Today's Liberal News

Canadian Truckers Polarize American Commentators

This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely, intriguing conversations and solicits reader responses to one question of the moment. Every Friday, he publishes some of your most thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.

The Never-Ending Quest to Make a Great Video-Game Movie

Play just a few minutes of any Uncharted video game, and the basic concept becomes clear: What if you could be the main character in a blockbuster action-adventure film? Embodied by the dashing treasure hunter Nathan Drake, the player leaps from boulder to boulder, explores ancient ruins, and exchanges gunfire with evil mercenaries in a modern update on Indiana Jones.

The Dark Side of Saying Work Is ‘Like a Family’

When someone says that their workplace is “like a family,” they want you to be impressed. We share a special bond, they imply. We look out for one another and are effortlessly in sync. But as a journalist covering work and families, I can’t help but notice another, entirely unintended meaning in this common corporate metaphor: Work is like family—in many unhealthy, manipulative, and toxic ways.

The Millions of People Stuck in Pandemic Limbo

When the coronavirus pandemic began, Emily Landon thought about her own risk only in rare quiet moments. An infectious-disease doctor at the University of Chicago Medicine, she was cramming months of work into days, preparing her institution for the virus’s arrival in the United States.

We Are All Realists Now

“Nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs,” Chamath Palihapitiya, a billionaire part owner of the Golden State Warriors, said last month on a podcast. “I’m telling you a very hard, ugly truth, okay. Of all the things I care about, yes, it is below my line.” Supply chains are above this venture capitalist’s line, but any concern for human rights abroad is a “luxury belief.

Ukrainian Pacifist’s Message to the World: U.S., NATO & Russia Share Responsibility to Avoid War

NATO officials have joined the U.S. and other Western nations in saying they have yet to see evidence that Russia is pulling back some troops near the shared border with Ukraine, as Russia claimed earlier this week. We speak with Yurii Sheliazhenko, executive secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, who says, “Both great powers of the West and the East share equal responsibility to avoid escalation of war in Ukraine and beyond Ukraine.

“45K People Died from Gun Violence on Your Watch”: Parkland Survivors Demand More Action from Biden

Survivors and families of the victims of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, have launched a new online tool called the “Shock Market” to track the occurrence of U.S. gun violence. This comes as Manuel Oliver, the father of 17-year-old victim Joaquin “Guac” Oliver, was arrested during a peaceful protest demanding the Biden administration take action to curb gun violence.

Ex-Honduran President Hernández Arrested on Drug Charges; U.S. Backed His Narco-State for 8 Years

Authorities in Honduras have arrested former President Juan Orlando Hernández for allegedly smuggling over 1 million pounds of cocaine into the United States since 2004. Hernández, who now faces extradition to the United States, was a longtime U.S. ally, in power from 2014 until January 27 of this year, when he was succeeded by Xiomara Castro, Honduras’s first female president.

News Roundup: Trump’s accounting firm disavows their numbers; top Michigan Republican in big trouble

In the news today: Crimes. Lots and lots of crimes. The Michigan Republican Party is reeling after one of the state’s top Republicans, Lee Chatfield, had his home raided by police in the midst of campaign embezzlement and sexual assault accusations. Donald Trump’s longtime accounting firm has cut ties with him, writing that they can no longer stand behind ten years of financial numbers from the Trump Organization and that those documents “should not be relied upon.

Trump’s picture book memoir shows he really meant it when he said he was ‘writing like crazy’

Well, Donald Trump’s picture book memoir has finally come out. The Washington Post book critic Ron Charles begins his review as follows: “Last June, in a moment of unintentional honesty, Donald Trump said, ’I’m writing like crazy.’” And really that’s all you need to say about Trump’s 319-page “coffee table” monstrosity, Our Journey Together, available for the not-cheap price of $74.99 plus shipping; $229.

Marco Rubio proves he’s Trump’s pup with astonishingly hypocritical take on classified docs

The most shocking part about this story isn’t Marco Rubio’s hypocrisy. That’s a given, like Donald Trump’s slovenly ineptitude or early summer squalls that drop hailstones the size of Louie Gohmert’s head. No, the truly surprising part is that his hypocrisy was so incandescent it actually drew flak from Fox News.

Donald Trump has apparently run afoul of the law—again.

Following disturbing human rights report, advocates again urge deportation relief for Cameroonians

Affected individuals and advocates have in recent days renewed calls for the Biden administration to protect thousands of Cameroonian immigrants from deportation and imminent harm. While lawmakers led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Rep. Karen Bass urged the implementation of temporary protections last November, Cameroonians have not yet been able to access critical relief. Without protections, they risk being deported to imminent danger.

Democratic Rep. Kathleen Rice will retire after prominent career in Long Island politics

New York Rep. Kathleen Rice, a Long Island Democrat who spent years as an intra-party critic of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, declared Tuesday that she would not seek a fifth term representing the 4th Congressional District, which is entirely located in Nassau County. The decision was a surprise, as the congresswoman—who turned 57 the day she made her announcement—had given no obvious indication she was looking to leave the House.

The Inimitable P. J. O’Rourke

The journalist and political satirist P. J. O’Rourke, who died today, had a knack for making serious subjects funny. In 11 years of writing for The Atlantic, he covered bleakness—Enron, war memorials—with skepticism and a dash of absurdity. (Explaining his wariness of lawmakers, he wrote: “A chilling characteristic of politicians is that they’re not in it for the money.