Today's Liberal News

Anti-BDS Jewish Orgs Back Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Sales Ban in Settlements Despite Israeli Pressure

Israel has launched what has been described as a maximum pressure campaign against Ben & Jerry’s and its parent company Unilever, after the iconic ice cream brand announced it would halt sales in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Israel has asked 35 U.S. governors to enforce state laws which make it a crime to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS.

Human Rights Watch Accuses Israel of Apparent War Crimes in Gaza Assault; Urges ICC Probe

Human Rights Watch is calling on the International Criminal Court to open a probe into apparent Israeli war crimes committed during its recent 11-day assault on Gaza that killed 260 Palestinians, including 66 children. We discuss a major report HRW released this week that closely examines three Israeli strikes that killed 62 Palestinians civilians in May. U.S.-made weapons were used in at least two of the attacks investigated.

“This Is Not a Climate Bill”: Leah Stokes on Why Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal Doesn’t Go Far Enough

Senate Democrats have announced that they have joined with 17 Republicans to vote in favor of taking up a $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal. The plan includes new spending on climate and environment measures, but critics say it falls far short of what is needed. Democrats say they hope to include additional climate measures in a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package that could advance without being blocked by a Republican filibuster if it is backed by all 50 Democrats.

News Roundup: DeSantis presides over massive pandemic surge; Trump sought Justice help for coup

In the news today: COVID-19 cases in Florida are spiking to record levels, and you can pin the blame squarely on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ relentless efforts to sabotage public safety for the sake of politics. Newly released Department of Justice notes once again prove that the Trump White House’s attempts to nullify an American election were pre-plotted, broad in scope, and deadly serious.

Ex-Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm, a Democrat who later sought Reform Party nod for president, dies at 85

Former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm, who led the state as a Democrat from 1975 to 1987 and unsuccessfully sought the 1996 Reform Party nomination for president, died Thursday at the age of 85. Lamm supported abortion rights and environmental protection legislation during his time in politics, but he infuriated much of the party base in 1981 by supporting the repeal of the state’s Bilingual Bicultural Education Act.

What I Heard in the White House Basement

One phone call changed my life.On Thursday, July 25, 2019, I was seated at the table in one of the two Situation Rooms in the basement of the West Wing. The bigger room is famous from movies and TV shows, but this room is smaller, more typically businesslike: a long wooden table with 10 chairs, maybe a dozen more chairs against wood-paneled walls, and a massive TV screen. This was the room where President Barack Obama and his team watched a feed of the Osama bin Laden raid.

Utility companies want everyone to believe the climate crisis caught them completely by surprise

There needs to be a word. A word that combines frustrating, terrifying, and infuriating. A word for a story that contains information that lets you know that the people who are not just riding on the bus, but steering it toward a cliff, have absolutely no plans for what comes next even as the front wheels leave the ground.

This article from The New York Times starts off describing a specific incident that’s frightening enough, but also strangely heartening.

Don’t Let Anyone Normalize January 6

While he was president of the United States, Donald Trump tried to overthrow the election of 2020, first by fraud, then by violence. His efforts were defeated in great part because of the integrity and courage of state-level Republican officials.Half a year has now passed since supporters of the president stormed Congress in an effort to coerce Vice President Mike Pence to declare Trump the winner of the 2020 election.

A Crimson Tide of Debt

Weeks into his freshman year at the Marion Military Institute, a public two-year college in Alabama, Thomas was bored. The campus, in the sleepy, hard-luck town of Marion, lacked the glitzy amenities of modern-day universities. To escape the institute’s starchy military uniforms and rigid schedule, Thomas would jump in his truck on weekends and head to Tuscaloosa, home of the University of Alabama.

The Day the Space Station Lurched

Mission control in Houston first noticed it Thursday morning.The International Space Station was drifting. The station is always moving, of course, in a looping trajectory around Earth. But this, what mission control was seeing in the latest data, was unexpected, and unnerving. On Thursday morning, the space station was suddenly and mysteriously deviating from its course.

Stillwater Isn’t a Typical True-Crime Drama

Stillwater’s premise is simple: What if you were Amanda Knox’s father? This Matt Damon–starring project from the director Tom McCarthy is only loosely based on reality, but the dilemma facing roughneck Oklahoma dad Bill Baker (played by Damon) has the same sensational hook: His daughter is imprisoned in Europe after being found guilty of murdering her roommate in a splashy trial.