U.S. economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6 percent
Housing investment, though, plunged at a 26 percent annual pace, hammered by surging mortgage rates.
Today's Liberal News
More voters trust Republicans on economy as interest in midterms hits high, polls say
According to an NBC News poll released Sunday, 70 percent of registered voters expressed interest in the upcoming election as a “9” or “10” on a 10-point scale.
“Carbon Billionaires”: Oxfam Calls for Taxing Rich Who Profit from Emissions Fueling Climate Crisis
A new Oxfam analysis finds the investments of the world’s richest people are emitting 3 million tons a year — more than a million times the average person’s output. The report, titled “Carbon Billionaires,” suggests a wealth tax could help fund urgent climate action in developing countries.
Ranked-Choice Voting Backed in Midterm Ballot Measures, May Help “Crash-Proofing Our Democracy”
Voters in Nevada and a handful of cities across the United States appear poised to expand the use of ranked-choice voting in the aftermath of Tuesday’s midterm elections. The election method allows voters to select multiple candidates in descending order of preference. It is used in many other countries, and supporters say it can reduce polarization and give more voice to independent voters.
Delia Ramirez: Illinois Elects First Latina Congressmember; Ran on Medicare for All, Immigration Reform
We speak with Congressmember-elect Delia Ramirez, who won her election for Illinois’s newly redrawn 3rd Congressional District Tuesday, making her the first Latina elected to Congress from Illinois. Ramirez is a progressive Democratic state representative who is the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants and the wife of a DACA recipient. She campaigned on expanding healthcare and housing access for working people, as well as passing the DREAM Act.
The Story of Baby O: Rebecca Nagle on the Supreme Court Case That Could Gut Native Sovereignty
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in Haaland v. Brackeen, a case challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act and ultimately threatening the legal foundations of federal Indian law. ICWA was created in 1978 to address the systemic crisis of family separation in Native communities waged by the U.S. and requires the government to ensure foster children are adopted by members of their Indigenous tribes, as well as blood relatives, before being adopted by non-Indigenous parents.
GOP Now Covered In ‘Trumpfunk,’ Crows Lincoln Project Critic
“The bigger lesson is that the Trumpfunk was all over them,” Rick Wilson quipped.
Democrats Sweep GOP Election Deniers In Battleground Races For Secretary Of State
Republican conspiracy theorists put democracy on the ballot in contests to oversee swing-state election systems. They all lost.
Democrat Cisco Aguilar Wins Nevada Secretary Of State Race
Cisco Aguilar beat Jim Marchant, who claimed that decades of legitimate elections had in fact been predetermined by a “deep state cabal.
U.S. Senate stays in Democratic hands
The U.S. Senate will stay in Democratic control in the 118th session of Congress, beginning Jan. 3, 2023. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s win in Nevada gives Democrats the 50 votes they need to stay in power. That gives this experiment in democracy at least a few more years. The work has to start anew when they return next week to finish out the current session.
It also means that Sen.
Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto Reelected, Preserving Democrats’ Control Of Senate
Cortez Masto’s victory in an incredibly tight race means Democrats will run the upper chamber of Congress regardless of the outcome of a runoff in Georgia.
Democrats Maintain Control Of The Senate
The GOP failed to dislodge the Democratic majority in the Senate, making President Joe Biden’s life a little easier next year.
Nevada Senate race called for Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in huge win for Democrats
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto was seen as one of the most endangered Democratic Senate incumbents this year, but after days of counting, she has pulled it out, with NBC and CNN projecting her as the winner after a ballot drop from Clark County put her ahead by almost 5,000 votes. The first Latina in the U.S. Senate has won a second term, and Democrats will hold the Senate.
Cortez Masto defeated Adam Laxalt after being endorsed by 14 members of his extended family.
Ukraine update: Celebrations continue in Kherson, as elsewhere the war goes on
UPDATE: Saturday, Nov 12, 2022 · 8:43:21 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
A lot of that Russian equipment at Chornobaivka, apparently never left Chornobaivka.
Chornobaivka, Russian leftovers pic.twitter.com/FjnXOKCoMt— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) November 12, 2022
UPDATE: Saturday, Nov 12, 2022 · 7:32:27 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Sad news on this otherwise joyous day.
