Yes, there is an Iowa caucus in Paris

On Monday, February 3, voters in Paris will be able to participate in the Iowa caucuses, too.

And they won’t be the only ones caucusing outside the state. For the first time, Iowans in three satellite locations around the world, including Paris; Tbilisi, Georgia; and Glasgow, Scotland, will have the chance to hold their own caucuses. In 12 states across the country as well as Washington, DC, voters will be caucusing remotely as well.

Donald Trump will be acquitted. American politics will be convicted.

Senate Republicans are preparing to acquit President Donald Trump — and convict the American political system.

Trump was never really on trial in the Senate. Not in the sense of a true trial, where the objective is to understand the truth. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made that clear from the outset. “Everything I do during this I’m coordinating with White House counsel,” he said. “There’ll be no difference between the president’s position and our position as to how to handle this.”

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Rather, it was America’s political system that faced the true trial. And the truth was revealed.

Let’s …

Watch: Marvel expands the MCU with the first trailer for its Disney+ shows

Since the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America and Iron Man have been a constant. But we now have an idea of what the world will be like without them, as the first mini trailers for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, and Loki, three upcoming Marvel TV series that will air exclusively on Disney+, was released during the Super Bowl.

The three shows were spliced into a (very short) Super Bowl trailer. Falcon is seen launching Cap’s signature shield. Wanda, a.k.a. Scarlet Witch, and Vision find themselves in an I Love Lucy

Watch: J. Lo and Shakira dazzled at the Super Bowl halftime show

Considering the NFL’s contentious relationship with stars like Rihanna and Cardi B — both Rihanna and Cardi, along with other musicians, have said they won’t perform for the league because of its treatment of Colin Kaepernick — it’s something of a marvel that the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show boasted kinetic talent in the form of superstars Jennifer Lopez and Shakira (especially compared to Maroon 5, who headlined the halftime show in 2019). The call to book the duo was facilitated by Jay-Z, through his still relatively new partnership with the NFL; the women made history …

2020 Democrats make their final appeals ahead of the Iowa caucuses

Candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination made their final pitches to voters this weekend ahead of tomorrow’s first-in-the-nation caucus in Iowa, crossing the state for events and television appearances.

Recent polls show an incredibly tight race in the state on the eve of Monday’s caucuses, making these final events incredibly important opportunities not just to energize their bases, but for candidates to try to win over new supporters in the eleventh hour.

RealClearPolitics’s Iowa polling average currently places Sen. Bernie Sanders at the top of the polls, with a 3.7 percentage point lead over former Vice President Joe Biden. …

Alexander argues it’s important to weigh Trump’s wrongdoing against his accomplishments

Friday, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) became one of a number of GOP lawmakers to say President Donald Trump had committed misdeeds with respect to his actions with Ukraine, but that he should not be removed for it.

On Meet the Press Sunday, Alexander refined that argument, arguing that Trump’s misconduct may have stemmed from a desire to do the right thing that was marred by his inexperience. And he suggested that the fact Trump has been successful in accomplishing Republican priorities may outweigh any wrongs he’s committed.

Alexander was widely watched as lawmakers debated the question of calling new witnesses …

A Stanford psychologist on the art of avoiding assholes

The world is full of assholes. Wherever you live, whatever you do, odds are you’re surrounded by assholes. The question is, what to do about it?

Robert Sutton, a psychology professor at Stanford University, has stepped up to answer this eternal question. He’s the author of a new book, The Asshole Survival Guide, which is basically what it sounds like: a guide for surviving the assholes in your life.

In 2010, Sutton published The No Asshole Rule, which focused on dealing with assholes at an organizational level. In the new book, he offers a blueprint for managing assholes …

Poll: Americans remain divided on Trump’s removal as the GOP prepares to acquit

With President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial hurtling towards its conclusion, a new poll finds the first week of the proceedings — which contained arguments from the House impeachment managers as well as from Trump’s legal counsel — did little to change public opinion about whether the president should be removed from office.

According to a Politico/Morning Consult national poll that was conducted from January 29-30, 50 percent of registered voters approve of removing President Trump from office while 43 percent disapprove. Those numbers were only slightly different from last week’s version of the same poll, which found 47 …

Tlaib promises to help preserve party unity after wading into a Clinton-Sanders row

Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib has apologized for booing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday night over comments Clinton has made in recent weeks about Sen. Bernie Sanders, who Tlaib is a prominent campaign surrogate for.

“In this instance, I allowed my disappointment with Secretary Clinton’s latest comments about Senator Sanders and his supporters get the best of me,” Tlaib said Saturday on Twitter. “You all, my sisters-in-service on stage, and our movement deserve better.”

The comments, the booing, and the apology are merely the latest flare-up in a conflict that has been going on since the 2016 primary, …

2020 Democratic candidates aren’t happy about new debate rules that seem to benefit Bloomberg

After resisting calls to amend its rules to give more candidates the opportunity to appear on its debate stages, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has announced it will relax its debate criteria after all.

Previously, the DNC required candidates reach a certain threshold in polling and receive contributions from a certain number of individual campaign donors to receive a debate invitation.

Friday, it was announced candidates will no longer need to meet any donor requirements. Instead, to qualify for February 19’s debate in Las Vegas, Nevada, candidates must either: hit 10 percent in four qualifying national polls, 12 percent in …