Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20161216

Power from the states incoming. Overnor, democrat roy cooper this week, republicans introduced dozens of new bills to rewrite the states balance of power. We will speak to the reverend william barber, president of repairs of the breach and head of the North Carolina naacp. Then to donald trump and his generals. Mr. Trump i know more about isis than the generals do, believe me. Amy on the campaign trail, donald trump lambasted the performance of u. S. Military generals. Now he is surrounding himself with generals in many top post. We will speak with Andrew Bacevich to talk about the generals and trumps overall foreign policy. Aboutknows as as much National Security as i know about running a business. And what im about running a business is next to nothing. Amy then to pirates of the caribbean. We will look at how the revolving door with puerto ricos republican make is a fiscal catastrophe for the erto rican people. All of that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The Syrian Government says its temporarily suspended the evacuation of civilians from eastern aleppo after accused the antigovernment rebel fighters of breaking the terms of the ceasefire. One of the terms called for antigovernment rebels to allow for the evacuation of wounded civilians in another part of syria two governmentheld towns in idlib province, which have been besieged by rebels. About 8000 people did successfully escape from eastern aleppo thursday before the evacuations were halted. There are also separate news reports of evacuation convoys being fired upon. On thursday, dozens of United Nations workers staged a walkout in new york city to show solidarity with the syrian people. We stand united in solidarity with the people of syria. We call upon the Member States of the United Nations, in particular the security council, to take urgent, Practical Action to end the horror in syria. Amy in the United States, president obama has vowed to retaliate against russia over russias alleged meddling in the u. S. President ial election to help donald trump win. This is president obama speaking on npr thursday. Pres. Obama i think there is no doubt that when any Foreign Government tries to impact the integrity of our elections, that we need to take action. And we will at a time in a place of our own choosing. Some of it may be explicit and publicized, some of it may not be. Is well aware of my feelings about this because i spoke to him directly about it. Amy according to nbc, unnamed u. S. Intelligence Officials Say russian president Vladimir Putin was personally involved the effort to meddle in the 2016 u. S. President ial election to help donald trump win. The cia has accused russia of intervening, and president obama has ordered a review of russias role. President elect donald trump has called the claims ridiculous. Donald trump has tapped the far right bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman to be the u. S. Ambassador to israel. Many are calling friedman an unprecedented pick for the position, given his support for israelis and palestinians and his disregard for international law. Friedman has no diplomatic experience. He supports jewish only settlements and says he does not think would be illegal for israel to annex the entire palestinian territory. Despite the fact it would be blatantly illegal under international law. On friedman also said he opposes thursday, a twostate solution for israel and palestine. The Trump Administration will never pressure israel into a two state solution or any other solution that is against the wishes of the israeli people. Amy in response to the announcement, jewish voice for peace said it is a distressing signal that the new administration will give the Israeli Government a free hand to deepen its fundamentally undemocratic and abuse of control over Palestinian Land resources and rights. Donald trumps cabinet is the richest in history. The 17 people trump has selected for either cabinet or cabinetlevel positions so far have nearly 10 billion in combined wealth. Thats more than the 43 million poorest americans have combined, and trump has still not filled some key positions. One of trumps top advisers has suggested that trump may give his eldest daughter ivanka and her husband jared kusher formal positions in the white house, claiming the Trump Transition Team believes theyve found an exception to the United States antinepotism laws kellyannconway said the antinepotism law apparently has an exception if you want to work in the st , bethe presiden able to appoint his own staff. Trump has already sparked increasing concerns about conflicts of interest by including his Adult Children in key political meetings, including the vetting of potential cabinet members given , his childrens role in running the trump business empire. In new york city, dozens of native americans and allies held protests at four separate Bank Branches thursday to demand wells fargo, citibank, and td divest from the 3. 