truthout--2020-06-30--Can Making Black Lives Matter Rescue a Failing State?

You know that feeling when you trip on the street and instantly sense that you ’ re about to crash hard and there ’ s no way to prevent it ?
As gravity has its way with you , all you can do is watch yourself going down .
Yeah , that feeling .
I had it the other day on my way to a Black Lives Matter demonstration when I caught my toe on a curb and pitched forward .
As time slowed down , I saw not my past , but my future , pass before my eyes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ include months of rehabbing a broken hip and at best a few weeks hobbling around on crutches .
I was lucky .
Nothing was broken and I ’ ll probably be off the crutches by the time you read this .
But that feeling of falling and knowing it ’ s too late to stop it has stayed with me .
I suspect it reflects a sensation many people in the United States might be having right now , a sense that time is moving slowly while we watch a flailing country in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taken decades of government dereliction to get us to this point and a few years of Trumpian sabotage to show us just where we really are .
To have any hope of pulling back from the brink , however , will take the determination of organizations like the Movement for Black Lives .
That national descent , when it came , proved remarkably swift .
In less than six months , we ’ ve seen more than 2.5 million confirmed Covid-19 infections and more than 125,000 deaths .
And it ’ s not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fact , saw the biggest single-day total in new U.S. infections ( more than 38,000 ) since April and that number may well have been superseded by the time this piece comes out .
During this pandemic , we ’ ve gone from an economy of almost full employment — even if at starvation levels for those earning a minimum wage — to one with the worst unemployment since the Great Depression ( even as billionaires have once again made a rather literal killing ) .
The government ’ s response to these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and criminal at worst .
While this country may not yet be a failed state , it ’ s certainly in a free fall all its own .
People use this expression to indicate a political entity whose government has ceased to perform most or all of its basic functions .
Such a condition can result from civil war , untrammeled corruption , natural disaster , or some combination of those and more .
The Fund for Peace , which has been working on such issues for more than 70 years , lists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : • “ Loss of control of its territory , or of the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force therein • Inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community ” I ’ ve always thought of such fallen lands ( sometimes given a fatal shove by my own government ) as far-away places .
Countries like Libya .
The Fund for Peace identifies that beleaguered and now fractured nation , where rival armed forces compete for primacy , as the one in which government fragility @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The present chaos began when the United States and its NATO allies stepped in militarily , precipitating the overthrow of autocrat Muammar Qaddafi , with no particular plan for the day after .
Then there ’ s Yemen , where Washington ’ s support for the intervention of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates only exacerbated an ongoing civil war , whose civilian victims have been left to confront famine , cholera , and most recently , with a shattered healthcare system , the coronavirus .
And before Libya and Yemen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ administration ’ s disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq , which damaged that country ’ s physical and political infrastructure in ways it is now , 17 years later , starting to dig out of .
So , yes , I ’ d known about failed states , but it wasn ’ t until I read “ We Are Living in a Failed State ” by George Packer in the June 2020 Atlantic magazine that I began to seriously entertain the idea that my country was bouncing down the same flight of stairs .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ it : “ The coronavirus didn ’ t break America .
It revealed what was already broken.
” The Monopoly of the Legitimate Use of Force In his 1919 lecture “ Politics as a Vocation , ” German sociologist Max Weber observed that “ a state is a human community that ( successfully ) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.
” In other words , a state is a given territory whose inhabitants recognize that only one institution , the government , has the capacity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ authorize the use of violence against members of the community .
Weber described three main ways that the use of violence acquires legitimacy : through long tradition , through the charisma of individual leaders , or in the case of many modern states , through the rule of law .
In a way , Donald Trump ’ s administration can be viewed as one long attempt to roll back the legitimacy derived from the rule of law and replace it with the power of one man ’ s personal charisma .
The president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fiat have reminded many fans of Star Trek : The Next Generation of a hapless imitation of Captain Jean-Luc Picard repeatedly calling out from the bridge of the Enterprise , “ Make it so !
” Recently , however , Trump has used his presidential authority to directly threaten his own citizens with military force .
On June 1st , he said at a Rose Garden press conference , “ If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ States military and quickly solve the problem for them.
” Minutes later , he showed just how it could be done , when protesters in Washington , D.C. ’ s Lafayette Square were attacked by a combined force of National Guard , federal Park Police , and Secret Service agents .
That last group Trump chose to congratulate for the job they did in a celebratory tweet , addressing them as the “ S.S. , ” an evocation — one hopes unintentional — of the Schutzstaffel ( a Nazi paramilitary force of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as the Washington Post reported , “ federal officers shoving protesters with shields and firing pepper balls , chemical grenades , and smoke bombs at retreating crowds ” — all so the president could have a photo op with his buddy , the Bible , in front of a church down the street from the White House .
Max Weber was hardly suggesting that , in a functional state , only the government uses force to achieve its ends .
Residents would still , for instance , experience criminal violence .
When @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it either can ’ t or won ’ t prevent other forces from threatening or using violence — a growing trend in Donald Trump ’ s America .
He has even , for instance , encouraged attendees at his rallies to “ knock the crap out of ” hecklers and offered to pay their legal fees afterward .
We ’ ve watched him congratulate a Republican congressman for physically attacking a reporter and noted his approval of some “ very fine people ” at the 2017 Unite the Right march in Charlottesville @ @ @ @ @ @ @ murdered a woman by driving his car into a crowd of counterdemonstrators .
Recently , the president ’ s support for extralegal violence has taken a far more sinister turn .
Now , he ’ s given his imprimatur not just to his individual supporters , but to armed militias opposing their states ’ efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus .
He ’ s urged them to “ LIBERATE !
” places like Michigan and Virginia , approved of armed vigilantes physically menacing legislators deliberating about Michigan ’ s stay-at-home policies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ parading in front of the office of Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer with signs bearing slogans like “ Tyrants get the rope !
” His encouragement of armed resistance to state authority so alarmed Washington Governor Jay Inslee that he accused the president of “ fomenting domestic rebellion.
” What do you call a nation in which armed militias can threaten officials without fear of penalty ?
Whether it ’ s Libya or the U.S. , I ’ d call it a state on the way to failing .
The United States is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ representatives who make the laws that govern us .
That ’ s how federal and state constitutions , city charters , and town bylaws have set out the major process for collective decision-making in this country .
( Of course , sometimes we also participate more directly , as when we speak or write about public affairs , demonstrate our concerns in marches with banners and chants , or organize ourselves as communities , workers , or other groups of people sharing common interests . )
Recognizing that this country is still officially @ @ @ @ @ @ @ everyone legally entitled to vote is actually able to vote .
I wish that were so .
In many parts of this country , however , the Republicans have been working assiduously to make voting by some of us either illegal or impossible .
In my lifetime , African Americans ( and some white allies ) died to secure the vote , an effort that culminated in the 1965 Voting Rights Act .
