Assured that other nations will not treat amemerica with respec, the respect that we deserve. Amy donald trump accepts the republican president ial nomination giving what was described as one of the darkest, most foreboding, and aggressively fearmongering speeches in modern political memory. We will get response. He spoke in the quicken loans arena. Rolell look at the firms in the subprime mortgage crisis. We will also look at paypal cofounder peter thiel, the bibillionaire investoror whoadae history y at the rnc. Im proud to be gay. Im proud to be a republican. Most of all, im proud to be an american. We will look at his role in the lawsuit that might take down a website. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. This is breakining with convention. Im m amy goodman. Donald trump accepted the republican president ial nomination. His hour and 1 15 minute speech portrayed the nation under threat at home and abroad. Mr. Trump ourur conventntion os prices foforf try our nation. The attacks on police and the terrorism in ourur cities threan our very wayay of life. I have a message for all of you. Cre and violence that,t, today afafflict our violence our nation, will soon and very soon come to an end. [applause] mr. Trump beginning on january 20, 2017, safety will be restored. During his speech, donald banningiterated immigration from countries where there have been terrorist attacks and building a wall on the border. Mr. Trump we Must Immediately suspend immigration from any troubled byhas been terrorism. We dont want them in our country. We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs, and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our community. Speechnald trumps included multiple factual inaccuracies. The speech was a compendium of doomsday stats that fall apart under close scrutiny, the Washington Post wrote. Many criticized his speech, saying it had undertones appear mongering and demagoguery. It did receive praise from former head of the ku klux klan david duke. He tweeted great speech, america first, could not have said it betetter. We w will have more after headlines. Mededeank cofounder bebenjin disruptpted donald trup last night holding a bananner reading build bridges, not walllls. Securityemoved by after the disruption. Democracy now spoke to her on the street afterward. I had read the speech before hand. I wanted to interrupt when he said i have your voice i am your voice. I wanted to get up and say, you are not my voice. Your one is your voice is one of hatred, antiimmigration, islamophobia. Amy to hear the full interview with medea benjamin, you can go to democracynow. Org. Activists are disputing the account after a protester attempted to burn an american flag. One caught onno fire and it was an excuse to make arrests. One of those arrested wednesday was gregory lee joey johnson, who had also burned a flag during a protest at the 1984 Republican National convention in dallas, texas. That flag burning led to a 1989 Supreme Court case that set the prprecedent that flag burnrnings protected speech. Memeanwhile, texas s senator ted cruz stood b by his rereful to endorse nald trumpmp while speakiking at a public breakfast for delegates. When i addressed the convenention, i i addresseded it because naldld trump a asked me to. When donald asked me to, he didd not asask me to endorse and, indeed, three days ago, i told him on the phone, im not going to endorse you. Im not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father. Amy instead of endorsing trump in his speech, he instead said vote your conscience, which prompted boos from the crowd. Ohio Governor John Kasich is alsos oaken out about why he has not set foot inside quicken loans arena although he has been all over cleveland. Said,ng on thursday, he when you stand on principles, sometimes you standalone. Fox news chair roger ailes has resigned amidst multiple accusations of sexual harassment. He is the most powerful person at the conservative media fox news. That he willrting receive a 40 million severance package. Former anchorer Gretchen Carlson accused him of sexual harassment. Many others have alleged sexual harassment. He was unelected, but mighty, ruling by force and fear. Carlsons extraordinary courage has caused a Seismic Shift inn the mediaia world. Black lives mamatter groups held demonstrationsns and a number of cities. In oaklandnd, hundreds rallilien fronont of city hall. Demomonstrators chained themsels to the raiailing outside the Durham Police department. In pittsburgh, demonststrators blocked a b busy street at rush ho and demanded an end to the use of police dogs and arrests. We have great people that get should be ableat to feel safe in their neighborhood. Of meanwnwhile, the mamayor somerville, massachusetts is refusing to remove a banner reading black lives matter despite a demand by the local. Olice union the National Basketball association has announced it will not play its annual allstar game in North Carolina next year. Charlotte was slated to host the event, but the nba commissioner adam silver said that the game would be played elsewhere after North Carolina lawmakers failed to change the state law known as house bill 2. It is the law that f forces transgender people to use what they were signed assigned at birth. The United Nations sponsored peace talks have failed to produce a lasting ceasefire. The conflict in yemen has left left thousands dead. With u. S. Backing, saudi arabia has responded with an aerial Bombing Campaign that has resulteded in a majority of the conflictss civilian casualties. New york city mayor bill de blasio has announced Rikers Island will no longer house adolescent inmates. The move comomes three years afr an invtitigati by y the u. S. Attorney Generals Office deemed the jail unfit for adolescents due to a systemic culture of violence. Before the years move takes place. States ins one of two the United States that charges 16 and 17yearolds as adults. There are currently about 200 juvenile pririsoners at riRikers Island. This final news from north miami in florida. The Police Officer who shot an unarmed africacanamerican therapist tryiying to calm his patient who had autism said he hit the therapist t by accident and that he actually meant to shoot the autistic man, who was cradling a toy truck. Workershot social Charles Kinsey in thee leg o on monday as he was attempting to help the autistic man, who wandered away from a group h ho. In t the video, he is seen lying on the grounwith handsds in the air when police shoot him. Police have said they weree responding to a 911 call about a man with a gun. In a cell phphone video released this week. Kinsey can be hearard telling police, all he has is a toy truck, im a behavivioral therapist at a group home. John rivera, president of the Police Benevolent association said that it appearered to the officers the white male was trying to do harm to mr. Kinsey. Fearing for mr. Kinseys life, the officecer dischargedd hisis firearm trying to save mr. Kinseys life and he missed. Those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Real estate local mogul donald trump has accepted the republican president ial nomination. In his record our and 15 speech, he portrayed the nation as one in danger abroad and at home. Mr. Trump the most important anderence between our plann our opponents is that our plan will put america first. [applause] americanism, not globobalism, will bebe our creds led byas we are politicians who will not put america first, then we can be willed that other nations not Treat America with respepec, the respect that we deserve. [applause] the American People will come first once again. My plan n will begin with fety at homome, which means safe neighborhoods, secure borders, and prototection from terroriri. There e can be no prosperity without law and order. Amy donald trump also spoke about how he would change u. S. Policy in the middle east. Mr. Trump we must abandon the failed policy of nationbuilding and regime change that Hillary Clinton pushed in iraq, in libya, in egypt, and in syria. Instead, w we must work with all of our allies who share our goal of destroying isis and stamping out islamic terrorism and doing it now, doing it quickly. We are going to win, we are going to win fast. Donald trump also pushed for putting new limits on immigration. Mr. Trump lastly, and very importantly, we Must Immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place. Anyone who endorses violence, hatred, or oppression is not welcome in our country and never, ever will be. Amy to talk more about donald , we are joined i think it was a good conclusion of the few days. Especially when it came to the rhetoric. Many Muslim Americans, including myself, have been hearing these sentiments in the last few years, but now these concepts and ideas and hatred against a more is becoming mainstream than it used to be in the past. The fact that donald trump can stand out there and bash muslims and call for banning muslims from coming from the country indicates that we have crossed a new threshold. It is actively trying to discriminate against them when they are in the country. Amy anything surprise you this week . A new tone . Pushing forward . By myi was surprised interaction with the delegates coming in and out. I was standing outside the main gate. I had a few interactions. I was also surprised by the lack of diversity of the gop a large. There is an obsession with issues that have to do with muslims and Muslim Americans and i did not see any Muslim Americans going through. Many of the extreme positions in the past have become mainstream positions within the gop. I was holding a sign that said resist White Supremacy. I got in many discussions with people who want to do either convince me that white people are superior or attacked me because i had the sign. The fact that White Supremacy is being defended on the gates of the gop is r really scary. Amy you have been criticizing the iraq war from the beginning. , raised born in iraq there, you came here, you are an iriraqi american right now. That went through the bush years and through the obamaclinton years. We just played a clip of donald trump saying we must abandndon e failed policy of nationbuilding. You have been critical of it also. Raed i agree with that half of the sentence. Thathe said, lets replace with a policy of working our to in the region by take out islamic extremists. The Obama Administration has been relying on our socalled allies in the region. These forces have been committing mass atrocities against their own people and their neighbors. The fact that the u. S. Is not directly bombing are sending that these not mean crimes are not our moral obligation to deal with. The u. S. Is justifying them. It is not the trump was saying, lets change this policy to a policy where the u. S. Would stop inteterfering inin the region ad messing with peoples domomtic issues. Hes saying, lets stop these policies by relying on corrupt regimes in the region that are even worse in dealing with human rights than our own. Amy raed jarrar, i want to thank you for being with us. This is democracy now when we comeme back, we talk wih some of the chief anchors of the networks about the rival network , about fox news, and the resignation of one of the most