Today's Liberal News

The First Glimmer of Accountability

The indictment unsealed on Thursday in New York does not charge Donald Trump personally. It addresses only a small slice of alleged wrongdoing by the organization named after him and which, for most of his life, he ran. It doesn’t speak to any of the numerous instances of misconduct and potential criminality that took place during Trump’s presidency, nor should it be understood as a referendum on that misconduct. But it offers the first glimmer of accountability, all the same.

“Defending the Sacred”: Indigenous Water Protectors Continue Resistance to Line 3 Pipeline in Minnesota

Resistance to construction of the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline continues in northern Minnesota, where more than a dozen water protectors this week locked themselves to construction vehicles at two worksites, and to the pipeline itself. Just last month, 179 people were arrested when thousands shut down an Enbridge pumping station for two days as part of the Treaty People Gathering.

Trump Organization and Top Company Exec Charged with Tax Fraud. Is Donald Trump Next?

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has charged former President Donald Trump’s family business with operating a 15-year tax fraud scheme, accusing the Trump Organization of helping executives evade taxes by giving them compensation off the books. Allen Weisselberg, the company’s chief financial officer, who has worked with Trump for decades, was also charged with grand larceny for avoiding taxes on $1.7 million in perks that he did not report as income.

Supreme Court “Hijacking” Democracy with Rulings That Gut Voting Rights & Allow More Dark Money

In a pair of major rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court has gutted more of the Voting Rights Act while making it easier for billionaires to secretly bankroll political campaigns. In a 6-3 vote, the conservative justices upheld two Arizona election laws that have been widely criticized for their impact on minority voters, sending a signal that other voting restrictions in Republican-led states are also likely to be ruled constitutional if challenges are brought to the high court.

Connecting all of America

The slow, spotty internet access in rural Colorado plagued Steve Hardin for years, foiling his efforts to send emails and pay bills online, but the poor service never irritated him as much as the time it hurt his stepdaughter’s grades. She was attending college remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic when the internet suddenly went out, causing her to miss deadlines for several assignments.

Nuts & Bolts: Inside a Democratic campaign: 50 years since the 26th amendment

Welcome back to the weekly Nuts & Bolts Guide to small campaigns. Every week I try to tackle issues I’ve been asked about. With the help of other campaign workers and notes, we address how to improve and build better campaigns, or explain issues that impact our party.

July 1 marked a major moment in United States history. The 26th Amendment gave citizens age 18 and over the right to vote in America. The amendment is simple:

Sec.

The Republican fight against high-speed rail in Florida exposes their grift

Florida is uniquely configured for a high-speed rail line. Major cities are at each corner of our vast state, and it’s not practical to fly, so you must drive. Florida is essentially a bastion, with only one highway going in and out: Interstate 95, which is often backed up. In a hurricane, we are told not to even use the interstate unless absolutely necessary because it will inevitably become clogged.

‘I’m a Democrat. I hate the company’: So sums up my feelings for Hobby Lobby this Fourth of July

In keeping with what has become an annual tradition at the company, Hobby Lobby took out full-page ads in select newspapers throughout the country on Sunday listing under the title “One Nation Under God” religious quotes from the nation’s founding fathers, first presidents, and other political leaders. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,” the ad reads, quoting from Psalm 33:12.

Beloved Park

                 for Carlina Rivera                The city
is like
a mismanaged
notebook
found
on a bench
by a hope
ful man
who spun
a tale
for the city
that wanted
to change
but once
the notebook
was his
he began
tearing out &
selling
its pages.
One page
the park
we
love
sold to a
man
who insisted
he could
make
the park
a boat.
But where
will the trees
go we
cried and the
birds that
are living
in them.

Even Trigger Warning Is Now Off Limits

Thirty years ago, someone taught me to say actor rather than actress and chairperson rather than chairman, to discourage our thinking of occupational performance as elementally distinct depending on sex. I understood. Language does not shape thought as much as is often supposed.

The Other July 4

When my wife and I were young parents living in Manhattan, we rented an apartment above a psychiatrist with many wealthy patients. Through each hour of the working day, a succession of limousines and drivers would wait on the curb for one patient after another to exit the office. I once had the opportunity to ask what brought his clients to his door. He answered that they all presented versions of the same complaint: They thought they were frauds.