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From the Grassroots to the Ballot Box: How Gubernatorial Candidate Andrew Gillum Won In Florida
After progressive candidate Andrew Gillum pulled off a stunning upset in Florida’s Democratic primary for governor Tuesday, putting him on a path to become the state’s first African-American governor, he was attacked within hours by his Republican opponent—handpicked by Trump—who warned voters not to “monkey this up” by supporting Gillum. Even Fox said they they don’t condone his comments. Two activists who’ve worked with Gillum are Phillip Agnew with Dream Defenders in Florida and Charlene Carruthers, head of Black Youth Project 100 and author of the new book “Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements.”

“Mississippi Is Failing”: As Prisoner Deaths Reach 13 in August Alone, Advocates Demand Answers
Prisoners are dying at the highest rates the state of Mississippi has ever seen. Thirteen prisoners have died behind bars in the month of August alone. That’s compared to 47 prisoner deaths in Mississippi in the entire year of 2015. Prison officials insist the deaths are by natural causes. But advocates and family members are demanding answers for the shocking spike in prisoner deaths, including the killing of 24 year-old Nija Syvallus Bonhomme at the privately run Wilkinson County Correctional Center in southwestern Mississippi. Bonhomme died in his cell after what officials say was a fight with another prisoner. But his family says that the prison failed to protect him from violent conditions that led to his death, allowing him to return to his cell after a violent altercation with his cellmate. His sister told Democracy Now!, “They threw him back to the dogs.” Jody Owens is director and managing attorney of the Mississippi office of the Southern Poverty Law Center, part of a recent lawsuit against the Mississippi Department of Corrections alleging grave abuses of prisoner rights at a private prison.

Update on Prison Strike Demanding End of “Slave Labor”: After 10 Days, Protests Spread to 11 States
Prisoners across the country join work stoppages, hunger strikes and commissary boycotts in at least 11 states to protest prison conditions and demand the end of what they call “prison slavery.” Organizers report prisoners in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Indiana are demonstrating. Individuals in Texas, California and Ohio have gone on hunger strike, including some in solitary confinement. Meanwhile, at least six people have been hunger-striking inside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, for more than a week. Amani Sawari is a prison strike organizer working on behalf of Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, a network of prisoners who are helping organize the nationwide strike.

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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Top Student Loan Watchdog Resigns over Trump Admin Doing Bidding of Predatory Lenders
As the school year begins this week across the United States, the top student loan watchdog has resigned in protest, accusing the Trump administration of siding with powerful predatory lenders over student loan borrowers. Seth Frotman worked as student loan ombudsman under the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director, Mick Mulvaney. He wrote that under Mulvaney’s leadership, “the Bureau has abandoned the very consumers it is tasked by Congress with protecting.” This comes as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has proposed new rules that would cut an estimated $13 billion in federal student loan relief for people defrauded by for-profit colleges.

Books, Not Magazines: Outcry Grows over DeVos Plan to Divert Federal Funds For Guns in Schools
Pressure is growing for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to reject plans to grant federal funds to states to purchase firearms for teachers and school employees. The proposal comes after requests from Oklahoma, Texas and other states to train and arm school marshals. DeVos’s plan would use federal Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants to pay for firearms and to train educators in their use, and would reverse long-standing federal policy prohibiting federal funds for arming educators.

Puerto Rico Raises Official Death Toll to Nearly 3,000 as First Anniv. of Hurricane Maria Approaches
Puerto Rico officially raised the death toll from Hurricane Maria last year from 64 to nearly 3,000 following the release of a study ordered by the governor of the island. This officially makes Maria one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history. Democracy Now! co-host Juan González and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, comment.

