FEATURING MAYA SCHENWAR – As the national uprising led by Black Lives Matter called for a defunding of police this year, a demand that has gone hand-in-hand but received less attention in recent months is the end of mass incarceration in the US. America locks up more people than any other nation in the world and in late 2018 a broad coalition from the left and right came together to endorse a bill called the First Step Act that many hailed as progress toward ending mass incarceration. But that bill, which was signed into law by President Trump did little to actually end the problem and instead shifted funding from traditional prisons toward programs that ended up sounding an awful lot like incarceration by another name. 

Maya Schenwar, editor-in-chief of Truthout, author with Victoria Law of Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms. The book has a foreword by Michelle Alexander. Her earlier book was Locked Down, Locked Out. She also co-edited the anthology Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? 

More than 160,000 Americans have now died from the coronavirus in the United States—a tally that was unimaginable just a few months ago. The virus is one of the leading causes of death in the nation this year. Worldwide cases of infection are at 19 million, with US cases comprising a quarter of those despite having only 4.25% of the world’s population. Researchers at the University of Washington estimate that by the end of the year there could be 300,000 fatalities linked to the virus. But a new model estimates that 70,000 lives could be saved this year if more Americans simply wore face coverings. Still, across the nation many states are allowing schools to reopen for in-person instruction in the fall. In New York, where cases peaked earlier this year and Covid deaths are at near zero, schools will reopen with some in person instruction and masks required as per Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Some in-person schooling will also resume in New York City, which has the nation’s largest public school district and had the largest Covid-19 outbreak of any city in the nation. 

President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly downplayed the extent of the virus’ spread and its grim death toll in the US, has poured taxpayer money almost exclusively into vaccine development but now new reports show that vaccine trials may be deeply biased. The cohort of volunteers on whom Covid-19 vaccines are being tested are mostly white even as people of color are disproportionately impacted. Meanwhile a new Gallup poll released Friday shows that more than a third of all Americans say they would refuse a Covid-19 vaccine if one were developed. Whites are more likely than people of color to get a vaccine shot. A second Gallup poll on the same day shows demographic differences in mask wearing habits and finds that women are more likely than men, and people of color more likely than white Americans to wear masks in indoor or outdoor settings. Democrats are also more likely than Republicans to cover their face. 

The latest jobs report is out and shows that in the entire month of July the US economy added only 1.8 million new jobs—much lower than economists were hoping. By comparison the weekly job loss rate has been more than a million every week for 20 weeks straight. And frontline federal workers are demanding hazard pay in a new lawsuit against the government. The American Federation of Government Employees filed the lawsuit and one lawyer involved said the suit is necessary because workers, “are risking their health and safety to go to work. They have the types of jobs that are necessary to keep the country up and running and safe.

FEATURING GAR ALPEROVITZ – August 6th marks the 75th anniversary of the first time in human history that a nuclear bomb was dropped onto a major city as an act of war. Americans students of history are told that the decision to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and then 3 days later on Nagasaki, was necessary in order to send a message to Japan and decisively end World War II. 

My guest just wrote in an op-ed in the LA Times that, “the overwhelming historical evidence from American and Japanese archives indicates that Japan would have surrendered that August, even if atomic bombs had not been used — and documents prove that President Truman and his closest advisors knew it.” 

Read Gar Alperovitz’s op-ed in the LA Times, ‘U.S. leaders knew we didn’t have to drop atomic bombs on Japan to win the war. We did it anyway,’ HERE. 

Gar Alperovitz, formerly a Fellow of Kings College Cambridge, the Institute of Politics at Harvard, and Lionel Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland. He is the author of Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam and The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb. He is also currently a Principal of The Democracy Collaborative, an independent research institution in Washington, D.C. 

FEATURING DAVID MCNALLY – “Money can’t buy happiness,” say those of us who often have a lot of it. Today wealth inequality in the US and beyond has left an ever-widening gap between the haves and have-nots and while we take the concept of money for granted, its origins are steeped in violence and violations. 