powerful people in the republican and conservative movement and media, roger ailes. They with us. [music break] this is breaking with convention, im amy gogoodman. Fox news chair roger ailes has amidst multiple accusations of sexual harassment. He is the most powerful person in can of media. Death conservative media. Many outlets are reporting conservative media. Many outlets are reporting that es will receive a 40 million severance payment. Of thesday, on the Floor Convention and outside before during the day, i had a chance to talk about the fall of roger ailes with several of the top tv news host across the corporate networks, including jake taber of cnn, Shepard Smith of fox john heilman. Gs i first spoke to chris matthews. Can i ask you about your thoughts about roger ailes . Me. E hired that is when i started. Amy what do you think . He hired me, i worked there i think i will leave it up to the witnesses to read sure people are being honest. Amy jake, would you like to Say Something about roger ailes being out . What it means for fox . I dont know what it means for fox. The bottom line is that he was a mastermind of that organization and whatever you think of the politics and the business decision, it was very, very successful. It was a billion dollar per year business for news corp. Ramificationsan and the human rights ramifications, it is a very important business story and im glad i work as cnn. Amy we have just come into the quicken loans arena. I think i see fox news Shepard Smith. I want to ask him about his boss being forced out over sexual harassment. Shepard smith, your thoughts on mr. Ailes departure. Id really rather not talk today. We are doing our job look we done every day for 20 years. Glad to be here and be part of the process. Amy your newsroom is going through a major change. I had i dont have anything to say. We are doing great. Amy i wanted to ask you what you think of roger ailes being out. I dont of the details of the story, but its hard to imagine the media World Without him leading fox. Idont know what happened, dont know anything more than i read in the paper. It is pretty shocking. How do you think he changed the media . He turned a Cable News Network into something that gave a voice to a section of the country that thought it never had a voice in the media. Politically, he was able to help candidates, help a party, help a movement, help and ideology. Probably the most powerful guy in the media. Amy do you think there is an interesting convergence of roger ailes out, one of the most powerful people in the conservative media, and what is happening here . A i would say it is remarkable week. Donald trump becoming the week of the becoming the leader of the Republican Party and roger ailes leaving as leader of fox news. Amy can i ask you a question . Hows it going . Amy what do you think of roger ailes being out . I think that in the world of the factive politics, that the Republican Partys nominating donald trump and the fact that roger ailes is out of fox news on the same day is like a tectonic shift in our world. Both of them were almost unimaginable a year ago. Donald trump was not a republican two years ago. He doesnt believe in most things republicans believe in. Roger ailes has been in some ways the most powerful republican in the country for three decades, for decades. So, we are looking at a new world. In a way, it is exciting. It opens up the doors to that which is unpredictable. Fox news could become a much underonventional network the much more conventional Television Executives that are likely to take over. Amy isnt Rupert Murdoch taking over . He is taking over on interim basis, but he will not be running fox news three months from now. There are five or six top contenders and many of them are conservativey people, some of them are much more straightforward news executives. The president of cbs news right now might get the job and he is not particularly ideological at all. If he got the job, fox news would be a very different thing a year from now. Amy what do you think of all these women saying they were sexually harassed . You know, ive read a lot of reporting on it, ive spoken to none of them. , thely, the weight of it consistency of some of the stories as reported over generations, let women through the 1960s through the 1980s telling the same story, there is kind of a prima fascia of gravity to the stories. Certainly makes it possible. Im not judge, im not jury. I i cant make a defininitive ruling. Bloombergs john heilman. Nbcs willy giese. Giest. This is democracy now ,e are breaking with convention war, peace, and presidency. We were speaking to them on the floor of the quicken loans arena. We are going to turn to look at a billionaire who owns casinos, facing a pending lawsuit, and s a reputation for launching attacks s journalisism. We are not talking about donald trump, we are talking about dan gilbert, owner of quicken loans. Republicanthe convention has taken place at the q. Thats short for clevelands quicken loans arena, home of the Republican National convention, which concluded thursday. The iron he irony is lost on the press corps, which has characteristically has this remarkable lack of selfawareness about a lot of things. Quicken loans was one of the symbols of the subprime crisis. They have reinvented themselves with rocket mortgage, which is a sub company, as far as i understand. There are people on wall street who wont tell you the same problems with active bubbles in the real estate market. Cleveland was one of the ground zeros of the foreclosure crisis, but we are not here to cover that. Of that is matt taibbi rollingng stone. That is just the beginning of the story. Fofor more, we are joined by per pattakos Peter Pattakos is anan Ohio Attorney and publisher of the sports website cleveland frowns. Didnt gilbert is a selfmade billionaire who came up in the momortgage bubblble. The mortgage bubble and he is one of the largest landowners and powerful citizens in cleveland and d detroit. Even if you gave him the benefit of the doubt on the predatory lending, on quicken loans and the allegations. Assuming he happened to be in the right place at the right time, there are issues beyond that that are concerning about dan gilbert. The first one in my mind is the lack of accountability that he has around town. For cleveland and also in detroit. That there are so few politicians who will stand up to him. Nobobody seems to be able to say anything to him to the contrary, including questionable things like a 300 million subsidy on cigarettes and alcohohol that wt right into his and his fellow pro s srts owners pockets in cleveland. He did that without ever opening his books and explaining just how much profit he took out of this public trust. We ended up having to have a citizenled campaign against that. It was a ballot issue. There was not a single prominent politician, not a single councilmen, nono elected officil in ohio except a few local mayors in workingclass suburbs. Amy he changed the ohio constitution . Peter there is another one. He did it after ohoh voters hahe rejected i it twice before by narrow margins. It is very hard not to think that while the Cleveland Cavaliers are successful, he is bombarding the airwaves with vote yes on issue 3. Lebron james paid well and people felt good about dan gilberert and they passed the casino referendum by a narrow margin. It is interesting how the good feelings about dan gilbert replace an analysis of the words that he actually says. Amy the departmtment of j juste has launched an investigation into quicken loans. Talk about the significance of the rnc. Being in the quicken loans arena. T is not just branded dan gigilbert runs it. Peter right. Dan gilbert will be making more money than anyone off this convention. Amy how . Peter just from the rental of the arena and, i understand, someone said the bulk of the profits would be going to quicken loans. Amy we have been talking to a lot of the shop owowners in downtown cleveland, set aside the poorer communities in the outlying areas, and they are devastated by this week. Their bubusinesseses have almost come to a halt. Peter r ive experienced the se thing. People have said the same thing and that is consistent with my observation. It raises a lot of questions about who is benefiting herere. You have t the big barriers between the citizens and quicken loans arenana and a big barrierf analysis of what is being said in that arena and whahat people really t think aboutut it. T. They have such a big megaphone. Amy didnt gilberts relationship with the press. We are talking about donald , no longeger do we use the word presumptive nominee, but the republican president ial nominee. There are a number of interesting parallels. Among them, journalists have been banned from Donald Trumps press conferences. They could not ban them from the rnc, but d dan gilberts relationship with journalism. Peter it is well known. When anyone in a local paper write something critical of dan gilbert, he will place an angry phone call, at least one. It has c certainly had a chillig effect, in my opinion. I go back to the sports subsidy. They bombed the airwaves with 3 million of advertising. Keep cleveland strong. This was at a time when the consensus was infant mortality werewas very high and we one of the most economically segregated cities. At the same time, he is saying at the same time that we should keep cleveland strong by giving him and his fellow owners 3 300 million,n, when they dont tells why they need it. It is quite stunning and it reminds me of make America Great again in a way. How do we expect him really to do that and what he is saying about how he is going to do that . Amy Peter Pattakos, i want to thanank you for being with us. Ohio attorney and publisher off the e sports webebsite clevelad frowns. This is democracynow held alofters here posters. We are going to turn right now to actions that were taking place in the streets. ,e went to the Public Square where a group of cleveland residents help posters featuring tweets decrying what is taking place. Delegates and media workers filed in. This was the big night of donald trump. These Young Cleveland activist gathered at the Public Square talking about their concerns about their city and how it has been decimated. Economic policies have left in its wake. Cleveland is one of the most segregated cities in the u. S. A police force that is known around the country as the one two years ago where to officers came to a local Recreational Park and one shot dead a a 12yearolold boy named tamir re within two seconds of pulling up as he played with his toy gun. Protesters held aloft their posters that featured tweets decrying these policies. My name is amanda king. My sign basically says that we are tired of being an afterthought for safety. Platform was make america safe again but some of us are not safe. Im holding this sign for young people who are gunned down in the street. Im holding the sign for Young Clevelanders who dont have a voice at the rnc. These are twitter discussions we have been having all week. In my tweet, i said, how do you make america work when you are lining your pockets with money from privately owned prisons instead of creating jobs . That is the contradiction. The sign says 