Featured
Donald Trump Is Unfit to Lead. By The Editorial Board / NYT (Image USA Today)
For the third time in eight years, Donald Trump will be nominated as the Republican Party’s candidate for president of the United States. A once great political party now serves the interests of one man, a man as demonstrably unsuited for the office of president as any to run in the long history of the Republic, a man whose values, temperament, ideas and language are directly opposed to so much of what has made this country great.
Mr. Trump has shown a character unworthy of the responsibilities of the presidency. He has demonstrated an utter lack of respect for the Constitution, the rule of law and the American people. Instead of a cogent vision for the country’s future, Mr. Trump is animated by a thirst for political power: to use the levers of government to advance his interests, satisfy his impulses and exact retribution against those who he thinks have wronged him.
He is, quite simply, unfit to lead. Read more
Related: The Dangers of Donald Trump, From Those Who Know Him. By The Editorial Board / NYT
Political / Social
The Harris-Trump election shouldn’t be close. Here’s why it is. By Eugene Robinson / Wash Post
Gender, education and tribal politics help explain a tight race for the presidency.
The choice between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump should not be a tough call. Harris is a former prosecutor; Trump, a felon. Harris gives campaign speeches about her civic values; Trump rants endlessly about his personal grievances, interrupting himself with asides about sharks and Hannibal Lecter. Harris has outlined a detailed set of policy proposals for the economy; Trump nonsensically offers tariffs as a panacea, describing this fantasy in terms that make it clear he doesn’t understand how tariffs work. Read more
Related: Historian has correctly predicted 9 of past 10 elections. Here’s how. By Ramon Padilla / USA Today
Humble Roots Helped Make Him Mayor. A Love of Luxury May Bring Him Down. Nicholas Fandos , Eliza Shapiro and Emma G. Fitzsimmons / NYT
Mayor Eric Adams was elected partly on the strength of his origin story, a narrative that shrouded questions of his character, judgment and associates.
In December 2021, just weeks after he was elected as the second Black mayor in New York City’s history, Eric Adams took a surprise trip to Ghana. He called it a “spiritual journey,” and the weeklong tour built on a story that had resonated deeply with voters. Mr. Adams visited slave trade sites and meditated on the remarkable arc that allowed a man whose ancestors left in shackles to return as the next leader of America’s largest city. But federal prosecutors asserted this week that the trip was also at the center of a far more troubling story: a long-running bribery scheme in which Turkey plied Mr. Adams with more than $100,000 in luxury travel perks and illegal campaign contributions in exchange for political favors. Read more
How Stephen Miller and the anti-DEI movement are going after small businesses. By A. J. Hess / Fast Company
At Fast Company’s Innovation Festival, panelists discussed the legal strategy being used by anti-DEI conservatives, including Stephen Miller.
On July 3, 2023, the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action, prohibiting U.S. colleges and universities from considering an applicant’s race during the admissions process. Stephen Miller, former Trump White House adviser and president of America First Legal, wasted no time threatening to sue colleges and universities if they did not comply. And conservatives, including Miller, have gone on to file numerous lawsuits against so-called “woke” companies with DEI-related initiatives. Read more
Related: A growing share of GOP voters see diversity as threatening to American culture, CNN poll finds. By
Related: Donald Trump’s rebranding of American diversity is gaining traction. By Chauncey Devega / Salon
Democratic Senate candidate in Texas tries to flip the script on the border. By Patrick Svitek / Wash Post
Rep. Colin Allred, who is seeking to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) this fall, is touting his “tough” stance on an issue that has bedeviled other Democrats nationally.
Rep. Colin Allred (D-Tex.), who is trying to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) in November, drew harsh criticism from some fellow Democrats this year for voting for a Republican-led resolution condemning President Joe Biden’s handling of the U.S.-Mexico border. Read more
Woman’s disappearance spotlights the lack of national media attention on missing women of color. By Stephanie McBee and Alex Berenfeld / ABC News
“20/20” explores police investigation into the disappearance of Tamika Huston.
When Tamika Huston vanished, a trail of evidence led South Carolina investigators on a yearlong search to find her. Their discoveries would reveal a shocking murder and unexpected killer, but Huston’s story would spotlight concerns faced by families of missing women of color and the lack of national media attention given to their cases. Read more
New prescription drug price hikes hit Black patients hard. By
Black and Latino people use 10% to 40% fewer prescription drugs because of high costs, according to a report by Patients for Affordable Drugs.
Prices for prescription pharmaceutical drugs have skyrocketed, disproportionately making them harder for people of color to afford, a new report finds. The advocacy organization Patients for Affordable Drugs released a report this month showing that pharmaceutical companies increased prices on at least 1,000 prescription drugs so far this year, with about half of the price increases being above the rate of inflation. One in 3 Americans cannot afford their prescription drugs, the report states, and these high drug prices particularly affect Black and Latino patients aged 65 and over — who can be twice as likely to report difficulty in affording their medication, according to the report. Read more
World News
Harris Will Do More Than Trump for Palestinians. By Ted Glick / The Progressive
A second Trump Administration would be disastrous for Palestinian rights and self-determination.
