Category: International

‘Nightmare’: Wildfires burn one of most beautiful places in the world

USA Today

‘Nightmare’: Wildfires burn one of most beautiful places in the world

Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY – July 26, 2024

A welcome rain was falling Friday over parts of western Canada, where wildfires have been devastating some of the most beautiful natural landscapes in the country – and the world.

Two fires moving at speeds of more than 60 miles-an-hour converged in the Canadian Rockies on Wednesday, burning through the town of Jasper — along the Athabasca River in Alberta, Canada — destroying nearly a third of its structures.

More than 25,000 residents and visitors were evacuated this week from the tourist town and surrounding Jasper National Park, officials said.

US wildfires: Park Fire swells to over 164,000 acres; thousands of residents under evacuation orders

Rain and cooler temperatures helped to subdue the fire somewhat on Thursday, officials said, but the fire is still burning. Firefighters continued to fight fires in the town, moving from one building to another on Thursday, according to an update from Parks Canada.

A male elk crosses the Yellowhead Highway, a route roughly followed by Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain Pipeline through the Rocky Mountains, in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada November 14, 2016.
A male elk crosses the Yellowhead Highway, a route roughly followed by Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline through the Rocky Mountains, in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada November 14, 2016.

“There’s no denying this is the worst nightmare for any community,” said Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

“For many generations, the town of Jasper and the park surrounding it have been a source of pride with some of the most beautiful scenery in the entire, in the world,” said Smith, as she was overcome by emotion.

A general view shows the Howse Pass Viewpoint between the Banff and Jasper national parks, in Alberta, on September 9, 2022.
A general view shows the Howse Pass Viewpoint between the Banff and Jasper national parks, in Alberta, on September 9, 2022.
How much of Jasper was damaged in the fires?

Of 1,113 structures in the town of Jasper, 358 of them were destroyed in this week’s fire, according to a Friday update from the incident command team overseeing the firefighting effort, which includes Parks Canada.

The fire is estimated at roughly 88,000 acres in size, although areas within that perimeter may be only partially burned or not burned at all.

Firefighters said they were able to protect the town’s critical facilities, including the hospital, emergency services buildings, both the elementary and junior/senior schools, an activity center and the wastewater treatment plant.

The fire damaged a number of bridges throughout the national park, including the Moberly Bridge and the Old Fort Point Bridge, the park said. Bridges on the region’s famed Icefields Parkway will be assessed for structural damage, and parks officials said that would slow down access to the picturesque Maligne Lake southeast of town.

The most significant structural damage occurred on the town’s southwest side, officials said Thursday.

Crews continue to fight the fire “and we remain focused on making it safe for the people of Jasper to come home,” the Friday morning update stated. The area remains closed for public safety and the evacuation order remains in effect.

Jasper’s residents and visitors scoured social media posts for news this week trying to get word about their community.

Bishop Stephen London with the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton confirmed in a Facebook post that the St. Mary and St. George Anglican Church in Jasper was destroyed by the flames.

Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland called the fire an “unprecedented challenge.”

The blaze ravaged Jasper, Ireland said in an update. “The destruction and loss that many of you are facing and feeling is beyond description and comprehension.”

What is Jasper, Canada known for?

“Known for its vast wilderness, majestic peaks, abundant wildlife and outstanding natural beauty, visitors from all over Canada and round the world travel here to experience this very special place,” Parks Canada’s website says.

Jasper is a tourist destination for those who visit the Rockies and Jasper National Park. The park is a World Heritage Site with more than 2 million visitors a year passing through the gates, according to the town’s website. Tourists travel the Icefields Parkway between Jasper and Banff National Parks and visit Athabasca Falls and Athabasca Glacier.

Idyllic scene in Maligne Lake in Alberta's Jasper National Park in 2016.
Idyllic scene in Maligne Lake in Alberta’s Jasper National Park in 2016.

One of Canada’s national treasures, the park boasts over 2.7 million acres and is the largest in the Canadian Rockies. It was established as Jasper Forest Park reserve in 1907 and became a national park in 1930. About 70 species of mammals live there, according to National Geographic, including grizzly bears, moose and elk. The park serves as a preserve for species of wildlife that have declined in other areas.

What’s the Athabasca Glacier?

The Columbia Icefield is the largest remnant of a thick ice mass that once covered much of the area in the Canadian Rockies. The Athabasca Glacier flows from the icefield and down into the valley, where tourists can walk up to the toe of the glacier, following a series of markers that show how much the warming climate has melted the glacier.

Athabasca Falls in Jasper National Park in 2016. Parts of the park were burned over in a fire on July 24-25, 2024.
Athabasca Falls in Jasper National Park in 2016. Parts of the park were burned over in a fire on July 24-25, 2024.

The Athabasca has been averaging a retreat of about 16 feet a year. In 2023, when global average temperatures were their hottest on record, the Athabasca Glacier saw more glacial melt than in any of the previous 10 years, according to Parks Canada.

Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY

Scientists Just Made A Major Genetic Discovery That Could Lead To The Next Ozempic

Women’s Health

Scientists Just Made A Major Genetic Discovery That Could Lead To The Next Ozempic

Korin Miller – July 25, 2024

young woman runs in the park while wearing headphones
This New Discovery Could Lead To The Next OzempicTravelCouples – Getty Images

Medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound have completely revolutionized the health space, helping people who have obesity or are overweight lose a significant amount of weight. But these medications have had shortages and can be incredibly expensive, making them inaccessible for many.

