Tag: politics of the United States

It is not possible to imagine an emptier suit than Jeff Flake, soon to be former Republican senator from Arizona. There is a depthless void under that tan. Small animals have been known to disappear into that smile and never return. The man is the Empty Quarter of human beings. Flake has recently stalled at least some federal appeals court nominations by withholding his support on the Judiciary Committee in an effort to pressure the Senate to vote on President Donald Trump's tariff changes, which Flake opposes. I've never taken that position," Flake said in an interview. But now, with the balance of the Supreme Court at issue for the next 20 or 30 years, you’re willing to hand that decision over to a president* who actually is under investigation by the FBI, and with the tariffs that so bothered you still in place. Doesn’t it hurt when you pull out your own integrity by the roots? It is a way to bring up all the reasons why the president* is unfit for office without stating that flatly. So make the empty seat the issue, and the president*’s unfitness for office the obvious subtext.

In recent days President Trump and his lawyers have insisted that the powers of the presidency are pretty expansive. The president can pardon himself, according to Mr. Trump. He can’t obstruct justice. He doesn’t have to talk to special counsel Robert Mueller. The last president to have such a sweeping view of the presidency? Richard Nixon, who said, “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.” Things didn’t turn out well for President Nixon, of course. He’s more popular than ever with Republican voters. He’s got a GOP-controlled Congress (for now). Perhaps most important, he’s got Fox News, Sean Hannity, and an organized conservative media. “What Trump has is the ability to reach 30 to 40 percent of the electorate in an unmediated way,” says Brian Balogh, a University of Virginia history professor and co-host of the Backstory history podcast.

Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed political ructions in the United States for difficulties in arranging a summit with President Donald Trump, in remarks broadcast on Monday. Trump said in March the two leaders would meet soon. But since then already fragile ties between Washington and Moscow have been strained further by the conflict in Syria and the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. Putin said last month the proposed summit was beset by problems and was not working out for now. Asked by Austrian broadcaster ORF why it was taking so long to arrange, he said: "You have to ask our colleagues in the USA. Putin, who gave ORF an interview ahead of a visit to Austria on Tuesday, did not elaborate. Trump is under pressure from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election and whether there was collusion with Trump's campaign — something both he and Moscow deny. "In one of our last discussions, Donald said he is concerned about the danger of a new arms race. I agree with him entirely," Putin said in a short extract released ahead of the full interview, to be broadcast on Monday evening. Apart from mentioning the U.S. withdrawal in 2002 from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, Putin did not elaborate.

The 2017 U.S. Census Bureau’s Official Poverty Measures reports that within the country, 40 million people — more than one in every eight Americans — live in poverty. Put that together with the fact that in the U.S., about 2.6 million people die every year — and most of those deaths are associated with poverty. That changes U.S. politics. What we discovered was that before respondents with poor health died, they were 56 percent less politically active than their peers who survived because of better health. More broadly, we found that low socioeconomic status was directly linked to bad health, which in turn led to premature death. Millions of impoverished Americans die young Political participation of the poor is overall lower because of poverty, bad health and many other factors, but millions of impoverished Americans across the country also die prematurely. Add to this negative trend the fact that mortality among the poor increases during middle age — which is when citizens generally get more involved in politics. There are political consequences to premature mortality among the poor But as poor Americans die prematurely, they also erase from the statistics the adversities that cause their premature deaths in the first place. In terms of health, the U.S. has the highest infant mortality rate among developed countries as well as the lowest life expectancy overall. As a result, political participation in the U.S. is more skewed toward the rich than in countries with lower inequality (such as Australia, Canada, Germany, the Scandinavian nations or Japan), where fewer people die prematurely because their governments provide better health care for the poor.

Aside from Sunday morning shows or occasional commercials, religious programming issued end-time warnings, sought monetary contributions, or staged faith healings. But it did not cover news. Not only are there entire networks devoted to religious broadcasting, but also Christian television has moved directly into covering news and politics, reaching millions of Americans daily with a conservative perspective on current events. The growth of Christian media Help us deliver journalism that makes a difference in our community. Two, around the same time, beginning with Ronald Reagan’s presidency, conservative politicians started to harness evangelicals as a voting bloc. This gave Christian media further influence in the political world. As the data shows, religious broadcasting grew hugely in the 1990s and 2000s. Christian news is effective in conveying its views because it repeats claims that viewers already believe, and provides them with particular emotional experiences that are described as facts. This way of viewing the world has moved closer to the center of conservative politics since the 1980s, a period of time when the Christian right acquired more influence in American politics. More dangerously, it authorizes a particular, often conspiratorial way of viewing the world.

