Today's Liberal News

Republicans Oppose Kristen Clarke for Top Civil Rights Job at DOJ in Latest Attack on Voting Rights

Republican senators in Washington are attempting to block Kristen Clarke, a prominent voting rights advocate, from a top Justice Department position. The Senate Judiciary Committee has deadlocked on an 11-11 vote on whether to move Clarke’s nomination for assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to the Senate floor for a full vote.

Watch Rep. Rashida Tlaib Blast U.S. Aid for Israel & Attack on Gaza in Dramatic House Floor Speech

As the death toll in Gaza reaches at least 119 amid Israel’s escalation of its aerial assault, Congressmember Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the first Palestinian American woman elected to Congress, delivered a powerful speech on the House floor Thursday to denounce the violence and attempted erasure of the Palestinian people. “I am the only Palestinian American member of Congress now,” Tlaib said. “I am a reminder to colleagues that Palestinians do indeed exist.

Philly Health Commissioner Resigns After Mayor Reveals MOVE Bombing Victims’ Remains Cremated in 2017

As MOVE family members and hundreds of supporters held a memorial Thursday to mark the deadly May 13, 1985, police bombing of their home in Philadelphia, Mayor Jim Kenney announced the resignation of the city’s top health official over stunning new revelations he cremated some of the bombing victims’ remains, including bone fragments, without the knowledge or permission of the families.

The Rivalry That Defines the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

“Today Iran, tomorrow Palestine.” Thus cheered the crowd in Tehran in February 1979, during the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s visit to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini just days after the success of the Iranian revolution. Arafat was the first foreign dignitary to visit Iran after the fall of the shah.

Community Spotlight unmasked: Sharing the intriguing stories behind DK usernames

Congratulations to everyone who commented in the username origin story edition of Community Spotlight two weeks ago! In 1,293 comments, there was not one instance of acrimony, snotty rejoinders, or gripes. As elfling said, “I think the count is AWESOME. You host a great party!”

I agree, it was a great party, although it was all because of you—I only opened the room and made sure everyone was served.

Republicans spend time attacking wearing face masks. Tough. I’ll wear whatever the hell I want

I am not a man of high fashion. I wish I could say that I spend my morning color-matching all of my clothing and making sure I’m wearing the latest trending product lines. There are a few things I do love: I like having a good pair of shoes because I’ve found it helps make my back hurt less. I enjoy wearing sweats almost everywhere, because damnit—I get to work from home, and if that isn’t a benefit of working from home, I don’t know what the hell is.

Joan McCarter on The Dean Obeidallah Show: Infrastructure, Manchin, and the filibuster

This week, Daily Kos’ senior political writer, Joan McCarter, joined Joe Sudbay on The Dean Obeidallah Show to talk about the filibuster, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s obsession with bipartisanship and his resulting hold on passing legislation, and the infrastructure bill. The result was a rollicking discussion about pushing back against the filibuster, protecting voting rights, and ensuring that messaging about Republican obstruction is successful.

Essential workers worried about CDC’s honor-system mask guidance, this week in the war on workers

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which represents many grocery workers, is … not happy about the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions’ (CDC) new guidance that vaccinated people can go unmasked indoors. Food and retail workers, after all, have been contending all along with people who refused rules about masks, and are now guaranteed to have to contend with people who may be lying about being vaccinated.

Hollywood Doesn’t Know What to Do With Angelina Jolie

Early in the action thriller Those Who Wish Me Dead, Angelina Jolie’s character, Hannah, straps on a parachute and hops onto the back of a pickup truck. As the vehicle snakes through the Montana wilderness, she deploys her gear and lifts off, laughing as she glides back down. Hannah’s a smoke jumper—a trained firefighter who drops into wildfires from above—and she’s clearly tough as hell.

The Colonial Pipeline Attack Is a Dark Omen

In North Carolina, where I live, only about one-third of gas stations are currently reporting that they have any gas, and that’s after some improvement in availability. A ransomware attack shut down a key pipeline supplying these stations, an event that could, but likely won’t, serve as a wake-up call, before we experience a true catastrophe.Prior to the pandemic, I wrote a lot about digital security, or the lack thereof.

The Atlantic Daily: Cicadas Have an Existential Problem

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.Just in case you missed the news—say you’ve been living underground for the past 17 years—parts of the eastern United States are in for a cicada summer, wherein billions of the bugs emerge en masse to fly around, mate, and then die.

How to Poison Feral Hogs (and Only Feral Hogs)

Early one winter morning in 2020, Kurt VerCauteren discovered a cluster of dead birds in a barren field in northwest Texas. They were small birds, mostly dark-eyed juncos, but also a smattering of white-crowned sparrows.VerCauteren’s team had poisoned them, inadvertently.