In 2013 , however , under George W. Bush-appointed Chief Justice John Roberts , the Supreme Court essentially gutted the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve seen an acceleration of efforts to reduce access to the polls for African Americans and other marginalized groups .
These include onerous voter identification procedures and restrictions on early voting or access to vote-by-mail options .
The Brennan Center for Justice reports that , in the past decade , 25 states have imposed new restrictions on voting .
To the extent that Americans recognize elections as a means of collective decision-making , it ’ s because a sufficient number of us have confidence in the basic integrity of the system .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elections are frequently , sometimes violently , contested by the losing side .
So it ’ s one thing — and bad enough — for local jurisdictions to make it difficult or impossible for particular groups of people to vote .
It ’ s quite another when a country ’ s leader acts to undermine public confidence in the entire electoral process .
That , of course , is exactly what Donald Trump has been doing from the moment of his 2016 electoral victory when he began blaming his failure to win the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cast illegally by undocumented immigrants .
He even set up a presidential commission to investigate such a massive fraud , which later disbanded without finding any evidence to support his contention .
Nonetheless , the president revisited the theme of voter fraud in a 2019 address to young conservatives , this time throwing in a few made-up details for verisimilitude : “ …and then those illegals get out and vote , because they vote anyway .
Don ’ t kid yourself .
Those numbers in California and numerous other states , they ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people voting that shouldn ’ t be voting .
They vote many times , not just twice , not just three times .
It ’ s like a circle .
They come back , they put a new hat on .
They come back , they put a new shirt on .
And in many cases , they don ’ t even do that .
You know what ’ s going on .
It ’ s a rigged deal.
” In the context of an ongoing pandemic , the most sensible way to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by mail .
Oregon has held successful all-mail elections for two decades .
In fact , mail-in voting turns out both to be efficient and to substantially boost participation .
( Oregon ’ s turnout was a whopping 63 % in the 2018 midterm election . )
Greater turnout , however , often favors Democratic candidates , which may be why Trump has launched a campaign against mail-in elections , claiming they are fraught with fraud , making his own wild claims in the process .
In May , for instance , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( ZERO ! )
that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent .
Mail boxes will be robbed , ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed.
” Only recently , he went at it again , all-cap tweeting : “ RIGGED 2020 ELECTION : MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WILL BE PRINTED BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES , AND OTHERS .
IT WILL BE THE SCANDAL OF OUR TIMES !
” Undermining public confidence in electoral integrity is a vicious strategy .
In a country armed to the teeth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his supporters to believe that only massive fraud will explain his losing the 2020 election , he ’ s playing a dangerous game indeed .
You know that you ’ re in a new world when opinion writers in the mainstream media find themselves asking if Trump will actually relinquish the White House , should he lose the election .
( And if he is losing and vote-by-mail slows the counting process in some states , he ’ ll use any delay after November 3rd to create further “ rigged-election ” chaos .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ rehearse here the hideous details of the Trump administration ’ s abject failure to confront the spread of Covid-19 and to acknowledge the people it ’ s killed .
Suffice it to say that a combination of disinterest and incompetence at the federal level has thrown responsibility on individual states and counties , which have found themselves in competition for life-saving equipment and have even been reduced to begging the federal government for support .
As thousands were dying , corrupt procurement processes led to absurdities like the purchase of millions of miniature @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the glass tubes needed for virus testing .
As a result , by June 20 , 2020 , the U.S. , with 4.25 % of the world ’ s population , accounted for more than 26 % of its 8.9 million verified coronavirus cases and about the same proportion of Covid-19 deaths .
However , even if the administration ’ s response had been well-prepared and brilliantly executed , the pandemic would still have revealed this country ’ s longstanding inability to provide basic healthcare to large numbers of its citizens , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the poor .
As Covid-19 spreads in jails and prisons , a grim new aspect of decades of unnecessary and cruel mass incarceration has been revealed .
As it ravages encampments of unhoused people , the virus continues to reveal to anyone who hadn ’ t already noticed the nation ’ s decades-long inability to house its citizens .
The pandemic has also illuminated the devastation wrought by the most profound level of economic inequality since the Gilded Age — the inevitable result of combining staggering tax cuts for the rich with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ another , from public education to infrastructure maintenance to emergency food support .
The country that , until recently , had the world ’ s greatest economy can ’ t even guarantee clean drinking water for 63 million Americans .
The lead-contaminated water of Flint , Michigan , is only the best-known example of this .
Recently , the Ford Foundation , with other big nonprofit funders , made an extraordinary announcement .
In the face of the government ’ s inability to respond adequately to the present crisis , they plan to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new grants .
Foundations giving away money is , of course , nothing new .
What ’ s different is how they plan to fund this operation : by issuing “ social bonds ” — investment instruments for sale alongside U.S. Treasury bills and municipal bonds .
What does it say about a country when private foundations find themselves driven to borrow money in the bond market to provide public services that ought to come from the government ?
Inability to Act as a Full Member of the International Community Here , too @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United States towards failure .
Though this country had , in the past , routinely acted less like a member of the international community than its hegemon , with this president there is no longer even a semblance of international cooperation on global issues .
He ’ s withdrawn us from a previously successful treaty to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons , as well as from successful Cold War treaties to control them .
He ’ s repeatedly threatened to pull the U.S. out of NATO and placed sanctions on individuals working @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American war crimes in Afghanistan .
In the midst of this global pandemic , he ’ s even pulling out of the World Health Organization .
Perhaps most disastrous of all , he ’ s reneged on our obligations under the Paris climate accord , thereby undermining humanity ’ s best hope of staving off an ecological catastrophe .
Under Donald Trump , in other words , the United States has demonstrated that even if it is not unable to take its place among the community of nations , it is certainly unwilling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our nation ’ s rapid fall into failure began with my personal tumble on the way to a Black Lives Matter demonstration .
In a way , that couldn ’ t be more fitting , because African Americans , particularly through their presence on the streets and in the media , are leading the present effort to pull this country back from the brink and toward legitimacy , more collective decision-making , the genuine provision of people ’ s needs , and participation in the community of nations .
The platform of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place to start when it comes to preventing this country from becoming a failed state .
The document itself is the result of an extended process of collective discussion and decision-making .
Its goals include ending police violence and mass incarceration ; investing in community needs ; supporting the rights of women , LGBTQ communities , and immigrants ; creating economic justice ; and increasing black political power .
The Black Lives Matter movement began in response to this country ’ s long history of state-sanctioned violence against African Americans , whether in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , forced labor , or predatory lending .
More than a century of violent , indeed murderous , policing of black and other marginalized communities has made this country ’ s use of state violence profoundly illegitimate .
The present wave of resistance has forced the rest of the country , and the world , to look at it squarely .
If the U.S. is to break its headlong rush into failed statehood , it must begin by addressing the legitimate demands of the people this country has failed from its very inception @ @ @ @ @ @ @ begin to restore our nation ’ s collective decision-making , improve the genuine provision of public services , and make a new and better place for ourselves in the community of nations .
