Today's Liberal News

The Crypto Crash Feels Amazing

Updated at 6:10 p.m. ET on May 18, 2022“What do you think of this company Netscape?” my parents asked. It was 1995, and they had called me on the landline, which back then just meant the telephone. Netscape was a company that made a graphical web browser—the web browser, really—but gave it away for free. Its income statement showed only modest revenue (and substantial losses). The web was new and exciting but unproven, so I steered my folks away from Netscape’s IPO.

Conservatives Are Defending a Sanitized Version of ‘The Great Replacement’

Three years ago, when a white-supremacist fanatic killed dozens of people in El Paso, Texas, the reaction from the right was unreserved condemnation. When another white-supremacist fanatic killed 10 people at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, last week, the reaction from some figures on the right was to acknowledge that the guy had a point about this whole “replacement” thing.

Tucker Carlson Deserves Blame—But Not for Buffalo

This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Every Monday, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.Question of the WeekCaitlin Flanagan’s masterful “Chasing Joan Didion” has me thinking about travel.What have you learned while away from home? Paint a picture of where you went and share your insights.

Battle of Donbas: Dramatic Interview from Ukrainian-Held Severodonetsk as Missiles Rain Down

In a rare interview from the frontlines of the Russian invasion, we speak with American journalist Billy Nessen in the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk. It is the easternmost city still held by Ukrainian forces after almost three months of war. He says Russian troops have devastated the city with heavy shelling. The interview with Nessen was interrupted when a shell landed in the building next door. Nessen speaks about the Ukrainian resistance, the Azov Battalion and more, including the U.S.

Nina Turner: Democrats Must Decide If They Are “Party of the Corporatists or Party of the People”

We look at the Democratic Party’s opposition to progressive challengers such as Nina Turner, former Ohio state senator who earlier this month lost her congressional primary challenge after facing massive spending and attacks by super PACs. Turner says the corporate wing of the Democratic Party seeks to consolidate the existing leadership’s power while shutting down champions of progressive policies like Medicare for All.

David Sirota: Progressives Win Key Primary Races Despite Millions Spent to Back Corporate Democrats

We look at Tuesday’s primary elections across five states, which could set the tone for this year’s midterm elections in November. Progressives won in some primary elections despite opposition from within the Democratic Party, as well as deep-pocketed outside groups. “What you’ve seen is a surprising backlash at the voter level to all of the money that flooded in,” says investigative journalist David Sirota of The Lever.

Abortion Activist Renee Bracey Sherman: Democrats Demand Our Votes But Fail to Protect Our Rights

Tens of thousands took to the streets across the U.S. Saturday to protest threats to abortion rights as part of a coordinated day of action, under the banner “Bans Off Our Bodies.” We speak with Renee Bracey Sherman, founder and executive director of pro-abortion group We Testify, about the racist history behind anti-abortion movements and the failure of Democrats to protect reproductive rights over the years.

John Fetterman (D-Vibes)

Even if you don’t know a single policy he supports, chances are good that you know what John Fetterman looks like. Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor is larger than life at 6 foot 8, distinctively bald with a salt-and-pepper goatee, draped in a baggy shirt or hoodie. Oh, and he’s a shorts guy too.Fetterman easily won today’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, and will run in November in a race that could decide control of the chamber.

Madison Cawthorn, a contender for most unhinged Republican in Congress, loses after just one term

North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn, whose various scandals, embarrassing videos, unhinged rhetoric, and run-ins with the law made him one of the most notorious Republicans in Congress during his short time in office, has lost his bid for a second term. State Sen. Chuck Edwards, who pitched himself as a dependable arch-conservative alternative to the shameless, attention-seeking incumbent, defeated Cawthorn in the Republican primary for North Carolina’s 11th District by a 34-32 margin.

Live coverage: May 17, 2022 primaries in Idaho, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oregon, and Pennsylvania

Five different states are holding primaries tonight with major implications for November. We’ll be liveblogging the results here and also covering the returns closely on Twitter.

Polls close in the portion of Kentucky located in the Eastern Time Zone, which includes Louisville, at 6 PM ET. We’ll begin our liveblog at 7:30 PM ET when polls close in North Carolina.

The Intersectionality of Hate

“The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be—will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved.”These are not the words of the teenager who walked into a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday to hunt down Black Americans, although they might as well be. These are the words of Tom Buchanan, a rich, repugnant character in the 1925 novel The Great Gatsby.

How a SIDS Study Became a Media Train Wreck

Sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, “will be a thing of the past,” according to Carmel Harrington, a sleep researcher at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, in Australia. A press release describes her new study, out this month, as a “game-changing” effort and a “world-first breakthrough” that could prevent future deaths from the tragic illness. Celebrations quickly spread on social media: “THEY FOUND THE CAUSE OF SIDS.