8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. The actions were organized by a group of native americans who traveled from Standing Rock to new york city, bringing with them a sacred drum from wounded knee. The group blocked traffic during rush this is Saige Pourier from hour. The Pine Ridge Reservation in south dakota. They are the biggest involved with the Dakota Access pipeline. We are telling them no. Water is sacred. This is life. Without it, nobody can survive. It is for our children. Amy the actions thursday in new york city were part of a monthlong campaign to target the major wall street banks funding the Dakota Access pipeline. This is Standing Rock sioux nation member chase iron eyes during one of the disruptions. We were never the aggressors. All we wanted was peace and to raise our families and to know the power of these. But we do not know peace because your money is funding genocide in north dakota right now. Take a long, hard look and you will know why we are here and why we are never going away. Amy meanwhile in iowa, residents rallied in support of farmers and landowners who are fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline Companies use of Eminent Domain to seize their land to build a pipeline. The 14 landowners argued in the state Court Thursday that regulators should not have authorized use of Eminent Domain in this case because the pipeline does not serve the public good. Partners, ther Company Behind the pipeline, is moot given the pipeline has are ready been built despite residents resistance. In charleston South Carolina, a , jury has found dylann roof guilty on 33 counts of federal hate crimes for murdering nine black worshipers, including pastor, clementa pinckney, at the historic Emanuel Ame Church in june 2015. The verdict, reached after the jury deliberated for less than two hours, came after 30 witnesses testified over six days. One of the witnesses was felicia sanders, who said she watched as roof pulled out a glock. 45caliber hagun and began shooting, striking and wounding her son and killing her aunt. She says she took cover underneath a table with her 11yearold granddaughter and tried to cover herself and the girl in other peoples blood so roof would think they were already dead. Roof embraced white supremacist views and was shown in photographs posing with the Confederate Flag and a pistol. Dylan ruths dylan ruths is facing the death penalty, a sentence that will be decided in the penalty phase of the trial, slated to begin january 3. In new york city, a jury has convicted former rikers correction officer brian coll of beating prisoner ronald spear to death in 2012. Officer coll was accused of repeatedly kicking spear in the head while two other officers held him down, causing spears heart to stop. During the trial, the prosecutors said not only did officer coll not regret killing ronald spear, but he was proud of it and displayed a framed article in the Village Voice about the killing in his bedroom. Officer coll faces life in prison. And in chile, today is the launch of a new art exposition entitled 2054, which reveals for the first time testimonies of survivors of torture under the pinochet dictatorship that the government had sought to keep secret for decades. The stories were collected as part of a commission launched in 2003 in order to document the torture under the dictatorship of general pinochet. In 2004, the chilean government passed a law ordering the testimonies to remain secret for 50 years until 2054. , but a project launched by chilean artist francisco papas fritas and torture survivors has now succeeded in declassifying these testimonies. This is one of the torture survivor Scarlett Mathieu loguercio. On linden street, i was held approximately 10 days. While i was there, i suffered all kinds of tortures, specifically sexual, political violence, psychologically torture threatening me with attention of my children. Psychological torture forcing me to listen to how other people were tortured, which is something difficult to endure. Psychologically, youre left traumatized because when they torture you in some way, your all the time resisting. It when you listen to how they torture other people, and i have talked about this with several people, it is one of the most difficult things to endure. Amy on democracy now spoke thursday, with artist francisco papas fritas about the importan of declassifying these testimonies. For chile important because it opens up the real chance for chile to take control into demand truth about what happened under the dictatorship. This is something that neither the executive branch nor the legislature or even the judiciary which has had its hands tied, have been able to do. This is what the families are asking for just as in the reconstruction of memory. Amy and those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan and im juan gonzalez. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are being accused of waging a legislative coup by attempting to strip power from the states incoming governor democrat roy cooper. Cooper narrowly beat Republican Governor Pat Mccrory by 10,000 votes last month. In an unprecedented move, republicans filed dozens of new bills during a special session of the General Assembly called to consider relief for Hurricane Matthew victims. The republican lawmakers are attempting to impose measures to slash the number of state employees appointed by the governor, require Senate Approval for all of the governors cabinet picks, and strip the governor of the power to appoint university of North Carolina trustees. Another bill aims to weaken the governors control over the state elections board. Yet another republican bill would strip some power away from the democratic governor and give it to the Lieutenant Governor who happens to be a republican. The bills were being considered until after republican governor Patrick Currie conceded defeat. Governorelect roy cooper criticized the actions of the republican lawmakers. Republican leadership in the general simile has put forth a number of proposed pieces