Today's Liberal News

Former Nebraska Rep. Brad Ashford, who switched parties four times during long career, dies at 72

Former Rep. Brad Ashford, whose 2014 win gave Democrats their only victory in a Nebraska House race since the 1994 GOP wave, died Tuesday at the age of 72 two months after he announced that he had brain cancer. Ashford previously served as a Democrat, Republican, and independent during his two stints in the state’s unicameral legislature, though he was never fully at home in either party during his long career in local and national politics.

Nuts & Bolts—Inside the Democratic party: Stop counting on young people to bail out the party

This week in the Nuts & Bolts Guide to the Democratic party, we should take some time to discuss why the Democratic party should not count on young people bailing out the party when election time comes. 

There are several significant problems with this analysis, but some of the conclusions are also incorrect. Many conclusions revolve around voter registration efforts, turnout efforts, and making sure we motivate young people to get out there and work in campaigns.

Fulton County DA to begin selecting special grand jury in Trump election tampering case on May 2

Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis will begin selection of a special grand jury on May 2 to hear testimony about whether former President Donald Trump tried to illegally overturn the election results in Georgia in 2020, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) reported.

Willis told the newspaper that the special grand jury won’t hear testimony from witnesses until June 1.

I am so lost. Republican rabbit-hole logic needs decoder rings to make any sense

Every time I read the news, I find myself completely baffled by Republicans. Sometimes, I wonder if just being exposed to the winding logic is making us lose our grasp on reality, because I am absolutely lost on how anyone can make sense of these conclusions.

Republicans are supposedly concerned with little girls being violated in bathrooms, trans books, and any teaching of history that involves members of the Black and brown communities.

Emmanuel Macron’s Win Offers Him a Chance to Be Great

Winston Churchill was once asked whether he thought that Charles de Gaulle was a great man. “He is selfish, he is arrogant, he believes he is the center of the world,” Churchill replied. “You are quite right. He is a great man.” Something similar might be true of Emmanuel Macron.

Father Andrews

Illustrations by Miki LoweThomas Lynch has written six poetry collections, five books of essays, and one volume of short stories; in 1997, he was a finalist for the National Book Award. Writing isn’t even Lynch’s day job. Since 1974, he’s been a funeral director in the town of Milford, Michigan.

The Puzzle That Will Outlast the World

The package I’ve been impatiently waiting for finally arrives: A cardboard box about as tall as your average Olympic gymnast. It’s covered in yellow packing tape, stamped fragile, and has a return address in a town in the Netherlands.Inside this box is a thing of beauty—and absurdity. It’s a one-of-a-kind puzzle created just for me by one of the greatest puzzle makers in the world. It is, almost surely, the hardest puzzle ever to exist.

“Powerlands”: Young Diné Filmmaker on Indigenous Resistance to Resource Colonization Worldwide

We continue our Earth Day special by looking at how Indigenous peoples are protecting the Earth. We follow the journey of Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, an award-winning queer Navajo filmmaker whose new film “Powerlands” shows how corporations like Peabody, the world’s largest private coal company, have devastated her homeland. She also connects with Indigenous communities in Colombia, the Philippines, Mexico and Standing Rock facing the same struggle.

As Ukraine War Disrupts Steel Imports, Will U.S. Pivot to Green Future & Break Free from Dirty Steel?

On Earth Day, we look at how the war in Ukraine gives the United States a new chance to break free of emissions-heavy steel production. Russia and Ukraine supplied over 60% of the pig iron the U.S. imported last year to make steel, some of it produced at the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant in Mariupol where thousands of civilians and soldiers are now blockaded.

As Russia Intensifies Attack on Ukraine’s Donbas, Volunteers Try to Help Civilians in Leveled Cities

We get an update on the Donbas region of Ukraine, where Russian forces are now focused. Russia has backed a separatist movement in the Donbas since 2014 and used protecting the Russian-speaking population there as a justification for its invasion in February. We speak with Brian Milakovsky, who lived in the Donbas town of Severodonetsk before he evacuated to Croatia in January and is now fundraising for people trying to flee Russian attacks.

Matrix of War: Russian Elites Unlikely to Split from Putin Despite War Losses & Western Sanctions

Russians are weathering the fallout of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine with no sign of a negotiated peace deal soon. Economic sanctions have driven up food prices, and there has been repression of political dissent within the country. We speak with author Tony Wood, a member of the New Left Review editorial board, who says the crushing Western sanctions are unlikely to end Putin’s rule and are only hardening attitudes.

Impossible Choices in the Battle for the Donbas

Soon after Russia invaded Ukraine, Pavlo Kyrylenko and Serhiy Gaidai received phone calls from men they believed to be Russians, based on their accents. Kyrylenko and Gaidai, the governors of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, respectively, were being enticed to defect.

‘I Am a Governor of People, Not of Tombstones’

Soon after Russia invaded Ukraine, Pavlo Kyrylenko and Serhiy Gaidai received phone calls from men they believed to be Russians, based on their accents. Kyrylenko and Gaidai, the governors of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, respectively, were being enticed to defect.