07/14/17 07/14/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! seeing, the we are new republican trumpcare bill is every bit as mean as the old one. amy: a revised republican plan to repeal and replace the affordable care act would gut medicaid, give massive tax cuts to the wealthiest americans, and defund planned parenthood -- making it harder for women to and basic reproductive services. we'll get response from jessica mason pieklo of rewire and go to capitol hill to speak with from democratic congressman keith ellison, where 11 interfaith leaders were arrested thursday

for protesting the plan outside the office of senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. >> i have been a no the people of kentucky low suffer if this health care bill passes. you may be ok, your friends may be ok, but the people who put you in office will suffer. amy: then we speak with oscar-nominated actor james cromwell, who heads to jail today. he was sentenced to a week behind bars for a non-violent protest against a natural gas-fired power plant in upstate new york that used fracked oil . >> not only with barak and and afghanistan and yemen, we are at war with pennsylvania where the gas comes from, where it was to be stored, and standing rock. it is time to name the disease. most people can put their name

on the cause of it, but everyone perceives the threat. capitalism is a cancer. amy: james cromwell will begin a hunger fast in jail. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell unveiled a revised plan thursday to repeal and replace the affordable care act, and is once again facing opposition from within his own party. on thursday, senators susan collins of main and rand paul of kentucky said they would oppose even putting the new bill to a vote. the measure would gut medicaid by over $700 billion through 2026, while providing massive tax cuts to the wealthiest americans. republicans are facing sustained grassroots resistance to their plans. on thursday, 11 interfaith leaders, including north

carolina naacp president reverend william barber, were arrested outside senate majority leader mitch mcconnell's office protesting the latest version of the republican healthcare plan. this is traci blackmon, executive minister of justice and witness ministries for the united church of christ. >> i happen to know that the people of kentucky will suffer if this health care bill passes. you may be ok, your friends may be ok, but the people who put you in office will suffer because of this bill. it is time to stop calling god by other names when you really want to call god capitalism. amy: the healthcare fight came as a new investigation by the guardian reveals tobacco companies have attained unprecedented influence in washington since the trump administration came to power. the guardian reports politicians with deep ties to the tobacco industry now head much of trump's cabinet and the senate, even as tobacco use remains the

leading preventable cause of death. french president emmanuel macron welcomed president donald trump to paris thursday, saying he was prepared to set aside differences over the paris climate accord in order to work together on other issues. >> i disagree with the way the paris agreement is being interpreted by the u.s. we talked about this disagreement. before and after the decision taken by president trump. should this get in the way of the discussions on all other subjects? definitely not. under no circumstances. amy: president macron said france was on target to increase the size of its military budget to 2% of the nation's economic output key demand of trump to , a nato allies. meanwhile, president trump floated the possibility of reversing his plan to withdraw the u.s. from the paris climate accord. mean,trump: yeah, i

something could happen with respect to the paris accord. we will see what happens. but we will talk about that over the coming period of time. if it happens, that will be wonderful. if it doesn't, that will be ok, too. amy: as trump and macron met, hundreds of protesters packed a designated protest area of paris dubbed the no-trump zone. this is french citizen lucy carpenter. protesting the things that trump was limiting that we don't agree with, such as the climate change -- pulling out of the climate change conference. against the rights of immigrants , being homophobic, all of those things. amy: meanwhile, president trump was blasted on social media over what many are calling creepy and sexist comments about french first lady brigitte macron. video posted to president macron's facebook page shows trump looking the first lady up and down before commenting,

"you're in such good shape," and repeating, "she's in such good physical shape," adding, "beautiful." trump has a long history of sexist comments. he previously called comedian rosie o'donnell a fat pig and boasted in a 2005 access hollywood video about sexually assaulting women. in washington, d.c., the education department's top civil rights official apologized thursday after making false claims about sexual assault on college campuses. assistant secretary for civil rights candice jackson's apology came after she told the "new york times" -- "the accusations -- 90% of them -- fall into the category of, 'we were both drunk, we broke up, and six months later i found myself under a title ix investigation because she just decided that our last sleeping together was not quite right." jackson made the remarks as education secretary betsy devos met with so-called men's rights activists who oppose obama-era rules cracking down on campus rape. survivors of sexual assault and their supporters said thursday

