From Pacifica. Now. More than 700 children away from their parents by immigration authorities here at the border they've still not been reunited despite Thursday's court imposed deadline to reunite all separated migrant children with their parents today in a democracy now special we spend the hour with world renowned political dissident professor and author. To talk about how u.s. Foreign policy in Central America caused the refugee crisis and his solutions. We'll also speak with Noam Chomsky about Nicaragua economic inequality in the United States what the media is not covering and democratic socialist Alexandra Cortez's primary victory that's rocked the Democratic establishment. Today. For the hour. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now democracy now or the war and peace report I mean the goodman Federal officials say 711 immigrant children remain separated and in u.s. Custody after the trumpet ministration missed a court imposed deadline to reunite all 2500 families separated in the Us Mexico border government lawyers claim the 711 children are not eligible for unification more than 430 of them have parents who've already been deported from the United States and response a.c.l.u. Lawyer legal learnt said in a statement quote We're thrilled for the families who are finally reunited but many more remain separated the trumpet ministration is trying to sweep them under the rug by unilaterally picking and choosing who is eligible for reunification he said this comes amidst nationwide protests against Trump 0 tolerance immigration policies and Louisville Kentucky Police arrested 9 activists Thursday as they nonviolently locked themselves together to block elevators inside an immigration court building in Washington d.c. Scores of people led by children held a sit in protest against family separations in the Hart Senate Office Building the children wore t. Shirts and blazoned with the phrase I am a child evoking the I am a man protest led by Dr Martin Luther King Jr 15 years ago. Elsewhere on Capitol Hill a majority of House Democrats joined Republicans Thursday to vote in favor of a massive $717000000000.00 military spending bill the National Defense Authorization Act the 359254 vote favors a bill that would deliver record military spending with $70000000000.00 for ongoing u.s. Wars and $22000000000.00 for nuclear weapons programs including a new submarine launch low Ewald nuclear missile the. Well now moves to the Senate which could vote on it as early as next week President Trump's former personal attorney and fixer Michael Collins prepared to tell Special Counsel Robert Mueller Trump knew in advance about a meeting at Trump Tower in June of 2016 where Russians were offering dirt on Hillary Clinton the revelation 1st reported by c.n.n. Suggests Trump may have lied publicly when he said he had no knowledge of the meeting which was attended by his son Donald Trump Jr his son in law Jared Kushner Paul Mann afford his campaign manager and others along with the Talia that's on that's Gaia a Russian lawyer with ties to Russia's prosecutor general Meanwhile members of the Right Wing House Freedom caucus backed off their state from their efforts to impeach deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein the top Justice Department official overseeing Robert Muller sin vest a Geisha and Republican Congress member and freedom caucus chair Mark Meadows says he will instead seek to charge Rosenstein with contempt of Congress if he doesn't turn over documents Meadows' to seeking Rosenstein has said the documents contain personal data information about intelligence sources and other sensitive information the impeachment effort came over the objections of Republican House speaker Paul Ryan as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions who said Thursday he backed the Justice Department's number 2 official mud deputy Rod Rosen. They capable of the highest confidence and in Pakistan former cricket star turned politician Imran Khan has declared victory in Wednesday's national election ahead of a final tally expected to confirm. The party won the largest share of open seats in parliament Khan's victory came as his rivals allege massive vote rigging charging that Pakistan's powerful military sided unfairly with Khan's campaign and a victory address from Islamabad home Khan said the election had been fair and historic. Yes I believe this was Pakistan's most transparent election and I believe Pakistanis have never participated in an election the way they did today whatever concerns the oppositions has about rigging we are willing to investigate it with them Imran Khan promised says Prime Minister Helle stamp out government corruption while working to uplift poor Pakistanis and he promised to improve relations with China and the United States Khan's p.t.i. Party fell short of an outright majority meaning Connel need the support of at least one rival party in order to form a coalition government in the Gaza Strip Palestinians have called for renewed protests against Israel stifling blockade of the besieged territory Friday's planned protests followed the deaths of 3 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier Wednesday and after Israeli snipers massacred 124 Palestinians while wounding some 14000 others after the nonviolent great March of the term protests began in Gaza on March 30th Meanwhile Israel is preparing to release 17 year old Palestinian