Jessica Sutherland

This story first appeared on Daily Kos on Dec. 24, 2020, and its reception has cemented it as an annual holiday tradition. I was so touched this spring when first this tale of my seventh-grade Christmas was nominated, then won an honorable mention in the 20th Anniversary Koscars Personal Essay category.

This story is true, and it’s important to me, as it offers a glimpse into the extremes of life and how rapidly we can veer between them.

Everyone’s heard it and plenty of us have said it: Democrats need stronger messaging. Team Blue doesn’t often talk the same talk as those across the aisle and under that burning dumpster next to the manure pile. And while that’s not a bad thing—Republican rhetoric has led to appalling acts of violence, terrorism, and a whole-ass insurrection, after all—a bit of a stronger tone is sometimes warranted.

This is one of those times.

As omicron surges, Christmas—that bright and wintry holiday that atheists, agnostics, and Christians alike tend to enjoy—looms. Across the world, those who enjoy a big meal, a sparkling tree, and exchanging gifts (though not necessarily those of other faiths, no matter what Big Lie Guy says), have some very hard choices to make.

The weekend is off to a very bad start. Friday night saw a horrific and unusual storm system that led to at least 30 tornadoes in six states, including one three-hour monstrosity that traveled over 200 miles through four states, leaving behind little more than rubble and dozens of lives lost.

At least 159 people remain unaccounted for in the Champlain Towers South condo collapse, with four reported dead as of this writing.

As siab recently pointed out, Community engagement and participation is down. There are myriad reasons for that, and nobody here has pinned it down to just one issue. As the person who leads the Community Contributors team, there’s one way I think we could help. If I’m right, it could have twofold benefit for the Daily Kos Community.

My entire job is to help Community writers create more, better content, and help increase that content’s visibility.

Trust me: After the week this Black woman has had, I’m as surprised by the headline as anyone. Not that a mediocre white man disrespected a Black woman with palpable animosity; that’s every day for us. No, I’m shocked that there were any consequences for this guy being such a jerk, much less such significant ones.

Student debt has become an extremely profitable industry over the past quarter century. It’s also devastated a generation-and-a-half due to predatory terms and practices that the government has created, allowed to persist, and failed to address. Republicans have successfully framed the crisis as one of lazy freeloaders—those who hold the nation’s $1.

I should have written this a year ago. 

As 2020 began, I was stumbling into my new role in Daily Kos management, with eyes that were always damp after a devastating loss weeks earlier. I was building a new department even as my stomach never quite calmed, thanks to a looming pandemic. We’d finally impeached the motherfucker, to quote a certain Michigan congresswoman, and the primaries were raging.

Anger. Rage. Disgust. That is the vibe after 43 cowards and zealots within the Party of Trump opted not to convict their Dear Leader for inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6 in his historical second impeachment. Seven Republicans—a record-breaking 14% of the caucus—did vote “Guilty,” but it wasn’t enough to protect the nation from four more years of Trump rallies full of emboldened devotees.

More than 25,000 members of the United States National Guard have been called up to protect the nation’s capital in the wake of the violent insurrection incited by Donald Trump on Jan. 6.

My Christmases have not always been good ones; they also haven’t always been bad ones. Strangely, the Christmas I recall most fondly is a bit of both, from the holiday season I lived at the Salvation Army shelter in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, when I was 12.

My mom and I had moved to the shelter after we got kicked out of a nasty freeway motel at the very fringes of the suburbs where I’d spent my entire life.

A joint statement released Thursday evening by the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council (GCC) Executive Committee confirms what nearly 80% of Americans already know to be true: President-elect Joe Biden won, fair and square, because over 150 million voters just participated in an election that was the “most secure in American history.

At this point, it seems unlikely anyone’s minds will change about their presidential candidate of choice. It seems like everyone knows the David Sedaris take on undecided voters, and I don’t believe this last dash is even about them. These final days of the Biden-Harris campaign are about motivating voters to go to the polls in the first place. To convince them that they must do their part to help rid this country of the worst president it’s ever seen.

Last Saturday was Vote Early Day, a joyful celebration of the great right and responsibility to shape the direction of this nation. The dispatches from Vote Early Day featured singing, dancing, laughter, and other forms of joy. 

The dispatches since are a bit more somber. Sure, folks are celebrating submitting their ballots—I did, after I voted on Tuesday—but most folks’ focus is on getting others to vote.

