Today's Liberal News

Georgia Republicans fantasize about ‘unity rally’ after Trump ravaged their primaries

Georgia Republicans avoided the worst-case scenario Tuesday in their marquee primaries for governor and Senate, avoiding runoffs in both critical contests.

Sitting GOP Gov. Brian Kemp trounced Trump-endorsed former Sen. David Perdue, winning nearly three-quarters of primary voters.

Meanwhile, Trump-endorsed former Georgia football star Herschel Walker ran away with the Senate primary, winning some 68% of the vote. His nearest challenger, Gary Black, finished at just over 13%.

Biden gives up on Congress when it comes to police reform and plans to sign executive order instead

President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday, the two-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death, that he would sign an executive order promising to deliver the “most significant police reform in decades.” The president promised that the order would create a national database of police misconduct, strengthen pattern or practice investigations, and ban chokeholds for federal agencies.

Mass Shootings, Young Men, and What Can Be Done

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.

We Need to Learn to Live With Guns

The most important thing you need to know about yesterday’s tragic school shooting in Texas is that absolutely no laws are going to change as a result of it.In the 14 years since the Supreme Court found an individual right to bear arms under the Second Amendment in the landmark case of D.C. v. Heller, the federal judiciary has only grown more conservative. The courts will likely bar any meaningful restrictions on the possession of firearms for at least another generation.

The Real Reason America Doesn’t Have Gun Control

After each of the repeated mass shootings that now provide a tragic backbeat to American life, the same doomed dance of legislation quickly begins. As the outraged demands for action are inevitably derailed in Congress, disappointed gun-control advocates, and perplexed ordinary citizens, point their fingers at the influence of the National Rifle Association or the intransigent opposition of congressional Republicans.

10 Years After Sandy Hook, Here We Are Again

Many of the first graders who survived the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting are sophomores at my son’s high school now. As a freshman, he is on a soccer team with some of them. Most afternoons, mastering their short passes and one-touch shots, they seem far past that day. Then casually, in conversation, a mother or father will mention a detail from their early childhoods—which elementary school they went to in town—and we’ll all quietly remember.

Think Gun Laws Are Hard to Change? Try Gun Culture

The mass shooter in Uvalde, Texas, killed 19 children and two adults. That means at some point he probably paused to reload. The mind goes to dark places when it imagines the seconds spent fumbling for fresh ammo, amid the sounds of death, and the click of a new magazine as a murderer’s hand smacks its baseplate home into the mag-well.

Sen. Chris Murphy, Whose District Includes Sandy Hook, Begs to Pass Gun Control Laws: “What Are We Doing?”

Hours after Tuesday’s mass shooting that killed at least 19 students and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy passionately addressed Republicans on the Senate floor in a call for action on gun control. “I’m here on this floor to beg, to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues: Find a path forward here,” said Murphy. “Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely.

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.