of legislation over the last 12 to 24 hours. Most people might the this is a partisan power grab. But it is really more ominous. It is really about hurting Public Education, working families, state employees, health care and clean air and water. Amy at least 17 people were arrested at the State Capitol thursday protesting the republican efforts. The naacp of North Carolina has decried the legislative actions describing it as a form of jim , crow governance. Meanwhile, another effort by republican lawmakers to pack the state Supreme Court, which just tilts democratic, appears to have been defeated. Republicans were threatening to try to add two more justices to the court after democratic African American judge mike morgan defeated a republican incumbent in the november election, tilting the court 43 democrats. The North Carolina Supreme Court has seven judges for the last 80 years. Tol, for more, were going North Carolina we are joined by reverend dr. William barber, president of the North Carolina naacp. Welcome back to democracy now so it took the republican governor mccrory about a month to concede defeat, right . He is the first he is the only republican incumbent goverr who was defeated in the sweep through the country this year. Then explain what happened. Thank you so much, amy, for having me on democracy now let me say to all of the head to thell roads general simile. We need to there by 10 00 a. M. We have his election, and what you have are a group of extremist desk to party extremist who are very afraid of the changing south and the chiming do changing demographics of North Carolina. You are right, the governor refused to concede. They are scared because we are the only state that held off the full weight of trumpism in the south. Our movement has been working for years. We were able to change the consciousness of the state. In the governor lost the election. Amy, theafter, republicanled state board of election put in place 158 less voting sites, early voting sites, then we had in 2014 and 2012. They lost the worst Voter Suppression deal they pushed. The court said it was surgical racism. They lost on redistrict. The courts have demanded we have to redraw lines and happen election next year with the legislature. They lost the governors race come the secretary of race, the auditors race, the attorney generals race, and the Supreme Court became more progressive with an africanamerican winning 76 of the 100 counties and winning by over 300,000 votes. It is a sign of things to come when we organize in the south. So the governor and those extremists did everything they could. They even purged votes during the election. They lost again. We forced votes to be put back on the books. They tried everything. It when there is a moral movement of the people, we can change the south. If you do that, you change the nation. So now with these losses, theyre engaging in this extreme power grab and policy grab. Juan reverend barber, you wrote recently in a column for think progress you think youre seeing the third reconstruction. What do you mean exactly . The first reconstruction in the 1800s, black and white worked together after slavery a fundamentally changed the south. Then you had this massive reaction to turn back all of those policies which actually came to the strongest point with , who wastion of hayes a president ial candidate who lost the popular vote but was selected through the electoral process with the promise that he would restore the white hierarchy, if you will, in the country by his appointment and by changing the Supreme Court. The second reconstruction was the civil rights movement. You had all of the massive changes of the Civil Rights Acts , the war on poverty, the 1954 to 1968, then a reaction called the southern strategy led by ken phillips and Richard Nixon, law and order to stop Richard Nixon claimed kevin phillips, excuse me, told me if you find out who hates who and who fears you, we can fit people against one another in the south and we can rule be south for 50 years. If you rule be south, if you can control the south, you control 171 electoral votes by just controlling the former 13 confederate states. You control 26 senators in the United States center desk senate. You control 31 of the United States house of representatives. Governors andl 13 13 general a sum was that control state boards of election. If you break through that, then you a fundamentally changed politics. I believe all of the pushback we are seeing, the redistricting is see thethe extremists possibility of a third reconstruction. They know if we registered 30 of the unregistered africanAmerican Voters and we added that whites and progressive rights and latinos, you will have changed the south. If you ever change that math and you empty down organizing that gets people to stop voting against their own interests, grownup conversations about race and economics, and people begin to see themselves as allies blacks and whites and no longer fear one another, then you have a third reconstruction. I think we are in the birth pains of it. Virginia is one of the places that points to it. The closing gaps we are seeing. Trump did not when the south by the gaps Ronald Reagan did. If we have deep down organizing in the south, we can push this third reconstruction. I really believe that. Juan you have also talked repeatedly about the difference between fusion politics and populism. Could you elaborate on that as well . Populism once was a lynch mob in the south. Trump is engaged in a certain kind of nativism and populism. Fusion