Donald Trump’s USA, racism and police state

This 25 July 2020 video says about itself:

US federal agents sent to Portland by President Donald Trump have again fired tear gas at protesters and made arrests.

Demonstrators have rallied every night for eight weeks demanding racial equality and police reforms.

Leaders in Oregon state say the agents are only making things worse.

Al Jazeera’s Leah Harding reports.

TRUMP AND BARR EXPAND SURGE IN FEDERAL OFFICERS President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr said federal agents will surge into Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, expanding the administration’s intervention in local enforcement as Trump tries to disguise himself as a reelection “law-and-order” warrior. Hundreds of federal agents already have been sent to Kansas City, Missouri. The mayor of Portland, Oregon, was tear-gassed by federal agents late Wednesday. [AP]

Illinois Democratic lawmakers have made public statements aimed at assuaging public fears that the federal forces will crack down on anti-police violence protesters in Chicago, just as they have in Portland: here.

BIDEN CLAIMS TRUMP IS THE FIRST RACIST PRESIDENT Joe Biden made the claim that Trump is the first racist president at a virtual town hall on Wednesday. Biden was asked about Trump’s decision to call the coronavirus the “China virus” or “Wuhan virus” whenever he speaks publicly about the pandemic, which places a stigma on Asian people. “The way he deals with people based on the color of their skin, their national origin, where they’re from, is absolutely sickening,” Biden said. “No Republican president has done this. No Democratic president. We’ve had racists, and they’ve existed, they’ve tried to get elected president. He’s the first one that has.” [HuffPost]

Dear Joe Biden: unfortunately, Trump is not the first racist United States president. I know at least three Democratic presidents and one Republican president who at least arguably were racist. First, the three Democrats. Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) was a slave owner and committed genocide against Native Americans of the southeastern USA; the infamous Trail of Tears. James Buchanan (1857-1861) threw the United States into civil war by siding with slave owners in the southern states. Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) praised the Ku Klux Klan propaganda movie Birth of a Nation. Republican Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), one of four presidents depicted in Mount Rushmore gigantic sculpture, whitewashed British German anti-Semitic author Houston Stewart Chamberlain, the founder of the ideology of Hitler’s nazi party.

TRUMP DISTRACTS FROM REAL GUN VIOLENCE CRISIS Trump’s orders to send hundreds of federal law enforcement officers to Chicago and Albuquerque is overtly political. He noted that the cities are run by Democratic lawmakers, accused police brutality protesters of promoting violence and has repeatedly ― and dishonestly ― said that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has called to defund the police. The narrative that cities are out of control helps him argue that Democrats cannot be trusted with the presidency. But it’s hard to see how his show of force will help the millions of people in cities where gun crime is reaching record highs, particularly in largely nonwhite neighborhoods badly hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. [HuffPost]

GENERATIONS OF BLACK AMERICANS HAVE FOUGHT FOR JUSTICE Just like in the past, photos and video footage have shown what the Black Lives Matter movement is saying ― from the May 5 cellphone video of armed white men in a suburban neighborhood in Georgia chasing and gunning down Ahmaud Arbery to the footage of the last breathless minutes of Floyd’s life. Though Americans have long known about systemic racism and have seen instances of police brutality before, these latest images have forced a mainstream conversation. “We are still in the middle of this moment,” said Charles McKinney, a professor of African American history at Rhodes College. [HuffPost]