Now, research highlights a discovery that could pave the way for a new class of weight loss medications—and it’s linked to how your body responds to exercise. Here’s what the study discovered, plus what it could mean for the future of drugs like Ozempic.

Meet the expert: Mir Ali, MD, a bariatric surgeon and medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California.

What did the study find?

The study, which was published in June in the journal Molecular Metabolism, analyzed mouse and human models to explore how the protein PGC-1α impacts exercise and its effects on the body. In case you’re not familiar with it (and why would you be?), PGC-1α is a protein that is involved in several processes in the body, including thermogenesis. Thermogenesis works to help your body efficiently consume energy in your muscles.

When you work out, more PGC-1α is expressed in your muscles and more energy is burned. But people who lose weight slowly when they do regular physical activity may be missing variants of PGC-1α that regulate the body’s metabolism and response to short-term exercise.

By targeting this protein, scientists think they can essentially help to rev up your metabolism. The researchers concluded in the study that increasing how much PGC-1α is expressed is “pivotal” for burning more energy and “essential” for regulating metabolism.

What does this study mean for fitness?

At this point, it’s hard to say. The scientists just discovered that it could be helpful to target this protein for weight loss, but the details and kinks of this haven’t been worked out just yet.

But it’s possible that people who already burn fat efficiently with the help of exercise wouldn’t be helped by a medication that targets PGC-1α, says Mir Ali, MD, a bariatric surgeon and medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California. Still, it’s super early on in the process, making it tough to determine for sure.

What does this mean for weight loss drugs?

It’s not clear at this point. Again, this is in very early stages and there’s a lot that still needs to be explored. However, there is a chance that this could lead to a new class of weight loss drugs, giving people with overweight and obesity more options, Ali says.

Right now, Ali sees this as a potential additional tool to help with weight loss versus the only tool someone would use.

“The majority of weight loss is because of diet,” he says. “Exercise has a number of benefits, including enhanced weight loss, and it can improve cardiovascular health.”

Trump Tries to Flip the Script on Democracy After Biden’s Withdrawal Democracy After Biden’s Withdrawal

The New York Times

Trump Tries to Flip the Script on Democracy After Biden’s Withdrawal

Nick Corasaniti and Jim Rutenberg – July 23, 2024

Supporters of former President Donald Trump outside the Senate chamber during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times)
Supporters of former President Donald Trump outside the Senate chamber during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times)

Ever since rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the Democratic Party has sought to claim the mantle of democracy, painting Donald Trump and his allies as extremists willing to deny the will of voters to cling to power.

Now, after President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and Democrats swiftly aligned behind Vice President Kamala Harris as a replacement, Republicans are trying to flip the argument.

In a series of statements and social media posts, Republicans have argued that Democrats, by pressuring Biden to quit, have “disenfranchised” the 14 million people who voted for him in the party primaries.

The accusation isn’t based on any party rule or supposed legal violation. Instead, it is the Republicans’ latest attempt to muddy the waters on an issue that helped Democrats win key races two years ago. Since Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat in 2020, which led to the Jan. 6 riot and criminal charges against the former president, Democrats have cast Republicans as a threat to democratic norms.

They have used images from the Jan. 6 riot in attack ads and mobilized Democratic voters against Republican-backed legislation restricting voting. The issue was especially potent for Democratic governors and secretaries of state in critical swing states, who won every election for statewide office except for governor in Nevada and Georgia in 2022.

On Monday, Trump tried a new tactic to neutralize that threat, zeroing in on the “stolen” nomination claim. “They stole the race from Biden after he won it in the primaries — A First!” Trump posted on his social media site. “These people are the real THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!”

The two most senior Republican congressional leaders — House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — echoed the claim.

“Having invalidated the votes of more than 14 million Americans who selected Joe Biden to be the Democrat nominee for president, the self-proclaimed ‘party of democracy,’ has proven exactly the opposite,” Johnson said. McConnell, the Republican minority leader in the Senate, said Democrats were “trying to upend the expressed will” of primary voters.

There is nothing in Biden’s withdrawal or his endorsement of Harris that appears to violate any party or election rules. Under party rules, when a candidate withdraws after the primary elections but before officially securing the nomination, delegates are free to vote for another candidate of their choosing. Republican Party rules outline a similar process.

Democrats and voting rights experts dismissed the criticism as a specious, and argued that Republicans lacked credibility on the subject.

On Monday, Alex Floyd, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, said it was Trump who was trafficking in “anti-democratic rhetoric as part of his campaign,” adding that the former president “himself inspired a violent insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.”

He said that Democrats were “committed to an open process” to select Biden’s successor on the ticket. That process includes a vote by the party’s nearly 4,000 delegates. Other Democrats noted that the 14 million people who voted for Biden certainly did so knowing he was on a ticket with Harris, the current front-runner.

Civil rights groups and democracy activists did not appear to share the Trump campaign’s concerns about Democratic disenfranchisement. Polling from this summer showed a majority of Democrats wanted Biden to step aside.

“I don’t think this is anti-democratic in the slightest,” said David Becker, director for the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization. Becker noted that Trump sought to throw out millions of votes in the states where he contested his defeat, as part of his attempt to hold on to power after losing the 2020 election.

