Today's Liberal News

In seven days, Trump showed Americans exactly what kind of human being he is

Imagine testing positive for COVID-19, then deliberately not telling anyone for a week that you tested positive while continuing to go about your normal routine, knowingly putting others at risk. Then imagine being so cowardly and venal that rather than admitting to that test, you instead decided to blame the grieving families of dead U.S. soldiers for exposing you because you were too afraid of the political consequences that would follow if you had told the truth to begin with.

Lauren Boebert’s Gun Photo Is Doing Exactly What She Intended

As families around the country prepare to send out Christmas cards with letters and photos commemorating the year gone by, many elected officials do the same. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky tweeted one such family picture on Saturday, featuring himself and his clan armed to the teeth on a leather love seat, a merry tree glittering in the backdrop. Massie’s photo drew some ire.

Omicron’s Explosive Growth Is a Warning Sign

A lot is still unknown around Omicron, but a worrying trend has become clear: This variant sure is spreading fast. In South Africa, the U.K., and Denmark—countries with the best variant surveillance and high immunity against COVID—Omicron cases are growing exponentially. The variant has outcompeted the already highly transmissible Delta in South Africa and may soon do the same elsewhere. According to preliminary estimates, every person with Omicron is infecting 3–3.

Our First Preview of How Vaccines Will Fare Against Omicron

And there it is, the first trickle of data to confirm it. In the eyes of vaccinated immune systems, Omicron looks like a big old weirdo—but also, a kind of familiar one. That’s the verdict served up by several preliminary studies and press releases out this week, describing how well antibodies, isolated from the blood of vaccinated people, recognize and sequester the new variant in a lab.

A Tragic Conflict of Competing Goods

Sign up for Conor’s newsletter here.Conversations of NoteAbortion has been discussed intensely this past week due to oral arguments in a Supreme Court case that could significantly alter the constitutional right to the procedure in the United States. At issue is a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, contra current precedent. If upheld, the law will likely inspire new abortion restrictions in many red states.

10 Books Texas Doesn’t Want You to Read

Choosing what to read is both a small decision and one of utmost importance. For students, that choice is crucial in getting kids to read at all. Some books feel like magic, world-making and unforgettable. Some feel dangerous, upsetting. Many inspire both feelings, especially in young people. Reading is meant to be challenging, and literature should serve as a way to explore ideas that feel unthinkable, unfamiliar, and even illicit.

Striking Columbia Student Workers Demand Living Wage as School’s Endowment Grows to $14 Billion

In the largest strike happening right now in the United States, 3,000 student workers at New York City’s Columbia University are on their fifth week of strike. Today the student workers are calling on others to help them shut down the university. Striking student worker, Johannah King-Slutzky, accuses Columbia’s administration of an “illegal form of retaliation” for threatening to replace the striking student workers who do not return to work by Friday.

A One-Sided Narrative: U.S. Press Focuses on “Russian Aggression” While Ignoring U.S. Escalation

During a virtual summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Biden threatened to impose new economic sanctions and other measures if Russia invades Ukraine. The talks were held amid growing tension between the two countries over the expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe and Russia’s deployment of tens of thousands troops along the border of Ukraine. Editorial director and publisher at The Nation Katrina vanden Heuvel says the U.S.

Why Biden picked Powell

In the end, President Joe Biden did what many close to him expected: He took a longer-than-anticipated amount of time to arrive at a reasonable, moderate decision that thrilled few but carried limited risk.

Shocking news: VP Kamala Harris can choose her own headphones and spending priorities!

On June 11, 2020, AT&T noted to customers that Bluetooth devices are not considered secure, and they shouldn’t be used for transmission of any secure data as there are four known Bluetooth security problems that right now aren’t easily addressed because they are “baked in” to the protocol. AT&T’s advice: If you’re doing anything secure, like talking to your bank, don’t use Bluetooth.

‘We just don’t feel safe’: Woman sets fire to New Mexico’s oldest and largest Islamic Center

As hate crimes against people of color continue across the country, members of faith centers and organizations are bearing the brunt of it. Faith institutions across the country are facing hate crimes at alarming rates, and an Islamic center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, reported the latest incident.

Multiple fires were set near the prayer hall of the Islamic Center of New Mexico by a woman captured on surveillance video, local news outlet KOB 4 reported.

To prove lowball appraisal, Black couple ‘white-washes’ home—value rises by nearly $500K

A Black couple in Northern California is rightfully suing the shit out of an appraisal company after getting a low-ball price for their property. 

Since buying their four-bedroom, two-bath house in Marin City, a neighborhood in the San Francisco Bay area, in 2016 for $550,000, Paul Austin, 45, and his wife Tenisha Tate-Austin, 42, have made nearly $400,000 worth of renovations—which the obviously biased appraiser noted when visiting the house.

Jen Psaki’s Rapid-Testing Gaffe Is Not as Simple as It Seems

At a White House press briefing yesterday, NPR’s national political correspondent Mara Liasson asked Press Secretary Jen Psaki a question that’s been on many people’s minds: “There are still a lot of countries, like Germany and the U.K. and South Korea, that basically have massive testing, free of charge or for a nominal fee,” she said.