Best picture nods include “All Quiet on the Western Front”; “Avatar: The Way of Water”; “The Banshees of Inisherin”; “Elvis”; “Everything Everywhere All at Once”; “The Fabelmans”; and “Tár”
(Image credit: Jae C. Hong/AP)
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National News
‘Republicans’ worst nightmare’: Analyst warns ‘drunk with power’ GOP it’s made a stumble
An analyst warns Thursday that GOP lawmakers "drunk with power" have made a major stumble amid the ongoing government shutdown, unleashing "Republicans' worst nightmare."
Salon columnist Heather Digby Parton writes about how Obamacare premiums are set to soar — something President Donald Trump had promised to replace — and now "appears to be one step too far" for Americans.
"Ten years of similar promises have shown that replacing the Affordable Care Act wasn’t so easy after all — and that the only health care plan the GOP ever truly wanted was one called 'you’re on your own,'" Digby Parton writes.
Republicans haven't introduced any alternatives, instead people are receiving notices that their healthcare premiums are set to rise, while they cut Medicaid and close a number of rural hospitals, add work requirements and deny care to millions. And although they've pointed to Project 2025, aiming to force people into a privatized version of Medicaid and "plan to open up the market to sell junk insurance plans which are worth virtually nothing," it's still a half-baked policy, the writer argues.
"But the GOP’s lack of strategy and success makes it clear the party is as flummoxed on this issue as they’ve always been, and they know it’s a loser for them," she writes.
Healthcare matters for Americans because it's something that effects their daily lives, she adds, and "it’s now on the front lines of this massive war against our social safety net."
As the Trump administration works to defund scientific research and following "the government's shambolic response during the first year of the pandemic and the damage being done every day by the administration to our scientific research community, I suspect a lot of people are feeling insecure about their actual health care these days."
That could leave room for Democrats to step in and hold the line.
"If Democrats can find the fortitude to hold out for their demands, they will have taken the first step in reining in this lawless administration and given the American people something to hold onto in these dark days," Digby Parton writes.
National News
FEMA pressures staff to rat out colleagues who have criticized Trump anonymously: report
A number of Federal Emergency Management Agency staff that openly criticized President Donald Trump are under intense investigation from FEMA leadership, and under threats of termination should they refuse to reveal the names of their colleagues who criticized Trump anonymously, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
Nearly 200 FEMA employees signed onto a letter in August pushing back against the Trump administration’s cuts to FEMA, warning that the cuts could jeopardize the agency’s ability to adequately respond to disasters.
More than a dozen FEMA employees – all of whom signed onto the letter – were soon placed on leave. Now, remaining staff that had signed onto the letter using their name are being investigated by agency leadership, being threatened to reveal the names of their colleagues who signed the letter anonymously, according to insiders who spoke with Bloomberg and documents reviewed by the outlet.
“The interviews with FEMA workers have been carried out by the agency's division that investigates employee misconduct, and those interviewed have been told they risk being fired for failure to cooperate,” Bloomberg writes in its report. “The employees have been instructed not to bring counsel, according to people familiar with the process.”
The revelation that FEMA staff under investigation were being instructed not to bring legal counsel was revealed, in part, by Colette Delawalla, the founder of the nonprofit organization Stand Up for Science, the same organization that helped FEMA staff publish its letter of dissent.
“They are not really given an option not to comply,” Delawalla told Bloomberg. “They don’t have guidance while they’re in there.”
Trump has previously said he wanted to phase out FEMA and “bring it down to the state level,” with the agency struggling to respond to emergencies such as the deadly Texas flood in July following new Trump administration policies that led to funding lapses for the agency.
A previous batch of FEMA employees – 140 of them – were placed on leave back in July for signing onto a different letter of dissent, which itself followed a number of FEMA employees being forcibly reassigned to work for Immigrations Customs and Enforcement amid Trump’s mass deportation push.
Critics have characterized the FEMA purges as a blatant violation of the Whistleblower Protection Act, which provides clear protections for government employees from retaliation for disclosing information that is a “specific danger to public health or safety.”