Opinion | How Corporations Keep Their Own Workers in Debt
Too many employers are imposing crippling debt on workers. Biden can do something about it.
Today's Liberal News
The political peril that Biden didn’t see coming
The current inflation spike now appears to be on track to persist deep into 2022.
Opinion | What the Supply Chain Crisis Reveals About American Infrastructure
Politicians like to argue in favor of more infrastructure — and more spending on it. But we can use the capacity we already have in much smarter ways.
Wall Street Journal Under Fire For Publishing Lie-Filled Letter From Trump
Donald Trump’s “letter to the editor” was crammed full of nonsense, but the newspaper published it anyway,
California’s In-N-Out sparks latest pandemic culture war
In no time, the Fisherman’s Wharf In-N-Out was a top conversation topic at Fox News.
Civil rights hero Claudette Colvin files to have her record expunged
Montgomery, Alabama, is ready to do the right thing. For starters, the city finally renamed Jefferson Davis Avenue on Tuesday. Mayor Steven Reed, who is Montgomery’s first Black mayor, was on hand to celebrate the street now named after Fred. D. Gray, the legendary civil rights lawyer who worked directly with Martin Luther King Jr. and E.D. Nixon, representing leaders like Rosa Parks and King.
Rittenhouse judge has a history of jackassery that goes back over 30 years
Word that the judge in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial ruled this week that those shot by the 17-year-old could not be called “victims” during the trial brought a swift reaction from Rittenhouse defenders who claimed there was nothing unusual about that order. That includes the part where Judge Bruce Schroeder informed the defense that in their closing arguments, they could call those shot by Rittenhouse “looters,“ “rioters,” and “arsonists.
Biden blows cover off Youngkin’s private Trump pandering
If there’s one thing Republicans absolutely positively don’t want over the next year, it’s a cycle in which the party’s de facto leader Donald Trump is on the ballot in every single race across the country.
Senate Republicans are using every trick in the book to steer attention away from Trump and back to President Joe Biden.
Anti-vaxx Chronicles: COVID is socialism! But is that redemption in the end?
Facebook is a menace. COVID-19 is a menace. Conservatism is a cesspool. Together, those three ingredients have created a toxic stew of malevolent death and devastation. We can talk about all those things in the abstract, look at the numbers and statistics, and catch the occasional whiff of seditionist right-wing rhetoric.
Democrats Cut Paid Leave From Build Back Better Package
In recent days, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) turned on the paid leave proposal, likely forcing Democrats to cut the popular policy out of their final package.
Virginia mom and GOP strategist says teaching racism should be up to parents, not teachers
Patti Hidalgo Menders, president of the Loudoun County Virginia Republican Women’s Club, is the worst kind of Karen. She believes that teaching the racist history of America makes white kids feel bad, and Black and brown kids fall into victimhood—therefore it simply shouldn’t be taught.
A Patriarchal Tradition That Just Won’t Budge
About a year before Christine Mallinson gave birth to her first child, she and her husband agreed that all of their children would take her last name. The decision came down to family cohesion: The couple wanted their children—they eventually had two—to share a last name with the only cousin near their kids in age, who was Mallinson’s niece.
Ron DeSantis, Hero Of Vaccine Opponents, Mandated Vaccine Registry For Florida Kids
Before he was a favorite of those decrying “medical tyranny,” Florida’s GOP governor approved a mandate that doctors log kids’ vaccines into a database.
The Blockbuster That Hollywood Was Afraid to Make
When I asked him about his film adaptation of Dune, the writer-director Denis Villeneuve quickly held up his prized copy of Frank Herbert’s book, a French-translation paperback with a particularly striking cover that he’s owned since he was 13. “I keep the book beside me as I’m working,” Villeneuve told me cheerfully over Zoom. “I made this movie for myself. Being a hard-core Dune fan, the first audience member I wanted to please was myself.
Democrats Hit Tax Snag As They Finalize Build Back Better Deal
“Every sensible revenue option seems to be destroyed,” Sen. Bernie Sanders complained Wednesday.