It’s unclear whether Republicans’ attacks about the “stolen” Democratic primary will land with swing voters. But Trump has been trying to reframe the political debate over democracy for years, with some signs of success. He has cast the Jan. 6 rioters as patriots and accused Democratic prosecutors of using indictments to interfere with the election.

A recent Washington Post poll found that voters in six battleground states were more likely to trust Trump than Biden to handle threats to democracy. The survey found 61% of voters in those states listed “threats to democracy” as extremely important to their vote. The only issue rating higher was the economy.

“I am the only one saving democracy for the people in our country,” Trump said as he accepted his party’s nomination last week.

Trump and his allies also sought to use the attempt on Trump’s life at his July 13 rally in Pennsylvania to portray him as a “defender” of democracy.

They have painted the shooting as an anti-democratic attempt to remove Trump from the race. (Virtually nothing is known about the motives of his shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks.)

In making the argument that Biden’s exit from the race disenfranchised millions of primary voters, Trump and his party picked up a theme the president’s campaign had also emphasized. When Biden was resisting calls to drop out, he and his surrogates often pointed to those votes to defend his decision to stay in the race.

“We had a Democratic nominating process where the voters spoke clearly,” Biden had told MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. “I won 14 million of those votes.”

The Republican attempts to seize on that argument as their own, democracy activists say, is part of a broader, yearslong effort to erode trust in the electoral process.

“I see this all as just a continued effort to try to cast doubt on our elections, to try to undermine pro-democracy candidates,” said Joanna Lydgate, CEO of the States United Democracy Center.

Hillary Clinton: How Kamala Harris Can Win and Make History

The New York Times – Guest Opinion

By Hillary Rodham Clinton – July 23, 2024

Mrs. Clinton was the Democratic nominee for president in 2016.

Kamala Harris, seen outside the White House.

Credit…Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

History has its eye on us. President Biden’s decision to end his campaign was as pure an act of patriotism as I have seen in my lifetime. It should also be a call to action to the rest of us to continue his fight for the soul of our nation. The next 15 weeks will be like nothing this country has ever experienced politically, but have no doubt: This is a race Democrats can and must win.

Mr. Biden has done a hard and rare thing. Serving as president was a lifelong dream. And when he finally got there, he was exceptionally good at it. To give that up, to accept that finishing the job meant passing the baton, took real moral clarity. The country mattered more. As one who shared that dream and has had to make peace with letting it go, I know this wasn’t easy. But it was the right thing to do.

Elections are about the future. That’s why I am excited about Vice President Kamala Harris. She represents a fresh start for American politics. She can offer a hopeful, unifying vision. She is talented, experienced and ready to be president. And I know she can defeat Donald Trump.

There is now an even sharper, clearer choice in this election. On one side is a convicted criminal who cares only about himself and is trying to turn back the clock on our rights and our country. On the other is a savvy former prosecutor and successful vice president who embodies our faith that America’s best days are still ahead. It’s old grievances versus new solutions.

Ms. Harris’s record and character will be distorted and disparaged by a flood of disinformation and the kind of ugly prejudice we’re already hearing from MAGA mouthpieces. She and the campaign will have to cut through the noise, and all of us as voters must be thoughtful about what we read, believe and share.

I know a thing or two about how hard it can be for strong women candidates to fight through the sexism and double standards of American politics. I’ve been called a witch, a “nasty woman” and much worse. I was even burned in effigy. As a candidate, I sometimes shied away from talking about making history. I wasn’t sure voters were ready for that. And I wasn’t running to break a barrier; I was running because I thought I was the most qualified to do the job. While it still pains me that I couldn’t break that highest, hardest glass ceiling, I’m proud that my two presidential campaigns made it seem normal to have a woman at the top of the ticket.

Ms. Harris will face unique additional challenges as the first Black and South Asian woman to be at the top of a major party’s ticket. That’s real, but we shouldn’t be afraid. It is a trap to believe that progress is impossible. After all, I won the national popular vote by nearly three million in 2016, and it’s not so long ago that Americans overwhelmingly elected our first Black president. As we saw in the 2022 midterms, abortion bans and attacks on democracy are galvanizing women voters like never before. With Ms. Harris at the top of the ticket leading the way, this movement may become an unstoppable wave.

Time is short to organize the campaign on her behalf, but the Labour Party in Britain and a broad left-wing coalition in France recently won big victories with even less time. Ms. Harris will have to reach out to voters who have been skeptical of Democrats and mobilize young voters who need convincing. But she can run on a strong record and ambitious plans to further reduce costs for families, enact common-sense gun safety laws and restore and protect our rights and freedoms.

She has a great story to tell about the accomplishments of this administration. Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris led America’s comeback after Mr. Trump bungled the pandemic and left our economy in free fall. Under their leadership, the United States has created more than 15 million jobs, and unemployment is near a 50-year low.

When inflation spiked around the globe, many economists said the only way to tame it would be a painful recession with major job losses. But Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris kept Americans working as inflation fell back toward normal levels and real incomes for working people rose.

When many thought bipartisanship was dead, Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris brought Republicans and Democrats together to pass major legislation on infrastructure and clean energy, microchips and national security. From drug prices to student debt, they’ve delivered results that have made our country stronger and people’s lives better.

