| Warren weighs her options. Endorsing Sanders is probably No. 1. Posted: 04 Mar 2020 12:44 PM PST  After a disastrous Super Tuesday, Warren has one last chance to make a difference in 2020.
|
| EPA administrator criticizes inspector general's conclusions on Scott Pruitt's alleged abuses Posted: 04 Mar 2020 10:44 AM PST  EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said "there are a number of errors" in the inspector general's 2019 report that determined former EPA head Scott Pruitt misused $124,000 in government funds for, among other things, first-class travel.
|
| Rand Paul says he'll 'stay here all weekend' to get foreign aid cut included in coronavirus bill Posted: 04 Mar 2020 12:31 PM PST  Congress agreed to put a bipartisan emergency spending package to curb the spread of COVID-19 up for a House vote Wednesday, but it may get held up by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who wants to include an amendment to the bill.Paul, a deficit hawk, wants to ensure the U.S. has some way to fund the COVID-19 package, so he's trying to sneak a foreign aid cut in there. Paul is confident he'll get a vote, but he's prepared to stick around in Washington all weekend either way.> "We will have an amendment to pay for it," Paul told me. "We've talked to the powers that be and let them know...that we'll have an amendment to offset it. If we dont get the amendment, we can stay here all weekend for all I care." Paul says he thinks he'll get a vote, though> > — Trish Turner (@caphilltrish) March 4, 2020Paul is certainly consistent when it comes to spending bills. Over the summer, he was opposed to passing the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund (which also had bipartisan support), arguing that he'll "always take a stand against borrowing more money to pay for programs rather than setting priorities and cutting waste."As for the new coronavirus, Paul said Tuesday thinks there's "room for optimism," noting that he could see it dissipating more quickly than people are portraying.More stories from theweek.com It's 2020 and women are exhausted Andrew Yang is launching a nonprofit to make universal basic income a reality Could Democrats win the battle against Trump but lose the war against Trumpism?
|
| Coronavirus cases surge in U.S., helicopter flies test kits to cruise ship Posted: 05 Mar 2020 06:50 AM PST  The coronavirus outbreak spread further across the United States on Thursday, cropping up in at least four new states and San Francisco as Congress quickly approved more than $8 billion to fight the outbreak and Americans faced increasing disruptions to their daily lives. The death toll from the virus in the United States rose to 12, with the latest fatality recorded in King County, Washington, and at least 57 new cases were confirmed, striking for the first time in Colorado, Maryland, Tennessee and Texas, as well as San Francisco. A helicopter flew testing kits to a cruise liner idled off the coast of California and barred from docking in San Francisco after at least 35 people developed flu-like symptoms aboard the ship, which has been linked to two other confirmed cases of COVID-19.
|
| FISA Court Blacklists FBI Agents Involved in Surveilling Carter Page Posted: 05 Mar 2020 07:28 AM PST  The chief judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has barred Justice Department and FBI officials under review for wiretapping former Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page from appearing before the Court.In a 19-page opinion, Judge James E. Boasberg ordered that "FBI personnel under disciplinary review in relation to their work on FISA applications accordingly should not participate in drafting, verifying, reviewing, or submitting such application to the Court while the review is pending." He added that any "DOJ or FBI personnel under disciplinary or criminal review" are also prohibited from working on FISA applications.Boasberg also called for a higher bar in regards to the disclosure of exculpatory evidence, and ordered agents to swear in future cases that any FISA warrant application contains "all information that might reasonably call into question the accuracy of the information or the reasonableness of any F.B.I. assessment in the application, or otherwise raise doubts about the requested findings."DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz detailed in his December report on the FBI's "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation how the Bureau knowingly omitted details of Page's prior working relationship with the CIA, as well as numerous potentially exculpatory statements he made to other sources, which undercut the Steele Dossier's allegations used in the FBI's warrants.Horowitz also described how "FBI officials at every level" — including former deputy director Andrew McCabe and former director James Comey — reached a consensus that Steele was a reliable source, despite overhead concerns that his allegations could be biased given that he had been contracted by the Democratic National Committee through the research firm Fusion GPS.
|
| Three family members charged with murder after locking boys in closet for 16 hours a day Posted: 04 Mar 2020 03:34 PM PST  An Arizona mother, father and grandmother were charged with murder and child abuse after confessing to keeping a six-year-old in a closet with his brother for "stealing food". The child died.Anthony Jose Archibeque-Martinez, 23, Elizabeth Archibeque-Martinez, 26, and Ann Marie Martinez, 50, were each charged with one count of first degree felony homicide and two counts each of child abuse. They are currently being held at the Coconino County Jail.
|
| Former Fox White House reporter Wendell Goler dies Posted: 05 Mar 2020 10:09 AM PST  Wendell Goler, a longtime White House correspondent for Fox News Channel who reported on government since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, has died at age 70. Goler was a Fox News original, joining the network at its inception in 1996 and working his way up to senior White House foreign affairs correspondent.
|
| As the coronavirus spreads, one study predicts that even the best-case scenario is 15 million dead and a $2.4 trillion hit to global GDP Posted: 05 Mar 2020 06:40 AM PST  A group of Australian researchers estimate that the coronavirus may have severe consequences on the global GDP.
