Despite America’s founding principles, politics perpetuates taxation without representation in the United States. Kimberly Mas and Madeline Marshall explore why Washington DC is not a state in this Vox video.
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Evangelical Christian Zionists, once a religious right fringe group, are now influencing Republican politics and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Under Mike Pompeo, Quasi-Biblical prophecy has become State Department doctrine. A Vox video by Danush Parvaneh and Liz Scheltens.
More:
“The Rapture and the Real World: Mike Pompeo Blends Beliefs and Policy,” New York Times
“Pompeo Aligns U.S. Foreign Policy With Christian Zionists,” Nancy LeTourneau, Washington Monthly
“The Evangelicals Who Pray for War With Iran,” Sarah Posner, The New Republic
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Have you followed President Trump’s Coronavirus policies over the past six months? The Lincoln Project has:
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15 weeks before the 2020 election, Donald Trump demoted Brad Parscale, the campaign manager who won him the 2016 election, and replaced him with former Chris Christie campaign operative Bill Stepien, an unindicted Bridgegate conspirator. Brad Parscale was blamed for the poor turnout at the Tulsa Trump rally and the president’s two-digit tumble in the polls, and was essentially sent down to run the campaign’s Tech Support office.
More:
“Bridgegate triggered Bill Stepien’s fall from grace. Now he’s running Trump’s campaign,” Charles Stile and Dustin Racioppi, NorthJersey.com
“Bill Stepien: aide humbled over ‘Bridgegate’ takes charge for Trump,” Adam Gabbatt, The Guardian
“Bill Stepien Takes Helm of Trump Campaign as a Data-Obsessed Political Fighter,” Nick Corasaniti and Stephanie Saul, New York Times
“Trump’s campaign team tries to steady operation after messy shakeup,” Alex Isenstadt, Politico
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“The Liar Tweets Tonight,” a melody written by Solomon Linda, with new and urgent lyrics by Roy Zimmerman. Performed by Roy Zimmerman & the ReZisters, with the Raging Grannies of Mendicino.
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Remember last year’s Sharpiegate? President Trump doctored an NWS weather map to back up his false assertion that Hurricane Dorian would hit Alabama, was corrected by Birmingham’s Weather Service office, and then a NOAA press release claimed the president was right. There’s something new:
“Top officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration violated the agency’s scientific integrity rules when they debased themselves to back up Donald Trump’s incorrect assertion that Hurricane Dorian could strike Alabama last year, an internal investigation has shown. Regardless, everyone involved appears to be bound to get off scot-free.”
— “Report: NOAA Officials Behind #Sharpiegate Violated Integrity Policies, Won’t Face Consequences Though,” Tom McKay, Gizmodo
Those lying NOAA officials are Acting Administrator Neil Jacobs (formerly of Panasonic) and Communications Director Julie Kay Roberts, who worked on Trump’s Inaugural Committee. They still hold those NOAA jobs, and the 2020 hurricane season has begun.
More:
“NOAA leaders violated agency’s scientific integrity policy, Hurricane Dorian ‘Sharpiegate’ investigation finds,” Andrew Freedman and Jason Samenow, Washington Post
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“Donald Trump Jr.’s eight-day trip to Mongolia last August was controversial, not least because he was awarded a permit to hunt an endangered argali sheep after he had already killed one. He also had a private meeting with Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga, a month after Battulga met with President Trump in the White House, and he was traveling with a major Republican donor, ProPublica reported. Also, taxpayers spent nearly $77,000 on Secret Service protection during the trophy hunting expedition, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington reports, citing updated Freedom of Information Act requests.
— “Taxpayers spent $77,000 on Donald Trump Jr. Mongolia sheep hunting trip, Secret Service receipts show,” Peter Weber, The Week [emphasis added]
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On Monday, federal police forces used tear gas and rubber bullets to remove peaceful protesters from Washington’s Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House. What was the protest about? Police brutality.
The police, from a variety of federal agencies, used force and munitions against a nonviolent 1st Amendent protest so that President Donald Trump could pose for photographs in front of historic St. John’s Episcopal Church, holding a Bible.
On Memorial Day weekend, as the number of Americans dead from COVID-19 approached 100,000, President Donald Trump played golf on one of his private courses. Trump National Golf Club is in Sterling, Virginia, only 30 minutes from Arlington National Cemetery, so it might have been the president’s way of observing the solemn holiday.
More:
“Trump tees up controversy as he plays golf in a pandemic,” Martin Pengelly, The Guardian
“Trump Plays Golf at His Virginia Club as U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Nears 100,000,” Daniel Politi, Slate
“US nears 100,000 pandemic deaths: Does Trump feel your pain?” Calvin Woodward, Associated Press
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“We’ve all hoped and prayed for something to save us from this pandemic. Will it be a vaccine? A therapeutic drug? Large-scale testing and tracing? An antibodies-rich llama or pack of virus-sniffing dogs?
Nope. According to the White House, the real coronavirus cure is even more magical: tax cuts.”
— The White House’s coronavirus cure is even more magical than we could have imagined,” Catherine Rampell, Washington Post
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