A thought to begin 2026…
by Chitown Kev
I think that it was Atlantic columnist Anne Applebaum that remnded me of something in a fairly recent column. I can’t remember the exact Atlantic column or Substack where it was posted but it went something like this: Life does not stop simply because you live in a totalitarian state. People still shop for nice outfits. Watch soap operas. Play cards. Dance. Get up under the hood of the car to fix what ails it. Take a nap after a long day at work. Tell dirty jokes.
Almost anything routine or mundane or even enojoyable that happens in a democracy also happens in a totalitarian state.
Actually I wasn’t reminded of it; I don’t think that I had never looked at it in that way. After all, the focus of reading literature about life on a slave plantation or a Russian gulag is on the injustice of all the mechanisms and systems of the state; that what is happening to an individual or a group is wrong and needs to be changed.
Perhaps I needed to be told about the overwhelming normality that can exist even in totalitarian states.
I say all that to say this: it is utterly distressing nowadays to read or watch the news, to see American society going down the totalitarian road; to feel fearful as a marginalized person or even to feel vaguely that I am being targeted by prevailing forces such that I can forget, sometimes, that it’s those routine and mundane things that also allow me to be human in such times.
So as 2026 begins, I have to be aware of basically everything that on the Daily Kos rec list. It’s that bad.
I also have to remember to play my bridge game. Watch those old One Life to Live clips on youtube with Viki and her 6 or 7 different personalities. Take a walk in the park or even on the lakefront (I live close enough).
All of those “routine mundane” things also make me just as human even and, perhaps, even especially when some would deny me that very humanness.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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The Globes have a history of not recognizing Black films. The Root: The Golden Globes Snubbed ‘Malcolm X,’ ‘Selma and Now ‘Sinners.’ Here’s Why
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Let’s just be honest. Sinners had a disappointing night at the Golden Globes.
Ryan Coogler’s unapologetically Black and unquestionably brilliant horror film that was one of the most talked about movies of 2025, received seven Golden Globe nominations for the 2026 awards. It was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director and Best Screenplay for Coogler, Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, Cinematic and Box Office Achievement, Best Original Score and Best Song for Ludwig Göransson.
That’s seven nominations. How many golden statues did it win? Two. That’s it. It won for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement and Best Original Score but was shut out for the rest.
It’s not surprising that it did not win for best director or best screenplay. The momentum that Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another has garnered on the awards circuit is real, and it will take a miracle for anything to beat it in those categories when the Academy Awards come around in March. (Sidenote: big ups to Teyana Taylor. She won Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Once Battle After Another. She has a real chance to take home the Oscar for her performance in that film.)
But for Sinners to not win Best Actor or Best Picture- Drama is not just disappointing. It’s almost criminal.
The Golden Globes have a long and illustrious history of not recognizing Black films. Malcolm X didn’t win one. Nor did Selma, Boyz N The Hood, Do The Right Thing or Black Panther. So Sinners losing last night at the Globes should not be surprising…but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing.
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President Donald Trump said in an interview that the 1964 Civil Rights Act led to white people being discriminated against. NewsOne: Trump Claims 1964 Civil Rights Act Led To Affirmative Action And Was ‘Unfair’ To White People
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In today’s episode of If America Isn’t A Racist Country, Why Is Our President A White Supremacist?, President Donald Trump, the man who got himself reelected almost exclusively by presenting himself as Martin Luther King Jr. for white people, is now out here claiming the Civil Rights Act of 1964 led to anti-white racism.
“White people were very badly treated, where they did extremely well and they were not invited to go into a university to college,” Trump told the New York Times in an apparent reference to affirmative action in college admissions, which he appeared to be conflating with the 1964 act of granting Black people equal rights under the law. “So I would say in that way, I think it was unfair in certain cases.”
“I think it was also, at the same time, it accomplished some very wonderful things, but it also hurt a lot of people — people that deserve to go to a college or deserve to get a job were unable to get a job. So it was, it was a reverse discrimination,” Trump continued.
