President Donald Trump on Thursday took aim at the teaching of history in American schools, giving a speech from the National Archives about a new initiative he calls the “1776 Commission.” The commission would, “promote patriotic education,” and work toward developing a, “pro-American curriculum that celebrates the truth about our nation’s great history.” He railed against what he called “leftwing indoctrination” and singled out the famed author and historian Howard Zinn who wrote, “A People’s History of the United States.”  Trump also slammed the New York Times’ 1619 Project which aims to tell the history of American slavery.  In fact the story of abolitionists, civil rights activists, and anti-fascist movements are precisely what Zinn centered in the history that Trump wants to erase. 

Trump also said during his speech, “Our youth will be taught to love America with all of their heart and all of their souls,” and that current educational efforts were akin to “child abuse.” Numerous critics denounced his speech and pointed out how openly fascistic the President’s words sounded. Continuing his attacks on anti-racist efforts the Trump administration this week announced a civil rights investigation into Princeton University’s recent public expression of contrition over its past systemic racism. Trump took similar action last month against Yale University. 

In news from the pandemic, it has now emerged that Trump officials rewrote the CDC’s testing guidelines over the objections of the agency’s own scientists. The recently published guidelines advised people without symptoms to not get tested for Covid-19. Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services where Trump commands strong loyalty, made the drastic change without going through the usual scientific review process. After weeks of declining cases infection rates in the U.S. are now climbing back up, and are about 13% higher this week than the week before. Internal documents from the US Postal Service revealed an ambitious plan earlier this year that would have mailed out hundreds of millions of reusable face masks to Americans all over the nation to help stop the spread of the virus but that the White House stepped in to stop the plan claiming it would “cause panic.” Studies have shown widespread mask wearing could prevent a huge percentage of infections. Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden once more slammed Trump’s failures to curb the spread of the virus calling it “criminal,” and asking Americans to trust scientists, not the President.

A new poll by the New York Times and Sie...