United States | News & Politics

The Guardian sent detailed questions to the US health department, Bigtree and Siri. Among the questions the Guardian asked was a request for each to comment on criticism that the Mississippi court case led to a surge in whooping cough cases, and ultimately the death of a baby. None responded directly to that claim.

“They see this as a victory. But I think pediatricians see it as an assault on our patients, and an assault on families,” said Dr Anita Henderson, a Hattiesburg pediatrician. Bigtree is “taking this situation to raise funds to do this in other states”.

The world's largest association of historians is suing the Trump administration over a recent effort to justify the president keeping his official records rather than turning them over to the National Archives.

Last week, the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel issued an advisory opinion that stated Trump "need not further comply" with the decades-old law governing the handover of presidential records for public preservation after a president leaves office.

60% of U.S. adults have an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 53% last year.

In both political parties, majorities of adults under the age of 50 now rate Israel and Netanyahu negatively.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/50160086

[Op-ed by Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute and the author, most recently, of, 'The Devil and Communist China'.]

I don’t know Elsa Johnson, the Stanford student who recently testified before Congress that she is being targeted by Chinese intelligence agents because her research and writing was critical of Beijing.

But it turns out that we have a lot in common.

I, too, have been targeted by Chinese intelligence agents and for the same reason: I was a Stanford scholar who published articles critical of the Communist regime.

In Johnson’s case the apparent agent first posed as a fellow student, asking her about her research and flattering her by saying she could become a social media star in China and make a lot of money. When he offered to arrange for a visa and pay her travel costs, her alarm bells went off.

...

On one occasion a Chinese man posing as a political dissident first befriended me in person, attending talks I was giving at various California universities, and then not long after began offering all-expense-paid trips to China, complete with generous lecture fees and access to senior officials.

“You must visit the New China,” he urged me again and again in follow-up calls and texts. “You will be treated very well.”

I knew that the unspoken trade-off of accepting such largesse was having to tone down my criticism of China’s abysmal human rights record. I declined the offer. I have seen too many of my fellow China watchers go wobbly on China, if not become grovelling panda-huggers, after a few profitable trips there.

...

The Chinese authorities were so apparently furious at my exposure of their brutal one-child policy — in which I documented forced abortions up to the point of birth — that it threatened to cancel the entire scholarly exchange programme between the US and China unless I was silenced. Stanford University itself, I learnt from my late colleague, Professor Arthur Wolf, was warned that it must “punish me severely for my crimes against the Chinese people” or else no Stanford scholars would ever again be allowed to do research in China.

...

Punished for buying villagers a $4,000 truck

As I would ultimately testify in Congress, Stanford not only did not defend my right to publish my research on China’s crimes against its people, but it punished me for doing so. University officials, anxious to preserve their ties with China and bowing to its threats, began an investigation of my research in China that lasted five long years.

They actively collaborated with China to concoct a case against me, going so far as to ask the Beijing authorities to detail my supposed “crimes against the Chinese people”. The denunciation that Stanford received in return read like it came straight out of the Cultural Revolution.

It accused me of entering a restricted province (I had a valid travel document), of gifting Junan commune, where I lived, a small flatbed truck costing $4,000 (I wanted to help the villagers get their produce to market and alleviate their poverty), and — my personal favourite — of writing articles to “attack the Chinese people”.

...

Web Archive link

What might have made a difference is that a chunk of Democrats in congress started openly discussing impeachment and Republicans started leaking details about how the war started

The stakes are exactly the same though. So vote.

Utilities, solar companies, and environmentalists worked together to fast-track flexible interconnection and build lots of community solar in record time.

Prosecutors did not watch video of the nonfatal shooting until weeks after charging the wounded man, an official said.

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KITTERY, Maine (AP) — There are lots of questions about Graham Platner, a first-time Democratic candidate running for U.S. Senate in Maine. Now they are also part of a trivia game.

“What was the nature of the controversy of Graham’s tattoo he received while in the Marines?” an emcee recently asked at a local community center.

The answer? “It was claimed to be a Neo-Nazi tattoo (totenkopf).”

This was not a new way of delivering opposition research, but an official campaign event for Platner’s supporters. And it showed how the 41-year-old oyster farmer and military veteran has capitalized on voters’ willingness to forgive past transgressions and embrace a populist message.

https://archive.ph/b3iHe