prisoner had to Mimi to her family on Sunday as she completes an 8 month prison sentence to mean a became a hero to Palestinians after a viral video showed her slapping a soldier near a family's home in the occupied West Bank the incident came just after to me learned her cousin had been gravely wounded by an Israeli soldier who shot him in the head using a rubber coated steel ball that I had to meanies case to international attention on Thursday a Visiting Artist completed a massive Miro paying tribute to to me on the Palestinian side of the West Bank separation barrier and Bethlehem this is Palestinian activist. The Philistine media with little to do as the Palestinians peace be able to nationally and also surely for the release of The Who wrote to me we are surprised by those 3 people who came from all over the world to the fold to old icon of the Palestinian people and the icon of the national resistance of the discipline that it was. There drawing a mural to me in order to tell the world. That we are partners in this case and that the Palestinian national resistance is going to please the other is going to be patient in North Africa about 800 migrants rushed a heavily fortified border separating Morocco from the tiny Spanish enclave of Ceuta Thursday and a coordinated push to reach European soil where they could apply for political asylum at least 130 migrants suffered injuries and the incident many of them with injuries from the concertina wire tapping the metal fence separating the 2 territories several 100 who made it to Spanish soil successfully celebrated as they reached an immigration processing center dozens more were returned to Morocco after they were captured by police. In Laos aid groups say the toll from Sunday's collapse of a $1000000000.00 hydroelectric dam is far higher than the official figure of $27.00 dead and $131.00 missing despite a government ban on foreign media covering the disaster at the b.b.c. Reports the death toll could be close to 300 another 3000 people are still stranded in home surrounded by floodwaters Meanwhile officials in North and Cambodia have ordered the evacuation of 25000 people downriver of the collapse due to heavy flooding back in the United States at least one person has died after a massive wildfire spread into Redding California city of 90000 people dozens of homes have burned down one local t.v. Station had to evacuate in the middle of their broadcast last night shortly after warning viewers of the fire Facebook stock value plunged Thursday by 119000000000 dollars The largest one day drop in market value for any company and Wall Street history the crash wiped nearly $16000000000.00 from c.e.o. Mark Zuckerberg the net worth of the Facebook founder remains one of the planet's richest people with an estimated 70000000000 dollars in assets. It's a new report by the group Public Citizen finds the trumpet ministrations dramatically scaled back penalties and fines for corporations that break the law the study title corporate impunity looked at 12 federal agencies finding that in most cases the number of enforcement actions taken has plummeted since President Obama's last year in office with penalties against corporate criminals dropping by an average of more than 50 percent the Environmental Protection Agency saw the biggest decrease with a 94 percent drop in fines against corporate polluters education secretary Betsy device has proposed new rules that would cut an estimated $13000000000.00 in federal student loan relay for people who were defrauded by for profit colleges devices changes would roll back the so-called borrower defense rule proposed by President Obama after the collapse of i.t.t. Tech and Corinthian college but halted by the trumpet ministration last year in response Massachusetts attorney general Mark Healey tweeted Betsy device rewrote the borrower defense rule to let predatory schools cheat their students and enrich their executives no surprise devices a billionaire Republican activists heir to the Amway fortune and the sister of Blackwater founder Erik Prince last weekend of losses 40 $1000000.63 foot yacht was damaged Schecter was unmoored while in port on Lake Erie and Ohio it's not clear whether the ship which is one of 10 owned by her family was let loose intentionally and in Los Angeles a man who was arrested for vandalising Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has been bailed out of jail by another man who took a similar activities before the 2016 election 24 year old Austin Clay turned himself into police Wednesday after he used a pick ax to destroy a plaque honoring Trump he was booked on a felony vandalism charge before Isabel was paid by James Otis who dressed as a construction worker in late October 2016 as a sledgehammer to destroy Trump's Hollywood star and those are. Some of the headlines This is Democracy Now Democracy Now dot org The War and Peace Report I'm Amy Goodman Federal officials say 711 children remain separated from their parents despite Thursday's court imposed deadline for the Trump administration to reunite all migrant children separated from their parents by immigration officials at the border where than 400 of the children of parents who have already been deported from the United States well on Thursday I spoke with world renowned political dissident author and language Noam Chomsky he is the laureate professor in the department of linguistics at the University