Featured
Why American democracy will survive. By Eva Bellin and Kurt Weyland / Wash Post
In the middle of the night after the election, one of our students dashed off an email, panicking about the future of American democracy. We quickly responded, reassuring her that although things did not look good, the United States was unlikely to follow the path of Turkey, Hungary, Tunisia or Venezuela. The following day, a good number of other students expressed the same concern, as did a fair number of our colleagues.
It became clear to us that it was important to stanch this alarm. While the stunning result of Donald Trump being elected president again has legitimately raised concerns about what a domineering populist with autocratic leanings might do, our research on populism and de-democratization in Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and Asia suggests that catastrophizing is not in order here. Read more
Political / Social
There’s No Denying It Anymore: Trump Is Not a Fluke—He’s America. By Elie Mystal / The Nation
The United States chose Donald Trump in all his ugliness and cruelty, and the country will get what it deserves.
America deserves everything it is about to get. We had a chance to stand united against fascism, authoritarianism, racism, and bigotry, but we did not. We had a chance to create a better world for not just ourselves but our sisters and brothers in at least some of the communities most vulnerable to unchecked white rule, but we did not. We had a chance to pass down a better, safer, and cleaner world to our children, but we did not. Instead, we chose Trump, JD Vance, and a few white South African billionaires who know a thing or two about instituting apartheid. Read more
Related: What Does Freedom Mean in the Age of Trump? (with Timothy Snyder) / The Bulwark
Trump says he’ll fire FBI Director Christopher Wray, replace him with longtime ally Kash Patel. By Lalee Ibssa , Kelsey Walsh, Soo Rin Kim, Ivan Pereira, Mike Levine, and Luke Barr / ABC News
Patel has been a staunch supporter of Trump for years and served in his first administration under a number of roles. He has vocally defended many Jan. 6 rioters who were charged for their actions that day.
Patel has said he would target journalists, former senior FBI and Department of Justice officials and turn the FBI into a museum for the “deep state” on Day 1. Read more
Trump’s Cabinet has only 3 people of color – again. By Brakkton Booker / Politico
Donald Trump’s victory promised an electoral realignment as he made heavy gains among Latinos and peeled off some Black men. His Cabinet, however, ultimately reflects the staying power of white men in Washington.
After a flurry of selections last week, the president-elect winds up with just three people of color in secretary roles, matching his first Cabinet. His selection of former Texas state lawmaker and motivational speaker Scott Turner, who is Black, for Housing and Urban Development and Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.), who is Hispanic, for Labor did not break form. Trump also had Black and Latino secretaries in those roles during his first term. Trump has made history by choosing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who is likely to be confirmed as the first-ever Hispanic secretary of State. Read more
Four centuries in, Virginia could be on track for its first female governor. By Laura Vozzellia / Wash Post
All 74 of Virginia’s elected governors have had one thing in common, be they slave-owner or civil rights champion, farmer or global business titan, Pat Robertson pal or man about town.
That’s on track to change, as two women seem to have cleared the field for next year’s Republican and Democratic gubernatorial primaries. Rep. Abigail Spanberger has had the Democratic contest to herself since her lone competitor dropped out in April, while Winsome Earle-Sears’s long-anticipated rival for the GOP nod let it be known this month that he was taking a pass. Read more
MSNBC faces uncertain future amid Comcast sale and Trump election win. By Eric Berger / The Guardian
For years, the cable news channel MSNBC has been a reliable liberal voice in the US media landscape, but amid the return of Donald Trump to the White House and its own business upheavals the network is now in crisis.
The world’s richest man, and close Trump ally, Elon Musk has even – possibly jokingly – repeatedly publicly touted the idea of buying MSNBC after the parent company of the channel, Comcast, recently revealed that it would spin off the cable news network. Read more
Related: MSNBC confronts viewer frustration, changes and an identity crisis. By Jeremy Barr / Wash Post
Why Black Americans Can’t Afford to Abandon Identity Politics. By Allison Wiltz / Level
After losing the last presidential election, some Democrats are grasping at straws to explain what went wrong. Take Senator-elect Elissa Slotkin, for instance, who bluntly claimed identity politics should “go the way of the dodo.”
This would mean no more championing criminal justice reform, voting rights legislation, women’s rights, or any policy designed to help a particular group. Yet, this strategy would overlook injustices Black people experience and threaten the integrity of the party’s multiracial coalition. Read more
World News
Requiem for an empire: How Trump’s second term could reshape the world. By Alfred McCoy / Salon
Some 14 years ago, on Dec. 5, 2010, a historian writing for TomDispatch made a prediction that may yet prove prescient. Rejecting the consensus of that moment that U.S. global hegemony would persist to 2040 or 2050, he argued that “the demise of the United States as the global superpower could come … in 2025, just 15 years from now.”