50 million spent on the renovation of a park, but the school is failing. I went to cleveland public schools. Even before the whole School Choice thing came, it was already failing. Better whenutely no the Charter Schools moved in. It got no better. It actually got a little bit worse. I keep hearing republicans talking about School Choice, but the School System is still failing, whether it is privately or publicly owned. They dont care about black people or black students at all. It seems to me. Amy can you read me yours . I do not want the media to paint cleveland out to be this upbeat, lively city when there are so many injustices going on. My sign says the black Unemployment Rate in cleveland is higher than the black Unemployment Rate in the country. My sign talks about tamir rice. It is not about any candidate. Im standing here holding this is a mother. My sons are six and nine. Tamir was 12. Im standing your for all the mothers all over the country and all over the world that have lost their children to state violence, to police brutality. It is time for mothers to stand lined put our lives on the for our children. This is what we are doing now. Amy can you read me your sign . Are openingte men carrying assault rifles in a city where one black child with a toy gun was killed by police. Tamir rice was 12 years old, he had a toy gun. You have grown white men waving assault weapons all over the place. The most segregated city in the whole country is still affected by redlining and gentrification. In a suburb of cleveland. This is east cleveland. We asked one of our friends to take pictures of her neighborhood. She took a whole bunch of pictures that came out a amazin. These are the potholes on the tracks that fill the city. My name is jennifer longstreet. My point with the issue is that all of these accommodations were , for thethis event Republican National convention, yet our city, the parts they are not showing are falling apart. We have potholes the size of minivans. The inner city is falling apart. We have boarded up houses, abandoned houses on every corner , especially in the predominantly black neighborhoods. Nobody is doing anything about it. But we spent millions and so the republicans could come here for their convention. This is our city. Who cleveland residents formed the group cleoverrnc. Ththis is democracy now this and next week am a we are breaking with convention, peace, and the presidency. We will be back in a minute. [music break] b movieie by gilil scottheron. With convention. War, peace, and the presidency. This is our last day in cleveland, ohio, covering the Republican National convention. On wednesday, members of the International Press were spoken to to find out how other countries view donald trump. Hello my fellow republicans. I have traveled from new zealand. It took 12 hours to los angeles and another four hours. , aork with news Hub Television radio and digital broadcast in new zealand. What are your republican impressions of the Republican National convention . I think it is truly insane, it is crazy. It is crazier than i thought. Actually froze yesterday, looking at the scenes in their. I have never seen anything like it, people acting like it, that kind of worship that borders on brainwashing, in my opinion. That scene alone blew my mind. Let alone bringing in the donald trump factor. The supporters alone blew my mind and t then we bring in what is actually happening with donald trump and the presidency and the potential for him to become the most powerful man in the world and is is a truly insane experience. Out of people back home look at donald trump and what is happening back here in america . It is like a morbid fascination. People cant look away. People in new zealand dont really feel like it is real. I think there is still a feeling like this cant be happening to america, this name cant be getting so far. It new zealand, a High Percentage of people would be against him becoming president. Im guessing somewhere around 80 or 90 would be concerned about donald trump becoming president of the United States. We look at america as our world leader. People know that. Becomingld trump president , people will be concerned about the stability of america and the stability of the world. We are from los angeles. The tv station is the tv news. World from all over the in the Chinese Community can watch it. What has your experience been so far at the Republican National convention . I think we saw a lot of mostly white delegates, white male. Minority groups representing at the convention. How do you think people in china antiwar and view donald and how and taiwan would they view a donald Trump Presidency . What they can see from the mainstream media, of course, they think he is antiimmigrant. Ginny a journalist from guinea. Africa. Hillary clinton was part of toppling mama gaddafi. He was controversial, but he was finally part of the tradition. Overthrow the regime definitely contributed to the expansion of international terrorism. Donald trump says he is not into nationbuilding. Hes not going to go into other countries affairs. I think that is a good thing. To the people of guinea have any concerns about donald trump . He is not the kind of leader who has a clear understanding of international relations. York and id in new cover u. S. For new delhi television. We broadcast to about 78 countries. India,untries, including are not so positive in their perceptions about donald trump. It has been interesting to get that perspective. Despite the polls suggesting that only 40 of indians support Donald Trumps foreign policy. Obviously, he is a very polarizing figure. Tend do tend to have a negative perception. There are lots of comparisons between Narendra Modi and donald trump. I had a chance to speak to newt gingrich. They are very similar, both very practical guys, they are focused on the same things, they will build a similar leadership style. Whether that is good news or bad news or whether that is intrinsically true is debatable. Im a news anchor out of sky news arabia based in abu dhabi. How did the people of the United Arab Emirates perceive donald trump . We broadcast to the middle east region. The general impression is that he is a bit extremist and he does not represent the mainstream republicans. What are some concerns the arab world would have if donald trump became the next president of the United States of america . The concerns include that he might be triggerhappy. He might be involved directly militarily in the region and that causes some concern. Other concerns have to do with admitting immigrants to the United States and maybe putting restrictions on muslims and the people from muslim countries. Im a reporter, a correspondent. Which country do you report for . Mexico. This is a worldwide News Television network in spanish. How do the people of mexico view donald trump . Trumpbelieve that mr. Uses very hard terms to describe mexican workers here. We know the majority of workers are coming to work, searching for resources to feed and maintain their families. And not with any crimes. Like in every society, there is crime in my country. It does not necessarily mean that all people are like that. We are talking to him to find out exactly what he was referring to, but we have not received any answer. By media outlet is the austrian press agency. Austriado the people of think about donald trump . They all honesty, mostly, are afraid of what is going to happen to the states and to the world. When donald trump becomes president. We cant grasp or understand what this all movement is about, honestly. , butels like reality tv not like reality. What are some of their main concerns about donald trump . Extreme, outlandish, not knowledgeable enough in the fields he is an. I think this is it mostly. , we have ain austria far right that is getting stronger and stronger and it is not so far from the views donald trump is supporting. Go tv fromchief of pakistan. I have been here covering the United Nations and the state department for the last 40 years. What would a donald Trump Presidency mean to the people of pakistan . What concerns do they have in particular about donald trump . s statements about the muslim world. For the simple reason the way he is talking and he is trying to build a wall on the mexican side. He is tryingng to stop all that. That the crime does not have any religious identity. A criminal is a criminal, no a matter he is white, he is black, he is ethnic, whatever he is. Identityuld not be an or identification of the crime by somebody with a muslim name. Every society has criminals. American jails are full of criminals that are not muslims. From otherriminals societies. Every society has got criminals. Every society, by and large, is a peaceful one. Peaceful people should not be stigmatized. Amy internationon journalists covering the Republican National convention. This is democracy now im amy goodman. Last night, the last side of the convention, paypal cofounder peter thihiel made e history by declaring that he was brought to beget. Gay. Beget a be the great debate was about how to defeat the soviet union and we won. Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use. Hich bathroom this is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares . [applause] peter of course every american has a unique identity. , im proudo b bege gay to be a republican, but most of all, im proud to be an american. Amy that was peter thiel speaking thursday night. Earlier this year, he made headlines when he confirmed that he personally spent 10 million to secretly fund a controversial lawsuit by roessler hulk hogan against gawker media. Jury awarded the roessler 140 million, a decision that shocked many in the media. A. Gawker was forced to declare bankruptcy. Said the an article bankruptcy is how a free press dies. Hisis sights on gawker after they posted an article titled peter thiel is totally gay. Sam, welcome to democracy now lets talk about who peter thiel is. He is known mostly for cofounding paypal. He is also known for being the First Investor and facebook. Those are his business credentials. Massivew a pretty venture capitalist in silicon valley. Amy tell us what happened. How did he take down gawker. Sam he spent a lot of his money to secretly fund lawsuits that would be ruinous for any organization. Even frivolous lawsuits cost money to defend and when you are facing multiple suits, it is a pretty failsafe way to destroy an organization. About hisou talk speech, the history y he madade, comimi out as gay at a Republican National convention, the significance of this . Sam sure. His background ideologically is all over the place. He stated that democracy and freedom are incompatible. He has said that women should never have had the right to vote in the United States. He believes in the construction of manmade islands where the u. S. Overnment t has no sovereignty and now he is a trump delegate. It is really a natural progression in the series of fringe, silly, radical ideas. I think it is great to see anyone saying they are proud to beget a on a stage be gay on a stage. The Republican National Convention Stage is a little troubling. The parties official platform is that men should not have the same rights men like him should not have the