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Category: Politics

James Comey: Justice is supposed to be blind. Bill Barr can’t see that

James Comey: Justice is supposed to be blind. Bill Barr can’t see that

James Comey writes: Recent events have prompted a lot of talk about the Justice Department and threats to its credibility. Many alumni of the department believe the president and attorney general are doing grievous damage to an essential American institution. Other people might not understand what we are so worried about. They might not know this institution and appreciate the gravity of the threat. What is the Justice Department? Most people — even those who work there — don’t fully…

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Trump grants clemency to another round of crooks he saw on Fox News

Trump grants clemency to another round of crooks he saw on Fox News

The Daily Beast reports: President Donald Trump on Tuesday granted clemency to 11 people, including several convicted felons who are either Fox News regulars or have been championed by the president’s favorite cable-news network. Among those granted pardons or sentence commutations were former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison for attempting to sell former President Barack Obama’s Senate seat; former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who was sentenced to four years in…

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Does Sanders have a ceiling? Maybe. Can he win anyway? Yes

Does Sanders have a ceiling? Maybe. Can he win anyway? Yes

Nate Silver writes: The Sen. Bernie Sanders rally that I attended on the evening before the New Hampshire primary drew a reported 7,500 people — about twice as many as his actual 3,867-vote margin of victory in the primary the next day. I say that not to endorse crowd sizes as an alternative to the polls. (Despite the large crowds, Sanders slightly underperformed his polls in New Hampshire, in fact.) Nor do I mean to imply that Sanders won in…

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Trump supporters have little trust in societal institutions

Trump supporters have little trust in societal institutions

President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on Jan. 28 in Wildwood, New Jersey. AP Photo/Mel Evans By Miriam Boon, University of Amsterdam; Andreu Casas Salleras, University of Amsterdam; Ericka Menchen-Trevino, American University School of Communication, and Magdalena Wojcieszak, University of California, Davis President Donald Trump has a history of disregarding advice from experts, including diplomats, military leaders, trade experts and scientists. Trump is not alone in his distrust. Our unpublished research shows that people who support Trump have…

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A military perspective on climate change could bridge the gap between believers and doubters

A military perspective on climate change could bridge the gap between believers and doubters

A soldier stands guard at the damaged entrance to Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Florida, Oct. 11, 2018, after Hurricane Michael. AP Photo/David Goldman By Michael Klare, Hampshire College As experts warn that the world is running out of time to head off severe climate change, discussions of what the U.S. should do about it are split into opposing camps. The scientific-environmental perspective says global warming will cause the planet severe harm without action to slow fossil fuel…

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Barr must resign, says former U.S. Deputy Attorney General under George H.W. Bush

Barr must resign, says former U.S. Deputy Attorney General under George H.W. Bush

Donald Ayer writes: When Donald Trump chose Bill Barr to serve as attorney general in December 2018, even some moderates and liberals greeted the choice with optimism. One exuberant Democrat described him as “an excellent choice,” who could be counted on to “stand up for the department’s institutional prerogatives and … push back on any improper attempt to inject politics into its work.” At the end of his first year of service, Barr’s conduct has shown that such expectations were…

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These prosecutors want radical criminal justice change. Barr is fighting to stop them

These prosecutors want radical criminal justice change. Barr is fighting to stop them

NBC News reports: Progressive prosecutors, coming off one of the biggest years in their movement’s short history, are looking to 2020 with hope of winning key district attorney offices around the nation and boosting their influence with an overhaul of the system from within. Attorney General William Barr is standing in their way. Tensions reached a peak last week after Barr eviscerated the movement in a speech before the Major County Sheriffs of America. He said the “self-styled ‘social justice’…

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A moderate Democrat defends Bernie Sanders as front-runner stands up for democracy

A moderate Democrat defends Bernie Sanders as front-runner stands up for democracy

Jackson Diehl writes: Moderates who panic at the prospect of Bernie Sanders as the Democratic presidential nominee have some good reasons to do so — above all, the risk that he will pave the way to Donald Trump’s reelection. On that, count me as one of the worried. It’s nevertheless hard not to recoil from some of the hyperbole being heaped on the Vermont senator and his platform. According to both Trump and some Democrats, Sanders would transform the United…

