Britney Spears news

• Profit over the planet: WTO’s lawsuit ruling could be a giant blow to the renewable energy movement

  24-02-2016 23:30 via salon.com
  
  A new ruling by the World Trade Organization could be a big blow to the growing renewable energy movement around the world.A WTO tribunal ruled Wednesday that India's national solar energy program violates trade law, in a lawsuit initiated by the U.S.Almost half of states in the U.S. have programs that are similar to India's, which subsidize the renewable energy industry and create local, environmentally friendly jobs.Environmental groups say the deal shows that the WTO and U.S. care more a
  
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• Salon’s 20 Years With Oscar

  24-02-2016 22:40 via salon.com
  Salon’s Oscar coverage launched twenty years ago when television critic Joyce Millman put forth a plan to makeover the 68th Academy Awards ceremony. Since then, Salon’s fearless analysis and critique of this seminal show has informed the national discussion and made it smarter. The below collection—two decades’ worth of Salon Oscar writing—reflects changing concerns, attitudes, technologies, and storytelling platforms.1996 Joyce Millman suggested an “Osca
  
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• Watch President Obama’s point-by-point rebuttal of Republicans’ Supreme Court obstructionism

  24-02-2016 22:20 via salon.com
  
  In nine minutes, President Obama artfully demolished every obstructionist argument laid forth by Republican Senators who have vowed to deny any potential successor to late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's seat on the bench even a customary hearing, let alone a vote of consent.Warning that although he understands the obstructionist posture Republicans have staked out following the death of the Court's most conservative jurist, when such extreme positions as refusing -- for the first time in
  
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• Air travel is hell — and it’s only getting worse: Bench seats are the new “solution” to cramming as many bodies as possible onto a plane

  24-02-2016 21:47 via salon.com
  
  Maybe the answer here is to make flying more like sitting in the back seat of the car? That's what Airbus would like you to consider.If you've ever wondered why your airline experience has become more unpleasant and uncomfortable over the past few years, here's some basic math to explain at least one of the reasons. The CDC estimates that more than one third of Americans are currently obese —  and despite concerted public health efforts over the past several years, those obesity rates
  
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• If you love the planet, you might not want to vote for Cruz or Trump: Here’s a rundown of where the presidential candidates stand on climate change

  24-02-2016 21:28 via salon.com
  
  Last month was recorded as the warmest January in history according to two analyses by NASA. Climate change, now a widely accepted condition, means that the current and future governments of the world will have to take into account a drastically altering natural landscape, and shape their policies around how we can ensure a livable and healthy planet for future generations. The next president will greatly define the course the world will take in either pushing back or stepping forward the soluti
  
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• Electionconfessions.com: “I tell everyone that I hate Trump but I’m going to vote for him!”

  24-02-2016 20:42 via salon.com
  
  NBC News' new blog, electionconfessions.com, is an online spot where people can anonymously post election confessions. People can phone in audio and also post their thoughts in writing.
  Some of the confessions, like "I tell everyone that I hate Trump but I'm going to vote for him!" are truly scandalous and others are just sad like “It’s funny because I think that this is almost like the Civil War happening all over again…”Watch our video recap for more. Continue Reading.
  
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• Teenage boys testify about suspect in terror case in Arizona

  24-02-2016 20:38 via salon.com
  PHOENIX (AP) — Two teenage boys testified Wednesday in a terror case in Phoenix that the defendant befriended them and repeatedly talked about how he wanted to hurt non-Muslims and people at an anti-Islam event in Texas.The 13- and 15-year-old boys testified against 44-year-old Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, who is accused of orchestrating what became a thwarted attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, last year.Kareem is one of the first people in the U.S. to stand trial
  
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• Democrats are afraid to speak the truth about Hillary: She’s the embodiment of white privilege, while Sanders has earned his success

  24-02-2016 20:35 via salon.com
  
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• Conservatives in a complete meltdown after Trump wins his third straight election: “I’d support Rick Perry in a third party run”

  24-02-2016 20:32 via salon.com
  
  As Donald Trump mocked his opponents and gushed that "I love the poorly educated" Nevada voters who handed him his third straight Republican presidential election during his victory speech Tuesday night, essentially cementing his pathway to the nomination, conservatives were in complete disarray as they openly grabbled with the prospects of the "Celebrity Apprentice" boss serving as the titular head of the conservative movement in America going forward.While conservative firebrand Mich
  
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• The Latest: 13-year veteran killed in eviction shooting

