Multi-ethnicity doesn't have to be that hard

Sam Smith- I lived a majority of my life in Washington DC, much of it during a time when being white there put you in the minority. In fact, DC had a black majority from the time I returned to it in 1959 after college to when I moved away fifty years later. But I can't think of any time when the color of my skin caused me a major personal or political problem, though DC got little credit for its lack of ethnic conflict. 

For me, it was never a big issue in part in part because I had grown up with four sisters and a brother and we didn't always agree with each other. From an early age I learned that people were highly varied and you had to learn how to live with them anyway. And you did that in part by emphasizing issues and things you agree about.

Looking back, there was one thing about DC's multi-culturalism that made it much easier for those of different ethnicities to get along: you looked different but you shared issues.  

In fact, this was the reason I got more heavily involved with civil rights in the first place. I had taken part in a day log protest against a DC Transit fare increase, including driving 71 folks for free. After the day was over I wrote a piece about it and shortly thereafter got a call for assistance from the protest's organizer - a black guy also in his 20s named Marion Barry. Some years later  Barry would become our controversial mayor and once said, "Sam's a cynical cat." But an issue affecting both blacks and whites had brought us together for a number of years. 

There were other examples of causes that affected both whites and blacks  that I worked on such as plans to build freeways through both black and white neighborhoods and a bi-ethnic drive for home rule and statehood. 

One day I drove to the SNCC headquarters to help drive protesters and quoted one of them: 'We've got to live together, man. You're white and you can't help it. I'm Negro and I can't help it. But we still can get along. That's the way I feel about it." I agreed.

 The freeway issue was helped by this poster:

The black journalist Chuck Stone described me as "one of a small group of whites with whom many blacks would trust their political lives." In short, what I learned as a minority white guy in DC was to find ways  to join with blacks to fight for causes that would help everyone. It's not a bad strategy for various ethnicities to use nationally - aiming at issues such as the mess Trump is making of the economy. Find something that's hurting both white and blacks and you can build a coalition fast. 

Two views of Trump and Jesus

 

  

Companies That Rolled Back DEI Amid Trump Backlash

Arkansas becomes first state to end contract with PBS

AP News - The commission that oversees public television in Arkansas voted Thursday to sever ties with PBS, making it the first state to end its contract with the broadcast giant that provides popular television programs such as “Sesame Street,” “Nova” and “Antiques Roadshow.”

The eight-member Arkansas Educational Television Commission, made up entirely of appointees of the governor, announced in a news release Thursday that it planned to disaffiliate from PBS effective July 1, citing annual membership dues of about $2.5 million it described as “not feasible.” The release also cited the unexpected loss of about that same amount of federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which was targeted for closure earlier this year and defunded by Congress.

PBS Arkansas is rebranding itself as Arkansas TV and will provide more local content, the agency’s Executive Director and CEO Carlton Wing said in a statement. Wing, a former Republican state representative, took the helm of the agency in September.

“Public television in Arkansas is not going away,” Wing said. “In fact, we invite you to join our vision for an increased focus on local programming, continuing to safeguard Arkansans in times of emergency and supporting our K-12 educators and students.”

PBS confirmed in an email Thursday that Arkansas is the first state to definitively sever ties with the broadcaster. Alabama considered similar action last month, but opted to continue paying its contract with PBS after public backlash from viewers and donors.

The culture war

Arts Journal - The entertainment landscape is undergoing tectonic shifts that make previous disruptions look like minor tremors. The headline grabber is Netflix, which proposes to swallow Warner Bros. whole. As The New Yorker notes, this feels existential—a move that could portend the end of mainstream moviegoing as we know it. While Ted Sarandos reportedly made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago (The Hollywood Reporter) to smooth the way, analysts warn that this consolidation creates a runaway market leader (Slate), leaving rivals to wither. It signals a future where residuals dissolve into upfront fees (TheWrap) and the “Paramount” era of studio dominance officially fades to black.

