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.
Today's Liberal News
Biden takes victory lap with January jobs report
“America’s job machine is going stronger than ever,” Biden said at the White House.
U.S. employers shrug off Omicron, add 467,000 jobs in January
The burst of jobs came despite a wave of Omicron inflections that sickened millions of workers, kept many consumers at home and left businesses from restaurants to manufacturers short-staffed.
Opinion | Why Are Minority-Owned Banks Disappearing? Washington Holds the Smoking Gun
Congress needs to create a new safety net for such lenders — not let regulators squeeze them out of business.
In Belarus, Russia’s Partner in Ukraine Invasion, There Is “No Possibility” of Dissent on War
Ukraine says Belarus could become directly involved in the Russian invasion. This comes as Russia sent thousands of troops to Belarus to attack Ukraine from the north and NATO has accused the Russian Air Force of flying warplanes from airfields in Belarus last week. “We all know, see and understand that the territory of Belarus is used for conducting the war against Ukraine,” says Natallia Satsunkevich, an activist with the leading independent Belarusian human rights group Viasna.
Carlson Lobs Transphobic Attacks At Adm. Rachel Levine Over ‘Woman Of The Year’ Honor
“Levine is a fake admiral and, we’re told, a woman,” the Fox News host said, denigrating the nation’s first openly transgender admiral.
Jeanine Pirro Erupts At Geraldo Rivera For Suggesting Putin ‘Was Playing’ Trump
The Russian leader “was a wuss when Trump was president,” the Fox News host shouted at her colleague.
Ukraine update: ‘Limited to no progress’ for Russia; Zelenskyy addresses Congress tomorrow
Today saw “limited to no progress” by Russian ground forces, according to a Pentagon spokesman, though Russia continues to shell civilian population centers. While Ukrainian cities in the south of the country remain surrounded or under occupation, the situation in Kyiv appears more stable, with no Russian advancement and open Ukrainian supply lines.
The judicial system in D.C. is collapsing due to Republican obstruction
A man standing in a long line at a Washington, D.C., courthouse said that he has been trying to get a case settled for well over a year. A woman, meanwhile, stood nearby trying to resolve an issue with a restraining order that she took out on someone. Sadly, she decided to give up and let it go unresolved. “I’m a veteran and a woman. Something bad would have to happen to me for people to pay attention.” Right now, D.C.
‘People’s Convoy’ zealot goes full road rage, punches innocent D.C. commuter’s window
Well, if I were driving around in circles all day to protest pandemic mandates that have largely been rescinded, I might get pretty frustrated, too. Troop TruckNutz—aka the “People’s Convoy”—has been doing God knows what on the D.C. Beltway lately, for reasons known only to them. And it’s started to get pretty pathetic, frankly.
It would be one thing if they were harassing and endangering commuters for an absurd reason—i.e.
Putin once again demonstrates the disastrous effects of leaders believing their own lies
Despite Vladimir Putin’s draconian efforts to control the flow of negative information about his ill-conceived and (so far) poorly executed war on Ukraine, it appears that what passes for Russia’s “legitimate” administrative state may be horrified by the entire operation.
SEC will soon require disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions from publicly traded companies
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will soon adopt a rule requiring all publicly traded companies to disclose just how much greenhouse gas they emit while doing business, the Washington Post reports. The rule, which is likely to be announced on Monday, will include climate risk disclosure—something that SEC Chair Gary Gensler has previously discussed adopting and that President Biden touted as a goal during his 2020 campaign.
Confusion And Terror Reign In Texas For Families Of Trans Teenagers
Amid unprecedented attacks, including harassment from state officials, many families are dreading the next knock on the door.
Tennessee Advances More Extreme Version Of Texas Abortion Ban
Tennessee’s bill would ban abortion at any stage of pregnancy and deputize citizens to enforce it, allowing the law to evade court challenges.
