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Michael Moore vs. Donald Trump in “Fahrenheit 11/9”: New Film Warns Our Democracy Is At Risk
“Fahrenheit 11/9”—That’s the name of the new documentary premiering today by Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, a stunning retelling of the 2016 election and its aftermath. 11/9. That’s November 9, the day Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election. In the film, Michael crosses the country, documenting not only the rise of Trumpism but also the teachers’ strikes sweeping the nation, the “blue wave” of progressive candidates in the 2018 primaries, the rise of student activism after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and the water crisis in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. Moore spares no one in the wide-ranging documentary, which takes aim at the Democratic establishment, The New York Times and other mainstream media outlets, the Electoral College, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and even himself. Michael Moore joins Democracy Now! to talk about the film and much more.

Michael Moore: Democrats Made Fatal Mistake in Not Taking Trump More Seriously in 2016
In July, 2016, Michael Moore wrote a column titled “Five Reasons Why Trump Will Win.” In it, Moore wrote, “Donald J. Trump is going to win in November. This wretched, ignorant, dangerous part-time clown and full time sociopath is going to be our next president. President Trump. Go ahead and say the words, ’cause you’ll be saying them for the next four years: ‘PRESIDENT TRUMP.’” He went on to list the five reasons why Trump would be elected: Trump’s focus on the Midwest, “The Last Stand of the Angry White Man,” “The Hillary Problem,” “The Depressed Sanders Vote” and what he called the “Jesse Ventura Effect”—people voting for Trump simply to disrupt the system. We talk to Michael Moore about his predictions and how Democrats failed to take Trump more seriously.

Eric’s 2018 Autumn Reading, Empathy-Pathos, is now available for pre-order. This will be a 12-sign audio reading covering Venus retrograde and beyond. Pre-order all 12 signs now for just $88 — we will increase the price very soon.

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Blasey Ford Lawyers: Kavanaugh’s Background Check Must Include FBI Probe into Attempted Rape Claims
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley has set a 10 a.m. Friday morning deadline for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to decide whether she will testify about her allegation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh attempted to rape her at a high school party when she was 15 years old. But Dr. Blasey Ford’s lawyers say an FBI investigation into her claims should be conducted first. Attorney Lisa Banks issued a statement Wednesday saying, “The rush to a hearing is unnecessary, and contrary to the committee discovering the truth.” Response from journalist Sarah Posner, reporting fellow at the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.

Right-Wing Network Spent Millions to Portray Questions for Kavanaugh on Abortion as “Anti-Religious”
As Republicans charge forward with Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nominee hearing despite Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s claim that he raped her as a teenager, a new Nation investigation reveals a secret network of right-wing activists has spent millions of dollars attacking questions about Kavanaugh’s stance on abortion, LGBTQ rights and executive privilege as “anti-religious bigotry.” Sarah Posner talks about her explosive new report for The Nation, “The ‘Anti-Catholic’ Playbook” is a reporting fellow at the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.

South Carolina: Two Women from Mental Health Facility Drown in Flood During Transport by Deputies
Two women being transported by sheriff’s deputies to a mental health facility drowned Tuesday in South Carolina when the van they were riding in was overcome by floodwaters. The two sheriff’s deputies in the vehicle survived. Forty-five-year-old Wendy Newton and 43-year-old Nicolette Green are two of at least 37 people killed by Hurricane Florence since the storm made landfall. Both women had gone to hospitals Tuesday morning when they were involuntarily committed and detained. Less than 24 hours later, they were dead. “There are a lot of questions remaining about why this had to occur, then, why there couldn’t have been some sort of an emergency delay,” says Meg Kinnard, South Carolina correspondent for the Associated Press, who has been following the story closely.

South Carolina Prisoners Were Left in Cells as Florence Descended. Why Weren’t They Evacuated?
South Carolina officials are coming under fire for refusing to relocate prisoners in mandatory evacuation zones even as Hurricane Florence barreled down on the state. Prisoners were instead put to work behind bars making sandbags to prepare for the storm’s arrival. Kymberly Smith, a community organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, has been protesting South Carolina’s choice to not evacuate prisoners during Hurricane Florence.

