FEATURING TRINITY TRAN – A local measure in Los Angeles, California, last year to establish a public banking system failed. But organizers did not give up and instead set their sights even higher. A bill, AB 857, introduced by Assemblyman David Chiu to allow municipalities in California to establish their own public banking system has now gained steam and is working its way through various committees. Based on the idea that public money should be held in public institutions rather than private Wall Street banks, organizers are more hopeful than ever for a public banking system to become a reality. 

Trinity Tran, Lead Organizer at California Public Banking Alliance.

Hurricane Dorian has been pounding the Bahamas ceaselessly with 110 mph winds and has become the strongest such storm in recorded history in the Atlantic. Hubert Minnis, the Bahamian Prime Minister said, “We are in the midst of a historic tragedy in parts of our northern Bahamas.” His government reported that so far five people were confirmed dead but the numbers may rise. President Donald Trump over the weekend insisted that the state of Alabama was among those expected to be hit by the hurricane, even though the National Weather Service refuted his claim. CNN reported that the President was, “spreading false information during an emergency situation. Not once or twice — three times.” He tweeted it and repeated the statement. Trump also said he had never heard of a Category 5 storm. The Washington Post reported that Trump has claimed to have not heard of a category 5 hurricane at least 5 times during his Presidency. Hurricane Dorian, which is now a Category 2, heads toward the United States where residents of Florida in particular are bracing themselves for the worst. Trump, meanwhile decided to go golfing at his own resort in Virginia on Labor Day, marking the, “289th day he has spent at a Trump property and the 227th day he has spent at one of his golf clubs as President.”

In other news, yet another mass shooting shocked the state of Texas when a gunman traveling in a vehicle in Odessa shot dozens of people killing 7 and injuring 20. According to the Washington Post, “Unlike the other shootings that have shaken Texas over the past several years, in which gunmen targeted people who had gathered for a common purpose — at a church, a school, a shopping center — Saturday’s tragedy stretched for miles.” During his rampage the shooter, a white man in his 30s, hijacked a postal carrier’s vehicle and killed the postal worker, 29-year old Mary Granados was speaking with her twin sister Rosie on the phone when she was killed. Fifteen-year old Leilah Hernandez, who was with her brother was also killed. The New York Times described the life of the gunman, Seth Ator, as “erratic and nomadic.” In another part of the country, a 14-year old boy confessed to massacring five members of his family with a handgun on Monday night in Elkmont, Alabama. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, pressured by frustrated Democrats to take action on gun control said on Tuesday that he would be “happy” to bring up legislation in the Senate only if it was supported by the President. And

FEATURING FRANCIS YIP – Hong Kong police have arrested two prominent pro-democracy activists, Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow, ahead of another weekend’s planned activities in the mass movement that has gripped Hong Kong for the past three months. Wong and Chow gained fame for the role they played in the 2014 mass uprising that came to be known as the Umbrella movement exactly 5 years ago this weekend. They were charged with organizing illegal protests and released on bail. Meanwhile tens of thousands of women and men gathered on Wednesday for a massive rally under the #MeToo banner, claiming that Hong Kong police had sexually assaulted female protesters.

The movement that was sparked by a China-backed extradition bill aimed at dissenting Hong Kongers has gone on for longer than anyone expected. China has made verbal threats warning protesters that they would face the armed might of the Chinese military but Hong Kong’s residents have brushed them off. Now Chinese troops have moved into Hong Kong saying it is part of a scheduled troop rotation. We go to Hong Kong to speak with an academic who has been involved in and studying the protest movement.

Francis Yip, Associate Professor teaching Christian theology at the Divinity School of Chung Chi College in the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

FEATURING RONNIE CITRON-FINK – Studies have shown that about three-quarters of all American women dye their hair. And yet, the chemicals found in most hair dyes are considered toxic and carcinogenic. Hair salon workers who regularly apply hair dye are far more likely to develop certain kinds of cancer. Government regulatory agencies do not prevent the toxic chemicals from being used in commercially-available hair dyes.