For the record, there is no direct connection to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and affirmative action in college admissions, which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023. Trump is basically taking two issues involving Black people — issues involving historical events that are separated by nearly six decades — and smushing them together to create a single talking point aimed at reinforcing the fiction that white people are now or have ever been oppressed in the U.S.
x
Trump on Civil Rights:
“White people were very badly treated, where they did extremely well and they were not invited to go into a university to college.”
As the NYT notes, the Trump administration has focused on dismantling DEI policies and bureaucracies. pic.twitter.com/cE2VARKAzL
— Patrick Casey (@restoreorderusa) January 12, 2026
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With more ships plying its rivers and lakes, the continent could be much richer. The Economist: The nautical theory of African development
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Back in April 2024 a 188-seat passenger ferry arrived at the port of Djibouti, where it was put on a trailer and dragged across a desert. After maneuvering through dozens of crowded towns, squeezing under overpasses and snapping power lines, it arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital. Having been hauled north across rebel-infested mountains, in August 2025 it reached Lake Tana, where it is supposed to ferry tourists to and from a glitzy resort built by Abiy Ahmed, the prime minister.
Ethiopia’s state media hailed the end of the ship’s odyssey as a national triumph, but the region around Lake Tana has been buffeted by an insurgency since 2023. So the ferry’s seats have remained empty. Yet despite its apparent absurdity, its journey is a reminder of how few modern boats ply African waterways, and how much richer the continent could be if there were more.
Moving goods and people by water is much cheaper than by land, with transport costs on inland waterways estimated to be between 30% and 60% lower than bulk transport by road and rail. Yet in Africa roughly 80% of freight travels at great cost by road, compared with 45% in America and 25% in Europe. Partly as a result, transport costs in Africa can be up to five times higher than in America. Only 16% of Africa’s trade is intra-regional, compared with 58% in Asia and 67% in Europe.
In part, Africa’s dearth of water-based transport reflects the difficulty of transporting boats inland; shipbuilding capacity on the continent is negligible. Large vessels are usually disassembled before travelling overland. This avoids odysseys like that of the Ethiopian ferry. But reassembling the vessels before launching them into the water raises costs still more.
Geography complicates things. Unlike in Europe, Africa’s longest river systems are not connected to each other (see map). Cataracts, rapids and other obstacles impede navigation, especially for larger cargo ships. Colonial rulers built infrastructure to extract resources from the continent, not to encourage intra-African trade.
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There’s been a disturbing rise in colorectal cancer in Black young adults and a new study has just revealed the certain lifestyle habit that could be linked. The Root: New Study Reveals A Possible Cause For The Rise Of Colorectal Cancer In Young Black Americans
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There is a disturbing trend within the medical world, seeing a rise in young people being diagnosed with colorectal cancer, and it is affecting Black folks disproportionately. Now, a recent study might have just unearthed a major reason why, and we’re going to lay it all out for you.
According to the Cancer Research Institute (CRI), colorectal cancer is both the third most common cancer and the third leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. Statistics show 1 in 24 men and 1 in 26 women are expected to develop the disease in their lifetime. These figures reflect a 2% annual increase in colorectal cancer for young adults between the ages of 20 and 39 since the mid-1990s, according to the CRI.
When you narrow the numbers further, the risk for young Black Americans is even more severe. The American Cancer Society reports the risk of developing the disease is 20% higher for us, with a 40% higher mortality rate compared to other races.
But what has caused this stark rise among young Black adults? The short answer is that there is no single definitive cause. Scientists have studied a range of hypotheses, from birthing methods to changing lifestyle habits, but one theory has stood out above the others.
According to Business Insider, the cause of colorectal cancer could be traced back to the first six months of life. Studies suggest that a shift in newborn dietary habits, including an increase in processed foods and a decrease in fiber-rich ingredients, can lead to an increase in rates of colibactin – a toxin produced by a specific strain of E. coli found in over half of colorectal tumors. This can lead to colorectal cancer nesting in the bodies of infants, only to be discovered two or three decades later when those children become young adults.
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