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    A Democratic win in Texas is a long shot – but Ken Paxton’s weakness is obvious | Moira Donegan

    Republicans are resorting to childish taunts to defend an uncommonly dishonorable state attorney generalIt’s a bit like Lucy with the football. Every few years, Democrats convince themselves that a Texas Senate seat might finally switch from red to blue. On paper, it makes sense. Texas is a large and urbanizing state with an increasingly educated – and increasingly non-white – population.Other one-time Republican strongholds that have undergone similar demographic shifts have turned purple or even blueish – think Georgia, for example. The border counties along the Rio Grande valley, with their deep poverty and big Latino populations, were long thought to be fertile ground to nurture a kind of anti-Trump populism that could be converted into pro-Democratic sentiment. The state Democratic party is anemic there, but a few talented candidates have emerged.Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading… More

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    The Maga governor candidate in the Maga state who is not talking about Trump

    Byron Donalds removed mentions of the president from his website and has barely uttered his name – will his ploy prove successful in a tight governor’s race?It took Byron Donalds, addressing a wildly supportive crowd at a rally in Florida’s bluest county, some time to list those he blamed for any “affordability” issues they might be experiencing.Joe Biden, and the radical policies of the Democrats, were at fault, the Republican nominee for Florida governor insisted in his stump speech at Broward county’s Green Glades West ranch, even though neither has wielded power in Washington for almost two years. Continue reading… More

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    The Trump-Putin love story’s next chapter: selling out Ukraine | Sidney Blumenthal

    The US president is portraying Zelenskyy as the villain as he strives for Russia’s approvalIf Donald Trump could, he would fly to Munich to sign away Ukraine to Vladimir Putin, and return to wave the document as “peace in our time”, hoping to claim at least the second Fifa peace prize.Whatever the complicated motives of Neville Chamberlain, his well-grounded fear after the carnage of a world war of another apocalypse and his wishful thinking that Hitler would be satiated after carving up Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain had not sent his son-in-law and former golf partner and real estate partner in advance to cut back-end deals with the Nazis to profit for his family and cronies.Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth. He is a Guardian US columnist and co-host of the Court of History podcast Continue reading… More

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    Is a job guarantee the solution to mass AI unemployment?

    An old idea springs anew as a chorus of influential voices predicts that AI may trigger crises of vast magnitudeIn a preface to his book Capitalism and Freedom, the American economist Milton Friedman famously observed that a crisis can propel once-fringe ideas into the political mainstream.“Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around,” he wrote. The job of intellectuals, thinktanks and economists, he argued, is to refine the quality of these ambient ideas, so that good ones are ready when disaster strikes. Continue reading… More

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    America must reverse Trump’s moral squalor | Robert Reich

    The president shows a unique disregard for the opinions, norms and ideals of the nation – and, for that matter, humanityThe Democrats’ focus on affordability seems to be a winning strategy (we’ll know for sure in a little over two weeks). But we mustn’t lose sight of the moral squalor at the core of the Trump regime and the necessity of ending it.It’s that moral squalor – the utter disregard for the opinions, norms and ideals of the nation and, for that matter, of humanity – that uniquely marks Trump and the reprobates he has attracted to Washington. It has also poisoned much of the Republican party, including the billionaires and tech bros who finance it.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and in the UK Continue reading… More

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    What will Trump do if he loses in November? Your questions answered – podcast

    Will Donald Trump accept a ‘blue wave’ if it happens? Have young people turned away from centrist politics for ever? Will the US ever recover its image on the world stage? Jonathan Freedland is joined by the Guardian US columnist Moira Donegan to answer these questions and moreBuy your tickets to the Guardian’s post-midterms live event, hosted by Jonathan FreedlandWatch Jonathan Freedland on our new Politics Weekly YouTube channelSend your questions and feedback to [email protected] Stateside’s episode on attacks on voter rights in the US Continue reading… More