  24-02-2016 20:12 via salon.com
  BAILEY, Colo. (AP) — The Latest on the shooting of three deputies in Colorado (all times local):5:10 p.m.A sheriff's corporal shot and killed by a Colorado man authorities were trying to evict from his foreclosed home was a 13-year veteran of the department well known in his mountain community.The Park County Sheriff's Office says Corporal Nate Carrigan was one of three officers wounded after entering the home of Martin Wirth near Bailey, about 45 miles west of Denver. He died at the scene
  
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• Marco Rudy-o: After getting thumped in Nevada, Rubio is betting on Giuliani’s losing strategy of 2008

  24-02-2016 20:11 via salon.com
  
  Tuesday’s Nevada Republican caucus was a key turning point in the Republican race. Donald Trump won and he won big, which is alarming in its own right and yet another sign that the race for the Republican nomination is quickly moving beyond the grasp of the anti-Trump party elites. An equally significant development was that, for the first time in this primary, Marco Rubio was unable to spin a relatively strong non-win as something approximating victory. He came out of South Carolina with
  
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• Court records: Apple’s help sought in another iPhone case

  24-02-2016 20:11 via salon.com
  CHICAGO (AP) — A federal magistrate in Chicago last November ordered Apple to help federal prosecutors access data on an iPhone in a personal bankruptcy and passport fraud case, one of more than a dozen cases around the country similar to the legal battle over the telephone of one of the San Bernardino shooting suspects.Court records show U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon filed a November 2015 motion saying law enforcement needed Apple's help to bypass the passcode to search, extract and copy d
  
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• The top 5 jabs from Oscar’s meanest voter: “I rule out Leonardo immediately because it’s a ridiculous performance”

  24-02-2016 20:08 via salon.com
  
  The Hollywood Reporter today published the transcript of a particularly saucy Academy member as he/she rapid-fire explained his/her votes -- real or hypothetical -- in each category of Sunday's Oscars. The anonymous voter is a member of the Executives Branch of the Academy, which has 458 members and cannot vote in acting categories.And though a full-read is recommended, I've compiled a crash course listicle to help pessimistic readers sift through the substantive analysis and get to th
  
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• Report: Most IS bombs made with civilian components

  24-02-2016 20:07 via salon.com
  IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The Islamic State group relies on commercially available components for most of its bombs, with some parts coming from as far away as the United States and Japan, according to a report released Wednesday by a London-based arms research group.Conflict Armament Research says most components —such as chemicals and detonators_come from companies in Turkey and Iraq, which may not know the parts are being bought by the extremists. Many components are also used for civili
  
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• America, you’re stupid: Donald Trump’s political triumph makes it official — we’re a nation of idiots

  24-02-2016 20:03 via salon.com
  
  “I love the poorly educated.” — Donald TrumpBefore any votes were cast, when Donald Trump was the theoretical front-runner, the optimists preached patience. Just wait, they said. This will blow over. He's a clown, a huckster, a TV personality. There's no way he can win. It's just not possible.Well, it's not only possible – it's likely.Trump won again in Nevada on Tuesday night, by a massive margin, and he may well sweep the Super Tuesday states. If that happens, and
  
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• “I’m just weeping and weeping”: Thao Nguyen on how Marilynne Robinson’s “Gilead” set the tone for her new album

  24-02-2016 20:00 via salon.com
  
  Thao and the Get Down Stay Down are a band that’s always seem to know their trajectory. Early albums contain hook-laden songs of romantic frustration. Their prior album "We the Common" was inspired by Thao Nguyen’s correspondence with female prison inmates. And all of their albums are driven by Nguyen’s expressive lilt. Their new record, "A Man Alive," produced by tUnE-yArDs’ Merrill Garbus, was birthed from beats and bass. The band wanted an album that wou
  
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• Red House Records president retires from St. Paul folk label

  24-02-2016 19:58 via salon.com
  
  ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The president of Red House Records is retiring after three decades at the St. Paul-based folk and Americana music label.Red House on Wednesday announced the retirement of Eric Peltoniemi (PELT'-uh-nee-mee). Peltoniemi has led Red House for the past decade, since the death of founder Bob Feldman in 2006.Peltoniemi calls his retirement a "bittersweet decision," but says it's the right time.The Red House roster includes The Cactus Blossoms, honky-tonk singer Dale Watson
  
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• Woman bites rare pearl while dining at Italian restaurant

