Injections. The founder of the encrypted email provider lavabit, ladar levison, unlike was forced to shut down his company after the government attempted to seize Edward Snowdens email information and much more. What they wanted was unrestricted access to everyones communications. That was something i was uncomfortable with. If the summer of snowden had taught us anything, it is that we cant trust our own government with access to information they should not have access to. Then dave zirin on the protest rocking brazil ahead of the world cup in the latest on whether the nba will force Donald Sterling to sell the clippers. And we will get the latest on thailand, which is just undergone a military coup. All of that and more coming up. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Thailands military has taken control of the countrys government days after imposing martial law. The army says the coup is necessary to restore order after six months of political turmoil between the government and opposition protesters. Demonstrators in bangkok have blocked elections and called for the ouster of a caretaker government installed after court removed Prime Minister yuingluck shinawatra earlier this month. There was a television address shortly after convening a meeting with political parties, lawmakers, and other key figures. Thailands last two and 2006 led to more than a year of military rule. We will have more on the story later in the broadcast. At least 48 people have been killed in the latest suspected suspected assault of boca wrong. They came just as the boca ron was accused of tearing out a twin bombing that left at least 122 people dead. In the capital, protesters rallying for the return of the kidnapped girls voiced concern about growing insecurity. They tell me the reason why the same chibok that the whole world is mentioning the name after the abduction of 270 something girls, yet they experience another attack . Are you telling me [indiscernible] as the boko haram is accused of more attacks, the u. S. Has sent a battalion of marines. 80 marines were sent to chat which borders nigeria. In washington, d. C. , eliot engel of new york back the administrations efforts. We believe are strongly that the United States in conjunction with other countries must do Everything Possible to free those girls. And otherchnology things available to us that other countries dont have that we believe should be utilized in a joint International Effort to bring the girls home. China and russia have struck a Landmark Energy deal after 10 years of talks. The 400 billion, 30your agreement will syngas from siberia to china via pipeline. The pact is seen as a major setback for western sanctions against russia imposed turn the ukraine crisis, with russia is sending its main expert to one of the Worlds Largest energy markets. The russian government says it will be tone expected vote today from the United NationsSecurity Council to refer the syrian conflict to International Criminal court. Talk you and officials have collected a list of figures to target for indictment on war crimes charges, mostly from the syrian government. But the Russian Ambassador told reporters his government will stand in the way. It is a publicity stunt. It will have a detrimental effect on our joint efforts, unfortunately, and trying to resolve the crisis in syria. Will be russias fourth straight veto of a un Security Council measure on cereal. U. S. Agreed to support the resolution after ensuring that israel would not face prosecution related to its occupation of syrias golan heights. Vowed tot obama has tackle the scandal engulfing the department of Veterans Affairs over a lengthy delays of medical treatment for Service Members of facilities nationwide. The v. A. Has come under scrutiny after it emerged Health Clinics in arizona and colorado use elaborate schemes to hide records of patients who waited too long for care, causing dozens of deaths. Speaking after meeting with Veterans Affairs secretary eric shinseki, obama called the delays and coverups intolerable. When i hear allegations of ,isconduct, any misconduct whether it is v. A. Staff covering up long wait times or cooking the books, i will not stand for it. Not as commanderinchief, but also not as an american. None of us should. The number of Veterans Administration facilities under investigation is more than doubled to 26 since last week. Asked by reporters if shinsekis job is on the line, obama avoided a direct answer but did not rule out his departure. Ricks attitude is if he doesnt think you can do a good job on this and if he thinks he is let our veterans down, then im sure he is not going to be interested in continuing to serve. At this stage, rick is committed to solving the problem and working with us to do it. I am going to do everything in my power using the resources of the white house to help the process of getting to the bottom of what happened and fixing it. The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of a missouri death row prisoner who was set to become the first be executed since oklahomas botched killing last month. Russell bucklews attorneys asked for a stay because he suffers from a medical condition they say could cause them to suffer from undue suffering. Theher ruling halted execution and sent the case back to a federal appeals court. The courts ruling marked a shift from a pattern of rejecting similar cases suggesting justices may be concerned about the secretive and unregulated compounding