President ial debates has that rules that will likely prevent any thirdparty candidate from participating. We will speak with ring Party Nominee dr. Jill stein and her running mate longtitime human rights activist ajamu baraka. The green party was to bring something very different from the traditional parties. We want to engage the mac and people in an honest conversation about democracy, power, and the electoral process. Amy plus we will go to north dakota where the Standing Rock sioux tribe is leading a weeklong protest against the Dakota Access pipeline. We will speak with the former green eyes president ial nominee Winona Laduke. All of that anand more, coming. Welcome to democracy nowow , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The American Red Cross is calling this weeks flooding in louisiana the worst disaster in the u. S. Since Hurricane Sandy in 2012. At least 13 people were killed after historic rainfall submerged parts of baton rouge and the surrounding area. State Officials Say the destruction may result in the worst housing crisis in the region since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The federal government has declared the area a disaster zone and state Officials Say more than 5000 people remain in emergency shelters. This is a volunteer in acadia parish, louisiana, where Public Schools remain closed and a curfew remains in place amid the devastating flooding. It is very scary. God has a reason, i just dont know what it is yet. The rain is coming some more. We just dont know what to do. Were going were china get stuff coming in, but everything is blocked. The owner is running to walmart and buying crates and crates of milk so we can pass out here to our Little People in our community. Amy the Louisiana Governors Office has said at least 40,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed. In livingston parish, home to about 138,000 people, it is estimated 75 of the homes havae beenen lost. Aetna, the u. S. s Third LargestHealth Insurance company says it , will significantly cut its participation in the Affordable Care acts marketplaces next year after the department of justice moved to block its merger with another health care company. Aetna claimed it faces more than 300 million in losses this year as a result of the exchange. But a letter in july, the aetna reduceeaten aetna would its participation in the exchange if the Justice Department blocked its merger with Health Insurance company humana. Bertolini wrote if the doj sues to enjoin the transaction, we will immediately take action to reduce our 2017 exchange footprint. Aetna reported a 38 increase in its overall profits last year, despite the loss it reported on the public exchanges. Last month, the Justice Department also sued to block a merger between healthcare giants cigna and anthem, which woululde the largest heath insurance merger in u. S. History. In news from the campaign trail, democratic president ial candidate Hillary Clinton took aim at Donald Trumps record as an employer during a speech in ohio wednesday. Mrs. C clinton itit just really hits me personally when people are standing up and telling our stories they were small plumbers,eepe people, painters, who worked for donald trump, and he refused to play them. If you do your job, youre supposed to be rewarded for your work. Not go sue somebody. Amy donald trump was in new york yesterday for his first classified intelligence briefing with the fbi. Meanwhile, lawmakers in washington, d. C. , began reviviewing fbi documents on wednesday detailing the agencys investigation into Hillary Clintons use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state. The large binders labeled secret were made available to lawmakers after republicans requested the information last month, following the fbis decision to recommend no criminal charges be brought against clinton over the email use. The state department has alsoo said it will release some of clintons emails to the conservative Watchdog GroupJudicial Watch. Meanwhile, Clintons Campaign continues to face questions after 44 state Department Emails released to Judicial Watch revealed close ties between the Clinton Foundation and the state department during clintons time as secretary of state. Meanwhile, steve bannon, the chair of the right wing outlet Breitbart News, has taken over as Donald Trumps campaign chief. Bannon is a former Goldman Sachs executive who has built Breitbart News into a far rightwing website that regularly sparks controversy with headlines such as Birth Control makes women unattractive and crazy, and trannies whine about hilarious bruce jenner billboard. The website regularly attacks mainstreream figures of the republican party, such as former House Speaker john boehner or former Florida Governor jeb bush. Bannon himself is considered to be the most influential figure in conservative media, after former fox news chairman roger ailes, who is also advising Donald Trumps campaign. A 2015 profile of bannon called him the most dangerous political operative in america. In international news, the New York Times and the guardian editorial boards are calling for the u. S. And british governments