Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20160818

Running mate longtime human rights activist ajamu baraka. Ten p was to bring something ve dferom the traditional parties. We want to engage the mac and people in an honest conversation about democracy, power, and the electoral process. Amy plus we will go to north dakota where the Standing Rock sioux tribe is leading a weeklong protest against the Dakota Access pipeline. We will speak with the former green eyes president ial nominee Winona Laduke. All of that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The American Red Cross is calling this weeks flooding in louisiana the worst disaster in the u. S. Since Hurricane Sandy in 2012. At least 13 people were killed after historic rainfall submerged parts of baton rouge and the surrounding area. State Officials Say the destruction may result in the worst housing crisis in the region since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The federal government has declared the area a disaster zone and state Officials Say more than 5000 people remain in emergency shelters. This is a volunteer in acadia parish, louisiana, where Public Schools remain closed and a curfew remains in place amid the devastating flooding. It is very scary. God has a reason, i just dont know what it is yet. The rain is coming some more. We just dont know what to do. Were going were china get stuff coming in, but everything is blocked. The owner is running to walmart and buying crates and crates of milk so we can pass out here to our Little People in our community. Amy the Louisiana Governors Office has said at least 40,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed. In livingston parish, home to about 138,000 people, it is estimated 75 of the homes have been lost. Aetna, the u. S. s Third Largest Health Insurance company says it , will significantly cut its participation in the Affordable Care acts marketplaces next year after the department of justice moved to block its merger with another health care company. Aetna claimed it faces more than 300 million in losses this year as a result of the exchange. But a letter in july, the aetna reduceeaten aetna would its participation in the exchange if the Justice Department blocked its merger with Health Insurance company humana. Bertolini wrote if the doj sues to enjoin the transaction, we will immediately take action to reduce our 2017 exchange footprint. Aetna reported a 38 increase in its overall profits last year, despite the loss it reported on the public exchanges. Last month, the Justice Department also sued to block a merger between healthcare giants cigna and anthem, which would be the largest heath insurance merger in u. S. History. In news from the campaign trail, democratic president ial candidate Hillary Clinton took aim at Donald Trumps record as an employer during a speech in ohio wednesday. Mrs. Clinton it just really hits me personally when people are standing up and telling our stories they were small plumbers,eepe people, painters, who worked for donald trump, and he refused to play them. If you do your job, youre supposed to be rewarded for your work. Not go sue somebody. Amy donald trump was in new york yesterday for his first classified intelligence briefing with the fbi. Meanwhile, lawmakers in washington, d. C. , began reviewing fbi documents on wednesday detailing the agencys investigation into Hillary Clintons use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state. The large binders labeled secret were made available to lawmakers after republicans requested the information last month, following the fbis decision to recommend no criminal charges be brought against clinton over the email use. The state department has also said it will release some of clintons emails to the conservative Watchdog Group Judicial Watch. Meanwhile, Clintons Campaign continues to face questions after 44 state Department Emails released to Judicial Watch revealed close ties between the Clinton Foundation and the state department during clintons time as secretary of state. Meanwhile, steve bannon, the chair of the right wing outlet Breitbart News, has taken over as Donald Trumps campaign chief. Bannon is a former Goldman Sachs executive who has built Breitbart News into a far rightwing website that regularly sparks controversy with headlines such as Birth Control makes women unattractive and crazy, and trannies whine about hilarious bruce jenner billboard. The website regularly attacks mainstream figures of the republican party, such as former House Speaker john boehner or former Florida Governor jeb bush. Bannon himself is considered to be the most influential figure in conservative media, after former fox news chairman roger ailes, who is also advising Donald Trumps campaign. A 2015 profile of bannon called him the most dangerous political operative in america. In international news, the New York Times and the guardian editorial boards are calling for the u. S. And british governments to end their support saudi arabias war in yemen. In an editorial published wednesday entitled america is complicit in the carnage in yemen the times wrote wednesday congress should put the arms sales on hold and president obama should quietly inform riyadh that the United States will withdraw crucial assistance if the saudis do not stop targeting civilians and agree to negotiate peace. With u. S. And british support, saudi arabia has been bombing yemen for 16 months, causing the majority of the conflicts civilian casualties. Last week, the u. S. Approved the sale of more than 1 billion of new weapons to the saudis. Since taking office, the Obama Administration has approved more than 110 billion in weapons sales to saudi arabia. The office of u. N. Secretary general ban kimoon has acknowledged that the u. N. Played a role in a cholera epidemic that killed more than 9000 people. The u. N. Said it would issue a new set of responses to the outbreak in the next two months. U. N. Peacekeepers are accused of negligently bringing cholera to haiti during their deployment following the 2010 haitian