the education department was failing to take sexual assault seriously. fatima goss graves of the national women's law center told the ap -- "what's extremely important now is that they do the hard work to counter those sorts of rape myths. they need to explicitly reject them." in iraq, human rights watch has condemned video posted to social media purporting to show u.s.-backed iraqi soldiers in mosul executing men suspected of being isis fighters. one video shows soldiers in military fatigues kicking and beating bloodied men, before dragging one of them to the edge of a high cliff, throwing him off, and then opening fire on him. a second lifeless body can be seen at the foot of the cliff. another video shows soldiers gunning down an unarmed man kneeling in front of a car. this week, amnesty international said the u.s.-led coalition violated international law and may have committed war crimes during the battle to seize control of mosul from isis. the fight killed thousands of

civilians, leveled much of the city, and forced nearly 1 million residents to flee their homes. in syria, the united nations warned thursday of a mass exodus of civilians from the city of raqqa, as a u.s.-supported offensive against isis intensifies. a senior u.n. official said fighting has displaced nearly a 250,000 people in the region, most of them fleeing in the last few weeks. those arriving in camps for the displaced described desperate conditions. >> i am from west of raqqa. the schilling did not stop and isis would not let us leave. there's no food, bread, no drinking water. absolutely nothing. amy: the journalistic monitoring group airwars reports u.s.-led coalition airstrikes in recent days at least six civilians in raqqa, 11 civilians in al zaynat village, while at least four civilians died in airstrikes in deir ezzor, with another 30 injured.

in brazil, former president luiz inacio lula da silva vowed thursday to challenge his conviction on corruption charges, saying he would run for president in 2018. lula da silva was speaking in sao paolo to his supporters in brazil's workers' party. that anyway and things this sentence has taken me out of the game, they should know that i am in the game. they can know that now i want to tell you, i want to tell my party something that has not been claimed up until now, but i am going to call on the workers party for the right to make myself a candidate for president in 2018. amy: prosecutors allege a construction firm spent about $1.1 million refurbishing a beachside apartment for lula and his wife in exchange for public contracts. lula has called the case against him a witch hunt aimed at preventing him from returning to

the presidency. meanwhile, brazil's current president, michel temer is facing his own corruption probe. on thursday, a congressional committee voted against recommending charges against temer, even though president was caught on tape approving hush-money payoffs for a powerful politician jailed on corruption charges. president temer's approval rating remains in the single-digits, with one recent poll finding just 2% of brazilians thought he was doing a good job. to see our interview with the pulitzer prize-winning journalist gri glenn greenwald, go to democracynow.org. in china, nobel peace laureate, human rights activist and dissident liu xiaobo died thursday at the age of 61 as a prisoner at a hospital in china's northeast. liu was battling liver cancer that went largely untreated while he served an 11-year prison term for subversion. liu was arrested in 2009 after he co-authored a petition

calling for freedom of assembly, expression, and religion in china. he previously spent 21 months in prison for taking part in the tiananmen square protests of 1989. in 2010, liu won the nobel peace prize, becoming the first nobel peace laureate since the 1930's, who was unable to receive the prize in oslo. his lengthy prison terms drew condemnation from world leaders and human rights groups, who say chinese president xi jinping continues to imprison hundreds of activists for peaceful dissent. this is chinese artist and -- this is an speaking in 2008. >> we will not yield to the pressure. regardless of whether this is your on freedom of writing comes from which direction, from the government or from other sources. secondly, i want to make an appeal again to writers throughout the world, especially writers from free countries, as

well as to governments and ngos to continue to pay attention to chinese writers and to the conditions of writing and thus help them to obtain their freedom of writing. amy: the nobel peace prize prisonliu xiaobo dead in custody at the age of 61 in china. back in the united states, a federal judge in hawaii on thursday greatly expanded the number of people exempt from president trump's ban on refugees and travelers from six muslim-majority nations. judgeling by the district judge derrick watson's expanded the definition of close family to include aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents, grandchildren, cousins and sisters- and brothers-in-law. judge watston's order will also allow entry to refugees who have a formal assurance of placement from u.s. resettlement agencies. president trump told reporters aboard air force one wednesday night that he hopes to build a transparent wall along the

us-mexico border, in a bizarre statement in which the president warned of the hazard of falling sacks of narcotics. a transcript of trump's remarks released by the white house reads -- "as horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the welcome you don't see them -- they hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? it's over. as crazy as that sounds, you need transparency through that wall." trump also said he wasn't joking when he suggested the u.s.-mexico border wall should be covered in solar panels. in bakersfield, california, a 19-year-old african-american woman says she was beaten by officers and mauled by a police dog last month in a case of mistaken identity. in a video produced by the bakersfield naacp posted online this week, tatyana hargrove says she stopped for a drink of water near a grocery store when officers approached her and demanded she hand over her

