Today's Liberal News

The Irony of Using Charlie Kirk’s Murder to Silence Debate

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A strange thing happens when a notable public figure is killed: Their rough edges are sanded down, and a multidimensional person is flattened into the simplicity of a myth.
This has happened with jarring speed to Charlie Kirk, the conservative influencer murdered last week in Utah.

The Atlantic Announces Free Digital Subscriptions for All U.S. Public High Schools

Starting today, The Atlantic is offering every public high school in the United States free digital access to its journalism and 168-year archive. All public high schools and districts can register with The Atlantic to give their students, teachers, and administrators unlimited access to TheAtlantic.com while on campus at no cost: all articles, full magazine issues, podcasts and audio articles, Atlantic Games, and the complete archive.

RFK Jr. Is Neglecting an Autism Concern Backed by Science

Pesticides once appeared to be a clear target for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s desire to “make America healthy again.” Before becoming the health secretary, he described Monsanto, the maker of the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup, as “enemy of every admirable American value,” and vowed to “ban the worst agricultural chemicals already banned in other countries.” Since he came to power, many of Kennedy’s fans have waited eagerly for him to do just that.

The New War on Weed

When Connecticut legalized recreational marijuana in 2021, the state’s lieutenant governor, Susan Bysiewicz, boasted that the new law was “crafted to repair the wounds left by the War on Drugs.” The move followed the same rationale that had motivated legalization in 18 other states: fewer resources exhausted on policing a drug that legalization advocates view as largely unharmful, fewer lives derailed by what they argue to be excessive lockups.

The Attorney General’s Attack on Free Speech

Attorney General Pam Bondi, America’s highest-ranking law-enforcement official, declared in an interview posted to YouTube yesterday that federal law enforcement will “go after” Americans for hate speech. “There’s free speech, and then there’s hate speech,” she said. In fact, there is no hate-speech exception to the First Amendment.
In a post on X this morning, Bondi tried to qualify her comments.

U.S. Acts as “Judge, Jury & Executioner” in Venezuelan Boat Strikes, Killing at Least 14

On Monday, President Trump announced the U.S. bombed a boat in international waters, killing three people. The attack was the second to target what the Trump administration claims are drug smugglers from Venezuela. A previous strike on another boat killed 11 people. In a third incident, the U.S. Navy raided a fishing boat in Venezuelan waters, detaining nine fishermen for eight hours. This escalating U.S.

Bishop William Barber Condemns Charlie Kirk Murder and the Right’s Religious Nationalism

We speak to Bishop William J. Barber II about conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk’s killing and the right-wing weaponization of his death. Barber says outrage over political violence should also extend beyond Kirk’s assassination, to what he refers to as the political violence of policy, including the hundreds around the world who die of poverty, war and disease every day.

Block the Bombs to Israel: Rep. Delia Ramirez Denounces Genocide in Gaza

Congressmember Delia Ramirez, one of the co-sponsors of the Block the Bombs Act, which would withhold offensive weapons that violate international law and humanitarian norms deals from Israel, responds to a U.N. commission’s recent conclusion that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. She provides an update on the bill and says, “It’s indefensible for anyone to, in this moment, try to make an excuse of what’s happening and allowing it to happen under our watch.

ICE Kills Immigrant Father After Traffic Stop, Detains Day Laborer Who Sued Chicago Police

ICE’s “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago is entering its second week of ramped-up immigration enforcement. Community members are mourning the loss of Silverio Villegas Gonzales, a 38-year-old single father and Mexican immigrant who was shot and killed by ICE agents while trying to avoid arrest at a traffic stop. Villegas Gonzales was unarmed and had no criminal record. His family has organized a fundraiser to help cover the costs of his funeral and burial.