Ex Obama adviser says killing 4,000 Palestinian children ‘wasn’t enough’

Ex Obama adviser says killing 4,000 Palestinian children ‘wasn’t enough’

Vice News reports: A lobbying group has cut ties with an ex-adviser to former President Barack Obama after videos surfaced that show the man making Islamophobic comments and threats to a food cart employee in New York City. The videos, posted on X (formerly Twitter) by a Columbia University student, shows Stuart Seldowitz asking someone off camera, “Did you rape your daughter like Muhammad did?” and saying that killing 4,000 Palestinian children “wasn’t enough.” Seldowitz was acting director for the…

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Billionaires are lining up to fund Donald Trump’s anti-democratic agenda

Billionaires are lining up to fund Donald Trump’s anti-democratic agenda

Robert Reich writes: As an ever-greater portion of the nation’s total wealth goes to the top, it’s hardly surprising that ever more of that wealth is corrupting US politics. In the 2020 presidential election cycle, more than $14bn went to federal candidates, party committees, and Super Pacs – double the $7bn doled out in the 2016 cycle. Total giving in 2024 is bound to be much higher. That money is not supporting US democracy. If anything, that money is contributing…

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Tux-wearing Christian nationalists laugh about their influence, live from Mar-a-Lago

Tux-wearing Christian nationalists laugh about their influence, live from Mar-a-Lago

Rolling Stone reports: Christian nationalists were out in force at Mar-a-Lago on Friday night, once again demonstrating their proximity to MAGA power. Lance Wallnau — the chief promoter of a “Seven Mountains Mandate” for right-wing Christians to seize control over government and culture — was dressed in a tux and streaming live to his 1 million Facebook followers. The black-tie event was the America First Policy Institute gala at Trump’s Palm Beach estate, where the former president was soon to…

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Asylum in America, by the numbers

Asylum in America, by the numbers

The New York Times reports: Under President Biden, the Border Patrol has arrested more people for illegally crossing the southern border into the country than in any other period since the government started keeping count in 1960. His time in office coincides with a global migration movement driven by tens of millions of people displaced because of war, persecution, climate change, violence and human rights abuses, according to the United Nations. More Americans far from the border are witnessing the…

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Before Hillary Clinton, there was Rosalynn Carter

Before Hillary Clinton, there was Rosalynn Carter

Azadeh Moaveni writes: When Americans look back and take stock of their most impressive first ladies, they rarely think of Rosalynn Carter. In a 2020 poll that asked historians and other experts to rank first ladies on a score of exemplary characteristics, Mrs. Carter came in ninth, trailing Dolley Madison, Betty Ford and Jackie Kennedy. When Apple TV+ produced “First Ladies,” a series of six documentary portraits, in 2020, it ignored Mrs. Carter entirely. So too did Showtime’s 2022 drama…

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The richest 1% — the ‘polluter elite’ — are plundering the planet to point of destruction

The richest 1% — the ‘polluter elite’ — are plundering the planet to point of destruction

The Guardian reports: The richest 1% of humanity is responsible for more carbon emissions than the poorest 66%, with dire consequences for vulnerable communities and global efforts to tackle the climate emergency, a report says. The most comprehensive study of global climate inequality ever undertaken shows that this elite group, made up of 77 million people including billionaires, millionaires and those paid more than US$140,000 (£112,500) a year, accounted for 16% of all CO2 emissions in 2019 – enough to…

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Pro-Israel groups are weaponizing civil rights law to suppress dissent on campuses across America

Pro-Israel groups are weaponizing civil rights law to suppress dissent on campuses across America

The Intercept reports: In front of Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library, seven infant-sized bundles of white cloth rested on the steps, splattered with red paint. Behind the swaddles, plywood boards read “10,600 lives slaughtered,” “4,412 children,” and “let Gaza live,” alongside images of Palestinian flags and olive trees. This was the scene where Columbia students gathered last Thursday for a “peaceful protest art installation” and demonstration organized by the campus chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice…

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Argentina’s new far-right president ‘the madman’ takes the stage

Argentina’s new far-right president ‘the madman’ takes the stage

The Associated Press reports: His legions of fans call him “the madman” and “the wig” due to his ferocity and unruly mop of hair. He refers to himself as “the lion.” He thinks sex education is a Marxist plot to destroy the family, views his cloned mastiffs as his “children with four paws” and has suggested people should be allowed to sell their own vital organs. He is Javier Milei, Argentina’s next president. A few years ago, Milei was a…

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Federal court deals devastating blow to Voting Rights Act

Federal court deals devastating blow to Voting Rights Act

Politico reports: A federal appeals court issued a ruling Monday that could gut the Voting Rights Act, saying only the federal government — not private citizens or civil rights groups — is allowed to sue under a key section of the landmark civil rights law. The decision out of the 8th Circuit will almost certainly be appealed and is likely headed to the Supreme Court. Should it stand, it would mark a dramatic rollback of the enforcement of the law…

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More than 60% of Trump voters would consider voting for a different candidate

More than 60% of Trump voters would consider voting for a different candidate

The Hill reports: More than 60 percent of Trump primary voters said there is “at least some chance” they would support a candidate other than former President Trump in the Republican presidential primary, according to a survey from Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll shared Monday with The Hill. The findings come roughly two months before the first Republican presidential primary contests in Iowa. While the poll found that Trump voters were somewhat open to another candidate, it also found that the former…

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Judge Aileen Cannon is setting up some serious roadblocks in Florida that may delay other Trump trials

Judge Aileen Cannon is setting up some serious roadblocks in Florida that may delay other Trump trials

The Daily Beast reports: When Donald Trump’s beloved federal judge issued yet another head-turning order this week to throw the upcoming Mar-a-Lago classified documents trial into limbo, she actually did him an even bigger favor—she created chaos that can spill over into his other legal battles ahead of the 2024 election. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has pushed back what might have been a one- or two-day meeting with prosecutors to review classified documents until February. On Thursday, she also…

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Consciousness science needs to study less complex organisms

Consciousness science needs to study less complex organisms

Kristin Andrews writes: Twenty-five years ago, the burgeoning science of consciousness studies was rife with promise. With cutting-edge neuroimaging tools leading to new research programmes, the neuroscientist Christof Koch was so optimistic, he bet a case of wine that we’d uncover its secrets by now. The philosopher David Chalmers had serious doubts, because consciousness research is, to put it mildly, difficult. Even what Chalmers called the easy problem of consciousness is hard, and that’s what the bet was about –…

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Biden’s loyalty to Israel may result in Trump’s return to the White House

Biden’s loyalty to Israel may result in Trump’s return to the White House

NBC News reports: President Joe Biden’s approval rating has declined to the lowest level of his presidency — 40% — as strong majorities of all voters disapprove of his handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. What’s more, the poll finds Biden behind former President Donald Trump for the first time in a hypothetical general-election matchup, although the deficit is well within the poll’s margin of error for a contest that’s…

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In a shift, U.S. Jewish lawmakers ramp up criticism of Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza

In a shift, U.S. Jewish lawmakers ramp up criticism of Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza

The Times of Israel reports: In the span of two days, one Jewish lawmaker became the first to call on Israel to ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, another called the Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war “unacceptable,” and a third said suffering in Gaza was a “moral failure.” On Wednesday, Sen. Jon Ossoff, who has been a consensus-seeking voice on Israel within the Democratic party and who has carefully avoided overly criticizing the Jewish state since entering Congress in…

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