backpack. she says an officer named vasquez arrived on the scene with a k9 police dog and attacked her. a warning to our viewers. some of the images of tatyana hargrove's injuries in this video are graphic. >> he grabbed me by my wrist like this and then he grabbed me by my neck and a punched me, then threw me onto the ground. that is when the k9 came and started eating at my leg. they wrote me around. knee and myput his back. i told him i could not breathe. then he put his other knee in my head and i told him, i can read, i can breathe. then i started yelling, somebody help me. they're going to kill me. amy: bakersfield police called the incident a case of mistaken identity and launched an internal affairs investigation, but only after the naacp video went viral online. at the time of the assault, officers were looking for a

suspect who reportedly threatened patrons at a grocery store with a machete. the suspect was described as a 30-year-old back man with a shaved head and goatee, 5'10" and 160 pounds. tatyana hargrove is nineteen years old, five-foot-two, 115 pounds and a woman. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell unveiled a revised health care bill thursday after a previous republican effort to repeal and replace the affordable care act failed to win enough support from mcconnell's own party. >> the draft we just discussed, like the one before, addresses all of objectives. it would give americans more tools for managing their own care and this time, go even further. significantote resources to the fight against the opioid crisis and this time go even further. the revised draft proves on the previous version in a number of

ways. all while retaining the fundamental goals of providing stability and improving affordability. amy: the revised bill is largely similar to the previous senate bill, including the plans to cut more than $700 billion from medicaid by 2026. the congressional budget office says the previous bill would have caused 22 million americans to lose their health insurance over the next 10 years. the cbo is expected to finish its assessment of this latest bill by early next week, and republican senate leaders are pushing for a vote by the end of next week. like the previous version, the new senate republican bill would defund planned parenthood for a year, making breast cancer screenings and basic reproductive services more difficult for women to secure. to talk more about the new health care bill and the state of reproductive rights, we are joined in denver, colorado, by jessica mason pieklo, a legal analyst and vice president of law & the courts at rewire.

jessica, welcome back to democracy now! can you summarize this new bill, how new is it? how different is it from the previous bill that did not even get revote -- voted on by republicans because at least 10 disagreed on it? then talk about how it specifically affects women. >> sure. well, it is a disastrous revision that frankly does not change a whole lot will stop so in terms of it specific impact on women, there are a couple of provisions we should talk about. mention in your introduction, the bill explicitly defund planned parenthood for an entire year. the question of whether or not republicans can actually do that, according to the byrd rule, which says you can't in a budget specifically target a particular organization for defunding like this, i think is an open question and i think that specific provision is extremely problematic for republicans. but what is really sneaky that they did, and impart this is

thanks to the cruz amendment, is any of the objections at the town halls and constituents early on raised to the original coverageh as ending for folks who are over 26, ending protections for pre-existing conditions, the federal bill all purports to include those types of things. but it also has a provision that allows states to explicitly exclude those things, insurance products sold within state boundaries. what the republicans have done is effectively gut all of the main protections of the affordable care act and pass those down to the states, which really functions as a race to the bottom. in particular, we see this with the medicaid provisions in the attacks on the medicaid provision. republicans are effectively trying to phase out medicaid altogether.

in this process, they have care.ed caps on this is a disaster, not just for women and children, but to remember principal recipients of medicaid are people with disabilities and the elderly. so what they are really doing is kicking people off insurance immediately or creating lifetime caps are situations that are extremely expensive to treat. this is not just a massive redistribution of wealth up, but a return to the times when we institutionalized people, when we refused to give them care. only this time is worse because more of those institutions are being run by religiously affiliated institutions that have found lots of ways to skirt civil rights protections and other regulations. so this is really scary. in addition to defunding plaed parenthood explicitly in the federal bill, they also further and it try to redefine what qualifies as a federally

qualified health care clinic. attack, notxpress just top planned parenthood, but reproductive health care clinic in general. we have seen this at the state level by redefining what qualifies as a clinic for federal or state aid, conservative lawmakers are able to put planned parenthood and other organizations that provide comprehensive reproductive health care at the bottom of that list. so it is effectively a defunding of those organizations without actually defunding them in violation or at least an alleged violation of the byrd rule. amy: if you can explain, jessica defund theo, why planned parenthood for a year. what is the logic of the republicans on this? >> i think, frankly, the logic of the republicans is to keep their base all churned up for the midterms. amy: i am looking at a piece that recently came out in huffington post says that

