Attorney General William Barr is testifying in front of Congressional committees on Wednesday and Thursday. His hearing comes just a day after the New York Times and Washington Post published a letter written by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to Barr a day after Barr released his 4-page summary of Mueller’s report. In the letter Mueller asked Barr to release more of his report to Congress and to the public. He also took issue with Barr’s characterization writing that it, “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this Office’s work and conclusions.” Mueller added, “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”

In his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse questioned Barr about Mueller’s concerning letter.  Earlier Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff called for Barr to resign in an interview on CBS.

A new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll has found that a majority of Democrats want their representatives to pursue impeachment of the President based on the redacted Mueller report which was made public. But the findings were split down partisan lines. About 70% of Democrats want impeachment to proceed while only 39% of the general public does.

So far among Senators only the two Presidential contenders Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris have come out in favor of impeachment. But Senate Democratic leaders like Chuck Schumer have squashed the idea. In an interview with ABC on Tuesday Presidential candidate Joe Biden insisted that, “If, in fact, they (that is, Trump and associates) blocked the investigation, [Congress members] have no alternative, but to go to the only other constitutional resort they have [which] is impeachment.” Meanwhile President Donald Trump engaged in a massive Twitter-storm on Wednesday, firing off about 60 posts about Biden’s candidacy and in particular the fact that the Firefighters Union endorsed him for President.

In other news a federal judge in Washington DC ruled on Tuesday that a lawsuit against Trump for violations of the Emoluments Clause can continue. In his decision Judge Emmet G. Sullivan rejected Trump’s request to dismiss the suit saying that the President’s interpretation of the Emoluments clause was,

FEATURING ARUN GUPTA – Former Vice President Joe Biden triumphantly entered a crowded field of Democratic candidates last week brushing aside myriad criticisms. Biden’s video announcement singularly focused on President Donald Trump’s response to the Charlottesville, Virginia white supremacist rally and concluded that the 2020 election would be a “battle for the soul of the nation.”

Polls have already begun to center Biden as the new front runner and the Firefighters Union threw its weight behind him, shockingly early in the race. But many fear Biden’s candidacy would trigger a repeat of the disastrous 2016 race when Hillary Clinton narrowly beat Bernie Sanders for the Democratic Nomination, and then lost the electoral college vote to Trump.

Arun Gupta, an investigative journalist who has written for dozens of publications including the Washington Post, the Guardian, The Nation, Salon, and Raw Story. He is also author of the forthcoming book, “Bacon as a Weapon of Mass Destruction,” and a regular news correspondent for Rising Up With Sonali.

FEATURING JOSHUA A. DOUGLAS – A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll has found that a whopping 75% of Americans and 85% of registered voters say they plan to vote in the 2020 Presidential election. Past elections in the US have struggled with turnout, in part because voters might feel apathetic but also in large part because we make it difficult to vote.

Unlike in many other democracies, American elections are held on weekdays rather than holidays. Strict voter ID laws have made it harder for elderly, rural, college-age, and brown and black voters to access the polls. Gerrymandered districts and the electoral college dilute our votes.

And yet the country has a rich history of fighting for the right to vote. That fight continues today in the face of myriad obstacles, and, according to a new book, there is reason to be heartened.

Joshua Douglas will be discussing his book on Thursday, June 20 at 7:30 pm at The Last Bookstore, Los Angeles, CA. Tickets need to purchased by June 6th and are simply the cost of a copy of his book. Click HERE to purchase tickets.

Joshua A. Douglas, professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law, focused on the constitutional right to vote. He is the coauthor of an election-law case book and a co-editor of Election Law Stories. His book is called ‘Vote for Us: How to Take Back Our Elections and Change the Future of Voting’. 

Venezuela’s government says it is putting down a small coup attempt as clashes broke out soon after opposition leader Juan Guaido declared that the military was on his side. Mr. Guaido simply announced he was president some months ago and has strong backing from the United States. Venezuela’s democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro has been under intense pressure as anti-government protests have drawn strength from a free falling economy. Maduro’s security forces have been clamping down on protesters.  US Vice President Mike Pence tweeted his support for Guaido on Tuesday morning saying, “#operacionlibertad—Estamos con ustedes! We are with you! America will stand with you until freedom & democracy are restored.” Venezuela has a long history of US-backed coup attempts but the key factor in past coups has been the support of the Venezuelan military. According to the New York Times, Guaido said in a message this week that, “a wide swath of the military now backed him, including top commanders, but he declined to release their names.”