same rights in american society. You have to remember the history and direction of the Republican Party. Then he follows it immediately by dismissing transgender rights as a distraction. Im not really sure how progressive any of that really was. Amy in 2009, peter thiel suggested american democracy suffered when the right to vote was extended to women. Sam yes. Thats right. Amy explain. Sam what can you say . I believe he said the last time you could speak optimistically about american politics was 1920s. America was a very different and dramatically worse place for a lot of people. It was a tough time in the United States. Civil rights to not really exist. To harken back to that as a romantic period in American History shows you the kind of person he is and what true values he holds. It is great to be a white billionaire. Amy sam biddle, what has been the reaction in the media to his funding of the gawker lawsuit . Sam i think even people who are critical of gawker and there are many are terrified. He has p presented a blueprint r anyone with enough money to. Ilence a critical voice you can use enough money to put a journalistic outlet out of business or disrupt them. Coming from people who have never liked gawker, they are saying, we could be next. It had come from the left or the right. Amy what about Donald Trumps attitude toward a free press . Sam that is one place where they are aligned. He wants to open up libel laws themke it easier to sue for ruinous amounts of money. Public figures can sue for defamation under the current system. Trump has made a villain out of the press. He has called for boos against reporters at his rallies. He has demonized cnn, the Washington Post, etc. Whenever he says something foolish or extreme his first scapegoat is the press. He has done a lot to make things in this country even more hostile toward the media than they ever were. Amy sam biddle, we want to thank you for being with us. That does it for us. For our show. Inare wrapping up here cleveland. We are going to move on to philadelphia. I will be doing a talk back from the convention, to talks. I will be doing the 30th in marthas vineyard. Follow our team for the latest updates on the convention. Democracy announcer this is a production of China Central television america. Mike whwhat makeses a visionan . For some, its the passion for innovation. For others, its seeing opportunities to make a difference when others have given up. This week on full frame, conversations with visionaries who are using their global fame to make an impact. Im mike walter coming to o you from the heart of new york citys vibrant timemes square. Lets take it full frame. Our first guest is an Academy Awardwinning actress whose starring roles in films like dead man walking, thelma and louise, the client, and the rocky Horror Picture Show have demonstrated her range in versatility and cemented her place in pop culture. Take a look. The rocky Horror Picture Show. Man this isis my fiancee, janet weiss. Janenet toucha, totoucha toucha, tououch me i want to be dirty susan take a deep breath. [inhales] lelet it all out. Now were goi to o pick up ouour instruments,s, and when i i couo 4, were going t to play thehe. T of thihis thing. G. 1, 2, 3, 4. Thelma louise, shoot the radio. [gunsh] the poce radio, uise. Loui got it. Susan you boys atmpted to interrogate a child outse the presen of his thther whout r coconsen if i ne anynythg from you boys, like the truth, well, i exexpect to get it. You blame e e govementnt, u ame ththe ugs,s, y blame blacks. Atat abo matatth poncelet . What, is he just an innocecent . If youou do die, a s your frienend, i want to help yu die withth dignity, and i dont see how yoyou can do that unless you start t to own up to thehe t yoplayed iwawalternd h hoss death. You u nt to take 12yearld gi to a pel jam coert on a schl l nigh woman i jt t thout itit wld beometethi nice e at she a i couldodo togher. R. Sun its s ridilousus. Man of courseacackies s gog toe e hoste, irratnal. Girlpepearl m . Susan yh. H. Girl on s schoonighght . Sususa mmhmhm we are going out. Girl , mom mike a additn to herork in front of and behind the cameras, Susan Sarandon is also an activist and humanitarian. She dedicates her time and resources to advocate for social and political justice. Shes an outspoken voice on issues, such as capital punishment, world hunger, hiv and aids awareness, and lgbtq rights. She served as a unicef goodwill ambassador and goodwill ambassador for the food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. She recently shifted her focus to helping those affected by the devastating earthquake in nepal. More than 9,000 people died in april of 2015, and those who survived, they are still struggling. Susan sarandon saw that firsthand as she volunteered with live to love international. She was on the ground with the nepalese people and hopes to encourage tourists from around the world to visit that beautiful nation. Shes here to talk about her illustrious cacareer, her r rect work in nepapal. We want t to welcome Susan Sarandon to the show. Susan thank you. Mike do you feel like your life just flashed before you . Susan yeah, i feel like i should lose weight, too. Im looking at. Mike you know whats amazing is we talked about your range, and im not a a stalker,r, but t just so happened i was flipping across the tv the last two weeksand i knew i was going to be interviewing youi saw you in the calling as a police detective, and then i saw you as this grandmother in tammy, and im just amazed at all these different roles. I mean, is it serendipity, or are you just. Susan i did 3 alcoholics in a row that summer. Tammy and the calling were one of them, and i forget which the other one was. Well, you choose from what youre offered, and i dont like to repeat myself, and, you know, things change year to year what youre offered, and, um, yeah. I mean, i see myself as a character actress so i like to do different things. Im not really a very y interesting personality, so i dontyou know, theres some actors that just play themseselves and do that very well, and then there are other people that are more character actors, and im kind of that. Mike you know, uh, i had the opportunity to interview geena davis last year, and she talked about thelma and louise and that people still come up and say stuff to her, andand the great thing about having great roles, its almost like a comet with a tail. I mean, you were telling us when the clips were running that you still run into some of the band playersnow theyre all grown upin that one scene. Um, do you think about that when youre in a role, that, jeez, this things going be around for so long, and im still going to be stopped about it, and you must still be. Susan if only you knew which movies were going to turn out to be around for a while. I mean, thanks to ridldley scott,i mean, thelma and louise, he put us in a veryry heroic kindnf setting inhahat anmadede a great movie,ndnd itnd i it lasted, but erere argreaeat parts th a are imedidioc films, aor tre a areood little filmshahat thstududio dont pppport,nd s so ey disappr,r, andhen n pele finin themater. So i thinkouou learn prettyoooon, prey y earl in a caer to inst in this busess in t doing o it and leto of whahappen to it because you have no control over it, and theresyou know, its just like the rest of the world. Theres no justice. So, um, you never know. You know, you can have a really great script, and it could get ruined by the music they put in, or the editor isnt funny. You can have a mediocre script that, you know, gets better. That doesnt happen too often, butso you dont know, i dont think, and you certaininlyi mean, i have been very lucky in that or strangely zeliglike enough that quite a few of my films have had some kind of social, i dont know, turning point where they became somethingthat meant something at that particular time, and so that helps them also stay around, but certainly when we did the rocky horror show for 1 million, nobody thought it would be resurrected a number of years later and still be around as the longest running film, you know, and thelma and louise, we thought we were making a little cowboy movie with girls and trucks and didnt understand that people would be so offended. Pretty baby, i had no idea that would end up doing what it did, and dead d man walking, we were just so happy to find a way to do it, and then when people actually sat through that to the tune of over 100 million, thats a difficult film. Mike yeah. Susan and the fact that it changed the dialoguei mean, we hoped it would make the conversation about the Death Penalty more r real for both sides, um, but we had no idea it would be economically, you know, a success at all, and tim did a brilliant job withth that, and then, umwith the script and, you know, but, no, you dont know. I think you just do it because you love it, and you try to find adventure and challenge in every part that you do, andand, you know, now imi mean, ii did a movie recently where i didnt have to die or help someone die. That was really refreshing, because you get to a certain age, and suddenly, you know, everything changes. Um, so i was surprised to be off finding those scripts, you know, where there was a romance and still. Mike but its got to be a great feeling to work on something that youre passionate about, and the issues is so important, andand given the fact that you know about the ebbs and flows, you just never know, and then for it to be such a huge commercial success. Susan well, i think every film is political. Every film either reinforces sexism, a ageism, racism, or challenges it, and you dont notice the ones that support the status quo, you notice the ones that challenge it, but every film puts an audience into some place where theyre, you know, looking at their lives, and anything for me that encourages an audience member to be the protagonist inn their own life, ivethats what gets me excited, and so if i can find that and its something that i havent done before, you never know. Theres so many, you knowyou never know what the director is going to do. I i think i was i in geoe roy hills only bomb with robert redford, the great waldo pepper. So youyou know, you just never know. As i said, it trarains you not to cae about the success of what happens later and to do it for the sake of doing it, and so if youre not passionate about playing that person, if you dontif it doesnt scare you a little bit, then i think you shouldnt do it. Mike you arare also a ping pong plplayer, and,d, of course, our audience loves the fact ping pong diplomacy, big huge step between china and the United States. What is it about the sport that you love, andand is susan well, first let me say im more of a propagandist than a player. Im not that great. I mean, theres a rumor that im great, and well keep that going, but im really not that great. Um, first of all, little girls can be t theirads. I mean, c cuts rossss by typepe it cs acrossgege. Is something you n n playorevever itnonot exnsivive. Ust ababt erybody s had me exriencelaying pg pong. Thlearningurve is ry quick into a rtain int, so, you know, the ubs that we havespspin, ich h is franchising now alovover, u know, u can gondnd notustt drink, andououyohaveve something too o on aate. E. Y have