Today's Liberal News

NRA to Hold “Republican Pep Rally” in Houston with Trump, Days After 21 Killed in Texas Mass Shooting

The National Rifle Association still plans to host its annual meeting Friday in Houston, Texas, despite Tuesday’s mass shooting at an elementary school that left 19 children and two adults dead in the state. More than 55,000 people are set to attend and hear speeches by former President Trump and Republican Texas lawmakers including Governor Greg Abbott and Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn.

“We Can’t Go On Like This”: 21 Killed in Elementary School Massacre; Texans Demand Gun Control

Nineteen children and two teachers were shot dead at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday by an 18-year-old who had earlier shot and critically wounded his grandmother. The gunman was shot and killed by law enforcement. The attack was the deadliest school shooting since the massacre in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, in 2012 and comes just 10 days after an 18-year-old self-described white supremacist attacked a grocery store in the heart of Buffalo’s African American community.

“His Name Is George Floyd”: Two Years After Police Murder, His Life & the Struggle for Racial Justice

This week marks the second anniversary of the police murder of George Floyd. We speak with Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, who have just published an in-depth new book, “His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice,” that tells the story of structural racism in the U.S. through Floyd’s own story. “This is an American story.

Greenslide: Climate Crisis Spurs Green-Labor Win in Australian Election Over Pro-Coal, Right-Wing PM

In what is being described as a “greenslide,” voters in Australia topple the prime minister, ending nearly a decade of conservative rule. The main issue? Climate change. Voters elected Anthony Albanese of the center-left Labor Party as their new prime minister on Saturday, ousting the right-wing, pro-coal Scott Morrison, who had served as Australia’s prime minister since 2018.

Ukraine update: ‘They’re a little bit busy defending freedom and democracy’

Yesterday, Henry Kissinger said that Ukraine should trade land for peace, that everyone should be nicer to Russia, and that attempting to actually force Russia to surrender the territory it occupies within Ukraine would be “not be about the freedom of Ukraine, but a new war against Russia itself.” Even though none of that war would actually be in Russia.

Ukraine update: Russia captures another large town, but how much should we worry?

There are reports on Tuesday that Russian forces have occupied the town of Lyman after an extended period of heavy combat that saw the town attacked from three sides. Those on-the-ground reports appear to be confirmed by high-resolution satellite imagery and by the NASA FIRMS data which, after several days of rain in the area, cleared up over the last few days to show a pattern that seemed familiar from some other sites that have fallen.

A Guide to The Atlantic’s Coverage of Guns in America

“Like everyone, and I’d say especially like every parent, I am of course saddened and horrified by the latest mass shooting-murder. My sympathies to all,” James Fallows, a longtime correspondent for this magazine, wrote nearly a decade ago on July 20, 2012. That day, a gunman had opened fire on theater-goers in Aurora, Colorado. A dozen people were dead.

America’s Hands Are Full of Blood

Thoughts and prayers. It began as a cliché. It became a joke. It has putrefied into a national shame.If tonight, Americans do turn heavenward in pain and grief for the lost children of Uvalde, Texas, they may hear the answer delivered in the Bible through the words of Isaiah:“And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

Why Biden Is Right to End Ambiguity on Taiwan

“White House Walks Back Biden Taiwan Defense Claim for Third Time in Nine Months” was the patronizing headline the New York Post applied to its report on President Joe Biden’s Taiwan comments at a regional summit in Tokyo. The story line was preset: semi-senile president blurts unscripted comment, is corrected by his staff minders.But if you reread Biden’s repeated comments on Taiwan, you see a policy that is clear, considered, and consistent.

Who Perseveres, Wins

I never attended Ranger School, the U.S. Army’s nine weeks of unadulterated misery in woodland, mountain, and swamp. But I know plenty of those who have, and they have all reported the same thing: The instruction they received in patrolling and minor tactics was insignificant compared with the lesson they learned in perseverance, to “complete the mission though I be the lone survivor,” in the words of the Ranger Creed.

The Unique Challenge of Raising Teenagers Right Now

Sign up for Molly’s newsletter, Wait, What?, here.The teenagers are not all right, but then again, neither are the adults. Pandemic life has been profoundly jarring, and every generation has felt it. I hear about people fighting on airplanes and an increase in violent crimes, then I attend my Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on Zoom and try to figure out why going back to “normal” is so hard.