|
| Dubai’s Ruler, Sheikh Mohammed, Abducted and Imprisoned Daughters, Says London Court Posted: 05 Mar 2020 10:34 AM PST  LONDON—Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the ruler of Dubai, ordered his henchmen to abduct two of his daughters and force them into captivity after they tried to flee from his controlling grasp, according to a British court.One of the women was subjected to inhumane treatment amounting to torture in the view of a British High Court judge, whose findings about the 70-year-old leader were unsealed in London on Thursday. Sir Andrew McFarlane, the most senior family judge in England, published his findings as part of a case that was brought to protect two of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's younger children, who currently live in the U.K. Their mother is the daughter of Jordan's late King Hussein. The Dubai ruler failed in a bid at the Supreme Court to have the judgment kept secret. Inside the Secret World of Arab PlayboysThe judge found that Sheikha Latifa was imprisoned after trying to escape Dubai in 2002 and 2018. In her most recent bid for freedom, she made it as far as the coast of India before special forces snatched her and her Finnish friend Tiina Jauhiainen.In a carefully orchestrated plot, the pair had fled to the coast of the United Arab Emirates in disguise, boarded a dingy, ridden jet skis and then made it to a rendezvous with a yacht that took them out of the UAE's territorial waters."The last time [I saw Latifa], she was kicking and screaming and she was dragged off the boat. Her pleas for asylum were ignored," Jauhiainen told Reuters.The British judge found in favor of Jauhiainen's account of the abduction.McFarlane said that Latifa was held in captivity "on the instructions of her father" for more than three years after her first escape attempt. He said her claims of serious physical abuse, amounting to torture, were credible. At the time of her apprehension, she said she would only be released if "I'm dead, or I'm in a very, very, very bad situation.""She was pleading for the soldiers to kill her rather than face the prospect of going back to her family in Dubai," the judge said. "I conclude, on the balance of probability, that Latifa's account of her motives for wishing to leave Dubai represents the truth. She was plainly desperate to extricate herself from her family and prepared to undertake a dangerous mission in order to do so."The Missing Princess of Dubai: Foiled Escape or Complete Fraud?The judge said Sheikha Shamsa had also fled from her overbearing father when they were staying on a property in South-East England in 2000. Agents of Sheikh Mohammed allegedly captured her outside Cambridge, injected her with a sedative, and took her back to Dubai, where the judge said she "has been deprived of her liberty for much if not all of the past two decades."Cambridgeshire police tried to travel to Dubai to investigate the abduction at the time, but they were denied permission to enter the rich Arab emirate. Charles Geekie, a lawyer for the sheikh's former wife, said the British government had intervened in the case.The judge, who said the sheikh "continues to maintain a regime whereby both these two young women are deprived of their liberty," also found that the ruler of Dubai conducted a "campaign of fear and intimidation" against his sixth wife, Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein.Princess Haya, half sister of Jordan's King Abdullah, fled her husband at the start of 2019. She said she had been subjected to a "campaign of fear and intimidation" ever since and applied for a British court to protect their children from the kind of abuse to which Sheikh Mohammed had subjected his older children.Geekie told the court that anonymous notes had been left in Princess Haya's bedroom. One of them said, "We will take your son—your daughter is ours—your life is over."On another occasion, a UAE helicopter pilot landed in the princess' garden and told her he was there to take one passenger to Awir, which is the site of a prison in the desert.Her former husband also condemned her in a poem posted on Instagram entitled, "You Lived and You Died." The judge concluded that he agreed with Geekie's claim that these recent threats fit into a pattern of behavior that stretched back to the first abduction of one of the sheikh's children in 2000. "[There are] a number of common themes, at the core of which is the use of the state and its apparatus to threaten, intimidate, mistreat and oppress with a total disregard for the rule of law."The case began after Princess Haya asked for her children with Sheikh Mohammed—Jalila, 12, and Zayed, 8—to become wards of the court and protected from being taken back to Dubai. Princess Haya alleged that her husband had arranged for Jalila, who was 11 at the time, to be married to Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. The judge said he had not seen enough evidence to prove that that arrangement had been made.The princess said she had been "terrified" of her ex-husband, who divorced her without her knowledge in February last year on the 20th anniversary of the death of her father, King Hussein of Jordan.The judge said it was "clear the date will have been chosen... to maximize insult and upset to her."After the findings were made public, Sheikh Mohammed, who had refused to attend the hearings, said, "This case concerns highly personal and private matters relating to our children… As a head of government, I was not able to participate in the court's fact-finding process. This has resulted in the release of a 'fact-finding' judgment which inevitably only tells one side of the story."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
|