politics grows out it was named during the first reconstruction when black former slaves and white farmers, poor people, became allies in the south. And saw their common interest. When you have fusion, when you will economic i am concerned, for instance, about the way some progressives are talking about this election. They keep talking about this economic fix or we just need to talk to white working poor people. If you do not factor in race and it was set at princeton, you would not have a trump without an obama, that president obamas election represented the kind of inversion of a hierarchy in this country. Ist we have to wrestle with what caused many whites to vote for a candidate that actually says an 8 million more white people are poor them black, but they both for a candidate that is against living wages. What causes many whites to vote for a candidate is has, im going to cut your health care, when 80 of the people who will ease their who health care are people that do not have a degree and 50 of them are white. What trumps common sense . That is the grownup raise policy question. If you can bridge that with fusion and you can get black people and white people and latinos to begin to see their issues together, if you can get people, for instance, the lgbt does the same people against Health Care Vote against living wages. You can go on and on. Can buildtes, if you from the bottom up, fusion coalition, he can have the kind of transformation we are beginning to see in North Carolina and the south. Amy i want to go back to what is being called the legislative coup in North Carolina. This is dallas woodhouse, the executive director of the state republican partys begin to reporters thursday. Do two wrongs make a right . I think it is the inevitable outcome of divided government and the checks and balances that come with it in the checks and balances people are voting for. Cooper still gets the keys to the mansion at some point on january 1. He still gets the use of the bill all room. Come toublicans bills him, he can sign them or choose not to sign them. In most cases, he can sit there and be overridden. Didnt voters Thicke Roy Cooper with the assumption the hadrs of the governir governor had . I dont know i can answer that. The voters can at times be contradictory. Cooper won one election. Amy that is dallas woodhouse, executive director of the state republican party. If you can respond, reverend barber, to what he says, and also goes through the bills. It is just astounding what is happening. It is Something Like 22. Amy talk about the powers they are trying to strip. Now the incoming governor saying he may well do. And we may as well because we believe a lot of violations, even evil protection violations here, violations of the Voting Rights act violations of open meeting walls. To know who, yet dallas woodhouses. I do not normally comment too much about him. He is so little credibility. His own brother has called him a racist. We won out a memo after our Voter Suppression case in the courts, and the courts unanimously said republican party, the extremist that engaged in surgical racism, he sent a letter out telling them to put in place rules that reflect Republican Values and not what the courts had said. Over and over again, this man has just no integrity when it comes to telling the truth. First of all, they did not win the legislature. Because they won. The current makeup of our legislature is the worst redistricting we have seen since the 19th century. That is why the courts have said this Legislature Must have a new elections next year. It is normally every two years. The lines must be redraw on and her must be a new election because the people elected now, the General Assembly is unconstitutionally constituted, number one. Number two, the powers that when he says use the ballroom. That is that the role of the governor. The governor ran and atlarge election and was elected. What theyre trying to do now, for instance, they want to change the governors ability to have his own cabinet. They want it to come through the senate. Because they do not want the governor to put in place persons that will help them implement Medicaid Expansion and five for more money for Public Education and stop sending money to private schools. They do not want that. They do not want this governor to really be able to push the issues of living wages and Voting Rights. They want to limit his ability, make him have to go to the senate in order to get his approval. Number two, while we blocked them from changing the Supreme Court, they now want to force cases that have to go from superior court to a 15 judge repel it does appellate panel. They want all of the judges to hear it rather than the panel before gus to the Supreme Court because now the Supreme Court is a more progressive court. To blockree, there try his appointment on the state board of election because we have somebody now who has elected state superintendent who is really antipublic schools. There try to block his ability uncappoint people to the board of trustees. Were still reading some of the deals theyre pushing through. But this is their fear. I want the listeners to hear this, amy. They are afraid. They are fearful. They know that 58 of north carolinians want Medicaid Expansion. Almost 80 of north carolinians want a living wage. This legislature would not even put it on the balance of north carolinians could vote on that. Them and we have beat Voter Suppression. We have been fed over redistrict thing. They see this tide rising. They see if you look