Ms. Harris is chronically underestimated, as are so many women in politics, but she is well prepared for this moment. As a prosecutor and attorney general in California, she took on drug traffickers, polluters and predatory lenders. As a U.S. senator, she rigorously questioned squirming Trump administration officials and nominees and was inspiring to watch. As vice president, Ms. Harris has sat with the president in the Situation Room, helping make the hardest decisions a leader can make. And when the extremist Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, she became the administration’s most passionate and effective advocate for restoring women’s reproductive rights.

I look forward to hearing her prosecute a compelling case against Mr. Trump, who failed as a president the first time and is running on a dangerous agenda. A second Trump term would be much worse than the first. Mr. Trump’s plans are more extreme, he is more unhinged, and the guardrails that constrained some of his worst instincts are gone.

Ms. Harris can explain to the American people that inflation would surge again under Mr. Trump, thanks to his proposed across-the-board tariffs, sweeping tax cuts for the rich and mass deportations. The policies outlined by Mr. Trump’s allies in Project 2025, from further restricting abortion rights to dismantling the Department of Education, are a recipe for a weaker, poorer, more divided America.

The vice president’s law enforcement experience gives her the credibility to rebut Mr. Trump’s lies about crime and immigration. The facts are on her side: After spiking under Mr. Trump, the murder rate is plummeting under the Biden-Harris administration. Illegal border crossings are also dropping fast and are now the lowest they’ve been since 2020, thanks in part to Mr. Biden’s recent executive order. We’d be making even more progress if Mr. Trump hadn’t killed a bipartisan immigration compromise in Congress this year for his own selfish political purposes.

As a friend and supporter of Mr. Biden, I find this a bittersweet moment. He is a wise and decent man who served our country well. We have lost our standard-bearer, and we will miss his steady leadership, deep empathy and fighting spirit. Yet we have gained much as well: a new champion, an invigorated campaign and a renewed sense of purpose.

The time for hand-wringing is over. Now it’s time to organize, mobilize and win.

Hillary Rodham Clinton was the Democratic nominee for president in 2016 and is a former U.S. secretary of state and senator from New York.

With Biden out, Michelle Obama would be Donald Trump’s worst self-inflicted nightmare | Opinion

Miami Herald – Opinion

With Biden out, Michelle Obama would be Donald Trump’s worst self-inflicted nightmare | Opinion

Dion Lefler – July 21, 2024

If there’s one thing you can generally count on with Republicans, it’s political efficiency.

This time, they may have been too efficient.

The news that Joe Biden is dropping his campaign to be reelected president is about the worst thing that could have happened for Donald Trump.

Let’s face it, this race has always been a contest between age-related forgetfulness and age-related anger and aggression.

Now, instead of running against a man who appears too old to keep his thoughts together, Trump will have to face off against a younger and more vital opponent — at exactly the time the American people have said in a loud, clear voice that they’re tired of the same old men and the same old rhetoric.

Trump, and his party, brought this on themselves. They turned their remarkably efficient attack machine on too early.

The debate last month pretty conclusively showed that Biden isn’t up to what Americans expect from their president anymore.

It’s not his fault. Biden has been a man of great accomplishments in the Senate, as vice president, and as president over a long and productive career.

But age catches up to everyone.

From The Opinion Team

President Joe Biden withdrew Sunday from the 2024 presidential race. Read more on this developing news event, from our Opinion team:

→Biden’s withdrawal solves one of Dems’ many problems. But it creates one, too

→With Biden stepping down as nominee, Democrats make history book for the wrong reasons

→Once again, Joe Biden is giving America its best chance to defeat Donald Trump

Four years ago, Biden was the bulwark against the continuation of Trumpism. That’s what Democrats want and what the country needs again in 2024.

The way for Republicans to ensure their victory would have been to go along with the Democrat-created illusion of “Joe’s fine,” until after the Democrats held their convention and it was too late to turn back and pick someone else.

In the first debate, Trump should have tried to channel Ronald Reagan, politely smiling and answering the questions that were put to him. He should have waited for the second debate to pounce on Biden’s infirmity.

It’s the difference between tactics and strategy.

Now, no matter whom the Democrats choose to run against Trump, he’ll have a much harder case to make for himself.

He’s going to have to defend a Republican Party that, as we saw at their convention, basically supports restoration of the Soviet Union and seems terrified of fruit-pickers and hotel maids at the border.

To keep his vital right-wing evangelical base, Trump’s going to have to embrace their demands to ban abortion by any means necessary, which Americans in states blue and red (even Kansas) have voted repeatedly not to do. Against a more agile opponent, he won’t get away with claiming Democrats support abortion up to the moment of birth, or after, as he did against Biden in their debate.

And to keep his billionaire mega-donors, he’ll have to defend the Heritage Foundation’s God-awful Project 2025, a blueprint for dismantling just about everything in the United States that makes it a decent place to live.

So now, let’s see if the Democrats can be more strategic than Republicans (which, admittedly, they seldom are).

While they have several candidates who could potentially beat Trump, the Democrats have only one sure thing: Michelle Obama.

Polls show that other possible contenders, including Vice President Kamala Harris — who Biden endorsed shortly after announcing that he was stepping down — run slightly behind Trump. They’d start out playing catch-up.

In those same polls, Michelle Obama crushes Trump by 11 points.

Since her husband left the White House, she’s been the good soldier, supporting others for the top job while always saying she’s not interested in it herself.

But she’s also said she’s “terrified” at the potential outcome of the November election. While she might not actively campaign for the nomination, I’d think she’d find it pretty hard to turn it down if delegates at the Democratic National Convention were to draft her next month.