Meet Crystal Mason, the Black Texas Mother Facing 5+ Years in Prison for Voting in the 2016 Election
A Texas woman has been sentenced to five years in prison for illegally voting, and could now have even more time added to her sentence. Crystal Mason cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election despite having a past felony conviction for tax fraud that prevented her from voting. In March, she was convicted of illegal voting; she says she did not know that she was barred from casting a ballot in Texas due to her criminal record. Her supporters argue her conviction was racially biased, and point to the case of Terri Lynn Rote, a white woman in Iowa who was convicted of the same crime after she tried to vote for President Trump—twice. Rote was sentenced to two years’ probation and fined $750. Crystal Mason discusses her situation, along with her attorney, Kim Cole. Mason has a federal court hearing in Fort Worth, Texas, tomorrow, and if she loses the hearing, she will be heading to prison. Marc Mauer is executive director of The Sentencing Project, about how policies restricting the voting rights of convicted felons disenfranchise more than 6 million people.

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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50 Years Ago: Antiwar Protesters Brutally Attacked in Police Riots at 1968 Democratic Convention
It was 50 years ago this week that the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago became a national spectacle, as a major political event turned into chaos that culminated with a police riot, much of it unfolding on live national television. Chicago met the protesters with 24,000 police officers, National Guardsmen and Army soldiers using tear gas and clubs.

Bound & Gagged: Black Panther Party Chair Bobby Seale Describes His Trial After 1968 DNC Protests
The 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago became a national spectacle 50 years ago when police attacked demonstrators,. Bobby Seale was chair of the Black Panther Party when he spoke at the demonstrations and was later arrested and became part of the Chicago 8. Seale describes how at his conspiracy trial the judge ordered that he be gagged and bound to his chair. He was sentenced to 48 months in prison for 16 acts of contempt of court, but all of the charges were later dismissed.

1968 DNC Protests, 50 Years Later: Organizers Recall Coalition Building & Running Pig for President
At the 1968 DNC protests in Chicago, Yippies Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin nominated a pig named “Pigasus the Immortal” to compete with candidates Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon. They hoped to In-Hog-Ur-Ate Pigasus instead. His platform was to be a pile of garbage—”just like the platform of all the other parties.” They demanded Pigasus be taken to the White House for a foreign policy briefing and given a Secret Service detail. Pigasus was later arrested along with many others, who were charged with disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and bringing a pig to Chicago. Defense attorney William Kunstler later accused the Democratic Party of the same charges.

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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Obit Omit: What the Media Leaves Out of John McCain’s Record of Misogyny and Militarism
John McCain, the Vietnam veteran and former prisoner of war, six-term senator and two-time presidential candidate, died Saturday at the age of 81 of brain cancer. Democracy Now! hosted a roundtable discussion on his life and legacy. Mehdi Hasan is a columnist for The Intercept and host of their “Deconstructed” podcast. He’s also host of “UpFront” at Al Jazeera English. He’s been tweeting in response to McCain’s death and wrote a piece last year headlined “Despite What the Press Says, ‘Maverick’ McCain Has a Long and Distinguished Record of Horribleness.” Other guests are Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink, which McCain once referred to as “low-life scum,” and Norman Solomon, national coordinator of RootsAction, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and author of “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.”

Sanders Backers Win Major Reforms as Democratic Nat’l Committee Votes to Limit Superdelegate Power
After a major debate, Democrats have voted on a key progressive demand after the 2016 campaign: to vastly reduce the power of superdelegates in choosing the party’s presidential nominee. Saturday’s vote by the Democratic National Committee comes after the 2016 race for Democratic nominee between Senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and pitted many DNC members who supported the change against two former party chairs and members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Norman Solomon is national coordinator of RootsAction. He was a Bernie Sanders delegate from California to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, where he coordinated the independent Bernie Delegates Network.

Pope Asks Forgiveness for Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal as New Letter Says He Knew, But Failed to Act
Pope Francis marked the first papal visit to Ireland in 39 years by acknowledging the failure by church authorities to address child abuse crimes by the clergy. But Sunday, Pope Francis faced a new bombshell accusation from a former top-ranking Vatican official who called on him to resign, releasing a 7,000-word letter claiming the pope knew about allegations of sex abuse by high-ranking Cardinal Theodore McCarrick years before they became public, and failed to punish him. McCarrick faces allegations that he coerced men training to become priests into sexual relationships and abused a teenage altar boy. Pope Francis has refused to comment on the accusations. Peter Isely is a survivor of childhood sexual assault by a Wisconsin priest, and a founding member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Thomas Doyle is a former priest and longtime supporter of justice and compassion for clergy sex abuse victims. They’re both part of the organization Ending Clergy Abuse.

