WEBVTT 00:00:15.180 --> 00:00:18.140 From Pacifica, this is Democracy Now! 00:00:19.020 --> 00:00:22.330 You have this incredible charade taking place, 00:00:24.220 --> 00:00:27.720 which the world is looking at with utter astonishment: 00:00:28.410 --> 00:00:33.460 Poor, miserable people, families, mothers, children, 00:00:34.350 --> 00:00:37.480 fleeing from terror and repression, 00:00:37.480 --> 00:00:40.530 for which we are responsible, and in reaction, 00:00:42.500 --> 00:00:46.470 they’re sending thousands of troops to the border. 00:00:47.340 --> 00:00:50.210 As President Trump escalates his attacks 00:00:50.210 --> 00:00:51.690 against Central American 00:00:51.690 --> 00:00:54.510 migrants ahead of the midterm elections, 00:00:54.510 --> 00:00:56.860 we’ll speak with the world-renowned dissident 00:00:56.860 --> 00:00:58.910 and linguist Noam Chomsky 00:00:58.910 --> 00:01:02.470 about U.S. foreign policy in Central America 00:01:02.470 --> 00:01:05.710 and Saturday’s deadly Pittsburgh synagogue attack. 00:01:06.680 --> 00:01:12.540 What we’re now seeing is a revival of hate, 00:01:13.100 --> 00:01:18.550 anger, fear, much of it encouraged 00:01:20.880 --> 00:01:25.790 by the rhetorical excesses of the leadership. 00:01:26.770 --> 00:01:30.140 Plus, we’ll speak with the comedian and actress Ilana 00:01:30.670 --> 00:01:33.050 Glazer of Broad City fame. 00:01:33.050 --> 00:01:36.280 Last night she was forced to cancel an event 00:01:36.280 --> 00:01:39.000 at a Brooklyn synagogue after a vandal 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:44.150 scrawled "Jew Better B Ready" and "End is now," 00:01:44.150 --> 00:01:47.530 among other anti-Semitic and racist graffiti 00:01:47.530 --> 00:01:49.160 on the building’s walls. 00:01:49.160 --> 00:01:52.950 Thank you for coming tonight. We have a situation 00:01:52.950 --> 00:01:55.940 that we will—that’s not presenting any immediate danger, 00:01:55.940 --> 00:02:01.530 but there were hateful, anti-Semitic [bleep] 00:02:01.530 --> 00:02:04.000 scrawled all over the space today, 00:02:05.450 --> 00:02:07.860 very recently, within the past couple hours. 00:02:09.570 --> 00:02:11.270 So we don’t feel safe. 00:02:12.320 --> 00:02:15.800 Ilana Glazer will talk to us about what happened. 00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:17.680 Democracy Now! was at the event. 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:20.880 I was one of the people she was scheduled to interview 00:02:20.880 --> 00:02:23.220 about covering the midterm elections. 00:02:23.220 --> 00:02:24.920 All that and more, coming up. 00:02:30.110 --> 00:02:31.850 Welcome to Democracy Now!, 00:02:31.850 --> 00:02:34.950 democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. 00:02:34.950 --> 00:02:36.360 I’m Amy Goodman. 00:02:36.360 --> 00:02:38.920 President Trump is escalating his attacks 00:02:38.920 --> 00:02:41.330 against Central American migrant caravans 00:02:41.330 --> 00:02:44.030 making their way to the U.S.-Mexico border, 00:02:44.030 --> 00:02:45.700 including warning soldiers 00:02:45.700 --> 00:02:48.510 could shoot migrants for throwing rocks. 00:02:48.510 --> 00:02:49.720 President Donald Trump: 00:02:49.720 --> 00:02:51.010 "We’re not going to put up with that. 00:02:51.010 --> 00:02:52.940 If they want to throw rocks at our military, 00:02:52.940 --> 00:02:55.570 our military fights back. We’re going to consider it. 00:02:55.570 --> 00:02:57.270 I told them, consider it a rifle. 00:02:57.860 --> 00:03:01.450 When they throw rocks like they did at the Mexico military 00:03:01.450 --> 00:03:04.440 and police, I say consider it a rifle." 00:03:05.530 --> 00:03:09.880 Trump has announced he may send as many as 15,000 troops 00:03:09.880 --> 00:03:13.840 to the border and indefinitely imprison asylum-seeking 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:16.060 families in tent cities. 00:03:16.060 --> 00:03:19.740 This comes as a new Associated Press investigation 00:03:19.740 --> 00:03:23.370 has revealed that over 56,000 migrants have died 00:03:23.370 --> 00:03:26.680 or gone missing worldwide over the last four years, 00:03:26.680 --> 00:03:30.100 as migration has surged by nearly 50 percent 00:03:30.100 --> 00:03:31.970 since the turn of the century. 00:03:32.980 --> 00:03:36.570 In Pittsburgh, funerals continued Thursday 00:03:36.570 --> 00:03:39.710 for three more victims of Saturday’s mass shooting 00:03:39.710 --> 00:03:42.260 at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue 00:03:42.260 --> 00:03:44.760 which killed 11 Jewish worshipers. 00:03:44.760 --> 00:03:48.030 Services were held for husband and wife Sylvan 00:03:48.030 --> 00:03:50.770 and Bernice Simon, and Richard Gottfried. 00:03:51.290 --> 00:03:54.350 Robert Bowers pleaded not guilty Thursday. 00:03:54.350 --> 00:03:58.070 Bowers is charged with 44 counts—including murder 00:03:58.070 --> 00:03:59.900 and hate crimes—over 30 of 00:03:59.900 --> 00:04:02.200 which could be subject to the death penalty. 00:04:02.200 --> 00:04:04.140 Bowers is accused of what has been described 00:04:04.140 --> 00:04:07.150 as the worst anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. 00:04:07.750 --> 00:04:09.970 Meanwhile, a fundraising campaign 00:04:09.970 --> 00:04:12.200 launched by two Muslim American groups 00:04:12.200 --> 00:04:14.000 in the aftermath of the mass shooting 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:16.310 has raised over $220,000. 00:04:17.170 --> 00:04:19.860 The funds are helping families of the victims pay 00:04:19.860 --> 00:04:21.780 for their funerals. 00:04:21.780 --> 00:04:23.570 This comes as NBC News 00:04:23.570 --> 00:04:25.500 is reporting the Trump administration 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:28.240 is ending a program that provides grants 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:30.840 to groups fighting domestic terrorism. 00:04:30.840 --> 00:04:33.910 The Countering Violent Extremism grant program 00:04:33.910 --> 00:04:36.460 is run by the Department of Homeland Security 00:04:36.460 --> 00:04:40.080 and was established during the Obama administration. 00:04:40.080 --> 00:04:42.520 It supports organizations fighting hate groups, 00:04:42.520 --> 00:04:45.160 including white supremacist, anti-Semitic, 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:47.670 Islamophobic and racist groups. 00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:51.320 President Trump is reportedly planning on nominating 00:04:51.320 --> 00:04:54.100 State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert 00:04:54.100 --> 00:04:57.040 to be the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations 00:04:57.040 --> 00:05:00.410 after Nikki Haley’s exit at the end of the year. 00:05:00.410 --> 00:05:02.730 Nauert is a former Fox News host, 00:05:02.730 --> 00:05:05.160 including for the program "Fox & Friends"— 00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:08.230 a favorite of Trump’s. She joined the State Department 00:05:08.230 --> 00:05:10.570 as its top spokesperson last year. 00:05:11.650 --> 00:05:14.890 In environmental news, the world’s oceans are warming 00:05:14.890 --> 00:05:17.770 at a much faster rate than previously thought. 00:05:17.770 --> 00:05:19.840 That’s according to a new report in the journal 00:05:19.840 --> 00:05:23.530 Nature, which finds that oceans have absorbed 00:05:23.530 --> 00:05:26.190 60 percent more heat during the past 00:05:26.190 --> 00:05:29.610 25 years than previous scientific estimates. 00:05:29.610 --> 00:05:33.780 Scientists say this will result in accelerated global warming 00:05:33.780 --> 00:05:36.220 as the heat is released into the atmosphere, 00:05:36.220 --> 00:05:39.100 making the target of holding global temperature 00:05:39.100 --> 00:05:43.160 rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees 00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:46.000 Fahrenheit, even more difficult to achieve 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:48.470 unless urgent global action is taken. 00:05:49.830 --> 00:05:53.660 The Washington Post is reporting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed 00:05:53.660 --> 00:05:57.460 bin Salman tried to slander slain Saudi journalist 00:05:57.460 --> 00:06:00.760 Jamal Khashoggi, falsely claiming the journalist 00:06:00.760 --> 00:06:02.550 was a member of the Muslim 00:06:02.550 --> 00:06:05.540 Brotherhood during a call with national security adviser 00:06:05.540 --> 00:06:08.150 John Bolton and White House senior adviser 00:06:08.150 --> 00:06:12.390 Jared Kushner in the days after Khashoggi’s disappearance. 00:06:12.390 --> 00:06:14.810 The Muslim Brotherhood is classified by Saudi Arabia 00:06:14.810 --> 00:06:16.620 as a terrorist organization. 00:06:16.620 --> 00:06:20.310 Khashoggi was not a formal member of the organization. 00:06:20.310 --> 00:06:22.680 Today marks one month since Washington 00:06:22.680 --> 00:06:25.830 Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi 00:06:25.830 --> 00:06:28.960 Consulate in Istanbul and was assassinated. 00:06:29.760 --> 00:06:31.150 In news on Latin America, 00:06:31.150 --> 00:06:33.340 national security adviser John Bolton 00:06:33.340 --> 00:06:35.890 announced new sanctions on Venezuela 00:06:35.890 --> 00:06:39.790 and Cuba at a talk in Miami, Florida, Thursday, 00:06:39.790 --> 00:06:43.830 also singling out Nicaragua for possible future sanctions. 