21 October 19
Robert Reich | Should the Supreme Court Be Reformed?
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Website
Reich writes: "In recent years the legitimacy of the Supreme Court has come under question as Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Senate Republicans have bent the nomination process for their own political gain."
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Website
Reich writes: "In recent years the legitimacy of the Supreme Court has come under question as Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Senate Republicans have bent the nomination process for their own political gain."
EXCERPT:
Here are 5 possibilities for strengthening the Court and rebuilding public trust:
1. Impose term-limits. The Constitution doesn’t specify the length of service of a Supreme Court Justice. A fixed term would make the court more reflective of the times, and prevent justices from accumulating too much political power over the course of their tenure.
2. Reinforce ethics standards on the Court. Currently, almost all federal judges sign on to some form of code of conduct — except for Supreme Court justices. These standards emphasize independence, integrity, and the avoidance of outside political activity. The Supreme Court should adopt the same standards. The Court should also institute a better system to recuse justices when conflicts of interest arise.
3. Require justices to regularly disclose their finances online, including their stock holdings. Currently, justices are not required to submit the same financial information as other government officials or members of Congress. The public should know whether members of the Court have a financial stake in the cases before them.
4. Add more seats to the Court. Under one proposal, the court would be expanded from 9 justices to 15. 10 justices would be selected through the existing process, and evenly split between Democratic and Republican appointees. Those 10 justices would then select 5 judges from lower courts for the Supreme Court to serve with them for a year. This solution would make the confirmation process less partisan and insulate the Court from politics.
6. Alternatively, the Supreme Court could be comprised of a rotating panel of appeals court judges, who would cycle through the Supreme Court on a scheduled basis. Federal judges already serve on rotating panels on lower courts. Doing the same for the Supreme Court would eliminate the current high-stakes nomination process, and make the Supreme Court less partisan.
The Supreme Court derives its strength not from the use of force or political power, but from its integrity as an impartial adjudicator. In an era of increasing political polarization, we should rethink how the Court is organized in order to rebuild public trust.
With neither the sword nor the purse, trust is all it has.
Bernie Sanders. (photo: Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto/Getty Images)
With AOC in His Corner, GOP Takes Fresh Look at Bernie
Hanna Trudo, The Daily Beast
Trudo writes: "'I see Bernie as far more formidable now than he ever was,' a former Trump campaign adviser said."
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Hanna Trudo, The Daily Beast
Trudo writes: "'I see Bernie as far more formidable now than he ever was,' a former Trump campaign adviser said."
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Mick Mulvaney speaks at a news conference after his first day as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday. (photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
White House's Mulvaney Did Not Mull Quitting Over 'Quid Pro Quo' Flap
Susan Cornwell, Reuters
Cornwell writes: "Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on Sunday he had not offered to resign for indicating last week that U.S. President Donald Trump had sought a political favor from Ukraine in exchange for military aid, comments he has since retracted."
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Susan Cornwell, Reuters
Cornwell writes: "Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said on Sunday he had not offered to resign for indicating last week that U.S. President Donald Trump had sought a political favor from Ukraine in exchange for military aid, comments he has since retracted."
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) visited Jordan this weekend. (photo: Matt McClain/WP)
Pelosi Leads a Surprise Delegation to Jordan for 'Vital Discussions' on Syria Crisis
Steve Hendrix, The Washington Post
Hendrix writes: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led an unannounced congressional visit to Afghanistan and Jordan over the weekend, highlighting her sharp disagreement with President Trump over his abrupt removal of U.S. troops from northern Syria and Turkey's subsequent attacks on Kurdish enclaves."
Steve Hendrix, The Washington Post
Hendrix writes: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led an unannounced congressional visit to Afghanistan and Jordan over the weekend, highlighting her sharp disagreement with President Trump over his abrupt removal of U.S. troops from northern Syria and Turkey's subsequent attacks on Kurdish enclaves."
EXCERPT:
After meeting with King Abdullah II and senior Jordanian officials Saturday night, Pelosi said: “With the deepening crisis in Syria after Turkey’s incursion, our delegation has engaged in vital discussions about the impact to regional stability, increased flow of refugees, and the dangerous opening that has been provided to ISIS, Iran and Russia.”
Neither country released details of the talks before the delegation departed for the United States on Sunday morning. The trip came as a hastily brokered five-day cease-fire in Syria was struggling to take hold entering its third day.
Pelosi had earlier called the cease-fire deal “a sham” that gave a pass to Turkey’s offensive at the expense of the Kurds, a key ally in the recent fight against the Islamic State in Syria. Coverage of Pelosi’s “middle of the night” meetings in the Jordanian press focused largely on concerns that Turkey’s assault will result in the release of thousands of Islamic State fighters, many of them from Jordan, from Syrian prisons.