of Arizona and professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he taught for more than 50 years his recent books include global discontents conversations on the rise in threats to democracy and Recreation for the American train the temperance walls of concentration of wealth and power he joined us from Tucson Arizona and I began by asking Noam Chomsky about the trumpet ministrations family separation policy. Majors of course. Properly. Throughout the world taking children away from their parents. Were. Losing track of them you know that it's hard to think of a bore the brutal cold here of 2 summers a lot of them the good deal book that was concerned with the immigrant groups that sort of salute those are. War hope people. Of course. But for the border to. Give talks you are all for them referred to the. People the. Good the nation but the immigration poles we're all together. Group this moral Scoble here other than your. I want to turn to President Trump speaking earlier this month. Illegally that. Our drug trade illegally. Legally that's President Trump we were on the border recently in Brownsville going back and forth over the bridge to Matamoros Mexico we saw. Mother with her child the Guatemalan father with his child the Guatemalan mother had been the legal port of entry at the bridge for days on 2 different bridges told that America is full told this by the u.s. Government the question is who's being legal who's being illegal what about what the u.s. Is doing and where these migrants are desperately fleeing from Guatemala Honduras El Salvador if you can talk about the history of u.s. Involvement in these countries and what President Trump is saying do it legally. Well actually these people are fleeing from the wreckage and horrors of u.s. Policy to quote a mall no need to go through the whole history book but at 954. Intervened sponsor a military coup overthrew a. Mildly reformist elected government since then the country has been a complete horror story hundreds of thousands of people killed the whole kinds of atrocities every a budget will sort of torture peaked in the 1980s under Reagan. To some of the places where people are fleeing from my honor is. There was a literal genocide going on carried out by the man who Reagan cold. Still or Explorer of the bunker see a really good when Congress imposed some limits on direct us military aid to the real small the. Person was implicit in or old implementing the genocidal. Reconsider the international terrorist network the Us does not hire terrorists that hires terrorist states it's much more effective so I was Israel origin Tina as long as it was on the rule of the Neo Nazi generals on Fortunately they were overthrown they had the good news origin. People are still fleeing from the destruction there it's been the horror story ever since Same with all Seoul the door were built 70000 people were killed during the 1980s almost all but the security forces all. Trained directed by the United States horror story since in Honduras which not long ago had the plural ity of refugees the refugio flow stored at the peak after a military coup through the elected government the little government. Condemned by the entire hemisphere in the world with the usual exception of President Obama Hillary Clinton refused to call it a military coup because that would have meant terminating military aid to the. Which the us continued to do. There are always been a severe repression of atrocities they mounted sharply. Maybe the hummus a couple of the world refugees started fleeing there were so-called elections which were mocked Well most everyone except the United States continues but you know as one could just 2 countries in the region from which there haven't been refugee flows one is Costa Rica which happens to be the one country that. Sort of folks sions not by accident the one country that the United States. In which the United States has not intervened militarily to overthrow the government of the group were in the military regime of the others Nicaragua which differ which also suffered severely in the 1980s from the Reagans of Soltz but to Nicaragua it was unlikely all the cultures of the region that had an army to defend it in the other countries the army were the terrorists Nicaragua the army could to some extent the Fed and the population from Reagan's terrorist forces and the us plenty of problems in the hasn't been the source of refugee flow so essentially what President was saying is it will destroy your country is a slaughter you impose a brutal regimes but if you try to get out you know I'm going to come here because America is full. I wanted to continue on the situation in Nicaragua and in a rare interview the Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega recently rejected calls to step down from power amidst mounting protests and civil unrest this is press Senator take a speaking on Fox News on Monday. Through elected by the voters who are pretty good at it for a living so they have good and sleuth a look through the term live in the room but do it well and there's a limit to the legal or electoral period. With the Lexus or the one or $21.00 who will have the next election. In some of the year. That somebody will have to see who will be voted in for the new administration. So that's President Daniel Ortega Nicaragua's main business association has been demanding our take a hold early elections to a church