Featured
The MAGA GOP’s “New Model” for America is the Old South. By Thom Hartmann / The Hartmann Report
So, if you want to see what Republicans have in mind for the rest of America if Trump or another Republican becomes president and they can hold onto Congress, just visit the Old South…
Tomorrow is the first Biden-Trump debate and many Americans are wondering how each will articulate their ideas for the future of America.
Republicans have a very specific economic vision for the future of our country, although they rarely talk about it in plain language: they want to make the rest of America look and function just like Mississippi. Including the racism: that’s a feature, not a bug.
It’s called the “Southern Economic Development Model” (SEDM) and has been at the core of GOP economic strategy ever since the days of Ronald Reagan. While they don’t use those words to describe their plan, and neither did the authors of Project 2025, this model is foundational to conservative economic theory and has been since the days of slavery. Read more
Related: 16 Nobel Economists Warn Second Donald Trump Term Would Mean 1 Thing. By Lee Moran / HuffPost
Related: Economy: The Black Community And What Matters Most. By Antjuan Seawright / Newsone
Political / Social
The Ground Is Shifting Under Biden and Trump. By Thomas B. Edsall / NYT
Have Democrats and Republicans traded places? How has the ascendance of well-educated, relatively affluent liberals among Democrats, alongside the dominance of non-college voters in the Republican coalition, altered the agendas of the two parties?
Are low-turnout elections and laws designed to suppress voting now beneficial to Democrats and detrimental to Republicans? Would the Democratic Party be better off if limits on campaign contributions were scrapped? Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a law professor at Harvard, contends that the answer to these last three questions is changing from no to yes. In a paper posted last week, “Election Law for the New Electorate,” Stephanopoulos argues that “the parties’ longstanding positions on numerous electoral issues have become obsolete. These stances reflect how voters used to — not how they now — act and thus no longer serve the parties’ interests.” Read more
Related: Trump is Leading National Polls. Ignore Them. By Albert R. Hunt / US News
Don’t explain. Don’t excuse: Joe Biden’s only debate strategy is to attack Donald Trump. By Lucian K. Tryscott IV / Salon
Trump is trying to set an immigration trap
Biden should study his briefing books and be up on disputes over politics and policy, but when it comes to defending himself on immigration, don’t bother. With the exception of Native Americans, there is not a human being in these United States who isn’t in one way or another an immigrant. Don’t make excuses. Don’t explain policies. Recognize that Donald Trump’s four years in office make him the biggest target of them all. Call him a liar to his face every time he tells a lie, and attack, attack, attack. Read more
Related: Joe Biden Should Be Boring in Thursday’s Debate. By Walter Shapiro / The New Republic
Trump’s pre-debate bluster is a bluff. By Heather Digby Parton / Salon
The earliest general election presidential debate ever is coming up this week and it’s all anyone can talk about.
The New York Times reported that, as usual, Trump doesn’t like to prepare with mock debates or reading briefing books so some people are informally showing up to chat about policy with him. I recall that in both 2016 and 2020, the scuttlebutt was that debate coaches like Chris Christie couldn’t get him to focus so inevitably Trump and his cronies would end up sitting around shooting the breeze. I’d guess that’s probably the case this time as well. Read more
Related: For thin-skinned Trump, every week is Shark Week. By Eugene Robinson / Wash Post
I Know What America’s Leading C.E.O.s Really Think of Donald Trump. By Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld / NYT
Recent headlines suggest that our nation’s business leaders are embracing the presidential candidate Donald Trump. His campaign would have you believe that our nation’s top chief executives are returning to support Mr. Trump for president, touting declarations of support from some prominent financiers like Steve Schwarzman and David Sacks.
That is far from the truth. They didn’t flock to him before, and they certainly aren’t flocking to him now. Mr. Trump continues to suffer from the lowest level of corporate support in the history of the Republican Party. Read more
Why Jamaal Bowman Lost. By Russell Berman / The Atlantic
The New York progressive veered too far left of his constituents.