00:06:43.830 --> 00:06:46.390 He also praised far-right, newly elected 00:06:46.390 --> 00:06:49.510 Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro as a 00:06:49.510 --> 00:06:52.410 "positive sign for the future of the region." 00:06:52.410 --> 00:06:56.520 Meanwhile, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted 00:06:56.520 --> 00:06:59.440 Thursday its 27th annual resolution 00:06:59.440 --> 00:07:03.530 calling for an end to the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba. 00:07:03.530 --> 00:07:07.250 Both the U.S. and Israel voted "no" on the resolution. 00:07:07.250 --> 00:07:09.960 And in Brazil, far-right leader and President-elect 00:07:09.960 --> 00:07:14.040 Jair Bolsonaro has confirmed that Sérgio Moro—the crusading 00:07:14.040 --> 00:07:16.690 judge who convicted former President Luiz Inácio 00:07:16.690 --> 00:07:21.020 Lula da Silva of corruption—will become his justice minister. 00:07:21.020 --> 00:07:23.490 After headlines, we’ll speak with renowned dissident, 00:07:23.490 --> 00:07:24.690 professor and author 00:07:24.690 --> 00:07:27.810 Noam Chomsky about Latin America, and more. 00:07:27.810 --> 00:07:31.440 In northeast Nigeria, suspected members of Boko Haram 00:07:31.440 --> 00:07:34.940 attacked two villages and a camp for internally displaced people 00:07:36.290 --> 00:07:38.830 Wednesday, killing at least 15 people. 00:07:38.830 --> 00:07:41.590 Boko Haram has killed over 20,000 people 00:07:41.590 --> 00:07:44.740 and kidnapped thousands more since 2009. 00:07:45.490 --> 00:07:48.440 On Thursday, Google workers around the world 00:07:48.440 --> 00:07:49.840 walked out to protest 00:07:49.840 --> 00:07:53.010 the company’s handling of sexual harassment and sexual abuse. 00:07:53.930 --> 00:07:55.130 This is New York 00:07:55.130 --> 00:07:58.800 City Google employee and protester Demma Rodriguez. 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:00.120 Demma Rodriguez: 00:08:00.120 --> 00:08:04.630 "We have decided that enough is enough is enough, 00:08:04.630 --> 00:08:09.600 because everybody who works at Google has busted their backs, 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:13.680 their asses, their lives, have sacrificed, have worked, 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:16.970 have gotten the grades, have shown up, 00:08:16.970 --> 00:08:20.010 in order to be the best at what they do. 00:08:20.010 --> 00:08:24.360 And it is unacceptable, it is absolutely disgusting, 00:08:24.940 --> 00:08:28.480 that anyone thinks that you can be less than exceptional, 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:31.450 and, worse than that, you can be negligent, 00:08:31.450 --> 00:08:34.690 about sexual assault, sexual harassment, 00:08:34.690 --> 00:08:38.770 abuse of power, inequities across every pillar 00:08:38.770 --> 00:08:44.420 that we have to no consequence. We will bring the consequences." 00:08:44.420 --> 00:08:47.780 The protest came one week after The New York Times 00:08:47.780 --> 00:08:49.440 published a damning report 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:50.910 detailing sexual misconduct at Google. 00:08:50.910 --> 00:08:52.240 A number of high-level male executives 00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:53.580 accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault 00:08:53.580 --> 00:08:55.520 have received millions in exit packages from Google, 00:08:55.520 --> 00:08:56.850 including Android creator Andy Rubin, 00:08:56.850 --> 00:08:58.600 who allegedly forced an employee to perform oral sex on him. 00:08:58.600 --> 00:09:00.260 Google gave Rubin a $90 million exit package 00:09:00.260 --> 00:09:01.520 when he left the company in 2014, 00:09:01.520 --> 00:09:02.800 but never publicized the claims against him 00:09:02.800 --> 00:09:04.010 or the financial terms of his departure. 00:09:04.010 --> 00:09:05.490 In election news, Oprah Winfrey joined Democratic 00:09:05.490 --> 00:09:07.330 gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams 00:09:07.330 --> 00:09:09.590 on the campaign trail in Marietta, Georgia, 00:09:09.590 --> 00:09:12.430 on Thursday, days before the midterm elections 00:09:12.430 --> 00:09:15.130 in one of the country’s most talked-about races. 00:09:15.850 --> 00:09:18.590 Oprah Winfrey: "I’m here today because of the men 00:09:18.590 --> 00:09:21.680 and because of the women who were lynched, 00:09:22.290 --> 00:09:25.920 who were humiliated, who were discriminated against, 00:09:25.920 --> 00:09:27.980 who were suppressed, 00:09:27.980 --> 00:09:32.390 who were repressed and oppressed for the right 00:09:32.390 --> 00:09:36.560 for the equality at the polls. And I want you to know 00:09:36.560 --> 00:09:40.180 that their blood has seeped into my DNA, 00:09:40.930 --> 00:09:48.210 and I refuse to let their sacrifices be in vain." 00:09:48.840 --> 00:09:52.560 Oprah also told crowds she is not hitting the campaign trail 00:09:52.560 --> 00:09:55.270 to "test the waters" for her own political run. 00:09:55.930 --> 00:09:57.180 Back in the United States, 00:09:57.180 --> 00:09:59.770 Iowa Republican Congressmember Steve King 00:09:59.770 --> 00:10:01.400 lashed out at a college student 00:10:01.400 --> 00:10:04.120 at a campaign event in Des Moines Thursday 00:10:04.120 --> 00:10:07.660 for asking about how King’s personal beliefs line 00:10:07.660 --> 00:10:10.750 up with those of the Pittsburgh shooter Robert Bowers. 00:10:10.750 --> 00:10:12.020 Kaleb Van Fosson: 00:10:12.020 --> 00:10:14.230 "You and the shooter both share an ideology 00:10:14.230 --> 00:10:15.720 that is fundamentally anti-immigration—" 00:10:15.720 --> 00:10:16.930 Kaleb Van Fosson: "You and the shooter 00:10:16.930 --> 00:10:18.440 both share an ideology that is fundamentally anti-immigration—" 00:10:18.440 --> 00:10:19.790 Rep. Steve King: "No. Don’t you do that. 00:10:19.790 --> 00:10:21.020 Do not associate me with that shooter. 00:10:21.020 --> 00:10:22.280 I knew you were an ambusher when you walked in the room." 00:10:22.280 --> 00:10:23.560 Kaleb Van Fosson: "I’m not an ambusher." 00:10:23.560 --> 00:10:24.800 Rep. Steve King: "But there’s no basis for that. 00:10:24.800 --> 00:10:26.070 And you get no questions, you get no answers." 00:10:26.070 --> 00:10:27.270 Kaleb Van Fosson: "I was about to ask you 00:10:27.270 --> 00:10:28.230 what distinguishes your ideology then." 00:10:28.230 --> 00:10:29.470 Rep. Steve King: "No, you’re done. We don’t play 00:10:29.470 --> 00:10:30.680 these game here in Iowa." Kaleb Van Fosson: 00:10:30.680 --> 00:10:32.030 "I was about to ask you what distinguishes your ideology." 00:10:32.030 --> 00:10:33.250 Rep. Steve King: "No, you’re done. 00:10:33.250 --> 00:10:35.110 You crossed the line. It’s not tolerable to accuse me 00:10:35.110 --> 00:10:38.330 to be associated with a guy that shot 11 people in Pittsburgh. 00:10:38.960 --> 00:10:41.700 I am a person who has stood with Israel from the beginning, 00:10:41.700 --> 00:10:44.740 and to the length of that nation is the length of my life." 00:10:44.740 --> 00:10:49.230 That was Iowa State University student Kaleb Van Fosson. 00:10:49.230 --> 00:10:52.710 He also tried to ask Congressmember King 00:10:52.710 --> 00:10:54.100 about his recent trip to Austria, 00:10:54.100 --> 00:10:55.610 where King met with an Austrian neo-Nazi group. 00:10:55.610 --> 00:10:56.880 King later told The Washington Post, 00:10:56.880 --> 00:10:58.210 “If they were in America pushing the platform 00:10:58.210 --> 00:10:59.410 that they push, they would be Republicans.” 00:10:59.410 --> 00:11:01.750 Earlier this week, the head of the National Republican 00:11:01.750 --> 00:11:03.250 Congressional Committee 00:11:03.250 --> 00:11:06.210 blasted King for his white supremacist ties, 00:11:06.210 --> 00:11:08.230 and corporate supporters of King, 00:11:08.230 --> 00:11:12.170 including Intel, Land O’Lakes and Purina PetCare, 00:11:12.170 --> 00:11:15.760 announced they would no longer fund his campaigns. 00:11:15.760 --> 00:11:16.980 King is up for re-election 00:11:16.980 --> 00:11:20.600 and is polling just one point ahead of Democratic 00:11:20.600 --> 00:11:23.090 opponent J.D. Scholten, in a district 00:11:23.090 --> 00:11:27.940 that Trump won in 2016 by a 27 percent margin. 00:11:28.980 --> 00:11:32.240 And in New York, a political event hosted by Ilana 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:35.320 Glazer of Comedy Central’s "Broad City" 00:11:35.320 --> 00:11:38.240 at the Union Temple Synagogue in Brooklyn 00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:42.160 was canceled Thursday after anti-Semitic messages 00:11:42.160 --> 00:11:45.990 were found scrawled on walls throughout the building. 00:11:45.990 --> 00:11:49.640 Among the messages were "Jew Better Be Ready," 00:11:49.640 --> 00:11:55.330 "Insert Oven Here," "End is now," "Hitler" 00:11:55.330 --> 00:11:59.530 and "Free Smoke for Nigger Jews." 00:12:02.510 --> 00:12:05.020 The graffiti comes amid a surge 00:12:05.020 --> 00:12:07.910 in anti-Semitic hate crimes nationwide, 00:12:07.910 --> 00:12:11.450 including Saturday’s massacre of 11 Jewish worshipers 00:12:11.450 --> 00:12:14.290 at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. 