A series of new legal challenges are once again threatening the practice of affirmative action in college admissions.  Last year a federal appeals court upheld Harvard University’s use of racial criteria when evaluating new students.  The plaintiffs have appealed that case, which may end up in the Supreme Court.  On August 13, the U.S. Department of Justice accused Yale University of discriminating against white and Asian-Americans in its admission policies.  Anurima Bhargava is a civil rights lawyer with extensive experience in various roles advocating for members of underrepresented communities. Before founding Anthem of Us, where she currently serves as President, Bhargava was the Chief of the Educational Opportunities Section of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she led the Division’s efforts to provide equal educational opportunities for all students. She currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the U.S. Commission of International Religious Freedom.  Anurima Bhargava joined the Monday Buzz on August 17, 2020.

Trump: Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme — reflected by Nancy Altman of Social Security Works. Trump’s latest comments, that he will stop workers’ contributions to Social Security if re-elected is a death threat to that trust fund. She expands that these contributions are money held in trust to provide for workers, their families, and disabled for the past 85 years, and at an administrative cost of less than 1%.

Export Credit agencies are little known government financial agencies which provide funding to encourage country exports. But they provide a disproportionate support to fossil fuel companies — by a 14:1 ratio in the U.S. — than they provide to clean energy industries, according to Friends of the Earth Policy Analyst Kate DeAngelis. In addition, the COVID crisis has provided a streamlined money flow with fewer checks to the distribution of monies.

“There is a deep seated fear of looking at domestic violence by ‘Heroes'”, military and police, according to Stacy Bannerman, author of Homefront 911: How Families of Veterans are Wounded by Our Wars”. Her research of Department of Veterans Affairs data shows that 40% of law enforcement have at least one domestic violence episode reported in a 12-month period, and 50-80% of veterans diagnosed with PTSD have at least one severe domestic violence incident. She Bannerman discusses the issues in the families and shortfalls of treatment.

Photo Illustration by Lance Cpl. Michelle S. Mattei

Democratic nominees for President of the United States have traditionally been told that they don’t have to work too hard to secure the black vote.  Presumptive nominee Joe Biden illustrated this attitude recently when he commented that African-American voters do not have diverse political views.  Instead of actively catering to African-Americans, the conventional wisdom goes, better to focus on those swing voters — working class whites and suburban soccer moms — who supposedly vacillate between Democrats and Republicans each election cycle.  But that image — if it were ever true — is showing signs of breaking down.  Two research fellows at American University have dug deeper into the supposed monolithic opinion of African-American voters.  Sam Fulwood III is  a fellow at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies.  Welcome, Sam.  David C. Barker is the Director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies.

On April 7, 2020, Wisconsin held one of its most chaotic elections ever.  The coronavirus pandemic was  peaking, state and local lockdown orders were in place.  As a result, a whopping 60% of all voters in the state turned to absentee ballots as a safer alternative instead of going to the polls in person.  With many people voting absentee for the first time, it’s not surprising that some made mistakes.  Local officials rejected more than 23,000 ballots because they were improperly filled out, or not witnessed appropriately.  If not counting 23,000 votes in a state of 4.4 million people of voting age doesn’t sound like a lot, consider this:  in 2016, Donald Trump won Wisconsin by an almost identical margin.  So, as we gear up for the November election in 2020, and with absentee ballots destined to make up an even larger percentage of the votes cast, the big question is, are we ready?  Dee Hall is the managing editor for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, which has been covering this story in their Narrow Margin series.

Was dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki really necessary to prevent Japanese invasion as claimed by politicians? Martin Sherwin, Professor of History at George Mason University and author of a number of books including “World Destroyed: Hiroshima and Its Legacies”, says “No”, and the Japanese were already discussing terms of surrender prior to the U.S. dropping the bombs.

On the eve of the 75th anniversary of the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Jan talks with Kevin Kamps from Beyond Nuclear about some of the effects of the nuclear industry on racial inequality — from deaths from mining uranium in Africa to bombing the Japanese to storage of radioactive waste in lands populated by Navajo tribes.

They also discuss the upcoming 75th anniversary live virtual commemoration of the victims of the bombing — click here for the programs of these events on August 6th and August 9th.

Damita Brown talks with..

Tisha Butler from Urban Triage and Nadya Mariam from Wheels for Winners about getting kids out on bikes in the pandemic and the Slow Ride;

Tim Cordon, Social Justice Coordinator from First Unitarian Society and Building Unity talking about their social justice programs and the Building Unity Bus Tour;

Brandi Grayson from Urban Triage on their efforts toward racial justice!

Photo by Ken Fager on Flickr

On July 30, President Trump took to his favorite communication tool, Twitter.  He posted:

As with many of Trump’s comments, it’s difficult to tell whether or not he actually believes he has the power to delay the election, or if he’s simply kicking the beehive.  Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the LaFollette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin Madison spoke with Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on August 3, 2020.