‘An exercise of the Republicans justifying their racist positions’

‘The Supreme Court left no doubt: it will gut the Voting Rights Act’

Elie Mystal at The Nation

Republican justices are “going to declare the Voting Rights Act inert and allow the dilution of Black voting rights through racist gerrymandering,” says Elie Mystal. “Some analysts believe that this Supreme Court ruling could result in as many as 19 congressional seats being shifted to the Republicans.” The Democratic Party “cannot survive the loss of Black voting rights,” and “we are now suffering the consequences of the Democrats’ past inaction.”

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‘Something is stirring in Christian America, and it’s making me nervous’

David French at The New York Times

The “steady decline of Christianity in America seems to have slowed, perhaps even paused,” and “younger generations of Americans are now attending church slightly more regularly than older generations,” says David French. But there is a “darkness right alongside the light” of “America’s religious surge.” Christians are “attacking what they call the ‘sin of empathy,’ warning fellow believers against identifying too much with illegal immigrants, gay people or women who seek abortions.”

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‘How Trump got his Nobel Peace Prize after all’

Steve Striffler at Al Jazeera

The Trump administration had to be “pleased that the award went to Venezuela’s Maria Corina Machado,” says Steve Striffler. Trump and Machado are “cut from the same right-wing authoritarian cloth, which in part explains why the president quickly congratulated her, and why Machado, in turn, dedicated her award to him.” In “awarding the prize to Machado, the Nobel Committee has provided an open invitation for Trump to continue, and even escalate, military intervention and gunboat diplomacy in Latin America.”

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‘“Dancing patients” aren’t the biggest problem with drug ads’

Steven Woloshin and Baruch Fischhoff at The Washington Post

The Food and Drug Administration has “issued dozens of warning letters to companies about ads ‘filled with dancing patients,’” and “‘glowing smiles,’” say Steven Woloshin and Baruch Fischhoff. “But misleading images are just the tip of the drug-promotion iceberg.” The FDA should address a bigger problem: These ads “fail to communicate what consumers most need to know — how well a drug actually works.” Unless “consumers learn how big the risks and benefits are, a drug ad has simply not informed them.”

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