Today we’ll speak with an environmentalist who examined her own decades long reliance on toxic hair dyes, and has written a book about it.

Ronnie Citron-Fink, editorial director for the Environmental Defense Fund’s Moms Clean Air Force. She is also a contributor to A Glorious Freedom: On Being a Woman, Getting Older, and Living an Extraordinary Life. Yahoo named her one of its Top Ten Living Green Experts. Her new book is called True Roots: What Quitting Hair Dye Taught Me About Health and Beauty.

Hurricane Dorian continues to head toward Florida reaching Category 2 status on Friday and expected to hit the state on Monday as a Category 4 storm. The entire state has been put under an emergency declaration. Residents are preparing for the worst with the city of Miami ordering the removal of scooters from the streets in case they turn into flying projectiles in extremely windy situations. Given that millions could lose power, residents are stocking up on emergency supplies. The National Hurricane Center released an advisory on Friday morning warning of a, “life threatening storm surge and devastating hurricane-force winds…along portions of the Florida East Coast.” President Donald Trump’s Florida resort Mar-a-Lago is in the path of Hurricane Dorian and possibly his resort in Doral is as well. Trump canceled a planned trip to Poland in order to monitor the hurricane. Meanwhile former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell made waves when she publicly hoped on Twitter, “I’m rooting for a direct hit on Mar a Lago!” She later deleted the tweet.

In other news former FBI Director James Comey is under fire from the Justice Department for apparently documenting his interactions with President Trump and then leaking them to the press. Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report this week – much to the glee of Republicans and President Trump who have been blasting the former intelligence officer for years and blaming him for sparking the Special Counsel investigation into the 2016 election. The Justice Department has declined to charge Comey despite claiming that he violated FBI policy. Trump tweeted multiple times in response to the IG report. In one of his tweets he went as far as saying, “The disastrous IG Report on James Comey shows, in the strongest of terms, how unfairly I, and tens of millions of great people who support me, were treated. Our rights and liberties were illegally stripped away by this dishonest fool. We should be given our stolen time back?” Trump has alluded in the past to the idea that he should have two more years added to his presidential term to compensate for the Special Counsel investigation. 

The Washington Post this week found that former Vice President Joe Biden, who is a frontrunner candidate for President in 2020, has been distorting the details of a story he told on the campaign trail. The Washington Post pointed out that, “almost every detail in the story appears to be incorrect.” The paper interviewed, “more than a dozen U.S. troops, their commanders and Biden campaign officials,” and concluded that, “In the space of three minutes, Biden got the time period, the location, the heroic act,

FEATURING LEONARDO DIAZ AND CORAL ITZCALLI – Just days before Labor Day, a major political battle is being fought in the nation’s largest state over workers rights. California’s Assembly Bill 5, if passed, would have serious consequences for the so-called gig economy, forcing major corporations like Uber and Lyft to treat their workers as employees rather than independent contractors. 

This week Uber and Lyft workers protested in front of the Uber headquarters in San Francisco supporting AB 5 and demanding that Uber stop its concerted lobbying efforts against the bill. The rally was part of a 3-day caravan of rideshare drivers and labor organizers up and down California. 

Leonardo Diaz, an Uber/Lyft driver and Coral Itzcalli, a long-time labor organizer and the Communications Director of SEIU Local 721 and spokesperson for the Mobile Workers Alliance.

FEATURING LISA FITHIAN – Organizing over decades of social justice causes, legendary activist Lisa Fithian has been on the frontlines of nearly every major movement from the 1999 Battle in Seattle to Occupy Wall Street. 

Now, in a new book called simply Shut It Down, Lisa Fithian shares the wisdom she has gathered, and the stories – often missed by the media – of how protest can stop illegitimate power in its tracks. 

