FEATURING NATHAN SCHNEIDER – The US economy is booming – for the wealthiest 1% of Americans. Stocks are strong, tax reform has funneled more money into wealthy pockets, and in general wealth is safely stored in the hands of fewer Americans than ever before.

The rest of us – we’re not doing so well. We’re expected to do contract work, find ways to get by in the so-called “gig economy,” and blame only ourselves when we can’t make ends meet.

But increasingly Americans have realized there is value in cooperation, sharing, and solidarity. The idea of cooperatives to share the work and the wealth is an old one that surges in popularity during times of economic crisis.

Nathan Schneider, journalist and professor of Media Studies at the University of Colorado in Boulder. He has written for numerous publications including The Nation, The New Republic, New York Times and Catholic Worker. His new book is called Everything For Everyone: The Radical Tradition That is Shaping the Next Economy.

 

**This interview was originally broadcast on November 25, 2018.

An Ethiopian Airlines flight leaving from the capital Addis Ababa, on Sunday crashed killing all 157 people on board. The new Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft was the second of its kind that mysteriously crashed within 12 months. A Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft operated by Lion Air crashed over the Indonesian seas last year killing 189 people. Sunday’s crash in Ethiopia killed people from 35 different countries including citizens of the US, Canada, China, India, Germany, France, and Britain. Nineteen officials affiliated with the United Nations are among the dead as Addis Ababa is a center for aid workers and many had been flying to a major UN environmental conference that is taking place Monday in Kenya. In the wake of the crash, China and India have ordered all of its Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft to be grounded.

Here in the US, reports emerged over the weekend of President Donald Trump’s plan to include a whopping $8.6 billion dollar package to build a border wall in his budget proposal to Congress for 2020. According to Reuters, which first reported the story, the request is, “more than six times what Congress allocated for border projects in each of the past two fiscal years, and 6 percent more than Trump has corralled by invoking emergency powers this year.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer released a joint statement on Sunday saying, “President Trump hurt millions of Americans and caused widespread chaos when he recklessly shutdown the government to try to get his expensive and ineffective wall…Congress refused to fund his wall and he was forced to admit defeat and reopen the government. The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again. We hope he learned his lesson.” The deadline to pass the budget for 2020 is October 1st.

Puerto Rico has started cutting a food stamps program that about 1.3 million of its residents rely on. The cuts are the result of the Trump Administration’s refusal to appropriate additional emergency disaster funding for those affected by Hurricane Maria. The spokesperson for one non-profit organization that distributes food aid near San Juan said, “It is dangerous. People don’t have enough money to buy food already.” In January the Washington Post reported that the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Deputy Secretary was leaving that agency specifically over Trump’s refusal to renew Puerto Rico’s funding. Apparently Trump had wrongly heard that Puerto Rico was using emergency funds to pay off its debt and made his decision to cut off funds saying the island was taking advantage of the federal government.

Meanwhile, those Americans collecting disability benefits may find their Facebook pages in the crosshairs of government surveillance. The New York Times reported on Sunday that, “The Trump administration has been quietly working on a proposal to use social media like Facebook and Twitter to help identify people who cl...

FEATURING NORA PHILLIPS – A group of 29 parents were recently allowed to reenter the United States after deportation whose children remain in US custody. The parents were among the thousands whose children were taken away from them by the Trump Administration as part of its family separation policy last summer and were among an unknown number that were deported without their children. The group of 29 had traveled back to the border and remained at the Calexico port of entry and were initially told by Border Patrol that they were at capacity. Then, with the help of immigration attorneys the parents were finally let in and processed.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen gave her first public testimony in front of the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday. Members of Congress questioned her about the Trump Administration’s family separation policy and whether children were held in cages. And, The US Customs and Border Protection Agency is under fire over news that it kept a dossier on immigrant rights activists, journalists, and even lawyers working on the border immigration crisis.

Nora Phillips, legal director and co-founder of AL Otro Lado.

FEATURING TANIA FAISON – The police officers in Sacramento, California, who fatally shot an unarmed black man named Stephon Clark last March will not be charged. The officers who shot him say they thought he was holding a gun. It turned out Clark had been holding a cell phone. He was shot 20 times. Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert made the announcement saying, “We must recognize that [police officers] are often forced to make split-second decisions. We must also recognize that they are under tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving circumstances.”

There have been major protests in and around Sacramento over the refusal to charge Clark’s killers. Last Monday a protest was held outside a Trader Joes in a wealthy neighborhood. The Sacramento Bee reported that, “The East Sacramento location was chosen because it is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the City of Sacramento and home to many influential leaders in city and state government.” Police reacted harshly and arrested 84 people. The next day at a City Hall event, activists interrupted proceedings angry over the arrests and over Clark’s killers being let off the hook.