Now that a “far-right patriot,” one Donald J. Trump, has indeed captured (or rather recaptured) the presidency “with thundering rhetoric,” let’s explore the likelihood that a second Trump term in office, starting in the fateful year 2025, might actually bring a hasty end, silent or otherwise, to an “American Century” of global dominion. Read more
Related: How the world should brace for Trump 2.0. By the Editorial Board / Wash Post
Related: If Trump wants Haitians to go home, his mission is clear. By the Editorial Board / Wash Post
How Kennedy Has Worked Abroad to Weaken Global Public Health Policy. Selam Gebrekidan, Justin Scheck, Sarah Hurtes and Pete McKenzie / NYT
The health secretary pick and his organization have worked around the world to undermine longstanding policies on measles, AIDS and more.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is in line to lead the Department of Health and Human Services in the next Trump administration, is well-known for promoting conspiracy theories and vaccine skepticism in the United States. But Mr. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, has also spent years working abroad to undermine policies that have been pillars of global health policy for a half-century, records show. Read more
Why Israel and Hezbollah reached a ceasefire now − and what it means for Israel, Lebanon, Biden and Trump. By Asher Kaufman / The Conversation
Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah entered a 60-day ceasefire on Nov. 26, 2024, a move aimed at reducing tensions in the region more than a year into a multifront conflict.
Under the terms of the deal, Israel would gradually withdraw its forces from Lebanon, and Hezbollah would fully withdraw north of the Litani River. Meanwhile, the Lebanese Army would “deploy and take control over their own territory,” U.S. President Joe Biden said, adding that the United States, France and other allies have pledged to support the deal. But what does the deal mean for the parties involved and future prospects for a more permanent cessation of hostilities? The Conversation U.S. turned to Asher Kaufman, an expert of Lebanon and border conflicts in the Middle East, to explain why they reached a ceasefire now and what it means going forward. Read more
How the World’s Largest Democracy Slid Toward Authoritarianism. Jennifer Szalai / NYT
Rahul Bhatia’s new book began from bewilderment: He wanted to know what was happening to the people he loved. Members of the Hindu Nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or R.S.S., in Kolkata, India, in January 2023.
In the opening pages of “The New India,” Bhatia recalls how one relative went from being an affable goofball to angrily disparaging Muslims as “less than human.” Another relative transformed from an apolitical humanist into someone who insisted that India needed a “benevolent dictator.” An aunt started calling Muslims “savages.” Bhatia was startled by such vitriol. He had been taught that secularism and equality were the bedrock of India’s mainstream political culture. “Our elders had raised us with values that they had abandoned themselves.” Read more
Robert Sobukwe, the South African leader once as revered as Mandela. By Nick Dall / Ajazeera
Born 100 years ago, Sobukwe was a titan of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle – now often forgotten, his legacy still shapes the country.
On May 4, Sobukwe and 17 other PAC leaders were found guilty of “inciting people to commit an offence” and Sobukwe was sentenced to three years in prison, which he served in two jails near Johannesburg. As the end of his sentence neared, the apartheid government debated what to do with him. In 1969, with his health failing, Sobukwe was released from Robben Island and allowed to live with his family in Kimberley – a town he “did not know” – under house arrest. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Trump’s ‘Love Affair’ with American Evangelicals Was Once Exposed by a Pastor: “What He Stands For…” By Shraddha / Inquisitr
In regards to the relationship saga of Donald Trump and American evangelicals, a former pastor, Nathaniel Manderson, has stepped forward to blow up what he calls the ‘love affair’ in a thought-provoking article.
Manderson educated at a conservative seminary and with a background as a pastor, career counselor, and high school teacher, suggests that the evangelical movement can only be “saved” if it “dumps Trump,” as per Raw Story. Read more
What Buddhism can teach us about handling this time of deep division. By Jeremy David Engels / Chicago Sun Times
When people “on the other side” are viewed as monsters, the potential for civic cooperation is undercut, writes a Penn State University professor.
A lesson from Buddhism seems particularly apt in this moment of enemyship: Treat the people you disagree with as mistaken rather than evil. There is a profound optimism at the heart of most Buddhist traditions, rooted in the foundational belief that everyone is blessed with the capacity to practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is one of the eight steps along the noble path the Buddha described to reach enlightenment. To practice mindfulness is to shift from a reactive, to a more deliberate and considered, way of living life. Read more
To oppose racism, a priest won’t lead Communion. He could be defrocked. By Marisa Iati / Wash Post
Nearly three years had passed since the Rev. Cayce Ramey had decided to stop leading Communion services when he opened an email last spring to learn whether his choice would cost him his priesthood.
