Featured
America is Running Out of White People. By William Spivey / Level
Demographers project that whites will become a minority in the U.S. around 2045, dropping below 50% of the population. Between 2010 and 2018, the number of white children fell by 2.8 million, or 7.1%. In contrast, nonwhite children grew by 6.1%.
Once you understand there are those trying to maintain whiteness in a nation growing increasingly darker, many of their policies make more sense. We have an immigration policy that favors those from Denmark and not from “shithole countries.” Systemic voter suppression is designed to make it harder for minorities (and youth) to vote. Black history is either erased or homogenized, in part to quell undying rumblings about reparations.
In a perfect world, America would gradually become browner and nobody would notice or care. We are likely to see more desperation from those unable to accept the inevitable. America will ultimately have fewer white people and we need to challenge and address the systemic inequities keeping us apart. Read more
Related: Trump admin. expels South Africa envoy Ebrahim Rasool, calls him a “race-baiting politician who hates America.” By Sarah Carter / CBS News Here’s what he said: He accused Mr. Trump of pursuing policies and practices that the diplomat characterized as “a white supremacist response to growing demographic diversity in the United States.”
Political / Social
Poll: American voters deeply divided on DEI programs, political correctness amid Trump administration. By
Voters narrowly say there’s too much pressure to limit what people do or say to avoid offense, and they’re split on continuing or eliminating DEI programs, per an NBC News poll.
The issue of diversity, equity and inclusion programs is among the most tightly divided and polarizing questions in the United States at this time, with wide gaps emerging along partisan and racial lines, according to the latest national NBC News poll. President Donald Trump has made dismantling DEI programs an early focus of his administration, and voters are split over the future of the programs in the workplace, with deep differences depending on their political party. Read more
Related: How Corporate America Is Retreating From D.E.I. Emma Goldberg, Aaron Krolik and
Trump administration wants us to believe only white men make military great. By Ben Jealous / Chicago Sun Times
The administration is trying to rewrite history by deleting references to the Tuskegee Airmen, women and others with milestone achievements in the military. U.S. World War II veteran and Tuskegee Airman Enoch “Woody” Woodhouse salutes as he arrives for a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day at Omaha Beach in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, June 6, 2024
Beyond the federal government no longer recognizing celebrations such as Black History Month and Women’s History Month, the Pentagon is removing every program, mention, image or individual they say is associated with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Read more
Related: Pentagon Removes Webpages Celebrating Racial Integration of the Armed Forces. By Josh Kovensky / TPM
Rep. Jamie Raskin: Trump’s Attacks on Critics & Press Are Part of the “Authoritarian Playbook.” By Amy Goodman / Democracy Now
President Donald Trump spoke at the Department of Justice Friday in an unprecedented speech in which he threatened to take revenge on his political enemies, from the press to the FBI itself. “It was a typical rambling and hate-filled diatribe,” says Maryland Congressmember Jamie Raskin.
“Nobody has ever taken a sledgehammer to the traditional boundary between independent criminal law enforcement, on the one side, and presidential political will and power, on the other.” Raskin, who spoke at a press conference in response to Trump’s address outside of the Department of Justice, is a former constitutional law professor and served as the Democrats’ lead prosecutor for Trump’s second impeachment over the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Read more
Related: There Is No Method to Trump’s Madness. He’s Simply Insane. By Ross Rosenfeld / The New Republic
Defiance and Threats in Deportation Case Renew Fear of Constitutional Crisis. Adam Liptak / NYT
Legal scholars say that the nation has reached a tipping point and that the right question is not whether there is a crisis, but rather how much damage it will cause.
Over the weekend, the Trump administration ignored a federal judge’s order not to deport a group of Venezuelan men, violating an instruction that could not have been plainer or more direct. Justice Department lawyers later justified the administration’s actions with contentions that many legal experts said bordered on frivolous. The line between arguments in support of a claimed right to disobey court orders and outright defiance has become gossamer thin, they said, again raising the question of whether the latest clash between President Trump and the judiciary amounts to a constitutional crisis. Read more
Judge rules DOGE’s USAID dismantling likely violates the Constitution. By Lindsay Whitehurst and Michael Kunzelman / AP
The order requires the Trump administration to restore email and computer access to all employees of USAID, including those put on administrative leave, though it stops short of reversing firings or fully resurrecting the agency.
The lawsuit filed by USAID employees and contractors argued that Musk and DOGE are wielding power the Constitution reserves only for those who win elections or are confirmed by the Senate. Their attorneys said the ruling “effectively halts or reverses” many of the steps taken to dismantle the agency. Read more
The case for boycotting the United States. By Robert Reich / The Guardian
To friends of democracy around the world: we need your help. Reich is former Secretary of Labor.