"republicans are trying to find a way to defund planned parenthood as part of an overall effort to limit abortion in america, but doing so has the opposite effect in texas. fromding to a new study a&m university that abortions among young people in texas, where it is much more difficult to find an open women's health clinic that provides abortion, have actually gone up. >> well, right. it makes perfect sense, right? if you continue to curb access to comprehensive reproductive health care, as texas has done, not just incurring access to clinics but in making it difficult to access contraception and attacks across the board, then obviously, people are going to have to carry pregnancies to term that they otherwise wouldn't. including failed pregnancies. so defunding planned parenthood and attacking title ix family resource for family planning

resources is absolutely a way to drive up the birth rate, in particular, to force women and patients to carry pregnancies to term according to the state's dictates, not their own. amy: can you talk about contraception and how it will be affected by this plant if it were to go forward? >> the administration has been very clear that it plans on attacking contraception and specifically the contraception benefit in the affordable care act. they have shown this a couple of ways. first, through the trump administration purported religious imposition order, which allow the department of health and human services to start the rulemaking process of unwinding the birth control benefit. republicans have a little bit of a problem. the brake control benefit is a part of the women's health amendment, which is an actual component of the affordable care

act. so unwinding the rule alone does not get rid of the -- does not get rid of the birth control benefit. but right now we have hhs working on an interim final rule. we do not know what it looks like. they have promised a release date by the end of the month. what we can anticipate in it is at a minimum, an enormous religious and probably immoral carveout for folks who have objections to supplying nondiscriminatory insurance care. and that includes insurance coverage that has contraception at a no additional cost or co-pay. i say nondiscriminatory health healthcause reproductive care, especially contraception, is preventative care. typically, preventative care is part and parcel of your bases -- a stick package of health insurance, the way that cable basically packages some of its programs. health insurance compani do that, too. isther part of the new bill

by allowing states to opt out of abortion coverage, opt out of contraception coverage, even if ted cruz gets his way, sell plans in the marketplace that do not comply with even the new requirements, what we're going to see our cafeteria plans where entrance providers say "you must pick this and that and this other thing for coverage" and they will be priced in we the people won't be able to afford or they will just simply forgo some essential services thinking that, "well, if there's an issue down the road, i guess i will deal with it then." amy: jessica, you have also been writing about the new supreme court justice neil gorsuch. can you talk about how he has affected the court so far, what you're seeing, and how this will play out for women? >> absolutely. neil gorsuch has made his mark on the supreme court

immediately. it will be a mark that last decades. during his confirmation process, we heard a lot about what a nice guy he is, about how he is very confident and he is an excellent legal scholar. they are true. we would hope it would be the minimum qualifications for anybody on the supreme court. tot we failed in detail discuss, largely in the media, i think we did a good job here at largelybut what we failed to discuss was the substance of his writings in his career. when we look to the substance of his career, we see some very conservative things. first and foremost, we see he worked on torture in detention policy during his time at the department of justice -- which will be coming recently regular -- increasingly regular with the travel ban, the muslim band. we have also seen in right

conservatively on the 10th circuit court of appeals of the hobby lobby case that would have effectively given organizations a blank check to make religious moral objections.n we will see that passed. the case in colorado where a baker refused to bake a cake for a same-sex couple on the grounds that he had a moral and religious objection to same-sex marriage. it wasn't just that he turned them away. he explicitly said he would not vacate because they were a gay couple. the supreme court has taken up that case and we will see it. there are the pending rumors of a retirement for justice anthony kennedy. justice gorsuch was anthony kennedy's clerk, and there was a lot of speculation that one of the reasons he was the nominee was to help smooth the relationship over with justice kennedy. after all, they are friendly and

collegial. retire,ustice kennedy whether this term or the next or the following, presuming we still in a trump presidency and get a trump nominee, we can begin into that justice will be as conservative, if not more so, than justice alito. what we've seen so far is just as gorsuch has voted consistently with justice thomas and placed him on the courts must conservative side. he is also very active in oral arguments and combative with those attorneys and his fellow justices. so he will be a big intellectual presence in arguments. when kennedy retires, that will make chief justice john roberts the swing vote on the court. amy: jessica, i would enter into a new documentary by your news organization rewire the chronicles the rising tide of harassment and violence against abortion providers and clinics under the trump administration. this is a clip from "care in

