Today's Liberal News

Is Biden Doing Enough to Protect Democracy?

As a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer in the early 2000s, I once received a call from a couple of Republican campaign operatives who said they had something to show me. We met at their office in Washington, D.C., a few days later. They presented printouts of recent election records and pointed to a few cases of what they suspected were people voting illegally. One after another, their examples of voter fraud turned out to be nothing.

How Rage Can Battle Racism

When we think of love, we recognize its varieties. Philia, brotherly love. Eros, romantic love. Agape, universal love. Conditional and unconditional love, requited and unrequited love, love for virtue and love for vice. Our awareness of these different kinds of love not only allows us to perceive its varied forms; it also gives us adequate information to approve or disapprove of a particular type.

“Long March for Justice” Underway Across New Jersey to Demand Police Reform, Reparations

We get an update from New Jersey, where the People’s Organization for Progress is leading a 67-mile march to demand the state Legislature pass legislation to hold police accountable. The nine-day march wraps up Saturday, and activists are demanding passage of a state policy that would give police review boards subpoena power, ban and criminalize chokeholds, establish requirements for use of deadly force and end qualified immunity in New Jersey.

A Death Trap? As 12th Prisoner Dies at NYC’s Rikers Island, Calls Grow to Close World’s Largest Jail

We take an in-depth look at the growing humanitarian crisis at the world’s largest jail complex, Rikers Island in New York City. After touring the jail, New York City Public Advocate ​​Jumaane Williams describes it as “a disaster.” In response to mounting public pressure, most of the women and transgender people at Rikers are being transferred to two prisons, including a maximum-security facility, even as most are still awaiting trial.

“People vs. Fossil Fuels”: Over 530 Arrested in Historic Indigenous-Led Climate Protests in D.C.

This week over 530 climate activists were arrested during Indigenous-led civil disobedience actions in Washington, D.C., calling on President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency and stop approving fossil fuel projects. Indigenous leaders have issued a series of demands, including the abolition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, whose offices they occupied on Thursday for the first time since the 1970s. The protests come just weeks before the start of the critical U.N.

The Nation’s John Nichols: Trump’s Coup Nearly Succeeded. He Will Try Again in 2024

As the House committee probing the January 6 attack on the Capitol ramps up its investigation, new details continue to emerge about former President Donald Trump’s efforts to stay in the White House despite losing the 2020 election. The Senate Judiciary Committee recently revealed Trump directly asked the Justice Department nine times for help overturning the election.

Community Spotlight: This story doesn’t need a trigger warning but it will help you write one

There’s been a lot of talk, on Daily Kos and elsewhere, about content warnings. Also referred to as “trigger warnings,” they send a quick signal to prepare your readers for what’s to come. Trigger warnings are not performative activism games intended to coddle fragility, or a means of short-circuiting discussion of uncomfortable topics. Instead, think of them as a way to avoid provoking serious trouble, like labels identifying food allergens at a potluck dinner.

How low-wage workers are taking back power in the ‘Great Resignation’

by Sydney Pereira

This story was originally published at Prism.

At first, COVID-19 put people out of work. Beginning in March 2020, millions lost jobs practically overnight as government leaders locked down nonessential businesses, and Congress expanded jobless payments to help people weather coronavirus outbreaks.

But nearly two years in, the entire labor market has turned upside down.

Connect! Unite! Act! Celebrating our free writers

Connect! Unite! Act! is a weekly series that seeks to create face-to-face networks in each congressional district. Groups meet regularly to socialize, get out the vote, support candidates, and engage in other local political actions that help our progressive movement grow and exert influence on the powers that be. Visit us every week to see how you can get involved!

I have been told many times that the best way to get better at a skill is simple: practice, practice, practice.

Women over 40 are being trampled by the COVID-19 economy, this week in the war on workers

Women over 40 have been particularly hard-hit by the COVID-19 economy—and, in this as in just about every other piece of bad economic news, Black and Hispanic women have had it the worst. According to a recent AARP report, 14% of women aged 40 to 65 lost their jobs, 13% had their work hours cut, 9% were furloughed, and 4% had their salary or wages cut. Overall, 41% of women in this age group lost job-based income.

Biden Cannot Declare Victory on Climate Without One of These Policies

In the past few years, a historic shift has occurred in American public opinion: For the first time ever, and across a variety of polling outlets, a majority of Americans say that they want to see the government take serious action on climate change. This shift has accompanied an eruption of climate-related disasters. Wildfires now paralyze the West Coast. Heat waves have killed elderly people in their homes.

The Rock Band That Redefined Counterculture

Part of the backlash now facing Baby Boomers—seen in all those memes and essays blaming grandma for the state of capitalism—may simply stem from overexposure. The flower children’s children grew up in a world in which their elders’ revolutionary artworks had become wallpaper, trinkets, and ad fodder. Everyone who wasn’t at Woodstock is all too aware that they’ll never go to Woodstock.

How Scrubs Reinforce Sexist Double Standards

In the spring of 2020, as Boston’s first COVID-19 wave raged, I was the gastroenterologist on call responding to a patient hospitalized with a stomach ulcer. Wearing a layer of yellow personal protective equipment over a pair of baggy scrubs, I spent 30 minutes explaining to him that he needed an endoscopic procedure. We built a rapport, and by the end of our conversation about the pros and cons, he seemed to agree with my recommendation.