If Netflix is buying the past, Disney is spending on the future. The House of Mouse will invest $1 billion in OpenAI, a deal that will see Mickey and Marvel characters officially licensed for video generation (The Wall Street Journal). It’s a jarring pivot: while Disney aggressively sues Google for copyright infringement (TechCrunch) on one hand, it is essentially legitimizing the AI revolution with the other, redefining copyright in real-time (Wired). Side Note: In what kind of traditional licensing deal does the licensor pay the licensee for IP rights? (that should tell you much about this deal right there). Meanwhile, we are left to ponder if we are outsourcing not just our animation, but our actual thinking (The Atlantic) to algorithms.

On the political front, the culture wars are moving from the budget office to the design studio. The State Department declared a war on “woke” fonts, ordering a retreat from the gentle curves of Calibri back to the serifed walls of Times New Roman (The Guardian). Closer to home, the Kennedy Center is getting a “Trumpian revamp,” (Washington Post) trading aesthetic for portraits of the first family. The chill is financial, too: Arkansas PBS has become the first state network to sever ties with the mother ship (AP), and there is talk of stripping licenses from NPR stations entirely (Ars Technica).

Small presses are facing an existential funding crisis (LitHub), Broadway’s suburban audience has retreated to 30-year lows (The Hollywood Reporter), and the Louvre is literally leaking on its art (The Guardian) while staff vote to strike (AP).

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Politics

MS NOW - Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene may be leaving Congress in January, but that doesn’t mean she can’t create one more headache for her colleagues. According to three sources, the controversial Georgia Republican has been working behind the scenes to see if there’s support to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, reports Mychael Schnell. Under House rules, only nine Republicans would be needed to trigger a vote on the speaker’s job. Read more. 

MS NOW - Eileen Higgins handily won a runoff election on Tuesday, making her the first Democrat in almost three decades to become the mayor of Miami. But this isn’t just local news. The win has implications for national politics, as Miami-Dade County went for Trump in 2024 by a double-digit margin, writes Philip Bump. While some are tempted to credit the win to Trump’s loss of support among Hispanics, the truth is that he’s lost support across the board. The swing to Democrats is an indicator of Republican apathy and Democratic enthusiasm, among other troubles for the GOP. Read more. 

Citizens United: The Corporate Coup by a Corrupt Supreme Court

From The Last American President by Thom Hartmann - The groundwork for the GOP’s plutocratic takeover of American politics was laid on January 21, 2010, when the Supreme Court issued a ruling that fundamentally transformed American politics. In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the court’s 5–4 Republican majority struck down key provisions of campaign finance laws dating all the way back to the late nineteenth century, ruling that corporations and outside groups could spend functionally unlimited sums on elections through the Super PACs the decision invented.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, made the extraordinary claim that “independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.” This statement would soon be revealed as one of the most naïve or cynical pronouncements in Supreme Court history.

This wasn’t merely a legal technicality: it was the culmination of a century-long corporate campaign to claim the Constitutional rights of persons while avoiding the responsibilities of citizenship....

Citizens United represented their ultimate victory, handing them the power to flood our democratic processes with unlimited cash while remaining legally obligated solely to maximize shareholder returns. American democracy was being transformed into what Franklin Roosevelt once called “economic royalism,” aka rule by the economic elite rather than we the people.

Unlike the First Gilded Age, when robber barons like J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller primarily purchased individual politicians, this Second Gilded Age enabled the wholesale capture of our political system itself. The American experiment in self-governance—unique in its founding premise that all political power originates from the people themselves—­was being fundamentally rewired to ensure that political power originated from those holding or controlling great wealth. And Trump, himself a product of inherited wealth with an instinctive deference to monied interests despite his populist rhetoric, was the perfect vehicle for this transformation.

The practical effects were immediate and profound. Political spending by outside groups exploded, jumping from $750 million in the 2008 presidential election to over $4.5 billion in 2016.4 But more significant than the amount was the source: just 150 billionaire families put up more than 60 percent of all Super PAC money raised in the years following Citizens United....