earthquake. A lawsuit in u. S. Federal courts seeks billions for victims. Bans admission does not change the u. N. s stance it has legal immunity under a 1946 convention. Meanwhile in south sudan, the u. N. Is launching an investigation into allegations that u. N. Peacekeepers did not attempt to prevent multiple cases of abuse and Sexual Violence against civilians. Last month, troops fighting on behalf of south sudanese president salva kiir went on a nearly fourhour rampage through a hotel compound frequented by foreign aid workers. Witnesses say civilians were gang raped and a journalist was executed in the attack. Several witnesses told the Associated Press that u. N. Peacekeepers stationed nearby did nothing to stop the violence despite pleas for assistance from those inside the compound. In turkey, at least five Police Officers were killed and more than 100 people wounded by car bomb attacks in eastern turkey on wednesday and thursday. The turkish government blamed the attacks on kurdistan workers party, known as the pkk. Earlier this week, turkish authorities shut down a newspaper in istanbul and arrested some of its staff after claiming the paper supported the pkk. The newspapers closure is part of an ongoing crackdown on dissent in turkey following a failed military coup in july. The Australian Government says it will close the Manus Island Immigration Detention Center after reports of harsh conditions and rampant abuse there, including for child detainees. Manus is one of the two offshore detention facilities australia uses for asylumseeking migrants. Many of those at the manus island facility have spent years in detention and suffer from Mental Health issues. The Australian Government has so far said none of those detained inmanus would be resettled australia, but the head said he would welcome the resettlement. Particularly for families, as long as they dont present a security or safety risk, are welcome in australia. The one thing i find unacceptable is children in detention. Amy in illinois, the governor has signed intotic workers bill of rights, which grants Domestic Workers protections under the states labor statutes, including minimum wage, overtime and time , off. Domestic workers are not covered by state or federal labor laws, though some states have similar bills. Wendy pollack of the Sargent Shriver National Center on poverty law, said this is really historic because the exclusion of Domestic Workers from federal and state employment laws has an unfortunate history in slavery and antiimmigrant sentiment. In oklahoma, Funeral Services will be held friday for Khalid Jabara, the lebanese man police say was killed by his nextdoor neighbor in a possible hate crime. Police say stanley majors will be charged with first degree murder for mondays murder and acknowledged he had a longstanding animosity toward jabaras family. Majors is already facing Assault Charges for hitting haifa jabara, khalids mother, with his car last year while she was jogging. Before that, haifa jabara already had a restraining order against majors after he had threatened and harassed her. Despite all this, majors was released on bail earlier this year and returned to his home. The jabaras say majors had threatened them and used racial slurs repeatedly since 2013. Majors had been arrested at least once for violating the restraining order before hitting haifa jabara with his car. 10 minutes before he was shot on monday, Khalid Jabara called police to report suspicious activity around the familys home. Police left without speaking to majors, but admitted to journalists later that majors was known to be hostile toward the jabaras. Victoria Jabara Williams wrote on facebook my family lived in fear of this man and his hatred for years. Yet in may, not even one year after he ran over our mother and despite our repeated protests, he was released from jail with no conditions on his bond no ankle monitor, no drug alcohol testing, nothing. University of california at berkeley chancellor Nicholas Dirks will resign after criticism of his handling of Sexual Harassment cases and the universitys budget. In one case, the Law School Dean received only a temporary pay cut and orders to undergo counseling after an investigation supported claims he had sexually harassed a subordinate. And in brazil American Olympic , swimmers gunnar bentz and jack conger were pulled off a plane for questioning as a were preparing to leave rio amid suspicions that they and their teammate may have lied about their account of being robbed at gunpoint by people posing as Police Officers. Toldu. S. Olympic swimmers deal of the committee they were robbed, but Brazilian Police say the discrepancies in the swimmers reports. Police say closedcircuit tv contradict their stories. In brazil, filing a false Police Report is a crime. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Preparations have begun for the first president ial debate which will be held on at hofstra september 26 university in long island new york. While polls show donald trump and Hillary Clinton are among the least popular Major Party Candidates to ever run for the white house, it appears no third Party Candidates will be invited to take part. The debates are organized by the commission on president ial debates which is controlled by the democratic and republican parties. Under the commissions rules candidates will only be invited , if they are polling at 15 in five national surveys. Libertarian president ial candidate gary johnson and the greens dr. Jill stein have both witnessed surges in support but neither have crossed the 15 threshold. Johnson has polled as high as 12 nationwide, while stein has peaked at 6 in recent national polls. But in some demographics they , are both beating donald trump. Mcclatchy recently polled voters under the age of 30 and found 41 back Hillary Clinton, 23 support johnson, 16 back jill stein, while only 9 support for donald trump. Among africanamericans, polls also show trump behind all three other candidates, pulling at 0 , 1 or 2 . , more than 12,000 people have recently signed a petition