On September 17, in a speech delivered at the National Archives Museum, President Trump announced he was signing an executive order establishing the 1776 Commission, aimed at promoting what he called a "patriotic" and "pro-America" education.  The announcement was a direct attack on the 1619 Project, a New York Times initiative that explores the legacy of slavery in the United States. For Trump, teaching critical race studies is akin to committing child abuse "in the truest sense of those words."

Every day there is more data to prove the dangers of the coronavirus. Yet, bizarrely, the more proof we have of the damage of the pandemic; the more vicious and hysterical its deniers. It is hard not to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of uninformed, deluded ideas covidiots spew on a daily basis. We mourn not just the lives lost and the bodies damaged, but the collective intelligence of our nation. With international news consistently depicting the United States as the dumbest nation in the developed world, it is as if news of the covidiocy is almost as depressing as news of the virus's spread itself.

Presidents become known for their words. Particular phrases seep into public memory and create the signposts of their legacy. George H. W. Bush was marked, for example, by the phrase "read my lips: no new taxes," perhaps more for the wonky way he said it than for the fact that he didn't deliver. Richard Nixon famously liked to repeat "let me make one thing perfectly clear," a phrase that hangs heavily given the irony of its source.

There is little doubt that reactions to the death of George Floyd signaled a turning point in mainstream support for anti-racist activism. For some who had previously sat on the sidelines of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, the stunning cruelty exposed in the series of videos that captured the final moments of Floyd's life was simply too blatant to ignore. Suddenly, new allies like Mitt Romney were out marching alongside seasoned veterans of the movement.

On Monday, December 9, The Washington Post released a confidential trove of 2,000 pages of government documents that revealed that senior U.S. officials repeatedly failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan. They document in detail a practice of lying, deception and whitewashing that covered up unmistakable evidence that the war had no grand plan, no end in sight and no consistent leadership.

It’s been roughly two weeks since the public learned of a whistleblower coming forward with an “urgent concern” that President Donald Trump was pressuring a foreign power to interfere in a U.S. election. Since then an impeachment inquiry has been put into place, the Trump administration has responded to it and the news cycle has been on a rollercoaster.

Several of the headlines emerging from the fallout of President Donald Trump’s recent racist behavior claim that fascism is coming to America. It’s perplexing to read them, because they seem to suggest that there is something new to the blatant and unapologetic racism and xenophobia of the Trump camp.  But there really is nothing new here.  No surprises whatsoever.  Just Trump and his team and his supporters doing exactly what they have been doing since before he announced his candidacy in June 2015.

Last week news broke of the Donald Trump 2020 campaign using stock photos in online ads to deceptively suggest he has better support among key demographics — women, Hispanics, young voters — than he actually does. The news was troubling on more than one front: It reminded us of the various ways that campaigns will misrepresent and deceive voters to garner support and it underscored the reality that this type of misinformation can circulate relatively unchecked on social media.