Into this system stepped the new American oligarchs, whose names would become synonymous with the corruption of American democracy...

These men and their billionaire colleagues didn’t, in my opinion, want democracy; they wanted control. Control over a government that might otherwise regulate their industries, tax their enormous wealth, or hold them accountable for environmental and social damage their businesses caused.

Citizens United gave them the tools to seize that control. And in Donald Trump, they found the perfect front man for their operation.

How the marriage gap is growing

Washington Post -  Last month, Pew Research Center compared data from 1993 and 2023, finding 12th-grade boys are more likely than 12th-grade girls to say they want to get married someday, a flip from three decades ago. Boys’ plans for marriage have barely budged since 1993, dropping to 74 percent from 76 percent. Girls, however, swung away from marriage by double digits. In the early 1990s, 83 percent of girls wanted to get married. In 2023, 61 percent said the same....

 Pew’s findings should be considered alongside an NBC News survey published in September that found lifestyle preferences falling along partisan lines. “Gen Z men who voted for Trump rate having children as the most important thing in their personal definition of success,” NBC News reported. “Gen Z women who voted for Harris ranked having children as the second-least important thing in their personal definition of success.”

Unsurprisingly, young women are also more likely to identify as liberal, and the margin is widening. As the New York Times reported, “Today, around 40 percent identify as liberal, compared with just 19 percent who say they’re conservative. The views of young men — who are more likely to be conservative than liberal — have changed little.”

Polls

 

 

My Dual Citizenship Is None of Bernie Moreno’s Business

Alaric DeArment, New Republic  -  On November 26, after I’d spent hundreds of dollars obtaining certified documents and a considerable amount of time agonizing over the status of my application, FedEx delivered the piece of paper I had spent three years waiting for: confirmation of my acquisition of German citizenship by descent. But less than a week later, I learned that some Midwestern car salesman turned senator wants to take that away from me and millions of other Americans.

On December 1, Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio announced new legislation, the Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025, which would ban dual citizenship, a move that followed months of agitation against dual citizenship by far-right podcasters. Under the bill, Americans who acquire the nationality of other countries would “be deemed to have relinquished United States citizenship,” while those who already had it would have a year to renounce it or else lose U.S. citizenship. “Existing law allows certain United States Citizens to maintain foreign citizenship, which may create conflicts of interest and divided loyalties,” the bill states, and “it is in the national interest of the United States to ensure that United States citizenship is held exclusively.”

Here in a place called “reality,” my dual citizenship in no way threatens America’s national interests and is actually none of Moreno’s business. Ditto for the multiple citizenships of children born to American parents on foreign soil, descendants of immigrants from various countries, and Black Americans connecting with their heritage through citizenship-by-descent programs from certain African nations. That I can belt out a rendition of “Das Lied der Deutschen” that’s just as sappy as “The Star-Spangled Banner” does not aid or comfort America’s enemies. The fact that I am one among many everyday Americans with multiple citizenships has as much to do with Moreno as what we eat for breakfast or the colors of our curtains.

Stats

Economist Intelligence Unit

USPS Unveils New Stamps For 2026

TSA Giving the Names of All Air Travelers to ICE

Mediaite - The Transportation Security Administration is providing Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the names of all travelers passing through American airports. TSA has submitted lists of names to the immigration agency multiple times a week since the program began in March, The New York Times reported on Friday. ICE then checks travelers’ information against its own internal list of those subject to deportations.

2025 Was A ‘Great’ Year For Just 1 In 10 Americans

Study Finds - Americans are limping into 2026 with low expectations after a year most would rather forget. Only 10% of people called 2025 a “great” year, according to a survey, with the vast majority describing it as “just okay” (39%), “bad” (19%), or even “awful” (10%).

Determined to turn things around, 38% of Americans are setting personal goals for the new year. The Talker Research survey of 2,000 Americans shows people are creating an average of six resolutions each, with financial security and physical fitness leading the charge...

