Today's Liberal News

A New Way to Think About Our Filing Systems

In The Filing Cabinet: A Vertical History of Information, Craig Robertson chronicles the history and influence of the titular 19th-century invention that revolutionized offices. The machine—for it was advertised as a piece of high-tech equipment rather than as a mundane furniture item—promised corporations a new level of capitalist efficiency. All company information could be quickly classified and stored according to a rigid system, and then just as easily retrieved.

“No Tech for ICE”: Data Broker LexisNexis Sued for Helping ICE Target Immigrant Communities

A coalition of immigrant rights organizations have sued the data broker LexisNexis for collecting detailed personal information on millions of people and then selling it to governmental entities, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The lawsuit alleges LexisNexis has helped create “a massive surveillance state with files on almost every adult U.S. consumer,” and accuses ICE of using information collected by LexisNexis to circumvent local policies in sanctuary cities.

Palestinian NGOs Speak Out After Israeli Forces Raid Offices & Declare Them to Be “Terrorist” Groups

Israeli forces raided and closed the offices of seven Palestinian civil society rights groups in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, six of which Israeli authorities had designated as terrorist groups last year. The raid came as the United Nations condemned Israel for killing 19 Palestinian children in recent weeks, and 100 days after Israeli forces shot dead Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while covering an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp.

What Will the Future of Kenya Look Like? Nanjala Nyabola on 2022 Disputed Election, Drought & More

Kenya is facing a political crisis following last week’s presidential election, with the apparent runner-up rejecting the results of the vote and the apparent president-elect announcing plans to form a new government. We speak with Nairobi-based writer and political analyst Nanjala Nyabola, who says the Kenyan elections yield “terrible candidates,” with the most recent election results following a decades-long tradition of election interference and miscommunication.

NBA announces it won’t schedule games on Election Day: But is it just an empty gesture?

The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced on Aug. 16 that it wouldn’t be scheduling games on Election Day for the upcoming 2022/23 season. Instead, all 30 of its teams will play the day before (Nov. 7) as part of a “Civic Engagement Night” to raise awareness for the election. This announcement, which Shaquille Brewster of NBC News first reported, is part of the NBA’s ongoing efforts to increase civic participation within its fanbase.

Rudy says Trump didn’t actually steal top secret docs, he was simply ‘preserving’ them

So if you or I had worked for the government and, upon leaving, squirreled away a few top secret nuclear documents in a Six Million Dollar Man lunchbox that we kept under a basement foosball table, we’d be sitting in brightly lit rooms asking if we could please get some unscented udder cream for our serially brutalized nipples. It’s unlikely we’d be able to trot out numerous contradictory excuses for our crimes and have roughly a third of the nation believe them.

Ukraine update: Russian ambassador calls for genocide as U.S. buys grain to stave off food crisis

Ukraine’s position as one of the largest providers of exported grain has generated fears from the outset that Vladimir Putin’s illegal and unprovoked invasion would lead to food shortages in countries around the world. Those fears haven’t been helped by scenes of fields in the east of Ukraine pitted by thousands of artillery strikes, or news of farmers in the north dying after striking mines left behind by withdrawing Russian forces.

Teachers in your state are underpaid. The question is by how much, this week in the war on workers

Teachers have earned less than other workers with the same education levels for decades—but it’s getting worse. “On average, teachers earned just 76.5 cents on the dollar compared with what similar college graduates earned working in other professions—and much less than the relative 93.9 cents on the dollar that teachers earned in 1996,” the Economic Policy Institute reports.

Connect! Unite! Act! Together again!

Connect! Unite! Act! is a weekly series encouraging the creation of face-to-face networks in each congressional district. Groups meet to socialize, support candidates, get out the vote, and engage in other local political actions that help our progressive movement grow and exert maximum influence on the powers that be. Visit us every week to see how you can get involved!

Getting back to meeting in person can be difficult for most of us.

The Classified-Files Scandal Is the Most Trumpy Scandal of All

The iron law of scandals involving Donald Trump is that they will always be stupid, and there will always be more of them. Trump scandals—the Russia investigation; Trump’s first impeachment, over his efforts to blackmail Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; the insurrection on January 6—have something else in common: All these catastrophes result from Trump’s refusal to divorce the office of the presidency and the good of the country from his personal desires.

I’m the Driver Now

Thirty-seven, I decided, was old enough. Even here in Britain, that is an advanced age to begin learning to drive, but somehow, I had never gotten around to it. And so I found myself, one morning last fall, trying to master the exact sequence of foot movements required to hit something called “biting point.