Today's Liberal News

The Absurdity of Renting a Car Will No Longer Be Tolerated

What do you expect will happen when you walk into a rental-car office? Do you think you’ll turn over your credit card and your driver’s license, and walk out with the keys to at least generally the type of car you’ve reserved, having agreed to at least roughly the fee that you were quoted? Or do you picture something else?“I’m expecting chaos,” says the comedian Caleb Hearon, who travels semi-frequently for work.

Bipartisanship at Whose Expense? Sen. Raphael Warnock Calls to End Filibuster, Pass Voting Rights Acts

Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia implored conservative members of his party to stop obstructing voting rights legislation in a powerful speech on the floor of the Senate Tuesday. While Warnock did not name Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, the two have come out against doing away with the filibuster in order to allow Democrats to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

News Roundup: Manchin doesn’t trust poor people, Trump sues to hide his grifting, and more

In the news today: It’s being reported that the real reason Sen. Joe Manchin is single-handedly destroying the Build Back Better plan is because he doesn’t trust poor people not to use drugs. On the bright side, this means Democrats can—and should—tell him to pound sand. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is in panic mode as he sues New York Attorney General Letitia James for investigating all his grifting.

Eric Trump says God made Daddy president in 2016, took a break in 2020, and will help again in 2024

I have a deep, visceral mistrust for anyone who says God is on their side. When has Providence ever sorted winners and losers like this? Didn’t we learn better from the bloody Crusades? Or centuries of ruinous sectarian violence? Or Tim Tebow’s NFL career?

Of course, these days we’re meant to believe that God is on the side of the vast majority of the people unnecessarily dying of COVID-19—because that’s what they keep claiming.

Sports Leagues Are Showing Us Just How Bad Omicron Could Get

This article was updated at 11:39 p.m. ET on December 20, 2021.Just a few minutes before tip-off on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, the PA announcer for the Oklahoma City Thunder broke the news to the gathered fans: That night’s NBA game between the Thunder and the visiting Utah Jazz was canceled “due to unforeseen circumstances.” A Jazz player, it would soon come out, had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

NASCAR driver ‘Let’s Go, Brandon’ Brown says he isn’t political, but won’t indict his chanting fans

Famed NASCAR driver Brandon Brown hasn’t gotten a lot of sleep lately. Not since his name has been at the center of a conservative Republican rallying cry, “Let’s Go, Brandon!” meaning, f**k Joe Biden.

The whole “Let’s Go, Brandon” hubbub began on Oct. 2 when Brown gave an interview to NBC Sports at the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama, after he won his first NASCAR victory.

Hundreds of Virginia high school students protest after Muslim girl is allegedly attacked at school

More than 350 students from Fairfax High School in Virginia walked out in protest Thursday to show their solidarity with a student who was allegedly attacked in an Islamophobic incident. According to a Change.org petition, a Black Muslim student, identified as Ekran Mohammad, was allegedly harassed by a group of boys, who threw her onto a desk and removed her hijab on Tuesday.

There’s No Way Americans Will Cancel Their Travel Plans

Variants are a little bit like breakups: There’s never a great time for one to strike, but there absolutely are terrible times. With Omicron, it’s hard to imagine a worse possible moment. The promise of this holiday season has long been that Americans would finally get to make up for all the getaways and family reunions that didn’t happen last winter.

Why Authoritarian Regimes Bother With Elections

In November 2019, Nixie Lam suffered the same fate as nearly all of her pro-Beijing compatriots running in Hong Kong’s local elections. The two-term district councillor was roundly defeated by a prodemocracy candidate whose campaign had been buoyed by months of sustained protests.

How Everything Became Emo

Anyone who spent their teenagedom in a black hooded sweatshirt was served a nice piece of attention bait last year in the form of a TikTok phenomenon known as the “emo test.” In it, users listened to snippets of songs by such artists as Panic! At the Disco and Paramore to see how many tunes they recognized. If you got eight to 10 songs right, you were certified “emo.” If you got more than that, then congrats—you were “broken.

Grief Is Evidence of Love

Fourteen years ago, the day before Thanksgiving, I lost my sister Tracie to breast cancer. She was 37, married, and the mother of three children. I can’t remember what happened the next day—what we ate or who even cooked. Everything was a blur. A couple of days after we laid Tracie to rest, my mother called me. William, my only brother, was being hospitalized. Doctors didn’t know what was wrong, but he couldn’t breathe.

“A Big Relief”: Haitian Immigrant Rights Leader Jean Montrevil Wins Victory in Fight to Stay in U.S.

Longtime immigrant rights leader Jean Montrevil has been granted three years of protection from deportation as part of a settlement for the First Amendment lawsuit Montrevil filed against the U.S. government that argued federal immigration officials targeted him for deportation due to his activism. Montrevil was abruptly deported to Haiti in 2018 but was allowed under the Biden administration to return home to New York in October to reunite with his family.

“Unacceptable”: Rep. Jamaal Bowman Slams Manchin After Senator Says No to Build Back Better Plan

President Biden’s signature $1.75 trillion Build Back Better package appears to be dead after Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced on Fox News this Sunday he would not support the plan to expand the social safety net and combat the climate crisis. Without Manchin, Senate Democrats do not have enough votes to pass the landmark legislation, which has already been approved by the House.

Dr. Carlos del Rio on Omicron Surge, COVID Testing Crisis & the Need to Vaccinate the World

With the emergence of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, the United States is now averaging over 130,000 new COVID-19 cases a day, and health officials warn the U.S. could see a million new cases a day by February. We speak with health expert Dr. Carlos del Rio, who says that vaccination complemented by booster shots is the best defense against severe illness. “Everybody’s going to get infected.