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Mother of NSA Whistleblower Reality Winner: My Daughter Was “Nailed to the Door” by the Trump Admin
NSA whistleblower Reality Winner has been sentenced to five years and three months in prison—the longest sentence ever imposed in federal court for leaking government information to the media. Twenty-six-year-old Reality Winner is the first person to be sentenced under the Espionage Act since President Trump took office. Her sentencing Thursday came after she pleaded guilty in June to transmitting a top-secret document to a news organization. She had faced up to 10 years in prison.

James Risen: Reality Winner’s Sentence Is One of the Worst Miscarriages of Justice in Recent History
NSA whistleblower Reality Winner was handed the longest sentence ever imposed in federal court for leaking government information to the media Thursday. She is the first person to be sentenced under the Espionage Act since President Trump took office. Winner was arrested by FBI agents at her home in Augusta, Georgia, on June 3, 2017, two days before The Intercept published an exposé revealing Russian military intelligence conducted a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software company just days before the U.S. presidential election. The exposé was based on a classified NSA report from May 5, 2017, that shows that the agency is convinced the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, was responsible for interfering in the 2016 presidential election.

Is Trump Above the Law? James Risen on Prosecuting the President & Why Press Needs to Fight Back
In the wake of President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen’s plea deal and former campaign manager Paul Manafort’s guilty verdict, many are advocating for Trump’s impeachment. The Intercept’s James Risen says lawmakers should indict Trump and prosecute him in a federal court.

17-Year-Old Helps Win Last-Minute Stay of Deportation For His Mom—Now She’ll See Him Start College
A Bangladeshi woman facing deportation has been granted a last-minute stay following public outcry against her removal. Salma Sikandar’s deportation was halted less than 24 hours before she was supposed to board a one-way flight to Bangladesh, leaving behind her husband and 17-year-old son, who is a U.S. citizen. Sikandar has lived in the United States for nearly 20 years. But in June she was told by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that she had to leave the country by August. That’s when her community stepped in, staging protests in New Haven and a hunger strike outside the ICE office in Hartford, demanding Sikandar be allowed to stay in the United States. Salma Sikandar and her son Samir Mahmud, who will start his freshman year at Quinnipiac University next week, discuss her situation. It has been Sikandar’s lifelong dream to send her son to college.

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The Case Against Donald Trump: Rep. Al Green Says President Must Resign or Face Impeachment
As fallout from President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen’s plea deal and former campaign manager Paul Manafort’s guilty verdict continues to grow, could President Trump be next? Democratic Congressmember Al Green, who introduced articles of impeachment against Trump last year, and Ron Fein, legal director at Free Speech for People, speak about the possibility of impeachment. Fein is the co-author of the book “The Constitution Demands It: The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump.”

NC’s Sole Black Woman Historical Commissioner: Confederate Statues Don’t Belong at State Capitol
Just two days after protesters tore down the “Silent Sam” Confederate statue at the state’s flagship school, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, the state’s Historical Commission voted 9 to 2 to keep Confederate monuments on the grounds of the state Capitol. Valerie Johnson dissented in the vote to keep the three Confederate monuments in place at the state Capitol. She also voted against adding historical context to the monuments. Johnson is one of only two black members of the North Carolina Historical Commission and the only black woman. She is a professor of women’s studies and the director of Africana Women’s Studies at Greensboro’s Bennett College. She is also the chair of the North Carolina African American Heritage Commission.

White Nationalism in the White House: Administration Faces New Revelations About Ties to Far Right
Multiple people close to Donald Trump have direct ties to white supremacists. Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, has admitted he recently hosted white nationalist publisher, Peter Brimelow, at a birthday celebration at his home. Brimelow founded the anti-immigrant website VDARE.com. Meanwhile, Trump’s speechwriter Darren Beattie was fired last Friday as revelations surfaced that he had spoken at a conference alongside prominent white nationalists, including Brimelow, in 2016. Beattie was a panelist at the H.L. Mencken Club conference, an event the Southern Poverty Law Center calls a gathering of “white nationalists and pseudo-academic and academic racists.”

