FEATURING JULIE MILLICAN – Thursday’s scheduled Senate confirmation vote for Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has been postponed after a woman named Christine Blasey Ford accused the judge of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school. There will now be a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing next Monday where both Kavanaugh and Ford will testify about the incident.

On Monday the Justice Department said that Ford’s accusation, “does not involve any potential federal crime.” Meanwhile the President’s son mocked Kavanaugh’s accuser Ford on social media on Monday. Right wing media are also falling over themselves to belittle Ford, question her motives, falsely accuse her of making it up as a political ploy and more.

Julie Millican, Vice President of Media Matters for America.

Disaster continues to unfold in North and South Carolina with an unusually persistent Hurricane Florence continuing to flood the areas. On Monday ten additional counties in North Carolina were added to a list eligible to receive federal aid, bringing the total to 18. One of the most hard hit cities is New Bern where a third of all homes have been flooded. Three TV stations in the city of Wilmington – which was cut off by floodwaters – will go dark after using up their emergency power generators.

Meanwhile a tornado linked to Florence touched down in Richmond, Virginia on Monday and one person died as a result when a building collapsed. The official death toll from the Hurricane has now increased to 32. Among them was a 1-year old boy who slipped out of his mother’s grasp when she lost control of her car in a flooded river. Here is North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper addressing press on Monday. 

The head of FEMA, Brock Long, is under investigation for improperly using his government car for personal transportation from Washington DC to his home in North Carolina and for putting up his aides in hotels. Long and two other personnel face possible criminal charges for breaking about 6 laws.

President Trump addressed reporters at the White House on Monday and spoke about his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh amid an accusation by a California-based professor who has said the nominee sexually assaulted her decades ago. There is to be a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing held next Monday where both Kavanaugh and Ford will testify about the incident. That means that the originally scheduled confirmation vote for Kavanaugh that was to be held this Thursday has now been delayed.

Senator Dianne Feinstein issued a reminder that when Anita Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, then President George H. W. Bush asked the FBI to conduct an investigation. She said that in Kavanaugh’s case Trump has not asked the FBI to investigate. On Monday the Justice Department said that Ford’s accusation, “does not involve any potential federal crime.” CNN reported that the White House’s strategy of defending Kavanaugh will rely heavily on a public relations effort that centers women vouching for the nominee’s integrity.

The President’s son mocked Kavanaugh’s accuser Ford on social media on Monday. This is how AP described it: “Donald Trump Jr. posted an image on Instagram with the caption ‘Judge Kavanaugh sexual assault letter found by Dems…’ The photo attached shows a crumpled-up piece of notebook paper with a scribbled message: ‘Hi Cindy will you be my girlfriend, Love Bret.’ The note has boxes to check for ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and seems to compare Kavanaugh’s accuser to a schoolyard crush.”

President Trump in yet another stunning move, on Monday ordered the Director of National Intelligence to release all classified do...

FEATURING PETER MILLER – Floodwaters continue to rise across North Carolina and surrounding states as Hurricane Florence dumps rain day after day on the Atlantic Coast. So far the death toll has reached 17 – including a 3-month old infant. The road to Wilmington, North Carolina has been cut off.

A coal ash landfill run by Duke Energy collapsed over the weekend from the heavy rains of the hurricane, raising the risk of contaminated storm waters running into nearby lakes and rivers. Associated Press also reported of, “several flooded hog farms along the Trent River.” There is also a fear of dams bursting from the flooding. North Carolina has thousands of dams and about 1,400 of them are considered “high hazard.”

Meteorologists are saying that, “the worst is yet to come,” and that people should expect more flooding. In the Pacific, Typhoon Mangkhut slammed into the Philippines before hitting the south coast of China. A total of 66 people have been killed.

Peter Miller, Western Energy Project Director with the Energy and Transportation Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

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.

In today’s news headlines, flood waters continue to rise across North Carolina and surrounding states as Hurricane Florence dumps rain day after day on the beleaguered area. Rising water levels have pushed even those who decided to ride out the storm to change their minds and flee. Many have needed rescuing from government and volunteer groups. So far the death toll has reached 17 – including a 3-month old infant. The road to Wilmington, North Carolina – a popular tourist destination – has been cut off. Since Friday there have been an additional 30 inches of rain in the region with aerial photographs and videos showing submerged homes, cars, street lights, and trees.