Without it , there is no hope of doing so .
We shouldn ’ t fool ourselves , though .
In Donald Trump ’ s — or even Joe Biden ’ s — United States , it ’ s going to be a long , hard haul .
But better that than a steep fall .

The U.S. must address the demands of those it has failed from its inception if it is to break its rush to collapse.
You know that feeling when you trip on the street and instantly sense that you’re about to crash hard and there’s no way to prevent it? As gravity has its way with you, all you can do is watch yourself going down. Yeah, that feeling.
I had it the other day on my way to a Black Lives Matter demonstration when I caught my toe on a curb and pitched forward. As time slowed down, I saw not my past, but my future, pass before my eyes — a future that would at worst include months of rehabbing a broken hip and at best a few weeks hobbling around on crutches. I was lucky. Nothing was broken and I’ll probably be off the crutches by the time you read this.
But that feeling of falling and knowing it’s too late to stop it has stayed with me. I suspect it reflects a sensation many people in the United States might be having right now, a sense that time is moving slowly while we watch a flailing country in a slow-motion free fall. It has taken decades of government dereliction to get us to this point and a few years of Trumpian sabotage to show us just where we really are. To have any hope of pulling back from the brink, however, will take the determination of organizations like the Movement for Black Lives.
That national descent, when it came, proved remarkably swift. In less than six months, we’ve seen more than 2.5 million confirmed Covid-19 infections and more than 125,000 deaths. And it’s not slowing down. June 24th, in fact, saw the biggest single-day total in new U.S. infections (more than 38,000) since April and that number may well have been superseded by the time this piece comes out. During this pandemic, we’ve gone from an economy of almost full employment — even if at starvation levels for those earning a minimum wage — to one with the worst unemployment since the Great Depression (even as billionaires have once again made a rather literal killing). The government’s response to these twin catastrophes has been feckless at best and criminal at worst. While this country may not yet be a failed state, it’s certainly in a free fall all its own.
What Is a Failed State?
People use this expression to indicate a political entity whose government has ceased to perform most or all of its basic functions. Such a condition can result from civil war, untrammeled corruption, natural disaster, or some combination of those and more. The Fund for Peace, which has been working on such issues for more than 70 years, lists four criteria to identify such a country:
“Loss of control of its territory, or of the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force therein
Erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions
Inability to provide public services
Inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community”
I’ve always thought of such fallen lands (sometimes given a fatal shove by my own government) as far-away places. Countries like Libya. The Fund for Peace identifies that beleaguered and now fractured nation, where rival armed forces compete for primacy, as the one in which government fragility has increased most over the last decade. The present chaos began when the United States and its NATO allies stepped in militarily, precipitating the overthrow of autocrat Muammar Qaddafi, with no particular plan for the day after.
Then there’s Yemen, where Washington’s support for the intervention of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates only exacerbated an ongoing civil war, whose civilian victims have been left to confront famine, cholera, and most recently, with a shattered healthcare system, the coronavirus. And before Libya and Yemen, don’t forget the Bush administration’s disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq, which damaged that country’s physical and political infrastructure in ways it is now, 17 years later, starting to dig out of.
So, yes, I’d known about failed states, but it wasn’t until I read “We Are Living in a Failed State” by George Packer in the June 2020 Atlantic magazine that I began to seriously entertain the idea that my country was bouncing down the same flight of stairs. As that article’s subtitle put it: “The coronavirus didn’t break America. It revealed what was already broken.”
The Monopoly of the Legitimate Use of Force
In his 1919 lecture “Politics as a Vocation,” German sociologist Max Weber observed that “a state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.” In other words, a state is a given territory whose inhabitants recognize that only one institution, the government, has the capacity — and therefore the right — to authorize the use of violence against members of the community.
Weber described three main ways that the use of violence acquires legitimacy: through long tradition, through the charisma of individual leaders, or in the case of many modern states, through the rule of law. In a way, Donald Trump’s administration can be viewed as one long attempt to roll back the legitimacy derived from the rule of law and replace it with the power of one man’s personal charisma. The president’s often-bumbling attempts to rule by fiat have reminded many fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation of a hapless imitation of Captain Jean-Luc Picard repeatedly calling out from the bridge of the Enterprise, “Make it so!”
Recently, however, Trump has used his presidential authority to directly threaten his own citizens with military force. On June 1st, he said at a Rose Garden press conference, “If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.” Minutes later, he showed just how it could be done, when protesters in Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Square were attacked by a combined force of National Guard, federal Park Police, and Secret Service agents. That last group Trump chose to congratulate for the job they did in a celebratory tweet, addressing them as the “S.S.,” an evocation — one hopes unintentional — of the Schutzstaffel (a Nazi paramilitary force of the previous century.) The world saw, as the Washington Post reported, “federal officers shoving protesters with shields and firing pepper balls, chemical grenades, and smoke bombs at retreating crowds” — all so the president could have a photo op with his buddy, the Bible, in front of a church down the street from the White House.
Max Weber was hardly suggesting that, in a functional state, only the government uses force to achieve its ends. Residents would still, for instance, experience criminal violence. When a state begins to fail, however, it either can’t or won’t prevent other forces from threatening or using violence — a growing trend in Donald Trump’s America. He has even, for instance, encouraged attendees at his rallies to “knock the crap out of” hecklers and offered to pay their legal fees afterward. We’ve watched him congratulate a Republican congressman for physically attacking a reporter and noted his approval of some “very fine people” at the 2017 Unite the Right march in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a white nationalist murdered a woman by driving his car into a crowd of counterdemonstrators.
Recently, the president’s support for extralegal violence has taken a far more sinister turn. Now, he’s given his imprimatur not just to his individual supporters, but to armed militias opposing their states’ efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. He’s urged them to “LIBERATE!” places like Michigan and Virginia, approved of armed vigilantes physically menacing legislators deliberating about Michigan’s stay-at-home policies, and had no objection to their parading in front of the office of Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer with signs bearing slogans like “Tyrants get the rope!” His encouragement of armed resistance to state authority so alarmed Washington Governor Jay Inslee that he accused the president of “fomenting domestic rebellion.”
What do you call a nation in which armed militias can threaten officials without fear of penalty? Whether it’s Libya or the U.S., I’d call it a state on the way to failing.
Eroding the Legitimacy of Collective Decision Making
The United States is a republic. Those who can vote elect representatives who make the laws that govern us. That’s how federal and state constitutions, city charters, and town bylaws have set out the major process for collective decision-making in this country. (Of course, sometimes we also participate more directly, as when we speak or write about public affairs, demonstrate our concerns in marches with banners and chants, or organize ourselves as communities, workers, or other groups of people sharing common interests.)
Recognizing that this country is still officially a republic doesn’t mean that everyone legally entitled to vote is actually able to vote. I wish that were so. In many parts of this country, however, the Republicans have been working assiduously to make voting by some of us either illegal or impossible.
