Reading archive 2019-12-31

Iraq’s Shiites helped boost the political elite in Baghdad. Now they want to bring it down.

Prison guard trainees were photographed giving a Nazi salute. The entire class was fired.

Reading archive 2019-12-30

The people of this remote Canadian island village are taking government money to clear out. One couple is staying.

In strategic Djibouti, a microcosm of China’s growing foothold in Africa

Explosive new revelations just weakened Trump’s impeachment defenses

Reading archive 2019-12-28

Navy SEALs call Edward Gallagher ‘evil’ in leaked videos

Reading archive 2019-12-27

Woman who drove into a girl for being ‘a Mexican’ hit a black child the same day, police say

White evangelicals fear atheists and Democrats would strip away their rights. Why?: Right-wing media is warning of a civil war — and urging evangelicals to stock up on guns

Reading archive 2019-12-19

At Yale, we conducted an experiment to turn conservatives into liberals. The results say a lot about our political divisions.

Reading archive 2019-12-13

Defeated GOP governor pardoned violent criminals in a spree lawyers are calling an ‘atrocity of justice’

A moderate congresswoman went all-in for Trump. Her constituents think they know why.

How consulting companies like McKinsey optimized American inequality: Two things tend to happen when businesses hire a management consultant: Stock performance rises and payroll falls.

You Wanted Same-Sex Marriage? Now You Have Pete Buttigieg.: To a lot of progressive queer people, Buttigieg’s campaign symbolizes everything the marriage-focused mainstream gay rights movement has failed to deliver.

Pete Buttigieg is a bad gay? Here we go again.

Reading archive 2019-12-10

Big Money Is Building A New Kind Of National Park In The Great Plains

Reading archive 2019-12-06

Phone logs in impeachment report renew concern about security of Trump communications

Reading archive 2019-12-05

Barr’s handpicked prosecutor tells inspector general he can’t back right-wing theory that Russia case was U.S. intelligence setup

‘The world is laughing at President Trump’: Joe Biden highlights viral NATO video in campaign ad

‘Don’t mess with me when it comes to words like that,’ Pelosi tells reporter who asked her whether she hates Trump

Reading archive 2019-12-03

What Pete Buttigieg really said about being gay, prejudice and blacks

It’s 2019, and your boss can still fire you for being gay in these states

California solves batteries’ embarrassing climate problem: Batteries were increasing carbon emissions (d’oh!), but new regulations and tech have fixed it.

The staggering millennial wealth deficit, in one chart: The divide widens with each generation, data show, the byproduct of wage stagnation and income inequality

Barr disputes key inspector general finding about FBI’s Russia investigation

Trump Is Waging War on America’s Diplomats: And the impeachment inquiry is only making things worse. With new figures and fresh horror stories, Julia Ioffe reports on how the president is politicizing our embassies, alienating our allies, and decimating the ranks of the foreign service. - "Career foreign service officers work long hours in difficult conditions, making less money than they would in the private sector. Often, they are driven by their sense of mission—say, promoting American values abroad—but when President Trump began attacking the pillars of American national security and smearing diplomats by name on Twitter, 'suddenly,' says one senior foreign service officer who was pushed out on a scheduling technicality, 'the equation didn’t make sense anymore.' What had started as a trickle of people leaving at the highest levels—often, people who were close to retirement—has turned into a flood of mid-career and junior officers heading for the door. The departure of top talent, people who had decades’ worth of wisdom that could have passed on to people below them, as well as the exodus of mid-level officers who had years to go before their retirements, will continue to resonate for quite a while, says Nicholas Burns, a retired career foreign service officer who is now at the Harvard Kennedy School. 'That gap will show up years later,' he told me."

How Bloomberg Could Win. Again.: He’s getting in late. He’s out of step with his party. The news media thinks he’s a joke. All of that was true when he first ran for mayor of New York City, too.

Reading archive 2019-11-26

Pete Buttigieg Is a Lying MF

Queer Like: Pete Buttigieg is getting slammed for being a type of gay man America doesn’t understand.

Pete Buttigieg Called Me. Here's What Happened

Reading archive 2019-11-25

China’s Operating Manuals For Mass Internment And Arrest By Algorithm: A new leak of highly classified Chinese government documents reveals the operations manual for running the mass detention camps in Xinjiang and exposed the mechanics of the region’s system of mass surveillance.

Sergii Leshchenko: The true story of Yanukovych’s black ledger

Reading archive 2019-11-22

Barack Obama, conservative: The left and the right still misunderstand his politics.

The High-Paid DC Millennials Who Are Using Side Hustles to “Ball Out”: "I made $400 off a dog that was next to my house."

When a deep red town’s only grocery closed, city hall opened its own store. Just don’t call it ‘socialism.’

Reading archive 2019-11-13

Leaked Stephen Miller emails shows Trump’s point man on immigration promoted white nationalism, SPLC reports

A rogue cat who ‘will not be contained’ keeps trying to free his shelter comrades

The GOP theory that Ukraine ‘set up’ Trump

AP Exclusive: FBI eyes how Pennsylvania approved pipeline

The GOP attacked Ilhan Omar for calling Stephen Miller a ‘white nationalist.’ She says his leaked emails prove her right.