The widespread dissatisfaction with 2025 appears to be fueling a renewed commitment to self-improvement. Rather than accepting another lackluster year, Americans are doubling down on personal goals, hoping that intentional changes can shift their circumstances in meaningful ways.

Putting more money into savings (45%) and getting more exercise (45%) tied as the most common resolutions, followed by improving overall physical health (41%). Other popular goals include eating healthier (40%), improving holistic financial wellness (34%), spending more time outdoors (29%), and boosting mental health (29%).

Word

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson: Trump is now able to “fire all the scientists and the doctors and the economists and the PhDs and replace them with loyalists and people who don’t know anything."

Meanwhile. . .

Roll Call - Donald Trump posted 22 items on Truth Social yesterday. 

NY Times  -  TheTrump administration is providing the names of all travelers passing through U.S. airports to immigration officials in search of people with deportation orders, in an expansion of its crackdown.

Health

The Hill - Measles outbreaks are spreading across the U.S., and the nation is likely to lose its status as a country where the disease is eliminated, something that infectious disease specialists say is directly related to President Trump’s appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

South Carolina this week quarantined at least 254 people after confirming more than two dozen measles cases in the state. It’s the latest in what has been the worst year for measles in the U.S. in recent history. 

An outbreak in West Texas this year saw more than 700 confirmed cases since January and the deaths of two children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been 47 reported outbreaks in the country this year. 

Axios - American families, small business owners, farmers and shift workers all rely on the health care tax credit to afford health coverage. More than 22 million Americans now face a cost crisis if Congress does not extend the tax credit. Time is almost up. 

The Jewish Diaspora Movement

Photo by Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images

In These Times -  “I want the spiritual technologies of Judaism to be able to ground and nourish a movement that is facing despair after despair after despair,” [Rabbi Louisa] Solomon says. ?“And I don’t want these institutions that are fucking racist and transphobic and Zionist to … gate keep all of the access to those resources and that history.”

This is how Jewish Liberation Learning began: a slow, responsive and emergent educational program that launched in 2023. They hired Jewish educators, several of whom had been recently fired in relation to their activism for a cease-fire. The program was ready, but by then, interest had swelled.

Luckily, as Solomon explains, they are not the only game in town for anti-Zionist Jewish life. As a mass fracture hits American Jewry, new projects have sprouted, attempting to offer not just new options for observance but an entirely new model of Jewishness. 

While activist organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) have created a space for a new kind of Jewish identity to flourish, a new network of religious projects is growing to offer a pathway back to Judaism itself. With little funding and support from the larger infrastructure of American Jewish life, this upstart confederation is remaking American Judaism with the same ingenuity that marked the historical Jewish Left’s attempt to celebrate a diverse and ethical vision for Jewish life.

Wood Banks Aren’t Inspiring. They’re a Sign of Collapse.

New Republic -  Rural America knows the truth long before the rest of the country feels it. Nothing collapses all at once. It just stops working in small places first while everyone else calls it local hardship. That’s why wood banks—like a food bank but for fuel—are important. They’re the clearest sign that basic systems in this country have already failed.

A wood bank is exactly what it sounds like. People in rural and Indigenous areas still heavily rely on wood heat as the primary fuel source for their homes. Volunteers cut and split firewood, stack it somewhere public, and give it away for free to those who can’t afford it. No paperwork. No means tests. No government forms. Just a pile of hardwood that shows up because someone else’s house would be cold without it.

Most articles about wood banks wrap them in the same tired language. Community spirit. Rural generosity. Neighbors helping neighbors. It’s the kind of coverage you get when journalists focus on the people stacking the wood instead of the conditions that made it necessary. They never mention the underlying reality. Wood banks exist because without them, people would freeze. It’s the same everywhere: Local news crews film volunteers splitting logs while pretending it’s heartwarming, reporting on senior citizens splitting 150 cords a year for neighbors in need as if the story is about kindness instead of the failure that created the need in the first place....
 

