Today's Liberal News

John Patterson, notorious racist who beat George Wallace in 1958, dies at 99

Former Alabama Gov. John Patterson, who won his only term in 1958 after defeating George Wallace in the Democratic primary, died Friday at the age of 99.

While Patterson would never achieve the national infamy of Wallace, who went on to succeed him four years later, he was just as vigorous a proponent of Jim Crow and spent his time in public office targeting civil rights advocates, including Martin Luther King and the state NAACP.

Newsmax turned Matt Gaetz down for a job, further humiliating the concupiscent putz

It’s probably a good thing that Matt Gaetz keeps getting chastened like this. I don’t want him to get a big(ger) head. I mean, how trashed does your reputation have to be to get turned down by Newsmax? It’s like getting turned away from a North Dakota cockfight over a dress code violation.

But, hey, Gaetz is a special kind of breed. (Sorry for using “Gaetz” and “breed” in the same sentence. I’m still growing and learning as a writer.

Biden admin threatens to sue Texas over Abbott’s cynical attack on asylum-seeking children

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott isn’t remotely close to finished when it comes to using vulnerable asylum-seeking children as his political pawns. Just weeks after being called out on Fox News of all places for his silence during the past four years of anti-immigrant abuses under the previous president, Abbott has ordered that state facilities that hold unaccompanied children until they can be safely placed with a sponsor to shut down, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Immune Cells Are More Paranoid Than We Thought

The best immune systems thrive on a healthy dose of paranoia. The instant that defensive cells spot something unfamiliar in their midst—be it a living microbe or a harmless mote of schmutz—they will whip themselves into a frenzy, detonating microscopic bombs, sparking bouts of inflammation, even engaging in some casual cannibalism until they are certain that the threat has passed.

On Top of Everything Else, the Pandemic Messed With Our Morals

Throughout the pandemic, people have had to make impossibly tough decisions. Kathleen Turner, a 52-year-old intensive-care nurse in San Francisco, has been haunted by hers. Since COVID-19 patients started overwhelming her hospital last spring, she has had to give patients sedatives knowing they would likely have lasting negative health consequences, and systematically deny relatives a chance to say goodbye to dying loved ones.

Everything Is Overcomplicated

Many Americans woke up this morning to discover that some of the most popular sites on the web were down. CNN, The New York Times, Reddit—even The Atlantic—all suffered issues. Was it a coordinated cyberattack? Something to do with Amazon Web Services? No, it was because of Fastly. As NPR explained, Fastly “provides vital but obscure behind-the-scenes cloud computing services to many of the web’s high profile sites.

The Logic of the Filing Cabinet Is Everywhere

Seventeen years ago, just as the periodic cicadas were getting ready to arrive in droves in the eastern United States, Google announced Gmail, an exciting new email service. It had three key features: search, making it easy to find emails; storage, with what was then a mind-blowing 1 gigabyte; and speed, with emails threaded into conversations that ostensibly eliminated the need for cumbersome folders. Today, as the cicadas have seemingly taken over parts of the eastern U.S.

Socialist Teacher Takes Lead in Peruvian Election as Nation Reels from Pandemic & Political Crisis

We get an update from Peru, where socialist candidate Pedro Castillo has pulled ahead of his right-wing rival Keiko Fujimori in the country’s presidential election on Sunday. Castillo is the son of peasant farmers, and a union leader who led a nationwide teachers’ strike in 2017. Fujimori is the daughter of former dictator Alberto Fujimori, who is in prison for human rights abuses and corruption.

“Do Not Come”: VP Harris Sends Anti-Migrant Message in Guatemala, Visits Mexico Amid Deadly Election

In her first foreign trip as vice president, Kamala Harris is in Mexico City to meet with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador after first visiting Guatemala to meet with President Alejandro Giammattei. Harris is tasked by President Joe Biden with stemming the flow of Central American migrants fleeing corruption, violence and poverty, even after the two campaigned on allowing more migrants to apply for asylum along the U.S.