pharmacies that provide a lethal injection drugs to states like missouri that refuse to disclose. We will speak with his attorney after the headlines. A federal judge has ordered the government to hand over video footage showing the repeated removal of a Guantanamo Bay prisoner to undergo forcefeeding. The ruling came in the case of steering national abu wael dhiab, who has to become the first guantanamo prisoner to win a court ruling stopping is forcefeeding since a prison one Hunger Strike began more than a year ago. In addition to handing over some dirty for videotapes, the military is also been ordered to provide handing over videotapes come in the military is also been ordered to provide medical records and protocols related to forcefeeding. Over 100 people have been arrested at the illinois headquarters of mcdonalds and a protest calling for higher wages and the right to unionize. A crowd of up to 200 people including several hundred donalds employees up to 2000 people, including several hundred mcdonalds employees in uniform, marched on the companies Hamburger University campus to chicago. Theyre calling for a 15 an hour minimum wage in line with the fast food protest held around the world last week. We have talked to other workers. We have had petition signings. We have done all we can. We have requested meetings. Isht now, today, my presence saying i will take that step further and kick it up a notch because it is not enough. Ofmcdonalds is the leader the Fastest Growing industry in the country. Here saying, we are not going to live in poverty while you sit here and take on billions of dollars in profit. Protest organizers say they will continue their demonstrations outside the annual mcdonalds Shareholder Meeting today. Donald says it has no plans to take up the issue of worker pay. Samesex marriages are underway in pennsylvania following this weeks ruling overturning the state samesex marriage ban. Pennsylvania is now the 19th state to recognize Marriage Equality in the last in the northeast to do so. On wednesday, republican governor tom corbett announced he will not appeal the ruling struck down the ban. Meanwhile in montana, four gay lesbian couples have filed suit for the right to marry. The latest in a series of cases that have led to Marriage Equality rulings nationwide. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. You had a frontpage story in the New York Daily News this week. On monday, reported exclusively that the the blah zero administration has ordered a complete halt to all spending and further work on a huge project that the city has been engaged in now for a decade. It started under the Bloomberg Administration, modernization of the Emergency Communications 911 system for police, fire, and ambulance. This goes back to the World Trade Center attacks in 2001 when over 300 firefighters lost their lives in dozens of police because of failures and the communication system, the radios the portable radios the firefighters had failed on that day and they did not hear the orders in the buildings to evacuate the buildings because they were about to collapse. And result of that, overload of the 911 system, the city began a Massive Campaign to basically modernize its 911 system. It was opposed to cost about 1 billion. That is a lot of money. Billions now over 2 and 10 years later, and the system is still not completed. Major companies have made enormous amounts of money verizon, hewlettpackard, Northrop Grumman that have been involved in the project. It still has not been finished with many firefighters and policemen clamming response times are worse now and the ability to respond to emergencies has become more difficult as a result of this new system. Did overr de blasio the weekend was say, we are stopping undoing an immediate review for the next 60 days. He asked for department of investigations to do a probe into possible corruption in the operation. He asked for complete audit by the new comptroller. It is an enormous reversal of the major policy comes signature project of the Bloomberg Administration to find out how such a classic project could have gone wrong. As i have been reporting now for years, this is not just happening in new york city. Across the country, computer and Technology Companies are gouging local and state governments with these Huge Technology projects that they promise are going to do revolutionize government that end up bilking the taxpayers. It is a nationwide problem, but in new york city, because the 911 system of new york city is so critical nunnally to new yorkers but known around the world, it is going to be interesting to see how this pans out. We will certainly continue to cover your expose. We turn now to the latest on lavabit, decrypted email service once used by National Security agency leaguer edward snowden. The Company Abruptly shut down last august in a message to his customers, the companys founder ,adar levison wrote at the time i forced to bank a difficult decision, to become complicit in arms against the iraqi people or walk away from nearly 10 years of hard work by shutting down lavabit. Ladar levison appeared on democracy now last august in his First Television interview to discuss what happened. It was a very difficult decision but i felt in the end i had to pick between the lesser of two evils and that shutting down the service, if was no longer secure, was the better option. In effect, he was the lesser of two evils. What are you facing, when he said the