Does it make any difference to the Palestinian people whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump wins the November 5 election? I think it does, big time. I understand why many Palestinians, Arab Americans, and political progressives in the United States are anguished and angry at the Biden Administration’s refusal to stop sending weapons of war to Israel, prolonging the agonizing suffering in Gaza. It’s a sentiment I express every week at a local Free Palestine demonstration. But I don’t agree with those who say that, therefore, the right thing to do is to not support Harris in her race against Trump, and perhaps vote instead for a third-party contender such as Jill Stein or Cornel West. That’s because a Trump win would be absolutely devastating for Palestinians. Read more
What is Hezbollah and who is Hassan Nasrallah? by Nicole Narea / Vox
The death of the militant group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah could make a wider regional war unavoidable
Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Islamist militant organization and Lebanese political party, has been in conflict with Israel since its founding decades ago. Now the death of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday, threatens to take that conflict to a new and even more destructive level. Read more
Putin draws a nuclear red line for the West. By Mark Trevelyan and Andrew Osborn / USA Today
President Vladimir Putin has drawn a “red line” for the United States and its allies by signaling that Moscow will consider responding with nuclear weapons if they allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with long-range Western missiles. But some in the West are asking: does he actually mean it?
The question is critical to the course of the war. If Putin is bluffing, as Ukraine and some of its supporters believe, then the West may feel ready to deepen its military support for Kyiv regardless of Moscow’s threats. If he is serious, there is a risk – repeatedly stated by Moscow and acknowledged by Washington – that the conflict could turn into World War Three. Read more
Ethics / Morality / Religion
This election, a struggle for the soul of American Christianity is key. By E.J. Dionne Jr. / Wash Post
That’s why battleground North Carolina will be ‘ground zero for a faith war.’
“There are White evangelicals who will utilize the gospel and twist it in a way that works to their advantage and gives them a way to support Trump,” Bishop Haywood Parker told me last week. “But there are lots of us who don’t feel that way. When I’m told that if I support Kamala Harris that somehow, I’m anti-church, anti-Biblical, that really bothers me.” Read more
Kamala Harris Is a Woman of Faith. She Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Show It. Jessica Grose / NYT
After Joe Biden called Vice President Kamala Harris to tell her that he was dropping out of the race for president, “one of the first calls Harris made was to her longtime pastor,” The Rev. Amos C. Brown of San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church, Mississippi Today reported in July.
The vice president was raised in an interfaith household, and she grew up going to both a Black Baptist church and a Hindu temple. She is married to an observant Jewish man. Though her faith is not something she discusses frequently, she has a lifelong, seemingly profound connection to religion. She spoke movingly to the National Baptist Convention in 2022 about attending 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland, Calif. In that speech, she directly connected her administration’s policy positions — on health care, the child tax credit and civil rights — to her faith. Read more
Related: Rating Harris’ economic speech in terms of Catholic social teaching. By Michael Sean Winters / NCR
Related: Can Evangelicals Get Behind Harris? Eliza Griswold / The New Yorker
Voting rights advocate Barbara Williams-Skinner thrives on prayer and policy changes. By Adelle M. Banks / RNS
I also send Scriptures to about 60 members of Congress and other leaders after I pray by myself in the morning,’ Williams-Skinner said.
When the Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner celebrated her 80th birthday late last year with a party at the headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women near the National Mall in Washington, she asked for no presents. Instead, each attendee — clergy of different faiths, Washington insiders and young people she has mentored — left with a small gift bag containing a Faiths United to Save Democracy pin emblazoned with the words “No One Group, Faith, or Race, Can Do This Alone.” Read more
Historical / Cultural
African Americans and the First Black Republic. By Sherri V. Cummings / AAIHS
Le Negre Marron (The Black Maroon), Port-au-Prince, Haiti (Flickr
For the past two months the island nation has been mired in violence and a government upheaval the likes of a twisted Orwellian society embroiled in a tug of war between the Haitian people and the international community. Gangs in the island nation have released 4,000 inmates and have taken control of eighty percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince. It is difficult to talk about Haiti, the first free Black republic in the Western hemisphere. In the current American imaginary, the island nation looms large as a conflicted space, always entangled in violence and corruption, in need of aid and governance, without explicitly stating an imperialist agenda that harkens back to the early nineteenth century. For African Americans, Haiti also represents a space of conflict, one based on historical admiration and present-day reality. Read more
Know Your Enemy: Political Fictions. By Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell / Dissent Podcast
Matt and Sam talk to Vinson Cunningham about his debut novel Great Expectations, political theater, and Barack Obama.
