Political Consensus part 2

Contents for part 2

(older Political Consensus part 2 at https://www.harvotto.com/p/political-consensuspart-2.html )

(in key-word terms -- search page for key-word interest)

14th Amendment 

Brexit 

BRICS

Cannon

child care

civility -- abortion  -- Murdoch

contempt   -- against the common good

demagogue -- political leader who seeks support appealing to the desires/prejudices of ordinary people rather than by rational argument (OAD)

democracy  --  House operation

education 

G-20

humanity -- UN --  human rights -- AI threat

immigration

impeachment

India -- Modi -- Hindu influence

inequality

Israel  -- Palestinians

Medicaid  --  unwinding

misinformation

policies

polls  -- presidential race

Romney

SCOTUS

Trump  --  New York State  --  classified documents

water -- American Climate Corps  

2023oct05.   misinformation.   X, the site formerly known as Twitter, has removed automatically generated headlines from links to external websites, including news articles, the latest change introduced by owner Elon Musk as he seeks to remold the social media company and reduce traffic to other sites.    Under the new format, posts linking to third-party news stories or websites automatically load those articles’ lead images in preview tiles along with their web domains — but with no headlines, depriving readers of key context from the publishers about their articles, according to a review by The Washington Post on Thursday. The change also appeared to affect shared links to non-news websites, although it did not affect paid advertisements, which still loaded with headlines, The Post’s review found.    The change comes amid a wider push by X to discourage users from clicking on external links, including links leading to news sites. “Our algorithm tries to optimize time spent on X, so links don’t get as much attention, because there is less time spent if people click away,” Musk said in a tweet Tuesday.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/05/twitter-x-news-headlines-removed/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most

2023oct05.   democracy.   Who chooses the speaker?    A majority of members of Congress – 218 if everyone is present and voting – selects the speaker. But lawmakers traditionally separate by party when they choose their speaker. If all Democrats vote for the Democratic leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, that means Republicans must find 218 votes from their conference for whomever they put up.    Why is this so hard for Republicans?    Their majority, which they won in last year’s midterms, is extremely small. Only four Republicans can break with the pack in order for a GOP speaker to be seated. When McCarthy was booted from the speaker’s office, he lost just eight Republicans of his 221-member conference.  https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/05/politics/house-speaker-chaos-what-matters/index.html

2023oct05.   democracy.   NYT headlines.  HELP ! !   Democracy is losing ! !

To the World, McCarthy’s Exit Is Just Another Example of U.S. Disarray.

From a Capitol Hill Basement, Bannon Fuels the Republican Party Meltdown.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi was evicted from her hideaway office in the Capitol by a House committee.  She probably should have vacated in February. 

Turnover of Election Officials in Swing States Adds Strain for 2024, Report Says.

2023oct05.   democracy.   When the House of Representatives voted to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker on Tuesday, it was the first such removal in American history, a vivid rebuke of his leadership and an escalation of the civil strife within the Republican Party.    But historians and political scientists say it is something more: a warning sign for the health of American democracy.  It also showcased how difficult it will be for anyone to corral the House in a way that’s functional, with major decisions over the budget and Ukraine funding ahead.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/04/republican-votes-kevin-mccarthy-ousted/?utm_campaign=wp_politics_am&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_politics

2023oct04.   Trump.   Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers on Wednesday filed a notice of appeal to a New York appellate court after Judge Arthur Engoron ruled last week that Trump and his co-defendants were liable for “persistent and repeated” fraud.  https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-fraud-trial-new-york-10-04-23/index.html

2023oct01.   misinformation.   The more I consider the challenge posed by Christian nationalism, the more I think most observers and critics are paying too much attention to the wrong group of Christian nationalists. We mainly think of Christian nationalism as a theology or at least as a philosophy. In reality, the Christian nationalist movement that actually matters is rooted in emotion and ostensibly divine revelation, and it’s that emotional and spiritual movement that so stubbornly clings to Donald Trump.     Three related stories illustrate the challenge.  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/01/opinion/christian-nationalism-trump-renew-america.html

2023oct01.   democracy.   Since independence in the 1990s, Ukraine has developed a tradition of religious freedom. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov is Muslim.    Religious scholars say roughly a hundred different religions are practiced freely and without interference within the country.    But Ukraine's government clearly views Orthodox clergy influenced by Russia as a threat.    The SBU has been raiding Moscow-aligned churches, searching homes of some top clergy and prosecuting priests suspected of actively aiding Russia.   https://www.npr.org/2023/09/30/1201065400/ukraine-russian-orthodox-church-tensions

2023sep30.   child care.   President Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan included near universal child care for children until age 5, but the provision was cut. Biden has since taken much less ambitious steps, like signing an executive order directing federal agencies to find ways to make child care cheaper and requiring companies seeking at least $150 million of funding under the CHIPS Act to guarantee child care.  https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/template/oakv2?campaign_id=4&emc=edit_dk_20230930&instance_id=104052&nl=dealbook&productCode=DK&regi_id=91739846&segment_id=146130&te=1&uri=nyt%3A%2F%2Fnewsletter%2F4439835b-451f-5566-a18f-4eb16e07f998&user_id=c169c5df23b5bd14a95e704d648953e4

2023sep30.   demagogue.   The judge overseeing the case, Tanya S. Chutkan, has scheduled an Oct. 16 hearing for lawyers to debate the request for a limited gag order to stop Trump from spreading prejudicial pretrial publicity.    Prosecutors argued in court filings that just as Trump knowingly spouted lies that the 2020 election had been stolen in the hopes of undoing those results, the former president now is attempting to undermine confidence in the judicial system by pumping out near-daily “disparaging and inflammatory attacks” about potential jurors, witnesses, prosecutors and the judge.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/09/29/trump-gun-special-counsel-gag-order/

2023sep29.   immigration.   Musk visited Eagle Pass livestreaming the southern border for an unfiltered view, voicing concerns about the strain on social services while advocating for expanded legal immigration.  https://www.foxnews.com/us/elon-musk-livestreams-border-give-people-firsthand-account-migrant-crisis 

2023sep29.   polls.   Biden Issues a Blistering Attack on Trump.        During an appearance in Arizona, President Biden portrayed former President Donald J. Trump as a budding autocrat with no fidelity to the tenets of American democracy.  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/28/us/politics/biden-mccain-library.html