chaos" featuring abortion clinic administrator calla hales in north carolina. >> i tried not to focus on the assassinations of doctors and attacks on doctors and clinic workers in the past. if i focused on that every day, i would not get out of bed. and i have to keep moving forward. this clinic has a stay open. >> they kill babies. they poison them. they dismember them. and then they say, as they wipe their bloody hands across their lying mouths, "we have done nothing wrong. we're helping people i'm murdering their offspring. we're helping people by killing little baby boys and girls." >> it really does upset a lot of patience to be able to hear people yelling and screaming and calling them names on amplification while you're in the back of a building that is 200 feet away and there is layers of concrete and wood

between you. amy: that was calla hales the lead administrator at a preferred women's health center, in north carolina, that operates four abortion clinics across north carolina and georgia. she's featured in the new rewire documentary "care in chaos," directed by lindsay beyerstein and martyna starosta. jessica mason pieklo, can you talk about why this documentary was made? it talks about the clinics in north carolina, in fargo, north dakota, as well. >> sure. i think this is a really important film for several reasons. first, we decided to make the therentary because while is a lot of talk about legislative attacks on abortion rights, specifically at the state level, there is not a light of focus and a lot of tension drawn -- attention drawn to the access of the front door. so that is one goal of the film.

another goal of the film is to show the critical importance in by in a local law-enforcement of protecting and facilitating a patient's right to access, the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy when they need to, as well as the rights and safety of the doctors and companions that are working with these patients. i think the documentary does a really good job of contrasting these two. you have hundreds of people descending on a clinic that is in charlotte sort of off of a rural road. it is not easy to get to. they set of fake ultrasound clinics. they approach people at their cars and talk to them. through.t they are on amplification systems that go all the way through into the clinics so that patients who are in counseling rooms and in the process of procedures can hear the shouting.

they can hear people calling them terrible names, calling them killers, asking them to please reconsider and wait for mother's day. and these are not the plump grandmothers the supreme court talked about when they struck down the massachusetts buffer zone law a couple of years ago. these are extremely educated, the most extreme wing of the antiabortion, anti-choice made it. these are people who's singler goal is to criminalize abortion and have zero problem jailing domen and providers who provide termination. i think when you contrast charlotte within fargo, for example, worry have a law-enforcement officer who is absolutely neutral, is objective in the way that she carries out her job, literally as an officer of peace. veryyou have is a

different situation outside of the clinic in fargo. you have protesters, for sure, but you don't have the kind of amplification systems. you don't have the kind of shouting. you don't have the throngs the film shows in charlotte. what you have is a cooperative relationship, one where law enforcement make sure that protest rights are protected and the constitutional right to privacy and abortion is protected as well. amy: jessica mason pieklo, we will link to your he's "care in chaos" on rewire. jessica mason pieklo is a legal analyst and vice president of law and the courts at rewire. speaking to us from denver open media in denver, colorado. when we come back, we will speak with keith ellison, congressman from minneapolis, first muslim congressman to be elected to congress, speaking to us from the capital. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "i am woman" by betty wright. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. on thursday, top senate republicans unveiled their latest healthcare plan. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is once again facing opposition from within his own party over the plan to repeal and replace the affordable care act. the previous effort by republicans to push through their replacement healthcare legislation failed after at least 10 republican senators came out against the bill. well, on thursday, susan collins of maine and rand paul of kentucky said they would oppose even putting the new bill to a vote. a third republican senator, mike lee of utah, said he was undecided on whether he'd support the bill. republicans are also facing sustained grassroots resistance to their plans. on thursday, 11 interfaith leaders, including north carolina naacp president reverend william barber, were arrested outside senate majority leader mitch mcconnell's office protesting the latest version of the bill. this is traci blackmon, executive minister of justice and witness ministries for the united church of christ, standing beside reverend william barber.

>> i happen to know that the people of kentucky will suffer if this health care bill passes. you may be ok, your friends may be ok, but the people who put you in office will suffer because of this bill. it is time to stop calling god by other names when you really want to call god capitalism. amy: thursday's protests were the latest in a series of demonstrations against the republican plan to repeal and replace the affordable care act. on monday, scores of protesters gathered outside the republican national committee headquarters and at the offices of some republican lawmakers chanting slogans including "trumpcare kills" and "healthcare is a human right." u.s. capitol police saidn a statement, 80 people were arrested at 13 locations in house and senate office buildings. for more on th the republicans' latest healthcare plan and the resistance to it, we're joined on capitol hill by minnesota democratic

