Biden’s economic point man draws praise — and pushback
Allies laud Brian Deese’s leadership on the stimulus negotiations, but he’s rubbed some the wrong way.
Today's Liberal News
Biden aims to isolate China on coal — but it could blow back on the U.S.
The U.S. wants to stop new coal projects, but risks losing poor countries to Beijing’s “Belt and Road” agenda.
‘Clearly not healthy’: Markets are giddy about reopening — and that’s the problem
Investors are pumping up bubbles across markets, with excitement growing about more stimulus and widespread vaccinations.
‘The Democratic version of John McCain’
As the critical swing vote in a 50-50 Senate, Joe Manchin has emerged as the most powerful man in Washington.
U.S. backs Okonjo-Iweala, first woman and African, to head WTO
The decision breaks with the Trump administration’s opposition to Okonjo-Iweala and brings the U.S. in line with much of the rest of the world.
Democracy Now! Turns 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.
“No Hate! No Fear!” Democracy Now! Co-Host Nermeen Shaikh Celebrates 10 Years Covering War & Peace
As Democracy Now! prepares to mark 25 years on air, we celebrate Nermeen Shaikh’s 10th anniversary as a Democracy Now! co-host and feature a report she filed from protests at New York’s JFK Airport against the Trump administration’s Muslim ban, one of the many highlights from her time on the program.
“Not Doing This Is a Choice”: Biden Drags His Feet on Canceling Student Debt Despite Campaign Pledge
Students, campaigners and top Democrats have been pushing President Joe Biden to use executive authority to cancel at least $50,000 in student loan debt per person. Student loan debt in the U.S. stands at $1.7 trillion, with some 45 million people owing money. Filmmaker and organizer Astra Taylor, an author, documentary director and organizer with the Debt Collective, says Biden has clear legal authority to cancel student debt. “Not doing this is a choice,” she says.
How to Wear a Mask & When to Wear Two to Reduce COVID Transmission & Increase Vaccine Effectiveness
While COVID-19 infection rates and hospitalizations appear to be waning, the United States has a long way to go before people can safely return to everyday life without masks. Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease physician and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, says it’s vital to stay vigilant even as vaccinations ramp up. “If we can get our transmission down as low as possible, that is actually going to make the vaccines more effective.
Sunday Night Owls. Naomi Klein: Why Texas Republicans fear the Green New Deal
Night Owls is a themed open thread appearing at Daily Kos seven days a week.
Naomi Klein at The New York Times writes—Why Texas Republicans Fear the Green New Deal.
Donald Trump Jr. Rips Teachers Unions In Front Of A Gun Wall; Critics Go Ballistic
In the era of school shootings, “posting a video attack of teacher unions with wall of guns backdrop — deplorable,” a Twitter user snapped.
The GOP just saw its life flashing before its eyes, so Fox News leaped into action
If the total breakdown of a state’s electrical power grid, plummeting millions of people without warning into subzero temperatures for several days, had occurred anywhere else but Texas, most media outlets, including Fox News, would have dutifully covered the story in accordance with their usual practice.
Lauren Boebert, Second Amendment warrior, really hates constitutional ‘rewrites’
Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert needs more attention.
First, Marjorie Taylor Greene stole her thunder by trotting out the Jewish space lasers while Boebert was still plunging her hands into the soft, wet clay of garden-variety QAnon conspiracies.
Then Ted Cruz decided to overshadow them both with the single worst travel decision since the Donner Party turned down their complimentary peanuts and Biscoff cookies to save room for the hot meal that was coming later.
Kenyan woman invents method to turn plastic into construction cubes that are ‘stronger than bricks’
Nzambi Matee of Kenya is one of the 2020 “Young Champions of the Earth” winners selected by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Matee’s young company, Gjenge Makers, takes plastic waste and turns it into building materials. According to Matee, using sand and a mixture of plastic waste can produce bricks, manholes, and tiles that are stronger than traditional concrete materials used for construction.
