Growing Number Of House Democrats Announce Retirement From Congress
Various veteran lawmakers deciding to call it quits may not bode well for Democrats as they seek to retain control of the House in 2022.
Today's Liberal News
The Volcanologist’s Paradox
On March 16, 2017, Mount Etna almost killed Boris Behncke. He was on the volcano’s snow-covered flanks, accompanying a film crew from the BBC. Serpents of lava were slithering out of a southeastern crater, but Behncke, a volcanologist at Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, felt no need to take his hard hat out of his bag. They were more than a mile away from the crater, seemingly far from harm’s reach.
As CIA Ramps Up Anti-China Actions, Why Doesn’t Congress Oppose Biden’s “New Cold War”?
We speak with Ethan Paul, a former reporter with the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong who is now with the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. China’s military revealed last week that it had conducted beach landing and assault drills in the province across from Taiwan. This comes as the CIA has set up a new mission center focused solely on China. CIA Director William Burns has described China as “the most important geopolitical threat facing the United States.
Pediatrician Welcomes Imminent Approval of COVID Vaccine for Kids 5-11 Amid Opposition to Mask Mandates
The Biden administration is launching a national vaccination campaign for about 28 million children between the ages of 5 and 11. The vaccine will be two doses and one-third as potent as the one being given to people over the age of 12. An independent panel is set to offer a recommendation to the FDA that evaluates the safety and efficacy of the vaccines in late October. We’re joined by Dr.
“Racism Plays a Major Part”: Like in Flint, Lead Pipes Leave Benton Harbor, Michigan, with Toxic Water
Residents of Benton Harbor, Michigan, are calling for immediate action on replacing the city’s lead pipes, which have endangered their drinking water. Since 2018, tap water in the predominantly Black city has contained lead levels up to 60 times the federal limit. Yet government officials have only addressed the toxic contamination as an urgent crisis in recent days. Dr.
Human History Gets a Rewrite
Illustration by Rodrigo Corral. Sources: Hugh Sitton / Getty; Been There YB / Shutterstock
Many years ago, when I was a junior professor at Yale, I cold-called a colleague in the anthropology department for assistance with a project I was working on. I didn’t know anything about the guy; I just selected him because he was young, and therefore, I figured, more likely to agree to talk.Five minutes into our lunch, I realized that I was in the presence of a genius.
‘Maybe the Coronavirus Was Lower-Hanging Fruit’
Two years ago, approximately nobody on Earth had ever heard of mRNA vaccines. This was for the very good reason that no country had ever authorized one. As a scientific experiment, synthetic mRNA was more than 40 years old. As a product, it had yet to be born.Last year, mRNA technology powered the two fastest vaccine developments in history. Moderna famously prepared its COVID-vaccine recipe in about 48 hours.
Covid-stricken states still struggle months after Biden’s surge
The federal officials President Joe Biden promised were slow to arrive in several states experiencing acute upticks in the Midwest and South.
Appeals court keeps Texas abortion law in place
The new decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals extends a previous order that for now keeps in place the Texas law known as Senate Bill 8.
FDA advisers endorse Moderna booster shot: Three takeaways
The panel recommended giving the shots at least six months after initial immunization. Its vote is not binding, but the FDA normally follows the recommendations of its advisory committees.
Confusion clouds FDA’s approach to e-cigarettes
E-cig manufacturers and anti-vaping groups alike are puzzled by the agency’s course so far.
Biden eyeing FDA veteran Robert Califf to lead the agency
If nominated and confirmed, Califf would take over an agency poised to make key decisions on coronavirus vaccines and treatments.
John Dean Says Trump Deeply Linked To Insurrection, And Bannon Can Bare All
“Indications are that Trump is much more involved in this whole thing than we think he was,” said Dean, who knows all about problematic presidents.
The political peril that Biden didn’t see coming
The current inflation spike now appears to be on track to persist deep into 2022.
Opinion | What the Supply Chain Crisis Reveals About American Infrastructure
Politicians like to argue in favor of more infrastructure — and more spending on it. But we can use the capacity we already have in much smarter ways.
