Today on Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod, our weekly roundtable is back!
Congressional elections, known as the midterms. States are just days away and the future of the country, if not the world, remains at stake. The elections are about race, with Donald Trump seemly happy in his role as white supremacist in chief. Indeed, he is hoping to bring home the elections for the GOP by running racist ads, calling for 15,000 troops at the border to protect the U.S. from the migrant caravan, which he calls an "invasion." In his role as commander in chief, Trump has told the troops he is sending to the border to shoot any rock-throwing migrants. Additionally, he is attacking birth rights enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. He has called Andrew Gillum, a Black man running for governor in Florida, a "thief" and more. It is reported that the administration is aiming to move the focus from unification to invasion.
All of this is interrelated to the spate of home-grown terrorism over the past few weeks. The mailing of home-made bombs to Democrats who have been especially critical of Trump, which fell under the radar for what it was: a mass assassination attempt. The murders of two Black people by a racist in Kentucky, after he failed to gain entrance into a Black church. No doubt lives were saved because the doors of the church were locked. The slaughter of 11 Jewish people while they were in the Tree of Life Synagogue, a massacre that was a combination of the killers anti-semitism and his belief in Trump's declaration that the migrant caravan is an invading force. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), which helps migrants and immigrants, was based at the synagogue.
It remains to be seen if Democrats will come out to vote in the numbers needed to defeat Trumpism, and if those numbers will be sufficient to overcome voter suppression laws put in place in 34 states since the 2013 SCOTUS decision to scrap the heart out of the hard-won Voting Rights Act. Predictions continue to be that the Democrats will likely retake the House but not the Senate and indeed may lose a few Senate seats.
And on the international front, a disturbing result of the presidential election in Brazil; the U.S. ally Saudi Arabia is getting away with murder of a Washington Post journalist. After all, business is more important, and to Trump friend Benjamin Netanyahu, one can't let the murder of Khashoggi get in the way of the alliance with the Saudis against Iran. On the Pacific front, China is looking for alternatives to continue to build its economy despite the trade war with the U.S. And the U.S. continues its saber rattling aimed at China.
Our weekly roundtable guests are Laura Carlsen, Jackie Goldberg and Dr. Gerald Horne.