00:12:14.290 --> 00:12:16.310 Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman was scheduled to speak 00:12:16.310 --> 00:12:21.530 at the event about coverage of the midterm elections. 00:12:21.530 --> 00:12:22.890 On Thursday night, 00:12:22.890 --> 00:12:24.870 Glazer announced the cancellation 00:12:24.870 --> 00:12:26.570 to hundreds of people. 00:12:27.430 --> 00:12:28.860 Ilana Glazer: "Hey, y’all. 00:12:28.860 --> 00:12:30.730 Thank you for coming tonight. 00:12:31.850 --> 00:12:36.170 We have a situation that’s not presenting any immediate danger, 00:12:36.170 --> 00:12:41.780 but there were hateful, anti-Semitic [bleep] 00:12:41.780 --> 00:12:44.270 scrawled all over the space today, 00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:48.110 very recently, within the past couple hours. 00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:51.370 So we don’t feel safe. 00:12:51.370 --> 00:12:53.360 ... This wasn’t the event, you know what I mean? 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:54.930 But we are experiencing this together, 00:12:54.930 --> 00:12:56.830 and this is something for us to think about, 00:12:56.830 --> 00:12:59.620 gather around, organize and activate. 00:12:59.620 --> 00:13:02.960 And we’ll follow up with this story 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:05.560 and who I was hoping to show 00:13:05.560 --> 00:13:07.900 you guys—these local candidates who are running tight races, 00:13:07.900 --> 00:13:10.750 who need your help canvassing this weekend." 00:13:11.740 --> 00:13:14.140 The Union Temple Synagogue in Brooklyn 00:13:14.140 --> 00:13:18.520 hosts outside events frequently, including an upcoming event 00:13:18.520 --> 00:13:21.590 commemorating the anniversary of Kristallnacht, 00:13:21.590 --> 00:13:26.290 the Night of Broken Glass, November 10, 1938, 00:13:26.290 --> 00:13:30.430 when the glass of Jewish stores was smashed throughout Germany. 00:13:30.430 --> 00:13:33.950 Ilana Glazer will join us later in the broadcast. 00:13:34.570 --> 00:13:36.910 And those are some of the headlines this is Democracy 00:13:36.910 --> 00:13:40.370 Now, Democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. 00:13:40.370 --> 00:13:42.070 I’m Amy Goodman. 00:13:42.070 --> 00:13:44.180 AMY GOODMAN: As President Trump escalates his attacks 00:13:44.180 --> 00:13:45.410 and threats 00:13:45.410 --> 00:13:48.060 against the Central American migrant caravans 00:13:48.060 --> 00:13:50.980 making their way to the U.S.-Mexico border, 00:13:50.980 --> 00:13:53.490 the Trump administration unveiled new sanctions 00:13:53.490 --> 00:13:55.820 against Venezuela and Cuba Thursday. 00:13:55.820 --> 00:13:59.230 National security adviser John Bolton declared Venezuela, 00:13:59.230 --> 00:14:03.960 Cuba and Nicaragua to be part of a "troika of tyranny" 00:14:03.960 --> 00:14:06.360 and a "triangle of terror." 00:14:07.130 --> 00:14:09.450 Bolton was speaking in Miami, Florida. 00:14:10.640 --> 00:14:14.120 JOHN BOLTON: We will no longer appease dictators and despots 00:14:14.120 --> 00:14:15.820 near our shores. 00:14:24.530 --> 00:14:27.220 We will not reward firing squads, 00:14:27.220 --> 00:14:28.920 torturers and murderers. 00:14:29.670 --> 00:14:33.260 We will champion the independence and liberty 00:14:33.260 --> 00:14:34.940 of our neighbors. 00:14:34.940 --> 00:14:38.130 And this president and his entire administration 00:14:38.130 --> 00:14:40.540 will stand with the freedom fighters. 00:14:47.770 --> 00:14:51.960 The troika of tyranny in this hemisphere—Cuba, 00:14:51.960 --> 00:14:56.120 Venezuela and Nicaragua—has finally met its match. 00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:00.980 AMY GOODMAN: As John Bolton spoke in Miami on Thursday, 00:15:00.980 --> 00:15:02.600 Democracy Now!'s Nermeen Shaikh 00:15:02.600 --> 00:15:05.180 and I spoke with the world-renowned professor, 00:15:05.180 --> 00:15:07.830 linguist and dissident Noam Chomsky. 00:15:07.830 --> 00:15:10.430 He joined us from Tucson, Arizona, 00:15:10.430 --> 00:15:13.150 where he now teaches at the University of Arizona. 00:15:13.670 --> 00:15:16.740 Noam Chomsky is also institute professor emeritus 00:15:16.740 --> 00:15:19.210 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 00:15:19.210 --> 00:15:22.160 where he's taught for more than 50 years. 00:15:22.160 --> 00:15:25.490 His recent books include Global Discontents: 00:15:25.490 --> 00:15:28.610 Conversations on the Rising Threats to Democracy, 00:15:28.610 --> 00:15:30.140 Who Rules the World? 00:15:30.140 --> 00:15:32.430 and Requiem for the American Dream: 00:15:32.430 --> 00:15:37.180 The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power. 00:15:37.180 --> 00:15:39.470 I began by asking Professor Chomsky 00:15:39.470 --> 00:15:43.100 to respond to NSA, national security adviser, 00:15:43.100 --> 00:15:45.890 John Bolton’s remarks on Latin America. 00:15:47.160 --> 00:15:49.020 NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, that, of course, 00:15:49.020 --> 00:15:50.880 immediately brings to mind 00:15:50.880 --> 00:15:59.580 the "axis of evil" speech of George Bush back in 2002, 00:15:59.580 --> 00:16:03.920 which was the precursor, laying the groundwork, 00:16:03.920 --> 00:16:09.630 for the invasion of Iraq, the worst crime of this century, 00:16:09.630 --> 00:16:12.790 with horrendous consequences for Iraq, 00:16:14.640 --> 00:16:20.540 eliciting ethnic conflicts that are tearing the region 00:16:20.540 --> 00:16:23.360 apart—a major atrocity. 00:16:24.770 --> 00:16:31.040 John Bolton was behind that. And his new troika—I doubt 00:16:31.040 --> 00:16:34.060 that the U.S. will dare to do something similar, 00:16:34.060 --> 00:16:36.810 but that’s what it brings to mind. 00:16:37.860 --> 00:16:45.160 It’s kind of interesting to see this hysterical raving 00:16:45.160 --> 00:16:52.320 alongside of another astonishing propaganda campaign 00:16:52.910 --> 00:16:56.230 that Bolton and his colleagues are carrying out 00:16:57.020 --> 00:17:04.440 with regard to the caravan of poor and miserable people 00:17:05.130 --> 00:17:09.650 fleeing from severe oppression, violence, 00:17:09.650 --> 00:17:15.120 terror, extreme poverty from three countries: 00:17:15.880 --> 00:17:20.780 Honduras—mainly Honduras, secondarily Guatemala, 00:17:20.780 --> 00:17:24.040 thirdly El Salvador—not Nicaragua, 00:17:24.040 --> 00:17:29.120 incidentally—three countries that have been under 00:17:30.980 --> 00:17:35.590 harsh U.S. domination, way back, 00:17:36.100 --> 00:17:39.190 but particularly since the 1980s, 00:17:39.190 --> 00:17:43.200 when Reagan’s terror wars devastated 00:17:45.170 --> 00:17:47.620 particularly El Salvador and Guatemala, 00:17:47.620 --> 00:17:49.690 secondarily Honduras. 00:17:49.690 --> 00:17:52.880 Nicaragua was attacked by Reagan, of course, 00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:55.640 but Nicaragua was the one country 00:17:55.640 --> 00:17:58.930 which had an army to defend the population. 00:17:58.930 --> 00:18:03.010 In the other countries, the army were the state terrorists, 00:18:03.010 --> 00:18:05.130 backed by the United States. 00:18:05.130 --> 00:18:12.130 The most extreme source of migrants right now is Honduras. 00:18:12.130 --> 00:18:13.830 Why Honduras? 00:18:13.830 --> 00:18:16.760 Well, it was always bitterly oppressed. 00:18:16.760 --> 00:18:18.730 But in 2009, 00:18:19.350 --> 00:18:24.760 Honduras had a mildly reformist president, Mel Zelaya. 00:18:25.670 --> 00:18:30.670 The Honduran powerful, rich elite couldn’t tolerate that. 00:18:31.480 --> 00:18:35.320 A military coup took place, expelled him from the country. 00:18:35.860 --> 00:18:39.070 It was harshly condemned all through the hemisphere, 00:18:39.070 --> 00:18:42.920 with one notable exception: the United States. 00:18:43.590 --> 00:18:48.710 The Obama administration refused to call it a military coup, 00:18:48.710 --> 00:18:51.740 because if they had, they would have been compelled by law 00:18:51.740 --> 00:18:56.600 to withdraw military funding from the military regime, 00:18:56.600 --> 00:19:00.520 which was imposing a regime of brutal terror. 00:19:00.520 --> 00:19:03.390 Honduras became the murder capital of the world. 00:19:04.600 --> 00:19:11.840 A fraudulent election took place under the military junta—again, 00:19:11.840 --> 00:19:14.690 harshly condemned all over the hemisphere, 00:19:14.690 --> 00:19:17.710 most of the world, but not by the United States. 00:19:18.220 --> 00:19:21.630 The Obama administration praised Honduras 00:19:21.630 --> 00:19:23.610 for carrying out an election, 00:19:23.610 --> 00:19:26.060 moving towards democracy and so on. 00:19:26.060 --> 00:19:30.080 Now people are fleeing from the misery and horrors 00:19:30.080 --> 00:19:32.150 for which we are responsible. 00:19:32.150 --> 00:19:36.010 And you have this incredible charade taking place, 00:19:36.010 --> 00:19:40.940 which the world is looking at with utter astonishment: 00:19:41.620 --> 00:19:46.690 Poor, miserable people, families, mothers, children, 00:19:47.570 --> 00:19:50.700 fleeing from terror and repression, 00:19:50.700 --> 00:19:53.770 for which we are responsible, and in reaction, 00:19:55.750 --> 00:19:59.700 they’re sending thousands of troops to the border. 