Новости за 04.08.2021

Schoolhouse Rock didn’t prepare us for this. There is no cute song to simplify the long and complicated slog to passage for the bill formerly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework, or BIF, even after the Senate managed to clear two daunting procedural hurdles last week.

The 2,072-page text of the bipartisan infrastructure bill was released late Sunday night. From a climate perspective, it’s peanuts. The $1.2 trillion package contains $550 billion of new spending to be dispensed over a decade, which amounts to roughly $55 billion of new money per year. Some of that will be devoted to helping mitigate and adapt to a climate crisis that could render roughly 20 percent of the earth’s surface too hot for human civilization before babies born today turn 50. Amendments could make that figure bigger or smaller. Читать дальше...

When NFL quarterback Dak Prescott doesn’t feel well, the whole world knows about it. The Dallas Cowboys, like all pro football teams, regularly brief the press about injury updates and medical conditions of their players. The team gave regular updates on their star quarterback’s surgery and recovery after a gruesome compound ankle fracture last October. On Tuesday, his coach even announced that Prescott wouldn’t throw during practice because his shoulder hurt. But when asked last week whether he had received the Covid-19 vaccine... Читать дальше...

There is a scene in Moneyball that recounts the old way of evaluating baseball players. A rabble of aging scouts sit in a boardroom tossing out the characteristics of prospects they like: “Good face … good body … lot of pop coming off the bat … passes the eye candy test.” Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) is rolling his eyes. Transfixed by their own romantic projections of the players’ abilities, the scouts are making poor decisions. Beane’s solution is to build a lineup using sabermetrics... Читать дальше...

Senate debate continues this week on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. The proposed legislation marks the first in a series of policy actions that, taken together, could transform our economy and our politics. The trillions of dollars across various interrelated legislative vehicles address a range of social problems, but they are more than just a list of priorities and programs. Together, they represent a new approach to economic policy years in the making.

On a balmy, overcast Tuesday in Washington, protesters and lawmakers gathered on either end of the Capitol to urge Congress and the White House to act on two issues of varying urgency: the push for a new voting rights law and a solution to the recently expired eviction moratorium. The public demonstrations raised thorny questions about what, exactly, the United States government owes its citizens.