Featured
If There’s One Thing Trump Is Right About, It’s Republicans. By Peter Wehner / NYT
For the thousandth time, the Republican Party refused an off-ramp that would free itself from Donald Trump. As long as he’s around, it never will.
The next 34 weeks are among the more consequential in the life of this nation. Mr. Trump was a clear danger in 2016; he’s much more of a danger now. The former president is more vengeful, more bitter and more unstable than he was, which is saying something. There would be fewer guardrails and more true believers in a second Trump term. He’s already shown he’ll overturn an election, support a violent insurrection and even allow his vice president to be hanged. There’s nothing he won’t do. It’s up to the rest of us to keep him from doing it. Read more
Related: Reminder: Trump’s Last Year in Office Was a National Nightmare. By Paul Krugman / NYT
Related: The Unholy Alliance Of Donald Trump And Elon Musk. By David Kurtz / TPM
Political / Social
Biden Silences the Doubters. By Jennifer Senior / the Atlantic
It is hardly fashionable to say positive things about Joe Biden these days. I myself have been among his doubters, convinced that he’d never be able to win a rematch against Donald Trump. I imagined myself on a flight bound for Reykjavík, Lisbon, Sydney, wherever on November 6, staring backwards out the window and squinting at the smoking ruins of American democracy, grimly praying that I wouldn’t turn into a pillar of salt.
But it’s undeniable that Biden gave a stunning speech last night, and it wasn’t just because there was a game on quality to his remarks, the thwapping sound of a gauntlet hitting the ground. It’s because he managed to do that thing he does best, which his aides long ago described to Richard Ben Cramer in What It Takes as “the connect.” Read more
Related: In-Your-Face Biden Takes on Trump and His Own Doubters. By Peter Baker / NYT
Related: Raucous State of the Union launches brutal Biden-Trump campaign. By Susan Page / USA Today
Where Nikki Haley Won and What It Means. By Nate Cohn / NYT
Some affluent and highly educated Republicans could be in play for Biden as Haley steps aside.
These “not Trump” voters were not like other Republicans. They were relatively affluent, moderate and highly educated. They supported immigration reform and aid to Ukraine. Most of all, they had an unfavorable view of Mr. Trump. A majority of these primary voters wouldn’t even support him in a general election against President Biden. In the end, the not-Trump voters found a candidate in Nikki Haley, who suspended her campaign Wednesday. On Super Tuesday, she won 22 percent of the vote — just shy of the 25 percent who said they weren’t open to Mr. Trump in July. Read more
On both ends of I-75 in Detroit and Atlanta, Black voters could decide elections. By Sam Gringlas / NPR (Image Michigan Advance)
Smith and Anthony say Georgia and Michigan can offer lessons for 2024. They chalk the strong voter retention, in part, to innovative campaigning and genuine outreach to overlooked communities. But while Black voter turnout improved for older Georgia voters, it fell sharply for voters under 40.
“It’s not on the Black community to save America, but it is right for anyone expecting this community’s vote to be intentional about caring for it,” Anthony said. Read more
Try Again! Fulton County Board Of Ethics Announces New Protections For Fani Willis. By Sharelle Burt / Black Enterprise
The Fulton County Board of Ethics announced they don’t have the jurisdiction to file complaints against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
The board was scheduled to meet on March 7 but abruptly canceled and released a statement confirming the new revelation. “The Fulton County Board of Ethics lacks jurisdiction to hear any Ethics Complaint against Fani T. Willis,” the board said. “Accordingly, any ethics complaint against the district attorney of any county would be under the exclusive jurisdiction of the State Ethics Commission.” Read more
After Letitia James Wins Big in Courtrooms, She Celebrates in Public. By Jesse Mckinley / NYT
Prevailing over former President Donald J. Trump and the National Rifle Association makes an elected Democrat a lightning rod. Foes call her vindictive. Allies say she’s just doing her job.