congressman keith ellison. he's the first muslim member of congress. he is the deputy chair of the democratic national committee. welcome back to democracy now! your response to these protests and the redirection of the repuican health care plan to repeal and replace? >> i'm deeply grateful to those who are literally putting their bodies on the lives of millions of americans can go to the doctor when they are sick. what they are doing is, i think, in the greatest tradition of public service and it is civil disobedience. really, it has been the protesters and the demonstrators met people like william barber and many others, who have been able to keep us in this fight. as you know, we don't have the white house or either house in congress, so we have had to rely on people power. it turns out that is the best power. i would say continue to stay out

there, raise your voices, tell your stories. understand that behind every statistic is a human life. concerned.ople all over the co, they're horrified of going back to the bad old days where you could be excluded or get a very high price for having a pre-existing condition. where you might get charged five times more just because you are above 50, but below 64. a whole other problem, this senate bill is not an improvement. moretried to put a little token money into opioid addiction. it is not enough, but it is designed to try to get some people in to vote for this bill. more token moneybut i say in west vid nevada insights like that, this opioid money is not going to any difference. the cuts to medicaid will dramatically put people in the position where they cannot

afford health care. so keep up the fight. keep up the pressure. we are in this. amy: this is ted cruz of texas speaking to fox news. >> if we are lowering premiums, it is a win for everyone. this has consumer freedom. the second is allowing people to use health savings accounts to pay for premiums. i think today was a significant step in the right direction. amy: can you explain the cruz amendment of what this means? >> it is basically saying we're going have a two-tiered health care system. one, it has to be obamacare or affordable health care compliant will stop it will probably cost theatically more than alternative plan. the alternative plan, if you are young and healthy, you can get a non-affordable care act complaint plan, which means they can have health savings accounts and they can charge you less, but you will have a much higher delectable. but at the end of the day, it

will not solve any problems. what will happen, people who need health care will go into one set of plans and the people who don't, are healthy, will go into the other and it will create a two-tiered health care system. one will crash because it won't be affordable. essentialwon't offer and if it's when people need them. what it is really saying is, it violates the core idea of insurance. insurance says we're going to be in this together. healthy and sick alike. we are all going to pay premiums. and when you need the care, you get it on the assumption that not everybody is going to need care the same time. what this says is, you're on your own. if you're sick, you're on your own. if you're healthy, you're on your own. it is a bad idea. amy: the house is voting today on a controversial proposal by arizona republican congressman trent franks that calls for identifying "islamic religious doctrines, concepts or schools of thought" that could be used by terrorist groups. in an interview with politico, franks stated --

"right now, there is a certain spectrum within the islamist world that is at the root of the ideological impulse for terrorism. ironically, muslims are the prime targets of these groups. to suggest that this is anti-muslim is a fallacy, and i think that anyone who really understands it knows that." explain what exactly you're going to be voting on today, congressman ellison. >> we're going to be voting on a piece of legislation which says it is fine to single out one religion and login and categorize and list leaders, log in and categorize certain doctrines within, and identify their religion as associated with national security and terrorism, and not others, and in my view, that is an abridgment of the free exercise of religion in america. it is unconstitutional. it is wrong and it is immoral and it is helping to fuel the stigma associated with islam and

islamophobia and anti-muslim aid. we see people attacked because of their faith. in my own state of minnesota, a was beaten inn the face with a beer mug. she was severely injured. she forgave her attacker, but it is stuff like this that fuels and set a tone and a tempo where injuries like that can occur. it happens all over the country. i think once you ask congress to direct the department of defense to single out and scrutinize one religion to the exclusive of others, you're basically promoting anti-muslim sentiment. on therelax consequences ground. plus, i believe it is unconstitutional. by merging a strong no boat and asking my colleagues to say, even if you don't agree with me,

would you please stand with your oath to of hold the constitution ? it is a bad thing and we are trying to stand against it. amy: let me turn to the case of philando castile. the city of saint anthony will pay nearly $3 million to the family of plaintiff castile to settle a wrongful death lawsuit, less than two weeks after officer jeronimo yanez was acquitted on manslaughter charges for killing castile during a traffic stop last year. can you talk about the significance of this settlement in what has changed minneapolis, st. paul, the city you are in that you represent where, well, where philando castile was killed by a police officer? >> that money will never replace that beloved young man flint of castile host of the left by all of the children and families who participated in the lunch room he ran at hill elementary school, beloved by his family,

