How does a political party replicate the electoral success of its most revered member even while repudiating a whole host of his policies? That's the riddle facing Democrats in 2020.An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released last week put numbers on what has long been a visceral cultural nostalgia for the 44th presidency. Ninety percent of Democrats hold a favorable view of Barack Obama today, compared with just 4% unfavorable (Bill Clinton, by contrast, is at 64/15). Sixty-nine percent hold a "very positive" view of Obama, up 8 percentage points over 2015. Most relevant, 78% say they are "satisfied" that the previous occupant of the White House "did as much as was possible at the time in addressing issues facing the country."So why, then, on issue after issue, are the 2020 Democratic presidential contenders staking out positions far to the left of anything Obama ever imagined -- even while attempting to bask in his holy glow?
[M]ost of the mainstream media has turned out to be ill-equipped to handle Trump's gaslighting, eagerly repeatinghis false accusations without the requisite context. And meanwhile, the Trump-friendly conservative outlets are his comrades-in-alternative-facts, giving legions of MAGA warriors the ammo they need to flood their Facebook feeds with the latest misinformation.But despite the frustrating reality, the only way to combat or change this cycle is to disrupt it. So consider this is a humble attempt to do just that and provide some clarity to those of you who are too busy to bathe in the minutiae of the Ukranian prosecutor's office and might be susceptible to throwing up your hands and placing a pox on both their houses.(1) Joe Biden's son, Hunter, did take consulting work for a Ukrainian oil company, Burisma, that was under investigation by a Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, for the work under the prior Russian-allied regime. This is where the true part of the Trump disinformation comes to an end.(2) The problem was that Shokin actively stood in the way of international investigations that the U.S. and other democratic reformers were pursuing.(3) Vice President Biden, U.S. diplomats, and our E.U. allies all called on the prosecutor to be fired so the corrupt oligarchs could be investigated MORE AGGRESSIVELY. This includes the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine calling out by name Mykola Zlochevsky, the oligarch who ran the company Hunter Biden worked for, as someone this prosecutor was letting off the hook.(4) Donald Trump was allegedly pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate a domestic political foe on a bogus conspiracy for personal gain. Joe Biden was pressuring the Ukrainian government to root out corruption in their own country and bring about democratic reforms.(5) For the kids in the back:PRESSURING A FOREIGN GOVERNMENT TO INTERFERE ON YOUR BEHALF IN DOMESTIC ELECTIONS = VERY BAD.PRESSURING A FOREIGN GOVERNMENT TO INVESTIGATE CROOKS = GOOD.
This concern for individual choice and the individual identity is extended to others. More American Muslims support gay marriage than American Christians. Ilhan Omar, who some conservatives comically believe is some kind of radical Salafi, took a stand this year on behalf of transgendered competitors in sports. Granted, American Muslims are bound to be more liberal than European Muslims because they tend to have originated from the educated middle classes, but America's power as an engine of secularization remains incredible to behold.It might sound outrageously presumptuous to say these things of a faith that is not my own but Muslims have said them before. In her essay on "Hijab Culture in the American Muslim Context," Butheina Hamdah wrote:It seems that for the hijab to comfortably sit within the public square and in order to "qualify" for inclusion in the sphere of what constitutes grounds for public reason, it has to be secularized and represent something other than its essential meaning.She continued:Perhaps this is what distinguishes American secular-liberalism from European secularism, particularly French secularism/laïcité: rather than a ban on certain forms of hijab in the public sphere, what occurs is a recalibration of its meaning to align with public consensus in the US - through individual autonomy or "right to self-expression."This cultural "recalibration" could turn out to be a far more powerful liberalizing force than state intervention. Repression, real or imagined, tends to unify people around that which is or appears to be being repressed. Absorbing it into the mainstream, though, leaves little to unite around.