American Prison: Shane Bauer Traces History of U.S. For-Profit Prisons from Slavery to Today
“American Prison.” That’s the name of the new book by award-winning journalist Shane Bauer, who dives deep into the profit-earning motives of U.S. prisons, from convict labor in colonial-era settlements all the way to present-day mass incarceration, including Bauer’s own stint as an undercover prison guard at the privately owned Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana.

Eric’s 2018 Autumn Reading, Empathy-Pathos, is now available for pre-order. This will be a 12-sign audio reading covering Venus retrograde and beyond. Pre-order all 12 signs now for just $77 — we will increase the price very soon.

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Michael Moore: Senate Must Take Dr. Christine Blasey Ford Seriously & Postpone Kavanaugh Hearing
A Senate hearing with Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford may not move forward, as Blasey Ford asks for the FBI to investigate her claims that Kavanaugh attempted to rape her as a teenager before she testifies. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley had invited Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh to both testify on Monday, but Blasey Ford’s attorneys are declining the offer. Her lawyers wrote in a letter to Grassley, “While Dr. Ford’s life was being turned upside down, you and your staff scheduled a public hearing for her to testify at the same table as Judge Kavanaugh in front of two dozen U.S. Senators on national television to relive this traumatic and harrowing incident.” The letter revealed that Blasey Ford has received multiple death threats and has been forced to move out of her home. On Tuesday night, Senator Grassley said there’s “no reason for any further delay” in the hearing, even if Christine Blasey Ford does not testify. Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore speaks about Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford. His new movie, “Fahrenheit 11/9,” is out in theaters this week.

Rev. William Barber: Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court Would Endanger Rights of Women, Workers & Voters
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh have cast doubt on whether President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee will be confirmed by the Senate. “The process was bad from the beginning,” says Rev. Dr. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign and president of Repairers of the Breach. “We are poised to have two presidents that did not win the popular vote, now will have appointed four extreme members to the Supreme Court.” Barber says Kavanaugh will be dangerous to voting rights, to labor rights, to healthcare and to women’s rights.

Rev. Barber: North Carolina Has Two Storms, Florence & the Policies that Keep People in Poverty
As President Trump visits North Carolina, where thousands are evacuating after Hurricane Florence caused record flooding, we go to Raleigh to speak with Rev. Dr. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. Areas devastated by the storm include some of the poorest areas on the Eastern Seaboard. Barber’s recent CNN piece is headlined “In hurricane wind and waves, the poor suffer most.”

“A Matter of Life and Death”: Trump Admin Slashes Refugee Cap to Historic Low, Imperiling Thousands
The Trump administration has once again slashed the number of refugees allowed to resettle in the United States. On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the new cap on refugees would be a historic low of just 30,000 next year, down from the current level of 45,000. The actual number of refugees allowed in to the country is expected to be even lower than the 30,000 cap. Monday’s announcement represents the lowest ceiling any president has imposed on the U.S. refugee program since its creation in 1980. Under President Obama, the refugee cap reached 110,000. For more on the Trump administration’s refugee policy, Ryan Mace is interviewed, a refugee specialist for Amnesty International USA.

Eric’s 2018 Autumn Reading, Empathy-Pathos, is now available for pre-order. This will be a 12-sign audio reading covering Venus retrograde and beyond. Pre-order all 12 signs now for just $77 — we will increase the price soon.

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Intercept Report Reveals Senate Ignored Federal Court Employees Willing to Testify Against Kavanaugh
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley has announced that the committee will hold another hearing on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh next Monday in light of accusations that he attempted to rape a 15-year-old girl at a party while he was in high school. Both Kavanaugh and his accuser, professor Christine Blasey Ford, will testify under oath. As the allegations against Kavanaugh gain steam, a new report from Ryan Grim for The Intercept has revealed that attorney Cyrus Sanai tried multiple times to reach out to Senators Charles Grassley and Dianne Feinstein on behalf of federal court employees also willing to speak out against Kavanaugh. The employees wanted to talk about Kavanaugh’s work as a clerk for disgraced former 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, who resigned in 2017 after being accused by at least 15 women of sexual misconduct. But Sanai never heard back. Kavanaugh has said repeatedly that he did not witness Kozinski behave in a sexually inappropriate way. Ryan Grim, Washington, D.C., is bureau chief for The Intercept. His latest piece is headlined “Attorney Sent Letter to Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein Claiming Federal Court Employees Willing to Speak About Brett Kavanaugh.”