lesser of two evils, what was the other choice . Unfortunately, i cant talk about that. I would like to, believe me. I think of the American Public knew what our government was doing, they would not be allowed to do it in you more. Lavabit founder ladar levison on democracy now speaking last august. Earlier this become a federal judge unsealed key parts of the record detailing the governments request from lavabit freeing ladar levison to talk more openly about what happened. He joins us now from dallas, texas. He just wrote a column for the guardian titled, secrets, lies and snowdens email why i was forced to shut down lavabit. Welcome back to democracy now why were you forced to shut down lavabit . I wents forced because through what i can only really incribed as a show trial secret. And at the end of which, i was forced to turn over the keys without even being given the opportunity to defend myself or change the circumstances that led to that disclosure. I just felt like after going through that process and learning everything that i have learned and listening to the prosecutors tell what i can only care to rise as boldfaced lies characterize as boldfaced lies, it was impossible to trust him the kind of access they were demanding. The only thing the only option i had laughed was to shut down. Either that, or like my letter said, become complicit in what they were planning. Which was the mass surveillance of all of my customers. Ladar levison, why dont you walk us through this. Start, when today First Contact you, and what were they seeking from your company . Certainly. ,hey First Contacted me in may although, it was unclear at that point who they were targeting or with the investigation was about. Even the agency contacted me did not know at that point. It is quite possible that initial contact was related to another investigation. The key meeting really occurred june 28 of last year when they knocked on my door and said that they were expecting a warrant to come through any minute now. It arrived on their blackberry and they forwarded it to my email and proceeded to have a two to three our conversation. That was the track and trace order. It was in that meeting the first amended my ssl keys. Explain exactly when this was and how this relates to edward snowden. Of june. As the end it was a friday evening about 5 00 here in dallas. Earlier that month issued a subpoena for some account information, some Registration Information on a particular account. From what i understand going back over the official record, roughly june 28 was when the mailroom delivered it to the prosecutor and they immediately went to the judge and got the pen register or trap and trace order. Based on that previous contact in may, there realized if they wanted to get access to the historical contents, they would need to capture the password in order to decrypt the data that was stored on disk. They realized the only way to do that was to conduct a man in the middle attack on all of the cryptic connections coming into and out of my network. Just to be clear, june 2013. So this is right after Edward Snowdens first revelations that came out in the guardian. That is correct. When you say the pen register track and trace order and ssl, can you explain what those are . Certainly. It goes back to the 1970s. Basically, the Supreme Court held that the federal government could capture any information going over the wire that you routinely shared with your Service Provider. So these pen register or trap and trace devices were built, constructed to record the telephone numbers that you dialed and trace the telephone numbers of incoming calls. Ruledhe Supreme Court that you did not need a search warrant in order to install one of these devices, the u. S. Congress reacted by passing the pen register or trap and trace uptutes that effectively set the legal statutory basis for the installation of these devices. They are not required to establish probable cause, to undergo strict scrutiny in order to install one of these devices. When these laws were passed, we were talking about devices that were installed on an individuals line and physically constructed in a way in which they could only collect incoming and outgoing telephone numbers and the link of telephone calls. Various time, based on court rulings, some secret and some not, the court has effectively expanded the authority of the statutes so now they can install them on Internet Service providers at the Service Provider and use them to scan and record metadata coming into and out of the entire providers network. Presumably, filtering out and only recording and transmitting back the information that is related to the targeted account. In that statute is a Technical Assistance provision, which traditionally means identifying the line, providing physical access, helping the agency install the device. In my particular case, the agents believed that included the authority to demand my ssl encryption key. When i first appeared in court, the judge agreed with me that something as proprietary and secret as a private encryption key did not qualify as Technical Assistance. Heat is important is said in that same hearing that that was why i signed a sea search warrant for that information. Well, after that hearing, which i was forced to appear at without a lawyer because i wasnt given adequate time to find one who could legally di representing a courtroom, i was able to hire a lawyer and file a motion to quash that search