FEATURING NINA TURNER – As Joe Biden’s low-key election campaign for President relies on Donald Trump’s campaign self-imploding, polls show the former Vice President with a double-digit lead over the incumbent. The question arises of what Biden’s presidency would look like given that growing numbers of Democrats are identifying more with the left flank of the party that Senator Bernie Sanders represents. 

A battle is now brewing over who will represent California Democrats at the party’s National Convention this summer. Traditionally it would be the Governor of the state – in this case Gavin Newsom – who would lead the California delegation to the 2020 DNC. But a number of progressive organizations are demanding that Congressman Ro Khanna lead the delegation instead. 

Nina Turner, Strategic Delegate Advisor for RootsAction.org. She was the National Co-Chair of the Bernie Sanders campaign and former Ohio State Senator, and former Assistant Professor of History at Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland, Ohio. She is currently a CNN contributor and host of the new podcast Hello Somebody. 

Americans on Friday celebrated Juneteenth, the day that marks when enslaved African Americans in Texas were informed of their legal right to freedom, more than 2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Given the renewed national interest in persistent racism over the past 3 weeks, Juneteenth has taken on an added significance this year. The New York Times reports that, “Many corporate employees have Friday off, after Twitter, Nike, Target and other major companies added Juneteenth as a paid holiday this year. Capital One said its offices and bank branches would close early on Friday. And Virginia and New York said that Juneteenth would be a paid holiday for state employees.” Additionally, “On Friday, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota called on the state legislature to establish Juneteenth as a state holiday. And Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York said that starting next year, Juneteenth would be an official city and school holiday.” On Thursday the National Archives announced it had found the original hand-written military order dated June 19th, 1865 that read, “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, ‘all slaves are free.’” It went on to state, “This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.” 

Meanwhile a new AP/NORC poll shows that a majority of Americans support the current mass uprising against racist police violence and feel that it will change the nation for the better. Specifically, “54% of Americans say they approve of the protests, while 32% disapprove. Another 14% say they hold neither opinion.” The poll comes as Trump issued threats to anti-police protesters ahead of his planned rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday. Initially Trump’s reelection campaign had announced its first political rally since the pandemic to take place on Juneteenth but after public outrage Trump pushed it by a day. On Friday he posted to Twitter, “Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!” Earlier, Trump posted a doctored video of CNN reporting a friendship between a black toddler and a white toddler. The video was manipulated to give the impression that CNN cast the friendship in an ominous light with a misspelled caption, “Terrified Todler Runs From Racist Baby,” when in fact CNN had reported on the friendship. Twitter, rather than taking down the tweet marked it as, “Manipulated Media.”

Ahead of Trump’s Saturday rally in Tulsa, city officials have imposed a curfew. Declaring a “civil emergency,” Mayor G.T. Bynum’s order says that police informed him, “individuals from organized groups who have been involved in destructive and violent behavior in other states are planning to travel to the City of Tulsa for purposes of causing unrest in and around the rally.” The rally has become a flashpoint over multip...

FEATURING JOHN BONIFAZ – Former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s new bombshell book, “The Room Where It Happened,” has made President Donald Trump so nervous that Trump loyalist Attorney General William Barr is suing to stop publication. Among the revelations are that Trump apparently sought Chinese President Xi Jinping’s help in getting reelected using its economic power to buy American goods. He also apparently offered to look the other way on China’s persecution of its Muslim Uighur minority. 

John Bonifaz is the Co-Founder and President of Free Speech For People, co-author with Ron Fein of The Constitution Demands It: The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump.

FEATURING ROSALYN PELLES – On June 20, 2020, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will hold a “Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington.” Because of the coronavirus pandemic, this event, which touches upon five key issues, will be held entirely online. As part of a week-long collaboration with Free Speech TV we have been presenting coverage of this historic event for five days leading up to it and on the final day today, we’ll focus on how the Poor People’s Campaign is addressing religious nationalism. 

You can RSVP for the June 20th Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington at www.June2020.org. Also tune into to Free Speech TV on June 20th to watch the entire event live starting at 7 am Pacific Time, 10 am Eastern. 

Rosalyn Pelles, Vice President, Repairers of the Breach, Strategic Advisor to the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

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FEATURING REV. ERICA WILLIAMS – On June 20, 2020, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will hold a “Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington.” Because of the coronavirus pandemic, this event, which touches upon five key issues, will be held entirely online. As part of a week-long collaboration with Free Speech TV we’ll be presenting coverage of this historic event for five days leading up to it and today we’ll focus on how the Poor People’s Campaign will take on the all-important issue of ecological devastation.  

