Many observers breathed a sigh of relief when Bill Barr was confirmed as attorney general. Here was a respected professional who had served in the post once before in an honorable administration. Now, just a year and a half later, what a disappointment he has proved. The man cannot be trusted.Think of the intentionally misleading account he gave of the Mueller report, at a time when the public and Congress had only Barr’s word to go by.
Sincerity is the key to every great Will Ferrell comedy. His classics, such as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, are surreal satires of American arrogance. But they work because the title characters are earnest creations—buffoons invested with the genuine belief that what they’re doing is special.
The daunting logistics of holding an election during a pandemic were on display in Kentucky on Tuesday, as voters in the state’s primary made their way to just 170 polling places—down from 3,700 before the coronavirus arrived. Considering the logistical challenges of social distancing, record absentee-ballot requests, and uncertainties about whether officials could recruit sufficient poll workers, observers on the ground judged the election to be surprisingly well run.
COVID 19 is spiking, immigration is impossible, and a German fintech company is collapsing.
The plan to reignite business without containing the coronavirus has left us living in the worst possible scenario.
This isn’t the scandal journalists are making it out to be.
The president is moving forward with the legal attack, even as some Republicans worry it will hurt the party’s electoral prospects.
On private task force calls with states, Pence’s team rarely offers more guidance than what Trump has publicly asserted.
Rick Bright claims the HHS secretary instructed staffers not to cooperate with him in his new role.
The CDC on Thursday removed a specific age threshold on its guidance for who is at high risk of contracting the virus and now says risk increases steadily with age among adults.
Gov. Greg Abbott has urged state residents to wear masks.
The acting chair of the CEA will leave Trump without another senior economist as discussions start about a new economic aid package.
“We have a long road ahead of us to get those people back to work,” Jerome Powell said earlier this week.
“Significant uncertainty remains about the timing and strength of the recovery,” Powell said.
He said that “almost all businesses” understand the $600 additional benefit is “a disincentive.
The central bank signaled that it would keep interest rates low through 2022.
The Poor People’s Campaign offered a counterpoint to President Trump’s sparsely attended Tulsa campaign rally with a mass digital gathering that unveiled a policy platform to spur “transformative action” on five key issues of systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and the threat of religious nationalism. “We have to repair and revive,” says Rev. Dr. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign.
Protest songs have seen a major spike in streaming numbers in recent weeks, and the timing of the upsurge is no coincidence: Black Lives Matter uprisings around the country have brought renewed attention to the history and power of Black-led civil unrest in the U.S., of which music has long been an integral part. According to Billboard, protest songs from artists like Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, Beyoncé, James Brown, and others have been streamed at high numbers.
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled that previously denied asylum seekers cannot challenge their fast-tracked deportation cases in federal courts in a 7-2 decision Thursday. The court found that expedited deportations for migrants at or near the border who fail initial asylum screenings does not violate due process rights or constitutional protections against unlawful detention, the Associated Press reported.
News broke last week that meatpacking companies exported a record amount of pork to China after using warnings of shortages to get Donald Trump to order them to stay open despite massive coronavirus outbreaks in their plants. Sens. Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren are not letting that issue go, sending a letter to the CEOs of top meatpacking companies.
Warren and Booker have questions for those CEOs about exports and price increases.
“I don’t know what’s worse: the beating or having someone turn something so personal that happened … and weaponize it against you,” said state Sen. Tim Carpenter.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the Trump administration does not have the authority to seize $2.5 billion from the Pentagon in order to fund the building of Trump’s border wall.
In a victory for environmental groups, the 2-1 ruling also upheld a federal district court order blocking illegal construction of the wall. Last summer, the Supreme Court had allowed construction of the wall to temporarily move forward while litigation in Sierra Club v.
Detained people at a privately operated Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility say guards pepper-sprayed them and placed their knees on their necks after engaging in an act of civil disobedience in protest of their ongoing detention during the novel coronavirus pandemic, Mother Jones reports. The facility, LaSalle Corrections Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana, has had 65 confirmed COVID-19 cases and two guards have died after becoming sick.
“If they’re not able to come to some consensus, I am committed to intervening,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said of Imperial County.
Republicans claim Americans won’t go back to work as long as they’re getting government checks. It’s immoral and dishonest.
A law created to prevent Ku Klux Klan members from wearing face masks could prevent COVID-related mask-wearing during a pandemic.
In the past few months, after the pandemic hit, many people have chosen to leave big cities—at least for now. Amanda Mull joins executive producer Katherine Wells and staff writer James Hamblin to talk about whether their departures will be permanent.Listen to the episode here:Subscribe to Social Distance on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or another podcast platform to receive new episodes as soon as they’re published.
Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.Even quarantine fatigue feels old now, the restlessness being replaced with a shrug. Whether you live in an area that is reopening or one that is experiencing a new surge of cases, our critics can help. Here’s what to read, listen to, and watch this weekend.
Many Twitter users found Ivanka’s video ironic as she was hired for her White House position only because she’s Donald Trump’s daughter.
