Mixed success in the push for a Green New Deal

Mixed success in the push for a Green New Deal

Robinson Meyer writes: Maybe Jeff Bezos, of all people, put it best. Asked whether he supported the Green New Deal, the chief executive of one of the country’s most carbon-intensive technology companies waved the question off. “There are a lot of different ideas for what the Green New Deal is,” he said, “and it’s probably too broad to say too much about that in particular.” It was a dodge, of course, but not an inaccurate one. Because, really, who does…

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The Electoral College’s racist origins and continued effect

The Electoral College’s racist origins and continued effect

Wilfred Codrington III writes: Is a color-blind political system possible under our Constitution? If it is, the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act in 2013 did little to help matters. While black people in America today are not experiencing 1950s levels of voter suppression, efforts to keep them and other citizens from participating in elections began within 24 hours of the Shelby County v. Holder ruling and have only increased since then. In Shelby County’s oral argument, Justice…

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‘Welcome to Europe. Now go home.’

‘Welcome to Europe. Now go home.’

Rachel Donadio writes: From the olive grove just outside the high cement wall—one topped with spirals of razor wire, enclosing one of Europe’s most infamous holding pens for asylum seekers—you can see all the way clear to the Aegean Sea, gray-blue in the distance. It’s a straight shot across the water to Turkey, just six miles away at the narrowest stretch, an ancient Dardanelles trade route. Moria, on the Greek island of Lesbos, is a symbolic place—a hinge between the…

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How Russia will attack the 2020 election

How Russia will attack the 2020 election

Renee DiResta, Michael McFaul and Alex Stamos write: In 1983, an anonymous letter from an author claiming to be an American scientist appeared in an Indian newspaper, asserting that the HIV virus raging across the world was a bioweapon released by the United States. Over the next several years, similar claims appeared in leftist and alternative newspapers around the world and ended up becoming widely believed among those predisposed to distrust the Reagan administration. As late as 2005, a study…

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Why Trump attacked Marie Yovanovitch

Why Trump attacked Marie Yovanovitch

Molly Jong-Fast writes: On the second day of the impeachment proceedings, President Donald Trump couldn’t control himself on Twitter; he lashed out at Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine who was subjected to a smear campaign, and who testified to that effect before Congress. Trump’s lack of control, in itself, was not unusual. But, for some reason, Trump had shown more restraint 24 hours earlier, when William Taylor and George Kent offered their testimony. It was almost as if…

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Marie Yovanovitch demonstrates that it’s still possible to be shocked by Trump

Marie Yovanovitch demonstrates that it’s still possible to be shocked by Trump

Susan B Glasser writes: For a few hours on Friday, an unassuming career diplomat named Marie (Masha) Yovanovitch did something that I thought had become impossible in Donald Trump’s Washington: she managed to hold on to her amazement and outrage at the President’s amazing and outrageous actions. In this hyper-partisan, hyper-political time, she was neither. Nearly three years into this Presidency, that is no given. A state of weary cynicism has taken hold regarding Trump, among his supporters and also…

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Russia loves the impeachment hearings because Republicans are parroting Kremlin propaganda

Russia loves the impeachment hearings because Republicans are parroting Kremlin propaganda

Julia Davis writes: As Russia’s state media watch impeachment proceedings against U.S. President Donald J. Trump they’re loving what they see. They don’t think the man they brag about getting elected is in much danger. They listen in delight as Republicans parrot conspiracy theories first launched by Russians. And they gloat about the way Trump removed U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, because they blame her for promoting democratic “color revolutions” that weakened Moscow’s hold on the former Soviet empire….

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Trump ignores Pentagon advice and intervenes in military war crimes cases

Trump ignores Pentagon advice and intervenes in military war crimes cases

CNN reports: President Donald Trump ignored Pentagon advice Friday and pardoned two service members, while also restoring the rank of a third after all faced war crimes allegations. Trump granted full pardons to Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and Army Major Mathew Golsteyn, and restored the rank of Navy SEAL Eddie R. Gallagher, who had been demoted. Lorance was released from the United States Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, just before 10:30 p.m. local time Friday. He was wearing…

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Genes from bacteria helped plants move to land

Genes from bacteria helped plants move to land

Carl Zimmer writes: If you’ve ever noticed a slimy film of algae on a rock, chances are you didn’t pay it much attention. But some of these overlooked species hold clues to one of the greatest mysteries of evolution, scientists have found: how plants arrived on land. On Thursday, researchers published the genomes of two algae that are among the closest known living relatives of land plants. They already had some of the key genes that plants would need to…

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How the impeachment inquiry has revealed a long and murky campaign to oust Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch

How the impeachment inquiry has revealed a long and murky campaign to oust Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch

The Washington Post reports: In February, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine — a 33-year career diplomat who had served presidents of both parties — received a blunt warning. “Watch your back,” Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch said she was told by Ukraine’s interior minister. The Ukrainian official relayed that a pair of Florida businessmen and a Kyiv prosecutor with whom Yovanovitch had clashed were working to oust her from the post she had held since 2016, she later told House investigators. The…

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‘Witness intimidation in real-time’ — more evidence of Trump obstruction

‘Witness intimidation in real-time’ — more evidence of Trump obstruction

Politico reports: House Democrats are calling Donald Trump’s decision to attack Marie Yovanovitch mid-hearing on Friday a blatant example of witness intimidation, further building the case to charge the president with obstruction in potential articles of impeachment. Lawmakers of both parties were stunned to see Trump’s disparaging tweet about the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine in the middle of a hearing where she had already described in great detail how she felt personally threatened by the president. “What you saw…

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Trump’s honesty was on trial in the Roger Stone case. The verdict was harsh

Trump’s honesty was on trial in the Roger Stone case. The verdict was harsh

Ken Dilanian writes: In his final statement to the jury in the trial of political operative Roger Stone, federal prosecutor Michael Marando sought to boil the case down to a simple and stark premise. “I know we live in a world nowadays with Twitter, tweets, social media, where you can find any political view you want,” he said. “However, in our institutions of self-governance — courts of law or committee hearings, where people under oath have to testify — truth…

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Ambassador Sondland’s effort to boost immigration from Europe to U.S. seen as ‘fishing for white people’

Ambassador Sondland’s effort to boost immigration from Europe to U.S. seen as ‘fishing for white people’

The Washington Post reports: Not long after arriving [in Brussels], [Trump’s EU ambassador Gordon] Sondland started talking to subordinates about a need for more skilled and wealthy European immigrants in the United States in an attempt to ease tensions with the European Union, according to a person familiar with his views. Many U.S. diplomats in the mission were unsettled by the idea, viewing it as racially motivated. One diplomat said that “the way this was going to come off was…

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