.@AOC blasts Trump's $28 billion farm rescue, asks why "socialism" isn't bad when billionaires are buying votes https://t.co/9yfxNEqhY5
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) September 23, 2019
Federal law prohibits a foreign national from directly or indirectly making a "contribution or donation of money or other thing of value" in connection with a U.S. election, and prohibits a person from soliciting, accepting or receiving such a contribution or donation from a foreign national. Federal law defines "contribution" to include "any gift ... of money or anything of value made by any person for the purpose of influencing any election for Federal office." And the FEC by regulation defines "solicit" to mean "to ask, request, or recommend, explicitly or implicitly, that another person make a contribution, donation, transfer of funds, or otherwise provide anything of value."And that's all the law requires. Whether or not Ukraine came through, whether or not the communications involved a quid pro quo, the solicitation of a thing of value from the Ukraine President in connection with a U.S. election could be a federal crime.
Last April, Elon Musk promised that Tesla would soon be able to power its electric cars for more than 1 million miles over the course of their lifespan. At the time, the claim seemed a bit much. That's more than double the mileage Tesla owners can expect to get out of their car's current battery packs, which are already well beyond the operational range of most other EV batteries. It just didn't seem real--except now it appears that it is.Earlier this month, a group of battery researchers at Dalhousie University, which has an exclusive agreement with Tesla, published a paper in The Journal of the Electrochemical Society describing a lithium-ion battery that "should be able to power an electric vehicle for over 1 million miles" while losing less than 10 percent of its energy capacity during its lifetime.Led by physicist Jeff Dahn, one of the world's foremost lithium-ion researchers, the Dalhousie group showed that its battery significantly outperforms any similar lithium-ion battery previously reported. They noted their battery could be especially useful for self-driving robotaxis and long-haul electric trucks, two products Tesla is developing.What's interesting, though, is that the authors don't herald the results as a breakthrough. Rather, they present it as a benchmark for other battery researchers. And they don't skimp on the specifics.
A member of the US military has been arrested after he allegedly discussed plans to bomb a news network, suggested targeting the Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke and explained how to make an improvised explosive device, or IED. [...]"Smith talked about killing members of Antifa [anti-fascist protest groups] and destroying nearby cell towers or a local news station."In February a member of the US Coast Guard was arrested after the government accused him of planning "to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country".Lt Christopher Hasson had compiled a hitlist that included the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and presidential hopefuls including Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. He also allegedly planned to target media figures including the CNN presenters Chris Cuomo and Van Jones.In August, Cesar Sayoc was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sending homemade pipe bombs to prominent Democrats and planning to target CNN.Donald Trump has been fiercely critical of both CNN and his Democratic opponents. Sayoc's lawyers described him as a "Donald Trump superfan" who drew inspiration from the president.
U.S. President Donald Trump responded positively to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's idea of creating a new nuclear deal with Iran, saying that he respected Johnson and was not surprised he had floated the idea.
69% of the 900 registered voters polled in the September NBC News/Wall Street Journal public opinion poll said they do not like Trump personally, regardless of their feelings about his policies.
Philippine citizens are overwhelmingly satisfied with President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on drugs, a survey showed, giving a boost to a government outraged by an international push to investigate allegations of systematic murders by police.The quarterly poll of 1,200 Filipinos by Social Weather Stations returned a rating of "excellent" for Duterte's three-year campaign, with 82% satisfied due to a perception of less drugs and crime in the country.That compared to 12% dissatisfied, because they believed the drug trade was still flourishing and there were too many killings and police abuses.
The president has often been vague about the specifics of his allegations, but one detail that he and his allies have repeatedly cited is the former vice president's threatening to withhold $1 billion in United States loan guarantees if Ukraine's leaders did not dismiss the prosecutor. Mr. Trump's campaign on Saturday publicized footage of Mr. Biden recounting the threat."I said: 'We're leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor's not fired, you're not getting the money,'" Mr. Biden recounted at a 2018 event sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations. "Well, son of a bitch, he got fired," Mr. Biden continued, in footage that was not included in the Trump campaign video.The prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, was soon voted out by the Ukrainian Parliament.His dismissal had been sought not just by Mr. Biden, but also by others in the Obama administration, as well other Western governments and international lenders. Mr. Shokin had been repeatedly accused of turning a blind eye to corruption in his office and among the Ukrainian political elite, and criticized for failing to bring corruption cases.Did Hunter Biden do anything wrong?Hunter Biden has not been accused of legal wrongdoing related to his work for Burisma, which paid him as much as $50,000 per month in some months for his service on the board of the directors.
