02 January 20
Greg Palast and Zach D. Roberts | Hunting Season on Voters Opens with Georgia and Wisconsin Purges and Registration Cancellation
Greg Palast and Zach D. Roberts, The Palast Investigative Fund
Excerpt: "Two new court decisions have blessed mass purges of voters in two swing states, Georgia and Wisconsin. This could be the launch of a new system for purging masses of voters of color and young voters that is expected to spread to 20 or more states before the Presidential election."
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Greg Palast and Zach D. Roberts, The Palast Investigative Fund
Excerpt: "Two new court decisions have blessed mass purges of voters in two swing states, Georgia and Wisconsin. This could be the launch of a new system for purging masses of voters of color and young voters that is expected to spread to 20 or more states before the Presidential election."
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, accompanied by Republican members of the Senate, speaking at a news conference in Capitol Hill in Washington DC, on November 16, 2016. (photo: Andrew Harnik/AP
The GOP Senators' Deliciously Awful Impeachment Dilemma
David R. Lurie, The Daily Beast
Lurie writes: "Some ask why 'moderate' Republican senators have largely refused to criticize Mitch McConnell's scheme to undermine the Constitution by preventing witnesses from testifying during Donald Trump's upcoming removal trial. But it's no mystery."
David R. Lurie, The Daily Beast
Lurie writes: "Some ask why 'moderate' Republican senators have largely refused to criticize Mitch McConnell's scheme to undermine the Constitution by preventing witnesses from testifying during Donald Trump's upcoming removal trial. But it's no mystery."
EXCERPT:
In fact, McConnell intends his machinations, first and foremost, to aid swing-state senators, particularly those facing re-election in 2020, like Maine’s Susan Collins, Arizona’s Martha McSally, North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, Iowa’s Joni Ernst, and Colorado’s Cory Gardner. Those legislators are facing a stark choice: If they fail to excuse Trump’s criminal conduct, they’ll lose the support of their party’s Trump-loyal voters.
But if they vote to acquit after figures like Mick Mulvaney and John Bolton further implicate the president in a scheme to undermine the next election (and an ally under attack by Vladimir Putin’s Russia), they risk losing the support of most other voters. It is a dilemma of Republicans’ own creation, and it’s becoming more excruciating every day.
Republican legislators have fashioned a Hobson’s choice for themselves. On the one hand, they can accede to Trump and McConnell by violating their oaths and the Constitution, and voting to dismiss without hearing from the embargoed witnesses—and take a risk that their knuckling under to Trump ends with ignominious losses in the next general election.
On the other hand, GOP “moderates,” possibly joined by more independent colleagues, such as Lisa Murkowski and the soon-to-be retired Lamar Alexander, can vote to call figures like Mulvaney and Bolton, and even vote in favor of conviction—thereby inviting primary challenges ginned up by Trump himself.
It is indeed a dilemma, but one of Republicans’ own creation, a product of their decision to do what it takes to maintain their party’s grip on power, regardless of the cost to the nation or its laws and Constitution. If the trial ends up making the corrupting consequences of that choice clearer to the nation, then maybe justice will be done after all, regardless of whether further witnesses appear, or of Trump’s virtually certain “acquittal.”
Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro speaks in Las Vegas on Nov. 17, 2019. (photo: David Becker/Getty)
Julián Castro Drops Out of Presidential Race
Allan Smith, Maura Barrett and Suzanne Gamboa, NBC News
Excerpt: "Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro dropped out of the presidential race Thursday after his campaign, focused on issues of immigration and education, failed to gain traction."
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Allan Smith, Maura Barrett and Suzanne Gamboa, NBC News
Excerpt: "Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro dropped out of the presidential race Thursday after his campaign, focused on issues of immigration and education, failed to gain traction."
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A Senate intelligence committee report in mid 2019 concluded that Kremlin hackers investigated election systems in all 50 states. (photo: Mark Makela/Reuters)
Cyber Attacks and Electronic Voting Errors Threaten 2020 Outcome, Experts Warn
Peter Stone, Guardian UK
Stone writes: "Potential electronic voting equipment failures and cyber attacks from Russia and other countries pose persistent threats to the 2020 elections, election security analysts and key Democrats warn."
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Peter Stone, Guardian UK
Stone writes: "Potential electronic voting equipment failures and cyber attacks from Russia and other countries pose persistent threats to the 2020 elections, election security analysts and key Democrats warn."
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Mark Collie and his son Blake at home in Washington, N.C. When Blake suffered an aneurysm, Mr. Collie turned to a Christian health cost-sharing ministry to help cover the costs. (photo: Madeline Gray/The New York Times)
It Looks Like Health Insurance, but It's Not. 'Just Trust God,' Buyers Are Told.
Reed Abelson, The New York Times
Abelson writes: "More than one million Americans, struggling to cope with the rising cost of health insurance, have joined such groups, attracted by prices that are far lower than the premiums for policies that must meet strict requirements, like guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions, established by the Affordable Care Act."
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Reed Abelson, The New York Times
Abelson writes: "More than one million Americans, struggling to cope with the rising cost of health insurance, have joined such groups, attracted by prices that are far lower than the premiums for policies that must meet strict requirements, like guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions, established by the Affordable Care Act."
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Teacher, Dennis Jones, knocking wild rice in a canoe. (photo: Tara Houska/Al Jazeera)
A Voice From the Forest in the Corporate Boardroom
Tara Houska, Al Jazeera
Houska writes: "For the past hour or so, the civil society representatives sitting opposite the financiers rattled off the science of climate crisis. Charts, graphs, data tracking the self-destruction of humanity flashed across the screen."
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Tara Houska, Al Jazeera
Houska writes: "For the past hour or so, the civil society representatives sitting opposite the financiers rattled off the science of climate crisis. Charts, graphs, data tracking the self-destruction of humanity flashed across the screen."
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Students gather at John Marshall Park, blocks from the U.S. Capitol, to protest climate change on Sept. 20. (photo: Astrid Riecken/The Washington Post)
The 2010s Were a Lost Decade for Climate. We Can't Afford a Repeat, Scientists Warn.
Sarah Kaplan, The Washington Post
Kaplan writes: "By the final year of the decade, the planet had surpassed its 2010 temperature record five times."
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Sarah Kaplan, The Washington Post
Kaplan writes: "By the final year of the decade, the planet had surpassed its 2010 temperature record five times."
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