 In a groundbreaking new book author David McNally explores the history of money and shows how the idea that it came about simply as a way for members of a community to exchange goods and services is a myth. 

David McNally, the Cullen Distinguished Professor of History and Business at the University of Houston and the Director of the Center for the Study of Capitalism. He is the author of numerous books including Global Slump, Monsters of the Market. His latest book is Blood and Money: War, Slavery, and the State.

Lebanon’s capital Beirut continues to reel from a massive explosion earlier this week that devastated the city leaving at least 137 people dead, injuring thousands, and leaving 300,000 homeless out of a population of 2.2 million. International rescue teams flooded into the city to help pull survivors and corpses out of the rubble. The major port that is in ruins was home to the main grain silo that fed the city and was a hub for the majority of the entire nation’s imports. Anger mounted across Lebanon over what residents see as massive government negligence over the improper storage of highly explosive chemicals in a warehouse for 7 years that had been abandoned by a Russian shipping company. The blast was so massive that it registered as a 3.3 magnitude earthquake, leaving behind a 700-foot crater. The city’s residents began burying the dead and planning major protests. Although Lebanon’s Prime Minister Hassan Diab has promised a thorough investigation into the explosion, most Beirutis were unconvinced and many have even called for politicians to be executed. French President Emmanuel Macron visited the city bringing several tons of medical supplies with him as he surveyed the damage to his nation’s former colony. 

Here in the United States, the latest Labor Department figures show that another 1.2 million Americans filed for jobless benefits last week – the 20th week in a row with numbers of more than a million. The economy remains precarious as Congress allowed unemployment insurance benefits to expire while so many Americans remain unemployed. The political deadlock over a new Covid-relief bill remains in place as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed her Republicans colleagues in an interview on CNBC. When asked why there was no appetite among Republicans for offering financial relief to struggling Americans she said, “Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn for what you just described.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has remained on the outside as talks have happened largely between House Democrats and the White House finds himself in a bind. According to the New York Times, McConnell is, “caught in a family feud between a group of endangered incumbents in his party who are desperate for pandemic relief legislation that is tied up in slogging negotiations, and a significant portion of Senate Republicans who would rather do nothing at all.” There is some agreement from Republican Senators on a bailout of the airline industry as 16 of them on Wednesday joined their colleagues to extend a $16 billion loan program that would help airline employees remain on the job.  

The US Census had been conducting a weekly “household pulse survey” that showed many Americans struggling with hunger during the pandemic. After weeks of disturbing data about the plight of Americans during the Covid crisis, the

FEATURING JEFF COHEN – Historian Allan Lichtman, who has accurately predicted presidential race winners for 40 years, including the 2016 election that confounded pollsters, claims that former Vice President Joe Biden will win the November race and beat Trump. 

 But Donald Trump is a president like no other and has carefully laid the groundwork to question the election results, undermine vote-by-mail, and even demanded delaying the vote. Those wishing to see Trump removed from office realize that Biden needs a landslide victory in order for Trump to be voted out.  

A new effort called #VoteTrumpOut targets progressives in swing states around the US by urgently making the case for the incumbent’s removal from office.

For more information visit www.voteTrumpout.org. 

Jeff Cohen, media critic, writer and retired journalism professor at Ithaca College. He founded the media watch group FAIR, as well as the group Rootsaction.org. 

FEATURING GREG PALAST – President Donald Trump has made it clear he wants to win the November 3rd 2020 election at all costs. He has demanded a delay in the election, claimed in easily proven lie that voting by mail will lead to widespread voter fraud—except magically in the state of Florida which he sees as crucial to winning. He has cast so much doubt months ahead of the election that many are convinced he has already won the 2020 race by sheer force of will. 

Greg Palast, filmmaker and investigative reporter, whose news-breaking stories appear on BBC Television, The Guardian and Rolling Stone Magazine. His books include “Billionaires & Ballot Bandits” and “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.” His latest book is How Trump Stole 2020: The Hunt for America’s Vanished Voters.