In my lifetime, African Americans (and some white allies) died to secure the vote, an effort that culminated in the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In 2013, however, under George W. Bush-appointed Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court essentially gutted the act. Ever since, we’ve seen an acceleration of efforts to reduce access to the polls for African Americans and other marginalized groups. These include onerous voter identification procedures and restrictions on early voting or access to vote-by-mail options. The Brennan Center for Justice reports that, in the past decade, 25 states have imposed new restrictions on voting.
To the extent that Americans recognize elections as a means of collective decision-making, it’s because a sufficient number of us have confidence in the basic integrity of the system. In less functional societies, the results of elections are frequently, sometimes violently, contested by the losing side. So it’s one thing — and bad enough — for local jurisdictions to make it difficult or impossible for particular groups of people to vote. It’s quite another when a country’s leader acts to undermine public confidence in the entire electoral process.
That, of course, is exactly what Donald Trump has been doing from the moment of his 2016 electoral victory when he began blaming his failure to win the popular vote on millions of ballots supposedly cast illegally by undocumented immigrants. He even set up a presidential commission to investigate such a massive fraud, which later disbanded without finding any evidence to support his contention.
Nonetheless, the president revisited the theme of voter fraud in a 2019 address to young conservatives, this time throwing in a few made-up details for verisimilitude:
“…and then those illegals get out and vote, because they vote anyway. Don’t kid yourself. Those numbers in California and numerous other states, they’re rigged. They’ve got people voting that shouldn’t be voting. They vote many times, not just twice, not just three times. It’s like a circle. They come back, they put a new hat on. They come back, they put a new shirt on. And in many cases, they don’t even do that. You know what’s going on. It’s a rigged deal.”
In the context of an ongoing pandemic, the most sensible way to hold the November 2020 election is largely by mail. Oregon has held successful all-mail elections for two decades. In fact, mail-in voting turns out both to be efficient and to substantially boost participation. (Oregon’s turnout was a whopping 63% in the 2018 midterm election.) Greater turnout, however, often favors Democratic candidates, which may be why Trump has launched a campaign against mail-in elections, claiming they are fraught with fraud, making his own wild claims in the process. In May, for instance, he tweeted:
“There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed.”
Only recently, he went at it again, all-cap tweeting: “RIGGED 2020 ELECTION: MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WILL BE PRINTED BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES, AND OTHERS. IT WILL BE THE SCANDAL OF OUR TIMES!”
Undermining public confidence in electoral integrity is a vicious strategy. In a country armed to the teeth like this one, when Trump encourages his supporters to believe that only massive fraud will explain his losing the 2020 election, he’s playing a dangerous game indeed. You know that you’re in a new world when opinion writers in the mainstream media find themselves asking if Trump will actually relinquish the White House, should he lose the election. (And if he is losing and vote-by-mail slows the counting process in some states, he’ll use any delay after November 3rd to create further “rigged-election” chaos.)
Inability to Provide Public Services
There’s no need to rehearse here the hideous details of the Trump administration’s abject failure to confront the spread of Covid-19 and to acknowledge the people it’s killed. Suffice it to say that a combination of disinterest and incompetence at the federal level has thrown responsibility on individual states and counties, which have found themselves in competition for life-saving equipment and have even been reduced to begging the federal government for support. As thousands were dying, corrupt procurement processes led to absurdities like the purchase of millions of miniature (and unusable) soda bottles instead of the glass tubes needed for virus testing.
As a result, by June 20, 2020, the U.S., with 4.25% of the world’s population, accounted for more than 26% of its 8.9 million verified coronavirus cases and about the same proportion of Covid-19 deaths. However, even if the administration’s response had been well-prepared and brilliantly executed, the pandemic would still have revealed this country’s longstanding inability to provide basic healthcare to large numbers of its citizens, especially in communities of color and among the poor.
As Covid-19 spreads in jails and prisons, a grim new aspect of decades of unnecessary and cruel mass incarceration has been revealed. As it ravages encampments of unhoused people, the virus continues to reveal to anyone who hadn’t already noticed the nation’s decades-long inability to house its citizens. The pandemic has also illuminated the devastation wrought by the most profound level of economic inequality since the Gilded Age — the inevitable result of combining staggering tax cuts for the rich with the systematic dismantling of one public service after another, from public education to infrastructure maintenance to emergency food support.
The country that, until recently, had the world’s greatest economy can’t even guarantee clean drinking water for 63 million Americans. The lead-contaminated water of Flint, Michigan, is only the best-known example of this.
Recently, the Ford Foundation, with other big nonprofit funders, made an extraordinary announcement. In the face of the government’s inability to respond adequately to the present crisis, they plan to make at least a billion dollars in new grants. Foundations giving away money is, of course, nothing new. What’s different is how they plan to fund this operation: by issuing “social bonds” — investment instruments for sale alongside U.S. Treasury bills and municipal bonds.
What does it say about a country when private foundations find themselves driven to borrow money in the bond market to provide public services that ought to come from the government?
Inability to Act as a Full Member of the International Community
Here, too, the Trump administration has pushed the United States towards failure. Though this country had, in the past, routinely acted less like a member of the international community than its hegemon, with this president there is no longer even a semblance of international cooperation on global issues. He’s withdrawn us from a previously successful treaty to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, as well as from successful Cold War treaties to control them. He’s repeatedly threatened to pull the U.S. out of NATO and placed sanctions on individuals working with the International Criminal Court investigating possible American war crimes in Afghanistan. In the midst of this global pandemic, he’s even pulling out of the World Health Organization.
Perhaps most disastrous of all, he’s reneged on our obligations under the Paris climate accord, thereby undermining humanity’s best hope of staving off an ecological catastrophe.
Under Donald Trump, in other words, the United States has demonstrated that even if it is not unable to take its place among the community of nations, it is certainly unwilling to do so.
Can Black Lives Matter Break the Fall?
My thinking about our nation’s rapid fall into failure began with my personal tumble on the way to a Black Lives Matter demonstration. In a way, that couldn’t be more fitting, because African Americans, particularly through their presence on the streets and in the media, are leading the present effort to pull this country back from the brink and toward legitimacy, more collective decision-making, the genuine provision of people’s needs, and participation in the community of nations.
The platform of the Movement for Black Lives represents an excellent place to start when it comes to preventing this country from becoming a failed state. The document itself is the result of an extended process of collective discussion and decision-making. Its goals include ending police violence and mass incarceration; investing in community needs; supporting the rights of women, LGBTQ communities, and immigrants; creating economic justice; and increasing black political power.
The Black Lives Matter movement began in response to this country’s long history of state-sanctioned violence against African Americans, whether in the form of lynching, cultural erasure, forced labor, or predatory lending. More than a century of violent, indeed murderous, policing of black and other marginalized communities has made this country’s use of state violence profoundly illegitimate. The present wave of resistance has forced the rest of the country, and the world, to look at it squarely.