Immigrants Seeking Shelter After Hurricane Florence Fear Deportation as FEMA Shifts Funds to ICE
While the worst of Hurricane Florence is over, officials say the most dangerous flooding is yet to come for residents of the Carolinas and Virginia, as thousands have been ordered to evacuate their homes and hundreds more have sought rescue from rising floodwaters. But undocumented immigrants have expressed concern they will encounter immigration enforcement if they seek help. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has reallocated nearly $10 million from FEMA’s budget to ICE to pay for detention space and deportations. Laura Garduño García, a DACA recipient and Greensboro-based organizer with Siembra NC and the American Friends Service Committee, and Mary Small, policy director for Detention Watch Network are asked for comments.

Ten Years Since Economic Collapse Sparked Occupy Wall Street, the Cooperative Movement Is Surging
This week marks the seventh anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement and 10 years since the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, which triggered the onset of the global financial crisis. The crisis also sparked massive global anti-capitalist movements, including Occupy Wall Street, the M-15 movement in Spain and the anti-austerity movements in Greece. “It’s striking how little we are marking these anniversaries,” says author and activist Nathan Schneider. “I think … we recognize we really haven’t done anything serious to deal with the causes of this crash.” Schneider’s new book outlines an alternative economic model based on cooperative ownership that saw a resurgence since the 2008 financial crisis. It’s titled “Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition That Is Shaping the Next Economy.”

Eric’s 2018 Autumn Reading, Empathy-Pathos, is now available for pre-order. This will be a 12-sign audio reading covering Venus retrograde and beyond. Pre-order all 12 signs now for just $77 — we will increase the price soon.

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As Blasey Ford Alleges Kavanaugh Assaulted Her, Will Senate Repeat Mistakes Made with Anita Hill?
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford has come forward to accuse President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of attempted rape, throwing his nomination into question in the days before the Senate judiciary committee is expected to vote on it. Blasey Ford is a professor at Palo Alto University in California, and says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school. She at first expected her story to be kept confidential, but changed her mind after it leaked. She now says she is willing to testify about her experience. In an interview published Sunday by the Washington Post, Ford said in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh and a friend were “stumbling drunk” when they pushed her into a bedroom. The Post reports that “while his friend watched, she said, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it. When she tried to scream, she said, he put his hand over her mouth.” Dahlia Lithwick responds, senior editor at Slate.com, whose latest piece is headlined “Our System Is Too Broken to Assess the Sexual Assault Claim Against Kavanaugh.”

Facebook Censors a ThinkProgress Story on Kavanaugh After a Conservative Site Calls it “Fake News”
Last week, ThinkProgress published a report by Senior Fellow Ian Millhiser headlined “Brett Kavanaugh said he would kill Roe v. Wade last week and almost no one noticed.” But then a Facebook fact-checker with the conservative outlet the Weekly Standard declared it “fake news,” leading the piece to be targeted and demoted by the social media site. The Intercept then re-published Millhiser’s piece, with editor-in-chief Betsy Reed writing, “The story was effectively nuked from Facebook, with other outlets threatened with traffic and monetary consequences if they shared it.” Ian Millhiser is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the justice editor for ThinkProgress.

Will Kavanaugh Overturn Roe v. Wade? SCOTUS Nominee’s Confirmation Is About “Life and Death for Women”
As news of sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Brett Kavanaugh breaks, his stance on Roe v. Wade is also under scrutiny. The New York Times reports that it received several leaked documents ahead of Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings earlier this month, including an email in which Kavanaugh questioned the accuracy of calling Roe v. Wade the “settled law of the land.” With Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor at Slate.com; and Ian Millhiser, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the justice editor of ThinkProgress.

