"In the '50s and '60s, segregationists told us to go back when we protested for our rights." Georgia Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis condemned President Trump's racist tweets: pic.twitter.com/ou16WMzdfT — AJ+ (@ajplus) July 21, 2019
Charles Sykes writes: One of John F. Kennedy’s favorite quotes was something he thought came from Dante: “The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.” As it turns out, the quote is apocryphal. But what Dante did write was far better, and it came vividly to mind last week as Republicans failed to take a stand after President Trump’s racist tweets and chants of “Send her back,” directed at Representative…
Nicholas Kristof writes: The tragedy of today’s Republican Party lies partly in how far it has tumbled from its heights. This is the party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. It is the party that built interstate highways, championed family planning, founded the Environmental Protection Agency, opened relations with China, confronted the Soviet Union and managed the collapse of Communism. It is the party that under Ronald Reagan welcomed refugees. It is the party of men who exemplified decency like George…
Sharon Lerner reports: The students at Westmeade Elementary School worked hard on their dragon. And it paid off. The plastic bag receptacle that the kids painted green and outfitted with triangular white teeth and a “feed me” sign won the students from the Nashville suburb first place in a recycling box decorating contest. The idea, as Westmeade’s proud principal told a local TV news show, was to help the environment. But the real story behind the dragon — as with…
The New York Times reports: For the fourth season of “The Apprentice,” Donald J. Trump searched for a gimmick to bolster ratings. His idea was simple if explosive — pit an all-white team against an all-black team. “Do you like it?” he asked, previewing the concept on Howard Stern’s radio show in April 2005. “Yes,” Mr. Stern said. “Do you like it?” Mr. Trump asked Robin Quivers, the African-American co-host. “Well,” she said, “I think you’re going to have a…
The New York Times reports: Iran’s most revered Revolutionary Guards commander says talking with President Trump would be admitting defeat. The country’s supreme leader has ruled out any dealings with Washington. But now, in a surprising split among Iranian hard-liners, some are expressing a different opinion: It’s time to sit down and resolve 40 years of animosity with the United States, by talking directly to Mr. Trump. And the most striking voice in that contrarian group is former President Mahmoud…
The Associated Press reports: Iran and Britain appeared to signal Saturday that they are not seeking confrontation, a day after Iran seized a British-flagged tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a flashpoint in rising tensions between Tehran and the West. Iran’s state news agency said it had seized the Stena Impero for an investigation after it had collided with an Iranian fishing boat — an explanation that avoided portraying the incident as a tit-for-tat move in the current tense…
Laura Rozen reports: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) in New York July 18 to feel out prospects for possible discussions between Iran and the United States, a non-government expert in contact with the Iranian team told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. The Iranian mission to the UN did not respond to Al-Monitor queries on the meeting. Zarif told reporters in New York Thursday that he was holding meetings while in New York this…
Alex Billington: “Wow wow wow. How much of a difference there is when a woman makes a war documentary. The story of a young mother in Syria, made as a film for her daughter to watch one day. It’s remarkable. Truly horrifying & astoundingly beautiful all at once, an unfiltered story of humanity. I would even call this is a seminal film in the documentary genre. The fresh perspective we get from Waad Al-Khateab making this is phenomenal. There’s…
Brian Gallagher writes: In The Good Place, a cerebral fantasy-comedy TV series, moral philosophy gets teased. On YouTube, the show released a promotional video, “This Is Why Everyone Hates Moral Philosophy,” that gets its title from a line directed at Chidi, a Senegalese professor of moral philosophy who suffers from chronic indecision: The pros and cons of even trivial choices have long paralyzed him. We see him, as a precocious boy, urged to get on with picking teammates for a…
The Guardian reports: From the tops of trees to the depths of the oceans, humanity’s destruction of wildlife is continuing to drive many species towards extinction, with the latest “red list” showing a third of all species assessed are threatened. The razing of habitat and hunting for bushmeat has now driven seven primates into decline, while overfishing has pushed two families of extraordinary rays to the brink. Pollution, dams and over-abstraction of freshwater are responsible for serious declines in river…
Jamelle Bouie writes: The chanting was disturbing and the anger was frightening, but what I noticed most about the president’s rally in Greenville, N.C., on Wednesday night was the pleasure of the crowd. His voters and supporters were having fun. The “Send her back” chant directed at Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota was hateful but also exuberant, an expression of racist contempt and a celebration of shared values. This dynamic wasn’t unique to the event. It’s been a part of…
Eugene Robinson writes: The president apparently believes he has found a perfect foil in “the Squad” — the four newly elected members of Congress he told to “go back” to where they came from. Omar is a refugee from civil war in Somalia who became a U.S. citizen in her teens. The others were all born in this country — Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) in Detroit; Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) in Cincinnati; and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in New York. But Tlaib is…
Michelle Goldberg writes: Sebastian Gorka, a onetime adviser to Donald Trump, wore a medal from the Vitezi Rend, a Hungarian group historically aligned with Nazism, to one of Trump’s inaugural balls. Gorka was reportedly a member of the group, whose founder, the Hungarian autocrat Miklos Horthy, once said, “For all my life, I have been an anti-Semite.” Max Berger is a Jewish social justice activist who has long been deeply involved in Jewish communal life. He’s the co-founder of IfNotNow,…