The NYT should tell readers whether it helped crooked FBI agents get Trump elected in 2016

[Daily Kos Morning Roundup]( A morning roundup of worthy pundit and news reads, brought to you by Daily Kos. [Click here to read the full web version.]( - [The NYT should tell readers whether it helped crooked FBI agents get Trump elected in 2016]( The NYT should tell readers whether it helped crooked FBI agents get Trump elected in 2016, Will Bunch, The Philadelphia Inquirer The arrest of a high-level FBI agent on Russia-tied corruption charges raises stunning new questions about how Trump really won in 2016. There are many reasons for Trump’s victory, but experts have argued the FBI disclosures were decisive. In 2017, polling guru Nate Silver argued that the Comey probe disclosure cost Clinton as many as 3-4 percentage points and at least one percentage point, which would have flipped Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin and handed her the Electoral College. Clearly, the wrong investigation was reopened. This week’s stunning corruption charges against a top FBI spymaster who assumed a key role in the bureau’s New York office just weeks before 2016′s “October surprise” — an agent who by 2018 was known to be working for a Vladimir Putin-tied Russian oligarch — should cause America to rethink everything we think we know about the Trump-Russia scandal and how it really happened that Trump won that election. - [How Joe Biden Wins Again]( How Joe Biden Wins Again, Franklin Foer, The Atlantic Biden Rest Stops as far as the eye can see Biden’s frustration with Obama was that he didn’t sufficiently consider the marketing potential of the stimulus. Obama frankly admitted that he took “perverse pride” in how his technocratic administration constructed policy without regard for political considerations. The 2009 Recovery Act included tax cuts, but intentionally didn’t advertise them. The government quietly withheld less money from paychecks, a dividend that almost nobody noticed. This furtive tax cut was theoretically effective, because consumers were less likely to save money that they didn’t know they possessed. But it was also a political nonfact. This humility of sorts transgressed a core Biden maxim: Good policy is useless without good politics. The health of the government (not to mention the health of the Democratic Party) depends almost entirely on public appreciation of the government’s deeds. - [Bad news: Daily Kos revenue is down, and we might not be able to do all we do. Good news: You are a big part of the solution, and small donors have never let us down. Donate $5 TODAY.]( - [Why Pope Francis stood up for LGBTQ lives]( Why Pope Francis stood up for LGBTQ lives, E.J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post Francis knows about the lack of charity. A great many conservative bishops, especially in the United States, have been highly critical of his pontificate and his insistence that addressing poverty, social justice and global inequalities should take priority over abortion and issues related to sexuality. Close students of the hierarchy see at least a third of American bishops as hostile to Francis’s anti-culture-war approach and a majority as being, well, less than enthusiastic. But the pope’s latest salvo is likely to be popular in the pews. Despite the views of conservatives in the hierarchy, U.S. Catholics are somewhat more supportive of LGBTQ rights than Americans overall. A Gallup study of polls taken from 2016 to 2020, for example, found that on average 69 percent of Catholics, including 56 percent of weekly church attendees, favored legal recognition of same-sex marriages. - [The Hard Right Keeps Pathologizing Its Opponents]( The Hard Right Keeps Pathologizing Its Opponents, Alan Elrod, Arc Digital “Groomers,” “mutilators,” and other fun labels Minors and their safety are central here. “Grooming,” “abuse,” and “mutilation” are the watchwords of anti-LGBTQ activism. There is even a catchy diagnosis that continues to ricochet around on the hard right: rapid onset gender dysphoria. This is the belief that exposure to LGBTQ socialization, confusing media, and even “grooming” practices can cause children to quickly develop gender dysphoria and, in the span of mere months, insist on transitioning their identity in ways they will surely regret. It should be noted that rapid onset gender dysphoria is not endorsed by the major medical associations, and research has been conducted that disputes the claims behind it. What I want to note is the way this idea invites a view of being trans as an illness and, by emphasizing it as a social contagion that can rapidly overwhelm a young person, one that is highly communicable. As to the supposed spreaders of this illness? Well, Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik was unequivocal in her condemnation of LGBTQ advocates, calling them “groomers” and concluding “I think they’re evil.” - [Tyre Nichols should still be alive. Donate $3 to help Memphis, TN grapple with this senseless death and organize to end police terror.]( - ['Kid glove' treatment of Supreme Court won't find abortion leaker or stop ethics abuses]( 'Kid glove' treatment of Supreme Court won't find abortion leaker or stop ethics abuses, Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY Presidents and Supreme Court justices essentially police themselves. That's a recipe for disappointment and abuses. The investigation was conducted by Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley and her staff, and deemed professional and thorough in a review by former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Ninety-seven employees were interviewed, some multiple times. But the report did not disclose that, according to new CNN reporting, the court had a financial relationship with Chertoff's security firm, the Chertoff Group. In addition, as attorney Mark Zaid told me, nobody could tell from the initial report whether the justices themselves had been interviewed. - [The police killing in Memphis is a reminder we must change policing]( The police killing in Memphis is a reminder we must change policing, Perry Bacon Jr., The Washington Post The five officers were all Black, as was [Tyre] Nichols — as is Memphis’s police chief. That doesn’t make this situation less bad — or unrelated to racism. The problem, as Black Lives Matter activists have been saying for a decade, isn’t that individual officers hate Black people or other minorities. It’s that America’s police departments deploy and train their officers to view everyday citizens as either threats to the officers’ safety or disruptions to an orderly society — resulting in altercations escalating needlessly into killings. ICYMI: Major stories from the past week you won't want to miss: - [‘I’m sorry’: March for Life attendee is stumped into silence by one question about the Bible]( - [McCarthy turns into snarling jackass over questions about Santos. More of that, please!]( - [Russia is so worried about Western tanks, it called on King Tankie for help]( Want even more Daily Kos? Check out our podcasts: - [The Brief: A one-hour weekly political conversation hosted by Markos Moulitsas and Kerry Eleveld]( - [The Downballot: Daily Kos' podcast devoted to downballot elections. 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