You know that the Trump regime is brutally attacking US democracy. Most of us did not vote for Donald Trump (half of us didn’t even vote in the 2024 election). But he feels he has a mandate to take a wrecking ball to the constitution. Like most bullies, the regime can be constrained only if everyone stands up to the bullying – including you. First, if you are considering a trip to the United States, please reconsider. Why reward Trump’s America with your tourist dollars? Read more
Duke University under investigation for ‘race-exclusionary practices.’ By Christine Zhu / NC Newsline
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened investigations into Duke University and 44 other schools for “race-exclusionary practices” in their graduate programs, according to a Friday announcement.
This follows allegations that the universities have violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by partnering with “The Ph.D. Project,” an organization aiming to assist doctoral students with insights into obtaining a Ph.D., but restricting eligibility based on race. In April 2024, Duke University ended its Reginaldo Howard Memorial Scholarship Program, a full-ride scholarship for “top applicants of African descent.” The university put a leadership program open to all undergraduates regardless of race in its place. Read more
World News
I Don’t Believe a Single Word Trump and Putin Say About Ukraine. By Thomas L. Friedman / NYT
Ever since President Trump returned to office and began trying to make good on his boast about ending the Ukraine war in days, thanks to his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, I’ve had this gnawing concern that something was lost in translation in the bromance between Vlad and Don.
When the interpreter tells Trump that Putin says he’s ready to do anything for “peace” in Ukraine, I’m pretty sure what Putin really said was he’s ready to do anything for a “piece” of Ukraine. Read more
Related: Putin Won’t End the War. He Can’t Afford To. By Mikhail Zygar / NYT
More than 400 killed as Israel strikes Gaza, breaking ceasefire with Hamas, officials say. By Wash Post
Israel’s military launched a large-scale bombing campaign across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, breaking the ceasefire with Hamas that has been in place since late January.
At least 404 people have been killed and 562 injured, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, making it one of the deadliest days of the 17-month war. The strikes were carried out amid mounting domestic pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with mass protests planned over his governance. Read more
Related: Israelis Take to Streets Day After Strikes on Gaza. Isabel Kershner / NYT
Ethics / Morality / Religion
Reevaluating Christianity’s bargain with democracy, with Jonathan Rauch. By Geoff Kabaservice / Niskanen Center
Jonathan Rauch would seem to be an unlikely defender of American Christianity. The eminent author, Brookings senior fellow, and Atlantic magazine contributing editor is a gay Jewish atheist — “I won the marginalized trifecta,” he observes — who grew up deeply suspicious of Christianity and its potential for (and past history of) oppression.
As he describes in his recent book Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy, his attitude began to change at college, when his freshman year roommate was a Christian believer who exemplified the best aspects of the religion. Read more
Related: An Atheist Urges Christians to Help Save Democracy. By Bonnie Kristian / Christianity Today
The Battle of Theologies in the Age of Trump. By Liz Theoharris / The Nation
Trump and his people target those that the Bible is most concerned about: children, the poor, immigrants, the sick and disabled, women, the vulnerable, and the earth itself.
As an early act of his second administration, Donald Trump has created an anti-Christian-bias task force to be chaired by Attorney General Pam Bondi. At the same time, he’s slashing federal jobs and programs, threatening Medicaid, Head Start, the Department of Education, affordable housing programs, accommodations for the disabled, environmental protections, public health and safety, Social Security, and Medicare, while scapegoating immigrants and trans kids. Read more
October 8’ documentary probes the rise in U.S. antisemitism. By Michael O’Sullivan / Wash Post
The film looks at how campus protests over the Israel-Gaza war bubbled over into something more insidious.
The timely documentary “October 8”looks at the antisemitism that arose last year on college campuses amid student protests over the Israel-Gaza war. It arrives in theaters just as the Trump administration has announced plans to cancel roughly $400 million in federal contracts and grants to New York’s Columbia University, a hub of anti-Israel anger. Co-directed by four filmmakers — two Palestinians and two Israeli Jews — that film makes for an instructive and much more nuanced counterpoint to “October 8.” Without demonizing either side, it shows how Israel’s pattern of mistakes, if not arrogance, may have helped set a pot on the stove that is now boiling over with venom. Read more
Related: Trump’s Mob-Boss Offer to Us Jews: Accept “Protection”—or Else. By Dave Zirin / The Nation
Historical / Cultural
The Oligarchs Who Came to Regret Supporting Hitler. By Timothy W. Ryback / The Atlantic
They helped him in pursuit of profit. Many ended up in concentration camps.