organized by rootsaction calling for a fourway president ial debate. In a moment we will be joined by , the green partys jill stein and her running mate ajamu baraka, but first, i want to turn to george farrah, the founder and executive director of open debates. He spoke on democracy now in if you years ago about how the democrats and republicans took control of the debate process. Debateda president ial process from 1976 until 1984, and they were a very courageous, genuinely nonpartisan sponsor. Whenever the candidates attempted to manipulate the debates behind closed doors, either to exclude a viable independent candidate or two sanitize the format, the league had the candidate to challenge the nominees and of necessary, go public. In 1980, John Anderson was polling about 12 of the polls. The league insisted anderson be allowed to participate because the vast majority of people wanted to see him but jimmy carter to president jimmy carter refused to debate him. The league held a president ial debate with an empty chair showing jimmy carter was not going to show up. Four years later when they tried to get rid of difficult questions by vetoing 80 of the moderators that their proposed to host the debates, the league said it was unacceptable and held a press conference and attack the campaigns for trying to get rid of difficult questions. The first attempt by the republican and democratic campaigns to negotiate a detailed contract in 1988. 12 pages. It talked about who could be in the audience and how the format would be structured, but the league found that kind of lack of transparency in that kind of candidate control to be fundamentally outrageous. They released the contract and stated it refused to be an accessory to the hoodwink of the American People and refused to implement it. Today, what do we have . A private corporation created by the republican and democratic parties called the commission on president ial debates. It seized control of the debate precisely because the league was independent, some precisely because this womans organization had the guts to stand up to the Major Party Candidates that have been nominated. Amy that was george farah, founder and executive director of open debates speaking on democracy now in 2012. He is the author of no debate how the republican and democratic parties secretly control the president ial debates. Well joining us now is green Party President ial nominee dr jill stein along with her running mate ajamu baraka, a longtime human rights activist. He is the founding executive director of the u. S. Human Rights Network and coordinator of the u. S. Based black left unity Networks Committee on international affairs. We welcome you both to democracy now september 26, the first president ial debate. What are your plans, dr. Jill stein . Our plans are to be in that debate because it is not just about whether our party will be included. It is whether the American People will have a voice, whether we will have a real discussion of the crisis of jobs, of the climate, of race, of war. These and the crisis of a generation and an entire generation that is basically hung out to dry that cannot get out of predatory student loan debt, that does not have the jobs, and does not have the climate future to look forward to. These are the Critical Issues that people want to discuss. We saw incredible surge of a response last night when we had our first prime time tv. I want to know while we have come up to 6 and 7 in the polls, this has happened without any Media Coverage whatsoever in the mainstream media. So it is absolutely remarkable that we have not only doubled and tripled, even more than that because we were invisible as of about two months ago in the polls, suddenly, we are up there. There is an enormous interest in what were talking about. To 2012. S go back the debate was at hofstra, as it will be on september 26. You and your running mate, then cheri honkala, were arrested as you attempted to enter the site of the president ial debate at hofstra. Democracy now was there at the time of their arrest. We are here to stand our ground for the American People who have been systematically locked out of these debates for decades by the commission on president ial debates. We think that the commission is entirely illegitimate, that if democracy truly revealed, there would be no such commission. That the debates would still be run by the league of women voters. That the debates would be open with the criteria that the league of women voters had always used, which was that if you have done the work to get on the ballot, if you are on the ballot and could actually win the Electoral College by being on the ballot in enough states, that you deserve to be in the election. And deserve to be heard. And that the American People actually deserve to hear choices which are not bought and paid for by multinational corporations and wall street. Ladies and children, you are starting obstructing traffic. If you refuse to move, you will be arrested. We will help you. Thank you, ladies. Thank you. Come with us. Just come with us. All right, everybody, were going to ask you to please move back. I say this is what democracy looks like in the 21st century. I am afraid it is going to take [indiscernible] more to come. Amy more to come come you said. So you are taken away, dr. Jills nine, from the hofstra campus. Where were you taken . We were taken to a dark site were nobody knew her we were, and unmarked facility that was basically being run by, i think, homeland security. And the secret service and local police. We were surrounded, according to 16 police and colleagues, and handcuffed tightly to these metal chairs for about seven hours. Amy seven hours . Debates hours until the were long over and everyone had gone home. I think it was an incredible testimony to how fearful the political establishment was and is that people should learn that actually have another choice in that race and all the more so in this race. Because we know the current candidates of the democratic and republican parties are the most unpopular, the