Today's Liberal News

Healing Needs to Happen: Kenosha Native Rep. Mark Pocan on Trump’s Visit & the U.S. “Policing Problem”

As Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden heads to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to meet with the family of Jacob Blake, we speak with Congressmember Mark Pocan, who was born and raised in Kenosha. “Clearly, what happened — someone shot in the back seven times, close range, in front of their children, by the police — was another example of the policing problem we have in this country,” Pocan says.

The Trump campaign is broke

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It’s been no secret that the Trump campaign is a cesspool of nepotism and corruption. It’s also telling that while the Biden campaign triumphantly announced a record-shattering $365 million haul for August, the Trump campaign has been notably silent. 

And then there was that most telling of tells—the Trump campaign going dark during its convention week, pulling all TV advertising from the airwaves.

Trump campaign doctors photo of Biden in Facebook ad, trying to make him look older

It’s a close race between Donald Trump and Facebook for which is most dangerous to America’s political and social systems. Combined, they’re a disaster. The Trump campaign, in conjunction with Trump’s denials of having had a series of mini-strokes (which no media organization had reported), has been running Facebook ads that have doctored images of Joe Biden, in which he’s made to look older.

In prisons, reproductive abuse and coercion are the norm

This story is part of Prism’s series on incarceration as gendered violence. Read the rest of the series here. 

By Briana Perry

 Jails and prisons were designed as sites of reproductive coercion.

Women’s divergence from what is narrowly considered appropriate gender performance under patriarchy, particularly around sex and reproduction, has been the foundational basis for their “criminality.

Trump has promised a COVID-19 vaccine ‘soon’ since February, so you know he’ll do the wrong thing

Before getting to the latest in the concern over Donald Trump’s attempt to turn everything about a public health crisis into a political football, it seems appropriate to give out a state-level special achievement award. Because Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has managed something very, very … special.

The rate of testing in Alabama was down this week. The rate of testing in Alabama was down the week before. The rate of testing in Alabama was down the week before that.

The Books Briefing: Imagining Black Futures

The death of Chadwick Boseman last week revealed the ability of art to imagine new, daring possibilities for the future. In his roles as T’Challa, Jackie Robinson, and James Brown, Boseman expertly portrayed Black icons and heroes, providing visions of hope by embodying individuals who challenged power narratives. That is, in many ways, the core of Afrofuturism, a tradition represented in a long line of books written by Black writers such as Octavia Butler and Samuel Delany.

The Warning Signs of a Combustible Presidential Transition

LATROBE, Pennsylvania—President Donald Trump has long signaled that if he loses reelection, it would surely be illegitimate. With his base primed to believe that victory is the only acceptable outcome, the post-election period could be the most combustible in memory.

The Evolution of Racism

In June, as Black Lives Matter protests were in full swing after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, a dictionary definition made headlines. The definition that drew so much attention was the one that Merriam-Webster gave for the word racism. The news was that the dictionary publisher was going to be revising its entry for the term after hearing from a young Black activist from Missouri, Kennedy Mitchum.

As the Military Transformed, Their Friendship Grew

Each installment of The Friendship Files features a conversation between The Atlantic’s Julie Beck and two or more friends, exploring the history and significance of their relationship.This week she talks with two women who met as roommates during Army officer training. Emily, a queer woman, was wary of her roommate at first because of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. But they grew close and supported each other through their eventful military careers.

Claudia Rankine’s Quest for Racial Dialogue

Yael MalkaWhen Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric arrived in the fall of 2014, shortly before a St. Louis County grand jury decided not to charge Darren Wilson for Michael Brown’s murder, critics hailed it as a work very much of its moment. The book-length poem—the only such work to be a best seller on the New York Times nonfiction list—was in tune with the Black Lives Matter movement, which was then gathering momentum.

“We Are the 99%”: Occupy Wall Street Activist & Author David Graeber, Dead at 59, in His Own Words

Upon the death of acclaimed anthropologist and anarchist David Graeber, we feature his 2011 interview on Democracy Now!, two days after the Occupy encampment began. Graeber helped organize the initial Occupy Wall Street protest and was credited with helping to develop the slogan, “We are the 99%.” “The idea is the system is not going to save us; we’re going to have to save ourselves,” says Graeber.

“Death Is on the Ballot”: Lessons for the US, 50 Years After Allende’s Socialist Revolution in Chile

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the election of socialist President Salvador Allende in Chile, a significant moment in the history of political revolutions. We speak with Chilean American author, human rights defender and poet Ariel Dorfman, who was cultural and press adviser to Allende’s chief of staff in the last months of his presidency, about how the revolution used peaceful means to bring about radical change in Chile and beyond.