If it doesn’t feel like a recession, you should be paying more in taxes

If it doesn’t feel like a recession, you should be paying more in taxes

Kitty Richards and Joseph E. Stiglitz write: As the coronavirus pandemic — and Congress’s undersize response — wreaks havoc throughout the economy, tax receipts are cratering. This means that state and local governments are facing enormous revenue shortfalls at the exact time they are dealing with large additional demands. So far, states and localities have responded by slashing spending and jobs, with 1.5 million public-sector workers laid off by the end of June. The federal government, which unlike most states…

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Disdain for the less educated is the last acceptable prejudice

Disdain for the less educated is the last acceptable prejudice

Michael J. Sandel writes: Joe Biden has a secret weapon in his bid for the presidency: He is the first Democratic nominee in 36 years without a degree from an Ivy League university. This is a potential strength. One of the sources of Donald Trump’s political appeal has been his ability to tap into resentment against meritocratic elites. By the time of Mr. Trump’s election, the Democratic Party had become a party of technocratic liberalism more congenial to the professional…

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DHS withheld July intelligence bulletin calling out Russian attack on Biden’s mental health

DHS withheld July intelligence bulletin calling out Russian attack on Biden’s mental health

ABC News reports: In early July the Department of Homeland Security withheld publication of an intelligence bulletin warning law enforcement agencies of a Russian scheme to promote “allegations about the poor mental health” of former Vice President Joe Biden, according to internal emails and a draft of the document obtained by ABC News. The draft bulletin, titled “Russia Likely to Denigrate Health of US Candidates to Influence 2020 Election,” was submitted to the agency’s legislative and public affairs office for…

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Tactics of fiery White House trade adviser draw new scrutiny as some of his pandemic moves unravel

Tactics of fiery White House trade adviser draw new scrutiny as some of his pandemic moves unravel

The Washington Post reports: Amid the Trump administration’s troubled response to the coronavirus pandemic, senior White House aide Peter Navarro has refashioned himself as a powerful government purchasing chief, operating far beyond his original role as an adviser on trade policy. But U.S. officials say the abrasive figure’s shortcomings as a manager could influence how well prepared the United States is for a second wave of coronavirus infections expected this fall. Navarro’s harsh manner and disregard for protocol have alienated…

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Will a Covid-19 vaccine be rushed through FDA approval this fall?

Will a Covid-19 vaccine be rushed through FDA approval this fall?

STAT reports: There is growing concern that the Food and Drug Administration, under political pressure, could approve a Covid-19 vaccine before it has robust safety and efficacy data. The consequences of such a decision could be significant, particularly if the vaccine is ultimately shown to be less effective than early data suggest. But an approval before the completion of large, Phase 3 trials does not have to be problematic. Experts aren’t ruling out the possibility that a vaccine could be…

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U.S. debt will overtake GDP next year for the first time since 1946, CBO says

U.S. debt will overtake GDP next year for the first time since 1946, CBO says

CNN reports: The US debt is projected to exceed the size of the entire country’s economy next year, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. It will be the first time the federal debt could be bigger than the US gross domestic product since 1946, just after World War II. The CBO also projected that the federal budget deficit will hit $3.3 trillion this year, more than triple the shortfall recorded in 2019. That would be the largest deficit as a…

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Alexei Navalny novichok poisoning viewed as though Putin left his autograph at the scene of the crime

Alexei Navalny novichok poisoning viewed as though Putin left his autograph at the scene of the crime

The Guardian reports: World leaders are demanding answers from the Kremlin after toxicological examinations indicated that the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent from the novichok family. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, revealed that tests carried out at a military laboratory had “identified unequivocally” the Soviet era nerve agent. She referred to the case as an “attempted murder” and said the findings raised “very difficult questions that only the Russian government can answer, and has…

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Leaked document warns of ‘serious errors’ in census data under fast-tracked timeline

Leaked document warns of ‘serious errors’ in census data under fast-tracked timeline

NBC News reports: An internal Census Bureau document sent to members of Congress and obtained by NBC News warned that the new truncated deadline set by the agency’s director last month has the potential to undermine the integrity of the count and lead to “serious errors.” The document was sent to the House Oversight Committee, which has been probing the Census for several years since its failed attempt to add a citizenship question to the decennial. The document appears to…

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U.S. says it won’t join global effort to develop, distribute coronavirus vaccine

U.S. says it won’t join global effort to develop, distribute coronavirus vaccine

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration said it will not join a global effort to develop, manufacture and equitably distribute a coronavirus vaccine, in part because the World Health Organization is involved, a decision that could shape the course of the pandemic and the country’s role in health diplomacy. More than 170 countries are in talks to participate in the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) Facility, which aims to speed vaccine development and secure doses for all countries and…

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Reinhart Koselleck’s theory of history for a world in crisis

Reinhart Koselleck’s theory of history for a world in crisis

Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann writes: In the summer of 1947, two years after the end of the Second World War, the British historian Eric Hobsbawm travelled to the British occupation zone of Germany to re-educate young Germans. A recent graduate of King’s College, Cambridge, where he had also joined the Communist Party, Hobsbawm was working on his PhD dissertation and had just secured his first appointment as a lecturer at Birkbeck College in London. Born in 1917 into a Jewish family in…

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Justice Department zeroing in on longtime GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy

Justice Department zeroing in on longtime GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy

The Washington Post reports: Federal prosecutors are preparing to charge longtime GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy in connection with efforts to influence the U.S. government on behalf of foreign interests, according to people familiar with the matter, a result of a sprawling, years-long investigation that involved a figure who helped raise millions for Donald Trump’s election and the Republican Party. Broidy is under scrutiny for his alleged role in a campaign to persuade high-level Trump administration officials to drop an investigation…

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Trump creates his own ‘deep state’

Trump creates his own ‘deep state’

John Sipher writes: John Ratcliffe, the newly confirmed director of national intelligence, sent letters to congressional leaders on Friday, stating that his office would no longer conduct most oral intelligence briefings on issues related to election security; instead there would be written updates. The shift, he said, was because of leaks from the intelligence committees, and the new system would ensure that intelligence information “is not misunderstood nor politicized.” Democrats and other critics questioned how, exactly, written information would limit…

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Groups pressure Biden to exclude fossil fuel execs from team

Groups pressure Biden to exclude fossil fuel execs from team

The Hill reports: More than 100 climate and advocacy groups are asking Joe Biden’s presidential campaign to commit to blocking fossil fuel representatives from its transition team or administration should the former vice president win the election. “We urge you to ban all fossil fuel executives, lobbyists, and representatives from any advisory or official position on your campaign, transition team, cabinet, and administration,” the groups wrote in a letter to the campaign, which was signed by a mix of 145…

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Facebook takes down Russian operation that recruited U.S. journalists

Facebook takes down Russian operation that recruited U.S. journalists

The Washington Post reports: Facebook removed a network of fake accounts and pages created by Russian operatives who had recruited U.S. journalists to write articles critical of Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala D. Harris, in an apparent bid to undermine their support among liberal voters. Facebook said it caught the network of 13 fake accounts and two pages early, before it had a chance to build a large audience — an action that the company…

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