Yes, determinists, there is such a thing as free will

Yes, determinists, there is such a thing as free will

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In an interview with Nautilus, Christian List says: I think the mistake in the standard arguments against free will lies in a failure to distinguish between different levels of description. If we are searching for free will at the fundamental physical level, we are simply searching in the wrong place. Let’s go through these arguments one by one. What do you say to those who consider the idea that humans are beings with goals and intentions, and that we act…

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EPA plans to ignore thousands of deaths by changing its methods of risk assessment

EPA plans to ignore thousands of deaths by changing its methods of risk assessment

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The New York Times reports: The Environmental Protection Agency plans to change the way it calculates the future health risks of air pollution, a shift that would predict thousands of fewer deaths and would help justify the planned rollback of a key climate change measure, according to five people with knowledge of the agency’s plans. The proposed change would dramatically reduce the 1,400 additional premature deaths per year that the E.P.A. had initially forecast as a result of eliminating the…

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‘Mindless murdering savages’: Border agent used slurs before allegedly hitting migrant with his truck

‘Mindless murdering savages’: Border agent used slurs before allegedly hitting migrant with his truck

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The Washington Post reports: In November 2017, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Matthew Bowen fumed about the humane treatment his agency was expected to give migrants who had illegally crossed into the country. “PLEASE let us take the gloves off trump!” he texted another agent who, at the time, was facing criminal charges for shooting an unarmed Mexican teenager through the border fence. Migrants, Bowen suggested, are “disgusting subhuman s— unworthy of being kindling for a fire.” Less than two weeks…

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Trump’s position on the Mueller report is legally ridiculous — and dangerous

Trump’s position on the Mueller report is legally ridiculous — and dangerous

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Ryan Goodman writes: You may have a hard time believing a key argument the Trump administration is using to rebuff efforts by Congress to obtain information legislators need to do their job. The administration has claimed — for example, in a letter from the White House counsel to the House Judiciary Committee in response to congressional subpoenas of the full Mueller report — that Congress must demonstrate to the administration’s satisfaction that the information would serve a “legitimate legislative purpose.”…

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Senior Republicans unsettled by Trump’s claim that he is above the law

Senior Republicans unsettled by Trump’s claim that he is above the law

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Politico reports: Senior House Republicans are breaking with Donald Trump over the president’s legal claims that Congress can’t investigate whether a commander in chief violated the law. That view, advanced by Trump’s personal attorney and the White House counsel late last week, would upend long-held understandings about Congress’ ability to scrutinize presidential conduct — especially alleged criminal activity. “I’m in Congress. I’m aligned with Congress. I’m not aligned with the executive branch. And I think we have oversight authority over…

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Deutsche Bank staff saw suspicious activity in Trump and Kushner accounts

Deutsche Bank staff saw suspicious activity in Trump and Kushner accounts

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The New York Times reports: Anti-money-laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank recommended in 2016 and 2017 that multiple transactions involving legal entities controlled by Donald J. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be reported to a federal financial-crimes watchdog. The transactions, some of which involved Mr. Trump’s now-defunct foundation, set off alerts in a computer system designed to detect illicit activity, according to five current and former bank employees. Compliance staff members who then reviewed the transactions prepared so-called suspicious activity…

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In a popular mobile game, players are given the goal of killing a journalist

In a popular mobile game, players are given the goal of killing a journalist

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The Washington Post reports: The mission is called Breaking News. It’s the seventh mission in the game, and it comes after you’ve upgraded your sniper rifle to shoot at a distance of nearly 1,000 feet with accuracy. By now, you’ve already taken out, among others, a gunman who allegedly killed several people at a pizzeria last year, someone who stole a backpack from a tourist, a sniper who (without a trace of irony) is killing innocent people, and three men…

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Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it’s learned may be crucial to Western democracy

Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it’s learned may be crucial to Western democracy

