President Donald Trump continued his racist attacks against Congresswomen of color on Wednesday when he said at a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, “They don’t love our country…I think, in some cases, they hate our country. You know what? If they don’t love it, tell them to leave it.” When he began specifically referring to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, the nation’s first Somali American Representative, Trump’s supporters began chanting “Send her back“ in unison. A few Republicans have begun speaking out against Trump including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy who said such chants, “have no place in our party and no place in this country.” But McCarthy continued to insist that Trump wasn’t being racist and that somehow, “this is about socialism vs. freedom.” Rep. Tom Emmer who heads the National Republican Congressional Committee said, “there’s no place” for such chants. And, Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said the chants were “ugly” and “wrong” and that they “would send chills down the spines of our Founding Fathers.” 

But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is sticking with Trump saying, “it’s about time we lowered the temperature all across the board,” about calling Trump a racist. In an interview on Fox Business News McConnell seemed to approve of Trump’s attacks saying, “I think the president is on to something,” and that Trump, “is not a racist.” On Thursday morning Trump, speaking to reporters attempted to distance himself from the ugly chants saying, “I was not happy with it. I disagree with it.”

Just hours before Trump’s North Carolina rally, a House Resolution to begin Impeachment proceedings was voted on and failed. Still, 95 Democrats voted for the measure to be referred to the House Judiciary Committee and 137 Democrats voted against it, indicating a split within the Democratic Party. Meanwhile a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Republican voter support for Trump increased after the President launched his racist Twitter tirade against the “squad” of progressive Congresswomen of color. His ratings among Republicans rose by 5% points to a high of 72%. CBS News interviewed a number of Trump supporters and one woman explained, “I know some people don’t like his tweets and they think he’s crass. I — that’s why I voted for him.”

Meanwhile Congress woman Ilhan Omar took to Twitter to respond to Trump’s hateful rhetoric saying, “I am where I belong, at the people’s house and you’re just gonna have to deal!” She also

FEATURING JESSICA MASON PIEKLO – The Trump administration on Monday announced that it would begin immediately enforcing its ban on health clinics that receive tax dollars from referring pregnant women to get abortions. 

There are currently numerous lawsuits challenging the rule but the Department of Health and Human Services has been given the green light to begin enforcement.

The move prompted a major clinic in Maine to drop out of the government’s funding program. George Hill, president of Maine Family Planning said in an interview with AP, “It is objectionable that the federal government is so arrogant as to dictate what our medical professionals can and cannot say to our patients.” 

On Tuesday Planned Parenthood, the most high profile abortion provider in the US, also chose to forego federal funds rather than stop offering abortions. In the same week Planned Parenthood’s board unexpectedly ousted its new head Dr. Leana Wen over what some are characterizing as “philosophical differences.”

Jessica Mason Pieklo is Vice President of Law and the Courts at Rewire.News. She is a writer and adjunct law professor in Boulder, Colorado. She is the former assistant director of the Health Law Clinic at Hamline Law School in St. Paul, Minnesota and former litigator.

FEATURING MICHAEL POWELSON – Presidents throughout American history have enabled corporate excess even at the expense of public welfare. And yet they promise to uphold the Constitution and the rights of all Americans. Making the case that our economic and political system are inherently geared toward corruption, my next guest has written a history book about it. 

Dr. Michael Powelson, teaches at LA Valley College and Cal State University Channel Islands. His new book is Swindlers All, a Brief History of Government Business Frauds from Alexander Hamilton to AIG.

The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to condemn President Donald Trump for using racist language against four newly Congress women of color. The resolution which was brought forward by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi received the votes of all Democrats and even four Republicans and was the strongest Congressional rebuke yet of the President for his racist rhetoric. In describing the President’s language as racist Pelosi caused an uproar among Republicans who took umbrage at her accusation being on the official record. In the end, Pelosi’s words remained on the record and the resolution passed. 

Following the resolution Democrat Al Green introduced Articles of Impeachment against Trump calling for an up or down vote within two days to get lawmakers on the record about where they stand. Democrats are apparently divided on the issue but a vote is expected on Wednesday nonetheless to either move the resolution forward to the Judiciary Committee or kill it. 

