Former US presidents Barack Obama, George W Bush, Bill Clinton and House speaker Nancy Pelosi have delivered eulogies for congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis. Hailing him as founding father for 'a fuller, fairer, better' America, Obama praised Lewis's influence on his own path to the presidency. Clinton said Lewis believed 'none of us will be free until all of us are equal', while Bush said he lived in a better and nobler country because of the congressman
Category Archives: US Politics
Barack Obama: John Lewis fought for our highest ideals | Barack Obama
In a transcript of his remarks at the congressman’s funeral, the former president calls on Americans to follow Lewis’s lead at a time of crisis
Representative John Lewis, a legendary civil rights leader and member of Congress, died of cancer on 17 July. In a eulogy at his memorial on Thursday, Barack Obama spoke about Lewis’s legacy, especially the importance of continuing his fight to protect voting rights. This is an abridged version of his remarks.
James wrote to the believers: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”
Continue reading...Obama attacks police brutality and voter suppression in powerful eulogy for John Lewis – video
During the funeral of congressman John Lewis, former US president Barack Obama delivered a powerful eulogy in which he praised the late civil rights icon, saying Lewis 'will be a founding father of a fuller, fairer, better America'.
In his speech, Obama also received standing ovations for his indirect criticism of the Trump administration's decision to send federal agents to peaceful demonstrations in Portland, and his condemnation of voter suppression tactics in the US
Continue reading...Obama hails John Lewis as founding father of ‘fuller, better’ US in eulogy
Former president called for Americans to fight Trump’s effort to undermine the right to vote in eulogy at congressman’s funeral
Barack Obama hailed John Lewis as a founding father of “a fuller, better” United States in a soaring eulogy on Thursday, while forcefully calling on Americans to stand up to the forces threatening a cause the late congressman was willing to die for: the right to vote.
From the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta, where Martin Luther King Jr once preached, Obama traced the arch of Lewis’s life – a child born into the Jim Crow south, the youngest speaker at the March on Washington in 1963, a leader of the civil rights marches in Selma, and a US congressman from Georgia – tying his legacy to the present-day civil rights protests ignited by the death of George Floyd, a black man under the knee of a white police officer. He then drew a line from the racist leaders who opposed civil rights in the 1960s to the policies and ideologies embraced by Donald Trump.
Continue reading...‘John Lewis worked on the side of the angels’, says Nancy Pelosi – video
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi held back tears as she delivered an emotional remembrance of civil rights icon John Lewis at his funeral in Atlanta. Pelosi, who worked with Lewis for more than 30 years, said: ‘We always knew he worked on the side of the angels, and now he is with them’
Continue reading...How Trump is emboldening other countries’ ‘bad behavior’ on the climate crisis
Global voices in the crisis say a US exit from the Paris agreement is damaging, but the fact no other country is leaving shows it can survive this ‘ultimate stress test’
The origins of the world’s historic agreement to tackle climate change, in Paris in 2015, have some familiar themes. Back in 2007, there was a Republican president in the White House who had long been hostile to any action on climate change.
George W Bush had refused to give US backing to a new global roadmap on the climate.
Continue reading...Joe Biden’s running mate – none will satisfy all sections of the party
Kamala Harris? Val Demings? Democrats speculate but no single candidate will be able to satisfy all the interest groups and sectors of the party
It doesn’t matter who Joe Biden picks as his running mate – somebody will be disappointed.
The former vice-president and de facto Democratic presidential nominee on Tuesday said he would make a selection in the first week of August.
Continue reading...‘Too much power’: Congress grills top tech CEOs in combative antitrust hearing
- Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google executives face criticism over online dominance
- Lawmakers condemn Facebook’s Instagram merger – live
The US’s top tech bosses were told they have “too much power”, are censoring political speech, spreading fake news and “killing” the engines of the American economy, at a combative congressional hearing on Wednesday.
The historic hearing in Washington saw Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google’s parent Alphabet appear before members of the House judiciary’s antitrust subcommittee and face intense questioning from lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.
