Новости за 12.08.2020

Abraham Lincoln argued that what the Union had achieved at Gettysburg would resonate throughout American history and that no flesh-and-blood mortal had the power to diminish it. “In a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground,” he told the assembled crowd during his 1863 address at the battlefield. “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.”

As July ended, the Department of Commerce announced that the economy had contracted by nearly a third; the Department of Labor reported that 1.43 million Americans had lost their jobs. And shortly after those announcements, the Senate adjourned for a long weekend. Over the course of that weekend at the start of August, the enhanced unemployment benefits Congress created in March to soften the economic blow of the Covid-19 pandemic expired. Thirty million people lost their $600 weekly benefits.

Even as his campaign stumbles through these bleak late-summer months, beset by a nationwide health and economic crisis that’s largely of his own making, President Donald Trump is blowing full-bore on his racist dog whistles. The president has, in recent weeks, accused his Democratic opponent, Vice President Joe Biden, of wanting to destroy “our beautiful suburbs.” He’s repeatedly made derisive comments about black public figures and floated racist “Kung Flu” conspiracy theories. He’s even threatened... Читать дальше...

As lawmakers bickered over the next stimulus package in late July, the Democratic Party unveiled an election 2020 draft platform suggesting an unusual amount of bipartisan unity on one issue: China. Broadly adopting much of President Donald Trump’s antagonism, Democrats pledged to “stand up” to the world’s second largest economy. Although a Cold War would be a “trap,” party leaders wrote, and Trump’s trade war has been a disaster, “Democrats will take aggressive action against China or any other... Читать дальше...

Trump’s latest slate of rhetorical outrages began with an interview with Geraldo Rivera on Thursday, during which he made a largely faith-based case against Joe Biden. “I’m in favor of the Bible, I’m in favor of the Second Amendment, right?” he said. “Biden’s against all these things. He’s against oil and gas, he’s against the Bible—essentially against religion, but against the Bible—and he’s against the Second Amendment.”

As we celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment this month, it’s tempting to assume that women’s suffrage is complete. Yet millions of women—because they are incarcerated or on parole, because their legal name doesn’t match certain documents, because the polls are open only during the hours they are at jobs or caring for their families—still don’t have the franchise, either in effect or by law. On Episode 13 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk to Melissa Gira Grant... Читать дальше...

It doesn’t take much to defang a movement. Last week, a group of college athletes in the Pac-12 Conference released a list of demands to create an equitable work environment. The list included the ability to hold schools liable for breaking any agreed upon medical measures, the right to sit out the 2020-21 season without losing eligibility, and a 50 percent share of the conference’s annual revenue—comparable with deals negotiated by players unions in the National Football League and National Basketball Association. Читать дальше...

What many forget about Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign was that, for the most part, she was a happy warrior. Sure, her slash-and-burn attack on Joe Biden over busing in their first debate last June has become seared in our brains through constant repetition on cable TV.