Here in the US President Donald Trump issued a memo on Monday restricting the rules of asylum even though it is Congress who sets asylum law. According to the memo addressed to acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan, asylum seekers will have to pay a fee to apply for their work permit restrictions while they await their cases. Trump wrote, “The purpose of this memorandum is to strengthen asylum procedures to safeguard our system against rampant abuse of our asylum process.” Mr. McAleenan is testifying to the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.

In his ongoing effort to shield his finances from public view, President Trump, together with his family, have filed lawsuits against Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp to stop them from turning over data to Congress. Democratic committee leaders have issued subpoenas to the institutions in question to obtain Trump’s financial and business records in order to determine if the President has engaged in conflicts of interest. The lawsuit complains that, “The subpoenas were issued to harass President Donald J. Trump, to rummage through every aspect of his personal finances, his businesses, and the private information of the President and his family.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday morning said that they met with President Trump and that they agree with him on a $2 trillion infrastructure bill. This is Senator Schumer speaking with reporters after the meeting. According to CNN, “There is still no guarantee a plan that both sides agree to will ultimately come together and so far it appears that many details of a potential plan — including how to pay for it — have not yet been worked out.”

Trump’s pick for a Federal Reserve board member continues to come under fire. Stephen Moore, a conservative commentator with no financial experience, but with a record of misogynist comments,

FEATURING PAMELA MERRITT – President Donald Trump on Saturday spoke at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he continued to spew one lie after another as he has always done. Perhaps the most egregious lie of the evening was centered on what the anti-abortion movement has termed “late-term” abortions. 

That’s President Trump on Saturday at a political rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, repeating what the medical community and others have denounced as dangerous lies about child birth, abortion, and women’s reproductive rights.

Pamela Merritt, Co-Director of Reproaction.

FEATURING NAYAMIN MARTINEZ – The Trump administration on Thursday released a plan to open up more than a million acres of public and private land to hydraulic fracturing in Calfornia. The lands being targeted cover several Central California counties including eastern Fresno, western Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura. California has had a 5-year fracking moratorium on federal land after a judge ruled for a pause in operations to better study the health and environmental impacts. Clare Lakewood, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity told the Los Angeles Times, “The Central Valley has some of the worst air quality in the nation, and we know fracking and drilling make air quality worse.” The plan is expected to be blocked by lawsuits that environmental groups are already readying.

Nayamin Martinez, Director of the Central California Environmental Justice Network.

A 19-year old man killed a 60-year old woman at a synagogue in Poway, California in the latest incidence of violence aimed at a house of worship. The young white man walked into the synagogue in Poway, a small town north of San Diego, armed with an AR-15 rifle, shouting anti-Semitic slurs when he began firing. Lori Gilbert Kaye jumped in front of the rabbi, Yisroel Goldstein, and died. Rabbi Goldstein suffered gunshot wounds to his hands. According to the New York Times, “Officials said they’re investigating whether [the shooter] posted a racist manifesto on the online message board 8chan ahead of the attack.” Apparently, “[t]he document is an anti-Semitic screed filled with white nationalist conspiracy theories. Its author said he was inspired by a horrific mass shooting at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, which was streamed online, and the massacre at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, which took place exactly six months prior.”  At a rally in Wisconsin on Saturday, President Donald Trump, who has been widely cited as inspiration by racists, denounced the Poway attack saying it, “looks like a hate crime.”

Just a day before the attack Trump dug in his heels about remarks he had made in the wake of the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia when he said there were, “very fine people on both sides.” Trump on Friday said, “I was talking about people that went because they felt very strongly about the monument to Robert E. Lee.”  Several Republicans on Sunday, rather than calling out Trump’s white nationalist rhetoric, singled out Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar instead. Texas Senator Ted Cruz tweeted, “The anti-Semitic Left . . . is getting worse…Responsible Dems need to say Enough is Enough.” Prominent conservative Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Senator John McCain said on ABC’s This Week, “When we’re having conversations about anti-Semitism, we should be looking at the most extreme on both sides.” She cited Congresswoman Omar by name.

Meanwhile Omar had tweeted, “My heart is breaking after today’s deadly shooting at Chabad Congregation in San Diego—on the last day of Passover and 6 months to the day after the Tree of Life shooting. We as a nation must confront the terrifying rise of religious hate and violence. Love trumps hate.” San Diego authorities have announced there is evidence that the Poway Synagogue shooter had set fire to a mosque in Escondido. And, not receiving much news coverage is the fact that in Sunnyvale, California last week a man plowed his car into an intersection full of people saying later that he thought they were Muslims. A 13-year old Indian girl named Dhriti is in critical condition after being hit, fighting for her life.