most disliked, and most and trusted president ial candidates in history. So people are clamoring for another choice. We are building a campaign to get into the debates and will keep people posted as to what our actions will be coming up. But we will not leave this just to the establishment to shut whicholitical opposition, is what this commission is doing. Amy do you plan to head to hofstra on september 26 . Absolutely. Whether we are in the debate or locked out of the debate, you can be sure we will be there. We will not be alone. We will be there with the American People who are demanding that we open up the debate and make it a real service to our democracy. Amy you have sued . , one ofve two cases which has been dismissed. The other one is still technically in effect. Were not holding our breath. Were not holding our breath that this will be favorably decided in a court of law, but there is every reason for this to be decided in the court of Public Opinion. Where Public Opinion is very clear that people have had it, not only with the rigged economy, but the rigged political system and with the dialogue, which is rigged by the democratic and republican parties. This commission is a private corporation run by the two Political Parties the league of women voters called it a fraud, being perpetrated on the american public. Were not going to settle for that. Amy i spoke to libertarian president ial candidate gary johnson in his home state of new mexico. He talked about the unfair nature of the president ial debate system as well. Right now running for the president of the United States as a libertarian, there is no way of their party wins. There is no way that i have a chance of winning unless i am in the president ial debates. There is the possibility of being at 15 in the polls, in the polls,m that i can be the president ial debate. Amy you are part of a lawsuit going after the president ial Debate Commission . Yes, on the basis of the sherman act that politics is a business, that democrats and republicans collude with one another to exclude everybody else. We think the discovery phase of this lawsuit is going to provide National Insight into just how rigged this system is. I come back to the fact that 50 of americans right now declare themselves as independent. Where is that representation . Amy that was former new mexico Governor Terry johnson who is running on the libertarian line for president. Stein. Alking to dr. Jill when we come back from break, you will meet her running mate, ajamu baraka, the Vice President ial nominee for the green party. Stay with us. [music break] amy the folk duo somebodys sister. Yes, that is dr. Jill stein on vocals. The green Party President ial nominee. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. With Green Party Nominee dr. Jill stein and her running mate amu baraka, a longtime human rights activist. He is a founding executive director of the u. S. Human Rights Network, coordinator of the usbased black left unity Networks Committee on international affairs. You are new to the electoral. Een, ajamu baraka tell us a little bit about yourself. You grew up in chicago . Southside ofon the chicago. I ended up in the military. After the military, i ended up in the south and i went south to organize in the mid to late 1970s. There i got involved in a lot of the antiapartheid work along with community organizing. I was involved in the Central America Solidarity Movement organizing delegations to nicaragua, in support of the revolution in that country. And all the time moving toward human rights. Ended up volunteering with Amnesty International and ended up on the board in the mid1990s. I saw myself as someone that was trying to continue the legacy of the boys and malcolm in terms of internationalizing the struggle of African People in the u. S. E. B. You mentioned w duboise. It is where you went to school. I went to grad school. It is were you went in the 1980s if you were a radical, a black radical, and that was the place i ended up going. I do chance to go other places but it was recommended to me to go if i really wanted to stick myself in the kind of theory that we needed to advance the struggle in this country. Amy so talk about the u. S. Human Rights Network that you set up, and explain what you did there. The network was the First Network ever established in this country to apply International Human rights standards of long to the United States of america. People tend to think of human rights issues being something out there and other places. Passxcluding and giving a to the u. S. We said we have to have one standard for all nations. This network quickly grew to over 300 organizations from 20 or 30. Most of the civil rights and human rights organizations in the country ended up a part of that network. We held u. S. Accountable. We organized around human rights. We educated people on human rights. We took people to geneva to testify on their own behalf. We talked about the agency of people in terms of how we build and enforce our own human rights. So this was part of a radical reinterpretation of human rights. Any code that is significant. I remember being there years ago in the early 1990s testifying about what was happening in east timor. There was the u. S. Delegation theyre talking about what is often referred to in the u. S. As civil rights, talking about what happens to africanamericans here, but bringing it to an international forum. Reframe civil you rights and why you see it as an International Issue that should be dealt with by an international body, why you saw the u. N. As a place for that. At the end of the second world war, du boise and others understood we had internationalized our struggle will stop they saw the framework we had was in fact a human rights framework. What we said in the 1990s was that we were going from civil rights back to human rights. Basically, it was clear the u. S. Was not prepared to not only protect the Constitutional Rights of africanamericans and others, but they had completely ignored the human rights obligations that they had. For us, it was