sometngng youan d do th your family,utut i le ththe fact thaityou kno itif you rely dece to be very good, um, that it doesnt matter if youre a big, big musclebound guy, and weve been giving tables to the schools, the underserved schools in new y york, and its nonow a scholastic spoport in 4040some schohools, so you can actually get credit, and, umand they were telling g me, when i gave one of the donations recently, that 95 of the kids that joined the ping pong club, or whatever its called, have never joined anything before. So i think its great because ityou know, it is kind of a solitary thing. I mean, you play facetoface, which is whats great for dating. You dont have to wear someone elses shoes, and at spin, we have food and music, and so you can kind of fool around, and then if you want to be serious, you can come back and be competitive, but i think the game itself is very underwelell, itsitsyou know, its an olympic sport. Its not underrated, but a lot of people thought it was just so weird and that only dorky kids did it, but now that all the dorky kids are ruling the world, i thinkand weve made it sexy, andand now you can play and not be in the closet about it. Mike what is it about that papassion . I mean, how dohow o people connect with that passion in you, and you haveits varied. I mean, its not just this one susan but in the business im in, you use your imagination. If you use your imagination, then that leads to empathy, and once you can imagine what it would be like to send your kid off to war, then you empathize with the mother thats being asked to do that. So its a natural progression, and as somebody who i use the term artist very lightly, anybody thats in a creative pursuit is outside, anyway. Were kind of outsiders, really. I dont care how much you try to pretend youre in the middle of things. Its your job, i think, to observe and to give people an opportunity to reframe their lives and get information, and its the kind of business that can really use you, so i prefer to use it rather than be used, and, um, though im not really an expert on anything, it gives me the opportunity to just shine a little light or give a little voice, like today, to people that maybe arent as mediaconnected, and i find that, you know, people have such open hearts and theyre so generous andand really want to know, but theyre just not given the opportunity, and most of the news is corporately ownened and not particularly interesting and kind of on a loop and so theres a lot of little stories that get lost, and thats why we drag up all these old celebrities at the u. N. Or wherever just to be able to put a focus on an issue that it wasnt getting traction before, and unfortunately, thats the way it works these days, so thats what we do. Mike we all saw the imagery that this horrendous event in nepal, um, but a lot of us are kind ofwe watch it, we feel paralyzed, but thats not you. I mean, you went there. Talk to me about going, what you expected to see, what you saw, and what does that do to your psyche, i mean . Susan well, ive never been to nepal before. I actually had a trip planned, and the earthquake hit two days before. Um, its a long way to go. Its not easy for everybody, and honestly, you know, everyone cant just pick up and go and be helpful. Um, sometimes if you show up in a disaster area in the United States, if you cant provide a service, youre more of f a problem if youre another mouth to feed and shelter. So you have to be able to make surere that if you arere going to go somewhere, what your job is and if you can help. Um, in this case, i have friends that are there, um, his holiness, uh, andand live to love is one group, and then pushpa basnet, who i had nominated for the cnn hero and who won and washad built an orphanage, and she takes these kids out of prison, because in nepal, if you go to prison, your kids go with you if they dont have anywhere to go, and so her house collapsed and her kids were in a field, and i was very concerned, and his holiness arranged for me to go andandand the nuns protected me, and i had a great stay and could go up and help deliver rice andand oil andand baby food up in the hills and also seethe other part of my mission was to show people that everything hadnt fallen down. I mean, theres still such bututifulemplples and nepal isucuch an extrrdrdinarcoununtr i meaea ththes ve few couriries tt you cago to th h have mucuch history andandrere so beautiful, and when the monsoons end, theyll be ready to have peopleome, andand so part of iwawas tobecacaus the clips th w we we getetti, i dit pect to e anythi stding. Mean, we jt kept seeing the same buildings falling over and over, right . So, um, i think i was worried about, you know, how dangerouspeople didnt want me to go because theywell, the whole time we were there, there were still. Mike sure, aftershocks, right . Susan aftershocks the entire time, 44 and 5something, you know, but this was right at the beginning. When my sonmy son went afterjack henry went afteter i came back toto hel pushpa, and, um, he didnt experience any aftershock, so i think itsyou know, its calmed down, um, but i saw an amazing resilience ofi mean, people are having to take the bricks from their houses that havent completely fallen down and take the cement off them and pile them and rebuild, and its justyoknknow, sitss aits a big deal, um, but, um, i was happy to know what i could do toifif it meant, you know, toto skype from there and to really just bring the message back that nepal is still worth traveling to and, umand that theyre going to survive and that, you know, theseweveweve gotten some grants for pushpa so were trying to rebuild andand just to g give a hand, to sing with the kids and play with the kids, and i brought chalk, and we got donationsns of health fod bars, and i broughtmy son brought boots the next time that we, you knowwe were justbecausejust to get things to people was very difficult, so we were also carrying as much as we could to help i iediately. Mimike well, getting stuff to people is still a bit of an issue. Live to love, very much involved with that. Youre very much involved with them. Carrie lee from live to love is going to join us right after this short break, and well continue our conversation about the latest efforts to rebuild nepal. Want to welcome you back to full frame. Susan loves our music, by the way, and joining us now is carrie lee. Shes with live to love international, and so the two of these obviously connected and know a great deal about whats going on in nepal. Were going to continue our conversation about a country that was really hit hard, hammered by this earthquake, and, carrie, i know that your people are still on the ground. Theyre still in tents. Kind of us give an update, because susan makes a really good point, you know, that this news cycle, its 24 hours, unless its caitlyn jenner, and then it seems like it goes on for forever, and this important stuff tends to kind of go by the wayside. Give us an idea ofa scenesetter, if you will, of whats going on right now. Carrie absolutely, and first of all, thank you to full framee and susan for keeping a spotlight on nepal. Its probably the most important thing, um, for us in this development of relief work, and susan, who has done movies about helping people die, well, shes done a lot of work on helping live in nepal, so thats greatly appreciated. Um, on the ground now is monsoon season. Welive to love focuses on particular communities where there are a lot migrant workers. A good chunk of nepals population goes abroad for work, leaving women, children, and the elderly to cope with recovery. So those arere the communities that we focus on. Mike mmhmm. Carrie um, once monsoon season is over, and i think nepalim prettyty convinceded that nepals ready y to take on tourists. Y u know, we were First Responders at one point, and now were sort of coping with monsoon season and making sure that there isnt widespread disease and getting everyone sheltered and building up, and by the time monsoon seasonseason is over, umum, well be e ready for tourism. Mike let me ask both of you, and, susan, maybe you can take first crack at this. It seems to me that storys always, thethe battered, you know. Theyretheyre battered, and i think the one story that often is missing, and im sure you saw it firsthand, is the resiliency of people when theyre dealing with Something Like this. So what were some of the takeaways for you . Susan well, you see people sharing. I i mean, when wewe wet up into the hills, uh, the nuns were so organized, and they had everyones names, and so we were meeting with all these people, and they were taking care of each other and finding the people that werent there, so i think theres s a lot of cooperation. Um, you did see a lot of women and children. I think that, you know, so therewhatever the males were in the village that were still around or the young guys that hadnt gone off to work were helping taking care of, you know, some of the older people, um, but i see it in the kids, too. You know, i see how much they resespond to the love t tht pushpa gives them, even though theyve had very difficult beginnings and even though theyve had, um, a very difficult time surviving and have a bit of a stigma on them. Theytheyretheyre very resilient, and, um, iii think that there have been so many plans. I mean, his holiness came up very quickly. They were coming up with anot just a plan, but a, umthe actual tin roofs and things to build to rebuild and howhow they would shelter these people because ththe pressure was knowing that the monsoons were coming, so, i mean, it wasnt as if it was total chaos, you know. Itthere was a lot of need, and there was a lot of devastation, but there were also a lot of minds that were figuring things out. Mike yeah, and the strength of the people, i mean, you must have seen that, as well. I meanand youand youand people on the ground see it every day, im sure. Carrie itthats absolutely right. Um, theyre survivors, you know. Thethe himalayas isbeen critical to stabilizing that region, and its often overlooked, and the Nepali People have given so much to the rest of the world in terms of culture and tradition and art, and now its time, i think, that people give back to nepal. Mike and ive t talked to people, you know, shortly after the devastation about what its like to come into an area thats been devastated by a huge earthquake or a tsunami or whatever, and thatthat rebuilding stage isis so lengthy, and, as you said, the spotlight goes off. Um, any idea how long its going to take thefor nepal to get back up on its feet . Because this person was saying one of the things that you hope for anytime you go into a situation like that is a really strong infrastructure, and in nepal, thereits not as strong as youd like. So im sure that adds to the layers of complexity. So what was your sense coming away, susan . Susan um, well, i thinkyou know, i think that there are a lot of individual groups that are helping in very real ways. I mean, look how long it took us to deal with ground zero, and that was bureaucracy and some corruption and everything else, you know, andand what i saw therere was that thethe difference was made by individuals who were going out when i was down there for months and months. There