Новости за 09.04.2021

“What is infrastructure?” Somehow, this is the question under debate right now, thanks to America’s antiquated political system, which has made it virtually impossible to pass anything that isn’t a giant omnibus bill by the slimmest of margins. That could well make the recently proposed “infrastructure bill” President Biden’s last, best chance to jam something through the budget reconciliation process. Republicans are now arguing that any proposal that isn’t only about roads and bridges isn’t... Читать дальше...

Dan Pfieffer, a former senior aide to President Barack Obama and current podcast co-host, shared some interesting data in a recent newsletter. If you had the vague sense that the incredibly stupid story of the “cancellation” of Dr. Seuss was basically all conservatives were talking about for much of last month, well, you were right. According to a poll, 77 percent of Republican voters reported hearing “a lot” or “some” news about Dr. Seuss’s estate pulling a few of his books from circulation for including racist imagery. Читать дальше...

One night in 2016, during “a crack-fueled, cross-country odyssey” that he recalls in his new memoir, Beautiful Things, Hunter Biden saw an owl. He had already totaled one rental car that trip. Suddenly, “an enormous barn owl … swooped over my windshield, as if dropped straight from the inky night sky.” It flew in his headlights like a guide along the winding mountain road, “like a stunt plane at an air show.” The meaning of this apparition, which he thinks saved his life? “I didn’t know if it was real or a hallucination... Читать дальше...

Democracies depend on law; authoritarian systems prefer legal theater. In recent cases having to do with religion, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court has shown a distinct preference for the latter. This unsubtle turn in the direction of performative justice is among the more disturbing developments in American politics over the past decade. It is evidence of the drift in America’s right flank toward a new authoritarian religious nationalism.

Contrary to Saudi Arabia’s self-proclaimed image as a reform-minded state gradually opening to the world, the country’s human rights situation is worsening, according to both activists and the family members of imprisoned dissidents. “Saudi Arabia is carrying out more repression” than ever, said Areej Al Sadhan, whose brother Abdulrahman, a 37-year-old aid worker, was abducted by Saudi security forces in 2018 for running a satirical Twitter account. “They are ruthlessly going after anyone who... Читать дальше...