Big Time News Blog: 12/20/19

Friday, December 20, 2019

Billions Spent and a Million Dead: The Iran-Iraq War Was An Enormous Waste Of Everything

Over $350 billion spent and one million dead. For what?

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Trump impeachment: Republican group urges GOP senators to take trial seriously

A Republican campaign group has released an advert urging GOP senators to take Donald Trump‘s impeachment trial seriously.The impending Senate trial must include testimony from witnesses, the Republicans for the Rule of Law (RRL) group says.

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The Texas ex-police officer who fatally shot Atatiana Jefferson in her own home has been indicted on a murder charge

Atatiana Jefferson had been playing video games with her nephew on October 12 when the officer, Aaron Dean, shot her through her bedroom window.

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A floating nuclear power plant that activists dubbed 'Chernobyl on ice' has started producing electricity in Russia. Here's what it looks like.

The plant sailed 3,100 miles to a remote area in northern Russia in the fall. But environmentalists say floating nuclear plants are risky.

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Sarah Sanders Apologizes to Joe Biden After Mocking Him for Stuttering at Democratic Debate

Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders took to Twitter on Thursday night to mock former Vice President Joe Biden for emulating a stutter during the Democratic presidential debate. Biden, who grew up with a speech impediment that he has admittedly spent his whole life overcoming, recalled how a little kid had come up to him saying “I can’t talk,” mimicking the child’s stutter.“I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I hhhave absolutely no idea what Biden is talking about. DemDebate,” Sanders posted to Twitter moments later. After receiving swift and overwhelming backlash for ridiculing Biden and other stutterers, Sanders attempted to pretend the jab wasn’t about stuttering: “To be clear was not trying to make fun of anyone with a speech impediment. Simply pointing out I can’t follow much of anything Biden is talking about,” she wrote.Biden’s official Twitter account, meanwhile, fired back at Sanders with his own statement after leaving the debate stage.“I’ve worked my whole life to overcome a stutter,” he said. “And it’s my great honor to mentor kids who have experienced the same. It’s called empathy. Look it up.”The former Trump flack eventually deleted her original tweet and replied to Biden: “I actually didn’t know that about you and that is commendable. I apologize and should have made my point respectfully.”How Joe Biden Inspired This Reporter to Confront His StutterRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Trump impeachment 'most unfair' in modern US history: McConnell

Washington (AFP) - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell strongly condemned the impeachment of President Donald Trump by House Democrats on Thursday and said it was now up to the Republican-led Senate to "put this right."

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Boy, 14, Sought in Killing of Tessa Majors, Barnard Student

By BY EDGAR SANDOVAL AND ASHLEY SOUTHALL from NYT New York https://ift.tt/2sa33h7

A Law Professor’s Provocative Argument: Trump Has Not Yet Been Impeached

By BY ADAM LIPTAK from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2rdVZQa

Treasury Completes Rules for Opportunity Zone Tax Breaks

By BY JIM TANKERSLEY from NYT Business https://ift.tt/2rdEPCb

Philippines' Duterte won't answer to ICC over drugs deaths

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte dared the International Criminal Court on Friday to jail him or hang him over alleged extrajudicial killings in his war on drugs but said he would refuse to cooperate with foreigners if put on trial.

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White House: Trump was 'just riffing' about late Rep. John Dingell 'looking up' from hell

Press secretary Stephanie Grisham said President Trump was “just riffing” when he suggested at a Michigan rally that Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell’s late husband, Rep. John Dingell, was “looking up” from hell when she voted to impeach the president.

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That’s What a Good Presidential Debate Looks Like

