Новости за 30.12.2021

In Marlowe Granados’s novel Happy Hour, it is 2012, New York, but not entirely as we knew it. Isa Epley and Gala Novak, two best friends with suitcases stuffed full of clothes and heads stuffed full of schemes, have arrived to spend a summer in the city; they are a brunette and an ice-blonde, respectively, the pairing classic as a mink coat and a pair of diamond earrings. (Isa, who is our narrator and who also happens to be one of the few non-white characters in Happy Hour, ends up being called “exotic” by numerous stupid men... Читать дальше...

In the United States—where just acknowledging the existence of climate change has been enough for companies to earn kudos from liberals—the fact that the major institutions of capital now appear to be taking rising temperatures more seriously than before can seem like a reason for optimism. But these seeming-blessings may not be broadly shared. Yes, business leaders and major firms are acknowledging the climate crisis and its impacts. That doesn’t necessarily portend good news for the planet.

The week before Thanksgiving, House Democrats gave President Joe Biden a victory to be grateful for: passage of his signature bill, the Build Back Better Act, a massive package of social spending, tax, and climate legislation. In a crisp white blazer, Speaker Nancy Pelosi presided over the vote, smiling as she announced the final results: 220 in favor, 213 against. On the floor, Democratic lawmakers erupted into cheers. Some members embraced one another; others broke out into little celebratory dances. Читать дальше...

This month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ran a few ads that deviated from its typical messaging around community responsibility and public health. In early December, spots in English and Spanish ran on Facebook featuring a person wearing an apron hard to describe as anything but Starbucks green. “My job puts me at high risk for Covid-19 exposure,” the worker says. “I got vaccinated because it’s better to be protected than to be out sick.” Later, in a tweet a few days after Christmas... Читать дальше...

Harry Reid was an FDR Democrat. He grew up in a home that didn’t have much and didn’t look like much. In that home, they didn’t practice any religion, but the Reid family did revere one particular individual. “My mother had a navy-blue embroidered pillowcase with a little fringe on it, and she put it up on the wall,” Reid once wrote. “On it, in bright yellow stitching it read, ‘We can. We will. We must. – Franklin Delano Roosevelt.’ And that was my religion.”