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Anyone else watch nova this evening? It did seem to make a somewhat good case though at the same time seemed to duck confronting skeptic arguments directly or at least so it seemed to me. I am not following this at a level of detail that I feel competent to debate one way or another so I am curious for others' reactions.

Pledging to impeach President Trump would backfire on Democrats hoping to take back the House of Representatives this fall, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. The survey finds that 47 percent of registered voters would definitely vote against a candidate who wanted to remove Trump from office, while 42 percent would definitely vote for a candidate who would make such a promise. Forty-seven percent of independent voters - whose opinions could be decisive - also say they would vote against candidates favoring impeachment. Unsurprisingly, impeachment is a non-starter with 84 percent of GOP voters. And Lee Miringoff, the director...

From criticizing President Donald Trump for congratulating Vladimir Putin on his re-election in March, to saying earlier this month that Trump’s comments about withdrawing from Syria “emboldened” Bashar al-Assad, Arizona Senator John McCain in recent weeks has continued to uphold his reputation as one of the Republican Party’s most vocal critics of the president. But what was perhaps McCain’s most dramatic gesture of dissent against President Trump to date came at 1:30 a.m. on July 28, 2017. In the opening scene from the new FRONTLINE documentary McCain, which traces the Republican Party’s evolution across McCain’s political career, and how President...

Imagine if the ambiguous result in our long struggle to end poverty—like the Vietnam War, an effort in which the goal posts always seem to be moving—was shown to be as ineffective. Fifty years ago, American Marines were wrapping up their bloody battle to retake the historic Vietnamese capital of Hue, occupied by communist forces in the Tet Offensive weeks before.Graphic images from the struggle went on display in January at the Newseum, in Washington DC, in an exhibit titled, “The Marines and Tet: The Battle That Changed the Vietnam War.” The title of the exhibit, which runs through July...

Facebook is displaying a link to Wikipedia’s smear-job description of Breitbart News next to all Breitbart articles shared on the site. The linked Wikipedia article describes Breitbart as a “far-right site” that publishes “falsehoods, conspiracy theories, and intentionally misleading stories.” The social network, which has been under pressure from Democrats and the mainstream media since the election of Donald Trump in 2016, has added a button marked “about this article” next to all posts linking to Breitbart News pieces on the site. Currently only viewable for American users, the button brings up a pop-up screen that displays Wikipedia’s misleading description...

GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II” begins as many Holocaust documentaries do, with a history of the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany mixed with what is now standard archival footage of Brownshirts and Kristallnacht. Throw in interviews with some Jewish celebrities — in this case, Carl Reiner and his friend Mel Brooks wearing his old Army jacket — and it has all the workings of a typical PBS documentary. But the film, which premieres April 11, on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, quickly takes an unexpected turn. Jewish-American soldiers, the viewer learns, weren’t only fighting...

In an article on Good Friday, NPR described Easter inaccurately as "the day celebrating the idea that Jesus did not die and go to hell or purgatory or anywhere like that, but rather arose into heaven — is on Sunday." The error was corrected that Easter commemorates Jesus' resurrection, but did He go to hell after crucifixion?NPR corrected it as, "Easter — the day Christians celebrate Jesus' Resurrection — is on Sunday." But the error "practically begged Christians to renew charges that the media is biased against them," an article in The Washington Post commented.The post referred to the Apostle's Creed, saying...

A former FBI agent has been charged by the Department of Justice with “knowingly and willfully” leaking classified documents to a news organization. According to NPR, former Minnesota FBI agent Terry Albury was charged this week with two counts of leaking classified information, including documents that detail how the FBI uses “race and religion” to profile potential targets.

An NPR report on Good Friday described Easter inaccurately and, in doing so, practically begged Christians to renew charges that the media is biased against them. “Easter — the day celebrating the idea that Jesus did not die and go to hell or purgatory or anywhere like that, but rather arose into heaven — is on Sunday,” read an article on NPR’s website.

A pipe was the only sign of drug use found near Chris Bennett's body in November. But it looked like the 32-year-old Taunton, Mass., native had stopped breathing and died of an opioid overdose. Bennett's mother, Liisa, couldn't understand what happened. Then she saw the toxicology report. "I'm convinced he was smoking cocaine that was laced," she says. "That's what he had in his system, [it] was cocaine and fentanyl." Liisa Bennett was shocked. Chris had developed an addiction to pain pills and then heroin in his late teens but had not used opioids for at least 10 years, as...