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The big winners in the latest Democratic debate were coherence and sanity. With only seven candidates on stage, and a mostly strong performance from the Politico/PBS panel of journalists, this was a contest that really worked in terms of sparking good discussions on policy and allowing confrontations between the candidates that were their choice, not the result of moderators picking fights.I suspect the five plausible nominees on the platform — Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — all feel that they did what they came to do. As usual, it’s anyone’s guess what Democrats watching, especially in Iowa and New Hampshire, believe. And, as usual, how the debate will affect anything (if at all) will be determined in large part by how the media interpret what happened and which clips get the most mileage. For Klobuchar, the candidate with the most on the line, being one of seven certainly appeared to help. At the very least, she was easy to notice — second among the candidates with just under 20 minutes of speaking time, narrowly trailing Sanders and edging Buttigieg and Warren.For voters who are just tuning in, even those who say they have a favorite candidate already, Klobuchar very much seemed like one of the handful of possible choices — and for someone at around 3% in the national polls, that’s the best she can hope for. She’s good at these debates, and this time she had a chance to show it.Most notably, when the first big fight of the night broke out between Buttigieg and Warren, Klobuchar (at least as I saw it) won decisively by being the peacemaker and then pivoting to a policy point. On the other hand, I’m not sure how well her subsequent attack on Buttigieg went over; she praised the legislative successes she and the others have had in Congress compared to his lack of similar experience. (Congress-loving political scientists in my Twitter feed enjoyed it, but there aren’t too many Congress-lovers among Democratic voters or any other larger group, as far as I can tell). Again, what effect that will have on the polls and on Democratic Party actors is hard to predict.That goes for all of them. Buttigieg, who has surged in Iowa polls, took the most attacks. Warren had several strong moments, as she normally does. What does all of that mean to Buttigieg’s momentum and Warren’s recent dip? Wait for the polls. Sanders did what he always does, which at this point shouldn’t change anyone’s mind.Biden? As several people have pointed out, he didn’t receive much in the way of direct attacks, and only once, with Sanders over health care, did he really engage in a heated squabble. Biden leads in the national polls, and is within range of the lead in Iowa and New Hampshire. He has a solid lead in high-profile endorsements.The former vice president didn’t talk as much as the others, leading only outsiders Andrew Yang and Tom Steyer, but unlike previous debates, he avoided trademark gaffes, awkward moments, and outdated references (at least, I didn’t notice any). It’s not clear how strong his lead really is, but if all he needs to do is not mess up, he certainly achieved that. Whether anyone was paying attention the week before Christmas and the day after Donald Trump was impeached is an open question. If Democrats tuned in, the discussion of policy by candidates comfortable talking about any number of issues, and doing so without insulting recently dead members of Congress, was probably a welcome change. It was also a contrast with the largely repetitive and rarely eloquent House consideration of impeachment. That likely makes it even harder for the eight candidates who didn’t receive invitations this time to qualify for the next one. This was, however, the last debate where short-term effects for the leading candidates won’t really matter much. (Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg Opinion parent company Bloomberg L.P., is also seeking the nomination.) The next debate, on Jan. 14, will have the Iowa caucuses right around the corner Feb. 3. Democratic voters, at least those in the early states, will be paying attention. And soon afterward, there won’t be seven candidates still running, whether they’re on the stage or not.To contact the author of this story: Jonathan Bernstein at jbernstein62@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Patrick McDowell at pmcdowell10@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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Barr: ‘Simply Not True’ Comey was Hands-Off During Crossfire Hurricane Investigation

William Barr pushed back Wednesday on James Comey’s assertion that he had no knowledge of the “particulars” of the FBI’s infamous Crossfire Hurricane probe, in which the bureau was found to have made 17 “significant errors” in pursuing FISA warrants to surveil members of the 2016 Trump campaign.During an interview Sunday with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, Comey attributed the FBI’s errors in the FISA process detailed by DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz’s report to “sloppiness,” and said that he “didn’t know the particulars of the investigation” as director.“As a director sitting on top of an organization with 38,000 people, you can’t run an investigation that’s seven layers below you,” he said. “You have to leave it to the career professionals to do . . . If a director tries to run an investigation, it can get mucked up in other kinds of ways given his or her responsibilities and the impossibility of reaching the work being done at the lower levels.”But speaking Wednesday with Fox News’ Martha McCallum, Barr disagreed with Comey’s characterizations, especially the former FBI director's claim that he was “seven layers” above the investigation.“One of the problems with what happened was precisely that they pulled the investigation up to the executive floors, and it was run and birddogged by a very small group of very high-level officials,” Barr said. “The idea that this was seven layers below him is simply not true.”In his interview with Wallace, Comey also claimed the attorney general had made "an irresponsible statement” when he said last week that the errors laid out in the IG report allow “the possibility that there was bad faith.”Barr "does not have a factual basis as the Attorney General of the United States to be speculating that agents acted in bad faith," Comey said. In an op-ed published December 9, he stated “Attorney General William P. Barr owes . . . the American people, an acknowledgment of the truth.”In the Wednesday interview, Barr said it is “nonsense” that he is “somehow attacking the FBI” for wanting to investigate the origins of the bureau’s probe into the 2016 Trump campaign."We’re criticizing and concerned about misconduct by a few actors at the top of the FBI, and they should be criticized if they engaged in serious misconduct,” Barr said.The attorney general also confirmed that U.S. Attorney John Durham, who was tapped by Barr to lead an investigation into the original probe, was broadening his scope to look at other intelligence agencies.“He’s not just looking at the FBI, he’s looking at other agencies, and departments, and also private actors, so it’s a much broader investigation,” Barr said. “Also, it’s not just looking at the FISA aspect of it, he is looking at all the conduct both before & after the election"Following the release of Horowitz’s report, Durham caused waves by saying his team did “not agree” that the FBI had an “authorized purpose” for opening its investigation.

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13 horses apparently shot and killed in Kentucky

Donations have poured in from all over the country to find the person or persons responsible.

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Trump news: Republicans turn on president for suggesting dead congressman is in hell as Pelosi reveals shock decision on impeachment articles

Donald Trump has been impeached by the House of Representatives, making him just the third president in American history to receive such a rebuke.The House, voting largely upon party lines, charged him on Wednesday night after hours of debate with abusing the power of his office in attempting to extort a political favour from Ukraine and obstructing the subsequent congressional investigation into his conduct. Just as votes were cast, Mr Trump began a rally of his in Michigan, where he mocked the proceedings against him, and the Democrats behind the effort.

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Official: Gun sanctuary resolutions have 'no legal effect'

Resolutions passed by local governments declaring themselves “Second Amendment Sanctuaries” have “no legal effect," Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring said Friday. Since Democrats won majorities in the state Senate and House of Delegates in November, more than 100 cities, towns and counties have passed such resolutions, vowing to oppose any new gun laws they believe violate the Second Amendment. On Friday, Herring issued an advisory opinion on the resolutions.

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