background preloader

Politics

Facebook Twitter

- The Washington Post. What Really Saved the Republic From Trump? But an unwritten norm has long held that the president should not dictate law enforcement decisions in general, and criminal prosecutions in particular.

What Really Saved the Republic From Trump?

That is why, throughout this fall, even as Mr. Trump urged his appointees in the Justice Department to openly announce a criminal investigation into the Biden family, they did not comply. None of Mr. Trump’s appointees was willing to openly investigate Joe Biden or his family members, let alone issue an indictment or civil complaint. Imagine if the Justice Department had followed Mr. Prosecutorial independence was not limited to refusing to indict Mr. None of this is to suggest that William Barr, Mr. The second firewall of the unwritten constitution was the U.S. military’s longstanding custom against getting involved in domestic politics.

Rallying Behind Trump, Most House Republicans Joined Failed Lawsuit. While the legal case may be over, the reverberations were still being felt within the party and across the country.

Rallying Behind Trump, Most House Republicans Joined Failed Lawsuit

The Orlando Sentinel took aim at Representative Michael Waltz, Republican of Florida, who had signed onto the brief, in a blistering editorial apologizing for endorsing him in his 2020 campaign. “We had no idea, had no way of knowing at the time, that Waltz was not committed to democracy,” the editorial board wrote. Democrats joined in the rebukes, calling Republicans’ actions dangerous and destructive. Representative Bill Pascrell of New Jersey called on House leaders not to seat the Republicans who signed onto the brief in the new Congress, accusing them of traitorous behavior. In a letter to colleagues on Friday before the Supreme Court ruled, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California called the lawsuit “an act of flailing G.O.P. desperation.”

‘An Indelible Stain’: How the G.O.P. Tried to Topple a Pillar of Democracy. The Supreme Court repudiation of President Trump’s desperate bid for a second term not only shredded his effort to overturn the will of voters: It also was a blunt rebuke to Republican leaders in Congress and the states who were willing to damage American democracy by embracing a partisan power grab over a free and fair election.

‘An Indelible Stain’: How the G.O.P. Tried to Topple a Pillar of Democracy

The court’s decision on Friday night, an inflection point after weeks of legal flailing by Mr. Trump and ahead of the Electoral College vote for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Monday, leaves the president’s party in an extraordinary position. John Lewis: Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation. Though I was surrounded by two loving parents, plenty of brothers, sisters and cousins, their love could not protect me from the unholy oppression waiting just outside that family circle.

John Lewis: Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation

Unchecked, unrestrained violence and government-sanctioned terror had the power to turn a simple stroll to the store for some Skittles or an innocent morning jog down a lonesome country road into a nightmare. If we are to survive as one unified nation, we must discover what so readily takes root in our hearts that could rob Mother Emanuel Church in South Carolina of her brightest and best, shoot unwitting concertgoers in Las Vegas and choke to death the hopes and dreams of a gifted violinist like Elijah McClain. Like so many young people today, I was searching for a way out, or some might say a way in, and then I heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on an old radio. Fearing Internal Dissent Ahead of the Election, Trump Expands His War on Washington.

Buffalo police pushed an old man — but said he tripped. Because police lie. Last week, Melvin Carter, the mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota, stood in front of the public and the nation’s press and declared with certainty, “Every single person we arrested last night, I’m told, was from out of state.”

Buffalo police pushed an old man — but said he tripped. Because police lie.

After reports showed that a vast majority of those arrested were actually from in-state, the mayor walked back his position, claiming he had been given faulty information during a police briefing. But it was too late. Column: Politicizing Nancy Pelosi’s ice cream is a fridge too far - Chicago Tribune. Opinion: I used to run White House press briefings. Here's how journalists should handle Trump.

Now, it's likely that the last person reporters want to take advice from is a former White House press secretary.

Opinion: I used to run White House press briefings. Here's how journalists should handle Trump.

Although I believe there was some mutual respect when I held the role during the Clinton administration, I doubt reporters went to the White House press office looking for advice on how to do their jobs. But these are extraordinary times with the president holding court for two hours from the briefing room podium. Testing Can’t Stop Coronavirus Now, But There Are Still Things We Can Do. For example, even as 3M was producing at 100 percent of its capacity (35 million N-95 masks a month), a single hospital in New York City used up more than two million masks in February, before the surge in Covid-19 cases there.

Testing Can’t Stop Coronavirus Now, But There Are Still Things We Can Do

And new production won’t happen for many months. If you can’t make nearly enough masks to meet the need, then you must conserve the masks you can make. Unfortunately, some hospitals in the United States are not employing science-based methods for conserving these invaluable lifesaving masks. 430,000 People Have Traveled From China to U.S. Since Coronavirus Surfaced. “I was surprised at how lax the whole process was,” said Andrew Wu, 31, who landed at Los Angeles International Airport on a flight from Beijing on March 10.

