Today's Liberal News

Listen: A Forever Pandemic

Vaccine shortages frustrate countries around the world. The lines for vaccines are illogical. But residents of wealthy nations will likely get access to doses in the coming months. It may be much longer for the rest of the world—and, as epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves explains on the podcast Social Distance, that affects us all and should prompt dramatic action.

The Unsettling Message of Judas and the Black Messiah

“The Black Panthers are the single greatest threat to our national security. Our counterintelligence program must prevent the rise of a Black messiah from among their midst.” And so begins Judas and the Black Messiah, with an ominous speech from the FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (played by Martin Sheen) in 1968. The film, which debuted yesterday in theaters and on HBO Max, is part crime thriller, part civil-rights historical drama.

Taylor Swift Misses the Old Taylor Swift, Too

When Taylor Swift, the pandemic’s most productive pop star, announced that she’d be re-recording her albums in a push for ownership over her work, the venture sounded risky. Swift cast her decision as both a personal vendetta against the music executive Scooter Braun and a moralistic stand against the industry’s treatment of artists. But at face value, re-recordings seem to offer little to look forward to for listeners.

Friday Night Owls: Amnesty Int’l calls on President Biden to shut down Guantánamo military prison

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

In response to reports that the Biden administration has launched a formal review of the future of the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, Daphne Eviatar, Director of the Security with Human Rights Program at Amnesty International USA, released the following statement:

“We are pleased to hear that the Biden administration wants to review the U.S.

Health experts weigh in on their efforts to reverse vaccine distrust in the Black community

At a time when a global pandemic is affecting and killing Black and brown Americans at a significantly higher rate than white Americans, reluctance to get inoculated can have especially dangerous consequences. Taking time to build trust in communities that are hesitant to get vaccinated is crucial—and when people are desperate to return to some semblance of normalcy, time is something there isn’t much of.

Daily Kos announces recipients of Black Solidarity Grants

Today, Daily Kos announced disbursement of the Daily Kos/Daily Kos Liberation League Black Solidarity Grant, which will provide monetary support to organizations doing the work to make Black liberation a reality.

Over the summer, Daily Kos issued a public statement from our Equity Council in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, which also included a commitment to grant 1% of our revenue to organizations fighting for Black liberation.

The Incompetence Lasted to the Very End

If future generations of law professors want to teach a class in what never to do, the belligerent and self-indulgent performance of Michael van der Veen, one of Donald Trump’s impeachment lawyers, could provide a lot of the video content. Deep into his defense of the former president today, van der Veen broke into a highly personal complaint.