people around him. moree money is nothing than recognition and admission that he did not have to die. his life was taken away wrongfully. that is what it really represents. i was deeply, deeply disturbed and heard when that acquittal came forward. it just reinforced the point that we even have a lot of societal lack of understanding and appreciation for the lives of people who die at the hands of law enforcement. but the city knows they were in the wrong. they did not want a civil case tried because the facts would have came out that would have really made them look bad. of course, it would have prolonged the pain of the catille family. is nor development, yanez longer part of the st. anthony police department. the other lesson is, when you act as he did, horrifying abuse

of power, you will be fired. but at the end of the day, you shouldn't have criminal liability. the jury saw it otherwise. yeah, we are changing. i think there is a general recognition that this is wrong and we have to take decisive action to change it. and so congresan keith ellison , thank you for being with us. also the deputy chair of the democratic national committee. this is democracy now! and sothank you very much. but we come back, find out why the oscar nominated film maker james conwell -- james cromwell is going to jail today. ♪ [music break]

amy: "talkin' about revolution" by tracy chapman. oscar-nominated actor james cromwell is reporting to jail at 4:00 today in upstate new york after he was sentenced to a week behind bars for taking part in a nonviolent protest against a natural gas-fired power plant. cromwell says he will also launch a hunger strike. he is one of six activists arrested for blocking traffic at the sit-in outside the construction site of the 650-megawatt plant in wawayanda, new york, upstate december of , 2015. the activists say the plant would promote natural gas fracking in neighboring states and contribute to climate change. james cromwell is known for his roles in some 50 hollywood films as well as many television series including "six feet under." i spoke to him thursday along with one of his co-defendants, who is going to jail today as well, pramilla malik. she is the founder of protect orange county, a community

group leading the opposition of the fracked gas power plant. she ran in 2016 for the new york state senate. i began by asking james cromwell about why he is going to jail. >> we are, all of us, engaged in a struggle not to protect a way of life, to protect life itself. our institutions are bankrupt. our leaders are complicit. the public basically disillusioned and disenchanted with the entire process. there is a direct connection between the plant, and many think -- amy: where is it? >> upstate new york. it is not too far from the new jersey border. between that plant and the middle east. we are at war, not only with a rack and syria and afghanistan and yemen, we are at war with didn't pennsylvania, were the gas comes from, with the air that uses the gas, where he was

to be stored, and was standing rock. name the disease. most people cannot put their finger on the cause of it. it everybody perceives the threat. a cancer. is and the only way to defeat this cancer is to completely, radically transform our way of living and our way of thinking about ourselves. i call that radical transformation revolutionary. so this is the revolution. nermeen: you say capitalism is the cause host of explain the link between what the u.s. is doing in the middle east and what is happening in upstate new york and standing rock. >> this plant is built by company whose only interest is to create profit. there is no need for the electricity and the way the energy is produced is communicable to life in the community. that is a far-reaching community because it will have an effect even on the people of new york.

all of the ultrafine particular matter that comes out of the smokestacks, it ultimately winds up in new york city. so everybody is affected. that is done because we are china have energy independence. bet energy we are try to innovative from was the gas on oil that came from the middle east. when the middle east began to move toward more democratic governments, the united states government and other governments , britain and france, all of the colonial powers, said no, no, no, you're not moving for democracy because if you do, you threaten our access to your energy. and so they corrupt it. ultimately, that led to the we created isis. the americans created isis in order to battle something else, the same mistake we made with the mujahedin in afghanistan. that is to protect our protect -- interest. halfillerson is sitting on $1 trillion worth of deals with

the russians. ceo ofen he was exxonmobil. >> which is still pending. it can still affect his company. the ban is lifted. i'm saying there is connection. you talk about energy. is needed all over the world and produced only in certain places. andow blowup the earth getting trapped methane gas, which is inimical bowl to help. we shift that two pipes. the main purpose is down to power the power plant, it is to liquefy where they can make six times more profit from the sale of that gas than they can in the united states. amy: let me ask you what happened almost two years ago. you are going to jail now, but the action you engaged in was june 2015. tell us where you went and what you did. had a protest to

picket in front of this plant that is being built for the last 2.5 years. it got to the point of a lot of people who passed honked their horns, but nothing happened. amy: this is the plan -- >> fracked gas of -- power plant, which means they import the gas from pennsylvania -- john amy: and they are? the company is? millennium pipeline, which everyone knows a great deal more about, who owns this. it is owned by three large corporations also mitsubishi, ge, and credit squeeze. what would those three large multinationals be interested in this plant, medium-sized plant come although devastating? what they're basically interested, it is the precursor -- if thislar plants plant is built gets online,

