President Donald Trump in an interview in North Carolina on Wednesday advised voters of that state to vote twice—a clearly illegal action. He said voters should send in their ballots by mail and then try to vote in person on top of that. Voting twice is a felony in many states and, according to the New York Times, “constitutes the kind of voter fraud the president has railed against.” On Thursday Trump appeared to backtrack saying on Twitter that people should only vote in person after mailing in their ballot if they cannot verify that their mail-in ballot has been processed. He wrote, “go to your Polling Place to see whether or not your Mail In Vote has been Tabulated (Counted). If it has you will not be able to Vote & the Mail In System worked properly. If it has not been Counted, VOTE.” Meanwhile the nation’s top law enforcement official, Attorney General William Barr, in a CNN interview with Wolf Blitzer appeared unable to clarify the one-person-one-vote law that the nation is founded on. 

During the same CNN interview Mr. Barr echoed another mysterious and ludicrous claim by Trump that anarchists were “flying around the country” to make trouble. He made no mention of the Trump-supporting rightwing armed white vigilantes like Kyle Rittenhouse who are crossing state lines to shoot at protesters. Meanwhile Trump in a memo this week announced that he would be cutting federal funding for Democratic-run cities saying he was asking federal officials to identify “anarchist jurisdictions.” Elected officials slammed his move as “petty and divisive.” 

In other news, Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden headed to Kenosha, Wisconsin on Thursday two days after Trump’s trip there. Biden called for the Kenosha police officers who shot Jacob Blake to be charged and said he planned to meet Blake’s family. Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien ascribed the President’s lack of ethical boundaries to Biden, shockingly saying, “The president was there earlier in the week as the president of the United States. Vice President Biden is there today as a candidate, as a political candidate. This is not the time to be injecting politics into a really serious situation that president helped solve.” In fact, Trump’s trip to Kenosha resembled a massive governm...

FEATURING KEVIN KUMASHIRO – A photo capturing two little girls sitting on the grounds outside a Taco Bell restaurant in Salinas, California in order to use its WiFi for their remote learning has gone viral. The image was captured in Silicon Valley, the heart of the US’s technology sector, indicating that deep income inequality is standing in the way of educational equity – even more so now during the coronavirus pandemic. 

 In a major speech on Wednesday, Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden took aim at President Donald Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic and in particular the reopening of schools. While other nations around the world have managed to reopen in-person schools in a safe and organized fashion, in the US, patch work policies have led to uneven, unequal, and unsafe school re-openings.

Kevin Kumashiro, former Dean of the School of Education at the University of San Francisco, founding member of several education-related initiatives including EDJE (Education Deans for Justice and Equity), CARE-ED (California Alliance of Researchers for Equity in Education) and more. He is also the Education Correspondent for Rising Up With Sonali. 

With barely two months left before the most important Presidential race of our lifetimes, the U.S., on top of its myriad challenges, is facing a massive and record-breaking shortage of election poll workers. Our partners at Brave New Films created this video to address the issue: 

Visit www.powerthepolls.org for more information.

FEATURING KRISTIAN WILLIAMS – Oscar Wilde, the famous celebrated and legendary writer, known for such books as The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray, was, by today’s standards “antifa.” The philosophical depth and political radicalism of Oscar Wilde’s ideas were in line with anarchist ideals and are hugely relevant to today’s culture wars.

Kristian Williams is the author of several books, including Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America and Between the Bullet and the Lie: Essays on Orwell. His latest book, with a Foreword from the well-known comic writer Alan Moore is called Resist Everything Except Temptation: The Anarchist Philosophy of Oscar Wilde.

Massachusetts’ primary election results are in, and in the two most high-profile Congressional races, both incumbents held on to their seats. In the race for Senator Ed Markey’s seat, challenger Joe Kennedy III of the famed political dynasty, lost his bid in spite of winning the endorsement of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Senator Markey, who has been progressive on some issues such as co-sponsoring the Green New Deal resolution in the Senate, had the endorsement of progressive allies and prevailed. Representative Richard Neal, chair of the House Ways and Means committee also won his primary against progressive challenger Alex Morse who is the Mayor of Holyoke. Morse had been the target of state party leaders who apparently had orchestrated allegations of improper behavior by the mayor. 

In other news, Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden on Wednesday gave a speech aimed at President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly focused on the reopening of schools. Meanwhile the Biden campaign has apparently adjusted its strategy in the Midwest, focusing on swing states where Trump has been pushing his message of so-called “law and order.” The Washington Post explained that Biden, “delivered a forceful anti-Trump speech in Pittsburgh, afterward bringing pizza to a firehouse. He began giving newfound attention to Minnesota, a state Democrats haven’t lost in nearly 50 years, and his campaign is eyeing potential trips to Wisconsin and Michigan.” Additionally, the Biden campaign has begun airing ads in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania–all 3 important swing states where Trump narrowly won in 2016. Biden also released an ad condemning rioting as a form of protest, indicating that he was willing to respond to rightwing agenda-setting talking points. And, more than 80 Nobel Prize winners in the fields of Physics, Chemistry and Medicine, signed a letter endorsing Biden for President of the US, citing the “need for leaders to appreciate the value of science in formulating public policy.”