are individuals going out and getting pizzas and, you know, before anything could come in, and i think that thats the strength of nepal, also, is that theyre not waiting for the top to come and do it. There are all these on the ground people that havehave very quickly and very efficiently found ways to deal, uh, and to build, andand, like i said, you know, one of my jobs was shopping. I took the nuns shopping to go to these really cool little crafty places and stuff because we wanted people to see that theres a lot thats still up. Its nottheres hotels and there are restaurants, and, you know, there was a lot of devastation, and we cant minimize that, and there is a great need for money to keep coming in, but its alsoits important not to just write it off. Mike you know, i think susans hitting on something thats really important, and we saw this with haiti, where, you know, these big institutions come in, and theyre going to do everything. Itit really takes the people. It takes this collaboration for it to work right and susan but even in haiti, like, the money didnt get spent by a lot of these big groups, and artists for peace and justice that i work with in haiti built a high school over the years since the earthquake and have gotten in there and done things, and, again, itsyou know, youifyou cant go into a placeanytime youre trying to do help, you have to have a really Good Relationship with the people that live there. You have to understand the culture. Mike exactly. Susan you have to understand how to get things to them not only physically but psychologically. You know, you cant just go in and be big and bulky, andand then i find that theresyou know, i saw one of the big agencies that i wont mention, but they were staying in the best hotel. They were all eating these great lunches while everyone else was scurrying around in nepal, and so i always say if you want to help, find the groups that are in there that have the history thatand see what they do and investigate where youre putting your money, and thats why i stand behind this group and pushpa because i know, you know, thereres not a lot of overhead. I know that they know what theyre doing. I know that the money goes there, and thats really important if you want to help. Mike and one of the things youre advocating is tourism. I mean, u know, lilikeand, carrie, you had a chance to chat with me about this, too. I mean, yes, itsits hip, but as you mentioned, you know, hotels are still there. Itsits a good time to go back. Thats the lifeblood ofof that country in many respects. Its really important that people support it in that way, as well. Susan absolutely. Mike yeah. Andand you see this as critical, as well . Carrie i do. I do. You know, itsits not just about getting first aid. Um, its not just about rebuilding buildings. Its about empowering the peoples to have a livelihood and empowering the economies that need to be jumpstarted again, and this is a great opportunity, also, to empower women and children who havent had Economic Opportunities before to be able to have a fresh start and partake, um, inin the new economies that are going to risese. Mike and come back even stronger. Susan thats a goodyeah, come back in a different way than there has been and actually see this is a rebirth of new ideas and better ideas. You know, sometimes when things have to fall apart to be rebuililt in a more interesting way. At least thats what im hoping as i look at everything falling apart, um, and here, too, that it gives you a chance to regroup, to reboot, to rethink, and thats a great point that you can start all these Little Industries for women that have been so successful in so many countries. Mike susan knows how to sift through and find organizations like yours. Whats your suggestion to people out there who may be watching andand want to actually connect with the right kind of organization . Carrie you know, i believe in investing in ngos that arere flexible on the ground and that are alreready part of the indigenous fabric. So live to love has been in nepal since inception. Were a big part of the himalayan community. You can learn more about us at livetolove. Org, but also keeping the spotlight on nepal, keeping engaged in whats going on, and, um, keeping the awareness wheel going is very important. Mike and, sususan, you gave, yu went, you were there, you were on the ground,d, butbut you get, as well, when you leave there. What are some of the takeaways, thethe lasting images or things that stay with you . Susan well, ifirst of all, im moved by everybody that helps. Im moved by the way the communities bond together. Im moved by pushpa and the kids and how, you know, in thein the face of everything else, these kids are so hopeful. Its so easy in the world today to lose faith because the stories that get all theallall of the heat are horrible stories and the worst of humankind and the worst of greed and selfishness and everything else, and so when you go to a place and you see peopleand its funny, because, for instance, in new yorkand im a born and bred new yorkerthe same people that you see building houses for habitat for humanity were down at ground zero. I mean, itsthe community of bad guys is all the same, and the community of good guys is all the same, andand i think that really its so selfish to get involved in these things because it gives you hope at a time when thats really difficult to have sometimes when you pick up the paper and everythings so overwhelming, and so i came back just feeling like i had been to a different world where i wasnt so important, and people were gigiving everything they had andand joyfully. You know, i think the misconception that people have about dogooders, every country ive ever been in, theyre just the most passionate, happiest, most celebratory. I mean, his holiness is laughing all the time in the face of everything, and so something must fill you up fromffrom having a connection, a passionate connection with your country with something that you believe in and with being able to see that you affect even one life, you know, and turn someone around and give them options that they never wouldve had with just a little bit of money, too, or just a little bit of time to empower these people that areare doing it the real way. I mean, im just a little dilettante compared to what people that really dig in and do these things all the time, but, um, i left feeling empowered. I left feeling grateful that i could be part of it, just being very, very grateful for, um, all the support that the nuns, my posse, the nuns were great. These young women that just glow because theyre connected to what they want to be connected to and, of course, his holiness and pushpa and the kids, so i came back. I hadnt slept at all. I was completely turned around. Seriously, i was on the verge of hallucinations, i think, but i never slept, and i never felt tired. I really justyou know, its a big trip, and youre completely in the wrong day or something, and 15 minuteslike, its a day and 15 minutes or something crazy. Carrie well, i just saw the kung fu nuns yesterday, and by way y of bacround, u l live love has on ouound ptners. W callhehem unficicial the k kg fu nuns. Thearare thnunsns o the druk o orderandd traditiolllly, ithe e hilayann region, nunserere suervivien to men a d didnt t ha much h a leadshship re. H his liness, the gyalngng drua, who sun n has en r refring to, cicided e empow thehese men to take leaderipip rol, and fofortunely,y, me consvavativeockeketsere quque upset,ndnd the nununs ar thehe brunt a a lotf acactsf violencehihis honessss, e gyalwangrurukpa oughght ng and hard owhat to a and whether was timtoto bac down but deceded, inead, to ain thesnuns in the art of kung fu,hihichich h al gave them a l of physal selfcondence,nd now ey local re modede in thr villag, in comnities theve tveled e world d did monstrions at ympic park, atxford unersity, t thgreat pa was thve nosince ve iested, since e lineage d his holine and theommuni inveed in poweringhese nuns aand givi them a sense of confidence, they felt Strong Enough to be First Responders, and theyre the ones that are river rafting supplies to the most remote villages. Its a great example of what women could do i in this region. Theyve been traditionally overlooked, and now theyre paying it forward. Mike well, weve got two great women here. Susan thank you. Mimike growing that community f good guys, and its good to see, and thank you both for coming on. Susan thank you foror having u. Mike anshararing your s storie. Really apprereciate it. Coming p next, well meet another female visionary working to make a global impact. The american magazine people calllls her, quote, the most famous woman in china, while Time Magazine proclaimed her the queen of the middle kingdom. Chineseamerican yuesai kan is an awardwinning Television Host and producer, fashion icon, bestselling author, humanitarian, and successful entrepreneur. Shes been a figure in both chinese and American Media for decades. She produced and hosted the chinese series one world, making her the First American to host a tv show in china. That made her a household name in the c country. Shortly after, she launched her own cosmetics brand, the first foreignowned Makeup Company in all ofof chin. It soon became the leading cosmetic company in the country. In 2001, unicef named her its first and ononly chineseamerican say yes ambabassador foror children. N. s also dedicated to several chinese nonprofit organizations which are commmmitted to the betterment and advancement of women and children, and shes launched her own initiative to build schools, libraries, and award scholarships to outstanding underprivileged students. Joining us now to share more about her remarkable crosscultural life is yuesai kan, and welcome to full frame. Yuesai hi. Hi, michael. Mike so tell me about your childhood. Iii get the sense that art was a big part of it. Tell me about growing up andand whether or not that contributed to who you are today, you think. Yuesai im sure that childhood is very important for justst about anybody. My mom was never a, really, artist, but my father was. Mom was aaanan enabler forfor artist. Mymy mom was very supportive of my father, and when i wanted to play the piano, for example, she would drive me to the schoolto theto the class every day. I mean, she would arrange for the piano lessons and everything. So in a way, you know, my mom was most instrumental in helping us to become very artistic, but my father was a true artist and a true gentleman. You know, hes a typical chinese gentleman. Hefor example, he played the erhu, which is a chinese instrument. My father paints beautifully. Hes ahes ahe was a calligrapher, and so we grew up when we were little just with a lot of art in ourin our family. We had awe had the piano first before wewe had a tv. So it was really fun, andand i remember, we used to have his paintings all over thehe house, so having paintings in the bathroom is ais a normal thing for us, andand, you know, and in china, you dontyou dont see that, actually. So wewe feel very privivileged that we grew up in such a family. Mike so you start there, and then at some point, you enter a beauty pageant. So its not just art, its art and beauty, which is why you are who you are today, i