there is no justification for not building more of these. if you want to see the buildup of the hydrocracking infrastructure -- john amy: what did you do? >> we came up with an idea to train ourselves together. we change ourselves together with icicle locks and we blocked the entrance to the entrance of the plant, according to the prosecution, about 27 minutes. the judge in the prosecution seem to imply it made absolutely no difference to what happened with this plant. it does make a difference. what we're trying to get out is the message this is one instance, but it is happening all around this country and all around the world. they're fighting it in england and all over the world. can you talk about with this plant is, how you were involved in the protests, what this plan is designed to do and what you think the public health

impacts would be if it is filled? >> this is a 650 megawatt gas powered plant. 150ill depend on 100 to wells per year. we know in pennsylvania, there is into mortality rates increasing. cancer rates are increasing. aquifers are getting contaminated. but along with that, the health impacts travel all along the infrastructure network. so i am your a compressor station. we have already documented health impacts in my community. many thinkso of nosebleeds, headaches, rashes, neurological symptoms amy: and this is a result of? >> exposure to the station. this was documented by a team of scientists. technology is relatively new and people are

just beginning -- scientists are racing to try to understand what is happening. but frontline communities like ours, we feel it. we see it. we know there is a health impact. amy: how did you get involved with this june 2015 protest and what exactly did you do? >> i also locked myself down and james cromwell madeleine shaw. amy: and metal and shot is? >> she is in the lead person who lives in the community. she is very worried because she feels she is going to have to leave the home she lived in since 1949 if this place is filled. amy: james mentioned seneca lake. wasn't there a recent victory of environmentalists to stop this sort facility there? and how does this relate to what you're trying to stop? >> they were in a similar position in the sense they engage the process, litigated,

appealed to all of their elected officials. did not get anywhere. they began engaging in civil disobedience. i think that created and a pressure on the company that the company eventually withdrew the application for that storage facility. it when you approve a 650 megawatt fracked gas power plant , and i remind people, this was approved by our own governor cuomo, who banned fracking citing average health impacts, yet approves this plant that will induce and depend on thousands of new fracking wells over its lifetime. we do not need this power plant at all. but it is being built anyway. a billion dollar project. but it will cost us, according to the scientist -- this is why we engage in civil disobedience and had a trial in which we were able to bring scientists to testify -- it will cost society

$940 million per year in health care costs and infrastructure costs and other economic cost. it will increased our state's by septemberus guest sent. amy: james cromwell, you could've just paid a fine, but you are choosing to go to jail. how long will you go to jail for and why are you going? >> we were sentenced for seven days. it is up to the discretion of the facility as to how long we serve. for good you get out behavior. i've no idea. i am preparing for seven days. i can't justify the injustice of what i think was a completely wrongheaded and simplistic judgment, so i think going to jail is a statement about how we have to lift our game. no more good enough to just kick

it and petition because nobody is listening. the way people get the message out is you do an act of civil disobedience. it is what tim to christopher did. all of the people in standing rock sioux that was the purpose. the clarity of standing rock was ae elders saying, this is prayer camp. in other words, it comes from our inner spirit. we have to change this inner spirit. we have to change our relationship both to the planet into the people who live on this planet, including the people opposing us. so i believe in our small way, that is the statement we are making. this is the time to of the game. this is the time to address the disease.se of our amy: i want to ask about your comment about people having trouble naming capitalism as a cancer. it sounds like an edward abbey quote.

through your environmentalists and, you're taking on capitalism. not all environmentalists do. can you comment on that? >> i can't speak for all environmentalists. i think all of the things -- we orientedt or rente debt country. the language with which we speak is the language of the market. everything is for sale. everything is commodified. what that does is, and then of course you have to create the greatest amount of profit, which means you have to suppress labor, suppress the cost of your natural materials, control your areas of influence so that china does not wind up with iran's or iraq's oil. away, this leads to the kind of confrontations we experience everywhere. if we look -- if we accept that we are responding -- our

addiction to this energy, our addiction to our way of life, what we take for granted in this country is in some way -- we are responsible. if we accept that response, which is not the same as blame. if we accept that responsibility, we can change this by recognizing what we have to change is the way week relate to the natural world. to the planet. we look at it now as a trough we can rape and acumulate. is not so. that.is a it shows all over the world that the planet is reestablishing the balance at our cost. amy: oscar-nominated actor james cromwell and pramilla malik are going to jail today for the nonviolent protest against a natural gas power plant. i interview them thursday with nermeen shaikh. the activists will first hold

rally at the plant construction site and turn themselves into site and turn themselves into row a

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