Pressure builds on White House to end divisive health-border policy
A Trump-era rule blocks migrants to prevent the threat of Covid-19.
Today's Liberal News
Charlie Baker and the Rise of One-Party Rule
At least once a week during the past two years, a flock of protesters could be found outside the seaside home of the Republican governor of Massachusetts, airing their grievances about the man they call “Char-lie Baker.” (It rhymes with pie—get it?) Two years of “Char-lie Baker” would be a lot for any person to take, especially when the clamor is coming from members of your own party.
How Propaganda Became Entertaining
Social media has become a weapon of war for Ukrainians, and through it, President Volodymyr Zelensky has emerged as a global star. His virtual appeals for international support, such as his recent message to Congress, and videos that show him and top Ukrainian officials bravely standing their ground in Kyiv are helping him win the fight for public opinion.
POLITICO-Harvard poll: 40 percent of parents believe masks at school harmed their kids
The poll’s findings come as White House officials warn that masks may be necessary if Covid-19 cases increase in the United States.
CDC updates Covid-19 guidance to allow patients wear N95s
The nation’s public health agency now says hospitals shouldn’t force patients to remove highly protective masks after POLITICO found many that do so.
With Democrats’ health agenda stalled, lawmakers turn to insulin
The push comes as many other Democratic proposals to lower health care costs remain on ice.
As BA.2 spreads, Biden administration officials call on Congress to pass Covid-19 funding
The Biden administration is looking at approving a second booster shot for some adults within weeks, to improve older Americans’ immunity should infections rise due to the BA.2 subvariant.
Biden’s mounting midterm threat: Inflation angst outweighing historic job growth
White House officials deny any sense of panic over the economy or their midterm chances.
Democrats want to crack down on Wall Street. Guess who’s getting in the way.
The administration’s difficulties in getting bank cop nominees through a Democratic-controlled Senate underscore the fault lines within the party over how to approach financial regulation.
Opinion | When It Comes to Inflation, Our Focus Should Be On the Cost of Housing
The Federal Reserve is raising interest rates — but Congress has a chance to bring real relief.
U.S. inflation soared 7.9 percent in past year, a fresh 40-year high
The increase reported by the Labor Department reflected the 12 months ending in February and didn’t include most of the oil and gas price increases that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb.
Russia oil shock looms over Fed inflation fight
The Fed is already expected to begin a campaign of interest rate increases next month in a bid to remove its support for economic growth amid a blistering job market and rapidly rising prices.
Meet Francia Márquez, the Afro-Colombian Land Defender Running to Be Colombia’s First Black VP
Vea esta entrevista en español
In an exclusive broadcast interview, we speak with leading Afro-Colombian environmental activist Francia Márquez Mina, who has just been picked by Colombian presidential front-runner Gustavo Petro to be his running mate.
Start of a New Cold War? U.S. Hawks “Want to Jack up the Military Budget and Use Ukraine as an Excuse”
With NATO countries recommitting themselves to the alliance and passing sweeping sanctions against Russia as punishment for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, is this the dawn of a new Cold War? We speak with foreign policy expert William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute, who warns that hawks in Washington are pushing for a massive increase in the U.S. military budget, which is already a record-high $800 billion a year.
Yanis Varoufakis: The West Is “Playing with Fire” If It Pushes Regime Change in Nuclear-Armed Russia
A month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 3.6 million Ukrainians have left the country as refugees, and the war risks becoming “an Afghanistan-like quagmire,” warns Greek lawmaker Yanis Varoufakis, founder of the Progressive International with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. He says the West’s sweeping sanctions on Russia and bottomless military aid to Ukraine risk escalating the conflict and foreclosing chances of a peaceful resolution.
Conservatives on Supreme Court Prepare to “Gut Roe v. Wade” as State Abortion Bans Multiply
Anti-abortion bills are sweeping the U.S., with the Guttmacher Institute reporting that 82 restrictions have been introduced in 30 states in 2022 so far. On Wednesday, Idaho signed into law a six-week abortion ban, and lawmakers in Oklahoma passed a near-total ban on abortions — each modeled after a Texas “bounty hunter” law that allows private citizens to sue abortion providers. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on Dobbs v.
Biden Budget Seeks Minimum Tax On Households Worth $100 Million
The introduction of the minimum tax on the wealthiest Americans would represent a significant reorienting of the tax code.
