Today's Liberal News

“Theft from On High”: Trump’s Budget Bill Guts Medicaid, Medicare & More to Pay for Tax Cuts

Trump’s sweeping budget legislation has been described as the biggest Medicaid cut in U.S. history. House Republicans passed the bill early Thursday morning in a 215-214 vote. The legislation would trigger massive cuts to Medicare and Medicaid over the next 10 years, denying coverage to an estimated 7.6 million Americans, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

An Atlantic Reading List on Consciousness

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People in a vegetative state may be far more aware than was once thought, Sarah Zhang reports in a recent feature. “In some extraordinary patients, the line between conscious and unconscious is more permeable than one might expect,” she writes.

Trump Is Making Netanyahu Nervous

Donald Trump’s itinerary for his recent trip to the Middle East featured a glaring omission. The president visited Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, but not Israel, ostensibly America’s main ally in the region. When asked about the snub, he insisted that it wasn’t a snub at all: “This is good for Israel,” Trump said, referring to the alliances he’d be strengthening with countries that were, notably, not named Israel.

The Big, Beautiful Republican Shrug

When Democrats reshaped the American health-insurance system in 2010, Republicans accused them of all manner of legislative foul play: Middle-of-the-night votes. Backroom deals. An enormous, partisan bill jammed through Congress before anyone could find out what was in it. “Have you read the bill? Hell no you haven’t!” an indignant then-House Minority Leader John Boehner thundered on the House floor.
The GOP’s claims were exaggerated.

What the Show of the Summer Knows About Intimacy

The beach-read vibes are strong with Sirens, a Netflix miniseries set on a moneyed northeastern island compound that, at first glance, seems awfully familiar. The hydrangeas bloom with manicured abandon. The dramatic tension is stoked with top-shelf liquor and minor acts of class warfare. Absolutely everyone has secrets.

Project 2025’s Architects Are Close to Achieving a Major Goal

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To understand how much the American right has changed, consider its journey from fiercely resisting President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s efforts to expand executive power to surpassing them.

What Are People Still Doing on X?

This has been a banner month for X. Last week, the social network’s built-in chatbot, Grok, became strangely obsessed with false claims about “white genocide” in South Africa—allegedly because someone made an “unauthorized modification” to its code at 3:15 in the morning. The week prior, Ye (formerly Kanye West) released a single called “Heil Hitler” on the platform. The chorus includes the line “Heil Hitler, they don’t understand the things I say on Twitter.

The Funniest Part of Alison Bechdel’s Work

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Dykes to Watch Out For, the long-running lesbian comic strip that launched Alison Bechdel’s career, is full of kitchen-table drama and dry humor, but its title is also more literal than those elements might suggest.

It Should Not Be Controversial to Plead for Gaza’s Children

Imagine a child at home, crying. She is inconsolable, screaming for food. A neighbor tries to offer some bread; the door is blocked. A grocery store down the road has plenty of supplies; no one can get to it. The clock ticks down and the child starves, her baby fat melting to nothing.
Multiply that possibility by thousands. In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian children are starving while food is sitting in trucks, just out of reach.