For more information visit www.inciteaction.com.

Tanya Faison, founder of the Sacramento Chapter of Black Lives Matter.

UPDATED: Former whistleblower Chelsea Manning has been taken into custody for refusing to testify to a grand jury against Wikileaks. Manning was held in contempt of court in a secret investigation into Wikileaks. In a statement outside the court Manning said, “These secret proceedings tend to favor the government. I’m always willing to explain things publicly.” She was sentenced to 35 years for sharing government documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with Wikileaks and served 7 years before being pardoned by President Barack Obama. Manning will apparently remain in custody until she decides to testify or until the grand jury disbands.

President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been sentenced to 47 months in prison for one of two charges he was convicted for in investigations originating from the Special Counsel probe. Manafort’s crimes were consistent with a 19-24 year prison term and yet he was ultimately sentenced to less than 4 years. With nine months already served, Manafort will be released in just over 3 years from now. According to the New York Times, “Judge T. S. Ellis III of the United States District Court in Alexandria, Va., said that although Mr. Manafort’s crimes were ‘very serious,’ following the guidelines would have resulted in an unduly harsh punishment.” Manafort was convicted of crimes that involved hiding millions of dollars overseas, and then deceiving banks to obtain loans. He was also caught repeatedly lying to prosecutors, and although he met with the Special Counsel for 50 hours to cooperate in the investigation, prosecutors said what he told them was of little value. Barbara McQuade, a former United States attorney told the Times that Manafort’s sentence was, “atrociously low,” and that while “many judges do sentence leniently in white-collar cases…dropping all the way from 19 years to four years is absurd.” Manafort faces a second sentencing hearing on his other convictions with a different judge next week and may not be so lucky then.

In other news related to the Special Counsel, Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen is suing the Trump Organization over legal bills. Cohen is saying the organization had promised to pay for his defense and owed him $1.9 million. It was apparently covering his legal bills until about 2 months after Cohen’s office was raided by the FBI. Cohen says the bills went unpaid as soon as the Trump organization suspected he might be cooperating with the Special Counsel. Meanwhile one of Cohen’s current lawyers Lanny Davis filed a statement this week saying that his client was, “open to the ongoing ‘dangling’ of a possible pardon by Trump representatives privately and in the media.” Davis’ statement appears to contradict Cohen who said in his public testimony last week that he had never sought nor would accept a pardon from Trump.

The House passed a broad resolution on Thursday condemning all forms of bigotry and hate including anti-Semitism. The resolution was the culmination of a bitter internal battle within the Democratic Party over Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar’s comments on the influence that the Israel lobby wields over American lawmakers. After initially proposing a resolution condemning only anti-Semitism, a grassroots outcry as well as recriminations from within the party...

FEATURING SAIRA DRAPER – The Trump Administration is facing a broad class action lawsuit over its detention of immigrant children. The Southern Poverty Law Center filled the suit in January to address the fact that about 10,000 undocumented children are being held in detention and, it appears that the federal government is delaying their release in order to lure in sponsors to come forward. If sponsors are found to be undocumented themselves, they are often arrested and entered into deportation proceedings.

In its complaint, SPLC said, “As revealed by a recently leaked memorandum, the Trump administration decided to deter illegal immigration by enacting a policy to use detained immigrant children as bait to arrest immigrants who come forward to sponsor them, even while explicitly acknowledging that this would prolong the detention of immigrant children. To do this, they twisted the sponsorship process from its Congressionally mandated purpose of ensuring children’s safety while placing them in the least restrictive setting as quickly as possible, introducing steps counterproductive to that goal that were instead designed to facilitate civil immigration enforcement against sponsors.”

Saira Draper, Senior Staff Attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

**This segment was originally broadcast on February 4, 2019.

FEATURING CARROLL MUFFETT – More than two-dozen major multinational corporations in mid-January announced a billion dollar effort to tackle plastic waste and pollution. The Alliance to End Plastic Waste includes chemical and plastic manufacturers, as well as retailers and waste management corporations. David Taylor, the President and CEO of Procter & Gamble is chair of the Alliance.

But environmental groups are skeptical of the creators of plastic being sincere in their effort to reduce pollution and waste. Plastics production is a massive and very lucrative industry and one of the main drivers of fossil fuels use.

Plastics are so widely used and discarded in today’s world that pollution has devastated our oceans and contaminated our food and water. Yet plastic production and use continues unabated.

