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☆ Opinion | If It Walks Like an Insurrection and Talks Like an Insurrection …
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Jamelle Bouie | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

While we await oral argument in Trump v. Anderson — the Supreme Court case that will evaluate the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to exclude the former president from the state’s Republican primary ballot — it’s worth revisiting the arguments leveled against the Colorado court’s decision and, by extension, its interpretation of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The first and most important one is that the plot to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, culminating in the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol, was not an insurrection. Related to this is the argument that, even if Jan. 6 was an insurrection, it’s still not clear that Donald Trump was an insurrectionist. If that isn’t persuasive, consider the evidence marshaled by the legal scholars Akhil Reed Amar and Vikram David Amar in a more recent amicus brief. They argue that top of mind for the drafters of the 14th Amendment were the actions of John B. Floyd, the secretary of war during the secession crisis of November 1860 to March 1861.

Persons: Anderson —, it’s, Donald Trump, Jonathan Chait, Trump, ” I’ve, Akhil Reed Amar, Vikram David Amar, John B, Floyd, Abraham Lincoln, “, Virginia slaveholder, ” Amar, Amar, Ulysses S, Grant, James Buchanan Organizations: Colorado Supreme, Republican, Colorado, U.S, U.S . Constitution, United States Capitol, Capitol, Colorado Supreme Court Locations: Trump, Colorado, U.S ., New York, Northern, Sumter, South Carolina

At the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. “China is endeavoring to build itself into a stronger country and rejuvenate the Chinese nation on all fronts by pursuing Chinese modernization. World leaders, representatives and delegations from more than 140 countries – including in the Middle East and the Taliban – are attending the gathering marking one decade since the launch of Xi’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative. Beijing aims to gloss over these challenges at the gathering to project its power and laud its contributions to global development as a prime example of its superior leadership. “What has been achieved in the past 10 years demonstrates that Belt and Road cooperation is on the right side of history.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Putin, Xi, “, Joe Biden, Antonio Guterres, “ I’m, ”, ” Xi, Kassym, Joko, laud Organizations: Beijing CNN —, Wednesday, Forum, Initiative, of, Israel, United Nations, CCTV, West, International, Hosting, Beijing –, Communist Party, Beijing Locations: Beijing, China, Russia, Israel, Europe, United States, Ukraine, Russian, Zaporizhzhia

☆ Germany signs U.S.-led space norms pact Artemis Accords
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Germany on Thursday became the 29th country to sign the Artemis Accords, a U.S.-led multilateral agreement meant to establish norms of behavior in space and on the lunar surface. India, which last month became the fourth nation to achieve a soft landing on the moon, agreed to join the Artemis Accords in June but China and Russia have not. "It's a big deal, because Germany is the economic powerhouse of Europe and has been a part of the European space program forever," Nelson told Reuters on Thursday before the signing. Japan, various European countries and other nations with big to small space programs have joined the accords. The European Space Agency (ESA), which represents 22 member states including Germany, is a core NASA partner on Gateway, a planned space station that will orbit the moon as part of the Artemis program.

Persons: Bill Nelson, Walther Pelzer, Nelson, NASA's, Artemis, Mike Gold, Joey Roulette, Will Dunham Organizations: Artemis Accords, NASA, German Space Agency, Reuters, European Space Agency, ESA, Thomson Locations: Germany, U.S, United States, China, India, Russia, Washington, Europe, Japan

☆ Atop the State Department, Democracy’s Treasures Can Complicate or Clarify Messages
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-10 | by ( Julie Lasky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But in the late 1960s, the architect Edward Vason Jones began to bedazzle the State Department’s eighth floor with cornices, columns, coffers and gilding. And as before, every art piece, every gold flake, every carpet thread was donated or paid for by private funders. An opulent new book called “America’s Collection: The Art & Architecture of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the U.S. Department of State” (Rizzoli/Electa) tells this story in pictures of frumpy interiors turned into glittering set pieces. The rooms, which have been closed for renovations and updating, preserving their antique character, as the State Department building itself is re-roofed, will reopen Sept. 26. Members of the public can book visits at iipstate.my.site.com and can explore the rooms online in a self-guided virtual tour.