  24-02-2016 19:40 via salon.com
  ISSAQUAH, Wash. (AP) — A woman bit down on a rare pearl while eating a meal of clams and other seafood at an Italian restaurant in Issaquah.KOMO-TV reports (http://goo.gl/ohETuU) Lindsay Hasz and her husband Chris were eating at Montalcino Ristorante Italiano recently when she bit into something hard in her entree.Hasz says she wasn't sure what it was but put it in her pocket and went home to do research.She took it to a gemologist, who determined it was a Quahog purple pearl worth about $
  
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• Controlled substance case vs Capitals’ Richards is over

  24-02-2016 19:27 via salon.com
  
  Washington Capitals forward Mike Richards will not be prosecuted on a charge of possession of a controlled substance in Manitoba.According to court documents, prosecutors stayed the charge Wednesday morning. Attorney David Humphrey and agent Pat Morris said the prosecutors had investigated and decided to stay the charge that was the equivalent of a misdemeanor.Richards was arrested June 17 at the Canadian border between North Dakota and Manitoba and was found to be in possession of a controlled
  
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• This is why GOP always wins: Obama should have fought Scalia obstruction with a recess appointment

  24-02-2016 19:15 via salon.com
  
  Democrats expressed the usual gasps and outrage yesterday when Republican senators, once again, did exactly what they said they were going to do.When Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the GOP Senate leadership, and Republicans on the judiciary committee presented a united front against considering any Supreme Court nominee by President Obama -- indeed, refusing even hold a courtesy meet-and-greet with any candidate put forward to succeed Antonin Scalia -- it was confirmation of a strate
  
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• 4 cases that have a shot at a good outcome now that Scalia’s seat is open

  24-02-2016 19:12 via salon.com
  
  Many have considered Antonin Scalia's death a setback for the conservative legal movement. And while Scalia occupied a seat on the Supreme Court, his views on several topics sometimes prevented groundbreaking progress.In a number of current cases, Scalia's vote may very well have determined the outcome. But now his open seat leaves the possibility that things could go very differently.Take a look.
  Many have considered Antonin Scalia's death a setback for the conservative legal movement. And whil
  
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• Gordon Gano defends Lou Reed: “He was the exact opposite of everything that he probably deservedly has a reputation for”

  24-02-2016 19:08 via salon.com
  
  Sometimes music takes on a tribal meaning. That’s the way a few songs by Violent Femmes worked for suburban teenagers in the ‘80s. The nervous, energetic “Add it Up” and “Blister in the Sun” became familiar numbers at the kinds of parties that also offered music by the Smiths and other proudly downbeat groups.The Femmes have had a complicated career since then, including a 2009 breakup and Coachella reunion four years later. Now they’re back with a new a
  
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• 4 music videos that make domestic violence look very pretty

  24-02-2016 19:04 via salon.com
  
  “Cherry Wine” was released on Valentine's Day and tells the story of a woman in an abusive relationship but the video itself most closely resembles a Lindt chocolate commercial, replete with soft low-key lighting, exposed wood floors, and a plushy living room couch.
  And "Cherry Wine" is not alone in making domestic violence look "pretty." Watch our roundup of some of the worst offenders. Continue Reading...
  
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• The 15 most racist Oscar films of all time: Here’s why #OscarsSoWhite is not a surprise

  24-02-2016 19:02 via salon.com
  
  A whooping zero Black people were nominated in the individual acting categories for the upcoming 88th Academy Awards. And the Academy’s recent pledge to double its non-White members has hardly calmed the storm of dissent surrounding the So White Oscars. Jada Pinkett Smith still plans to boycott the Oscars. Other Black stars are being courted by the Academy to appear as presenters.It is quite imprudent if the Academy thinks trotting out Black stars to present awards to White stars will
  
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• The Latest: Chicago airports cancel more than 1,100 fights

  24-02-2016 18:59 via salon.com
  
  CHICAGO (AP) — The Latest on the winter storm moving through parts of the Midwest (all times local):5 p.m.The Chicago Department of Aviation is reporting the winter storm slamming the city and northwest Indiana is having a big impact on flights into and out of the city's major airports.About 860 flights were canceled at O'Hare International Airport by Wednesday evening. About 310 flights at Midway International Airport have been canceled, with Southwest Airlines canceling all flights servi
  
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• Betty Friedan would vote for Bernie: Gloria Steinem and other feminists need to hear this

