Today's Liberal News

Bus drivers’ saga lays bare the divide between unionized and nonunionized public sector workers

After a long slump, more drivers are winning the right to collective bargaining. Now the threat of privatization looms.

By Mike Elk for Capital & Main

“We have been here through the coronavirus, through the major snowstorms, we were here on Aug. 11 and Aug. 12, we were on the road,” says Charlottesville bus driver Matt Ray, who was driving his routes while the white supremacist riots engulfed the city on those dark days in 2017.

Refusal to moderate social media misinformation in global languages harms communities of color

by Nick Nguyen and Carmen Scurato

This story was originally published at Prism.

So far the Facebook Papers have led to dozens of stories about how the company knew it was failing to remove hate speech, misinformation, and calls to violence in languages across the globe. As much as this focus on Facebook’s global harm is vital, we shouldn’t overlook the role that the social media language gap plays in harming communities within the United States.

Saturday Night Live Turns the Big Lie Into a Big Farce

In late October 2020, just before the election that would remove Donald Trump from office and install his Big Lie, Saturday Night Live aired a fake public-service announcement. “Do we want four more years of Donald Trump, or a fresh start with Joe Biden?” the show’s cast members asked. “Can we survive four more years of scandal, name-calling, and racial division?” But then the ad took a turn.

The Infant’s Eyes

Now that I too am
the terrible witness
to the ovum
and I have been
wrestled to the ground
with her fresh bread
and dirt
breath and have been
the laughing maniac
of motherhood
now
I will always
rise and go
to see what is wrong
like a cardinal to the pope.
Whenever something sounds
from upstairs
I’ll rush up
or out
or in
to see what is what
whether anyone is hurt
or in need
then I will putter back
to continue the leftover
saggy and unreal job
of aging
toward benediction.

Where Biden Goes From Here

As Air Force One flew home over the Atlantic on Election Night, the televisions scattered throughout the plane were showing a miserable scenario for Joe Biden’s party. No White House staffers ventured back to the press cabin, a fairly routine practice on long flights. The president’s aides appeared grim. A weary Biden returned to the White House close to 2 a.m. and ignored shouted questions from reporters about the early results.

America’s Most Destructive Habit

Although the United States was born of a revolution, one common view maintains that the Constitution tamed our rebellious impulse and launched a distinctly nonrevolutionary political experiment. But throughout American history, an important strand of conservatism has repeatedly championed rebellions—or what are better understood as counterrevolutions.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley: 2 Degrees of Global Warming Is “Death Sentence” for Millions

Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley addressed the audience at the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow this week. “We must act in the interests of all our people,” she said. “If we don’t, we will allow the path of greed and selfishness to sow the seeds of our common destruction.” She implored global leaders to “try harder” to keep global temperatures at 1.

“Too Little, Too Late”: Global South Activists Decry 2050 “Net Zero” Goal by Wealthy Nations

After nearly a week of speeches, negotiations and protests at the COP26 U.N. climate summit, we speak with Meena Raman, head of programs at Third World Network, who says developing countries need more time and resources to adapt to the climate crisis and end the use of fossil fuels. Without a just transition that addresses inequality, she says, many countries will continue to suffer from both poverty and environmental devastation.

“Please Open Your Hearts”: Kenyan Activist Elizabeth Wathuti Urges Leaders to Act on Climate Crisis

Youth activists are taking to the streets outside the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow to demand world leaders do more to avert a climate catastrophe. The protest is being organized by Fridays for Future, an international movement of students which grew out of Greta Thunberg’s climate strike outside the Swedish parliament in 2018. We hear from Elizabeth Wathuti of Kenya.

Ben Crump on the Start of Trials for Kyle Rittenhouse & the Killers of Ahmaud Arbery

Only one Black juror, along with 11 white jurors, has been selected to hear the murder trial of three white men who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old Black man who was jogging through the suburbs of Brunswick, Georgia. The defendants — Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, as well as their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan — claim they were attempting a citizen’s arrest when they chased and killed Arbery.

Community Spotlight: Making the political personal is more effective than you may think

Everyone is a storyteller. Every day, we relate different stories to different audiences with different objectives. How we frame the story, the voice we use, and what details we include all contribute greatly to how audiences respond. Commiserating with a neighbor about our street flooding due to a leaf-blocked storm drain, for example, or calling Comcast about an internet connection that drops randomly, both involve telling our stories in search of a particular outcome.

Yes, Aaron Rodgers, I’m canceling you

I grew up in northeast Wisconsin, about 40 miles outside of Green Bay. So, naturally, I’m a Packers fan.

You might say Packers fandom is part of my DNA. So, in a way, anti-vaxxers are right. The vaccine—or at least one gormless Green Bay goober’s decision to reject it—has changed my DNA, and not in a cool X-Men way or anything.

Louie Gohmert hints that climate action would force us all to brush our teeth with bark

How the hell did Republican Louie Gohmert of Texas ever become a member of the House of Representatives? Did he collect the most Froot Loops box tops in his district? Did our reptilian alien overlords take a sudden liking to him halfway through eating his brain? Did he run against a seagull crapping in a bag of Ruffles? 

I really want to know, because something here just isn’t right.