Today's Liberal News

New York Congressmember Mondaire Jones: Israel Should Ensure Palestinians Have Access to COVID Vaccine

Israel has failed to make COVID-19 vaccines available to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, despite its responsibility under the Geneva Conventions. Critics in the United States say this “vaccine apartheid” is another example of Israeli human rights abuses going unpunished, even as the country receives billions in U.S. aid each year. Congressmember Mondaire Jones of New York says Israel must ensure that Palestinians are vaccinated.

Rep. Mondaire Jones: Voting Rights Bill H.R. 1 Is of “Foundational Importance” to U.S. Democracy

The House of Representatives has approved sweeping legislation protecting the right to vote with the For the People Act, which has been described as the most sweeping pro-democracy bill in decades. The legislation is aimed at improving voter registration and access to voting, ending partisan and racial gerrymandering, forcing the disclosure of dark money donors, increasing public funding for candidates, and imposing strict ethical and reporting standards on members of Congress and the U.S.

Rev. William Barber to Democrats: Overrule the Senate Parliamentarian & Pass the $15 Minimum Wage

The Senate has voted to open debate on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. The legislation has widespread support from voters, with one new poll showing 77% of Americans support the bill, including nearly 60% of Republicans. But the Senate bill has some key differences from the package approved by the House, including a reduction in the number of people eligible for direct stimulus checks and no provision to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Community Spotlight: Starting local for national impact

Last week, Besame introduced us to the Town Hall Project, a volunteer program she’s joined that tracks town halls and other social interactions that are scheduled by legislators. These are often events that said legislators might not want to publicize, lest they be asked hard questions or held to account by the public. This reminded me of something I consider to have been a great liberal failure in 2008: We stopped remembering to show up.

Atlanta D.A.’s latest hire in Trump investigation is a racketeering expert

One of the many criminal investigations of Donald Trump may have ramped up to another level this weekend. Specifically, the investigation into Trump’s efforts to compel Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to commit election fraud in his favor.

Last month, Fani Willis, the newly elected district attorney in Fulton County—home to Atlanta—began a criminal investigation into the shakedown, including the infamous Jan. 2 phone call.

The call (to the Proud Boys) is coming from inside the (White) House!

When the first QAnon posts jumped in to leverage the ugly Pizzagate conspiracy theory with a whole new level of destructive, divisive hate, the person behind those first cryptic notes was something of a mystery. But when it comes to the Big Lie—the claim that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election—the source of the disinformation, distortions, and big juicy whoppers isn’t difficult to pin down. It was Trump. And Trump’s lawyers.

Tipped workers face added sexual harassment during the pandemic, this week in the war on workers

In the fight for a $15 minimum wage, don’t forget about tipped workers. While the federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009—and Congress hasn’t passed an increase since 2007—the tipped worker minimum wage has been at $2.13 an hour since 1991. The theory is that workers get at least minimum wage thanks to tips, or else employers make up the difference.

The Texas Democrats did an autopsy on why 2020 went wrong. Here’s what they found

Sign up for my weekly newsletter to read more content like this!

The Texas Democratic Party released an Election Data Analysis last week looking back at the 2020 election and why Democrats fell short in the state. The report conveys a lot of good information, but it focuses on the field/data side of the campaign and doesn’t look in-depth at anything else. The author was the state party’s data director, so that makes sense, and it is a good summary of that area.

In Our House, Dr. Seuss Was Contraband

My mother had a ban on pork, and I thought she was mad that I broke it. One afternoon four decades ago, when I was about 8, I walked into my family’s house after playing outside and saw my mother sitting in the yellow recliner with a book in her lap. She had found the copy of Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham.I knew that I was in trouble, because normally no one sat in the canary-colored La-Z-Boy, a throne reserved for my grandmother.

Of Course Andrew Cuomo Isn’t Going to Resign

A tale of hubris and comeuppance is unfolding daily around New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. It’s a tale of a man who bullied colleagues for years and took time out of managing the pandemic to write a book about how well he was managing the pandemic, but is now facing accusations of harassment, incompetence, and fatal mistakes.

The Women Who Changed War Reporting

In 1966, a young American journalist named Frances FitzGerald began publishing articles from South Vietnam in leading magazines, including this one. She was the unlikeliest of war correspondents—born into immense privilege, a daughter of the high-WASP ascendancy. Her father, Desmond FitzGerald, was a top CIA official; her mother, Marietta Tree, a socialite and liberal activist.

Conservative Donors Have Their Own Cancel Culture

The University of Texas insists that it is willing to confront its past racism and make sweeping changes for the sake of justice. What it won’t do is deal with the racist history of its school song.Last summer, amid nationwide protests over George Floyd’s death in police custody, more than two dozen Texas football players and other athletes issued a list of demands aimed at making their school more welcoming.

The Flawed Fantasy World of Raya and the Last Dragon

Fantasy worlds that mirror real-life cultures have a long history in storytelling. Middle-earth, the Four Lands, Narnia, Westeros, Earthsea: These are fictional places populated by imaginary creatures and characters, but with politics, faiths, and cultural dynamics that resemble our own. They give their creators license to world-build with allegories for contemporary issues, but without worrying too much about fidelity to reality.