  24-02-2016 18:47 via salon.com
  
  Betty Friedan would vote for Bernie Sanders. I say that having known Betty near the start of the women’s movement in the late ‘60s and at the end of her life. As a feminist, she was also a progressive committed to Bernie’s vision of economic justice. But I have another reason.I knew Betty from 1969 when she brought me into the feminist movement, asking me to communicate to the media the message of feminism and of the National Organization for Women, of which she was founding pr
  
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• These guys let Trump happen: Why you can blame the cowardly GOP establishment for The Donald’s rise

  24-02-2016 18:35 via salon.com
  
  Let’s imagine that you were organizing an outdoor event — a charity softball game, for example — and you already had the date and location set in stone. And let’s say that you paid upfront. Regardless of the circumstances, neither the time nor the place can be altered. You’re locked in.Let’s pretend now that it’s Monday morning, and the game is supposed to happen on Friday afternoon. You check the weather forecast and see, to your horror, that it might r
  
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• Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are just mouthpieces for the right: From Trump softballs to shilling for the Kochs, they are anything but journalists

  24-02-2016 18:34 via salon.com
  
  "Morning Joe" hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are facing scrutiny after (somehow) "Simpsons" voice actor Harry Shearer got ahold of leaked audio — which he then played on his radio program "Le Show" — from a hot mic during a commercial break in MSNBC's town hall with Donald Trump last week.The audio is fairly innocuous — jokes and pleasantries expected of normal people, regardless of political differences; "working the refs" some have called it — if not cou
  
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• Police: Nurse had 4-5 beers before assisting in VA operation

  24-02-2016 18:32 via salon.com
  WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say a registered nurse has acknowledged drinking four or five beers in the hours before assisting in an emergency operation at a northeastern Pennsylvania veterans hospital.Richard Pieri is charged with recklessly endangering another person, driving under the influence and public drunkenness.A police affidavit says the 59-year-old Drums resident stumbled into the Wilkes-Barre (WILKS'-ba-ree) VA Medical Center on Feb. 4 before the surgery. They say his r
  
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• French president suggests Argentina help with Syrian crisis

  24-02-2016 18:28 via salon.com
  
  BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — French President Francois Hollande suggested Wednesday that Argentina could take in some of the hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing civil war.The idea appeared to be an off-the-cuff comment during a news conference by Hollande and Argentine President Mauricio Macri after they met privately and signed agreements on issues ranging from fighting terrorism to increasing cultural exchanges.Hollande lauded Argentina's history of receiving immigrants, mentionin
  
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• Kerry raps Rubio for blocking US ambassador to Mexico pick

  24-02-2016 18:19 via salon.com
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry veered into presidential politics by rapping Senator Marco Rubio for blocking the president's nomination for U.S. ambassador to Mexico.Kerry says Rubio is punishing the United States by keeping nominee Roberta Jacobson from being confirmed.Rubio, a Florida Republican and GOP presidential candidate, objected to Jacobson because of her role in negotiating the normalization of U.S. relations with Cuba. Jacobson is a career civil servant.Kerry, w
  
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• Feds will give immigration priority on released inmates

  24-02-2016 18:13 via salon.com
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Immigration authorities will now get priority over inmates wanted for deportation who are released from federal prison instead of local law enforcement agencies, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said on Wednesday.The federal Bureau of Prisons will first give Immigration and Customs Enforcement the option to take inmates facing deportation into custody. Local law enforcement agencies seeking to prosecute those inmates on other crimes will need to ensure they will return them
  
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• Bernie Sanders has led Hillary Clinton in this major national poll nearly all month

  24-02-2016 16:40 via salon.com
  
  Bernie Sanders finds himself in a familiar place once again. Far away from home on the campaign trail in South Carolina and Missouri on Wednesday, Sanders is once again fighting off a rush of pundits and political talkers looking to write off his presidential campaign after an upset in Nevada last weekend -- and according to one new national poll, Sanders has only been growing more popular all month."What I would ask of the media," Sanders said during a press conference in South Carolina Wednesd
  
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• Eric Holder gets real about heroin and race: It’s a crisis because white people are hooked

  24-02-2016 16:10 via salon.com
  
  As is the case with nearly every Frontline documentary, last night’s two hour “Chasing Heroin” is a riveting longform documentary feature, exploring how prescription painkillers like Oxycontin have directly led to a spike in injected heroin use. As Laura Miller wrote for Salon last spring, the number of people who have used heroin within a year has doubled from 2005 to 2012; the number of deaths due to heroin have quintupled in the past 10 years.And most importantly, 90 percent
  
