Today's Liberal News

The Democrats’ Senate Majority Is Temporarily Gone

Justice Stephen Breyer hadn’t even made his retirement official last week when Democrats put out word that they wanted to confirm his replacement as fast as possible. According to one report, they wanted to match the record speed with which Republicans installed Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court following the 2020 death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The reason for the Democrats’ rush wasn’t immediately apparent.

What’s the Purpose of Boycotting Joe Rogan?

Sign up for Conor’s newsletter here.Late last month, the Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases about the constitutionality of race-conscious admissions policies, often called affirmative action, in institutions of higher education. What are your thoughts, positions, insights, questions, or legal opinions on the subject?Email your answers to conor@theatlantic.com. I’ll publish a selection of answers in Friday’s newsletter.

The Worst Person in the World Is Devastatingly Relatable

Julie (played by Renate Reinsve), the 30-year-old protagonist of The Worst Person in the World, keeps getting stuck in conversations about her future. The issue is relatable for many a Millennial; Julie is beautiful, intelligent, and hardworking, but she’s struggling to understand what her place in the world should be, what career she should pursue, what kind of person she should settle down with.

Erasing History: Holocaust Graphic Novelist Art Spiegelman on “Maus” & Wave of Book Bans Sweeping U.S.

As a wave of book bans sweeps schools and libraries across the United States, we speak with the celebrated graphic novelist Art Spiegelman on a Tennessee school district’s recent vote to ban his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel “Maus” from its eighth grade language arts curriculum. The novel, which was targeted for profanity and nudity, tells the story of Spiegelman’s parents who survived the Holocaust.

The Silencing of Black & Queer Voices: George M. Johnson on 15-State Ban of “All Boys Aren’t Blue”

School districts and Republican-controlled state legislatures are rapidly intensifying efforts to ban certain books about race, colonialism, sex and gender identity from public classrooms and libraries. The wave of book bans — with more than 70 educational gag order bills being introduced in legislatures over the past month alone — have been largely led by right-wing groups funded by Charles Koch. We’re joined by author George M.

Missouri proposes new Castle Doctrine law. Critics dub it the ‘Make Murder Legal Act’

So what do you do if “too many” Black people vote in an election? You pass laws to frustrate and discourage them, of course! But why rest on your ugly racist laurels when there are still so many pesky murder laws standing in the way of regress? What if “too many” white people are being prosecuted for murdering Black joggers who obviously shouldn’t be jogging and certainly shouldn’t be Black while doing it?

Eric Adams is the latest Democrat to choose increased policing over real safety

by Reina Sultan

This article was originally published at Prism

Eric Adams began his tenure as New York City’s mayor making explicitly pro-policing and -incarceration promises, with a so-called tough-on-crime approach that he argued was what voters wanted when they elected him. Historically low voter turnout—the lowest New York City had seen since 1953—suggests otherwise. Still, he has remained steadfast in his desire to be the law and order mayor.

The U.S. media are making a deadly mistake with Trump

The U.S. media are still flummoxed by the question of how to cover Donald Trump’s actions, even a full year after his ejection from the Oval Office. That ambivalence is understandable; never before in the history of this country has someone so thoroughly brazen and insouciant in his raw criminality occupied a position now enjoyed by Trump, whose every utterance now smacks of outright, seditious intent.

‘Requests have been simply ignored’: ACLU sues ICE for refusing to boost detained immigrants

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have tried to push back on very legitimate criticisms that they’ve completely failed on pandemic safety response by claiming that if detained people want to be vaccinated or boosted against the virus, all they have to do is ask.

But a group of medically vulnerable immigrants says they have asked to be protected, and have been denied.

This Is Your Brain on Heartbreak

We all know that when love is good, it’s really good. Research shows that romantic attachments, when they’re healthy and supportive, can be immensely beneficial for our health. Married people tend to live longer than single people and seem to fare better when seriously sick. But as poets and pop singers have long told us, when love goes awry, it hurts like nothing else.

Should We Go All In on Omicron Vaccines?

Two years into the pandemic, and two months into Omicron’s globe-crushing surge, our COVID-19 vaccines are finally on the cusp of a federally sanctioned update. To counter the new variant’s uncanny knack for slipping past antibodies roused by our first-generation shots, Moderna and Pfizer have both kick-started clinical trials to see how Omicron-specific vaccines fare in people.