The details change the heat of these stories. They matter, even when they involve predators and creeps.

I wouldn’t write about the Jussie Smollett case and his conviction for lying about a hoax he perpetrated if it didn’t reflect something seriously wrong in the culture. Smollett was convicted in Chicago last week of faking an attack by a supposed Trump-MAGA man he claimed uttered racist and homophobic slurs.

As Time magazine recently reported, librarians are seeing a definite spike in censorship activity. Deborah Caldwell-Stone, executive director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, called it “an unprecedented volume of challenges.” From Texas to South Carolina, to Virginia to Florida and beyond, conservative governors and advocacy groups are removing books from school library shelves, particularly those that deal with the two subjects they find most threatening: sexuality and race.

This once-in-a-generation legislation would bring down the costs of things families depend on — like health care, prescription drugs, paid leave and child care — create millions of good-paying jobs, tackle the climate crisis, invest in a just and humane immigration system, rebuild our care economy, and open the doors to educational opportunity with universal preschool and grants for low-income students and students of color.

If Putin invades Ukraine, if China invades Taiwan, if Iran finishes a nuclear bomb, if North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un decides to move against South Korea, all of them may see this as the ideal opportunity to engage in behavior they might think twice about if America had a strong president.