at the pictures yesterday, black and white and latino people standing together in the deep south, and they know that if we have policy movement along with this kind of moral movements, it will not only energize North Carolina, but it could energize the rest of the south and cause people to stand up and see we are no longer in the minority if we engage in real fusion politics. Herrod politics. The christian story, herrod was so scared his power was going to be taken, that he engaged in the most meanspirited and vicious kind of attempts to hold onto power. Legislature,rod rather than a legislature acting like a democracy that we live in. Juan specifically, what you mentioned about the necessity now for a new election to the legislature, this almost seems like the last and of the existing gerrymandered legislation before the new Elections Come next year. Could you talk about the impact of the Supreme Court decision, taking the weight Voting Rights protections from many localities around the country . How that might affect the final decision on these redraw districts . I actually think a lot of what were seeing our last stance. I think when president obama was elected, for instance, your decision coalition. He won in virginia and North Carolina, florida. I think that scared extremists, which is why you have the 15 who got together and said, were going to block him from doing anything. Jeff sessions was in that group who is now being proposed for the attorney general. I think the fact that run a mcconnell we talked a lot about the racism of trump. Look at mcconnell and ryan. For me, racism was not the kkk or david duke were calling somebody the n word, it is policy. Ryan and mccall no dust mcconnell, they have held up fixing the Voting Rights act for 25,st 1200 days since june 2015, with the Supreme Court passed this illfated decision in shelby. Strong thuman only filibustered the Civil Rights Act for one day, 24 hours. These people have held up fixing the Voting Rights act section four bags of section five thing can be implemented in states like North Carolina for over 1200 days. They are afraid. They are afraid of the last ability of us organizing all of america. That is the same thing you see here. This legislature has been told twice by the highest courts, you are racist. You have engaged in racist Voter Suppression and racist gerrymandering. They know they cannot win without this. For instance, what they did when they redistricted, they put 49 ofblack voters into 19 out 50 senate districts, and they put 51 of like voters into 27 out of 120 house seat. They did that to isolate stacked and packed the black vote, not just to disallow or keep black people from being elected, but to keep black and white people from forming fusion coalitions to elect progressive candidates. That is what the game was. And all of that is falling apart now. They see is falling apart in their face. We have to understand what is at stake. And none of it would have been possible if we had section 5 preclearance. If that preclearance was in place in the people in the congress understand this, none of these laws that have been passed in the south would have been able to have been passed, and and i think the story, amy, that we have not talked about, is this election. Berman says we had almost 900 less voting sites in the black unity in this election than we had in 2012. He could have impacted more than one million africanAmerican Voters. We did not have one discussion in our National Debate candidates for president about Voting Rights and racism as a relates to Voting Rights. That was a tremendous error during his campaign. Amy i want to ask you about news from your neighborings date south airliner. On thursday, jurors in charleston found white grimaces still in storm roof guilty of 33 counts of federal hate crimes for shooting nine people dead at the Historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on june 17, 2015. Roof embraced white supremacist views, was shown in photographs posing with the confederat Confederate Flag. Now facing the death penalty. The new talk about dylan roof, as well as the White Supremacy were seeing in the socalled alt right, and your thoughts on him getting the death penalty, reverend barber. It is a complex conversation. Limit give a shout out to my good friend dr. Randolph who is president of the South Carolina naacp who is been fighting issues in South Carolina for a long time. This is a very shakespearean moment. He was guilty. We know he was guilty. He confessed to being guilty. Now he has been found guilty. Relief for a certain the families. But the irony of it, we have come through this campaign, this trumpism with all of this over racism and othering, you know, at the same time we are conducting damon roof. We have a candidate who is now president elect who began his movement on birtherism and demeaning and announcing the very birthright of our president. We have policies being proposed. We have Jeff Sessions who attempted to prosecute civil rights leaders for participating in registering people to vote who is against Voting Rights and civil rights who will now be possibly be attorney general. We have all right i call it altwrong, in the heart of the oval office. We havent seen it that blatant since 1915 when birth of a nation was played in the oval office about woodrow wilson. Washe way, damon roof captured in shelby, the hometown of the playwright who wrote the movie in the script for birth of a nation. Now we have this altwrong in the office, 100 years later, from her examination to