Pete Davidson bid an emotional farewell to Saturday Night Live this past weekend. He was the youngest cast member ever hired, arriving in 2014 at age 20. He joked, “Back then, I was just, like, a skinny kid and no one knew what race I was. And now everyone knows I’m white because I became hugely successful while barely showing up to work.
So we’re knee deep in potential recount territory in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. On one side we have a TV huckster named Mehmet Oz; on the other, a former hedge fund CEO named Dave McCormick. It seems that Republican voters despised both of these clowns about equally (even in spite of Trump’s endorsement of Oz, a fellow erstwhile Hollywood It-Boy) so much that both of them bled support to a right-wing, apparent bigot named Kathy Barnette.
Far-right conspiracy crank Dinesh D’Souza is back with yet another conspiracy theory to promote, and if you haven’t heard much about the Republican propagandist’s newest film, it’s because it is extremely, unfathomably stupid. 2000 Mules achieved a level of stupidity so stupid that D’Souza can’t even get Fox News to jump in with the usual publicity boost. It’s a train wreck.
The ACLU Has Lost Its Way“The ACLU now seems largely unable or unwilling to uphold its core values,” wrote Lara Bazelon earlier this month, arguing that the civil-liberties organization has neglected its central purpose of defending freedom of speech without partisanship in favor of a broad embrace of progressive causes.Lara Bazelon accuses the American Civil Liberties Union of having lost its way. We have not.
Kaitlyn: I need to be careful so you don’t think I’m speaking hyperbolically. These are my real feelings: Coney Island is heaven on earth. I think if “they” ever touched it—if they ever tore things down and put boring things in their place—that would be it for me. My heart would be broken.
This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Every Monday, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.Last week, I asked readers what they’ve learned while traveling away from home. I was surprised so few of you responded, because there’s such a rich history of answers to this question.
If you’ve ever wondered whether a life without work would be blissful, well, Lorie Kloda can confirm that it pretty much is.Kloda really likes her job as a university librarian in Montreal, but she still really liked not doing it for a year. During a paid sabbatical that ended this spring, she deleted the work-communication apps from her phone and regularly forgot what day of the week it was; she read, went to museums, picked up tennis. She stopped getting the Sunday scaries.
This week marks the second anniversary of the police murder of George Floyd. We speak with Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, who have just published an in-depth new book, “His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice,” that tells the story of structural racism in the U.S. through Floyd’s own story. “This is an American story.
In what is being described as a “greenslide,” voters in Australia topple the prime minister, ending nearly a decade of conservative rule. The main issue? Climate change. Voters elected Anthony Albanese of the center-left Labor Party as their new prime minister on Saturday, ousting the right-wing, pro-coal Scott Morrison, who had served as Australia’s prime minister since 2018.
The companies plan to finish submitting data to the Food and Drug Administration this week.
Democratic inaction at the federal level could complicate the party’s efforts to run this fall as champions of reproductive rights.
Telemedicine groups are looking to bolster privacy protections ahead of Roe decision.
It could all come down to … Joe Manchin.
The committee found that the vaccine has largely been safe for that population of children, with incidents of myocarditis and other rare adverse events lower compared to older kids.
On a month-to-month basis, prices rose 0.3% from March to April, a still-elevated rate but the smallest increase in eight months.
Rates this year could reach their highest levels since before the 2008 Wall Street crash if surging prices continue.
The government said gross domestic product shrank at a 1.4 percent annualized rate in the first quarter.
The steady spending suggested the economy could keep expanding this year even though the Federal Reserve plans to raise rates aggressively to fight the inflation surge.
During a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Democratic Congressmember Lucy McBath of Georgia shared her personal story about accessing reproductive care after experiencing a stillbirth. In doing so, she pointed out how anti-abortion politicians and legislators fail to see the medical necessity of abortion in instances such as hers. “We can be the nation that rolls back the clock, that rolls back the rights of women, and that strips them of their very liberty.
After a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion revealed the intention to overturn Roe v. Wade, abortion has increasingly become a state issue, with conservative states criminalizing the procedure. Oklahoma approved a bill on Thursday that outlaws almost all abortions beginning at fertilization. The measure is modeled after a Texas ban that encourages private citizens to sue abortion providers and people who assist in abortions.
As Buffalo, New York, mourns the loss of the 10 people killed Saturday in a racist rampage at a local grocery store in the heart of the city’s African American community, we get an update from longtime community activist and former mayoral candidate India Walton about the lack of attention to the structural issues that made the Black community vulnerable and the ineffectiveness of police.
The Buffalo shooter wrote racist screeds online before targeting and killing people in a majority-Black neighborhood. We look at the incident’s similarities to other white supremacist killings, particularly the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Amy Spitalnick is the executive director of Integrity First for America, a nonprofit organization that successfully sued the white supremacist organizers of Unite the Right.
“It seems odd, doesn’t it?” Martha MacCallum asked Ronna McDaniel.
The former New York mayor lost it during the Celebrate Israel Parade in New York on Sunday.
Republicanism is rapidly merging with all manner of domestic extremism, and a new study paints a grim picture of just where things stand. As the Supreme Court’s new conservative wing sets its sights on unraveling federal abortion protections, support for abortion rights remains steadfast among Americans not pushed into lifetime judicial positions by Republican nihilists. Republicans continue to support lowering taxes on the wealthy while ratcheting taxes up for the non-wealthy, but Sen.
Yesterday, we discussed the hyperventilation over Russia’s Popasna advance, the one place on the entire Texas-sized country of Ukraine in which they’ve had some recent success. Today? “There have been no notable changes to control since the last update.
“White supremacy shouldn’t be the main target,” said Greene, instead urging panic over the “invasion” at the border.
“There was no subject he considered beyond his expertise,” she said of her former White House colleague.
Oh, no, not another “Democrats are doomed” post! We are all sick of seeing predictions of disaster looming this fall for Team Blue. I don’t believe in scaring people into getting involved, or always pretending we’re 10 points down, but when data points out areas of weakness, campaigns must act on them.
“Any of my fellow Republicans wanna speak out now?” GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger said of the incendiary post.