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Category: Politics

In a national emergency, America needs a president the nation can trust

In a national emergency, America needs a president the nation can trust

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a special adviser to the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), speaking on MSNBC’s Hardball: "I found most of what he said incoherent." — Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel on Trump's press conference regarding the coronavirus. #Hardball pic.twitter.com/HIHxYLS1E5 — Hardball (@hardball) February 27, 2020 The New York Times reports: When Hurricane Dorian crashed into the Atlantic Coast in September, President Trump assumed a take-charge role in response. But he undermined his own effectiveness after it became apparent that…

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Could coronavirus really trigger a recession?

Could coronavirus really trigger a recession?

Coronavirus seems to be on a collision course with the US economy and its 12-year bull market. AP Photo/Ng Han Guan By Michael Walden, North Carolina State University Fears are growing that the new coronavirus will infect the U.S. economy. U.S stocks are headed for their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis; companies including Apple and Walmart have been warning of potential sales losses from COVID-19 and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Americans to prepare for…

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Bernie Sanders, despite his age, promises a true break with the past

Bernie Sanders, despite his age, promises a true break with the past

Jamelle Bouie writes: If he wins the nomination, whether outright or at the Democratic Party convention this summer, Senator Bernie Sanders will be the most left-wing politician ever nominated for president and the only self-described “socialist” to ever run on the ballot line for either of the two major parties. Many Democrats, especially moderates, think this is a disaster in waiting. They look back to 1972, when a different left-wing senator, George McGovern of South Dakota, was crushed by Richard…

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Anand Giridharadas talks about the billionaire election

Anand Giridharadas talks about the billionaire election

  The 10th Democratic presidential debate took place Tuesday in Charleston, South Carolina, and two billionaires were at either end of the stage: Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer. Front-runner Bernie Sanders, who has made attacking the power of the “billionaire class” a central theme of his campaign, stood in the middle. It was a visual representation of the split within the Democratic Party, in which a growing number of people are “rising up against plutocracy,” says Anand Giridharadas, editor-at-large at…

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Why President Trump can’t pardon Roger Stone

Why President Trump can’t pardon Roger Stone

Corey Brettschneider writes: Speculation that President Donald Trump might pardon Roger Stone has reached a fever pitch after Stone’s sentencing by a federal judge and the president’s repeated hints that he thinks the verdict unfair. But fortunately, the Constitution’s framers imagined this nightmare scenario—a suspected criminal president pardoning a co-conspirator—and they put in the Constitution language to legally prohibit the pardon power in exactly this kind of case. Both the plain meaning of the Constitution’s text and the historical evidence…

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Is the Amazon rainforest going to turn into dry scrubland?

Is the Amazon rainforest going to turn into dry scrubland?

Nature reports: Seen from a monitoring tower above the treetops near Manaus in the Brazilian Amazon, the rainforest canopy stretches to the horizon as an endless sea of green. It looks like a rich and healthy ecosystem, but appearances are deceiving. This rainforest — which holds 16,000 separate tree species — is slowly drying out. Over the past century, the average temperature in the forest has risen by 1–1.5 °C. In some parts, the dry season has expanded during the…

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Donald Trump wants you to imagine he has the coronavirus totally under control

Donald Trump wants you to imagine he has the coronavirus totally under control

The Daily Beast reports: President Donald Trump is frantically trying to quell criticism that he and his team were caught off guard by the growing number of coronavirus cases worldwide, fearful that a narrative of dysfunction could complicate his reelection bid. Advisers to President Trump have for weeks tried to gather data about how quickly the virus spreads, how it can be stopped, and how to contain an outbreak in the future. But those efforts have largely remained behind closed…

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Iranian clerics keep shrines open, even as coronavirus spreads

Iranian clerics keep shrines open, even as coronavirus spreads

The Associated Press reports: Shiite shrines that attract tens of millions of visitors annually have come under focus in Iran as the country grapples with the spread of the coronavirus. The outbreak of the virus in Iran prompted the government to request the closure of major shrines in cities like Qom, Mashhad and Shiraz, but Iran’s powerful clerics have rejected or ignored the notices. The decision to keep the shrines open shows the power of Iran’s religious establishment and the…