If the U.S. is to break its headlong rush into failed statehood, it must begin by addressing the legitimate demands of the people this country has failed from its very inception. Through that process we might also begin to restore our nation’s collective decision-making, improve the genuine provision of public services, and make a new and better place for ourselves in the community of nations. Without it, there is no hope of doing so.
We shouldn’t fool ourselves, though. In Donald Trump’s — or even Joe Biden’s — United States, it’s going to be a long, hard haul. But better that than a steep fall.
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truthout--2020-06-30--Mississippi Votes to Remove the Confederate Emblem From Flag

In a historic vote , the Mississippi state Legislature passed a bill to remove the Confederate battle emblem from its state flag , making it the last state to do so , after an ongoing nationwide uprising against racism and police brutality and a mounting pressure campaign in Mississippi .
Derrick Johnson , president and CEO of the NAACP , says it has been a “ long journey ” to change the Mississippi flag .
“ We ’ ve had to fight both against the symbol of racial oppression , the revisionist history of racial oppression , and now the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ structural racism that ’ s embedded in the public policy , not only in the state of Mississippi but across the country , ” Johnson says .
He also addresses how President Trump shared a video on social media of a Trump supporter chanting “ white power , ” as well as the growing boycott of Facebook for allowing the spread of hateful and false information on its platform .
This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ’ m Amy Goodman , with Juan González .
In a historic vote Sunday , the Mississippi state Legislature passed a bill to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag , making it the last state in the country to do so .
The move came amidst a nationwide uprising against racism that inspired protesters nationwide to topple statues of white supremacists and colonizers and a mounting pressure campaign in Mississippi , the state with the highest percentage of African Americans in the country .
The National Collegiate Athletic Association @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not hold championship events in the state because of the flag , and Mississippi State star running back Kylin Hill said he would no longer represent Mississippi unless the racist symbol was removed .
An NBC affiliate in Jackson , Mississippi , captured the moment the state flag was removed from the Capitol , where it has flown for 126 years .
AMY GOODMAN : A week before state officials in Mississippi voted to remove the flag , the African American mayor of Laurel , Mississippi , Johnny Magee , ordered its removal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the measure was signed .
AMY GOODMAN : Well , for more , we go to Jackson , Mississippi , to speak with Derrick Johnson , president and CEO of the NAACP .
He ’ s the former Mississippi president of the NAACP .
Welcome to Democracy Now !
, Derrick Johnson .
It ’ s great to have you with us .
Let ’ s begin right there .
You have a long history with that flag as a native of Mississippi .
Can you talk about the moment the Legislature @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , moment didn ’ t start there .
It went way back to decades ago , when you were trying to take it down .
DERRICK JOHNSON : You know , I am a part of a continuum .
There have been efforts in the state of Mississippi for decades to have the flag removed .
I inherited that fight .
I inherited the advocacy along the lines of ensuring that African Americans in this state was respected , but , more importantly , to denounce a Confederacy that took up arms against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to say that you are patriotic , that you support the United States , and yet you want to display Confederate memorabilia .
It ’ s a conflict to say that all men and women are created equal under our Constitution , and yet you want to utilize this rag of terror to display a heritage that ’ s based on hate .
And so , from 1993 , taking up the mantle or working through the mantle with Senator Henry Kirksey and Aaron Henry , the former NAACP president — they filed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on that lawsuit while I was in undergrad .
When the Supreme Court ruled in our favor that the flag was never adopted , the Legislature went back and then put it on a ballot referendum .
I managed a campaign in 2001 .
And so , here we are , 27 years later , and we ’ ve finally taken down that piece of rag that we call the former state flag for the state of Mississippi .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : And could you talk about the significance of this , not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ entire country ?
Mississippi , of course , always being sort of the heartland of the Confederacy and the state with the most notorious legacy in terms of Jim Crow and racist and violent attacks against African Americans , what it means for the entire country ?
DERRICK JOHNSON : So , first of all , that symbol was never the official flag of the Confederacy .
It was the symbol used by General Lee ’ s Northern Virginia Army .
It was resurrected as a symbol of segregation and racial oppression , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the federal government picking up steam to [ inaudible ] to comply with the creed that all men are created equal .
It was the symbol displayed , along with the burning of the cross , in the ’ 30s , ’ 40s , ’ 50s and ’ 60s , as a reign of terror to prevent African Americans in this state from fully participating as citizens .
So , this has been a long journey , and we ’ ve had to fight both against the symbol of racial oppression , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now the next step is to fight against the structural racism that ’ s embedded in the public policy , not only in the state of Mississippi but across the country .
AMY GOODMAN : Derrick Johnson , I want to ask you about the sports teams and the power of them .
I mean , you have coaches , that didn ’ t fight for this for years , who are walking the halls of the legislatures , demanding that the flag come down , because , of course , the action @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the incredible bravery of Kylin Hill , who said he would no longer play under the Mississippi Confederate flag .
DERRICK JOHNSON : Well , it ’ s not new for the NCAA to take steps .
We filed , in the early — I mean , the late ’ 90s , early 2000s .
They stood both with us and the state of South Carolina concerning the Confederate flags in both states .
They refused to hold NCAA-sanctioned tournaments in the state of Mississippi or South Carolina , until the flag @ @ @ @ @ @ @ history of individuals using their platform , particularly African Americans using their platforms , who are athletes , to speak out around social justice issues .
So , I encourage and support others to continue to use those platforms .
But in the state of Mississippi , sports is big business .
Sports is opportunity for universities to recruit .
And in college football , in particular , it generated a tremendous amount of revenue for the state .
So , once it was stated that the NCAA and the SEC finally was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it really resonated with individuals who were concerned about the revenue that it would cause harm to .
AMY GOODMAN : I wanted to turn to the issue of white power , that unbelievable tweet that Trump retweeted , the video of a man in The Villages retirement community in Florida shouting “ white power ” at antiracist protesters .
AMY GOODMAN : He was in a golf cart .
Trump shared the video Sunday morning with the caption , “ Thank you to the great people of The Villages.
” After enormous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that tweet , and his people claimed he didn ’ t see the video .
But he did not condemn it , even when it was pointed out to him .
Derrick Johnson , the significance of this ?
DERRICK JOHNSON : It is a part of the narrative of this administration .
It has not only catered to white supremacist groups and individuals who would scream that type of noise ; we still have Steve Miller in the White House , a known white supremacist .
The atmosphere that we are seeing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Floyd unfortunate murder in the middle of the street , has really been accelerated because of this White House ’ willingness to allow racial hatred to germinate from the White House .
We have not seen this level of disregard for human life , this level of just blatant racism , from a sitting president perhaps since Woodrow Wilson .
This is something that we should all be aghast by .
But we don ’ t expect this president to apologize .
This is the person who created a false equivalency in Charlottesville @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s completely tone deaf to children along the border .
