FEATURING ALEXANDRA MINNA STERN – The mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, have catapulted into the national consciousness just how deadly the spread of online white nationalism, racist hatred, misogyny, and anti-immigrant sentiment is. President Donald Trump’s scripted speech about denouncing bigotry and white supremacy did little to distance him from the supercharged spread of hate. 

Today we’ll examine the so-called Alt Right and what underpins its dangerous ideology. 

Alexandra Minna Stern, professor of American Culture, History and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan, where she leads the Sterilization and Social Justice Lab. She is the award-winning author of Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America, and Telling Genes: The Story of Genetic Counseling in America. Her new book is called Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate: How the Alt-Right Is Warping the American Imagination.

President Donald Trump hit back at his predecessor Barack Obama against his statement on the weekend shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. Obama released a statement on Twitter that said, “We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments.” Even though Obama did not name the 45th President, Trump evidently did not like Obama’s implications and shot back, “Did George Bush ever condemn President Obama after Sandy Hook. President Obama had 32 mass shootings during his reign.” Trump did not address the fact that mass shooters never echoed Obama’s rhetoric. Trump has faced widespread criticism after the shootings from mainstream media outlets and politicians. For example the New York Times’ Michelle Goldberg wrote an op-ed boldly titled, “Trump Is a White Nationalist Who Inspires Terrorism.”

The New York Times is reporting that, “Since January, Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign has posted more than 2,000 ads on Facebook that include the word ‘invasion’ — part of a barrage of advertising focused on immigration, a dominant theme of his re-election messaging. A review of Mr. Trump’s tweets also found repeated references to an “invasion,” while his 2016 campaign advertising heavily featured dark warnings about immigrants breaching America’s borders.” The El Paso shooter’s manifesto warned of a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.”  In other news, Cesar Sayoc, the Trump-supporter who mailed out pipe bombs to the President’s political enemies, was just sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

Ohio’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine has proposed backing a so-called “Red Flag” law and expanded background checks after the mass shooting in Dayton took 9 lives. After being confronted over the weekend with angry chants of “Do Something” by his constituents, DeWine appears ready to get on board a series of modest proposals. He faced the same chants on Tuesday at his press conference before he announced his support for background checks for all gun sales and for restricting gun sales to those who might raise a red flag about misusing guns. But both of Ohio’s state houses are controlled by Republicans, and it is unlikely the bills will pass. Meanwhile Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has also said he wants to support the “Red Flag” laws and plans to convince President Trump to back them on a federal level. 

In addition to Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is also facing criticism in the wake of the mass shootings with the hashtag #MassacreMoscowMitch trending on Twitter. Twitter users are calling Mitch out for the massacres that continue as he maintains inaction on gun violence and remains loyal to the NRA.

FEATURING STEVEN GARDINER – Two young white men perpetrated back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio over the weekend leaving a bloody trail of 31 people dead and scores injured. The shootings come just a week after a white supremacist shot and killed 3 people in Gilroy, California. 

While President Donald Trump explicitly called out racism, bigotry, and white supremacy in a 10-minute speech on Monday morning, he refused to take responsibility for fueling the hate that appears to be motivating a spike in white male shooters who leave rage-filled screeds online.

Easily available military-style weapons of mass destruction combined with racist toxic masculinity in our political culture have become a deadly combination in Trump’s America. 

Steven Gardiner, Assistant Research Director at Political Research Associates.

FEATURING TIMOTHY FAUST – The movement for a single-payer healthcare system in the US has been organizing for years but only in the past 2 years has it gained steam after relentless Republican attacks on Obamacare. A majority of House Democrats have now signed onto a bill that would establish a Medicare-for-All system in the US. 

But skepticism still abounds, even within the Democratic Party. Critics consistently insist that a Medicare-for-All system will cost too much without taking into account all the costs – including profits – that the current system eats up. At this critical moment in the fight for healthcare for all Americans we turn to a timely book, Health Justice Now: Single Payer and What Comes Next.

