Category Archives: Anti-semitism

NC Governor’s Race: It’s a Black & White Choice

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Democratic attorney general and the Republican lieutenant governor won North Carolina’s primaries for governor on Tuesday, setting the stage for what will be an expensive and highstakes November contest in a state that the two parties see as a pivotal battleground in 2024.

Josh Stein and Mark Robinson, each of whom turned back multiple party rivals, will present a stark contrast for voters in the ninthlargest state’s fall elections.

Stein is a longtime member of North Carolina’s political scene, a lawyer with the endorsement of termlimited Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and a long history of consumer advocacy before and during his time as AG. He’d be the state’s first Jewish governor if elected.

Robinson, meanwhile, is a former factory worker who splashed into conservative circles after a 2018 viral speech to his hometown city council — catapulting him to lieutenant governor in 2020 and the endorsement of former President Donald Trump. He’s North Carolina’s first Black lieutenant governor and would become the state’s first Black governor as well.

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Trump to Mark Robinson: You’re MLK Times Two — MLK on Steroids

AP News: Trump endorses Mark Robinson for North Carolina governor and compares him to Martin Luther King Jr.

BY GARY D. ROBERTSON
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – March 03, 2024

— Former president Donald Trump endorsed North Carolina Lt. Gov Mark Robinson for governor on Saturday, several months after the former president pledged to do so.

At a rally at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex, the former president also compared Robinson, who is Black, to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the famed civil rights leader. He referred to Robinson as “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

Trump said Robinson wasn’t sure how to respond when Trump compared him to the legendary civil rights leader, telling him: “I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.”

“You should like it,” Trump said.

Continue reading Trump to Mark Robinson: You’re MLK Times Two — MLK on Steroids

A Blockbuster Billboard Bonanza & Its New Roadside Theology

I’m a longtime fan of message billboards and other roadside rhetoric.

Nowadays I don’t get out to see them as much. But this week, the net brought a batch  of striking new ones to me, from exotic Nebraska, mystic New Mexico,,  And I couldn’t wait to share them.

After all, they cover some of my favorite topics: Freedom. Choice. Multiculturalism. Fighting hate. Theology, especially the liberal kind. Chutzpah.  Calls to action.

And — what better to start with, to bring many of them together? 

Bacon.

 

 

 

 

Two Views: Canada, India & An “Inconvenient” Assassination?

Nicholas Kristof
Nicholas Ktistof

Father’s Day this year, two heavyset men were loitering near a Sikh temple in British Columbia. Then the president of the temple, a Canadian citizen and an activist named Hardeep Singh Nijjar, stepped out and climbed into his pickup truck to drive home for dinner with his family.

The two waiting men, wearing masks, fired through Nijjar’s window about a dozen times. Temple members bravely ran after the gunmen, who escaped in a getaway car driven by a third man.

Continue reading Two Views: Canada, India & An “Inconvenient” Assassination?

“Fear Speech” vs “Hate Speech”: An Important Distinction

From, The New York Times:

[NOTE: I learned something valuable from this piece: “fear speech” is distinct from (but closely related to) “hate speech,” and its emergence in research further complicates such tangled issues as how to preserve free speech in the toxic media culture we seem stuck in. I didn’t find simple or easy solutions here. But being enabled to think more clearly about what we’re facing — to me that’s progress. Check it out.]

Few Are Addressing One of Social Media’s Greatest Perils

By Julia Angwin — May 6, 2023

Ms. Angwin is a contributing Opinion writer and an investigative journalist.

[F]ear is weaponized even more than hate by leaders who seek to spark violence. Hate is often part of the equation, of course, but fear is almost always the key ingredient when people feel they must lash out to defend themselves.

Continue reading “Fear Speech” vs “Hate Speech”: An Important Distinction