The Oh, Hello, welcome to Behind the News. My name is Doug Henwood. The usual

two guests today, first and second, Jason Wilson will comment on Trump's

pardon of a father-son team of far-right ranchers and a recent far-right

riot in Portland.

And then Christie Thornton will analyze Mexican politics after Amlow's victory in the recent

election.

On July 10th, Trump pardoned a father-son team of

ranchers, Dwight and Stephen Hammond. They were doing five years for

arson and federal land, sentences that inspired the armed occupation of a

federal wildlife refuge in Oregon in 2016.

This follows Trump's pardon of the horrid Joe Arpio, former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona.

Both pardons are friendly gestures to Trump's friends on the right. The Hamons were convicted

under a 1996 anti-terrorism law. I don't like the expansive use of the charge of terrorism, and those

were long sentences, but Trump's message seems to be that it's

okay to take violent action against the U.S. government if you're white and right.

Here's Jason Wilson who covers that crowd for the Guardian out of his base in Portland.

He'll also tell us about a riot led by a right-wing group called Patriot Prayer

with reinforcements coming from the Proud Boys, a fighting organization founded by Gavin

McKinness, co-founder of Vice magazine.

Jason Wilson. What do you make of Trump's pardon of the Hammonds?

Whatever President Trump's intentions or motivations, it's difficult for anybody to read this as anything

other than a victory, not only for the Hammonds, but for the Bundies and those who occupied a federal facility in Harney County in 2016, they've got pretty much everything they want, including a partial dismamblement of some public lands by the Trump administration.

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