Today's Liberal News

News Roundup: Senate passes Inflation Reduction Act; Amnesty International report sparks outrage

The evenly divided Senate finally, finally passed the reconciliation package known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 today. The vote was 51-50 along party lines, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie breaking vote. The package provides at least a starting point for climate mitigation actions, and represents a much-scaled-back version of the climate bill that Sen. Joe Manchin killed earlier in the Biden administration.

Ukraine Update: Logistics, yet again; Amnesty International issues non-apology apology

Ukrainian fury over a report from Amnesty International released last week—a report that blames the Ukrainian military for fighting in urban areas, as they fight to keep Russia from capturing those same urban areas—doesn’t look like it will be abating anytime soon. Already a high-profile resignation has taken place, and there may be other fallout.

Watch/Listen: J and L pods come together for a sunny July visit to San Juan Island’s west side

FRIDAY HARBOR, Washington—So far, the summer of 2022 has been the most encouraging season in at least six years in terms of restoring the health of the Southern Resident killer whales’ native summer habitat in the Salish Sea. The last time the SRKWs visited as frequently as they have this year was 2016, a season that was shadowed by death and decline.  

In 2022, they’ve been frequent though not entirely regular visitors to the Salish Sea and the San Juan Islands.

History’s Greatest Obstacle to Climate Progress Has Finally Fallen

Updated at 5:19 p.m. on August 7, 2022
Climate change was born as a modern political issue in the United States Senate. On a hot June day in 1988, a senior NASA scientist warned a Senate committee that global warming, which was previously mooted only as a hypothesis, was not only real but already under way. “It is time to stop waffling so much and say that the evidence is pretty strong that the greenhouse effect is here,” James Hansen said.An auspicious start, and an ironic one.

Escaping the Patriarchy for Good

On a cool spring evening, a woman prepares risotto in the spartan kitchen of a hunting lodge, eats it alone, and scoops some out for the dog. The next morning, she makes a startling discovery: At some point during the night, an invisible, impermeable barrier has appeared outside, dividing her from much of the Austrian countryside. She calls it, simply, “the wall.” When she presses her hand to it, it feels “like a windowpane.” She beats it with her fist; it holds.

An American Catastrophe

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The Deepening Mystery of Kyrsten Sinema

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona said that she’ll sign on to the Democrats’ climate bill—after advocating for a few adjustments that she apparently didn’t care to explain to anyone.But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.

Fish Oil Is Good! No, Bad! No, Good! No, Wait

At first, it was all very exciting. In 1971, a team of Danish researchers stationed on Greenland’s northwest coast found that a local Inuit community had remarkably low levels of diabetes and heart disease. The reason, the researchers surmised, was their high-marine-fat diet—in other words, fish oil. Incidence of heart disease, which once afflicted relatively few Americans, had shot up since the turn of the century, and here, seemingly, was a simple solution.

Albert Woodfox in His Own Words on 43 Years in Solitary, the Black Panthers & Fighting Injustice

Albert Woodfox, who was held in solitary confinement longer than any prisoner in U.S. history, has died at the age of 75 due to complications tied to COVID-19. The former Black Panther and political prisoner won his freedom six years ago after surviving nearly 44 years in solitary over a wrongful murder conviction of a prison guard. Fellow imprisoned Panthers Herman Wallace and Robert King were also falsely accused of prison murders, and they collectively became known as the Angola 3.

Hungary PM Viktor Orbán Addresses CPAC as American Right Embraces His Authoritarian Rule

We speak with international affairs scholar Kim Lane Scheppele on the rise and fall of Hungary’s constitutional democracy and how Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gained popularity among the American right ahead of his speech today at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “Orbán presents, especially for the American right, a kind of irresistible combination of culture war issues,” says Scheppele.

Ukraine Update: Oh goodie, the Tankies are losing their minds over Pelosi and NATO

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It’s always interesting peering into the Tankie alternate reality, so let’s check in this Saturday morning. For those of you who don’t know, the Tankies oppose American imperialism (so far so good), but think only America can be imperialist. It looks like this:

If you’re on the side of the US empire on any issue you are on the wrong side.

Therapists flee Kaiser as mental health patients languish

With the health giant again under scrutiny by California regulators for alleged denial of care, many therapists are leaving for private practice.
 

By Jack Ross and Kristy Hutchings, for Capital and Main

When Susan Whitney was a therapist at Kaiser Permanente, her colleagues missed working in prison. Whitney’s coworkers first practiced mental health care in the region’s penitentiaries before joining the state’s largest health care provider.

Overstretched ‘sandwich generation’ caregivers need more support

by Pamela Appea

This article was originally published at Prism.

Julie Ramos first realized her husband’s forgetfulness was far more serious than she had previously suspected the day he and their then 6-year-old daughter got lost in Mexico City while walking in a familiar location near their relatives’ home. Ramos, who is using a pseudonym, ended up having to call the police to find her husband and daughter.

Labor board rejects Starbucks’ accusations against union workers, this week in the war on workers

Amid Starbucks’ vicious union-busting campaign, which has involved the firing of at least 70 pro-union workers—more than 50 of them since April, in what’s clearly an escalating effort—the company tried to convince the National Labor Relations Board that union activists in Phoenix, Arizona, violated labor law by “threatening and coercing employees and the public.” Starbucks claimed workers surrounded a store and pounded on the windows during an action.