Botham Jean’s Family: Are Dallas Police Smearing His Reputation to Protect Officer Who Killed Him?
Protests continue in Dallas after the shooting and killing of a 26-year-old black man in his own apartment by a white Dallas police officer. Police officer Amber Guyger has been charged with manslaughter after she entered Botham Shem Jean’s apartment about two weeks ago and opened fire, killing him. Police claim she believed it to be her apartment. Questions are growing over why there was a three-day delay in charging Guyger and how she failed to know she was not in her own apartment when she killed Jean. Jean’s family is also criticizing police for issuing and making public information from a search warrant on Jean’s apartment. Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney who is representing the family of Botham Jean, and says police are trying to smear Jean to shield their officer from punishment. “It took (Jean) being killed by a Dallas police officer for him to become a criminal,” Merritt notes.

Eric’s 2018 Autumn Reading, Empathy-Pathos, is now available for pre-order. This will be a 12-sign audio reading covering Venus retrograde and beyond. Pre-order all 12 signs now for just $77 — we will increase the price very soon.

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“Climate Capitalism is Killing Our Communities”: Protesters Disrupt Gov. Brown’s SF Climate Summit
As California Governor Jerry Brown’s Global Climate Action Summit kicked off Thursday, indigenous and climate justice activists blocked the main entrance in protest. While the protests took place outside the GCAS, Gov. Brown and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the U.N. special envoy for climate action, were inside. Protesters disrupted Bloomberg’s speech at the summit’s main plenary. Democracy Now! was there, in the streets and at the conference.

Effective Tool to Limit Greenhouse Emissions or a “License to Pollute?”: A Debate on Cap-and-Trade
Protesters disrupted the Global Climate Action Summit Thursday, criticizing California Governor Jerry Brown in part for his support for cap-and-trade. Cap-and-trade is a market-driven strategy in which governments cap emission levels, then allow companies to buy and sell permits to pollute. California has the most far-reaching cap and trade program in the United States. Last year Governor Brown signed an extension to the state’s cap and trade law which began under Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Governor Brown has credited cap and trade with limiting the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, but the issue has split many environmental groups. Peter Miller, director of the western region climate and clean energy program for the Natural Resources Defense Council, debates with Eriel Deranger, founder and executive director of the group Indigenous Climate Action and a member of the Athabaskan Chippewa first nation.

Over 100 Indigenous Activists Decry California Gov. Jerry Brown’s Market-Based Climate Solutions
Over 100 indigenous and climate justice activists staged a protest in San Francisco Tuesday outside a meeting of California Governor Jerry Brown’s Climate and Forest Task Force. Protesters attempted to deliver a letter to Brown and task force members. Democracy Now! was there in the streets.

A Debate on Geoengineering: Should We Deliberately “Hack” Planet Earth to Combat Climate Change?
Sometimes called “climate manipulation,” geoengineering involves the deliberate altering of the earth to decrease the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. Such proposals are already being explored by government agencies, scientists, and businesses around the world. Supporters of geoengineering endorse radical ways to manipulate the planet, from spraying aerosols with sulfur particles into the stratosphere, to scrubbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But critics say these “techno-fixes” do nothing to address the root causes of climate change, and worse, can be dangerous for the earth. This is a debate between Gopal Dayaneni, board member of the ETC Group and a founding member of the Climate Justice Alliance, and David Keith, professor of applied physics at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and professor of public policy in the Harvard Kennedy School.

Eric’s 2018 Autumn Reading, Empathy-Pathos, is now available for pre-order. This will be a 12-sign audio reading covering Venus retrograde and beyond. Pre-order all 12 signs now for just $57 — we will increase the price very soon.