The easiest explanation for why Representative Jamaal Bowman lost his Democratic primary in New York today is that he alienated the Jewish voters in his district with his denunciations of Israel. That explanation is reasonable, as far as it goes. Indeed, the race was the most expensive House primary in history largely because a pro-Israel group inundated the district with TV ads attacking Bowman. But that’s not the whole story. Read more
Related: What Jamaal Bowman’s loss says about Israel’s influence. By Zak Cheney-Rice / New York Intelligencer
Tracking Higher Ed’s Dismantling of DEI. By Erin Gretzinger and Maggie Hicks / Chronicle of Higher Ed.
The Chronicle is tracking higher ed’s dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. As colleges make changes in response to anti-DEI legislation and mounting political pressure, an inconsistent and confusing landscape has emerged. This resource aims to document the changes and help readers better understand how the campaign against DEI has actually reshaped campuses.
This tracker collects changes that public colleges have made to offices, jobs, training, diversity statements, and other DEI-related activities as the result of bills, executive orders, system mandates, and other state-level actions since January 2023, when The Chronicle began reporting on anti-DEI legislation. A few private colleges have also faced anti-DEI pressure and are included in our rundown. The information comes from a Chronicle survey, media reports, and tips from readers. The Chronicle has tracked changes at 164 college campuses in 23 states. Read more
Alabama man denied office after winning election reaches proposed settlement to become town’s first Black mayor. By Justin Gamble / CNN
The town of Newbern, Alabama and a Black man who was prevented from becoming the town’s mayor after winning his 2020 election, have reached a proposed settlement, according to federal court documents.
Patrick Braxton will officially become mayor of Newbern once the court approves the settlement – the first Black person to hold the position in the town’s 166-year history. Read more
Black Americans targeted with disinformation as election nears, new report finds. By
The analysis identified core areas that, it says, represent the “most significant” drivers of spreading false and misleading narratives for millions of Black Americans. Conservative commentators like Candace Owens are among the most influential distributors of false information, according to the report.
At least 40 million Americans may be regularly targeted and fed disinformation within Black online spaces by a host of sources across social media, fueling false information around the election, according to a new report published Tuesday. Touted as the first deep dive into understanding disinformation targeting Black America, the report, published by Onyx Impact, a nonprofit organization working to combat disinformation within the Black community, identified half a dozen core online networks “reaching or targeting” Black Americans online with false and misleading narratives. Read more
Bernie Sanders report details right-wing billionaires’ plot to ‘sabotage’ public education. By Jake Johnson / Raw Story
Sen. Bernie Sanders released a report Tuesday detailing how right-wing billionaires are bankrolling coordinated efforts to privatize U.S. public education by promoting voucher programs that siphon critical funding away from already-underresourced public schools.
The report notes that last year, the American Federation for Children (AFC)—an organization funded by former Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos—”ousted state lawmakers in Iowa and Arkansas who resisted proposals to subsidize private education in states and passed expansive private school vouchers.” Read more
Kidneys from Black donors are more likely to be thrown away − a bioethicist explains why. By Ana S. Iltis / The Conversation
As one of the leading causes of death in the U.S., kidney disease is a serious public health problem. The disease is particularly severe among Black Americans, who are three times more likely than white Americans to develop kidney failure.
Almost 100,000 people in the U.S. are awaiting kidney transplantation. Though Black Americans are more likely to need transplants, they are also less likely to receive them. Making matters worse, kidneys from Black donors in the U.S. are more likely to be thrown away as a result of a flawed system that erroneously considers all Black donor kidneys as more likely to stop working after a transplant than kidneys from donors of other races. Read more
World News
Gaza Famine Warning Spurs Calls to Remove Restrictions on Food Shipments. News Updates / NYT
Spurred by new evidence that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a long-feared famine, aid groups and international leaders on Tuesday called for the Israeli border restrictions choking off the supply of food to the territory to be lifted.
“We need sustainable, meaningful, uninterrupted aid in the Gaza Strip if we want to reverse the hunger situation,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, said. Read more
Related: High risk of famine across Gaza as hunger spreads, experts say. By Aya Batrawy / NPR
U.N.-approved, Kenya-led security force finally arrives in Haiti. By Widlore Mérancourt and Amanda Coletta / Wash Post
The United States has recruited countries and led funding and logistics for the mission, but President Biden says he won’t send U.S. forces.
