Skip to main content

The Atlantic Daily: The Real Implication of Trump’s Election Tweet

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.

(JIM WATSON / AFP / GETTY)

1. President Trump floated postponing the election, something he lacks the legal authority to do.

The maneuver is not what it looks like on the surface, David A. Graham argues: “It’s more a means of preemptively contesting the outcome of an election he fears he will lose than trying to actually move it.”

2. Barack Obama spoke at the funeral of John Lewis, calling him “a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America.”  

Read the former president’s eulogy. And revisit Adam Serwer’s essay on the loss of the congressman and his fellow activist C. T. Vivian: “It is up to us to honor them, by continuing what they started, by sustaining the work of democracy as best we can.”

3. Herman Cain died of COVID-19.

“In his ascent, Cain embodied some of the greatest things about U.S. society; in his later years, and in his death, he exemplified some of America’s bleaker aspects,” David A. Graham argues.

(MILLENNIUM IMAGES / GALLERY STOCK)

One question, answered: How worried should I be about super-spreaders?

Here’s what one expert told Zeynep Tufekci, for her new piece on airborne transmission:

Saskia Popescu, an infectious-disease epidemiologist, emphasized to me that we should not call these “super-spreaders,” referring only to the people, but “super-spreader events,” because they seem to occur in very particular settings—an important clue. …  The super-spreader–event triad seems to rely on three V’s: venue, ventilation, and vocalization. Most super-spreader events occur at an indoor venue, especially a poorly ventilated one (meaning air is not being exchanged, diluted, or filtered), where lots of people are talking, chanting, or singing.

Read the rest of Zeynep’s piece here.

What to read if … you’re feeling like your career has hit a lull:

In his latest “How to Build a Life” column, Arthur C. Brooks points out that success can be addictive. “If you measure yourself only by the worldly rewards of money, power, and prestige, you’ll spend your life running on the hedonic treadmill and comparing yourself to others,” he advises.

What to read if … you want practical tips:


Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here.



from The Atlantic https://ift.tt/30e56yX

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

REPORT: Furious Spike Lee Paces Aisle, Turns Back To Stage...

REPORT: Furious Spike Lee Paces Aisle, Turns Back To Stage... (Top headline, 5th story, link ) Related stories: REVIEW: Hostless Show Starts With Rock & Rolls Off Rails... Actor knocks borders, walls during speech in Spanish... Stage designed to look like Trump hair? 'GREEN BOOK' OVERCOMES BACKLASH, NABS BEST PICTURE... Top Critics Fume... LIST: WINNERS... Advertise here from Drudge Report Feed https://ift.tt/2SUpIKy

Tiny Love Stories: ‘Who Was I to Deprive Him of Joy?’

By Unknown Author from NYT Style https://ift.tt/2UV7YAG

The Ugly History of Dual-Loyalty Charges

When Representative Ilhan Omar recently complained about “the political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country,” many noted accurately that she had deployed a trope—dual loyalty—that had been used against Jews for years. But this accusation has a broader history in the United States, having been used against several religious minorities—including Muslims like Omar. Indeed, many battles over religious freedom have revolved around dual-loyalty claims. [ Read: Ilhan Omar just made it harder to have a nuanced debate about Israel ] In the 19th century, many attacks on Catholics stressed that these immigrants were pawns of a foreign power. In the 1830s, Samuel Morse—then a prominent painter and later the inventor of the telegraph—urged Americans to build “walls” and “gates” to keep out Catholic immigrants, who would always be loyal to Rome. Because these Catholic immigrants were decrepit —“halt, and blind, and naked”—they were easy to co...