reconnecting. It was connecting our struggles with the rest of the world step because what is happening around the world is an International Struggle for freedom. A struggle against oppression. A struggle that says basically we all have certain fundamental rights that we have a right to live in dignity. Therefore, we wanted to link up with that International Struggle. The only way you do that is within the context of the human rights framework. Amy and so how do you view, for example, the black lives Matter Movement today . Does it give you hope . It gives me a lot of hope. These are human rights fighters. I am so proud at the evolution of that movement. The recent release of their platform, the movement for black lives, that is, about a week or a real demonstrated understanding of the interrelated issues that we have to fight against in this country and globally. One aspect of their platform was that they understood, like the insncc in thes 1960s, yet to connect of internationally. They expressed their solidarity with the struggling people of palestine. That was very, very significant because that puts them squarely within the context of the proud tradition of black internationalism. I am very, very encouraged by the evolution. Amy as the Vice President ial candidate now, what do you want to see in israel, palestine . We want to see peace in a recognition of the rights of palestinians for cell determination. We want to see an end to the colonial relationship. Palestinians want to live. They dont to be subjected to the kind of brutality that is part of their everyday life. Ive been a palestine. Ive seen the reality. At a chance to move across the entire west bank. I think of any person in this country, instead a chance to go to palestine and experience and see what i saw, there is no way that they could support the notion that it was an automatic sort of moral obligation to support the existence and the continuation of the israeli states ability to impose itself on the palestinian people. They would be opposed to that. Amy how has your message, dr. Jill stein, on israel palestine, demanding the planks in the green party platform, been covered and received . Well, really, none of our planks have been covered. Not only our position on israel palestine, our position on Foreign Policy, our position on jobs and climate and student debt. We basically have been disappeared from the mainstream conversation. But i have to say, you know, in terms of our own outreach, you know, the reach of our social media in our campaign and the independent media like yourself, that actually, does its job responsibly, the reception has been incredible. We have been able to put israel how stein into a much broader human rights framework, actually. One of the big criticisms that has always been leveled against, for example, the dbs bds campaign against this occupying force, this military force, one of the criticisms is, oh, youre singling out israel. We have made it a point to say, we are not singling out anybody. This is a general standard of International Law and human rights that our administration, the green and administration, would apply to all countries. We are saying, if countries are in violation of International Law and human rights as israel is for its occupations, its home demolitions, its assassinations and so on, we will not support you. Were supporting israel to the tune of 8 million a day. We will say the same thing to the saudis. We should not be selling weapons or otherwise supporting the saudis. As you pointed out on the show, 110 billion in the last decade and rising despite the human rights abuses and the war crimes being committed by the saudis assistance, and fact. This is one of many issues i think people are clamoring to hear more about. Amy do you join the call of the New York Times and the guardian editorial boards for u. S. And british governments to end their support of saudi arabia . I would say there are joining our call, which has been longstanding. Amy i am talking to both of you, but it is conceivable you would have occupied ajamu baraka plus position as Vice President ial nominee if you got the deal you are trying to cement with Bernie Sanders to be top of the ticket of the green party once he lost the Democratic Party nomination. It was an . That,we made the sanders lets sit down and talk. Lets collaborate because this is an incredibly historic moment. He had an incredibly Historic Campaign that really unveiled how much momentum there is for deep change here. Not that we aligned completely, especially around Foreign Policy and on issues of student debt someo on there were distance between us. And he was beginning to move in our direction. We said, lets sit down and explore how we can collaborate and bring this to the green party convention. Because as a candidate, i obviously could not say, here, bernie will be our nominee, anymore than i could say i will be our nominee. It is up to the delegates. But if we saw i die and bernie can understand why it is that we need an independent thirdparty politics, why you cannot have a revolutionary campaign inside of a counterrevolutionary party that essentially severed ties Bernies Campaign is so many ways, as we saw from the email revelations from the very fact of the superdelegates that took decisionmaking out of the hands of the democratic process. Amy did you ever speak to Bernie Sanders . We tried many times. Amy when you say we, you mean you tried . I tried. The green party tribe. We are many people trying for us. We at emails delivered to him and we know did get into his hands. Bernie said from the start he was in this to basically support and continue building the Democratic Party. He has ironically not been a supporter of independent third parties, although nominally he has been one, but he doesnt believe in actually standing up and challenging power in an electoral way. I think theres a generational difference between bernie and his vision of the democrats as the party of a new deal and a Younger Generation that sees the democrats as the party of war, wall street, drone