Today's Liberal News

Purring Is a Love Language No Human Can Speak

On the not-so-infrequent nights when I’m plagued by insomnia, no combination of melatonin, weighted blankets, and white noise will do. Just one cure for my affliction exists: my cat Calvin, lying atop my shoulder, lulling me to sleep with his purrs.For veteran members of Club Purr, the reasons are clear. A purr is warm tea, a roaring fire, and fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies, all rolled into a fleece-lined hug; it is the auditory salve of a babbling brook; it is coffee brewing at dawn.

Queen Sugar Is the Most Luxurious Show on Television

In the Season 2 opener of the OWN drama Queen Sugar, a teenaged Micah West (played by Nicholas Ashe) is pulled over in his luxury sports car for what appears to be an instance of driving while Black. After he’s released into the custody of his parents, the estranged couple argues in the parking lot. Meanwhile, when Micah’s Aunt Nova (Rutina Wesley) comes to comfort him, she notices that the boy has urinated on himself.

Zora Neale Hurston Is for Everyone

They felt otherworldly, my morning runs in the early days of the pandemic in March 2020. They felt almost like the aftertimes. There were hardly any signs of life in Washington, D.C., as I ran in the same area where Zora Neale Hurston had started her literary run a century ago.

Barbara Ehrenreich Remembered: How She Covered Poverty & Started Economic Hardship Reporting Project

We continue to remember the life and legacy of writer and activist Barbara Ehrenreich, who died on September 1 at the age of 81, as we speak with her friend and colleague Alissa Quart, executive director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, which Ehrenreich founded and which continues to support journalists who cover and embody the struggles of everyday people.

Elie Mystal on the Four Investigations into Trump & Why Progressives Should Push to Expand the Court

A federal judge on Monday agreed with Donald Trump’s lawyers to appoint an independent arbiter known as a special master to review top-secret documents seized during an FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate. U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated by Trump while he was president, ordered the Justice Department to stop reviewing the documents. The move delays the federal investigation into whether he violated the Espionage Act and other federal laws.

Niece of Palestinian American Shireen Abu Akleh, Killed by Israel, Wants Biden Mtg. & Indep. Inquiry

The Israeli army has admitted for the first time that Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was likely fatally shot by an Israeli soldier during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank in May. The conclusion to the internal investigation comes after months of outrage from Abu Akleh’s family and human rights activists at Israel’s initial claim that the bullet came from Palestinian fire. The U.S.

“You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train”: Remembering the People’s Historian Howard Zinn at 100

We remember the legendary historian, author, professor, playwright and activist Howard Zinn, who was born 100 years ago this August. Zinn was a regular guest on Democracy Now!, from the start of the program in 1996 up until his death in 2010 at age 87. After witnessing the horrors of World War II as a bombardier, Zinn became a peace and justice activist who picketed with his students at Spelman College during the civil rights movement and joined in actions such as opposing the Vietnam War.

Ukraine update: Russian ‘hard points’ are falling in Kherson, Kharkiv, and near Izyum

Some days, it is simply much more fun to haul out the maps. This is one of those days.

Over the month of August, something changed in Russia’s illegal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. that something was the Ukrainian military consistently hitting Russian facilities of command, control, and supply well behind the front lines. How much of that change was directly attributable to HIMARS O’Clock! is debatable.

Barack Obama just won the Emmy that forever eluded Trump. Cue his social media meltdown

You know who won an Emmy Saturday night? The former president who didn’t steal dozens of highly classified documents from the government and stash them in his desk with naught but the enervating effluvium of half-masticated McRibs to ward off enemies of the state.

Know who didn’t win an Emmy? The ex-presidential cosplayer who wanted to win one more than any individual in the history of soul-moldering reality shows.

Trump reportedly had documents on nuclear capabilities of a foreign government in Mar-a-Lago hoard

Among the highly classified documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago was at least one that detailed the military defenses of a foreign nation, including its nuclear capabilities. The Washington Post is reporting that these documents were so tightly guarded that access to them could be granted only by the president and select cabinet members.

Reportedly, these documents are among the most closely held and valuable secrets the U.S. possesses.

The Nihilism of MAGA World

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.Joe Biden’s “Soul of the Nation” address got at a cold and disquieting truth: The MAGA movement cannot be placated, reasoned with, or politically accommodated in any way.

The Moon Will Have to Wait

By now, the spaceship should have been on its way to the moon. By now, NASA had hoped, the gumdrop-shaped capsule—designed to carry astronauts someday—would be sending all kinds of data back home, showing engineers how its first journey to space was going.But the capsule is still here, sitting atop a giant rocket that has so far refused to leave Earth.

The Question of Defunding Police

This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.Last week I asked readers for their thoughts on Joe Biden’s plan to hire 100,000 additional police officers and his explicit rejection of defunding the police.

Rogue One Was a Minor Miracle

Rogue One sets itself apart from other Star Wars films seconds after it starts. There is no opening crawl, no wall of yellow font drifting into a star field. The franchise logo doesn’t appear, and the John Williams fanfare doesn’t kick in. There is merely the title card informing viewers that it’s “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”—and then bam: The action begins.