First Republic is the third bank to fail after the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature. In total, $47bn in bank assets have disappeared into smoke, the losses being taken in part by the shareholders and holders of the bonds in these banks. But there has also been a cost to public funds.
So far in 2023, state lawmakers have introduced a record-breaking least 483 anti-trans bills. Put differently, only four states have not done so. These include banning parents from allowing their teens to attend drag shows, barring insurance companies from covering gender-affirming medical care (already in use for several decades), and even making it illegal for parents and medical providers to dispense gender affirming care to minors.
This “new machine” is supposed to press the corporations to pay their fair share. But given the dynamics of electoral politics—where there is always another election to plan for—and where Johnson will be looking to shore up his support, that “new machine” can become the vehicle by which Johnson’s wing of the Democratic Party co-opts another generation of activists.
This year alone, state lawmakers have introduced a staggering 483 anti-trans bills, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker, which compiles information from civil rights groups and other sources. Only four states have not had an anti-trans bill introduced this session.
Whatever happens in this one-party Democratic Party city—the third largest in the country and one of its leading transportation, manufacturing, and technology hubs—will have national implications.
The progressives, with the Squad in tow, followed a well-worn path: set out a “progressive” position; pledge to hold fast to it; compromise with their mainstream opponents; vote for the mainstream “compromise” which drops the progressive position; then, after it passes with their votes, claim that’s what they wanted all along.
“Politicians are happy to voice platitudes and heap praise upon us for our heroism throughout the pandemic,” said one rail leader. “Yet when the steel hits the rail, they back the powerful and wealthy Class 1 rail carriers every time.”
Australia may be far from the US Air Force’s target—China—but that is why the bombers will be stationed here.
The results of the U.S. midterm election broke a well-established historical pattern of the “out” party scoring a victory over the president’s party. In the process, the results made fools of the right-wing politicians and pundits who had proclaimed that a “red wave” would wipe out the Democrats and, possibly, put President Biden on the road to impeachment.
Trump knew he lost the 2020 election, but he continued to propagate the Big Lie anyway. But the challenges to the election were only a part of a multi-pronged strategy to stop the congressional certification of Biden’s election, and to keep himself in power by hook or by crook.
At the top of the ballot, Amendment 1, also known as the Workers Rights Amendment, offers voters the chance to constitutionally protect the fundamental right of Illinois workers to unionize and collectively bargain over wages, hours, working conditions and economic benefits.
Threatened by the increasing left and liberal cultural offensive, which prominently includes the activities of “cancel culture” (although as we shall see by no means limited to it), the American right and extreme right have mounted a political and cultural counteroffensive of their own.
In the place of government-led public health measures, and requirements that employers provide safe workplaces, we have a reversion to the idea that protecting oneself from COVID-19 is an individual responsibility. And for making this approach to the pandemic the conventional wisdom, business has the Democrats to thank.
Taiwan is not the only potential flashpoint. China is the world’s leading exporting nation, and 95 percent of Chinese trade is seaborne, which makes control over the South China Sea of vital strategic importance to both the US and China.
When one looks at the American labor movement today, one immediately sees an important contradiction. There are very few strikes, yet a considerable number of young people, most prominently at Starbucks, are organizing into unions.