| Joe Biden is surging but his campaign has one weak spot: Joe Biden himself Posted: 05 Mar 2020 03:10 AM PST  There is little reason to assume 'Joementum' will die off soon – but gaffes have killed his earlier runs and could still kill this one tooSuper Tuesday was a powerful reminder that Twitter is not the real world. Of course, we knew this, or could have known this. Pew Research had shown several times that Democrats on Twitter are more liberal than Democrats overall, and that Twitter Democrats are less supportive of Joe Biden and more supportive of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. But pushed by some early wins, and the overwhelming presence of a loud minority on social media, the Sanders train took off in the traditional media too, bringing excitement and panic to liberal and moderate journalists and pundits alike.It was not to be. Not Sanders but Biden was the big winner of Super Tuesday. Winning 10 of the 14 states in play, he only left Sanders the big prize of the delegate-richest state of California, and even there he ate into the Vermont senator's delegate count, in part helped by Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren, who both polled above 10% but below the 15% viability threshold.Now that Bloomberg has dropped out, the pressure on Warren to follow suit will be huge. Bloomberg only entered the race to stop the progressive agenda of Sanders and Warren and, after spending a perverse half a billion of dollars on his campaign, only had American Samoa to show for. He is expected to save face by putting his money and support behind Biden, which could be the push he needs to transform a plurality into a majority at, or before, the Democratic national convention in Milwaukee.This puts even more pressure on Warren, whose campaign never bounced back from its – still largely unexplained – November slump. Despite excellent debate performances, she had a dismal Super Tuesday, being viable in only a couple of states, and even coming in third in her own home state of Massachusetts. She wasn't able to pick up any "wonk votes" from Pete Buttigieg or "female votes" from Amy Klobuchar, who both suspended their campaigns days before Super Tuesday.Hence, it is time to bow out for Warren, and let Sanders defend the progressive camp against the now consolidated moderate camp of Biden. She can do so with her head up high, as at the very least her debate performances have helped to stop Bloomberg and led to the resignation of Chris Matthews, a long-term embarrassment for liberal media.> The most remarkable aspect of Super Tuesday is that Biden won in states that he had spent little money in and had few campaign staffThe most remarkable aspect of Super Tuesday is that Biden won in states that he had spent little money in and had few campaign staff. Against the millions of dollars of Bloomberg, and the tens of thousands of volunteers of Sanders, Biden seem to have won the good old-fashioned way, through endorsements.South Carolina's iconic congressman Jim Clyburn's endorsement, which started the "Joementum", led to Biden's massive win in South Carolina, followed by withdrawals from his moderate rivals, as well as the impeccably rolled-out endorsements of Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Beto O'Rourke just before Super Tuesday. The fact that an endorsement and win in South Carolina, a state that will solidly support Trump in November, could have fundamentally changed the outcome of the Democratic primaries is yet another example of the complete irrationality of the primary process.Given that money and people will be flooding into the Biden campaign into the coming days and weeks, there is little reason to assume Joementum will die off soon. Moreover, while a significant number of moderate early votes had still been cast for Buttigieg and Klobuchar on Super Tuesday, this will no longer be the case in the upcoming primaries. Many of the next primaries are in moderate states, such as Mississippi and Missouri, which should be Biden territory.Where does this leave Sanders? To be clear, the Sanders camp is still very much alive. The problem is, his campaign seems to have hit its ceiling. Sanders has a solid support of roughly one-quarter of Democrats and has been able to expand that to about one-third. Even if he would be able to capture the full Warren support – which is doubtful given growing tensions between the campaigns and their supporters – it would not be close to 50%.The next big test for both Biden and Sanders is Michigan, the type of swing state that both candidates have staked their claim of defeating Trump in November on. Will "Uncle Joe from Scranton" be able to dig into Sanders' support among the white working class, while also carrying the moderate suburban vote? Or will Sanders finally prove that he is the (only) candidate to win both new voters and some of Trump's white working class?At the moment, everything seems to point at, at least, a Biden plurality. But his campaign will always have one lethal weak spot: Joe Biden. Gaffes have killed his earlier runs and could still kill this one too. It might be Sanders' best, and only chance at winning the nomination. Because the way Joementum is going, Sanders might regret his recent statements that the candidate with a plurality should become the nominee at the Democratic national convention.
|
| For Putin, victory in Syria is personal Posted: 04 Mar 2020 06:44 PM PST  When Turkey's president visited Russia last summer, the sun shone as he shared ice cream and admired fighter jets with a friendly Vladimir Putin. For Putin, observers say, victory in Syria is not just political, it's personal. "Putin's rise as a masterful strategist is associated with Syria," said Yury Barmin, a Middle East analyst at the Russian International Affairs Council, established to advise the Kremlin.
|
| Progressives Want To Take Down The Electoral College Posted: 05 Mar 2020 03:45 AM PST  And they are working to change it.
|
| Moscow imposes 'high alert regime' to stem coronavirus outbreak Posted: 05 Mar 2020 11:26 AM PST  Moscow authorities announced a "high alert regime" and imposed extra measures on Thursday to prevent a spread of the coronavirus in the Russian capital. A document posted on the Moscow mayor's website said that Russians who return from China, South Korea, Iran, France, Germany, Italy and Spain and other states who display possible "unfavorable" signs of coronavirus should self-isolate themselves at home for 14 days. Russia has not reported any confirmed cases of people contracting coronavirus on its territory, although six people who picked up the virus elsewhere have received or are receiving treatment.
