Today's Liberal News
Dear Care and Feeding: My Son Won’t Forgive Me for My Misguided Advice
Parenting advice on career choice, college, and homeschooling.
Powell walks high wire as Fed plans to ease support for Biden’s economy
Central bank chief seeks to avoid market turmoil as president weighs tapping him for a second term.
U.S. jobless claims near pandemic low as economy strengthens
Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that jobless claims fell to 375,000 from 387,000 the previous week.
House Dem campaign chief warns the majority at risk without message reboot
“We’re not trying to hide this,” the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s executive director said.
Biden’s economic gains come with newer worries about the future
Some economists have already begun to ease back on forecasts for the rest of this year.
U.S. economy surpasses prepandemic size with 6.5% Q2 growth
The growth is another sign that the nation has achieved a sustained recovery from the pandemic recession.
News Roundup: U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan; Ida damage widespread; DeSantis still a failure
In the news today: It’s August 31st in Afghanistan, and the United States military has officially “withdrawn” from the country, ending two decades of war. Mainstream political reports simply refuse to stop fluffing Florida’s pandemic-spreading Ron DeSantis even after the state becomes the epicenter of an outbreak now spreading throughout the South. Hurricane Ida slammed into Louisiana and Mississippi yesterday, causing widespread damage.
In Afghanistan, more violence and uncertainty as U.S. withdraws from a failed war
On Sunday, President Joe Biden traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to witness the return ceremony for the bodies of 13 U.S. service members killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, last week. It may not be the last such memorial; there is no good way for the United States to extricate itself from a war it has lost. Each remaining ceremony will be given the sort of attention the last decade’s worth of U.S.
The (tragic) timeline of an anti-vaxxer’s COVID death
This tweet is spot on:
The 4 stages of COVID denial: 1. It’s a hoax. 2. Don’t be a sheep. 3. Prayers needed. 4. Visit our GoFundMe.— SP384 (@SpacePirates384) August 29, 2021
And what’s amazing is just how spot-on it is. Several subreddits over at Reddit, like the Herman Cain Award, have sprung forth to document these stories, repeated time and time again, every single day.
The New York Times wants you to know Ron DeSantis is a victim of his own success
“What went wrong with the Pandemic in Florida?” queried a New York Times headline over the weekend.
Hmm. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis may have come to mind for any reader who has even remotely paid attention to the recent delta surge plaguing the state. But not according to the Times’ triple-bylined piece.
Maybe Republican threats to put the nation in default will break Manchin and Sinema on filibuster
House committees are presumably hard at work now, trying to meet a Sept. 15 deadline for completing their parts of the budget reconciliation bill that will fund President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan, the $3.5 trillion companion bill to the $550 billion hard infrastructure deal agreed to in the Senate. The reconciliation bill will originate in the House, but passage in the Senate requires that they work closely with committees there to avoid pitfalls.
Trump Rants About Media Spending ‘All Night’ On Ida Instead Of His ‘Great’ Taliban Deal
“The level of stupidity — and we had a great deal,” Trump boasted in his usual mangled syntax.
God May Forgive Kanye West, but You Don’t Have To
To overcome what ails you, you must surrender. That is the third directive on the famous 12-step road map to sobriety and stability. Recovering from an internal battle that has had external repercussions means deciding “to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God,” according to the Alcoholics Anonymous guidebook, from which multitudes of 12-step programs—treating multitudes of psychological conditions—are modeled.
CDC vaccine panel: Let regulators lead on Covid-19 booster shots
Regulators are now left to chart a path forward despite limited, and sometimes confusing, data on vaccines’ effectiveness over time.
Republicans Pledge To Oppose Paying Debts They Voted For
Annual budget deficits reflect years of policy decisions, not just the most recent spending bills.
GOP Candidate Suggests Forcibly Removing School Board Members Over Mask Mandates
Pennsylvania’s Steve Lynch told a crowd this weekend, “I’m going in with 20 strong men and I’m gonna give them an option — they can leave or they can be removed.