Among the fears ahead of Hurricane Florence making landfall was that serious water pollution could result from hog waste pits and coal ash pits becoming flooded. Those fears are now being realized after a coal ash landfill run by Duke Energy collapsed from the heavy rains of the hurricane, raising the risk of contaminated storm waters running into nearby lakes and rivers. An attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center said, “Disposing of coal ash close to waterways is hazardous, and Duke Energy compounds the problem by leaving most of its ash in primitive unlined pits filled with water.” Associated Press also reported of, “several flooded hog farms along the Trent River.” Meteorologists are saying that, “the worst is yet to come,” and that people should expect more flooding. There is also a fear of dams bursting from the flooding. North Carolina has thousands of dams and about 1,400 of them are considered “high hazard.”

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Brock Long spoke with Fox News this weekend about Hurricane Florence. FEMA Head Brock Long, during the same interview, was asked about President Donald Trump’s insistence that the death toll in Puerto Rico from last year’s Hurricane Maria was not as high as 3,000. 

Meanwhile FEMA is testing a system that allows President Trump to directly message the cell phones of people across the country as “Presidential Alerts,” to issue warnings about disasters. The first test of the Presidential alert system will take place on September 20th.

In other climate-change related news, Typhoon Mangkhut slammed into the Philippines and the southern coast of China killing 66 people, 64 of them in the Philippines. Nearly 2.5 million people have been evacuated from the area in China where the typhoon hit. The storm started out as a Super Typhoon but was then downgraded to the equivalent of a Category 5 Hurricane – the strongest such category. With winds reaching 167 mph, witnesses captured scenes of buildings swaying and scaffolding being torn off.

In other news, the woman who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her while in h...

FEATURING MELISSA KEANEY – Donald Trump’s administration is planning on cutting the number of refugees allowed into the US for the second time. As his first step toward destroying the program Trump reduced the cap on annual refugee entries to 45,000 a year and this year only 21,000 have been admitted – compared to 85,000 in Obama’s last year of office. He is now considered cutting the numbers even lower.

A Reuters investigation recently found that Trump’s reasoning of a national security basis for cutting the refugee program’s scope has no basis. The government’s own review of the program last year concluded that only a few small changes were necessary to the existing vetting procedures.

em>Melissa Keaney, Staff Attorney with the National Immigration Law Center

Find out more at www.nilc.org. Click here to read the Reuters investigation.

Hurricane Florence began crashing into the state of North Carolina on Thursday wreaking havoc in towns and cities. Many homes and businesses were damaged in Onslow County and 150 people were stranded in New Bern before being rescued. More than 500,000 people had their power knocked out. In Morehead city, reports emerged of a 10-foot storm surge and 20 inches of rain. In Washington, North Carolina, residents reported more than 7 feet of rain. Across the state there are 126 shelters housing about 12,000 evacuees. 

Dozens of homes in parts of Northern Massachusetts exploded in fire on Thursday linked to gas service issues.  The homes were in the towns of Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover. Nearly a dozen people were injured. Police and emergency workers warned residents to immediately evacuate their homes if they smelled gas. The cause of the gas problems is not yet known. One fire chief told reporters, “I have been in the fire service for almost 39 years and I have never seen anything like this in my entire career. … It looked like Armageddon, it really did.” Authorities shut off power as a precaution and as of Thursday evening tens of thousands of homes had no electricity. 

New Yorkers voted in a second round of primary elections on Wednesday picking incumbent Governor Andrew Cuomo over newcomer and strong progressive Cynthia Nixon. Cuomo beat Nixon 65 to 35% to head toward a third term in office next year. The campaign got particularly ugly after Cuomo was caught sending out mailers to thousands of people claiming Nixon was anti-Semitic. Two other progressive candidates – Jumaane Williams for Lieutenant Governor and Zephyr Teachout for Attorney General also lost their primary races albeit by smaller margins.

Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein has turned over to the FBI a letter that she obtained relating to Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The Senator has so far refused to share it with her colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has raised tensions among Senators. The Intercept‘s Ryan Grim first reported on the document saying, “It purportedly describes an incident that was relayed to someone affiliated with Stanford University, who authored the letter and sent it to Rep. Anna Eshoo, a Democrat who represents the area. Different sources provided different accounts of the contents of the letter, and some of the sources said they themselves had heard different versions, but the one consistent theme was that it describes an incident involving Kavanaugh and a woman while they were in high school.” Democrats may be hoping for a delay in the confirmation process but so far there have been no developments. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley has scheduled a confirmation vote on September 20th.