guess, in a sense. Tell me how that changed you. Yuesai well, i was in school in college in hawaii at byu, and one day, they came to me and said, the school voted you to represent the university to run in ain ain a beauty pageant. I said, beauty pageant . I was 19 years old. I was, you know, clueless. In those days, 19i was a clueless 19yearold. Ok, we had no internet, no nothing, andand, of course, you know, as typically a girl who grew up in a chinese kind of family, my mom never thinks that a girl being beautiful is an important thing. You know, we never even thought of that. So when i entered the contest for the university, theiit was the first time i got in touch with somebody who actually taught me how to use makeup. Wow, ii said, this is magical. I can change the way i look by using purely a lipstick or eye shadow, you know, tototo change. If i dont like my nose, i can make it differently. You know, imit is just magical. I wasi think it has a lot to do with thelater on, the fascination i have with cosmetics, and then, of course, when youre being trained forforfor a beauty pageant, they teach you how to face the camera, how to answer a question, you know, even difficult questions, andand as a young woman, i really was very impressionhow do you say itveryvery impressed by this whole entire experience. So i think it had a lot to do with what i did in the future in television, and if i didnt have that beauty pageant experience, i probably never would have had my careers afterwards. Mike yeah. They were all kind of building g blocks along the way, in a sense. So tell me about going into tv, and, umandand the interesting thing is that you have been able to bridge thisthiswhich is astonishing, in a sensein that that you have been able to capture an american audience and a chinese audience. Theres very few that canto claim to do that. So tell me about theentering tv. How did that come about . And was itwas it just happenstance, or was thisthis goaloriented . Im going to gotvs next or. Yuesai no. No, no. No, not goaloriented. A friend ofof mie came to me and said he was starting histhe First Chinese language cable showin those days, cable showand for chinese, in chinese, and he said, can you come in for a day everyeveryevery week . And id like you to interview some people and do some [indistinct] translation and read some news for me and all that, and i said, oh, this sounds like a lot of fun. You know, and i took it veryvery lightly, but i did give a day of my life in thosein those two years, and, i must tell you, that was a lot of fun. You know, television is a lot of fun. You know, before you and i do this interview, it didnt exist, right . Our talk did not exist, but we are now, right, creating a story, wherewhere, i think, that maybe hopefully millions of people will see. So to me, it was just a fascinating process. So it got me so fascinated that i decided that im going to just really do it, andand besides, when ni was doing that volunteer job, and i would do a show on qigong, and the phone would ring off thethe hook, and i would do a program about how the chinese will celebrate a chinese new year, all the dishes, and all that. People will ring off the hook. So i knew that there was a group of americans in america who are verywho were very, very interested in asia, and, you know, thereyeah, there was absolutely no place where they could getget that information. So i started a show called looking east, and that showand later on, we filmed all over asia, and it was actually really the forerunner of anthony bourdain, you know. Mike yeah, right, right. So tell me about looking east. I mean, was itwas it a hard sell . I mean. Yuesai no. There wasof course, everything, as we know, is hard, and theres nothing easy about doing anything, actually, because you have to findi was the boss, and i had to find the cameramen. I have to find sponsors. I havei have to do all of that by myself because iits a small little company. So it was not so very easy. The hardest ththig is when we went around the country, around the world, you know, really to do local shooting. That isthats, you know, its hard, because, you know, especially when i started shooting for one world and went all over the country, language is a problelem, you knknow, and financining is a problem. Its hardits not easy. Mike so you had mentioned you were a clueless 19yearold. Do you think you were clueless whwhen you entered the tv business, if you knew how difficult it was going to be . Yuesai totally. Totally. Totally. But, actually, what was encouraging is that i got a phone call from mike wallace, and he said to me, he said, you know, byby circumstanceceby happenstance, i saw you on television interviewing an expert on netsuke you know, thethe japanese, you know, thethe carvcarvingandand he said, it was fabulous. He said, it was and iand iand i was so stunned, you know. That was mike wallace, and i said, mike, can you do me a favor . Give megive me that [indistinct] in writing so i can put it in myinin our material. And he did. Hehe saidhe said, yuesai is aan unsung glory on television. You know, wow. I said, that was veryit was very encouraging. Ii enjoyedi enjoyed television only because itsit isagain, you know, its aa magical media. You know, itit actually make things happen, you know, at that moment, ititbut the key realally i prododucing both for china a and United States, itsits athe difficulty is that i need to make sure that i know exactly what the american audience want, andand i also have to know really what the chinese audience wants, and whenif i know that clearly thatat i can prepare t the programs. If i dont know, itthe biggest problem sometimes is that the people dont know the cultures well enough. Mike right, right. Well, they want different things, dont they . The u. S. Audience andtheres probably some similarities, but theres probably differencnces, too. Yuesai yes. Yes, absolutely, you know, and thats where communication sometimes breaks down because some of those translations are different, you know, andandandand theand the mindset is different. Mike do you think you had a sixth sense going in of what the audiences wanted or. Yuesai no, no, no. Mike was it something that evolved over time . Yuesai well, for example, when i was d doing lookining east, i know American Culture very well. I have lived here for many years, soand i happen to know the eastern culture, so i was able to say, oh, well, this would be very interesting for the americans. So that was a big help, you knowow, and when i was producing for china, the same thing happens. I said, you know, i know what the Chinese People want to hear, and i know i can produce that for them. Mike youve hadad such an amazing trajectory, and yet one of the things i think is interestingbefore the broadcast here, we were chattingyou just went to the state dinner, and you sat next to Henry Kissinger, and im just thinking without Henry Kissinger and richard nixon, your life would have been entirely different. Yuesai yours, too. Mike andyeah, exactly. Youre absolutely right. And here you were sitting next to this man, who manyin many ways opened so many doors to you and really created this rich life. Did you talk to him about it at all . Yuesai yes, of course. Ii have interviewed Henry Kissinger twice, and wewe have done a number of things together, and i see him all the time, and in fact, he has incredible memory even at thisat this juncture. You look at him, hes sort of a little bit slower and, you know, is sort of stoopy, butbut he was very alert. You know, when hewhen obama came over to o talk to us, obama waws actually asking him for his opinion about something. So kissinger is an extraordinary person even today, and he reminded me a few days after the state dinner when i saw him again, he said, didnt we like neyo, you know, the performer, andand i thought, wow, this guy really had an amazingand he said, wasnt that a great dinner we had . It was a greathe was wonderful, and he said to me, he said, youou know, obama hates s state dinnerers. He said to m me, he said, ive hadive gone to hundreds of state dinners, he said, all through the years, and do you know that obama really does not like state dinners . He saidand i was laughing, and i said, if i were obama, i wouldnt, eitithe, because he has t to shake 200 pairs of hands, and who the hell wants to do that, right . Mike [laughs] thats a good point. O one of the things i wat to talk to you about is cultural dialogue, um, andand communication, you know, this bridge concept, again. One of the things i think is really interesting about the chinese president , president xi, of course, years ago, went to muscatine, iowa, had this amazing experience. Doesnt even have thedoesnt have the language but still has this connection, and hes, of course, pushing a lot of that, the back and forth. In muscatine, theythey have pictures of him everywhere. I mean, theyyou know, this little town in iowa, theyre in love with china and the chinese president. Talk to me about opening that door, because youve been successful with that, and cultural dialogue, the back and forth, how important is it . How much more needs to happen . Yuesai oh, a lot more. Mike yeah. Yuesai a lot more. Ii think that still americans know very little about china. I was talking to the chinese consul general here and this brilliant woman. I s said, what is the difficultmost difficult thing for you . She says, most difficult is to make americans understand china, because theres a lot of misunderstanding, a lot of fear about the power of china today, uh, andand its theitsits aits a lot of misgiving. I think that a lot has to do with the fact ththat they dont rereally travl between each other that much. You know, ififif you take a trip to china and you see it for yourself, what china is all about, and you are connecting with real chinese, you know firsthand what it is happening, what is happening there and what they are really like. The same thing as coming to United States. You know, theres ai see a lot of negative things in thein the social media. Theres some chinese say terrible things about, you know, americicans. I said, i wish they would come here, speak the language, and understand what they really are. So wonderful people. Truly, americans are wonderful people. Mike and the same is true of the chinese. Yuesai exactly. Mike i meanandand itt really is. Itsits frustrtrating. I mean, i imagine it must be more frustrating for you because youve been doing this a lot long than i have, but sometimes i sit there, and i talk to people. Im like, what planet are you on . I mean, the ignorance leveland itand it gets to the heart of what youre saying. I mean, if you travel there and really see the country, which ive had the good fortune of, and you have, as well, um, theres so many similarities. Theres not as many dissimilaritieses. Yuesai well, president xi jinping said something really thatthat i remember very well during the state dinner. He said, you know, we have a lot of things in common, america and china, and yet we also have many things that are notwe dont sesee eye to e eye, but we must have a very, umwe must have an open mind about the things that we are not in agreement with and try to resolve these agreements, so that when one adds one, it is more than