Republican Group Running Anti-Trump Ads Finds Little Is Working.        With over 40 ads and $6 million spent, a group tied to the Club for Growth is no closer to an answer, a memo to donors says. Some ads even gave Donald Trump a boost.  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/28/us/politics/anti-trump-ads-memo.html  

New York Is Rebounding for the Rich. Nearly Everyone Else Is Struggling.        The income gap in Manhattan is the biggest of any large county in the country — bigger than in many developing countries.  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/28/nyregion/nyc-income-gap-wages.html  

Alarmed Republicans are preparing to draft Glenn Youngkin.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/28/draft-glenn-youngkin-2024-gop-donors/

2023sep29.   impeachment.   In the first impeachment inquiry for President Biden, Republicans zeroed in on his son, Hunter, and attempted to make the case that the president benefitted from his son's business dealings.    What resulted was a more than six-hour-long hearing that was at times both chaotic and antagonistic. At the same time, House Republicans struggled to prove their case against the president or his family.    House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer said the panel had "uncovered a mountain of evidence" and claimed Biden used his official government role for his family's gain. But Comer and his Republican colleagues didn't provide clear evidence backing up this massive allegation of wrongdoing.    The three witnesses for Republicans didn't offer any direct knowledge of wrongdoing either. The witnesses, who were subject to criticism by Democratic panel members, even said there is not clear, impeachable evidence against Biden.  https://www.npr.org/2023/09/28/1202010186/biden-impeachment-inquiry-hearing

2023sep29.   humanity.   As world leaders gathered in New York for the annual high-level meetings at the United Nations last week, they discussed very real problems of war and disaster. But they also began taking a serious look at an issue that, for now, remains largely theoretical: The danger posed to humanity by artificial intelligence.    “Generative artificial intelligence holds much promise — but it may also lead us across a Rubicon and into more danger than we can control,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres told the assembled world leaders as he opened the summit. He noted that only two world leaders had mentioned AI when he first appeared as U.N. chief in 2017. “Now AI is on everyone’s lips — a subject of both awe and fear,” he said.  https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=598b051fae7e8a68162a1429&s=65164cfc38ed510b3f25a390&linknum=5&linktot=72&linknum=5&linktot=72

2023sep28.   humanity.   Watched Biden's speech for McCain library -- that's where my leadership inspiration comes.  https://www.c-span.org/video/?530790-1/pres-biden-honors-late-sen-john-mccain-r-az

2023sep28.   Trump.   Robert K. Hur, the special counsel investigating President Biden’s handling of classified documents while serving as vice president, has interviewed many of Mr. Biden’s closest aides and advisers in a quiet inquiry that over the last nine months has reached into the upper levels of the White House and the cabinet, people familiar with the case said.    Those who have been questioned about how government documents came to be stored in a think tank office set up for Mr. Biden after his vice presidency and in his Delaware home include officials who worked with him both at the tail end of the Obama administration and now.    Among them are Steve Ricchetti, a top White House aide, and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, the people familiar with the case said.    Prosecutors have also spoken to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who has been a key Biden foreign policy adviser for decades; Ron Klain, who served as White House chief of staff until earlier this year, and Michael R. Carpenter, the former  managing director of the Penn Biden Center, who is currently ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Mr. Blinken’s interview was previously reported by ABC News.    The investigation, overshadowed by more dramatic developments in the special counsel inquiries into former President Donald J. Trump and Hunter Biden, is primarily focused on determining the chain of custody for the documents with classified markings found in the offices of the president’s Washington think tank and at his house in Delaware, the people familiar with the case said.     Mr. Hur’s team has also scrutinized whether longtime Biden aides, and the president himself, adhered to security protocols in handling and packing up official documents and private notes from his vice presidency, they said.    One of the thorniest unresolved issues is whether Mr. Biden will submit to an interview, typically the final stage of an investigation. He could also answer written questions or interact with Mr. Hur’s team through his team of White House and personal lawyers.    A spokesman for Mr. Hur did not comment. A White House spokesman also declined to comment.  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/28/us/politics/special-counsel-biden-aides-documents.html  

2023sep28.   impeachment.   Since announcing an impeachment inquiry this month, House Republicans held their first hearing Thursday about whether to impeach President Biden and for what.    There weren’t any revelations in this hearing, but there was lots of debate about whether this is even necessary.  https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=598b051fae7e8a68162a1429&s=6515e4f2b6a0b2762f634d09&linknum=4&linktot=52&linknum=4&linktot=52

2023sep28.   Medicaid.   As officials from the Biden administration and states planned for the massive review of Medicaid rolls — known as unwinding — the fate of people losing such coverage was a major consideration.    President Biden has long been a fervent proponent of expanding access to health coverage and now is a candidate for reelection. For both reasons, his administration is eager to avoid any spike in uninsured Americans as the unwinding proceeds. The insurance marketplaces, created under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, are designed for people who cannot get affordable health benefits through a job. That law created federal subsidies that help most of those on such health plans with the monthly premiums. The subsidies were recently improved by Congress — a change the president cites often.    While administration officials never expected the insurance marketplaces to be a haven for everyone losing Medicaid, they are “an incredibly important component” of the unwinding, said Ellen Montz, deputy administrator and director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, a part of the Health and Human Services Department responsible for many aspects of the ACA.    Montz said her agency has “used every tool in the toolbox that we can find” in working with Medicaid agencies, state insurance departments, enrollment coaches and insurance brokers to connect people removed from Medicaid with ACA exchanges.    “Unfortunately, coverage transitions between Medicaid … and the marketplace are not automatic,” Montz said. “They take time and effort and, importantly, active engagement from a consumer to enroll in that marketplace coverage.”  https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/09/28/medicaid-unwinding-aca-health-plans/?utm_campaign=wp_evening_edition&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_evening  

2023sep28.   Trump.   The appellate court had been asked by Trump’s legal team to put off the scheduled start of the fraud trial Monday and to force New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who will oversee it, to dismiss claims that the defense says are improper because of the statute of limitations.    An earlier order by the appellate court included the possibility that some conduct in the civil complaint was too old to proceed, but left it up to Engoron to make an analysis.    In its two-page ruling Thursday, a panel at the Appellate Division, First Judicial Department, does not say whether Engoron committed an error by not finding that elements of the case are time-barred. An interim stay of the trial was vacated.        The ruling follows a major decision by Engoron on Tuesday that fraud was committed broadly by Trump, his namesake company, two of his adult children and two longtime employees. In that decision, Engoron ordered the revocation of Trump’s business certificates in New York and signaled that those entities would be dissolved under a receivership.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/09/28/trump-fraud-trial-appeals-court/?utm_campaign=wp_evening_edition&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_evening