warrant. We had a hearing on that search warrant august 1, which was a thursday. The judge ruled against us in the next day issued an opinion in which he stated, and for the reasons stated in the government brief. Well, the governments brief included that original pen register trap and Trace Authority argument. The following monday how much the judge issued a contempt order export day. Even though my lawyer indicated to both the prosecutor and the court he wanted to at least appear and object to that contempt order. Because the order was affirmed so quickly and exparte, we were never able to file an objection to that authority. And it was on that ground the Appellate Court ruled i had waved my right to appeal that particular legal basis for the content charge. Ladar levison, can you talk about the documents that were released this week from the search warrant and what surprised you most in what came out . Certainly. Well, i dont believe these documents were available to the Appellate Court, but they only go to support my assertion that they really intended to capture more than just the data. It wasnt until the appellate hearing that the prosecutor even admitted that the only information they could not key waswithout the ssl when the user was logging in and when the user was logging out. And that is because all of the other information that they were authorized to collect is sent from Service Provider to Service Provider in the clear. What these documents show is that they went after the encrypted data, the user level encryption keys, and the source code that was necessary to process that information if you have the password. Now either they had the ability to break some of the most fundamentally trusted and relied upon encryption standards in the world and we dont know about it or they were really planning to exceed their own authority and capture passwords off of the wire. I think it is probably also worth pointing out that any compromised solution that offered what wouldve provided a technical guarantee that they stayed within the bounds of what the court had authorized was flat out rejected. Keys fromded the ssl day one and continue to pursue that demand until i shut down. It is also probably worth pointing out that after i shut down and it was clear they could no longer capture passwords, they dropped the request for the source code. What are your next steps . Are you considering moving your company a broad to be able to provide your customers the kind of privacy they want . In the short term, im focusing on the dark nailed element project which is really an effort that im carrying out in conjunction with silent reinvent thelly mail protocols that we use and encrypt in such a way that the client can do the encryption without the user having any knowledge of how it works or how to make it work. Wayidea is that is the only we can bring encryption to the masses. I really put off the problem of restarting lavabit as a Service Provider until i finish that work. Ladar levison, i want to ask, the target with snowden, his name is redacted in the documents you have, but part of the unsealed record dealt with socalled accomplices of the target, a snowden. Is that right . Yeah. And that was actually the portion of the documents that i had to go to court to get unsealed. They didnt want people to realize that they were trying to find out who was emailing back and forth with the suspect. Reasonably, journalist. They were going to use the evidence they collected to demand the private data of those individuals presumably, to figure out what had been given to those individuals. You for levison, thank being with us. We will continue to follow your case as well, founder, owner, and operator of lavabit. When we come back, we will go to kansas city to stick with the attorney for the death row wasoner whose execution stayed last night by the u. S. Supreme court. Stay with us. [music break] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Human rights advocates have welcomed us Supreme Court stay of execution for missouri man who was said to be the first prisoner put to death since oklahomas botched execution last month. Russell bucklew, aged 46, was scheduled to die by injection wednesday for killing a man during a crime spree in 1996. His attorneys asked the courts to grant bucklew a stay because he is a rare medical condition which causes weakened and malformed blood vessels, as well as tumors in his nose and throat. They argued he could experience race suffering during the execution process. On tuesday night, just over an hour before bucklew was scheduled to die, the print Court Justice samuel alito issued an order halting the execution. The court followed up with another ruling that said a lower federal court is to take another look at the case. The lower court will be the eighth Circuit Court of appeals which had lifted an earlier state by a smaller panel of the port which was based on bucklews claim that the protocol, as it wouldve been applied to him, presents objectively intolerable risk of harm and that it is sure or very likely to cause needless suffering. For more, were joined by cheryl pilate, joining us from kansas city public television. We last spoke to you in february shortly after your client Herbert Smalls was executed by missouri. This is a different situation you have been going nonstop was sete execution time and you got the original stay. Explained what has happened to Russell Bucklew a nonwhite round. Bucklews condition. It is