The Republican Party is radicalizing against democracy

The Republican Party is radicalizing against democracy

Chris Hayes writes: The Republican Party is radicalizing against democracy. This is the central political fact of our moment. Instead of organizing its coalition around shared policy goals, the GOP has chosen to emphasize hatred and fear of its political opponents, who—they warn—will destroy their supporters and the country. Those Manichaean stakes are used to justify every effort to retain power, and make keeping power the GOP’s highest purpose. We are living with a deadly example of just how far…

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Witnesses could prevent a foregone conclusion in second impeachment trial

Witnesses could prevent a foregone conclusion in second impeachment trial

Renato Mariotti writes: House impeachment managers are starting Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial with the odds stacked against them. The jury has already indicated how it will vote, with 45 Republican Senators suggesting that the charge of inciting insurrection should have been dismissed before trial. To pull out a win, House impeachment managers will need to take some risks and shake things up in this week’s impeachment trial. Any good trial lawyer knows that when you’re behind, you have to…

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Trump’s legal team, when arguing the opposite, repeatedly cites scholar who says there is a ‘solid basis’ for post-presidential impeachments

Trump’s legal team, when arguing the opposite, repeatedly cites scholar who says there is a ‘solid basis’ for post-presidential impeachments

Law & Crime reports: Donald Trump’s defense team was accused of flagrantly misrepresenting the work of a constitutional scholar when asserting that the former president’s impeachment is unconstitutional. Attorneys representing Trump filed a legal brief on Monday arguing that the U.S. Constitution only allows for the impeachment of sitting officials and therefore cannot be utilized against a president who has already left office. Similar to the House Impeachment Managers’ pre-trial filing, the brief relied heavily on a highly-regarded 2001 academic…

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For Donald Trump, Sarah Palin’s fall shows the limits of media obsession

For Donald Trump, Sarah Palin’s fall shows the limits of media obsession

Peter Hamby writes: Palin’s stardom continued unabated all the way through late 2011, a full three years after her arrival on the national scene. Her flirtation with running for the 2012 Republican nomination—never ruling out a bid and allowing supporters to build an operation for her in Iowa—kept her in the headlines. While dancing around a bid of her own, Palin threw carefree darts at declared candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. Her newest adviser, a filmmaker named Steve Bannon,…

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Georgia Secretary of State’s office launches probe into Trump

Georgia Secretary of State’s office launches probe into Trump

Reuters reports: The Georgia Secretary of State’s office opened an investigation on Monday into former U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results, an official in the office told Reuters. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office had faced calls to open a probe after Trump was recorded in a Jan. 2 phone call pressuring Raffensperger to overturn the state’s election results based on unfounded voter fraud claims. “The Secretary of State’s office investigates complaints it receives,”…

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Virus variant first found in Britain now spreading rapidly in U.S.

Virus variant first found in Britain now spreading rapidly in U.S.

The New York Times reports: A more contagious variant of the coronavirus first found in Britain is spreading rapidly in the United States, doubling roughly every 10 days, according to a new study. Analyzing half a million coronavirus tests and hundreds of genomes, a team of researchers predicted that in a month this variant could become predominant in the United States, potentially bringing a surge of new cases and increased risk of death. The new research offers the first nationwide…

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Mutated virus may reinfect people already stricken once with covid-19, sparking debate and concerns

Mutated virus may reinfect people already stricken once with covid-19, sparking debate and concerns

The Washington Post reports: A trial of an experimental coronavirus vaccine detected the most sobering signal yet that people who have recovered from infections are not completely protected against a variant that originated in South Africa and is spreading rapidly, preliminary data presented this week suggests. The finding, though far from conclusive, has potential implications for how the pandemic will be brought under control, underscoring the critical role of vaccination, including for people who have already recovered from infections. Reaching…

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Are pandemics the cost of human recklessness towards nature?

Are pandemics the cost of human recklessness towards nature?

Piyush Nanda writes: In an area devastated by deforestation, an 18-month-old toddler from the nearest settlement, Meliandou in Guinea, was seen playing around a fallen tree swarming with bats. The child then contracted a mysterious illness, which spread to many who came in contact. After it had already killed 30 people, the illness was identified as Ebola. Comprehensive studies have since connected 25 of the 27 Ebola outbreaks in Africa, like the 2014 outbreak that originated in Guinea, to regions…

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Breaking with GOP, top conservative lawyer says Trump can stand trial

Breaking with GOP, top conservative lawyer says Trump can stand trial

The New York Times reports: One of Washington’s leading conservative constitutional lawyers publicly broke on Sunday with the main Republican argument against convicting former President Donald J. Trump in his impeachment trial, asserting that an ex-president can indeed be tried for high crimes and misdemeanors. In an opinion piece posted on The Wall Street Journal’s website, the lawyer, Charles J. Cooper, who is closely allied with top Republicans in Congress, dismissed as illogical the claim that it is unconstitutional to…

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After record 2020 turnout, state Republicans want to make voting more difficult

After record 2020 turnout, state Republicans want to make voting more difficult

NPR reports: After an election that saw record voter turnout, with many of those voters casting their ballots early and by mail, some GOP state lawmakers are proposing a wave of new voting laws that would effectively make it more difficult to vote in future elections. The proposals come in the aftermath of the unprecedented onslaught of disinformation about the conduct of the 2020 election by former President Trump and some of his allies in the Republican Party. “Some folks…

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UK exports to EU slashed by 68% since Brexit

UK exports to EU slashed by 68% since Brexit

The Observer reports: The volume of exports going through British ports to the EU fell by a staggering 68% last month compared with January last year, mostly as a result of problems caused by Brexit, the Observer can reveal. The dramatic drop in the volume of traffic carried on ferries and through the Channel tunnel has been reported to Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove by the Road Haulage Association after a survey of its international members. In a letter to…

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The secret history of the shadow campaign that saved the 2020 election

The secret history of the shadow campaign that saved the 2020 election

Molly Ball reports: A weird thing happened right after the Nov. 3 election: nothing. The nation was braced for chaos. Liberal groups had vowed to take to the streets, planning hundreds of protests across the country. Right-wing militias were girding for battle. In a poll before Election Day, 75% of Americans voiced concern about violence. Instead, an eerie quiet descended. As President Trump refused to concede, the response was not mass action but crickets. When media organizations called the race…

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Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion lawsuit poses a real threat to Fox News

Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion lawsuit poses a real threat to Fox News

CNN reports: “This is the definition of defamation.” That’s what CNN senior legal analyst Laura Coates told Erin Burnett Thursday night when discussing Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, three of the network’s hosts (Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro), Rudy Giuliani, and Sidney Powell. “When you are making statements that are knowingly false, and you make them with malice, and you actually tarnish reputations and it has a financial consequence — that’s why you have defamation…

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‘We’ve learned to love the guy’: How Biden charmed the left

‘We’ve learned to love the guy’: How Biden charmed the left

Politico reports: During a call with House Democrats on Wednesday, President Joe Biden used data from a three-year-old progressive think tank to argue his case for a massive Covid-relief plan. The think tank, Data for Progress, may not have been in existence when Biden was vice president, but it’s become a mainstay for activists and lawmakers on the left. That its work product was shown love by the most establishment of Democrats did not go unnoticed among those who heard…

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