Today's Liberal News

The 2020 Olympics: 7 Sports We’re Watching

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.That legendary flame is lit. The 2020 Olympics opened a year late in Tokyo, kicking off with a somber and strange ceremony that spoke to this upsetting moment in history. Below, seven writers and editors catch you up on the sports they plan to watch in the coming weeks of competition.

Just Out of Jail, Winona LaDuke Decries Militarized Crackdown on Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline Protests

Nearly 600 water protectors have been arrested during ongoing protests in Minnesota against the construction of the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline at the Shell River, which the partially completed pipeline is set to cross in five places. On Monday, authorities arrested Indigenous leader Winona LaDuke and at least six others. She was just released from jail yesterday and joins us after three nights in jail.

“COVID Games” Begin in a Fearful Japan as Olympic Committee Prioritizes “Profits Over All Else”

As the Summer Olympics begin in Tokyo after the International Olympic Committee pushed forward during a pandemic despite widespread opposition in Japan, we speak with a protester outside the Olympic stadium and former Olympic athlete Jules Boykoff. “The people have been frustrated actually ever since the awarding of the Olympics in 2013,” says Satoko Itani, associate professor of sports, gender and sexuality at Kansai University.

“All We Can Save”: As Climate Disasters Wreck Our Planet, Women Leaders Are Key to Solving the Crisis

As the impacts of the climate emergency continue to be felt around the globe, white men overwhelmingly dominate the airwaves on climate coverage. We speak with co-editors of the new book “All We Can Save,” an anthology of essays by 60 women at the forefront of the climate justice movement. “We are simply not seeing very much climate coverage at all in the mainstream media,” says Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist and co-founder of the Urban Ocean Lab.

Community Spotlight: Good things happen, sometimes when you least expect it

The Community at the heart of Daily Kos manifests not just in our stories but also in our comments. We build community through our interactions, by asking questions of the group hivemind, seeking problem-solving help, fundraising to support causes and individuals, and by telling our personal stories. We fiercely defend our Community and hold it up as an example of what makes Daily Kos special, even as we gripe about the new site design.

Vice President Harris breaks tie to confirm key labor appointee, this week in the war on workers

The National Labor Relations Board has a new general counsel after Vice President Kamala Harris broke a tie in the Senate to confirm Jennifer Abruzzo, 51-50. President Joe Biden fired Donald Trump’s NLRB general counsel, Peter Robb, on Inauguration Day after Robb refused to resign.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions also moved forward with two of Biden’s NLRB nominees this week.

Energy Roundup: Iron batteries vs. fossil fuels, nuclear vs. climate change, drought vs. life

Back when I was, unfortunately, working for the world’s largest coal company, employees were regularly made guinea pugs for the various propaganda pitches that the industry concocted to combat clear evidence that fossil fuels were generating enormous harm at all levels. One of those pitches what that coal-powered electricity was the only way to provide energy to Africa. The core of that pitch was simply this: Coal is cheap.

The Missing Pieces of Anthony Bourdain

Regardless of whether you loved Anthony Bourdain—and the striking thing is that so many people who had even a spotty acquaintance with him or his work felt like they did—the end of Roadrunner is devastating to watch. Morgan Neville’s new documentary about the chef and TV star runs through two decades of Bourdain’s life onscreen before concluding with present-day scenes of his friends still struggling to parse his death by suicide in 2018, at the age of 61.

The Limits of Sex Positivity

For more than half a century, the modern industry of sex therapists, educators, and experts has been eager to tell us whether we’re having enough sex, or the right kind of sex. But this industry is, like any other, shaped by the broader culture—it took for granted that the goal was to “get everybody to the point where they have a type of desire and quality of desire that fits within the cultural norms and values,” the sex therapist and researcher Michael Berry says.