Insurers look to make Dems’ latest pay-for plan politically toxic
Industry-allied groups have spent $2.6 million on television advertisements opposing cuts to Medicare Advantage since the spring.
Today's Liberal News
‘It’s a Safe Space for Mean Humor’
The following contains spoilers for Succession, up to and including Season 3 Episode 1.A full two years have passed since HBO’s billionaire-family soap opera last aired, but only moments have elapsed on the show. Kendall Roy (played by Jeremy Strong) just used a press conference to betray his father, Logan (Brian Cox). It’s war, and the Roy family’s scandal-plagued media empire could face subpoenas any minute.
The Metaverse Is Bad
In science fiction, the end of the world is a tidy affair. Climate collapse or an alien invasion drives humanity to flee on cosmic arks, or live inside a simulation. Real-life apocalypse is more ambiguous. It happens slowly, and there’s no way of knowing when the Earth is really doomed. To depart our world, under these conditions, is the same as giving up on it.And yet, some of your wealthiest fellow earthlings would like to do exactly that.
House Votes To Hold Steve Bannon In Contempt, Advance Criminal Referral
Bannon is refusing to comply with a subpoena from the nine-member House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.
Texas’ New Secretary Of State Pick Helped Trump Try To Overturn Election Results
John Scott briefly helped Trump in one of his many failed attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Texas asks Supreme Court to let its abortion ban stand
The Justice Department this week asked the Supreme Court to take emergency action that would block Texas’ abortion ban from being enforced while litigation over its constitutionality goes forward.
African Elephants Evolved Tusklessness Amazingly Fast
Shane Campbell-Staton never planned on traveling to Mozambique in search of tuskless elephants, but weird things can happen when you stay up ’til 3 a.m. binge-watching YouTube videos. (“Sometimes, a brother can’t get to sleep, Ed,” he told me.)Battling insomnia, Campbell-Staton watched a video about Gorongosa National Park. The park was once Edenic, but during Mozambique’s civil war, from 1977 to 1992, much of its wildlife was exterminated.
5 Veterans Quit Kyrsten Sinema’s Advisory Council In Protest
“You have become one of the principal obstacles to progress, answering to big donors rather than your own people,” the veterans told the Arizona senator.
Jailed Egyptian Activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah Publishes Prison Writings as Sisi Cracks Down on Dissent
The Biden administration says it is withholding about 10% of its annual military aid to Egypt because of concerns over human rights abuses by the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Egypt will still get nearly $1.2 billion in military assistance, even as a new report by Human Rights Watch finds Egyptian authorities have killed perhaps hundreds of secretly held dissidents in extrajudicial executions in recent years.
“Dirty Empire”: Sen. Joe Manchin Demands Dems Drop Climate Funding as He Makes Millions from Coal
As Senator Joe Manchin demands Democrats drop critical climate funding to replace coal- and gas-fired power plants with renewable energy sources, investigative reporting into the financial dealings of Manchin reveals that he has profited over $4.5 million from investments in West Virginia coal companies since he became a U.S. senator.
Ilhan Omar Blasts Manchin & Sinema for Siding with Big Pharma, Big Oil & Wall Street in Budget Talks
For weeks, conservative Democrats in Congress have prevented the passage of the Build Back Better Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. Congressmember Ilhan Omar of Minnesota has been a vocal critic of Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who have stalled the bills and forced President Biden to radically scale back the price tag of his agenda.
Opinion | How Corporations Keep Their Own Workers in Debt
Too many employers are imposing crippling debt on workers. Biden can do something about it.
‘They rushed the process’: Vaccine maker’s woes hamper global inoculation campaign
The U.S. and the world made a huge bet on Novavax, but manufacturing problems are jeopardizing billions of doses earmarked for poor and middle-income countries.
The political peril that Biden didn’t see coming
The current inflation spike now appears to be on track to persist deep into 2022.
Opinion | What the Supply Chain Crisis Reveals About American Infrastructure
Politicians like to argue in favor of more infrastructure — and more spending on it. But we can use the capacity we already have in much smarter ways.