Timothy Faust, writer and journalist with expertise in healthcare and a single payer system. He has written for Splinter News, Jacobin, and Vice and is author of the new book Health Justice Now: Single Payer and What Comes Next.

President Donald Trump addressed the public on Monday after one of the bloodiest weekends in the nation with two back-to-back shootings that resulted in 31 deaths. Calling out racism, bigotry and white supremacy in a brief 10-minute address, Trump fell short of admitting responsibility or calling for gun control measures.

In El Paso, 21-year old Patrick Crusius drove from Dallas to the border city armed with an AK-47 and targeted the largely immigrant clientele of a local Walmart leaving 20 people dead and 27 injured. Two more victims succumbed to their injuries at the hospital on Monday morning, bringing the total death toll to 22. CNN reported that some survivors of the shooting may have been avoiding hospital care because of their immigration status. Crusius posted a 2,300-word manifesto online just hours before the attack expressing anger at what he called a, “Hispanic invasion,” and praising the New Zealand shooter that targeted mosques killing 50 people earlier this year in Christ Church. Crusius posted his manifesto on 8chan, a shadowy chat room for Trump-inspired racist and violent fantasies. The San Francisco tech company that hosted 8chan has now dropped the group from its services. 

According to the New York Times, the shooting is being investigated, “as an act of domestic terrorism, and prosecutors said they were considering federal hate crime charges. They were also considering federal gun charges that would carry the death penalty.” At a press conference with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Representative Veronica Escobar from El Paso called out the racism and bigotry in the shooter’s manifesto. In an interview on Morning Joe, Escobar said that Trump should not come to El Paso. 

The mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio came less than a day after El Paso where yet another young white man, 24-year old Connor Betts, donned military style armor and used a rifle to shoot his own sister and 8 others outside a popular bar in the downtown area. Betts’ motive is not yet known and it is also not known if he intentionally targeted his own sister. While the El Paso shooter was taken into custody unharmed, police shot and killed the Dayton shooter. Unlike El Paso where the shooter appeared to have intentionally targeted immigrants, the Dayton shooter’s victims were a mix of white and non-white. Heavy.com pointed out that Connor Betts identified himself as a “leftist” on Twitter and had denounced gun violence in the past. AP reported ...

FEATURING SCOTT FABER – President Donald Trump issued yet another threat of tariffs against China on Friday to the tune of 10% on $300 billion worth of Chinese imports. China is now no longer the US’s top trading partner for the first time in more than a decade. Meanwhile stocks sank on Friday in response to the announced tariffs in what investors say was the worst week of 2019. 

While Trump has claimed that his trade war with China has not hurt the economy, this administration has announced a $16 billion aid package for American farm businesses, as a bailout for those hurt by the trade war. But the Environmental Working Group has warned that last year’s bailout went to those farms that were already among the nation’s richest. And, nearly 100% of all subsidies rewarded white owned farms. Trump considers farmers to be one of his top constituencies.  

For information about subsidies for farmers visit farm.ewg.org.

Scott Faber, Senior Vice President of the Environmental Working Group.

FEATURING JENNIFER BLOCK – Women’s healthcare has always been problematic in the US. But particularly over the last decade, with increasing attacks on women’s ability to access reproductive healthcare, we have an inordinate amount of political attention being paid to what goes on in women’s bodies below the waist. It’s not just anti-abortionists and the evangelical right that fantasizes about women’s healthcare returning to medieval times. Women’s healthcare providers themselves are to an extent stuck in the past according to a new book. 

Jennifer Block, award winning journalist, she has written for the Washington Post, Newsweek, Reveal and other publications. Her first book Pushed garnered critical acclaim and her newest book is Everything Below The Waist: Why Health Care Needs a Feminist Revolution.

