Today's Liberal News

The New Stalin Era

Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of international affairs at the New School in New York, went back to Moscow recently to complete work on her forthcoming book, a biography of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev—her great-grandfather. Khrushchev was the first Soviet premier to visit the United States, in 1959. To many Americans, he is best remembered as the leader during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. He agreed to remove Soviet nuclear missiles from Cuba in exchange for President John F.

South Dakota votes to expand Medicaid

The Republican-controlled state, where lawmakers have long resisted Medicaid expansion, is the seventh in the last five years to do so at the ballot box — and likely the last to do so for some time.

Ranked-Choice Voting Backed in Midterm Ballot Measures, May Help “Crash-Proofing Our Democracy”

Voters in Nevada and a handful of cities across the United States appear poised to expand the use of ranked-choice voting in the aftermath of Tuesday’s midterm elections. The election method allows voters to select multiple candidates in descending order of preference. It is used in many other countries, and supporters say it can reduce polarization and give more voice to independent voters.

Delia Ramirez: Illinois Elects First Latina Congressmember; Ran on Medicare for All, Immigration Reform

We speak with Congressmember-elect Delia Ramirez, who won her election for Illinois’s newly redrawn 3rd Congressional District Tuesday, making her the first Latina elected to Congress from Illinois. Ramirez is a progressive Democratic state representative who is the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants and the wife of a DACA recipient. She campaigned on expanding healthcare and housing access for working people, as well as passing the DREAM Act.

The Story of Baby O: Rebecca Nagle on the Supreme Court Case That Could Gut Native Sovereignty

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in Haaland v. Brackeen, a case challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act and ultimately threatening the legal foundations of federal Indian law. ICWA was created in 1978 to address the systemic crisis of family separation in Native communities waged by the U.S. and requires the government to ensure foster children are adopted by members of their Indigenous tribes, as well as blood relatives, before being adopted by non-Indigenous parents.

U.S. Senate stays in Democratic hands

The U.S. Senate will stay in Democratic control in the 118th session of Congress, beginning Jan. 3, 2023. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s win in Nevada gives Democrats the 50 votes they need to stay in power. That gives this experiment in democracy at least a few more years. The work has to start anew when they return next week to finish out the current session.

It also means that Sen.

Nevada Senate race called for Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in huge win for Democrats

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto was seen as one of the most endangered Democratic Senate incumbents this year, but after days of counting, she has pulled it out, with NBC and CNN projecting her as the winner after a ballot drop from Clark County put her ahead by almost 5,000 votes. The first Latina in the U.S. Senate has won a second term, and Democrats will hold the Senate.

Cortez Masto defeated Adam Laxalt after being endorsed by 14 members of his extended family.

Ukraine update: Celebrations continue in Kherson, as elsewhere the war goes on

UPDATE: Saturday, Nov 12, 2022 · 8:43:21 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

A lot of that Russian equipment at Chornobaivka, apparently never left Chornobaivka. 

Chornobaivka, Russian leftovers pic.twitter.com/FjnXOKCoMt— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) November 12, 2022

UPDATE: Saturday, Nov 12, 2022 · 7:32:27 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Sad news on this otherwise joyous day.

Michigan, my Michigan: We won it all, so what’s next?

On Nov. 8, six years ago, I went to bed heartsick and devastated, knowing not only that Hillary Clinton had lost the Electoral College vote but that Michigan’s 16 votes would be allotted to her opponent. Our margin of defeat, a mere 10,704 votes, could have been made up through better turnout in my own county, where I was active in Democratic leadership. 

Thankfully, this Nov. 8, I went to sleep around midnight feeling more sanguine about our prospects.

Some wins and some losses on labor-related ballot measures, this week in the war on workers

They weren’t mostly the highest-profile things on the ballot on Tuesday, but this year’s elections did include a number of ballot measures relevant to workers. The outcomes were a mixed bag.

In Illinois, a workers’ rights amendment looks likely to pass. That measure would affirm the right to organize and ban any law that “interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively.

Everything We Know About Dreams

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.

The Exquisite Pain of Monogamous Life

Being really, honestly surprised, especially these days, can feel thrilling—which is what makes Mammals, the new Prime Video series from the Tony-winning playwright Jez Butterworth, so hard to write about. There’s a revelation at the very end that turns the entirety of what we’ve just seen on its head; rewatching the first few episodes after that, which I did, was a bracingly new experience.

Go Ahead, Joke About the Pandemic

Jokes are rich notions. The Black comedic and satirical traditions have for decades fascinated scholars and comedians, many of whom have converged on the idea that trauma is a defining feature of Black comedy. W. E. B Du Bois wrote in The Humor of Negroes that humor is partly “a defense mechanism; reaction from tragedy; oppositions set out in the face of hurt and insult.

The Petulant King

A difficult labor—30 hours!—and someone has to make the terrible decision. Right there in a Buckingham Palace bedroom, with mother and child etherized upon the table, deft hands make the cut, the unwilling baby is tugged out—and it’s done.A boy! Clever girl.To sleep, to sleep, to sleep.Posted on the gates of the palace, a handwritten announcement:Her Royal Highness the Princess Elizabeth Duchess of Edinburgh was safely delivered of a Prince at 9.