For more information visit www.breakfreefromplastic.org.

Carroll Muffett, President & CEO of the Center for International Environmental Law.

**This segment was originally broadcast on January 17, 2019.

The US trade deficit has jumped to a 10-year record high according to new government figures from the Commerce Department. A nation’s trade deficit is the difference between the amount of goods and services it imports compared to what it exports. For years Donald Trump complained about the size of the US trade deficit and claimed he would fix it as President. But the figures released this week appear to show that his practice of slapping tariffs on goods from other countries has not had its desired effect. The US did increase its exports last year by nearly $150 billion. But the amount it imports jumped even higher – by nearly $218 billion. The current trade deficit is $891 billion.  According to the New York Times, while some of the reasons for the record high were not in Trump’s control, “the widening gap was also exacerbated by Mr. Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut, which has been largely financed by government borrowing, and the trade war he escalated last year.” A trade deficit is not considered a measure of a nation’s economic strength but Trump’s focus on it has now come to bite him as he appears to be failing on his own measure.

Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen testified in a closed-door session to the House Intelligence committee on Wednesday. It was his second time testifying in front of that panel. CNN reported that, based on multiple sources, Cohen, “provided the House Intelligence Committee with new documents showing edits to the false written statement he delivered to Congress in 2017 about the Trump Organization’s pursuit of the Trump Tower Moscow project into the 2016 campaign season.” Those lawyers included Trump attorney Jay Sekulow. Congressman Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, who heads the House Intelligence Committee, spoke with press after Wednesday’s closed-door hearing. 

In other news, a new poll released Wednesday revealed that public support for impeachment of the President has climbed. According to the Monmouth University Polling Institute, “42% of Americans feel that Trump should be impeached and compelled to leave the presidency while 54% disagree.” Last November, “36% favored impeachment and 59% did not.” Meanwhile Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan has said she will soon be introducing legislation to impeach Trump. 

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen gave her first public testimony in front of the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday. Members of Congress questioned her about the Trump Administration’s family separation policy among other things, to which she said, “It’s not a policy; it’s the law.” She also insisted that undocumented immigrants especially children are not held in cages. 

In related news, a lawsuit over the Trump Administration’s family separation policy resulted in a government court filing, which revealed on Wednesday that 471 parents were deported from the US without their children last year. It was the first time the government had admitted to a number.

And,

FEATURING JESSICA MASON PIEKLO – Reproductive justice and women’s rights advocates around are up in arms over a recent decision in Alabama by a county judge to give an aborted fetus the same rights as a person. A man named Ryan Magers of Madison County, Alabama had learned that his girlfriend had a medication-induced abortion at 6 weeks into her pregnancy. Magers, with the help of an anti-abortion organization petitioned to become the personal representative of the aborted fetus and on Tuesday the county Probate Judge Frank Barger granted his petition in the first such move of its kind nationwide. The case may be one of the first consequences of a state constitutional amendment passed last year recognizing the “rights of unborn children.”

The Alabama case comes at the same time that the Trump administration has ordered the blocking of federal grants under the Title X program from Planned Parenthood to faith-based organization based on abortion access. Nearly two-dozen states have sued the government over the drastic changes that are set to go into effect within 2 months. Trump’s rule change could deprive millions of low-income American women of healthcare covered by government grants through the Department of Health and Human Services.

Read Jessica’s piece ‘Anti-Choice Republican Attorneys General Say States Can Force Patients Into Riskier Medical Procedures,’ HERE, and Imani Gandy’s commentary ‘Probate Judge in Alabama Allows Man to Sue Abortion Clinic on Behalf of Aborted Embryo,’ HERE.

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 ROBIN MARTY – Among the things that House Democrats are vowing to do with their new political power is to roll back the increasing restrictions on abortion access under President Donald Trump. In particular they want to reverse the ban on federal funding for organizations that offer abortion services.

But already there is bleak landscape across the US when it comes to abortion access. Anti-choice activists have had great success in restricting a woman’s right to abortion at the state level with new bills being proposed all the time. They have their eye on reversing the popular and critically important Supreme Court decision Roe. Vs. Wade.

What would happen if abortion became illegal in the US? My guest Robin Marty asks and answers that question in her new book Handbook for a Post-Roe America – a guidebook of sorts for women who might see an end to abortion rights in their lifetime, but also for those who currently live in states where abortion access has been effectively decimated.

Robin Marty, Activist and writer and author of Handbook for a Post-Roe America.

**This segment was originally broadcast on January 15, 2019.