Continue reading...US passes 150,000 coronavirus deaths amid fresh surge in cases
Six months after first cases emerged in US, hospitals are under strain in multiple states
The US has crossed the threshold of 150,000 confirmed deaths from Covid-19, just six months after the first cases were diagnosed in China and with the outbreak far from under control.
The American death toll is the highest in the world by a significant margin and reached 150,034 on Wednesday, according to the Johns Hopkins University world coronavirus tracker.
Continue reading...Joe Biden’s climate bet – putting jobs first will bring historic change
The presumptive Democrat presidential nominee is picking a path through the perilous politics of the economy and the climate crisis
Faced with a disgruntled climate voter during the primary season who wanted him to be tougher on the oil and gas industry, Joe Biden shot him one of his infamous “why don’t you go vote for someone else” responses.
But that was six months ago.
Continue reading...Trump says ‘nobody likes me’ when asked about Fauci’s absence – live
- Biden says president has failed in his duty to care for entire country
- Attorney general bemoans the ‘demonization of police’ at House committee hearing
- Twitter restricts Donald Trump Jr’s account over Covid misinformation
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From me and Joan E Greve:
Mayor Jenny Durkan said that federal law enforcement sent to Seattle have left, less than a week after being deployed. In an interview with MSNBC, Durkan said that Trump was “doing a dress rehearsal for martial law” in her city.
.@DHSgov notified me that federal forces deployed to Seattle have demobilized & left. The President’s actions to target Democratic cities with federal forces is chilling and increased violence in Portland, Seattle & other cities - exactly what the President intended.
Continue reading...Covid-19: Florida reports record one-day deaths as concerns grow for other states
- 191 people died in Florida in 24 hours and Texas cases rise
- Pressure on Congress to pass another huge stimulus package
Florida reported another record one-day rise in coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, and cases in Texas passed the 400,000 mark, fueling fear that the United States is still not taking control of the outbreak and adding pressure on Congress to pass another massive economic aid package.
Related: Coronavirus live news: Italy extends state of emergency as WHO warns of 'one big wave'
Continue reading...‘Beyond the pale’: antics of Trump ambassadors highlight crisis in US diplomacy
The president has given key diplomatic roles to big donors – who have stood out for their lack of qualifications or aptitude
The US ambassador to Iceland, a dermatologist and major Republican donor, reportedly became so paranoid about his security he asked to carry a gun and to be taken everywhere in an armoured car.
Related: Bill Clinton pushed 'appeasement' of Serbs after Srebrenica massacre
Continue reading...Mrs America’s Uzo Aduba: ‘It’s worth examining the shortcomings of our feminist heroes’
She stole the show in Orange Is the New Black. Now the actor is playing the first black woman to seek the US presidency – and rejecting suggestions she gets a ‘Hollywood smile’
Shirley Chisholm was a woman of many firsts. She was the first black woman elected to Congress, the first black candidate to seek the presidency, and the first woman, full-stop, to participate in a US presidential debate. She introduced more than 50 pieces of legislation, most championing racial, economic and gender equality, and is often credited as paving the way for Barack Obama. In doing so, she occupied a space that many black women recognise: the solitary seat as the only such face at the table.
Uzo Aduba, who plays Chisholm in the acclaimed new FX series Mrs America, says that this was a key factor in bringing this formidable politician to life. “That feeling of being the ‘only’,” she says, speaking via Zoom with a warm smile on her face. “It was important to get that right.”
Continue reading...Trump’s national security adviser tests positive for coronavirus
- White House insists ‘no risk’ of Trump being exposed
- Photos of Robert O’Brien’s Europe trip show lack of mask usage
- US politics – live updates
The national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, has tested positive for the coronavirus, but the White House insisted there was “no risk” of Donald Trump being exposed.
Related: Texas hospital forced to set up 'death panel' as Covid-19 cases surge
Continue reading...US nears 150,000 Covid-19 deaths as Republicans and Democrats pitch opposing plans – live
- Republicans are proposing $1tn while Democrats want closer to $4tn
- How the global climate fight could be lost if Trump is re-elected
- Inside the elite border patrol unit Trump sent to Portland
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On Friday, the US supreme court ruled against a Nevada church which said coronavirus-inspired limits on attendance were unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court’s four liberals on the case, causing further angst on the right.
