Today's Liberal News

The Payoff of TV’s Most Awaited Crossover

On Abbott Elementary, celebrity sightings are as common as a back-to-school flu outbreak or drama with the PTA. The show’s Season 2 premiere kicked off with the spunky second-grade teacher Janine Teagues (played by Quinta Brunson) trying to surprise Abbott students with an appearance from “the only celebrity that matters”: Gritty, the internet-famous mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers.

‘I’ve Never Seen Anything Like This’

We knew to expect winds. When they came on Tuesday morning, sounding like a tsunami crashing over my family’s home in western Malibu, the utility company shut off our power. We knew the chance of fire was high.
I had arrived home for the holidays in early December, and had already been greeted by the Franklin Fire, which had burned the hills black. Now, when my dad and I went in search of electricity, a great plume of smoke was rising above those burned hills.

Fact-Checking Was Too Good for Facebook

Yesterday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would end fact-checking on its platform. In the process, a partnership with the network of third parties that has provided review and ratings of viral misinformation since 2016 will be terminated. To some observers, this news suggested that the company was abandoning the very idea of truth, and opening its gates to lies, perversions, and deception. But this is wrong: Those gates were never really closed.

How Solitude Is Rewiring American Identity

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Americans are spending more and more time alone. Some are lonely. But many people—young men in particular—are actively choosing to spend much of their time in isolation, in front of screens.

He’s No Elon Musk

Yesterday morning, donning his new signature fit—gold chain, oversize T-shirt, surfer hair—Mark Zuckerberg announced that his social-media platforms are getting a makeover. His aggrievement was palpable: For years, Zuckerberg said, “governments and legacy media have pushed to censor more and more.” No longer. Meta is abolishing its third-party fact-checking program, starting in the U.S.; loosening its content filters; and bringing political content back to Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

Will Biden Pardon Steven Donziger, Who Faced Retaliation for Suing Chevron over Oil Spill in Amazon?

Massachusetts Congressmember Jim McGovern calls on President Biden to pardon environmental activist Steven Donziger, who has been targeted for years by oil and gas giant Chevron. Donziger sued Chevron on behalf of farmers and Indigenous peoples who suffered the adverse health effects of oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon. “I visited Ecuador. I saw what Chevron did. It is disgusting” and “grotesque,” says McGovern. “Donziger stood up for these people who had no voice.

Will Biden Exonerate Ethel Rosenberg Posthumously? Declassified Docs Show FBI Knew She Was Innocent

Calls are growing for President Biden to posthumously exonerate Ethel Rosenberg following newly publicized documents proving that the FBI knew of her innocence long before she was prosecuted by the federal government more than 60 years ago. Rosenberg and her husband Julius were charged with sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union and executed on June 19, 1953.

“Outrageous”: Rep. Jim McGovern Slams Trump’s Rhetoric on Taking Panama, Greenland & Canada

At a news conference Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump renewed his threats against Gaza, Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal as he continues to push an agenda of extreme U.S. imperialism. Democratic Congressmember Jim McGovern calls Trump’s comments “outrageous,” “ridiculous” and, ultimately, a distraction from his planned abandonment of social services.