Today's Liberal News

News Roundup: Republican coup plot nearly dragged in NSA; Iowa Republicans want to spy on your kids

In the news today: There seem to be few parts of the government that Republicans didn’t try to subvert in the attempt to topple the United States government last January, and you can now count the National Security Agency among them. There also seem to be few parts of the plan that Trump’s alleged “legal” team weren’t directly involved with.

Outside of Washington, D.C., Republican attacks on schools are only heating up.

Daily Kos Elections 4Q 2021 Senate fundraising reports roundup

Quarterly fundraising reports for federal candidates covering the period from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31 were due at the Federal Elections Commission on Jan. 31 by 11:59 PM ET. Below is our chart of fundraising numbers for every Senate incumbent up for reelection this cycle (excluding those who’ve said they’re retiring) and any notable announced or potential candidates.

As always, all numbers are in thousands. The chart, and an explanation of each column, can be found below.

Daily Kos Elections 4Q 2021 House fundraising reports roundup

Quarterly fundraising reports for federal candidates covering the period from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31 were due at the Federal Elections Commission on Jan. 31 by 11:59 PM ET. Below is our chart of fundraising numbers for every House incumbent (excluding those who’ve said they’re retiring) and any notable announced or potential candidates.

As always, all numbers are in thousands. The chart, and an explanation of each column, can be found below.

Black Trumpkin pastor in Virginia brags about issuing 17,000 religious exemptions from vaccines

It may seem that the Republican Party is willing to condone racism. After all, Donald Trump still has the GOP very much in his thrall, despite his penchant for blowing racist yacht horns—like calling Democratic lawmakers “savages” when he was attacking a Latina, two Black people, a Palestinian, and two Jews. But the GOP is okay with people of color—just as long as they’re line-drawing conservatives. Take the word of Sen.

Whoopi Goldberg’s American Idea of Race

It made sense, to the New York Daily News sports editor, that these guys dominated basketball. After all, “the game places a premium on an alert, scheming mind and flashy trickiness, artful dodging and general smartalecness,” not to mention their “God-given better balance and speed.”He was referring, of course, to the Jews.In the 1930s, Paul Gallico was trying to explain away Jewish dominance of basketball.

Our Solar System in True Color Is Really Something Else

Picture Venus. You know, the second planet from the sun, where the clouds are shot through with sulfuric acid and the surface is hot enough to melt lead.What color is it?For the longest time, I thought of Venus as caramel-colored, swirled with golds, yellows, and browns—warm colors that matched the planet’s reputation for being a scorching world covered in volcanoes. And then I saw a picture of Venus that James O’Donoghue, a planetary astronomer, shared online recently.

The Reason Putin Would Risk War

There are questions about troop numbers, questions about diplomacy. There are questions about the Ukrainian military, its weapons, and its soldiers. There are questions about Germany and France: How will they react? There are questions about America, and how it has come to be a central player in a conflict not of its making.

Does Biden Have a Second Act?

Ronald Reagan did it. So did Bill Clinton. Barack Obama did as well.Can Joe Biden do it too?After a difficult first two years in the White House, Reagan, Clinton, and Obama each rebuilt enough public support to win a second term—not long after many observers had labeled them fatally damaged by their early setbacks.

“We Need Peace”: War in Ukraine Would Be Humanitarian Catastrophe for Millions in the Region

As tensions grow between Russia and NATO over a potential invasion of Ukraine, up to 2 million people in eastern Ukraine are at risk of massive displacement and violence if the conflict escalates. We speak with the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Jan Egeland, who is on the ground in Ukraine and says a war could roll back nearly a decade of humanitarian progress made in the Ukrainian region.

Russian Historian: We Need Both the U.S. & Russia to Deescalate Crisis over Ukraine

Despite Russian President Vladimir Putin continuing to deny accusations of a planned invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration ordered the deployment of 3,000 additional troops to Eastern Europe on Wednesday to supposedly protect Ukraine. Moscow-based historian and political writer Ilya Budraitskis says both Russia and the U.S. are gaining more from the threat of conflict than an actual war, and says Russia has no real strategic gain from a potential invasion.

“It’s Not About Security”: Belgian Peace Activist Says NATO Has Outlived Its Purpose

To speak about the key role NATO is playing in the Ukraine crisis, we speak with Ludo De Brabander, spokesperson of the peace organization Vrede vzw in Belgium, where NATO is headquartered. De Brabander says NATO has outlived its purpose, and touches on how activists in NATO countries like Belgium are pushing against narratives in the media that war with Russia is necessary.