Links to today’s show transcripts:

Former Saudi Political Prisoner: Khashoggi’s Disappearance Is Sending a Gruesome Message to Critics
Saudi Arabia will allow Turkey to search its consulate in Istanbul Monday afternoon, nearly two weeks after prominent journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared after entering the consulate on October 2. He has not been seen since. This news comes amid mounting international outcry that Saudi Arabia explain Khashoggi’s shocking disappearance, after Turkish officials accused the Saudis of assassinating Khashoggi, dismembering him and smuggling body parts out of the consulate. In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” President Trump said Saudi Arabia would suffer “severe consequences” if it was found responsible. But Trump has repeatedly said he opposes ending U.S. weapons sales to the kingdom, which he claims are worth $110 billion to U.S. companies. The Saudi Foreign Ministry has responded to Trump’s threats, saying if it “receives any action, it will respond with greater action.” The Saudis deny Khashoggi was killed in their consulate. Ali al-Ahmed, who’s is a Saudi dissident and founder and director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs is interviewed. He was a political prisoner in Saudi Arabia when he was 14 years old—the youngest political prisoner at that time.

Trump Admin Hints It May Resume Family Separation at Border; ACLU Says “Public Outcry Is Critical”
The Trump administration is reportedly considering plans to resume its policy of forcibly separating migrant children from their families along the U.S.-Mexico border, even as the full number of people torn apart the last time it carried out the widely condemned practice remains unclear. A new report by Amnesty International suggests immigration officials separated some 6,000 families between April and August, a far higher number of children and parents torn apart than previously thought. Trump administration officials are now considering plans to detain asylum-seeking families together for up to 20 days and then force parents to choose either to stay detained together for months or years while their immigration case proceeds or to allow their children to be taken to a government shelter where their relatives or others can seek custody. Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project is interviewed. He is the lead lawyer on the ACLU’s national challenge to the Trump administration’s family separation practice.

Vatican Canonizes Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero, Who Was Killed by a U.S.-Backed Death Squad
Pope Francis has named Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero a saint. Romero was a champion for the poor and oppressed who was murdered by a U.S.-backed right-wing death squad in 1980 at the beginning of the brutal U.S.-backed military campaign in El Salvador. Wearing the blood-stained rope belt that Romero wore when he was assassinated, Pope Francis praised Romero for disregarding his own life “to be close to the poor and to his people.” Matt Eisenbrandt, a human rights lawyer and the author of “Assassination of a Saint: The Plot to Murder Óscar Romero and the Quest to Bring His Killers to Justice” is interviewed. Eisenbrandt served on the trial team that brought the only court verdict ever reached for Romero’s murder.

Order Eric’s Autumn Reading, which will cover Venus retrograde and beyond, and comprises all 12 signs. This will give you crucial insight into your Sun and rising signs, plus those of your closest partners, friends, family members and prospective lovers. Each sign will be 30 to 40 minutes each, and the set will come with a video introduction. You may order here, or call us at (845) 481-5616.

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Rep. Ro Khanna Condemns Saudi Barbarity from Disappearance of Saudi Journalist to War in Yemen
President Donald Trump is rejecting calls to cut off arms sales to Saudi Arabia following the disappearance and probable murder of the Saudi-born Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Washington Post is reporting the Turkish government told U.S. officials it has audio and video evidence that Khashoggi was killed last week inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Officials say the recordings confirm that a Saudi security team detained Khashoggi after he walked into the consulate on October 2, before killing him and dismembering his body. Ro Khanna, Democratic congressmember from California is interviewed. He is calling for congressional hearings into Khashoggi’s disappearance. Khanna has been a leading critic of U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

Rep. Ro Khanna Introduces Internet Bill of Rights as Facebook & Google Admit Privacy Breaches
Facebook and Google recently admitted major privacy breaches. Facebook says the personal information of nearly 50 million users were exposed after an online attack. Meanwhile, Google is shutting down its social network Google Plus after revelations of a data breach that exposed the private data of hundreds of thousands of users. The breach was discovered in March but was not disclosed to the public. Ro Khanna is interviewed, who recently introduced an Internet Bill of Rights.

