by Montse Reyes
This article was originally published at Prism.
“I am so sorry. What a horrible, hard time to be a trans teenager.”
Owen Egerton, an Austin-based filmmaker and writer, received that text from a friend the morning of Feb. 23, after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott released an order directing health agencies to investigate gender-affirming care for trans youth as child abuse.
Donald Trump’s Truth Social—the plucky startup that aims to disrupt the social media space in the same way Trump Steaks transformed how Americans befouled their colons—is soaring on gossamer wings straight into a comically large bug zapper.
It’s difficult to fathom how anyone trusts Trump in any arena these days, much less in business. He’s arguably a worse businessman than he was a president, and he was a worse president than a human being.
Thomas griped about politics in the Supreme Court — but his wife battled to upend the 2020 election and works with groups that have presented cases to the court.
Equal Pay Day is coming on March 15. The day represents how long into 2022 the average woman in the U.S. has to work to have been paid as much since January 1, 2021, as the average man was paid in 2021. March 15 is the day we observe Equal Pay Day for women of all races, but for Black and Latina and Native women, the date comes much later—and more so this year, following a recalculation based on pandemic-era employment patterns that pushed many women out of full-time work.
Connect! Unite! Act! is a weekly series that seeks to create face-to-face networks in each congressional district. Groups meet regularly to socialize, get out the vote, support candidates, and engage in other local political actions that help our progressive movement grow and exert influence on the powers that be. Visit us every week to see how you can get involved!
It was the year 2002. The top movie of the year would be Spiderman starring Toby McGuire.
by Williesha Morris
This article was originally published at Prism
A recent spate of book bans have accelerated at schools across the U.S., and students, activists, and educators from marginalized communities are aggressively speaking out against them—especially since many of the recent bans have disproportionately targeted BIPOC and LGBTQ+ authors.
The Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner is one of the most dominant WNBA players ever. Yet now she’s in custody in Russia—a predicament that not only threatens her safety amid a major global crisis but also exposes the inferior status of professional women’s basketball in America.
One voting rights expert called the state redistricting challenge from GOP legislators “an aggressive move … weaved in with a bunch of cynicism.
Halfway from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, I was running out of gas. A couple of hours before, when I’d left home in my Ford Escape plug-in hybrid, the range predictor told me I had miles to spare in the tank. But, late for an appointment, I’d been driving fast in Interstate 15’s far-left lane, where the prevailing culture dictates that the 70-mph speed limit is merely a suggestion. As a consequence, I had less than 100 miles of fuel left and 130 miles to go.
Sexual health experts and government officials are warning that without federal action, millions of Americans could face severe, even fatal, consequences if infections go untested and untreated.
To understand the perils of the present, it is necessary to understand the perils of the past, a distant past that few Americans remember well. In the early days of the Cold War, NATO allies faced a daunting strategic challenge. The Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies possessed an overwhelming advantage in conventional weaponry. They had more men, more tanks, and more planes—and they were massed in proximity to NATO’s borders.
One evening, I sat on the brown-leather couch of a younger man who admired me for my writing, and maybe other things, if the salty text messages were true. He came from a different generation, but I was pleased to discover that he shared many of my unconventional opinions and favorite authors, that taste and perspective weren’t necessarily a matter of the year you were born. Joan Didion, Carl Sagan, Christopher Hitchens, though I had more reservations about that last one.
A Republican group asked for “the most ridiculous part” of the video and folks had thoughts.
After Russian troops began invading Ukraine, Hollywood mobilized in protest. Major studios paused the release of films in Russian theaters. Netflix suspended operations in the country, halting future productions and acquisitions. This week, Discovery, WarnerMedia, and Amazon ceased their services in Russia. The U.S. film and TV business has, effectively and collectively, pulled the plug on Moscow.
Progressive PAC Really American recalls a controversial GOP visit to the Kremlin in its #PartyOfTreason spot.
The House on Wednesday stripped the funding from the $1.5 trillion spending package after several Democrats objected to funding the aid with money slated to go to their states.
A portion of the domestic and international funds to continue battling the pandemic will no longer come out of unspent state funding.
They are seeking a global pandemic action plan to match the national plan the administration rolled out last week.
The limited funding raises the likelihood that the White House will be left shorthanded should a new, dangerous variant emerge.
The increase reported by the Labor Department reflected the 12 months ending in February and didn’t include most of the oil and gas price increases that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb.
The Fed is already expected to begin a campaign of interest rate increases next month in a bid to remove its support for economic growth amid a blistering job market and rapidly rising prices.
“America’s job machine is going stronger than ever,” Biden said at the White House.
The burst of jobs came despite a wave of Omicron inflections that sickened millions of workers, kept many consumers at home and left businesses from restaurants to manufacturers short-staffed.
Congress needs to create a new safety net for such lenders — not let regulators squeeze them out of business.
Russian forces reportedly killed at least three people when they bombed a children’s hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Wednesday, shelling a humanitarian corridor and breaking a ceasefire deal that was was meant to allow residents to flee. The actions constitute a violation of international humanitarian law and, therefore, a potential war crime, says David Miliband of the International Rescue Committee.
Critics spotted some fatal flaws with Arizona Republican Wendy Rogers’ request to the former president.
He even said this time around he’d “absolutely” get involved to help a candidate defeat Trump in the primary.
It is Friday and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues. Revelations about the nature of Trump’s DHS reveal complicity in the insurrection. The GOP landscape is filled with the hypocrisy we have come to understand as endemic to the conservative lifestyle. And, after a year and a couple of months, President Joe Biden seems to be leaning more and more toward making some of the executive decisions he promised to make when he was running for office.
It’s hard to read through Twitter or the Daily Kos comments and not see people shocked by Russia’s brutality in Ukraine, demanding that we “do more.” This is a common sentiment, from very smart people:
This makes me very sad. Like I am not doing enough. I have girls this age. We (the world) must do more to help Ukraine. I understand all the political and escalation lines. I don’t care. We can and must do more. pic.twitter.
In a wild podcast, he also said the U.S. military should have taken “leather and plastic hangers” out of Afghanistan.