This is a president that revels in this notion of supremacy because it gives him comfort level for his ego-driven personality .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : I wanted to ask you — in terms of this spread of hate and racism , the NAACP and other civil rights groups called on advertisers to boycott Facebook during the month of July as part of a campaign called Stop Hate for Profit .
There ’ s been a phenomenal response .
About 160 companies , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , have heeded that call , and now we ’ re seeing Mark Zuckerberg suddenly , as the stock price plummeted for Facebook , suddenly announcing that he ’ s going to make some changes in his policy .
Could you talk about this whole issue of the Facebook and the social media platforms , that are actually fueling division and hate throughout the country ?
DERRICK JOHNSON : Well , as we see symbols of racism taken down , like the Mississippi flag and statues of Confederate soldiers who created treasonous act @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we must also advocate against platforms that would allow the hosting of recruitment of white supremacists in the ad purchases of those groups , particularly when you look over the last month , when you had that incident called “ boogaloo , ” where individuals , white supremacists , met up on Facebook , and they murdered a federal officer .
For the NAACP , we absolutely agree in freedom of speech , but you can not scream “ fire ” in a theater .
And when you have a platform as large @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and they refuse to protect the citizens and protect our democracy , there is no government regulations .
You can not have a consumer boycott of such a megacompany .
The only next step was to ask those corporations , who have now stood up in the midst of the current environment , to take another step .
Let ’ s right-size how this platform is used to protect individuals and to protect our democracy .
AMY GOODMAN : Let me go to Mark Zuckerberg on Friday as the stocks for Facebook @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that ’ s Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg , who previously refused to take action against posts by President Trump , including one threatening violence against protesters .
Can you respond to what he ’ s saying about starting to label posts that are newsworthy but violate the company ’ s policies ?
DERRICK JOHNSON : It ’ s a small step , but much more could be done .
Their algorithms needs to be changed so they ’ re not pushing racial hate content on people ’ s Facebook pages .
There @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a separation of church and state , that their content is not housed in their policy shop , because their policy shop is catering to this administration .
There ’ s so much more that more can be done .
You know , in 2016 , a foreign nation paid , with foreign currency , ads promoting Black Lives Matter , and Black Lives Matter had no concept that this foreign nation , paying with foreign currency , was doing it .
They did nothing to prevent it .
There is so much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ safeguard the public interest , while at the exact same time allowing for free speech .
This platform is able to get away with stuff that this network and broadcast media can not do .
And we ’ re simply saying , “ Put the safeguards in place .
You have the technology .
You know what to do .
Just do it .
Protect the citizens of this country .
Protect our democracy.
” JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Yeah , in that vein , I wanted to ask you — I ’ m @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ’ ve worked for , whether it was the Daily News or Democracy Now !
, if we published something that was libelous or defamed people , we would be held legally responsible .
These platforms insist that they are platforms and not publishers .
Do you think that there has to be changes to the law to hold them responsible for their dissemination of what is essentially hate , lies and libel ?
DERRICK JOHNSON : Well , absolutely .
They ’ re trying to be both a platform to allow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be — cover news .
You can ’ t be both .
And there needs to be guardrails .
You can not scream “ fire ” in a theater , therefore you should not allow for your platform to be used as a gathering point for white supremacist groups to meet up and then go cause harm to individuals , to murder federal law enforcement agents .
It is unconscionable that this is such a hard thing to comprehend .
You can not allow your platforms to be manipulated for a foreign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elections and election processes .
Just think about what happened with Jack Dorsey and Twitter when they took the bold step to begin to identify misinformation related to the elections and they flagged it .
It was Facebook who criticized them for that .
And now he ’ s doing an about-face .
We have to have real clear rules of engagement for this platform to protect American citizens , particularly African Americans and individuals in the Jewish community .
Anti-Semitism and racism is rampant on the platform .
And what ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at Mother Emanuel Church in South Carolina , you get the shootings in the synagogue in Pittsburgh .
We must do more to protect the citizens of this country .
And this platform is posing a true danger to far too many individuals across the country .
AMY GOODMAN : Derrick Johnson , very quickly , the Georgia hate crimes law that was just passed , Governor Kemp signed it into law Friday .
It ’ s going into effect immediately .
Talk about — I mean , it means there ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country left that don ’ t have a hate crimes law — a major victory for the NAACP and people throughout Georgia .
Can you talk about it ?
DERRICK JOHNSON : I think it ’ s a tremendous victory .
There ’ s more to be done .
We have a young , dynamic state leader there .
Twenty-six-year-old James Woodall is doing a great job .
We also have the issue of the independence of district attorneys we have to address .
Ahmaud Arbery is a good example .
It was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ murdered , but that district attorney refused to bring charges forward .
So , as we celebrate the legislative victory , we have an election in November to elect accountable district attorneys to hold law enforcement agencies accountable when they cause harm illegally against the communities they are sworn to protect and serve .
AMY GOODMAN : But you criticized HB 838 .
Can you explain what was also passed ?
DERRICK JOHNSON : So , give me more , because as so many — it ’ s 50 states with HB 38 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Georgia , or are you talking about the House bill in D.C. ?
Are you — AMY GOODMAN : No , in Georgia , that provides police protection .
Many said it was more dangerous than HB 426 , the hate crimes bill , was good .
“ To see the Legislature prioritize HB 838 instead of repealing citizen ’ s arrest is heartbreaking and does not do justice to my son , ” said Ahmed Arbery ’ s mother .
DERRICK JOHNSON : Yeah .
I mean , this notion of citizen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be careful , because you have so many people who ’ ve decided they ’ re going to take the law in their own hand unjustifiably .
When you have an individual who ’ s simply walking down the streets eating Skittles , Trayvon Martin , or an individual who ’ s jogging in their neighborhood , Ahmaud Arbery , or an individual who ’ s birdwatching in Central Park and have an Amy Cooper decide to commit a racial hate crime , the whole notion of denying someone ’ s existence to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and allow citizens to step up and try to enforce a law that hasn ’ t even been broken , we have to be careful with that .
And I ’ m always worried about this concept of citizen ’ s arrest , when you have unjustifiable scenarios , as we ’ ve seen over several years — not just in Ahmaud Arbery , but over several years .
You know , you maintain a culture where you continue to put people ’ s lives in danger .
AMY GOODMAN : Well , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for being with us , Derrick Johnson , president of the NAACP , speaking to us from Jackson , Mississippi — Mississippi that ’ s just voted to take down and remove the state flag , the last in the country to include the Confederate emblem .
This is Democracy Now !
When we come back , we go to an encampment outside New York City Hall , where people are demanding a billion-dollar cut from the police department ’ s $ 6 billion budget .
Stay with us .
AMY GOODMAN : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Baby , who released the song in response to Black Lives Matter protests across the country and the world .

