Today's Liberal News

This Biden-Harris ad featuring a bunch of Black mayors is exactly what you need today

The campaign to eject Donald Trump from the White House and replace him with Joe Biden dropped an ad beautifully targeted at Black voters Saturday. “Mayors” features duly elected city leaders from across the country, and has one simple message: Vote. 

The ad was released on a day where Candace Owens and Trump hosted multiple superspreader events, including one that definitely was the latter’s latest Hatch Act violation.

Reading Thomas Jefferson’s Bible

Illustration by Katie Martin; images from Kean Collection / Getty; National Museum of American HistoryWas Thomas Jefferson an atheist? Plenty of people thought so. Jefferson never identified himself as such, of course.

The Many Beginnings of Louise Glück

One of the most striking qualities about the poetry of Louise Glück, who on Thursday won the Nobel Prize in Literature, is the way it returns again and again to the start of things—a story, a myth, a day, a marriage, a childhood. The question How do we begin anew? runs throughout the American poet’s work, from Firstborn (1968) to her most recent collection, Faithful and Virtuous Night (2014).

The Constitution Is On Pause in America’s Courtrooms

In normal times, when a serious crime occurs and a person is charged, that person is soon presented before a judge. He or she is then advised of the charges, appointed a lawyer if he or she does not already have one, and bail is determined. From there, the machinery of justice proceeds apace: Grand juries hear testimony; prosecutors obtain an indictment; a trial date is set.

What Joe Can Learn From Ike

Many Americans remember the 1950s as a banal time of sock hops and drive-ins, but the decade began badly, with a nasty war in Korea, constant friction with China and Russia, and bitter sniping between Republicans and Democrats, who were no longer interested in the consensus that had led America to victory in World War II. In the final two years of Harry Truman’s presidency, the nation’s capital turned angry and dysfunctional.

Trump’s Very Ordinary Indifference to the Common Good

President Donald Trump is supposedly a billionaire, but the $750 that he paid in income taxes in the first year of his term doesn’t begin to cover his fair share of society’s expenses—much less the cost of government lawyers defending his personal and political interests or the health-care bills from the coronavirus outbreak within his own White House.

Rev. William Barber on Voter Suppression: Republicans Know They Can’t Win If Everyone Casts a Ballot

During Wednesday’s debate, Vice President Mike Pence refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power if Biden wins the election. Instead, he referenced the Trump administration’s legal efforts to restrict mail-in voting. Rev. William Barber says the Republican Party’s voter suppression efforts ahead of the November election, aimed primarily at Black and Brown voters, amount to “surgical racism with surgical precision.

Friday Night Owls: How unions can bridge the gap between climate and labor movements

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

Mindy Isser at In These Times writes—The unionization of environmental organizations is changing the climate justice movement for the better:

[…] Char­lie Jiang, a cli­mate cam­paign­er at Green­peace USA, an envi­ron­men­tal non­prof­it, told In These Times that staff there ​“have been orga­niz­ing for quite some time, a

‘Major blow to detention apparatus’: Private prison group loses lawsuit challenging California ban

In a major loss for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and private prison profiteer GEO Group, a federal judge has largely upheld California law banning private prisons, including those that jail immigrants for the federal government. Concerned about profits over people, GEO Group sued following the legislation’s signature from Gov. Gavin Newsom last year. On Thursday, GEO Group lost.

Twitter takes comments on Trump’s death more seriously than threats against brown and Black women

Tweets hoping that Donald Trump dies have been circulating on Twitter since last Friday, after Trump tweeted confirming he tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 2. But instead of ignoring them, as Twitter does for many comments and threats directed at people of color, the social media giant retweeted a post mentioning that tweets referencing death wishes are against its policies.