Billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died of apparent suicide on Saturday, just weeks after he survived an attempted suicide. His body was found early on Saturday morning at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York where he was being held awaiting trial. Upon learning of Epstein’s death, one of his victims, Jennifer Araoz said, “We have to live with the scars of his actions for the rest of our lives, while he will never face the consequences of the crimes he committed — the pain and trauma he caused so many people.” His death came just a day after more than 2,000 pages of documents were unsealed showing how his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell helped him traffic in young girls for himself and his wealthy friends to abuse. According to the Daily Beast, one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, “said Maxwell specifically instructed her to serve former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Britain’s Prince Andrew, wealthy financier Glenn Dubin, former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel, and scientist Marvin Minsky.” Epstein’s victims are now calling for Maxwell’s prosecution as she remains his chief co-conspirator. 

Meanwhile President Trump, who was one of Epstein’s friends and social contacts and who has himself been implicated in past investigations, promoted a conspiracy theory on Twitter that claimed Bill and Hillary Clinton were responsible for Epstein’s death. The video that Trump re-tweeted has now been viewed millions of times on Twitter.  Meanwhile Attorney General William Barr, who has been one of Trump’s most loyal supporters, has also announced his deep concern over the circumstances of Epstein’s death. Barr had recused himself from the investigation into whether former Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta give Epstein favorable treatment in Florida. But Barr has refused to recuse himself from any direct investigation into Epstein even though he once worked at the same law firm that represented Epstein, and Barr’s father once allegedly hired Epstein.

Meanwhile, another accused sex offender, Bill Cosby has appealed his sexual assault conviction while serving his prison sentence. Cosby was one of the first high-profile accusers to be tried and convicted after the #MeToo movement became popularized. 

In the week since the mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, news has emerged that at least 8 other Walmart stores around the country have received threats. Advocates of gun control have urged Walmart to stop selling guns as the retail giant is the top weapons seller in the nation. But Walmart has decided only to stop displaying violent video games in its stores instead of curtailing gun sales. Meanwhile Presidential candidate and front runner, former Vice President Joe Biden wrote an

FEATURING SOFIA CASINI – As the news of mass raids in Mississippi draw attention to parents being separated once more from their children, reports have emerged of the horrific mistreatment that immigrants are facing inside the detention centers they are taken to. 

Hundreds of those who were rounded up in Mississippi were taken to Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center, the site of an ongoing hunger strike. And right now dozens of men are on hunger strike at a detention facility in Louisiana and on August 12 their families have planned a protest in front of an ICE office in New Orleans. 

Sofia Casini, Southern Regional Coordinator with Freedom for Immigrants.

FEATURING RICHARD CASTALDO – This year marked the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado. Over the past 20 years mass shootings in schools and other public places have increased and the overall death toll from gun violence in the US has skyrocketed. 

The standard politician’s response after every mass shooting is to send “thoughts and prayers” with any attempt at organizing against guns dismissed as “politicizing” a tragedy. In the wake of 2 back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, there is some lip service being paid to expanding background checks for gun purchases, but not much else despite the fact that public support for such checks, and for an assault weapons ban remains high. 

We turn today to a man who knows first hand the impacts of gun violence. 

Richard Castaldo, survivor of Columbine shooting.

President Donald Trump expressed support for background checks for gun buyers ahead of his summer golfing vacation and gushed about his great relationship with the NRA. House Democrats already passed a bill earlier this year that would require such checks but until the two mass shootings earlier this week Republican leaders had refused to consider it.  A day earlier protesters led by Ohio Representative and Presidential candidate Tim Ryan confronted McConnell over the issue. During a radio interview McConnell said, “What we can’t do is fail to pass something,.. The urgency of this is not lost on any of us.” Republicans have worked relentlessly for years to loosen gun regulations in spite of a bloody annual death toll from gun violence. Ryan dismissed McConnell’s words as, “a bunch of bologna,” and said, “The history of President Trump and Mitch McConnell is they try to slow walk this until it falls out of the news cycle.”