test all right inion to the oval office. We have a rise in systemic policies. You people being put in place that are going to do what i call destruction from the inside. Hhs, health and human services, who i believe will do great damage to the health and human services, will hurt many black people and white people. We come to this election where people have been divided by race and fear. Donald trump is not the first white man who has used Racial Division to be elected. This is not the first time america as that with a racist president. But what we should be surprised about is the ease of which he was able to use it in the 21st century, and the way in which people fought this racism and othering were seeing. Were in a troubling time. While damon roof has been found guilty, South Carolina is still guilty. South carolina, after those nine deaths, you know, my frat brother reverend pinckney was killed. He fought for more money for Public Education. The South Carolina legislature sed morepushed pas money for Public Education in his name. Nikki haley, now he fought for the pulling down of the Confederate Flag. The flag did not come down until nine people were killed, which way, says only black death matters. You fall for living wage, Health Care Expansion that would help black and poor white people of South Carolina. South carolina still guilty of not expanding health care. And not raising the living wage and still having right to work laws, which actually right to discriminate laws that keep labeling out of the south. Yes, we have convicted damon roof, but South Carolina and america is still guilty of systemic policy racism. And the only way were going to get at it is to have a massive fusion, moral movement in this country, particularly out of the south. The cymer 31st, were having a National Watch night, Poor Peoples Campaign, Metropolitan Church in washington, d. C. , calling people to stand up against extremism, calling for a race class audit that we will release on april 4, the anniversary of dr. Kings death, and calling for, lastly, not a remembrance, but i read engagement of the Poor Peoples Campaign in 20172018 all across the nation. Amy dr. Reverend william barber, thank you for being with us president of the north , carolina naacp, and moral mondays leader. His recent article for think progress is titled, we are witnessing the birth pangs of a third reconstruction. We will link to it at democracynow. Org. When we come back, Andrew Bacevich joins us to talk about the generals in the cabinet. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. We turn now to look at donald trump and his generals. Mr. Trump i know more about isis then the generals do, believe me. Juan that was donald trump on the campaign trail. It was just one of several times where he publicly criticized the actions of u. S. Generals. But now that he has become president elect, trump has taken a different by nominating generals to several key posts. Trump has nominated retired general James Mad Dog Mattis as defense secretary, retired marine general john kelly as Homeland Security secretary and , retired Army Lieutenant general Michael Flynn to serve as his National Security adviser. Flint is wellknown for his antimuslim worldview having caused called islam a cancer. Amy for more were joined by Andrew Bacevich a retired , colonel and vietnam war veteran. His latest book is titled americas war for the greater middle east a military history. He is Professor Emeritus of International Relations and history at boston university. He joins us in our studio here in new york. Welcome to democracy now your thoughts this is the highest concentration of generals propose for a ever . Our president s for retired generals serving in senior positions. I suppose the most notable of them, the one we remember would be george c marshall, who after world war ii was harry truman secretary of state. And also served a brief time as secretary of defense. Why did marshall get those appointment . Because marshall played a very substantial role in winning war world war ii. He was a general who won a war. It seems to me the common characteristic of the senior generals being appointed by mr. Trump, and we could add to the list, by the way, Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg who was Just Announced to be the chief of staff to Lieutenant General flynn, so at least four now generals, the cow common characteristic is none of them have won a war. The country we are in a state of permanent war. We certainly have a large cadre of generals with enormous experience in managing wars. We have yet to find a general who can actually bring one of these wars to a successful conclusion. You have to ask yourself, what then are the particular aptitudes or qualities that these people are going to bring to their o in among the civilian world . And the answer is, i dont know. The clip you played about trump expressing contempt for generals, suddenly we have a romance, and infatuation with generals. For have that is simply one more indication of the consistency of trump being inconsistent. Amy doesnt he often get offended by things he is defensive about . Something like five deferments . Yes, we have a commanderinchief or commanderinchief to be who has suddenly discovered his affinity for generals, he himself, trump himself, his military bandits express was a teenager at a new York Literary academy. Obviously, not he alone, but when he had an opportunity to serve in the military back in the vietnam era, he chose to find a different route that would make it