To Ramey, a 48-year-old former engineer and U.S. Marine, the conflict is about the ways he says the Episcopal Church has perpetuated white supremacy for centuries and failed to fully make amends. A scripture passage about making offerings to God, he said, helped him realize that he was being called to “go and be reconciled” with those the church has hurt before he can participate in its central sacrament. And he said he cannot feel personally reconciled until the broader institution has made greater strides in combating its alleged racism. Read more
Historical / Cultural
Why Black Americans Searching for Their Roots Should Look to Angola. By John Eligon / NYT
When President Biden visits the country this week, he is expected to highlight a largely overlooked bond between Angola and the United States that was born out of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
They stood on a concrete platform over a cobblestone plaza as slave traders cast their final judgment, gazing westward at a bend in the mighty Cuanza River, where unknown horrors lay ahead. For the ancestors of millions of African Americans, this slave market in Massangano, a village in Angola, was likely the place where they were sold into bondage. It was a point of no return. Read more
Robert Dixon, Last Surviving Buffalo Soldier, Dies at 103. Trip Gabriel / NYT
The Rev. Robert W. Dixon Sr., the last known survivor of the U.S. Army’s all-Black regiments known as Buffalo Soldiers, died on Nov. 15 near Albany, N.Y. He was 103.
A member of one of the U.S. Army’s all-Black regiments, formed after the Civil War, he trained West Point cadets in horsemanship during World War II. Read more
Tulsa’s First Black Mayor Says He Plans To Address The City’s Ugly History Head-On. By Phillip Jackson / HuffPost
Mayor-elect Monroe Nichols faces pressure regarding cash reparations for a century-old race massacre.
Earlier this month, former Oklahoma state Rep. Monroe Nichols (D) was elected the first Black mayor of Tulsa. Among other plans, Nichols wants to help heal a community still grappling with the legacy of a racist massacre that killed at least 300 people more than a century ago. Read more
How education in the US has been weaponised against Native Americans. By Madalyn J. Mann / The Conversation
November is National Native American Heritage Month in the US. This should be an opportunity for schools to discuss their country’s colonial history. But the picture that students receive is often sadly lacking.
A study conducted by Pennsylvania State University between 2016 and 2018 found that 27 states did not name a single individual Native American in their history curriculum standards for schools. The study also found that 87% of curriculum standards do not mention Native American history after 1900 – a very partial picture. Read more
The earliest known ‘country’ recording has been found. The singer? A Black man. By Geoff Edgers / Wash Post
A new release of an 1891 song by Louis Vasnier deepens what we know about the genre’s origins.
John Levin had no idea what he’d stumbled upon at first. About 10 years ago, the collector paid about $100 for a box of wax cylinders at an auction in Pennsylvania coal country. Those cylinders — the oldest commercial medium of recorded music — sat in his house for years until Levin put one of the unlabeled, decaying brown tubes onto his custom player and heard an old country song. Like 133 years old. Read more
Wendy Williams is ‘cognitively impaired and permanently incapacitated,’ guardian says. By
The longtime talk show host’s condition was described by attorneys for her guardian in a court filing earlier this month.
The 60-year-old former talk show host has been “afflicted by early-onset dementia,” resulting in her incapacitation, attorneys for her guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, said in a legal filing in New York court on Nov. 12. Williams was diagnosed in 2023 with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia, her team said in a statement in February. Read more
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Denied Bail By Third Judge As He Awaits Sex Trafficking Trial. By Larry Neumeister / HuffPost
The judge said there is evidence showing that Sean “Diddy” Combs poses a “serious risk” of witness tampering and a “propensity for violence.”
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian ruled in a five-page order following a bail hearing last week. At the hearing, lawyers for the hip-hop mogul argued that a $50 million bail package they proposed would be sufficient to ensure Combs doesn’t flee and doesn’t try to intimidate prospective trial witnesses. Read more
Sports
Medrick Burnett Jr., Alabama A&M linebacker, dies from head injury. By Zach Powell / The Athletic
An Alabama A&M linebacker who suffered a head injury in an October football game died Wednesday night, a Jefferson County, Ala., deputy coroner confirmed Friday.
Medrick Burnett Jr., a 20-year-old redshirt freshman for Alabama A&M, sustained the head injury in the Magic City Classic on Oct. 26 against in-state rival Alabama State, according to the Associated Press. AJ Clifton, the Jefferson County deputy coroner, declined to provide further details but said a news release was being planned for Saturday. Read more
Deion Sanders Earns Huge Bonus After Colorado-Oklahoma State Blowout. By Chris Licata / Athlon Sports
Colorado took care of business on Friday, blowing out Oklahoma State 52-0 in their regular season finale.
After dropping a season-high 49 points on Utah in Week 12, Colorado bested it in Week 14, thanks in part to a monster passing performance and a fourth-quarter pick-six. The Buffaloes outgained the Cowboys 438 to 77 in total scrimmage yards. Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders finished the day completing 34-of-41 passes for 438 yards and five touchdowns, three of which went to Heisman Trophy frontrunner Travis Hunter, who finished with 10 catches for 116 yards, plus his fourth interception on defense. Read more
Peter Westbrook, legendary Black fencer and coach, dies at 72. By Josh Peter / USA Today
Peter Westbrook, the first Black American fencer to win an Olympic medal and who later developed multiple Olympians while coaching underserved youth in New York, died Friday, according to his foundation.
In 1984, Westbrook won an Olympic bronze medal at the Los Angeles Games in the individual saber. It marked not only first time an Black American fencer won an Olympic medal, but also first time in 24 years an American won an Olympic medal in fencing. Read more
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