Decades After Taking Henrietta Lacks’s Cells Without Consent, Johns Hopkins Names Building After Her
Johns Hopkins University has announced plans to name a new research building after Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman who permanently changed modern medicine nearly 70 years ago when it was discovered that her cells could live forever. These “immortal cells” have helped scientists produce remedies for numerous diseases, including the first polio vaccine, that have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. But Lacks’s cells were taken without her consent when she was a patient at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in 1951. For decades, the woman whose cells would transform modern medicine was unknown. Instead, her cells were simply known as “HeLa”—the first two letters of Henrietta Lacks’s first and last name. Rebecca Skloot is interviewed, author of the best-selling book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,”. Jeri Lacks Whye is the granddaughter of Henrietta Lacks.

Order Eric’s Autumn Reading, which will cover Venus retrograde and beyond, and comprises all 12 signs. This will give you crucial insight into your Sun and rising signs, plus those of your closest partners, friends, family members and prospective lovers. Each sign will be 30 to 40 minutes each, and the set will come with a video introduction. You may order here, or call us at (845) 481-5616.

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Hurricane Michael Pummels Communities in Florida, a State Led by a Climate Change-Denying Governor
At least two people have died since Hurricane Michael made landfall in Florida and Georgia on Wednesday. It is the third most powerful storm to ever hit the U.S. mainland, and meteorologists say it is supercharged by warmer-than-usual water in the Gulf of Mexico. But Florida Governor Rick Scott has a long history of denying climate change. In 2011, his administration reportedly banned state employees in Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection from using the terms “climate change,” “global warming” and “sea level rise.” Gloria Horning is interviewed and is a social and environmental justice advocate. She serves on the Environmental Advisory Board for Pensacola, Florida.

Owner of Limo Involved in Deadly NY Crash Spent Years as FBI Informant Entrapping Muslim Men
When a limousine crashed in upstate New York this weekend, killing 20 people, investigators quickly uncovered a series of shoddy practices by the limo company that owned the vehicle, including a record of repeated safety violations. The limousine that crashed in Schoharie, New York, in the deadliest U.S. transportation disaster since 2009 had failed an inspection last month and was not licensed to be on the road. Now it’s been revealed that the owner of Prestige Limousine Chauffeur Service is a Pakistani immigrant named Shahed Hussain, an FBI informant with a long history of entrapping Muslim men on behalf of the U.S. government. On Wednesday, state officials arrested his son Nauman Hussain, who operates his father’s limo service, and charged him with criminally negligent homicide. In Pittsburgh, a man is interviewed who was entrapped by Hussain, Khalifah al-Akili. Lyric Cabral, who is co-director of “(T)ERROR,” a documentary that follows a sting operation targeting Khalifah al-Akili is also interviewed. In New York, Sam Braverman is an attorney who represented one of the “Newburgh Four,” four black Muslim men who were convicted in 2010 of plotting to shoot down U.S. military planes based on testimony from Shahed Hussain.

“How Fascism Works”: Jason Stanley on Trump, Bolsonaro and the Rise of Fascism Across the Globe
In his new book “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them,” Yale professor Jason Stanley warns about the dangers of normalizing fascist politics, writing, “What normalization does is transform the morally extraordinary into the ordinary. It makes us able to tolerate what was once intolerable by making it seem as if this is the way things have always been.” Jason Stanley is interviewed in New York.

Order Eric’s Autumn Reading, which will cover Venus retrograde and beyond, and comprises all 12 signs. This will give you crucial insight into your Sun and rising signs, plus those of your closest partners, friends, family members and prospective lovers. Each sign will be 30 to 40 minutes each, and the set will come with a video introduction. You may order here, or call us at (845) 481-5616.

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Rashid Khalidi: From Iran to Palestine, Nikki Haley Put a Nice Face on Trump’s “Horrific” U.S. Policies
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has announced she is resigning her post at the end of the year. The former South Carolina governor—one of the few women in Trump’s Cabinet—gave no reason for her departure. During Nikki Haley’s time as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the United States withdrew from the Paris climate accord; the U.N. Human Rights Council; the Iran nuclear deal; UNRWA, the U.N. agency that provides humanitarian aid to Palestinians; and UNESCO, the U.N. educational and cultural agency. Rashid Khalidi is an Edward Said professor of Arab studies at Columbia University, and speaks about the significance of Haley’s departure and the role of the United States at the United Nations. Khalidi is the author of “Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East.” His next book, titled “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine,” will be out in May.