00:20:00.410 --> 00:20:03.020 The troops being sent to the border outnumber 00:20:03.020 --> 00:20:05.330 the children who are fleeing. 00:20:06.060 --> 00:20:10.610 And with a remarkable PR campaign, 00:20:11.280 --> 00:20:16.210 they’re frightening much of the country into believing 00:20:16.210 --> 00:20:19.980 that we’re just on the verge of an invasion by, 00:20:19.980 --> 00:20:23.860 you know, Middle Eastern terrorists 00:20:23.860 --> 00:20:27.300 funded by George Soros, so on and so forth. 00:20:27.300 --> 00:20:29.340 I mean, it’s all kind of reminiscent of something 00:20:29.340 --> 00:20:34.930 that happened 30 years ago. You may recall, in 1985, 00:20:35.850 --> 00:20:40.190 Ronald Reagan strapped on his cowboy boots 00:20:40.190 --> 00:20:43.330 and called—got in front of television, 00:20:43.330 --> 00:20:47.860 called a national emergency, because the Nicaraguan army 00:20:48.390 --> 00:20:51.910 was two days’ march from Harlingen, Texas, 00:20:52.540 --> 00:20:55.180 just about to overwhelm and destroy us. 00:20:56.190 --> 00:20:57.560 And it worked. 00:20:57.560 --> 00:21:02.030 I mean, this spectacle is almost indescribable. 00:21:04.470 --> 00:21:09.150 Even apart from noticing where they’re coming from, 00:21:09.150 --> 00:21:13.320 the countries that we have crucially been involved 00:21:13.320 --> 00:21:15.020 in destroying, 00:21:15.820 --> 00:21:20.150 it’s—the ability to carry this off 00:21:20.150 --> 00:21:25.290 repeatedly is quite an amazing commentary 00:21:25.290 --> 00:21:27.910 on much of the popular culture. 00:21:28.680 --> 00:21:35.190 But the troika, just like the "axis of evil," 00:21:35.190 --> 00:21:38.750 are those who just don’t obey U.S. orders. 00:21:39.530 --> 00:21:40.880 Colombia, for example, 00:21:40.880 --> 00:21:43.100 has the worst human rights record 00:21:43.100 --> 00:21:45.260 in the hemisphere for years, 00:21:45.260 --> 00:21:49.250 but they’re not part of the troika of tyranny. 00:21:50.170 --> 00:21:54.730 All of this rings very familiar bells. 00:21:54.730 --> 00:21:59.310 It’s a long—it’s been a long-standing element 00:21:59.310 --> 00:22:04.470 of the U.S. propaganda system on the—mostly on the far right, 00:22:04.470 --> 00:22:07.480 but not only, which goes way back 00:22:07.480 --> 00:22:11.900 and which is a kind of pathological feature 00:22:11.900 --> 00:22:17.020 of the dominant political culture 00:22:17.020 --> 00:22:22.720 that should be understood, analyzed and dismantled. 00:22:22.720 --> 00:22:24.810 AMY GOODMAN: World-renowned professor, linguist 00:22:24.810 --> 00:22:26.900 and dissident Noam Chomsky. 00:22:26.900 --> 00:22:30.150 When we come back, he’ll share his reaction 00:22:30.150 --> 00:22:33.330 to the Pittsburgh massacre in the synagogue. 00:22:33.330 --> 00:22:35.030 This is Democracy Now! Stay with 00:23:04.590 --> 00:23:06.290 us. 00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:46.900 AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, 00:23:46.900 --> 00:23:49.360 The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. 00:23:49.360 --> 00:23:52.990 The nation is continuing to grieve the 11 Jewish worshipers 00:23:52.990 --> 00:23:55.500 who were gunned down at the Tree of Life synagogue 00:23:55.500 --> 00:23:58.180 in Pittsburgh Saturday in what’s being described 00:23:58.180 --> 00:24:00.790 as the worst anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. 00:24:00.790 --> 00:24:02.570 Funerals were held Thursday 00:24:02.570 --> 00:24:04.730 for three more victims of the shooting: 00:24:04.730 --> 00:24:06.980 husband and wife Sylvan and Bernice Simon, 00:24:06.980 --> 00:24:08.600 and Richard Gottfried. 00:24:08.600 --> 00:24:11.400 Robert Bowers, who’s accused of the mass shooting, 00:24:11.400 --> 00:24:13.280 pleaded not guilty Thursday. 00:24:13.280 --> 00:24:16.840 He’s charged with 44 counts—including murder 00:24:16.840 --> 00:24:18.560 and hate crimes—over 30 of 00:24:18.560 --> 00:24:20.780 which could be subject to the death penalty. 00:24:20.780 --> 00:24:22.540 Bowers has a history of posting 00:24:22.540 --> 00:24:25.550 anti-Semitic and xenophobic content 00:24:25.550 --> 00:24:29.330 and was posting on the far-right social media site Gab 00:24:29.330 --> 00:24:32.400 until just before the shooting. 00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:37.060 He referred to the migrant caravan as an "invasion," 00:24:37.060 --> 00:24:40.360 repeating the words that President Trump uses. 00:24:40.360 --> 00:24:42.550 We continue our conversation now with Noam Chomsky, 00:24:42.550 --> 00:24:44.630 the world-renowned professor, linguist and dissident. 00:24:44.630 --> 00:24:48.790 He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—Chomsky was. 00:24:48.790 --> 00:24:51.420 I asked him about the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh 00:24:51.420 --> 00:24:53.950 and other recent right-wing attacks. 00:24:54.720 --> 00:24:56.540 NOAM CHOMSKY: When I was a child, 00:24:57.600 --> 00:25:04.340 the threat that fascism 00:25:04.340 --> 00:25:09.500 might take over much of the world was not remote. 00:25:10.390 --> 00:25:14.210 That’s much worse than what we’re facing now. 00:25:14.210 --> 00:25:20.070 My own locality happened to be very anti-Semitic. 00:25:20.070 --> 00:25:25.500 We were the only Jewish family in a Irish—mostly Irish 00:25:25.500 --> 00:25:27.140 and German Catholic neighborhood, 00:25:27.140 --> 00:25:28.710 much of which was pro-Nazi, 00:25:28.710 --> 00:25:31.320 so I could see it better on the ground. 00:25:31.320 --> 00:25:37.220 What we’re now seeing is a revival of hate, 00:25:37.780 --> 00:25:43.240 anger, fear, much of it encouraged 00:25:45.540 --> 00:25:50.580 by the rhetorical excesses of the leadership, 00:25:50.580 --> 00:25:54.840 which are stirring up passions and terror, 00:25:55.860 --> 00:26:01.430 even the ludicrous claims about the Nicaraguan army 00:26:01.430 --> 00:26:06.760 ready to invade us—Ronald Reagan—the caravan of miserable 00:26:06.760 --> 00:26:08.960 people planning to kill us all. 00:26:09.550 --> 00:26:13.150 All of these things, plus, you know, 00:26:13.150 --> 00:26:18.960 praising somebody who body-slammed a reporter, 00:26:19.780 --> 00:26:22.700 one thing after another—all of this raises 00:26:22.700 --> 00:26:26.840 the level of anger and fear, which has roots. 00:26:27.520 --> 00:26:30.490 The roots lie in what has happened 00:26:30.490 --> 00:26:34.440 to the general population over the past 40 years. 00:26:35.240 --> 00:26:40.470 People really have faced significant distress. 00:26:41.410 --> 00:26:44.070 An astonishing fact about the United States 00:26:44.590 --> 00:26:48.450 is that life expectancy is actually declining. 00:26:49.200 --> 00:26:53.660 That doesn’t happen in developed societies, 00:26:53.660 --> 00:26:57.770 apart from, you know, major war or huge famine. 00:26:58.520 --> 00:27:02.030 But it’s happening because of social distress, 00:27:02.030 --> 00:27:04.130 and not necessarily impoverishment. 00:27:04.700 --> 00:27:10.780 The people who are demonstrating this fear and resentment 00:27:10.780 --> 00:27:13.550 may be even moderately affluent, 00:27:14.130 --> 00:27:16.360 but what they see is they’re stagnating. 00:27:17.070 --> 00:27:21.130 In the past, there was—you had this dream: 00:27:21.130 --> 00:27:24.450 You worked hard, you could get ahead, 00:27:24.450 --> 00:27:26.520 your children would be a little better. 00:27:26.520 --> 00:27:30.260 Now it stopped. It stopped for the last 40 years 00:27:30.910 --> 00:27:36.770 as a result of very specific socio and economic policies, 00:27:37.300 --> 00:27:43.600 which have been designed so that they sharply concentrate wealth, 00:27:43.600 --> 00:27:46.340 they enhance corporate power, 00:27:46.340 --> 00:27:49.040 that has immediate effects on the political system 00:27:50.100 --> 00:27:52.720 in perfectly obvious ways, even to the point 00:27:52.720 --> 00:27:56.080 where lobbyists literally write legislation. 00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:01.670 This onslaught has literally cast 00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:06.150 a bunch of the population aside. They’re stagnating. 00:28:06.150 --> 00:28:09.260 They are not moving forward. They see no prospects. 00:28:10.410 --> 00:28:12.309 And they’re bitter and angry about it. 00:28:12.820 --> 00:28:17.840 And this anger and bitterness can take pathological forms. 00:28:17.840 --> 00:28:20.680 It could take very constructive forms. 00:28:20.680 --> 00:28:24.550 It could lead to popular organized movements, 00:28:24.550 --> 00:28:30.150 which would dedicate themselves to overcoming these blows 00:28:30.150 --> 00:28:35.230 against decent human existence, which certainly can be done. 00:28:36.160 --> 00:28:40.880 The groundwork for that has been severely undermined, 00:28:40.880 --> 00:28:44.000 for example, by the destruction—careful, 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:47.050 planned destruction—of labor unions, 00:28:47.050 --> 00:28:49.570 the main force, historically, 00:28:49.570 --> 00:28:53.570 for leading the way towards more progressive, 00:28:53.570 --> 00:28:57.420 humane policies. All of these are a package. 