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Category: Politics

In rural America, fear more than politics shapes attitudes to Covid vaccine

In rural America, fear more than politics shapes attitudes to Covid vaccine

The New York Times reports: “So have you gotten the vaccine yet?” The question, a friendly greeting to Betty Smith, the pastor’s wife, lingered in the air as the four church women sat down for their regular Tuesday coffee and conversation at Ingle’s Market. Mrs. Smith hesitated, sensing a chilly blast of judgment from a never-mask, never-vax companion. She fumbled through a non-reply. Recalling the moment later, she sighed, “We were there to get to know each other better but…

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Manchin says he doesn’t support D.C. statehood bill, dealing advocates a major blow

Manchin says he doesn’t support D.C. statehood bill, dealing advocates a major blow

The Washington Post reports: Sen. Joe Manchin III told reporters in his home state of West Virginia on Friday morning that he does not support the bill to make D.C. the nation’s 51st state, according to audio provided by the Democrat’s office and a report from WVNews. Manchin, a key swing vote in the closely divided Senate, said he believes a constitutional amendment, rather than legislation, would be required to admit D.C. as a state. His stance deals a major…

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The plan to kill Osama bin Laden, as told by the people in the room

The plan to kill Osama bin Laden, as told by the people in the room

Garrett M. Graff writes: On the morning of May 1, 2011, most Americans had never heard of Abbottabad. By that night, the dusty midsize city near the mountains of northwest Pakistan was the center of the biggest story in the world. A team of U.S. Navy SEALs had just descended by helicopter on a high-walled mansion there in the dark of night, located the globe’s most hunted man and killed him. The effort to track and execute Osama bin Laden,…

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Has Tucker deposed Trump as the troller in chief?

Has Tucker deposed Trump as the troller in chief?

Jack Shafer writes: [W]ith Trump gone, [Tucker] Carlson has become the most audible mouth in the agitation-provocation space. Like Trump, he labors to produce the incendiary and infuriating to attract attention and the very commendations he found himself buried neck-high in after his monologue. He lives to generate outrage from Democrats and the hall monitors at Media Matters for America. Has the #firetuckercarlson hashtag started to trend on Twitter? From Carlson’s point of view, nothing could be better. Has Washington…

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‘We are witnessing a crime against humanity’: Arundhati Roy on India’s Covid catastrophe

‘We are witnessing a crime against humanity’: Arundhati Roy on India’s Covid catastrophe

Arundhati Roy writes: During a particularly polarising election campaign in the state of Uttar Pradesh in 2017, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, waded into the fray to stir things up even further. From a public podium, he accused the state government – which was led by an opposition party – of pandering to the Muslim community by spending more on Muslim graveyards (kabristans) than on Hindu cremation grounds (shamshans). With his customary braying sneer, in which every taunt and barb…

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Biden gave the most ideologically ambitious speech of any Democratic president in generations

Biden gave the most ideologically ambitious speech of any Democratic president in generations

John Harris writes: President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session Congress was the most ambitious ideological statement made by any Democratic president in decades—couched in language that made it sound as if he wasn’t making an ideological argument at all. Make no mistake that he was. He called for trillions in new spending in a robust expansion of government’s role in multiple arenas of American life in ways that would have been impossible to contemplate in Barack Obama’s presidency….

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Can Democrats avoid a wipeout in 2022?

Can Democrats avoid a wipeout in 2022?

Ronald Brownstein writes: The good news for Democrats who watched Joe Biden unveil a historically ambitious agenda last night is that newly elected presidents have almost always passed some version of their core economic plan—particularly when their party controls both congressional chambers, as Biden’s does now. The bad news: Voters have almost always punished the president’s party in the next midterm election anyway. The last two times Democrats had unified control—with Bill Clinton in 1993–94 and Barack Obama in 2009–10—they…

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They went to D.C. on Jan. 6. Now they’re running for office

They went to D.C. on Jan. 6. Now they’re running for office

The Daily Beast reports: On Jan. 5, Charles Herbster claims, he was at Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel with the president’s two adult sons, discussing ways to pressure Congress out of certifying Joe Biden’s victory. On Jan. 6, he attended a pro-Trump rally that later led to an attack on the U.S. Capitol. On Monday, Herbster announced his candidacy for governor of Nebraska. Herbster, who has agricultural businesses in multiple states, is running on the same staunch pro-Trump lines that…

