Featured
What Trump and Orbán want: It’s fascism — it’s not a metaphor or a joke. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
The global right’s two greatest heroes spoke at CPAC over the weekend. Take what they said very seriously
Are you a Democrat? Have you voted for Democrats in the past? If the answer is yes, Donald Trump wants to put you in prison. That may sound preposterous, but these are are not idle threats.
At a rally last week in Wisconsin, Trump told his followers this:
We are a nation that has weaponized its law enforcement like never before against the opposing political party. They send their law enforcement out to get them because they can’t beat us at the polls so let’s lock them up.
Like other autocrats and tyrants, Trump is engaging in an act of obvious psychological projection. He imagines himself to be the victim of some vast conspiracy, and this imagined victimhood becomes the justification for violence and other crimes against human decency and society. Trump is actually threatening — or, more precisely, promising — to put his political opponents and others who dare to oppose him in prison, or to subject them to some even worse fate, if he manages to regain the presidency. These are themes that Trump and his acolytes have repeated during his presidency and beyond. The Jan. 6 insurrection and Trump’s coup attempt were those evil desires partly translated into reality. Read more
Related: CPAC event in Dallas was appalling to me as a young conservative. By Chris Schlak / USA Today
Political / Social
Faced with a rise of extremism within its ranks, the US military has clamped down on racist speech, including retweets and likes. By Dwight Stirling / The Conversation
Less than a month after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin took the extraordinary step of pausing all operations for 24 hours to “address extremism in the ranks.” Pentagon officials had been shaken by service members’ prominent role in the events of Jan. 6. Of the 884 criminal defendants charged to date with taking part in the insurrection, more than 80 were veterans. That’s almost 10% of those charged. More remarkable, at least five of the rioters were serving in the military at the time of the assault: an active-duty Marine officer and four reservists. Service members’ involvement in the insurrection has made the spread of extremism – particularly white nationalism – a significant issue for the U.S. military. Read more
Related: Racist and sexist disinformation is sowing divisions among Asian Americans. By Kimmy Yam / NBC News
Related: Facebook bans hate speech but still makes money from white supremacists. By Naomi Nix / Wash Post
The Republican Plan To Devastate Public Education in America. By Brynn Tannehill / TNR
Conservatives talk about “school choice.” What they really want, though, will result in the end of public education for the poor, and disfavored minorities like LGBT people.
Their plan looks like this: Parents are given a voucher for several thousand dollars that comes out of the state education budget. The money can be spent on tuition for charter or private schools, microschools (collective homeschooling), or regular homeschooling. Republicans say the “money goes to the kids.” In reality, it reduces money going to public schools to a point where the schools will be dramatically underfunded. Read more
Related: The Long Debate Over Critical Race Theory. By Lisa A. Monroe / AAIHS
60% of Latino voters say U.S. is ‘on the wrong track’ but remain largely ignored by both parties. By Nicole Acevedo / NBC News
In a UnidosUS/Mi Familia Vota poll of Hispanic registered voters, abortion was among top issues for the first time ever. Yet only 59% planned to vote in November.
The poll was commissioned by UnidosUS, the largest Latino nonprofit advocacy organization, and Mi Familia Vota, a Latino political and civic engagement organization, and conducted in mid-July by the national firm BSP Research, which mainly focuses on Democratic polling. They listed inflation (46%), crime and gun violence (36%), jobs and the economy (29%), health care (22%) and abortion (19%) as the most important issues elected officials should be addressing, according to the poll. Read more
Related: What’s Missing From Voting Data? Race. Steve Phillips / The Nation
Police shot Jayland Walker 41 times. His mother is fighting for his memory. By Praveena Somasundaram / Wash Post
Jayland Walker was killed by Akron police after a car chase stemming from an alleged traffic violation. Body-camera footage shows eight officers — seven of whom were White — shooting a flurry of bullets at Walker, a Black man, after a 4½-minute chase. His body had 41 gunshot wounds, and five graze injuries. Walker’s killing has brought national attention to Akron, drawing calls for accountability and heightening concerns once again about police use of force. Read more
Climate and Tax Bill to Rewrite Embattled Black Farmer Relief Program. By Alan Rappeport / NYT
To circumvent legal objections, the new law will provide aid to farmers who have faced discrimination, regardless of their race.
The legislation, which Congress passed this week, will create two new funds to help farmers. One, at $2.2 billion, will provide financial assistance to farmers, ranchers and forest landowners who faced discrimination before 2021. The other provides $3.1 billion for the Agriculture Department to make payments for loans or loan modifications to farmers who face financial distress. Read more
Oprah donated $13 million to Morehouse College. Her endowment is now the largest in the school’s history. By Amir Vera / CNN
Oprah Winfrey now has the largest endowment ever at Morehouse College in Atlanta after donating $13 million, according to a news release from the school. Winfrey visited the all men’s historically black college Monday for the 30th anniversary of the Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program, the release said. The program started in 1989 and the fund stands at $12 million. Monday’s donation of $13 million pushed her total investment to $25 million. “Seeing you young Oprah Winfrey scholars here today has moved me deeply,” Winfrey said Monday before announcing her donation. “I am so proud of you, I’m proud of everybody in attendance at this school who is seeking to know more clearly who you are, the value you hold and how you will share that value with the rest of the world.” Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Republicans keep mostly mum on calls to make GOP ‘party of Christian nationalism.’ By Jack Jenkins / Religion News
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has spent much of the summer calling on her fellow Republicans to become the “party of Christian nationalism,” even selling T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Proud Christian nationalist.” Religion News Service reached out to more than 50 House and Senate Republicans seeking their response, questioning whether they support calls to make the RNC the party of Christian nationalism. Two Republicans responded: Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina. Read more
The U.S. Needs a National Plan for Racial Justice. Ejim Dike / The Progressive
As the United States testifies before the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the lack of progress since 2020 on racial justice is glaring.