his medical condition. The dangers that would arise from executing someone with that condition by lethal injection. The risks are heightened by the use of an essentially secret compound the drug about which ofre are no assurances quality, purity, or potency. Opinionsally solid from some experts who agree to work with us as the execution date approached. They said that any number of things could happen to mr. Bucklew. And the horrible possibilities were likely. It included hemorrhaging, bleeding into his throat causing choking, suffocating. He has these vascular tumors in his face and in his head and throat. Any swelling of them could cut off his airway, which is partially obstructed because of the tumors already. Then theres the problem of whether the lethal drug would circulate properly in the system and if it did not, it would lead to a prolonged and excruciating execution. We had some solid medical evidence which was not controverted by the state, and we placed before the courts and were grateful that we got this stay of execution. This now goes back to the eighth Circuit Court. Could you talk about that court and its record or history in dealing with Capital Punishment cases . The eighth circuit is very interesting. We got a stay of execution initially from a panel of the court and the two to one decision. That was vacated by what is called a 74 vote, which was disappointing. There are obviously divergent views on a number of things concerning the death penalty. One of them, frankly, being the standard that needs to be satisfied in order to prove an eighth amendment claim. I imagine that will be the focus of any of the proceedings when we return to the eighth circuit. Ande are a lot of standards i guess what the lay public would perceive as buzzwords tossed around. Do you have to show a substantial risk of serious pain . Does it have to be severe or excruciating pain . Do the risks have to be intolerable . Theres a lot of argument around that. Theres also an issue about whether you can essentially prove plead and prove and eight commitment claim without offering an alternative, feasible constitutional means of your client being executed. Asserted there is grave problems with that. And mr. Bucklews case, theres not even enough information these secretow trucks would interact with the system in order to answer that question. But at a more fundamental level, we think it is unethical to compel an attorney or would cause an attorney to violate their effort to propose a means for the demise of their own client. Can you talk about your motion to compel missouri corrections to permit a videographer into the execution, to film bucklews seclusion . What you wanted this, and the response . That was to kill that one of the many layers of secrecy that surrounds execution. With a process where theres a secret drug with no assurances. We are not even able to find out if it is tested. The have these anonymous Execution Team members, about which virtually nothing is known and theyre referred to by letters and numbers like m3 or m7 or whatever. Need to there was a preserve evidence, establish a historical record, and be able to show what happens in an execution. An execution in many ways is a stagemanaged production. With some of the actors never seen. Theyre offstage. The curtains come up and go down. The individual who is being executed is laid out on a gurney before the audience. But most of him is covered up. He may try to speak, but theres no microphone to convey his words to anyone. The entire effort seems to be assurancesoviding that it is a humane process. We believe it is been deceptively sanitized, and there are a lot of things about it that are very troubling. We wanted to establish a video record because theres only a limited number of witnesses permitted to watch, and those witnesses are vetted by the w arden. There is some press allowed in the victims family and prosecutor and the police made, and what they call the offender our client gets to pick a small number of people to come. But to date, theres been no really reliable reporter outside of some members of the press whose accounts we appreciate. The we wanted something that could not be questioned. We wanted a video of what happens during an execution. Has that been ruled on . Actually, that motion was rejected. Hoping we will be a little provide more evidence as to why that motion should be granted. I want to get your response to us district judge beth phillips. On monday, she denied your client stem execution, saying bucklew did not offering suggestions for a safer way he could be put to death. She wrote your response . They get back to the issue i just talked about in the diversion views about whether a requires the case prisoner, plaintiff, through his attorney, to allege a feasible alternative means of execution. But we did in fact allege an alternative, i guess if you want to call it that, which is we need medical testing, diagnostic onging to see what is going with these vascular tumors. They constantly grow throughout life. We needed to know their size and location, what they look like foro being able anybody, really, to propose a safer means of execution for mr. Bucklew. Much more needs to be known about what is growing in his head and throat. We actually fall to the department of corrections for not conducting any imaging studies or having any studies done during the last four years, despite the fact these vascular tumors had previously been monitored. The last mri was