Today's Liberal News

This Is No Way to Be Human

Recently I met the astronomer Pascal Oesch, an assistant professor at the University of Geneva. Professor Oesch and his colleagues share the distinction of having discovered the most distant known object, a small galaxy called GNz-11. That galaxy is so far away that its light had to travel for 13 billion years to get from there to here. I asked Professor Oesch if he felt personally connected to this tiny smudge on his computer screen.

How Did We Get So ‘Cringe’?

Take a tweet from the week after the Capitol riot in January 2021: “A Liberal insurrection would have looked very different. We would have escorted the original Broadway cast of Hamilton into the galleries. They would softly sing … as members of the GOP spewed their lies.” This was apparently intended as satire of a certain type of extremely online and cringe-inducing liberal smugness, but it came off as the thing itself and then produced more of the same.

The Selfishness of Novak Djokovic

Updated at 8:20 p.m. ET on January 15, 2022After a dramatic weeklong fight with the world’s top men’s tennis player, Australia’s immigration authorities wisely decided to revoke Novak Djokovic’s visa a second time because he flouted the country’s COVID-19 policies. Although the Australian authorities and tennis officials aren’t blameless, this is a huge, self-inflicted public-relations crisis for Djokovic that has smeared his legacy.

The Case for Keeping Up Your Christmas Tree Until March

Right now, there is a hole in my living room. It was not there last week. We’ve tried to cover it up, but nothing seems to work. Rearranging the furniture somehow only makes the hole grow. The space, which once radiated a hopeful glow, now feels hollow. When I stare at this hole, I begin to feel as if a light has gone out in the world. Actually, not just one, many. And that’s because they have.I am, of course, talking about my Christmas tree (RIP).

John Nichols on How “Coronavirus Criminals & Pandemic Profiteers” Hurt World’s Response to COVID-19

We speak with The Nation’s national affairs correspondent John Nichols on the occasion of his new book, “Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers: Accountability for Those Who Caused the Crisis,” which takes aim at the CEOs and political figures who put profits over people during the coronavirus pandemic. The chapters cover notorious figures such as former President Trump, Mike Pompeo, Jared Kushner and Jeff Bezos.

Confessions of a “Human Guinea Pig”: Professor Quits Vaccine Trial over Moderna’s Corporate Greed

Jeremy Menchik, a self-described “human guinea pig” who volunteered for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine trials, dropped out to protest the company’s greed in reaping profits from the ongoing pandemic while doing little to resolve global vaccine inequity. Menchik is launching a new website — mrna4all.org — where other vaccine trial participants can join the effort to pressure vaccine makers to scale up production to vaccinate the world.

News Roundup: Voting rights must wait a weekend; Rep. McCarthy has Jan. 6 memory loss

It is Friday. It will be a long three-day weekend for the do-nothing Senate, as the corruptions of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have left voting rights to hang in the balance. The Supreme Court handed down a decision slamming the rights of workers across the country, and federal courts followed that up by being exposed for their own weak labor practices. In equally dismal news, the Jan.

Wisconsin lawmaker says mitigating COVID-19 is impossible—for the most ridiculous reason yet

You know, I’m starting to agree with the MAGA crowd about masks. I don’t really need one, because I’ve been face-palming pretty much nonstop since 2017. That’s gotta filter out most coronavirus, right? As for the vaccine—I got all my shots. But, sadly, there’s no immunity—artificial or otherwise—against the goofball gormlessness of the Republican Party.

Caribbean Matters: Untenable political situation in Haiti worsens amid new assassination revelations

As we mark the anniversary of the catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010—a natural disaster from which the island nation has never recovered—Haitians are now confronting more issues that will continue to destabilize them. These shockwaves emanate not from geology, but from the increasingly disastrous realm of politics.

Your Thoughts on Parent-Teacher Conflicts

Sign up for Conor’s newsletter here.Earlier this week I asked you all, “What are the proper roles of parents and teachers, respectively, in the education of children?” What follows are three very different answers to that question.

The Fate of Bobby Kennedy’s Assassin

Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, one of the nine surviving children of the late Robert F. Kennedy, was at the family compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, with a gaggle of his relatives and siblings last August when the California Board of Parole Hearings unexpectedly recommended the release of the man who assassinated his father, Sirhan Sirhan.“We were devastated,” Maxwell told me yesterday. “I was shocked, deeply dismayed, emotional.