Help! My Husband Does Ketamine in Front of Our Young Children.
Even my therapist thinks I need to loosen up about this.
A Generational-Divide Comedy That’s Also a Crime Story
Steve Martin and Martin Short’s rapport isn’t that of a comedic partnership so much as that of a musical duo. Since their first collaboration more than 30 years ago in Three Amigos, they have developed a natural rhythm: Martin is the straight man with a wise-ass streak; Short produces over-the-top characters with wild facial contortions. Martin gets the audience to laugh with him; Short, to laugh at him. Theirs is a harmony that comedians often dream of developing but rarely achieve.
HHS unveils office to treat climate change as a health issue
“The climate crisis is here, and the Department of Health and Human Services is rising to meet the challenge,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said.
College Senior Who Bragged About Capitol Riot ‘Infamy’ Takes Plea Deal
Gracyn Courtright, a college senior, bragged about her actions on Jan. 6 on social media.
How Shrek Is Connecting People During the Pandemic
Shrek may seem like an unlikely pandemic hero, but in one South Philadelphia neighborhood, the ogre holds special meaning. To understand why, you have to go to Bella Vista and look for a chartreuse newspaper box that says From Our Swamp to Yours.
Rand Paul Claims ‘Hatred For Trump’ Hinders Ivermectin Research
After people began purchasing doses meant for horses in order to self-medicate for the coronavirus, the FDA warned against using the drug.
The Wrong Way to Test Yourself for the Coronavirus
In mid-June, Joanna Dreifus hit a pandemic milestone. The final member of her household—her teenage son—reached the point of full vaccination. “We had about two weeks where I thought, Phew, we’re okay,” Dreifus, a special-needs-education consultant in New York City, told me. Then the Delta variant took over. By July Fourth weekend, murmurs of post-vaccination infections, though uncommon, were starting to trickle into her social-media feeds.
States press forward on vax passports without Biden’s guidance
Experts fear the market for fake cards will grow as more workplaces and public venues require proof of vaccination.
U.S. Winds Down Afghanistan Occupation Like It Began, with Drone Strikes & Civilian Casualties
U.S. troops in Afghanistan are racing to evacuate people from the country ahead of Tuesday’s withdrawal deadline as the Kabul airport is targeted by rocket fire from militant groups. The rocket attacks come just days after over 175 people, including 13 U.S. troops, died after a suicide bomb outside the airport, with the group ISIS-K claiming responsibility for the attack.
Exxon’s Oil Drilling Gamble Off Guyana Coast Could Turn Country from a Carbon Sink to a “Carbon Bomb”
Despite desperate climate warnings against new fossil fuel development, ExxonMobil is pursuing a massive new oil project in Guyana that is projected to be the corporation’s largest oil production in the world.
Hurricane Ida Hits Oil Industry in Black & Native Communities on Louisiana Coast Amid Climate Crisis
Two-thirds of Louisiana’s industrial sites lie in the path of Hurricane Ida, including oil refineries, storage tanks and other infrastructure like oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana’s Gulf Coast is a major oil and gas hub, with 17 oil refineries, two liquefied natural gas export terminals, as well as a nuclear power plant and many Superfund sites.
Hurricane Ida Slams Native Communities in Louisiana as New Orleans Loses Electricity & COVID Rages
Hurricane Ida has completely knocked out power to the city of New Orleans and reversed the flow of the Mississippi River after it hit southern Louisiana and Mississippi, flooding the area with storm surges. The Category 4 storm hit on the same date Hurricane Katrina devastated the area 16 years earlier. “This is a storm like no other,” says Monique Verdin, a citizen of the United Houma Nation and part of the grassroots collaborative Another Gulf Is Possible.
Oversharing, Radical Honesty, and Unfortunate Typos: Inside the Weird World of Out-of-Office Messages
“Someone I barely knew once let me know that he was away in Vegas with his ‘boyz’ to celebrate his divorce.