Today's Liberal News
‘Crazy things happen’: Biden’s next spending spree fuels a fight over risks
The president’s team is preparing a $3 trillion spending proposal to power through Congress. They’re betting markets and the economy will cooperate long enough to pass it.
Black workers, hammered by pandemic, now being left behind in recovery
Structural inequities in the U.S. labor market that have affected Black and Hispanic workers’ ability to advance out of low-paying jobs, as well as discrimination in hiring practices, are also likely having an effect.
Fed sees U.S. economic growth surging to 6.5 percent this year
Central bank officials now expect the unemployment rate to drop to 4.5 percent by the end of 2021.
Treasury secretary minimizes risk of inflation caused by Covid relief package
Janet Yellen said the greater risk was not strengthening the economy as it recovers from the impact of the pandemic.
News Roundup: Florida floodgaetz open; GOP war on LGBTQ kids, immigrant kids, yoga kids?
A lot of news comes down the pipe during a Friday, even in a post-incompetent administration. Much of this news is positive as our competent administration works to help hundreds of millions of Americans adversely affected by the previous administration. Some of this news is negative as the Republican Party’s lack of popular policy ideas means their entire identity is based on the belief that we should not be a democracy.
The floodgaetz are open: Matt Gaetz growing scandal is a threat to the whole GOP
The prospect of Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz being hoisted by his own “family values” petard is certainly enticing.
Citing fear of Hindu indoctrination, Alabama GOP block efforts to lift 28-year-old yoga ban
Did you know that for 28 years, Alabama has had a ban on teaching yoga in the Yellowhammer State? Well, it’s true. Since 1993, the Alabama board of education has blocked yoga, hypnosis, and meditation from public schools. According to Newsweek, the state’s guidelines explain it this way: “The State Board of Education specifically prohibits the use of hypnosis and dissociative mental states.
Officers pepper-sprayed ICE detainees who peacefully protested lack of PPE, DHS watchdog says
In the earliest weeks of the novel coronavirus pandemic last year, people jailed at a private immigration prison in Arizona held a peaceful protest over the lack of sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) provided to detainees. The facility responded to their pleas by violently deploying chemical agents at them, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General said in a new report released Thursday.
Seven Texas officers fired (and 1 resigns) after 26-year-old dies in jail cell
On March 14, Marvin D. Scott III, a 26-year-old Black man, was arrested at a Texas mall for misdemeanor possession of marijuana—less than two ounces. A few hours later, Scott was dead inside of a Collins County, Texas, jail cell—restrained in a bed, with a spit hood over his face.
Joe Biden Picked a Good Time to Become President
The opportunity for a competent administration to do something historic was helped by timing, weather, and, yes, Trump.
Republican Lawmakers Introduce Hundreds Of Bills To Restrict Voting Rights Nationwide
In several states, including Georgia, attempts to suppress the vote have already become law.
Ted Cruz Responds to John Boehner’s ‘Go F**k Yourself’ With A ‘Mean Girls’ GIF
The Texas Republican had a very high school reaction to a rogue moment in the former House speaker’s audiobook.
The Threat That COVID-19 Poses Now
After more than a year of pandemic, after months of an aggressive vaccination campaign, the United States should finally be better positioned to protect itself against the coronavirus. Nearly all of our long-term-care residents are vaccinated. Tens of millions of other people have been vaccinated, and tens of millions more have some level of immunity from previous infection.
Florida Man
Florida man, Florida man,
great head of hair, studio tan,
if I were hitching in the Everglades
and you pulled up, I’d be afraid.I wouldn’t climb into your minivan,
your swampmobile, O Florida man.
I’d wait for a ride with an honest trucker.
Anyone but you, you sleazy fucker.
MLB To Move All-Star Game Out Of Atlanta In Response To Georgia Voting Laws
The city was also set to host the league’s 2021 draft.
Only Congress Could Give Us a Matt Gaetz
Last week, Representative Matt Gaetz tweeted that if he were ever engulfed in scandal, he wanted it to be called “Gaetzgate.” (The Floridian was replying to a groaner of an Elon Musk pun that he seemed to have missed; that lack of perceptiveness was an omen.)Gaetz got his wish quickly, and then some. First, there’s reportedly a federal criminal investigation into whether the 38-year-old Gaetz paid women for sex and whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl.
This Multipurpose Japanese Knife Will Become the Hero of Your Garden
The Nisaku Hori Hori is now $20, or 23 percent off.
The Atlantic releases two NFTs for auction
The Atlantic today is auctioning its first-ever NFTs (non-fungible tokens), two original pieces of artwork commemorating The Atlantic’s illustrations from a year of crisis. The two NFTs, “Illustrations From a Pandemic Year (#1)” and “Illustrations From a Pandemic Year (#2),” offer snapshots of how The Atlantic’s art and design team used illustration across the past year to help visualize the newsroom’s essential pandemic journalism.
The Interior Department Is Finally Getting Serious About Missing, Murdered Native Americans
A new Missing and Murdered Unit within the Bureau of Indian Affairs aims to address a silent epidemic.
At Least 1 Officer Killed In Vehicle Attack Outside U.S. Capitol
The car’s driver is also dead after being shot by officers.
What Two Dealers and One Smoker Think of New York’s New Weed Laws
“We’ve already been f—ing smoking weed the whole time.
Scale Was the God That Failed
On March 9, management at HuffPost notified 47 employees that they were being laid off as part of a cost-cutting effort following the digital journalism pioneer’s acquisition by BuzzFeed. The brass handled the layoffs in a particularly ham-fisted way, but no amount of finesse would have made so many pink slips any less brutal to the staffers.For years now, journalists have watched their industry produce a steady stream of mass layoffs and closing publications.
Dear Care and Feeding: Can I “Swap” My Twins to Get at Least One of Them Vaccinated?
Parenting advice on vaccine ethics, underage drinking, and religion in schools.
Biden’s spending plans collide with a resurgent U.S. economy
The numbers signal the U.S. is well on its way toward a revival, one that’s widely expected to reach record levels of growth later this year.
Brazil Diplomat Celso Amorim on Bolsonaro, Lula & Why Biden’s Foreign Policy Is So “Disappointing”
As the number of COVID-19 cases surges in Brazil, the country is also facing a major crisis on the political front. The heads of Brazil’s Army, Navy and Air Force all quit in an unprecedented move, a day after far-right President Jair Bolsonaro ousted his defense minister as part of a broader Cabinet shake-up.
“Abhorrent”: Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Trump’s Treatment of Portland Protesters vs. Insurrectionists
Protesters in Portland, Oregon, took to the streets for more than three straight months following the police killing of George Floyd. In July, former President Donald Trump threatened to jail protesters for 10 years for damaging federal buildings in Portland. But months later he praised right-wing insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol. Trump’s actions were “absolutely abhorrent,” says Oregon Governor Kate Brown.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown Pushes Expanding Vote-by-Mail to Counter GOP Voter Suppression Efforts
As Republican lawmakers across the U.S. move to make it harder for voters to cast ballots by mail, we look at Oregon’s long history of vote-by-mail.