Trump Wouldn’t Be ‘Capable’ Of Ukraine Peace Talks With Moscow, Says John Bolton
It would “require thinking through a policy, considering the pluses and minuses, the risks and costs. That’s just not what he does,” dissed Bolton.
Ukraine update: So much talk about logistics, let’s talk strategy today
Ukraine is pushing out from Kyiv in the north, Kharkiv and Sumy in the northeast, and Mykolaiv toward Kherson in the south. Here we are in the northeast:
📽️Ukrainian troops assaulting Russian positions in #Sumy region #Ukraine #UkraineRussiaWar pic.twitter.com/g6WOQjpwgR— MilitaryLand.net (@Militarylandnet) March 26, 2022
This looks like the assault into Trostyanets, south of Sumy.
Ginni Thomas wanted to overturn the election. About Clarence Thomas’ Jan. 6 documents dissent …
From now on, every Supreme Court decision on which Justice Clarence Thomas is the deciding vote comes with a giant asterisk: This matter was decided by a man whose wife advocated for the overthrow of the government. Those aren’t the only Thomas votes that require the asterisk, though. Take the Supreme Court’s January rejection of Donald Trump’s attempt to block the Jan. 6 select committee from getting White House documents. Thomas was the only dissent on that.
That Supreme Court confirmation hearing was so racist. We can’t ignore it or normalize it
Let me fix that headline for you, Washington Post: It’s not “Race hovered over Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing.” It’s “Racism hovered over Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing.” Although, really, racism was so prevalent in the hearing that the way it hovered was, COVID-like, in the air after belching out of the mouths of Republican senators like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz.
Wheels of justice turn slowly but surely in two prominent cases of right-wing Portland violence
It’s only taken five years of ongoing assaults and preplanned violence by right-wing thugs—accompanied by an obscene double standard in enforcement by police officers and prosecutors—for authorities in Portland, Oregon, to finally start taking the problem seriously. But two separate cases this week in Portland courts indicate that progress is finally happening.
Tennessee GOP tries to block Trump-endorsed candidate who doesn’t know anything about Tennessee
Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles has announced that he’s joining the August Republican primary for Tennessee’s open 5th Congressional District, which Republicans recently transformed from blue to red by cracking apart the city of Nashville. Ogles is a former state director for the Koch network’s Americans for Prosperity, and he launched a primary bid in 2017 against Sen. Bob Corker days before the incumbent decided to retire.
Marjorie Taylor Greene Goes Off In Homophobic Rant Against Pete Buttigieg
The far-right member of Congress seemed to blend together her hateful conspiracy theories.
Biden’s Comments About Putin Were an Unforced Error
Sign up for Tom’s newsletter, Peacefield, here.Joe Biden has been a model of restraint during the most serious global crisis in nearly sixty years, and thank goodness for that. He has provided assistance to Ukraine while keeping NATO together against the possibility of a Russian attack against the Alliance.
Rep. Madison Cawthorn Tells Audience: ‘I Don’t Have A Whole Lot Of Wisdom’
But he does have a “lot of aggression,” Cawthorn acknowledges in an appearance at a North Carolina GOP men’s club event.
Disgraced GOP Rep. Jeff Fortenberry Resigns
The longtime Nebraska Republican was convicted of three felonies related to a 2016 campaign donation he accepted from a foreign national.
Sorry, I Lied About Fake News
Okay this is embarrassing: The news I shared the other day, about the sharing of fake news, was fake.That news—which, again, let’s be clear, was fake—concerned a well-known MIT study from 2018 that analyzed the spread of news stories on Twitter.
The Wrong Way to Tackle Inflation
This week, California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a kind of universal basic income for cars. This is, put short, a bad idea.The proposal was part of a package of policies designed to shield families in the state from the wallet-squeezing, impoverishing effects of inflation in general, and spiraling gas prices in particular.
Atlanta Confronts the Spectacle of White Ignorance
Anyone can be white. So proclaims a drawling, drunk white man to his Black fishing buddy in the opening scene of Atlanta’s long-awaited third season. They sit in a small skiff floating on a lake at night. The vibes are eerie. The pair, dressed almost identically, are unfamiliar to viewers and are left unnamed. The show’s central cast, led by the cash-strapped and fumbling Earn (played by creator Donald Glover), is nowhere in sight.