Dawn Staley, women’s basketball legend, head coach at the University of South Carolina and a four-time Olympic gold medalist (three as a player, one as coach), called the right play in a recent appeal to former president Barack Obama on X:

“Now please let us borrow @MichelleObama for just 4 short years! First Gentleman is a good look for you.”

Nobody knows better than Staley that when you’re down by a couple of points late in the fourth quarter, you want to get the ball in the hands of your best player to take the final shot.

The Democratic Party would do well to listen to her.

Larry Hogan blasts Project 2025 as a ‘dangerous path’ for GOP

The Hill

Larry Hogan blasts Project 2025 as a ‘dangerous path’ for GOP

Lauren Irwin – July 20, 2024

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) criticized Project 2025 in a recent op-ed, calling the policy priorities outlined in the conservative agenda “absurd and dangerous.”

Hogan, in the piece published Friday by The Washington Post, argued that “traditional American Values” are under threat on both sides of the aisle.

“On the left, the refusal by some to clearly stand up to radicals such as antisemitic and pro-Hamas protesters, advocates of defunding the police, and the open-borders movement has done substantial damage,” Hogan wrote. “However, on the right, there is no clearer example of the threat to American values than Project 2025.”

The 900-age policy agenda, led by the conservative Heritage Foundation, is gaining traction as the unofficial presidential transition project. It is divided into sections based on five main topics — “Taking the Reins of Government,” “The Common Defense,” “The General Welfare,” “The Economy” and “Independent Regulatory Agencies.”

Project 2025 has gained support from more than 100 other right-wing organizations and conservatives who critics argue could staff a second Trump administration if he’s reelected in November.

Trump, however, has called attempts to link him to the document “pure disinformation” and claimed he has “nothing to do” with it.

Hogan said to call the ideas in the plan radical would be “a disservice,” even as Republicans downplay the influence of the plan.

“In truth, Project 2025 takes many of the principles that have made this nation great and shreds them,” he wrote in the opinion piece.

Hogan, who is running for the vacant Senate seat left by retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), noted that one of the primary goals in the plan targets federal workers, and could affect more than 150,000 Maryland residents.

“The goal is to remove nonpartisan civil servants, most of whom patriotically do their jobs without fanfare or political agendas, and replace them with loyalists to the president,” Hogan said. “Republicans who believe this power grab will benefit them in the short term will ultimately regret empowering a Democratic president with this level of control.”

The former governor, whose father was an FBI agent, also highlighted an aspect of the plan that he said would weaken the Department of Justice’s independence from the president. Impartial justice should not be abandoned by choice and design, Hogan argued.

Of the “absurd and dangerous” policies in the plan, Hogan highlighted that the Education Department and the Federal Reserve could potentially be disbanded, as well as mass deportations.

“This radical approach is out of touch with the American people,” Hogan said. “Most Americans — regardless of party affiliation — have more in common than many realize.”

“They want common-sense solutions to address the cost of living, make our communities safer, and secure the border while fixing the broken immigration system,” he continued. “Instead of addressing these problems, Project 2025 opts for total war against the other side, making it impossible to find common ground.”

Today’s GOP has no past, present, or future. It’s just Trump.

MSNBC – Opinion

Today’s GOP has no past, present, or future. It’s just Trump.

It’s as if MAGA wiped the GOP slate clean and made 2016 its Year Zero.

Michael A. Cohen, MSNBC Columnist – July 17, 2024

Image: politics political trump supporters

Delegates hold up signs during the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, on July 16, 2024.Jim Watson / AFP – Getty Images

In his seminal dystopian novel, “1984,” George Orwell wrote “who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”

Suffice it to say, Orwell would have had a field day at the 2024 Republican National Convention. 

Indeed, there is no better example of former President Donald Trump’s hold over the modern GOP than this week’s near-total erasure of the Republican Party’s past.

You might not be aware of it by watching the Republican convention this week, but the Republican Party is, in fact, 170 years old. It was formed in 1854 as an abolitionist movement opposed to the expansion of slavery into western territories. Its first standard-bearer was Abraham Lincoln, which is why the GOP is sometimes referred to as the “Party of Lincoln.” Nineteen presidents have been Republicans.

But if you watch the 2024 Republican convention, you are likely to hear about only one: Donald Trump. It’s as if MAGA wiped the GOP slate clean and made 2016 its Year Zero.

Other than Trump, there’s only one other living Republican ex-president: George W. Bush. He’s one of only four Republican presidents in history to win two presidential elections and serve eight years in office. And the chances of hearing Bush’s name mentioned in a positive light by convention speakers in Milwaukee this week are close to nil. 

Twenty years ago, Bush was a revered figure within the GOP (for those of you who are younger, you’ll have to take my word for it). 

But in the 16 years since he left office, Bush’s presidency has largely been stuffed down the memory hole — and it has been a bipartisan effort. Even Democrats don’t bother talking about his disastrous presidency anymore. While Bush left office with a historically low approval rating and a cratering economy, that’s not necessarily why he is persona non grata in the party he once led.

Bush was an internationalist. Trump is an isolationist. W was pro-immigration and, by and large, opposed to demonizing people of color. Trump is, of course, the exact opposite. And Bush is part of a multigenerational political dynasty. In other words, for MAGA he is the embodiment of the dreaded political establishment.  