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Michael Cohen Pleads Guilty & Implicates Trump as Paul Manafort Is Convicted. Is Impeachment Next?
Talk of the possible impeachment of President Trump is growing in Washington after Tuesday’s stunning legal developments. In New York, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges, including tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations. Two hundred miles away, in Virginia, Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort was found guilty of eight charges related to tax fraud and bank fraud. The Cohen case is likely to put the president in the most legal jeopardy. Cohen, who worked for Trump from 2006 until this year, admitted in court that he arranged to illegally pay out money to two women—an adult film star and a Playboy model—to keep them from speaking during the 2016 campaign about their affairs with Donald Trump. Cohen said the payments were made “in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office” and that they were made “for the principal purpose of influencing the election.” Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis wrote on Twitter, “If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?” Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist who covers national security and civil liberties. She runs the website EmptyWheel.net.

Trump Administration Admits 1,400+ More People Will Die Each Year Following Coal Plant Deregulation
President Trump rallied supporters Tuesday night in West Virginia to announce a massive rollback of Obama-era environmental regulations on coal-fired power plants and carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change. Trump’s “Affordable Clean Energy” proposal would allow individual states to decide whether to curb emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency’s own data shows the plan could cause up to 1,400 more premature deaths a year by 2030. The Washington Post reports the deregulation would also lead to the release of at least 12 times more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the next decade. The current head of the EPA, Andrew Wheeler, is a former coal industry lobbyist. Mary Anne Hitt is director of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign.

Meet Maya Little, UNC Student Whose Protest Ignited the Movement to Topple a Racist Confederate Statue
We end today’s show in North Carolina, where hundreds of student protesters in Chapel Hill toppled the “Silent Sam” Confederate statue at the University of North Carolina Monday night, on the eve of the first day of classes. The statue was erected in 1913 to honor Confederate soldiers, and has been the target of repeated protests. Maya Little is a UNC doctoral student facing charges of property destruction and possible expulsion for pouring red ink and her own blood on the statue during an earlier protest in April.

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Sister Simone Campbell: Catholic Sex Abuse Stems from “Monarchy” & Exclusion of Women from Power
For the first time in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, the pope has addressed a letter to the entire population of 1.2 billion Catholics on the topic of sex abuse by clergy. In the scathing 2,000-word letter, Pope Francis wrote, “We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.” Last week in Pennsylvania, a grand jury report revealed how more than 300 Catholic priests sexually abused 1,000 children, and possibly thousands more, over seven decades and that the church leadership covered up the abuse. More than 1,000 Catholic theologians, educators and parishioners have called on all Catholic bishops to resign. Sister Simone Campbell is executive director of NETWORK, an advocacy group for Catholic social justice which organizes the Nuns on the Bus campaign. She’s the author of “A Nun on the Bus: How All of Us Can Create Hope, Change, and Community.”

National Prison Strike Begins: Prisoners in 17 States Demand End to “Slave Labor” Behind Bars
Prisoners across the country are set to launch a nationwide strike today to demand improved living conditions, greater access to resources and the “end of modern day slavery.” Prisoners in at least 17 states are expected to participate in the coordinated sit-ins, hunger strikes, work stoppages and commissary boycotts from today until September 9—the 47th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising. Amani Sawari is a prison strike organizer working on behalf of Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, a network of prisoners who are helping organize the nationwide strike. Cole Dorsey is a formerly incarcerated member of the IWW’s Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee who is helping coordinate with prisoners on the prison strike.

From Attica to South Carolina: Heather Ann Thompson on the Roots of the Nationwide Prison Strike
Prisoners in at least 17 states are expected to strike today in a mass mobilization demanding improved living conditions, sentencing reform, the right to vote and the end of “prison slave labor.” The weeks-long strike begins on the 47th anniversary of the killing of Black Panther George Jackson, who was shot and killed by guards during an escape attempt from San Quentin prison. It will end on September 9, the 47th anniversary of the deadly Attica prison uprising. Heather Ann Thompson, American historian, author and activist, is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy.” She is a professor of history at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.