Persons: Edward Vason Jones, Francis Scott Key’s, Allan Greenberg Organizations: State, Sears, Roebuck, U.S . Department of State ”, State Department Locations: Paris, iipstate.my.site.com

☆ Biden Didn’t Hear Question on Maui He Appeared to Brush Off, White House Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Erica L. Green | More About Erica L. Green | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Eleven days after President Biden drew criticism for appearing to brush off a query about the deadly wildfires in Hawaii with a “no comment,” a White House spokeswoman said on Thursday that the president never heard the question. Olivia Dalton, the deputy White House press secretary, made the clarification in response to a question from The New York Times. “He didn’t hear the question,” Ms. Dalton said. “He absolutely didn’t say ‘no comment’ in relation to Maui. And in fact, he had already spoken to the nation about Maui at that point, in addition to being in daily contact with senior staff, FEMA and state officials as he marshaled a whole-of-government response to the fires.”

Persons: Biden, ”, Olivia Dalton, Biden’s, Ms, Dalton, “ Organizations: White, The New York Times, Republican, FEMA Locations: Hawaii, Lahaina, Maui, Rehoboth Beach, Del

☆ Opinion | A Trump-Biden Rematch That Many Are Dreading
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To the Editor:Re “The Presidential Rematch Nobody Wants,” by Pamela Paul (column, July 21):Ms. Paul asks, “Have you met anyone truly excited about Joe Biden running for re-election?”I am wildly enthusiastic about President Biden, who is the best president in my lifetime. Mr. Biden has done more to combat climate change, the existential issue of the day, than all the presidents who have gone before him. He has marshaled the free peoples of the world to stop the Russian takeover of Ukraine, giving dictators around the world pause. Most important, Joe Biden is an honorable man at a time when his biggest rivals do not know the meaning of the word. Being honorable is the essential virtue, without which youth or glibness do not matter.

Persons: Pamela Paul, Paul, “, Joe Biden, ”, Biden Locations: Afghanistan, Ukraine

☆ How to Fix New York’s Traffic Gridlock - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Charles Komanoff | Gernot Wagner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Those upgrades will reduce waiting times and onboard delays — and the precious time subway passengers lose as a result. Why, then, do many people seem anxious about, if not downright opposed to, congestion pricing? Many people don’t believe that the revenues — the $1 billion a year from drivers — will actually improve mass transit services. People are also unconvinced that congestion pricing will, in fact, cut congestion. Why should congestion pricing succeed where a century of other remedies — like widening roads to only then narrow them again — has failed?

Persons: Covid, — Organizations: Metropolitan Transportation Authority Locations: Manhattan, United States

☆ Pat Robertson, Who Gave Christian Conservatives Clout, Dies at 93
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Douglas Martin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Pat Robertson, a Baptist minister with a passion for politics who marshaled Christian conservatives into a powerful constituency that helped Republicans capture both houses of Congress in 1994, died on Thursday at his home in Virginia Beach, Va. His death was announced by the Christian Broadcasting Network, which Mr. Robertson founded in 1960. Mr. Robertson built an entrepreneurial empire based on his Christian faith, encompassing a university, a law school, a cable channel with broad reach, and more. The loss did not dampen his political fervor; he went on to found the Christian Coalition, which stoked the conservative faith-based political resurgence of the 1990s and beyond. But he was also given to statements that his detractors saw as outlandishly wrongheaded and dangerously incendiary.