unnecessary for him to do so. Juan i want to ask you about the appointment that is that perhaps the most concern are controversy is Lieutenant General Michael Flynn for National Security advisor. He is in islamaphobic, an tibor, a fanatic mentally, and this may be most troubling, temperamentally he does seem to be like trump himself. I suppose you could say he speaks with great candor or about without thinking implications of what he has to say. I think it is a deeply troubling appointment. One could contrast him with mattis was certainly, highly respected route the military establishment as far as i can tell. I suspect was a very good marine general. While we need a marine general running the pentagon is another question. One might entertain some amount of hope that mattis will serve as something of a check with ynns or radical inclinations. Particularly on issues like iran. Mattis has said he believes that we should retain the iran nuclear deal, and i personally counselpe that prevails. Amy on the issue of mike flynn, he was fired by obama as head of the dia. In 2010, he, what, shared classified information in afghanistan without authorization, but was not brought up on any charges around that. His some recently was involved with a fake news scandal, putting out and his son, mike flynn, was his chief of staff of transition, putting out information a pizzeria was the child sex ring and washington, d. C. , soy man when it with a gun to deal with this fake news. He was fired. Your thoughts further on mike flynn and what he means to head up National Security . My sense is the way president ial politics works, the politics of the inner circle, is that when a new president takes office, taking office initiates a competition. It initiates Competition Among his senior appointees to determine who is really going to have the ear of the president. For example, george w. Bush. We had cheney as Vice President , colin powell as secretary of state another general and donald rumsfeld. Rather quickly, particularly after 9 11, it became clear that cheney and rumsfeld forged an alliance and basically squeezed colin powell out one of the results, i think, is the iraq war. Is very much remains to be seen, i think, in the new administration as to how much clout and influence a guy like flynn is really going to be able to exercise. Because we are going to have a secretary of state. Were going to have a different secretary who may well see things differently. And the three of them the big three and National Security terms will compete with one another. They will compete is he who then can exercise influence over donald trump. Of course, with trump, we have the additional question, can anybody really influence him . To what degree is he is a person who will be amenable to taking counsel of advisers . We were pretty sure previous president s were willing to do that. We cant be sure of this president. Juan you wrote an article. Ecently in the nation your thoughts about how obama used military force around the world and how a Trump Presidency might approach use of military force differently . The just of the article is to say, with regard to the use of force, president obama has been quite ineffective. He inherited two wars in iraq and afghanistan. He will bequeath to wars, iraq and afghanistan. The expanse of u. S. Military involvement has increased over his eight years in office. But that said, i think when we look beyond his management of wars and other issues, for paris Climate Change accords, the iran nuclear , in athe opening to cuba variety of other ways, thing president obama does not get the credit he deserves. I speculate that over time, he may rate higher. You know, it is just so difficult to speculate on trump. I just learned coming in this morning that his appointee to be the ambassador to israel is, to put it mildly, a hardliner, is a blockage or. Amy lets talk about David Friedman, the far right groups the lawyer tapped by donald trump to be ambassador to israel. He supports israels jewish only settlements in the occupied west bank, says he does not think would be illegal for israel to annex the entire palestinian territory, despite the fact it would be illegal under international law. In october, he appeared on the Israel Network i 24 news. What will donald trump recognize Solar Capital . Yes, he said that countless times. He will recognize the city of jerusalem as israels eternal capital, move the embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. Quite so trumps policy, as far as the Israeli Jewish american voter, why should israeli voters, israeli American Voters vote for trump . Well, if those who want to strong relationship between israel and the United States with no daylight, those who want to see israel protected at the United Nations, those who want to see the strongest level of military and strategic cooperation between the two countries, those who dont want to see any daylight between the two countries, those who want to live in environment or the u. S. Does not attempt to impose upon israel a solution to the Palestinian Conflict against the state of israel, those who want to see jerusalem recognize as the capital of israel camino, vote for donald trump. Amy that is David Friedman who donald trump has just tapped to israel. He is actual Donald Trumps bankruptcy lawyer. Your comment on what he just put forward . Ambassadors dont make policy, but, i mean, ambassadors reflect the policies made by the chief of state. But if friedman knows what he is talking about, then were about to see a radical, radical