Russia in the House, Voter ID Struck Down

Moscow on the Potomac: Hillary Clinton’s campaign is the latest to have its computers hacked by the Russians, according to federal investigators. The Clinton people say the hackers gained access to an analytics program, but not the heart of the campaign computers.

The feds say the hack was mounted by an entity known as “Fancy Bear,” which is connected to the Russian military intelligence service.

The breach of the Clinton campaign, and the earlier reported invasion of the Democratic National Committee, has investigators asking whether Russia is somehow trying to sway the US presidential election.

Black Votes Matter: A federal appeals court has struck down North Carolina’s voter identification law saying its restrictions “target African Americans with almost surgical precision.” It’s the third such state law knocked out in the last 10 days. A judge in a similar Wisconsin case said, “a preoccupation with mostly phantom election fraud leads to real incidents of disenfranchisement.”

North Carolina’s law required forms of identification less likely to be held by black voters, and shortened by several days the early voting period used by many black people who have trouble getting to the polls on election day.

The rulings touch on something Zack Beauchamp wrote for Vox about conservative Republican journalist and policy wonk Avik Roy, who says the Republican Party needs to die and be reborn. Beauchamp quotes Roy saying, “Conservative intellectuals, and conservative politicians, have been in kind of a bubble. We’ve had this view that the voters were with us on conservatism — philosophical, economic conservatism. In reality, the gravitational center of the Republican Party is white nationalism.”

Outbreak: Health authorities in Florida have identified four cases of the Zika virus they say were contracted through bug bites in the state. That means people who carried the virus into the US from other countries were bitten by mosquitoes that are now infected and spreading the disease.

The Centers for Disease control had predicted Zika would spread in the Southern states. There are now about 1,600 cases contracted out of the country, including pregnant women whose babies are in danger of serious birth defects.

Fox Fallout: New York Magazine has published a devastating article detailing how a woman who worked for Roger Ailes at Fox News was kept for 20 years, basically as his sexual servant. Laurie Luhn said she was “psychologically tortured” She broke her non-disclosure agreement in her $3.15 million settlement to tell her story.

The implication is that Fox knew for years that the architect of Fox News and militant conservatism was a sexual predator and a sicko, and other executives at the network knew it.

The Obit Page: Suzanne Wright, co-founder of the organization Autism Speaks, died at home in Connecticut Friday at age 69. After their grandson was diagnosed with autism, Wright founded Autism Speaks with her husband, former NBC CEO Bob Wright, in 2005. The organization pays for research into the causes, prevention, treatment and a cure for autism.

Book ‘Em: Smarting after he was repeatedly denounced at the Democratic Convention, Donald Trump told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that, “I think I have a great temperament, I have a temperament where I know how to win.” Trump said, of Hillary Clinton, “She doesn’t know how to win, she’s not a winner. She doesn’t know how to win. And this country, if they choose her, this country will not be in good shape.”

He also tweeted that Clinton should be denied national security briefings. And he accused Clinton of being dishonest about his abilities as a campaigner. “I’ve had a beautiful, I’ve had a flawless campaign,” he said. “You’ll be writing books about this campaign.”

That may be the truest thing he’s ever said.

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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Page Two

The Most Corrupt Justice

Monday, October 2, 2023

Democracy and Video in the Dark

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Page Two: Do the Right Thing

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Page Two: Sound Recall

Monday, September 13, 2021

Page Two: Cuomo Must Go

Friday, August 13, 2021

Trump and the Truth

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The “Great” President

Monday, March 30, 2020

The Wright Stuff

Saturday, February 29, 2020

It's Been Said

"In my mind, I’ve never crossed the line with anyone, but I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn. There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate, and I should have, no excuses."

-Andrew Cuomo, resigning as governor of New York after accusations of sexual harassment

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