Today's Liberal News

“The Myth of Normal”: Dr. Gabor Maté on Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture

In an extended interview, acclaimed physician and author Dr. Gabor Maté discusses his new book, just out, called “The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture.” “The very values of a society are traumatizing for a lot of people,” says Maté, who argues in his book that “psychological trauma, woundedness, underlies much of what we call disease.

McConnell was sure the GOP would reclaim the Senate. Too bad he miscalculated every step of the way

Analysts and pundits are finally picking up on the fact that the supposed red wave of 2022 was much more of a red mirage all along. The slow-but-steady downgrading of GOP prospects in November is everywhere. But nowhere is this more apparent than in the Senate, where Republican candidates are consistently underperforming and, in some cases, are downright comically bad (witness Dr. Mehmet Oz, whose political wizardry is already the stuff of legend).

‘It’s all of Mitch McConnell’s staffers’: Pro-MAGA dating app somehow can’t find women users

A new pro-Trump dating app that’s scheduled to launch this month is not exactly grabbing women by the … um … heartstrings. Nor have the folks behind the app assembled even one binder full of women. It’s almost as if no one’s attracted to men who both idolize serial sexual assaulters and want to force women to give birth to their rapists’ babies.

Pennsylvania and Michigan finally have un-gerrymandered maps. Now we can flip ’em both

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Republicans know just as well as we do that the road to the White House runs through two major swing states in the Midwest: Michigan and Pennsylvania. And since we also know the GOP no longer respects the results of elections unless they win, we can expect Republicans to use every lever at their disposal to subvert any outcomes they don’t like.

Faketriots stage ‘protest’ of Jan. 6 veterans by trying to clog up VA suicide prevention hotline

One of the things that the (mostly white) Jan. 6 defendants are experiencing for the first time is how slowly the justice system can move when you are considered too dangerous to release back into the public. The general angle that most insurrection apologists have taken is that the attempted coup d’etat at our nation’s Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, was a no harm, no foul violation of civility. Things got out of hand.

Trump’s New Recruits

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.Speaking in Ohio on Saturday, Trump tried to energize QAnon on his behalf—a new phase in his campaign of threats against the government and the people of the United States.But first, here are three new stories from The Atlantic.

A Gnarly New Theory About Saturn’s Rings

Saturn has quite the collection of moons, more than any other planet in the solar system. There’s Enceladus, blanketed in ice, with a briny ocean beneath its surface. There’s Iapetus, half of which is dusty and dark, and the other shiny and bright. There are Hyperion, a rocky oval that bears a striking resemblance to a sea sponge, and Pan, tiny and shaped just like a cheese ravioli.But one moon might be missing.

The Weight of Trump

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 to discuss how they’re thinking about the upcoming midterm elections in the United States.

How Democrats Can Turn the Tables on DeSantis

Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott, the Republican governors of Florida and Texas, respectively, have exploited thousands of migrants by busing and flying them to New York City; Washington, D.C.; and Martha’s Vineyard, off Massachusetts. The idea is simple: Make the Democrats deal with the border crisis and prove they’re all hypocrites, human rights be damned.As a matter of optics, it’s not yet clear who has emerged ahead.

Understanding Your Past Won’t Liberate You

In the world of Gwendoline Riley’s novels, a parent’s love is not to be trusted. What should come innately here seems skewed and conditional. A reader gets the clear sense that nothing—not even this supposedly pure emotion—comes without a cost.Such tension is at the core of her novels, as difficulties in her narrators’ present lives are set against familial discord and fraught relations between parents and children. Riley has earned a devoted readership in the U.K.

Stronger & Wetter: Michael Mann on How Climate Change Makes Storms Worse & Why We Must Cut Emissions

Climate Week kicks off this week in New York City as more than 150 world leaders gather for the U.N. General Assembly and as Hurricane Fiona rips through Puerto Rico, Typhoon Nanmadol slams southern Japan, and Typhoon Merbok floods parts of western Alaska. We speak to climate scientist Michael Mann about how climate change has changed the pattern of tropical storms, and what needs to happen to address the crisis.

Blackout in Puerto Rico: Whole Island Loses Power Amid Hurricane Fiona as Privatized Grid Collapses

More than 1.5 million people are in the dark after Hurricane Fiona knocked the power out across all of Puerto Rico Sunday, triggering floods and landslides. We go to San Juan for an update from Democracy Now! correspondent Juan Carlos Dávila, who describes how privatization of the island’s electrical grid coupled with a legacy of U.S. colonialism “has really caused the crisis.