change in u. S. Policy with regard thousand 50 israel, but with regard to the whole israelipalestinian question. Are if i could use a slightly provocative term first, you might believe those developers. You might believe as i believe, one of the pressing problems we face is trying to restore some semblance of stability to that part of the world. Then the steps that he just laid out are going to put us in exactly the other direction. It may work to the benefit of israel in the short term, but it is simply going to increase the likelihood of violence. It is going to extend the conflicts that have engulfed this part of the world. From an american perspective, i dont see how that could possibly be viewed as good news. Amy interface surgery which Andrew Bacevich, thank you for being with us retired colonel , and vietnam war veteran. His latest book is titled americas war for the greater middle east a military history. When we come back, we look at puerto rico. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan we turn now to pirates of the caribbean, the name of a shocking new report on how the banks revolving door with puerto ricos Development Bank exacerbated a fiscal catastrophe with the puerto rican people, released by hedge clippers, the report reveals how two top appointees to the federal overseeing board the federal board promesa actually helped create the puerto rico debt crisis. There now in charge of fixing the two appointees are former Bank Executives Jose Ramon Gonzalez and carlos m. Garcia. Amy for more we are joined by teresa casertano, the Global Campaign organizing Committee Coordinator with Communications Workers of america, or cwa. Shes with the committee for better banks and a manager for the Santander Bank organizing campaign. Talk about this report, pirates of the caribbean. Good morning. Pirates of the caribbean pirates in this story effectively are sometime the mentionedthat juan and Carlos Garcia, a Global Banking giant. It is a spanish bank. It is headquartered in madrid. Role ofrt looks at the the bank in generating puerto ricos public debt. Then when it became unsustainable and puerto rico, was not able to keep the same executives responsible for helping to generate that that, were then that debt within appointed to the promesa control board to determine how that debt would be restructured and what entities would be paid. So our report looked at 90 debt wass, where santander either the principal underwriter underwriterseam of , which resulted in 61. 2 billion of public debt for puerto rico. And that is almost equivalent to puerto ricos current debt load, which is 70 billion. As an underwriter an underwriter is essentially an arranger. Santander structured the bonds, purchased the bonds from puerto rico, and then sold them to investors. Facilitating these transactions, they were compensated handsomely. He created 61. 2 billion in debt and received issuance fees of about 1 billion. Garcia, who was one of the architects of the debt deals by Santander Securities, he moved from santander to become the head of the government Development Bank of order rico. Profiting off the creation of the debt deals to becoming the protector, the gatekeeper, the advisor to the puerto rican government, into the Government Entities that needed to structure new bond deals. Effectively, became the approver and the selector of the underwriters who would facilitate these deals. What some people have called him foxde hedge clippers is the guarding the hen house. President s of the government Development Bank, Carlos Garcia brought in a team of current and former santander executives to really had a grip on the Government Development 2012. Rom 2009 until , the his leadership government Development Bank used a number of what some people call questionable, others call abusive or predatory. Abusive or predatory debt structures. One example is the covina bond, which was often used to refinance and pay interest on previous bonds. It was back by sales tax. Effectively, these bonds were on small the taxes transactions by poor people and working people of puerto rico. Juan i just want to clarify, gonzalez and garcia have both worked with santander at one time or another and then went over to the government side actually be involved in the issue of these a now both of them, many of these bonds, and now both of them are in charge of figuring out how to get puerto rico out of the mess they helped create . The amazing thing is, one of them was appointed by the democrats and the other was appointed by the republicans. So it doesnt seem that both the republicans in congress and the Obama Administration have no problem with the people who created the crisis now trying to figure out how to solve it. That is exactly right. Jose Ramon Gonzalez and Carlos Garcia, different times, were the head of the government Development Bank and also top executives at other times top executives of Santander Securities responsible for issuing the bonds. Yes, that is ectly correct. When the debt became a sustainable and one walk a we only have 15 seconds. And 2015, and the physical control board was appointed by the obama Obama Administration, of the seven political appointees, those two executives were appointed to the physical control board to determine what entities will be paid under the debt restructuring. Amy we want to thank you for being with us, teresa casertano, the Global Campaigns organizing coordinator with cwa. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. 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