Today's Liberal News

The West Has Never Felt So Small

The Willamette Valley in Oregon. (Will Matsuda)The West is on fire and there’s nowhere to run. Up and down Interstate 5, the artery connecting most of the major cities on the West Coast, a pall of thick smoke has turned the sun red. Millions of acres have burned. I’m calling and texting friends in communities across Oregon, Washington, California.

Democrats Won’t Cede the Streets This Time

During the long legal battle in Florida that ultimately determined the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore, the Democratic nominee, specifically discouraged Jesse Jackson, the veteran civil-rights leader, from organizing public protests to demand a full counting of the disputed ballots.Gore wanted to fight solely in the courts, though that meant ceding the streets to Republicans, who held raucous rallies accusing Democrats of trying to steal the election from the GOP nominee, George W.

“Democratic Public Health”: Big Pharma Relies on Developing World While Limiting Access to Treatment

We look at the history of clinical vaccine trials and exploitation of vulnerable people in the U.S. and India, which recently surpassed Brazil as the country with the second most infections worldwide. Kaushik Sunder Rajan, an anthropologist at the University of Chicago, says there is a documented history of “ethical lapses” and lack of accountability in vaccine studies in India.

“This Is Climate Change”: West Coast Fires Scorch Millions of Acres & Blot Out the Sun

The skies of the Bay Area and Northern California turned a dark orange as 90 major fires burn in the western United States, from San Diego to the Canadian border. At least seven people have died as a result of the fires, which have already burned 2.5 million acres in California alone. Despite heavy coverage in the mainstream media, however, few outlets are highlighting the link between the blazes and the accelerating climate crisis.

“Loss of the Entire Community”: 6 Months Later, Trauma of Breonna Taylor’s Killing Remains

Filmmaker Yoruba Richen, director of The New York Times documentary “The Killing of Breonna Taylor,” says the 26-year-old EMT’s killing was not just a devastating blow to her friends and family, but a “loss of the entire community.” Police officers in Louisville, Kentucky, fatally shot Taylor during a raid on her home in March, part of a botched drug investigation.

Wednesday Night Owls: Before Trump feinted at the military-industrial complex, he pushed arms sales

Night Owls, a themed open thread, appears at Daily Kos seven days a week

At Common Dreams, Ariel Gold, the national co-director and Senior Middle East Policy Analyst with CODEPINK for Peace, writes Peace Through Weapons Sales to the UAE:

On September 7, Trump spoke out against the revolving door of U.S. weapons sales and endless wars. Pushing back against a report in the Atlantic that he had disparaged fallen U.S.

Here’s a list of all the NBA arenas being turned into voting sites for this year’s election

After video of the shooting of Jacob Blake by Kenosha police in Wisconsin—which left Blake paralyzed from the waist down—made its way across the world, NBA players staged a walkout, shutting down the entire playoffs. Over the 48 hours, rumors and leaks came out in the media about what was and was not happening between ownership and the players to either begin playing again or scrapping the season entirely.

Church leader who blamed COVID-19 on same-sex marriage tests positive for virus

Patriarch Filaret, the 91-year-old who heads Kyiv Patriarchate, a Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, made international headlines back in March when he blamed the novel coronavirus on same-sex marriage. Now, he is making headlines again. Why? According to the church, Filaret tested positive for the virus on Sep. 4 and has since been hospitalized. According to the church’s Facebook statement, he is in a stable condition and treatment is ongoing.