responded Nicaragua is not private property international human rights groups say over 300 people have died since their protests erupted in April and to austerity protests and that the vast majority have been killed by pro-government forces in June we spoke with former Sandinista leader Ben Diana who served as the Nicaraguan ambassador to the United Nations and secretary general of the Nicaraguan foreign ministry during our take his role. During the Sandinista rule and from 1979 to 1990 this is what Ben Dinah had to say on Democracy Now but one has to remember. It's the Sunday news to revolution began in 1079 and in 1990 with the electoral defeat of the new order to go. The order to go over because of course Jean. Years here were 2 nations lead to get back into power but to do this he got rid of his potential competitors and many say all Sundays backers embrace. Capital in the got out he said he had thought that the most retrograded the solutions of the of the church and then turned into an alliance and reached an understanding with the us so that he was able to barely win the presidency in 2002007 By that time he himself is no longer a Sunday at least I guess the trappings the colors are still there but his entire government has been in essence neo liberal then it becomes of clarity Terry and we we repressive That's Alexander and then Daniel who has served as president our take Nicaragua as ambassador to the United Nations as well as Secretary General of Nicaragua and foreign ministry during the Sandinista role 1st time around $7990.00 students are saying that overwhelmingly it's the government that's killed the people what are your thoughts now. Well Lou in 1990 it's true that the 1st of the there were plenty of problems even in the eighty's but by the standards of the region it stood out as a. It was almost still a record. But by the standards of the region in 1990 the. President Bush 1st President Bush essentially. Informed the population of the core of the either you vote for our candidate or else the Contra war the terrorist war continues and horse think sions will strangle the country and indeed. At the point of a gun the population voted the Sundin is dissolved partially for the internal reasons there were many things they were doing but shouldn't have since then. It hasn't been anywhere near as bad as the other Central American countries the ones that are moralists overwhelmingly influenced by the us but it's been a lot of corruption a lot of repression or Credico undoubtedly the opposition is nothing to write home about either for the most part so it's by no means a pretty situation. One would hope that negotiations could reduce the tensions and the My own view is that I think it would be a good thing for Nicaragua if. Ortega were to call early elections. Allow them to be run with corruption and brutality but that's doesn't look as if. It's it's hard to hard to see a simple way out at this point it's very unfortunate situation we should bear in mind that in the early 1980. These The situation was extremely hopeful in the core of. The International even the international institutions like the World Bank and others were praising the progress of steps being taken by the Sundin is the country was full of hope excitement literacy campaigns dealing with poverty with. Will almost the Us intervention actually began in the eighty's mid 19th century and been horrible all the way through but they were beginning to pull themselves out of it until the Us terrorist war began. We should bear in mind that the United States is the only country ever been condemned by the International Court of Justice for international terrorism technically on lawful use of force and ordered to pay substantial reparations to Nicaragua for the attack that it was carrying out of course the Us refused refused World Court jurisdiction the World Court was condemned not only by the government but even by the press in New York Times to condemn the as a hostile forum because it had ruled against the United States so of course you know the pinay attention to it. The u.s. Even the vetoed a Security Council resolution calling on states to observe international law and then the Contra war went on the sanctions went on the other forms of subversion continued and the hopes were pretty much smashed or you could just see the changes in expectations and. The one result was internal corruption repression and the implicit no employer. Adding But again it's a very ugly and unfortunate situation nothing remotely comparable to the countries that have been in the us. Throughout the period. But I think the point that we going back to the immigration crisis which is actually a moral crisis in the United States and comparably in Europe we should bear in mind that the immigrants do not want to leave their countries they would be very happy to stay in their own countries instead of coming here to pleasant and horse situations they can't because we have ruined their countries so the 1st step in dealing with the immigration crisis should be to help reconstruct and rebuild would we have destroyed so they won't be fleeing from the homes where they would like to live certainly within the means of a super rich country like the United States with incomparable advantages that's step one in dealing with the immigration crisis again no moral crisis not an immigration crisis Secondly. The conditions should be established so that legal