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NYT #1619

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The New York Times Magazine – “In August of 1619, a ship appeared on this horizon, near Point Comfort, a coastal port in the British colony of Virginia. It carried more than 20 enslaved Africans, who were sold to the colonists. No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the years of slavery that followed. n the 400th anniversary of this fateful moment, it is finally time to tell our story truthfully.

The 1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are…”

Instagram Now Fact-Checks, but Who Will Do the Checking?

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Wired – Facebook says it will extend its fact-checking program to Instagram. But the system is already overwhelmed and may not be able to handle more information. “Facebook announced on Thursday that it would expand a fact-checking program to its Instagram image-sharing service. Instagram users in the US can now report content they believe is… Continue Reading

Public’s Priorities for U.S. Asylum Policy: More Judges for Cases, Safe Conditions for Migrants

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“Most continue to favor legal status for undocumented immigrants The American public is broadly critical of the way that the federal government is dealing with the increased number of people seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. When it comes to what should be done about the situation, large majorities say it is important to increase… Continue Reading

Voter Purge Rates Remain High, Analysis Finds

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Brennan Center for Justice: “Using data released by the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) in June, a new Brennan Center analysis has found that between 2016 and 2018, counties with a history of voter discrimination have continued purging people from the rolls at much higher rates than other counties. This phenomenon began after the Supreme… Continue Reading

Trump administration deals blow to Endangered Species Act and disregards climate crisis

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Washington Post: “The Trump administration moved on Monday to weaken how it applies the 45-year-old Endangered Species Act, ordering changes that critics said will speed the loss of animals and plants at a time of record global extinctions . The action, which expands the administration’s rewrite of U.S. environmental laws, is the latest that targets… Continue Reading

Opinion – The Second Amendment doesn’t give you the right to own a gun

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MarketWatch – Brett Arends: “Can we please stop pretending that the Second Amendment contains an unfettered right for everyone to buy a gun? It doesn’t, and it never has. The claims made by the small number of extremists, before and after the Orlando, Fla., massacre, are based on a deliberate lie. The Second Amendment of… Continue Reading

Proposed White House Executive Order would have FCC and FTC police alleged social media censorship

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CNN Business: “A draft executive order from the White House could put the Federal Communications Commission in charge of shaping how Facebook, Twitter and other large tech companies curate what appears on their websites, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The draft order, a summary of which was obtained by CNN, calls for… Continue Reading

The terrible numbers that grow with each mass shooting

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Washington Post – “The places change, the numbers change, but the choice of weapon remains the same. In the United States, people who want to kill a lot of other people most often do it with guns. Public mass shootings account for a tiny fraction of the country’s gun deaths, but they are uniquely terrifying… Continue Reading

Twitter users are escaping online hate by switching profiles to Germany, where Nazism is illegal

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CNBC: “Seeking to shield themselves from online hatred, some Twitter users say they’ve switched their account locations to Germany where local laws prevent pro-Nazi content. While German laws make it harder for explicitly hateful content to remain online, local researchers say it is not a hate-free internet utopia. Germany has imposed stricter laws on social… Continue Reading

How the NRA Rewrote the Second Amendment

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Polico Magazine – Michael Waldman is president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. He is the author of The Second Amendment: A Biography. -“A fraud on the American public.” That’s how former Chief Justice Warren Burger described the idea that the Second Amendment gives an unfettered individual right to a… Continue Reading

Museums Need to Step Into the Future

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The New York Times – “America’s museums are more than repositories of ancient Greek statues and Renaissance paintings. They are guardians of a fading social and demographic order. On Thursday, Warren Kanders resigned from the board of the Whitney Museum of Art, after protests over his company’s sale of tear gas grenades that were reportedly… Continue Reading

Journey to power: The history of black voters, 1976 to 2020

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NBC News has assembled for the first time a record of the black vote for each competitive Democratic presidential campaign since exit polling began. ” Not that long ago, they were just a slender fraction of the party, one kept at arm’s length by presidential candidates. But today, black voters have emerged as a muscular… Continue Reading