Reading archive 2020-09-29

What We Can Learn About Reform From ‘America’s Most Corrupt Police Squad’: As President Donald Trump spins a narrative of citizen-led chaos in cities, a new book about the Baltimore cops who flagrantly robbed people offers a different one.

Reading archive 2020-09-28

Trump Wants to Discredit the Election. This Nerd Could Stop Him.: Fox News, the president’s favored network, will face enormous pressure to call the election for Mr. Trump. The outcome rests on a little-known 65-year-old wonk who will declare the winner.

The Fox News Decision Desk Controls the Fate of American Democracy: Trump can’t use the Supreme Court to cheat in overtime if he loses in regulation.

“Own the Libs” Is Gradually Morphing Into “Kill the Libs”: And far from just a GOP slogan, it’s becoming actual policy. - "As my colleague Tom Scocca observed one year ago, Trump was elected as the ultimate expression of a political party more concerned with taunting and obstructing its opposition than with any specific governing agenda. Others have noted that, for decades, the driving principle behind the Republican project has been the conviction that people of color and their political allies are undeserving of full participation in American democracy. The push to shield those who murder protesters with their cars from criminal or civil liability, which Republican legislators have attempted to do in at least eight states, is a particularly gruesome offshoot of these two philosophies. It’s also not solving any problematic gap in the legal sphere: Property damage is already a criminal offense; self-defense is already an accepted legal defense for causing others harm. DeSantis and his peers are simply trying to create space within the law—or the perception of it—for their political supporters to kill their political opponents."

Reading archive 2020-09-27

 Amy Coney Barrett and the GOP’s hypocrisy about religion

Gene Weingarten: A neighbor asked for a tomato. This is where the story gets weird.

Older poll workers dropped out because of covid-19. Millennials are stepping up to replace them.

Reading archive 2020-09-25

Correcting the misinformation about Breonna Taylor

Does Christina Henderson have a Chance to Win an At-Large Seat?: The former D.C. Council staffer faces more than 20 challengers.

Get your mailbox ready: 24 people are vying for one D.C. Council seat

FDR tried to pack the Supreme Court during the Depression. It was a disaster for him.

How Journalists Covered the Rise of Mussolini and Hitler: Reports on the rise of fascism in Europe were not the American media’s finest hour

Reading archive 2020-09-24

Human trafficking experts concerned about misinformation spread by conspiracy group QAnon

FBI director meets with Congress again after Trump criticized his last performance

MARK IN THE MIDDLE: Leaks from internal Facebook meetings show Mark Zuckerberg on his back foot

Nearly 500 former senior military, civilian leaders signal support for Biden

Exclusive: Dem group warns of apparent Trump Election Day landslide

The Election That Could Break America: If the vote is close, Donald Trump could easily throw the election into chaos and subvert the result. Who will stop him?

Reading archive 2020-09-23

Allegations of racism have marked Trump’s presidency and become key issue as election nears ‘The 45th President’: One in a series looking back at the presidency of Donald J. Trump

House Democrats unveil changes to ‘prevent future presidential abuses’

GOP senators’ report calls Hunter Biden’s board position with Ukraine firm ‘problematic,’ but fails to show how it changed U.S. policy

Fauci finally loses his patience with Rand Paul

The GOP traded democracy for a Supreme Court seat and tax cuts. It wasn’t worth it.

Barr can make the Justice Department help Trump in election disputes. Here’s how.: The attorney general has clearly demonstrated a desire to help the president politically

I’ve Never Been More Worried About American Democracy Than I Am Right Now: The preemptive attack on the vote count is a five-alarm fire.

Reading archive 2020-09-22

 D.C. Council unanimously approves Vision Zero bill aimed at reducing traffic fatalities

An ex-officer fought with his next-door neighbor over trash and dog poop. It ended in an alleged ‘execution.’

Reading archive 2020-09-21

Nazis Explain Why They Became Nazis: In 1934, American writer Theodore Abel created a fake competition to trick hundreds of people into describing why they loved the Nazi Party so much. Their words seem worryingly relevant today.

Mitch McConnell is the apex predator of U.S. politics

Reading archive 2020-09-20

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the Coming Political Crisis: The annus horribilis of 2020 lurches on.

Ginsburg’s passing may worsen the crisis of our democracy

The Falwells, the pool attendant and the double life that brought them all down

Reading archive 2020-09-18

Former Trump officials back Biden, saying it is time to put ‘country over party.’

Joe Rogan repeats debunked claim that ‘left-wing people’ are starting Oregon wildfires

“That’s Their Problem”: How Jared Kushner Let the Markets Decide America’s COVID-19 Fate - "In reality the private sector not only needed, but wanted federal leadership. “Everyone involved was begging for the federal government to figure out the needs, make a very big order at a very fair price, and scientifically figure out how to distribute PPE,' said a software company CEO who worked on the pandemic response. Those in private industry trying to procure supplies did not want to bid against fellow Americans in need or act as distributors. 'We don’t want to decide who lives and who dies,' the CEO said. In a bidding war without federal guidance, 'everyone is going to overbuy and overpay. That is the definition of the tragedy of the commons. Everyone accidentally creates a worse outcome for everybody.'"

This is who should be Biden’s secretary of state [ed. note: Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.)]