what's called legal immigration I don't like the term but what's technically called that would be facilitated with a decent conditions plenty of entry points lawyers provided pro bono with newest u.s. Support for immigrants so they could plead their cases. And decent conditions for the applicants to sort of nothing like putting them in camps and stealing their children away from them and facilitating the kind of. Appeals for soil and that or granted under international law and that should be all about Eclipse soon certainly in a rich country like ours that's the 2nd step that we might also recognize that. Well there are countries that have somehow managed to deal with huge flood of immigrants poor countries so take live in a poor country probably 40 percent of the population or refugees at this point driven help from Israel. Is really several is really Wars 4867. Syrian refugees Iraqi refugees fleeing from the us invasion of Iraq. It's a poor country and there are plenty of internal probe split there some of surviving with 40 percent of the population refugees and the same is true of Jordan another poor country Kenya Africa another poor country has a huge number of refugees a bungalow they wish taken in huge numbers of refugees fleeing from Burma. But the rich countries of the world the United States the European Union are the ones or have an overwhelming responsibility for the circumstances for which the refugees are fleeing they can't help with that they can't deal with it too much for us to go somewhere else could go to a poor country but not go to the countries of the perpetrators of the conditions for which are fleeing. We'll be back with Professor Noam Chomsky on the shakeup of the Democratic establishment and the news you're not getting and 30 seconds I. Will if. I if the singer is silent by mariachi Florida to Laci This is Democracy Now Democracy Now dot org The War and Peace Report I mean the good news we've turned back to my interview with grown renowned political dissident linguist and author known Chomsky now at the University of Arizona Tucson Let's go to the upcoming midterm elections and the increasing number of Democratic Socialist candidates running who raise the issue and Gratian is one of the top issues I recently sat down with Alexandria cacio Cortez the New York Democratic congressional candidate who is recent primary victory ended 10 term incumbent Congressman Joe Crowley the 4th ranking Democrat in the house was being talked about as the next House speaker to succeed Palosi and I began by asking her how she achieved her staggering primary factory. I do think that the way that we wind up in New York 14 is a model for how we can win almost anywhere. I knew from the outset that you know I had no misconceptions of the fact that the New York political machine was not going to be doing me any favors and so I didn't I tried to kind of come in as clear as possible and I knew that if we were going to win the way that progressives win on an unapologetic message is by expanding the electorate that's the only way that we can win strategically it's not by rushing to the center it's not by trying to win spending all of our energy winning over those who have other opinions it's by expanding the electorate speaking to those that feel disenchanted dejected cynical about our politics and letting them know that we're fighting for them so so I knew that I had to build a broad based coalition that operates outside of the traditional Democratic establishment and that I had to pursue kind of an uphill journey of convincing activists that electoral politics was worthwhile and the issues. And the issues I ran on were very clear and I think it was an important part too to us winning improved and expanded Medicare for all to assure the public colleges and universities as well as trade schools a green new deal justice for Puerto Rico an unapologetic. Platform of criminal justice reform and ending the war on drugs and also speaking truth to power and speaking about money and politics not just in general but how it operates in New York City in a moment I'm going to play her clip talking about immigration activism Alexandra Cortez went to the border right before Election Day In fact her plane was delayed I was concerned she wouldn't be back in New York for the primary day but if you could start by responding to this and then we'll hear what she has to say about immigration activism. Well I think there's a her victory was quite a spectacular and significant event I think what it points to is the split in the Democratic Party between the roughly speaking between the popular base and the party managers the popular base is increasingly. Centrally social democratic following pursuing the concerned with the kinds of progressive objectives the CIO blind and those. In her remarks which should be directed not only to expanding the electorate but to the general. Working clothes poor population of the world of the middle class population of the country for whom these ideals or quite significant they can be brought to that that's one part of the party that the other part of the party is of the donor or e. And the managerial poured the new Democrat so-called the Clintonite to Democrats who are pretty much what used to be called the moderate Republicans the Republican Party itself has drifted so far to the right that there are almost off the spectrum but the split within the Democratic Party