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.
Today's Liberal News
‘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.
Trump Tries To Hop Back Into The Spotlight With CPAC Address
Trump reportedly plans to speak to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 28, the last day of their meeting.
Saturday Night Owls: A few words from a Texan ‘tired of living through extraordinary times’
Night Owls is a themed open thread appearing at Daily Kos seven days a week.
Caitlin Cruz at The New Republic writes—I’m Tired of Living Through Extraordinary Times in Texas. As a devastating storm hit my home state, we relied on mutual aid as our elected officials showed their true face:
The state turned away from us; we turned toward each other.
Louisiana tourists arrested for attempting to bribe their way out of quarantine in Hawaii
As Americans nationwide obtain COVID-19 vaccinations, tourists continue to travel across the country, despite the risk the novel coronavirus still carries. While travel regulations are in place for safety and are being enforced by both airports and airlines, some travelers refuse to abide by them and are looking for loopholes.
Two tourists from Louisiana were arrested on Feb. 12 for allegedly trying to bribe an airport screener at Daniel K.
United Airlines Investigating Source Of Leaks On Ted Cruz’s Cancun Flights
The flight attendants union leader urges United to drop the probe because the GOP senator is a “public servant who has lied too many times.
Pardoned fraudster wants Trump to run for House speaker in 2022 to impeach Biden
How did I miss this?
In a recent column on the intractable assholery of conservative Republicans, The Plum Line’s Greg Sargent noted a conversation that the ambulatory Ed Gein lamp known as Steve Bannon recently had with a Boston audience.
Grocery workers, heroes of the pandemic, left out on vaccinations, this week in the war on workers
“Grocery workers say they can’t get coronavirus vaccines, even as they help distribute them,” the Washington Post headline reads. But as the story makes clear, grocery workers don’t “say” they can’t get vaccines. They can’t. Unless they are elderly or have comorbidities in addition to being grocery workers—i.e.
Community Spotlight: How are you helping to build back better?
We Rescue Rangers know the Community has broad interests, but you surprised me this week by going big for two rescued stories covering subjects not remotely associated with current news and politics. Previously, I’d exclaimed that Community stories can offer “refuge from politics,” but that referenced nature, more commonly considered a haven away from troubling news.
Serving Trump A Diet Coke Required Elaborate Steps, Says Leaked Restaurant Document
When the former president visited the restaurant at his D.C. hotel, he loved Diet Cokes, junk food and hearing Heinz ketchup bottles make “pop” sounds.
Chris Christie Has No Sympathy For Ted Cruz: ‘Ted Has Just Not Been A Very Likable Guy’
The former New Jersey governor hasn’t forgotten how Cruz made fun of him for that infamous beach incident in 2017.
Newsmax Airs Whole Segment Attacking Biden’s Senior Dog, Champ
A host on the pro-Trump network said the 12-year-old canine looked like a “junkyard” dog.
Nomadland Is a Gorgeous Journey Through the Wreckage of American Promise
Fern (played by Frances McDormand), the hardscrabble hero of Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, is the kind of resolute, independent protagonist that has dominated American movies since the dawn of the Western genre. She drives around the country in her van, living as self-sufficiently as possible, and carries a flinty affect with people, revealing little about herself and the turmoil that has led to her life on the road. But Fern is not a bullheaded cowboy fighting on the frontier.
A New Era of Black Holes Is Here
When the first black-hole collision was detected in 2015, it was a watershed moment in the history of astronomy. Using gravitational waves, astronomers were observing the universe in an entirely new way. But this first event didn’t revolutionize our understanding of black holes—nor could it. This collision would be the first of many, astronomers knew, and only with that bounty would answers come.
Help! My Parents Refuse to Acknowledge That I’m Deaf.
I’m living with them to help care for my dad, and I’m miserable.
Inside the Strange World of the Police
Photographs by Joseph Rodríguez“Police work is doing what people in the city want done,” Willie Williams, the Los Angeles Police Department chief, told me in 1994. Williams, the agency’s first Black chief, had been brought in from Philadelphia to make changes after LAPD officers beat Rodney King in 1991, the incident that ultimately led to the Los Angeles riots.
The Moment Britain’s Army Knew It Was Lost
This is a story about the nadir, the end of days. Monday, March 24, 2008, marked five years to the month after the British army arrived in Iraq, preaching to the Americans their apparent expertise in counterinsurgency operations and understanding of the manifold ways of, in the historical British upper-class vernacular, “the Arab.
The Argument for (and Against) Only Forgiving $10,000 of Student Debt
President Biden’s plan would actually do a lot of good—but it could do even more.
It’s Getting Harder for Hallmark to Avoid Politics
From the Capitol riot to LGBTQ representation, reality is intruding on the company’s traditional, conservative fantasy.
Americans Are in a Golden Age of Yelling at Their Local Representatives
Thanks to the pandemic, it’s never been easier to give your mayor an earful.
Biden Wants to Give States $350 Billion. Do They Still Need It?
It turns out the pandemic may not have been the budget wrecker everyone feared.
U.S. won’t share vaccine before all Americans receive shots, officials say
Poor countries and global health advocates have been pushing wealthy nations to share some of their supply, warning that the inequitable vaccine rollout could leave them playing catch-up for years.
U.S. life expectancy plummets amid pandemic
“This is a huge decline,” said Robert Anderson, who oversees the numbers for the CDC. “You have to go back to World War II, the 1940s, to find a decline like this.
How Covid-19 could make Americans healthier
A once-in-a-century pandemic provides a once-in-a-lifetime chance to improve public health.