Incoming White House national security adviser John Bolton recorded a video used by the Russian gun rights group The Right to Bear Arms in 2013 to encourage the Russian government to loosen gun laws. The episode, which has not been previously reported, illustrates the common cause that Russian and American gun rights groups were forming in the years leading up to the 2016 election through former National Rifle Association President David Keene. Keene appointed Bolton to the NRA's international affairs subcommittee in 2011.

Incoming national security adviser John Bolton defended himself Sunday after a Democratic senator questioned whether he would be able to obtain the necessary security clearance over a video speech Bolton gave to a Russian pro-gun rights group in 2013. Bolton video 3min 15 sec On Saturday, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., tweeted out a National Public Radio report about the group Bolton spoke to, known as The Right To Bear Arms. The NPR report described one of the group's founders, Alexander Torshin, as an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who served as the deputy speaker of Russia's parliament for more...

<p>Democrats on the House intelligence committee are sharply disagreeing with Republicans on the panel who say they don’t see any evidence of collusion or coordination between President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.</p> <p>The top Democrat on the panel said Tuesday there is “significant evidence” of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia.</p>

Columnist Michael Gerson and commentator Amy Holmes are teaming to start a conservative-oriented talk show on PBS... The new show, “In Principle,” will air Friday nights starting April 13. PBS will decide after an eight-week run whether to continue. The hosts plan to interview two guests each show, hoping for an in-depth discussion on issues and their formative political experiences. No guests have been announced yet, but Gershon said he’d like to discuss issues like race, gun control and whether conservatism is the right message for the working class.

The president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) warned Monday of the negative effects that President Trump's proposed budget cuts could have on public broadcasting. Trump's budget proposes eliminating federal funding for the CPB over a two-year period. The budget has to be approved by Congress before it can take effect. In a statement released Monday, Patricia Harrison said that the "elimination of funding to CPB would at first devastate, and then ultimately destroy public media's ability to provide early childhood content, life-saving emergency alerts, and public affairs programs." "Public media benefits all Americans — whether they...

Earlier today, the National Endowment of the Arts Chairman Jane Chu released the following statement regarding President Trump's budget plan for 2019. Today we learned that the President's FY 2019 budget proposes elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts. We are disappointed because we see our funding actively making a difference with individuals in thousands of communities and in every Congressional District in the nation. In FY 2018 to date, the NEA has awarded 1,134 grants totaling $26.68 million to organizations and individuals in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, launched a national songwriting...

President Trump's newly proposed budget includes a proposal to end federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), part of a package that includes $300 billion in new spending overall. CPB provides federal funding for PBS and National Public Radio stations. "The Budget proposes to eliminate Federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) over a two year period," according to the proposal. "CPB grants represent a small share of the total funding for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR), which primarily rely on private donations to fund their operations," it continues. "To conduct...

On Friday's weekly roundup on the PBS Newshour, after analyst David Brooks said the Trump White House has a "perpetual unraveling" of staff, liberal analyst Mark Shields compared it to people trying to escape the Berlin Wall, where escapees were often killed by communist guards. "This White House is resembling nothing as much as East Berlin, in that there's more people trying to get out than there are trying to get in." The subject was the resignation of White House staff secretary after two ex-wives accused him of domestic abuse. Brooks took a shot at chief of staff John Kelly:...

Libertarians hate coercion. To the extent that the anarcho-capitalist right justifies its worldview in moral terms, it is through an appeal to the obscenity of brute force. The problem with the welfare state, according to many libertarians, is not that it redistributes resources from rich to poor but that it accomplishes this by threatening wealthy tax dodgers with imprisonment. Individual liberty is sacrosanct, and just social policies are those that do not violate a person’s will through a threat of state aggression. The logical flaws of this “nonaggression principle” are myriad. But most spring from the libertarian’s insistence on applying...

The Rise of the #MeToo-Toos: It would be laughable if it were not so cunning in intent: the Journalist Protection Act to protect reporters from the “toxic environment” supposedly created by President Donald Trump, who truthfully accuses media outlets like CNN of reporting “fake news”. If California Democrat Eric Swalwell gets his way—and with Maxine Waters among 12 other Congressional Democrats on his side, who’s to say he won’t—it will now be a federal crime to “intimidate” or attack journalists.