A visit with Punxsutawney Phil, preparations for the Year of the Ox in China, a funambulist in Italy, a rocket explosion in Texas, a farmers’ protest in India, flooding in France, dogs at play on a frozen lake in Turkey, a crowded beach in Brazil, and much more.
Night Owls is a themed open thread appearing at Daily Kos seven days a week.
Chuck Collins at Inequality.org writes—The Movement for a Wealth Tax in Washington State. A levy of just 1% on wealth over $1 billion would raise more than $2 billion per year to meet the state’s urgent social needs:
Legislators in Washington state are taking bold steps towards instituting a state-level wealth tax.
Thanks to House Republicans circling the wagons around Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her history of truly gross statements and actions, Democrats had to hold a full House vote to strip her of committee assignments. That included an assignment to the education committee despite her claims that the school massacres at Sandy Hook and Parkland were hoaxes.
If you hear the keywords “GOP,” “Republican,” “transgender,’” and “sports,” you might be thinking: Which state can possibly be pushing more anti-trans legislation while we’re in a global pandemic? After all, as Daily Kos has covered, Tennessee, Idaho, and South Dakota have all recently pushed these efforts. The latest state? Utah.
First, the basics of the legislation. H.B.
Okay, campers, rise and shine!
Groundhog Day is a smidge behind us now, but that does nothing to mitigate the general sense of deja vu pervading action in statehouses these days.
Take, for instance, Wisconsin.
I wrote in this space last week about how Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin were in a rush to pass a resolution that would eliminate Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ statewide mask mandate.
Democrats in Congress spoke passionately on the House floor, some in tears, about Jan. 6, the day of the armed insurrection by pro-Trump rioters.
But if you’re still not convinced, look at these charts.
More than 350 congressional staff members signed an open letter Wednesday to the Senate, urging legislators to convict former President Donald Trump for inciting an attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. “As Congressional employees, we don’t have a vote on whether to convict Donald J. Trump for his role in inciting the violent attack at the Capitol, but our Senators do,” the staffers said in the letter.
“They’ve got to warn you about me?” the former New York City mayor asked, complaining that nobody told him the message would play.
An unexpected second wave of the virus has hit Manaus, Brazil—and brings with it new worries about reinfection. Staff writer James Hamblin explains to producer Katherine Wells what’s going on there and what it could mean for the rest of the world.
Unearthed posts showed Greene embracing QAnon and racist conspiracy theories, as well as supporting executing Democrats.
It’s NOT the economy, stupid.
The vaccine is a single dose shot that experts say is key to vaccinating vulnerable, hard-to-reach and even skeptical people.
The FDA’s acting commissioner, Janet Woodcock, said in a statement Thursday that the agency would release updates soon.
Editor’s Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here. The good news in COVID-19 data continued this week, as new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths all dropped. For the seven-day period running January 28 to February 3, weekly new cases were down more than 16 percent over the previous week, and dropped below 1 million for the first time since the week of November 5.
SAG-AFTRA had been considering whether to expel Trump for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
In the original Star Trek series, there was an episode in which M-5, a revolutionary computer created by Dr. Richard Daystrom, is designed to handle all ship functions without human assistance.It’s thought to be an impressive achievement—until M-5 takes total control over the USS Enterprise and begins to attack other Federation ships. Captain Kirk tells Daystrom to disengage the M-5 unit, but it proves to be impossible.
Unemployment statistics don’t tell the whole story.
Since Josh Hawley was a young man, powerful people have told him he was special. His teachers gave him the “Special R” award, just one feather in the Rockhurst High School valedictorian’s cap of outstandingness. Hawley’s mentor at Stanford, David Kennedy, took a shine to him just weeks into his freshman year, and came to see him as possibly the most gifted student he ever taught.
The GameStop surge was just one of the ways Americans have renewed their love of betting.
The Outward Hound Hide a Squirrel Toy is now $10, or 20 percent off the regular price.
China faces widespread condemnation following a BBC report about the mass rape and sexual torture of Uyghur women and other Muslims detained in the province of Xinjiang. Women who spoke with the BBC described gang rapes, routine sexual torture using electrocution tools, forced sterilizations and men outside the prison camps paying for access to the detainees.
As the U.S. COVID death toll tops 450,000, the Biden administration is attempting to ramp up its vaccination campaign to slow the spread of new coronavirus variants. Meanwhile, health experts warn any vaccination progress in the United States will be threatened without global vaccine equity. “We need to, as quickly as possible, expand access to the vaccines, both in this country, in the United States, as well as around the world,” says Dr.
I think what bothers me the most is how it sounds.
How can I convince him to change his mind?
The next CMS administrator will oversee Biden’s efforts to expand Obamacare and erase much of Trump’s health care legacy.
All because they have to pass more COVID relief with just 50 votes.
Many pharmacies are already administering vaccine doses that have been allocated to states.