attacks. Amy although, he certainly mobilize them. Ajamu baraka, from outside and in this country, what is your assessment watching Bernie Sanders and his campaign . Do you agree . Where do you differ . I think Bernie Sanders was responsible for running the conversation in this country, no doubt about that. We were concerned, though, that the silence on the foreignpolicy issues was troubling. We understood the mecca people are ready for real change and we wanted Bernie Sanders to understand that he did not have to embrace the aggressive policies of the Obama Administration. He did not have to embrace the drone warfare. He did not have to be silent on the saudis in yemen. We had some concerns, but we know there are young people who were very committed to this revolution. And many of them have come over to the green party. And more i think are considering. I think they see were serious about really continuing this political revolution. I think, from our side of the country, people see the only alternative for real progressive politics in the u. S. Is in fact the green party. Realsee theres opportunity for us to expand the democratic process in this country, and they support it. Amy i want to go back to the Democratic Convention when one gonzalez and i hosted a debate between the pulitzer prizewinning journalist chris hedges, used to be with the New York Times and Robert Reisch about the president ial race. Hedges has endorsed the green party ticket, the two of you. Robert reisch is now backing Hillary Clinton after endorsing Bernie Sanders during the primaries. This is what the former labor secretary had to say. Im saying your conscience needs to be aware that if you do not support Hillary Clinton, you are increasing the odds of a true, clear and present danger to the United States. Amen us to the United States. You are increasing the possibility that there will not be a progressive movement, there will not be anything we believe in in the future because the United States will really be changed for the worst. That is not a risk i am prepared to take at this point in time. Im going to do exactly what i have been doing for the last 40 years. I am going to continue to beat my head against the wall, to build and contribute to building a progressive movement. The day after election day, i am going to try to work with Bernie Sanders and anybody else who wants to work in strengthening a third party. And again, maybe it is the green party, for the year 2020, and do Everything Else i was just talking about. But right now as we lead up to election day 2016, i must urge everyone who is listening or who is watching to do whatever they can to make sure that Hillary Clinton is the next president and not donald trump. Amy that is labor secretary robert rice who supported Bernie Sanders, but now is supporting Hillary Clinton. Dr. Jill stein . I mean, it is one thing to say that in the future we will build a party of resistance and another to say, well, we just cant do it now. When is this going to get better . We have been in a race to the bottom between two corporate parties that enable each other to continue moving to the right. It is that when you get better unless we make it get better. The politics of fear is basically delivered everything that we are afraid of. All of the reasons people are told to vote for the lesser evil because you did not want the expanding wars, he did not want the meltdown of the climate, the wall street bailout. That is exactly what we have gotten. The answer to this crisis and this rightwing extremism is to stand up with a truly Progressive Agenda and we have to fight for that. If were ever going to get out of this mess, we need to begin building our power now. Amy donald trump visited a milwaukee suburb on tuesday or he called for more police to patrol lowincome communities. His visit came only days after the uprising in milwaukee sparked by the Fatal Police Shooting of 23yearold africanamerican man named sylville smith. Trump spoke in front of an overwhelmingly white audience in west bend, wisconsin, which is about 95 white. Mr. Trump the problem in our poorest communities is not that there are too many police, the problem is that there are not enough police. More law enforcement, more community engagement, more effective policing is what our country needs desperately. Just like Hillary Clinton is against the miners, she is against the police. Believe me. Amy so that as donald trump. In fact, it was billed as his appeal to the africanamerican community, ajamu baraka. They said next he will be appealing to the latino community. So far, his support sort of 2 in between 0 , 1 , and the afghan american committee. Basically that was an appeal to neil fascism, and appeal to his base. It was appeal that basically deal the way we can be saved, that is white folk, is to make sure we have those dangerous black people under full control. The any kind of oppositional activity, expression of resistance, has to be crushed by the state. So we understand his game. He wont be successful. It is clear about that. He is playing with some very dark forces here in this country. That is why people arent concerned. Are concerned. That is why they are fearful. That is why the democrats weapons do her people back onto the democratic plantation. But as dr. Stein just said, we are not afraid of donald trump or anybody else. We believe in the ability of the American People to resist, to defend the mock received. So we say, when do we begin to confront these rightwing forces . Every four years, theyre going to have someone to present that is going to scare many, many people. But you know what . If those scary individuals are confronted by an organized and determined electorate and people, we are not one to be concerned about that. Amy earlier this week, donald trump repeated his call for immigration to be suspended and you ideological test for all immigrants. Mr. Trump in the cold war, we had an ideological Screening Test. The time is overdue to develop a new Screening Test for the threats we face today. I call it extreme vetting. Dr. Jills