Today's Liberal News

This Week in Statehouse Action: Don’t Mask Don’t Tell edition

Big news today for the fully vaxxed: You can ditch your mask (in most circumstances)!

(As an erudite consumer of this missive, you are no doubt well on your way to or already at full vaccination activation, health/personal circumstances permitting.)

As someone whose face is basically its own emoji, I’m extremely excited about this (though I’m kissing my professional poker playing dreams goodbye).

New fundraising agreement helps ensure Democrats in GOP-majority states won’t get left behind

Here at Daily Kos, we have a strong and consistent focus on state and local elections. Midterm elections are huge, but as we know, don’t tend to get the same attention from national media outlets (or voters) as the presidential election does. Why does this matter now? As reported by the Associated Press, Democratic officials at both the state and national level have reached a fundraising agreement in order to get more aid to state parties.

Podcast: Share the Vaccine ‘Recipe’

When the Biden administration announced support for waiving COVID-19 vaccine patents last week, it was met with praise, relief, skepticism, and alarm by different groups—but surprise all around. Pharmaceutical giants have long fought efforts to have their intellectual property released to meet international needs. And they’ve backed it up with immense political muscle.

Is This the End?

The announcement seemed to catch everyone off guard: Early Thursday afternoon, the government told Americans that if they were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, they did not need to wear a mask—indoors or outside, in groups small or large.People who have gotten their shots, Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, said at a White House press briefing, “can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.

In Pursuit of Happiness: A Live Virtual Event

What does it take to be happy?America’s founding document states that the pursuit of happiness is an unalienable right. But this question has preoccupied philosophers, fascinated scientists, inspired artists, launched an enormous self-help industry—and continues to elude many of us.The Atlantic will host a live event that explores the human hold on happiness—and aims to find ways to build a more meaningful life. The event features Arthur C.

Nathan Thrall on the Historic Palestinian Uprising Against Israeli Control from the River to the Sea

We look at the crisis unfolding in Israel-Palestine with Nathan Thrall, former director of the Arab-Israeli Project at the International Crisis Group and writer now based in Jerusalem, who says despite a buildup of Israeli troops on the Gaza border, Israel wants to avoid a ground invasion of the besieged territory and return to the status quo that existed before the latest round of violence.

“Lynch Mobs”: Palestinians Face Brutal Attacks Inside Israel as Assault on Gaza Escalates

Televised images of Israeli mobs attacking Palestinians have been widely denounced by Israeli media and public figures, but Palestinian writer Budour Hassan says the selective outrage ignores decades of occupation that have led to this point. “There is some mention of these lynch mobs that are attacking Palestinians in mixed cities. What is not mentioned is who emboldened these lynch mobs.

Poet Mohammed El-Kurd Detained in Sheikh Jarrah After Condemning Israeli Apartheid on U.S. TV

On Monday, we spoke to writer and poet Mohammed El-Kurd, whose family is facing forceful eviction from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. He also spoke on CNN and MSNBC. After these interviews, Israeli forces arrested him and forcibly removed him from Sheikh Jarrah. It was captured in a dramatic video shared widely on social media. “They just threw me in the street and told me that I couldn’t come back into the neighborhood,” El-Kurd says.