Now, the Associated Press reports that “more than 40 people were infected with the coronavirus after attending a multi-day revival event at a north Alabama Baptist church, according to the congregation’s pastor.
“The whole church has got it, just about,” Al.com quoted pastor Daryl Ross of Warrior Creek Missionary Baptist Church in Marshall county as saying.
The pastor says the churchgoers, including himself, tested positive after the congregation held a series of religious services featuring a guest pastor over several days last week.
Related: John Roberts sides with supreme court liberals over Nevada church Covid opening
There has been another night of trouble in Portland, where protesters for policing reform and against structural racism have been out every night since the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis at the end of May.
Once again, confrontations centered on the federal courthouse in downtown Portland, where agents sent in by Trump are based.
Ammunition and destructive devices recovered at Lownsdale Square Park (Photo) https://t.co/k4ZmvTzlh6 pic.twitter.com/xHaLZM8uWi
Related: Portland: protesters bring down fence as confrontation with Trump agents rises
Continue reading...Anti-fascists linked to zero murders in the US in 25 years
As Trump rails against ‘far-left’ fascism, new database shows leftwing attacks have left far fewer people dead than violence by rightwing extremists
Donald Trump has made warnings about the threat of antifa and “far-left fascism” a central part of his re-election campaign. But in reality leftwing attacks have left far fewer people dead than violence by rightwing extremists, new research indicates, and antifa activists have not been linked to a single murder in decades.
A new database of nearly 900 politically motivated attacks and plots in the United States since 1994 includes just one attack staged by an anti-fascist that led to fatalities. In that case, the single person killed was the perpetrator.
Continue reading...‘These are his people’: inside the elite border patrol unit Trump sent to Portland
Bortac, a quasi-militarised outfit equivalent to the Navy Seals, has been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan
In January 2011, James Tomsheck, then a top internal affairs investigator inside US Customs and Border Protection, attended a meeting of about 100 senior CBP leaders in a hotel in Irvington, Virginia.
Amid the sanitized splendor of the hotel ballroom, he vividly recalls hearing the nation’s then highest-ranking border patrol agent, David Aguilar, laying out his vision for the future. Border patrol, the former CBP deputy commissioner said, was to become the “marine corps of the US federal law enforcement community”.
Continue reading...Tom Cotton calls slavery ‘necessary evil’ in attack on New York Times’ 1619 Project
- Republican gives interview to Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
- Senator wants to ‘save’ US history from New York Times
The Arkansas Republican senator Tom Cotton has called the enslavement of millions of African people “the necessary evil upon which the union was built”.
Related: Trump aims barb at Reagan Foundation in fundraising coin kerfuffle
Continue reading...Coronavirus US: polls put Biden ahead of Trump as deaths top 1,000 a day – live
- Texas hospital sets up ‘death panel’ as Covid-19 cases surge
- How Hawaii avoided a spike – but damaged its economy
- ‘White as hell’: are Portland protests eclipsing BLM?
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Shortly before he departed on Air Force One from Morristown Municipal Airport en route to Washington, Donald Trump announced that he will not be throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before a Red Sox-Yankees game at Yankee Stadium next month due to scheduling conflicts.
“Because of my strong focus on the China Virus, including scheduled meetings on Vaccines, our economy and much else, I won’t be able to be in New York to throw out the opening pitch for the @Yankees on August 15th,” he wrote on Twitter. “We will make it later in the season!”
Because of my strong focus on the China Virus, including scheduled meetings on Vaccines, our economy and much else, I won’t be able to be in New York to throw out the opening pitch for the @Yankees on August 15th. We will make it later in the season!
The news website ProPublica has published a database containing complaint information for thousands of New York City police officers days after a federal judge paused the public release of such records.
The Associated Press reports:
ProPublica posted the database Sunday, explaining in a note to readers that it isn’t obligated to comply with judge Katherine Polk Failla’s temporary restraining order because it is not a party to a union lawsuit challenging the release of such records.
Deputy managing editor Eric Umansky said ProPublica requested the information from the city’s police watchdog agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, soon after last month’s repeal of state law that for decades had prevented the disclosure of disciplinary records.
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