2023sep27.   India.   Hindu nationalists aligned with India’s Modi wage a massive social media campaign to spread inflammatory content.        Washington Post journalists gained rare access to the vast messaging machinery run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party and its allies, gaining an inside look at how a network of tens of thousands of social media activists propagates content designed to advance a Hindu-first ideology and cement Modi’s grip on power. This story is the first in a series about how right-wing forces in India wield technology and their relationship with Big Tech companies in the United States.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/26/hindu-nationalist-social-media-hate-campaign/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere_special_report&location=alert

2023sep26.   humanity.  Russia is seeking to rejoin the United Nations human rights council in an election that will be seen as a key test of its international standing.    It was expelled from the UN's pre-eminent human rights body last April after its forces invaded Ukraine.     But now Russian diplomats are seeking to get their country re-elected to the council for a fresh three-year term.    The BBC has obtained a copy of the position paper Russia is circulating to UN members asking for their support.

The vote will take place next month.    In the document seen by the BBC, Russia promises to find "adequate solutions for human rights issues" and seeks to stop the council becoming an "instrument which serves political wills of one group of countries", understood to be a reference to the West.

Diplomats said Russia was hoping to regain some international credibility after being accused of human rights abuses in Ukraine and within its own borders.  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66919358

2023sep25.   education.   ... the 2023 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey, an annual poll released every Constitution Day (Sept. 17), also found that a significant number of Americans can’t even name the three branches of the government. More specifically, while two-thirds of Americans (66%) can name the three branches, 10 percent can only list two, another seven percent can only name one, and an astounding 17 percent can’t name a single branch.    ... when respondents were asked to name all of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, most Americans (77%) could only name one — the freedom of speech.  https://studyfinds.org/constitution-americans-rights/  Bill of Rights:

Amendment 1 Freedoms, Petitions, Assembly

Amendment 2 Right to bear arms

Amendment 3 Quartering of soldiers

Amendment 4 Search and arrest

Amendment 5 Rights in criminal cases

Amendment 6 Right to a fair trial

Amendment 7 Rights in civil cases

Amendment 8 Bail, fines, punishment

Amendment 9 Rights retained by the People

Amendment 10 States' rights   https://www.ushistory.org/documents/amendments.htm

2023sep24.   Israel.   FRIEDMAN OPINION.    In recent weeks there has been a lot of discussion about Joe Biden’s age. He’s old. But you know what comes with age besides a slower gait and forgetting words? Wisdom — in particular how to handle a high-stakes diplomatic encounter without blowing things up (or blowing things up before you want them to blow up). And that’s what I think I saw at the face-to-face meeting between Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Wednesday in New York.        “Bibi, you want this deal that would normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. I want it too. But to get this deal, I’m going to have to do something really hard — forge a mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia and maybe agree to some kind of civil nuclear program for the Kingdom under strict controls. The Saudi leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is going to have to do something really hard — normalize relations between the home of Islam’s two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina — with the Jewish state. And now you’re going to have to do something hard too.    “You’re going to have to agree to terms for normalization with Saudi Arabia that will require you to verifiably curb Jewish settlements in the West Bank, improve living and travel conditions for Palestinians there, advance Palestinian administration over more of their populated areas in accordance with Oslo and generally agree to steps on the ground that preserve the option of a two-state solution, even though your coalition agreement advocates annexation. Now Bibi, I, as your dear, old, close and warm friend, would never tell you how to run your politics — let alone ask you to blow up your crazy coalition by agreeing to terms that the far-right Jewish supremacists in your cabinet could never swallow. No, I would never do that. That would be intervening in your politics. That would be wrong. I’m just telling you, you’ve got homework to do, my dear, old, close, warm buddy. And your homework is due in the next few weeks.”  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/23/opinion/biden-netanyahu-meeting.html

2023sep23.   misinformation.   Misinformation research is buckling under GOP legal attacks.   An escalating campaign, led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and other Republicans, has cast a pall over programs that study political disinformation and the quality of medical information online.        Academics, universities and government agencies are overhauling or ending research programs designed to counter the spread of online misinformation amid a legal campaign from conservative politicians and activists who accuse them of colluding with tech companies to censor right-wing views.    The escalating campaign — led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and other Republicans in Congress and state government — has cast a pall over programs that study not just political falsehoods but also the quality of medical information online.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/23/online-misinformation-jim-jordan/

2023sep23.   contempt.   The Wrecking-Ball Caucus: How the Far Right Brought Washington to Its Knees.        Right-wing Republicans who represent a minority in their party and in Congress have succeeded in sowing mass dysfunction, spoiling for a shutdown, an impeachment and a House coup.  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/23/us/republicans-congress-freedom-caucus.html

2023sep23.   Cannon.   The first speaker attacked for being a "czar" was Thomas Brackett Reed, a Maine Republican who dominated the chamber as few had before him. He bequeathed to Cannon a system of parliamentary devices and insider agreements that allowed the speaker to control the Rules Committee and strongly influence the other committees.    Cannon expanded on "Reed's Rules": He could make himself chairman of the Rules Committee, appoint the other committee chairs, determine who would serve on the various committees, decide which bills would reach the floor, what amendments would be in order and who would be permitted to offer them — or even give a speech. He also determined the winning side on voice votes and dictated the calendar. It was said that one member had replied to a request for a copy of the rules of the House by mailing back a photograph of Joe Cannon.    Cannon was not using his power just to run a tight procedural ship. He was wielding it as an instrument with impact far beyond the Congress itself, a weapon to defeat any policy changes or reforms he opposed. He was often at loggerheads with President Theodore Roosevelt and anyone else in either party who entertained progressive ideas.    Although personally affable and well-liked throughout his career, Cannon resisted government regulation of business, supported high protective tariffs and frowned upon change in general. It was said that had he been present at the Creation he would have voted against it.  https://www.npr.org/2023/09/23/1200992004/motion-to-vacate-matt-gaetz-cannon-1910  