Lisa Fithian, long-time activist who has engaged in decades of civil disobedience, protest organizing, and more for social justice causes. Her new book is called Shut It Down: Stories From a Fierce, Loving Resistance.

Hurricane Dorian has intensified into a Category 4 storm as it hurtles toward the US. NASA announced on Twitter that the storm is, “packing heavy rain as it moves toward the Bahamas.” The hurricane is expected to pack wind speeds of up to 150 miles per hour as it heads toward Florida. There is comprehensive scientific consensus that climate change has made hurricanes stronger, more frequent, and more destructive. In spite of this President Donald Trump’s administration has relentlessly pushed to worsen climate change through the dismantling of regulations and this week announced that it would roll back rules governing methane emissions. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. Trump has also diverted hundreds of millions of dollars in disaster relief funding to build a border wall between the US and Mexico – a project he considers essential to making the case for his reelection. 

According to the Washington Post, which covered Trump’s plan to build his wall by any means necessary, “When aides have suggested that some orders are illegal or unworkable, Trump has suggested he would pardon the officials if they would just go ahead, aides said. He has waved off worries about contracting procedures and the use of eminent domain, saying ‘take the land,’ according to officials who attended the meetings.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the move, “stunningly reckless,” and added that, “to pick the pockets of disaster relief funding in order to fund an appalling, inhumane family incarceration plan is staggering.” Still Pelosi has adamantly refused to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump.

A global survey of attitudes toward climate change has found encouraging signs among young Republicans. The Amsterdam-based Glocalities poll surveys hundreds of thousands of people in 20 countries. According to the surveyors, “Since our first wave in 2014 more and more Americans say they worry about the damage that humans cause to the planet, just like people from all over the world. In the USA this percentage has gradually risen from 61% in 2014 to 69% in 2019. In the U.S. the rise is strongest (+11%) among republicans. In 2019 58% of U.S. republicans say that they are concerned about human cause damage to the planet and only 17% of republicans explicitly say they don’t worry about this.” And the world’s most famous young environmentalist, Greta Thunberg, has arrived on the shores of the US in a highly anticipated visit. It took the 16-year old Swedish activist more than 2 weeks on a zero-emissions sailboat to travel from Europe to New York to push for climate action. 

The Trump administration this week issued a new immigration rule that would deny citizenship to some children of military and diplomat...

FEATURING RICHARD WOLFF – A recent Gallup poll asking Americans about their views on socialism found that 43% felt that some version of it would be good for the country. That’s a marked shift from earlier years and a strong counter argument to Republicans and centrist Democrats who feel there is no appetite for socialism in the US. 

Even capitalist leaders are admitting their methods have failed. The Business Roundtable released a statement recently signed by nearly 200 CEOs of major corporations reevaluating the fact that a company’s top priority ought to be maximizing shareholder profits. The CEOs declared, “Americans deserve an economy that allows each person to succeed through hard work and creativity and to lead a life of meaning and dignity.”

As the US slides closer to a recession sparked at least in part by Trump’s trade war with China, the question arises, is Trump failing capitalism, or is capitalism failing us? 

Richard Wolff, visiting professor at the New School University, New York and professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, author of a number of books including ‘Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism’, ‘Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism’, ‘Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA’, and ‘Capitalism’s Crisis Deepens: Essays on the Global Economic Meltdown.’ His latest book is called ‘Understanding Marxism’

FEATURING RYAN COOPER – David Koch, one of the two billionaire Koch brothers who left an indelible mark on politics, has died. The 79-year old, together with his brother Charles funded a vast network of ultra conservative, pro-business, efforts and helped the rise of the Tea Party movement which in turn pushed the Republican Party to the far right. According to some estimates the Koch brothers spent at least $100 million on far right political movements since the 1970s.

Read Ryan’s article entitled, “The terrifying legacy of David Koch,” HERE.

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post. His recent article is entitled, “The terrifying legacy of David Koch.”