This has been a very good year for Letitia James. Over the past month, Ms. James, New York’s attorney general, has racked up hard-fought victories over two formidable opponents. First, in mid-February, her office won a staggering $454 million judgment against former President Donald J. Trump in a civil fraud trial stemming from accusations that he had inflated his net worth. Read more
Congressional Black Caucus demands civil rights probe into states that shut college DEI offices. By Stephen Dinan / The Wash Times
Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., speaks with reporters about police reform, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 7, 2023.
The Congressional Black Caucus is asking the White House and Justice and Education departments to look into whether Florida school districts are in compliance with federal law in the aftermath of a variety of changes in the state from banning some books to a recent decision to add language about the positive impacts of slavery. Also, The Congressional Black Caucus on Wednesday demanded a federal discrimination investigation into states that are moving to shut down diversity, equity and inclusion offices on their public college campuses. Read more
Related: Students protest the University of Florida’s DEI firings. By Kiara Alfonseca / ABC News
Related: DEI bans are a major barrier for Latino students to enroll — and excel — in college. By and
We Tried to Create a Diverse College Class Without Affirmative Action. Aatish Bhatia and /NYT
Selective colleges and universities can no longer use race-based preferences in admissions to create a more diverse student body. But what if they gave a break instead to lower-income students? Or those from high-poverty schools? Or those who do relatively well academically despite challenges all around them?
To explore those questions — and how much racial diversity is possible without “race-conscious” admissions — the Upshot worked with Sean Reardon, a professor at Stanford, and Demetra Kalogrides, a senior researcher there, to model four alternatives to affirmative action. Read more
Denied care: How racism caused America’s expensive health care crisis. By SemDem / Daily Kos
Despite being the sole high-income nation in the world without universal health care, the United States government refuses to recognize basic medical care as a fundamental right for all its citizens. In fact, about 8% of the country is uninsured, not to mention those who have insurance but don’t have the coverage they need.
In stark contrast to other developed nations, the United States stands alone with leaving citizens to fend for themselves on health care. At the very least, one would think that a silver lining to this cruelty would be that our government would be able to save billions of dollars per year, but in fact, the opposite is true; The United States spends more on health care per person than any other nation on the planet, while simultaneously being the only industrialized nation that doesn’t guarantee the most basic health care. Read more
Killings by police brought reforms. Fear of crime is unraveling them. By Robert Klemko, Emily Davies, and Tom Jackman / Wash Post
Rodney and RowVaughn Wells, the stepfather and mother of Tyre Nichols, attend a state House session on March 4, 2024, in Nashville. Nichols was beaten by five Memphis police officers during a traffic stop and died of his injuries in January 2023 (George Walker IV/AP)
Florida lawmakers are considering a bill that would ban civilian-run police review boards. Louisiana legislators voted in favor of a law that would make it harder to sue police officers; cities including Portland, Ore., and Los Angeles have restored police funding that was cut after Floyd was killed. Read more
World News
As gangs attack a critical port, ‘Haiti will go hungry soon.’ By Widlore Mérancourt and Samantha Schmidt / Wash Post
First the gangs blocked the roads to Haiti’s capital. Then they attacked the airport. Now they have breached the city’s main port, cutting off the capital from one of its last remaining lifelines for food and supplies as the country teeters toward collapse.
On Wednesday night, dozens of gang members stormed the most important port terminal in Port-au-Prince, looting containers, damaging the port’s security apparatus and forcing the terminal to suspend its operations indefinitely, according to Philippe Coles, the president of Caribbean Port Services, which operates the terminal. Read more
The United States cannot afford to be complicit in Gaza’s tragedy. By Colbert I. King / Wash Post
It’s sad but appropriate that the United States is having to air-drop humanitarian assistance and that nations are lining up behind America to support a sea route and port for aid to Gaza. These are necessities caused by problems at Israeli-monitored land crossings.