Wall Street’s wild party in jeopardy as Fed threatens aid cutoff
The central bank plans to begin yanking back assistance to the economy as early as next month, and many Fed officials are open to increasing interest rates next year.
Americans’ fortunes soared during the pandemic. Some lawmakers see lasting lessons.
Key aspects of the economy are doing better than before the pandemic, which supporters say shows how government spending can help.
News Roundup: Criminal contempt, an untrustworthy Supreme Court, and goodbye voting rights
In the news today: The House Rules Committee voted to approve a contempt of Congress referral against Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon, with the full House set to vote on it on Thursday. And ahead of that, Republicans were lining up to defend Bannon. Meanwhile the orange jackass is being investigated for more criming. In news sure to please Chief Justice John Roberts, more than half of all Americans don’t trust the Supreme Court.
Republicans filibuster bill to save democracy. Democrats keep filibuster in place
Sen. Joe Manchin’s big effort to find “10 good people” in the Republican conference in the Senate will fail Wednesday. The Senate will hold a cloture vote on the Freedom to Vote Act, Manchin’s alternative voting rights and elections reforms bill for which he promised Republicans votes, and Republicans will filibuster it.
Republicans Turn Judicial Nominee’s Hearing Into Transphobic Spectacle
GOP senators took turns making offensive and false claims about a Virginia sexual assault case involving someone they called “a male wearing a skirt.
October 20th is International Pronouns Day! Here’s what you need to know
This Wednesday, Oct. 20, many folks around the world are recognizing International Pronouns Day (IPD). Started in 2018, this is a day for people to raise awareness about the importance of using the correct pronouns for people, to share educational resources for people who want to learn more, and to remind folks about the serious dangers people who exist outside of the traditional gender binary face. The end goal is for sharing pronouns to be a common practice.
Report finds Trump used federal COVID-19 food program for political gain, ran it incompetently
Most people would—quite rightly—assume that “fresh produce” and “Donald Trump” have no business being in the same sentence unless there’s some secret Russian kompromat Christopher Steele left out of his dossier. I’d like to say Trump and produce are like oil and water, but they’re more like matter and antimatter. I shudder to think what would happen to his body if he ever came within 100 yards of a kale leaf.
‘Trump of the South’: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro accused of ‘crimes against humanity’
According to a leaked government report seen by CNN on Tuesday, a Brazilian congressional panel is calling for charges of “crimes against humanity” against President Jair Bolsonaro over his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, alleging that he intentionally allowed the coronavirus to run rampant and wipe out hundreds of thousands in his failed and unscientific attempt to achieve herd immunity.
Jim Jordan Struggles To Answer House Panel’s Questions About Jan. 6 Trump Calls
The Ohio Republican said he did not speak to Trump during the attack. He had previously said he did.
Democrats Come To Grips With Building Back Smaller
They haven’t yet found a way around Kyrsten Sinema or Joe Manchin.
What Does Joe Manchin Do Now?
The Democratic Party’s push to protect future American elections from GOP suppression and subversion is once again largely in the hands of the moderate senator from West Virginia. For the second time this year, Republicans today unanimously blocked voting-rights legislation from coming up for debate in the Senate. Democrats have the ability to pass the legislation on their own, but only if Manchin—among others—will allow them to do so.
The Good Part About ‘Waning’ Immunity
In early March, Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona, celebrated a milestone: hitting the point of full vaccination, two weeks after getting his second Pfizer shot. Since then, he’s been watching the number of coronavirus antibodies in his blood slowly but surely decline.
FDA authorizes Moderna, J&J Covid-19 boosters, allows mix-and-match shots
The announcement clears the way for a major expansion of the country’s booster campaign.
Democrats weigh vouchers for Medicare dental benefits amid funding squeeze
The idea came up during a meeting Tuesday between House progressives and President Joe Biden.
The Hidden Costs of Living Alone
If you were to look under the roofs of American homes at random, it wouldn’t take long to find someone who lives alone. By the Census Bureau’s latest count, there are about 36 million solo dwellers, and together they make up 28 percent of U.S. households.Even though this percentage has been climbing steadily for decades, these people are still living in a society that is tilted against them.