You don’t start a wood bank in a country with functioning institutions. You start one when heating assistance programs can’t keep up, when the grid flickers every time the wind shifts, when propane and heating oil costs swing so hard that families can’t budget more than a week out. You start a wood bank when seniors stop turning on their heat because they’re scared of the bill. You also start one when the country pretends energy insecurity doesn’t exist because acknowledging it would mean admitting that entire regions were left behind on purpose. Federal data shows that families are using less fuel than they did five years ago but spending more for it. Heating oil and propane have seen some of the steepest price swings, especially in rural states, and those increases hit households that already live on tight margins.

That’s collapse. Not the cinematic kind. Not the dramatic scenes everyone imagines when they talk about a country falling apart. Collapse is boring. It’s ordinary. It looks like people standing next to a log splitter on a Saturday morning because the safety net dissolved and no one replaced it. Collapse isn’t a single moment. It’s what happens when the systems people rely on keep existing on paper but stop functioning in practice. Heating programs remain funded but reach only a fraction of eligible households. The grid stays interconnected, but the outages keep stacking up and repairs keep getting delayed. Fuel is available, but the costs vary so widely that families can’t budget for it or afford it. These are small failures that accumulate until ordinary people are left to solve problems that institutions were supposed to solve.

Study: Sleep does more than diet or exercise for longevity

Science Alert  - What you gain in a day by staying up late might be curtailing how long you live, according to a new study linking insufficient sleep to a lower life expectancy.

While poor sleep has been previously linked to a host of health issues and shorter lifespans, this latest investigation found that getting enough shut-eye had a stronger connection to living longer than diet and exercise – factors that are known to add years to your life.

Researchers from Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) crunched the numbers on survey data from across the US, covering the years 2019 to 2025.

Measures of life expectancy were compared against self-reported evaluations of sleep duration, with less than seven hours per night considered a threshold for insufficient sleep.

States taking lead on AI health issues

Axios - While President Trump demands a single national framework on AI policy, states are going their own way with hundreds of proposals aimed at setting guardrails for how the technology is used in health care.

That could set up a clash over who determines how AI models and systems can be deployed in insurer reviews, mental health treatment and chatbots that interact with patients.

More than 250 AI bills affecting health care were introduced in 47 states as of mid-October, according to a tracker from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.

• 33 of those bills in 21 states became law.
• A half dozen states have enacted laws focused on use of AI-enabled chatbots, including Illinois' new law banning apps or services from providing mental health and therapeutic decision-making.

What they're saying: "There is a lot of bipartisan alignment on the topic. Red states are mirroring provisions of laws introduced in blue states and vice versa," said Randi Seigel, a partner at Manatt...

Many of these efforts could bump up against Trump's push to establish a federal framework for AI and preempt state laws.

• Trump signed an executive order Thursday that requires the attorney general to establish a task force to challenge burdensome state AI regulations.
• It also draws Congress into the fight by calling for a legislative recommendation for a federal AI framework.  Share this

Polls

Newsweek - Recent polling shows the proportion of Latinos who support Trump is declining. According to Pew Research Center analysis based on September and October polling, 70 percent of Latinos disapprove of Trump's job performance. A further 65 percent disapprove of his approach to immigration and 61 percent say his economic policies have made the economy worse.

The analysis also found that 81 percent of Latino Trump voters still approve of his job performance—though this is a decline from the 93 percent they recorded at the start of his second term.

Other polls are similarly negative. A November poll by Axios/Ipsos of over 1,100 Latino and Hispanic Americans, conducted with Noticias Telemundo, found that 65 percent believe it is a "bad time" to be Latino or Hispanic in the United States. This is 25 percentage points more than in March 2024, when 40 percent reported this view.

 

Pew Research  - Roughly one-in-five U.S. teens say they use TikTok and YouTube almost constantly. And 64% of teens report using AI chatbots, including 28% who use them daily.  

 

Pew Researcg  - Roughly one-in-five U.S. teens say they use TikTok and YouTube almost constantly. And 64% of teens report using AI chatbots, including 28% who use them daily.  