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U.S. Labor Secretary throws his support behind classifying gig workers as employees

U.S. Labor Secretary throws his support behind classifying gig workers as employees

Reuters reports: A lot of gig workers in the United States should be classified as “employees” who deserve work benefits, President Biden’s labor secretary said on Thursday, suggesting a shift in policy that is likely to raise costs for companies that depend on contractors such as Uber and Lyft. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, a son of Irish immigrants and a former union member, has been expected to boost the Biden Administration’s efforts to expand workers’ protections and deliver a win…

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U.S. investigating possible mysterious directed energy attack near White House

U.S. investigating possible mysterious directed energy attack near White House

CNN reports: Federal agencies are investigating at least two possible incidents on US soil, including one near the White House in November of last year, that appear similar to mysterious, invisible attacks that have led to debilitating symptoms for dozens of US personnel abroad. Multiple sources familiar with the matter tell CNN that while the Pentagon and other agencies probing the matter have reached no clear conclusions on what happened, the fact that such an attack might have taken place…

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Preet Bharara thinks Rudy Giuliani is in ‘deep trouble’

Preet Bharara thinks Rudy Giuliani is in ‘deep trouble’

Benjamin Hart writes: On Wednesday, federal agents raided Rudy Giuliani’s apartment as part of an investigation into his dealings in Ukraine, which included digging up dirt on Joe Biden in that country. The investigation is being led by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. I spoke with Preet Bharara, who served as the U.S. Attorney for the district from 2009 to 2017 — and whose podcast, Stay Tuned, was recently acquired by Vox Media — about Giuliani’s predicament…

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The CDC is still repeating its mistakes

The CDC is still repeating its mistakes

Zeynep Tufekci writes: Yesterday, the CDC released more relaxed mask guidelines for outdoor activities, as well as new charts for indoor and outdoor recommendations. The more permissive guidelines were a welcome step forward, but they’re still frustrating. By issuing recommendations that are simultaneously too timid and too complicated, the CDC is repeating a mistake that’s hounded America’s pandemic response. The new guidelines are rigid and binary, and aren’t accompanied by explanations or a link to an accessible version of the…

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Cuomo aides spent months hiding nursing home death toll

Cuomo aides spent months hiding nursing home death toll

The New York Times reports: The effort by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s office to obscure the pandemic death toll in New York nursing homes was far greater than previously known, with aides repeatedly overruling state health officials over a span of at least five months, according to interviews and newly unearthed documents. Mr. Cuomo’s most senior aides engaged in a sustained effort to prevent the state’s own health officials, including the commissioner, Howard Zucker, from releasing the true death toll…

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Lessons on free speech and intellectual combat from John Milton

Lessons on free speech and intellectual combat from John Milton

Nicholas McDowell writes: Published at the height of the first English Civil War, Areopagitica: A Speech of Mr John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, to the Parliament of England (1644), remains a powerful defence of free expression. Printing might now have almost given way to digital media as the form in which beliefs and ideas are proposed, argued with and attacked, but the questions raised by Areopagitica about liberty of thought and speech, and more specifically writing, are…

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Moral failure: India is what happens when rich people do nothing

Moral failure: India is what happens when rich people do nothing

Vidya Krishnan writes: India’s experience of the pandemic will be defined by this enormous second wave. But the chamber of horrors the country now finds itself in was not caused by any one man [Prime Minister Narendra Modi], or any single government. It is the greatest moral failure of our generation. India may be classified as a developing or middle-income country, and by international standards, it does not spend enough on the health of its people. Yet this masks many…

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‘This is a catastrophe.’ In India, illness is everywhere

‘This is a catastrophe.’ In India, illness is everywhere

Jeffrey Gettleman reports: Crematories are so full of bodies, it’s as if a war just happened. Fires burn around the clock. Many places are holding mass cremations, dozens at a time, and at night, in certain areas of New Delhi, the sky glows. Sickness and death are everywhere. Dozens of houses in my neighborhood have sick people. One of my colleagues is sick. One of my son’s teachers is sick. The neighbor two doors down, to the right of us:…

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