You’ve probably seen footage of Donald Trump’s first excursion into a library Saturday, when he shut down an entire South Florida precinct, just so he could vote for himself in a state where he does not live. But what about everyone else? With 10 days before Election Day, early voting is now open in almost every state that offers it, and voters were ready as soon as it happened where they live.

Saturday also marks the inaugural Vote Early Day.

No matter what happens, this is Donald Trump’s last presidential debate. That’s the straw American voters grasped at Thursday night ahead of the final showdown between the impeached and infected Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. This debate—the second of what was supposed to be three—was broadcast live from Belmont University in Nashville, moderated by NBC News’ Kristen Welker, and followed the same format as the first debate on Sept.

“Comma-la.” That is how you say Sen. Kamala Harris’ name. She says it correctly every time she introduces herself. The media gets it right, mostly. Yet because she’s Black, because she’s Indian, because she’s a woman, and because she’s a Democrat about to be vice president, Republicans are making a point to mispronounce her name, all in the hopes of knocking her down a few pegs through the petty act of othering.

Dr. Balachandran Gopalan is Sen. Kamala Harris’ maternal uncle, and you best believe that he watched his niece—who happens to be the first South Asian American vice presidential nominee in American history (as well as the first Black one)—as she debated the white-haired liar who currently holds the nation’s second-highest office.

The campaign to eject Donald Trump from the White House and replace him with Joe Biden dropped an ad beautifully targeted at Black voters Saturday. “Mayors” features duly elected city leaders from across the country, and has one simple message: Vote. 

The ad was released on a day where Candace Owens and Trump hosted multiple superspreader events, including one that definitely was the latter’s latest Hatch Act violation.

Vice President Mike Pence and California Sen. Kamala Harris descended upon Salt Lake City, Utah, Wednesday for the lone debate between the two people vying to be the nation’s No. 2.

Sean Conley, White House doctor, held one heck of a press conference Saturday morning. Surrounded by a gaggle of masked doctors and nurses, perfectly placed in front of Walter Reed Medical Center, Dr. Conley spoke from written remarks, and named the medical professionals behind him, even letting two of them speak. He then fielded questions, carefully dodging certain ones. 

It was a brief event, and left reporters and Americans confused by two big things: Dr.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump headed to Cleveland on Tuesday, descending upon Case Western Reserve University for the first of three scheduled presidential debates. Moderated by Fox News’ Chris Wallace, who has vowed not to fact-check either candidate, the socially-distanced event featured a far smaller audience than usual.

The House of Representatives convened a special session on Saturday, specifically to address the Postal Service crisis created by the Trump administration, passing a legislative package that includes $25 billion in funding and blocks Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s recent and future attempts to foment chaos and inefficiency in this most essential and Constitutionally-protected service.

If you didn’t know, Donald Trump is golfing and hanging out with rich people in New Jersey this weekend, so of course, high on flattery, he’s holding media events. Saturday’s press conference took Trump away from the links for less than half an hour, ending abruptly when a CBS News reporter challenged the impeached president on one of his favorite falsehoods.

Days after being forced to share air with a Texas congressman (and staunch anti-mask enthusiast)—who tested positive for COVID-19 the very next day—Democratic congressman Raúl Grijalva announced Saturday that he, too, has tested positive for the deadly virus. 

WASHINGTON— Today, Rep. Raúl M.

The latest modification to the ever-changing Republican National Convention is one that seems to cater to the incumbent seeking re-election, and his endless war on the media: The entire four-day event will be closed to members of the press, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The legacy nonprofit of the 40th U.S. President, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, responded this week to a joint fundraising stunt from the Republican National Committee (RNC) and Donald Trump’s re-election campaign by squashing it, the Washington Post reported Saturday. The Foundation’s concern? The Trump campaign’s trading of trashy coin and photo sets featuring the Gipper and the Orange Menace for a little less than 50 bucks.

Six days after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oregon added agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and United States Marshals to its existing lawsuit against the City of Portland and the Portland Police Bureau, a federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Donald Trump-deployed secret police. 

The original class-action lawsuit was filed June 30 on behalf of journalists and legal observers.

A member of the U.S. House of Representatives has been indicted on four charges related to an investigation into illegal voting. Topeka, Kansas authorities announced Tuesday that Rep. Steve Watkins, a Republican, faces four charges in all, including one misdemeanor, tied to the investigation, which stems from Watkins’ registering to vote in 2019 with a false address, then attempting to rectify it with another useless address when he was caught.