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• Donald Trump Jr.: “There’s something special” about my dad wanting to punch people exercising their First Amendment rights

  24-02-2016 16:01 via salon.com
  
  Donald Trump Jr. went on "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren" last night and defended his father's violent vigilante fantasies, the Raw Story's Travis Gettys reported.Van Susteren asked Trump Jr. about his father's recent claim that a man protesting him was "throwing punches, nasty as hell, screaming and everything else when we’re talking, and we’re talking out -- we’re not allowed, the guards are very gentle with him, he’s walking, like, big high fives, smiling, laugh
  
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• Donald Trump spectacularly trolls Glenn Beck, crashes his pro-Ted Cruz Nevada caucus speech live on air

  24-02-2016 14:55 via salon.com
  
  Glenn Beck is certainly in the throes of a living nightmare, finding his impassioned speech to Republican Nevada caucus goers Tuesday night suddenly interrupted by the rolling thunderstorm that is Donald Trump.Trump crashed the Nevada caucus location at which the conservative talk show host was speaking Tuesday night on behalf of his preferred candidate, Texas Tea Party Senator Ted Cruz.https://twitter.com/CahnEmily/status/702312811767070720?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwTrump had earlier tweeted
  
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• Donald Trump lets slip the truth: “I love the poorly educated,” the GOP front-runner declared after winning Nevada on their backs

  24-02-2016 14:44 via salon.com
  
  Donald Trump's victory speech last night was, for lack of a better way to phrase it, exactly the sort of thing you'd expect another Donald Trump victory speech to be -- part-empty braggadocio, part-vapid stump nonsense, and part-unwitting confession.It's the last part that's the most interesting here, although statements like America "gets greedy right" do deserve a little lingering over.
  "Now we’re going to get greedy for the United States we’re going to grab and grab and grab," Tru
  
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• “It’s all sanctimonious bullsh*t”: Trevor Noah unloads on GOP’s Supreme Court obstructionism

  24-02-2016 14:20 via salon.com
  
  "Daily Show" host Trevor Noah last night weighed in on the partisan debate surrounding an inevitable Obama nomination of a replacement to fill Scalia's vacant seat in the Supreme Court, and Senate Republicans' promise that they won't even consider an Obama nominee."This president is not a lame duck," Noah said in response to Ted Cruz's mischaracterization of Obama as such. "He's a perfect duck.""These Republican senators are total BS," Noah added before playing multiple clips of the sa
  
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• Ted Cruz is a weasel: Behind the sneaky tactics too dirty even for Donald Trump and Marco Rubio

  24-02-2016 14:15 via salon.com
  
  Last night's edition of "Late Night" host Seth Meyers' masterful "Closer Look" segment focused on the weaselly tactics used by Ted Cruz's campaign.On Rick Tyler, the former Cruz spokesman asked to resign after tweeting misinformation about Marco Rubio's religiosity, Meyers said, "Did Rick Tyler really see someone reading the Bible and said, 'Time to take this sucker down a peg'?""The bigger problem for Cruz is that this scandal is just the latest in a series of incidents that have given his
  
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• Ted Cruz, professional slimeball: Why Trump & Rubio complain about his “dirty” politics — and why it won’t hurt him a bit

  24-02-2016 14:00 via salon.com
  
  At this point, watching Donald Trump calling Ted Cruz the worst liar he's ever seen and implying that he's got a mental disorder doesn't even phase the press. That's just Trump being Trump. But it is noteworthy that Marco Rubio's supposedly "high road" campaign is tarring Cruz with the same message. Even poor old Ben Carson gets in on the act, fulminating over Cruz's alleged "dirty trick" in Iowa in which some of his campaign workers phoned into the caucuses with a bogus report that Carson was d
  
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• Watch Triumph the Insult Comic Dog attempt to woo Ted Cruz by impersonating gay-hating professional victim Kim Davis

  24-02-2016 13:59 via salon.com
  
  Triumph the Insult Comic Dog is on a roll, this time trailing Texas Senator Ted Cruz. At one Cruz rally, Triumph attempted to ask the senator a question, but kept referring to the prospective candidate as "Marco Rubio."After being told that the man on stage was Ted Cruz, the Insult Comic Dog replied, "See, I knew I was racist enough to be a Republican."
  So he tried another tact, asking the GOP hopeful whether it's true that he tried to shut down the government so he could attend a Nickelback con
  
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• Scalia truthers are all-American: “The Declaration of Independence is based on a conspiracy theory”

  24-02-2016 13:59 via salon.com
  
  Why do people believe in conspiracies? Joseph Uscinski, a political science professor at the University of Miami, has spent much of his career studying them, and co-authored a book, “American Conspiracy Theories,” Oxford University Press, in 2014. This week, he was struck by the almost instant response to Scalia’s death. As he wrote in the Washington Post:Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died just days ago, but already conspiracy theories about his death abound. Radio talk-
  
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• Why are we still paying Mitch McConnell’s salary?