Rashid Khalidi on the U.S. Backing of Brutal Saudi Regime & the Disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi
It’s been more than a week since Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last Tuesday, sparking international concern. Now, a Turkish official has told The New York Times that Khashoggi was assassinated inside the consulate by a team of 15 Saudi operatives who used a bone saw to dismember his body before smuggling body parts out of the building. Rashid Khalidi who is an Edward Said professor of Arab studies at Columbia University is interviewed. He is the author of several books, including “Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East.”

Valve Turners on Trial: Judge Acquits Three Climate Activists Who Shut Down Tar Sands Pipelines
A month before the 2016 election, anti-pipeline activists staged an unprecedented coordinated action to shut down the flow of oil from Canada to the United States. On October 11, 2016, activists in North Dakota, Washington, Montana and Minnesota turned the manual safety valves on four pipelines, temporarily halting the flow of nearly 70 percent of the crude oil imported to the United States from Canada. They came to be known as the “valve turners.” What followed was a lengthy legal battle that ended with some of the activists in jail. But on Tuesday, three valve turners who broke into an oil pipeline facility in Minnesota on that day in 2016 were acquitted. The valve turners themselves, Annette Klapstein and Emily Johnston, speak about their acquittal. Johnston is a poet and co-founder of 350Seattle.org, and Klapstein is a retired attorney for the Puyallup Tribe and member of the Raging Grannies. Their attorney, Kelsey Skaggs, is also interviewed.

Ex-NASA Scientist Dr. James Hansen: We Need to Act Now to Preserve Our Planet for Future Generations
As Hurricane Michael barreled down on Florida, famed climate scientist Dr. James Hansen traveled to Minnesota earlier this week to testify on the imminent danger of climate change. He was supposed to be an expert witness at the trial for the “valve turners,” the anti-pipeline activists who staged an unprecedented coordinated action to shut down the flow of oil from the United States to Canada in 2016. But the judge ruled she would not allow witnesses like Dr. Hansen to testify on the clear and present danger posed by climate change. On Tuesday, valve turner activists Annette Klapstein and Emily Johnston were acquitted. Hansen in Minneapolis speaks about the valve turners, the recent IPCC report about the imminent threat of climate change and what must be done to save the planet from destruction. Hansen is the former top climate scientist at NASA. He is now the director of Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions at Columbia University’s Earth Institute.

Order Eric’s Autumn Reading, which will cover Venus retrograde and beyond, and comprises all 12 signs. This will give you crucial insight into your Sun and rising signs, plus those of your closest partners, friends, family members and prospective lovers. Each sign will be 30 to 40 minutes each, and the set will come with a video introduction. You may order here, or call us at (845) 481-5616.

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Brazil’s Eroding Democracy: Rise of Far-Right Demagogue Follows Ouster of Dilma & Jailing of Lula
In a stunning upset that may radically alter the political landscape of Latin America, far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro won 46 percent of the vote in Sunday’s presidential election in Brazil in a far more decisive victory than expected. The former Army officer has a long history of making racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments and has openly praised Brazil’s military dictatorship. He will now face Fernando Haddad of the leftist Workers’ Party in a runoff on October 28. Haddad won 29 percent of the vote Sunday. Many are warning that the future of democracy in Brazil hangs in the balance. Maria Luísa Mendonça is the director of the Network for Social Justice and Human Rights in Brazil, who says Bolsonaro is a “fascist” and that his election would create “a very dangerous situation in Brazil.”

Climate Scientist: As U.N. Warns of Global Catastrophe, We Need a “Marshall Plan” for Climate Change
A new report from the United Nations’ climate panel warns humanity has only a dozen years to mitigate global warming and limit the scope of global catastrophe. Otherwise, millions will be imperiled by increasing droughts, floods, fires and poverty. The sweeping report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change urges immediate and unprecedented changes to global policy in order to keep global warming at a maximum of 1.5ºC. Kevin Anderson is a Zennström professor in climate change leadership at the Centre for Environment and Development Studies at Uppsala University and chair of energy and climate change at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester in Britain. He says that the IPCC report fails to hold the world’s highest emitters accountable, and argues a “Marshall Plan” for climate change is necessary to save the planet from destruction. “About 70 percent of global emissions of carbon dioxide come from about 20 percent of the world population. … When we try to address climate change and reduce our emissions by focusing on all 7.5 billion people, I think it misunderstands where the actual responsibility of emissions resides,” Anderson says. “We’re not developing policies that need to be tailored to that particular 20 percent.”