00:28:57.420 --> 00:29:01.690 They’ve all gone together for 40 years—there’s precursors, 00:29:01.690 --> 00:29:04.730 of course—and it has led to a situation 00:29:04.730 --> 00:29:10.060 where you get an outburst of what Gramsci 00:29:10.060 --> 00:29:14.190 once called morbid symptoms, pathological developments, 00:29:14.190 --> 00:29:21.260 of the kind that you mentioned, growing out of a soil 00:29:21.260 --> 00:29:28.070 that is rich in incitement to such things happening. 00:29:28.070 --> 00:29:30.240 AMY GOODMAN: So, and then, if you could talk about 00:29:30.240 --> 00:29:33.680 specifically the targeting of the Jewish worshipers, 00:29:33.680 --> 00:29:38.150 I mean, and the clear connection that the shooter made 00:29:38.150 --> 00:29:43.890 between this temple and HIAS, 00:29:43.890 --> 00:29:46.850 what’s formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, 00:29:46.850 --> 00:29:51.650 the group that has helped to resettle refugees 00:29:51.650 --> 00:29:55.390 of any religion for well over a hundred years? 00:29:55.390 --> 00:29:58.480 And he repeated words that Trump has begun 00:29:58.480 --> 00:30:00.020 using more and more about, 00:30:00.020 --> 00:30:02.990 you know, they’re helping the "invaders" come in. 00:30:03.990 --> 00:30:06.210 If you could respond specifically to that? 00:30:09.470 --> 00:30:11.680 NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, I think it’s pretty clear 00:30:11.680 --> 00:30:18.680 that he’s whipping up terror about invasions, 00:30:18.680 --> 00:30:23.310 people pouring across the border to plan to kill us all, 00:30:23.310 --> 00:30:25.590 to destroy our civilization. 00:30:26.290 --> 00:30:30.160 You take people who are already somewhat disturbed 00:30:31.220 --> 00:30:33.280 and living under harsh conditions, 00:30:33.280 --> 00:30:38.090 this can incite them to acts of extreme violence 00:30:38.640 --> 00:30:43.170 against targets like the Jewish temple. 00:30:44.120 --> 00:30:47.790 All the anti-Semitic tropes are pointing in that direction, 00:30:48.340 --> 00:30:52.320 but most—also against Afro-Americans, 00:30:54.870 --> 00:31:01.730 immigrants, any vulnerable population or population 00:31:01.730 --> 00:31:05.250 that’s easy to target for lots of cultural 00:31:05.250 --> 00:31:07.290 and historical reasons, 00:31:07.290 --> 00:31:10.870 all this amplified by the loud speaker 00:31:10.870 --> 00:31:14.050 up in the White House and his minions, 00:31:14.050 --> 00:31:18.340 who are doing what they can to terrorize the population, 00:31:19.140 --> 00:31:21.270 create the conditions under which you can get 00:31:21.270 --> 00:31:23.810 something like the attack on the synagogue. 00:31:23.810 --> 00:31:25.160 AMY GOODMAN: So, I wanted to turn, then, 00:31:25.160 --> 00:31:29.050 to a clip of the Israeli ambassador to the United States, 00:31:29.860 --> 00:31:31.070 Ron Dermer, 00:31:31.070 --> 00:31:35.880 who was interviewed by Ayman Mohyeldin on MSNBC on Sunday, 00:31:35.880 --> 00:31:39.290 so it was soon after the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre. 00:31:39.820 --> 00:31:43.980 Dermer was asked if Trump’s rhetoric is in part 00:31:43.980 --> 00:31:45.690 to blame for the massacre. 00:31:46.600 --> 00:31:49.700 RON DERMER: I see a lot of bad people, on both sides, 00:31:49.700 --> 00:31:52.310 who attack Jews. This is not the first time 00:31:52.310 --> 00:31:53.750 that a Jewish community has been attacked. 00:31:53.750 --> 00:31:56.930 It is the worst anti-Semitic attack in, 00:31:56.930 --> 00:31:58.600 oh, 200 years in the United States, 00:31:58.600 --> 00:32:00.400 that you have 11 dead. 00:32:00.400 --> 00:32:02.290 AMY GOODMAN: Dermer said no world leader 00:32:02.290 --> 00:32:03.850 had made stronger statements 00:32:03.850 --> 00:32:05.780 against anti-Semitism than Trump. 00:32:05.780 --> 00:32:09.870 And then he went on to blame both sides. 00:32:09.870 --> 00:32:14.410 RON DERMER: To simply say that this is because of one person 00:32:14.410 --> 00:32:16.720 or it only comes on one side is to not understand 00:32:16.720 --> 00:32:20.050 the history of anti-Semitism or the reality of anti-Semitism. 00:32:20.050 --> 00:32:24.300 One of the big forces in college campuses today is anti-Semitism. 00:32:24.300 --> 00:32:25.960 And those anti-Semites 00:32:25.960 --> 00:32:28.770 are usually not neo-Nazis on college campuses. 00:32:28.770 --> 00:32:30.300 They’re coming from the radical left. 00:32:30.300 --> 00:32:34.160 AMY GOODMAN: This is right after the white supremacist attack 00:32:34.160 --> 00:32:35.410 on the synagogue, 00:32:35.410 --> 00:32:37.420 and the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. 00:32:37.420 --> 00:32:40.920 is now injecting, saying this comes from both sides. 00:32:41.760 --> 00:32:46.590 If you could respond to this? Interestingly, two days later, 00:32:46.590 --> 00:32:50.140 when Trump and his family went to Pittsburgh, 00:32:50.680 --> 00:32:53.310 the only—and this is pointed out in The New York 00:32:53.310 --> 00:33:00.120 Times—the only public official standing there to greet him 00:33:00.120 --> 00:33:03.890 was Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer. 00:33:04.500 --> 00:33:06.680 People like the Pittsburgh mayor 00:33:06.680 --> 00:33:10.010 and the others said this was not the time to come. 00:33:10.010 --> 00:33:12.860 NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, I think it’s quite easy to understand. 00:33:13.730 --> 00:33:21.080 There is an alliance of reactionary repressive states 00:33:21.080 --> 00:33:24.590 developing under the U.S. aegis. 00:33:25.450 --> 00:33:27.900 Israel is a leading member of it. 00:33:28.460 --> 00:33:32.230 Saudi Arabia is another, one of the most brutal, 00:33:32.230 --> 00:33:35.000 regressive, harsh states in the world; 00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.830 United Arab Emirates; Egypt under the harsh, 00:33:39.830 --> 00:33:44.370 brutal dictatorship; the United States; Israel. 00:33:44.370 --> 00:33:47.560 And the United States, of course, very—especially 00:33:47.560 --> 00:33:50.730 under this—the alignment goes way back, 00:33:50.730 --> 00:33:54.180 but the Trump administration has gone way out of its way 00:33:55.010 --> 00:33:59.630 to lend support to Israeli crimes, Israeli expansion. 00:34:00.410 --> 00:34:02.980 And the Israeli right wing, of course, 00:34:02.980 --> 00:34:05.320 which is increasingly dominant, is delighted. 00:34:06.070 --> 00:34:09.670 So, the fact that, say, 00:34:09.670 --> 00:34:11.500 the Israeli ambassador would come out 00:34:11.500 --> 00:34:15.400 and say that is really no more surprising 00:34:15.400 --> 00:34:20.530 than the fact that John Bolton would praise the election 00:34:20.530 --> 00:34:26.270 of a strong advocate of torture, murder and repression. 00:34:26.270 --> 00:34:28.450 It all fits the same pattern. 00:34:29.420 --> 00:34:31.920 AMY GOODMAN: This issue of the number of people 00:34:31.920 --> 00:34:33.600 who died this weekend, 00:34:33.600 --> 00:34:37.570 the horrific massacre—11 Jews died. 00:34:38.420 --> 00:34:42.940 The model of the coverage, of knowing who each person was, 00:34:42.940 --> 00:34:45.780 hearing their names, their life stories, 00:34:45.780 --> 00:34:48.500 their ages, who their families were, 00:34:48.500 --> 00:34:50.660 knowing when the funerals are taking place 00:34:50.660 --> 00:34:54.590 through the week—what about this being a model 00:34:54.590 --> 00:34:56.290 for what’s happening in Gaza? 00:34:56.290 --> 00:34:58.980 I mean, for example, on, I think it was, 00:34:58.980 --> 00:35:01.900 Friday, six Palestinians were killed, 00:35:02.660 --> 00:35:06.700 with those ongoing protests near the separation wall. 00:35:06.700 --> 00:35:11.590 Israeli military has gunned down more than 200 Palestinians. 00:35:12.380 --> 00:35:15.570 That was Friday. Six Palestinians died. 00:35:15.570 --> 00:35:19.330 And on Sunday, three Palestinian teenagers were killed 00:35:19.330 --> 00:35:23.190 in an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip. 00:35:23.190 --> 00:35:27.830 Your thoughts on Dermer trying to make this connection 00:35:27.830 --> 00:35:30.770 to get away from the issue of white supremacy 00:35:30.770 --> 00:35:36.260 and, somehow, someway, blame the left? 00:35:39.120 --> 00:35:43.750 NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, remember, all of this in Gaza 00:35:43.750 --> 00:35:47.140 is being done with overwhelming U.S. support, 00:35:47.820 --> 00:35:49.950 even U.S. weapons, literally. 00:35:52.560 --> 00:35:57.880 Gaza is on the verge of becoming, 00:35:57.880 --> 00:36:00.110 literally, uninhabitable. 00:36:01.050 --> 00:36:06.740 The international monitors—U.N. and others—have warned 00:36:06.740 --> 00:36:14.600 that within just a few years, it may be literally unlivable. 00:36:14.600 --> 00:36:19.530 I mean, right now, there’s virtually no potable water. 00:36:22.930 --> 00:36:27.440 The sewage pours into the sea, 00:36:27.440 --> 00:36:30.740 because Israel has bombed and destroyed the power plants 00:36:30.740 --> 00:36:32.440 and the sewage plant. 