|
| Hawley Announces Motion to Censure Schumer for ‘Pathetic Attempt at Threatening’ Justices Posted: 05 Mar 2020 05:14 AM PST  Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) said Wednesday that he would be introducing a motion to censure Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) for "disgusting, shameful, and frankly, WEAK" comments directed at Justice Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh."I would call on Schumer to apologize, but we all know he has no shame," Hawley tweeted. "So tomorrow I will introduce a motion to censure Schumer for his pathetic attempt at intimidation."Schumer, addressing a crowd of abortion-rights advocates in front of the Supreme Court on Wednesday, threatened President Trump's two appointees as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for June Medical Services v. Russo, the first major pro-life case since 2016."You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions," he said. "You won't know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions."After a deluge of criticism, including a statement from Chief Justice John Roberts on the "dangerous" comments, Schumer held his ground and did not apologize."For Justice Roberts to follow the right wing's deliberate misinterpretation of what Senator Schumer said, while remaining silent when President Trump attacked Justices Sotomayor and Ginsberg last week, shows Justice Roberts does not just call balls and strikes," a spokesperson for Schumer responded.President Trump also took aim at Schumer Wednesday evening, echoing the minority leader's own language in saying that he should "pay a severe price" for threatening the justices.> There can be few things worse in a civilized, law abiding nation, than a United States Senator openly, and for all to see and hear, threatening the Supreme Court or its Justices. This is what Chuck Schumer just did. He must pay a severe price for this!> > -- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2020Politico's Playbook reported Thursday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) also plans to take aim at Schumer, and will denounce him in opening comments on the Senate floor."Contrary to what the Democratic leader has tried to claim, he very clearly was not addressing Republican lawmakers or anybody else," McConnell's comments read. "He literally directed the statement to the justices, by name. And he said, quote, 'if you go forward with these awful decisions,' which could only apply to the court itself. The minority leader of the United States Senate threatened two associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Period."
|
| California cruise ship held for coronavirus screening after 20 passengers ill Posted: 05 Mar 2020 06:15 AM PST  A California cruise ship is being held offshore after two passengers who previously stayed on the vessel contracted coronavirus, and around 20 people onboard fell ill.
|
| Joe Biden may have overtaken Bernie Sanders as the Democratic frontrunner, but his 'anti-millennial' stance has left him with half as many young voters as Sanders Posted: 04 Mar 2020 06:58 AM PST  Despite struggling to attract younger voters, former vice president Joe Biden dominated Super Tuesday, carrying out victories in at least nine states.
|
| United is first to cut US flying due to virus outbreak Posted: 04 Mar 2020 02:16 PM PST  United Airlines will reduce flights, freeze hiring and ask employees to volunteer for unpaid leave as the airline struggles with weak demand for travel because of the new virus outbreak. United said Wednesday that starting in April it will reduce passenger-carrying capacity 20% on international routes and 10% in the U.S. — the first airline to cut domestic flying. United officials said they will temporarily ground an unspecified number of planes.
|
| Nigeria Senate Approves President’s $23 Billion Loan Request Posted: 05 Mar 2020 09:18 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Nigeria's Senate approved President Muhammadu Buhari's plan to borrow $22.7 billion from external creditors to finance infrastructure projects.Lawmakers gave their endorsement to the government during Thursday's proceedings in the capital, Abuja, to seek the funding expected from the Islamic Development Bank, the African Development Bank, the World Bank and creditors in China, Japan and Germany. "The loans will have a positive influence on the GDP of this country," Senate President Ahmed Lawan said.The government will use the money to expand the railways, build a new hydro power dam and fund special intervention projects across the West African nation, according to a letter sent to the parliament in November.While Nigeria's outstanding loans amount to about about a quarter of its economic output, Africa's largest oil producer spends more than half of its revenue servicing debts. The International Monetary Fund has warned that without major revenue reforms, the debts could rise to almost 36% of GDP by 2024, with interest payments taking as much as 75% of government revenue.(Updates with Senate President's comment in second paragraph)To contact the reporter on this story: Anthony Osae-Brown in Lagos at aosaebrown2@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Dulue MbachuFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
|
| With North Korea border shut, China warns citizens to keep away, or else Posted: 05 Mar 2020 03:23 AM PST  SINGAPORE/SEOUL (Reuters) - Chinese authorities have told people to stay away from the border with North Korea, which has banned people from China to keep out the coronavirus, or risk being shot by North Korean guards, residents of the area said. Residents said the warning came in a printed notice that Chinese authorities in the area issued this week, the latest indication of how seriously North Korea takes the threat of the virus. Close allies China and North Korea share a 1,400-km (880-mile) frontier that is especially porous in winter, when rivers separating the countries freeze, allowing people to cross.
|
| The Best Mowers for Big Lawns Posted: 05 Mar 2020 10:34 AM PST |
| FISA court bars FBI agents involved in surveilling Carter Page Posted: 05 Mar 2020 10:15 AM PST  The chief judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has barred Justice Department and FBI officials under review for wiretapping former Trump-campaign adviser Carter Page from appearing before the court.
|
| Are more coronavirus travel restrictions coming? Experts say they only delay the inevitable Posted: 05 Mar 2020 05:46 PM PST  Are Americans likely to see domestic travel restricted because of coronavirus? Not likely, medical and emergency planning experts say.