Rev. Erica Williams, Co- Director for the Moral Fusion Student Organizing Fellowship Program of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

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FEATURING LAUREL ASHTON – On June 20, 2020, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will hold a “Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington.” Because of the coronavirus pandemic, this event, which touches upon five key issues, will be held entirely online. As part of a week-long collaboration with Free Speech TV we’ll be presenting coverage of this historic event for five days leading up to it and today we’ll focus on how the Poor People’s Campaign will take on the war economy in the US. 

Laurel Ashton, Organizing Director with the Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington.

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FEATURING PASTOR ALVIN JACKSON – On June 20, 2020, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will hold a “Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington.” Because of the coronavirus pandemic, this event, which touches upon five key issues, will be held entirely online. As part of a week-long collaboration with Free Speech TV we’ll be presenting coverage of this historic event for five days leading up to it and today we’ll focus on how the Poor People’s Campaign will take on systemic poverty in the US. 

You can RSVP for the June 20th Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington at www.June2020.org. Also tune into to Free Speech TV on June 20th to watch the entire event live starting at 7 am Pacific Time, 10 am Eastern. 

FEATURING DR. YOHURU WILLIAMS – President Donald Trump this week in an interview with the Wall Street Journal congratulated himself saying, “I did something good…I made Juneteenth very famous. It’s actually an important event, it’s an important time. But nobody had heard of it.” Except of course many Americans know well what Juneteenth is, and black communities in particular have marked the day June 19th 1865 when a group of enslaved African Americans were finally told of the news of the emancipation proclamation that ensured their freedom – almost two and a half years after it was signed by President Abraham Lincoln. 

This year, as America has a historic reckoning on issues of race, racism, police brutality, and racist violence, Juneteenth takes on an added significance – not just because Trump initially decided to hold his first campaign rally in months on Juneteeth in Tulsa, Oklahoma—but because most Americans are finally embracing the idea that Black Lives Matter. 

Dr. Yohuru Williams is the Dean and McQuinn Distinguished Chair of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas. He is the author of several books including Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Black Panthers in New Haven, and Rethinking the Black Freedom Movement. His forthcoming book is In the Shadow of the Whipping Post: Lynching, Capital Punishment, and Jim Crow Justice in Delaware 1865-1965.

The Supreme Court in a highly anticipated ruling, voted against the Trump Administration’s cancelation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The 5-4 ruling had a typical liberal to conservative split with Chief Justice John Roberts casting the deciding vote in joining with the 4 liberal justices. The ruling impacts the fate of about 650,000 undocumented immigrants who obtained a deferment of deportation after meeting stringent criteria, and who have been able to work in the US legally. A small group of immigrant rights activists celebrated outside the high court in Washington DC upon hearing the news of the ruling. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer expressed his joy over the ruling as well. While immigrant rights activists hailed the Supreme Court decision, the details of the ruling suggest the program remains vulnerable. In writing the majority opinion Justice Roberts said, “We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies…We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action. Here the agency failed to consider the conspicuous issues of whether to retain forbearance and what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients.” In other words, Justices voted against the manner, not the merit, of the federal government’s cancelation of DACA. Still, Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s written opinion made clear that Roberts was wrong to discount President Trump’s racist rhetoric on immigrants. According to Sotomayor, “I would not so readily dismiss the allegation that an executive decision disproportionately harms the same racial group that the President branded as less desirable mere months earlier.”

In other news, 1.5 million workers applied for unemployment benefits last week according to the latest Labor Department data. While the number is lower than earlier weeks, it is still far higher than expected, 13 weeks into a pandemic that pushed millions out of work. The Wall Street Journal reports that in spite of government assistance, Americans had trouble paying down debts and that since March of this year people missed debt payments on more than 100 million loans, mostly student loans but also auto and personal loans. As Congress debates a new $120 billion relief package aimed specifically at restaurant owners, a University of California analysis found that black-owned businesses were the hardest hit during the pandemic. During the lockdowns in April more than 40% of black business owners reported being out of work compared to 17% of white business owners, even as whites are a far greater percentage of the population than blacks. And another study from Boston University has found that when employers are prohibited from asking the salary history of prospective employees, African Americans and women benefit the most and end up with salary offers that are 13% and 8% higher th...