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CNN reports: On a recent afternoon in Helsinki, a group of students gathered to hear a lecture on a subject that is far from a staple in most community college curriculums. Standing in front of the classroom at Espoo Adult Education Centre, Jussi Toivanen worked his way through his PowerPoint presentation. A slide titled “Have you been hit by the Russian troll army?” included a checklist of methods used to deceive readers on social media: image and video manipulations, half-truths,…

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Scandal in Austria’s Freedom Party; ties to Putin and Trump

Scandal in Austria’s Freedom Party; ties to Putin and Trump

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Politico reports: Turns out Russian collusion isn’t a “witch hunt hoax” after all. At least not in Austria. The country’s government collapsed on Saturday after Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said he was pulling the plug on his ruling coalition after just 17 months in office. The move came barely 24 hours after the release of a bombshell video showing Heinz-Christian Strache, the far-right leader of his junior coalition partner, trying to trade public contracts for party donations from a woman he…

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How Europe’s ‘Identitarians’ are mainstreaming racism

How Europe’s ‘Identitarians’ are mainstreaming racism

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Anne Applebaum writes: Was it an invitation to cocktails or the start of a far-right conspiracy? In Europe, these days, it can be hard to tell. But this week Austrian media are reporting that the links between Martin Sellner and Brenton Tarrant were rather more extensive. Sellner is the clean-cut leader of the Austrian Identitarian Movement; Tarrant is the man charged with shooting up two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The two exchanged emails in 2018 after Tarrant made a…

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The balance has shifted: The data on impeachment favor moving ahead

The balance has shifted: The data on impeachment favor moving ahead

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Jill Wine-Banks writes: Sidney Blumenthal’s opinion piece in Just Security has rightly provoked a lively conversation about the impeachability of President Donald Trump. More importantly, it solves the political conundrum at the center of the debate about how to balance the potential political impact of impeachment on the 2020 election with the moral and constitutional obligations of Congress to hold this president accountable in the face of the corruption and wrongdoing reported in the Mueller Report and the nightly news….

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Trump’s conduct reaches ‘threshold of impeachment’ says first GOP lawmaker

Trump’s conduct reaches ‘threshold of impeachment’ says first GOP lawmaker

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The New York Times reports: Representative Justin Amash, an iconoclastic Republican of Michigan who has considered a run against President Trump in 2020, became the first member of his party serving in Congress to publicly suggest that the president’s conduct had reached the “threshold of impeachment.” Mr. Amash, 39, used Mr. Trump’s favorite medium — Twitter — to join a groundswell of Democrats who have concluded that the president’s behavior, including instances of potential obstruction of justice laid out in…

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A path for regulators to break up Facebook remains unclear

A path for regulators to break up Facebook remains unclear

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April Glaser writes: Facebook is big. Possibly too big. Which is why the chorus of experts and former Facebookers who think it’s time to break the company up is getting louder. Last Thursday, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes wrote a mammoth op-ed in the New York Times about why the company that made him very wealthy should be less powerful. In his view, the way to do that is to make the market more competitive. To do that, Hughes recommends (among…

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Lending practices like those behind 2008 financial crash devastated a generation of taxi drivers

Lending practices like those behind 2008 financial crash devastated a generation of taxi drivers

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The New York Times reports: The phone call that ruined Mohammed Hoque’s life came in April 2014 as he began another long day driving a New York City taxi, a job he had held since emigrating from Bangladesh nine years earlier. The call came from a prominent businessman who was selling a medallion, the coveted city permit that allows a driver to own a yellow cab instead of working for someone else. If Mr. Hoque gave him $50,000 that day,…

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What happened in what was supposed to be Australia’s climate change election?

What happened in what was supposed to be Australia’s climate change election?

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The New York Times reports: The polls said this would be Australia’s climate change election, when voters confronted harsh reality and elected leaders who would tackle the problem. And in some districts, it was true: Tony Abbott, the former prime minister who stymied climate policy for years, lost to an independent who campaigned on the issue. A few other new candidates prioritizing climate change also won. But over all, Australians shrugged off the warming seas killing the Great Barrier Reef…

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