Why Doesn't Georgetown Have A Metro Station? It Goes Beyond NIMBYism

Reading archive 2019-11-12

An epic ‘Meet the Press’ rant unmasks the real goal of Trump’s lies

Pete Buttigieg wants to build a bridge to the religious right. But tension within his in-laws’ family highlights how difficult that may be.

Inside the NBA's silent tension surrounding Daryl Morey

Stephen Miller’s Affinity for White Nationalism Revealed in Leaked Emails

Reading archive 2019-11-07

The head of Ukraine’s gas company has been shot at, pilloried on TV and attacked by Giuliani associates. It’s all in a day’s work.: The chief of Naftogaz Ukrainy is fighting on every front to reform a hotbed of power struggles and intrigue.

Cubans were once privileged migrants to the United States. Now they’re stuck at the border, like everyone else.

Justices seem to want to avoid extremes in Clean Water Act case

Trump’s allies turned to online campaign in quest to unmask Ukraine whistleblower

How Mexico’s cartel wars shattered American Mormons’ wary peace

Top official says Trump wanted Ukraine to announce a ‘Clinton’ probe, further undermining Trump’s defenses

Reading archive 2019-11-06

Racist trolls targeted a Somali refugee’s campaign. She still managed to pull off a historic victory.

Republicans wake to a blue Virginia

Cyclist who flipped off Trump wins county supervisor seat representing his golf club

Kentucky outcome embarrasses Trump and worries many Republicans ahead of 2020

Justice Dept. trying to finish report on Russia probe before Thanksgiving

Trump makes falsehoods central to impeachment defense as incriminating evidence mounts

‘OK, boomer’: 25-year-old lawmaker shuts down heckler during climate change speech

Thanks to Rand Paul, Russian Media Are Naming the Alleged Whistleblower: Outing “the whistleblower” is the most egregious, but certainly not the only, example of Kremlin-funded media cheerleading the fight against impeachment. They love “their” Trump.

The Ham-Handed, Money-Driven Mangling of Sports Illustrated and Deadspin

Majority of D.C. Council urges Jack Evans to resign after report of alleged ethics violations

The Hater’s Guide to Mayor Pete: Pete Buttigieg has campaigned on a pledge to build unity. That’s just a pledge to do nothing.

Reading archive 2019-11-05

The scope of Trump’s corruption is mind-boggling. New developments show how.

Inside TikTok: A culture clash where U.S. views about censorship often were overridden by the Chinese bosses: Managers insist they are revamping policies to give American staff greater autonomy from Beijing.

Trump called woman who says he sexually assaulted her, phone records show

All eyes are on Wisconsin, the state that’s gearing up to define the presidential election

Pompeo Faces Political Peril and Diplomats’ Revolt in Impeachment Inquiry: The secretary of state has been drawn deeply into the Ukraine affair, with a parade of his diplomats testifying. He is sticking by the president.

A library wanted a New York Times subscription. Officials refused, citing Trump and ‘fake news.’

Reading archive 2019-11-04

In China, every day is Kristallnacht

Reading archive 2019-11-03

D.C. lawmaker defends vote on no-bid gambling contract that lists his cousin

Reading archive 2019-10-31

Farm bankruptcies surge 24% on strain from Trump trade war - "Almost 40% of projected farm profit this year will come from trade aid, disaster assistance, federal subsidies and insurance payments, according to the report, based on Department of Agriculture forecasts. That's $33 billion of a projected $88 billion in income."

Doubts about chocolate: U.S. officials investigate whether to block critical cocoa imports

Economy slows, Fed hits brakes, and uncertainty clouds Washington’s next steps: Business investment contracts for second straight quarter, as companies pull back amid concerns - "'The consumer is still the main engine of economic growth, plus federal government spending. The nation just capped off a year of nearly a trillion-dollar deficit. Not surprisingly, all this federal spending is showing up in the GDP numbers,' said Stuart Hoffman, senior economic adviser at PNC Financial Services Group."

Downturns in these four counties have foreshadowed past recessions. What are they doing now?: Bellwether parts of the United States can reveal much about what the country will look like in 2020

Reading archive 2019-10-30

“This Should Be a Wake-up Call to the Whole World”: Inside the Hong Kong: Protests Tensions between the NBA and China have touched off an international firestorm. They’ve also shined a light on the fight for human rights in Hong Kong—and the frontliners at the center of the movement. - "I hear calls for Western support in many conversations I have in Hong Kong. 'I think it’s really important for Americans to think about how China is affecting democratic countries in their own territories,' Leung, the attorney, says. 'Think about it. Even the U.S., which is the most powerful democracy—the Chinese are having a huge impact on what Americans can say in America.' He points specifically to Morey. 'I mean, he didn’t even say anything! He didn’t say anything about China. He didn’t say anything about the government. He just shared a poster.'

"He cites other recent controversies, too. Marriott fired an employee who 'wrongfully liked' a tweet supporting independence for Tibet. Apple removed an app, HKmap.live, that protesters had used to track police activity. The esports company Blizzard Entertainment punished a Hearthstone player and Hong Konger who showed support for the movement during a livestream. 'You guys fought so hard to get the First Amendment so that you could say what you want in your own country,' he says. 'And now a foreign country is dictating what you can and can’t say on your own soil.'"