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NC Lagoons Hold Billions of Gallons of Hog Feces. The Hurricane May Blast That Waste into Waterways
In North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia, millions of residents are bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Florence, which meteorologists are warning could unleash life-threatening storm surges and historic flooding across a wide swath of the East Coast. Even if the storm weakens, experts warn Hurricane Florence could kill thousands of farm animals and trigger catastrophic waste spills from sewage treatment plants, hog waste lagoons and chicken farms. Many of the factory hog farms in North Carolina store their waste by spraying it on nearby fields and neighborhoods, or by depositing it in lagoons that can overflow during hurricanes, causing the toxic pig manure to pour into nearby waterways. Naeema Muhammad is organizing co-director for the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network. Will Hendrick is staff attorney with the Waterkeeper Alliance.

Big Coal Put Toxic Coal Ash in Unlined Dirt Ponds—Now a Hurricane is Heading Directly Toward Them
As the East Coast prepares for Hurricane Florence to make landfall, fear is growing that the storm could result in catastrophic waste spills. Twenty-four toxic coal ash containment ponds in the path of the storm are at risk of flooding in the extreme rainfall. Interviewed are Will Hendrick, staff attorney with the Waterkeeper Alliance, Frank Holleman, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, and Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org. Bill’s latest piece for the Nation is titled “Jerry Brown’s Climate Legacy Is Still Being Decided.”

Bill McKibben to Jerry Brown: We Must Keep the Oil in the Soil, Limiting Emissions Is Not Enough
Governors, mayors and policy makers from around the world are gathering this week for the Global Climate Action Summit. The conference was organized by California Governor Jerry Brown. The conference begins today just days after Brown signed a new law to shift California to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045. While Brown is hailed as a climate hero, he has been widely criticized by many climate justice activists who are planning to protest outside the opening of today’s conference.

Eric’s 2018 Autumn Reading, Empathy-Pathos, is now available for pre-order. This will be a 12-sign audio reading covering Venus retrograde and beyond. Pre-order all 12 signs now for just $57 — we will increase the price very soon.

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A New Form of Slavery? Meet Incarcerated Firefighters Battling California’s Wildfires For $1 An Hour
Behind the scenes of California’s raging climate-fueled wildfires with the hidden men and women on the front lines of the state’s ever-growing fire season: prisoner firefighters. Of the 13,000 firefighters battling blazes across the state, more than 2,500 are prisoners. While salaried firefighters earn an annual mean wage of $74,000 a year plus benefits, prisoners earn $1 per hour when fighting active fires. According to some estimates, California saves up to $100 million a year by using prison labor to fight its biggest environmental problem. The Democracy Now! team traveled on Sunday to the Delta Conservation Camp, a low security prison about an hour north of San Francisco where more than 100 men are imprisoned. We interviewed incarcerated firefighters who had just returned from a 24-hour shift fighting the Snell Fire in Napa County.

Amika Mota Fought Fires as a Prisoner For 53 Cents/Hour. Now Free, She Can’t Work as a Firefighter
We continue our conversation about California’s incarcerated firefighters with a look at the women fighting the state’s climate change-fueled blazes. We speak with Amika Mota, a former prisoner firefighter. She didn’t even make $1 per hour while on duty as a firefighter—she made just 53 cents. Amika Mota is now the director of prison re-entry at the Young Women’s Freedom Center in San Francisco.

Death on the Dakota Access: Oil & Gas Boom Generates Dangerous Pipeline Jobs Amid Lax Regulationsr
Today in San Francisco, the Rise Against Climate Capitalism conference—a counter-conference to California Governor Jerry Brown’s Global Climate Action Summit—will focus on the common goals of climate activists and labor. That’s also the subject of an explosive new report: “Death on the Dakota Access: An Investigation Into the Deadly Business of Building Oil and Gas Pipelines.” Antonia Juhasz, a longtime oil and energy journalist, talks about her new investigation for Pacific Standard magazine on the deaths of two men who worked on the Dakota Access pipeline, and the massive oil and natural gas boom that has generated some of the deadliest jobs in the country.

Eric’s 2018 Autumn Reading, Empathy-Pathos, is now available for pre-order. This will be a 12-sign audio reading covering Venus retrograde and beyond. Pre-order all 12 signs now for just $57 — we will increase the price very soon.