Persons: Pat Robertson, marshaled, Robertson, chuckling Organizations: Republicans, Christian Broadcasting Network, Mr, Republican, Christian Coalition Locations: Virginia Beach, Va

Walking away, President Joe Biden wrapped his arm around Zelensky’s shoulders. None of the G7 leaders are particularly popular at home, even as they produce results abroad. After all, it was Trump who had argued over dinner at the 2019 G7 summit in Biarritz, France, that Russia should be allowed back into the group. That level of chaos was nowhere to be found in Hiroshima this past week, when leaders appeared to generally like each other. Even before Biden left for the G7 summit, the stalemate over raising the federal borrowing limit prompted a scramble to rearrange the president’s engagements so he could return to Washington early.

☆ As Rahm Emanuel Pushes Japan on Gay Rights, Conservatives Bristle
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Motoko Rich | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Since taking up his post as U.S. ambassador to Japan last year, Rahm Emanuel has lavished his host country with enthusiastic tweets about riding the world-class bullet trains and subways, hiking Mount Fuji or sampling local delicacies and festivals. But a recent string of messages about gay and transgender rights, culminating in a video Mr. Emanuel released on Twitter earlier this month, has drawn considerable ire among conservatives in Japan. Critics say the ambassador has overstepped the bounds of diplomacy and crossed into unwanted interference in domestic policy. As Japanese lawmakers debated a contentious bill declaring that there “should be no unfair discrimination” against the gay and transgender community, Mr. Emanuel marshaled a group of 15 foreign ambassadors in Tokyo to record a four-minute video nudging Japan to embrace L.G.B.T.Q. Japan is the only Group of 7 country that has not legalized same-sex unions.

☆ Turkey’s President Amassed Power. He Could Still Lose This Election.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Ben Hubbard | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

ISTANBUL, Turkey — As President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey approaches the toughest election of his career on Sunday, he has marshaled many of the resources of the state to tilt the playing field to his advantage. His challenger barely appears on the state broadcaster while Mr. Erdogan’s speeches are aired in full. And this weekend’s vote will be overseen by an election board that, during recent votes, has made questionable calls that benefited the president. And yet, Mr. Erdogan could still lose. But Mr. Erdogan’s grip on the country could also contribute to his undoing, if voters drop him because of his strongman ways and persistently high inflation that has left Turks feeling poorer.

☆ Asked About Age, Biden Says He Knows ‘More Than the Vast Majority of People’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Katie Rogers | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Compared with his predecessors, Mr. Biden has given far fewer news conferences and rarely sits for interviews with journalists, instead opting for friendly celebrity interviews or softball social-media videos. His interview with Ms. Ruhle, who hosts a show on a network that leans sympathetic to Mr. Biden and Democratic causes, was broadcast at 10 p.m. on a Friday. But Mr. Biden has repeatedly said that he will not negotiate over the debt ceiling, pointing out that it was raised several times under former President Donald J. Trump without issue. “This is not your father’s Republican Party,” Mr. Biden said, repeating claims he has made before about extremists within the G.O.P. Where can we cut?”Mr. Biden is supposed to meet with Republican and Democratic leaders at the White House next week to discuss a path forward.

☆ McCarthy Brought His Detractors in From the Cold. Will They Stay?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Catie Edmondson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — Speaker Kevin McCarthy narrowly passed his first major test this week when he marshaled the votes of his slim majority to muscle through a plan to tie a debt ceiling increase to spending cuts in a bid to force President Biden to negotiate over averting a disastrous default. It was a bare-minimum victory on a doomed bill, but it reflected how Mr. McCarthy, the California Republican who clawed his way to his position by catering to the hard right, has — for now — won over the ultraconservative wing of his party. Now comes the hard part. Having rallied Republicans around a plan he promised would strengthen his negotiating power against Mr. Biden, Mr. McCarthy will have to keep the right flank of his party happy as he seeks to negotiate a fiscal deal with the White House that will almost certainly be far less conservative than the bill the House passed on Wednesday. Mr. McCarthy succeeded this week by doing what he promised to during his drawn-out race for the speakership: empowering some of the most conservative lawmakers in his conference, the same ones who led the effort to block his election in January.