A first contingent of 400 Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti on Tuesday morning, more than 18 months after then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry first asked the United Nations to send a security force to restore order to this violence-racked nation. The goal of the force: to wrest the country back from the heavily armed gangs that control more than 80 percent of the capital, inflicting some of the worst violence it has seen in decades, and to allow authorities to hold new elections for president and the National Assembly. Read more
Related: In Haiti, where is hope? By Kathleen Parker / Wash Post
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law isn’t about American legal history. By Mark Silk / RNS
A copy of the Ten Commandments is posted along with other historical documents in a hallway at the Georgia Capitol, June 20, 2024, in Atlanta.
It was because mandatory courthouse displays of the Ten Commandments were instituted for a religious purpose that the Supreme Court struck them down as violating the establishment clause in McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky (2005), its most recent Ten Commandments case. Read more
Related: Donald Trump vs. the Ten Commandments. By Mona Charen / The Bulwark
Why the swing state faith voters who really matter in 2024 aren’t evangelicals. By Bob Smietana and Jack Jenkins / RNS
MAGA evangelicals grab all the headlines. But it’s swing state faith voters — Catholics, mainliners and Black Protestants — who will likely decide the election.
Nationwide, some faith groups will be courted by campaigns as part of turnout operations, such as nones and Black Protestants, who tend to back Democrats, and white evangelicals, who overwhelmingly vote for Republicans. But the gap between the two parties is closer among Catholics and mainliners, making them targets for persuasion — even as both groups have inched closer to Republicans. Read more
Hair like wool. By Malissa Burlock / The Christian Century
Both Daniel and Revelation compare God’s hair to wool. White enslavers used to say the same thing about hair like mine.
My whole life, I’ve had to color in my Jesus. Brown for skin baked beneath a sweltering Middle Eastern sun. Red for that same skin shredded with a Roman soldier’s lead-tipped whip. Black for the blood-drenched soft whorls of hair that looked like wool. Like mine. Read more
Civil religion as a gateway to Christian nationalism. By Beau Underwood and Brian Kaylor / RNS
The inclusion of ‘under God’ in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance was a sectarian move whose exclusionary effects are increasingly evident in today’s religious landscape.
The “under God” crusade came with the explicit admission that in rewriting the Pledge, the nation’s leaders would be civically excommunicating some citizens as not real, patriotic Americans. To proclaim one’s loyalty to America required making a religious confession as well. This fusion of American and Christian identity mirrors the Christian nationalism frequently on display and denounced in public life today. The difference between now and then is that those leading the cause were not conservative evangelicals but mainline Protestants. Read more
Historical / Cultural
Once Upon A Time, Enslaved Africans Were An Insurance Commodity. By Stacey Patton / Black Enterprise
Slave insurance was one of America’s earliest forms of industrial risk management that provided an important source of revenue for companies
Baltimore Life, New York Life, AIG, Aetna, American Life, Virginia Life, Richmond Fire Association, North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, Asheville Mutual Insurance Company, Lynchburg Hose and Fire Insurance Company, Greensborough Mutual Life, and others participated. It is important to note that Aetna Life first issued policies in 1853 out of Hartford, Connecticut, even though slavery had been illegal in the state since 1848. Read more
How the GI Bill widened the Black-white wealth gap. By Ebony Reed / Los Angeles Times
At a time when it was extremely difficult for Black families to purchase homes and utilize government benefits, my grandfather accomplished an almost impossible feat: He used the GI Bill after World War II and bought a house.For three years, I’ve researched the Black-white wealth gap. In interviews with Black families, I learned that discrimination prevented their relatives from using the GI Bill. The GI Bill could have helped Black Americans gain wealth, as the legislation did for white Americans. Instead, Black Americans were largely left out and the GI Bill widened the Black-white wealth gap. Read more
These Researchers Study the Legacy of the Segregation Academies They Grew Up Around. By Jennifer Berry Hawes / ProPublica
Three young academics in Alabama are examining these mostly white private schools through the lenses of economics, education and history to better understand the persistent division of schools in the South.