2023sep22.   civility.   Rupert Murdoch Turned Passion and Grievance Into Money and Power. The retiring Fox leader built a noise-and-propaganda machine by giving his people what they wanted — and sometimes by teaching them what to want.    The polite way to describe the legacy of a man like Rupert Murdoch is to leave aside whether his accomplishments were good or bad and simply focus on how big they were.        Rupert Murdoch’s empire used passion and grievance as fuel and turned it into money and power.    His tabloids ran on the idea of publishing for readers as they were, not according to some platonic ideal of how one wished them to be. That meant pinups and prize giveaways and blaring scandal headlines.    Over years and decades, Mr. Murdoch’s properties shifted their definition of “elite” away from people with more money than you anFox gave Mr. Murdoch a movie studio and allowed him to create the Fox broadcast network in 1986; he would add publishers and more newspapers to his empire as well. But his news philosophy and his conservative politics were most fully expressed in Fox News Channel, which he launched with the former Republican consultant Roger Ailes in 1996. toward people with more perceived cultural capital than you, something that would be essential to nationalist politics in the 21st century and Fox’s dominance. (He did all this while living the life of a jet-setting billionaire.)    He translated this model to America in the 1970s with his acquisition of The New York Post. But that was a warm-up to his larger project of acquiring 20th Century Fox and applying his tabloid skills to the entertainment and broadcast business.    Like Mr. Murdoch’s tabloids, Fox had an aesthetic that was key to its appeal. Where news programs once sought to project stability and gravitas, it had flash and energy. It had the tone and political attitude of conservative talk radio and the rah-rah spirit of TV sports (as well as the blinding graphics).    But Fox was not a style phenomenon alone. It branded itself “Fair and Balanced,” implying that other outlets were unfair and unbalanced. “We Report, You Decide,” it said, implying a they who were making the decisions for you.    Fox promised news but its cash crop was feelings. Making viewers feel — feel angry, feel betrayed, feel threatened — was vital to keeping them tuned in for hours. The particulars of Fox’s mood, and its conservatism, adapted and evolved with the eras. It was jingoistic during the wars of the George W. Bush era. As Barack Obama emerged, it fed suspicions that he was alien, other, a malign un-American force. (Its morning show, “Fox and Friends,” gave airtime to a bogus story that he had attended a madrasa.)    When conservatives were losing, Fox held an audience by appealing to their sense of siege. Winning, they could find ways to feel besieged anyway, as with “The war on Christmas,” a Fox staple.    On Fox, the news was a serial drama filled with enemies and heroes, victory and peril. But like on a long-running thriller, each new twist had to top the last. The stakes had to heighten. Bushian Republicanism gave way to the string-on-a-bulletin-board theories of Glenn Beck, until, eventually, Tucker Carlson was mainstreaming racist “replacement theory” for one of cable TV’s biggest audiences.        A man who made his fortune giving the people what they want has no business being surprised to learn what they inevitably want next: More.  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/21/arts/television/rupert-murdoch-fox.html

2023sep22.   Israel.    ... formal diplomatic relations between the Jewish state and the influential Arab kingdom, whose monarch styles himself as the custodian of the two holiest sites in Islam, now seems in reach. The Biden administration is working with both sides on a package of agreements and concessions that would make it possible, on the heels of what the previous Trump administration helped broker between Israel and a few Arab monarchies, including the United Arab Emirates.    A pact with Riyadh would be a far bigger coup for Netanyahu, who has long sought to position himself as his nation’s premier statesman. It would pave the way for other Arab and Muslim-majority nations to abandon their historic rejection of Israel since its 1948 founding in lands long inhabited by Palestinians.    “I think that under your leadership, Mr. President, we can forge a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” Netanyahu told Biden. He said “such a peace would go a long way first to advance the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, achieve reconciliation between the Islamic world and the Jewish state, and advance a genuine peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”    Mooted contours of a potential deal include U.S. security guarantees to Saudi Arabia — framed by some reports as akin to Washington’s existing alliances with Japan and South Korea — as well as enlisting Israeli support in the development of a uranium-enrichment program for Saudi Arabia’s fledgling nuclear industry. Floated in vaguer terms are apparent concessions to Palestinians, millions of whom live under Israeli military occupation, shorn of the same political rights as their neighbors.    It’s this last piece that has other Arab observers concerned. The Abraham Accords agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates has seen a flourishing of bilateral trade and people-to-people contacts between the two countries, but it has done little to advance the plight of the Palestinians, whatever the rhetoric of “peace” that surrounded the forging of these deals. Some officials are more sanguine about this reality than others.    “Were the Abraham Accords envisioned to solve the Palestinian issue?” asked Anwar Gargash, a top UAE foreign policy official, speaking at a Manhattan event on Wednesday hosted by media outlets Al-Monitor and Semafor. He bluntly answered that they were not, adding that the Palestinians have been given a blank check for years from Arab partners, yet “haven’t done anything” with that support.  https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=598b051fae7e8a68162a1429&s=650d12cccd89db27b8a8bc7f&linknum=5&linktot=79&linknum=5&linktot=79

2023sep20.   water.    The White House on Wednesday unveiled a new climate jobs training program that it says could put 20,000 people to work in its first year on projects like restoring land, improving communities' resilience to natural disasters and deploying clean energy.    The American Climate Corps is modeled after a program that put millions to work during the Great Depression. President Biden's climate policy adviser Ali Zaidi told reporters that the program has broader goals beyond addressing the climate crisis.    "We're opening up pathways to good-paying careers, lifetimes of being involved in the work of making our communities more fair, more sustainable, more resilient," Zaidi said.  https://www.npr.org/2023/09/20/1200483937/biden-climate-corps-job-training        The American Climate Corps is an interagency partnership between AmeriCorps, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Departments of Labor, Interior, Agriculture, and Energy.  AmeriCorps ( gov)

2023sep20.   policies.    Which of Trump's policies do his supporters like? calling question from Steve 12:04 p.m.        When journalists ask Trump supporters why they support Trump, they always say his policies. They never ask them which policies. Does that mean giving tax breaks to the rich? Or separating children from their parents at the border with no plan to ever reunite them? Or increasing water and air pollution? Which policies?        Jennifer Rubin, Opinion Columnist:  Precisely. Moreover, they are rarely asked about the things he said he would do and never accomplished. He never brought Iran to heel. He never passed an infrastructure bill. He never came up with a "better" health care plan to replease the Affordable Care Act. Reporters are insufficiently aggressive.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/20/jennifer-rubin-live-chat/

2023sep20.   immigration.    GOP governors push Biden on border: ‘Shelters are full, food pantries empty.’  https://ground.news/article/https-wwwtimesunioncom-state-article-gop-governors-urge-biden-provide-details-border-18376011php?utm_source=smerconish-newsletter&utm_medium=email  Harv says: Border security follows the law, not the fullness of shelters nor pantries.