CHICAGO, April 11 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden picked Chicago to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention, tapping a large liberal city in the heart of the Midwest to hold what could be his nominating party, officials said on Tuesday. "Chicago is a great choice to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention," Biden said in a statement distributed by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Tuesday. The city has hosted several Democratic conventions, including the tumultuous and violent 1968 gathering during the Vietnam War. "There'll be some initial heartbreak, which I'm experiencing right now," said Dominick Perkins, a top Democratic strategist in Georgia. The convention, where delegates will formally select a final Democratic nominee to run in the November 2024 presidential election, will run from Aug. 19-22 next year, the DNC said.

A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Donald Trump, possibly over a "hush-money" payment. Here's a timeline of Trump and Daniels' alleged relationship, the $130,000 payment to keep Daniels silent, and the testimonies leading to a possible indictment. Markus Schreiber/APManhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg convened a grand jury in mid-January of this year to consider an indictment against Trump. And Trump's former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen, prosecutors' key witness, has made repeated visits to the DA's office and to the grand jury. Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesThe Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Trump on Thursday, March 30.

The U.S. House’s Jan. 6 committee has performed its task with a dignity that verges on parody. They are doing criminal referrals while Rome burns. I think the criminal referrals are completely appropriate and, if anything, fail to capture the true scope of his malfeasance. He said as much himself in response to the Jan. 6 committee referral. One of the strongest grounds for prosecuting Trump for Jan. 6 is that only accountability will prevent something like it from happening again.

☆ House Jan. 6 committee refers Trump to Justice Department. That's a mistake.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( David Orentlicher | David Orentlicher Is The Judge Jack | Lulu Lehman Professor At The William S. Boyd School Of Law At The The University Of Nevada | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

As a result, the committee voted Monday to recommend criminal charges to the Department of Justice against Trump and several of his associates. However, making the case for a federal criminal prosecution is the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Justice rather than Congress. Ironically, in trying to hold Trump accountable under the law, the committee seems to be flouting the rule of law. The Jan. 6 committee’s referrals have no legal weight; the Justice Department alone will decide whether to charge Trump. Rather than duplicate the efforts of Justice, Congress needs to complement those efforts by broadly addressing the other factors that contributed to the events on Jan. 6.

☆ Breakingviews: FTX sins don’t absolve its big-money enablers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Lauren Silva Laughlin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

NEW YORK, Dec 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wants everyone to know that Sam Bankman-Fried was a bad actor. The financial watchdog and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Tuesday alleged that the founder of bankrupt currency exchange FTX committed fraud, while federal prosecutors made a criminal case. The U.S. government, meanwhile, has accused Bankman-Fried of eight criminal violations, ranging from wire fraud to conspiracy to commit money laundering. Follow @thereallsl on TwitterloadingCONTEXT NEWSU.S. federal prosecutors filed a criminal lawsuit against Sam Bankman-Fried, alleging he committed fraud and violated campaign finance laws. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission also alleged Bankman-Fried committed fraud in complaints filed on Dec. 13.

☆ FTX sins don’t absolve its big-money enablers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Lauren Silva Laughlin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

NEW YORK, Dec 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wants everyone to know that Sam Bankman-Fried was a bad actor. The financial watchdog and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Tuesday alleged that the founder of bankrupt currency exchange FTX committed fraud, while federal prosecutors made a criminal case. The CFTC focused on customers, whose money it says FTX sent to Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund Alameda Research, which allegedly used it for venture investments and loans to FTX executives. loadingCONTEXT NEWSU.S. federal prosecutors filed a criminal lawsuit against Sam Bankman-Fried, alleging he committed fraud and violated campaign finance laws. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission also alleged Bankman-Fried committed fraud in complaints filed on Dec. 13.

