Today's Liberal News

Biden Calls U.S. Gun Violence an “International Embarrassment.” Will Congress Finally Act?

President Joe Biden has ordered a series of executive actions on gun control in the wake of mass shootings in Georgia, Colorado and elsewhere, calling gun violence in the U.S. an “epidemic” and an “international embarrassment.” The most significant executive order aims to crack down on so-called ghost guns — easily assembled firearms bought over the internet without serial numbers, which account for about a third of guns recovered at crime scenes.

How Cuba Beat the Pandemic: From Developing New Vaccines to Sending Doctors Overseas to Help Others

Since last year, approximately 440 Cubans have died from COVID-19, giving Cuba one of the lowest death rates per capita in the world. Cuba is also developing five COVID-19 vaccines, including two which have entered stage 3 trials. Cuba has heavily invested in its medical and pharmaceutical system for decades, in part because of the six-decade U.S. embargo that has made it harder for Cuba to import equipment and raw materials from other countries.

“Vaccine Passports”: ACLU Warns of Privacy Nightmare That Could Create “Two-Tiered Society”

As people try to find a safe way to gather and travel during the pandemic, there is growing interest in documenting who has been vaccinated or tested negative for COVID-19. The World Health Organization has warned so-called vaccine passports may not be an effective way to reopen, and healthcare professionals argue vaccine certificates may further exacerbate vaccine inequality.

Black Army Lt. pulled over, terrorized, and beaten even though police knew he’d done nothing wrong

Last December, Army Lieutenant Caron Nazario was on his way home with a new SUV when the lights of a police car appeared behind him. Rather than pull over on a narrow, darkened street, he proceeded just over one minute, and less than one mile, down the road and pull into the parking lot of a gas station. There he was confronted by two police officers who proceeded to hold him at gun point, pepper spray him through the window of his vehicle, and threaten him with death.

Community Spotlight: The friendly behemoth that is Readers and Book Lovers

You might think that a site so prominently dedicated to political activism as Daily Kos is would be an unlikely venue for book nerds, but in fact the largest group in our Community is just that: Readers and Book Lovers, a group “where readers, writers, bibliophiles, and lovers of all things literary find their favorite series and one-of-a-kind diaries.” With more than 2,000 followers, Readers and Book Lovers brings together everyone who likes to read, no matter the subject.

Three reasons the decline of collective bargaining hits everyone, this week in the war on workers

You want to know why it matters to everyone that the percent of workers covered by a collective bargaining contract has dropped from 27% in 1979 to 11.6% in 2019? The Economic Policy Institute’s Lawrence Mishel offers three reasons:

“For the ‘typical’ or median worker, declining unionization translates to a loss of $1.56 per hour worked, the equivalent of $3,250 for a full-time, full-year worker.

Michigan is fighting both a spike in COVID-19 cases, and a continued resistance to effective action

The U.S. is now averaging over 3 million vaccinations a day. That would be enough to vaccinate more than 90% of the population in 100 days, so it’s not surprising that the percentage of Americans who have received at least one jab jumped from 33% on Thursday, to 34% on Friday. And since the vaccine is currently not currently available to children, the percentage of the adult population which has been vaccinated is now at 44%.

Vaccine Refusal Will Come at a Cost—For All of Us

Imagine it’s 2026. A man shows up in an emergency room, wheezing. He’s got pneumonia, and it’s hitting him hard. He tells one of the doctors that he had COVID-19 a few years earlier, in late 2021. He had refused to get vaccinated, and ended up contracting the coronavirus months after most people got their shots. Why did he refuse? Something about politics, or pushing back on government control, or a post he saw on Facebook. He doesn’t really remember.

What America’s Vaccination Campaign Proves to the World

Every so often, an emerging technology changes the global balance of power, alters alliances, and shifts the relationships among nations. After World War II, nuclear weapons overthrew all of the existing geopolitical paradigms. The countries that got the bomb were considered global powers; countries that did not have it sought it, so that they could be considered powerful too.

Trump’s Power Won’t Peak for Another 20 Years

The Trump presidency may be over, but the Trump era has only just begun—at least when it comes to influence over the nation’s courts. Measured solely by the number of judges he appointed, Donald Trump’s impact is staggering: 234 judges, including 54 powerful appellate judges, almost one out of every three. By comparison, President Barack Obama appointed 172 judges (30 of them appellate) in his first term, while George W. Bush managed 204 (35 appellate).