Sen. Ron Johnson Draws Ridicule After Mind-Numbing Take On God And Vaccines
“So much for God creating us with brains,” a Jesuit priest wrote in response.
Today's Liberal News
News Roundup: Omicron closing schools despite political vows; Republican support for violence rises
In the news today: Omicron. Omicron, omicron, omicron. While politicians posture and bicker over who can keep schools open longest or manage this new mega-surge with the least “disruption,” the virus at the center of the surge isn’t listening—and that means schools and other services are being shuttered not because any politician ordered it to happen or not happen, but there are simply too many people out sick to make things function.
The last bridge is burning: Emergency services and the omicron surge
It’s like clockwork—almost rote at this point. A patient comes into the ER. There are months of notes from their primary physician that they tried to get them vaccinated. The patient steadfastly refuses. The patient gets COVID. They try every home “treatment” available. Finally, the patients shows up in the ER, panicked. We stabilize them. But it’s too late.
Latest anti-vaxxer nonsense blames Betty White’s death and NFL player’s injury on COVID-19 booster
Ever since the COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out, disingenuous pundits have been using the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which is hosted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to “prove” that the vaccines are deadly. But in reality, VAERS is just a collection of raw reports from people who’ve been vaccinated.
A death reported on VAERS could be caused by just about anything, and is proof of exactly nothing.
Lowell Mayor Sokhary Chau makes history as first Cambodian American mayor in the nation
Going into the new year the trend of people of color making historic wins nationwide continues. Just two months ago, Aftab Pureval was elected as Cincinnati’s first Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) mayor, his win was followed a month later by the election of Maine’s first Somali American mayor, Deqa Dhalac. Now, a new month brings us another first, Sokhary Chau as the first Cambodian American mayor in the United States.
Cops sic police dog on Egyptian immigrant within seconds of seeing him out of car
Ali Badr, an Uber driver and Egyptian immigrant, launched a federal lawsuit last month against a California police department, a police dog handler, and six other individual police officers after video showed a police dog being sent to bite into the driver’s arm as he asked repeatedly what he did. The answer to that question is more of a technicality—a late rental payment—than a crime, according to a lawsuit obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Mary Trump Guesses Why Donald Trump Ignored Ivanka’s Pleas To Stop Capitol Riot
The former president probably thought watching the destruction was “fun,” his niece said.
Trump Cancels Jan. 6 Press Conference
The former president said he’ll save his remarks on the anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol for a Jan. 15 rally in Arizona.
House Committee Requests Cooperation From Sean Hannity In Inquiry On Capitol Riot
The select committee is asking for information from the Fox News host who sent texts to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and others on Jan. 6.
CDC recommits to isolation and quarantine guidelines without tests
The recent guidance, updated Dec. 29, said individuals who test positive for Covid-19 and whose symptoms are resolving need only isolate for five days as long as they continue to wear masks for an additional five days.
Mitch McConnell Dismisses Notion That ‘Idiots’ Would Try To Overturn Election Results
Many GOP lawmakers did in fact seek to throw out their state’s electoral votes during the 2020 election — and are laying the groundwork for 2024.
What the Success of Spider-Man Means for Hollywood in 2022
Until the return of Spider-Man, every film’s box-office performance during the pandemic had come with an asterisk. Some movies, such as Black Widow and The Suicide Squad, were available to stream the day they opened in cinemas, helping explain somewhat depressed ticket sales. Others, such as No Time to Die and F9, relied on international revenue to boost domestic takes that were middling by pre-coronavirus standards.
How Hobbies Infiltrated American Life
Grocery-store scallions repotted on windowsills. Sourdough starters in the fridge. Cooking, knitting, jigsaw puzzles. Hobbies could not cure the coronavirus, but for a moment it seemed like they could cure the anxious stagnation of pandemic life. Time had become unsettlingly abundant, but we tried our best to avoid falling into idleness and despair.