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.
News Roundup: Idaho GOP embraces antisemitism; ‘bogus’ academy highlights charter school mess
In the news today: The decay of the Republican Party into an anti-science, pro-hoax, violence-peddling, virus-promoting cult is a national issue, but that still doesn’t explain whatever’s been happening in Idaho. A man placed in solitary confinement for over a year is the first to use new law to sue over his treatment. And if you didn’t know the nation’s charter schools were a mess? The nation’s charter schools are a mess.
Introduction to fact-checking: What do you do when peer pressure challenges the truth?
Which of these lines of asterisks is longest?
Line One: *********************************
Line Two: ***************************************************
Line Three: ******************
.
No one is watching you. No one has any idea which line you pick.
Knowing the answer under these circumstances is one thing.
Standing by your answer regardless of what others say is a completely different thing.
The Comfortable Crises of HBO’s Succession
As Season 3 of Succession begins, the mighty Logan Roy (played by Brian Cox) is in the crosshairs. His son Kendall (Jeremy Strong) has exposed the family patriarch’s involvement in covering up a litany of scandals at their company, Waystar Royco, calling him “a malignant presence, a bully, and a liar.” The impulsive decision could be fatal for the media conglomerate, potentially attracting the attention of the government and affecting every employee.
Revelations about bogus academy prove charter schools need better oversight
A lot of people in the Donald Trump administration had qualifications so questionable that they had us wondering, “What are they doing there?” That question was especially loud when it came to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. In case you don’t recall, DeVos had no background whatsoever in education and no real concept of what her department was supposed to do.
MSNBC Panel Torches Sen. Ron Johnson For Spreading Yet Another Conspiracy Theory
Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin said the GOP senator “never used to be this insane.
GOP congressman seems unaware of how unemployment insurance works, so Ocasio-Cortez helps him out
Tim Burchett is an actual U.S. representative from the state of Tennessee, and he apparently has no idea how unemployment insurance (UI) works. As in, we don’t (very rarely, anyway) pay people who quit their jobs. The people who are quitting are frequently applying early for Social Security and/or living off whatever savings they managed to claw back from the hulking dragon hoard of our oh-so-magnanimous cabal of hardly working plutocrats.
Nuts & Bolts: Apathy is always at risk
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.
Every election cycle we sort through the pressing issues of the day. One issue that never changes is apathy.
Top Democrats Woo Black Voters In Virginia Governor’s Race
Voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams stumped for Democrat Terry McAuliffe at churches in Norfolk.
The Loosest, Funniest SNL of the Season So Far
When a Saturday Night Live host really commits to the job, even a sketch with a simple premise can feel surprising. Consider last night’s “Mattress Store,” in which Rami Malek, the show’s latest celebrity guest, and cast member Aidy Bryant play a couple searching for the right mattress by enacting every over-the-top scenario they might encounter in bed.
Fauci tamps down concern about Covid-19 booster review process
The top infectious disease doctor said data gathered in the United States and elsewhere points toward the need for the booster shots.
‘I’m So Stupid’: MAGA Fan Who Attacked Officer Mike Fanone Called Himself A ‘Piece Of S**t’
Danny “D.J.” Rodriguez, who was arrested after he was identified in a HuffPost story, called himself a “f**king piece of s**t” during his interview with the FBI.
I Learn to Shoot a Bow
Lisa Edi / Connected Archives
It is no River Jordan that flows here
between the railroad tracks and the back porch.
It’s a canal. Not unlike my mother:
low as it want to be and fullest when
it rains. Existing for however long
without a name, and flowing
under a timber bridge that we built. We built that.
Isn’t that our story? To be denied
the beginning. I cross the bridge to shoot
a sapling bow my grandfather has carved.
Is Biden Doing Enough to Protect Democracy?
As a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer in the early 2000s, I once received a call from a couple of Republican campaign operatives who said they had something to show me. We met at their office in Washington, D.C., a few days later. They presented printouts of recent election records and pointed to a few cases of what they suspected were people voting illegally. One after another, their examples of voter fraud turned out to be nothing.