2023sep20.   polls.    After more than a year of job approval numbers at or just over 40%, Biden’s rating has slipped to 38% approve, 56% disapprove. That’s a significant decline from percentages that peaked at 43% and 44% in April and May, and the worst result for the president since his previous low of 35% approve, 56% disapprove in August 2022.    The economy: Despite improving data — the job market is roaring; GDP is growing; overall inflation trending downward; a much-predicted recession hasn’t materialized — just 34% of Americans approve of how Biden is handling the economy.  https://news.yahoo.com/trump-pulls-even-with-biden-in-yahoo-newsyougov-poll-200517364.html

2023sep20.   humanity.    Mr. Biden reiterated that Ukraine's interests are the United Nations' interests, and said the global body must "continue to preserve peace, prevent conflict and alleviate human suffering."    "The United States seeks a more secure, more prosperous, more equitable world for all people, because we know our future is bound to yours," the president said at UNGA. "Let me repeat that again: We know our future is bound to yours. And no nation can meet the challenges of today alone."     "The United States seeks a more secure, more prosperous, more equitable world for all people, because we know our future is bound to yours," the president said at UNGA. "Let me repeat that again: We know our future is bound to yours. And no nation can meet the challenges of today alone." Mr. Biden reiterated that Ukraine's interests are the United Nations' interests, and said the global body must "continue to preserve peace, prevent conflict and alleviate human suffering."    "The United States seeks a more secure, more prosperous, more equitable world for all people, because we know our future is bound to yours," the president said at UNGA. "Let me repeat that again: We know our future is bound to yours. And no nation can meet the challenges of today alone."   https://draft.blogger.com/blog/page/edit/5061034831056916264/4584164544454246975

2023sep20.   civility.    The Republican Party infighting is driving America toward a government shutdown.  https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/20/politics/government-shutdown-house-republicans/index.html

2023sep20.   civility.    But with the Pentagon and Tuberville not budging, GOP senators are looking to take matters into their own hands.    Schumer has refused to schedule a vote on any of the nominees out of concerns that giving into Tuberville could incentivize other senators to place holds to achieve their policy objectives. He has instead demanded that Tuberville drop his blockade and allow the nominations to quickly be confirmed by voice vote.    The process that Tuberville is trying to use involves him collecting 16 other signatures on a petition – at that point he could file the petition to set up a procedural vote, which would require 51 votes to succeed. Thune believes Tuberville has enough support to at least force the vote.    “I didn’t sign it,” Thune said. “He’s got the – I think he’s got the requisite number of signatures. We’ll see where it goes. I mean, I think there were other ways of getting this done, but he was intent on pursuing a cloture petition, to use that mechanism. So we’ll see where it lands.”  https://draft.blogger.com/blog/page/edit/5061034831056916264/4584164544454246975

2023sep20.   civility.    Few women know they are pregnant by six weeks. Abortion rights backers say such early bans amount to near total prohibition.    Mr. Trump has long appeared uncomfortable discussing abortion in the context of Republican politics, as a former Democrat who once favored abortion rights.  https://draft.blogger.com/blog/page/edit/5061034831056916264/4584164544454246975  Harv's lifetime was a product of antiabortion -- a drunk father, a single working mother angry all her lifetime.

2023sep20.   humanity.    General Suleimani was killed in Iraq in 2020, when Donald J. Trump was president, in an American drone strike targeted against him. Iran retaliated by launching a ballistic missile attack on American military bases in Iraq, and more than 100 U.S. soldiers suffered concussions as a result, the military has said.    “The Islamic Republic of Iran, through all tools and capacities in order to bring to justice the perpetrators and all those who had a hand in this government sanctioned act of terror, will not sit until that is done,” Mr. Raisi said on Tuesday. “The blood of the oppressed will not be forgotten.”    Iranian officials have made similar threats in the past, but this one may take on added weight coming from the president of the country repeating it in one of the most prominent international forums, with world leaders in attendance. In his speech to the Assembly last year, Mr. Raisi held up a picture of General Suleimani and he said he was a hero to many people in the Middle East, and that Mr. Trump should face trial for ordering his killing.    Law enforcement officials have said in the past that they have detected serious threats from Iran against former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former national security adviser John Bolton. As Mr. Raisi vowed revenge on Tuesday, a lone U.S. representative in the assembly hall took notes.    Mr. Raisi’s comments came hours after President Biden had addressed the Assembly and made only one passing mention of Iran, declaring the United States would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.   https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/09/19/world/united-nations-general-assembly#irans-president-threatens-us-officials-from-the-un-podium-dimming-hopes-for-a-rapprochement

2023sep20.   humanity.    The processes of inauguration for both leaders were marred by anti-democratic insurrections. Biden immediately followed Lula in the speaking order Tuesday and put out a message that was, among other things, an unmistakable repudiation of Trump’s motte-and-bailey “America First” agenda.    “The United States seeks a more secure, more prosperous, more equitable world for all people because we know our future is bound to yours,” Biden said. “And no nation can meet the challenges of today alone.”    But there were clear differences between them, as well: Lula railed against the United States’ decades-long blockade of Cuba, where he visited immediately before journeying to New York. He also decried how an age of great power competition seems to have only exacerbated social and economic inequalities in the world and set out his stall once more as the inveterate champion of the “Global South,” especially in the face of the ever-present climate crisis.    “It knocks on our door, destroys our homes, our cities, our countries, kills, and imposes suffering and losses on our brothers,” Lula said. “It is the vulnerable populations in the Global South who are most affected by the loss and damage caused by climate change.”  https://draft.blogger.com/blog/page/edit/5061034831056916264/4584164544454246975

2023sep19.   humanity.    The annual grand conclave of international diplomacy kicks into high gear Tuesday, when the General Debate of world leaders speaking at the famous dais of the U.N. General Assembly gets underway. Per custom, Brazil’s leader, in this case President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will speak first, followed by President Bide        Efforts to reach the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals are faltering, with governments no longer on track to eradicate global poverty by 2030, among other commitments made in 2015. And more and more diplomats openly grumble that the United Nations, as an institution, is no longer fit for purpose to meet an array of challenges.    The organization’s top official still vouches for its merits. “It is a one-of-a-kind moment each year for leaders from every corner of the globe to not only assess the state of the world but to act for the common good,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres told reporters last week. “And action is what the world needs now.”        The United Nations itself, the efforts of its constituent members, the ethos of collective action it is supposed to inculcate — all of this reflects its central role as a linchpin in a multilateral world order, built on institutions set up in the wake of World War II.    But the world is much transformed since then and some of the United Nations’ current structures — in particular, the Security Council — have proved more dysfunctional than helpful. The veto-wielding influence of the five permanent members has made the body the repeated source of global opprobrium.   https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=598b051fae7e8a68162a1429&s=65091df6f065a1246cf8e93c&linknum=5&linktot=70&linknum=5&linktot=70        opprobrium:noun: harsh criticism or censure. • the public disgrace arising from someone's shameful conduct.(OAD)

