Stephan: I have had several discussions with people about Critical Race Theory and I realize they don't really know what it is about. So here is a reasonable explanation, and as you can see it is about telling ourselves the truth about ourselves and our history. What they teach in most schools is a part of our history seen through a very biased lens. When you were in school did anyone tell you that of the first five presidents of the U.S., four were slave owners? Did anyone teach you that George Mason, one of the principal authors of the Constitution would not sign it, because even though he was a slave owner he wanted slavery to end, and foresaw that we would have a civil war within a century if the slave trade was not ended? No.Didn't teach you that? Didn't think so. but that is the sort of thing that should be taught.
President Lyndon Johnson signing the 1964 Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964, which aimed to do away with racial discrimination in the law. But discrimination persisted. Credit: Universal History Archive/Getty
U.S. Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana sent a letter to fellow Republicans on June 24, 2021, stating: “As Republicans, we reject the racial essentialism that critical race theory teaches … that our institutions are racist and need to be destroyed from the ground up.”
Kimberlé Crenshaw, a law professor and central figure in the development of critical race theory, said in a recent interview that critical race theory “just says, let’s pay attention to what has happened in this country, and how what has happened in this country is continuing to create differential outcomes. … Critical race theory … is more patriotic than those who are opposed to it because … we believe in the promises of equality. And we know we can’t get there if we can’t confront and talk honestly about inequality.”
Banks’ account is demonstrably false and typical of many people publicly declaring their opposition to critical race theory. Crenshaw’s characterization, while […]
Stephan: More than climate change, or the pandemic, or anything else, what concerns me the most is the fact that depending on how the 2022 election comes out America may, or may not, remain a democracy. We have a former political party that no longer is working to making our political system work as a democracy but instead seeks to turn the country into a fascist kleptocracy masquerading as a pseudo-democracy. What surprises me is that the Democratic Party leadership, and a number of its senators and representatives, do not really seem to grasp the true state of risk we are in.
People listen as former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally on July 3, 2021 in Sarasota, Florida. Co-sponsored by the Republican Party of Florida, the rally marks Trump’s further support of the MAGA agenda and accomplishments of his administration. Photo illustration by Salon/Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty
Every so often, a right-wing pundit drops his guard a little and reveals to the world the incel-ish inclinations and bitterness toward women that undergirds so much conservative “intellectualism.” This week, it was Manhattan Institute fellow Eric Kaufmann, with a prolonged whine in the National Review about the massive social problem that desirable women apparently don’t desire Donald Trump voters. Kaufmann’s ostensible point was to warn about the dangers of “progressive authoritarianism” supposedly “infringing rights to equal treatment or free speech.” As many folks pointed out on Twitter, however, the evidence offered of such civil rights violations was centered around the low rates of “non-Trump-supporting students willing to date a Trump supporter,” the statistic that “87 percent of all female college students wouldn’t date a Trump supporter” and […]
Stephan: I have warned you that it would take months and maybe years to flush out the little orcs with whom the Trump administration consciously and deliberately peopled the federal regulatory agencies, and such is proving to be the case. We can already see this in the Department of Justice, where Merrick Garland is proving to be a disappointment. Now it has become apparent in the Environmental Protection Agency. Although I support what the Democrats are doing, I find them rather flaccid and unfocused. We will see what the next months bring, but a more purposed aggressive effort is called for in my view.
Thousands participate in the National March for Science in Philadelphia, PA, on Earth Day, April 22, 2017. Similar events were held around the nation protesting the Trump administration’s cover-up of scientific data regarding the climate crisis. According to an official complaint to the EPA’s inspector general, officials at the agency have interfered with reports on chemical toxicity, Credit: Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto/Getty
Four scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency are alleging that the “war on science” is continuing under the Biden administration, with managers at the agency altering reports about the risks posed by chemicals and retaliating against employees who report the misconduct.
The government watchdog Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a formal complaint Friday on behalf of the scientists with the EPA’s Office of the Inspector General, calling for an investigation into reports that high-level employees routinely delete crucial information from chemical risk assessments or change the documents’ conclusions to give the impression that the chemicals in question are not toxic.
“These alterations of risk assessments are not just artifacts of the Trump administration; they are continuing on a weekly basis.” —Kyla Bennett, […]
Stephan: I have been talking about the christofascist trend and the transformation of American evangelical Christianity into a White supremacist male-dominant fascist cult, and that cult's melding with the Republican Party. It is, I think, one of the greatest dangers facing the future of America.
President Donald J. Trump joins members of his Cabinet in a prayer led by Secretary of Energy Rick Perry during a Cabinet Meeting Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019, in the Cabinet Room of the White House. Credit: Official White House Photo/Joyce N. Boghosian
In the wake of the Pew Research Center’s findings that 84 percent of the white evangelical Protestant vote went to former President Donald Trump in 2020, it is more important than ever for the American public to face the uncomfortable truth about the authoritarian Christian right’s deleterious impact on society, culture and politics.
Some of us have been pushing for this conversation for years, with various iterations of relevant data and scholarship helping to elucidate key points. During the 2016 primaries, a few political scientists drew attention to a link between authoritarian personality traits and support for Trump. For Religion Dispatches, I wrote at the time, “if ‘a desire for order and a fear of outsiders’ predicts Trump support, the question of why white evangelicals are backing a trash-talking billionaire can […]
Stephan: Something very strange is going on with the Covid pandemic. I mentioned it yesterday, and published a chart illustrating it graphically, and today more hard data has come in that confirms my observation. The Covid pandemic has entered a phase where it is defined by political affiliation, a situation for which I can find no prior example in history. MAGAts don't get vaccinated, and now those contracting the disease, and dying from it, are almost entirely from this unvaccinated demographic. What is even worse it has become clear that those who contract Covid, even if they survive, often have ongoing health problems brought on by Covid which suggests that MAGAts are going to be having health problems for years to come. Who do you think they will blame? Themselves? Trump? The Republican Party?
Depiction of a COVID-19 patient in the hospital. Credit: Shutterstock.com
The Washington Post cited shocking data released by the state of Maryland that revealed every person who died from COVID-19 there last month wasn’t vaccinated.
“But even as the total number of cases is down, the risk remains for those who are unvaccinated,” said the report. “In addition to the more than 100reported coronavirus deaths in June, Marylanders who haven’t gotten inoculated made up 95 percent of the 2,385 new coronavirus cases and 93 percent of the 6,707 new coronavirus hospitalizations the state saw that month.”
The move comes at the same time that states with lower vaccine rates are now experiencing increases in COVID cases.