  24-02-2016 13:58 via salon.com
  
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• This is not a “European crisis,” it’s a Syrian crisis: A human rights expert on why we’re only now paying attention to a decades-old global refugee crisis, and what you can do

  24-02-2016 13:57 via salon.com
  
  The recent G-20 summit in Turkey had as a central part of its discussion the Syrian refugee crisis and the effect of the Paris terrorist attacks on that crisis. This comes at a time when the general consensus is that the crisis has reached a point that is nearly impossible to manage.  One humanitarian relief worker writes in the Guardian,After five years of war, it is hard to imagine that the conditions in Syria could get any worse, but they have. Every time we think we’ve s
  
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• “Let Trump be your nominee”: Al Sharpton explains how Hillary or Bernie can win the black vote

  24-02-2016 13:55 via salon.com
  
  "Nightly Show" host Larry Wilmore welcomed Al Sharpton to his panel last night to discuss the black vote and Obama's legacy ahead of this coming Saturday's Democratic primary battle in South Carolina.Asked if Bernie Sanders has a realistic chance of garnering black supporters, Sharpton -- who met with Sanders over lunch in Harlem after the senator's decisive victory in New Hampshire -- said, "I think that if he addresses the issues, and can convince people that they can trust that he will enact
  
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• Gucci, Roberto Cavalli headline Day 1 of Milan Fashion Week

  24-02-2016 13:36 via salon.com
  
  MILAN (AP) — Premier Matteo Renzi on Wednesday opened Milan Fashion Week for the first time, signaling a fresh government focus on the strategic center of Italian fashion.Putting the emphasis on youth, Italy's youngest premier posed near Milan's Duomo cathedral with a host of emerging and newly established designers who in recent years have given new impulse to Milan's fashion runways.Renzi has indicated that he wants to better showcase and unify Italy's coveted design and fashion industri
  
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• Nevada makes Donald Trump unstoppable: The unthinkable becomes inevitable as he barrels toward GOP nomination

  24-02-2016 12:00 via salon.com
  
  The results of Nevada’s Republican caucuses, while not surprising, do help to clarify a few things. Everyone expected Trump to win. He was polling at 45% in the pre-caucus polls with Rubio and Cruz trailing at 19% and 17%, respectively.The question going into Nevada wasn’t whether Trump would win, but rather by how much? If there were lingering doubts, it was about his ability to win a caucus. Trump has run a national media-based campaign, and so he’s at a comparative disadvant
  
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• Reality check for the GOP: These guys probably can’t beat Trump

  24-02-2016 11:59 via salon.com
  
  The Republican primary is down to its Final Five.With the end of Jeb Bush’s campaign, there has been some talk this week about trying to get a couple of the remaining candidates to drop out of the race so their supporters will consolidate behind whomever is left and has the best shot at beating Donald Trump. The problem is that none of these guys will want to drop out, and at least two of them (Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio) seem to each genuinely believe he is the party’s last hope of st
  
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• I don’t care if no one approves: I’m a leftist feminist and I’m not voting for Clinton, Sanders or anyone in 2016

  24-02-2016 11:58 via salon.com
  
  “Elizabeth, who are you voting for, Bernie or Hillary?”I’m asked this question several times per week, and only imagine the frequency will intensify leading up to the November presidential election. No matter how many times I answer this question, I’m almost always met with the same response: shock, disdain, anger.The answer is neither. I’m not voting for anyone in the 2016 election.I care deeply about politics, and have a long-standing interest in the ins and outs
  
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• No, Jeb Bush’s failed campaign doesn’t mean Citizens United doesn’t matter

  24-02-2016 11:57 via salon.com
  
  After entering the GOP primary as the presumptive front-runner, Jeb Bush dropped out of the presidential race on Saturday. He spent huge sums of money in early states but failed to get votes. Unsurprisingly, many pundits are declaring that this proves money doesn’t matter in politics. But there is a large political science literature to suggest otherwise: Money influences political outcomes and tilts policy in favor of an overwhelmingly white and male donor class. In addition, without mone
  
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