Today's Liberal News

Friday Night Owls: How did the U.S. become so caught up in a cycle of endless wars?

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

Daniel Immerwahr at The Nation writes—Fort Everywhere. How did the United States become entangled in a cycle of endless war?

Shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic struck the United States, a reporter asked Donald Trump if he now considered himself a wartime president. “I do. I actually do,” he replied. Swelling with purpose, he opened a press briefing by talking about it.

Compared with the need, job gains were meager in November. At this rate recovery will take years

In yet another indication that the recovery from the Pandemic Recession has dramatically slowed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that nonfarm employment rose by a mere 245,000 jobs in November. There were 344,000 gained in the private sector, but in all levels of the public sector 99,000 jobs were lost. The headline unemployment rate fell to 6.7%, but that was mostly a product of 400,000 people leaving the labor force.

No longer ‘standing by,’ Proud Boys bring politics of intimidation to streets in defense of Trump

It’s become apparent that, even as Donald Trump tries to deny reality and continue claiming he won the election, the hate group that he ordered, on national television, to “stand back and stand by” now considers (per leadership’s statements that “standby order has been rescinded,” as well as other threatening statements on social media) those orders null and void: The Proud Boys are now playing the role of Trump’s goon-squad defenders in the streets&m

Democrats targeted a Little Rock House seat, but in the end, Republicans won easily

Our project to calculate the 2020 presidential results for all 435 congressional districts nationwide ventures to Arkansas, a former Democratic stronghold that has become one of the most heavily Republican states over the last decade. You can find our complete data set here, which we’re updating continuously as the precinct-level election returns we need for our calculations become available.

Why Some Libraries Are Ending Fines

When I was a kid, the sin of returning books late to the public library populated a category of dread for me next to weekly confessions to the Catholic priest (what can an 8-year-old really have to confess?) and getting caught by the dentist with a tootsie roll wrapper sticking out of my pocket. So decades later, when I heard about libraries going “fine-free,” it sounded like an overdue change and a nice idea.

The Atlantic Daily: 6 Suggestions for Another Weekend at Home

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 inboxApple TV+U.S. hospitals are past their breaking point. It’s time to go home and lock yourself down, if you can. Below, we’ve compiled six suggestions for a weekend spent in isolation.Watch.

The U.S. Has Passed the Hospital Breaking Point

Editor’s Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here. Since the beginning of the pandemic, public-health experts have warned of one particular nightmare. It is possible, they said, for the number of coronavirus patients to exceed the capacity of hospitals in a state or city to take care of them.

‘I’m Not Lamenting the Existence of Marvel’

David Fincher’s new film, Mank, begins with a title card announcing the arrival of one of cinema’s first real auteurs. “In 1940, at the tender age of 24, Orson Welles was lured to Hollywood by a struggling RKO Pictures with a contract befitting his formidable storytelling talents,” it reads. “He was given absolute creative autonomy, would suffer no oversight, and could make any movie, about any subject, with any collaborator he wished.

The Voyagers Found a Small Surprise in Interstellar Space

The missions that humankind has sent farthest into space, a pair of NASA spacecraft called the Voyagers, are billions of miles from Earth. The last time one of them took a picture of its surroundings was in 1990, after flying by Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus on its way to interstellar space, the mysterious expanse between stars. This far beyond the planets, there’s not much to see.But there are some things to feel, in the sense that a spacefaring machine can feel something.

Colonization Fueled Ebola: Dr. Paul Farmer on “Fevers, Feuds & Diamonds” & Lessons from West Africa

We continue our conversation with medical anthropologist Dr. Paul Farmer, whose new book, “Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds,” tells the story of his efforts to fight Ebola in 2014 and how the history of slavery, colonialism and violence in West Africa exacerbated the outbreak. “Care for Ebola is not rocket science,” says Dr. Farmer, who notes that doctors know how to treat sick patients.

Dr. Paul Farmer: Centuries of Inequality in the U.S. Laid Groundwork for Pandemic Devastation

As the United States sets new records for COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations, we speak with one of the world’s leading experts on infectious diseases, Dr. Paul Farmer, who says the devastating death toll in the U.S. reflects decades of underinvestment in public health and centuries of social inequality. “All the social pathologies of our nation come to the fore during epidemics,” says Dr.