00:36:33.840 --> 00:36:35.450 Back in 2005, 00:36:35.450 --> 00:36:42.460 when Israel withdrew its illegal settlers in Gaza 00:36:42.460 --> 00:36:46.110 and moved them to illegal settlements in the West Bank, 00:36:46.640 --> 00:36:50.340 it imposed a siege on Gaza. 00:36:51.670 --> 00:36:55.240 The official terms for that—official, 00:36:55.240 --> 00:36:56.970 not making this up—are 00:36:56.970 --> 00:37:00.630 "We have to impose a diet on Gaza, 00:37:01.370 --> 00:37:05.790 not harsh enough so they’ll all die"—implication 00:37:05.790 --> 00:37:09.020 being that wouldn’t look very good—"but harsh enough 00:37:09.020 --> 00:37:10.820 so that they can barely survive." 00:37:11.670 --> 00:37:16.170 And there have been—quite apart from the brutal siege, 00:37:16.170 --> 00:37:21.660 there have been repeated attacks on Gaza by the Israeli army. 00:37:22.220 --> 00:37:24.650 Gaza is virtually defenseless. 00:37:25.810 --> 00:37:28.400 This is one of the strongest armies in the world, 00:37:28.400 --> 00:37:31.490 lashing out to devastate Gaza. 00:37:31.490 --> 00:37:32.770 There’s always pretexts. 00:37:32.770 --> 00:37:34.770 There are pretexts for everything. 00:37:35.350 --> 00:37:38.370 Hitler had a pretext for invading Poland: 00:37:38.370 --> 00:37:43.540 He was protecting Germany from the wild terror of the Poles. 00:37:43.540 --> 00:37:45.940 And the Israelis, with U.S. backing, 00:37:45.940 --> 00:37:49.350 have concocted pretexts—no time to go through it here, 00:37:49.350 --> 00:37:51.340 there’s plenty in print about it. 00:37:51.990 --> 00:37:54.370 Every one of them collapses on inspection. 00:37:55.060 --> 00:37:57.170 It’s just a punching bag. 00:37:57.170 --> 00:37:59.390 And the effect on the people of Gaza 00:37:59.390 --> 00:38:01.860 is to create utter desperation. 00:38:05.320 --> 00:38:09.190 The current march is just an attempt to somehow 00:38:09.190 --> 00:38:12.490 break the siege, make life possible. 00:38:13.230 --> 00:38:16.520 The problem could be overcome easily, 00:38:16.520 --> 00:38:20.910 simply by providing them with the opportunities for survival. 00:38:21.550 --> 00:38:26.240 That’s it. Not trying to block every attempt 00:38:26.920 --> 00:38:29.890 at political unification of the factions. 00:38:29.890 --> 00:38:33.640 It’s often been a pretext for another attack. 00:38:35.260 --> 00:38:38.690 Some of what’s gone on—parts of it 00:38:38.690 --> 00:38:41.280 we’ve seen—are just grotesque, 00:38:41.280 --> 00:38:46.500 like when a highly trained Israeli sniper murders 00:38:46.500 --> 00:38:52.020 a young woman far from the border who’s trying 00:38:52.020 --> 00:38:56.230 to help—a Palestinian volunteer medic, young woman, 00:38:56.230 --> 00:38:59.110 who’s trying to help a wounded man, 00:38:59.680 --> 00:39:01.720 and a sniper murders her. 00:39:02.860 --> 00:39:05.510 Highly trained snipers. They know what they’re doing. 00:39:06.140 --> 00:39:11.400 The international monitors who have gone through the hospitals 00:39:11.400 --> 00:39:15.180 are shocked by the kinds of wounds they’re finding, 00:39:15.720 --> 00:39:20.320 purposely designed to maim people 00:39:20.320 --> 00:39:23.490 so they’ll barely—not kill them, but maim them, 00:39:23.490 --> 00:39:27.620 so they won’t be able to have a—even take part 00:39:27.620 --> 00:39:29.760 in the minimal life that exists there. 00:39:30.560 --> 00:39:34.230 Actually, Trump had a solution to this, 00:39:34.230 --> 00:39:39.100 to the misery of Gaza and the prospect that 2 million people, 00:39:39.680 --> 00:39:43.050 half of them children, will soon be in a situation of, 00:39:43.050 --> 00:39:46.980 literally, beyond the possibility of survival. 00:39:46.980 --> 00:39:51.500 They had a lifeline, what’s called the UNRWA support, 00:39:51.500 --> 00:39:54.690 international support, which was barely keeping them alive. 00:39:55.300 --> 00:39:59.310 So, Trump’s reaction is to cut it, cut support for it. 00:39:59.830 --> 00:40:02.010 And he even had a reason. He said, 00:40:02.010 --> 00:40:06.270 "They’re not being grateful enough to me for my efforts 00:40:06.270 --> 00:40:10.540 to give them the ultimate deal that I’m planning." 00:40:10.540 --> 00:40:11.770 Ultimate deal, 00:40:11.770 --> 00:40:15.670 which means give up all your rights and forget it. 00:40:15.670 --> 00:40:21.890 Two leading American political analysts, 00:40:21.890 --> 00:40:24.970 specialists on the Middle East, with long government service, 00:40:25.750 --> 00:40:28.460 Robert Malley, Aaron David Miller, 00:40:28.460 --> 00:40:32.350 really encapsulated the Trump program very simply, 00:40:33.150 --> 00:40:36.080 said the Trump message is to the Palestinians, 00:40:36.080 --> 00:40:39.950 "You have lost. Forget it. Go away. You’re done. 00:40:40.820 --> 00:40:43.750 And because the people of Gaza 00:40:43.750 --> 00:40:46.440 are not sufficient—on the West Bank—or, 00:40:46.440 --> 00:40:49.910 sufficiently appreciative, let’s cut the lifeline." 00:40:50.450 --> 00:40:54.240 In fact, let’s even—as he did—cut support 00:40:54.240 --> 00:41:00.400 for underfunded Palestinian hospitals in the West Bank. 00:41:01.000 --> 00:41:06.230 Let’s cut the funding for the UNRWA school 00:41:06.230 --> 00:41:12.980 in the Shatila refugee camp in Lebanon, 00:41:12.980 --> 00:41:20.070 still reeking from the hideous Israeli-run massacre 00:41:20.070 --> 00:41:23.640 there back at the end of their invasion in '82. 00:41:24.710 --> 00:41:29.310 You see little kids playing in the mud in dark alleys. 00:41:29.310 --> 00:41:30.860 They'll never get out. 00:41:30.860 --> 00:41:33.300 Their children will be there, and so on. 00:41:33.300 --> 00:41:36.830 They had one hope: the UNRWA school. 00:41:36.830 --> 00:41:41.230 Good, let’s kill that. All of this, these things are, 00:41:42.530 --> 00:41:45.300 just one after another, taking place. 00:41:46.090 --> 00:41:47.790 Indescribable. 00:41:47.790 --> 00:41:55.510 I mean, the war in Yemen, which finally, at last, 00:41:55.510 --> 00:41:57.570 is getting a little bit of attention, 00:41:58.110 --> 00:42:00.520 has been a major horror story. 00:42:01.280 --> 00:42:05.740 The most careful estimates of the killing, 00:42:05.740 --> 00:42:07.440 that are now just coming out, 00:42:07.960 --> 00:42:10.750 show that there may be seven or eight times 00:42:10.750 --> 00:42:13.810 as high as what has been—the numbers that have been given. 00:42:13.810 --> 00:42:16.840 They’re on the order of 70,000 or 80,000. 00:42:18.070 --> 00:42:24.420 The analysis of these Saudi-Emirate programs, 00:42:24.420 --> 00:42:28.380 a long study that came out of the Fletcher School 00:42:28.380 --> 00:42:31.190 of International Diplomacy at Tufts University 00:42:31.190 --> 00:42:34.700 recently, showed, quite persuasively, 00:42:34.700 --> 00:42:38.460 that the policies of the attackers are aimed 00:42:38.460 --> 00:42:41.090 at destroying the food supplies, 00:42:41.750 --> 00:42:44.080 making sure the population starves to death. 00:42:44.650 --> 00:42:46.730 They’re also trying to close the port 00:42:46.730 --> 00:42:49.080 through which some supplies come. 00:42:49.770 --> 00:42:53.400 All of this is fully backed by the United States. 00:42:53.970 --> 00:42:57.970 U.S., and Britain secondarily, supply the arms. 00:42:57.970 --> 00:43:01.170 The U.S. supplies the intelligence 00:43:01.170 --> 00:43:03.300 for the Saudi Air Force, 00:43:03.300 --> 00:43:06.240 which is carrying out massive atrocities. 00:43:06.880 --> 00:43:08.580 All of these things are happening. 00:43:10.050 --> 00:43:12.440 For years, they’ve barely been discussed. 00:43:12.440 --> 00:43:17.470 Now, finally, you’re seeing pictures on the front page 00:43:17.470 --> 00:43:19.380 of starving Yemeni children, 00:43:20.240 --> 00:43:24.220 even a call for a ceasefire—much belated, 00:43:24.220 --> 00:43:28.470 little attention to our crucial responsibility for it. 00:43:28.980 --> 00:43:33.050 Just like our responsibility, which is overwhelming, 00:43:33.050 --> 00:43:36.350 for the plight of the miserable people 00:43:36.350 --> 00:43:42.800 trying to escape from the troika—Honduras, El Salvador, 00:43:42.800 --> 00:43:45.050 Guatemala—the three countries 00:43:45.050 --> 00:43:47.670 that have been completely under our thumb 00:43:47.670 --> 00:43:51.670 and are suffering bitterly for it, now trying to escape. 00:43:51.670 --> 00:43:55.700 So we turn them into an invasion mob planning to destroy us. 00:43:57.520 --> 00:43:59.990 All of this is surreal. 00:43:59.990 --> 00:44:07.750 It only is overshadowed by the failure to attend 00:44:08.380 --> 00:44:13.560 even minimally to the literal existential threats, 00:44:13.560 --> 00:44:15.510 that are not remote. 00:44:15.510 --> 00:44:18.970 AMY GOODMAN: Do you consider this one of the gravest times, 00:44:18.970 --> 00:44:21.960 in your lifetime, in U.S. politics, Noam? 00:44:21.960 --> 00:44:25.380 NOAM CHOMSKY: It’s one of the gravest times in human history. 00:44:26.370 --> 00:44:29.940 Humans have been around for 200,000 years. 00:44:30.640 --> 00:44:32.940 For the first time in their history, 00:44:33.540 --> 00:44:39.780 they have to decide—and quickly—whether organized 00:44:39.780 --> 00:44:44.990 human society is going to survive for very long. 00:44:44.990 --> 00:44:48.640 And that’s not in the remote distance. 00:44:52.060 --> 00:44:55.870 Again, there are two—with all the problems 00:44:55.870 --> 00:44:58.920 and horrors in the world which should be attended to, 00:44:59.680 --> 00:45:05.670 there are two existential threats, both being increased. 