Kanye has a new album, but he isn’t worth our time anymore: In the past, we’ve overlooked his antics because of his transcendent music. That Mr. West is gone.

An ad smeared a Kansas Democrat for sexual harassment. The main charge actually described a Republican.

National security official tells Congress he tried to add edits to White House memo about Trump Ukraine call: The proposed edits of the call were to include Trump mentioning possible recordings of Joe Biden discussing corruption in Ukraine and Ukraine’s president mentioning the Burisma gas company specifically.

The ‘race whisperer’: A black activist convinced a neo-Nazi he’d save him from legal ruin. Then the real plan began.

Reading archive 2019-10-29

Boomers crush millennials. Read all about it!

The Democratic establishment is right to panic - "The truth is that establishment angst is being driven, above all, by power — and moneyed Democrats who can feel their grasp on power in the party slipping. Big donors may be willing to pay more in taxes under a Democratic president, but they seem unwilling to abide the loss of access or influence over the party’s direction that a Sanders or Warren presidency would bring. Indeed, as Nation correspondent Jeet Heer writes, 'The real source of anxiety among the donor class is surely not about the viability of Warren or Sanders but rather the precarious position of wealthy contributors in the Democratic coalition.'"

Sen. Johnson, ally of Trump and Ukraine, surfaces in crucial episodes in the saga

Evangelicals have been reshaped into the image of Trump himself

‘It feels like a horror movie’: Republicans feel anxious and adrift defending Trump

As a Kentucky mill shutters, steelworkers see the limits of Trump’s intervention: Although tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum imports provided a temporary boost, the industry is seeing another decline

Reading archive 2019-10-24

Here’s why the Matt Gaetz sit-in stunt was particularly weird

House Republicans May Have Committed Some Light Treason

Reading archive 2019-10-23

Trump administration sought billions of dollars in cuts to programs aimed at fighting corruption in Ukraine and elsewhere: Democrats have slammed White House insistence that Trump was focused on corruption — not Bidens — when he blocked Ukraine aid funds.

An overlooked Bill Taylor revelation hints at worse to come from Trump

Reading archive 2019-10-22

Trump likely saw Pelosi’s overseas trip as a slap in the face. But someone had to do it.

It’s probably worth remembering that Trump’s Ukraine-2016 allegations are nonsensical

Running Covert Propaganda Against Americans Is Illegal. Trump Tried It Anyway.: The whistleblower stopped a covert psychological operation against the American public dead in its tracks

Buttigieg focus groups found being gay “a barrier” for black South Carolina voters

Mayor Pete Faces a Familiar and “Vicious” Enemy in South Carolina: Homophobia: Black pastors say Buttigieg will struggle in churches that define marriage as between a man and a woman.

William Taylor testifies about deep-seated push for Ukraine quid pro quo: Trump's top Ukraine envoy faced questions about his concerns that Trump was withholding military aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.

U.S. envoy says he was told release of Ukraine aid was contingent on public declaration to investigate Bidens, 2016 election

How 'It's a gay bar, Pamela' became the Twin Cities' favorite meme

Mayor Pete’s Relationship With Facebook: It’s Complicated: The relationship between the world’s most influential corporation and Buttigieg has come under scrutiny after Mark Zuckerberg passed along two résumés to the campaign.

Mayor Pete Is Starting to Annoy Almost Everyone Else in the 2020 Race: The South Bend mayor has gone after many of his primary rivals in recent weeks, save one.

Shaq Defends Free Speech on NBA Opening Night: ‘Daryl Morey Was Right’: The former NBA star delivered a strong defense of the Houston Rockets GM’s pro-Democracy comments on TNT, which tweeted and then deleted the clip.

Tulsi Gabbard Unites Putin Apologists, Bloodstained Modi, Genocidal Assad and the U.S. Far Right: Gabbard suffers from severely selective moral outrage. Her love for India's massacre-complicit Modi is just as disqualifying as her apologetics for Bashar Assad

Tulsi Gabbard Hires Russian Agent to Keep Hawaii Media in Check

Jeffrey Toobin expresses regret over 'mistakes' in Clinton email coverage

Local lawmaker in Tennessee says he’s not prejudiced, but ‘a white male in this country has very few rights’

Reading archive 2019-10-21

‘They are livid’: Trump’s withdrawal from Syria prompts rare public criticism from current, former military officials

Judge rules Florida can’t block felons from voting, even if they have unpaid fines

Watch Fox’s Wallace Grill Mulvaney as He Tries to Walk Back Quid Pro Quo Remarks

How ‘Baby Shark’ became the anthem of the Nationals’ 2019 season and World Series run

State Dept. Inquiry Into Clinton Emails Finds No Deliberate Mishandling of Classified Information: The report appears to bookend a controversy that dogged Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. - "A yearslong State Department investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server found that while the use of the system for official business increased the risk of compromising classified information, there was no systemic or deliberate mishandling of classified information.
...
The report was released this week by Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who began investigating Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server in 2017, when he served as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee."

Reading archive 2019-10-18

‘Get over it’: Mulvaney’s twin admissions put Trump at the center of emoluments and Ukraine controversies

Hamilton pushed for impeachment powers. Trump is what he had in mind. He wanted a strong president — and a way to get rid of the demagogic ones.