to end their support saudi arabias war in yemen. In an editorial published wednesday entitled america is complicit in the carnage in yemen the times wrote wednesday congress should put the arms sales on hold and president obama should quietly inform riyadh that the United States will withdraw crucial assistance if the saudis do not stop targeting civilians and agree to negotiate peace. With u. S. And british support, saudi arabia has been bombing yemen for 16 months, causing the majority of the conflicts civilianan casualties. Last week,k, the u. S. Apprprovee sale of more than 1 billion of new weapons to the saudis. Since taking office, the Obama Administration has approved more than 110 billion in weapons sales to saudi arabia. The office of u. N. Secretary general ban kimoon has acknowledged that the u. N. Played a role in a a cholera epidemic that killed more than 9000 people. The u. N. Said it would issue a new set of responses to the outbreak in the next two months. U. N. Peacekeepers are accused of negligently bringing cholera to haiti during their deployment following the 2010 h haitian earthquake. A lawsuit in u. S. Federal courts seeks billions for victims. Bans admission n does not chane the u. N. s stance it has legal immunity under a 1946 convention. Meanwhile in south sudan, the u. N. Is launching an investigation into allegations that u. N. Peacekeepers did not attempt to prevent multiple cases of abuse and Sexual Violence against civilians. Last month, troops fighting on behalf of south sudanese president salva kiir went on a nearly fourhour rampage through a hotel compound frequented by foreign aid workers. Witnesses say civilians were gang raped and a journalist was executed in the attack. Several witnesses told the Associated Press that u. N. Peacekeepers stationed nearby did nothing to stop the violence despite pleas for assistance from those inside the compound. In turkey, at least five Police Officers were killed and more than 100 people wounded by car bomb attacks in eastern turkey on wednesday and thursday. The turkish government blamed the attacks on kurdistan workers party, knowown as the pkk. Earlier this week, turkish authorities shut down a newspaper in istanbul and arrested some of its staff after claiming the paper supported the pkk. The newspapers closure is part of an ongoing crackdown on dissent in turkey following a failed military coup in july. The Australian Government says it will close the Manus Island Immigration Detention Center after reports of harsh conditions and rampant abuse there, including for child detainees. Manus is one of the two offshore detention facilities australia uses for asylumseeking migrants. Many of those at the manus island facility have spent years in detention and suffer from Mental Health issues. The Australian Government has so far said none of those detained inmanus would be resettled australia, but the head said he would welcome the resettlement. Particularly for families, as long as they dont present a security or safety risk, are welcome in australia. The one thing i find unacceptable is children in detention. Amy in illinois, the governor has signed into law a Domestic Workers bill of rights, which grants Domestic Workers protections under the states labor statutes, including minimum wage, overtime and time , off. Domestic workers are not covered by state or federal labor laws, though some states have similar bills. Wendy pollack of the Sargent ShriverNational Center on poverty law, said this is really historic because the exclusion of Domestic Workers from federal and state employment laws has an unfortunate history in slavery and antiimmigrant sentiment. In oklahoma, Funeral Services will be held friday for Khalid Jabara, the lebanese man police say was killed by his nextdoor neighbor in a possible hate crime. Police say stanley majors will be charged with first degree murder for mondays murder and acknowledged he had a longstanding animosity toward jabaras family. Majors is already facing Assault Charges for hitting haifa jabara, khalids mother, with his car last year while she was jogging. Before that, haifa jabara already had a restraining order against majors after he had threatened and harassed her. Despite all this, mamajors was released on bail earlier this year and returned to his home. The jabaras say majojo had threatened them and used racial slurs repeatedly since 2013. Majors had been arrested at least once for violating the restraining order before hitting haifa jabara with his car. 10 minutes before he was shot on monday, Khalid Jabara called police to report suspicious activity around the familys homeme. Police left without speaking to majors, but admitted to journalists later that majors was known to be hostile toward the jabaras. Victoria Jabara Williams wrote on facebook my family lived in fear of this man and his hatred for years. Yet in may, not even one year after he ran over our mother and despite our repeated protests, he was released from jail with no conditions on his bond no ankle monitor, no drug alcohol testing, nothing. University of california at berkeley chancellor Nicholas Dirks will resign after criticism of h his handling of Sexual Harassment cases and the universitys budget. In one case, thehe law school dn received only a temporary pay cut and orders to undergo counseling after an investigation supported claims he had sexually harassed a subordinate. And in brazil American Olympic , swimmers gunnar bentz and jack conger were pulled off a plane for questioning as a were preparing to leave rio amid suspicions that they and their teammate may have lied about their account of being robbed at gunpoint by people posing as Police Officers. Toldu. S. Olympic swimmers deal of the committee they were robbed, but Brazilian Police say the discrepancies in the swimmers reports. Police say closedcircuit tv contradict their stories. In brazil, filing a false Police Report is a crime. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Preparations have begun for the first president ial debate which will be held on at hofstra september 26 university in long island new york. While popolls show donald trumup and Hillary Clinton are among the least popular Major Party Candidates to ever run for the white house, it appears no third Party Candidates will be invited to take part. The debates are organized by the commission on president ial debates which is controlled by the democratic and republican parties. Under the commissions rules candidates will only be invited , if they are polling at 15 in five national surveys. Libertarian president ial candidate gary johnson and the greens dr. Jill stein have both witnessed surges in support but neither have crossed the 15 threshold. Johnson has polled as high as 12 nationwide, while stein has peaked at 6 in recent national polls. But in some demographics they , are both beating donald trump. Mcclatchy recently polled voters under the age of 30 and found 41 back Hillary Clinton, 23 support johnson, 16 back jill stein, while only 9 support for donald trump. Among africanamericans, polls also show trump behind all three other candidates, pulling at 0 , 1 or 2 . , more than 12,000 people have recently signed a petition organized by rootsaction calling for a fourway president ial debate. In a moment we will be joined by , the green partys jill stein and her running mate ajamu baraka, but first, i want to turn to george farrah, the founder and executive director of open debates. He spopoke on democracy now in if you years ago about how the democrats and republans took contrtrol of the debate process. Debateda presididential process from 1976 until 1984, and they were a very courageous, genuinely nonpartisan sponsor. Whenever the candidates attempted to manipulate the debates behind closed doors, either to exclude a viable independent candidate or two sanitize the format, the league had the candidate to challenge the nominees and of necessary, go public. In 1980, John Anderson was polling about 12 of the polls. The league insisted anderson be allowed to participate because the vast majority of people wanted to see him but jimmy carter to president jimmy carter refused to debate him. The league held a president ial debate with an empty chair showing jimmy carter was not going to show up. Four years later when they tried to get rid of difficult questions by vetoing 80 of the moderators that their proposed to host the debates, the league said it was unacceptable and held a press c conference and attack the campaigns for trying to get rid of difficult questionons. The first attempt by the republican and democratic campaigns to negotiate a detailed contract in 1988. 12 pages. It talked about who could be in the audience and how the format would be structured, but thehe leleague found that kind of lack of transparency in that kind of candidate control to be fundamentally outrageous. They released the contract and stated it refused to be an accessory to the hoodwink of the American People e and refused to implement it. Today,y, what do we have . . A private corporation created by the republican and democratic parties called the commission on president ial debates. It seized control of the debate precisely because the league was independent, some precisely because this womans organization had the guts to stand up to the Major Party Candidates that have been nominated. Amy that was george farah, founder and executive director of open debates speaking on democracy now in 2012. He is the author of no debate how the republican and democratic parties secretly control the president ial debates. Well joining us now is green Party President ial nominee dr jill stein along with her running mate ajamu baraka, a longtime human rights activist. He is the founding executive director of the u. S. Human Rights Network and coordinator of the u. S. Based black left unity Networks Committee on international affairs. We welcome you both to democracy now september 26, the first president ial debate. What are your plans, dr. Jill stein . Our plans are to be in that debate because it is not just about whether our party will be included. It is whether the American People will have a voice, whether we will have a real discussion of the crisis of jobs, of the climate, of race, of war. These and the crisis of a generation and an entire generation