Today's Liberal News

Author Q&A with Kristen Arnett: Queer family structures, COVID-19, and the infamous Florida Man

If you’re active in a certain sphere of Twitter, you may have seen one of Kristen Arnett’s viral jokes. Arnett, a lesbian writer based in Florida, has a knack for crafting the perfect internet dad joke—think puns about animals named after famous writers, what foods are (and are not) technically ravioli, and the euphoric wonders of 7-Eleven. Arnett is also a bestselling writer.

The Memorial Day history forgot: The Martyrs of the Race Course

It has become a Daily Kos tradition for me to republish this Memorial Day story I wrote in 2016. I have ancestors, Black and white, who fought for the Union during the Civil War. This is posted in their honor. —DOV

A pencil drawing and a grainy photo in the Library of Congress are all that is left of the cemetery where 257 Union soldiers were buried after the Civil War, on what had been a race course in Charleston, South Carolina.

It’s 2021. Bring on the UFOs

It’s been a helluva a century so far, huh? With a brief eight-year hiatus, during which Republicans got ever worse, it has been an unrelentingly awful reality, with the last four years being nearly unbearable. It’s better with the former guy gone, but it’s still pretty awful. Republicans have no bottom. They have seemingly just one intention right now: make life as hellish as possible for the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, Some Cicadas Taste Like Nature’s Gushers

Can you think of a good reason not to try a cicada, other than “ew”? I’ve posed this question to numerous friends and family, even my partner’s extended relatives, now that Brood X is swarming parts of the United States. Eating cicadas just makes sense, even for someone like me, who’s been a stalwart vegetarian since basically the last time they appeared, in 2004.

T. D. Jakes on How White Evangelicals Lost Their Way

Bishop T. D. Jakes is one of the most famous pastors in America. His multi-thousand-member Dallas megachurch, the Potter’s House, is just one part of his platform; he’s recorded gospel albums, starred in television broadcasts, led several popular conference series, and published numerous books, including his latest, Don’t Drop the Mic.

L.A. Is a City State

Two weeks after my wife and I moved to Los Angeles, a large man pedaled up to me in a parking lot in West Hollywood. He was sunburned, caked in grime. His bike was sized for a 12-year-old boy. Perhaps it had recently belonged to a 12-year-old boy.

The Crosses

This poem is dedicated to all the men and women, regardless of faith, who made the ultimate sacrifice for this nation.       I have stood before the crosses
as we laid a soldier down.
They cast a simple shadow
upon the upturned ground.The bugler sounds taps
as each cross its witness bears
to the journey of a soldier
released from earthly cares.

What Ancient Rome Tells Us About Today’s Senate

The U.S. Senate’s abdication of duty at the start of this Memorial Day weekend, when 11 senators (nine of them Republican) did not even show up to vote on authorizing an investigation of the January 6 insurrection, makes the item below particularly timely.Fifty-four senators (including six Republicans) voted to approve the investigative commission. Only 35 opposed it.But in the institutionalized rule-of-the-minority that is the contemporary Senate, the measure “failed.