00:45:06.240 --> 00:45:11.520 One is the threat of nuclear war, which is terminal. 00:45:12.140 --> 00:45:13.820 The other is the threat 00:45:13.820 --> 00:45:18.050 of severe environmental catastrophe, 00:45:18.580 --> 00:45:22.120 which doesn’t destroy all human life, 00:45:22.680 --> 00:45:29.740 but it does undermine the prospects for organized society. 00:45:29.740 --> 00:45:33.840 And you mentioned earlier a third threat, 00:45:34.920 --> 00:45:38.710 also dating back to the end of the Second World War. 00:45:39.270 --> 00:45:40.800 The end of the Second World War 00:45:40.800 --> 00:45:43.240 was the opening of the nuclear age. 00:45:43.240 --> 00:45:44.480 And as I mentioned, 00:45:44.480 --> 00:45:47.390 it’s kind of a miracle that we’ve survived it. 00:45:48.160 --> 00:45:52.530 It’s also the opening of what geologists are now 00:45:52.530 --> 00:45:58.510 calling the Anthropocene, the age in which human activity 00:45:58.510 --> 00:46:01.940 is radically affecting the environment. 00:46:01.940 --> 00:46:04.860 There’s been debate about its origins. 00:46:04.860 --> 00:46:10.130 The World Geological Society more or less settled on the end 00:46:10.130 --> 00:46:12.900 of the beginning—the end of the Second World War, 00:46:12.900 --> 00:46:14.360 the late ’40s and on, 00:46:14.360 --> 00:46:17.660 where there was a sharp spike in damage to the environment. 00:46:18.200 --> 00:46:22.130 The third is what’s called the sixth extinction, 00:46:22.970 --> 00:46:24.670 the extinction of species. 00:46:25.330 --> 00:46:30.190 The fifth extinction was around 65 million years ago, 00:46:30.190 --> 00:46:33.830 when it’s assumed that a huge asteroid hit the Earth 00:46:34.750 --> 00:46:36.640 and ended the age of the dinosaurs. 00:46:36.640 --> 00:46:39.350 It destroyed most of the species on Earth. 00:46:40.280 --> 00:46:43.440 We’re now in the midst of the sixth extinction, 00:46:43.950 --> 00:46:48.240 with very rapid destruction of other species 00:46:48.860 --> 00:46:53.130 and of the kind of environment in which they can survive, 00:46:53.130 --> 00:46:54.920 like wilderness, for example. 00:46:55.440 --> 00:47:01.460 We are pushing to the edge of not only our own survival, 00:47:01.460 --> 00:47:07.180 but that of much of the—much of life on Earth. 00:47:08.240 --> 00:47:12.700 So, is it the most gravest moment in my life? 00:47:12.700 --> 00:47:16.620 Yes. But also in all of human history. 00:47:17.240 --> 00:47:21.220 And things like the election next week 00:47:21.220 --> 00:47:23.170 will have an impact on this. 00:47:23.880 --> 00:47:26.400 AMY GOODMAN: World-renowned professor, linguist 00:47:26.400 --> 00:47:28.550 and dissident Noam Chomsky, 00:47:28.550 --> 00:47:30.960 speaking to us from Tucson, Arizona, 00:47:30.960 --> 00:47:35.000 where he is now teaching at the University of Arizona. 00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:38.410 He is the institute professor emeritus of linguistics 00:47:38.410 --> 00:47:40.690 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 00:47:40.690 --> 00:47:43.600 where he’s taught for more than 50 years, 00:47:43.600 --> 00:47:46.060 has written over 100 books, 00:47:46.060 --> 00:47:49.490 was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 00:47:49.490 --> 00:47:54.200 We’ll air more of the interview with Noam Chomsky next week. 00:47:54.200 --> 00:47:55.500 This is Democracy Now! 00:47:55.500 --> 00:47:58.820 When we come back, Ilana Glazer joins, 00:47:58.820 --> 00:48:01.530 yes, of Comedy Central Broad City. 00:48:02.130 --> 00:48:05.250 But she’ll be talking about serious things right now. 00:48:05.250 --> 00:48:07.970 She’ll be talking about what happened last night 00:48:07.970 --> 00:48:12.160 at an event she had planned for a Brooklyn synagogue, 00:48:12.160 --> 00:48:15.190 where she was going to be talking about politics 00:48:15.190 --> 00:48:18.240 before the midterms. The event had to be canceled 00:48:18.240 --> 00:48:21.930 because of anti-Semitic and racist graffiti 00:48:21.930 --> 00:48:25.720 that was scrawled just before the event around the synagogue. 00:48:25.720 --> 00:48:27.420 Stay with us. 00:49:31.770 --> 00:49:34.860 AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, 00:49:34.860 --> 00:49:36.959 The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. 00:49:37.630 --> 00:49:40.140 We end today’s show here in New York City, 00:49:40.140 --> 00:49:43.310 where a political event hosted by Ilana 00:49:43.310 --> 00:49:46.280 Glazer of Comedy Central’s Broad City 00:49:46.280 --> 00:49:49.500 at the Union Temple Synagogue in Prospect Heights, 00:49:49.500 --> 00:49:52.690 Brooklyn, was canceled Thursday night 00:49:52.690 --> 00:49:55.230 after anti-Semitic and racist messages 00:49:55.230 --> 00:50:00.060 were found scrawled across walls throughout the building, 00:50:00.060 --> 00:50:02.370 just before the event was to begin. 00:50:03.010 --> 00:50:07.100 Among the messages were "Jew Better Be Ready," 00:50:08.000 --> 00:50:10.100 "Insert Oven Here." 00:50:10.870 --> 00:50:14.610 Another said, as we walk through the halls, "End is now," 00:50:15.940 --> 00:50:21.350 "Hitler," another scrawled "Free Smoke for [N-word] 00:50:21.350 --> 00:50:24.570 Jews"—and "N-word" was written out. 00:50:25.180 --> 00:50:29.200 And then there was one that said "FPEE PR," 00:50:29.200 --> 00:50:32.090 with what looked like a Puerto Rican flag. 00:50:32.870 --> 00:50:35.520 The graffiti comes amidst a surge 00:50:35.520 --> 00:50:38.420 in anti-Semitic hate crimes nationwide, 00:50:39.030 --> 00:50:43.160 including Saturday’s massacre of 11 Jewish worshipers 00:50:43.160 --> 00:50:45.730 at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. 00:50:46.340 --> 00:50:50.390 I was scheduled to speak at Ilana Glazer’s event last night 00:50:50.390 --> 00:50:53.790 to talk about coverage of the midterm elections 00:50:53.790 --> 00:50:56.760 and the coverage of grassroots movements leading up to it. 00:50:57.630 --> 00:51:00.790 On Thursday night, Ilana Glazer, 00:51:00.790 --> 00:51:04.940 after careful consideration, after looking at the graffiti, 00:51:05.590 --> 00:51:08.950 announced to the crowd of hundreds of people 00:51:08.950 --> 00:51:10.500 that she was canceling the event. 00:51:10.500 --> 00:51:12.350 ILANA GLAZER: Thank you for coming tonight. 00:51:13.470 --> 00:51:15.150 We have a situation that we 00:51:15.150 --> 00:51:17.790 will—that’s not presenting any immediate danger, 00:51:17.790 --> 00:51:23.400 but there were hateful, anti-Semitic [bleep] 00:51:23.400 --> 00:51:25.910 scrawled all over the space today, 00:51:27.340 --> 00:51:29.730 very recently, within the past couple hours. 00:51:31.460 --> 00:51:33.160 So we don’t feel safe. 00:51:33.680 --> 00:51:35.950 AMY GOODMAN: The Union Temple Synagogue in Brooklyn 00:51:35.950 --> 00:51:38.780 hosts outside events frequently, 00:51:38.780 --> 00:51:41.700 including an upcoming event next week 00:51:41.700 --> 00:51:44.790 commemorating the anniversary of Kristallnacht—that’s 00:51:44.790 --> 00:51:49.320 the Night of Broken Glass, November 10th, 1938, 00:51:49.320 --> 00:51:53.810 when the glass of Jewish stores was smashed throughout Germany. 00:51:53.810 --> 00:51:55.300 Well, for more, we’re joined here 00:51:55.300 --> 00:51:56.960 in our New York studio by Ilana 00:51:56.960 --> 00:52:00.000 Glazer, co-creator and star of the hit 00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:02.600 Comedy Central show Broad City. 00:52:02.600 --> 00:52:04.160 Welcome to Democracy Now!, Ilana. 00:52:04.160 --> 00:52:05.470 ILANA GLAZER: Hi, Amy. Thanks for having me. 00:52:05.470 --> 00:52:07.200 AMY GOODMAN: Well, it wasn’t just a few hours ago 00:52:07.200 --> 00:52:09.780 that we were together last night at the synagogue. 00:52:09.780 --> 00:52:11.830 You were just about to hold this event, 00:52:11.830 --> 00:52:13.770 which you were really excited about, 00:52:13.770 --> 00:52:16.530 but then you got word what was scrawled 00:52:16.530 --> 00:52:19.590 through the stairwells and halls of the synagogue. 00:52:20.130 --> 00:52:22.980 ILANA GLAZER: Yes. So, these Generator events, 00:52:22.980 --> 00:52:25.710 it’s—Generator is an online movement 00:52:25.710 --> 00:52:28.170 to encourage people to use their Instagram 00:52:28.170 --> 00:52:30.840 to talk about how policy affects their everyday lives, 00:52:30.840 --> 00:52:34.000 and humanize policy. And in these live events, 00:52:34.000 --> 00:52:36.540 I’ve been interviewing politicians and activists 00:52:36.540 --> 00:52:39.240 to sort of hear and compare about 00:52:39.240 --> 00:52:41.840 how they serve—how they both work for the people. 00:52:43.490 --> 00:52:47.780 And this week started with—it started 00:52:47.780 --> 00:52:52.360 and ended with white supremacy kind of ruining our programming. 00:52:53.880 --> 00:52:58.050 Last night was very—it was hard to tell. 00:52:58.050 --> 00:53:00.270 And every time we started talking about 00:53:00.270 --> 00:53:02.610 like what it could be, it just was like, 00:53:02.610 --> 00:53:06.540 no, we can’t— I can’t put these 200 people, 00:53:07.690 --> 00:53:10.470 who came to listen in a safe 00:53:10.470 --> 00:53:12.280 space—I can’t put them in that danger. 