“THERE IS DEFINITE HANKY-PANKY GOING ON”: THE FANTASTICALLY PROFITABLE MYSTERY OF THE TRUMP CHAOS TRADES

Reading archive 2019-10-17

Facing unbearable heat, Qatar has begun to air-condition the outdoors

Republicans criticize House impeachment process — while fully participating in probe

Reading archive 2019-10-15

Trump’s betrayal of the Kurds is sickening to U.S. soldiers

Reading archive 2019-10-12

China is building financial leverage over all Americans

Reading archive 2019-10-11

New revelations about Trump test Pelosi’s narrow impeachment strategy

Ousted ambassador Marie Yovanovitch tells Congress Trump pressured State Dept. to remove her

The growing debate over spaying and neutering dogs

Shepard Smith, Fox News veteran anchor and frequent Trump target, abruptly resigns from the network

Ellen DeGeneres tells America she’s better than us

Dear Ellen: The Problem With George W. Bush Is Not His Beliefs — It’s His War Crimes - "Bush should be treated as a pariah not because he is a Republican or a conservative, but because he caused the deaths of thousands of innocent people and tortured hundreds of others."

Reading archive 2019-10-10

Two business associates of Trump’s personal attorney Giuliani have been arrested on campaign finance charges

A spice company spent more money on impeachment ads on Facebook than anyone not named Trump

Turkey, Iran, gold, Giuliani and Trump: A guide to the case of Reza Zarrab

Reading archive 2019-10-09

Will Gorsuch abandon his judicial philosophy to get what he wants?

It took an uncomfortably long time, but Adam Silver got it right on NBA and China

A photographer told a group of teens to stop using the n-word. Then shots rang out.

Inside Fox News: How the impeachment fight is opening fresh divisions in the newsroom

The Elizabeth Warren pregnancy smear shows how poisoned the media world is

Clinton-email critics pull a role reversal as Trump administration draws fire for private phone use

Reading archive 2019-10-08

From Shake Shack to Starbucks, the Hong Kong-China standoff is proving bad for business

The Supreme Court must extend the Civil Rights Act’s protections to LGBTQ employees: It shouldn’t be legal to fire somebody for their sexual orientation or gender identity

Reading archive 2019-10-07

The media figured it out, just in the nick of time - "'From the moment that Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy began his smear campaign in February 1950 up until his censure by the U.S. Senate in 1954. The story of McCarthy was not just the story of indecency, and lies, and law breaking. It was also the story about just how much Republican lawmakers were willing to take. After all, many of them knew that what McCarthy was doing wasn’t just wrong, it was corrupting the nation, but they were afraid of him turning his sights on them. They feared the wrath of his political power. You know, when you go back and read about that period, what really stands out is how much McCarthy’s contemporaries are judged today by how they handled him. Senator Margaret Chase Smith, Republican of Maine, a hero of the current Senator Susan Collins of Maine, had a long trailblazing career but her obituary in “The Washington Post” referred to her moment standing up to McCarthy, her Declaration of Conscience in 1950 as her finest moments in politics.Conversely stands the example of Ohio Senator Bob Taft, the Senate majority leader who knew better. He ones called McCarthy reckless and McCarthy’s charges bunked, but Taft essential ended up casting his lot in with the smear artist from Wisconsin. . .

'There are empirical wrongs in the world. Smearing innocent people is one of them. Using your political office to force foreign nations to dig up dirt on your political opponents is another one. That is not what foreign policy is for. You know this. I know this. And I would bet that most Republicans on Capitol Hill know this. They would do well to remember the lessons of Senators Smith and Taft, because history will one day come looking for them, too. She will want to know what they said and did during this time. She will likely not be in a forgiving mood.'"

An Open Letter to the American People [ed note: Intelligence officials backing up whistleblower]

Colin Powell: ‘The Republican Party has got to get a grip on itself’

Reading archive 2019-10-03

Farm-state fury creates pressure for Trump as trade, energy pain collide

Reading archive 2019-10-02

The Federalist’s Sean Davis demonstrates the pathetic lows of right-wing media during the Trump impeachment inquiry: Davis published a wildly inaccurate article that was promoted by President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders. He is now refusing to back down even though he is embarrassingly wrong.

Correcting a media error: Biden’s Ukraine showdown was in December 2015

Dolphins are swimming, mating and even giving birth in the Potomac

Reading archive 2019-10-01

A white cop shot an innocent black man in his own home. A judge ruled that ‘castle doctrine’ might protect her.

Residents put huge rocks on their sidewalk to keep the homeless away — and launched a battle

Reading archive 2019-09-30

Barr personally asked foreign officials to aid inquiry into CIA, FBI activities in 2016

‘Beyond repugnant’: GOP congressman slams Trump for warning of ‘civil war’ over impeachment

John Bolton has finally spoken, and he put up a big warning sign about Trump and North Korea

‘You lied’: Florida official interrupts awards ceremony to confront deputy who ‘falsely arrested’ him

Reading archive 2019-09-16

Kamala Harris grew up in a mostly white world. Then she went to a black university in a black city.: When anyone challenges her racial identity, the presidential candidate points to her four years at Howard University.

