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.
“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.
Irish PM Tests Positive For COVID While Attending Event With Biden, Pelosi
Taoiseach Micheál Martin was at the Ireland Funds 30th National Gala at the National Building Museum in Washington when he learned of his diagnosis.
Ukraine update: Zelenskyy addresses Congress; Putin vows purge of disloyal Russians
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a virtual address to the United States Congress today, a key portion of which was video footage of the devastation caused by Russian attacks—and the many, many civilians now injured or dead. Zelenskyy again asked the United States to intervene directly in the war with the imposition of a military “no-fly” zone.
Rep. Elise Stefanik wants to fight for kids’ ‘right to choose’ chocolate milk at school. No, really
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik—the third-ranking Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives—has at last captured the national zeitgeist! Americans aren’t worried about Ukraine, the economy, creeping fascism here and abroad, COVID-19, or any of the other stories the lamestream media keep pushing. The brutal truth is that most people are concerned about the continued availability of calorie-dense refined sugar in schools!
Seriously.
Call For Koscar Nominations #2: Outstanding Call to Activism
Daily Kos was born on May 26, 2002. That makes 2022 our 20th anniversary year, and just one of the ways we’re celebrating is by bringing back the Koscars! One of the things that makes Daily Kos special is our open platform, where community members can publish stories alongside staff. The Koscars seek to acknowledge and honor outstanding writing contributions from everyone. The entire Daily Kos membership is “the Academy,” so your votes decide the winners.
Idaho Lt. Gov. Ends Interview After Being Pressed About White Nationalist Ties
Janice McGeachin spoke at a conference organized by prominent white nationalist Nick Fuentes, whom she claims she doesn’t know.
Oklahoma professor of 40 years says he was fired after bringing in openly gay guest speaker
Michael O’Keefe, a professor who taught graphic design for more than 40 years, says he was fired for bringing an openly gay speaker to his college class, according to local outlet KRQE. According to a statement from O’Keefe’s lawyer, Kevin Jacobs, the school claimed he was fired for “gross misconduct” contrary to the mission and values of the school.
Missouri radio station continues to air literal Russian war propaganda
Before Vladimir Putin decided it was a swell idea to take his mass murdering to the next level, you almost had to squint to see the traitorous stains who walked among us. But the “savvy genius” who got hopelessly bogged down in Ukraine in less time than it takes Donald Trump to get his head stuck in a jumbo jar of Nutella shined a black light on some of our seedier nooks and crannies and—lo and behold!—looks like treason was the reason for the appeasin’.
Former GOP Senate Candidate Has Possibly The Worst Take On Zelenskyy’s Speech To Congress
Economist Peter Schiff was criticized for tweeting, “I understand times are hard, but doesn’t the President of the #Ukraine own a suit?
Kentucky Senate Passes 15-Week Abortion Ban
The bill, which is modeled after a Mississippi law before the U.S. Supreme Court, passed 31-6.
Mehmet Oz Says He’ll Give Up Dual Citizenship If Elected To Senate
There had been some confusion about whether Dr. Oz, the TV personality who’s running as a Pennsylvania Republican, would relinquish his Turkish citizenship.
White House warns free Covid treatments are at risk as subsidies run out
Some Americans might have to pay out of pocket for therapeutics if Congress doesn’t pass a new Covid funding bill.
Criticizing Ukraine Is Free Speech, Too
This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Every Friday, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.Question of the WeekWhat is a valuable insight, lesson, or perspective you have learned from someone who doesn’t share your politics?Email your thoughts to conor@theatlantic.com.
A Film That Finally Captures Murakami’s Writing
Drive My Car is a special movie. It’s a film about language, but its silences carry the most powerful moments of communication. It’s a three-hour drama about grief, but the experience of watching it is breezily loose and oddly comforting. And it’s one of very few adaptations of the renowned Japanese writer Haruki Murakami’s work, although the moments that best capture his style were invented by the director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi.
Volodymyr Zelensky’s Dream Life
This morning, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a Joint Session of the U.S. Congress from his desk in Kyiv, bitter thoughts must have crossed his mind. Not so long ago, Donald Trump wouldn’t let Mike Pence attend the Ukrainian president’s inauguration. Zelensky spent the first year of his administration begging for an invitation to the White House that never arrived.
The Thriller Is Sexy Again in Ben Affleck’s Deep Water
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Ben Affleck, resplendent with stubble and weary eye bags, is a rich but bored husband with a beautiful (but also bored) wife, rattling around in a giant house wondering what to do with himself. Soon enough, a dead body appears.
The Most Haunting Truth of Parenthood
Do we ever really understand our parents? Certainly not when we’re children. If we’re lucky, we begin to understand them later. We might one day realize, for example, that they carried burdens we couldn’t see. Sometimes I wonder if I might have learned something important about what was to come in adulthood had I been paying closer attention when I was little, but no, I couldn’t have related then.
A NATO No-Fly Zone in Ukraine Would Be “Direct Involvement in the War Against Russia,” Experts Warn
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to demand the U.S. and NATO allies impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, an idea that President Biden has rejected even as a growing number of Republicans embrace the idea despite the risk it could draw the U.S. directly into the war against Russia and possibly spark a nuclear confrontation.
A Tale of Two Wars: Biden Decries Russian Atrocities in Ukraine While Backing Saudi/UAE War in Yemen
As the U.S. and U.K. push for Saudi Arabia to increase oil production to offset a rise in global energy prices amid sanctions on Russia, the kingdom on Saturday announced it had executed 81 people — the country’s largest mass execution in decades.
Ukrainians Unite to Hold Back Russian Forces in Kyiv, Mykolaiv & Odessa as 3 Million Refugees Flee
We speak with Ukrainian reporter Nataliya Gumenyuk, who has been reporting from across Ukraine, including the strategic port cities of Mykolaiv and Odessa in the south of the country. More than 3 million refugees have fled the conflict, and Russian forces are increasingly targeting civilian areas. Gumenyuk says the Russian invasion has reshaped Ukrainian national identity and united the previously fractious country in common purpose.
Some hospitals ask patients, visitors to remove N95s, citing CDC
N95s, which seal tighter to the face, offer better protection against Covid-19, studies show.
CDC wants to monitor poop: States aren’t all on board
Wastewater surveillance gained popularity during the pandemic as state and local health officials demonstrated how they could detect the coronavirus in their community’s sewage systems before residents developed symptoms.
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.
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.