In a historic vote, the Mississippi state Legislature passed a bill to remove the Confederate battle emblem from its state flag, making it the last state to do so, after an ongoing nationwide uprising against racism and police brutality and a mounting pressure campaign in Mississippi. Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, says it has been a “long journey” to change the Mississippi flag. “We’ve had to fight both against the symbol of racial oppression, the revisionist history of racial oppression, and now the next step is to fight against the structural racism that’s embedded in the public policy, not only in the state of Mississippi but across the country,” Johnson says. He also addresses how President Trump shared a video on social media of a Trump supporter chanting “white power,” as well as the growing boycott of Facebook for allowing the spread of hateful and false information on its platform.
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. In a historic vote Sunday, the Mississippi state Legislature passed a bill to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag, making it the last state in the country to do so. The move came amidst a nationwide uprising against racism that inspired protesters nationwide to topple statues of white supremacists and colonizers and a mounting pressure campaign in Mississippi, the state with the highest percentage of African Americans in the country. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, the NCAA, said it would not hold championship events in the state because of the flag, and Mississippi State star running back Kylin Hill said he would no longer represent Mississippi unless the racist symbol was removed.
An NBC affiliate in Jackson, Mississippi, captured the moment the state flag was removed from the Capitol, where it has flown for 126 years.
ANCHOR 1: The flag is coming down. Related Story Op-Ed | Racial Justice When War Against Black Americans Represents “Peace,” We Must Redefine the Word We must redefine what peace means and reject the police-enforced law-and-order “peace” as defined by white supremacy. Truthout ANCHOR 2: And you can hear protesters in the background. There have been protesters at the state Capitol all day — ANCHOR 1: All day long. ANCHOR 2: — who support this state flag. And right now, ladies and gentlemen, again, you’re witnessing history in the state of Mississippi.
AMY GOODMAN: A week before state officials in Mississippi voted to remove the flag, the African American mayor of Laurel, Mississippi, Johnny Magee, ordered its removal by executive order. He became emotional as the measure was signed.
MAYOR JOHNNY MAGEE: It should not be flown at any of the public facilities. I don’t apologize for being emotional. I have lived through some things with this flag. And as they told Dr. King to wait, time for waiting is over.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, for more, we go to Jackson, Mississippi, to speak with Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP. He’s the former Mississippi president of the NAACP.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Derrick Johnson. It’s great to have you with us. Let’s begin right there. You have a long history with that flag as a native of Mississippi. Can you talk about the moment the Legislature voted? And that, of course, moment didn’t start there. It went way back to decades ago, when you were trying to take it down.
DERRICK JOHNSON: You know, I am a part of a continuum. There have been efforts in the state of Mississippi for decades to have the flag removed. I inherited that fight. I inherited the advocacy along the lines of ensuring that African Americans in this state was respected, but, more importantly, to denounce a Confederacy that took up arms against this nation. It is a conflict to say that you are patriotic, that you support the United States, and yet you want to display Confederate memorabilia. It’s a conflict to say that all men and women are created equal under our Constitution, and yet you want to utilize this rag of terror to display a heritage that’s based on hate.
And so, from 1993, taking up the mantle or working through the mantle with Senator Henry Kirksey and Aaron Henry, the former NAACP president — they filed the lawsuit — I was a plaintiff on that lawsuit while I was in undergrad. When the Supreme Court ruled in our favor that the flag was never adopted, the Legislature went back and then put it on a ballot referendum. I managed a campaign in 2001. And so, here we are, 27 years later, and we’ve finally taken down that piece of rag that we call the former state flag for the state of Mississippi.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you talk about the significance of this, not just for Mississippi, but for the entire country? Mississippi, of course, always being sort of the heartland of the Confederacy and the state with the most notorious legacy in terms of Jim Crow and racist and violent attacks against African Americans, what it means for the entire country?
DERRICK JOHNSON: So, first of all, that symbol was never the official flag of the Confederacy. It was the symbol used by General Lee’s Northern Virginia Army. It was resurrected as a symbol of segregation and racial oppression, in defiance of civil rights legislation and the federal government picking up steam to [inaudible] to comply with the creed that all men are created equal. It was the symbol displayed, along with the burning of the cross, in the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, as a reign of terror to prevent African Americans in this state from fully participating as citizens.
So, this has been a long journey, and we’ve had to fight both against the symbol of racial oppression, the revisionist history of racial oppression, and now the next step is to fight against the structural racism that’s embedded in the public policy, not only in the state of Mississippi but across the country.
AMY GOODMAN: Derrick Johnson, I want to ask you about the sports teams and the power of them. I mean, you have coaches, that didn’t fight for this for years, who are walking the halls of the legislatures, demanding that the flag come down, because, of course, the action of the NCAA, the SEC, and the incredible bravery of Kylin Hill, who said he would no longer play under the Mississippi Confederate flag.
DERRICK JOHNSON: Well, it’s not new for the NCAA to take steps. We filed, in the early — I mean, the late ’90s, early 2000s. They stood both with us and the state of South Carolina concerning the Confederate flags in both states. They refused to hold NCAA-sanctioned tournaments in the state of Mississippi or South Carolina, until the flag was addressed. There has been a history of individuals using their platform, particularly African Americans using their platforms, who are athletes, to speak out around social justice issues. So, I encourage and support others to continue to use those platforms.
But in the state of Mississippi, sports is big business. Sports is opportunity for universities to recruit. And in college football, in particular, it generated a tremendous amount of revenue for the state. So, once it was stated that the NCAA and the SEC finally was going to take even stronger stands, it really resonated with individuals who were concerned about the revenue that it would cause harm to.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to the issue of white power, that unbelievable tweet that Trump retweeted, the video of a man in The Villages retirement community in Florida shouting “white power” at antiracist protesters.
TRUMP SUPPORTER: White power! White power! PROTESTER: There you go: “white power.”
AMY GOODMAN: He was in a golf cart. Trump shared the video Sunday morning with the caption, “Thank you to the great people of The Villages.” After enormous outcry, he was forced to delete that tweet, and his people claimed he didn’t see the video. But he did not condemn it, even when it was pointed out to him. Derrick Johnson, the significance of this?
DERRICK JOHNSON: It is a part of the narrative of this administration. It has not only catered to white supremacist groups and individuals who would scream that type of noise; we still have Steve Miller in the White House, a known white supremacist. The atmosphere that we are seeing today, leading up to the George Floyd unfortunate murder in the middle of the street, has really been accelerated because of this White House’ willingness to allow racial hatred to germinate from the White House. We have not seen this level of disregard for human life, this level of just blatant racism, from a sitting president perhaps since Woodrow Wilson. This is something that we should all be aghast by.