But it’s not just Bush who has been kicked to the curb. There are also three living Republican vice presidents not in attendance — Dan Quayle, Dick Cheney and Mike Pence. Quayle has been out of the limelight for years; Cheney is the father of Liz Cheney, whom Trump despises for her role in co-chairing the House Jan. 6 committee, and, of course, on Jan. 6 Trump helped whip up a mob that threatened the life of Pence, his former vice president — so it’s probably best he didn’t make the trip to Milwaukee. (Incidentally, it was Quayle who told fellow Hoosier Pence that he didn’t have the authority to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election.)

How about the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, Mitt Romney? He’s retiring from the Senate, in large measure because of his revulsion at the direction the party has taken since Trump won its presidential nod in 2016. (Of course, Trump hates him, too, as Romney was the only Republican who voted to convict at both of Trump’s impeachment trials.)0 seconds of 2 minutes, 38 secondsVolume 90% 

‘The devil came to Pennsylvania’: Sen. Tim Scott calls Trump’s survival a ‘miracle’

Romney’s 2012 running mate, Paul Ryan, a former speaker of the House, might be in attendance in Milwaukee (he is, after all, from Wisconsin), but he’s not speaking. The same goes for 2008 nominee Sarah Palin. Her running mate, John McCain, passed away in 2018, but there won’t be any glossy tributes for him. Trump, infamously, mocked McCain’s time as a POW in Vietnam. The national convention where McCain is most likely to show up is the Democratic National Convention. McCain’s widow, Cindy, spoke there in 2020.

The 1996 presidential nominee (and 1976 vice presidential nominee), Bob Dole, passed away in 2021. What are the chances that there will be a tribute to him at this year’s Republican convention? There wasn’t one in 2020 to honor former President George H.W. Bush, who died in 2018. Will there even be a reference to Ronald Reagan, the president to whom Republicans tied themselves for decades after he left office? It’s hardly a guarantee, which once would have been sacrilegious at a GOP event but today is practically par for the course (although if one wants to see the new Reagan biopic starring Dennis Quaid, it’s showing every day in Milwaukee).

Historically, political parties have a tendency to turn their backs on failed presidents or losing candidates. There weren’t many Republican conventions that extolled the virtues of Herbert Hoover after his disastrous one term in office. The same goes for Richard Nixon, the only president who was forced to resign. But even Nixon got a shoutout from the party’s presidential nominees in 1992 and 1996. 

For Democrats, Jimmy Carter might have lost re-election in 1980 and is generally considered a failed president — but that didn’t stop Democrats from giving him a prime-time speaking slot at the next three conventions. This year, one can fully expect prime-time speeches from Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Al Gore, John Kerry or Tim Kaine made appearances. 

But at this year’s RNC, it’s as if there was no Republican Party before Trump came along. And, in a sense, that’s true. The current incarnation of the GOP bears no resemblance to the party of Lincoln, Reagan or the Bush family. The only real blast from the past is former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. I could identify only two speakers who worked in the Bush administration. It’s now the party of Trump and Trumpism, of political outsiders and rebels — and the only price for entry is pledging one’s fealty to the leader (not the party).

Donald Trump’s choice of JD Vance ties Project 2025 even closer to Trump’s campaign

Of the dozens of speakers over four days in Milwaukee, virtually all came to prominence in just the past decade or so — and largely on Trump’s coattails. People like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kari Lake, Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio and Matt Gaetz are the faces of the modern GOP. Their rises to prominence have little to do with adherence to GOP policy orthodoxy or even their political chops but rather their willingness to prostrate themselves before Donald Trump — and fully embrace his many lies. 

In Trump’s GOP, there are no legacy, no coherent ideological beliefs and no enduring political tradition. There is no past, present or future. There’s just Trump.

Michael A. Cohen is a columnist for MSNBC and a Senior Fellow and co-director of the Afghanistan Assumptions Project at the Center for Strategic Studies at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. He writes the political newsletter Truth and Consequences. He has been a columnist at The Boston Globe, The Guardian and Foreign Policy, and he is the author of three books, the most recent being “Clear and Present Safety: The World Has Never Been Better and Why That Matters to Americans.”

Putin and the trump MAGA cult again on the same propaganda page: The Kremlin is pushing a MAGA talking point that Biden’s administration is to blame for the Trump assassination attempt

Business Insider

The Kremlin is pushing a MAGA talking point that Biden’s administration is to blame for the Trump assassination attempt

Kwan Wei Kevin Tan, July 15, 2024

  • Russia says the Biden administration should be blamed for the Trump rally shooting.
  • A Kremlin spokesperson said the Biden administration incited tensions that led to the attack.
  • Trump allies like JD Vance have similarly accused the Biden administration of causing the attack.

The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was indirectly caused by President Joe Biden and his administration, a Kremlin spokesperson said on Sunday.

“We don’t think at all and don’t believe that the attempt to eliminate the presidential candidate Trump was organized by the present power,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters, per Russian state media outlet TASS.

“But it is the atmosphere that has been created by this administration during the political struggle, the atmosphere around the candidate Trump, prompted what America is facing today,” he continued.

On Saturday, Trump was left wounded after a gunman tried to shoot him during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

“I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday. “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.”

The Secret Service said the attack killed one bystander and left two others critically injured. The rally shooter, a 20-year-old man named Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.

But Trump’s life, Peskov said, had long been in danger.

