This is the latest installment in a series that began back in 2019, with an article I did for the print magazine on Americans’ long-standing obsession with the decline-and-fall narrative of Rome.Many people wrote in to agree, disagree, or otherwise react. The online discussion begins here. But the most sustained line of response has been from my friend Eric Schnurer, a writer and long-time advisor to state and local governments.
“The overall look is ‘the circus came to town.
Parenting advice on advanced readers, library meltdowns, and car disagreements.
An ode to the world’s greatest beverage and drug delivery device.
Am I really a bad person for not reposting every social justice meme?
Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that jobless claims fell to 375,000 from 387,000 the previous week.
“We’re not trying to hide this,” the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s executive director said.
Some economists have already begun to ease back on forecasts for the rest of this year.
The growth is another sign that the nation has achieved a sustained recovery from the pandemic recession.
A new wave of cases followed by the looming expiration of enhanced jobless benefits, a ban on evictions and other rescue programs is sparking concern among lawmakers and economists.
We speak with healthcare activist Ady Barkan, the 37-year-old lawyer and father who, since his ALS diagnosis in 2016, has devoted his life to campaigning for universal healthcare. He has continued to speak out even after losing his voice and now uses a computerized system that converts his eye movements to speech. Barkan is the subject of “Not Going Quietly,” a new documentary following his cross-country activism.
Prominent Mexican news anchor Azucena Uresti took to the airwaves this week to stand up to one of the country’s most powerful drug cartels, the Jalisco New Generation, after the group posted a video online directly threatening her life. Uresti regularly reports on cartel violence and organized crime.
The Taliban claim to have seized 17 provincial capitals across Afghanistan, including Kandahar and Herat, the country’s second- and third-largest cities, as the group continues its sweep through the country. The Taliban now have almost full control of the south, west and north of Afghanistan and are advancing on the capital Kabul, where the United States is preparing to evacuate its embassy in case of a Taliban defeat of the Afghan government.
More than one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, over 3.5 million people have died around the world, including nearly 500,000 in the United States. Historian and writer John Barry says the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus was a predictable development based on how previous pandemics have developed. “This is not unusual, what we’re going through,” he says.
Critics blasted the LA Police Department for standing by.
The compromised machines were decertified following a serious “security breach.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has made it clear that, when it comes to COVID-19, he has one priority: Punishing anyone who gets in the way of spreading the virus. In particular, DeSantis has focused on making sure that school children and teachers are as exposed as possible by both mandating that schools have to hold in-person classes and declaring that schools cannot implement either mask mandates or vaccine requirements.
What happens when Republican governors institute policies that are 100% about showing their Trumpism, and 0% about taking care of the people in their state? Here are two good examples.
In Texas, Greg Abbott has declared that no one can require proof of vaccination, As a direct result of this decision, the Texas Tribune reports that only half of workers at Texas nursing homes are vaccinated.
As of Friday, Dallas County hospitals had zero ICU beds available for children, according to the county’s chief executive, Judge Clay Jenkins.
“That means if your child’s in a car wreck, if your child has a congenital heart defect or something and needs an ICU bed, or more likely if they have COVID and need an ICU bed, we don’t have one,” Jenkins explained. “Your child will wait for another child to die.
It’s easy to break records when you just keep going faster. Put the foot on the accelerator and now you’re going faster, and now you’re going faster, and now you’re going faster. Every moment is a new “record” until something gives out. This works whether you’re headed down the highway, or directly off a cliff.
Individually, the founders of one of Daily Kos’ newest groups, Climate Brief, have been working for years to bring news about the growing climate crisis and possible solutions and/or mitigations to global warming, but a few things made it seem almost tailor-made to launch the group at the same time that the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its Code-Red report. Things are going to change, and we can’t stop them.
Total troop numbers increase to 5,000 as Taliban seizes control of multiple cities in just days.
The global activist organization Avaaz can now pressure Scottish ministers to take a deeper look into the cash behind Trump Turnberry.
Financial mismanagement and other mistakes plagued the progressive candidate’s campaign for Congress in Ohio.
Ruby Rossi, the titular “child of deaf adults” in Sian Heder’s new film, CODA, lives a bifurcated life. Early in the morning, she works on her family’s fishing boat, sorting fresh-caught haddock from the boots that get stuck in their net and, as the only hearing member of the Rossis, helping translate sign language to vendors onshore. Then she goes to school, often so tired that she’ll fall asleep at her desk, to the bemusement of her teachers.
I’ve expressed my disapproval, and now she says I can “skip the wedding.
The next front in the culture wars is climate change, and the battle lines have already been drawn. On one side are the climate skeptics—those who see global warming as nothing more than unusual weather, and argue that government interventions and regulations to curb greenhouse-gas emissions are alarmist or “eco-fascist.”On the other side is Greta Thunberg.This, at least, is what the populist right’s next political battleground looks like online.
“That means if your child’s in a car wreck … and needs an ICU bed … we don’t have one,” said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.
From literally pantsless CEOs to the Reddit mob’s muscle, we’re still living in the meme-stock moment.
A good sign for anyone freaking out about inflation (or shopping for a CRV).