Greg Gutfeld Addresses His ‘Little Kerfuffle’ With Colleague Benjamin Hall
After their on-air debate, Hall was hospitalized in an attack in Ukraine that also killed a Fox News cameraperson and a consultant.
Pfizer seeks emergency authorization for 2nd Covid booster for 65-plus
The request for a second booster shot is based on two real-world data sets suggesting another vaccine dose boosts protection against the Omicron variant while maintaining its safety profile.
How to Time Your Second Booster
Updated at 7:34 p.m. ET on March 15, 2022 Imagine if older Americans had been forced to weather the past three months without the option of a booster shot. Having an additional vaccine dose during the Omicron surge cut seniors’ risks of hospitalization and death by more than 70 percent.
How Charles Dickens Made the Novel New
Suppose Charles Dickens had died in 1850, at age 38—perhaps in a railway accident like the crash, in 1865, that killed 10 of his fellow passengers and left his nerves permanently frayed; or, more fantastically, from spontaneous combustion, as befell the booze-soaked rag seller in his 1853 novel, Bleak House.He would still be famous, though perhaps less so than he is now.
Ukrainians Are Using the Quiet Resistance Tools They Need
Not long after tanks rolled into Ukraine, Vladimir Putin started to block social media at home. Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok were curtailed. The move was straight out of the contemporary dictator’s playbook: Take away the potential to go viral, and people can’t spread a narrative that might undermine the leader’s legitimacy. It was also a sign that Putin is wary of the loud, public criticisms that have fueled many global protest movements over the past decade.
The World Has One Big Chance to Fix Plastics
Plastics have always been global—even before science began tracking the peregrinations of microplastics across meridians, into rain, through the human placenta. At the industry’s outset, Civil War–era rubber goods were fashioned with latex extracted from the Amazon and later through Belgium’s brutal regime in the Democratic Republic of Congo. England imported gutta-percha from Southeast Asia for undersea telegraphy wires.
‘We need this money’: Covid funding stalls as Congress, White House point fingers
There appears to be no clear strategy from either the White House or Capitol Hill to secure the funds.
“Shocking Act of Bloodletting”: Saudi Arabia Executes 81 as West Asks Kingdom to Increase Oil Output
The U.S. is refusing to directly condemn Saudi Arabia after the kingdom announced on Saturday it executed 81 people, including seven Yemeni men and one Syrian man. Rights groups say many of those executed were people arrested for participating in human rights demonstrations and that many of the defendants were denied access to a lawyer, held incommunicado and tortured. This comes as the U.S.
What’s Next for Putin? New Yorker’s Joshua Yaffa on Ukraine’s Resistance & Russian Antiwar Protests
We speak with Joshua Yaffa, longtime Moscow correspondent for The New Yorker, who has just left Ukraine after reporting on the Russian invasion for the past two weeks.
Report from Kyiv: Facing Military Setbacks, Russia Is Increasingly Targeting Ukrainian Civilians
The mayor of Kyiv has declared a 36-hour curfew after a series of Russian missile strikes hit residential areas of the capital of Ukraine on Tuesday. Meanwhile, talks are resuming today between Ukraine and Russia, and the prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia are traveling to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. We get an update from outside of Kyiv from Peter Zalmayev, director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative, on the Russian invasion.
Pfizer CEO says another Covid booster will be needed
Albert Bourla’s comments continue a roller-coaster pattern of differing communication from the pharmaceutical company and the government as the pandemic enters its third year.
Obama tests positive for Covid-19
The 44th president, who reported only a scratchy throat, said that former first lady Michelle Obama had tested negative and that both were vaccinated and boosted.
As masks come off, vulnerable Americans feel left behind
The immunocompromised and their advocates say they’re hitting roadblocks with the White House and CDC.
Covid chaos fueled another public health crisis: STDs
Sexual health experts and government officials are warning that without federal action, millions of Americans could face severe, even fatal, consequences if infections go untested and untreated.
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.