is significant as showing up and primer after a primary will the party move in the direction of its popular base with. Centrally social democratic. New Deal style programs even beyond or will it continue to cater to the donor. Be a sexually moderate wing a more moderate wing of the Republican Party unless that issue is. Solved I don't think the. Have a. Very good chance in the forthcoming elections but I think she was right in saying that the policy issues help law and should have broad appeal to a very large segment of the population we should bear in mind that. For no almost 40 years since the new a liberal assault began taking off with Reagan on from there are. Large majority of the population are living in conditions of stagnation or decline . The real wages are for same l. Real wages are both what they were in the 1960 s. It's been there has been productivity growth hasn't gone to the working people it's gone into the very few extremists overstuffed pockets and that continues so the Labor Department just came out with its report for wages in the year in the May 28th teen there actually slightly declined all sorts of talk real wages that is which is measured against inflation and it's apparently continuing with even further drop this is a time when a lot of crowing about the marvelous economy you know full ploy and so on but wages continue to stagnate. And furthermore it's plainly going to get worse the Republicans are on a binge of pursuing the most savage for. Class warfare the tax as a good example the attacks on workers' rights. The public citizen just came out with a report on corporate impunity which is almost comical when you read it the administration is simply cut back radically on any kind of. Dealing with corporate crimes and. Of course the e.p.a. Is presently stopped working it's as if grab whatever you can and stuff it in your pocket before you have a chance under those conditions. The kinds of appeal that she was talking about should mean a lot to the general population notices everybody's Quilla where the tax. Was a purposeful effort no need to enrich the super rich and the corporate sector corporate profits of course are overflowing but it was also a effort to sharply increase the deficit which can be used on Paul Ryan and others kindly announce to us right away what the plans were the deficit could be used to undermine. Any elements of the government structure which benefit the general population. Medicare or Social Security you. For poor children. Anything you can do to shift the general population more than they'll be justified under the argument that we have a huge deficit thanks to stuffing the pockets of the rich this is an astonishing phenomena that under those conditions a properly designed progressive program should appeal to Lawrence majority of the population but it has to be. Truly. I want to go back to the interview with Alexandria cacio Cortez who's really up ended the Democratic Party and the kind of message. This candidate of Puerto Rican descent in New York has sent to the entire party I think the Republican Party as well but this is what she says about immigration. We have to occupy all of it we need to occupy every airport we need to occupy every border we need to occupy every ice office until those kids are back with their parents period now the right wing media for example Fox News and others have kept have written about this over and over sent she made this comment about occupying airport Interestingly her area of Queens and Bronx include Rikers Island and La Guardia Airport Noam Chomsky. Well we just heard a. Dramatic illustration of what. A courageous. Position these are true for spoilers this can do. Swedish woman who preferred the. Airplane from taking off because it was deporting. Certain murder known Let me go to the young Swedish woman the student who you just raised who stood up on the plane this flight from him for Sweden to Istanbul because she understood that an Afghan refugee was on the flight as you pointed out and she live streamed what she did next this is what Ellen Arison had to say. Until this person. Or. He would most likely get killed on the street. So that was an heiress and when one of the angry passengers threatened her or threatened to take her phone away and then a flight attendant grabbed it back she went on to say when passengers talked about being inconvenienced she said they're not going to die he's going to die and there were many on the plane actually who supported her in her protest until the Afghan refugee was removed from that flight on orders of the pilot. You know that was a murder inspiring Gucht. Indication of what could be achieved by a really large scale civil disobedience Here's one young woman standing up alone to try to prevent a person from being killed in a difficult and hostile conditions. A large scale civil disobedience could achieve a great deal more but I would urge that we think in broader terms we should be considering was people are fleeing from their homes not because they want to live in slums in the in the New York they're fleeing from their homes because they feel their homes are on livable their own livable largely because of things that we have done overwhelmingly that's the reason. That tells you right away what the solution to the crisis is rebuild what we've destroyed compensate for the atrocities that we've carried out. The flow over a few injuries will decline for those