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Planting trees won’t save the planet from climate change

Planting trees won’t save the planet from climate change

Erle C. Ellis, Mark Maslin and Simon Lewis write: One trillion trees. At the World Economic Forum last month, President Trump drew applause when he announced the United States would join the forum’s initiative to plant one trillion trees to fight climate change. More applause for the decision followed at his State of the Union speech. The trillion-tree idea won wide attention last summer after a study published in the journal Science concluded that planting so many trees was “the…

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Palestine and the West: A century of betrayal

Palestine and the West: A century of betrayal

Avi Shlaim writes: Noam Chomsky described settler-colonialism as the most extreme and sadistic form of imperialism. The Palestinian people have suffered the unique misfortune of being at the receiving end of both Zionist settler-colonialism and western imperialism for the last century. The first and most crucial betrayal was the Balfour Declaration of 1917. It committed the British government to support the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, provided nothing was done to “prejudice the civil…

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Over 1,100 former Justice Department lawyers condemn ‘Barr’s interference in the fair administration of justice’

Over 1,100 former Justice Department lawyers condemn ‘Barr’s interference in the fair administration of justice’

The New York Times reports: More than 1,100 former federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials called on Attorney General William P. Barr on Sunday to step down after he intervened last week to lower the Justice Department’s sentencing recommendation for President Trump’s longtime friend Roger J. Stone Jr. They also urged current government employees to report any signs of unethical behavior at the Justice Department to the agency’s inspector general and to Congress. “Each of us strongly condemns President Trump’s…

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Trump’s soft touch with China’s Xi may undermine efforts to combat coronavirus outbreak

Trump’s soft touch with China’s Xi may undermine efforts to combat coronavirus outbreak

The Washington Post reports: President Trump has lavished praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping for his handling of the growing coronavirus outbreak — a posture some in his administration are growing increasingly uncomfortable with as his advisers remain concerned about China’s lack of transparency and handling of the epidemic. Worries about rattled financial markets and their effect on the economy as well as the delicate negotiations with China over a trade deal — a key to Trump’s reelection — have…

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Trump’s quest to rewrite history and cover up Russia’s role in making him president

Trump’s quest to rewrite history and cover up Russia’s role in making him president

The Washington Post reports: The U.S. intelligence community long ago produced evidence of Russia’s illegal interference in the 2016 presidential election to try to boost Donald Trump’s candidacy. Then the special counsel investigating the matter detailed myriad ways President Trump sought to stymie the probe. And then Robert S. Mueller III testified to Congress about Trump’s conduct — and warned of Russia’s continued interest in thwarting U.S. elections. But it is Trump who is trying to have the last word….

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How your money is being spent at Trump properties

How your money is being spent at Trump properties

Zach Everson writes: On Wednesday night, when President Donald Trump addressed supporters from behind a Trump Hotels lectern in a room at his Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C., one of his company’s most faithful customers accompanied him. The U.S. Secret Service. The government agency charged with protecting the president has paid his businesses at least $471,000 to fulfill its congressional mandate, according to documents The Washington Post recently obtained via the Freedom of Information Act. That’s money from U.S. taxpayers…

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Tackling the climate crisis is a human rights issue

Tackling the climate crisis is a human rights issue

Andrew Gilmour writes: Every society in the world is going to pay a price for global warming. But it’s the poorest countries and communities who will suffer the most from rising seas and burning lands — and likely also from any drastic measures taken to prevent climate change. The environmental crisis is closely linked to the humanitarian one, and requires the joint action of climate and human rights activists. They’d seem to be natural allies. They both regard (with good…

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How pluralistic ignorance affects voting choices

How pluralistic ignorance affects voting choices

Erika Weisz writes: Not too long ago, I briefly met Elizabeth Warren in a restaurant in Cambridge, near Harvard, where I’m now a postdoc in psychology. My dad and I saw the Massachusetts senator, a 2020 presidential candidate, walking in as we were walking out. “Give ’em hell,” my dad told the senator, harkening back to Harry Truman’s 1948 presidential campaign. She laughed. “That’s what I do!” Last summer, in a New York Times article about Warren, a voter stated,…

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