|
| Romney Claims Senate Probe into Hunter Biden ‘Appears Political’ Posted: 05 Mar 2020 09:37 AM PST  Senator Mitt Romney (R., Utah) warned Thursday that Senator Ron Johnson's (R., Wis.) probe into the Bidens and Burisma "appears political," and would not comment whether he would vote for a subpoena that Johnson is planning."There's no question that the appearance of looking into Burisima and Hunter Biden appears political. I think people are tired of these kind of political investigations," Romney told reporters, adding that he needs to meet with Johnson to "see what information he has" before deciding on a vote.But he suggested he was uncomfortable with the probe, implying that it was not within the purview of the Senate Homeland Security Committee — which Johnson chairs and Romney serves on."I would hope that there's something of significance that needs to be evaluated that would be done perhaps the FBI or some other agency, although it's not as political as perhaps a committee of our body," he said. "We also have a lot of work to do on matters that are not related to Burisma. We probably ought to focus on those things."Johnson, who has been looking into Burisma since November, wants to vote next week on a subpoena to compel the testimony of former Ukrainian embassy official Andrii Telizhenko, who worked as a consultant for Blue Star Strategies, a Washington-based consulting firm that Burisma hired to combat accusations of corruption. Blue Star tried to leverage the Biden name to secure meetings with the State Department during its campaign to rehabilitate Burisma's image.Johnson told Fox News that his probe was not politically motivated on Wednesday, and was simply to let "the American people see what this possible corruption is." He added that probe had unearthed a document which showed Blue Star apologizing to the Ukrainian prosecutor general's office for a "misinformation campaign" against Ukrainian prosecutor Victor Shokin, who Joe Biden bragged about getting fired.Johnson also told CNN that he thinks he has enough votes to bring the subpoena, although Romney's opposition could scuttle the effort.
|
| Joe Biden: Not a Socialist, Just a Scoundrel Posted: 05 Mar 2020 03:30 AM PST  Poor Bernie Sanders! The youth vote failed to show up for him. The youth vote always fails to show up — it will break your heart every time. Senator Sanders didn't lose to Joe Biden — he lost to Tinder, weed, and The Resident. The kids were doing themselves a favor — young people have more of a future for Senator Sanders and his coterie of socialist dingbat malefactors to ruin.Arising from the tumult, triumphant, was the dotty figure of Joe Biden. Biden and Sanders vying for the Democratic nomination, Michael Bloomberg perhaps at least dreaming idly of a third-party run — as of today, the youngest man with a realistic shot of winning the 2020 presidential election is Donald Trump, 73 years of age.What can we say for Joe Biden?For one thing, he is not a socialist.………So, he is not a socialist.What is he?He is a vicious self-serving political hack, for one thing, one whose ambition leads him from time to time into shocking indecency. You may have heard that Biden lost his wife and daughter in a horrifying drunk-driving wreck, the fault of a monster of a man who irresponsibly "drank his lunch," as Biden puts it.Never happened.Biden's wife and daughter did, in fact, die in a car wreck. That is true. It is not true that the driver of the other car was drunk, that he had been drinking, or that there was any reason to believe he was drunk or had been drinking — or even that he was at fault. The late Mrs. Biden "drove into the path of [the] tractor-trailer," the police report says. But Biden, like every other third-rate ward-heeler of his ilk, thinks and speaks only in terms of good guys and bad guys, white hats and black hats — and if something bad happens to good people, then it must be because somebody in a black hat did something nefarious. The driver of that truck went to his grave haunted by Biden's lies, to the point where his children were forced to beg the vice president to stop defaming their late father. The casual cruelty with which Biden is willing to subordinate the lives of ordinary people to his political ambitions — for the sake of a petty tear-jerker line in one of his occasionally plagiarized stump speeches — is remarkable.But that's Joe Biden. Just a regular guy from Scranton who takes the train to work (with a 20-man security detail swarming the platform at every stop and the aisles roped off to separate him from the riffraff, as I have seen firsthand) whose kids ended up growing vastly wealthy from unpredictable business opportunities to which they had no especial claim beyond their proximity to political power.Biden was protected by the Democratic political machine and then by Senate seniority; later, he was protected by the Obama administration and by protectors of the Obama administration. And so he continues doing the same things he always has done. Some of you may remember that Biden — who got into trouble for plagiarism back in the 1980s, when I was in eighth grade (and who already was running for president way back then) — was pillaging Margaret Thatcher's speeches (and Neil Kinnock's, too, not that anybody remembers him) to flesh out one of his own orations. That was embarrassing. What is embarrassing is that he is still doing it, as the Washington Post reports, with his campaign stealing material for advocacy groups and presenting it as the work of his campaign.That is a pattern. A man who can lightly misrepresent the circumstances surrounding the death of his wife and infant daughter is liable to be just as cavalier when it comes to, say, slavery, telling a largely black audience that Mitt Romney — Mitt Romney! — wants to "put y'all back in chains." (Oh, that "y'all"!) Cynical doesn't begin to cover it.One of the worst features of our political life is the ugly and dishonest fights we have over Supreme Court nominations — a habit that can be laid squarely at the feet of Joe Biden, who along with Ted Kennedy, that pillar of human decency, organized one of the worst smear campaigns in modern American political history against Robert Bork, whose great crime against humanity was taking the "extremist" position that the Constitution actually says what it says rather than what anybody with power wishes it would say at any given moment, and that the way to amend the Constitution is to amend the Constitution rather than having nine wizards in black robes pull previously undiscovered constitutional mandates out of the penumbras upon which they sit all day. Don't like the way Merrick Garland was treated? Mitch McConnell didn't start that game — he is just better at it than his contemporary Democratic colleagues are. For lying partisan viciousness in the modern mode, Joe Biden is your man.He is a liar, a corruptor of institutions, and a grifter of the first order.But he's not a socialist. I'll give him that.