Reading archive 2019-09-15

Gay conservative owes happiness to making LGBTQ community miserable

Reading archive 2019-09-10

How Lisa Bloom, feminist attorney, became just another complicit Aunt Lydia

Reading archive 2019-09-09

The USDA relocation to Kansas City is ripping apart the lives of its employees. Here are some of their stories.

US extracted top spy from inside Russia in 2017

Trump Is Not Well: Accepting the reality about the president’s disordered personality is important—even essential.

Reading archive 2019-09-05

An illusion of justice: The baffling conviction and death sentence of Toforest Johnson reveal a broken system

Reading archive 2019-09-04

Immigration panic: how the west fell for manufactured rage: From Trump to Orbán, politicians are winning votes by stoking age-old hatreds. Where does this fear of migrants come from?

No sane reason: Hilman Jordan was let out of a D.C. mental hospital 17 years after shooting a man. Now he’s accused of killing again.

Reading archive 2019-08-19

More from the Matt Shea files: GPS trackers, a ‘provisional government’ and a hunt for moles

Reading archive 08-09-2019

The NRA and its allies use jargon to bully gun-control supporters

‘They’re afraid’: Suburban voters in red states threaten GOP’s grip on power

China leaks U.S. diplomat’s personal information in Hong Kong as protesters flood into airport

Human intelligence can’t be transferred to machines

Reading archive 2019-08-07

U.S. State Department Official Involved in White Nationalist Movement, Hatewatch Determines

D.C. is considering giving more prisoners a chance for early release. Prosecutors are pushing back.

The Trump Appointee Who’s Putting White Supremacists in Jail: Two years after Charlottesville, this Republican prosecutor is pioneering a new approach to convicting racist rioters

Reading archive 2019-08-06

Harris, Sanders, Booker campaigned at Vegas church led by pastor who calls being gay a sin: Pastor has called being gay a sin “enough to send you to hell” - "Fowler said his views on LGBTQ issues never came up in his conversations with Harris or Booker at the church this weekend — and he didn’t see gay rights as 'a major issue at this point' at a time when the U.S. is facing challenges like this week’s mass shootings." [ed. note: the Pulse nightclub shooting was two years ago]

Mother of gay teen fights for justice after 'house arrest' decision for father accused in murder

Peter Strzok sues FBI for firing him over anti-Trump texts

Reading archive 2019-08-05

Ohio Republican blames mass shootings on ‘drag queen advocates,’ Colin Kaepernick and Obama

How the ‘good guy with a gun’ became a deadly American fantasy

Black Man Killed by Police in Alabama Was Shot From Behind, Autopsy Shows

Steelmaker That Praised Trump Tariffs Now Suing U.S. for Relief

US farmers are slamming Trump — saying 'trade policy is not a game' and China tariffs will plague ranchers for 'decades'

Why do so many working class Americans feel politics is pointless?

Can gentrification be a force for positive social change? A new paper suggests it displaces few people and often improves life for those who stay

LEFT BEHIND: Farmers fight to save their land in rural Minnesota as trade war intensifies

Reading archive 2019-08-04

John Paul Stevens: Repeal the Second Amendment

There are no lone wolves

Three mass shootings this year began with a hateful screed on 8chan. Its founder calls it a terrorist refuge in plain sight.

I MADE AN UNTRACEABLE AR-15 'GHOST GUN' IN MY OFFICE—AND IT WAS EASY

YOU’RE NOT GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP—AND IT’S KILLING YOU

JARGON WATCH: THE RISING DANGER OF STOCHASTIC TERRORISM

Reading archive 2019-08-03

McConnell’s new posture toward Moscow

Reading archive 2019-08-02

Chicago remade its 127-year-old rapid transit system. Are there lessons for Metro?

Reading archive 2019-07-31

Reagan called President Nixon to slur Africans as ‘monkeys.’ Of course there are tapes.

Reading archive 2019-07-30

What Does Marianne Williamson Believe? After Donald Trump, what should a president be, anyway?

Reading archive 2019-07-29

The Trouble with Earthworms

Reading archive 2019-07-28

'Little Britain' Has Not Aged Very Well: The hugely popular sketch show is 15 years old today. Computer says... Happy Birthday!

Boris Johnson wants Britain to laugh away his racism

With a month of victories, Pelosi shows who holds the reins in a fractious House

Reading archive 2019-07-26

Ole Miss frat brothers brought guns to an Emmett Till memorial. They’re not the first.

Reading archive 2019-07-23

The Ham of Fate

‘We’re like Thelma and Louise’: Republicans shrug at deficits under Trump

Reading archive 2019-07-22

Trees can’t escape the extreme heat. But they do have some impressive coping mechanisms.

Reading archive 2019-07-21

How trashy TV made children dumber and enabled a wave of populist leaders

Scrutiny of Chinese American scientists raises fears of ethnic profiling

Reading archive 2019-07-18

Trump Attacks Congresswomen At N.C. Rally, As Crowd Chants 'Send Her Back'

‘His ideology is racism’: Former top Texas judge says she’s leaving GOP over Trump

‘Malignant, dangerous, violent’: Trump rally’s ‘Send her back!’ chant raises new concerns of intolerance

Can you guess which GOP lawmaker gets the booby prize for moral imbecility?

