At last, the days are getting longer in the Northern Hemisphere, a change that feels particularly welcome now, given, well, everything. But winter is just getting started. In any other year, we’d be firmly in a season of cozy indoor gatherings. This year, however, requires that we avoid anything of the sort, especially as America’s coronavirus epidemic continues to worsen and a new and worrying mutation of the virus has emerged.
In an hour-long phone call, President Trump pressured Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state’s 2020 election. He made the call nearly two weeks before he is due to leave office and just two days before the runoff elections in Georgia that will determine control of the Senate.
In a stunning decision, a British judge has blocked the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States, saying he would not be safe in a U.S. prison due to his deteriorated mental state. In 2019, Assange was indicted in the United States on 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act related to the publication of classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. The United States has already announced plans to appeal the ruling.
Parenting advice on smart alecks, in-law child care, and male anger.
Cities splintered in the pandemic, but only some Americans got to enjoy a hyperlocal utopia.
If he’s willing to do a coup, he’s probably willing to do this.
Boosted unemployment insurance? Check. A continued eviction moratorium? Check. Checks? Check. But there’s still much more that we need.
The 20 millionth case comes less than two months after the country tallied its 10 millionth.
For two decades, victims of U.S. nuclear bomb tests fought to obtain the Medicaid eligibility that was promised them. In the waning days of 2020, they won.
The assessment comes as the Trump administration appears poised to miss its year-end target to vaccinate 20 million Americans.
From California to the Northeast, a funny thing has happened recently in America’s most expensive metropolitan areas: Rents have gone down. Ever since remote workers began fleeing urban cores at the start of the coronavirus pandemic—whether to the Hamptons or their parents’ basements—urban housing markets have been flooded with empty apartments.
We’re sleeping in separate rooms because he refuses to clean up his messes.
Parenting advice on biracial parenting, changing name spellings, and cutting off family.
A government shutdown was averted after the president approved the Covid relief package and annual spending bill.
The president has thrown the fate of the bill into jeopardy.
Congress curbed the central bank’s emergency lending despite the economy’s continuing struggles.
Biden added that the appointees have “broad viewpoints on how to build a stronger and more inclusive middle class.
Officials said they expect the U.S. economy to shrink by 2.4 percent this year, a brighter forecast than they offered just three months ago.
We continue our conversation with medical anthropologist Dr. Paul Farmer, whose new book, “Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds,” tells the story of his efforts to fight Ebola in 2014 and how the history of slavery, colonialism and violence in West Africa exacerbated the outbreak. “Care for Ebola is not rocket science,” says Dr. Farmer, who notes that doctors know how to treat sick patients.
As the United States sets records for COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations, we speak with one of the world’s leading experts on infectious diseases, Dr. Paul Farmer, who says the devastating death toll in the U.S. reflects decades of underinvestment in public health and centuries of social inequality. “All the social pathologies of our nation come to the fore during epidemics,” says Dr.
While the United States, Britain and other wealthy countries race to vaccinate their populations against the coronavirus, a new report finds that as much as 90% of the population in dozens of poorer countries could be forced to wait until at least 2022 because wealthy countries are hoarding so much of the vaccine supply. A growing movement is calling for the development of a people’s vaccine and the suspension of intellectual property rights to expand access. We speak with Dr.
As President-elect Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris prepare to take power, we continue to look at the growing debate over the direction of the Democratic Party. House Majority Whip James Clyburn recently criticized calls to “defund the police” and argued the phrase hurt Democratic congressional candidates.
Scholars Cornel West and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor respond to the global uprising against racism and police violence following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. “We’re seeing the convergence of a class rebellion with racism and racial terrorism at the center of it,” said Princeton professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. “And in many ways, we are in uncharted territory in the United States.
Night Owls, a themed open thread, appears at Daily Kos seven days a week
17 DAYS UNTIL JOE BIDEN AND KAMALA HARRIS TAKE THE OATH OF OFFICE
Paul R. Pillar at Responsible Statecraft writes—A year ago the U.S. assassinated a national leader:
Sunday marks the first anniversary of the assassination of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani by the United States, using an armed drone at the Baghdad International Airport.
The Washington Post has just released the full one-hour audio recording of Donald Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger. Also on the call on Trump’s behalf were chief of staff Mark Meadows and prominent conservative lawyer Cleta Mitchell.
Over the course of the rambling call, Trump appears to threaten or extort Raffensberger and state legal counsel Ryan Germany.
In The Washington Post, all ten of this nation’s living former secretaries of defense have written an opinion column uniformly opposing any military involvement in Republicans’ ongoing attempts to overthrow the results of November’s presidential elections. Among the signers are Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Leon Panetta, Robert Gates, Mark Esper, and James Mattis.
“Efforts to involve the U.S.
Republican Rep. Chip Roy objected this evening to the seating of the House delegations from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, the six states Trump allies falsely contend Donald Trump “won” despite certified results showing the exact opposite.