Donald Trump has long heralded Michigan as the crown jewel of his 2016 victory. But the president's campaign team is increasingly grim about a repeat performance in the traditionally blue Rust Belt state.After a midterm election that decimated the ranks of Michigan Republicans, Trump's campaign is looking to other battlegrounds he lost last time -- such as Minnesota and New Hampshire -- that they see as more promising.
[L]ightly more than 31 per cent of the world is covered in forest. The world does continue to lose forest area, but consider the rate and location of this loss. According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the annual rate of deforestation has more than halved since the 1990s. Between 2010 and 2015, the world has gained 4.3 million hectares of forest per year, while losing 7.6 million hectares of forest per year. That accounts for a net decrease of 0.08 percent of forest area each year.Some argue this data is faulty, because the FAO defines forest area as including natural forests and tree plantations. But that criticism is illegitimate. The FAO makes it clear that "93 per cent of global forest area, or 3.7 billion hectares in 2015," was natural forest. Natural forest area decreased at an average rate of 6.5 million hectares per year over the last five years, a reduction from 10.6 million hectares per year in the 1990s. Put differently, natural forest loss is declining by 0.059 percent per year and is heading towards zero.The reason why most people labor under a misapprehension about the state of the world's forests is that news stories often ignore afforestation. In about half of the world, there is net reforestation and, as Matt Ridley puts it, this isn't happening despite economic development, but because of it.The world's richest regions, such as North America and Europe, are not only increasing their forest area. They have more forests than they did prior to industrialization. The United Kingdom, for example, has more than tripled its forest area since 1919. The UK will soon reach forest levels equal to those registered in the Domesday Book, almost a thousand years ago.It is not just rich nations that are experiencing net reforestation. The "Environmental Kuznets curve" is an economic notion that suggests that economic development initially leads to environmental deterioration, but after a period of economic growth that degradation begins to reverse.Once nations hit, what Ridley dubs the "forest transition," or approximately $4,500 GDP per capita, forest areas begin to increase. China, Russia, India, Vietnam and Bangladesh are just some of the nations that have hit this forest transition phase and are experiencing net afforestation.Poor people can't afford to care about the environment very much, because other priorities - such as survival - are more important. If that means that a rare animal must be killed and eaten, so be it. "The environment is a luxury good," says Tim Worstall of the Adam Smith Institute, "it's something we spend more of our income upon, as incomes rise."A recent study from the University of Helsinki highlights that between 1990 and 2015, annual forest area grew in high and mid-income nations by 1.31 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively, while decreasing by 0.72 per cent in 22 low income countries.
The apparent trigger for the demonstrations was almost as unexpected: Mohamed Ali, a 45-year-old construction contractor and part-time actor who said he got rich building projects for the Egyptian military and then left for Spain, where he began posting videos on social media accusing el-Sissi of corruption and hypocrisy.When the protests erupted, it was at the time and date Ali had urged from afar.But the extent, and durability, of Ali's out-of-nowhere influence remains to be seen. His surge from obscurity to prominence has also raised questions about whether his sudden fame has been helped along by powerful interest groups inside or outside the government.On Saturday evening, about 200 protesters in the Red Sea city of Suez were met with police officers firing rubber bullets, according to posts on social media and a witness.The test of how deep Ali's influence is could come as soon as this week. In a video posted Saturday evening, Ali called for a new round of protests to take place this coming Friday.Since coming to power in a 2013 military takeover, el-Sissi has cemented his hold through harsh repression.