who come with asylum please or they should be accommodated in a humane and civilized way maybe it's impossible to imagine the we can reach the level of civilization of the poor countries that are absorbing refugees but it doesn't shouldn't seem entirely out of reach Noam Chomsky is now linguistics professor at the University of Arizona speaking to us from Tucson clearly resistances in the air when we come back we move from resistance on airplanes to resistance on the air that's on Fox an unexpected interruption it will respond Stay with us. Down in the river by the war in treaty here on Democracy Now Democracy Now dot org The War and Peace reported as we continue our interview with Noam Chomsky world renowned dissent linguist and author now in Tucson at the University of Arizona I asked him about a recent mix up on Fox and Friends in which the hosts thought they were interviewing former Democratic congressional candidate a current one and Kirkpatrick of Arizona who supports Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency known as ice but in fact they were actually speaking to a Massachusetts Democratic congressional candidate Barbarella Talley n. Who opposes cites here is how the interview started Good morning I'm actually here to speak directly to Donald Trump I feel that what's happening at the border is wrong I'm a mother of 4 and I believe that separating kids from their parents is illegal and inhumane I'm actually Barbarella talian I'm a state senator representing a large immigrant community and running for the Massachusetts I keep thinking about what we're putting parents through imagining how terrifying that must be for those families imagining how it would feel not knowing if I'd ever see my kids again we have to stop adopting children and whipping them from their parents' arms getting kids in cases you want to start making 3 year olds defend themselves in court well Barbara look tallies said a lot there but she was then cut off with the shock of the Fox and Friends crew in the morning that they had the wrong Democratic congressional candidate. But this kind of media activism also just goes to the ole issue of the media Noam Chomsky the issue of Fox News becoming really a state media with you have the person who supported the sexual harasser Roger Ailes Bill Shine now a top. Aide to President Trump in the White House that's gotten little attention so you a fox being a mouthpiece for Trump and a place for him to hear what people have to say and the other networks very much running to counter to trump uncertain issues c.n.n. An m s n b c But your thoughts. My frank opinion is that I must say I don't pay much to pensions a television so a dollar a great deal about it but in general I think the media 1st of all the Fox News is by no basically a joke it's as used to state media the other media I think are focusing on issues which are pretty marginal there are much more serious issues that are being put to the so it so the worst of even on the case of immigration once again I think the real question is dealing with the roots of immigration responsibility for it and what we can do to overcome that and that's almost never discussed but I think that's the crucial issue and I think we've done the same across the board so overall Trump's policy is the one that is the most dangerous and destructive in fact poses an existential threat is his policies on the climate change on global warming that's really destructive that we're facing as an imminent threat not far removed of Norma's damage the the effects are already visible but nothing like what's going to come a sea level rise of a couple of feet will be massively destructive will make today's immigration issues look like. Trivialities and it's not that the administration is unaware of this so Donald Trump for example is perfectly aware of the dangerous effects in the short term of global warming for example recently he applied to the govern. One of our land for permission to build a wall to protect his golf course and arland from Brize ing sea levels. Tillerson who was supposed to be the old in the room before he was thrown out as c.e.o. Of Exxon Mobil it was devoting enormous resources to climate change denial although he had been sitting on his desk the reports of Exxon Mobil scientists who since the seventy's and were in the forefront of warm warning the of the dire effects of the 60 orating phenomenon I don't know what word in the language I can't find one that applies to people of that kind who are willing to sacrifice the literal a the existence of organized human life most in the distant future so they can put a few more dollars and. A overstuffed pockets the word evil doesn't begin to approach it these are the kinds of issues that should be under discussion instead what's being there's a focus on wood but I believe our marginalia take say the huge issue of interference and. Pristine elections at the Russians interfere in our elections an issue of overwhelming concern that the media in. Most of the world it's almost a job 1st of all if you're interested in foreign interference in our elections whatever the Russians may have done barely counts the ways in the balance as compared with what another state does openly brazenly. With enormous support is really intervention and you as it are elections vastly overwhelms anything the Russians may have done be even to the point where the prime minister of Israel but the neo. Goes directly to Congress without even informing the president speaks to Congress with overwhelming applause to try to undermine the president's policies what happened with Obama. And Yahoo in 2015 Putin come to give an address to the joint sessions of Congress trying to reverse calling on them to reverse. U.s. Policy without even informing the president and that's just a tiny bit of this overwhelming influence so if you happen to be interested in the influence of foreign influence of elections there are places to look but even that is a joke. And one of the most elementary principles of the functioning democracy is that elected representatives should be responsive to those who elected them nothing more elementary than. We we know very well that that is simply not the case in the United States that is ample literature or mainstream. Political science simply comparing the voters out of tubes with the policies pursued by their representatives and it shows that for a large majority the population basically disenfranchised their own representatives pay no attention to their voices they listen to the voices of the famous one percent the rich and the powerful of the corporate sector. That the election's a problem for dozens. Stellar work has demonstrated that. Very conclusively that for a long period way back us elections of been pretty much booked you can predict the outcome of a presidential or congressional election with remarkable persuasion simply by looking at campaign spending. That's only one part of it lobbyists practically write legislation and congressional offices. And massive ways the. Concentrated private capital corporate sector super will. Intervene in our elections massively overwhelmingly to the extent that the most elementary principles of democracy are undermined now of course all that is technically legal but that tells you something about the way the society functions so if you want if you're interested concerned with the elections. How they operate than how they relate to what would happen in a democratic society taking a look at Russian hacking is absolutely the wrong place to look will you see Kasia only some. Attention to these matters in the media but very minor compared with the extremely marginal question of the Russian hacking and I think we find this on issue after issue. Also on issues on which what Trump says for whatever reason is not on reasonable so he's perfectly right when he says we should have better relations with Russia being dragged through the mud for that is helped lead ish makes Russia shouldn't refuse to deal with the United States because the us care. To the worst crime of the century and the invasion of Iraq much worse than anything Russia has done but they shouldn't refuse to deal with us for that reason and we shouldn't refuse to deal with them for whatever and for actions that they have carried out which certainly exist this is just absurd we have to move towards better over there are right at the Russian border there are very extreme tensions that could blow up any time and lead to what would in fact be a terrible nuclear war terminal for the species and life on earth we're very close to that we could ask why 1st we should do things to ameliorate it secondly we should ask why well of course NATO expanded after the collapse of the Soviet Union in violation of verbal promises to behold Gorbachev mostly under Clinton portly other book 1st Bush than Clinton expanded right to the Russian border spread it further under Obama the u.s. Has offered to bring the Ukraine into NATO that's the kind of heart of Russian Jews strategic concerns So yes there's tensions at the Russian border not notice at the Mexican border Well those are all issues that should be of primary concern to the fate of the fate of the organized human society even of the survival of the species depends on this how much tension is given to these things as compared with you know whether Trump Lloyd about something. I think. Those seem to be the fundamental criticisms of the media. Chomsky world renowned political dissident offering languorous now a laureate professor in the department of linguistics. At the University of Arizona Tucson he taught for 50 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge Massachusetts tune in next week when we continue our conversation with Chomsky about Gaza Israel's new nationality law the recent Trump Putin summit Iran North Korea the war in Yemen and more in December Noam Chomsky will be celebrating his 90th birthday Oh and Happy birthday to Rob Young here at Democracy Now and democracy now has a job opening for a broadcast engineer in our New York studio find out more of democracy now or democracy now is produced by my 1st name belts in shape Carla wills Laura got a senior Sam I'll cop John Hamilton Robbie Aaron how do you miss suturing in a Dura that need a middle of the rainy bike to pull up on the go in that there are engineers special banks to back to Stanley Julie Crosby you grant a bridge crew. Best to get to ours I mean you could many get our transcripts that democracy now that Laura thanks for joining us. Yeah. Fred. Fred. Fred show. How to show that on the Prez shelf the shelf on the press shop. On the shelf on the shelf on the present shelf stuck on the present shelf. On a shelf on the press shelf on the present shelf I. Thought it shall not be present shelf down to the honey danny danny danny danny guy. Keep.