France and U.K. Sued for Manslaughter After 27 Migrants Seeking Help Drowned in English Channel
The French humanitarian group Utopia 56 has filed a manslaughter lawsuit against British and French officials for failing to help 27 migrants who drowned to death in the English Channel in November. The only two survivors say they were ignored when they made distress calls and told their location to French and English rescue services after their boat capsized and started sinking in the freezing waters off the French port city of Calais.
“There’s No Social Distancing”: Immigrants Held in ICE Jails at Risk Amid New Omicron Surge
As the Omicron variant sets record-high COVID-19 infection rates across the United States, we look at the conditions in the sprawling network of jails run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement where the Biden administration is holding more than 22,000 people. “There’s still a lot of people detained. There’s no social distancing.
“Essential But Excluded”: Pandemic Aid Left Out Undocumented Immigrants & Their U.S. Citizen Kids
Pandemic relief programs have helped millions of families get through the economic shocks of COVID-19, but undocumented immigrants — many of whom are essential workers — have been largely shut out of such federal aid.
What We Get Wrong About Emotions
Paul Dirac was one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century. A pioneer in quantum theory, which shaped our modern world, Dirac was a genius when it came to analytical thinking. But when his colleagues asked him for advice, his secret to success had nothing to do with the traditional scientific method: Be guided, Dirac told them, “by your emotions.”
This article was adapted from Mlodinow’s forthcoming book, Emotional: How Feelings Shape Our Thinking.
America’s Favorite Flimsy Pretext for Limiting Free Speech
Even people who know about the First Amendment still have trouble believing that someone can make false, irresponsible, even dangerous statements without paying any penalty. For instance, when Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, spoke with National Public Radio to promote COVID vaccinations and boosters just before Thanksgiving, he sharply criticized people who intentionally spread misinformation about the vaccine’s safety.
‘You can’t really manufacture doctors and nurses that don’t exist’
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said his state is trying everything it can to ensure it has enough health care workers.
Biden officials now fear booster programs will limit global vaccine supply
A looming shortage of doses for low- and moderate-income countries puts increased pressure on Novavax to obtain regulatory approvals for global manufacturing.
J&J’s booster shown effective against Covid hospitalization
The results mark the first evidence of the effectiveness of such a vaccine boost while Omicron is circulating.
‘This was the moment’: CDC defends altered guidance amid Omicron surge
Director Rochelle Walensky acknowledged that the decision to shorten the recommended isolation period “really had a lot to do with what we thought people would be able to tolerate.
U.S. unemployment claims drop to 198,000
The four-week average, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, fell to just above 199,000, the lowest level since October 1969.
Despite supply issues and Omicron, holiday sales rise 8.5%
The results, which covered Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, were fueled by purchases of clothing and jewelry.
Health spending growth more than doubled in first year of pandemic
Nearly the entire increase came from the burst of federal spending as the government mobilized to contain the spread of the virus.
Fed clears path for multiple rate hikes during election year as prices surge
The Fed plans to cease its bond buys entirely by March, rather than its earlier target of June to give itself room to begin raising interest rates as early as the second quarter of next year.
Inflation accelerates at lightning pace in new setback for Biden
Costs for key goods and services soared 0.8 percent for the month and 6.8 percent for the year, the highest since 1982, the Labor Department reported Friday.
Democracy Now! at 25: Celebrating a Quarter-Century of Independent News on the Frontlines
Democracy Now! first aired on nine community radio stations on February 19, 1996, on the eve of the New Hampshire presidential primary. In the 25 years since that initial broadcast, the program has greatly expanded, airing today on more than 1,500 television and radio stations around the globe and reaching millions of people online.
News Roundup: Ron DeSantis should’ve stayed missing; Ivanka thinks she can defy subpoenas too
In the news today: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finally made an appearance after two weeks of silence as his state yet again descended into pandemic crisis.
NBC and ABC both tackled the Trump threat in their Sunday morning shows. They need to keep it up
With the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s attempted coup fast approaching, NBC’s and ABC’s Sunday morning news shows both devoted significant time to the Big Lie, Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to subvert Western democracy, and the Republican Party’s shameful support of his dangerous, anti-democratic delusions.
In fact, NBC’s Meet the Press devoted its entire broadcast to Trump’s continuing threat to our republic.