|
| Saudi empties Islam's holiest site for 'sterilisation' Posted: 05 Mar 2020 09:48 AM PST  Saudi Arabia on Thursday emptied Islam's holiest site for sterilisation over fears of the new coronavirus, an unprecedented shutdown state media said will last while the year-round umrah pilgrimage is suspended. State television relayed images of an empty white-tiled area surrounding the Kaaba -– a large black cube structure inside Mecca's Grand Mosque -- which is usually packed with tens of thousands of pilgrims. As a "precautionary measure", the area will remain closed as long as the umrah suspension lasts but prayers will be allowed inside the mosque, state-run Saudi Press Agency cited a mosque official as saying.
|
| A California man who self-quarantined after returning home from China amid the coronavirus outbreak said he is '100x more concerned' for his health in the US than he was in China Posted: 05 Mar 2020 11:50 AM PST  The Bay Area man saw how differently both governments handled the coronavirus outbreak after returning from a one-week trip to China.
|
| Amid coronavirus outbreak, some airlines are changing how they clean planes Posted: 05 Mar 2020 12:06 PM PST  With new COVID-19 cases emerging every day, airlines like American, United and Delta are taking extra measures to prevent the spread of the disease.
|
| Facebook decides to take down Trump 2020 campaign's 'census' ads Posted: 05 Mar 2020 12:35 PM PST  Facebook Inc on Thursday removed ads by President Donald Trump's re-election campaign that asked users to fill out an "Official 2020 Congressional District Census" because the ads violate the company's policy against misinformation on the government's census. The ads, which come from the pages of the Republican president and Vice President Mike Pence, link to a survey on an official campaign website and then to a page asking for donations. The online newsletter Popular Information, which first reported on the ads, said Facebook had originally said they did not violate its policy.
|
| Coronavirus: Trump's immigration policies may help spread deadly virus, healthcare experts warn Posted: 05 Mar 2020 01:07 PM PST  The Trump administration's continued crackdowns on immigration rules may increase the potential for coronavirus to spread in the United States unchecked.Beginning on 24 February, the Department of Homeland Security began enforcing a new rule that allows them to deny immigrants visas or permanent residency to individuals if they're likely to become "public charges" - in other words, recipients of certain public benefits.
|
| Border Patrol waited to call EMS for U.S. man who later died Posted: 04 Mar 2020 11:13 PM PST  The agency told Congress that agents called an ambulance "immediately," but call logs reviewed by CBS News show a lengthy delay.
|
| Pollster declares Democratic race 'pretty much over' after Joe Biden jumps to jaw-dropping lead in Florida Posted: 05 Mar 2020 11:22 AM PST  Former Vice President Joe Biden may have just secured his nomination.When several more states vote and provide clarity in the 2020 Democratic primary race on March 17, Florida, the home of the fourth biggest chunk of delegates in the 2020 Democratic primary race, will be among them. And according to a St. Pete Polls survey of likely Florida Democratic primary voters out Thursday, Biden will likely dominate the state with 61 percent support to Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 13.Biden's backing is a dramatic increase from the 34 percent he received in late February, and seems to draw directly from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other moderate candidates' supporters. Sanders' support in Florida has meanwhile remained relatively flat throughout the race, the poll shows.Biden will likely only build on this lead seeing as Bloomberg, who got 14 percent of the vote , dropped out Wednesday and endorsed the former vice president. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) got a small five percent support before dropping out Thursday, leaving only a tiny improvement for Sanders even if all of her voters went to him.It all prompted Dave Wasserman, the U.S. House editor at Cook Political Report, to tweet that this means "barring a seismic event, this race is pretty much over" and presumably going in Biden's favor.> To be clear, yes I mean the entire primaries.> > — Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) March 5, 2020St. Pete Polls surveyed 1,882 likely Florida Democratic primary voters on March 4 via phone, with a 2.3 percent margin of error.More stories from theweek.com It's 2020 and women are exhausted Andrew Yang is launching a nonprofit to make universal basic income a reality Could Democrats win the battle against Trump but lose the war against Trumpism?
|
| MLK's son asks Alabama to stop inmate's upcoming execution Posted: 04 Mar 2020 09:00 AM PST  The son of Martin Luther King, Jr. has called on Alabama's governor to stop Thursday's plan to execute an inmate for the 2004 killings of three police officers in which authorities say a co-defendant did the shooting. Nathaniel Woods, 43, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday evening at a south Alabama prison unless the governor or courts intervene. Family members of Woods also have urged the governor to halt the execution.
