IN THE NEWS

Teach thy tongue to say ‘I do not know’, and thou shalt progress.

-Maimonides

Mouths Full of Blood: Trump and His Backers Spread Lies, Violence and Fascism

By Henry A. Giroux, © TRUTHOUT
September 23, 2023

Former President Donald Trump has achieved a unique status in United States history. He is the first president to be indicted for conspiring to overturn a presidential election, defraud the U.S. and obstruct official proceedings by attempting to subvert the peaceful transfer of power.

It’s now a matter of public record that Trump faces four indictments and 91 felony counts for his criminal behavior. As Alan Feuer and Maggie Haberman point out in The New York Times, the charges clearly depict how “Trump promoted false claims of fraud, sought to bend the Justice Department toward supporting those claims and oversaw a scheme to create false slates of electors pledged to him in states that were actually won by Joseph R. Biden Jr.” And Special Counsel Jack Smith has shown that Trump’s lies played a central role in his “unprecedented assault” on the U.S. Capitol and democracy; indeed, he argues, Trump’s criminal actions were “fueled by lies.”

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The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

PragerU’s Propaganda Is Now Being Taught in Schools

BY ROBERT MCCOY, © The Progressive
September 18, 2023

In 2022, the conservative media organization PragerU launched PragerU Kids, an online video series intended for K-12 students as a purported antidote to leftwing indoctrination in schools. “Woke agendas are infiltrating classrooms, culture, and social media,” PragerU’s website says. “Is there anywhere that’s still safe for our children? Yes! It’s called PragerU Kids.”

This summer, Florida’s Department of Education approved the organization’s videos for use, “at district discretion,” as supplemental material in K-6 classrooms—perhaps an unsurprising decision from a state that is currently waging a war on “woke indoctrination” (read: instruction about race and sexual orientation) in public schools. Although Florida was the first to do so, at the time, PragerU told Fox News that “[m]ore states are coming on board.” Indeed, it has since been reported that New Hampshire followed suit, with its board of education approving PragerU as an educational vendor for a financial literacy course on September 14. Oklahoma has now also announced a partnership with PragerU Kids to develop an Oklahoma-specific history curriculum.

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Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Europa retiene la Solheim Cup con una majestuosa Carlota Ciganda

JUAN MORENILLA, © El País
September 24, 2023

Tenía que ser ella, Carlota Ciganda. Como si el destino estuviera escrito, fue la golfista navarra quien dio a Europa el punto decisivo para empatar a 14 ante Estados Unidos y retener la Solheim Cup en la primera ocasión en que el mayor acontecimiento mundial del golf femenino se celebraba en España, en el campo malagueño de Finca Cortesín. Ciganda tocó el cielo a los 33 años porque convirtió el putt definitivo que aseguraba una igualdad que según el reglamento permite al equipo defensor del título, Europa en este caso, mantener la corona. Son tres victorias seguidas para la tropa europea en la Solheim por primera vez en la historia, después de los bingos de Gleneagles 2019 y Ohio 2021. Son cinco éxitos continentales en las siete últimas ediciones. Y son ya cuatro cimas en la Solheim para Carlota Ciganda en seis participaciones desde que debutara en Colorado 2013. La española se consagra como la mejor heredera del espíritu pasional de Seve Ballesteros y Chema Olazabal por este tipo de competiciones, y como el mejor relevo de luchadoras incansables como Marta Figueras-Dotti. Esta Solheim era un torneo muy especial para ambas, y la navarra se entregó de principio a fin, en cuerpo y alma.

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Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

-George Bernard Shaw

Deion Sanders’ ‘audacious Blackness’ makes him the hero African Americans want right now

John Blake, © CNN
September 22, 2023

After his team’s first victory earlier this month, University of Colorado football coach Deion Sanders said something remarkable. He talked bluntly about racism and football in a way that few Black coaches at an elite level are willing to do.

“We’re doing things that have never been done, and that makes people uncomfortable,” Sanders said. “When you see a confident Black man sitting up here talking his talk, walking his walk, coaching 75% African Americans in the locker room, that’s kind of threatening. Oh, they don’t like that.”

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