Today's Liberal News

Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s Pick for National Intel Director, Refuses to Call Edward Snowden a Traitor

President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congressmember from Hawaii, is facing major qualms from her former colleagues. During her Senate confirmation hearing, Democrats grilled her over her refusal to label whistleblower Edward Snowden a “traitor.” We discuss Snowden’s case and what it revealed about government surveillance of the American public with Chip Gibbons.

“Extraordinarily Dangerous”: Chip Gibbons Warns Kash Patel Would Turn FBI’s Powers on Trump’s Enemies

President Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist who has promoted right-wing conspiracy theories, is “one of Donald Trump’s most disturbing picks” who seems poised to use the office to go after journalists and other Trump critics, says Chip Gibbons of the civil liberties organization Defending Rights & Dissent.

“The Dr. Who Fooled the World”: Author Slams RFK’s Embrace of Disgraced Anti-Vaxxer Andrew Wakefield

Author and investigative journalist Brian Deer, who debunked disgraced ex-doctor Andrew Wakefield’s fraudulent claims that vaccines were linked to autism, says that Wakefield and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, are major leaders of the anti-vaccine movement. “They basically run this movement together,” he says.

“Nonsensical”: As Trump Blames Crash on DEI, Aviation Expert Says It’s Understaffing, Lax Regulation

Donald Trump is blaming DEI for the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in more than two decades, when a regional jet and a U.S. Army helicopter collided over a Washington, D.C. airport, killing 67 people. “We have a long list of problems that need to be addressed. … Instead, we’re talking about a nonsensical issue that is not based in fact,” says FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher Bill McGee, who says criticisms of DEI distract from and work against a critical staffing shortage at the FAA.

The Democrats Show Why They Lost

Speaking to the Democratic National Committee, which met to select its new leadership this weekend, the outgoing chair, Jaime Harrison, attempted to explain a point about its rules concerning gender balance for its vice-chair race. “The rules specify that when we have a gender-nonbinary candidate or officer, the nonbinary individual is counted as neither male nor female, and the remaining six officers must be gender balanced,” Harrison announced.

Reflections

Translated by David Frick and Robert Hass
An ant trampled, and above it clouds.
A trampled ant and above it a column of azure sky.
And in the distance, marking its blue steps,
The Vistula or the Dnieper on its bed of granite.
This is the image reflected in the water:
A city ruined, and above it clouds.
A ruined city and above it a column of azure sky.
And in the distance, stepping over blue thresholds,
The remains of History or the Spring of myth.
A dead field mouse, and beetle gravediggers.

The Tasks of an Anti-Trump Coalition

Donald Trump threatening to annex Canada? It was an absurd situation. I briefly considered recycling an old joke of mine about merging all of the High Plains states into a single province of South Saskatchewan. But as I toyed with it, the joke soured. The president of the United States was bellowing aggression against fellow democracies. The situation was simultaneously too stupid for serious journalism and too shameful for wisecracks.

Six Stories on Elite Schools

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
Our editors compiled six stories about elite schools and the issues they face. Today’s reading list examines how the Ivy League broke America, the problem with college admissions, and more.

Trump’s Campaign to Dismantle the Government

Over the decades, the American right has deployed violent imagery to describe its highest ideological goal: drown government in a bathtub, starve the beast, slash and burn. In less than two weeks of organized chaos, the Trump administration has realized these fantasies, but by deploying tactics both more subtle and more sinister than the movement’s old guard ever imagined.
Rather than eliminating departments wholesale or depleting the budgets of agencies, it has relied on menacing gestures.