Today's Liberal News

Being a Democrat on China’s Doorstep

Bundled against Mongolia’s frigid late November air, thousands clamored to see and hear the Dalai Lama four years ago, their boots crunching against a dusting of snow at the Gandantegchinlen monastery in Ulaanbaatar. Mongolia’s officials insisted then, in 2016, that the visit was strictly religious, and had nothing to do with politics: The country has connections to Tibetan Buddhism that reach back hundreds of years—the title Dalai Lama is actually of Mongolian origin.

Asylum-seeking families still jailed by ICE face double threats of virus, deportation

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has had every power and ability to release detained immigrants—including parents and their children—amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, but the government agency has refused. Inside one migrant family jail in Texas, like at other adult detention camps across the U.S., it has continued to result in the inevitable (and preventable): outbreaks.

Three Percent takeover of Whidbey Island Grange shows how proto-fascist forces creep into mainstream

Probably the most insidious aspect of the creep of proto-fascist movements in America is the way they have been able to insinuate themselves within the traditional mainstream, sometimes by attempting to create a false image through the adoption of labels that create an image of legitimacy: Think of the seditious “Patriot” movement with its “III Percent” militias and Oath Keepers that try to claim a nonexistent connection to the Constitution.

Shocker: Former prosecutor turned Trump lawyer seems to have lied about why she was fired

One of Donald Trump’s “elite strike force” legal super team members, Jenna Ellis, once held the title of deputy district attorney at the Weld County District Attorney’s Office. When asked by the The Wall Street Journal about being terminated from that position after only six months, Ellis said she was fired because “she refused to bring a case to trial that she believed was an unethical prosecution.

Homeland Security, State Department and other agencies hacked in sophisticated Russian breach

In yet another demonstration of Russia’s sophisticated and extensive online espionage efforts, The Washington Post reports that the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, National Institutes of Health, Treasury Department, and Department of Commerce were among the targets in a massive breach of U.S. government networks successfully engineered by Russian state hackers. It seems almost certain that other agencies will still join that list.

The Atlantic Daily: Three Reasons Why Facebook Is Dangerous

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.ADAM MAIDAThe social web is broken.And not just a little, or just recently, argues my colleague Adrienne LaFrance, who has been writing about media and technology for more than 15 years. Central to that brokenness is the unprecedented scale—or megascale, as she calls it—of Facebook.

The Weekly Planet: United Wants to Have Its Carbon and Eat It Too

There aren’t many good ideas about how to solve the climate problem of aviation.Or, well, let me rephrase that: There are a lot of ideas. Some companies argue that business commuters of the 2040s will take short hops, such as from D.C., to Philly, on six-seater electric vehicles that take off and land vertically.

Astronomers Are Now Obsessed With a Single Venusian Gas

A few days ago, at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, one of the most important conferences in science, a certain session began with a sharp reminder, akin to a school teacher’s instructions to play nice. “Remember, this is a scientific session, and we will have different viewpoints,” said Sushil Atreya, a climate and space sciences professor at the University of Michigan and one of the conference’s organizers.

What Trump Has Done to America

The Supreme Court slammed the door on President Donald Trump’s preposterous lawsuits. State legislators ignored his pressure to countermand the voters. The Electoral College cast a majority of its votes for President-elect Joe Biden. Trump’s efforts to usurp the presidency have failed. That is cause for relief.But not too much relief. No one who understands the law believed that Trump and his supporters and enablers stood more than a minuscule chance of overturning the election.

Election Chaos Adds Fuel to Campaign for a National Popular Vote to Elect U.S. President

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris officially won the Electoral College Monday, as electors met in their respective state capitols to formalize their victory. President Trump continued to claim without evidence he was the victim of a massive conspiracy to rig the election. Republicans across the country attempted to undermine the election results, and right-wing supporters threatened violence.

William Barr Resigns as Attorney General After Acting as Trump’s “Enabler-in-Chief” at DOJ

William Barr is resigning as attorney general, leaving his post after angering President Trump for not backing his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud more strongly. But despite their split, Barr has been one of Trump’s staunchest allies, echoing much of the president’s inflammatory rhetoric about Black Lives Matter and antifascist activists this year even while downplaying the threat posed by far-right extremists.