Today's Liberal News

The Books Briefing: How to be Happy

The debate over what happiness is, and how to achieve it, goes back thousands of years: As Arthur Brooks, an Atlantic contributing writer, points out, the Greek philosopher Epicurus believed that happiness involved freedom from mental disturbance and the absence of physical pain. In the Stoic school of thought, happiness could be found only in a virtuous life.

“A Threshold Crossed”: Israel Is Guilty of Apartheid, Human Rights Watch Says for First Time

A major new report by Human Rights Watch says for the first time that Israel is committing crimes of apartheid and persecution in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The international human rights group says Israeli authorities dispossessed, confined and forcibly separated Palestinians. “For years, prominent voices have warned that apartheid lurked just around the corner.

Community Spotlight: Is your username a mask that hides … or a hint that reveals?

Are you satisfied with your Daily Kos username? Why did you choose it? Does it influence how you are perceived by other members or affect how you present yourself? For most of us, the username we chose on Day One will last as long as Daily Kos bytes persist. Did you choose a name that now embarrasses you or is too cumbersome? Perhaps it leads to unexpected consequences, as did mine.

The NRA’s Wayne LaPierre tried to keep this footage buried for 8 years

The last couple of years at the National Rifle Association have been filled with lawsuits, firings, resignations, and accusations of gross mismanagement of membership money by the top executives of the nonprofit. The NRA filed for bankruptcy in January, in part to get out from under investigations into its dealings by the New York attorney general’s office.

Is a Democratic resurgence in 2022 possible? Hell yes!

Many, if not most political analysts are painting a daunting picture for Democrats retaining their House or Senate majorities in 2022. Even those who acknowledge that the U.S. economy will be in a state of overdrive by the time of the midterms point to the conventional wisdom that dictates the party in power will inevitably lose seats to the opposition, as the glow of the prior national election fades, and the tides of partisan resentment rush back in.

Indian Americans Don’t Know What to Feel Right Now

On April 15, Gargi Shindé, a 43-year-old nonprofit executive, logged onto Zoom at 5 a.m. From her home in Charlotte, North Carolina, she watched her relatives huddle around a bright-yellow body bag at a crematorium in Pune, India. They were performing the final rites for Shindé’s aunt, Vijaya, who had just died from COVID-19. All she could do was watch.

‘We Want a Nation’

Ten years on, it’s easy to view the Arab uprisings only as a failure. Democracy remains elusive in the Middle East, dictators are further entrenched, and wars have devastated entire countries. But amid the despair and fear, a new cohort of protesters and activists has taken to the streets since 2019, in places such as Iraq, Sudan, and Lebanon. This new generation has learned a key lesson from their predecessors: A revolution can help bring down a regime, but it cannot build a state.