US authorities clamped down on the border with Mexico near San Diego on Sunday with tear gas. Central American refugees who have made the long trek up to Mexico in a caravan were marching peacefully in protest of new US asylum rules as they waited when some attempted to run past a Mexican police blockade toward the border. Officers with the Customs and Border Protection Agency lobbed tear gas canisters at them and shut down the border for several hours. According to AP, “Children screamed and coughed. Fumes were carried by the wind toward people who were hundreds of feet away.” One Honduran woman holding her 3-year old daughter said, “We ran, but when you run the gas asphyxiates you more.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen issued a statement saying, “DHS will not tolerate this type of lawlessness and will not hesitate to shut down ports of entry for security and public safety reasons.” On Saturday the Washington Post reported that President Donald Trump made a deal with Mexico’s new incoming president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to keep migrants seeking asylum to the US in Mexico awaiting their status. According to the Post, “The agreement would break with long-standing asylum rules and place a formidable barrier in the path of Central American migrants attempting to reach the United States and escape poverty and violence. By reaching the accord, the Trump administration has also overcome Mexico’s historic reticence to deepen cooperation with the United States on an issue widely seen here as America’s problem.” But hours after publication, NBC News reported that spokespeople for Mr. Obrador vehemently denied such a deal had been made.

In news on climate change, the Trump administration has buried a report that its own federal agencies released over the Thanksgiving break. The National Climate Assessment, which runs more than 1,600 pages long, is authorized by Congress and includes conclusions from more than a dozen government agencies every four years. According to the New York Timesthe latest report, “is notable not only for the precision of its calculations and bluntness of its conclusions, but also because its findings are directly at odds with President Trump’s agenda of environmental deregulation, which he asserts will spur economic growth.” Environmental advocates plan to use the document in court to point out how the federal government has declared the horrifying impact of the problem and then set about dismantling protections against that problem.

In an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, Vermont’s Bernie Sanders who sits on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said, “This is a very alarming report, and we’ve got to wake up and address these issues.” 

Some Republicans have split from President Trump over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi operatives. The CIA’s report concluded that the Crown Prince of the staunch US ally and weapons buyer had ordered the killi...

FEATURING BROOKE ADAMS – For the first time in decades California’s Republican stronghold of Orange County has zero Republican representation in the House. One of the strongest blue waves in the nation washed over OC turning it from mostly red to all blue. The little known story behind how that happened is the role of student organizing.

The group Student Action which is a project of People’s Action, led a major 5-week-long voter education project in several national races including in California’s 45th district where Democrat Katie Porter ousted Republican Mimi Walters.

Brooke Adams, Organizing Director for Student Action, a constituency organizing project of People’s Action that worked on five congressional races in the 2018 midterm elections.

FEATURING DAVID DAYEN – It has been ten years since the start of the Great Recession, marked by the earth-shattering downfall of Lehman Brothers, a global financial services firm, and the fourth largest such company in the US. Lehman’s fall, which happened after the subprime mortgage crash had begun, triggered a chain reaction that led to a massive stock market crash, the loss of pensions, jobs, and companies.

Ten years later we have a president who claims he has restored the economy to its full potential saying we have the “best economic numbers in decades,” and that Americans have “new-found wealth,” and “all-time high” of middle class incomes.

Have we indeed seen a turnaround of the economy, especially as measured by the financial well-being of the majority of Americans?

Read David Dayen’s articles about the 2008 crash in The New Republic and In These Times.

 

David Dayen, contributor to The Intercept, The Nation, and a weekly columnist for the New Republic. He is the author of Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud.

** This segment was originally broadcast on September 17, 2018.

FEATURING RICHARD WOLFF – The year 2018 marked the 200th birthday of Karl Marx, a Western philosopher who changed global perspectives on the economy and the value of labor and goods. Sensing an increasing attraction to the ideas of socialism among the American public, Donald Trump’s Council of Economic Advisors released a bizarre document entitled “The Opportunity Costs of Socialism.”

The report attempted to make an empirical case for why socialism does not work. In doing so, the authors inadvertently make the case for a single payer system that conservatives have derided as “socialist.” Vox’s Sarah Cliff pointed out that a chart intended to show longer wait times for seniors seeking healthcare in various countries includes the US having the shortest wait times. But of course seniors in the US enjoy the benefits of Medicare – a single payer system just for those over the age of 65.