☆ Putin canceled his annual press conference, ducking a likely barrage of questions about failures in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Vladimir Putin won't face reporters this year at his annual press conference, state media said. The Kremlin has held a major press conference every December for the last 10 years. It remains illegal in Russia to describe the conflict in Ukraine, which the Kremlin calls a "special military operation," as a war. During the press conference, Putin was likely to have faced extensive questioning about the conflict. At last year's event, as Russian troops massed along Ukraine's border, questions about an impending invasion of Ukraine dominated — something that Putin refused to rule out.

☆ Russia-Ukraine War U.S. Rushes to Secure Aid for Ukraine to Repair Energy Grid Before Winter
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Edward Wong | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

On Tuesday, American officials pledged to give Ukraine $53 million to repair the electrical grid, and sought to rally other allies to make similar offers. Western officials say the Ukrainian energy reconstruction campaign should be considered a second front in the war. In April, not long after Russian troops swept into Ukraine, American officials marshaled dozens of allies to furnish Ukraine with long-term military aid, and organized the countries into the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. The United States is organizing a working group to help Ukraine repair energy equipment and to better defend its power plants and grid from attack. That energy “contact group” is centered on those nations and their close partners, and is expected to meet again next month in Paris.

☆ U.S. House Speaker Pelosi wraps up long and historic leadership career
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Patricia Zengerle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

For our daughters and our granddaughters, now the sky is the limit," Pelosi said after first becoming speaker in 2007. As speaker, Pelosi helped pass the 2010 Affordable Care Act, a law dubbed Obamacare that enabled millions of previously uninsured Americans to obtain medical coverage. The visit capped decades of Pelosi's high-profile opposition to China's authoritarian rulers including President Xi Jinping. During her first stint as speaker, Pelosi called Bush "a total failure." Though branded a West Coast liberal by Republicans, Pelosi first learned politics 60 years ago on the East Coast as the daughter of a big-city mayor and congressman, Baltimore's Thomas "Big Tommy" D'Alesandro.

Democrats could have prevailed had their state party — which was busy deflecting progressive criticism of their conduct — marshaled better infrastructure and financial support for swing-district candidates. The icing on this rotten cake is that New York Democrats have no one to blame but themselves. Facing challenging new maps, Maloney and his moderate allies panicked that many of the popular progressives who had already announced their candidacies simply could not win. In a moment of exceptional self-unawareness that only underscored the broader myopia of establishment New York Democrats, Maloney took the news of his loss Tuesday as an opportunity to swipe at Ocasio-Cortez. Seth Wenig / AP fileBetween interparty bad blood and challenging electoral maps, the Democratic Party machine also appeared uninterested or unable to translate Democratic enthusiasm into meaningful on-the-ground organizing.

Vance, the “Hillbilly Elegy” author who was a searing Donald Trump critic before converting into one of his most loyal allies, has defeated Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan in Ohio’s Senate race, NBC News projects. Portman’s prior success and Trump’s two comfortable Ohio victories made Ryan, 49, a heavy underdog. Polls from the summer and into early fall showed Ryan tied with Vance, though surveys in the closing weeks suggested Vance was pulling ahead. Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Tim Ryan speaks in Columbus, Ohio on Saturday. Vance, by contrast, had little money to counter Ryan’s ads and drew complaints from Ohio GOP leaders that he was coasting toward the general election.

☆ The US never banned asbestos. These workers are paying the price.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Kathleen Mcgrory | Neil Bedi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +39 min

But protocols failed to match reality at the Niagara Falls plant, according to more than a dozen workers. In addition to those signature diseases, which are rare even among asbestos workers, the tiny strands can harm the body in other ways. In the 15 years that followed, congressional attempts to ban asbestos would continue to fall short. OSHA declined to make an official available for an on-the-record interview or comment on ProPublica's findings at the Niagara Falls plant. At the OxyChem plant in Wichita, union president Keith Peacock said he was comfortable with the way asbestos was handled.

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