thine, jill stein, extreme vetting. He called for those who criticize the constitution or express bigotry. Thought police is what he is talking about. Lets exercise thought police over people coming into this country. Next up will be thought police over point ball who are in this country are ready people already in this country. The idea we could control terrorism by exercising thought police over people coming in is preposterous, you know, when it is people here as well who are subject to being radicalized and becoming treatments extremists because their lives are me miserable. We are a different way forward. We do not need to simply sit in terror of what donald trump represents because we not only have solutions to these crises, we have the numbers that it takes. We dont need to be a movement that splits the vote. We cou in fact actually flip the vote. Amy let me play and add that Hillary Clinton has released. I believe tomorrow donald trump. Ill be releasing his first we dont know exactly the role roger ailes is playing, famous for his advising george h. W. Bush, reagan, and others. We know what is said behind the scenes as he is helping donald trump prep for the debate. But this is Hillary Clintons ad that has been titled role models about donald trump. I love the old days. You know with these to do to guys like that in a place like this . They would be carried out on a stretcher, folks. And you can tell them to go [bleep] themselves. I could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and to somebody and i would not lose any voters, ok . When mexico since its people, their bringing drugs, bringing crime, rapists. You can see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever. Oh, i dont i said. I dont remember. Our children and grandchildren will look back at this time at the choices we are about to make, the goals we will strive for, the principles we will live by, and we need to make sure that they can be proud of us. Iam Hillary Clinton and approved this message. Any code that is being seen as whatever position you take, as one of the most powerful in many years. Donald trump in his own w. But it is a challenge to you. This probably the most powerful challenge to their parties, what who are clinton is, can we afford this . Is this who you want to be . For our radio listeners, they continued showing donald trump saying those things with children watching. The children are watching. What this ad says is we must vote against donald trump. It does not tell us what we are voting for. And that is exactly the problem. That donald trump represents this rightwing extremism, this neofascism. That does not go away by bringing in another set of neoliberal policies. Remember where this economic crisis came from, that is lifting up the insecurity and thatmic misery undergirds donald trump. This comes from the policies that were led by the clintons, by bill and advocated by hillary, including wall street deregulation, including nafta and the off shoring of our jobs, including the 1990s crime bill and the opening of the floodgates to mass incarceration. He solutions that Hillary Clinton provides are more of the same. It will be more of that Economic Security and misery that feeds rightwing extremism. This is not the alternative to donald trump. And we agree, lets not vote for donald trump, but lets vote for a future that actually serves the needs of the American People. That wont come from a candidate like hillary was sponsored by the banks and the war profiteers. Amy dr. Jill stein and ajamu president ial party adVice President ial nominees. Were going to go to north dakota, but we will speak with the former Vice President ial nominee Winona Laduke about in Energy Struggle that is going on in north dakota. And maybe she has some advice, having run in 1996 and also in 2000 along with ralph nader, as a green party candidate, and what that process was like. This is democracy now be ine come back, we will bismarck, north dakota. Stay with us. [music break] amy a tribe called red. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We turn now to a growing protest in north dakota where hundreds of indigenous activists have shut down construction on a multibillion dollar pipeline project. The 3. 8 billion Dakota Access pipeline is slated to carry half a Million Barrels of bakken crude from north dakota to illinois. But members of the Standing Rock sioux tribe say the pipeline threatens to contaminate the missouri river, which provides water not only for thousands of residents on the reservation, but also for millions of People Living downstream. On april 1, members of the Standing Rock sioux tribe launched an ongoing protest camp called sacred stone. Since late july when u. S. Army corps of engineers approved the pipeline, at least 28 people have been arrested as people have used their bodies and horses to block heavy construction. This is one of the protesters. We do this for the next generations. We do this for the unborn children that are coming to this world. We are protecting the water. Our water is life. We will not let it get desecrated. They are not allowed to make no pipelines on this land. Pipeline,ore on the were joined by Winona Laduke , executive director of the group honor the earth. Were also joined by joye braun, indigenous environmental network. Lets begin with Winona Laduke. What are you demanding right now . And for people who have never heard of this action, please, place it for us geographically and in the bigger context of energy activism. Well, hello there. Just to be clear, i come from northern minnesota. We spent four years fighting a type i called the sandpiper. It is by the enbridge company. Then out last week they would show it and move it to the dakota, assuming they could get it a much festival faster way. There is a replanning of north American Energy infrastructure and a whole bunch of oil interest that want to move oil from the tar sands and in between them are indigenous people. Were looking at a 640,000 barrel per day pipeline and theyre looking at, now looks like were looking at this other