Today's Liberal News

Saturday Night Owls: Millionaire Kudlow extols gains from wrecked economy, ignores damage to people

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

Jake Johnson at Common Dreams writes—Trump’s Millionaire Economic Adviser Celebrates ‘Gales of Creative Destruction’ as Millions Lose Their Jobs and Go Hungry:

With millions of Americans out of work, struggling to afford food for themselves and their children, and facing the possibility of losing their homes, President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser on Friday celebrated wh

Jailed voters can swing elections if they know and can exercise their rights

A new report released by the Prison Policy Initiative outlines a different kind of voter suppression than has typically made headlines this election season: the de facto disenfranchisement of people incarcerated in local jails. According to PPI, an overwhelming majority of the 746,000 people detained in U.S. jails at any given day are legally eligible to vote but are often barred from casting their ballots due to structural obstacles and misinformation.

There’s a reason Republicans are pretending they don’t know how to say Kamala Harris’ name

“Comma-la.” That is how you say Sen. Kamala Harris’ name. She says it correctly every time she introduces herself. The media gets it right, mostly. Yet because she’s Black, because she’s Indian, because she’s a woman, and because she’s a Democrat about to be vice president, Republicans are making a point to mispronounce her name, all in the hopes of knocking her down a few pegs through the petty act of othering.

Extremists Don’t Belong in the Military

During my 40 years as a Marine officer, including nearly four years as commandant of the Marine Corps, I came to believe that one of the military’s most important missions is to lead the fight against hate, inequality, and injustice, both at home and overseas. The factors that divide Americans today pose a greater threat to the country than any foreign adversary does.

What Democrats Don’t Understand About Latino Voters

For 30 years, political consultants have been predicting that in the next presidential election, a growing Latino electorate in the United States will finally awaken, sway the outcome, and usher in a new era of Latino political power.And for 30 years, they have been wrong. The 2020 election may prove no different. Again and again, political analysts have underestimated the diversity among American Latinos. Key segments of the community—specifically Cubans and younger U.S.

The Mad, Mad World of Niche Sports Among Ivy League–Obsessed Parents

Photo illustrations by Pelle CassTo make the images that appear in this story, the photographer Pelle Cass locked his camera onto a tripod for the duration of an event, capturing up to 1,000 photographs from one spot. The images were then layered and compiled into a single digital file to create a kind of time-lapse still photo.

Jacinda Ardern’s Job Will Only Get Harder

In February, Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party was down in the polls. Voters were expressing frustrations that her government had overpromised and underdelivered on major campaign issues such as inequality and housing. Some observers suggested that the New Zealand prime minister’s first term would be her last.Then the pandemic happened.

A Radically Different Way to Look at Incarceration

The prison abolitionist and scholar Ruth Wilson Gilmore once wrote, “Prison is not a building ‘over there,’ but a set of relationships that undermine rather than stabilize everyday lives everywhere.” This idea is the focus of the filmmaker Garrett Bradley’s Time, a gripping documentary that reframes the perception of mass incarceration and its far-reaching effects.

Amy Coney Barrett Won’t Say Climate Change Is Real; Forgets 1st Amendment Protects Right to Protest

We air highlights from the second day of questioning of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, who faced eight hours of questions on Wednesday about her views on issues ranging from climate change to voting rights to gay marriage and abortion, as Republicans race to confirm her ahead of the election and secure a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court for conservatives.

Friday Night Owls: Excerpts from the November edition of Harper’s Index

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

Here are a few excerpts from the November Harper’s Index for your Friday pleasure and frustration:

Percentage by which the population of the average wildlife species has declined globally since 1970: 68
In Latin America and the Caribbean: 94
Rank of deforestation among the causes of wildlife decline on land: 1
Portion of its viewership that the cable channel A&E lost after canceling

Angered judge orders ICE to reduce population at facility hit by COVID-19, slams officials as liars

A federal judge put Trump administration officials through the wringer this week, calling them liars and ordering them to start reducing the detainee population at a notorious immigration prison devastated by the novel coronavirus pandemic by at least 50 people per day. The judge first issued a ruling in April, but the administration has fought it as more at the notorious California prison have gotten sick.