But we don’t expect this president to apologize. This is the person who created a false equivalency in Charlottesville. This is the person who’s completely tone deaf to children along the border. This is a president that revels in this notion of supremacy because it gives him comfort level for his ego-driven personality.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask you — in terms of this spread of hate and racism, the NAACP and other civil rights groups called on advertisers to boycott Facebook during the month of July as part of a campaign called Stop Hate for Profit. There’s been a phenomenal response. About 160 companies, including Unilever and Coca-Cola, Honda and others, have heeded that call, and now we’re seeing Mark Zuckerberg suddenly, as the stock price plummeted for Facebook, suddenly announcing that he’s going to make some changes in his policy. Could you talk about this whole issue of the Facebook and the social media platforms, that are actually fueling division and hate throughout the country?
DERRICK JOHNSON: Well, as we see symbols of racism taken down, like the Mississippi flag and statues of Confederate soldiers who created treasonous act under this notion of white supremacy, we must also advocate against platforms that would allow the hosting of recruitment of white supremacists in the ad purchases of those groups, particularly when you look over the last month, when you had that incident called “boogaloo,” where individuals, white supremacists, met up on Facebook, and they murdered a federal officer.
For the NAACP, we absolutely agree in freedom of speech, but you cannot scream “fire” in a theater. And when you have a platform as large as Facebook, essentially a public utility, and they refuse to protect the citizens and protect our democracy, there is no government regulations. You cannot have a consumer boycott of such a megacompany. The only next step was to ask those corporations, who have now stood up in the midst of the current environment, to take another step. Let’s right-size how this platform is used to protect individuals and to protect our democracy.
AMY GOODMAN: Let me go to Mark Zuckerberg on Friday as the stocks for Facebook were tanking.
MARK ZUCKERBERG: A handful of times a year, we make a decision to leave up content that would otherwise violate our policies, because we consider that the public interest value outweighs the risk of that content. And, you know, often here, seeing speech from politicians is in the public interest. And in the same way that news outlets will often report what a politician says, we think it’s important that people should generally be able to see it for themselves on our platforms, too. So we will start soon labeling some of the content that we leave up because it is deemed newsworthy. So, now people are going to be able to know when that designation has been made.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who previously refused to take action against posts by President Trump, including one threatening violence against protesters. Can you respond to what he’s saying about starting to label posts that are newsworthy but violate the company’s policies?
DERRICK JOHNSON: It’s a small step, but much more could be done. Their algorithms needs to be changed so they’re not pushing racial hate content on people’s Facebook pages. There needs to be what’s called a separation of church and state, that their content is not housed in their policy shop, because their policy shop is catering to this administration. There’s so much more that more can be done. You know, in 2016, a foreign nation paid, with foreign currency, ads promoting Black Lives Matter, and Black Lives Matter had no concept that this foreign nation, paying with foreign currency, was doing it. They did nothing to prevent it.
There is so much more that this platform can do to safeguard the public interest, while at the exact same time allowing for free speech. This platform is able to get away with stuff that this network and broadcast media cannot do. And we’re simply saying, “Put the safeguards in place. You have the technology. You know what to do. Just do it. Protect the citizens of this country. Protect our democracy.”
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, in that vein, I wanted to ask you — I’m an old-fashioned journalist. The companies that I’ve worked for, whether it was the Daily News or Democracy Now!, if we published something that was libelous or defamed people, we would be held legally responsible. These platforms insist that they are platforms and not publishers. Do you think that there has to be changes to the law to hold them responsible for their dissemination of what is essentially hate, lies and libel?
DERRICK JOHNSON: Well, absolutely. They’re trying to be both a platform to allow for content, and they also want to be — cover news. You can’t be both. And there needs to be guardrails. You cannot scream “fire” in a theater, therefore you should not allow for your platform to be used as a gathering point for white supremacist groups to meet up and then go cause harm to individuals, to murder federal law enforcement agents. It is unconscionable that this is such a hard thing to comprehend.
You cannot allow your platforms to be manipulated for a foreign government to misinform the American public around elections and election processes. Just think about what happened with Jack Dorsey and Twitter when they took the bold step to begin to identify misinformation related to the elections and they flagged it. It was Facebook who criticized them for that. And now he’s doing an about-face.
We have to have real clear rules of engagement for this platform to protect American citizens, particularly African Americans and individuals in the Jewish community. Anti-Semitism and racism is rampant on the platform. And what’s happening there is you get the murder at Mother Emanuel Church in South Carolina, you get the shootings in the synagogue in Pittsburgh. We must do more to protect the citizens of this country. And this platform is posing a true danger to far too many individuals across the country.
AMY GOODMAN: Derrick Johnson, very quickly, the Georgia hate crimes law that was just passed, Governor Kemp signed it into law Friday. It’s going into effect immediately. Talk about — I mean, it means there’s just a handful of states in the country left that don’t have a hate crimes law — a major victory for the NAACP and people throughout Georgia. Can you talk about it?
DERRICK JOHNSON: I think it’s a tremendous victory. There’s more to be done. We have a young, dynamic state leader there. Twenty-six-year-old James Woodall is doing a great job. We also have the issue of the independence of district attorneys we have to address. Ahmaud Arbery is a good example. It was clear on the video that he was murdered, but that district attorney refused to bring charges forward. So, as we celebrate the legislative victory, we have an election in November to elect accountable district attorneys to hold law enforcement agencies accountable when they cause harm illegally against the communities they are sworn to protect and serve.
AMY GOODMAN: But you criticized HB 838. Can you explain what was also passed?
DERRICK JOHNSON: So, give me more, because as so many — it’s 50 states with HB 38. So, are you talking about Georgia, or are you talking about the House bill in D.C.? Are you —
AMY GOODMAN: No, in Georgia, that provides police protection. Many said it was more dangerous than HB 426, the hate crimes bill, was good. “To see the Legislature prioritize HB 838 instead of repealing citizen’s arrest is heartbreaking and does not do justice to my son,” said Ahmed Arbery’s mother.
DERRICK JOHNSON: Yeah. I mean, this notion of citizen’s arrest, we have to be careful, because you have so many people who’ve decided they’re going to take the law in their own hand unjustifiably. When you have an individual who’s simply walking down the streets eating Skittles, Trayvon Martin, or an individual who’s jogging in their neighborhood, Ahmaud Arbery, or an individual who’s birdwatching in Central Park and have an Amy Cooper decide to commit a racial hate crime, the whole notion of denying someone’s existence to enjoy peacefully their surroundings in their community and allow citizens to step up and try to enforce a law that hasn’t even been broken, we have to be careful with that. And I’m always worried about this concept of citizen’s arrest, when you have unjustifiable scenarios, as we’ve seen over several years — not just in Ahmaud Arbery, but over several years. You know, you maintain a culture where you continue to put people’s lives in danger.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you so much for being with us, Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, speaking to us from Jackson, Mississippi — Mississippi that’s just voted to take down and remove the state flag, the last in the country to include the Confederate emblem.
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we go to an encampment outside New York City Hall, where people are demanding a billion-dollar cut from the police department’s $6 billion budget. Stay with us.
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AMY GOODMAN: “The Bigger Picture” by Lil Baby, who released the song in response to Black Lives Matter protests across the country and the world.