in june 2010. The vascular tumors were referred to with terms like very massive. There was a comment made about the severely compromised airway. Why someone would not follow up on these very troubling situations and not get continuing emerging studies, i can tell you, but the department of corrections did not have those obtained. Cheryl pilate, thank you for being with us. The case now goes back to the eighth circuit. We will continue to follow the case of Russell Bucklew. When we come back, mass protests through brazil around the world cup and what is going to happen to Donald Sterling. Will the mba challenge will the nba challenge his right on the clippers . [music break] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. We turn now to brazil where thousands of Police Officers join bus drivers for the second of a massive strike. Just weeks before the country is said to hold the world cup. The workers are demanding that we just met by tear gas when they faced off with strikebreakers. This follows last weeks walkout by military police in recife, another world cup host city which drew crackdown by National Guard and army troops. Meanwhile, more than 10,000 people have occupied a major lot next to one of the arenas that will host the world cups opening match. The calder protest the peoples cup in their opposing the nearly half 1 billion spent on the stadium, even as the communities adequate hospitals and schools. Illustrations throughout the country called attention to similar concerns. For more we go to washington, and you see, where were joined by dave zirin who is been following this closely for his new book, brazils dance with the devil the world cup, the olympics and the fight for democracy. He is going to brazil to cover the games. Welcome back to democracy now i hope you had a good 3 30 in the morning train ride from new york to washington. Starting her new show in washington. Talk about what is happening in brazil right now. Like a friend of mine who is living in brazil right now, he just emailed me to say the word fifa is about as popular in in newas fema was orleans after hurricane katrina. In a recent online poll in brazil, only 22 of people in the country are even going to root for brazil during the world cup. The amount of dissatisfaction with what fifa has done in conjunction with the Workers Party is reaching historic heights. Amy, you and i have discussed these issues around megaevents for years the displacement, the debt, and yet this is the First Time Since 1968 olympics in mexico city that you have seen master administrations in advance of the event itself. And that is what makes this historic and why the whole world is watching brazil right now. But what about this, you have a situation where two inistrations of supposed Workers Party, socialist, have been involved in the expenditures and the preparations for this cup . That is an interesting part. One of the thing the workers , is they have made efforts to fight inequality. The program guarantees and income to the poorest brazilians if they take their kids to school and regular medical checkups, has cut inequality , whereere except for ria inequality has gotten worse. The problem is, first lula and then doma told the country explicitly that the world cup was not going to be just a soccer term in, it was going to walk handinhand with even more developments, more money, more employment, more opportunity for people. When folks see the gap between the promises for the world cup and the actuality of what it is bringing, and in the context of actually much smaller growth rates in the country and existed even three years ago, that is what is really feeling a great chill of the discontent. When you see a stadium being built for 500 million and theres no food on the table, no health care and education has gotten worse him and then it breeds the kind of anger youre seeing right now. Thousands oflo, families have occupied an airing of the site the world cups opening match. Outside the stadium last week, protesters called for more spending on housing, health, and education. It is shameful, really shameful. Not the stadium itself, but so much has been spent on building the stadium which has pushed up rents. We dont have a basic hospital. Why is that . Because they chose not to spend the money on health or education, but on these works, which has only worsened our housing problem. Dave, if you could talk more about that. Absolutely. Right next to where the opening games are supposed to be in sao paulo, it is interesting for two reasons. The stadium itself is not finished with its construction and there are questions whether it will be ready for the opening game of the world cup. The other part that makes this extremely trysting is that youre seeing the way the workers parties using both carrots and sticks as a way to quell the protests in advance. , there telling the folks folks doing the occupation next to the stadium, that they will talk to them about maybe using that empty lot to build more Public Housing while at the same time sending in the police with the rubber bullets, with the tear gas, and also trying to pass legislation to make demonstrating a crime, a candid terrorism. It has gotten so extreme, pele spoke out against the world cup spending. Pele, one of the great athletes of the 20th century, is also one of the most aggressively apolitical athletes of the 20th century. In speaking out against the world cup is like Michael Jordan speaking out against nike sweatshop