While Mueller’s team apparently said his acuity was not an issue, some lawmakers privately worry it was

While Mueller’s team apparently said his acuity was not an issue, some lawmakers privately worry it was

The Washington Post reports: As lawmakers drew closer to the August recess and realized it was now or never to subpoena Mueller, some committee members struggled with whether it was a good idea to bring him in. They talked among themselves about the rumors [that Robert Mueller might not be as sharp as he once was] and whether they could glean any insight from his news conference. There were possible warning signs, some Democrats say privately. For a time, Mueller’s…

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Mitch McConnell is a Russian asset

Mitch McConnell is a Russian asset

Dana Milbank writes: Mitch McConnell is a Russian asset. This doesn’t mean he’s a spy, but neither is it a flip accusation. Russia attacked our country in 2016. It is attacking us today. Its attacks will intensify in 2020. Yet each time we try to raise our defenses to repel the attack, McConnell, the Senate majority leader, blocks us from defending ourselves. Let’s call this what it is: unpatriotic. The Kentucky Republican is, arguably more than any other American, doing…

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We are not at the center of the microbial world

We are not at the center of the microbial world

Ed Yong writes: Aside from those of us with access to microscopes, most people will never see microbes with their own eyes. And so we tend to identify microbes with the disease-causing minority among them, the little buggers that trigger the tickling mist of a sneeze or the pustule on otherwise smooth skin. We become aware of their existence when they threaten our lives, and for much of our history, that threat was substantial. Epidemics of smallpox, cholera, tuberculosis, and…

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Judge Andrew Napolitano: Trump has raised a ‘terrifying specter’ and ‘unleashed a torrent of hatred’

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Trump has raised a ‘terrifying specter’ and ‘unleashed a torrent of hatred’

Judge Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News analyst, writes: I have known President Trump personally since 1986. The private Trump I have known is funny, charming and embracing. That is not the public Trump of today. When he loudly called for four members of Congress – women of color who oppose nearly all his initiatives and who have questioned his fitness for office – to go back to the places from which they came, he unleashed a torrent of hatred. The…

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The offshore interests of billionaire oligarchs are being promoted by nativist con artists like Trump and Johnson

The offshore interests of billionaire oligarchs are being promoted by nativist con artists like Trump and Johnson

George Monbiot writes: Seven years ago the impressionist Rory Bremner complained that politicians had become so boring that few of them were worth mimicking: “They’re quite homogenous and dull these days … It’s as if character is seen as a liability.” Today his profession has the opposite problem: however extreme satire becomes, it struggles to keep pace with reality. The political sphere, so dull and grey a few years ago, is now populated by preposterous exhibitionists. This trend is not…

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The push for impeachment and the risk of a second Trump term

The push for impeachment and the risk of a second Trump term

The New York Times reports: Robert S. Mueller III’s long-awaited testimony has inflamed divisions among Democrats over impeachment, with some senior lawmakers pushing on Thursday to begin formal impeachment hearings soon, and vulnerable moderates pleading that the party needed to rest its case against President Trump. Liberal House members who have been agitating for impeachment were buoyed by Mr. Mueller’s nearly seven hours of testimony, asserting, despite modest viewership numbers and no dramatic revelations, that the former special counsel’s words…

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Russia targeted election systems in all 50 states, report finds

Russia targeted election systems in all 50 states, report finds

The New York Times reports: The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded Thursday that election systems in all 50 states were targeted by Russia in 2016, an effort more far-reaching than previously acknowledged and one largely undetected by the states and federal officials at the time. But while the bipartisan report’s warning that the United States remains vulnerable in the next election is clear, its findings were so heavily redacted at the insistence of American intelligence agencies that even some key recommendations…

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NASA should focus on saving Earth

NASA should focus on saving Earth

Lori Garver, former deputy NASA administrator, writes: In a July Pew Research Center study, 63 percent of respondents said monitoring key parts of Earth’s climate system should be the highest priority for the United States’ space agency — sending astronauts to the moon was their lowest priority, at 13 percent ; 18 percent favor Mars. The public is right about this. Climate change — not Russia, much less China — is today’s existential threat. Data from NASA satellites show that future generations here…

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Temperature records are shattered across Europe

Temperature records are shattered across Europe

The Washington Post reports: A historic heat wave has toppled numerous long-standing temperature records with astonishing ease. On Wednesday and Thursday, new national heat records were set in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, and temperatures rose to record highs in major cities such as Paris, which soared to 109 degrees. This is the hottest Paris has been in recorded history. The heat wave, caused by a massive area of high pressure extending into the upper atmosphere, also known as a…

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Scientists stunned by ‘city-killer’ asteroid that just missed Earth

Scientists stunned by ‘city-killer’ asteroid that just missed Earth

The Washington Post reports: Alan Duffy was confused. On Thursday, the astronomer’s phone was suddenly flooded with calls from reporters wanting to know about a large asteroid that had just whizzed past Earth, and he couldn’t figure out “why everyone was so alarmed.” “I thought everyone was getting worried about something we knew was coming,” Duffy, who is lead scientist at the Royal Institution of Australia, told The Washington Post. Forecasts had already predicted that a couple of asteroids would…

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What deserves the attention of every inattentive American

What deserves the attention of every inattentive American

Cass R. Sunstein writes: Mueller made it clear that his largest concern is with Russia’s extraordinary effort to disrupt U.S. democratic processes. As he put it, “The Russian government interfered in our election in sweeping and systematic fashion.” On one of the rare occasions when he went beyond his role as a lawyer and showed flashes of emotion, he said this: Over the course of my career, I have seen a number of challenges to our democracy. The Russian government’s…

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Congress is failing us

Congress is failing us

Laurence Tribe writes: We are eye witnesses to the unraveling of the American project. Watching the old war hero stumble on the stage of history as he tried valiantly to overcome the limitations that his obviously ailing condition imposed on him was painful in itself. Watching the pitiless Republican vultures pick at his bones was even more so. But watching the ugly truth of what our nation threatens to become was worst of all. That we are governed by a…

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America’s ideals are under attack and we must defend them

America’s ideals are under attack and we must defend them

Rep. Ilhan Omar writes: Throughout history, demagogues have used state power to target minority communities and political enemies, often culminating in state violence. Today, we face that threat in our own country, where the president of the United States is using the influence of our highest office to mount racist attacks on communities across the land. In recent weeks, he has lashed out unprompted against four freshman Democrats in the House of Representatives: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley…

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Trump administration in rush to bring back federal executions will face court challenges

Trump administration in rush to bring back federal executions will face court challenges

BuzzFeed reports: The Trump administration announced Thursday that it will resume federal executions for the first time since 2003, reviving a court fight over lethal injections that’s been dormant for nearly a decade. Five men on death row are now scheduled for execution by lethal injection in December 2019 and January 2020, according to the Justice Department; each was convicted of murder and has exhausted his appeals. The new federal execution protocol involves a single drug, sodium pentobarbital, which is…

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