Новости за 08.01.2021

Even the prospect of the government cutting Americans no-strings-attached $2,000 checks seemed, as 2020 ended, to send certain moderates and liberals into a state of mild panic, as they imagined the funds falling into undeserving hands.

Speaking on Fox News hours after a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, a somber Tucker Carlson had a message for his audience: What happened was tragic, but it was also understandable—maybe even inevitable. “Millions of Americans sincerely believe the last election was fake,” he said. It’s a message that has aired on Fox News again and again since the riot: Violence occurred because the rioters had not had, in Fox & Friends’ Brian Kilmeade’s words, “their day in court.” (Spoiler alert... Читать дальше...

Seemingly a month ago, on Monday, ExxonMobil released its annual Energy & Carbon Summary. For the first time, the company reported its Scope 3 emissions. Those are emissions generated across the so-called value chain of its products, from the steel it buys to build drilling rigs to the emissions given off when the oil Exxon sells is burned off in a gas tank on the highway. Traditionally, Exxon has reported only emissions from its production process and energy use, holding out as competitors began disclosing end use emissions as well. Читать дальше...

The worst manager I ever had could slip frictionlessly between enthusiasm and furor, high-fives and reprimands. He liked to stalk through the restaurant where we worked, his shiny shoes and shiny hair possessed of the same stiff, lacquered sheen. In crossing his path, you risked falling victim to his belittlement, his anger. If he saw you on your phone, he would take it from you. If your dress code-mandated white sneakers weren’t the “right” kind, you’d be required to buy another pair. If you made a mistake... Читать дальше...

For decades, Democrats have tried to downplay any desire to simply give people cash benefits, seemingly fearful of being seen as doling out freebies to the lazy and undeserving—“welfare queens,” in the racist and sexist parlance that was so popular in the Reagan era. Then Joe Biden went down to Georgia with a promise of free money. It may be the reason his party now controls the Senate.

Now that the Democrats have won control of the Senate, with a 50–50 split and a tie-breaking vote for Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, they should forget about those $2,000 stimulus checks and instead increase unemployment benefits and extend their duration.

As pageants go, presidential inaugurations are tame affairs. I went to one—Bill Clinton’s first, when I was 12—and don’t remember a thing about it. The parades are dull, the balls forgettable, the poetry vapid, the speeches boilerplate. The biggest story about President Donald Trump’s inauguration, after all, was its paltry attendance.