Category Archives: To Save Democracy

Black & White & Other Colors, Books & Book Reviews, Carolina & the World, Ecumenical & Interfaith, Election 2024, LGBTQ & Gender, Populism, Signs of the Times, To Save Democracy

A Jaw-Dropping NC Governor’s Race Has Begun!

Leave a comment

Anti-Gay? Anti-Science? Antisemitic? Run for Governor of North Carolina!

Frank Bruni

Reflections on the mess (and magic) of politics and life.

Mr. Bruni is a contributing Opinion writer who was on the staff of The Times for more than 25 years.

Robinson’s book is a hot seller at his preaching gigs.

The 2024 governor’s race in North Carolina just got underway. You care.

Not because this state is the nation’s ninth most populous, though that’s reason enough. But because what happens here is a referendum on how low Republicans will sink and how far they can nonetheless get.

Attorney General Josh Stein of North Carolina announced his candidacy last week. At present he’s the likeliest Democratic nominee

Continue reading A Jaw-Dropping NC Governor’s Race Has Begun! →

Black & White & Other Colors, Civil War, History, Military Matters, Racism, Remarkable People, Selma & Civil Rights, Signs of the Times, To Save Democracy, War & Peace

The “Ambiguous South” Honors Robert E. Lee alongside MLK Today

1 Comment

Washington Post: Two states still observe King-Lee Day, honoring Robert E. Lee with MLK


Alabama and Mississippi jointly celebrate the civil rights hero and the Confederate general

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (left) and Confederate general Robert E. Lee are still celebrated jointly in Alabama and Mississippi. (AFP/Getty Images (King); Matthew B. Brady/AP (Lee))

By Meena Venkataramanan
 — January 16, 2023

“Side by Side”??

As the country celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, two states will observe a different holiday: King-Lee Day, which commemorates both King and Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

The two men’s birthdays fall just four days apart, but their legacies couldn’t be more different. King gave his life to the cause of racial equality; Lee fought in the Civil War to keep Black people enslaved. Continue reading The “Ambiguous South” Honors Robert E. Lee alongside MLK Today →

“New Normal”, 45, Arts: Punditry, Conservative Perspectives, Election 2016, Election 2020, Fire This Time, Newspapers, Resistance, Sedition Watch, Signs of the Times, To Save Democracy

Surveying the Republican Ruins: Eavesdropping on Conservative Pundits

2 Comments

White-Guy Pundits at Twilight: Two formerly leading conservative columnists ponder the prospects for their former political home, and the cloudy “trajectories” of their careers . . .

Quotes of the Week, from:
Conservative Columnists David Brooks & Bret Stephens

“The Party’s Over for Us. Where Do We Go Now?” (Excerpts)

New York Times — 01/12/2023

David Brooks

David Brooks:  Our trajectories with the G.O.P. are fairly similar, and so are our lives. I’m older than you, but our lives have a number of parallels. We both grew up in secular Jewish families, went to the University of Chicago, worked at The Wall Street Journal, served in Brussels for The Journal, and wound up at The Times. . . .

In the 2000 Republican primaries I enthusiastically supported John McCain. I believed in his approach to governance and I admired him enormously. But by 2008, when he got the nomination, the party had shifted and McCain had shifted along with it. I walked into the polling booth that November genuinely not knowing if I would vote for McCain or Barack Obama. Continue reading Surveying the Republican Ruins: Eavesdropping on Conservative Pundits →

45, Corruption, Current Affairs, Election 2020, Jail & Incarceration, Quakers, Remarkable People, Sedition Watch, Supreme & Other Courts, The Law — Inside & Outside it, To Save Democracy, Women & Girls

Fani Willis vs Trump: Will the “Pit Bull” take on the “Big Dog”?

Leave a comment

[NOTE: Quakers aren’t supposed to gamble. But if I was going to break the rule, I’d lay money on the proposition that among all the various agencies and investigators digging into Donald Trump’s efforts to overthrow the 2020 election, the first actual indictments will come from Atlanta and DA Fani Willis.

Why? The answers are in a long, riveting profile in today’s Washington Post, excerpted below.

And as long as I was, in vintage Quaker argot “walking disorderly,” I’d place another bet that Trump himself has read this profile (or had it read to him), and that the experience has already ruined his whole day. Maybe the entire week.  Continue reading Fani Willis vs Trump: Will the “Pit Bull” take on the “Big Dog”? →

Censorship, Current Affairs, Fire This Time, Religious Issues & Conflicts, Resistance, Sacred, Signs of the Times, Social Media, Terror and Terrorism, To Save Democracy, Torture & Human Rights

Breaking: Is Nothing Sacred? Saudis Jail Two Wikipedia Editors

1 Comment

[NOTE: I use Wikipedia almost every day. It’s perhaps the finest flower of the rapidly-disappearing era of the free (as in built for honest public service rather than profit or propaganda) internet. But the Saudi rulers know how to deal with such unwelcome ideas & their advocates: if bribery doesn’t suffice (as in golf),  jail, torture, & murder are next on the shelf. Can anyone rescue these latest victims? And the ultimate target: Wikipedia?]

Saudi Arabia jails two Wikipedia staff in ‘bid to control content’

Administrators jailed for 32 years, and eight years, as activists warn of ploy to infiltrate website

AFP in Dubai — Thu 5 Jan 2023

An investigation by parent body Wikimedia found the Saudi government had penetrated Wikipedia’s senior ranks in the region, with Saudi citizens acting or forced to act as agents, two rights groups said.
Continue reading Breaking: Is Nothing Sacred? Saudis Jail Two Wikipedia Editors →