The research conducted by all three women is especially important now. It comes at a time when Southern legislatures are creating and expanding school-voucher-style programs that will pour hundreds of millions of public dollars into the coffers of private schools, including segregation academies, over the coming years. Read more
Documentary ‘The Debutantes’ shines a light on cotillions as a celebration of Black Girlhood. By Isabel Yip / NBC News
The director of “The Debutantes” said that marking a coming-of-age moment was important in a world where “Black girls in particular are adultified at a young age.”
Debutante balls have traditionally been associated with a particular kind of coming of age: that of teen girls who are well-to-do and, for the most part, white. A newly revived Black debutante ball in Canton, Ohio, uses the cotillion experience as programming for Black girls, many of whom live below the poverty line. “The Debutantes,” which premiered this summer at the Tribeca Film Festival, presents three young “debs” — Teylar Bradley, Amelia Boles and Dedra Robbins — as they grapple with what it means for them to come of age and mark that transition. Read more
Related: The Last Black Boarding School. By Danielle Prescod / Elle
How Trump Went from Hip Hop’s Favorite Wealth Icon to the Culture’s Supervillain. By Cali Green / The Root
As far back as 1989, rappers have name-checked this convicted felon with a penchant for bankruptcy filings
The evolution of hip-hop’s relationship with Donald Trump has all the sinister plot twists of Get Out. Once upon a time, Trump was hip-hop’s gold-plated mascot of wealth. But as his true colors started to run—much like Giuliani’s hair dye in a heat wave—the Culture began to perceive Trump as a great instigator of societal ills. Over the past 35 years, hip-hop’s conversation about #45 has gone from “money and power” to an exasperated “What did this agent of chaos do now?” Read more
Sports
The Father-Son Drama of LeBron and Bronny James. By Louisa Thomas / The New Yorker
At the upcoming N.B.A. draft, perhaps the biggest question is where a likely role player—whose dad is one of the greatest athletes of all time—will end up.
He has raised his son in his own image, as many parents do. And why not? It is quite the image: LeBron is a champion, a billionaire, a philanthropist, a podcaster. Wealthy, powerful men have always used their wealth and power to smooth the path for their children, and particularly to elevate their firstborn sons into prestigious positions. The endless legacy of chattel slavery has meant that few Black Americans have been able to do this for their children. But LeBron can. Read more
How Willie Mays Handled Being a Black Superstar in a Racist Era. By Aram Goudsouzian / Time
Mays was part of the pioneer generation of Black ballplayers that followed Jackie Robinson into Major League Baseball, although unlike Robinson, he was no crusader. While he tried to sidestep politics, he was a Black athlete in the era of the civil rights movement. He was thrust into racial controversy, whether he liked it or not.
In this same period, Black critics, including Jackie Robinson, faulted Mays for failing to speak out against racial injustice. But the superstar avoided publicly airing his feelings. He sought to bridge America’s racial chasm in a quieter way, by fostering goodwill. Read more
A UFC takeover: Donald Trump’s dreams of a migrant fighting league are no joke. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
“Trump is actively mobilizing the UFC fan base to support his second attempt to dismantle our democratic system”
During a speech to the right-wing “Christian” Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference on Saturday, Trump made the suggestion that non-white migrants and refugees should be put in a special mixed martial arts league for his and his MAGA supporters entertainment:. Watching human beings brutalize each other inside of a cage is of course a very “Christian” thing to do. Trump’s suggestion that there should be a migrant fighting league is dehumanizing and part of a much larger pattern of racism, white supremacy, and nativism against Black and brown people. Read more
An influx of money will change the WNBA. Players and teams are prepared. By Kareem Copeland / Wash Post
With a new media rights deal and new collective bargaining agreement on the horizon, WNBA players and teams are gearing up for a new era starting in 2026. Shown is the Pheonix Mercury
A new media rights deal and the arrival of new teams should provide additional and bigger platforms for fans to engage with. Those things bring new money, which directly affects the compensation issues players are ready to keep fighting for through collective bargaining. Read more
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