President Donald Trump spoke at a raucous rally in Cincinnati, Ohio on Thursday evening during which he took aim at Democrats, associating them with poverty, despair, crime, and more. He continued his attacks against his favorite targets of women of color serving in Congress. While the chants of “Send Her Back” that marked his last rally did not materialize this time, rally goers did chant “Lock Her Up,” when he referred to Hillary Clinton. During the three anti-Trump activists stood up and unfurled signs, one of which said “Immigrants Built America.” The activists were roughed up by the crowd and then escorted out by security. The Washington Post’s Dan Zak reported from the rally in a piece entitled “Fear and Gloating in Cincinnati,” where he spoke to Trump supporters one of whom said, “God is real and He’s told many people that Trump is going to serve eight years.” Outside the rally, a 29-year old Trump supporter named Dallas Frazier was caught on video beating up a 61-year old anti-Trump activist named Mike Alter. 

In other news the Republican Party’s last black Congressional Representative Will Hurd, has announced his resignation. He said on Twitter, “I have made the decision to not seek reelection for the 23rd Congressional District of Texas in order to pursue opportunities outside the halls of Congress to solve problems at the nexus between technology and national security.” The GOP has one last black federal lawmaker left – Senator Tim Scott, who two weeks ago denounced Trump’s tweets against Congresswomen of color as, “unacceptable personal attacks and racially offensive language.”

Meanwhile Congressman Elijah Cummings, who is one of about 50 Black Democratic members of Congress, announced that his Baltimore, Maryland, house had been broken into. Trump, who had attacked Cummings’ district in Baltimore as a, “rat and rodent infested mess,” and called Cummings a “racist,” gloated in the news on Twitter. 

Just days after activists challenged New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio on a national stage during the debate to “Fire Pantaleo,” a police administrative judge has recommended that the NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo who choked Eric Garner to death ought to be fired. The New York Times explained that, “The New York police commissioner, James P. O’Neill, must now make a final decision on whether to allow Officer Pantaleo to remain on the force, and finds himself caught between elected leaders who have been calling for the officer to be fired and leaders of police unions, who have cast the officer as a scapegoat.”

Proponents of healthcare for all are celebrating the fact that a

FEATURING JOHN NICHOLS – Over two days this week 20 candidates for the Democratic Presidential nomination battled it out on stage in Detroit, Michigan in a debate sponsored by CNN. On day one, progressive frontrunners Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren successfully fought off reformists’ ideas on healthcare and other issues. On the second day, the top two moderate frontrunners Kamala Harris and Joe Biden had a rematch after clashing weeks ago in the first debate. 

CNN came under fire for echoing Republican talking points. Although Sanders and Warren appeared the winners to progressives, the corporate media appeared to remain invested in Joe Biden and some of the other moderate candidates. 

Today we’ll ask a long-time election analyst and stalwart progressive what lessons he drew from the debates.  

John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation magazine and host of their new podcast, ‘Next Left,’ featuring interviews with rising progressive politicians who explain how they plan to change the country. He is a contributing writer for The Progressive and In These Times and the associate editor of the Capital Times. He is also the author of numerous books including Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse: A Field Guide to the Most Dangerous People in America (Nation Books) and The Genius of Impeachment (New Press).

FEATURING JULIO RICARDO VARELA – As Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rosselló prepares to step down on Friday confusion reigns as to who will replace him. Rosselló’s tenure came to a premature end after two weeks of sustained mass street protests in San Juan and other Puerto Rican cities. Angry over reports of deep corruption among government elites, the hashtag #RickyRenuncia became a rallying cry for the island’s residents. 

But Rosselló initial replacement, Wanda Vásquez faced so much opposition even before he resigned that she demurred saying she would not accept the position. Now Rosselló has picked Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico’s former commissioner in Washington DC. Pierluisi faces opposition from the Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz who has his own ambitions to be Governor.

For more information visit LatinoRebels.com.

Julio Ricardo Varela, Digital Media Director for Futuro Media, founder of LatinoRebels.com, one of the top U.S. Latino media sites. He was formerly digital producer for Al Jazeera America’s “The Stream” and his work has been featured in the Guardian, ESPN, the New York Times, Quartz, Le Monde, Univision and Telemundo and many other outlets.