|
| What The Satanic Temple is and why it's opening a debate about religion Posted: 05 Mar 2020 04:46 AM PST  A group called The Satanic Temple went to court in their lawsuit against the city of Scottsdale, Arizona, for religious discrimination in January 2020.The city's attorneys argued that they could not possibly be guilty of religious discrimination because The Satanic Temple is not a religion. This argument prompted the judge in the case, Justice David Campbell, to ask, "What is religion?"I am a professor of religious studies, and part of my job is getting students to think critically about the definition of religion. After studying The Satanic Temple for my book, "Speak of the Devil," I find the most interesting thing about this group is the way it disrupts commonly held ideas about what religion is. History of the groupThe Satanic Temple was created in 2013 by two friends using the pseudonyms Malcolm Jarry and Lucien Greaves. Many members of The Satanic Temple use pseudonyms because of threats and hate mail that they receive.Members of The Satanic Temple do not believe in God or the devil. Its beliefs are articulated in "the seven tenets." These tenets emphasize reason and science as well as values such as compassion and justice. The first tenet states, "One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason." Other tenets address bodily autonomy, the freedom to offend and taking responsibility for one's mistakes.It was a series of political actions invoking religious freedom that brought the group into the public eye. They demanded the same privileges for Satanists that many Christians take for granted, such as erecting religious monuments on government property and using government meetings to present sectarian prayers.Today there are 24 official chapters of the group throughout North America and Europe, ranging in membership from a dozen to over 100 people. Chapters can be found in coastal cities but also in the South and the Midwest. Texas is home to four chapters, more than any other state. There are also thousands of supporters with individual memberships or in unofficial chapters with names like "Friends of The Satanic Temple, Arkansas." Political actionsOne of the group's political goals is to advocate for the value of the separation of church and state. Their strategy is to remind the public that if Christians can use government resources to assert their cultural dominance, then Satanists are free to do the same.After Oklahoma installed a monument of the Ten Commandments at its State Capitol in 2012, the group demanded that their statue of a satanic deity, Baphomet, a winged-goat-like creature, be installed next to it. The group received US$30,000 in donations from people around the country to build the statue.The Oklahoma Supreme Court ordered the Ten Commandments monument removed. However, thousands of people extended their support to The Satanic Temple, leading to the creation of the group's first few chapters. Prayer invocationsThe trouble in Scottsdale, Arizona, began in 2014 when the Supreme Court ruled in Greece v. Galloway that city councils and other government bodies may begin meetings with "invocations" that involve sectarian prayers. What this meant was that the government could invite a pastor to say, "We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," as long as they did not discriminate against religious groups who wanted to give the invocation.The Satanic Temple took the Supreme Court at their word. In 2016 they asked Scottsdale to open a city council meeting with the following prayer:> "Let us stand now, unbowed and unfettered by arcane doctrines born of fearful minds in darkened times. Let us embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat of the Tree of Knowledge and dissipate our blissful and comforting delusions of old.> > "Let us demand that individuals be judged for their concrete actions, not their fealty to arbitrary social norms and illusory categorizations. Let us reason our solutions with agnosticism in all things, holding fast only to that which is demonstrably true.> > "Let us stand firm against any and all arbitrary authority that threatens the personal sovereignty of One or All. That which will not bend must break, and that which can be destroyed by truth should never be spared its demise. It is Done. Hail Satan." Backlash against the SatanistsInitially Scottsdale officials agreed. Satanist Michelle Shortt, a member of the Arizona chapter, was scheduled to speak before a council meeting that April.But then the Christian backlash began. In court, attorneys discussed how one church sent over 15,000 emails demanding the Satanists be uninvited, crashing the city's email system. Scottsdale officials cancelled Shortt's invocation and declared a new policy that all invocation speakers must have "a substantial connection to the Scottsdale community."When the Satanists sued, Judge Campbell ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove Scottsdale officials acted out of religious prejudice. What is religion?However, an important outcome of the case was that Campbell rejected Scottsdale's claim that The Satanic Temple is not a "real religion" or seeks only to mock actual religions.The debate over what constitutes religion is an old one. In 1961, the Supreme Court acknowledged in Torcaso v. Watkins that there are many religions like Buddhism, Confucianism and even expressions of Judaism that are just not interested in God. Torcaso v. Watkins did not define religion; it merely ruled that religion is not synonymous with theism.Scholars of religion have suggested that religion is not reducible to theism or indeed any one element. They have noted that the word religion is used differently in different contexts.For example, religion scholar Catherine Albanese, in her 1981 book "America: Religions and Religion," presented religions as systems consisting of "four 'c's." These include creed, or a set of beliefs; code, or rules; cultus, meaning rituals; and community. In other words, religion is much more than the sum of its parts.Religion can also be redefined to serve certain political interests. For example, in 2012 the state of Florida could not legally execute paranoid schizophrenic and convicted murderer John Errol Ferguson because the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the mentally ill must understand they will die when they are executed. Ferguson stated he could not die because he was an immortal "prince of God." The state circumvented this law by ruling that Ferguson's delusions were a religious conviction and proceeded with the execution.The word religion lends itself to such creative legal uses precisely because it has no set definition. As religion scholar Russell McCutcheon says, religion's "utility is linked to its inability to be defined." The Satanic Temple is significant because it renders this sort of verbal slipperiness less tenable. If this group can no longer be dismissed as a "hoax," people might be forced to think a bit more about what religion is.[You're too busy to read everything. We get it. That's why we've got a weekly newsletter. Sign up for good Sunday reading. ]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * The changing nature of America's irreligious explained * Giving thanks, but to whom? Fewer Americans embrace organized religionJoseph P. Laycock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
|
| South Korea Is Getting An 'Aircraft Carrier' To Compete With China And Japan Posted: 04 Mar 2020 08:00 PM PST  Looking beyond the North Korean threat, South Korea clearly has ambitions to develop a far-sailing "blue-water" navy.