Meanwhile a 20-year old white man covered in body armor and wearing fatigues walked into a Missouri Walmart store. According to NBC he was carrying a, “a tactical rifle, a handgun and more than 100 rounds of ammunition,” and filming a video of himself. Managers evacuated the store and an armed firefighter detained and apprehended the man until police arrived. No one was injured but tensions remained high in light of the El Paso Walmart shooting. Missouri is an open-carry state.  

The White House has released a campaign-style video of President Trump visiting the survivors of the El Paso and Dayton shootings. White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham had barred journalists from accompanying Trump to the hospitals where patients were recovering saying the visit was not a “photo-op.” But the slickly produced video created from footage of his visit showed the President grinning widely with thumbs up and no reference to the actual shootings or their survivors. Melania Trump is also under fire for posting a photo of herself holding the 2-month old baby whose parents were both fatally shot smiling broadly while her husband stands next to her once more grinning with a thumbs up. Outside the hospital people protested the President’s visit. 

It has been five years since the uprising in Ferguson, Missouri began over the police killing of Mike Brown. The Black Lives Matter movement that had begun in the wake of Trayvon Martin’s killing in Florida, rapidly expanded after Ferguson, and spread all across the US. Brown’s father Michael Snr. says he wants the case into his son’s killing by officer Darren Wilson reopened. Wilson was investigated but a grand jury chose not to indict him. Meanwhile

FEATURING SAMANTHA FINE – A number of Jewish Americans were recently arrested for participating in a protest at the offices of GEO Group, a private corporation that operates detention centers for immigrants. The action was organized by the group Never Again Action which posted its reasoning on Twitter saying, “We have to block your entrance because @GEOGroup runs concentration camps, and when six million of our family members died we swore we wouldn’t let that happen again to anyone.” 

Thousands of Jewish Americans have organized and participated in dozens of such protests around the US as part of Never Again Action calling attention to the Trump administration’s family separation policies, appalling conditions at detention centers, and most recently the ICE raids in Mississippi. 

Samantha Fine, lead organizer of a recent protest in Los Angeles organized by Never Again Action.

FEATURING NETFA FREEMAN – The US has expanded its sanctions against the Venezuelan Administration of Nicolás Maduro into a complete economic embargo. The move is intended to pressure Maduro as well as nations like China and Russia that have supported his government. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, “President Trump late Monday signed an executive order freezing all government assets and prohibiting transactions with it, unless specifically exempted, the first action of its kind against a government in the Western Hemisphere in more than 30 years.” 

Netfa Freeman, Member of the Coordinating Committee of Black Alliance for Peace, Institute for Policy Studies, an organizer at the International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity who has worked in the U.S. Cuba solidarity movement for years and just returned from Venezuela as part of the “Embassy Protection Delegation.”

Just days after a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas aimed at immigrants took the lives of 22 people, President Donald Trump’s administration carried out the largest immigration workplace raids in US history. The raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were aimed at 7 agricultural processing plants in 6 towns and cities across the state of Mississippi. Acting ICE Director Matthew Albence explained what happens next at a press conference. CBS spoke with an 11-year old girl whose father was dragged away. CNN reported scenes of, “children sobbing as they waited for word on what had happened to their parents…strangers and neighbors volunteered to take children with nowhere to go. Volunteers distributed donated food and drinks. But… most children sobbed rather than ate.” The raids took place on the first day of school. William Truly Jr. the Mayor of Canton, Mississippi which was among the towns that had been targeted said, “I recognize that ICE comes under the Department of Homeland Security, and this is an order of the United States. There’s nothing I don’t think anybody can do about it,” he said. “But my main concern is now, what happens to the children?”

A man named Jimmy Aldaoud who was deported to Iraq about 2 and a half months ago has died. Aldaoud was a diabetic who most likely died from a lack of access to insulin. The 41-year old had spent nearly his whole life in Detroit and had no familiarity with Iraq nor did he speak Arabic when he was abruptly removed from the US. He posted videos of his plight living on the streets before he died in Baghdad. Alaoud was one of hundreds of Iraqi Christians who face a similar situation of being deported to a country the US devastated through war and where they face persecution as a religious minority. 