When Non-Jews Wield Anti-Semitism as Political Shield: In recent weeks, some Republicans have raised the specter of anti-Semitism as a convenient distraction from detention camps and racist tropes. And the Jews are tired of it.

Meghan McCain feels victimized by Trump’s attacks on Omar: ‘You’re taking away my agency to criticize her’

Reading archive 2019-07-13

We’ve just lived through the greatest period of restaurant growth in U.S. history. Here’s why it’s ending.

President Trump takes aim at Facebook’s cryptocurrency, Libra, saying it should be regulated

Even as floods worsen, Midwest towns plan new riverfront development

Reading archive 2019-07-12

The trouble with tigers in America: As a subculture of enthusiasts raise and breed the big cats, authorities now say there likely are more of the animals in cages in the United States than in the wild across the world.

Reading archive 2019-07-11

Kim Darroch isn’t the undiplomatic one

Reading archive 2019-07-10

New disclosures about lewd Trump video reveal his mastery of the GOP

Reading archive 2019-07-09

Exclusive: The true origins of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory. A Yahoo News investigation.

A black principal, four white teens and the ‘senior prank’ that became a hate crime: The students swore they weren’t racists. Now a Maryland judge would decide their fate.

Study: U.S. Fossil Fuel Subsidies Exceed Pentagon Spending: The world would be richer and healthier if the full costs of fossil fuels were paid, according to a new report from the International Monetary Fund

Trump dossier author Steele gets 16-hour DOJ grilling: The interview was contentious at first, according to two people familiar with the matter, but investigators ultimately found his testimony credible and even surprising.

The double-edged significance of Pelosi’s ‘Make America White Again’ slam

A child touched an electrified railing at MGM National Harbor resort, and lives changed

Reading archive 2019-07-05

Haunted by the Reagan era: Past defeats still scare older Democratic leaders — but not the younger generation

Reading archive 2019-07-04

Fox hosts used to decry the notion of talking to dictators. Not anymore.

Reading archive 2019-07-02

For China, a growing conundrum: What to do with Hong Kong?

Reading archive 2019-07-01

French say oops on viral Ivanka moment: 'We didn’t anticipate the reaction,' a French official said after a video released by the French government fueled concern about Ivanka Trump's role in U.S. foreign policy.

The hugely inappropriate weekend of Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

Reading archive 2019-06-29

The Boomers Ruined Everything: The mistakes of the past are fast creating a crisis for younger Americans.

Reading archive 2019-06-28

Joe Biden called busing a ‘liberal train wreck.’ Now his stance on school integration is an issue.

Reading archive 2019-06-27

Obama Is a Republican: He’s the heir to Richard Nixon, not Saul Alinsky.

Reading archive 2019-06-25

SEEING ISN’T BELIEVING: The Fact Checker’s guide to manipulated video

Reading archive 2019-06-24

The $11 Million Libel Verdict Against Oberlin College Is A Threat To Colleges Nationwide

If Seeing the World Helps Ruin It, Should We Stay Home? In the age of global warming, traveling — by plane, boat or car — is a fraught choice. And yet the world beckons.

Reading archive 2019-06-23

Elizabeth Warren, saviour of capitalism: The senator from Massachusetts’s strong primary campaign suggests that ideas still matter

A match made in heaven: Gay-rights activists advanced radical aims by marrying them to a traditional institution.

PRIDE FOR SALE: As more corporations celebrate LGBTQ people each June, pride and profit are mixed — and so are the consequences

Reading archive 2019-06-21

Google Chrome has become surveillance software. It’s time to switch.

White House reporters have arranged farewell drinks with Sarah Sanders

‘I don’t know how we’re going to survive this.’ Some once-loyal farmers begin to doubt Trump.

Murder in the Atlas Mountains: In a crime apparently intended to impress the Islamic State, two Scandinavian women were brutally slain in Morocco. The killings were seized on by the far right to attack Islam.

No Charges For Adult Arrested in “anti-gay hate crime on U Street”, Status of Juveniles Arrested Unknown

Reading archive 2019-06-20

Senate confirms Trump judicial nominee who called homosexuality ‘disordered’

‘These People Aren’t Coming From Norway’: Refugees in a Minnesota City Face a Backlash: As more Somali refugees arrive in St. Cloud, white anti-immigration activists have pressed an increasingly explicit anti-Muslim agenda.

Reading archive 2019-06-19

Our Orlando Sentinel endorsement for president in 2020: Not Donald Trump

Cruising in the Age of Consent: Gay men once developed codes to ensure safety in the hunt for sex. Can they help #MeToo do the same?

Reading archive 2019-06-18

Police: 4 teens arrested following string of violent robberies, assaults in Northwest DC

Reading archive 2019-06-17

U.S. Escalates Online Attacks on Russia’s Power Grid - "Two administration officials said they believed Mr. Trump had not been briefed in any detail about the steps to place “implants” — software code that can be used for surveillance or attack — inside the Russian grid.

"Pentagon and intelligence officials described broad hesitation to go into detail with Mr. Trump about operations against Russia for concern over his reaction — and the possibility that he might countermand it or discuss it with foreign officials, as he did in 2017 when he mentioned a sensitive operation in Syria to the Russian foreign minister."

