Corporate sedition is more damaging to America than the Capitol attack

Corporate sedition is more damaging to America than the Capitol attack

Robert Reich writes: Capitalism and democracy are compatible only if democracy is in the driver’s seat. That’s why I took some comfort just after the attack on the Capitol when many big corporations solemnly pledged they’d no longer finance the campaigns of the 147 lawmakers who voted to overturn election results. Well, those days are over. Turns out they were over the moment the public stopped paying attention. A report published last week by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in…

Read More Read More

Too crazy for QAnon but right at home at Trump’s rally

Too crazy for QAnon but right at home at Trump’s rally

Rolling Stone reports: One full day before Trump spoke to an estimated 15,000 die-hard Republicans in Arizona, a group of JFK Jr. obsessed QAnon fanatics arrived at the venue grounds here. They drove all the way from Dallas, Texas, where they’ve been holed up in a Hyatt hotel for over two months amid a series of failed prophecies that JFK Jr. would return from the dead. The first among them was Stephen Tenner, right hand man to the group’s leader…

Read More Read More

Reconstruction-era law could keep Trump off presidential ballot in six Southern states

Reconstruction-era law could keep Trump off presidential ballot in six Southern states

HuffPost reports: Should former President Donald Trump run for the White House again, an obscure Reconstruction-era law could keep him off the ballot in six southern states, including North Carolina, Georgia and Florida, because of his incitement of the Jan. 6 insurrection. The third section of the 14th Amendment prohibits people who swore to defend the Constitution, but who subsequently took part in an insurrection against the United States, from holding state or federal office. Other language in that post-Civil…

Read More Read More

Two decades of soldiers’ medical records implicate common virus in multiple sclerosis

Two decades of soldiers’ medical records implicate common virus in multiple sclerosis

Science reports: One hundred and fifty years after a French neurologist first recognized a case of multiple sclerosis (MS) in a young woman with an unusual tremor, the cause of this devastating disease remains elusive. Now, a study that combed data from regular blood tests of 10 million U.S. soldiers has found the strongest evidence yet that infection with a common virus, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), dramatically increases a person’s chances of developing the rare disease. The work leaves many questions,…

Read More Read More

Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis

Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis

Council on Foreign Relations reports: Months after the Taliban’s takeover, Afghanistan is in crisis. Millions of people are facing starvation, the health-care system is collapsing, and wages are plummeting. The country of thirty-eight million people heavily depended on foreign aid before the Taliban came to power in August. Now, experts say it has been devastated by the international response to the hard-line Islamist group’s seizure of power: halting billions of dollars in assistance and enforcing sanctions that have impeded relief…

Read More Read More

Census memo cites ‘unprecedented’ meddling by Trump administration

Census memo cites ‘unprecedented’ meddling by Trump administration

The New York Times reports: A newly disclosed memorandum citing “unprecedented” meddling by the Trump administration in the 2020 census and circulated among top Census Bureau officials indicates how strongly they sought to resist efforts by the administration to manipulate the count for Republican political gain. The document was shared among three senior executives including Ron S. Jarmin, a deputy director and the agency’s day-to-day head. It was written in September 2020 as the administration was pressing the bureau to…

Read More Read More

DirecTV loss could cripple rightwing One America News

DirecTV loss could cripple rightwing One America News

Reuters reports: The largest satellite provider in the United States said late Friday it will drop One America News, a move that could financially cripple the rightwing TV network known for fueling conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. The announcement by DirecTV, which is 70% owned by AT&T, comes three months after a Reuters investigation revealed that OAN’s founder testified that AT&T inspired him to create the network. Court testimony also showed that OAN receives nearly all of its revenue…

Read More Read More

Alex Jones gave Oath Keepers leader the audience to spew his anti-government hatred

Alex Jones gave Oath Keepers leader the audience to spew his anti-government hatred

CNN reports: Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes has spewed violent rhetoric and whipped up unsubstantiated fears about secret government plots and imminent civil war for more than a decade with the help of another purveyor of extremism: conspiracy monger and internet powerhouse Alex Jones. Jones, who has built a staggering online following around his Infowars empire, has given Rhodes a platform to reach a wider audience — from the day Rhodes plugged the Oath Keepers’ first public meeting to the…

Read More Read More

Why didn’t the FBI see the Capitol siege coming?

Why didn’t the FBI see the Capitol siege coming?

Grid reports: In the lead-up to the Capitol siege, the FBI received at least a dozen warnings about the possibility of violence that day. When the day came and the Capitol barricades fell, it became evident the FBI largely ignored them all. The warnings came from all sides: regional law enforcement, social media platforms, Congress (specifically the House and Senate intelligence committees), a top defense official, extremist watchdogs, right-wing experts, journalists and even three different components within the FBI itself….

Read More Read More

U.S. intelligence indicates Russia preparing operation to justify invasion of Ukraine

U.S. intelligence indicates Russia preparing operation to justify invasion of Ukraine

CNN reports: The US has information that indicates Russia has prepositioned a group of operatives to conduct a false-flag operation in eastern Ukraine, a US official told CNN on Friday, in an attempt to create a pretext for an invasion. The official said the US has evidence that the operatives are trained in urban warfare and in using explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against Russia’s own proxy forces. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said the Defense Department has…

Read More Read More

Can weed protect you from Covid?

Can weed protect you from Covid?

Slate reports: Fikadu Tafesse wasn’t expecting to wake up on Wednesday to a text in which his former mentor blamed him for his children’s new interest in weed. Earlier this week, Tafesse, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at Oregon Health & Science University, published evidence that some compounds found in cannabis plants could prevent the coronavirus from infecting cells. The internet latched onto the idea that weed might protect them from COVID: Twitter users made memes about the…

Read More Read More

How is the pandemic affecting the brains of a generation of children?

How is the pandemic affecting the brains of a generation of children?

Nature reports: Like many paediatricians, Dani Dumitriu braced herself for the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus when it first surged in her wards. She was relieved when most newborn babies at her hospital who had been exposed to COVID-19 seemed to do just fine. Knowledge of the effects of Zika and other viruses that can cause birth defects meant that doctors were looking out for problems. But hints of a more subtle and insidious trend followed close behind. Dumitriu and…

Read More Read More

Romney warns against getting rid of filibuster, citing possible Trump win in 2024

Romney warns against getting rid of filibuster, citing possible Trump win in 2024

The Hill reports: Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Tuesday issued a warning to Democrats about the potential consequences of getting rid of the filibuster and accused President Biden of going down “the same tragic road” of former President Trump. “The United States Senate is one of our vital democratic institutions, and the power given to the minority in the Senate and the resulting requirement for political consensus are among the Senate’s defining features,” Romney said while speaking on the Senate…

Read More Read More

NATO chief warns of ‘real risk of conflict’ as talks with Russia over Ukraine end

NATO chief warns of ‘real risk of conflict’ as talks with Russia over Ukraine end

The Guardian reports: Nato discussions with Russia have concluded with no sign of progress towards narrowing substantial differences or defusing the crisis over Ukraine, and with the alliance’s secretary general warning “there is a real risk for a new armed conflict in Europe”. After four hours of talks, the US delegation leader, the deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, said she had heard nothing in Brussels that differed from the Kremlin position laid out at bilateral talks in Geneva, demanding…

Read More Read More