White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway, who defended Trump’s remarks on Charlottesville on Sunday also took aim ...

FEATURING KHURY PETERSEN-SMITH – Amnesty International released a major report on Thursday about US-led massacres of more than 1,600 civilians in Raqqa, Syria from June to October of 2017. The report, entitled, “Rhetoric Versus Reality in the War in Raqqa,” found that the US and its allies bombed Raqqa indiscriminately in order to oust the Islamic State. Whole families were wiped out and the US has yet to acknowledge its role or the extent of the loss of life.

Earlier in the week a new UN report on the Afghanistan war concluded that US-backed Afghan government forces along with US and other foreign troops were responsible for killing more Afghan civilians in the first 3 months of this year than the Taliban and other insurgent groups.

And on Tuesday US-ally and weapons buyer Saudi Arabia beheaded 37 of its citizens in a mass execution for what it called “terrorism-related crimes.” AP reported that the Saudis’ medieval-style justice included, “publicly pinning one of the bodies and its severed head to a pole as a warning to others.” Saudi Arabia continues to bombard neighboring Yemen with US bought weapons and US military advice.

Khury Petersen-Smith, Middle East Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.

FEATURING MOTHIUR RAHMAN – Since April 15th the group calling itself Extinction Rebellion has been leading actions all over London, bringing the city to a standstill. Tens of thousands of activists, spurred by a sense of urgency on climate change that their politicians are simply not feeling, have occupied major landmarks in the city.

They have glued themselves to trains and other structures, to each other in blocking entrances. They have engaged in mass non-violent civil disobedience blocking roads and bridges, donned colorful costumes, paraded with large puppets and banners, and done every thing they can to push political elites to respond to our climate emergency.

What impact has Extinction Rebellion had? How long will it continue? And how can US activists replicate such climate activism?

Mothiur Rahman, member of the political strategy and vision sensing teams for Extinction Rebellion.

President Donald Trump is meeting with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday at the White House. They will be joined by financial advisers from both nations to discuss a number of issues including trade and economic ties in the energy and technology sectors. According to Bloomberg, “The US is pushing to reduce its trade deficit with Japan and gain better access to the Asian Nation’s agricultural market,” and “Japan is looking for a concrete promise that it won’t be hit by possible tariffs on auto imports.” High on the agenda will also be North Korea’s denuclearization– a discussion that comes on the heels of a high-level meeting between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The Trump administration on Thursday released a plan to open up more than a million acres of public and private land to hydraulic fracturing in Calfornia. The lands being targeted cover several Central California counties including eastern Fresno, western Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura. California has had a 5-year fracking moratorium on federal land after a judge ruled for a pause in operations to better study the health and environmental impacts. Clare Lakewood, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity told the Los Angeles Times, “The Central Valley has some of the worst air quality in the nation, and we know fracking and drilling make air quality worse.” The plan is expected to be blocked by lawsuits that environmental groups are already readying.

President Trump addressed the annual NRA convention on Friday in Indianapolis, rewarding the lobby group with his presence as he has done at least 4 times in the past. This year’s conference comes at a time when multiple reports suggest the NRA is politically weak. But Trump addressed the audience as if he were at a election campaign, warning of leftists wanting to take away their guns.

Meanwhile a Federal judge on Friday sentenced Russian national Marina Butina to 18 months in prison for being an unregistered foreign agent of the Russian government. Butina had attempted to infiltrate the NRA and other conservative groups apparently at the behest of a Russian government official. According to CNN, “She is the first Russian citizen convicted of crimes relating to the 2016 election, though her efforts to infiltrate Republican circles appeared to be separate from the Kremlin’s sweeping election-meddling campaign detailed in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.” Butina has already served 9 months while awaiting trial. Her lawyers had asked for her to be sentenced to time served.

Hundreds of students and staffers at Cal State Los Angele and UCLA were quarantined this week after Los Angeles County declared a measles emergency. According to the New York Times, “Those at risk of having contracted measles were given health officer orders — legal orders issued by county officials — to stay home and avoid contact with other people as much as possible.” It was determined that earlier this month a student who had been infected with measles attended classes at UCLA. The strong response underscores the infectiousness of the measles virus...