2023sep18.   demagogue.    It’s far-right House Republicans vs. everyone else, essentially: These lawmakers say they want deep spending cuts. Oh, and they want more money for border security. It’s a small but powerful group. If just four far-right Republicans band together, it could be enough to derail the entire process of keeping the government funded.    One of the leaders of this shutdown threat is Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). He is expected to run for governor of Florida in two years and wants Donald Trump’s blessing, NBC News reported. That could help explain why he’s antagonizing leaders in his party — even at the risk of a shutdown. Republican leaders have warned that a shutdown doesn’t usually work out well for the party in power in Congress. But far-right lawmakers have often been rewarded politically back in their districts for brushing off shutdowns or even defaults as no big deal.  https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=598b051fae7e8a68162a1429&s=6508c3b50e97577a0ce4aefa&linknum=4&linktot=52&linknum=4&linktot=52

2023sep18.   democracy.    The front-runner for the Republican nomination is a twice-impeached ex-president – Trump – who is facing four criminal trials and has never shelved his attempt to overturn the American democratic system of fair elections.

Biden now faces his own impeachment drama after pro-Trump Republicans, despite a paucity of evidence of abuses of power, opened an investigation seeking to tie him to his son Hunter’s alleged influence-peddling in China and Ukraine. Biden is also reeling after his surviving son last week became the only child of a sitting president to be indicted.

The House Republican majority, beset by infighting and radicalization, has threatened to choke off federal funding and may shut down the government by the end of the month after its most extreme members demanded massive spending cuts it has no power to enact given opposition by the Senate and the White House. The showdown is increasingly an existential threat to GOP Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

The octogenarian president is increasingly coming under scrutiny over his ability to serve a full second term if he wins in November 2024. It’s a legitimate question that many Americans share but that the White House struggles to answer.

A sense of building national malaise is encapsulated by two strikes hobbling two industries that had outsize influence on the mythology of US cultural power and global dominance in the 20th century: automobiles and Hollywood.

Washington’s festering political mess could have international implications as hard-line Republicans seek to halt billions of dollars of US aid to Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion. President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to travel to Washington this week to seek to shore up the lifeline, but Trump warned on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that if he wins in 2024 he plans to get Zelensky and Vladimir Putin “into a room” and broker a deal – a scenario likely to swing heavily to the Russian strongman’s demands.

All of this is occurring at a time when no one in either party appears to have the power to push aside the two dominant political figures – Biden and Trump, who are the most likely combatants in a presidential race next year that polls show few Americans want.  https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/18/politics/trump-biden-impeachment-economy-budget-2024/index.html

2023sep16.   impeachment.    State Rep. Ann Johnson, a Democrat who served as vice chair of the House’s prosecution team, expressed concern that Ken Paxton is remaining in office.    “We presented overwhelming evidence that Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician in the state of Texas at this time. And Republicans in the Texas Senate just returned him to the office of the top cop,” Johnson said. “God help us.”  https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/09/16/texas-attorney-general-paxton-impeachment-verdict/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert

2023sep15.   Romney.    “The next generation of leaders must take America to the next stage of global leadership.”    The problem with this argument is that Romney despises the next generation of Republican leaders. He’s watched the transformation of Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio into a Trump lackey with disgust. “I don’t know that I can disrespect someone more than J.D. Vance,” he told McKay Coppins, author of a forthcoming Romney biography. He’s similarly contemptuous of Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri for indulging the lies that led to the Jan. 6 insurrection. I doubt he’s a fan of the Florida congressman Matt Gaetz or the hucksterish presidential aspirant Vivek Ramaswamy.    Besides, as Coppins reveals in an Atlantic excerpt from his book, Romney himself thought of running a third-party campaign for president in 2024, deciding against it only out of fear that it would throw the election to Trump. So as much as I believe that America is stagnating under the death grip of the gerontocracy, I don’t think that’s why Romney is bowing out. Rather, he’s given up on a second Senate term because his brand of stolid, upstanding conservatism has become obsolete, replaced with a conspiratorial, histrionic and sometimes violent authoritarianism. His reluctance to say so clearly, at the cost of breaking with his party definitively, is evidence of something tragic in his character.    We know what Romney really thinks because of the access he offered Coppins, with whom he met weekly, giving him diaries, private papers and emails. “A very large portion of my party really doesn’t believe in the Constitution,” Romney told him.  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/14/opinion/mitt-romney-trump-retiring.html

2023sep15.   Romney.   Almost every Republican shared his disgust with Trump.        Publicly, Mr. Romney has long been on an island in a party subsumed by Trumpism. Privately, he reveals, many of his colleagues, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the longtime Republican leader, are actually on the same page when it comes to his dim view of Donald J. Trump.    “Almost without exception,” Mr. Romney told Mr. Coppins, “they shared my view of the president.”    Mr. Romney kept a tally of his colleagues who approached him to privately express solidarity when he publicly criticized Mr. Trump, often saying they envied his ability to air his views. At one point, he told his staff, the list reached more than a dozen.    Mr. Romney also recalled a 2019 visit Mr. Trump made to the weekly Senate Republican lunch in the Capitol. The senators gave the president a standing ovation and were attentive and encouraging during his remarks about what he called the “Russia hoax.” They nodded when he said the G.O.P. would be known as “the party of health care” after they moved on from impeachment. But as soon as Mr. Trump left the room, the senators all burst out laughing.      “You’re the reason this is happening!” he recalled yelling at Mr. Hawley, Republican of Missouri, during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. “You did this.” Mr. Hawley, who suggested that Mr. Trump could remain in office and that President Biden’s inauguration was not guaranteed, famously raised his fist that day outside the Capitol in a show of solidarity with the rioters.    Of Mr. Vance, the freshman Republican senator from Ohio, Mr. Romney said bluntly, “I don’t know that I can disrespect someone more.” After reading Mr. Vance’s best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” Mr. Romney said he had once been a fan. It made Mr. Vance’s swift conversion to a MAGA soldier all the more depressing to him.       Mr. Romney, an observant Mormon, also had little regard for a fellow man of faith, Mr. Pence. No one, he said, had been “more loyal, more willing to smile when he saw absurdities, more willing to ascribe God’s will to things that were ungodly than Mike Pence.”     It all helped Mr. Romney come to a demoralizing conclusion a few months after the Jan. 6 attack. “A very large portion of my party really doesn’t believe in the Constitution,” he said. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/14/us/politics/mitt-romney-mckay-coppins-takeaways.html