Amid sharp spikes in racist hate crimes targeting Black and Asian communities, the infiltration of law enforcement by white nationalists, state censorship of public school educators teaching “critical race theory,” and continued police killings, the Biden Administration will be hard pressed to claim that it has achieved meaningful progress. The establishment of a National Human Rights Institution with an ambitious mandate to implement a national plan for racial justice would be something to be proud of, at home and abroad. Read more
Historical / Cultural
Lincoln’s midterms: The lessons of 1862, and how they may still apply. By Matthew Rozsa / Salon
At the worst moment of division and carnage in American history, we still had midterm elections to get through
When Joe Biden met last week with a “select group of scholars” for a “Socratic dialogue” about America’s future, the esteemed historians compared the current crisis facing our democracy with two other historical periods: The years immediately preceding the Civil War, which broke out shortly after Abraham Lincoln’s victory in the 1860 presidential election, and the years before World War II, when proto-fascist or explicitly fascist movements like those led by aviator Charles Lindbergh popped up all over the land. Yet there is a third, and closely related, chapter of American political history worth examining at this moment: The one that occurred not immediately before the Civil War, but during that conflict. Read more
When America Joined the Cult of the Confederacy. By Brent Staples / NYT
President Woodrow Wilson transformed government into an engine of white supremacy when he took office in 1913. His administration segregated a federal work force that had been integrated for 50 years and imposed separate white and “colored” bathrooms in federal buildings. As the historian Eric S. Yellin shows in his iconic book “Racism in the Nation’s Service,” segregation was just a prelude. The goal was to drive African Americans from influential jobs and confine them to a “controlled and exploitable class of laborers.” Read more
One reason why America’s wealth gap persists across generations. By Jennifer Ludden / NPR
The family’s financial fortunes show one way that America’s stark racial wealth gap has persisted — and even widened — over generations. White adults are more than twice as likely as Black and Latino households to get sizable financial help from parents or other elders. That’s according to a new poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Read more
‘Maynard’ Review – The Hollywood Reporter. By Frank Scheck / The Hollywood Reporter
Samuel D. Pollard’s documentary ‘Maynard’ recounts the life and career of Maynard Jackson, the first African-American mayor of Atlanta.
“Maynard Jackson was the Moses of his time” is a typical comment in Samuel D. Pollard’s documentary about the three-term Atlanta mayor, the first African-America to hold that office and the first of any major Southern city. The statement may be hyperbolic, but it reflects the enduring influence of the formidable figure who was instrumental in advancing civil rights from protests to political action. Recently given its world premiere at DOC NYC, Maynard proves as moving as it is informative. Read more
Sam Gooden, founding member of the Impressions soul group, dies at 87. By Terence McArdle / Wash Post
Sam Gooden, center, poses for a portrait in the mid-1960s with fellow Impressions singers Curtis Mayfield, left, and Fred Cash. (James Kriegsmann/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Bill Russell’s No. 6 is being retired across the NBA. By AP and NPR
Bill Russell’s No. 6 jersey is being retired across the NBA, a first for the league.
The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association announced Thursday that the number worn by the 11-time champion, civil rights activist and person good enough to be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach was being permanently retired by all 30 teams. “Bill Russell’s unparalleled success on the court and pioneering civil rights activism deserve to be honored in a unique and historic way,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. “Permanently retiring his No. 6 across every NBA team ensures that Bill’s transcendent career will always be recognized.” Read more
More Black Former N.F.L. Players Eligible for Concussion Payouts. By Ken Belson / NYT
Credit…Jeffery Salter for The New York Times
Dozens of Black retired N.F.L. players will now be eligible for payouts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from the league’s billion-dollar concussion settlement, reversing previous decisions made because of cognitive tests that used race-based measures to determine whether the players had dementia. Read more
A Philly Basketball Reunion Draws N.B.A. Stars Back Home. By Kris Rhim / NYT
Credit…Rachel Wisniewski for The New York Times
The Danny Rumph Classic in Philadelphia each summer attracts N.B.A. players with local roots and raises awareness about cardiac health, in honor of the tournament’s namesake. Read more
Serena Williams Forced Her Way Into the Tennis History Books. By Christopher Clarey / NYT
With her dominant strokes and smart moves off the court, Williams helped redefine how to be a superstar athlete.
Serena Williams’s fellow tennis professionals already know what their sport is like without her. She has played very little in the past two years and has played just two singles matches in the past 13 months. But as Williams, now 40 years old, made plain in announcing her impending retirement on Tuesday, it will very soon be time for the wider world to become accustomed to her absence from the courts, as well. Read more
Fisk University’s first-ever gymnastics practice goes viral on TikTok. By Claretta Bellamy / NBC News
In February, Fisk University announced the launch of its first HBCU Intercollegiate Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Team, aiming to expand its athletic profile after “the growing interest among student-athletes for an elite HBCU experience.”
On Tuesday, a video of the practice went viral when gymnastic team member Zyia, who goes by the username @zyiaalexys, posted a clip of her teammates practicing their backflips, stretches and runs. Her now-trending video has been viewed over 700,000 times and received more than 200,000 likes on TikTok as of Thursday afternoon. Read more
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