Today's Liberal News

‘Enough’: Publix heiress funds Trump rally and worker denied right to wear mask dies of COVID-19

Families are boycotting the Publix Supermarkets chain weeks after The Wall Street Journal reported that an heiress to the chain had a hand in funding the rally former President Donald Trump used to incite the deadly Capitol attack. Julie Jenkins Fancelli, who the journal identified as “a prominent donor to the Trump campaign,” paid $300,000 of the total $500,000 rally, according to The Wall Street Journal.

GOP voters are deeply dissatisfied, driving support for a third party in the U.S. to all-time high

Americans’ support for the formation of a third political party has reached 62%, a 5-point uptick since last fall and an all-time high in Gallup’s polling. Likewise, just 33% of Americans think the nation’s two parties are adequately representing the interests of the public, according to the survey, which was conducted Jan. 21-Feb. 2 (before news surfaced that former GOP officials have been discussing just such an effort).

Local Florida officials pass a resolution to mock a newspaper columnist’s identity and work

As the year continues, Republican officials just keep stooping lower and lower. Using the time meant to be “devoted to county issues,” local Republican officials in Florida attempted to shame and mock a journalist by creating a resolution in her name. The journalist, identified as Isadora Rangel, wrote opinion columns for Florida Today, often criticizing Brevard County officials.

Hockey Has a Gigantic-Goalie Problem

The problem was right there on the screen: Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy, 6 foot 3, 210 pounds, athletic, fit, one of the very best goalies in the NHL, in the handshake line after the Lightning had won an early-round series in last season’s Stanley Cup playoffs. From the side, his belly seeming to hang low in front of him, he looked like Humpty Dumpty.

Lancet Report: 40% of U.S. COVID Deaths Were Preventable. The Country Needs Universal Healthcare Now

As the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 approaches half a million, a new report says nearly 40% of the deaths were avoidable. By comparing the pandemic in the U.S. to other high-income nations, the medical journal The Lancet found significant gaps in former President Donald Trump’s “inept and insufficient” response to COVID-19, as well as decades of destructive public policy decisions.

Conservative Lawyer Bruce Fein: Trump’s Acquittal Gives Future Presidents License to Break the Law

As the Senate votes to acquit former President Donald Trump for inciting the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, we speak with constitutional lawyer and former Reagan administration official Bruce Fein, who says the insurrection was not just an attack on the U.S. Capitol, but “an effort, basically, to destroy the rule of law and the Constitution itself.” Fein says failure to convict Trump will give license to future presidents to break the law.

An Ode to Low Expectations

Tim LahanThis article was published online on February 15, 2021.So there I was, staring at my mug of tea.It was 1993. I was sitting over a plate of eggs in the New Piccadilly Café in Soho, London. Things were not going well. As a man, as a person, as a unit of society, I was barely functioning. More acutely, I was having panic attacks, in an era when people didn’t yet say “panic attack.” They just said Oh, dear. As far as I was concerned, I was going insane.

The Commons

The Last Children of Down SyndromePrenatal testing is changing who gets born and who doesn’t, Sarah Zhang wrote in the December issue. This is just the beginning.“The Last Children of Down Syndrome” was well written, thought-provoking, and emotional. I did not have prenatal testing, and at the age of 29 I gave birth to a son with Down syndrome. It was a shock, to say the least.

The Founders Were Wrong About Democracy

If there was one idea shared by just about every author of the Constitution, it was the one articulated by James Madison at the convention on June 26, 1787.The mass of the people would be susceptible to “fickleness and passion,” he warned. They would suffer from “want of information as to their true interest.” Those who must “labour under all the hardships of life” would “secretly sigh for a more equal distribution of its blessings.

Is It Safe to Go Back to the Movie Theater?

As COVID-19 case numbers drop, hospitalizations decrease, vaccine administrations increase, and blockbuster season approaches, Americans who think big movies deserve a big screen are wondering when they can dare return to theaters. The closest deadline for many is the March 31 release date of Godzilla vs. Kong: If you’re going to watch a skyscraper-sized monkey punch a battleship-length lizard, you probably want to do so on a screen the height of a McMansion.

It’ll Do

In 1955, a junior United States senator named John F. Kennedy published Profiles in Courage, a collection of short essays about eight of his predecessors who had risked their careers for their ideals over the previous 150 years.In one single day in 2021, that many senators showed courage worth enduring historical honor. Seven were Republicans: Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey.

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.