Reading archive 2019-06-15

Concord Massacre Plot Foiled

To protect and slur: Inside hate groups on Facebook, police officers trade racist memes, conspiracy theories and Islamophobia

The Illiberal Right Throws a Tantrum: A faction of the religious right has concluded that if liberal democracy does not guarantee victory, then it must be abandoned. - "The state of emergency occurred when, and only when, liberal democracy ceased to guarantee victory in the culture war. The indignity of fighting for one’s rights within a democratic framework is fine for others, but it is beneath them.
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"The American creed has no more devoted adherents than those who have been historically denied its promises, and no more fair-weather friends than those who have taken them for granted."

Meet one of India’s most divisive new legislators: A Hindu nun charged with terrorism

Reading archive 2019-06-14

The kidnapped Yazidi children who don’t want to be rescued from ISIS

Sarah Sanders was the disdainful Queen of Gaslighting

Saving face: How Donald Trump silenced the people who could expose his business failures

Reading archive 2019-06-13

Federal watchdog agency recommends removal of Kellyanne Conway from federal office for violating the Hatch Act

The best way to help dairy farmers is to get them out of dairy farming

Reading archive 2019-06-12

Trump’s latest rage-threat gives Democrats a big opening. One just took it.

Some U.S. embassies still hoisting rainbow flags, despite advisory from Washington

An activist faced 20 years in prison for helping migrants. But jurors wouldn’t convict him.

Why is the USDA downplaying good news about this Obama-era school nutrition program?

Clarence Thomas Says His African-American History Museum Exhibit Is Wrong, Doesn’t Want To Talk About It: I'm willing to talk about why Thomas hates affirmative-action, even if he's not.

Protesters storm Hong Kong’s streets over extradition bill; police respond with tear gas, rubber bullets

Reading archive 2019-06-09 through 2019-06-11

Elon Musk’s satellites threaten to disrupt the night sky for all of us

For the ‘Stonewall Generation,’ turning to others for care could make them uniquely vulnerable

How the battle of bra-baring waitresses and ultrareligious protesters explains Israel’s political crisis

‘The migration problem is a coffee problem’: In western Guatemala, cultivating coffee was once a way out of poverty. As prices fall, growers are abandoning their farms for the United States.

A newborn was left to die 26 years ago. A mother’s arrest has led to baffling new questions.

Reading archive 2019-06-06

U.S. military risks falling victim to China’s effort to gain technology edge, report warns

Reading archive 2019-06-05

Cocoa’s child laborers: Mars, Nestlé and Hershey pledged nearly two decades ago to stop using cocoa harvested by children. Yet much of the chocolate you buy still starts with child labor.

New York anti-vaccine event attracts pro-vaccine protests amid measles outbreak

Lies? The news media is starting to describe Trump’s ‘falsehoods’ that way.

Reading archive 2019-06-04

Meet the GOP operatives who aim to smear the 2020 Democrats — but keep bungling it

Reading archive 2019-06-03

Killing wolves was supposed to solve a problem but created one that will last forever

The birthplace of American slavery debated abolishing it after Nat Turner’s bloody revolt

Reading archive 2019-05-31

Clarence Thomas tried to link abortion to eugenics. Seven historians told The Post he’s wrong.

Cory Booker and the Orthodox rabbi were like brothers. Now they don’t speak.: Their bond bridged religious and racial divides, but it collapsed in an increasingly divided country.

The average millennial has an average net worth of $8,000. That’s far less than previous generations.

Reading archive 2019-05-28

Tulsi Gabbard’s Top Online Fundraiser Is A Las Vegas Shooting Conspiracy Theorist: Niko House, who won the Hawaii Democrat’s recent donor challenge, also believes Bill Cosby was framed and that “Pizzagate” is real.

Reading archive 2019-05-25

50 years after Apollo, conspiracy theorists are still howling at the ‘moon hoax’

Reading archive 2019-05-24

The Real Reason Fans Hate the Last Season of Game of Thrones: It's not just bad storytelling—it’s because the storytelling style changed from sociological to psychological

New Law Would Help Bees—but Could Leave Other Pollinators out in the Cold: Proposed legislation focuses mostly on threats to honeybees and their wild cousins

He pledged to kill ‘as many girls as I see’ in mass shooting. After second chances, he’s going to prison.

Looted Nazi art and LGBT rights merge in recovery of Polish painting: After their prized 17th-century portrait is revealed to have been stolen from Poland’s National Museum, Los Angles same-sex couple turns setback into equality campaign

Reading archive 2019-05-23

The ‘Clotilda,’ the Last Known Slave Ship to Arrive in the U.S., Is Found: The discovery carries intense, personal meaning for an Alabama community of descendants of the ship’s survivors

Chicago bank CEO indicted on accusations of bribing Manafort for administration job

Head of NOAA says 5G deployment could set weather forecasts back 40 years. The wireless industry denies it.

Soros foundation seeks to fight conspiratorial chatter on Fox News. To little avail.

Reading archive 2019-05-22

An American pastor reportedly gave ‘miracle water’ to Ugandans. It was bleach.

Reading archive 2019-05-20

The agony of ending a wanted late-term pregnancy: three women speak out

I had a later abortion because I couldn't give my baby girl both life and peace

Reading archive 2019-05-17

How Big Business Is Hedging Against the Apocalypse: Investors are finally paying attention to climate change — though not in the way you might hope.

With more than 1,100 dead, Congo’s Ebola outbreak is only getting worse. Now doctors are forced to go undercover.

Trans Women Are Women. This Isn’t a Debate.

Reading archive 2019-05-11

A D.C. author shamed a Metro worker for eating on the train. Now her book deal is in jeopardy.

Reading archive 2019-05-10

A couple uprooted a 180-year-old oak. A judge ordered them to pay nearly $600,000.

Sonoma County couple ordered to pay nearly $600,000 for damage to protected property

A sponsor of an Ohio abortion bill thinks you can reimplant ectopic pregnancies. You can’t.

Reading archive 2019-05-09

Life Without Plastic Is Possible. It’s Just Very Hard.: Going plastic free starts with cloth bags and straws. Suddenly, you’re … making your own toothpaste?

Colorado school shooting survivor said he’d ‘go down fighting.’ He’s 12.

Reading archive 2019-05-07

What Happened After My 13-Year-Old Son Joined the Alt-Right: A Washington family's nightmare year.

Reading archive 2019-05-03

Inside Bernie Sanders’s 1988 10-day ‘honeymoon’ in the Soviet Union

Reading archive 2019-04-30

Rod Rosenstein is leaving as a diminished man and shamed lawyer

‘CLOSE THE RAPE ATTIC’: Swarthmore students occupy fraternity after disturbing documents leak

Should cities subsidize housing for a family making $141,000?

FACT CHECK: Correcting anti-vaccine testimony

Reading archive 2019-04-24

Thousands of Immigrant Children Said They Were Sexually Abused in U.S. Detention Centers, Report Says

Reading archive 2019-04-18

He easily found hundreds of death threats against Rep. Ilhan Omar. He wants Twitter to stop them.

Reading archive 2019-04-12

Inside the Russian effort to target Sanders supporters — and help elect Trump

Pope Benedict shows us how the Catholic Church went so terribly off-course

Reading archive 2019-04-11

Red Hats in the Black Museum: On teachable moments in troubled times.

Reading archive 2019-04-10

In Slovakia, Unlikely Presidential Candidate Signals a Backlash Against Populism

Casimir Pulaski, Polish Hero of the Revolutionary War, Was Most Likely Intersex, Researchers Say

Spare us the lectures from Democratic candidates about how Democratic voters are the problem - "In 2004, the conservative Club For Growth ran an ad against Howard Dean, in which a couple told him to 'take his tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Vermont where it belongs.' Everyone laughed. Now imagine the outcry if a liberal group told, say, Mike Huckabee to 'take his trailer park-living, tobacco-chewing, NASCAR-watching, squirrel-eating freak show back to Arkansas where it belongs.' The condemnation would be furious and immediate, much of it coming from the elite media, who would yet again instruct Democrats that if they want to succeed they really need to stop being so condescending and reach out to those heartland voters.

"Let me suggest something else. When Buttigieg says that he has to educate people in California on the fact that 'Trump voters actually exist,' he may be speaking a little bit tongue-in-cheek, but he means that liberals have no conception of who Trump voters are or what might motivate them. But that’s also absurd.

"As Adam Serwer of the Atlantic points out, 'There are more Trump voters in New York than Wyoming, Alaska, and the Dakotas combined.' Trump got about a million and a half votes in Buttigieg’s home state of Indiana, slightly less than the 1.6 million he got in the coastal state of New Jersey, and much less than the 2.8 million he got in New York, let alone the 4.5 million he got in California. Those are 'real' Americans, too, even if they happen to live within driving distance of the ocean.

"The point is, liberals are aware of who Trump voters are, and even have a pretty good idea of what motivates them, even if those motivations are different for different groups of Trump voters. They may sometimes cry in frustration, 'How could anyone have voted for him!' but it’s not because they literally don’t know what was behind those votes. It’s because Trump’s corruption is so obvious and his character flaws so encompassing that they struggle to see how those motivations weren’t outweighed by the fact that Trump is so awful, which is a perfectly understandable sentiment. Every voter doesn’t have to be a sociologist."

ALL ABOUT PETE: Only accept politicians who have proved they actually care about people other than themselves…

Reading archive 2019-04-08

A Tale Of Two Suburbs: White Democrats’ culture clash has been long in the making.

What the heck does Steve King do all day?

Small towns are dying everywhere but here

Md. man planned to run down crowds at National Harbor in an ISIS-inspired attack, prosecutors say

Reading archive 2019-04-03

Feds are investigating possible Chinese spying at Mar-a-Lago and Cindy Yang, sources say

For months, she fell ill at work. Then, police say, she watched video of a co-worker spiking her drink.

U.S. measles cases surge to second-highest level in nearly two decades

She fled a ‘Jewish Taliban’ sect with her children. Then kidnappers tracked them down.

New State Department Releases on the "Future of Iraq" Project: New Documents Provide Details on Budgets, Interagency Coordination and Working Group Progress