The ACLU on Tuesday moved to legally challenge the Trump administration over its new and harsh asylum rules that prohibit refugees from seeking asylum if they have passed through a third country to get to the US. According to the complaint that was filed in a US District Court in San Francisco, “it is longstanding federal law that merely transiting through a third country is not a basis to categorically deny asylum to refugees who arrive at our shores.” Meanwhile Jewish activists with the group Never Again in Washington DC targeted the headquarters of the reviled Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. While protesters rallied outside the building, ten of their colleagues blocked the entrance and were arrested.

Documents released from the Drug Enforcement Administration have revealed shocking data about the extent to which pharmaceutical companies flooded the US with opioid pills. Over a six year span from 2006 to 2012, manufacturers and distributors spread 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pain management pills into the US. At least 100,000 deaths have been attributed to the opioid crisis and the data that was released is part of the largest civil action in US history. 

In other news, the notorious Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison in a court in Brooklyn, New York. Joaquín Guzmán Loera was tried and convicted of numerous crimes last year after being extradited to the US from Mex...

Anti war activists are hailing a victory to thwart a potential US war with Iran with the recent passage of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The House on Friday approved a $733 billion bill to fund the Defense Department that included an amendment added with Republican support to require Congressional approval for any war with Iran. 

Another amendment curtailed weapons sales to Saudi Arabia. The Senate version of the NDAA is far less confrontational with Trump and both bills will have to be reconciled before moving forward. 

Read Khury Petersen-Smith’s article about Iran HERE.

Khury Petersen-Smith, Middle East Fellow at the Institute forPolicy Studies. His latest piece in Foreign Policy in Focus is entitled, “Iran’s Not the Aggressor. The U.S. Is.”

FEATURING ANTHONY RYAN HATCH – The prison population of the United States rivals that of any other industrialized nation. State and federal prisons and jails house millions of Americans in harsh conditions. Among the abuses that incarcerated Americans face is the pervasive use of psychotropic drugs.  

Now a new book by Anthony Ryan Hatch exposes how shockingly large numbers of facilities routinely violate human rights through drug use. 

Anthony Ryan Hatch, Associate Professor in the ‘Science in Society’ program at Wesleyan University. His earlier book was Blood Sugar: Racial Pharmacology and Food Justice in Black America. He is the author of the new book Silent Cells: The Secret Drugging of Captive America.

**This segment was originally broadcast on July 2, 2019.

Republican members of Congress came to President Donald Trump’s defense during a press conference on Tuesday morning. The briefing about the coming budget negotiations was held just hours ahead of a scheduled vote on a House resolution condemning Trump’s latest racist Twitter tirade aimed at four outspoken freshmen women of color in Congress. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, House Minority leader defended the president when a reporter asked him if Trump’s tweets were racist. Trump immediately thanked McCarthy on Twitter. Earlier Trump urged his party to vote no on the House resolution condemning his language, saying, “Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body! The so-called vote to be taken is a Democrat con game. Republicans should not show “weakness” and fall into their trap. This should be a vote on the filthy language, statements and lies told by the Democrat Congresswomen…” The GOP has dutifully complied with Trump’s wishes and rallied around the President. 

On Monday afternoon the four Congresswomen who Trump has taken aim at, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib, held a press conference of their own. Here’s a video of Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley at a press conference on Monday afternoon. The four Democratic freshmen Congresswomen have become the targets of Trump and the Republican Party after an internal battle broke out between them and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Media commentator George Conway on Tuesday published an op-ed in the Washington Post entitled, “Trump is a racist president,” saying that while he had doubts about whether the President was truly racist before the weekend, after Trump’s attacks on the women of color congresswoman he was convinced that, “Naivete, resentment and outright racism, roiled in a toxic mix, have given us a racist president.” Mr. Conway made no mention of his own wife Kellyanne, who has served as the racist President’s mouthpiece since his presidential campaign began. Meanwhile House Oversight Committee chair Elijah Cummings on Monday threatened to hold Kellyanne Conway in contempt of Congress for defying a Congressional subpoena to testify at a hearing.