Just as the Hamas threat must be eliminated, so, too, Gazans’ suffering must end. The United States, supportive of Israel’s effort to achieve the former, cannot be complicit in the horrific tragedy afflicting Gaza’s innocent victims. Read more
Related: With war in Gaza, American Muslims plan Ramadan of protest and activism. By
Related: How Oct. 7 is forcing Jews to reckon with Israel. By Noah Feldman / Wash Post
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Only Revolutionary Love Can Save Us Now. By Michelle Alexander / The Nation
Martin Luther King Jr’s 1967 speech condemning the Vietnam War offers a powerful moral compass as we face the challenges of our time.
Of all the incredible speeches that Martin Luther King, Jr. gave in his life, I think the one that speaks most directly to the times that we are living in now, and that models what is required of us as we face multiple existential threats to our democracy and our world, is the speech that King gave when he publicly condemned the Vietnam War—and was immediately cancelled. That speech has become a touchpoint for me in recent years. Whenever I need a moral compass or my courage begins to falter, I return to the words King spoke on April 4, 1967, one year before his assassination, at the Riverside Church in Manhattan. Read more
Empathy and Remembering with Esau McCaulley. By Steve Cuss / Christianity Today
Presence has a profound impact on our lives. So does its opposite—absence.
On this episode of Being Human, Steve Cross welcomes author, professor, and public theologian Esau McCaulley. McCaulley’s book Reading While Black is dedicated to his father, which may lead people to believe that they had a close relationship. But, McCaulley says that dedication was his way of declaring, “I forgive you.” Read more
Inside A Secret Society Of Prominent Right-Wing Christian Men Prepping For A ‘National Divorce.’ By Josh Kovensky / TPM
A trove of documents obtained by TPM reveal the society’s inner workings.
A secret, men-only right-wing society with members in influential positions around the country is on a crusade: to recruit a Christian government that will form after the right achieves regime change in the United States, potentially via a “national divorce.” Read more
Historical / Cultural
Black couple rented to a Chinese American family when nobody would. Now, they’re donating $5M to Black community. By
Lloyd Dong Jr., left, and his brother Ron stand outside of their childhood home on C Street in Coronado, Calif.
In 1939, the Dongs, a Chinese American family in Coronado, California, found themselves unable to rent a house amid racially restrictive housing laws that favored white buyers and renters. Emma and Gus Thompson, a Black entrepreneurial couple in town, allowed the family to rent and eventually buy their Coronado property when nobody else would. Now, to thank the Thompsons for helping them get a toehold in American society, the Dongs are donating $5 million to Black college students using proceeds from the sale of the house. Read more
CBS is developing its first Black daytime soap opera in 35 years. By Jonathan Franklin / NPR
CBS and the NAACP are teaming up to develop an all-new soap opera — the first new daytime drama with a predominantly Black cast to air on TV in decades.
The series, currently titled The Gates, will follow the lives of a wealthy Black family in a “posh, gated community,” according to a news release from the NAACP. The show is set to air on CBS and is produced by both CBS Studios and the NAACP, which formed a new production venture to help elevate diverse voices and increase the visibility of Black creatives on TV and streaming media. Read more
Black Music Sunday: Celebrating Muslim jazz musicians as Ramadan begins. By Denise Oliver Velez / Daily Kos
Art Blakey performs during the 1980 Berkeley Jazz Festival.
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins Monday in the United States. It’s a monthlong time of prayer, fasting, and introspection for Muslims around the world. It’s only fitting to highlight some stellar Muslim jazz musicians in this week’s “Black Music Sunday”—both their history and their music, which have been a blessing to listeners (of any faith or no faith) for many decades. Many of the Black American musicians who developed bebop as a genre were converts to Islam, or were in bands heavily influenced by converts. Read more and listen here
How Black artists helped make country music what it is today. By Santi Elijah Holley / National Geographic
Artists like Beyonce and Lil Nas X are drawing mainstream attention to a tradition that is alive and well—thanks to the contributions and innovations of generations of Black musicians. Charley Pride, the first Black artist to have a number one country record, achieved immense success in the genre during the 1960s and 1970s, despite facing prejudice and racial discrimination.
