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Category: Politics

Trump’s attacks on the Fed aren’t unique. Central banks worldwide are under attack

Trump’s attacks on the Fed aren’t unique. Central banks worldwide are under attack

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Fareed Zakaria writes: Around the democratic world, there is a power struggle taking place that might end up being the most damaging and long-lasting consequence of this era of populism. Elected leaders — from President Trump to Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan to India’s Narendra Modi — have been steadily attacking the independence of their nations’ central banks. This could end very badly. A brief history of modern central banking. As the Economist points out, politicians in the 1970s would routinely…

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Vigilantes: Videos appear to show armed militia detaining migrants at U.S.-Mexico border

Vigilantes: Videos appear to show armed militia detaining migrants at U.S.-Mexico border

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The Guardian reports: Armed rightwing militia members detained a large group of migrants at the US-Mexico border and coordinated with US border patrol agents to have them arrested, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, in a series of actions the civil liberties organization called a “kidnapping” and a flagrant violation of the law. Several videos taken at the border in New Mexico this week appeared to show men belonging to a group that calls itself the United Constitutional Patriots…

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The Mueller report amounts to an impeachment referral

The Mueller report amounts to an impeachment referral

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Yoni Appelbaum writes: In the report, [Mueller] laid out 10 specific incidents his team examined, each of which might constitute—singly or in aggregate—evidence of obstructive conduct on the part of the president. “The Special Counsel’s decision to describe the facts of his obstruction investigation without reaching any legal conclusions leaves it to the Attorney General to determine whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime,” Barr wrote. But there is another, simpler way to understand Mueller’s report. A…

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The Mueller report lays out everything Congress needs to investigate the president for obstruction of justice

The Mueller report lays out everything Congress needs to investigate the president for obstruction of justice

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Noah Bookbinder writes: [T]he Mueller report is an unmistakable act of deference to Congress’s primary jurisdiction over accountability for the president. The House Judiciary Committee must now pick up where Mr. Mueller left off and begin holding proceedings to determine whether Mr. Trump abused the powers of his office. The report details egregious evidence of obstruction, emphasizing the pattern of conduct that the president took after James Comey, then the F.B.I. director, confirmed the bureau’s investigation into possible links between…

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What if we actually pulled off a Green New Deal?

What if we actually pulled off a Green New Deal?

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What if we actually pulled off a #GreenNewDeal? What would the future look like? The Intercept presents a film narrated and co-written by Rep. @AOC and illustrated by @mollycrabapple. https://t.co/zAMLAizbN7 pic.twitter.com/PywCR0jPUl — The Intercept (@theintercept) April 17, 2019

Tom Watson calls for inquiry into Arron Banks and Leave.EU

Tom Watson calls for inquiry into Arron Banks and Leave.EU

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The Guardian reports: Tom Watson has called for a judicial inquiry into the activities ahead of the Brexit referendum of the Leave.EU campaign and its main backer, Arron Banks, after claims the group faked a video and photos connected to migrants. Watson, the deputy Labour leader and shadow culture secretary, said the inquiry should have criminal powers. “We cannot allow those who cheat and lie to mock and subvert our democracy (using millions from who knows where) to prevail,” he…

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Why the media dumped Beto for Mayor Pete

Why the media dumped Beto for Mayor Pete

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Jack Shafer writes: Burning with the velocity of a prairie fire on a gusty Indiana day, Pete Buttigieg scorched the airwaves, seared the podcasts, and charred the press this week as he ignited his presidential campaign, temporarily torching his Democratic competition in the process. The secret to Buttigieg’s publicity run was no secret, wrote Matthew Yglesias in Vox. Like Molly Bloom in his favorite novel, Ulysses, he can’t stop saying “yes”—to media invitations. In recent weeks, he’s appeared on a…

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The financial sector must be at the heart of tackling climate change

The financial sector must be at the heart of tackling climate change

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Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, François Villeroy de Galhau, governor of Banque de France, and Frank Elderson, chair of the Network for Greening the Financial System, write: The catastrophic effects of climate change are already visible around the world. From blistering heatwaves in North America to typhoons in south-east Asia and droughts in Africa and Australia, no country or community is immune. These events damage infrastructure and private property, negatively affect health, decrease productivity and destroy wealth….

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Steve Bannon’s ‘gladiator’ training camp

Steve Bannon’s ‘gladiator’ training camp

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Steve Bannon & his allies have leased a monastery in the Italian countryside for 19 years, where they plan to build a school for budding populists and "modern gladiators." But it's ignited protest from locals, who want Bannon to take his right-wing populist agenda elsewhere. pic.twitter.com/kHWhY86SQu — On Assignment with Richard Engel (@OARichardEngel) April 16, 2019 Brandon W. Hawk writes: Stephen K. Bannon is back. He’s making the rounds in the United States and abroad, talking about uniting “the Judeo-Christian…

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Trump’s veto over Yemen is a scandalous abuse of presidential power

Trump’s veto over Yemen is a scandalous abuse of presidential power

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Simon Tisdall writes: Expected or not, Donald Trump’s veto of a bipartisan Congressional resolution to end US military involvement in Saudi Arabia’s murderous war in Yemen is an outrage. It will prolong the unspeakable suffering of millions of Yemeni civilians, the blameless victims of Riyadh’s vicious proxy war with Iran and its Houthi allies. Yet Trump’s uncaring arrogance also threatens the US itself. It is further proof that the constitution’s famous checks and balances are just not working, and that,…

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The biggest threat to the NRA seems to be internal

The biggest threat to the NRA seems to be internal

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Mike Spies writes: This winter, members of the National Rifle Association—elk hunters in Montana, skeet shooters in upstate New York, concealed-carry enthusiasts in Jacksonville—might have noticed a desperate tone in the organization’s fund-raising efforts. In a letter from early March, Wayne LaPierre, the N.R.A.’s top executive, warned that liberal regulators were threatening to destroy the organization. “We’re facing an attack that’s unprecedented not just in the history of the N.R.A. but in the entire history of our country,” he wrote….

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Forget Brexit and focus on climate change, Greta Thunberg tells EU

Forget Brexit and focus on climate change, Greta Thunberg tells EU

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The Guardian reports: The teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has chided EU leaders for holding three emergency summits on Brexit and none on the threat posed by climate change. In a clarion call to Europe’s political leaders ahead of European parliament elections in May, the founder of the school strike movement said if politicians were serious about tackling climate change they would not spend all their time “talking about taxes or Brexit”. In a typically blunt speech, she said politicians…

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How the far right spread politically convenient lies about the Notre Dame fire

How the far right spread politically convenient lies about the Notre Dame fire

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Talia Lavin writes: As a conflagration spread through the ancient timbers of Notre Dame Cathedral’s attic on Monday, a parallel fire was spreading on social media. This one was willfully set, a series of conspiracy theories neatly slotted into preexisting cultural biases. And soon enough, willing believers were aflame with hate. The conspiracy theorizing began almost as soon as the blaze did, right when people saw the shocking, transfixing video of the cathedral’s spire toppling. While French authorities began to…

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Trump administration ends right to bond for certain asylum seekers

Trump administration ends right to bond for certain asylum seekers

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The Guardian reports: The Trump administration has opened the door to a seismic overhaul of immigration and asylum procedure that could lead to the indefinite detention of thousands of asylum seekers who cross the border illegally. The US attorney general, William Barr, on Tuesday issued guidance overruling a precedent set by George W Bush’s justice department in 2005, which enshrined asylum seekers’ right to bond, irrespective of how they entered the country. Barr stated in his updated guidance that the…

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