terror

The New York Times reports: At least 37 million people have been displaced as a direct result of the wars fought by the United States since Sept. 11, 2001, according to a new report from Brown University’s Costs of War project. That figure exceeds those displaced by conflict since 1900, the authors say, with the exception of World War II. The findings were published on Tuesday, weeks before the United States enters its 20th year of fighting the war on…

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Is Russian meddling as dangerous as we think?

Is Russian meddling as dangerous as we think?

Joshua Yaffa writes: In the summer of 2017, Nina Jankowicz, a twenty-eight-year-old American, was working in Kyiv as a communications adviser to Ukraine’s foreign ministry as part of a yearlong Fulbright fellowship. Jankowicz had an interest in digital diplomacy and in countering disinformation that was matched by a passion for musical theatre: in Washington, D.C., where she lived for several years before moving to Ukraine, she played Sally in “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” and Audrey in “Little Shop…

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House lawmakers ask Trump for probe into Russian poisoning case

House lawmakers ask Trump for probe into Russian poisoning case

The Associated Press reports: The top Democrat and the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee are together calling on President Donald Trump to investigate whether chemical weapons were used by Russia in the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told Trump in a letter Monday that they are “deeply concerned” by reports that Navalny was poisoned in August with a chemical nerve agent. The two lawmakers are pushing…

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If you can grocery shop in person, you can vote in person

If you can grocery shop in person, you can vote in person

Russell Berman writes: Zeke Emanuel has a message for jittery Americans ahead of a momentous election: Voting in person during the coronavirus pandemic is about as safe as going to the grocery store. In early July, Emanuel—the bioethicist and former Obama-administration health adviser—led a group of experts in developing a detailed and widely circulated chart that advised Americans about the relative health risk of more than two dozen common activities. Taking a jog or having an outdoor picnic is low…

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More than ever, Trump casts himself as the defender of white supremacy

More than ever, Trump casts himself as the defender of white supremacy

Peter Baker writes: After a summer when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets protesting racial injustice against Black Americans, President Trump has made it clear over the last few days that, in his view, the country’s real race problem is bias against white Americans. Just days after returning from Kenosha, Wis., where he staunchly backed law enforcement and did not mention the name of Jacob Blake, the Black man shot seven times in the back by the…

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Trump viewed as savior figure by Germany’s neo-Nazis

Trump viewed as savior figure by Germany’s neo-Nazis

The New York Times reports: Just before hundreds of far-right activists recently tried to storm the German Parliament, one of their leaders revved up the crowd by conjuring President Trump. “Trump is in Berlin!” the woman shouted from a small stage, as if to dedicate the imminent charge to him. She was so convincing that several groups of far-right activists later showed up at the American Embassy and demanded an audience with Mr. Trump. “We know he’s in there!” they…

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Trump doth protest too much

Trump doth protest too much

David Frum writes: Donald Trump generates a lot of noise. He talks. He tweets. He is echoed and amplified by a vast claque, on TV and online, made up of Americans and foreigners, humans and bots. Never has he shouted louder than in the days since my colleague Jeffrey Goldberg reported the president’s disparaging comments about those who have fallen, been maimed, or taken prisoner in war. Trump’s protestations have been seconded by his wife. The first lady’s endorsement of…

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Trump (commander-in-chief) condemns Pentagon leadership for arms spending and ‘endless wars’

Trump (commander-in-chief) condemns Pentagon leadership for arms spending and ‘endless wars’

Politico reports: President Donald Trump on Monday accused the United States’ military leadership of being beholden to arms manufacturers, in an attack on his own administration only days after reports that he had mocked fallen soldiers. Speaking at a combative White House news conference, Trump said leaders at the Pentagon probably weren’t “in love with me” because “they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes…

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Michael Cohen: Trump held ‘low opinions of all Black folks’

Michael Cohen: Trump held ‘low opinions of all Black folks’

The New York Times reports: President Trump routinely referred to Black leaders of foreign nations with racist insults. He had an abiding admiration for President Vladimir V. Putin’s willingness to treat Russia like a personal business. And he was consumed with hatred for President Barack Obama. Those are the descriptions that Michael D. Cohen, a former personal lawyer and self-described fixer for Mr. Trump, lays out in his book, “Disloyal: A Memoir,” which paints the president as a sordid, moblike…

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As rich Americans get richer, the bottom half struggles

As rich Americans get richer, the bottom half struggles

Politico reports: The path toward economic recovery in the U.S. has become sharply divided, with wealthier Americans earning and saving at record levels while the poorest struggle to pay their bills and put food on the table. The result is a splintered economic picture characterized by high highs — the stock market has hit record levels — and incongruous low lows: Nearly 30 million Americans are receiving unemployment benefits, and the jobless rate stands at 8.4 percent. And that dichotomy,…

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Belarusian opposition leader, Maria Kolesnikova, is abducted in Minsk

Belarusian opposition leader, Maria Kolesnikova, is abducted in Minsk

Politico reports: The Belarusian opposition accused the nation’s authorities of “terror” after Maria Kolesnikova, a vocal critic of President Alexander Lukashenko, was abducted in downtown Minsk on Monday morning. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, Lukashenko’s main rival during the August election, said in a statement from Lithuania that “the regime is engaged in terror.” “The authorities are wrong when they think it will stop us,” she said. “The more they intimidate, the more people will go out. We will continue to fight, we…

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