Dispatches From the Culture Wars — August 11, 2026
- New Stage for the Fight Against ICE
- A Primary Tuesday to Remember
- Lupita Nyong’o’s Color and Hollywood Myth
- Texas GOP is Serious About Their Islamophobia
- The Myth of a Global Antifa
- Rightist Catholics Defy Leo’s Vatican
- United Auto Workers Divests From Israel
- DC Resistance and Election Defense
- Revolt Against Carbon Capture Pipelines
- Last Month Was Our Hottest Ever
New Stage for the Fight Against ICE
By Kelly Hayes, Organizing My Thoughts
How are you protecting people in your community? How are you building the capacity to support them? What has been amazing to see is both the on-the-ground support and, once people are detained, the skyrocketing number of habeas petitions seeking their release. People are educating themselves about how to do that.
A Primary Tuesday to Remember
Upsetting the Old Guard By Ken Klippenstein
Bad News for GOP in MO By Rudi Keller, Missouri Independent
Abortion Rights Wins By Jessica Valenti, Abortion, Every Day
Lupita Nyong’o’s Color and Hollywood Myth
By Janell Hobson, Ms.
The conversations over a Black actor like Lupita Nyong’o portraying the iconic Helen of Troy—“the most beautiful woman in the world”—suggest a general discomfort with depictions of dark-skinned Black beauty in Hollywood. This extends beyond the overblown race- and rage-baiting “debates” spearheaded by right-wing conservatives and white nationalists.
Texas GOP is Serious About Their Islamophobia
By Renzo Downey, Texas Tribune
Muslim delegates and attendees hoping to participate in the state Republican convention were shunned and rejected by members as they espoused themes of party unity ahead of the November election.
By John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus
The failure of the Justice Department to prove the existence of antifa notwithstanding, the Trump administration has worked hard to play up the threat of this shadowy organization and connect it to other convenient bogeymen. Secretary of State Rubio accuses Cuba and Iran, without providing any credible evidence, of supporting the vast left-wing conspiracy.
Rightist Catholics Defy Leo’s Vatican
By Balz Rigendinger, SWI swissinfo.ch
The Society of Saint Pius X has reignited its long-running dispute with the Vatican. Its illicit consecration of bishops in Switzerland has drawn attention worldwide and is likely designed as publicity for the ultra-traditionalist Catholic group.
United Auto Workers Divests From Israel
DC Resistence and Election Defense
By Daniel Hunter, Waging Nonviolence
Many of us are carrying real fear about how far Trump might go to interfere with this election. As we approach the one-year anniversary of the National Guard’s occupation of Washington, D.C., it’s worth pausing to learn what D.C. resistance has to teach us — especially heading into the midterms.
Revolt Against Carbon Capture Pipelines
By Taylor Noakes, DeSmog
At a time when environmentalism has been portrayed by conservatives and fossil fuel boosters as something that only appeals to progressive urban elites, No CO2 Pipelines is uniting Indigenous communities, farmers, landowners, and other concerned parties who oppose the siting of CCS infrastructure in their communities. This is just one front in an international grassroots push back.
Last Month Was Our Hottest Ever
By Oliver Milman, The Guardian
Heat-trapping gases released by the combustion of coal, oil and gas are driving up global temperatures and fueling deadly heatwaves that have this year roiled the US and Europe, which is having its hottest summer on record. Sprawling forest fires have resulted in the evacuations of hundreds of thousands of people and the inhalation of toxic smoke for millions more.