Dear Progressive Reader,
On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy addressed a joint session of Congress with a “Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs.” He told the assembled legislators that “before this decade is out” we must land a man on the moon. Kennedy’s dream was achieved after his death, on July 20, 1969, but from the very beginning there were questions about the amount of money and energy being spent on space exploration when issues literally “here on the ground” were so pressing. In 1963, political folksinger Phil Ochs recorded his song “Spaceman” for Broadside magazine. “Way high, so high / Travelin' fast and free / Spaceman, look down / Tell me what you see. / Can you see the hunger there / Strikes without a sound? / Can you see the food you burn / As you circle round?” he sang. This week, as the nation and the world look back on Neil Armstrong’s “one small step,” British journalist James Jeffrey brings us this memory of the times of Apollo 11. His article is accompanied by a short video produced by our digital media intern Isabel Marshall.
Headlines continue to be dominated by Trump’s racist tweets and continued follow-up comments about four women in Congress (Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota). As Sarah Jaffee notes, “[U.S. Representative Ilhan] Omar’s past work organizing in her hometown, from supporting Black Lives Matter to pushing for a ban on ‘conversion therapy’ for LGBT youth, as well as her current policy initiatives, have received far less attention than a few obsessed-over tweets.” Jud Lounsbury reminds us that this is not the first time a national leader has used racism to divide a population. “A white person,” he writes, “telling a person of color to ‘go back’ to where they came from (usually Africa) is, unfortunately, as common as it is racist.” But, he continues, although “Trump has dived deep into the septic tank before . . . this is truly a new low.” And, as cartoonist Mark Fiore illustrates, “Now that it’s official, we can all agree that President Donald J. Trump is racist.”
As Robert Mueller is scheduled to appear before two committees of Congress on Wednesday July 24, Netflix is also releasing a new documentary on digital hacking and the manipulation of voters in 2016 by the firm Cambridge Analytica. Ed Rampell provides this review of what might be termed a 21st-Century-Reality-Horror-Film, The Great Hack. And, speaking of the 2020 elections, the stage is set for the next Democratic presidential contenders’ debates on July 30-31. Michael Sainato reports this week on the billionaires aligned against Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, as well as a growing slate of progressive Democrats challenging more conservative Democratic incumbents in many down-ballot races. Stay tuned.
Keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important voices on these and other issues of our time.
Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher
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