Today's Liberal News

Friday Night Owls: Researchers in a Montana town find serious lasting effects from breathing smoke

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

At UnDark magazine, Katheryn Houghton writes—In Montana, Tracking Long-Term Health Effects of Wildfire Smoke:

[…] Forest fires had funneled hazardous air into Seeley Lake, a [Montana] town of fewer than 2,000 people, for 49 days. The air quality was so bad that on some days the monitoring stations couldn’t measure the extent of the pollution.

If Adams and Jefferson could change the number of justices, so can Biden, Schumer, and Pelosi

The Supreme Court didn’t always have nine justices, and that number is not set in the Constitution. The number of justices has been changed on multiple occasions throughout our nation’s history, each time for a similarly partisan reason—namely to give one party more influence over the court’s membership. And the first back and forth over the number of justices was a struggle between two of our most prominent Founding Father presidents.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is the logical next step for a Republican Party that elevates its fringe

QAnon is a grotesque conspiracy theory, bizarre and creepy even by the standards of conspiracy theories. Witness this single line from a Georgia woman, who said QAnon is “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles out.”

But there’s the thing: That Georgia woman is Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is on track to be a member of the House of Representatives.

Trump loses in court again, and the House lawsuit against his border wall money grab advances

While Donald Trump and his Republican minions in the Senate are rushing to pack the Supreme Court with dangerous ideologues, the second-highest court in the land delivered Trump a severe blow on his most cherished symbol: the border wall. A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously backed the House of Representatives and Congress’ power of the purse.

The True Victors of Trump’s Supreme Court Nomination

When President Donald Trump announces tomorrow that Amy Coney Barrett is his nominee for the Supreme Court, he will be effectively declaring victory. In 2016, Trump offered a horse trade to American conservatives: In exchange for their votes, he promised to appoint judges who would champion their interests. This nomination will be yet another chance for Trump to remind his supporters that their bet paid off, conveniently timed just a few weeks before Election Day.

The Atlantic Daily: The Fight to Replace RBG

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.The Fight to Replace RBG GETTY / THE ATLANTICThe first Saturday of fall will bring an announcement with the potential to shape American lives for years—if not decades.Tomorrow evening, at around 5 p.m.

Disclosure Doesn’t Work on a Shameless President

Again and again, President Donald Trump has violated, evaded, or ignored the law. The Constitution says a president cannot accept payments from foreign governments, but Trump did. The Constitution says that the principal officers of executive departments—members of the Cabinet—must be confirmed by the Senate. Trump junked that rule too, relying instead on his power to appoint temporary acting officials.

The Books Briefing: The Lives Behind the Legal Decisions

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last Friday, attracted a fandom like no Supreme Court justice before her. Halloween costumes, Tumblr accounts, films (such as On the Basis of Sex), and books (including Notorious RBG) cemented her cult of personality. For such a rule-following legal figure (carefully rendered by Jane Sherron De Hart in the biography Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life), this meme-ified public image can seem perplexing.

Listen: How Bad Will Winter Get?

Experts have long feared that the virus will peak again in winter. The days are now getting shorter, life is moving indoors, and the pandemic isn’t contained. How bad could the next few months get?Katherine Wells wants to know what to expect and how to prepare. She was joined at a live Atlantic Festival taping of Social Distance by her co-host, staff writer James Hamblin, and Alexis Madrigal, staff writer and co-founder of the COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic.

“Without Love, We Won’t Make It”: Bishop Michael Curry on Faith & What’s at Stake in November

We speak with Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church and the first African American to lead the denomination, about systemic racism and the Black Lives Matter movement, the 2020 election and President Trump’s use of faith as a political prop. “The church must not be used for partisan political purposes,” Curry says. “The faith, the Christian faith, is not up for sale.

Bernie Sanders on How to Block Trump from Stealing Election & Preserve American Democracy

In an address to the country, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has issued a stark warning about the threat posed by President Trump’s refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power after the November election. Trump, who has made spurious claims of voter fraud and election-rigging against Democrats for months, recently ramped up his efforts to discredit the election results by suggesting he will refuse to concede if he loses.

“The Election That Could Break America”: Inside How Trump & GOP Could Steal the Vote

As President Trump refuses to commit to accepting the results of the upcoming election, we speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barton Gellman, whose latest piece in The Atlantic looks at how Trump could subvert the election results and stay in power even if he loses to Joe Biden. “Trump’s strategy is never to concede. He may win, he may lose, but under no circumstances will he concede this election,” says Gellman.