2017 Nobel Peace Laureate: Amid Talks with North Korea, It’s Time for U.S. to Abandon Nukes, Too
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang over the weekend in talks meant to further steps toward nuclear disarmament. Pompeo hailed the meeting as a success, saying both sides were “pretty close” to agreeing to details for a second summit between Kim and President Donald Trump. He also told reporters Kim has agreed to let international inspectors into a North Korean missile engine test facility and nuclear testing site where the country conducted its six nuclear tests. However, Pompeo did not say whether North Korea would allow inspectors to visit a site where the country produces fuel for nuclear weapons. Beatrice Fihn is the executive director of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, and speaks about the ongoing negotiations on the Korean Peninsula, the U.S. nuclear stockpile and the path to an international ban on nuclear weapons. She is in New York to deliver The Nation Institute’s third annual Jonathan Schell Memorial Lecture on the Fate of the Earth tonight at The New School.

Order Eric’s Autumn Reading, which will cover Venus retrograde and beyond, and comprises all 12 signs. This will give you crucial insight into your Sun and rising signs, plus those of your closest partners, friends, family members and prospective lovers. Each sign will be 30 to 40 minutes each, and the set will come with a video introduction. You may order here, or call us at (845) 481-5616.

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“They Did Not Care”: How the GOP Dismissed Assault Accusations & Confirmed Kavanaugh
Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in Saturday as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, just hours after the Senate voted to confirm him amid massive protests outside the Capitol. He will begin hearing cases Tuesday and could vote as early as Tuesday or Wednesday on a case that tests how much power courts would wield over the executive branch. His nomination came under intense public scrutiny after accusations of attempted rape and sexual assault surfaced. Coverage begins with Jodi Jacobson, president and editor-in-chief of Rewire, who wrote a piece this weekend headlined “A ‘Titanic Fraud’: Susan Collins, the ‘Moderate’ Who Never Was.” Senator Collins “went on the floor of the Senate to literally gaslight the entire nation about both the process and the nominee himself,” Jacobson says, responding to Collins’s vote to confirm Kavanaugh.

Where Does #MeToo Go from Here? Women Are “On Fire” with Rage as Kavanaugh Joins Supreme Court
Thousands of women protested outside the U.S. Capitol and across the country on Saturday as Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, just hours after the Senate voted to confirm him. “I hope that it is deep enough that it is forming a strong, cohesive movement among people that will resonate through this country and change the culture,” says Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink, who joined the protests. Longtime feminist activist and writer Soraya Chemaly, author of the new book, “Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger” is interviewed. She says conservatives’ biggest fear since the “Me Too” movement is that women are telling the truth. “And if women are telling the truth,” Chemaly notes, “then it’s not just an indictment of a few bad apples, but an indictment of the entire system.”

Alleged Saudi Murder of Washington Post Columnist Prompts Calls to Halt U.S. Relations with Regime
Fears are growing over the fate of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who Turkish officials say they believe was murdered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last week. Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post who had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States, entered the Saudi Consulate in Turkey seeking a document he needed to get married and has not been seen since. The Washington Post reports a Turkish investigation has revealed that a group of about 15 Saudi men traveled to Istanbul to kill Khashoggi as he visited the consulate. Saudi officials have denied the report and say they don’t know the journalist’s whereabouts. Khashoggi is a critic of the Saudi regime. “This is a horrific escalation in the crown prince’s campaign to silence dissent, to silence any criticism, even the mildest of criticism, from Saudis at home or abroad,” says columnist for The Intercept Mehdi Hasan, who is also host of “UpFront” at Al Jazeera English, where he interviewed Khashoggi earlier this year. Medea Benjamin is a co-founder of CodePink, who knew Khashoggi and is the author of “Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection.”

Order Eric’s Autumn Reading, which will cover Venus retrograde and beyond, and comprises all 12 signs. This will give you crucial insight into your Sun and rising signs, plus those of your closest partners, friends, family members and prospective lovers. Each sign will be 30 to 40 minutes each, and the set will come with a video introduction. You may order here, or call us at (845) 481-5616.

