Today's Liberal News

“America’s Moment of Reckoning”: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor & Cornel West on Uprising Against Racism

Scholars Cornel West and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor respond to the global uprising against racism and police violence following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. “We’re seeing the convergence of a class rebellion with racism and racial terrorism at the center of it,” said Princeton professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. “And in many ways, we are in uncharted territory in the United States.

“What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?”: James Earl Jones Reads Frederick Douglass’s Historic Speech

In a Fourth of July holiday special, we hear the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, he gave one of his most famous speeches, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.” He was addressing the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society.

Did the Army Ignore a Soldier’s Murder? Questions Mount over Vanessa Guillén Disappearance

The U.S. Army says it has a suspect in custody in connection with the disappearance of Vanessa Guillén, a missing 20-year-old Fort Hood soldier whose family says her remains were likely found in a shallow grave near the Texas Army base. A second suspect in the case — a soldier who the Guillén family lawyer named as Aaron Robinson — killed himself in Killeen, Texas, as officers approached.

Barbara Ransby on the Biden Problem: Social Movements Must Defeat Trump & Also Hold Dems Accountable

Amid a mass uprising against racism and state violence, social movements are not just fighting hostility and backlash from President Trump, but also dealing with a “Biden problem,” according to historian, author and activist Barbara Ransby. “I think it’s fair to say that Joe Biden is not our dream candidate, by any means,” she says. “We should be critical of Joe Biden. We should be ready to hold Joe Biden accountable come January.

Neo-Nazi neighbor guns down Oklahoma woman for swiping his swastika banner

Alexander John Feaster wasn’t terribly popular with his neighbors in Hunter, Oklahoma. An unrepentant neo-Nazi, he liked to decorate his home with bright red swastika banners, and would go out on the town dressed in full Nazi regalia, including the red armband.

Now he’s under arrest for shooting a 26-year-old woman who swiped one of those banners  last weekend on a late-night dare.

Nuts & Bolts: Inside a Democratic campaign

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 any time: Just visit our group or follow the Nuts & Bolts Guide. Every week I try to tackle issues I’ve been asked about. With the help of other campaign workers and notes, we address how to improve and build better campaigns, or explain issues that impact our party.

Nonprofits fill government aid void for struggling Los Angeles residents

An East L.A. family leans on community during the pandemic as government lets down low-income immigrants.

By Angelika Albaladejo, for Capitol and Main 

Jenny’s family lives paycheck-to-paycheck on Los Angeles’ Eastside. Usually, they can piece together enough income from her mom’s taco cart and her brother’s rideshare driving to cover rent and food. But the coronavirus pandemic is disrupting their daily grind.

Face the Nation says Trump team has denied CDC interviews for 3 months, but toadies remain plentiful

There is clearly no number of deaths that will make Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and their associated toadies take the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic seriously. On CBS’ Face The Nation, host Margaret Brennan started off by informing viewers that (despite soaring new caseloads), the Trump administration has been blocking interview requests with key government exports for three months.

“We have not been able to get our requests for Dr.

Working parents cannot return to their jobs if they can’t afford diapers

It’s not yet clear if the forms of economic activity resuming in most states will quickly reduce the nation’s high unemployment rates, but one thing is certain: it won’t happen without diapers. Most child care operators will not accept a baby or toddler unless parents supply disposable diapers. This has always been a barrier to employment for families in poverty. Pre-COVID-19, one in five U.

New Mexico: Images of the Land of Enchantment

New Mexico is the fifth-largest state by area and is sparsely populated, with nearly half of the state’s 2.1 million residents living in the Albuquerque metropolitan area. Below are a few glimpses of the diverse geography and history of New Mexico 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.

Defund Facial Recognition

Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. Tony McDade. George Floyd. Rayshard Brooks. Oluwatoyin Salau. Robert Forbes. As each story has emerged of a Black life violently ended by law enforcement, white nationalists, or other forms of interpersonal violence, a multiracial movement for Black lives, led by Black activists, has kept pace. What has also kept pace are the disturbing and highly advanced police technologies used to spy on these activists.

Digital Fauna

For a girl to scam the world
        to slip out the lies from her body
she must open up and risk the penetration of fakes
        and know herself as a name she didn’t choose.Online lover: Do you tell God the truth?
        I don’t think we do.
I think we have a God-facing self that
        cannot be entire
even as it loves and receives.

COVID-19 Won’t Change Us Forever

Soon after COVID-19 struck the United States, prognosticators began sharing a dreary vision of America’s post-pandemic future. Workers will trade mass transit for their cars and abandon cities for “the hinterlands,” proclaimed a contributor to The Washington Post. Sports fans will swap stadiums for man-cave bunkers and music lovers will watch concerts on their screens, predicted a writer for ZDNet.

How Mass Protests End

Since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, crowds demanding racial justice have surged into public spaces across the country and throughout the world—with solidarity actions springing up in South Korea and South Africa, Argentina and Australia. Domestically, demonstrations have materialized not only in major cities, but also in small-town America, including places with deeply conservative populations.