Fed signals plan to pull back economic support even as virus looms
The central bank said it’s making progress toward its goals of averaging 2 percent inflation over time and reaching maximum employment.
Today's Liberal News
Biden hails ‘strong’ economic recovery despite disappointing jobs numbers
Biden laid blame for the sluggish growth of U.S. jobs on the “impact of the Delta variant” of the coronavirus.
“Until I Am Free”: Keisha Blain on the Enduring Legacy of Voting Rights Pioneer Fannie Lou Hamer
As Republican lawmakers attempt to make it harder to vote in states across the country, we look at the life and legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer, the civil rights pioneer who helped organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Historian Keisha Blain writes about Hamer in her new book, “Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America.
Family of Henrietta Lacks Files Lawsuit over Use of Stolen Cells, Lambasts Racist Medical System
The family of Henrietta Lacks has filed a lawsuit against biotech company Thermo Fisher Scientific for making billions in profit from the “HeLa” cell line. Henrietta Lacks was an African American patient at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. Doctors kept her tissue samples without her consent for experimental studies while treating her for cervical cancer in 1951.
Filipina Journalist Maria Ressa Wins Nobel Peace Prize After Facing Years of Threats & Arrests
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday morning to Filipina journalist Maria Ressa and Russian newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov for their work to “safeguard freedom of expression.” Ressa has repeatedly been arrested by the government of Rodrigo Duterte for the groundbreaking work of her news site Rappler, which has exposed Duterte’s deadly war on drugs that has killed tens of thousands.
Ethiopia: New Reports Expose Ethnic Cleansing & Illegal Arms Shipments on Commercial Flights
Amid the mounting humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian government has been using the commercial airline Ethiopia Airlines to shuttle weapons and military vehicles from neighboring country Eritrea since the beginning of their civil war, according to a new CNN investigation. This comes as the United Nations estimates more than 5 million people in the country’s Tigray region are now in need of humanitarian assistance in order to survive, but U.N.
Washington Is Getting China Wrong
Evergrande Group, one of China’s largest property developers, is tottering on the brink of bankruptcy. Its founder, Hui Ka Yan, is scrounging to find the cash to meet payments on the $300 billion his company owes. Beijing has warned local officials to prepare for possible fallout if the gargantuan firm collapses.
Washington Is Getting China Wrong
Evergrande Group, one of China’s largest property developers, is tottering on the brink of bankruptcy. Its founder, Hui Ka Yan, is scrounging to find the cash to meet payments on the $300 billion his company owes. Beijing has warned local officials to prepare for possible fallout if the gargantuan firm collapses.
‘Mark My Words’: MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan Reveals GOP’s ‘Chilling’ Plot For 2024
“We are in the midst of a rolling coup,” he warned before explaining the GOP’s end game to subvert the 2024 election.
Ted Cruz Jokes About That Time He Abandoned Constituents For A Cancun Trip
The senator brazenly joked about his widely-condemned getaway in an effort to criticize Joe Biden.
News Roundup: Republicans still stoking election hoaxes; Monday strike in Wisconsin
In the news today: Republicans continued to promote the Big Lie this weekend, not only suggesting that Donald Trump’s election loss was the result of imaginary “fraud” but hinting that the results of the next midterm elections might also be dismissed as fraudulent. In Wisconsin, immigrants plan a statewide strike Monday to demand a pathway to citizenship for undocumented residents.
Formerly incarcerated chef serves up a menu that’s ‘made out of love’
This story was originally published at Prism.
Sharon Richardson had been incarcerated for 18 years when she was granted a visit to the hospital where her mother was in ailing health. This would be the last opportunity for Richardson to say her goodbyes. When she arrived back at the prison, however, she couldn’t have expected what was in store: her friends, women she lovingly now refers to as her sisters, had been allowed to cook an entire meal for her.
Nuts & Bolts—Inside the Democratic Party: We don’t have to be in disarray
Welcome back to the weekly Nuts & Bolts Guide to small campaigns. Every week I try to tackle issues I’ve been asked about. With the help of other campaign workers and notes, we address how to improve and build better campaigns or explain how we can improve our party.
CNN’s Jim Acosta Says Trump’s Rally Comment ‘Gave Away The Big Lie’
“He is admitting that his election lies are ego juice, just there to pump up the crowd, the very stuff that fueled the insurrection,” the anchor said.
