Today's Liberal News

Post-Omicron Life Can Be Downright Maddening

Of all the pandemic waves the United States has weathered so far, this one feels uniquely baffling. Omicron is on its way out, and states are relaxing their mask mandates, but close to 200,000 people are still testing positive each day. The country is more vaccinated than ever before, but not vaccinated enough to stop hospitals from filling up with COVID patients. And while we’re still dealing with this variant, another one capable of breaking through those defenses could still emerge.

The Oscar-Nominated Film That Offers a Master Class in Journalism

About an hour into the Oscar-nominated documentary Writing With Fire, a young man—slim, bearded, dressed in a saffron-colored pajama set—flicks his hair and smiles. Then he unsheathes a sword, a metallic echo lingering several seconds after it is drawn. Meera, the bureau chief for India’s Khabar Lahariya newspaper, is recording the young man on her phone.

The COVID Strategy America Hasn’t Really Tried

It is common knowledge that COVID risk goes up with age, but how steeply it rises is still astounding to see after two years of living and dying with this coronavirus. Compared with someone in their 20s, a person over 65 years old is not slightly more likely to die of COVID but at least 65 times more likely to die of COVID. Over age 75, they become 140 times more likely to die. Over age 85, they are 340 times more likely to die.

The Next Pandemic Could Start With a Terrorist Attack

In 1770, the German chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele performed an experiment and noticed that he’d created a noxious gas. He named it “dephlogisticated muriatic acid.” We know it today as chlorine.Two centuries later, another German chemist, Fritz Haber, invented a process to synthesize and mass-produce ammonia, which revolutionized agriculture by generating the modern fertilizer industry. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918.

Climate & Punishment: How Incarcerated People Face Increasing Threat of Fires, Floods & Extreme Heat

A damning new investigation by The Intercept details the climate risks facing incarcerated people in more than 6,500 detention facilities across the country, including wildfires, floods and extreme heat. We feature a 10-minute video report that includes the stories of people behind bars and their families who are fighting for justice, and speak with reporter Alleen Brown, who says the climate crisis, coupled with the deterioration of detention facilities, places the U.S.

V-Day to Earth Day: How Women in 70+ Countries Are Rising to End Violence Against Women & Our Planet

Valentine’s Day kicks off a campaign by feminist leaders in 70 countries across the world to celebrate One Billion Rising, an initiative by V-Day to end violence against women — cisgender, transgender and gender nonconforming — girls and the planet. ”COVID has ushered in a very strange and perplexing time for women. We are on the frontlines everywhere,” says V-Day founder V (formerly Eve Ensler).

What Nancy Meyers Understands About Love After Age 50

To some people, Valentine’s Day encourages the notion that there is a blueprint for experiencing love—a pink greeting card, an appreciation post on Instagram, or a prix-fixe dinner. I find this notion stifling. To me, the holiday should instead provide an opportunity to rethink the rote role of romantic love in our culture.

“American Reckoning”: 55 Years After KKK Murder of Mississippi NAACP Leader, Case Remains Unsolved

This month marks 55 years since the assassination of an NAACP leader. The new documentary “American Reckoning” seeks justice in the cold case of murdered civil rights activist and local NAACP leader Wharlest Jackson Sr. in Natchez, Mississippi. No one was ever charged with his 1967 murder, despite evidence pointing to the involvement of the inner circle of the local Ku Klux Klan. It’s one of many unsolved crimes targeting civil rights activists.

Spotify Signed Joe Rogan for $100 Million But Won’t Hold Him Accountable for Spreading Misinfo, Hate

Comedian Joe Rogan has come under fire for spreading COVID-19 misinformation, using racial slurs and other harmful rhetoric on his Spotify podcast. Musicians such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell have pulled their music from the platform in protest of his $100 million contract reportedly paid by Spotify, raising questions how responsible audio platforms should be over hateful content.

Rep. Ro Khanna: The U.S. Could End the Yemen War Tomorrow. It’s Time to Stop Arming the Saudis

President Joe Biden had promised to end support for offensive operations by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen and stop all “relevant” arms sales, but the U.S. continues to service Saudi warplanes, and the administration recently approved the sale of $650 million in air-to-air missiles to Saudi Arabia. Congressmember Ro Khanna, one of the most outspoken congressional critics of the war, says the U.S. has the power to stop the fighting.

Hip-Hop Gets Its Halftime Show, Finally

One of the incredible things about hip-hop is that a quick song can feel as grand and sweeping as an album, or a novel, or a galaxy. Great rappers do a generous thing—give listeners a trove of phrases to obsess over, of inflections to imitate, of messages to absorb, and of observations to steal. When the music works, it seems effortless and impossible at once.

The Illinois Department of Corrections’ commissary shortage harms incarcerated people

by Mai Tran

This article was originally published at Prism

As a vegetarian on a restricted diet, Joel Davis is often the first to notice when commissary items become scarce.

“I literally have to remove the vegetables from my lunch tray and save them until I can see if there is anything on the dinner tray to combine them with,” Davis said. “I’m used to fasting a lot, so I often just go without eating.

Politics first, health second: Heed Virginia’s example on electing ‘moderate Republicans’

I’ve spent the past two years working in the emergency room on the front line of this pandemic, where I have lost count of how many people have been intubated, brought back to life, were told they will never see a loved one again, or learned they have life-altering conditions due to COVID-19. So to say I’m disappointed about Wednesday’s passage of an anti-masking bill in the Virginia Senate is an understatement.

Lauren Smith-Fields and the Black TikTokers who made sure we knew her name

This story was originally published at Prism.

In late December, J. Stokes was on Twitter when he first learned about the 23-year-old Black woman who was found dead in her apartment after meeting up with a Bumble date in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Wary about the accuracy of stories typically shared on the social media platform, Stokes searched to find a link to a Connecticut-based news site.

Nuts & Bolts—Inside a Democratic campaign: Helping voters in poverty vote

Welcome back to the weekly Nuts & Bolts Guide to small campaigns. It’s Super Bowl Sunday, so if you are here reading this in real-time, then you are thinking about the difference in America between the haves and have-nots. Watching the game at your house is one thing, attending a game like the Super Bowl in person? We are talking an expense that runs from $6,600 to $100,000 per ticket. Imagine that as an expense.