FEATURING DANILO TRISI – As Congress mulls whether or not to pass another economic stimulus package, data continue to show that the economic crisis facing the US before the pandemic hit has worsened since March. In particular, the racial wealth and income gap has widened considerably. Now, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities shows that the number of people in families with below-poverty earnings has soared, especially among blacks and Latinos.

Danilo Trisi, Director of Poverty and Inequality Research at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

FEATURING DANI ANGUIANO – It has been over a year since the deadliest fire ever in California history razed to the ground the town of Paradise. Thousands of people lost their homes, and more than 80 lost their lives in the flames that began to burn on November 8th 2018 in a retirement community in Butte County. 

A new book by two reporters who covered the fire for The Guardian newspaper from the start have told the story of the devastating fire through interviews with hundreds of people.

For more information about the book, visit www.FireinParadiseBook.com.

Dani Anguiano, writer for the Guardian who covered the Paradise Fire, was formerly a reporter for the Chico Enterprise-Record, where she covered Butte County, including Chico and Paradise. She co-author of the new book, “Fire in Paradise: An American Tragedy.”

**This segment was originally broadcast on May 12, 2020.

Republican Senators have unveiled their legislation on police reforms and already critics say it is far too weak. The GOP introduced a  bill that does not ban deadly police tactics such as chokeholds and no-knock warrants of the kind that killed George Floyd in Minnesota and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky. Instead it only encourages police departments to discourage the reliance on such methods, and also promotes the use of body cameras on officers. Senator Tim Scott, the GOP’s only black Senator, pushed to include in the bill a requirement for police departments to report all officer-involved fatalities to the federal government. The Washington Post explained that the GOP policing bill also, “would also make lynching a federal hate crime, establish a commission that would lead a comprehensive review of policing tactics to establish best practices for officers and encouraging de-escalation training.” The added training comes with more funding for police – a trend that has already been adopted in many cities and failed to bring down the rates of police killings. 

In contrast, the Democrats’ version of the bill bans chokeholds outright and makes it easier for individuals to sue police departments, but also falls far short of the defunding that Black Lives Matter movement leaders have called for. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been accused of overseeing a “legislative graveyard” said the GOP bill would come to the Senate floor next week for a vote. Meanwhile President Donald Trump, who a day earlier signed an executive order to pour more funds into police, accused his predecessor of failing to address police brutality. He said during his Tuesday address, without evidence, that, “President Obama and Vice President Biden never even tried to fix this during their eight-year period. The reason they didn’t try is because they had no idea how to do it.” Although Obama came under fire from activists for not doing enough, Trump undid the modest federal government oversight in the form of police consent decrees that began under Obama’s tenure. Trump also reversed Obama’s ban on diverting excess military equipment to police departments. Obama’s commission on policing released a 115-page report in 2015 and one news story pointed out that, “elements of Trump’s executive order could have been lifted from the Obama-era report.” 

One grand experiment around what a community without policing could look like is playing out in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood where activists have set up an autonomous zone. The Washington Post did an extensive report from the zone showing how unarmed protesters are successfully using de-escalation tactics to keep the peace in the neighborhood including during interactions with homeless residents of the area, and against armed rightwing activists. 

The Huffington Post published a detailed investigation into disturbing online forums that attract current and former police officers. Calling it a “far-right media ecosystem,” the reporters explained that users, “post racist memes, spread disinformation and call for violence against antifa.” Additionally,

FEATURING IMARA JONES – The Supreme Court on Monday decided in a 6-3 ruling that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1967 applies to LGBTQ workers. In what was hailed as a major victory for civil rights, six justices, including Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch voted to apply the landmark civil rights law to the LGBTQ community. Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas dissented. 

Explaining the ruling, Gorsuch said, “An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex… Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids.” 

Justice Alito denounced the majority ruling as “preposterous,” saying, “Even as understood today, the concept of discrimination because of ‘sex’ is different from discrimination because of ‘sexual orientation’ or ‘gender identity.’” The ruling comes just days after Donald Trump’s administration formally rescinded the gender identity discrimination aspect of the Affordable Care Act.

Imara Jones, journalist, intersectional-news producer, and creator of TransLash a multi-episode series about what it is like to be trangender, especially a trans person of color, at a time of social backlash. Imara is also currently a Soros Equality Fellow.