Fiona Hill Calls Capitol Riot A ‘Dress Rehearsal’ For Further Violence
The former national security official said there is enough historical evidence that shows the U.S. is currently in “a danger zone.
Texas’ new congressional maps will disenfranchise Latinx voters, organizers say
by Montse Reyes
This story was originally published at Prism.
Lawmakers in Texas have unveiled a new proposed congressional map that stands to protect Republican incumbents throughout the state at the expense of accounting for the massive growth of Black and brown populations.
LGBTQ student-athletes feel supported by teammates more often than you might expect
Republicans have taken a running leap into transphobia when it comes to keeping trans youth out of sports. Across the nation, state lawmakers have introduced bill after bill that aims to prevent trans youth—more often than not, trans girls—from participating in school sports. Unfortunately, their focus on the non-issue has given the topic unearned legitimacy among moderates and even some progressives.
Kim Kardashian Didn’t Break Character on SNL
You don’t get to the status Kim Kardashian West occupies without knowing exactly what people think about you and using it to your advantage. So when the mogul, former reality star, and Instagram powerhouse walked out onto the Saturday Night Live stage for her hosting debut, her outfit—a skintight turtlenecked bodysuit made of fuchsia crushed velvet that covered her from the tips of her fingers to the points of her stilettos—said more about her than her monologue did.
GOP Rep. Steve Scalise Still Refuses To Acknowledge 2020 Election Was Legitimate
The House’s second-ranking Republican repeated without evidence the false claim that states did not follow the Constitution when certifying their votes.
As Covid trends down, Fauci warns not to ‘declare victory’
“If you look at the history of the surges and the diminutions in cases over a period of time, they can bounce back,” the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director said.
Ode to Joy
Friedrich Schiller called Joy the spark of divinity
but she visits me on a regular basis,
and it doesn’t take much for her to appear—
the salt next to the pepper by the stove,
the garbage man ascending his station
on the back of the moving garbage truck,
or I’m just eating a banana
in the car and listening to Buddy Guy.In other words, she seems down-to-earth,
like a girl getting off a bus with a suitcase
and no one’s there to meet her.
Should Princeton Exist?
One recent fall morning at a coffee shop in Princeton, I overheard two students chatting about upcoming deadlines for the Rhodes, the Marshall, and the Mitchell—three prestigious postgraduate scholarships so coveted that they’ve become mononymous on elite campuses.“I don’t love the Rhodes dude from the 1800s,” one student confessed to the other. “Wasn’t he, like, racist?”Indeed.
1 Billion TikTok Users Understand What Congress Doesn’t
Many people think of TikTok as a dance app. And although it is an app full of dancing, it’s also a juggernaut experiencing astronomical growth. In July, TikTok—a short-form video-sharing app powered by an uncannily good recommendation algorithm and owned by the Chinese company ByteDance—became the only social-media mobile app other than those from Facebook to ever pass 3 billion downloads. At the end of last month, TikTok announced it had more than 1 billion monthly users.
Biden’s biomedical research agency dropped from social spending bill
Some research advocates fear the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health could be left behind in a crush of end-of-session business and lose momentum.
POLITICO-Harvard poll: Most Americans support vaccine mandates for schoolkids
Support for vaccine mandates was divided along partisan, racial and ethnic lines.
Where Biden’s vaccine mandate will hit and miss
The large-business mandate has the potential to dramatically boost the number of vaccinated Americans in counties where adult vaccination rates are lagging.
Pfizer, BioNTech ask FDA to authorize Covid-19 vaccine for kids 5-11
The filing could clear the way for roughly 28 million children in the United States to be vaccinated against the virus, beginning in a matter of weeks.
Wall Street’s wild party in jeopardy as Fed threatens aid cutoff
The central bank plans to begin yanking back assistance to the economy as early as next month, and many Fed officials are open to increasing interest rates next year.
Americans’ fortunes soared during the pandemic. Some lawmakers see lasting lessons.
Key aspects of the economy are doing better than before the pandemic, which supporters say shows how government spending can help.
Why Biden isn’t hitting the panic button on the debt ceiling — yet
With the deadline looming, the White House is starting to ramp up pressure on Republicans.