 

 FactPost -  64% of Americans are buying cheaper or less food. 34% have skipped a meal altogether. 48% said they use savings for their basic expenses. Nearly half of Americans say groceries, housing, utilities, and health care are just getting harder to afford. 

Historic preservation trust sues Trump over White House ballroom

Roll Call -  The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging President Donald Trump’s plans to construct a ballroom on the site of the demolished East Wing.

The trust, a congressionally chartered nonprofit, argued in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that Trump and administration officials have violated, and are continuing to violate, the Administrative Procedure Act and National Environmental Policy Act by demolishing the East Wing and moving forward with construction of the ballroom. 

The complaint said the administration violated the laws when it didn’t consult with the National Capital Planning Commission or the Commission of Fine Arts and failed to conduct environmental assessments before proceeding with the demolition.

The trust asked the court to prevent any further work until an adequate environmental assessment is prepared and “enjoin defendant President Trump, and anyone acting at his direction or in concert with him, from performing further work on the Ballroom Project.”

Seven Richest Billionaires Are All Media Barons

Mintpress News -  Trump loyalist and CIA contractor Larry Ellison’s purchase of CNN appears imminent, and marks the latest venture into media for the world’s second-richest individual. But Ellison is not alone. Indeed, the world’s seven richest individuals are all now powerful media barons, controlling what the world sees, reads, and hears, marking a new chapter in oligarchical control over society and striking another blow at a free, independent press and diversity of opinion.

Money

Robert Reich -The world's richest 0.001% now control 3x as much wealth as the entire bottom half of humanity combined. 56,000 wealthy individuals have more than roughly 4 billion people.

Via Annie

 

Photos from the Epstein file

Illinois becomes 12th state to let terminally ill residents choose to end their lives

Independent UK -  Illinois residents with terminal illnesses will soon be able to choose to end their lives on their own terms.

Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Medical Aid in Dying act into law Friday. It is also known as “Deb's Law” in recognition of Deb Robertson, a lifelong resident of the state living with a rare terminal illness who has pushed for the measure's approval.

She has testified to the suffering of people and their families wanting the chance to decide for themselves how and when their lives should end.

Pritzker said he was moved by stories of patients suffering from terminal illness and their devotion to "freedom and choice at the end of life in the midst of personal heartbreak.”

“This legislation will be thoughtfully implemented so that physicians can consult patients on making deeply personal decisions with authority, autonomy, and empathy,” Pritzker said after singing the measure in Chicago.

King Charles gives an update on his cancer

People -   King Charles is sharing a rare — and hopeful — update about his ongoing cancer treatment in a new televised message.

On Dec. 12, the King, 77, appeared in Channel 4’s Stand Up To Cancer broadcast with a pre-recorded message filmed at Clarence House several weeks ago, speaking candidly about his own “overwhelming” diagnosis, the importance of early detection and the reality that millions of people in the U.K. are missing out on potentially life-saving screenings.

But he also revealed a significant development in his own health journey.

"Today I am able to share with you the good news that thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to ‘doctors’ orders,’ my own schedule of cancer treatment can be reduced in the New Year," the King said.

"This milestone is both a personal blessing and a testimony to the remarkable advances that have been made in cancer care in recent years; testimony that I hope may give encouragement to the fifty percent of us who will be diagnosed with the illness at some point in our lives," he continued. 

Word

Justice Sonia Sotomayor. “You’re asking us to destroy the structure of government and to take away from Congress its ability to protect its idea that the government is better structured with some agencies that are independent,” she told U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer during the hearing in Trump v. Slaughter.

Donald Trump

The Guardian -  London police chief Sir Mark Rowley on Trump's claims: How anybody in America can suggest the UK is violent is completely ridiculous. The homicide rate in London is lower than every single US state. It’s lower than all their big cities. The murder rate in New York last time I looked is three or four times higher than London per capita.

The homicide rate in London is lower than it is in Toronto, it’s lower than Paris, it’s lower than Brussels, it’s lower than Berlin.