“This visit comes at a crucial time of threats to stability in the region and the control of Isis,” said the daily paper Al Ghad.
Pelosi has been harshly critical of Trump’s move in Syria, which was greeted with dismay by governments throughout the region. Israeli security experts called it a “betrayal” of the Kurds, and many saw Pelosi’s sudden appearance in Amman as a globe-hopping slap at the president.
Francis Rooney, right, is sworn in in January. (photo: Susan Walsh/AP)
Republican Congressman Announces Retirement After Saying He Is Open to Trump Impeachment
Martin Pengelly, Guardian UK
Pengelly writes: "A day after telling reporters he would consider voting to impeach Donald Trump, the Florida Republican Francis Rooney told Fox News he had decided to retire from Congress."
Martin Pengelly, Guardian UK
Pengelly writes: "A day after telling reporters he would consider voting to impeach Donald Trump, the Florida Republican Francis Rooney told Fox News he had decided to retire from Congress."
EXCERPT:
The acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, suggested to reporters on Thursday that there had been a quid pro quo in Trump’s treatment of Ukraine, from which he sought political gain, and that the media should “get over it”. He later tried to walk the comments back.
Rooney told Fox News he “hoped” other Republicans were becoming more likely to think as he did on impeachment.
Announcing his retirement, he said: “I’ve done what I came to do. I want to be the model for term limits.”
He added: “I thought the idea was you came and did your public service and left, you accomplish what you want to accomplish and you left. And that’s what I want to be an example to do.
“And I’m also tired of the intense partisanship that stops us from solving the big questions that America needs solved.”
An investor, Republican donor and former US ambassador to the Holy See under George W Bush, Rooney was elected to Congress in 2016.
Republican retirement announcements have stacked up since the Democrats took the House in the 2018 midterms. Trump’s tempestuous presidency has added to the party’s challenges at the polls.
According to ballotpedia.org, 14 Republican representatives have said they will bow out in 2020. Many are from districts where Democrats are expected to challenge.
Rooney is not. Asked if Republicans were worried about Florida’s 19th district, in the south-west of the state, the National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Chris Pack simply told the Washington Post: “R+13.”
Police said they opened fire in self-defence after some of the crowd threw rocks at officers. (photo: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP)
4 Killed, 50 Wounded in Bangladesh Amid Muslim-Hindu Row
teleSUR
Excerpt: "Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called Sunday for calm after four people were killed by security forces, and more than 50 others injured during protests against Facebook messages allegedly denigrating Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam."
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teleSUR
Excerpt: "Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called Sunday for calm after four people were killed by security forces, and more than 50 others injured during protests against Facebook messages allegedly denigrating Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam."
READ MORE
Johnson & Johnson's baby powder. (photo: AP)
Johnson & Johnson Recalls 33,000 Bottles of Baby Powder That May Contain Asbestos
Emily Alford, Jezebel
Alford writes: "Johnson & Johnson has recalled 33,000 bottles of baby powder after the Food and Drug Administration found evidence of asbestos contamination in a single bottle purchased online."
Emily Alford, Jezebel
Alford writes: "Johnson & Johnson has recalled 33,000 bottles of baby powder after the Food and Drug Administration found evidence of asbestos contamination in a single bottle purchased online."
EXCERPT:
The company announced the recall on October 18. This is the first time the company has actually recalled the product, despite 15,000 lawsuits from people who say Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based products caused them to develop cancers ranging from mesothelioma to ovarian cancer. However, there is evidence that the company may have known it was poisoning people for decades.
In 2018, a New York Times article reported that a Johnson & Johnson executive allegedly sent around a memo voicing concerns about baby powder contamination in 1971, which led to 40 years of the company reportedly downplaying and denying such contamination. Now, David Noll, a law professor at Rutgers University tells the Times it will most likely be impossible for the company to keep up that pretense in light of the FDA’s findings and the recall:
“I can’t imagine an attorney for Johnson & Johnson standing up in front of a jury now and saying with a straight face that the product is safe,” Mr. Noll said. He added that “if people come to associate the company’s signature product with deadly diseases, there will be huge spillover effects for its ability to market other products.”
The recall was spurred by the discovery of chrysotile asbestos in a bottle of baby powder sourced from China and purchased online. The company learned of the results on October 17 and recalled all bottles from lot number 22318RB the next day, though company officials argued it was not even that much asbestos:
“Johnson & Johnson officials emphasized on Friday that the level of asbestos detected was very low, just a fraction of 1 percent of the sample. United States health agencies, however, say there is no known safe level of exposure to asbestos.”
The pending lawsuits could cost Johnson & Johnson as much as $10 billion, not to mention the fact that many will probably no longer trust any products made by a company that may have encouraged the general public to sprinkle asbestos on naked babies for 40 years.
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