Stephan: Look at the chart with which I began this report. Study it. We are the richest country in the world and we live in the shame of the poverty of 1 out of 7 American children, and the poverty of the elderly. We are a very sick society, very sick, and nothing is going to change this except we ourselves. We must change. But are we up to it? I am not sure.
One in seven American children live in poverty, according to the Center for American Progress. Despite the nation’s wealth, the United States has one of the worst child poverty rates among similarly developed countries.
A new poll from Vox and Data for Progress indicates that despite the popularity of child welfare programs, one of the reasons we’ve failed to help millions of children could be a concern that’s dogged public welfare programs for decades:widespread concern that some may take advantage of these benefits.
The introduction of Sen. Mitt Romney’s Family Security Act earlier this month centered child poverty in the national political conversation and drew praise from conservativeandliberal sources alike. As Vox’s Dylan Matthews explained, the bill “overhauls the current child tax credit and turns it from a once-a-year bonus to massive income support, paid out monthly by the Social Security Administration” that would help not just parents with substantial income but lower-paid families too.
But the Utah Republican’s surprising bill prompted backlash from Republicans and some conservative researchers.
In a statement released the day of the bill’s release, Sens. Marco Rubio […]
Stephan: Some more good news from the Biden administration. I am becoming optimistic that we have a president and administration that takes the challenge of climate change seriously. It gives me hope.
President Biden making another good news announcementCredit: White House
President Joe Biden on Friday restored an Obama-era calculation on the economic cost of greenhouse gases, a step that will make it easier for his agencies to approve aggressive actions to confront climate change.
But the administration stopped short, for now, of boosting the cost figure to higher levels that economists and climate scientists say are justified by new research.
The interim figure — $51 for every ton of carbon released into the atmosphere — is well above the $8 cost used under former President Donald Trump, who declined to factor the global impacts of climate pollution into his calculation. It’s on par with a price based on analyses undertaken between 2010 and 2016 under former President Barack Obama, whose administration was first to calculate the figure known as the social cost of carbon.
The price point is temporary. A new Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases is required to issue a final number by January.
“A more complete update that follows the best science takes time. This is why we […]
Stephan: Here, in contrast to what the Biden Administration is doing, is what the MAGA world is doing. After what I saw at CPAC I think it is important to call out evil when you see it. And the MAGA movement is evil and should be recognized as such. Fox knows what it is doing, but it is very profitable and so they suspend any sense of honor or ethics and do it anyway.
A power station in Odessa, Texas, where electricity was cut to many homes and businesses this week. Credit: Jacob Ford/Odessa American/AP
Millions of Texans, trying to survive a winter storm without heat or electricity following the catastrophic failure of the state’s power grid, were at least spared immediate exposure to the torrent of lies about what went wrong in their state being pumped out by Fox News.
As the widespread blackouts continued, so too did the all-out campaign of lying on behalf of the fossil fuel industry from Fox News hosts and Republican elected officials in Texas, who repeated the false claim that frozen wind turbines were to blame, hour after hour, even though wind energy is expected to power just 7 percent of the state’s grid in winter.
At the end of one report from Texas on Tuesday, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner interjected, falsely, that “millions of Americans, in the cold and dark, say the lack of power is because of green energy policies and the vilification of oil, gas, and coal — the stuff that really keeps you warm.
Stephan: As we wake up each morning the Republican Party is trying to stay in power as a permanent racist minority by destroying the guts of our democracy. They want to keep the forms but not the substance. They want to get over two centuries of history, transforming it in a way that is evil. And they are doing this out in the open without shame because they think they can get away with it. Can they? You hold the answer.
WASHINGTON — Led by loyalists who embrace former President Donald J. Trump’s baseless claims of a stolen election, Republicans in state legislatures nationwide are mounting extraordinary efforts to change the rules of voting and representation — and enhance their own political clout.
At the top of those efforts is a slew of bills raising new barriers to casting votes, particularly the mail ballots that Democrats flocked to in the 2020 election. But other measures go well beyond that, including tweaking Electoral College and judicial election rules for the benefit of Republicans; clamping down on citizen-led ballot initiatives; and outlawing private donations that provide resources for administering elections, which were crucial to the smooth November vote.
And although the decennial redrawing of political maps has been pushed to the fall because of delays in delivering 2020 census totals, there are already signs of an aggressive drive to further gerrymander political districts, particularly in states under complete Republican control.
The national Republican Party joined the movement this past week by setting up a Committee on Election Integrity to scrutinize state election laws, echoing similar moves by Republicans in a number of state legislatures.
Republicans have long thought — sometimes quietly, occasionally out loud — that large […]