|
| A passenger who was on a Princess cruise has died of the coronavirus in California. The ship is headed for San Francisco, but Gov. Newsom said it would not dock. Posted: 04 Mar 2020 05:05 PM PST  The Grand Princess — which is not the Diamond Princess — is set to arrive near San Francisco Thursday. It's unclear if passengers will be quarantined.
|
| Woman uses drone to look for son's body in Mexico's killing fields Posted: 05 Mar 2020 01:39 PM PST  Leticia Hidalgo smears her face with sunscreen and walks steadily across the weedy wasteland she has come to know as one of Mexico's killing fields. Mexico has been overwhelmed by an escalation of narco violence that has left more than 60,000 people missing since 2006. Hidalgo's son Roy is one of them, and she believes he could well be here, somewhere beneath the scrubland at her feet, in what she calls a likely "place of extermination."
|
| Trump says he will block U.S. funds to 'sanctuary' jurisdictions Posted: 05 Mar 2020 08:40 AM PST  President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would withhold money from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions after a U.S. court ruled that his administration could block federal law enforcement funds to states and cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The Republican president, who is seeking re-election in the Nov. 3 election, has taken a hardline stance toward legal and illegal immigration. Cities and states that oppose such cooperation say it can discourage immigrants from coming forward to report crimes to law enforcement because of fears about their immigration status.
|
| The Time for Containment Is Over. Welcome to the Next Phase of Coronavirus Posted: 05 Mar 2020 03:41 AM PST  If coronavirus teaches government and public health leaders anything, it's that containment is more of an ideal than a practical strategy.
|
| 10-year-old boy in San Diego surrenders after shotgun standoff with police Posted: 05 Mar 2020 01:19 PM PST  A 10-year-old boy surrendered to police Thursday after hiding out in a shed and firing a shotgun at them.San Diego police said the unusual firefight began when the boy's parents called the police because he was having an emotional and mental episode.
|
| Bernie Sanders rules out a unity ticket with Biden: '1 old white guy is probably one too many for some' Posted: 05 Mar 2020 03:33 AM PST  MSNBC's Rachel Maddow sat down with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday, after his disappointing Super Tuesday, and she wasn't lobbing softballs. "I feel like your argument for your electability is flawless," she said. But actually "expanding the electorate" and "trying to reach a diverse coalition" is "not happening in your campaign, and it's not happening in your campaign more so in your campaign now than it did in 2016. And I want to know if you have any analysis yourself of why that's not improving?""We're trying to transform this country, not win an election, not just beat Trump," Sanders said. "So it's a different type of campaign, and we're doing quite well within that context."Maddow pressed Sanders on his persistent weakness among black voters, especially in the South. Sanders said that he won about 39 percent of people of color -- Latinos, Asian-Americans, and black voters -- in California, but Maddow pointed out that even in California, Sanders is "being well outpaced by Joe Biden among black voters.""Well, we're running against somebody who has touted his relationship with Barack Obama for eight years," Sanders said. "Barack Obama is enormously popular in this country in general, and in the African American community. Running against Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton was enormously popular." Some polls have him beating Biden among black voters, he said, so "it's not that I'm not popular," but Biden's ties to Obama are "working well" for him.Sanders told Maddow that "if Biden walks into the convention, or at the end of the process, has more votes than me, he's the winner." Maddow asked if it's "100 percent impossible to imagine a unity ticket" with Biden. "You mean two old white guys on the ticket?" Sanders asked. "Well, probably not. ... One old white guy is probably one too many for some. I think we need a little more diversity than that."How about Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as his running mate? "It's too early to talk about that, but certainly I have a lot of respect for Sen. Warren and would love to sit down and talk with her about what kind of role she could play in our administration," he said. When asked, Sanders said he is "absolutely aghast and disgusted with any kind of vitriol online" directed at Warren by his supporters. "I condemn that, you know, it's ugly stuff." More stories from theweek.com It's 2020 and women are exhausted Andrew Yang is launching a nonprofit to make universal basic income a reality Could Democrats win the battle against Trump but lose the war against Trumpism?
|
| Large asteroid will fly close to, but won't hit, Earth next month: NASA Posted: 04 Mar 2020 07:48 AM PST  A large asteroid will fly close to, but won't hit, Earth next month, according to NASA data. CNN reports that the asteroid, predicted to be between 1.1 and 2.5 miles wide, is scheduled to fly past Earth on April 29.
|
| 'I don't pick up from airports' — how Uber and Lyft drivers are dealing with the coronavirus outbreak Posted: 04 Mar 2020 09:16 AM PST  "I wear rubber gloves," said one Uber driver. "And when I pick up more than two riders, I wear a mask."
|
| China's Handling of the Coronavirus Has United Its People Against the Government Posted: 05 Mar 2020 12:30 AM PST  How China's Great Firewall was breached.
|
| YouTubers keep playing Plague Inc. to try and simulate how coronavirus will spread across the world, even though the company behind the game has stressed it's 'not a scientific model' Posted: 05 Mar 2020 08:57 AM PST  YouTubers are playing Plague Inc. to see whether or not their version of the virus could wipe out humanity.
|
0 条评论:
发表评论
订阅 博文评论 [Atom]
<< 主页