Democrats Might Give Up on a Methane Tax, and Maybe That’s Okay
Yet another climate provision may be out of the Democrats’ signature spending bill. On Monday, The New York Times and Reuters reported that Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, one of two pivotal Democratic votes, wants to remove the bill’s tax on methane leaks from oil and gas operations. (A spokesperson for Senator Tom Carper, a Democrat from Delaware whose committee oversees that proposal, denied the reports on Twitter.
Five Big Questions About COVID Vaccines for Kids
Some good news finally—finally—appears to be on the horizon for roughly 28 million of the United States’ youngest residents. On the heels of an advisory meeting convened yesterday, the FDA is likely on the cusp of green-lighting a kid-size dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for Americans ages 5 to 11, a move that’s been months in the making.
Lawyer Steven Donziger, Who Sued Chevron over “Amazon Chernobyl,” Ordered to Prison After House Arrest
The environmental and human rights lawyer Steven Donziger joins us just before he is ordered to report to jail today, after a years-long legal battle with the oil company Chevron and 813 days of house arrest. In 2011, Donziger won an $18 billion settlement against Chevron on behalf of 30,000 Indigenous people in Ecuador for dumping 16 billion gallons of oil into their ancestral land in the Amazon.
Hunger Striker Out of Hospital Demands Biden Keep All Climate Provisions in Build Back Better Plan
We speak with one of the group of five climate activists who have entered their eighth day of hunger strike demanding President Biden pass the full $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan to combat the climate crisis and expand the U.S. social safety net. The climate programs drafted in the bill face opposition from Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who has made millions of dollars from coal companies in his home state of West Virginia since taking office.
“No Way Out”: Taxi Drivers, Allies Enter 2nd Week of Hunger Strike Against Crushing Medallion Debt
New York City taxi drivers have entered their second week of hunger striking outside City Hall to demand that the mayor grant debt relief for thousands of drivers impacted by the taxi medallion price crash. Many drivers purchased taxi medallions, the permits required to drive a taxi, for upwards of $1 million. After the incursion of ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft, as well as more recent plummeting demand for taxis due to the pandemic, they are now only worth about $100,000.
White Nationalists on Trial in Charlottesville over Deadly Rally After Victims Sued Under KKK Act
Four years after the deadly white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a federal civil trial charges the organizers with an unlawful conspiracy to commit violent acts. Defendants include Jason Kessler, the main organizer, and Richard Spencer, a white nationalist who spoke at the event.
Gossip Bloggers Caught Canoodling With QAnon
Gossiping about celebrities is fun because you don’t know them personally and therefore you can’t hurt their feelings or directly ruin their lives. The idea that celebrity gossip could ever be dangerous is silly.
CDC director encourages Halloween trick-or-treating
“If you are spread out doing your trick-or-treating, that should be very safe for your children,“ Rochelle Walensky said.
Yellen expects inflation to linger, then ease later in 2022
The most recent Consumer Price Index showed prices have gone up 5.4 percent in the past 12 months.
Opinion | How Corporations Keep Their Own Workers in Debt
Too many employers are imposing crippling debt on workers. Biden can do something about it.
The political peril that Biden didn’t see coming
The current inflation spike now appears to be on track to persist deep into 2022.
Opinion | What the Supply Chain Crisis Reveals About American Infrastructure
Politicians like to argue in favor of more infrastructure — and more spending on it. But we can use the capacity we already have in much smarter ways.
Free Julian Assange: Snowden, Varoufakis, Corbyn & Tariq Ali Speak Out Ahead of Extradition Hearing
As jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces an extradition hearing Wednesday in London, supporters gathered Friday for the Belmarsh Tribunal, named for the Belmarsh maximum security prison where Assange is being held. The mock trial highlighted major WikiLeaks revelations of U.S. war crimes and demanded Assange’s freedom. Assange faces up to 175 years in prison in the U.S. under the Espionage Act for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes.
News Roundup: Mo Brooks hedges; Facebook employees fed up; Manchin against the planet
In the news today: Rep. Mo Brooks was a speaker at the Jan. 6 rally in which Donald Trump implored his crowd to “march” on the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to halt recognition of Trump’s November election loss, leading to violence and deaths. Brooks now continues to be extremely squirrelly about just how involved he and his staff were in those events.