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Obama calls on South Carolina TV stations to pull ad ‘straight out of the Republican disinformation playbook’

Obama calls on South Carolina TV stations to pull ad ‘straight out of the Republican disinformation playbook’

The Washington Post reports: Former president Barack Obama is calling on South Carolina television stations to stop running an ad from a super PAC supporting President Trump that uses Obama’s words out of context in a misleading attack on former vice president Joe Biden. The Committee to Defend the President, a pro-Trump group, reported to the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday spending more than $250,000 in South Carolina to oppose Biden. The group, which placed a similar amount of anti-Biden…

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Capitalism and socialism mingle in every hour of our lives

Capitalism and socialism mingle in every hour of our lives

When you're on the highway, the thing beneath you: socialism. The vehicles around you: capitalism. On Wall Street, the banks: capitalism. The regulators protecting them: socialism. Capitalism and socialism mingle in every hour of our lives. Let's break the billionaire binary. pic.twitter.com/hqBdLvd0SI — Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 26, 2020

Trump allies acknowledge the coronavirus could present an existential political threat for the president

Trump allies acknowledge the coronavirus could present an existential political threat for the president

Politico reports: With the possibility of a U.S. outbreak growing by the day, Trump allies and advisers have grown increasingly worried that a botched coronavirus response will hit the U.S. economy. Even Donald Trump Jr. has mused to associates he hopes the White House does not screw up the response and put the president’s best reelection message at risk, said two individuals with knowledge of his comments. “Trump’s reelection effort is so closely tied to the strength of the stock…

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‘Recipe for a massive viral outbreak’: Iran emerges as a worldwide threat

‘Recipe for a massive viral outbreak’: Iran emerges as a worldwide threat

The New York Times reports: Religious pilgrims, migrant workers, businessmen, soldiers and clerics all flow constantly across Iran’s frontiers, often crossing into countries with few border controls, weak and ineffective governments and fragile health systems. Now, as it struggles to contain the spread of the coronavirus, Iran is also emerging as the second focal point after China for the spread of the disease. Cases in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates — even one in Canada…

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Coronavirus fears grip Middle East as Iran denies cover-up

Coronavirus fears grip Middle East as Iran denies cover-up

Watch: Video shows the Iranian deputy minister for health sweating and coughing during a press conference held one day before he announced he tested positive for #coronavirus. #COVID-19https://t.co/t49nL7i9va pic.twitter.com/GY4DbrQY9p — Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) February 25, 2020 The Guardian reports: Fears are growing across the Middle East that coronavirus has infiltrated a main pilgrimage route, which could lead the deadly pathogen to vulnerable refugee populations, causing perhaps unprecedented public health crises across the region. Concern is centred on the Iranian…

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Trump’s most dangerous destruction yet

Trump’s most dangerous destruction yet

Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes write: During the 2016 presidential campaign, many observers worried about what Donald Trump might do with the U.S. intelligence apparatus. These organizations kill people, after all, with scary flying robots. They have the ability to spy on huge numbers of people all over the world. And they have a history of scandal. So it was reasonable to wonder: What happens when you put organizations such as the CIA and the NSA in the hands of…

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Trump praises Modi’s record on religious tolerance as violence erupts over India’s treatment of Muslims

Trump praises Modi’s record on religious tolerance as violence erupts over India’s treatment of Muslims

The Washington Post reports: As violence erupted in the streets Tuesday over a citizenship law that critics say discriminates against Muslims, President Trump defended Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s record on religious tolerance as he closed out a two-day visit to India that served as a celebration of the bond between two nationalist leaders. Trump avoided any public criticism of his host — whose political biography is also built partly on religious and cultural divisions — along with any comparison of…

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Socialist ideas must be decoupled from the nightmare of totalitarian regimes

Socialist ideas must be decoupled from the nightmare of totalitarian regimes

Masha Gessen writes: There are two ways to misinterpret the comments Bernie Sanders made in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired on Sunday night. When asked by the host, Anderson Cooper, to explain his long-ago praise of the achievements of Fidel Castro’s regime, in Cuba, Sanders said, “We are very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba. But, you know, it’s unfair to simply say, ‘Everything is bad.’ When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He…

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