Many point out that the report is intended to counteract the growing popularity of a Medicare-for-all system among the public and politicians, especially Democrats, as well as the popularity of socialism as an economic system.

For more information about Richard Wolff’s ‘Economic Update’ program visit www.democracyatwork.info/tags/economic_update.

Richard Wolff, visiting professor at the New School University, New York and professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, author of a number of books including ‘Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism’, ‘Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism’, ‘Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA’, and ‘Capitalism’s Crisis Deepens: Essays on the Global Economic Meltdown.’

** This segment was originally broadcast on October 24, 2018.

President Donald Trump once more dug in his heels about maintaining ties with Saudi Arabia in spite of the CIA’s conclusion last week that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had ordered the brutal assassination of one of his critics, journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Speaking to press Trump simply repeated “America First.”  The White House also released a formal statement on US-Saudi relations on Tuesday, which began with the lines, “America First!” and “The world is a very dangerous place!” The 633-word statement contained 8 exclamation points and reiterated that the Saudis were too important an ally to let the murder of a journalist get in the way.

The New York Times on Tuesday reported that Trump had wanted to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey and former State Secretary Hillary Clinton earlier this year. White House Counsel Don McGahn apparently talked Trump out of such an action, “saying that he had no authority to order a prosecution. Mr. McGahn said that while he could request an investigation, that too could prompt accusations of abuse of power. To underscore his point, Mr. McGahn had White House lawyers write a memo for Mr. Trump warning that if he asked law enforcement to investigate his rivals, he could face a range of consequences, including possible impeachment.” Additionally the Times said that, “the president has continued to privately discuss the matter, including the possible appointment of a second special counsel to investigate both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Comey.”

The story has taken on added significance in the wake of revelations that Ivanka Trump used a personal email account to conduct government business. This is very similar to the accusations Clinton faced and on whose basis Trump thought he could prosecute. On Tuesday Trump defended his daughter’s actions. 

Trump this week provided written answers at last to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s questions. According to CNN this represents, “a major development,” in the investigation of the 2016 election, and “could be a sign of the end stages of the investigation.” The questions apparently strictly cover the election and do not cover possible obstruction of justice attempts. It is up to Mueller to submit additional questions.

The US Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday issued a serious warning against eating romaine lettuce. The move is mirrored by health officials in Canada and is premised on yet another outbreak of E.Coli which is thought to have killed 32 people in the US and 18 in Canada. According to Associated Press, “The strain identified is different than the one linked to romaine earlier this year but appears similar to last year’s outbreak linked to leafy greens.” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has not issued a recall yet saying that there is not enough information to do so but he has advised supermarkets and restaurants to stop selling and serving romaine lettuce for now.

The pesticide manufacturer Monsanto is appealing a massive $78 million penalty that it was ordered to pay in California to a man dying of cancer. Earlier this year a jury found in favor of DeWayne Johnson, a man who says his terminal Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma was caused by years of using the Monsanto pesticide Round-...

FEATURING DOLLY CHUGH – Our news reports are filled with stories of people who engage in racist behavior but are horrified at the idea of being called racist. Most of us are socialized to harbor racist ideas subconsciously and those biases present themselves whether we realize it or not. Now a new book written by an award-winning psychologist attempts to office an evidence-based approach to fighting our own racial bias.

For more information visit dollychugh.com.

Dolly Chugh, Harvard-educated, award winning social psychologist at the New York University Stern School of Business where she is an expert in the unconscious biases and unethical behavior of ordinary people. Her new book is called ‘The Person You Mean To Be: How Good People Fight Bias’.

FEATURING WILLIAM LAWRENCE – A new movement of young people has taken climate activism to new heights. The Sunrise Movement garnered national attention a week after the midterm election when hundreds of people engaged in a sit-in at the Washington DC offices of Representative Nancy Pelosi. The activists, who were visited by newly elected New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, were demanding that Pelosi and other Democrats back what they call a, “Green New Deal.”

Following that local chapters of the organization have been confronting their own elected representatives. For example this week Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s office in California was inundated with activists wearing masks to protect them from the toxic fumes of the state’s recent wildfires, demanding that Lee also co-sponsor a bill promoting a “Green New Deal.”