Reading archive 2020-09-17

 Firefighter debunks US wildfire conspiracy theory

American University repeatedly told a top WAMU manager not to fire a suspected sexual harasser

‘A blatant and unfounded attack’: Ohio’s chief justice, a Republican, blasts state GOP for accusing judge of political bias

Federal officials stockpiled munitions, sought ‘heat ray’ device before clearing Lafayette Square, whistleblower says

Newly revealed USPS documents show an agency struggling to manage Trump, Amazon and the pandemic: Nearly 10,000 pages of emails, memos and other private documents offered new details about the agency’s struggles and the pro-Trump figures to whom it turned for advice.

Reading archive 2020-09-14

 'I've never seen or heard of attacks': scientists baffled by orcas harassing boats

All my takeout has delivered a mountain of trash. So I asked experts how to minimize it.

L.A. deputies tackled and arrested a reporter. Her videos contradict their claims about the incident.

Former officers charged in George Floyd killing turn blame on one another

Violent memes and messages surging on far-left social media, a new report finds: Such images have increased, raising once again whether social media companies can keep up with threats on their platforms.

Scientists spot potential sign of life in Venus atmosphere

Mike Bloomberg to spend at least $100 million in Florida to benefit Joe Biden

Chinese firm harvests social media posts, data of prominent Americans and military

Reading archive 2020-09-11

EXCLUSIVE: Trump administration secretly withheld millions from FDNY 9/11 health program

ICE flew detainees to Virginia so the planes could transport agents to D.C. protests. A huge coronavirus outbreak followed.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, faces toughest reelection challenge in S.C.

A group of students knew they had covid-19. They hosted a party over Labor Day anyway.

Reading archive 2020-09-09

Woodward book: Trump says he knew coronavirus was ‘deadly’ and worse than the flu while intentionally misleading Americans

Hundreds of Americans Planted 'Chinese Mystery Seeds': What I learned by reading thousands of internal emails about the Chinese mystery seeds.

A Rust Belt Town’s Loyalties Divide as Pennsylvania Turns Purple: Ambridge resisted the Trump tide in 2016. How will it vote in 2020?

Whistleblower accuses Trump appointees of downplaying Russian interference and White supremacist threat

Reading archive 2020-09-08

Louis DeJoy’s rise as GOP fundraiser was powered by contributions from company workers who were later reimbursed, former employees say

How Trump's Billion-Dollar Campaign Lost Its Cash Advantage: Five months ago, President Trump's re-election campaign had a huge financial edge over Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s. The Time conducted and extensive review of how the Trump team spent lavishly to show how that advantage evaporated.

Targeted: Pasco’s sheriff created a futuristic program to stop crime before it happens. It monitors and harasses families across the county.

Shots fired on the India-China border for the first time in decades as tensions flare

Metro’s rail control center a ‘toxic workplace’ where procedures put riders at risk, safety report says

Another Facebook worker quits in disgust, saying the company ‘is on the wrong side of history’: Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s stances on hateful and racist speech prompted the engineer to resign.

Reading archive 2020-09-07

 Four more years of Trump’s contempt for competence would be devastating

Iowa farm debt hit $18.9 billion in the second quarter, the highest level in the nation. An Iowa State economist says the percentage of financially vulnerable farmers (44%) is "very, very concerning." - "Newton said nearly 40% of this year's projected U.S. farm income — about $33 billion of the $88 billion in profits — comes from government aid tied to trade, disaster assistance, support programs in federal farm legislation and insurance payments. Iowa farmers received $646 million in market facilitation payments last year, the report shows, reducing per-acre losses to $189 from $237. The federal aid program is designed to offset trade losses with direct payments to farmers, to purchase surplus farm goods for food banks and schools and to open more export markets. Through May, Iowa farmers received $987.7 million in farm mitigation payments, based on data obtained by the Associated Press. But Hart said the additional support 'doesn’t necessarily fill the hole. It just makes the hole a little smaller.'"

DHS withheld July intelligence bulletin calling out Russian attack on Biden’s mental health: The Trump campaign has repeatedly engaged in a similar line of attack.

Gender reveal photo shoot pyrotechnics caused one of this weekend's California wildfires: Firefighters: Over 1.7 million acres have burned in the state since Aug. 15.

Reading archive 2020-09-04

Standard metrics won’t suffice. Here’s how to measure Trump’s failures so they register with right-wingers.

Report: Trump disparaged US war dead as ‘losers,’ ‘suckers’

Barr claims a man collected 1,700 ballots and filled them out as he pleased. Prosecutors say that’s not what happened.

The QAnon problem facing local journalism this election season

What video analysis of the Aug. 29 Portland shooting tells us

‘The last full measure of his disgrace’: Veterans scorn Trump over report that he calls fallen soldiers ‘losers’

Trump said U.S. soldiers injured and killed in war were ‘losers,’ magazine reports

Suspect in Portland slaying killed when authorities moved to arrest him, official says

Reading archive 2020-09-03

‘Coldblooded murder’: Family calls for charges after mentally ill Black man dies of asphyxiation following police incident

What’s the worst that could happen? The election will likely spark violence — and a constitutional crisis

'I WANT KINSHIP, NOT ANIMOSITY': Backing up Aaron Rodgers requires a lot of patience, but for those who do, the job offers not only a master class in how to be a quarterback but also a chance to hang with a future Hall of Famer.

Reading archive 2020-09-02

The Conscience of Silicon Valley: Tech oracle Jaron Lanier warned us all about the evils of social media. Too few of us listened. Now, in the most chaotic of moments, his fears—and his bighearted solutions—are more urgent than ever.