Today's Liberal News

Yeti Coolers Are Luxury Goods for Bros

Two months ago, I received a text describing a situation that I could see immediately and with full clarity in my mind’s eye. “All these guys on this bachelor party brought their own Yetis,” my friend David wrote. “We have seven Yetis for ten people.” The party was at a house on Lake Norman, in North Carolina, and although the Yeti-to-bro ratio was later revised down to six Yetis for 12 bros, my vision for what was happening was clear. Sun. Boats. Beers.

Biden’s Student-Debt Rescue Plan Is a Legal Mess

The Biden administration’s recently announced plan to reduce student debt for borrowers who earn less than $125,000 is popular, according to recent polls. Unfortunately, the plan has a major legal flaw: The administration’s arguments for its executive power to make such a broad effort under federal law will likely lose—and should lose—in the courts. The good news, for President Joe Biden and for borrowers, is that the administration has time to change those arguments.

The Speech No President Should Have to Give

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.We’re all parsing The Speech, Joe Biden’s “Soul of the Nation” address about the growing anti-constitutionalism of Republican extremism. But we should first consider how hard it is to evaluate a speech that no president should have to give.

Biden Gambles That ‘We the People’ Still Exist

The principles of classical liberalism that underlie the American political system emerged in an era, the late 17th century, when people were exhausted by violent religious wars. The philosophy that eventually created our democracy was therefore designed to “lower the temperature of politics,” as Francis Fukuyama has recently written, to take issues of existential truth off the table so that people could live in safety.

The Boundaries a Romance Novel Can Break

In Corinne Hoex’s Gentlemen Callers, sex is a dream. The book’s protagonist floats between abstract, ethereal trysts. When she visits a gas-station attendant in her sleep, she is a soapy sponge in his hands. Caressed by a pet groomer, she purrs; she’s his cat. Her liaisons are absurd and illicit—yet, crucially, never dangerous. Gentlemen Callers is not a classic romance novel or a straightforward bodice ripper, Zoë Hu points out.

Historian of Radical Right: Biden Is Correct, Trump Poses Existential Threat to Future of Democracy

In a primetime address Thursday, President Biden warned Donald Trump and his radical supporters are threatening the foundations of the republic. Biden said, “Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal,” and that MAGA Republicans present a “clear and present danger to our democracy,” referring to Trump’s campaign slogan of “Make America Great Again.

“No Tech for Apartheid”: Google Workers Push for Cancellation of Secretive $1.2B Project with Israel

A national day of action is planned next Thursday as protests grow against Google’s secretive $1.2 billion program known as Project Nimbus, which will provide advanced artificial intelligence tools to the Israeli government and military. We speak with two of the leaders of the protest: Ariel Koren, a former Google employee who says she was pushed out for her activism, as well as Gabriel Schubiner, who currently works at Google and is an Alphabet Workers Union organizer.

“Zombie Ice”: Greenland’s Melting Glacier to Raise Sea Levels Nearly 1 Foot, Double Previous Estimate

We speak with glaciologist David Bahr, who co-authored a shocking new study this week revealing Greenland’s melting ice sheet will likely contribute almost a foot to global sea level rise by the end of the century. The report, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, finds that even if the world were to halt all greenhouse gas emissions today, 120 trillion tons of Greenland’s “zombie ice” are doomed to melt.

Connect! Unite! Act! Longing for an elder who acts the part

Connect! Unite! Act! is a weekly series encouraging the creation of face-to-face networks in each congressional district. Groups meet to socialize, support candidates, get out the vote, and engage in other local political actions that help our progressive movement grow and exert maximum influence on the powers that be. Visit us every week to see how you can get involved!

I am an absolute sucker for Pixar films. I love almost all of them, and some of them mean a great deal to me.

Panel approves historic nomination for California Supreme Court chief justice

California Supreme Court Associate Justice Patricia Guerrero is now a major step closer to becoming the court’s first Latina chief justice, after a panel approved her nomination last week. The confirmation process is not yet complete, however. Her name must now go before voters this November. But as the only candidate on the ballot, her confirmation is not in doubt.

Tearing Down the Myth of Paul Gauguin

Reading Paul Gauguin’s fictionalized travelogue, Noa Noa, you’d be forgiven for thinking he’d stumbled upon an artist’s idyll when he arrived in Tahiti in 1891. “All the joys—animal and human—of a free life,” he wrote, “are mine.