“After numerous attempts to remove candidate Trump from the political arena using legal instruments at first, courts, the prosecutor’s office, attempts to politically discredit and compromise the candidate, it was obvious to all outside observers that his life was in jeopardy,” Peskov said on Sunday, referencing Trump’s conviction in his Manhattan hush money criminal trial on May 30.

The Kremlin’s remarks on Sunday echo that of Trump acolytes like Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, and Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia.

The trio were quick to point fingers at Biden following Saturday’s failed assassination.

“The Republican District Attorney in Butler County, PA, should immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination,” Collins said in an X post on Saturday.

Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., also ripped the Democratic Party and accused them of inciting tensions before Saturday’s assassination attempt.

“Don’t tell me they didn’t know exactly what they were doing with this crap. Calling my dad a ‘dictator and a ‘threat to Democracy’ wasn’t some one off comment. It has been the MAIN MESSAGE of the Biden-Kamala campaign and Democrats across the country!!!” Trump Jr. wrote on X on Sunday.

This isn’t the first time Russia has sought to paint a picture of a dysfunctional America while weighing in on the country’s political developments.

Last month, Putin said that Trump’s Manhattan felony conviction was politically motivated and that the former president’s rivals were “simply using the judicial system in an internal power struggle.”

“They are burning themselves from the inside, their state, their political system,” Putin told reporters at the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, per Reuters.

Representatives for Russia’s foreign ministry and the Biden administration didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Heated rhetoric as Republicans blame Biden for Trump shooting

AFP

Heated rhetoric as Republicans blame Biden for Trump shooting

Robin Legrand with Marion Thibaut – July 14, 2024

US President Joe Biden has called for unity after his political rival Donald Trump was shot at a rally (Mandel NGAN)
US President Joe Biden has called for unity after his political rival Donald Trump was shot at a rally (Mandel NGAN)

Within hours of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, his Republican supporters in Congress claimed they knew exactly who was responsible: Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.

Biden’s campaign “rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination,” Senator J.D. Vance, on Trump’s shortlist for vice president, alleged shortly after Saturday’s shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania, in which the former US leader was wounded and one bystander killed.

Vance’s comments were part of an escalating chorus of Republicans who have pinned the blame on Democrats — even as the FBI says it has yet to identify the shooter’s ideology.

They also heap more fuel onto the fire in a political atmosphere that has long been tense and fiercely polarized.

“Heated rhetoric has come from both sides” in recent years, Michael Bailey, a political science professor at Georgetown University, told AFP.

Republicans, for whom gun rights and a rejection of alleged government overreach are key themes, “have been more prone to marry such rhetoric with imagery related to guns,” Bailey noted.

“And some of them (including Trump) did not cover themselves in glory when they made light of the violent attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband,” he said, referring to the 2022 attack by a conspiracy theorist on the high-profile Democrat’s spouse.

Trump later mocked the Pelosis, and stoked further conspiracy theories around the assault.

– Biden ‘sent the orders’ –

Steve Scalise, a Republican who was shot in a 2017 attack on conservative lawmakers by a left-wing activist, has also blamed the left for Saturday’s assassination attempt.

“Democrat leaders have been fueling ludicrous hysteria that Donald Trump winning reelection would be the end of democracy in America,” he said.

“For years, and even today, leftist activists, Democrat donors and now even Joe Biden have made disgusting remarks and descriptions of shooting Donald Trump,” Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita charged on X.

Biden did recently tell donors that it was “time to put Trump in the bullseye,” according to comments put out by his campaign — though he was speaking in the context of focusing the party on beating Trump.

Representative Mike Collins went further on the shooting, stating “Joe Biden sent the orders,” without offering credible evidence.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, meanwhile, offered an escalation of her own, telling her followers “we are in a battle between good and evil” and casting Democrats as “the party of pedophiles” and “violence.”

“The Democrat party is flat out evil, and yesterday they tried to murder President Trump,” she said.

Such accusations risk removing “attention from the very welcome, widespread condemnation of the attack,” said Jacob Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

– ‘America needs to stop’ –

The heated rhetoric pushed Biden to issue a rare address to the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday in which he called on Americans to “lower the temperature.”

Trump and Biden have spoken to each other after the incident, while Biden’s campaign is temporarily pausing television ads — part of what some on both sides hope is part of a broader national cooling.

“Tensions are high on both sides, and I think we’ve got to tone down the rhetoric,” 60-year-old Trump supporter Martin Kutzler told AFP in downtown Milwaukee, where the Republican convention is set to open Monday.

Republican National Committee chair Michael Whately meanwhile declined to speculate on the shooting while speaking to “Fox News Sunday.”

“Right now, I think everybody in America needs to stop. They need to pause,” he said.

Among elected officials, though, the accusations keep coming.

“When the message goes out constantly, that the election of Donald Trump would be a threat to democracy, and that the Republic would end, it heats up the environment,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Depoliticizing the shooting, however, is essential, Bailey said.

“In an environment with so many guns… it is possible for heated rhetoric to motivate an unbalanced person on any side.”

Wounded Russian soldiers – some on crutches – used in ‘meat wave’ attacks

The Telegraph

Wounded Russian soldiers – some on crutches – used in ‘meat wave’ attacks

Verity Bowman – July 14, 2024

Russia is sending injured soldiers back to the front lines to fight
Russia is sending injured soldiers back to the front lines and is using Ukraine PoWs as human shields

Injured Russian soldiers are being sent back into the line of fire in “meat wave” assaults.