While many contemporary music listeners’ first experience with Black country music came with Lil’ Nas X’s 2018 “country-trap” novelty hit “Old Town Road,” Black folks have been writing, performing, and recording country music since it first became popular in the 1920s. In fact, country music wouldn’t exist as it does today without the contributions and innovations of Black musicians. Read more
UCLA Hollywood report shows audiences want diverse films. By Andrew Limbong / NPR
Ahead of Hollywood’s biggest night, UCLA published a new study Thursday looking at diversity within the film industry.
It found people of color making gains in the major categories in 2023 — film leads, total actors, directors and writers. However, women suffered losses in the acting and writing categories. Both groups remain underrepresented in all major employment categories, according to the study. Read more
Sports
Everyone in college sports need to stand against anti-DEI bills in Florida, Alabama. By Joseph Acosta / SBNation
What this ultimately boils down to is that both decision-making parties in Alabama and Florida don’t want people of color on their campuses in any capacity outside of the athletic department. Their choice to put blatant racism over the health of their state and children entering institutions of higher learning is both asinine and it places the sports programs directly in the crosshairs of the NCAA. An incredible job by everyone involved, all the lightbulbs are sure firing up there!
It’s going to take Black and brown parents to advise their children to go to universities that see them as people off the field. It’s going to take public-facing former athletes to do what Smith did and advise their own children and other recruits to take their talents somewhere else, places where they’ll be valued. It might take a while, but people of color have the ability to force change. Read more
Opinion: Sheryl Swoopes is right: Black people can’t be racist. By Clyde W. Ford / LA Times
WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes has come under an avalanche of criticism for saying that Black people can’t be racist. Last month Swoopes questioned the ability of University of Iowa women’s basketball player Caitlin Clark, who is white, to break the Division I scoring record. Her remarks, some of which she has walked back and apologized for, caused a fuss on social media, where some users accused her of racism.
Swoopes responded to the accusations in part by commenting that Black people can’t be racist, causing even more backlash. But Swoopes is right. Black people can’t be racist, at least not according to the most useful definition of racism, given by a group of mainly white legislators in 1968. Read more
Billionaire LeBron James Has Invested Over $100,000,000 in American Sector That Makes 16.7% of US GDP. By Ashmit Kumar / Essentially Sports
In the 21 years that he has devoted to the NBA, LeBron James has created a reputation of being one of the most athletic, dominant, and influential figures to play on the basketball court. The player, in turn, has made use of his influence and hard-earned money to go beyond the world of basketball and venture into the world of business.
According to not-so-recent reports, it was revealed that LeBron James has invested over $103 million of his wealth into real estate. He shares this portfolio with his wife, Savannah, and his three children: Bronny (19), Bryce (16) and Zhuri (9). Read more
Anthony Joshua scores early knockout in win over Francis Ngannou. By Glynn A. Hill / Wash Post
Former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua halted Francis Ngannou’s nascent climb to crossover stardom Friday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, defeating the mixed martial arts star via second-round knockout.
Joshua (28-3, 25 knockouts) made quick work of Ngannou, ending the fight with a massive right overhand that knocked the Cameroonian out cold. Ngannou (0-2, 17-3 in MMA) was fighting in his second professional boxing match after claiming the UFC heavyweight crown in 2021. Read more
The day Ben Shelton went from the hunter to the hunted (and survived). By Matthew Futterman / The Athletic
There’s a cruel joke that tennis plays. One year, you are the shiny new thing, blasting away at veterans, soaking up the love and the roars of the crowd. The next, that shiny new thing is using you for target practice.
And so it was for Ben Shelton on Friday afternoon at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Last year, he was the 20-year-old tank-topped terror, generating gasps with that 150mph serve. Friday he looked across the net and saw a kind of ghost, a big, Czech version of himself in Jakub Mensik – same height at 6ft 4in (193cm), double-wide shoulders, a slingshot arm, and, wait for it, at 18, three years younger than Shelton, but seasoned with some European finesse to go along with his power. Read more
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