Today's Liberal News

Pandemic Numbers Are (Finally) Tiptoeing in the Right Direction

Editor’s Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection . County officials warn that the virus is still surging in the area, and that hospitalizations remain at dangerously high levels, with ICU numbers remaining nearly unchanged over the past two weeks.On Wednesday, the state surpassed 3 million total cases to date, meaning that one in 13 Californians has tested positive since the start of the pandemic.

The Biden Generation’s Last Chance

Jim Clyburn sat by himself on the dais at Joe Biden’s inauguration, thinking about his late wife, Emily, who wasn’t there with him.Without Clyburn, the third-ranking House Democrat, who endorsed the former vice president at a crucial moment last year, Biden might not have taken the oath of office yesterday. But without Emily’s influence, Clyburn told me, that endorsement might never have happened.

Trump’s Parting Gift to Joe Biden

Donald Trump’s chaotic final days in the White House could present President Joe Biden with a historic opportunity to broaden his base of public support and splinter Republican opposition to his agenda.Recent polls have repeatedly found that about three-fourths or more of GOP voters accept Trump’s disproven charges that Biden stole the 2020 election, a number that has understandably alarmed domestic-terrorism experts.

“The Hill We Climb”: Watch Breathtaking Poem by Amanda Gorman, Youngest Inaugural Poet in U.S. History

One of the most remarkable moments from Wednesday’s inauguration ceremony came from poet Amanda Gorman, the youngest poet in U.S. history to speak at a presidential inauguration. The 22 year-old read “The Hill We Climb,” a poem she finished right after the riot at the Capitol earlier this month. We feature her full recitation and get reaction from scholar Cornel West and award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.

“The Work Continues”: Cornel West & Maria Hinojosa on the Promise & Dangers of the Biden Admin

We host a wide-ranging discussion of the historic inauguration of President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris — the first-ever woman, South Asian and Black vice president — how we got here, and what comes next, with award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa and author and Harvard professor Cornel West. Hinojosa says she had “mixed emotions” watching the inauguration, her sense of hope tempered by memories of the Obama administration.

“Democracy Has Prevailed”: Joe Biden Sworn In as President; Kamala Harris Becomes First Female VP

Joe Biden was sworn in as 46th president of the United States Wednesday, ending the Trump era with a call for national unity and urging Americans to come together during a period of turbulence. President Biden signed 17 executive orders in his first official act from the Oval Office, including on immigration, the pandemic and the climate crisis. Biden has promised more executive actions in the coming days.

30 Things Donald Trump Did as President You Might Have Missed

Trump’s presidency may be best remembered for its cataclysmic end. But his four years as president also changed real American policy in lasting ways, just more quietly. We asked POLITICO’s best-in-class policy reporters to recap some of the ways Trump changed the country while in office, for better or worse.

Joe Biden Has a Europe Problem

Joe Biden begins his first full day as the 46th president of the United States today with as daunting a list of foreign-policy challenges as almost any of his predecessors. After four years of Donald Trump, the new administration must overcome skepticism about America’s ability to deal with the great tests facing the world, including the rise of China as a 21st-century superpower, the spread of nuclear weapons, and the onslaught of man-made climate change.

Wednesday Night Owls: Biden calls for ‘unity,’ but healing will be tough in deeply divided nation

Night Owls is a themed open thread appearing at Daily Kos seven days a week.  

At Mother Jones, David Corn writes—Joe Biden’s Inaugural Address Was a Plea for “Unity.” But Healing the Nation’s “Soul” Won’t Be Easy. Can he both implement his policies and unify a bitterly divided country?

[…] Addressing the nation as president, Biden recognized that the fight for unity is largely a fight for truth.

The Bernie Sanders inauguration meme went viral, and it’s worth enjoying

I would like to preface this by saying I like Sen. Bernie Sanders. I voted for him in two primaries. This story is not about mocking Bernie Sanders but about enjoying how absolutely Bernie Sanders Bernie Sanders is. He is the most Bernie Sanders of anyone in the world. His political convictions are clear, and the package it comes in is also clear. I was born and raised on the east coast, and Sanders reminds me of many folks I knew growing up.

‘Don’t do it’: McCarthy explicitly warns that attacking other members is putting them in jeopardy

Congressional Republicans have kicked into high gear over the past week to minimize the fallout for the Republican Party caused by Donald Trump and the murderous mob he sicced on the lawmakers at the Capitol. On the one hand, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell finally directly blamed Trump for inciting the riot by feeding his cultists a steady diet of disinformation and baseless lies about the election.

‘Under no circumstances is this legal’: Cuccinelli’s attempt to delay Biden changes gets ridiculed

The Trump administration has signed agreements with Arizona, Louisiana, Indiana, and one lone sheriff’s office in North Carolina that state any future immigration changes made by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) first have to be run by the localities before the federal government can act, BuzzFeed News reports. If that sounds like a bunch of bull to you, you’re not wrong.