430,000 People Have Traveled From China to U.S. Since Coronavirus Surfaced

“The guy I spoke to read down a list of questions, and he didn’t seem interested in checking out anything.” Sabrina Fitch, 23, flew from China to Kennedy International Airport in New York on March 23. She and the 40 or so other passengers had their temperature taken twice while en route and were required to fill out forms about their travels and health, she said. “Besides looking at our passports, they didn’t question us like we normally are questioned,” said Ms. Fitch, who had been teaching English in China. Trump administration ended pandemic early-warning program to detect coronaviruses.

Two months before the novel coronavirus is thought to have begun its deadly advance in Wuhan, China, the Trump administration ended a $200-million pandemic early-warning program aimed at training scientists in China and other countries to detect and respond to such a threat.

Trump administration ended pandemic early-warning program to detect coronaviruses

The project, launched by the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2009, identified 1,200 different viruses that had the potential to erupt into pandemics, including more than 160 novel coronaviruses. The initiative, called PREDICT, also trained and supported staff in 60 foreign laboratories — including the Wuhan lab that identified SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Field work ceased when the funding ran out in September, and organizations that worked on the PREDICT program laid off dozens of scientists and analysts, said Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, a key player in the program. “Look at the name: Our efforts were to predict this before it happens. - The Washington Post. - The Washington Post. The Democracy Fix: Q&A with Caroline Fredrickson. The following is an edited transcript of a conversation between Caroline Fredrickson, President of the American Constitution Society and Frank Housh, Esq., ACS Chairman of the WNY Lawyers Group and a member of National Book Critics Circle, about Ms.

The Democracy Fix: Q&A with Caroline Fredrickson

Fredrickson’s new book, The Democracy Fix. Ms. Report: President Trump's Foreign Business Holdings Present Conflicts of Interest, Possible Corruption. Corruption, it increasingly appears, is inseparable from authoritarianism. It's not just that people who run or are willing to join would-be autocratic regimes lack any kind of ethical principle.

It's that the money greases the wheels of the machine. Vladimir Putin's Russia is a prime example, where the leader essentially serves as a mob boss, with various vassals—the oligarchs and mafia barons—making money hand over fist in exchange for unflinching loyalty. That increasingly appears to be the model the United States is pursuing, as Donald Trump, American president, oversees The Great American Heist. Unfit for Office. On a third-down play last season, the Washington Redskins quarterback Alex Smith stood in shotgun formation, five yards behind the line of scrimmage. As he called his signals, a Houston Texans cornerback, Kareem Jackson, suddenly sprinted forward from a position four yards behind the defensive line.

To hear more feature stories, see our full list or get the Audm iPhone app. Jackson’s timing was perfect. - The Washington Post. - The Washington Post. Trump's Ukraine scandal: Who's who? Just as he was trying to move on from allegations his campaign colluded with Russians against Hillary Clinton in 2016, Trump was ramping up efforts to get Ukraine to stir up trouble for his prospective 2020 challenger Biden. He used official channels to ask the Ukrainian President to look into the Biden family, openly asking Zelensky for a favor during a phone call on July 25 and then suggested his attorney meet with Ukrainian officials. In the July 25 phone call, the Ukrainian President mentioned plans to buy US-made Javelin missiles -- which he needs to help guard against potential Russian provocations.

At the very same time, Trump was sitting on nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine, which he has argued was on hold while he leaned on European countries to give more to Ukraine. 15 things a president can actually do to tackle the climate crisis. That pretty much sums up the difference between how a Democrat would treat climate change compared with Trump: as an emergency as opposed to as a joke. That, in itself, would be an enormous switch. This is a worldwide issue, and solving it will take cooperation from countries like China and India. In addition, the most important actions the US could take would require congressional approval, no easy task when the Senate floor is controlled by a Republican who represents coal country. But presidents actually have quite a bit of power to change US climate policy on their own, without waiting for Congress. A first set of steps would be to roll back numerous Trump actions that either sidelined US leadership on the climate or rescinded new standards that had been implemented during the Obama administration.

CNN gathered input from advocacy groups, former government officials and academics. 1. Nobel Prize winner, who had awkward meeting with Trump, profiled in PBS’ ’On Her Shoulders’ - Orlando Sentinel. John Bolton on the Warpath. Earlier this year, as Donald Trump prepared to meet the North Korean Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un, in Vietnam, he took a moment in the State of the Union address to congratulate himself on a diplomatic masterstroke: “If I had not been elected President of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea, with potentially millions of people killed.” For John Bolton, the national-security adviser, the summit represented a conundrum.