William Lawrence, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement.

A shooter at a Chicago hospital on Monday took the lives of four people including his own. Thirty two year old Juan Lopez, apparently motivated by a broken engagement to a doctor at Mercy Hospital, showed up Monday with a gun and killed Dr. Tamara O’Neal with multiple bullets, standing over her as he did so. A 25-year old pharmacy student and a police officer just two years on the job were also killed. Witnesses spoke to press about the terror they felt.

Doctors who deal with trauma from gun violence are taking on the National Rifle Association. A recent Twitter battle broke out between the group pushing for more guns and those whose job it is to save the lives of those hurt by guns, when the NRA told “anti-gun” doctors to, “stay in their lane.” On Monday a group of doctors published an editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine entitled, “Firearm Injury Prevention: AFFIRMing That Doctors Are in Our Lane.” The three authors wrote, “Firearm-related injury in the United States is a public health crisis,” and cited a collaboration with a research group called AFFIRM to study gun violence. They added, “Doctors have a responsibility as health care professionals and scientists to seek the answers to questions related to health and safety. And we won’t be silenced in using what we learn to better care for our patients.”

In the latest on the fires in California, officials have updated the death toll in the northern Camp Fire alone to 79. The number of missing is currently 699. Meanwhile rain is expected this week in the northern part of the state, which could bring relief to the dry areas, but also trigger dangerous mudslides and flash flooding in areas stripped bare of brush and vegetation. Two law firms in Butte County have a filed class-action lawsuit against PG&E, the statewide utilities company that may have had a hand in the Camp Fire through faulty power lines. According to the Los Angeles Times, “The lawsuit alleges PG&E has failed in the past to trim trees near power lines or proactively shut off power in hazardous fire conditions, and that the fire was preventable.” But Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke doesn’t blame PG&E or the conditions created by climate change. In an interview with the extremist rightwing outlet Breitbart News, Zinke blamed “environmental radicals.” 

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s new asylum rules. Judge Jon S. Tigar of San Francisco handed down a temporary restraining order against the government’s decision to not accept asylum applications from those people who cross the border into the US. The judge wrote, “Whatever the scope of the president’s authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden.” President Trump had issued the new rules in response to the refugee caravan from Central America. He also deployed about 6,000 military troops to the US border with Mexico weeks before the midterm elections. On Monday

FEATURING RAMESH SRINIVASAN – The New York Times recently published a major exposé of the inner workings of social media company Facebook over the past several years. The investigative piece revealed that Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg and founder Mark Zuckerberg made major missteps in the years after the 2016 election revealed that its user data had been misused.

According to the Times, “Bent on growth, the pair ignored warning signs and then sought to conceal them from public view. At critical moments over the last three years, they were distracted by personal projects, and passed off security and policy decisions to subordinates, according to current and former executives.”

Even worse, “Facebook employed a Republican opposition-research firm to discredit activist protesters, in part by linking them to the liberal financier George Soros.” The report was based on interviews with more than 50 people. Groups like Color of Change which were among those targeted denounced the social media platform’s actions as, “reprehensible,” and “dangerous,” and said that Facebook “should be ashamed.”

Ramesh Srinivasan, Director of the Digital Cultures Lab and Associate Professor of Information Studies and Design and Media Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles. Author of Whose Global Village? Rethinking How Technology Shapes Our World. His new book, co-authored with Adam Fish is called After the Internet.

FEATURING MARJORIE COHN – The US Senate, in the grip of the Republican Party is continuing its mad dash to confirm all of President Donald Trump’s judicial appointees as fast as possible. With only a few working days left in the calendar year for 2018, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is hoping to move dozens of judicial nominees from various committees to the Senate for confirmation before year-end. The Senate has confirmed more nominees in the first two years of Trump’s Presidency than ever before in the nation’s history. Because Republicans control the Senate there is nothing that Democrats can do to stop the confirmations. My guest Marjorie Cohn recently published an article on Truthout entitled, “Trump’s Judges Imperil Our Rights for Decades.”

Read Marjorie Cohn’s article “Trump’s Judges Imperil Our Rights for Decades” for Truthout, HERE. https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-judges-imperil-our-rights-for-decades/

Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law. She recently wrote the piece “Trump’s Judges Imperil Our Rights for Decades” for Truthout.