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Eve Ensler to White Women Supporting Kavanaugh: Stand with Survivors & Fight This Nomination
Opposition to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is growing across the country as the Senate prepares to vote on his nomination, just one day after senators were given their first chance to see the FBI’s new investigation into Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s claims that Kavanaugh attempted to rape her when she was a teenager. More than 300 protesters were arrested Thursday during a massive sit-in on Capitol Hill against Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by multiple women. The Senate is planning to hold a key procedural vote on his confirmation Friday morning. A final vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation is expected on Saturday. The decision rests on four senators who have not yet announced how they will vote: Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, as well as Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Eve Ensler, award-winning playwright and author of The Vagina Monologues is interviewed. She is also the founder of V-Day, a movement to end violence against women and girls. She recently published “A Letter to White Women Who Support Brett Kavanaugh” in Time Magazine. She says to sexual assault survivors watching the Kavanaugh nomination unfold, “Your pain matters. Your experience matters. The trauma that you have faced matters. And there are many of us, many of us supporting you, loving you, holding you as you try to heal from this experience.”

Eve Ensler: Nobel Peace Prize For Mukwege & Murad Is an Award for Every Rape Survivor in the World
After a landmark year for the “Me Too” movement, which ignited an international conversation on sexual assault, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday morning to two champions of women’s rights who have built their careers fighting sexual violence: Physician Denis Mukwege and human rights activist Nadia Murad. Dr. Denis Mukwege founded the Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1999. The clinic receives thousands of women each year, many of them requiring surgery as a result of sexual violence. Nadia Murad is a 25-year-old Yazidi Kurdish human rights activist from Iraq. She was kidnapped and held by the Islamic State for almost three years. During her captivity she was repeatedly raped. Eve Ensler is interviewed. She is an award-winning playwright and author of The Vagina Monologues and the founder of V-Day, a movement to end violence against women and girls. She is a good friend of Dr. Mukwege and has also worked with Nadia Murad.

Could Brazil Return to a Dictatorship? Glenn Greenwald on Possible Election of Far-Right Demagogue
Voters in Brazil head to the polls on Sunday in an election that could reshape the political landscape of South America. Polls show the current frontrunner is the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, a former army officer who has openly praised Brazil’s military dictatorship, which lasted from 1964 to 1985. Bolsonaro has a long history of making racist, misogynistic and homophobic comments, and has risen in the polls since September 8 when he was stabbed while campaigning. His campaign directly benefited from the jailing of former President Lula Inácio da Silva in April, who had been leading in all presidential polls before being forced to drop out of the race. Lula’s hand-picked successor, Fernando Haddad, is currently placing second in most polls. Glenn Greenwald is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and one of the founding editors of the Intercept. He has been covering the election from Rio de Janeiro.

Order Eric’s Autumn Reading, which will cover Venus retrograde and beyond, and comprises all 12 signs. This will give you crucial insight into your Sun and rising signs, plus those of your closest partners, friends, family members and prospective lovers. Each sign will be 30 to 40 minutes each, and the set will come with a video introduction. You may order here, or call us at (845) 481-5616.

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NYT Exposé: “Self-Made Billionaire” Donald Trump Built Empire on Father’s Money, Tax Dodging & Fraud
President Donald Trump built his personal brand and presidential candidacy on the claim that he was a self-made billionaire whose only head start was a “small loan of a million dollars” from his father. But a New York Times exposé has revealed that Trump inherited much of his family’s wealth through tax dodging and outright fraud, receiving at least $413 million in inflation-adjusted dollars from his father’s real estate empire. David Barstow is interviewed and is a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times and the lead author on the new investigation, “Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches from His Father.” Barstow shares a byline with Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner.

ACLU Formally Opposes Kavanaugh, Citing Credible Sexual Assault Allegations & Partisan Temperament
The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has opened an investigation into President Trump for fraud and tax evasion following a major exposé by The New York Times revealing that Trump inherited nearly half a billion dollars of his family’s wealth through tax dodges and outright fraud. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has also called for a city probe, and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden has urged the IRS to investigate the president. The Times’ 13,000-word investigative report found the late Fred and Mary Trump transferred more than $1 billion in wealth to their children, paying less than 5 percent of the $550 million in taxes they should have paid under inheritance tax rates. Donald Trump also helped his parents undervalue real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on IRS tax returns in order to reduce taxes.

Order Eric’s Autumn Reading, which will cover Venus retrograde and beyond, and comprises all 12 signs. This will give you crucial insight into your Sun and rising signs, plus those of your closest partners, friends, family members and prospective lovers. Each sign will be 30 to 40 minutes each, and the set will come with a video introduction. You may order here, or call us at (845) 481-5616.