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Thu, 14/09/2023 - 09:30
In the Romney excerpt @mckaycoppins Paul Ryan, already out as speaker, calls Romney and lobbies him not to vote to convict Trump in 1st impeachment trial — for all the self serving cynical reasons that you might imagine. https://t.co/Kl8qwjpbTX — Susan Glasser (@sbg1) September 13, 2023 Yep: Shortly before 2 p.m. on the day of the vote, Romney left his office and walked to the Capitol, where he waited in his hideaway for his turn to speak. Minutes before going on the floor, he received an un­expected call on his cellphone. It was Paul Ryan. Romney and his team had kept a tight lid on how he planned to vote, but somehow his former running mate had gotten word that he was about to detonate his political career. Romney had been less judgmental of Ryan’s acquiescence to Trump than he’d been of most other Republicans’. He believed Ryan was a sincere guy who’d simply misjudged Trump. And yet, here was Ryan on the phone, making the same arguments Romney had heard from some of his more calculating colleagues.
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Thu, 14/09/2023 - 08:00
My interview with @RepMattGaetz last night. On not having the votes but threatening countless attempts to oust McCarthy anyway "I’m going to do it over and over again until it works" pic.twitter.com/BJeOtgvHDG — Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) September 13, 2023 That was a good interview by Phillips. Gaetz thinks he’s going to best McCarthy. And he will make his life miserable. But who does he think will take MyKevin’s place?
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Thu, 14/09/2023 - 07:01

Unencumbered by a fierce legal battle, Mitchell remains one of the most influential people in the movement that’s undermining American democracy.

The post Trump Lawyer Cleta Mitchell Escaped Georgia Indictment — and Still Leads Election Denial Movement appeared first on The Intercept.

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Thu, 14/09/2023 - 07:00
Good to know According to the DC Circuit, congressional reps can foment coups and there’s nothing anyone can do about it: A top House conservative’s conversations with allies in Congress and the Trump White House about overturning the 2020 election are off-limits to special counsel Jack Smith, an appeals court ruled in a newly unsealed court opinion. A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that prosecutors’ effort to access the cellphone communications of Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) with colleagues and executive branch officials violated his immunity under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate clause, which shields members of Congress from legal proceedings connected to their official duties. “While elections are political events, a Member’s deliberation about whether to certify a presidential election or how to assess information relevant to legislation about federal election procedures are textbook legislative acts,” Judge Neomi Rao wrote in the opinion issued last week. The decision breaks new ground in a decadeslong tug-of-war between Congress and the executive branch.
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Thu, 14/09/2023 - 05:30
A chilling laboratory of authoritarianism I thought this piece by Don Moynihan was one of the best analyses I’ve seen of the attack on democracy we’re seeing in Wisconsin. It’s long but if you have time, read the whole thing. You’ll understand what’s happening in Wisconsin but also where the Republicans are headed nationally. This is who they are now: “DEMOCRACY IS A SYSTEM IN WHICH parties lose elections,” according to the political scientist Adam Przeworski. By that measure Wisconsin is not really a democracy. Sure, the Republican Party of Wisconsin routinely is defeated in statewide elections. Indeed, since 2018, they have lost fourteen of seventeen such races. But can they be said to really lose when they refuse to accept their defeat and instead use power accrued by undemocratic means to minimize or even reverse those losses? In this, Wisconsin was the pre-Trump canary in the coal mine, alerting us to the undemocratic depths to which the GOP would descend. The state’s Republicans then became bolder following Trump’s Big Lie example.
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Thu, 14/09/2023 - 04:57
In May 1971, I published a full-page letter in The Australian addressed ‘To Those Who Shape Australia’s Destiny’. It was signed by 730 Australian scientists including Sir Mark Oliphant and Sir Macfarlane Burnett. The letter concluded with these words: “For biological and ecological reasons civilisation based on the present western technology cannot survive much longer. Continue reading »
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Thu, 14/09/2023 - 04:56
An innocent invitation to a conference could turn into a nightmare. Next month I shall be on my way to an Australian Studies conference in Beijing, but already I am nervous about my travel plans because of recent stories about the attitude of Australian spy agencies to information exchanges with China. Friends, if I fail Continue reading »
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Thu, 14/09/2023 - 04:53
Without reform, Australia’s schooling system threatens to create a lost generation of young people. Teddy is a Kamilaroi university student who dreams of making a difference to educational outcomes of First Nation peoples. Growing up in regional New South Wales was fraught with challenges related to disadvantage for Teddy, but the amazing teachers who supported Continue reading »