Today, we’re joined by one of our favorite writers and thinkers, Vinson Cunningham, to discuss his excellent debut novel, Great Expectations, which tells the story of a brilliant-but-unmoored young black man, David Hammond, who finds himself recruited—by fluke, folly, or fate—onto a historic presidential campaign for a certain charismatic Illinois senator. A staff writer at the New Yorker, Vinson also worked for Obama’s 2008 campaign in his early twenties (he bears at least some resemblance to his protagonist). And his novel provides a wonderful jumping-off point for a deep discussion of political theater; the novel of ideas, race, faith; the meaning of Barack Obama; and the meaning of Kamala Harris. Listen here
How ‘Heirs’ property’ efforts could boost Black wealth. By Andrea Riquier / USA Today
As wealth inequality remains stark, fueled in part by racial differences in homeownership rates, attention is increasingly turning to a lesser-known area of property ownership – heirs’ property. Heirs’ property refers to land that’s been passed down by inheritance, with no formal will or other legal documentation proving ownership.
Without any clear way to prove ownership, those who inherit heirs’ property may lose it to predatory investors or the government. Or it may become divided into such small parcels as it passes through the generations that it becomes essentially worthless. Heirs’ property is an issue that disproportionately afflicts Black households, particularly in southern states. Because of the lack of documentation, it’s impossible to quantify how much land is considered heirs’ properties, but a 2023 analysis from Fannie Mae suggests at least $32 billion. Read more
Luther Vandross, Pop Perfectionist, Didn’t Want You to Hear These Albums.
Early records reveal that his sumptuous voice and longing lyrics were there from the start. Out of print since 1977, “This Close to You” will be available Friday.
“This Close to You,” a long out-of-print album originally released in 1977, which will hit streaming services on Friday. Vandross’s short-lived group also cut the self-titled “Luther” (1976), which was rereleased in April. Both albums, made for Cotillion Records, are receiving new attention ahead of the 20th anniversary of his death. Read more
William Lucy, stalwart voice for labor and civil rights, dies at 90. By Harrison Smith / Wash Post
He marched with striking sanitation workers in Memphis and helped devise a potent slogan: “I Am a Man.” Later he served as the No. 2 official at the public employee union AFSCME.
Although he often worked behind the scenes, Mr. Lucy was among the most influential Black leaders in organized labor. For nearly four decades, he served as the No. 2 official at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a public sector union known as the AFSCME, promoting a vision of organized labor in which the fight for workers’ rights — a living wage, health-care benefits, on-the-job safety — was part and parcel of a broader fight for social justice. Read more
Sports
Bronny James “Not Ready” Says Magic Johnson, Makes Damming Demand to LeBron That Could Derail NBA Dream. ByAnuj Talwalkar / EssentiallySports
In Lakers’ history, several rookies have burst out of the scene. But the case of Bronny James is a lot different. The UCS product dealt with health issues and hadn’t played ample college basketball before the NBA.
In his showings at the Summer League, his talent and instincts were evident. The 19-year-old has a brilliant understanding of the game. However, his numbers didn’t match the mental edge he had at such a young age. Probably why Magic Johnson feels “he needs playing time”. “If I’m Bronny I would tell my dad just let me play in the G-League all season so that I can develop. He needs playing time. He doesn’t need to be sitting on the Laker bench and not playing. That’s not a knock against him. He’s just not ready, he needs to develop more,”Magic Johnson told Jimmy Kimmel. Read more
WNBA’s Alyssa Thomas, Stephanie White call out rising racism, homophobia. By Cindy Boren / Wash Post
After a spirited and physical playoff series against Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever ended, Connecticut Sun star Alyssa Thomas and Coach Stephanie White called for an end to racist and homophobic comments about and directed toward WNBA players, mostly on social media.
The subject arose after Sun guard DiJonai Carrington, who was named the league’s most improved player, posted in an Instagram story a screenshot of an email that contained a racial slur and the threat of sexual assault. Read more
Timberwolves reportedly trading Karl-Anthony Towns to New York Knicks. By AP and The Guardian
The Minnesota Timberwolves are sending Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks in exchange for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a first-round draft pick in a franchise-altering deal, a person with knowledge of the deal said Friday night.
Towns, a four-time All-Star entering his 10th season, never hinted at any discontent with the team that drafted him first overall in 2015 despite several lean years preceding the run to the Western Conference finals last spring. Read more
Former NBA MVP Derrick Rose retires after 16-year career that was often derailed by injuries.
After eight years with the Chicago Bulls, Rose also played for the New York Knicks, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Detroit Pistons and the Memphis Grizzlies.
Once the lynchpin of the Chicago Bulls franchise after he became the number one pick in the draft, Rose began his NBA career with a Rookie of the Year award in 2009 before he was named the MVP in 2011. But his career was marred by injuries, with an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear in the 2011-12 playoffs and a torn meniscus that needed surgery two seasons later severely reducing his minutes on the court. Read more
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