Today's Liberal News

Ukraine update: It’s Vladimir Putin’s birthday, don’t forget to think of him today

Vladimir Putin is 70 today. The best gift that Putin could give to the world would be his retirement, either in the usual or the intelligence agency meaning of that word. However, that seems unlikely. So we’ll just have to hope that this is the last birthday Putin ever celebrates in a position of power, and check to see what presents the Russian army has brought to him this day. If we all keep Putin in mind today, maybe we can achieve a Scanners moment.

New book: During first impeachment, Ted Cruz admitted all 100 senators knew Trump was guilty

Republicans love their phony bugaboos. Whether it’s graduate-level courses being taught in kindergarten, migrant caravans shoving old women out of the way at the A&P to score the last marble rye, or foreign drug cartels handing out fentanyl to trick-or-treaters for Squad-knows-what reason, the GOP is great at distracting you from the hell demons feasting on your viscera all day, every day, like so much Laffy Taffy.

Prosecutors tell a story of sedition through Oath Keepers’ ‘bloody’ texts, speeches

Time was running out. It was exactly 14 days until Congress would meet to certify the results of the 2020 election, and Elmer Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, was unable to contain his frustration. 

“This will be DC rally #3. Getting kinda old. They don’t give a shit how many show up and wave a sign, pray or yell. They won’t fear us until we come with rifles in our hand,” Rhodes wrote on Dec.

Judge finds DeJoy harmed the Postal Service in 2020 election balloting interference

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has somehow managed to remain in his job, one of the last high-profile Trump holdovers, even though he has been under an ethical and legal cloud for the entirety of his tenure. We heard from one of those clouds Thursday, when a federal judge ruled that DeJoy’s changes to the U.S. Postal Service prior to the 2020 election harmed the service, but didn’t break election laws. Nonetheless, the judge blocked DeJoy from doing it again.

The President and the Bomb

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.President Biden has warned the Russians that the use of a nuclear weapon in Ukraine could lead to a wider nuclear conflict. He’s right to be worried—and he’s right to warn the Russians yet again not to take that fateful step.But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.

The Year I Tore Through Annie Ernaux’s Books

When I was living in Paris in 2018, a friend passed Annie Ernaux’s book Happening to me as if it were an envelope containing treasure. The memoir tells the story of the abortion Ernaux had in 1963, when the procedure was illegal in France, and, like nearly all of her books, it is an excavation of memory, of self, of the powers and the limits of writing.

The GIF Is on Its Deathbed

About 40 percent of my first full-time job was dedicated to making GIFs—a skill I had professed to have during the interview process, and that turned out to be much harder than I thought. It took trial and error to figure out how to make sure the colors weren’t too weird, the frame rate too fast, the file too big.This was 2015, and GIFs had to be smaller than 1 megabyte before you could upload them to most social platforms.

The Simple Pleasures of Baking

To me, the true sign of fall isn’t apple picking, fuzzy sweaters, or leaves turning new colors. It’s the sudden urge—which typically emerges on sleepy weekend afternoons—to dig up a cookbook and start measuring and mixing ingredients for sweet treats. The practice can be a salve for anxiety and provides comfort in stressful moments. It’s also just really cozy.

Decriminalize & Deschedule: Advocates Welcome Biden Pardons But Demand Deeper Reform of Cannabis Laws

President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he is pardoning everyone convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law, and said the classification of the drug would undergo review. The move will remove many legal barriers for thousands of people to gain jobs, housing, college admission and federal benefits, and fulfills a campaign pledge made by Biden.

The Unexpected Power of Seeing Yourself as a Villain

Monsters in horror films aren’t just scary, or dangerous. They also “make one’s skin creep,” the philosopher Noël Carroll wrote: “Characters regard them not only with fear but with loathing, with a combination of terror and disgust.

“There’s Going to Be a Fight”: Oath Keepers Trial Reveals Plan to Use Violence to Keep Trump in Office

The Oath Keepers trial, in which senior leaders of the right-wing extremist group are accused of plotting violence at the January 6 insurrection, began Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C. Prosecutors played a secret audio recording Tuesday of a meeting held by the Oath Keepers after the 2020 election in which founder Stewart Rhodes discussed plans to bring weapons to the capital to help then-President Trump stay in office.

Haiti Update: Gangs Rule Much of Port-au-Prince Amid Protests over Fuel Costs, Calls for PM to Resign

Mass protests in Haiti are condemning rising fuel prices and demanding the resignation of the U.S.-backed Prime Minister Ariel Henry. For nearly two months, street protests likened to a civil war have rocked the island nation’s capital Port-au-Prince after the government announced it would raise heavily subsidized fuel prices. We speak to Haitian activist Vélina Élysée Charlier about rising gang violence and how criminal groups are supported by the government.

Sedition trial Day 3 witness: Oath Keeper leader told me he was in touch with Secret Service

From the witness stand on Thursday, former Oath Keeper John Zimmerman of North Carolina recounted to jurors how in September 2020, he watched the extremist group’s founder, Elmer Stewart Rhodes, take a phone call from someone Rhodes claimed was an active-duty Secret Service agent. 

Zimmerman admitted he didn’t hear the person on the other end of that call, but he assumed what Rhodes told him was true.