2023sep14.   democracy.   Despite President Biden’s unpopularity, recent Times polling shows his surprising resilience in swing states — and Cohn suggests this partly reflects backlash against MAGA-fied state parties in these places. By embracing Trump’s efforts to nullify his loss, they are only reminding voters that democracy is once again in peril, including whether their own votes will be counted next time.     Issues become salient for voters when elites talk about them a lot. That has certainly been the case with democracy and that will surely continue next year. Big events — such as Trump’s prosecution for Jan. 6, 2021-related offenses and the GOP’s continued devotion despite those criminal charges — will only reinforce what’s at stake.        “As long as the MAGA-Trump faction remains a threat to free and fair elections, a consequential slice of the electorate will continue to vote on this issue,” political scientist Lee Drutman told me.    If there’s a silver lining, it’s that the MAGA doom loop might keep on working its magic — all the way through 2024.    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/14/trump-2024-chances-michigan-wisconsin/

2023sep14.   demagogue.   Mitt Romney’s startling but familiar concession: The demagogues have won.        Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah announced Wednesday that his political career will come to an end after the 2024 election. Romney, a former governor and the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, declined to seek a second term in the Senate.    The move is a familiar one — a prominent Republican gathering the courage to arrest his party’s drift toward Trumpism and then, when the next election comes around, heading for the exits.    But rarely has such an exit been so consequential for that segment of the party. And rarely has it come with the degree of resignation Romney expressed.    Unlike other Trump critics who have opted to retire, Romney appeared to have had more than a fighting chance, had he opted to run again. Utah is an unusual state, deeply conservative but also with a large vein of Trump skepticism coursing through that conservatism. And Romney’s personal brand there — dating to his stewardship of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics — clearly gave him latitude that other Republicans have not enjoyed.    This situation is unlike that in neighboring Wyoming, where Rep. Liz Cheney’s impeachment-related efforts rendered her persona non grata in the party and sent her to a 37-point defeat in the 2022 GOP primary. Nor was it like what happened in neighboring Arizona, where Sen. Jeff Flake opted to retire ahead of the 2018 election rather than seek the approval of one of the most extreme and Trump-aligned state Republican parties in the country.    But Romney’s exit does echo Flake’s in another way: He is basically admitting that the party has made its choice and that there is little place for his brand of politics.  https://draft.blogger.com/blog/page/edit/5061034831056916264/4584164544454246975        demagogue: noun: a political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.(OAD) rational: adjective: 1 based on or in accordance with reason or logic.(OAD) reason: verb:  think rationally, think logically, think straight, use one's mind, use one's common sense, use one's head, use one's brain, think things through, cogitate; intellectualize.(OAD) logic: Logical reasoning is a mental activity that aims to arrive at a conclusion in a rigorous way. It happens in the form of inferences or arguments by starting from a set of premises and reasoning to a conclusion supported by these premises. The premises and the conclusion are propositions, i.e. true or false claims about what is the case. Together, they form an argument. Logical reasoning is norm-governed in the sense that it aims to formulate correct arguments that any rational person would find convincing. The main discipline studying logical reasoning is called logic.(Wikipedia)

2023sep11.   polls.   In his first two presidential campaigns, Mr. Trump fared far better in the battleground states than he did nationwide, allowing him to win the presidency while losing the national vote in 2016 and nearly doing it again in 2020.    But there’s a case that his Electoral College advantage has faded.  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/upshot/electoral-college-trump-2024.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=US%20Politics

2023sep11.   water.   inequality.   "It is with great pleasure that I announce the successful completion of the fourth and final filling of the Renaissance Dam," Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on X, formerly Twitter.    He admitted the project had faced "internal and external obstacles" but "we endured all that". The dam began generating electricity in February 2022.    Ethiopia believes the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) will double the country's electricity output, providing a vital development boost, as currently half the 127-million population lacks electricity.    The plan is to generate more than 6,000 MW at the dam, which is about 30km (19 miles) from Ethiopia's border with Sudan.    Egypt and Sudan argue that common rules for the operation of Gerd must be agreed, fearing that energy-hungry Ethiopia may exacerbate their existing water shortages.    Negotiations over the project resumed last month, having been suspended in 2021.    Sudan - currently mired in fighting between rival armies - did not immediately react to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's announcement on Sunday.    ... Egyptian foreign ministry said Ethiopia's "unilateral" filling of the reservoir violated a declaration of principles signed by the three countries in 2015, and branded Ethiopia's action "illegal".  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66771155  

2023sep10.   G-20.   200 hours of meetings and 15 drafts led to a step-down in the G20’s Ukraine declaration.  https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/10/politics/group-of-20-ukraine-language-joe-biden/index.html

2023sep10.   G-20.   Ukraine - which took part in last year's Bali summit but was not invited this year - said it was "nothing to be proud of".        The G20 members announced that they have reached a 100% consensus to "pursue and encourage efforts to triple renewable energy capacity globally through existing targets and policies". The bloc accounts for more than 75% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.        President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, which is taking over the presidency.    Problems faced by developing countries dominated President Lula's speech.    "We are living in a world where wealth is more concentrated, in which millions of human beings still go hungry, where sustainable development is always threatened, in which global governance institutions still reflect the reality of middle of the last century," he said.  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66716544

2023sep09.   14th Amendment.   Donald Trump is facing calls to be blocked from running for president in 2024 over allegations that his actions around January 6 violated his constitutional oath.    There are currently attempts by advocacy groups and individuals to have Trump's name removed from [four] state ballots next year over claims he violated section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which says that a person who "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" after taking an oath of office to support the Constitution should be prevented from running for office again.    There have also been calls for secretaries of state to block Trump from the ballots over allegations he engaged in an insurrection attempt in order to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 election. In most states, the secretary of state is also the chief election official who can decide if a candidate is qualified to run for president.        Questions on whether the 14th Amendment can be invoked to stop a president running for office again, and if it could be applied to Trump, has sparked huge debate, with legal scholars offering both sides of the argument on the unprecedented occurrence.    Any move to bar Trump from running as a presidential candidate would almost certainly be met with legal challenges, or an intervention from the Supreme Court.    It is highly unlikely that the conservative majority court, which includes three judges nominated to the bench by Trump, will support the plan to bar the former president from being on next year's ballots.  https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-ballots-14th-amendment-jan6-insurrection-1825503