abuses. It is a wild scene. The smoke of the tear gas has even gotten into the eyes of pele himself. You mentioned pele. He said it is an astounding statement. As you say, for someone who shuns the political limelight. And even more so, if folks know the history of pele, another brazilian soccer star one said famously about pele, he is a poet when his mouth is shut. In other words, he is a poet on the pitch, but when pele as open his mouth on political issues tor the years, it has been justify poverty in brazil. He was jeered a year ago during the mass to menstruation some brazil during the Confederations Cup for saying the demonstrators should wait until after the world cup to have their voices be heard and should instead be getting behind the national team. People were like, what planet are you on saying things like that . The fact that pele has shifted and the same political statements about world cup spending he was arm in arm with lulu when the world cup was won by brazil and at the International Olympic committee when brazil was awarded the 2016 olympics. So him turning on the world cup and on the spending priorities, it just speaks to how pronounced the crisis is in the country that is the fifthlargest economy on the planet. We were watching today the escalator footage from the subway because the bus strike. The frightened masses trying to go up and down these escalators. Hundreds of protesters there. Despite being south americas city, there is only 46 miles of tracks for millions of commuters. And what this means for people coming in for the world cup. And transport was one of the main issues the Workers Party said would be remedied by the bringing in of the world cup. Once again, tying Economic Development to a soccer tournament and not reaching those expectations. What makes the bus strike really interesting is first and foremost, two point five many people stranded. A very successful strike. But also the bus strike is happening in opposition to the Union Leadership which is very tied to the Workers Party themselves. What it amounts to is what we would call a wildcat strike attempting to really enforce your opinions and will of the workers on the brazilian government. Their slogan is so interesting. For many of the strikers it is rage wages. Quality into the country, they also they want fifa quality stadiums. I want to ask about the Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, who has been banned from the league for making racist comments about blacks on elite audio recording. He is refusing to pay the 2. 5 million fine. He faces six charges in a hearing set by the league set for june 3, including allegations that he encouraged his girlfriend to say he was not responsible for the comments on the tape. The leaked recording will be used as evidence in the hearing. In this clip, you can hear sterling say he is upset his girlfriend posted a picture on magicram with nba legend johnson and tells her not to publicize her association with africanamericans. Why cant you be walking publicly with by people . Why . Doesnt matter if theyre white or blue or yellow . If you dont know that, maybe youre stupid. Earlier this month, Donald Sterling was interviewed by anderson cooper. He talked about Magic Johnson. What has he done . Can you tell me . Big Magic Johnson, what has he done . Is a businessperson he has aids. Did he do any business . Did he help anybody in south l. A. . I think it is hiv, not aids. Dsx with every girl and catches hiv. Is that someone we want to respect and tell our kids about . I think you should be ashamed of himself. I think you should go into the background. What does he do for the black people . That was Donald Sterling and his version of an apology. Dave zirin . Theres a question that hangs over this which is that this guy such a vile racist and he is why does the nba calling for 30 years . Why were his decades of being a slumlord not grounds for his removal yet insulting Magic Johnson is . That is a question the nbas not answering. That is a question people will push them to answer in weeks to come. What will happen with the owners . What is the decision they have to make . Theyre going to throw him under the bus, through the bus, whatever they have to do. Yet they still have to answer this question, if you so terrible, why did they do nothing for so long . Dave zirin, thank you for being with us, sports columnist, host of adjustment radio and a new sports show on wpfw in washington, where youre headed next. His new book is just out called, brazils dance with the devil the world cup, the olympics and the fight for democracy. We will be speaking with him when he is in brazil covering the world cup. As we move onto our last story. Taiwans military is taking control of the government days after imposing martial law. The head of the thai army says there eversinesses storing order after turmoil between the government and opposition protests. Havesters in bangkok blocked the elections and called for the ouster of a caretaker government installed after the court removed thailand Prime Minister earlier this month. The army chief made the announcement in a television address shortly after convening a meeting with political parties, lawmakers, and other key figures. To reform the social structure economically, socially, and in other ways, to create equality for everybody and every side. The peas maintaining committee which consists of army, army forces, navy, and her forces as well as the National Police has