But it did not cover news. Not only are there entire networks devoted to religious broadcasting, but also Christian television has moved directly into covering news and politics, reaching millions of Americans daily with a conservative perspective on current events. This gave Christian media further influence in the political world. The televangelists The above political changes were reflected in the rapid growth of Christian shows on cable television. These shows also reinforced conservative talking points as objective facts. For example, from the mid-1990s, popular films and novels like “Left Behind” suggested that viewers with the “wrong” religious or political beliefs would suffer damnation. Christian news is effective in conveying its views because it repeats claims that viewers already believe, and provides them with particular emotional experiences that are described as facts. This way of viewing the world has moved closer to the center of conservative politics since the 1980s, a period of time when the Christian right acquired more influence in American politics. Further, Christian Broadcasting Network news regularly features stories about Christians persecuted in Turkey or India. Second, stories on the Christian news channels are constantly tailored to the idea that viewers are being persecuted.

WIRED / Internet Research Agency Your WIRED daily briefing. Today, the United States House Intelligence Committee has released thousands of Russian ads intended to influence US politics, a new study links Hurricane Harvey to climate change, malicious Chrome extensions infected over 100,000 users and more. Democrat members of the United States House Intelligence Committee have released over 3,500 Facebook ads published by Russian political advertising firm Internet Research Agency in an attempt to disrupt US politics and the country's 2016 presidential election (TechCrunch). Democrat Adam Schiff tweeted that: "They sought to harness Americans’ very real frustrations and anger over sensitive political matters to influence our thinking, voting and behavior." New research surrounding last year's Hurricane Harvey, which caused catastrophic flooding and damage in the United States and across the Caribbean, has for the first time shown a link between the volume of rain over land at the amount of water evaporated from a warming ocean (Phys.org). Lead author Kevin Trenbert says that: "The implication is that the warmer oceans increased the risk of greater hurricane intensity and duration. While we often think of hurricanes as atmospheric phenomena, it's clear that the oceans play a critical role and will shape future storms as the climate changes." Malicious Chrome extensions designed to impersonate genuinely useful tools have again made their way onto Google's Chrome Web Store, infecting over 100,000 users with software that made their computers part of a botnet and installed cryptocurrency miners (Ars Technica). "Violence fits the definition of a contagious disease," argues Gary Slutkin, founder of research and education NGO Cure Violence (WIRED). WIRED 05.18 is out now.

To establish a state, or something like it, was to ask subjects to transcend narrow loyalties for greater ones. In sharing women and children, says Socrates, the guardians “will not tear the city in pieces by differing about ‘mine’ and ‘not mine’.” If man naturally inclines toward family, then the solution was, in effect, to make the state into a kind of larger, all-encompassing family. Another was for nations to have states: states would be one big tribe, bound together by language or ethnicity, or usually both. To the extent that societies have transcended tribalism, they have done so not by accepting history but by defying it. This is not tribalism in the narrow sense, but tribalism as an idea, what she calls the “group instinct”. Obama disparaged Arab “tribalism”, a catch-all word that, for him, seemed to capture uncontrolled passions of ideology, identity and religious fervor. Chua calls America a “supergroup” – something, incidentally, no Scandinavian country is (or probably can be). One of her unique contributions is to emphasize the centrality of birthright citizenship to the American idea. Political Tribes review – an unreliable guide to the American Dream Read more Trump voters – as Trump voters – aren’t evil, racist or deplorable. They might be part of a different tribe than I am, but the bigger tribe – the one that includes all American citizens – is still there, however strained it may currently seem.

A Republican strategist leapt to the defense of President Donald Trump following comments made by former FBI Director James Comey at the weekend. Comey told ABC news Sunday that Trump is "morally unfit to be president." "There are so many in Congress that are morally unfit," she told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" Tuesday. "I know a lot of politicians that are morally unfit, and what ideal do we have? Trump fired Comey last year during an FBI probe into possible ties between alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. election and Trump's 2016 campaign. Both Moscow, Trump and the White House deny any wrongdoing. "Are we going to have an idealistic view or are we going to have a problem-solver in there? (in the White House)," she asked. I think there's an objective view about what you should expect of your leaders and Donald Trump is not even close to that," he said Tuesday morning. "Do you believe this (Trump) is a person who's a man of principle and character, the answer is clearly no, so then the question is why do you defend him?," he questioned.