In the news today: An internal CDC document about the delta variant of the coronavirus grimly declares “the war has changed”; there may be a glimmer of hope yet for a voting-rights workaround to the filibuster, with Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia playing a central role in revising the bill; Attorney General Merrick Garland is threatening to sue Texas Gov.
In a cynical attempt at counterprogramming the Jan. 6 House Select Committee hearings, the 4G Goober Gang—Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Louie Gohmert, and Paul Gosar—sought to draw attention to the wretched state of the “political prisoners” who were arrested in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, many of whom remain in stir.
It didn’t go quite as planned.
Americans and gymnastics fans alike were shocked this Tuesday at the news that Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles opted to withdraw from an event after failing to land a challenging vault. Biles’ announcement came as a shock because many saw her as the American face of the Tokyo Olympics; however, while some were disappointed, others applauded Biles for her courage to stand up for herself and put her health above the sport.
A steady stream of polls from multiple outlets have shown that a shocking number of Republican voters believe the election was somehow stolen from Donald Trump, and/or that Joe Biden is not the legitimate president.
But new Daily Kos/Civiqs polling finds an even more eye-popping number: 80% of GOP voters “agree with former President Donald Trump’s claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
Late Night Snark: 2009 Wayback Machine Edition
The late-night hosts are off this week, so we thought it’d be fun to see what the hell was going on in our world when President Obama reached his six-month mark, as his former VP/current POTUS did ten days ago. Some one-liners from July, 2009, when we were still using Oxy10 by the gallon and our voices were just starting to change:
“Dick Cheney is writing his memoir.
Right-wing Ohio Senate candidate lashed Kamala Harris, AOC, Pete Buttigieg as “childless cat ladies” who aren’t pumping out … wage slaves?
Twitter users mocked the New York congresswoman for praising Medicare and Medicaid without realizing they’re forms of socialism.
Professional runners have to endure extraordinary deprivation, pain, and pressure to reach the Olympics. Professional-running fans, meanwhile, have to endure the question of which athletes actually deserve to be there. This summer, before the U.S. trials for the Tokyo Olympics had even finished, fans were forced to digest the fact that two of America’s track-and-field athletes most likely to medal wouldn’t be headed to the Games.
A judge told a member of the far-right Proud Boys in a hearing: “We have a virus that is killing people — why is it so hard to wear a mask?
The agency’s decision to limit its reporting of breakthrough cases has prompted wide variation in how states keep tabs on them.
Parenting advice on privilege lectures, name appropriation, and nanny interference.
And just like that, it’s Groundhog Day. The news from the CDC is bad. Yes, we have vaccines—and they are miraculously effective at preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19. Thank goodness for that. But the CDC now says that when vaccinated people are infected, they may spread the coronavirus just as easily as the unvaccinated do. On top of that, the Delta variant is tremendously contagious, much more so than the original strain of the virus.
For raw emotional content, Tuesday’s hearing of the new House select committee to investigate the January 6 insurrection was nonpareil. Four police officers who fought to hold back armed hordes seeking to disrupt Congress told stories of physical injury, racist abuse, and post-traumatic distress. Even for Americans who paid close attention to the crisis, these stories added new texture and horror.
The Treasury Department must turn over the former president’s tax returns to a congressional committee, according to the legal opinion.
First Canada overtook the United States in the vaccination race. Now the European Union has done so. Even poor European countries such as Greece, Lithuania, and Poland have surpassed vaccine-resistant U.S. states such as Ohio, Arkansas, and Missouri.Why is this happening? Facebook exists on the other side of the Atlantic as much as it does on ours. Europeans do not lack for far-right political parties swayed by Russian misinformation.
The hotly anticipated study helped convince the agency to revise its guidance on mask-wearing earlier this week.
What the beleaguered operator should do with $66 billion from Congress.
In 1983, the historian Benedict Anderson published his pioneering work Imagined Communities, which looks at the intangible factors that bond nations together. His analysis was prescient, thanks to the expansive lens it took in examining what unites people, and the book still helps deepen considerations of modern issues, such as the importance of a representative Pride flag.
It resembles a giant planter plopped in the middle of Tokyo. That’s on purpose.
We go to Guatemala to speak with an opposition lawmaker and a Maya K’iche’ leader who joined Thursday’s major national strike demanding the resignation of right-wing President Alejandro Giammattei and other government officials facing allegations of corruption.
Israel has launched what has been described as a maximum pressure campaign against Ben & Jerry’s and its parent company Unilever, after the iconic ice cream brand announced it would halt sales in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Israel has asked 35 U.S. governors to enforce state laws which make it a crime to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS.
Human Rights Watch is calling on the International Criminal Court to open a probe into apparent Israeli war crimes committed during its recent 11-day assault on Gaza that killed 260 Palestinians, including 66 children. We discuss a major report HRW released this week that closely examines three Israeli strikes that killed 62 Palestinians civilians in May. U.S.-made weapons were used in at least two of the attacks investigated.
He could use the money. But so could I.
Six reasons why cities and states have done a poor job getting the money out the door.
The magazine was a countercultural icon. Its new owners want to make it a name brand.
President Joe Biden is due to issue a directive Thursday requiring some 2 million federal employees to attest they’ve received the shot or submit to weekly testing.
Scientists say new data on the Delta variant has changed the agency’s calculus on mask-wearing among vaccinated Americans.
Newsom’s two eldest children, ages 11 and 10, attended the camp for a day.
I have some questions.
“People surround themselves with furniture crusted with gold, walls embroidered with gold yarn, and, of course, the toilet should not be left out.