Michigan, my Michigan: We won it all, so what’s next?
On Nov. 8, six years ago, I went to bed heartsick and devastated, knowing not only that Hillary Clinton had lost the Electoral College vote but that Michigan’s 16 votes would be allotted to her opponent. Our margin of defeat, a mere 10,704 votes, could have been made up through better turnout in my own county, where I was active in Democratic leadership.
Thankfully, this Nov. 8, I went to sleep around midnight feeling more sanguine about our prospects.
Some wins and some losses on labor-related ballot measures, this week in the war on workers
They weren’t mostly the highest-profile things on the ballot on Tuesday, but this year’s elections did include a number of ballot measures relevant to workers. The outcomes were a mixed bag.
In Illinois, a workers’ rights amendment looks likely to pass. That measure would affirm the right to organize and ban any law that “interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively.
Everything We Know About Dreams
This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.
How Did America End Up With the Z.O.M.B.I.E. Act?
Judging by the titles of bills they propose, members of Congress occupy a space between used-car salesperson and poet.
The Exquisite Pain of Monogamous Life
Being really, honestly surprised, especially these days, can feel thrilling—which is what makes Mammals, the new Prime Video series from the Tony-winning playwright Jez Butterworth, so hard to write about. There’s a revelation at the very end that turns the entirety of what we’ve just seen on its head; rewatching the first few episodes after that, which I did, was a bracingly new experience.
Go Ahead, Joke About the Pandemic
Jokes are rich notions. The Black comedic and satirical traditions have for decades fascinated scholars and comedians, many of whom have converged on the idea that trauma is a defining feature of Black comedy. W. E. B Du Bois wrote in The Humor of Negroes that humor is partly “a defense mechanism; reaction from tragedy; oppositions set out in the face of hurt and insult.
The Petulant King
A difficult labor—30 hours!—and someone has to make the terrible decision. Right there in a Buckingham Palace bedroom, with mother and child etherized upon the table, deft hands make the cut, the unwilling baby is tugged out—and it’s done.A boy! Clever girl.To sleep, to sleep, to sleep.Posted on the gates of the palace, a handwritten announcement:Her Royal Highness the Princess Elizabeth Duchess of Edinburgh was safely delivered of a Prince at 9.
Who killed the Covid-19 vaccine waiver?
The inside story of how lobbying, threats and the desire to protect industry gutted a proposal that was meant to make vaccines widely available in poorer countries.
Bitter GOP divisions leave abortion legal in South Carolina
Members of the state House refused to budge on their proposal to ban abortion starting at conception with exceptions for rape, incest and if the life of the pregnant person is in danger.
A predicted ‘red wave’ crashed into wall of abortion rights support on Tuesday
A surge in turnout among people motivated by the erosion of abortion rights carried Democrats to victory in multiple races.
South Dakota votes to expand Medicaid
The Republican-controlled state, where lawmakers have long resisted Medicaid expansion, is the seventh in the last five years to do so at the ballot box — and likely the last to do so for some time.
Fed jacks up rates again but Powell hints it might slow down
Inflation has cooled only slightly and job growth remains strong.
Voters remain gloomy despite recent economic gains
A new POLITICO-Morning Consult poll suggests voters’ views of the economy are baked in.
U.S. economy returned to growth last quarter, expanding 2.6 percent
Housing investment, though, plunged at a 26 percent annual pace, hammered by surging mortgage rates.
More voters trust Republicans on economy as interest in midterms hits high, polls say
According to an NBC News poll released Sunday, 70 percent of registered voters expressed interest in the upcoming election as a “9” or “10” on a 10-point scale.
The Story of Baby O: Rebecca Nagle on the Supreme Court Case That Could Gut Native Sovereignty
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in Haaland v. Brackeen, a case challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act and ultimately threatening the legal foundations of federal Indian law. ICWA was created in 1978 to address the systemic crisis of family separation in Native communities waged by the U.S. and requires the government to ensure foster children are adopted by members of their Indigenous tribes, as well as blood relatives, before being adopted by non-Indigenous parents.