The Ukrainian army has reported capturing Russians already suffering from their wounds sustained in previous attacks.

They had been given minimal medical attention before being sent back to fight.

The tactics show an apparent disregard for foot soldiers as commanders throw thousands of men into the front lines in a slow and grinding summer offensive.

Some Russians have been captured re-entering the battlefield on crutches.

Other injured troops have recorded videos pleading with their superiors for proper treatment as they receive orders to return to battle.

One soldier captured by Ukraine was said to be driving an armoured vehicle with bloodied rags over an injured eye.

The meat assault units are often made up of foot soldiers, released prisoners and the maimed.

Many are simply protecting the next wave of soldiers behind as part of a tactic to distract and overwhelm Ukraine, and make incremental territorial gains.

British military intelligence believes that Russian ranks have been depleted by as many as 70,000 personnel over the last two months – an alarming rate that shows no signs of slowing.

Ukrainian soldiers told The Telegraph that it is “normal practice” to see injured men staggering as they fight, and that Ukrainian prisoners of war are being used by Russia as human shields.

‘We don’t have the strength’

Meanwhile, Russian soldiers have been recorded pleading with their superiors, the military prosecutors office, and even Vladimir Putin, for their lives.

“Why would they send wounded and exhausted people into battle? It’s the same as sending people to their deaths,” said two soldiers of the 1009th regiment in a video shared on social media.

“The commander says that tomorrow we must go and storm this building again.

“But how can we do this if we are in pain, wounded, and simply don’t have the strength?”

The pair, who lent against a tree with visible wounds to their faces, said the only medical treatment they received for shrapnel wounds was from their own first aid kit as they hid in the forest.

Another video clip showed a group of the injured, a number of whom were walking on crutches, pleading desperately with their superiors, stressing that this was their final opportunity to make their case.

They told the camera: “Hear us, please, hear us, hear us. This is our last chance. We have no more options.”

The latest death toll figures of Russian soldiers is equivalent to an average of above 1,000 a day amid the escalating intensity of battle on the newly opened front in Kharkiv, and fighting elsewhere in east and north-east Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defence said on Friday.

“Although this new approach has increased the pressure on the front line, an effective Ukrainian defence and a lack of Russian training reduces Russia’s ability to exploit any tactical successes, despite attempting to stretch the front line further,” the MoD added.

Hunter (his call sign), a Ukrainian junior soldier, said that there are “frequent cases” of Russian soldiers “simply left in positions to die”.

“This is a common situation when wounded Russian soldiers are captured. According to them, they were left to their fate without food and water to die by their own comrades,” he said.

Hunter reported seeing Ukrainian PoWs being pushed to walk ahead of advancing Russian soldiers, forced into the cruel role of human shields.

Yuriy, a machine gunner, confirmed Hunter’s reports, telling The Telegraph: “Of course, I have seen PoWs, this is outrageous and tearing us apart from the inside, such an attitude towards prisoners of war is unacceptable and prohibited by conventions.”

In the Donetsk region, a Russian soldier was captured by Ukraine with his leg rotting from a shrapnel wound.

“He was not evacuated for some reason. Later in Dnipro, our medics had to amputate this leg for him so he can survive,” Vlad, a member of the Kraken Regiment volunteer unit, told The Telegraph.

Vlad reported that the Russians they captured revealed their commander, known by the call sign Ryba, had ordered that no one would be evacuated until they had secured the territory around the Kupyansk silicate plant in the Kharkiv region.

Kupyansk, a strategic rail hub, was seized by Russia in early 2022, retaken by Ukraine seven months later and missile and artillery strikes continue to hit the area.

The river through Kupyansk could offer a natural defence against future Russian advances.

A soldier who chose to remain anonymous said: “We carried a wounded Russian to our side for many kilometres to save his life as he was left alone to die.”

Hunter confirmed that many units – including the poorly-trained, lightly-equipped “Storm-Z” assault troopers – are “prohibited” from leaving their positions.

‘Storm fighters, they’re just meat’

Storm-Z is a series of penal military units for convicts – including murderers – established by Russia by April 6, 2023, renamed Storm-V later that year.

Illia Yevlash, the spokesman for the Khortytsia operational-strategic group, claimed in February that Russian commanders were using human wave tactics involving Storm-Z and Storm-V.

“Storm fighters, they’re just meat,” said one regular soldier from army unit number 40318.

“If such units retreat, they can be destroyed by their barrier units,” said Hunter.

“The Russian armed forces mobilise people with serious illnesses such as tuberculosis or HIV, and such ‘soldiers’ are treated differently.”

Use of suicidal human wave attacks does not appear to have reduced despite high-profile changes at the top of the Russian defence ministry.

Many Ukrainian soldiers who spoke to The Telegraph revealed they hesitate to save Russians because of their unwavering resolve to continue fighting even after being captured.

Yuriy explained that some injured soldiers wanted to surrender quickly, but that he had seen others “shoot to the last”, even attempting to detonate grenades when they were given medical aid.

The high Russian attrition rate comes as Ukraine also struggles to find enough soldiers to make any significant breakthroughs.

The much-anticipated Russian summer offensive appears to have largely fizzled out, with both sides once again locked in fighting along rigid front lines dividing Ukraine roughly from north to south.