Новости за 04.02.2021

On Wednesday, Newsmax—the demented far-right channel seemingly modeled after North Korean newscasts—was forced to air a groveling apology to Mike Lindell, the mustachioed martial law enthusiast and pillow salesman. Lindell, you see, had been rudely cut off by a Newsmax anchor the previous day while spouting insane conspiracies about voting machines switching votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Lindell’s interlocutor, anchor Bob Sellers—concerned about legal threats from... Читать дальше...

There is a story about Joe Biden that has been retold many times in the press over the last several years, largely because it seems to illuminate his political sensibilities and penchant for dealmaking. Noam Scheiber told an early version of this story right here in The New Republic. And it showed up more recently in Alex Thompson’s Politico Magazine feature on Biden’s relationship with Mitch McConnell.

On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that Kroger, the nation’s largest grocery chain, has elected to close two stores in Long Beach, California after the local city council passed an ordinance requiring a temporary $4 pandemic raise for grocery workers. Kroger, which doubled its profits in 2019, targeted these stores to send a message that the company will not be coerced into paying its workers a fair wage during the pandemic—or ever. It’s a threat. It also might work.

“Amtrak Joe” loves trains. He has taken Amtrak round trips between Delaware and Washington, D.C., some 8,200 times. He almost took one to his presidential inauguration, and he actually did take one to his first vice presidential inauguration, later waxing sentimental about the experience in a cover story for Amtrak’s Arrive magazine. “I saw our future the same way I always did: looking out Amtrak’s windows,” he wrote.

The recent furor regarding speculation in the stock of GameStop—which soared far beyond its fundamental value, due to a technique known as a short squeeze—has focused attention on the nature of the stock market and what it means both politically and economically. CNN’s Chris Cillizza sees the bipartisan hostility toward hedge funds—so far, the big losers in the GameStop imbroglio—as a manifestation of Trumpian populism. But critics of market manipulation, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, see... Читать дальше...

All Americans believe in equality, but they don’t believe in it equally—an awkward circumstance that politicians have always struggled to paper over.

Two months before armed insurrectionists stormed the Capitol, the first major operation to “Stop the Steal” went down in Philadelphia. On November 5, Joshua Macias, a former Navy petty officer, and his partner, Antonio LaMotta, a self-described “private security company CEO” and “artist” who’d served in the Army, drove a silver Hummer adorned with QAnon stickers from their Virginia hometown to the Philadelphia Convention Center, where officials were counting ballots. Packed inside the SUV were handguns... Читать дальше...