Melania Trump Suddenly Claims To Be A Big Fan Of Christmas
The former first lady is acting like she does give a f**k about Christmas after all, as she hawks a new line of festive ornaments.
Today's Liberal News
Ukraine update: As Russia prepares to force ‘referendums’ in occupied areas, Putin is a no-show
It’s been hard to locate any reasonable military response for Russia at this point in its failed invasion of Ukraine. Because there isn’t one. So Moscow is now scrambling for the means to justify even more attacks on civilian infrastructure—and civilians—and it thinks it has that plan in the form of a series of “referendums” to be carried out in occupied areas of Ukraine over the next week.
Trump demands that DOJ prove documents stamped TOP SECRET were really classified
Until Tuesday, Donald Trump had been making a lot of public claims about having declassified documents, but he had never made that claim in court. In fact, as recently as Monday evening, Trump’s attorney in the “special master” proceeding argued that this wasn’t something that needed to be discussed. That’s no longer true.
Lindsey Graham: Abortion ‘is not a states’ rights issue’
The most common way other Senate Republicans are trying to dodge questions on Sen. Lindsey Graham’s national abortion ban bill is to claim they think abortion is a states’ rights issue. But voters should take those claims as seriously as Graham’s own insistence just last month that he thought abortion was a states’ rights issue.
Trump got the special master he wanted, but he’s finding that Judge Dearie isn’t what he expected
Now that he has the “special master” he requested to deal with the documents he hoarded at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump is already finding reasons to object to the process. Specifically, Trump’s legal team is refusing to talk about whether, or how, Trump actually tried to declassify any of the documents by claiming it would harm their “defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment.
COVID-19 know-it-alls want to revisit the 2020-21 school year? Fine. Let’s
That Republicans want to endlessly relitigate the decisions made in 2020 and 2021 about in-person schooling is not surprising—they think it’s a culture war issue to their advantage. But it’s not just Republicans.
U.S. Task Force Recommends All Adults Under 65 Be Screened For Anxiety
The advisory group said the new guidance can help identify these conditions early so people can be connected to care.
Special Master Chastises Trump’s Legal Team With Now-Viral ‘Cake’ Comment
Judge Raymond Dearie said the ex-president had to show proof the documents found at Mar-a-Lago had been declassified: “You can’t have your cake and eat it.
Migrants Stranded In Martha’s Vineyard Sue Ron DeSantis Over Political Stunt
“These immigrants … experienced cruelty akin to what they fled in their home country,” the lawsuit targeting the Florida governor and other officials states.
Trump’s Endorsements Could Doom GOP’s Chance To Retake Congress
The former president loves to brag about his “win-loss” record. He does not discuss how many of his “winners” are liable to lose this November.
The Problem With New Cars
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Watching Spirited Away Again, and Again
Spirited Away came out in 2001, when I was 8. After watching it in a Japanese cineplex, I stumbled out into a wall of late-summer heat, shaken by what I had just seen: the grotesque transformation of parents into pigs, the vomiting faceless monsters, the evolution of a sniveling girl to a brave heroine. The way a dragon could be a boy magician and also a river, how the story seemed held together by association and magic.
Let Puerto Rico Be Free
Photographs by Christopher Gregory-RiveraIn 2017, as summer ends, when news anchors first mention the oncoming Hurricane Irma, the people go to the big-box store or the Econo supermarket just a few minutes from home. They try to stock up, but by the time they arrive, the lines are long and most of the shops are running low. They get what they can: some food, a few gallons of water, a portable gas-powered hot plate in case they lose power.
Putin Is Cornered
President Volodymyr Zelensky is playing the role of a Ukrainian Churchill, minus some of the fantastical notions and with an infinitely better workout regimen. Like Churchill in 1940, he has been the indispensable man in a mortal crisis, without whom his country might well have been lost, and whose eloquence has rallied not only his fellow citizens but a larger democratic world.
The Banned Books You Haven’t Heard About
At a packed school-board meeting near Rockford, Illinois, earlier this year, a woman waved blown-up images from Maia Kobabe’s illustrated memoir Gender Queer in front of the Harlem School District board. “If my neighbor were to give this to my child, guess what? He would be in jail,” she said to scattered applause.
