WaPo:
The quiet Biden-GOP talks behind the infrastructure deal
That embrace of a well-liked provision hit house with Cassidy. “The president made it clear that that was important for him,” the senator mentioned. “For the reason that president had mentioned it should be there, clearly that was very useful.”
To Struggle Vaccine Lies, Authorities Recruit an ‘Influencer Military’
The White Home has teamed up with TikTok stars, whereas some states are paying “native micro influencers” for pro-vaccine campaigns.
Fewer than half of all Individuals age 18 to 39 are absolutely vaccinated, in contrast with greater than two-thirds of these over 50, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And about 58 percent of these age 12 by means of 17 have but to obtain a shot in any respect.
To achieve these younger folks, the White Home has enlisted an eclectic military of greater than 50 Twitch streamers, YouTubers, TikTokers and the 18-year-old pop star Olivia Rodrigo, all of them with huge on-line audiences. State and native governments have begun comparable campaigns, in some instances paying “native micro influencers” — these with 5,000 to 100,000 followers — as much as $1,000 a month to promote Covid-19 vaccines to their followers.
Many mother and father nonetheless haven’t gotten their adolescent youngsters vaccinated. What are they ready for?
For particular person mother and father taking a look at their very own youngsters, nonetheless, the selection doesn’t at all times appear so clear-cut. Abby had a seizure final yr that was by no means absolutely defined by the slew of medical specialists the household visited, says Kensek, and she or he sometimes suffers from hypertension. It makes Kensek nervous about signing her up for a comparatively new vaccine, regardless of assurances of its security basically.
“I don’t see the need of poking that beast,” she says. “There’s simply not sufficient [data] on the market for us but. The CDC says it’s protected, and that’s nice. However what number of occasions have they gone again on their recommendations?”
She’s hardly alone.
Georgia well being programs hesitate to mandate vaccines
Many well being care programs throughout Georgia haven’t any plans to mandate coronavirus vaccines for frontline employees, regardless of growing infections attributable to a variant that reportedly spreads as simply as chickenpox.
Practically 60 main medical organizations referred to as this week for necessary vaccines for many well being care employees, and an inside report surfaced from the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention that described the extremely contagious nature of the Delta variant that is causing the latest increase. Even so, most well being care programs in Georgia say that whereas they are going to require masks and observe different security protocols, they’ll proceed letting workers resolve on their very own about vaccinations.
Vaccination charges amongst well being care employees range extensively throughout the state, though a majority of workers of many main suppliers have obtained no less than one shot, The Atlanta Journal-Structure discovered.
Already Distorting Jan. 6, G.O.P. Now Concocts Whole Counternarrative
Within the Republicans’ disinformation marketing campaign, the arrested Capitol rioters are political prisoners and Speaker Nancy Pelosi is responsible for the assault.
n the hours and days after the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, rattled Republican lawmakers knew precisely who was responsible: Donald J. Trump. Loyal allies started turning on him. Prime Republicans vowed to make a full break from his divisive ways and dishonesties. Some even mentioned eradicating him from workplace.
By spring, nonetheless, after almost 200 congressional Republicans had voted to clear Mr. Trump throughout a second impeachment continuing, the conservative fringes of the get together had already begun to rewrite historical past, describing the Capitol riot as a peaceable protest and evaluating the invading mob to a “regular vacationer go to,” as one congressman put it.
This previous week, amid the emotional testimony of cops on the first listening to of a Home choose committee, Republicans accomplished their journey by means of the looking-glass, spinning a brand new counternarrative of that lethal day. Now not content material to absolve Mr. Trump, they concocted a model of occasions during which these accused of rioting have been patriotic political prisoners and Speaker Nancy Pelosi was responsible for the violence.
Charlie Sykes/Bulwark:
They Actually Are Deplorable
Mocking the blue
Our pal Olivia Troye asks: “Mocking the officers, the trauma they lived, and downplaying Jan 6… How do these folks sleep at night time?” The actual reply: it’s not simply their enterprise mannequin, it’s develop into a lifestyle.
On one degree D’Souza’s mockery of cops injured within the line of responsibility is simply one other instance of performative assholery, nevertheless it additionally matches a sample value noting: Charlie Kirk mocks Simone Biles for “weak point,” Tucker Carlson cackles about critics, and Laura Ingraham ridicules victims of the January 6 riots.
None of this has any relationship to the battle for freedom, restricted authorities, or nationwide greatness, or something like a coherent set of concepts. However there’s a through-line right here: a strutting posture of fake toughness, and the celebration of the “robust” versus the weak.
We’ve seen this play earlier than.
Kevin Drum/Mom Jones:
The Actual Supply of America’s Rising Rage
We’re at conflict with ourselves, however not for the explanations you assume.
What accounts for this? It’s right here that our widespread explanations run aground. It may’t be all a couple of rise in conspiracy theories, since they’ve been round for many years. It may’t be social media, since Fb and Twitter have develop into widespread within the political enviornment solely over the previous few years. It may’t be a decline in materials consolation, since incomes and employment have steadily improved over the previous couple of a long time. It may’t actually be social traits, since most of them have improved too. And a lot of the particular points that may trigger alarm—immigration, racism, and extra—are unlikely candidates on their very own. They could be extremely polarizing, however in a concrete sense they haven’t gotten worse since 2000. In reality, they’ve principally gotten higher.
To search out a solution, then, we have to search for issues that (a) are politically salient and (b) have modified dramatically over the previous two to a few a long time. The most obvious one is Fox Information.
…
To an extent that many individuals nonetheless don’t acknowledge, Fox Information is a grinding, every day cesspool of white grievance, distrust of deep-state authorities, and a perception that liberals are actually making an attempt to destroy the nation out of sheer malice. Fb and different social media retailers may need made this worse over the previous few years—partly by performing as a type of early warning system for brand new outrages effervescent up from the grassroots that Fox anchors can draw from—however Fox Information stays the wellspring.