by Keith Reed | May 22, 2026 | Opinion, Politics, Sports
The NAACP called for Black collegiate athletes to boycott playing for the flagship public institutions in eight southern states this week, giving a boost of legitimacy to a problematic idea that had been circulating on social media for weeks. The proposed boycott is the civil rights organization’s response to Republican-controlled state legislatures in Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Georgia redrawing or threatening to redraw congressional maps to eliminate some or all of their majority-Black voting districts.
Those states, whose economies have long benefited from the toil of Black athletes at the public institutions funded by those legislatures, began rushing to change those maps after the Supreme Court’s recent gutting of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
The NAACP will not watch the same institutions that depend on Black athletic prowess to fill their stadiums remain silent while their states strip Black communities of their voice. NAACP PRESIDENT AND CEO DERRICK JACKSON
“The NAACP will not watch the same institutions that depend on Black athletic prowess to fill their stadiums and their bank accounts remain silent while their states strip Black communities of their voice,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in the statement announcing the initiative it’s calling “Out of Bounds.”
Boycotts have always sought to break the machinery of oppression by choking off the funding that lubricates it, and the money these states make on sports dominated by Black athletes is hefty. Louisiana State University, which produced athletes including WNBA star Angel Reese, Olympian Sha’Carri Richardson and NFL wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, released a study that claimed its sports programs generated nearly a half-billion dollars in economic
by Michael Arria | May 22, 2026 | Article, Democratic Party, Gaza, Israel, Opinion, Palestine, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint
by Adam Johnson | May 22, 2026 | Article, Economy, Media Criticism, Opinion, Politics and Movements: US
by Ja'han Jones | May 21, 2026 | Opinion
As sure as the sun rises, the list of sex scandals involving a Trump ally continues to grow.
My colleague Steve Benen has been doing a great job tracking the Jan. 6 rioters who have been charged with sex crimes after receiving pardons from President Donald Trump.
The Epstein files remain a lingering headache for Trump, a onetime friend of the late sex offender’s, and for other Epstein associates working in his administration, even as the Justice Department continues to withhold documents from Congress and the public.
And let’s not forget the bevy of other sex scandals that have cast a pall over administration officials and Trump allies over the past year.
It now looks like we can add Arizona congressional hopeful Mark Lamb to the list. The Trump-endorsed candidate and former county sheriff is running in Arizona’s conservative-leaning 5th District, which is being vacated by Republican Rep. Andy Biggs, who is running for governor.
A sexting scandal seems unlikely to help his campaign.
The Arizona Republic reported Wednesday on accusations that Lamb sent sexually explicit messages to women before and after serving as Pinal County sheriff. The report, which includes screenshots of messages allegedly sent by Lamb, said he threatened some of the women not to share evidence of their exchanges and said he could have them prosecuted.
This excerpt basically sums up the Republic’s reporting:
Digital evidence reviewed by The Republic found the Arizona lawman invited intimate encounters and indulged a yearslong habit of sexting that he later denied or sought to conceal, sometimes with threats or intimidation.
Interviews and screen captures of photos, chats, social media posts and emails shared with The Republic stand in contrast
by Ja'han Jones | May 21, 2026 | Opinion
The crisis of neo-Nazism and other white supremacist delusion coursing through the conservative movement, infecting young and elder conservatives alike, appeared in stark relief this week.
On Tuesday, two teenage gunmen, who were reportedly inspired by neo-Nazi ideology and other white supremacist killings, shot and killed three people at a San Diego mosque. The attack occurred in a national environment in which President Donald Trump and some allies have promoted racist propaganda and embraced brazenly Islamophobic rhetoric. Days later, at a House hearing on the Southern Poverty Law Center allegedly “manufacturing” claims of racist extremism, several witnesses invited by Republicans refused to acknowledge that extremist organizations such as neo-Nazis and the Proud Boys have promoted white supremacist views.
And Thursday came with yet another reminder of the racism that seems to be metastasizing within the MAGA movement, when the Miami Herald reported that Florida International University suspended two Republican student leaders involved in a group chat in which fellow conservatives shared violent, racist messages.
The Herald cited court documents showing the suspensions of two years for the group chat’s creator, law student Abel Carvajal, and former FIU College Republicans’ Recruitment Chairman Dariel Gonzalez. Per the Herald, Carvajal was suspended for “‘affirmative act which aids, attempts, promotes, conceals, or facilitates’ violations of the Student Code of Conduct”; and Gonzalez, in part, “for violating a part of the conduct code that bars ‘verbal or written abuse, threats, intimidation and/or coercion that objectively endangers the health, safety or well-being of others.’”
Carvajal took responsibility for starting the group chat back in March, when its contents were made public, but he said he had not seen all of the
by Hayes Brown | May 21, 2026 | Opinion
It’s been a good primary season for President Donald Trump. In contest after contest, he’s seen Republicans who’ve opposed him — even in limited ways — fall to Trump-backed challengers. The streak faces a major test next week when GOP voters will decide between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Sen. John Cornyn in a much-anticipated runoff election.
Just about everything that’s been reported about the last-minute endorsement of Paxton over the five-term incumbent Cornyn indicates that Trump’s guidepost wasn’t who would best serve Texas. For that matter, it doesn’t even seem to have been about who is most likely to win come November. And it’s the latter oversight that is poised to make Nov. 3 much more disappointing for the GOP than Trump might expect, given his primary track record.
Paxton is the latest in a string of anti-incumbent endorsements that Trump has made this year in contested primaries.
Paxton is the latest in a string of anti-incumbent endorsements that Trump has made this year in contested primaries. Over the past several weeks, targets of his ire who have lost include Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who voted to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial; Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has forcefully denounced Trump on the Epstein files and war with Iran; and three Indiana state senators who refused to go along with his push to gerrymander the state’s congressional map into a 9-0 Republican delegation.
In each of those races, Trump’s triumph has its own potential drawbacks. As Politico reported, “For every apostate ousted by Trump this month, there’s a sign of not only his waning political capital on the