two. I thought that was just the most impressive thing. You know, it was ait wasit wasit was exactly, i think, how he feels about our relationship, and ifif we can take that as an example of how we should look at our differences between you as an american, i think we will do very well, much better, actually. Mike youyou were mentioning to me that youre very involved ininin charity work. You just did an event, i think you were sayingng, with brent scowcroroft here inherere in the u. S. , but you do it in the u. S. And china, so i want to ask you about howwhat are the differences there in terms of doing charity work in both countries . Yuesai oh, charity by itself is really something very new in china. America is a giving country. Its one of the most generous countries i know. Itsthe americans compared to the europeans, for example, are so generous, and there is a culture of giving, and you look at these big, big, big entrepreneurs in the old days. They were already beginning to give a lot of differences, and just look around america. You know, youll see how much ishow much giving is done on an hourly basis, a minute basis. You know, the americans are great givers, and china, you know, because of communism, you know, the chinesethethethe doctrine is that from the day youre born, from cradle to grave, the government is supposed to take care of you. That is whats supposedthat its supposed to do. So when the workthe idea of Charity First came, there was a lot of embarrassment from the governments point of view, that theythey arethat they are unable to take care of their citizens. Its very interesting, right . Mike mmhmm. Yuesai and now its very different now. I have been doing a lot of charities, and especially in the last 20 years, people are changing. People are changing. Well, of course, i can say that a lot of people are doing auctions at an extraordinary amount of moneyfor an extraordinary amount of money because they want the television to be on them, you know, because they want everybody to know how rich they are, but the same thing happens in america too, right . Mike it sure does. Yuesai it sure does. So they are beginning to be giving. They are beginning to understand the value of giving. I think that thisthis is athis is a v very good beginning, and i find the chinese really quite generous. I have no problem doing our charity in china alli mean, every year, we do extremely well, and sometitimes, i have hd an incident where prince robert of hautbrion gave me two cases of wine, amazing wines, to auction. Weour auctionthethe success of our auction, the money that we raised with those two cases were bigger than hong kong. Mike wow. Yuesai they have the same two cases. Soso i am very impressed with how generous the Chinese People are these days. Mike let me ask you one final question, more kind of for my own edification. Um, youve done so many interviews in your career. What do you think the key is totooto kind o of unprying the person andand really openining them up toto getting them toto reveal who they are, because you do a fantastic job at it. Whatwhats the key to that, do you think . Yuesai ask outrageous questions. Ha ha ha questions that he would never expect you to be asking. I remember one time, iii interviewed thethe Prime Minister of thailand, and i saidi saidpeople would never expect me to ask such a stutupid questioni saidi saidi said, mr. Prime minister, you are still single. Doesntdoesnt your mother get very n nervous about you being single . And he just startedhe just cracked u up, you know. It wasit was so funny for a ququestion t thatd it started him talkingng about, you know, the fact that he really is very h happy being single, blahah, blah, blah. Sososo i think that, youou kn, you have to know them well enough, you know, to be ablo ask such questions. I think the more personaldont you think the more personal it is, the better it is that, you know, you findyou know, you find out more about that person . Mike yeah, some people dont want to open up, but youve done a great job of it. Thanks so much for coming on the broadcast, really enjoyed it. Thank you. W well be right back with this weeks full frame closeup. Stay put. Hes known to break every rule of typography and design. Edward fella is an exceptional Graphic Designgner, artist, and educator. Two typefaces he created, outwest and fella, have had a huge influence on contemporary typography. His work can be described as original, idiosyncratic, and authentic. During his commercial art days, fella rarely used the computer. He preferred handmade compositions. Other designers followed whatts known as the swiss ststyle of graphphic desi. It w was developed in the 19505, and it emphasized cleanliness and readability. Fella went in another direction, creating something more eccentric and quirky. Now retired, he still influences the art world and encourages artists to keep their work authentic despite what others are doing. Ed when i worked in the profession, iii was pretty conventional. You had to work wiwith the c conventionsns. It o be appropriate for the audience. I always said design was,s, you know, permission givn and allowance taken, so, you know, from the permission that the culture gave you or the demographics gave you or the necessity gave you, you could take a little bit of allowance and, you know, tweak it a bit or twist it a bit. So thats one of the problems with Graphic Design. So it has these different audiences. If you are doing a manual for a brain surgeon, you want it to be very readable. In fact, youas a Graphic Designer, you try to make it even more readable, right . But then if its something more radical or experimental or provocative, then you can do these kinds of things. You knowow, detroit was itsat t its height bacack in e sixties and seventies, a and, yu know, it was a major city and a major place for advertising design. So i was a commercial artist or Graphic Designer in the profession for 30 years, and those were all good years when there was lots of work. The second part of my life was when iafter 30 years, imy kids were grgrown up, so i decided, well, its time to reretire from that. Uh, and then i went to graduate school and then graduated at the age of 49, and then i got a teaching job here at cal arts. Then i taught here in the graduate program for 25 years, and then i retired. And during that career of teaching, i didnt do any more professional work. I just did my personal kind of explorations and my, you know, experimenting. And,d, also, i dididnt do c cor work or didigital rk b because that was just t at the pointnt e i retired whwhen the digitital a begagan, so i nevever did anythg didigital, otherer than concepeptually. I alalways saym a Graphic Designer and artist from thehe last century, the middle of the last century. This body of work, these flyers that i did probably for 30 years, allowed me to play out all these type of graphic ideas, so i wouldif i did a lecture, i would briring aa stack of the flyers that i did, that were kind of a souvenir piece. It was the sameit was an announcement for the lecture that i just gave. Like, even this was an announcement for an exhibition that i had. The gallery was called red cat, so instead ofit never says red cat on there. Theres just this red cat. Andbut then, these became kind of my body of work, but then they becamebut then, in a sense, they became art, right . Because theythey never did function as communication. Art is always after the fact. Art starts when its shown, right . It doesnt exist literally ununtil you show it. Then there it is, and then itthen its there forever, riright . It just has a beginnin. It has no end, whereas Graphic Design has an end. The end is always the event, the communication, theyou know, whatever, thethe magazine, the newspaper. So these flyers kind of contradicted that. They didnt have to be persuasive, for example. They could just be about typography itself. In 1976, somebody gave me a sketchbook, and said, why dont you put all those kind of stuff in a book . Also, it would be this size. Thats when i started the little sketchbooks, the pocket sketchbooks. So this isyou can see howhow many there are. Each page is a finished page. So its a kind of experimental typography, using. And theyretheyre carefully done, and some of them have to do with typography, and some have to do with collage, and some are just pure drawing. Well, this is an example of totally, there are now about a 139 of these books, and each book has about 100 pages in it or 80 to 100 pages. Its not like i spent all my time drawing. It looks like it when the years go by. So, yeah, younger people sometimes say, oh, my god, you must do nothing but draw all day lonon but, no, its not true. I always t tell them, yeah. Youthe factor is time, time. Ha ha ha my reputation is something that just came because i made some work, and i always say, you know, to students, ive always said, you just have to make an undeniable body of work. And then people somehow respond to it. I dont want them to be ed fella. I want to them whoever they are. What iwhat i am to people is a model, a model for practice, not a model for the work, riright . Its a model on how toto make your work, how to think about design, andand all that, but not a style or aor an answer. You have to, or you want to, and people do want to have their own, right . Nobody wants to copy somebody, realally. The visionary business then just becomes, you know, a moment in time. It comes, and it goes, and i dont know if theyre deliberately visionaries, but just because they have a certain idea of what they want to do, and they bebecome that, and i always quoted for years to my students, Barnett Newman said, i paint so i have something to look at, and i think thats the best. Heyou know, you just do it so you have something to do, and then, hopefully, it will also satisfsy you or a larger culture, and if not, then itit doesnt, and if t does, then, hey, lucky you. Ha ha ha but youre still making it because you believe somehow in wanting to do that. Mike thats it for this week. Join the conversation with us on social media. We are cctv america on twitter, facebook, and youtube, and now you can watch full framam on our new mobile app, available worldwide on any smartphone for free. Get the latest News Headlines and connect to us on facebook, twitter, youtube, and weibo. Search cctv america on your app store to download today. All of our interviews can still be found online at cctvamerica. Com, and let us know what youd like us to take full frame next. Simply email us at fullframe cctvamerica. Com. Until then, im mike walter in new york city. Y. Well see you next time. laura hi, i am laurura flander. This week on the show, communities of color organize against violence, Muslim Community activists lamis deek and fahd ahmed talk about islamaphobia, and we talk to chicago teachers who are organizing Community Wide against racism and the schooltoprison pipeline. All that and more on the Laura Flanders show, the show where those who say it cant t be done take a back seat to those who are doing it. Laura what is it about palestine, islamaphobia, and antiarab racism that even many liberal Americans Still dont get . Im not even talking the out and out racism of a certain repupublican president ial candidate