Biden Aiming For Bigger Vaccine Numbers Beyond 100 Million In 100 Day Goal
The president has expressed confidence the U.S. is on course to reach and surpass that target for COVID-19 vaccinations.
FBI and NYPD conspired to assassinate Malcolm X, late cop alleges in shocking letter
Civil rights activist Malcolm X died on Feb. 21, 1965, 56 years ago, and decades after his death an undercover cop still didn’t feel safe to reveal details of the assassination plot that left the late spokesman for the Nation of Islam shot to death at 39-years-old inside Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom.
The Last City of the 20th Century
The rebuild from a devastating earthquake was Christchurch, New Zealand’s chance to reimagine what a city could be.
If Only My Wife Understood Science, She’d Want to Try What I Do in Bed
I don’t want to pressure her, but she is wrong.
Biden Has Inherited Trump’s Catastrophic Border Wall. What Happens Next?
The new president said he won’t build “another foot of wall” — but border communities fear he may already be breaking his promise.
Steve Scalise, No. 2 House Republican, Still Won’t Say Election Wasn’t Stolen
It’s a dangerous lie that the election was stolen from Trump, but the House minority whip refuses to acknowledge that.
Texas Failed Because It Did Not Plan
How could this have happened? For four days, millions of people in Texas—the so-called energy capital of the world—shivered in the dark, unable to turn the lights on or run their heaters during some of the coldest days in decades. At least 30 Texans have died so far, including a 75-year-old man whose oxygen machine lost power and an 11-year-old boy who may have perished of hypothermia.
Fauci calls 500,000 coronavirus deaths ‘terrible’
“People decades from now are going to be talking about this as a terribly historic milestone in the history of this country.
Michael Flynn’s Wild Ride Into The Heart Of QAnon
In the weeks before the Capitol siege, Trump’s former national security adviser went on a far-right media blitz to promote wild conspiracy theories.
Help! I Tricked My Boyfriend Into Getting Me Pregnant.
Advice from Dear Prudence to a woman who deceived her partner into pregnancy.
Dear Care and Feeding: My 16-Year-Old Wants to Drop Out of School and Move to New York
Parenting advice on high school diplomas, family rifts, and Southern drawl.
Facebook political ad ban blocks pro-vaccine messages
That’s led some public health experts to question if Facebook can be a viable forum for information on the pandemic.
A Sign of Just How Terrible the Winter’s Surge Was
Editor’s Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here. Yesterday, hospitalizations in the United States fell below 60,000 for the first time since November 9, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic. This milestone is not just another round number. In the spring and summer waves, hospitalizations peaked at just fewer than 60,000 both times.
A Catholic Sinner Seeks Communion—And Happens to Be President
Father Kevin Gillespie and the staff at Holy Trinity Catholic Church find out that President Joe Biden is coming to Mass an hour and a half ahead of time. For security reasons, only a few people can know, including the music director, who might otherwise get suspicious when Secret Service agents start poking around in her piano. The parish limits its services to 50 people to minimize the spread of COVID-19, but it makes an exception when the president and his detail attend.
How to Launch the Next Great Era of Black Prosperity
Even today, in this time of racial awakening, many white Americans continue to ask the same demeaning question about historically Black colleges and universities that they did a decade ago and in the decade before that: With the end of Jim Crow and the integration of college campuses, does the country still really need HBCUs?What a loaded question.
The Prices on Your Monopoly Board Hold a Dark Secret
Take a good look at a Monopoly board. The most expensive properties, Park Place and Boardwalk, are marked in dark blue. Maybe you’ve drawn a card inviting you to “take a walk on the Boardwalk.” But that invitation wasn’t open to everyone when the game first took on its current form. Even though Black citizens comprised roughly a quarter of Atlantic City’s overall population at the time, the famed Boardwalk and its adjacent beaches were segregated.