pipeline out here. That is what is going on. On the front lines, the question is, at what point are we going to quit doing this yet that we have a country with aging infrastructure in there trying to put new infrastructure in and we have a company that has lots of structural anomalies in a hundred spells including the kalamazoo spill. The wrong thing to be doing. Amy joye braun, can you talk about the good news you received yesterday . Good morning. The news we got yesterday was the dakotaallowed access to come in and remove the bulldozers, the earthmovers that they had moved in, that they would stop construction 24 hearing and washington, d. C. We said we wanted it in writing and we wanted it in writing sent to our Standing Rock chairman and a copy sent to us on the front lines. Amy can you talk about the sacred stone resistance camp that you began april 1, and what your demands are . Again, for people who know nothing about what youre doing in north dakota. The sacred stone camp was started as an action of prayer. We had went to ceremony. The ceremony said we needed to do everything in prayer. And as long as we prayed and we could bring awareness to the that thishis pipeline could be stopped, that these snakes heads could be cut off. The snakes being the pipelines. So we went ahead and set up camp in the snow. We have been there since april 1. Amy it is very interesting that this is taking place as baton rouge is underwater. And so far, i think 13 people are dead. The fires in Southern California now has displaced tens of thousands of people. In the country, many parts of it like in the northeast, are in a heat dome right now. Winona laduke, i want to tie this into the electoral season, this pivotal 2016 president ial election year. We are joined in new york i the green Party President ial candidate dr. Jill stein as well as her running mate, who occupies the position you did in 1996 and 2000. Talk about where you see your action and whether you have faith in electoral politics now. Greetings to you from the green party. Green welfare. I was a be system is crumbling all around us. At the and of the fossil fuel era, it is time to move towards inelegant transition. An elegant transition. You have extreme extraction, extreme tar sands mining, going up oil rigs, and you have endless contamination. At the same time, you have Climate Change happening. In our teachings, we talk about this is a time to make a choice between two paths of the country. One is wellborn and scorched. The other is not wellborn and it is green. Not just talking green party, im saying there is a path out there of in mind practice where instead of burning more fossil fuels, we move toward renewable energy, local food, more community control, and move beyond the place where corporations are natural persons under the law. I am on the front lines in north dakota. We have been battling these pipelines for the past four years. We have no oil where we are, but we are being proposed to waste with pipelines to get that oil to superior enough to larger markets. To me, it is a systemic set of questions. It is a telling time in american politics, but really a telling time in america that we have to make some choices on where were going to be going. Amy when you ran for office in 1996 and 2000, was that your first foray into electoral politics . That was my first time. I remember not being allowed in the debate. I have a picture of me and ralph is that we cannot even appear in the room of the debates. We were banned from the debates. Unlike, good luck, joe. Do you have advice for ajamu baraka who is in the same , like you are . E, good luck, buddy. [laughter] amy ajamu baraka, i would ask you your assessment of barack obama today. Failure, aen a huge disappointment for millions of people. We understand he still has a lot of support, but he had historic opportunity to take this country in a new direction and he, because of his ideological orientation, basically ended up supporting a continuation of the status quo. We have to move in a new direction. Racial to have real justice. We have to have real justice for people who are suffering, who feel it in their bones that things are bad and will get worse. We have to have hope. Real hope this time. Organized hope that the people are the only force that can really advance this revolutionary process in this country. Amy does this give you renewed hope in electoral politics . Im sure you have very much been outside that scene. When dr. Stein asked me to consider being a part of this, i knew that the historical conditions were right. I knew we had a chance to really use the electoral process to advance peoples agenda. I knew there was going to be a tremendous support for this green party push. So it is about electoral process, but it is about building popular power. And what dr. Stein said, the thing with the campaign was about putting power back in the hands of the people. I said, i am with jill. Sigh me up. Amy we will wrap up right now. I want to thank everyone for joining us. ,inona laduke and joye braun thank you so much for being with us from north dakota. I want to thank dr. Jills line as well as ajamu baraka, the president ial and Vice President ial nominees of the green party. I will be speaking and seattle, washington, at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel on friday night. Check our website at democracynow. Org. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now ] on this episode of eat drink italy . Calamari and porcini mushrooms. Absolutely we visit again with one of the food worlds liveliest personalities. We get to know a countess who shares some surprises. One of my favorite pastas can be made in recordbreaking time. My name is vic rallo, and i love to eat and drink italy. Follow me, and ill prove it. Eat drink italy is brought to you by wine enthusiast magazine and catalog, for wine storage, glassware, and accessories. Citi, supporting the count basie theatres national appetite festival, appetitefest. Com. The atalanta corporation, importing authentic italian products and more for over 50 years