Lebanon is reeling from a massive explosion in the capital Beirut which has claimed more than 135 lives, injured more than 5,000, and displaced 300,000 people. So far the devastating blast at a port appears to have been the result of improperly stored explosive ammonium nitrate that was accidentally ignited and not a deliberate plot. The blast, which was felt more than 100 miles away, appears to have originated in a fireworks warehouse that had stored the highly explosive materials since 2013. Associated Press described the scene saying, “The sound of ambulance sirens and the shoveling of glass and rubble could be heard across the Lebanese capital. Almost nothing was left untouched by the blast, which obliterated the port and sent a tide of destruction through the city center. Elegant stone buildings, fashionable shopping districts and long stretches of the famed seaside promenade were reduced to rubble within seconds of Tuesday’s blast.” One man lamented, “Beirut is gone.” The number of fatalities is expected to rise as bodies are being pulled out of the rubble. Lebanese residents blamed their politicians as a retired school teacher told AP, “They are so irresponsible that they ended up destroying Beirut,” and added, “The political class must go. This country is becoming totally hopeless.” The Wall Street Journal reported that a ship carrying 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate docked in Beirut in 2013 and after the owners had technical problems they abandoned the ship. The material was then simply stored in a warehouse. There are protests planned on Wednesday over the government’s failure. 

In spite of no evidence that the explosion was an “attack,” US President Donald Trump claimed that it was “a bomb of some kind,” and a “terrible attack.” The Lebanese government has put some port officials on house arrest while they investigate what led to the blast. Lebanon’s economy is likely to suffer deeply as one op-ed writer in the New York Times explained that on top of an already devastated economy, “The main grain silo, which holds some 85 percent of the country’s cereals, was destroyed. Even more, the port will no longer be able to receive goods. Lebanon imports 80 percent of what it consumes, including 90 percent of its wheat….The explosion may well put Lebanon on the path to a food and health catastrophe not seen in the worst of its wars.” 

In other news, the states of Michigan, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri and Washington held primary elections on Tuesday. The most prominent upset was that of long-time Democratic Representative William Lacy Clay losing his primary to a racial justice activist named Cori Bush 49% to 44% in Missouri. Ms. Bush is being compared to Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Jamaal Bowman—both insurgent political candidates that have shaken up the establishment centrist wing of the Democratic Party in recent years. Also in Missouri, the St.

FEATURING JOSHUA FERNANDEZ – Healthcare workers in states where coronavirus infections are spiking are once more seeing serious shortages of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as they struggle to keep patients alive without getting infected themselves. The National Union of Healthcare Workers has demanded that its members be provided ample PPE as well as hazard pay. In Southern California, at Kindred Westminster hospital, nurses and other healthcare workers have been picketing for their rights. Here is a short video created by NUHW about their demands.  

The unionized healthcare workers at Kindred Westminster hospital, where 10 nurses have gotten infected and one had to be hospitalized, are planning another picket this week.

NOTE: The picket outside Kindred Westminster Hospital on Wednesday has been canceled after hospital administration made an offer to NUHW that organizers are now reviewing. 

NUHW is asking people to contact the following hospital administrators to demand that healthcare workers have adequate PPE, hazard pay, regular testing, a separate Covid unit, and more: Julie Myers C.E.O.: (657) 666-7700, Extention: 67701 AND Sheila Frias C.C.O.: (657) 666-7700, Extention 66704.

Joshua Fernandez, respiratory therapist at Kindred Hospital Westminster in Southern California and also the union steward for his collective bargaining unit with National Union of Healthcare Workers. 

FEATURING SONIA SHAH – It is no coincidence that during a time of changing climates, wealth inequality, and a global pandemic, that large masses of humans would leave their homes to escape danger and death looking for a better life. Indeed, it is only natural to migrate—as non-human species do, who do not have to contend with artificial borders, xenophobic leaders, and racist scapegoating. 

Throughout history animals, plants, and humans have migrated to avoid danger to their species and telling that story in a new book is acclaimed science journalist Sonia Shah.

Sonia Shah, science journalist and the author of PANDEMIC: Tracking Contagion from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond. Her latest book is The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move.