to take control of power to administer the country from may 22, 2014 from the time of 1630 hrs onwards. And lead to more than a year of military rule. For more, we go to Human Rights Watch joining us from washington, d. C. Can you talk about the coup in thailand and the significance of this . It has a lot of significance. This is not the first time there has been a coup in thailand in the last couple of years. What is different from the other times is this time we have an issue of royal succession. The king of thailand is quite elderly. Like everybody, is not immortal. Part of this is a response by the military to get rid of what they see as the redshirt menace for the former leader of the richards, former leader of isiland who is now in exile a person the military doesnt like and they want to read thailand of his menace forever. This is part of that effort. It is a complicated political situation but different from previous occasions. Why have there been such a string of military coups in thailand in modern times . Be ae military it would mistake to think of this military is your typical been republic military. This is patriotic in their own way, its just they have no democratic the principle but to the crown. Thereve stepped in to political opposition which has displeased the palace. In this case, in some respects, it is no different. What is the its relationship with the Thai Military, john . We have been saying this ought to be a lesson to the u. S. Military, the u. S. Administration, to the u. S. Government at large that all of this effort to promote democratic ideals and human rights through military and age men has been for naught. That is not because engagement doesnt work, but because the engagement used has not worked. Decade after decade u. S. Military is trained the Thai Military in somehow hoped its values would be and viewed by the ella terry but it hasnt happened. I think it is time to rethink the military systems and not just here, but across the world. What is the importance to the United States of thailand and Southeast Asia . Thailand is one of the u. S. Old allies which goes back to the 19th century. It was important in the vietnam war and remains an important political and military ally. The foreign assistance act will mandate to cut off of assistance to thailand for the duration of as there is aong nondemocratic elected government. Presumably, the embassy will continue running and negotiate. The United States and the eu and the japan have to tell the leadership of the Thai Military that nothing will move forward until democracy is restored. Toefully, that will lead resolution quickly. I think it will be some time. Can you talk about who the red shirts are . For an audience in the United States, and i assume other parts of the world, who know little about thailand, give us the political geographic landscape. Is so complicated. But in a nutshell, if you years ago, about 15 or 14 years ago, should barack truck was elected awatra was elected. Unpopularas a little bit with the elites in the urban setting of bangkok. He was ultimately thrown out by the military in 2006. He has been in exile for many years since. His sister was elected a few years back to miss of the richards came into power but without him. They then were thrown from power over constitutional case that ultimately took the red shirts out of power. They were thrown from power. A caretaker government came in which still had some richard members. Throughout this, the yellow shirts, which support the monarchy, have been trying to overthrow the redshirt menace. This exceeded for brief period a few years ago, but then were swept from power. Upset with her inability to use tomography, they basically turned to the military for help. They have succeeded. They are monarchists. They dont support democracy because it hasnt worked for them. I have to imagine many yellow shirts are not happy with what has happened that the palace will now appoint a nondemocratic supports thehat yellow shirt cause, that gets rid of red shirts altogether. What is ironic about this, it is not as though it is some huge ideological divide. Are there other progressive, more populist forces that are being or not being heard from in this struggle . Theres a lot of nonpartisan people, people who support democracy in the abstract. We reported on the redshirt abuses when they were in power and the yellow shirts when they were in power. The bottom line is, constitutional democracy is better than military dictatorship. We obviously would like to see return to the legal order regardless of who is in power. Or a lot of people in thailand i feel the same way. John sifton, thank you for being with us, talking about the military coup that is just taken place in thailand. That does it for our show. 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 ] ese. Have you ever thought about where your consciousness goes at night when you sleep and what were being told through our dreams and what part of ourselves is telling us . Of course, different cultures have different concepts of dreaming, just as they do about being awake. In this program, we will present some provocative recent discoveries from an American Dream specialist along with the native wisdom of an aboriginal elder, an authority on the dreamtime. So settle back, take a slow, deep breath, as we once again go to join our trusted guide and host Phil Cousineau on this unique, dreamfilled episode of global spirithe first internal travel series