00:53:12.280 --> 00:53:14.890 AMY GOODMAN: We just walked outside the green room, 00:53:14.890 --> 00:53:18.900 and we saw, right by the all-gender bathroom, 00:53:18.900 --> 00:53:22.720 the words scrawled, kind of with Magic Marker, and it said, 00:53:22.720 --> 00:53:27.270 "Insert"—but it left out the N—"Insert oven here." 00:53:27.270 --> 00:53:28.990 ILANA GLAZER: Mm-hmm, yeah. 00:53:28.990 --> 00:53:33.670 And what was scary was that it was all over the building. 00:53:33.670 --> 00:53:36.150 And then the cops were kind of searching the building. 00:53:36.150 --> 00:53:38.820 It was too freaky. It was too freaky to hold it. 00:53:38.820 --> 00:53:40.210 AMY GOODMAN: And there are number of events 00:53:40.210 --> 00:53:41.430 in the building. 00:53:41.430 --> 00:53:45.280 And very interestingly, as we went outside, 00:53:45.280 --> 00:53:47.600 hundreds of really disappointed people, 00:53:47.600 --> 00:53:50.380 who were really galvanized for the midterm elections, 00:53:51.390 --> 00:53:55.260 I saw a sign outside, which we’ll talk about in a second, 00:53:55.260 --> 00:53:56.960 that has to do with an event 00:53:57.900 --> 00:54:01.170 dealing with what happened back in 1939. 00:54:01.170 --> 00:54:03.520 But talk about, when you talk about The Generator Series, 00:54:03.520 --> 00:54:04.750 what you mean. 00:54:04.750 --> 00:54:06.180 ILANA GLAZER: So, The Generator Series 00:54:06.180 --> 00:54:08.460 is an in-person 00:54:08.460 --> 00:54:12.220 gathering of people who are part of this online community, 00:54:12.220 --> 00:54:15.520 who are willing to share part of their platform—because 00:54:15.520 --> 00:54:19.690 all of us have a platform now—with—you know, 00:54:19.690 --> 00:54:22.040 to discuss how policy affects—how the government 00:54:22.040 --> 00:54:23.310 affects our everyday lives. 00:54:23.310 --> 00:54:27.840 It feels so amorphous or philosophical, 00:54:27.840 --> 00:54:30.000 until we hear about it, 00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:33.150 you know, affecting people’s bodies—women’s bodies, 00:54:33.150 --> 00:54:34.850 brown bodies, black bodies. 00:54:35.900 --> 00:54:38.450 And, you know, I think that we talk a lot in Generator 00:54:38.450 --> 00:54:40.530 about like not discussing politics, 00:54:40.530 --> 00:54:42.390 growing up in the '90s. "Don't talk about politics" 00:54:42.390 --> 00:54:44.920 was like a phrase on the tip of everyone’s tongue. 00:54:44.920 --> 00:54:47.690 And I think that’s what’s gotten us here today, 00:54:47.690 --> 00:54:49.250 with this divisive country 00:54:49.250 --> 00:54:52.630 and this divisive political landscape 00:54:52.630 --> 00:54:56.820 and this sort of representation of a president, you know, 00:54:56.820 --> 00:55:00.200 but not—it’s not really someone who has come up and understands 00:55:00.200 --> 00:55:02.530 policy and understands history or law. 00:55:04.350 --> 00:55:07.250 So, it was interesting last night that it’s like, 00:55:07.250 --> 00:55:09.170 you know, rather than sharing your story, 00:55:09.170 --> 00:55:10.710 we lived through a story. 00:55:10.710 --> 00:55:14.690 We lived through—we lived through a safe, you know, 00:55:15.420 --> 00:55:19.370 physically benign version of a white supremacist act. 00:55:19.370 --> 00:55:23.140 And yeah, I had four events scheduled this week. 00:55:23.140 --> 00:55:27.920 And in the first event, this candidate had to pull out, 00:55:27.920 --> 00:55:30.300 because I called his opponent a white supremacist on Instagram. 00:55:30.300 --> 00:55:32.740 He had to pull out. And I totally understood, 00:55:32.740 --> 00:55:34.690 and I had this like ideological crossroads, 00:55:34.690 --> 00:55:37.490 like "Did I do the wrong thing?" But this is—that was my view. 00:55:37.490 --> 00:55:40.440 And that silenced this candidate, 00:55:40.440 --> 00:55:42.070 Perry Gershon, from coming. 00:55:42.070 --> 00:55:43.810 And last night, I was like so ready. 00:55:43.810 --> 00:55:48.350 I have these beautiful, bright people ready to go, 00:55:48.350 --> 00:55:50.860 ready to canvas, ready to do—you know, 00:55:50.860 --> 00:55:56.350 I intended to point people in the community to canvas, 00:55:56.350 --> 00:56:02.430 to knock on doors and change the local elections, 00:56:02.430 --> 00:56:06.700 to win for—to help progressive candidates 00:56:06.700 --> 00:56:09.610 who stand for human rights politics to win. 00:56:09.610 --> 00:56:10.820 AMY GOODMAN: In New York and Long Island. 00:56:10.820 --> 00:56:12.730 ILANA GLAZER: That’s right. And I’m from Long Island, 00:56:12.730 --> 00:56:14.710 so it just has been like personal. 00:56:14.710 --> 00:56:17.680 And I’ve been in New York for—the city, for 13 years, 00:56:17.680 --> 00:56:19.390 so I just was very excited 00:56:19.390 --> 00:56:21.720 to point people in the right direction. 00:56:21.720 --> 00:56:24.520 And we saw—as a community, the Generator community, 00:56:24.520 --> 00:56:27.920 we saw how white supremacy silences those politics 00:56:27.920 --> 00:56:29.770 and halts that action. 00:56:30.850 --> 00:56:32.720 AMY GOODMAN: You know, people might be surprised 00:56:32.720 --> 00:56:35.140 to hear you talking so seriously, 00:56:35.140 --> 00:56:36.730 who are big fans of yours for Broad City. 00:56:36.730 --> 00:56:37.970 ILANA GLAZER: Yeah. 00:56:37.970 --> 00:56:39.240 AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, you’re a stand-up comic. 00:56:39.240 --> 00:56:42.800 ILANA GLAZER: Yeah, yeah. You know, it’s—well, 00:56:42.800 --> 00:56:44.260 The Generator Series has been funny, 00:56:44.260 --> 00:56:47.250 because rather than stand-up, like what’s the context here? 00:56:47.250 --> 00:56:50.320 The context is, I’m coming to see Ilana Glazer do stand-up. 00:56:50.320 --> 00:56:52.919 But with Generator, it’s like the stakes are so high 00:56:53.430 --> 00:56:55.560 that the contrast of serious and comedy 00:56:55.560 --> 00:56:57.200 is so much—is so much greater. 00:56:57.200 --> 00:56:58.910 And there’s actually a different kind of comedy 00:56:58.910 --> 00:57:01.620 that happens at Generator. But yeah, I’m passionate about— 00:57:01.620 --> 00:57:02.830 AMY GOODMAN: But, of course, 00:57:02.830 --> 00:57:04.870 last night there was not much humor. 00:57:04.870 --> 00:57:06.440 ILANA GLAZER: No. I mean, that was scary. 00:57:06.440 --> 00:57:07.880 That was actually just straight-up scary. 00:57:07.880 --> 00:57:10.280 And, you know, with the mass shooting last week, 00:57:12.080 --> 00:57:13.460 it was like already eerie 00:57:13.460 --> 00:57:15.500 to be having these events in a synagogue. 00:57:15.500 --> 00:57:20.330 But, you know, our president’s words 00:57:20.330 --> 00:57:23.610 and our politicians’ words, who stand for white supremacy, 00:57:23.610 --> 00:57:25.790 who stand for violence and aggression, 00:57:25.790 --> 00:57:27.640 like these words turn into action so quickly. 00:57:27.640 --> 00:57:28.930 We’re seeing that happen now. 00:57:28.930 --> 00:57:30.880 And especially with no commonsense gun laws, 00:57:30.880 --> 00:57:34.070 you know, that action can be serious very quickly. 00:57:34.070 --> 00:57:37.460 And we weren’t going to—we weren’t going to take that risk. 00:57:37.460 --> 00:57:38.670 AMY GOODMAN: You refer a lot 00:57:38.670 --> 00:57:39.990 to your Jewish identity on Broad City. 00:57:39.990 --> 00:57:41.270 ILANA GLAZER: Mm-hmm. 00:57:41.270 --> 00:57:42.870 AMY GOODMAN: As we just have a minute to go, 00:57:42.870 --> 00:57:46.010 your final thoughts on what this all means? 00:57:46.010 --> 00:57:48.790 And again, there were other slur words, too, like the N-word. 00:57:48.790 --> 00:57:50.020 ILANA GLAZER: Yeah. 00:57:50.020 --> 00:57:54.040 You know, I do—my Jewish identity means a lot to me. 00:57:54.040 --> 00:57:57.850 And I implore other Jews to align themselves 00:57:57.850 --> 00:58:01.200 with those who are also othered in this country. 00:58:01.200 --> 00:58:04.590 You know, this country was built on the backs 00:58:04.590 --> 00:58:05.850 of black and brown bodies. 00:58:05.850 --> 00:58:08.490 And Jews are in this weird middle space, 00:58:08.490 --> 00:58:10.450 but we are all othered. 00:58:10.450 --> 00:58:14.300 But we are all—as a unit, we are strong and can stand up 00:58:14.300 --> 00:58:16.610 and make change in these midterm elections. 00:58:16.610 --> 00:58:20.160 I’m just so—I hope that we do. I really hope that we do. 00:58:20.160 --> 00:58:21.410 Our voices matter. 00:58:21.410 --> 00:58:23.670 And we have to be a little more strategic about our safety, 00:58:23.670 --> 00:58:25.420 but we can make change, very imminently. 00:58:25.420 --> 00:58:26.650 AMY GOODMAN: Ilana Glazer, 00:58:26.650 --> 00:58:28.380 I want to thank you so much for being with us. 00:58:28.380 --> 00:58:30.750 Ilana Glazer, comedian, writer, actress, co-creator, 00:58:30.750 --> 00:58:33.410 star of the hit Comedy Central show Broad City. 00:58:33.930 --> 00:58:38.050 You can go to our website to see the images, at democracynow.org. 00:58:38.050 --> 00:58:40.670 A very fond farewell to our dear producer 00:58:40.670 --> 00:58:43.090 Laura Gottesdiener. I have no words. 00:58:43.090 --> 00:58:46.160 Thank you so much for all of your contributions here 00:58:46.160 --> 00:58:47.860 over these years.