Pandemic
Economy
It’s more than a little disturbing that it’s possible to see the pandemic response this way:
One party prevented my family from being evicted, paused my wife's student loans and gave me $1,800. The other party allows my family to be evicted, restarted my wife's student loan payments and gave me $600
— Eddie (@SoSocialism) November 30, 2021
But then, here’s that list again:
- Abortion
- Climate crisis
Evictions(rental assistance money seems finally to be being distributed, easing this threat[1])- Gun nuttery
- Health care
- Infrastructure (specifically, the
$3.5sub-$2 trillion reconciliation package, now dubbed Build Back Better) - Minimum wage
- Unemployment
- Voting rights
- White supremacist gangs (police)
I’m worried,[2]seriously worried,[3] now, about the direction this country is headed.
(Inter)national
Justin Huggler, “Angela Merkel backs compulsory Covid jabs as Germany agrees de facto lockdown for unvaccinated,” Telegraph, December 2, 2021, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/12/02/germany-announce-nationwide-covid-lockdown-unvaccinated/
Academic freedom
There is a new blog post entitled, “How Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale moves from fiction to fact.”
Josh Moody, “Nebraska Lawmakers Call for Resignation of UNL Chancellor,” Inside Higher Ed, December 1, 2021, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/12/01/nebraska-lawmakers-call-resignation-unl-chancellor
Emma Pettit, “‘It Just Felt Wrong’: U. of Florida Faculty Say Political Fears Stalled an Initiative on Race,” Chronicle of Higher Education, November 30, 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/article/it-just-felt-wrong-u-of-florida-faculty-say-political-fears-stalled-an-initiative-on-race
Ukraine
So, yeah, all of a sudden, I’m paying attention to the possibility of Russia invading Ukraine. The worry about it has crossed an ill-defined threshold for me.
Eugene Rumer and Andrew S. Weiss, “Ukraine: Putin’s Unfinished Business,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, November 12, 2021, https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/11/12/ukraine-putin-s-unfinished-business-pub-85771
Robin Emmott, “Ukraine PM says Russia ‘absolutely’ behind suspected coup attempt,” Reuters, November 30, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/exclusive-ukraine-pm-says-russia-absolutely-behind-coup-attempt-2021-11-30/
Vladimir Isachenkov, “Putin warns West: Moscow has ‘red line’ about Ukraine, NATO,” Associated Press, November 30, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/europe-russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-moscow-cd558699728e9ae935eaadf940efeb18
Michael McFaul and Oleksiy Honcharuk, “The best response to Russia’s threats is a closer relationship with Ukraine,” Washington Post, December 1, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/01/best-response-russias-threats-is-closer-relationship-with-ukraine/
Teri Schultz, “Russia has been warned: So will NATO defend Ukraine?” Deutschewelle, December 1, 2021, https://www.dw.com/en/russia-has-been-warned-so-will-nato-defend-ukraine/a-59983502
Abortion
There is a new blog post entitled, “On the likely overturning of Roe v. Wade.”
Fig. 1. Map via the Washington Post in a newsletter, December 2, 2021, fair use.[4]
Irin Carmon, “This Is How Roe Ends,” New York, December 1, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/12/supreme-court-looks-likely-to-kill-roe-in-mississippi-case.html
Ruth Marcus, “The question is not whether ‘Roe v. Wade’ is overturned — but how,” Washington Post, December 1, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/01/supreme-court-ponders-how-to-overturn-roe/
Amber Phillips, “4 takeaways from the Supreme Court arguments on abortion,” Washington Post, December 1, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/12/01/takeaways-scotus-mississippi-abortion/
David G. Savage, “Supreme Court justices sound ready to restrict the right to abortion,” Los Angeles Times, December 1, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-12-01/supreme-court-weighs-future-of-abortion-rights-and-roe-vs-wade
Paul Waldman, “At the Supreme Court, the bell tolls for Roe v. Wade,” Washington Post, December 1, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/01/bell-tolls-for-roe/
Mary Ziegler, “The End of Roe,” Atlantic, December 1, 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/abortion-abortion-oral-argument-supreme-court/620874/
Amy Davidson Sorkin, “The Supreme Court Looks Ready to Overturn Roe,” New Yorker, December 2, 2021, https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-supreme-court-looks-ready-to-overturn-roe
Pacific Gas and Electric
Sending this one to my mother with love. She still lives in the county where this fire happened and I was really worried.
Dale Kasler, “California fines PG&E millions over Kincade Fire – the state’s worst wildfire of 2019,” Sacramento Bee, December 2, 2021, https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article256293677.html
- [1]Chris Arnold, “Evictions rising even as rental help from Congress reaches millions of people,” National Public Radio, November 11, 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/11/11/1053540080/evictions-rising-even-as-rental-help-from-congress-reaches-millions-of-people↩
- [2]David Benfell, “How Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale moves from fiction to fact,” Not Housebroken, December 1, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/12/01/how-margaret-atwoods-the-handmaids-tale-moves-from-fiction-to-fact/↩
- [3]David Benfell, “On the likely overturning of Roe v. Wade,” Not Housebroken, December 2, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/12/02/on-the-likely-overturning-of-roe-v-wade/↩
- [4]Rachel Roubein, “Biden says he’ll battle omicron with testing and boosters,” Washington Post, December 2, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/12/02/biden-says-he-battle-omicron-with-testing-boosters/↩