In other news, the mother of the El Paso shooter apparently warned police that she was worried about her son having access to an “AK” type weapon. According to CNN, “During the call, the mother was transferred to a public safety officer who told her that — based on her description of the situation — her son, 21, was legally allowed to purchase the weapon.” Additionally, “police did not seek any additional information from her before the call concluded.” Meanwhile Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he has no knowledge of any so-called “Red Flags” that were raised about the El Paso shooter. He also remained silent on any action to prevent gun violence that actually involves guns. Instead the state is actually going to see 10 new laws that were passed last year take effect soon, that deregulate gun ownership even more. 

The nation’s strongest gun lobby group, the NRA backed all ten of the gun laws in Texas and NRA leader Wayne La Pierre this week issued a warning...

FEATURING MADELINE PELTZ – White supremacists who are inspired to commit mass murder in the US today are echoing President Donald Trump’s rhetoric. But the watchdog group Media Matters for America has found that the hate-filled online forums where white supremacists hob nob are also full of praise for another figure – Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. Carlson’s name has cropped up thousands of times on 8chan, the breeding ground of racist white terrorists. 

Carlson proved his credentials just this week during his show when he claimed that treating white supremacy as a serious issue was a “hoax” used to divide the country.

Madeline Peltz, Researcher at Media Matters.

FEATURING RAJA MICHAEL – There was a time when the world of stand-up comedy was dominated by white men whose jokes were couched in sexist and racist stereotypes. Today as women and people of color fight to be heard and seen on screen and the stage, we are hearing a different type of cultural commentary. 

In her new album Brownie Points, South Asian comedian Raja Michael jokes about her immigrant Indian parents who settled in New Jersey, how her mother used to beat her, and how her teachers had a hard time pronouncing her name. 

For more information about their show at CDbaby.com, or follow Raja on Instagram @RajaMichaelComedy.

Raja Michael, Stand Up Comedian, Artist, Storyteller, Writer based in Los Angeles. Her first album with Lenny Shelton is called Brownie Points.

President Donald Trump is visiting the cities of El Paso, Texas where 22 people were killed, and Dayton, Ohio where 8 people were killed in back-to-back mass shootings. Ahead of his trip he spoke with reporters about how excited he was to congratulate law enforcement. A reporter then challenged Trump’s own rhetoric, Trump, dug his heels in about his use of anti-immigrant language. 

Meanwhile protesters lined the streets of Dayton, Ohio ahead of Trump’s visit with signs that read “Dump Trump” and “Do Something,” as well as a large Trump baby blimp of the kind that was popularized in Britain. In El Paso, where Trump is heading after Dayton, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar has made it clear that she does not support the President’s visit and has refused to meet with him. She spoke with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes about her reasoning.  Former Congressman Beto O’Rourke of El Paso has also clashed with Trump. Trump tweeted at O’Rourke to “Be Quiet!” while O’Rourke shot back, “22 people in my hometown are dead after an act of terror inspired by your racism. El Paso will not be quiet and neither will I.” Meanwhile CNN reported that the Trump campaign owes the city of El Paso half a million dollars for reimbursements related to his February visit where he held a political rally to make the case for his border wall.

Joaquin Castro, another Texas Representative, has come under fire for tweeting the names of Trump’s top donors in his district. He listed all of the 44 donors who had given the Trump campaign the maximum allowable donations this year and wrote, “Their contributions are fueling a campaign of hate that labels Hispanic immigrants as invaders.” Republican Senator Ted Cruz, replied saying that Castro’s tweet was, “hateful partisan rhetoric,” and accused him of “vilifying & doxxing” his constituents. He made no mention of Trump’s hateful partisan rhetoric. 

Meanwhile the White House announced that Trump was inviting the heads of top tech companies this Friday to meet with his administration officials to discuss the rise of violent extremism. The invitation was issued without a hint of irony and made no mention of Trump’s own outsized contribution to the rise of violent extremism online. There was also no mention of which companies would be invited. 

On the issue of gun control the Washington Post reported that Trump was,