Today's Liberal News

Voting Activist Desmond Meade on Re-enfranchising People & Why “Ex-Felon” Is a Dehumanizing Label

In Florida, tens of thousands of newly eligible voters who were previously disenfranchised due to their criminal records turned out to the polls for the 2020 election. Amendment 4, a measure that in 2018 overturned a Jim Crow-era law aimed at keeping African Americans from voting, restored voting rights to people with nonviolent felonies who have completed their sentences and was hailed as the biggest win for voting rights in decades.

“More of an Exorcism Than an Election”: Priya Gopal on What Biden Win Means for Britain & Ireland

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been one of President Trump’s closest international allies. How will he adapt to working with a Biden administration? Cambridge professor Priya Gopal says Johnson was clearly betting on a Trump reelection, especially amid Britain’s exit from the European Union. “I think they were certainly hoping that there would be a Trump victory,” says Gopal. “Brexit and Trump, as Trump quite correctly recognized, are very deeply in sync.

Trump Loss Decreases Chance of Iran War, But Many Iraqis Fear U.S. Policy Under Biden, Too

We look at how Joe Biden’s presidency will affect the U.S. footprint in the Middle East with Guardian correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, who says Biden’s win is being viewed with “anxiety” by many Iraqis who are eager to avoid war between the U.S. and Iran. “Any conflict will take place on Iraqi soil,” says Abdul-Ahad. “There is not much optimism. There is anxiety towards Biden and his team in the way they deal with Iraq.

What J.R.R. Tolkien can teach us about life after Trump

“A great Shadow has departed.” 

With these words, Gandalf reveals to Sam the success of his and Frodo’s quest to destroy the One Ring, the fall of the evil Sauron, and the liberation of Middle Earth. Joyful celebration ensues, Frodo and Sam are lauded as heroes, and they all live happily ever after.  

Only, not quite.

Hillary Clinton has to be tired of waiting 4 years for the country to realize she was right

Hillary Clinton called it four years ago when she pointed out then-Republican nominee Donald Trump’s propensity to cry system rigging when he happened to face an undesired result. “You know, every time Donald thinks things are not going in his direction, he claims whatever it is is rigged against him,” she said during the final presidential debate of 2016. “He lost the Iowa caucus. He lost the Wisconsin primary.

Nuts & Bolts: Inside a Democratic campaign—Hot takes?

It’s another Sunday, so for those who tune in, welcome to a diary discussing the Nuts & Bolts of a Democratic campaign. If you’ve missed out, you can catch up at any time: just visit our group or follow the Nuts & Bolts Guide. For years I’ve built this guide around questions that get submitted, hoping to help small-race candidates field questions.

Montana: Images of the Treasure State

Montana is the fourth-largest state in the nation, yet it is home to just over 1 million residents. Big Sky Country has about 30 million acres of public lands—roughly one-third of the state. From the mountains, along the rivers, to the vast plains, here are a few glimpses of the landscape of Montana, and some of the wildlife and people calling it home.This photo story is part of Fifty, a collection of images from each of the United States.

Tinnitus

In Jersey’s Pine Barrens crickets rub their saw-toothed wings and I’m a child.
A city child now a city man with woods between my ears behind my eyes.
Swarms, throngs, populist masses, agglomerationists, millionings.
Louisiana katydids of a wet summer night beep inside my brains.
Live theater. Intermissions. Who programmed that siren test pattern?
You cicadas and your washboard jingle bells and what’s that boing-ing?
Mississippi mosquitoes. Maine black flies. Vermont hornets.

SpaceX’s Riskiest Business

SpaceX’s first attempt to fly astronauts to space and back was, from start to finish, a success. The launch into orbit—seamless. The spacecraft’s arrival at the International Space Station—smoothly done. On return, the capsule, buffeted by billowy parachutes, coasted through the sky, toward the waters off the coast of Florida—a vision of a new era of American spaceflight.

Whitewashing the Great Depression

A Japanese mother and daughter, farmworkers in California, photographed in 1937 by Dorothea Lange (Library of Congress)Quick, name one iconic Depression-era portrait each by Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Russell Lee. My guess is that you’d choose Lange’s Migrant Mother, a portrait of Florence Owens Thompson and her children taken in Nipomo, California, in 1936.