Today's Liberal News

It’s all but official: Trump is trying to make a COVID-19 vaccine his October surprise

Impeached President Donald Trump is pushing health officials to speed up the timeline for a coronavirus vaccine in order to have it ready this fall. Administration sources tell The Washington Post that his “goal is to instill confidence among voters that the virus can be tamed and the economy fully reopened under Trump’s stewardship.” In other words, he wants to look like a president solving a crisis ahead of the election.

This Week in Statehouse Action: Home Remedies edition

Hello there, statehouse action-seekers!

I commend you for being especially bold right now, as action has a way of seeking pretty much everything and everyone out all on its own lately.

So I’ll not tax your energy further—let’s get into it.

As both protests and acts of police violence continue across the country, some states are taking matters into their own hands and are already moving to rein in law enforcement.

Trump campaign hobbles toward Tulsa rally as area’s COVID-19 rates keep rising

One date change and one unsuccessful legal challenge later, Donald Trump’s return to campaign rallies is still scheduled for Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma. How, though? Why is Trump having a rally at the site of a 1921 race massacre on a date when, despite the rally’s move off of Juneteenth itself, Black Tulsans will still be celebrating independence?

J.C.

The Atlantic Daily: Reflecting on a Belated Liberation

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.WILFREDO LEE / APJuneteenth, as my colleague Vann R. Newkirk II put it, celebrates a “belated liberation.” On June 19, 1865, more than two years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freedom finally reached the isolated state of Texas.

Insecure Is Finally Growing Up

It was a sexual misfire that first broke me. I’d been coasting along, appreciating the low-stakes ebbs and flows of HBO’s Insecure, when suddenly the problem was right in my face.Well, rather, it was in Issa’s. Midway through Season 2 of the series, which follows a group of black Millennials meandering through adulthood in Los Angeles, Insecure’s protagonist was ready to shake things up.

Trump Is Losing Credit Where He May Soon Need It Most

Today, President Trump tweeted a bewildered question about the latest Supreme Court decision against him: “Do you get the impression the Supreme Court doesn’t like me?”Thousands of people on Twitter promptly tweeted back, “It’s not about you!” Yet the president’s self-involved question touched on a truth.

The Trump Administration’s Incompetence Was the Saving Grace of 700,000 Dreamers

In a bravura interagency pageant of incompetence, the Trump administration managed today to wrest defeat from the jaws of victory. The Supreme Court decided in favor of the “Dreamers” in Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, the blockbuster case weighing the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program announced in 2012 by the Obama administration.

“Movements Work”: As Activists Occupy Seattle’s Capitol Hill, City Bans Tear Gas, Expels Police Union

In Seattle, the fight to demilitarize and defund the police continues as the King County Labor Council voted to expel the Seattle police union Wednesday, following weeks of protest. Seattle police sparked outrage for responding to massive protests against police brutality by using pepper spray, tear gas and flashbangs on demonstrators and reporters. Activists then formed an autonomous zone in response to the police department’s abandonment of a precinct building.

Rashad Robinson on Recent Spike in Hanging Deaths, the Cancellation of “Cops” & Boycotting Facebook

For more than a decade, the racial justice organization Color of Change led a push to cancel the long-running TV show “Cops,” which glorifies police aggression. Now the show has been cancelled, along with A&E’s “Live PD.” “The thing about these shows is that they call themselves reality programming, but they are only from the vision of the police officers,” says Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change.

Murder Charge for Atlanta Cop Who Shot & Killed Rayshard Brooks Shows the “Power of a Movement”

Prosecutors have charged the Atlanta police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks with felony murder, and accuse Garrett Rolfe of twice shooting Brooks in the back and then kicking him as he lay dying. A second officer, Devin Brosnan, faces four charges, including assault. We talk to Rashad Robinson of Color of Change about the charges in Atlanta and growing calls to defund the police.