Featured – Diversity on stark display as House’s incoming freshmen gather in Washington.

The most diverse House freshman class in history convened Tuesday for the first time since last week’s elections. But of the two political parties’ freshman gatherings, only one looked something like the country as a whole. The incoming lawmakers — memorialized in a flier that circulated on Capitol Hill — are overwhelmingly white on the Republican side, with only one woman, while women and people of color are a majority of the newcomers on the Democratic side.  Elise Viebeck / Wash Post Read more

Trumpism Is Racism, So Things Will Get Worse.  November 6th was a bad night for President Trump, no matter what he says. He now has to deal with a newly empowered opposition party with a mandate to check his myriad abuses and scandals. The rebuke wasn’t as harsh as it needed to be, though. Jamil Smith / Rolling Stone Read more

Hate Was Not a Winning Ticket. Contrary to Trumpian fantasy, noncitizens didn’t get a direct say in the midterms. But their voices still mattered on Election Day.  If Trump’s election in 2016 was a victory for the demagoguery of racist nationalism, the midterms marked a quiet but meaningful repudiation of that vision. Michelle Chen / Dissent Read more   

Want proof that voting matters? Trump and his forces don’t want you to do it. Voting is never enough, but it’s crucial. That’s why Trump and his followers want to render it meaningless. Chauncey Devega / Salon Read More

Do the Math. Moderate Democrats Will Not Win in 2020. Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams, progressive African-American Democratic candidates, may not have won their races for governor in Florida and Georgia (both are still too close to call). But the strategy they followed is still the best strategy for Democrats to win: inspiring, mobilizing and turning out voters of color and progressive whites. Steve Phillips / NYT Read more
How a Difficult, Racist, Stubborn President Was Removed From Power – If Not From Office. Andrew Johnson routinely called blacks inferior. He bluntly stated that no matter how much progress they made, they must remain so. He openly called critics disloyal, even treasonous. He liberally threw insults like candy during public speeches. He rudely ignored answers he didn’t like. He regularly put other people into positions they didn’t want to be in, then blamed them when things went sour. David Priess / Politico Read more

Filmmaker James Stern on the era of “American Chaos”: “Worst situation since the Civil War.”I recently spoke with James Stern about his documentary “American Chaos,” a project which seeks to provide a lens into the hearts and minds of Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters and a divided and extremely polarized America. What do Trump’s fans fear? Chauncey Devega / Salon Read more    See official trailer here

Democrats can’t continue to neglect Latinos and expect their votes. It is time that the Democratic party move beyond expectations that outrage at Trump will mobilize Latino voters and take responsibility for its failure to expand the electorate. Ricardo Ramirez / The Guardian Read more

Trump refuses to acknowledge the fraught history of nationalism. Macron called nationalism a dangerous trap and the opposite of patriotism while invoking the bloodiest episodes of 20th-century European history. Trump’s use of the term was cheered by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who tweeted that Trump was really referring to white nationalism. “There is no ethnic or racial group in America more Nationalist than White Americans,” Duke wrote. Anne Gearan / Wash Post Read more

How Trump’s presidency has divided Jewish America. Trump is hailed by some in America’s Jewish community for his support of Israel, moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and his tearing up of the Iran deal brokered by Barack Obama. But he is repudiated by more people within that same community for his rhetorical violence and the succour he is seen to give to the far right and white nationalists. Ed Vulliamy / The Guardian Read more

The FBI recorded a surge of hate crimes last year. But it undercounted — by a lot. On Tuesday, the FBI released its annual report on the number of hate crimes committed in the United States. The tally for 2017, 7,175 hate crimes, is the highest figure recorded in a decade, according to one analysis, and represents a 17 percent increase from 2016. The data show hate is intensifying nationwide. But it’s even more prevalent than FBI numbers suggest. Arjun Singh Sethi / Wash Post Read more

Federal civil rights group urges Trump administration to increase scrutiny of local police. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights urged the Trump administration Thursday to resume federal oversight of troubled police departments and reinstate the Justice Department’s community policing office — steps that would reverse an effort by Jeff Sessions, the recently departed attorney general, to limit federal oversight of local police departments.  Wesley Lowery / Wash Post Read more

‘Hero’ security guard killed by police was working extra shifts for his son’s Christmas. During one of his shifts last weekend, a gunman started shooting up Manny’s Blue Room, a bar in suburban Chicago. Witnesses said Roberson bravely stopped the shooter and pinned him to the ground. But shortly later, a Midlothian police officer shot and killed the security guard, leaving the mother of their child in shambles. Holly Yan / CNN Read more

When Trump attacks one black woman, we all feel it.  Shown is President Trump on Nov. 9  who dismissed a “stupid” question about the Russia probe from CNN’s Abby Phillip. His attacks are often delivered personally as he talks over his target, steps toward her and wags a finger in contempt. He uses multiple platforms, following in-person insults with tweets. His attacks are often accompanied by an invitation for others to explicitly or silently join in at his frenzied rallies. Sherrilyn Ifill / Wash Post Read more   

Aretha Franklin Touches The Infinite In The Long-Delayed Film ‘Amazing Grace.’ As a document of an iconic musician’s skills, the film is essential. But Amazing Grace is far more than that: Watching it is a transcendent, spine-tingling, uplifting, utterly joyous experience. As cherished as the album version has been since its release, the film is nothing short of a revelation, soaring from one chill-inducing moment to another. It will be have limited runs in Los Angeles and New York before the end of the year in order to qualify for the 2019 Academy Awards; it’s then expected to go into wider circulation early next year. Anastasia Tsioulcas / NPR Read more

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