In other news House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has refused to back a White House plan to raise the debt ceiling as a fall back if Congress failed to pass a new federal budget bill by the end of next week. The Trump administration is hoping the Democrat-dominated House will raise the debt limit separately from budget negotiations but Pelosi has so far refused saying Democrats will vote on a 2-year budget for the government. 

The

FEATURING VALERIE VANDE PANNE – The massive online retail giant Amazon has announced July 15th & 16th as a “2-day parade of epic deals‎.” Founder Jeff Bezos wants consumers around the world to revel in the deep discounts his company is offering on all sorts of products. But on Sunday Amazon workers at a number of facilities in Germany began a strike called, “No more discount on our incomes.” Here in the US there are sporadic protests and one-day strikes as well. One worker in Shakopee Minnesota where about a 100 Amazon staffers are striking told CNN, “We’re humans, not robots…They’re treating us like machines.” 

There are growing calls among consumers and advocacy organizations as well for Amazon to slow its breathtaking pace of expansion and begin compensating its workers fairly. Some have even called for a boycott, calling on Amazon Prime members to cancel their membership and stop shopping at Whole Foods, which Amazon owns.

Sign your pledge at www.CancelPrime.com. For more inform visit https://independentmediainstitute.org/local-peace-economy/. And, to read Valerie’s article, go to https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/07/14/its-prime-time-boycott-amazon.

Valerie Vande Panne, writing fellow and chief correspondent at Local Peace Economy, a project of the Independent Media Institute. She is an independent journalist whose work has appeared in the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, Columbia Journalism Review, the Guardian, Politico, and many other publications. Her latest piece is entitled, “It’s Prime Time to Boycott Amazon.”

FATURING CARLOS MARROQUIN – President Donald Trump continues to demonize and criminalize Central American refugees seeking asylum at the border, as his administration holds thousands of families, men, women, and children in horrific conditions that many have likened to concentration camps. For those stuck on the other side of the border endlessly waiting for the chance to apply for asylum to the US, children in particular remain vulnerable. 

Today we’ll cover an effort to bring education to kids stuck on the other side of the border. The non-profit organization Yes We Can has outfitted a bus into a classroom and aims to help educate refugee children. 

Find more information about the bus and how to volunteer at www.YesWecan.world.

Carlos Marroquin, Board Member and organizer with Yes We Can.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has introduced a resolution in the House to condemn President Donald Trump’s weekend tweets that were aimed at four freshmen Congresswomen of color, essentially telling them to go back to their countries (even though 3 of the four were born here). Pelosi wrote a letter to her fellow Democrats saying that Trump had fallen, “beyond his own low standards using disgraceful language about Members of Congress,” and that Democrats would “forcefully respond to these disgusting acts.” Trump’s original tweets on Saturday were in response to a public spat between Pelosi herself and Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley over their opposition to Pelosi’s vote on a border-funding bill. 

Trump wrote, “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly…and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how….it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!” His tweets were widely condemned by the targets of his racism as well as commentators in the media. 

On Monday morning, Trump doubled down and called on the targets of his hate to apologize to him. He wrote, “When will the Radical Left Congresswomen apologize to our Country, the people of Israel and even to the Office of the President, for the foul language they have used, and the terrible things they have said.”

In his on-going attacks on immigrants, Trump moved on Monday to make it harder for refugees to apply for asylum to the US. An announced rule change appeared to be directly aimed at Central American migrants and banned those traveling through a third country from applying for asylum to the US. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said in a statement, “Today’s action will reduce the overwhelming burdens on our domestic system caused by asylum-seekers failing to seek urgent protection in the first available country, economic migrants lacking a legitimate fear of persecution, and the transnational criminal organizations, traffickers, and smugglers exploiting our system for profits.” The rule change is likely to face multiple lawsuits. Meanwhile Guatemala’s constitutional court blocked its agreement with the US on requiring asylum seekers heading northward to remain in Guatemala. 

An American man was fatally shot by police on Saturda...