Reverse Freedom Rides: Flying Migrants North, Florida Gov. Steals Page from Segregationists 60 Years Ago
As human rights advocates denounce efforts by Republicans to send dozens of buses full of asylum seekers to sanctuary cities across the United States, we look at the related history of the Reverse Freedom Rides of 1962, when Southern segregationists bused Black families to the North to antagonize Northern liberals and civil rights activists.
Is the Pandemic Over? Public Health Advocates Decry Biden’s Claim as Thousands Still Dying from COVID
President Biden declared that “the pandemic is over” during an interview on “60 Minutes” Sunday, despite data collected by Johns Hopkins showing COVID-19 killed 13,000 people across the U.S. over the past month as 2.2 million new infections were reported.
Juan González: Hurricane Fiona Damage Shows Puerto Rico Still Hampered by U.S. Colonial Control
Democracy Now! co-host Juan González says people are showing resilience in the face of Hurricane Fiona in his native Puerto Rico, where the power grid crashed across the entire island due to the storm. Many who learned from 2017’s Hurricane Maria are dipping into their personal water reserves and using power generators, he says.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signs abortion ban into law
The ban has exemptions for medical emergencies and for rape and incest victims until eight weeks of pregnancy for adults and 14 weeks for children.
Biden’s monkeypox adviser is trying manage a virus while dodging talk of Satanism
Demetre Daskalakis has become caricatured as a tattooed oddity among buttoned-up bureaucrats. The truth is far different. “I wish I were that interesting,” he says.
U.S. inflation falls for 2nd straight month on lower gas costs
Despite the signs of moderating price increases, inflation remains far higher than many Americans have ever experienced and is keeping pressure on the Federal Reserve.
G-7 announces price cap deal on Russian oil in win for Yellen
The plan touted by the U.S. Treasury secretary aims to diminish the Kremlin’s revenue while preserving the global oil supply.
Powell’s ‘dangerous’ words risk resistance from lawmakers
“Jerome Powell’s rhetoric is dangerous, and a Fed-manufactured recession is not inevitable — it’s a policy choice,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said.
‘We’re in a housing recession’
The housing market has cooled so much as the Fed withdraws its support for the economy that some analysts say it may be in a slump.
Powell blows away doubts about his war on high inflation
In a closely watched speech, the Fed chair foreshadowed further interest rate increases and warned that rates might need to stay high for some time to kill price spikes.
“The Myth of Normal”: Dr. Gabor Maté on Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture
In an extended interview, acclaimed physician and author Dr. Gabor Maté discusses his new book, just out, called “The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture.” “The very values of a society are traumatizing for a lot of people,” says Maté, who argues in his book that “psychological trauma, woundedness, underlies much of what we call disease.
McConnell was sure the GOP would reclaim the Senate. Too bad he miscalculated every step of the way
Analysts and pundits are finally picking up on the fact that the supposed red wave of 2022 was much more of a red mirage all along. The slow-but-steady downgrading of GOP prospects in November is everywhere. But nowhere is this more apparent than in the Senate, where Republican candidates are consistently underperforming and, in some cases, are downright comically bad (witness Dr. Mehmet Oz, whose political wizardry is already the stuff of legend).
Ukraine update: Ukraine doesn’t need ATACMS (for now)
There is an article of faith among certain circles that Ukraine “needs” ATACMS in order to finish off the Russians. ATACMS are long-range rockets fired by HIMARS/MLRS launchers.
‘It’s all of Mitch McConnell’s staffers’: Pro-MAGA dating app somehow can’t find women users
A new pro-Trump dating app that’s scheduled to launch this month is not exactly grabbing women by the … um … heartstrings. Nor have the folks behind the app assembled even one binder full of women. It’s almost as if no one’s attracted to men who both idolize serial sexual assaulters and want to force women to give birth to their rapists’ babies.
Pennsylvania and Michigan finally have un-gerrymandered maps. Now we can flip ’em both
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Republicans know just as well as we do that the road to the White House runs through two major swing states in the Midwest: Michigan and Pennsylvania. And since we also know the GOP no longer respects the results of elections unless they win, we can expect Republicans to use every lever at their disposal to subvert any outcomes they don’t like.