2023sep09.   14th Amendment   ... it has re-emerged as a political flashpoint in the wake of Mr Trump's sprawling effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat, which culminated in the riot at the US Capitol in January 2021.    In the attack's aftermath, the US House of Representatives impeached the then-president on a charge of "incitement of insurrection".    Had the US Senate voted to convict him on that charge, it would have had the option to take a second, simple-majority vote to bar him from ever serving in office again, on the basis of the 14th Amendment.    But that never happened: the Senate failed to reach the two-thirds majority required to convict Mr Trump, so the second vote never happened.    Two and a half years later, with Mr Trump's third bid for the presidency remarkably buoyant, the 14th Amendment is once again the talk of Washington.    At the vanguard of the effort is Free Speech For People, a self-described non-partisan advocacy group that last year filed challenges against Trump-backing lawmakers it labelled "insurrectionists".    The 14th Amendment was not written solely to apply to the post-Civil War era, but also to future insurrections, argues Ron Fein, the organisation's legal director.    He told the BBC the US Capitol riot succeeded "in delaying the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in our nation's history, which is further than the Confederates ever got".    "The particular candidates we challenged in 2022 had participated or assisted in the efforts that led up to the insurrection," Mr Fein said.    And, he added, their cases established important legal precedents that can be applied to show "Trump is the chief insurrectionist".    Free Speech For People intends to seek disqualification in multiple states. It is also separately petitioning the top election officials in at least nine states to unilaterally excise Mr Trump from the primary ballot.    Either move will inevitably draw an objection from the candidate himself, triggering a process that could ultimately place his fate in the hands of the US Supreme Court.    The legal strategy has picked up considerable steam since August, when Mr Trump was accused of election subversion in two separate criminal cases.    That same month, conservative legal scholars William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen wrote in a law review paper that Section 3 is "self-executing, operating as an immediate disqualification from office, without the need for additional action by Congress".    Mr Trump could therefore be rendered ineligible for the ballot "by every official, state or federal, who judges qualifications", the pair concluded.    Mr Baude and Mr Paulsen are members of the Federalist Society, a highly influential, conservative advocacy group.    They adhere to the view that the Constitution must be interpreted as its authors intended at the time, and their stance has since been backed by other legal experts with conservative credentials.    Even the Supreme Court, with its conservative majority and trio of Trump-appointed judges, may be receptive to their argument, said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a dean at the Yale School of Management who supports the Baude-Paulsen perspective.    "All that is needed is that one of 50 state election officials has to find him ineligible," he told the BBC.    "Just one will send it to a state court review, which will be appealed by either side and sent to the US Supreme Court for a speedy resolution."    With voters heading to the polls early next year, the case will be decided quickly, he predicted.  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66690276

2023aug14.   14th Amendment.   The new article examined the historical evidence illuminating the meaning of the provision at great length, using the methods of originalism. It drew on, among other things, contemporaneous dictionary definitions, other provisions of the Constitution using similar language, “the especially strong evidence from 1860s Civil War era political and legal usage of nearly the precise same terms” and the early enforcement of the provision.    The article concluded that essentially all of that evidence pointed in the same direction: “toward a broad understanding of what constitutes insurrection and rebellion and a remarkably, almost extraordinarily, broad understanding of what types of conduct constitute engaging in, assisting, or giving aid or comfort to such movements.”    It added, “The bottom line is that Donald Trump both ‘engaged in’ ‘insurrection or rebellion’ and gave ‘aid or comfort’ to others engaging in such conduct, within the original meaning of those terms as employed in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.”    Though the provision was devised to address the aftermath of the Civil War, it was written in general terms and continues to have force, the article said.    Congress granted broad amnesties in 1872 and 1898. But those acts were retrospective, the article said, and did not limit Section 3’s prospective force. (A federal appeals court agreed last year in the case involving Mr. Cawthorn.)    The provision’s language is automatic, the article said, establishing a qualification for holding office no different in principle from the Constitution’s requirement that only people who are at least 35 years old are eligible to be president.    “Section 3’s disqualification rule may and must be followed — applied, honored, obeyed, enforced, carried out — by anyone whose job it is to figure out whether someone is legally qualified to office,” the authors wrote. That includes election administrators, the article said.    Professor Calabresi said those administrators must act. “Trump is ineligible to be on the ballot, and each of the 50 state secretaries of state has an obligation to print ballots without his name on them,” he said, adding that they may be sued for refusing to do so.    (Professor Calabresi has occasionally strayed from conservative orthodoxy, leading to an unusual request from the group he helped found. “I have been asked not to talk to any journalist who identifies me as a co-founder of the Federalist Society, even though it is a historical fact,” he said. I noted the request and ignored it.)  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/us/trump-jan-6-insurrection-conservatives.html

2023sep09.   humanity   “Our tireless scientific efforts will continue in order to develop better understanding of the Universe for the welfare of entire humanity,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on social media September 2, celebrating the Chandrayaan-3 mission and the recent launch of India’s first spacecraft dedicated to studying the sun.        Together, the lander, which weighs about 1,700 kilograms (3,748 pounds), and the 26-kilogram (57.3-pound) rover are packed with nearly a dozen scientific instruments. They include a laser that can analyze the chemical composition of the moon’s regolith — aiding in the hunt for water ice — and the ultra-thin layer of gases that make up the moon’s exosphere. The rover is also equipped with a seismometer that attempted to detect quakes within the moon’s interior. https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/07/world/india-lunar-lander-chandryaan-mission-obit-scn/index.html

2023sep09.   G-20.   BRICS.   ... viewed from the lens of China’s great power rivalry with the United States, analysts say Xi’s expected no-show at the G20 could also signal his disillusion with the existing global system of governance – and structures he sees as too dominated by American influence.    Instead, Xi may be prioritizing multilateral forums that fit into China’s own vision for how the world should be governed – such as the recently concluded BRICS summit and the upcoming Belt and Road Forum.  https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/08/china/china-xi-g20-absence-global-governance-intl-hnk/index.html

More Contents in part 2

https://www.harvotto.com/p/political-consensuspart-2.html