James Comey: How Trump Co-opts Leaders Like Bill Barr. Speaking rapid-fire with no spot for others to jump into the conversation, Mr. Was Russia’s 2016 intervention for Trump a strategic failure? On the night of Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton, Russian President Vladimir Putin must have felt triumphant. Why don’t you just call me President Pete? My last name? Never mind . . . A 37-year-old fellow named Pete Buttigieg appeared on a network morning show last week to talk a little about his new book, but mostly about running for president in 2020. Trump Repeats Unfounded Arguments in New Appeal for a Border Wall. Nancy Pelosi, a Woman in Control, Is a Rival Who Flummoxes Trump. - The Washington Post. The 1 giant question Donald Trump still hasn't answered on Russia.

It's in keeping with his broader approach to the question of Russia's election meddling efforts and ties between those close to his campaign and actors for foreign powers: This is all a sham. Special counsel Robert Mueller is out to get him -- as is the entire FBI. They've got nothing. Trump's very private meetings are a huge favor to Putin (opinion) - CNN. With new Washington Post reporting that President Donald Trump may have taken unprecedented, and potentially illegal, measures to conceal the contents of private conversations with President Vladimir Putin, we are providing you with an update on several ongoing Russian threat streams. These include the growing counterintelligence risks posed by actions that aid and abet Russian intelligence operations.

Conservative Men Are Obsessed With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Science Tells Us Why. Trump’s Speech to the Nation: Live Updates and Fact Checks. Trump's border wall demand is constitutionally illegitimate. It feels quaint – maybe a bit absurd – to remark the fact that Donald Trump has no constitutionally moral justification for his demand that Congress fund the building of a wall on the Mexican border. Such an argument feels absurd when made against this president. Yet it should not be insignificant to Congress. The president ran on a promise to build a wall “paid for by Mexico”. Trump's border wall demand is constitutionally illegitimate.

The Russians Meddled In Our Democracy, But They Had All-American Help. There Is More to Stacey Abrams Than Meets Partisan Eyes. High Plains Reader, Fargo ND. FARGO – Ruth Buffalo’s Nike sneakers are worn treadless. A Trump Hack Hacks Justice. Of all the ways in which Donald Trump’s presidency has made America worse, nothing epitomizes it quite so fully as the elevation of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general of the United States.

When the dreaded 'other' is an angry white man. Stunning Editorial From the New Yorker. Jamal Khashoggi’s Final Words—for Other Journalists Like Him. Mitch McConnell has done grave damage to all three branches of government. 3 Takeaways From the New York Times' Bombshell Trump Investigation. - The Washington Post. Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford moved 3,000 miles to reinvent her life. It wasn’t far enough. Opinion: What Democrats Have Become. I was sexually assaulted. Here’s why I don’t remember many of the details. - The Washington Post. - The Washington Post. - The Washington Post. Mourning McCain, and America. Why It Can Happen Here. Kimberly Guilfoyle was once half of a liberal power couple. Now she’s basically a Trump.

Trump Will Have Blood on His Hands. What the International Committee of the Red Cross Can Teach Trump About Reuniting Families. Stunning Editorial From the New Yorker. Stunning Editorial From the New Yorker. Stunning Editorial From the New Yorker. - The Washington Post. From the Start, Trump Has Muddied a Clear Message: Putin Interfered. Choice page. Choice page. Choice page. Republicans Rebuke Trump for Siding With Putin as Democrats Demand Action. Trump Leaves GOP, Intelligence Community and Allies in the Hot Seat.

Why It’s Right to Be Mad About Kavanaugh and the Supreme Court. - The Washington Post. The suspicious business relationship between Trump and Justice Kennedy’s son. Inside the White House’s Quiet Campaign to Create a Supreme Court Opening. Robert Mueller Jumps Onto the Trump Money Trail. Choice page. Supreme Court upholds travel ban: Sonia Sotomayor dissents. Trump Resisting a Growing Wrath for Separating Migrant Families. How an Affair Between a Reporter and a Security Aide Has Rattled Washington Media. Trump’s Lawyers, in Confidential Memo, Argue to Head Off a Historic Subpoena. Log In - New York Times. The harrowing, wild and totally unpredictable last 24 hours in the world of Donald Trump.

Donald Trump Is Lying More Now Than He Was At The Beginning Of His Presidency. Late night roasts Trump's gift to Melania. The Democrats' Foolproof New Plan to Take Down Trump: Definitely DON'T Say the Word 'Impeach' Bolton Was Early Beneficiary of Cambridge Analytica’s Facebook Data. Christopher Steele, the Man Behind the Trump Dossier. John Brennan: Trump fails to put country over 'self adoration,' unlike predecessors. Bolt the Oval Against Bolton. Cambridge Analytica, Trump-Tied Political Firm, Offered to Entrap Politicians. Cambridge Analytica, Trump-Tied Political Firm, Offered to Entrap Politicians. This White House just keeps not telling the truth over and over and over again. Nationalreview. Christopher Steele, the Man Behind the Trump Dossier.

Christopher Steele, the Man Behind the Trump Dossier. Trade War, What Is It Good For? Absolutely Nothing. Jared Kushner Is China’s Trump Card.