In the latest chapter of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into election wrongdoing, Trump’s former campaign chair Paul Manafort appears to be near a plea deal. Manafort already faced one high profile trial and was convicted on multiple counts of fraud. The second set of charges were also expected to go to trial but now there may be a possible plea agreement. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Monday. According to CNN, in this second round of charges, “Manafort faces seven counts of foreign lobbying violations, money laundering conspiracy and witness tampering. The trial was likely to put on display the secret ...

FEATURING ALICIA RIVERA – Thousands of people from all over the US and even outside the country have descended upon Northern California all week. On Saturday 30,000 people marched in San Francisco for the Rise for Climate Jobs and Justice. Several actions and gatherings took place since then and on Thursday as Governor Jerry Brown’s Global Climate Summit opens, many are calling out Brown’s hypocrisy in convening a conference to address a problem he has chosen to exacerbate.

Brown has overseen the continued operation and even expansion of fossil fuel operations that pose a serious health risk especially to low income communities of color.

With Hurricane Florence wreaking destruction on North Carolina and Puerto Rico barely recovered from last year’s Hurricane Maria, the stakes are higher than ever.

Alicia Rivera, Organizer with Communities for a Better Environment

FEATURING JULIO LÓPEZ-VARONA – It has been 1 year since Hurricane Maria hit the island of Puerto Rico. Various studies have put the death toll anywhere between 2,975 to more than 4,000 making it one of the nation’s deadliest natural disasters in history.

But, President Donald Trump earlier this week deemed the federal government’s response “an unsung success.” Then, on Thursday morning he went further in his denial of reality by rejecting the official death toll of nearly 3,000 deaths from the hurricane. He tweeted, “3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico.” He added in a second tweet, “This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible.” It is not clear if he is deliberately lying hoping that his supporters will not notice, or that he is truly unaware that Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rosello ordered the study that concluded 2,975 people died.

Julio López-Varona, Co-Director of Community Dignity Campaigns at the Center for Popular Democracy

Visit www.populardemocracy.org and www.1yearaftermaria.com for more information.

In today’s news headlines Hurricane Florence has begun pounding the US coast of North Carolina with fierce wind and rain. The storm changed from a Category 4 to a Category 2 hurricane but authorities are warning that the storm has simply widened and that the rain forecast has not changed. The storm’s path is not yet clear though as models differ in trying to predict where it will head next.

On the other side of the planet an even stronger storm is heading toward the Philippines and China. Super Typhoon Mangkhut has recorded wind speeds of more than 150 mph and could impact tens of millions of people in its path. The storm already passed through the Marshall Islands and Guam – both US territories. Guam lost 80% of its power. Military personnel and federal emergency workers have been distributing aid to the affected areas.

President Trump earlier this week called his administration’s response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, “an unsung success,” and on Thursday morning he went further in his denial of reality by rejecting the official death toll of nearly 3,000 deaths from the hurricane. He tweeted, “3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000.” He added in a second tweet, “This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible.” It is not clear if he is deliberately lying hoping that his supporters will not notice, or that he is truly unaware that Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rosello ordered the study that concluded 2,975 people died.

Rhode Islanders voted in their gubernatorial primary elections on Wednesday. Pro-business Democrat Gina Raimundo beat a Bernie Sanders endorsed candidate named Matt Brown. She will face Republican Allan Fung in November. Fung ran on a platform of, “term limits for state lawmakers, cutting taxes, and work requirements for welfare recipients,” as per Vox.

Meanwhile New Yorkers are heading to the polls to pick gubernatorial nominees on Thursday where a high-stakes race between incumbent Andrew Cuomo and newcomer Cynthia Nixon has developed. Nixon has accused Cuomo of playing dirty. The governor has moved to the left on some issues, perhaps worried by Nixon’s popularity. But polls show her trailing by 2-digit figures behind him. Still Nixon remained undeterred saying in a radio interview earlier this week, “Don’t believe the polls, don’t believe the hype. We have a chance to strike a blow for real progressives.” She also accused Cuomo of hiding from the press in the last days before the election. Nixon has a platform significantly to the left of Cuomo, although she has notably not been endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders