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.’