HHS working to replace potentially faulty Covid tests used by Congress
Accurate testing for the House and Senate took on even greater importance after waves of maskless pro-Trump rioters breached the Capitol building.
Today's Liberal News
HHS working to replace potentially faulty Covid tests used by Congress
Accurate testing for the House and Senate took on even greater importance after waves of maskless pro-Trump rioters breached the Capitol building.
The Most Reliable Pandemic Number Keeps Getting Worse
Editor’s Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here. In the first week of 2021, the United States reported more cases of COVID-19 than at any other point in the pandemic so far, and the second-highest number of deaths. Holiday data-reporting slowdowns from Christmas and New Year’s are likely still affecting most metrics—most notably reported tests, which are still well below pre-holiday levels.
Don’t Let Them Pretend This Didn’t Happen
Remember what yesterday’s attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol was like. Very soon, someone might try to convince you that it was different. Maybe someone already has.This has been a leitmotif of the Trump administration: Donald Trump does something outrageous and inappropriate, maybe even illegal. Immediately, there are horrified reactions from across the political spectrum, but pretty quickly, the anger fades.
“Americans Are Now Getting a Mild Taste of Their Own Medicine” of Disrupting Democracy Elsewhere
World leaders reacted in horror over the storming of the U.S. Capitol, with the U.N. secretary-general calling on political leaders to demand their followers refrain from violence. Leaders of the U.K., New Zealand, Australia, Canada, India, Japan, France, Germany, NATO and the European Council called for a peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden.
Historian: White Terrorist Groups Attacked Democracy During Reconstruction, They Are Doing It Again
As Washington reels from the storming of the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob intent on overturning the 2020 election results, lawmakers are considering new impeachment proceedings against President Trump for fomenting the insurrection. Civil War and Reconstruction historian Manisha Sinha says this isn’t the first attempt to disrupt the democratic process by right-wing white domestic terrorists, citing the 1898 Wilmington coup and other efforts before that throughout the Southern states.
White Supremacy in Action: Police Stand Down as Trump Mob Storms Capitol to Disrupt Election Vote
The U.S. Congress has certified President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, hours after a violent, right-wing mob incited by President Trump interrupted proceedings and stormed the U.S. Capitol. Four people died during the chaos, which has been described as an attempted coup. The insurrection was the culmination of months of lies by President Trump, widely repeated in right-wing media and on social media platforms, that the 2020 presidential election was rigged for Joe Biden.
Help! My Mom Wants to Build a Shrine for My High School Boyfriend.
He was verbally and physically abusive. She idealizes him.
Meghan McCain Only Appreciated Parental Leave After It Was Personal. That’s OK!
Vulnerability does all kinds of interesting things to people’s minds.
In America, Even the E.R. Docs Work for a Third-Party Contractor
More and more Americans have precarious jobs because workplaces aren’t their employers.
The Year of the Neighborhood—if You Were Lucky
Cities splintered in the pandemic, but only some Americans got to enjoy a hyperlocal utopia.
If Trump Really Wants to Kill the Relief Bill, Congress Can’t Stop Him
If he’s willing to do a coup, he’s probably willing to do this.
What the New Stimulus Bill Provides—and What’s Still Missing
Boosted unemployment insurance? Check. A continued eviction moratorium? Check. Checks? Check. But there’s still much more that we need.
States struggle for control of chaotic vaccine rollout
The patchwork of responses comes as desperate governors are facing a vacuum of federal support, along with dire funding and workforce shortages.
Feds may cut Moderna vaccine doses in half so more people get shots, Warp Speed adviser says
Federal officials have said the U.S. will need to vaccinate roughly 80 percent of the population to achieve herd immunity against the coronavirus.
Surgeon general defends integrity of Covid-19 numbers
Jerome Adams was responding to a presidential tweet saying the numbers are phony.
How Biden’s dream of fighting income inequality runs through Georgia
The share of wealth controlled by the top 1 percent sits at levels not seen since the 1920s. Biden’s hopes for changing it rests on Senate control.
Trump backs down, signs stimulus package
A government shutdown was averted after the president approved the Covid relief package and annual spending bill.
Congress sends Covid package and spending measure to Trump
The president has thrown the fate of the bill into jeopardy.
Fed enters Biden era with clipped wings and a warning from Republicans
Congress curbed the central bank’s emergency lending despite the economy’s continuing struggles.
Biden adds former Obama budget official, onetime Warren aide to economic team
Biden added that the appointees have “broad viewpoints on how to build a stronger and more inclusive middle class.
“Medical Apartheid”: Israeli Vaccine Drive Excludes Millions of Palestinians in Occupied Territories
Israel has administered COVID-19 vaccines faster than any country in the world, with more than 14% of Israelis receiving vaccines so far. Despite the fast rollout, human rights groups are expressing alarm over Israel’s decision not to vaccinate Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, where about 1,500 people have died during the pandemic.
4 People Died During Violent Occupation Of U.S. Capitol, D.C. Police Say
Law enforcement said one woman was fatally shot and three others died in “medical emergencies.
Congressional Republican efforts to overturn election continue: Live coverage #3
In the wake of a Trumpist mob storming the Capitol even as some congressional Republicans tried to overturn the results of the elections in several states from within the Capitol, some had hoped that enough of those Republicans would back down and allow the counting of electoral votes to conclude quickly. That is supposed to be a routine task, after all.
There was no peaceful transfer of power; Trump goaded mob into an attack on U.S. Capitol today
A brief roundup of news from today’s unprecedented and grimly historic day in this nation’s capital city.
• Trump began the day by threatening Vice President Mike Pence and Congress with demands that the election be overturned based on false claims of supposed “fraud.” Pence released a statement confirming that he had no unilateral ability to do so.
Support is growing for Pence to invoke 25th Amendment and remove Donald Trump from office—now
Impeachment, removal, indictment, prosecution, imprisonment: that should be the order of Donald Trump’s future. The problem is that at the moment Trump has his hand on the nearly unlimited power of the White House, which includes a military he might use to strike at anyone—with or without justification.
Congress returns to certify Electoral College votes after mob stormed Capitol: Live coverage #2
It was supposed to be a joint session of Congress for what was supposed to be the fairly perfunctory task of counting the electoral votes as certified by the states. The complication was supposed to be that some House and Senate Republicans were objecting to counting electoral votes from states Donald Trump wishes he hadn’t lost, which was supposed to take two hours of debate per state.
That was bad enough.