He was among the richest men in the world. He made his first fortune in heavy industry. He made his second as a media mogul. And in January 1933, in exchange for a political favor, Alfred Hugenberg provided the electoral capital that made possible Adolf Hitler’s appointment as chancellor. Before Hugenberg sealed his pact with Hitler, a close associate had warned Hugenberg that this was a deal he would come to regret: “One night you will find yourself running through the ministry gardens in your underwear trying to escape arrest.” Read more
The Founders Were Afraid for the Country, Too. By Jamelle Bouie / NYT
While writing my column this week, I was reminded of Benjamin Franklin’s quip about the outcome of the 1787 constitutional convention in Philadelphia. As the story goes, Franklin was leaving the hall after signing the Constitution when he was approached by Elizabeth Powel, a close friend of George Washington’s. She asked whether the delegates had decided on a monarchy or a republic.
“A republic,” Franklin replied, “if you can keep it.” Read more
Very dangerous’: Japanese Americans warn of Trump’s use of Alien Enemies Act. By David Nakamura / Wash Post
People of Japanese descent are forcibly removed from Bainbridge Island in Washington state on March 30, 1942.
In recent days, the story and the lessons of Japanese families have gained new salience, after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II to arrest and deport Venezuelans, who were accused of being Tren de Aragua gang members, without a court hearing. Trump claims the gang is working in tandem with the Venezuelan government to “invade” the United States, though border crossings are at their lowest level in decades, and experts say the group has not firmly established itself in the country. Read more
‘Disgraceful’: Medgar Evers, Once Hailed As ‘a Great American Hero’ By Donald Trump Vanishes from Arlington National Cemetery Website As Trump’s DEI Purge Rewrites History. By Christian Boone / Atlanta Black Star
World War II veteran and civil rights leader Medgar Evers, once praised by Trump as “a great American hero,” has been removed from the Arlington National Cemetery website. The site had previously honored Black Americans who served in the military.
What makes the situation even more maddening to many is that the decision comes at the behest of a president who never served in the military and sought a deferment from the draft for bad feet (thus earning the nickname “Col. Bone Spurs” from the late U.S. senator John McCain, another military hero Donald Trump disparaged). Read more
Walter Mosley’s favorites? That’s easy. By John Williams / Wash Post
The mystery writer reveals the treasured books in his personal library.
Mosley’s demeanor is open — friendly and loose — but listening to him, you quickly get a sense of the intensity he brings to his reading and writing. He half-joked about hearing someone mention that they’d read “War and Peace” and responding: “How many times?” And he talked about the importance of writing every morning, whether that means 5 a.m. or 10 a.m. Read more
Sports
Remembering Greg Gumbel: Viewers relied on him from Selection Sunday to ‘One Shining Moment.’ By Lindsay Schnell / The Athletic
For more than a quarter of a century, Gumbel provided calm in the most chaotic stretch of the sports calendar, gently and seamlessly guiding NCAA Tournament viewers from one thrilling upset to another marquee matchup. He kicked off March Madness each year with the Sunday selection show and ended it by tossing to “One Shining Moment.”
Gumbel’s career accomplishments included being the first Black play-by-play announcer to call a major sporting event when he did so at Super Bowl XXXV in 2001. He won three Emmys, anchored three Olympic Games across two networks and led broadcast coverage of everything from the NFL to the NBA. Not that he ever wanted to brag about it. Read more
Article on Jackie Robinson’s military career restored to defense department website. By The Guardian Sport
An article detailing Jackie Robinson’s military career has been restored to the Department of Defense’s website amid a purge of material considered to be related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
Robinson, who Donald Trump last month described as helping “drive our country forward to greatness”, is widely considered a national hero in the US. He broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947 when he suited up for the Brooklyn Dodgers; he went on to be elected to his sport’s Hall of Fame. Robinson also served in the US Army during the second world war. However, on Tuesday night ESPN’S Jeff Passan noted a page detailing Robinson’s army career had been taken down and “dei” added to the URL. Read more
You know Travis Hunter the 2-way phenom. But a 2-sport star? Take a ride on his fishing boat. By Jayna Bardahl / The Athletic
It’s January, and a cold front is passing through Arizona. On Roosevelt Lake, about 100 miles east of Phoenix, winds whistle as white-capped waves crash on the dock. One boat emerges carefully, yet quickly, seeking cover in a cove. There’s precious cargo to protect. Twenty-four carat gold. And a fisherman better known as the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.
This is the side of Hunter most people don’t see. On a fishing boat, football takes a back seat. The Athletic spoke with six people who have fished with Hunter in recent years, and each of them said he doesn’t talk much — or at all — about the gridiron. In the tight-knit fishing community, some didn’t even know who he was when they first met. Read more
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