In other election related news, a new poll by USA Today and Suffolk University shows the Presidential race between Trump and Biden narrowing with the former Vice President only 7 points ahead of the incumbent. The same poll months earlier had Biden with a double-digit lead. A Grinnell College poll found similar results with Biden leading Trump 49% to 41%. Among women the gap is wider with Biden at 56 to 34%. And a poll commissioned by The Guardian newspaper shows deep fears among Democratic voters that Trump will not accept the outcome of the election if he loses. The

FEATURING BILL GALLEGOS – August 29 of this year marked the 50th anniversary of the Chicano Moratorium, an event that left an indelible impact on Los Angeles in particular where it was centered. Tens of thousands of Mexican Americans identifying themselves as “Chicano,” marched in opposition to the Vietnam War on August 29th, 1970. 

The history of that movement is marked by the death of journalist Ruben Salazar, who was in the Silver Dollar bar in Whittier when a tear gas canister shot by a Sheriff’s deputy hit him in the head killing him. Salazar had been covering police brutality in the Mexican-American community on the Eastside when he was killed. 

Bill Gallegos, long-time activist in the Chicano Liberation and environmental justice movements, and over the years has worked as a labor, community, and campus organizer. He is currently the Executive Director for Communities for a Better Environment. 

FEATURING CAROL EHRLE – Just days after both the Democratic Party and Republican Party held their conventions nominating Joe Biden and Donald Trump respectively for President, a group of activists came together online under the banner of “Movement for a People’s Party.” Speakers like Nina Turner, Cornel West, Chris Hedges and Marianne Williamson spoke on August 30th about the need for progressives to abandon the Democratic Party and create a third viable alternative party. 

Carol Ehrle, Media Coordinator for Movement for a People’s Party. 

President Donald Trump heads to Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday in a move that appears designed to stoke divisions in favor of his reelection. Trump has praised Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year old white suspect in the shooting deaths of two activists in Kenosha in the days following the police shooting of a black man named Jacob Blake.  Implying that the suspected shooter was acting in self-defense Trump said, “He was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like… He probably would have been killed.” When asked why he was going to the city when the mayor of Kenosha and the Governor of Wisconsin have both asked him to stay away Trump retorted, “Well, it could also increase enthusiasm, and it could increase love and respect for our country. And that’s why I’m going.” The Washington Post’s editorial board denounced his visit in an op-ed saying that he was “stoking rage,” and added, “For voters wondering what a second Trump term would hold in store, here it is: a country steeped in hatred.” Jacob Blake Sr., the Kenosha father of the man left paralyzed by police, says there is no meeting planned with Trump. He said, “I’m not getting into politics. It’s all about my son. It has nothing to do with a photo op.” Trump in a Fox News interview on Monday defended police just like he defended Rittenhouse saying they were “under siege” and using a golf analogy to explain why they kill unarmed people. He said, “just like in a golf tournament, they miss a 3-foot putt.”

During the same interview Trump claimed that Black Lives Matter was a, “discriminatory” organization that is “bad for Black people.” And he began referring to, “people that are in the dark shadows…controlling the streets” in order to help his rival Joe Biden win the election. When Fox New host Laura Ingraham challenged him on the claims, Trump doubled down. When asked about these claims on Tuesday morning before he flew to Kenosha Trump once more doubled down on his claim. That’s the President of the United States of America. Meanwhile news emerged on Tuesday that Trump’s Justice Department had launched a “criminal inquiry” into the funding sources of Black Lives Matter protests as well as the leaders organizing local protests in cities like Portland, Oregon. A rightwing white Trump supporter killed during protests in Portland over the weekend has been identified as Aaron J. Danielson. The far-right white supremacist hate group Patriot Prayer says that he was one of their supporters. A white man named Michael Reinoehl, who was once a professional snowboarder, is now being investigated as a possible suspect in Danielson’s shooting.

In Los Angeles, California,

FEATURING MICHAEL GERMAN – When 17-year old Kyle Rittenhouse shot numerous protesters active with Black Lives Matter in Kenosha, Wisconsin, he tried to turn himself in. After all he was illegally armed and, had just killed two people and injured one. But police ignored him. In fact earlier that day police told the armed rightwing vigilantes that Rittenhouse was a part of, “We appreciate you guys. We really do.”

There is a long history of American police officers working hand-in-hand with hate groups, white supremacist, and white nationalist groups in the US. Making the links in a new report called Hidden in Plain Sight is my guest Michael German.

Read the report ‘Hidden in Plain Sight: Racism, White Supremacy, and Far-Right Militancy in Law Enforcement,’ HERE.

Michael German, fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty & National Security Program, author of the new report Hidden in Plain Sight: Racism, White Supremacy, and Far-Right Militancy in Law Enforcement. He is a former FBI Special Agent and wrote a book called Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy. 

FEATURING JEAN GUERRERO – Clashes between the forces of left and right in cities like Portland, Minneapolis, Kenosha, Seattle, Chicago, and elsewhere are sparking fears of a civil war in the US between white-dominated conservativism as symbolized by Donald Trump –and those who identify as liberal, including most people of color. 

This state of affairs is no accident, four years after a Presidential campaign and resulting White House tenure that has fomented a very real political crisis. One man whose influence over President Donald Trump has been a large part of this story is White House advisor Stephen Miller, who in spite of constant staff turnover, remains lodged in the seat of power. Miller is known as the architect of Trump’s immigrant family separation program among other things and is the subject of a new book by investigative journalist Jean Guerrero. 

Jean Guerrero, investigative border reporter contributing to NPR, the PBS NewsHour and other public media. She is the author of Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir, which won the PEN/FUSION Emerging Writers prize. Her new book is called Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda.