06/07/16 06/07/16 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> according to the news, we are on the brink of a historic -- ,istoric, unprecedented moment but we still have work to do, don't we? tomorrow,x elections and we are going to fight hard for every single phot, especially right here in california. amy: the associated press and

nbc have declared hillary clinton to be the presumptive democratic presidential nominee just hours before the polls open in california and six other -- five other states. the news organizations say clinton now has enough backing from unelected superdelegates to secure the nomination. bernie sanders is challenging the media's claims. tomorrow in is that california, we have the most important primary. the people of california have the right to determine who is going to be president of the united states, not necessarily having to listen to ap or nbc. amy: the ap and nbc news announcement about clinton's nomination was made despite calls by the democratic national committee not to report superdelegates tallies until the convention. we will host a debate between the head of california's state senate kevin de leon, who is backing hillary clinton and los , angeles city councilor gil cedillo, who has endorsed

bernie sanders. and we will speak to radio host rose aguilar on the big election story in california the medidia has missed. all that andnd more coming up. welcome to democracycy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the associated press and nbc news have announced hillary clinton has clinched the democratic presidential nomination, defeating bernie sanders. it came ahead of today's key primaries in california and five other states. both news organizations reached -- named clinton the victor based on unofficial polls of unelected super delegates. superdelegates can change the mind at any point. if the projections stand, clinton would become the first woman to ever be the presidential candidate of a major political party in u.s. history. speaking in los angeles monday,

clinton attacked donald trump. immigrantser it is he has insulted, muslims, people with disabilities, p.o.w.'s, women, federal judges, the list heats growing longer. and it is wrong of someone running for president of the united states to engage in that kind of hateful rhetoric and demagoguery. bernie sanders accuse the ap and nbc have defined the dnc's rules by lumping together pledged delegates with unelected superdrdelegates who can change their vote at any point. >> tomorrow in california, we have the most important primary. the people of california have the right to determine who is goining to be president of the united states, not necessarily having to listen to ap or nbc. and i hope they will come out in large numbers and make it clear

that they wantnt real change in this country, that there are tired of establishment politics and economics and want a government that represents all of us and not just the 1%. amy: we wilill have a debatete n the democratic race in california after the headlines. leading republicans have continued to criticize presumptive republican presidential nominee donald trump for attacking a mexican american judge. trump has claimed the judge should recuse himself from a lawsuit against the defunct,t, for-profit trump university, because his mexican heritage represents a conflict of interest since trump wants to build a wall on the mexican border. on monday, florida senator and former republican presidential candidate marco rubio criticized trump's commenents in an intervw with florida ns s station n wft. >> i think it is wrong.. he needs to stop saying it. that man is an american. born in the united states. even if he had not been, he is a

judge who has earned that position in the mansion be treated with the s same level of respecect as a any other officef the court. i dodon't think itit reflects wl on the republican party or reflects well on us as a nation. there should n not be any ethnhnicity, releligious, or ral -- if you take that argugument a and you expanded, u can make that argument, i mean, that anybody in some circumstance or another. it is wrong and i hope he stops. amy: despite the criticism from within his own party, trump has ordered his surrogates to double down on criticism of judge gonzalo curiel. on monday, trump held a conference call with leading supporters, including arizona governor jan brewer. according to an account of the call published by bloomberg, trump urged his supporters to question the judge's credibility and d impugn reporters as racis. when brewer noted trump's own

campaign had sent an e-mail asking surrogates to s stop talking with a lawsuit trump , overruled his staff saying, "take that order and throw it the hell out." buzzfeed has nixed a $1.3 million advertising agreement with the republican national committee. in an email to buzzfeed staff, ceo jonah peretti wrote -- "the trump campaign is directly opposed to the freedoms of our employees in the united states and around the world and in some cases, such as his proposed ban on international travel for muslims, would make it impossible for our employees to do their jobs." writing about the announcement for the guardian, megan carpentier notes the deal would haveve been for nativeve advertising, or sponsored content, often made to look like journalistic posts or videos. she notes -- "while media companies accepting money from political campaigns is a fairly standard practice, accepting money to run pieces of

sponsored content that many readers will mistake for journalism in support of those candidacies is not -- and that's the deal that buzzfeed nixed on monday." in brazil, the chief prosecutor has asked the supreme court to authorize the arrest of the presidents of the senate and the ruling party and former president for allegedly trying to obstruct police investigations. the officials are among the most powerful in brazil. if they are arrested, it could rock the newly installed administration of the interim president temer who took over after lawmakers voted to suspend dilma rousseff in what many consider a coup by her right-wing opponents. leaked transcripts show at least one official plotted to oust rousseff in order to end a corruption investigation that was targeting him. u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon has removed the u.s.-backed, saudi-led coalition

fighting houthi rebels in yemen from a blacklist of forces responsible for killing children. the removal came after intense pressure from saudi arabia. an annual u.n. report found nearly 2000 children were killed or injured in yemen last year, a sixfold increase over the previous year. 60% of those casualties were blamed on the u.s.-backed, saudi-led coalition. in istanbul, turkey, a car bombing has killed at least 11 people and wounded dozens more. the bombing targeted a police shuttle bus near a central tourist area of the city during rush h hour. seven of those killed were police. no group has claimed responsibility so far. a watchdog group has recommended the blue semi-precious stone lapis lazuli be classified as a conflict mineral because of its role in fueling armed groups in afghanistan. "global witness" says the

taliban and other groups earn up to $20 million a year from illegal lapis mining. researcher stephen carter said the mines have destabilized badakhstan province in northern afghanistan. --at the moment, you have there is competition among armed groups. what that does, it creates the ideal conditions for an insurgency to flourish. everyone has got an interest. everyone has got an interest in the government being essentially a hollow shell. amy: the u.s. department of energy is conducting an eight-city national tour aimed at gathering public feedback on the issue of wherere to store nuclear waste. the agency has lnched a so-called consent-t-based siting model to determine where to storore spent nunuclear fuel and high-level radioactitive waste. at a hearing in bostston thursd, papaul gunter r of beyond nucler raraised objections abouout the process. >> how does the public and the

afaffected community build trust when the d department t of enery ititself is a a promotional agey doing the bidding of the nuclear indusstry by d direct promotion? and thahat the wholle process gg forwaard to date has lacked consnsent. there has never beenonsent with regegard to generation of nuclear waste. amy: here in new york city, a muslim man has been attacked and severely beaten by three men outside a mosque in queens. mohamed rasheed khan suffered broken ribs and facial bones, internal bleeding and a , concussion. advocates have called for authorities to investigate the beating as a possible hate crime. in another case being described as a possible hate crime, an african-american boy has died after running from a group of mostly white teenagers who were reportedly shouting racial slurs. "the new york daily news" reports a dispute between two groups of teenagers escalated when the mostly white group

chased after 16-year-old dayshen mckenzie and his friends with a gun, shouting the n-word. mckenzie collapsed and died of an asthma attack. in california, a stanford law professor has launched a recall campaign against a judge who sentenced a former stanford university swimmer to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster. judge aaron persky said he was concerned a prison sentence wowould have a "sesevere impactn brock allen turner, who was convicted of three felony counts of sexual assault after being caught by two witnesses while on top of the woman. turner's victim wrote a powerful letter to her attacker which has been viewed more than five million times. turner's father fueled the outrage by complaining his son's life had been ruined for what he called "20 minutes of action." the survivor, who has not been named publicly, told the

"guardian" monday she was overwhelmed and speechless at the support she had received. meanwhile, stanford university has finally released turner's original booking photo from the night of his arrest last year. up until now most media outlets , had been using a smiling yearbook photo of turner, rather than the mugshots that typically accompany stories of sexual assault and other crimes. in california, black lives matter activist jasmine richards faces up to four years in prison at her sentencing today after she was convicted of a rarely used statute in california law known up until recently as felony lynching. police accused her of trying to de-arrest someone during a peace march in pasadena last august. the arrest and jailing of a young black woman activist on charges of felony lynching has sparked a firestorm of protest, with supporters vowing to pack the court today. to see our interview with her attorney, nana gyamfi, and black lives matter organizer melina abdullah you can go to

democracynow.org. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.o.org, the war andd peace report. i'm amy goodman. on the eve o of the california primary and six other contests, -- five other contests the , associated press and nbc news shook up the race for the white house last night by announcing hillary clinton had clinched the democratic nomination defeating challenger bernie sanders. both news organizations reached that conclusion based on unofficial polls of unelected superdelegates. for months, the democratic national committee has urged the media not to report super delegate tallies until next month's convention in philadelphia. if the projections stand, hillary clinton would become the first woman to ever be the presidential candidate of a major political party in u.s. history. she spoke at a rally last night in long beach california. ,>> according to the news, we are on the brink of a historic

-- historic, unprecedented moment but we still have work to do, don't we? six elections tomorrow, and we are going to fight hard for every single vote, especially right here in california. amy: the sanders campaign dismissed the news saying that , superdelegates should not be counted until they actually vote at the p philadelphia conventio. unlike pledged delegates, superdelegates can switch their support at any time. bernie sanders spoke last night to reporters after the ap and nbc called the racace. >> according to the democratic national committee, what they should not be doing is lumping pledged delegates, i.e., real delegates, with superdelegates who may or may not change their mind but who do not vote until july 25. everybody who knows how the

superdelegates are going to vote in july, great for them, but i don't know. in california, we have the most import and primary. the people of california have the right to determine who is going to be president of the uniteded states, not necessarily having to listen to ap or nbc. and i hope they will come out in large numbers and make it clear that they want real change in this country, that they are tired of establishment politics and establishment economics and they want a government that represents all of us and not just the 1%. amy: bernie sanders has largely staked his campaign on a victory today in california, the largest state in the union. in recent weeks he has held dozens of campaign events including a large free cononcert last night in san francisco. and it's not just voters in california heading to the polls today. primaries and caucuses are being held in iowa, montana, new jersey, new mexico and the dakotas. the sanders campaign has been hoping victories in california

and other states could help convince superdelegates that he would be the superior candidate to challenge donald trump. >> it is going to be difficult. i am not here to deny that for a second. dk's we're going to make to the superdelegates is everybody at the democratic national convention is going to want to defeat donald trump. he is a disaster must not become president of the united states. you know what? according to every national poll i have seen and according to virtually every state poll i have seen, bernie sanders is a much stronger candidate against donald trump than hillary clinton. amy: according to the "new york times," president obama is planning to officially endorse hillary clinton as early as this week and then begin publicly campaigning for her. to talk more about these developments and today's primary in california, we go now to los angeles where we are joined by two guguests. kevin de leon is president pro-tem m of the california senate. he spoke last night at hillary clinton's rally at long beach city college.

also with us is los angeles city councilmember and former california state legislator gil cedillo who has been campaigning with bernie sanders. we welcome you both to democracy now!. let's start with kevin de leon. your response to the news that ap and nbc has called hillary clinton asas the winner of the presumptive d democratic nomine. >> it is great news. the reality is, it is much too early to call. we have major races are of the country and still six major primaries and you'd major -- two major rich delegates which is new jersey and here back home in -- california. we believe tonight secretary luke clinton will secure the nomination. she has the vast majority of the pledged votes. she has a vast majority of the

raw popular votes about the country. she has 121 out of 23 rich vote ,- in states that the country high populations. we feel very confident that tonight issue will wrap it up. amy: gil cedillo, your response to this news announced on the eve of these major primaries, six in all, california the largest state, that in fact it is another clinton who is the presumptive democratic nominee? >> it is highly inappropriate for this news agency to try to announce and determine the outcome of elections that have yet to happen. it is just whollty inappropriate. it is a form of voter suppression. as a senator indicated, we have six important races to take place. every vote counts and every vote should count and it is just wholly inappropriate for this agency to try to determine the

outcome of an election. it is voter suppression in the most rank and raw form. what is next, undersea test or a poll tax? this is not something that a legitimate news agency should be involvlved with. amy: explain what you mean by voter suppression. well, if you tell someone the election is over, then people don't think they should go and vote. it is demoralizing. it is a misrepresentation. capacity -- potential to have an impact of the outcome. as a senator indicated, we have important elections today from two of the most important states . californians are geared up and getting ready to vote this morning. we want them to know and feel their vote counts. this goes beyond politics. this is about protecting the right to vote. there are young men and women throughout the world who are prepared to put their lives on

the line to defend that right to vote, and it is inappropriate for a news agency to try to suppress that vote whether it is in california, new jersey, or any of the other states that have elections today. amy: kevin de leon, do you believe this will lead to voter suppression? and i areil cedillo very good friends. he is my city councilmember and i am his state senator. we are both progressives who have been in the trenches for many decades. doing everything possible to improve the human condition, especially for the most marginalized and vulnerable. voter suppression is a very strong word. much too strong. i think the media outlets have made a projection based on quantitative research of the pledged delegates, and the pledged delegates have indicated very clearly they are going to be with hillary clinton. the projection is clear because what is black and white is the math.

this simple math. one plus one is two, not three. all you have to do is the math and we felt confident that tonight hillary clinton will be the democratic nominee for the presidency of the united states. but what is most important is we unite quickly against the most dangerous man in modern political history, which is donald trump. this is an individual who has been clear with regards to his own views against immigrants, people of color, women, as well as muslims. number one, we need to unite earlier rather than later. it is clear mathematically that the numbersrs are there. hillary clinton will be the democratic nominee for the presidency of the united states. amy: gil cedillo, it't's the ma. your response? >> the senator knows because he is one of our premier leaders in the state of california, but he should've been the us olympic or . to speak of our state assembly in the lower house. he once had the votes. they were protected. he was said to be the speaker of the state assembly and one of

his votes slipped and took a few other votes with him. history tells us that those projected votes did not come in. they did not happen when election day came. their projections did not bear out and he never became this bigger the lower house will stop forcefully for us, he went on to the senate and became the president pro-tem. but he knows until the election day and until votes are cast, you cannot count them until they are cast. one vote, one person, one day of elections. amy, today i am the president of the california state senate, the first latino in 133 years. math is math. it is about persuasion. if you are not able to persuade any of the superdelegates, and to date, i've not seen any one individual, superdelegates, be persuaded yet to leave the hillary clinton and go and support bernie sanders.

persuasion is critical. i have yet to see anyone persuade any other superdelegates. let me be clear, math is math. one plus one is two, not three. we feel confident that hillary clinton will be the democratic nominee tonight. that being said, let me be clear and spent a lot of time with hillary clinton in california up and down the state will stop amy: you were with her last night -- >> s is fighting for every single vote, especially the african-american and latino communities. i spent time with her in many areas. she is fighting for every single vote because she is not when it take anything for granted whatsoever. she spent a considerable amount of time in california. again, cooler heads prevail. tonight is a major election throughout the country, but especially in new jersey and here at home in california. we do believe strongly she will

be the nominee of the democratic presidency. amy: i want to turn to debbie wasserman schultz appearing on msnbc in february talking about superdelegates. >> i'm glad you're asking me because the way the media has been reporting this is incorrect. there are not pledged delegates, i.e. superdelegates earned come at any of these chimeric or caucus contest, rachel. those unpledged delegates are elected officials, party leaders, people who have spent years and years the democratic party, members of congress, our dnc members, are superdelegates. they have the ability to decide who they choose to support at the convention at any point. so they are not actually -- whatever they're saying now, most of them presumably would remain committeded to who they have committed to now, but they hahave not all committed to a cacandidate. they are free to decide all away up until july. amy: that is dnc chair debbie

wasserman schultz, surly, and a favorite of bernie sanders. in fact, he has endorsed her opponent in her congressional race in florida. a final word on this, gil cedillo, then we will talk about larger issues in california. >> she is absolutely right. the election day for the superdelegates is at the convention. they won't be counted until then. we would like to have an unencumbered, unbiased election today here in california, new jersey, and the other four states. twos very important -- things, we are united in the fall to beat donald trump. that we have our best candidate forward. that person who is most prepared, most able, most capable of defeating donald trump. we can't determine that until we have an election. an unbiased election california and the e other five states. amy: when we come back from break, wee will talk about the issues in california. gil cedillo, los angeles city councilmember, and kevin de leon

, president pro-tem of the california state senate. we will be back with them in a minute. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. to talk more about the clinton/sanders race mckillip 20 primary, we go back to los angeles where we are joined by pro-tem leon, president of the california state senate. he spoke last night at hillary clinton's rally at long beach city college. also with us lolos angeles city , coununcilmember and former california state legislator gil cedillo who has been campaigning with bernie sanders. i want to go to a comment of donald trump. this is a comment o of donald trump last month telling california voters that there is no drought. >> you have a water problem that

is so insane. it is so ridiculous. were there taking the water and shoving it out to see -- sea. met with a lot of the farmers who are great people and they're saying, we don't even understand it. nobody understands it. i of heard this from other friends of mine in california where they have farms up here and they don't get water. i said, that is too bad, is it a drought? they said, we have plenty of water. we shut it out to sea. i said, why? nobody knows why.. they're trying to protect a certain kind of three-inchch fi. amy: that was donald trurump. kevin de leon, can n you respon? >> to me, i think it is clear that donald trump lives in a fantasy land. he is both dangerous as well as

mentally unstable. i think there is a growing chorus throughout the country, throughout the world, even within the republican ranks, that this is an individual who is ill-prepared to lead the most powerful nation in the world. the reality is this. donald trump does not even believe in climate change and what is happening in california is we are in the fifth record year of a historic drought, which means there has been less water in the central valley, which is a breadbasket for the entire nation. we export 50% of our fruits and vegetables and nuts s to the ret of the n nation. those most severely impacted by this fifth year of historic trout have been immigrants and migrant workers, latinos specifically, who are unemployed because of the drought, because of the lack of water. this is impacted by climate change. and the harmful emissions of carbon co2 and other pollutants into the atmosphere. this is an individual who doesn't believe in science, doesn't believe what every nobel

prize winner has said that climate change is real. it is here to stay unless we, policymakers, democrats as well as republicans, start moving forward with policies that will reduce greatly our carbon emissions. this is a very dangerous individual because he does not believe in climate change. this is what is impacting california. california has the seventh-largest economy on planet earth. we import to the rest of the nation. tomatoes, lettuce, nuts. this is silly for him to say what he has said in central valley to the farmers that it is just about a political decision here or there to turn on the spigots and let the water flow. let me undererscore and emphasi, this man is very dangerous. he is unfit and that is why we have to unite the democratic party, move forward to do everything within our power to defeat him. amy: who would most effectively do that? i want to ask gil cedillo why

you're supporting bernie sanders. >> well, you know, seldom have we have the opportunity to have such a progressive candidate with his viability -- i believe, on the verge of winning this election. his understanding of the economy and how it works and how it doesn't work for working men and women is critical. his perspectives and policy proposals on immigration are really important to the latino committee, but to the entire nation. his positions on quality education for the nation is critical to our position in the global economy. and his position on health care is just so very important for us to join the rest of the industrialized nations of the world as a nation that provides health care as a right f f every resident of our country. his positions are just compelling for the american people, for the american working class, for immigrants, and for communities of color.

that is why i am so it is he a stick and happy to support the great senator fromom vermont. amy: what decided it for you, councilmember cedillo, when you are making your decision on who to endorse? what was the issue you felt bernie sanders best represented you on? question ofhe viability. seldom have we seen a progressive candidate, one who is so openly progressive about his positions, uses rhetoric from another era immediate senses and respect, but has policy positions that both the senator and i embrace. and he of the viability. those early turnouts, his early victories indicated he was a real viable candidate. his positions -- i've been an advocate on driver's licenses and ththe senator as well. it is unfortunate the previous elections, the secretary did not

support drivers licenses -- on amy: drivers licenses for? >> he worked for the government of vermont to make that around for immigrant motorists in vermont. we made it a reality here in california and it has been very important to to turn many of the deportations and the stopping of immigrants on our streets and highways. it is one area that was very important to both of us. what i think just in general, the fact that someone could be as progressive, as comprehensive in this global outlook and have viability i think is very important -- at least for me. amy: kevin de leon, as you talk about unifying the party, how do you respond to national polls that suggest it is actual bernie sanders who might be more effective, might actually have more of a chance against the feeding donald trump? >> i think it is all relative because if polls show you can win by 20 points but another individual can win by 20 points,

it becomes relative comity points you want to win by. the bottom line is this. i have also seen polls that show hillary clinton is the strongest candidate against donald trump but let me underscore and emphasize, if you want to win by 10 or 15 points were 17 or 18 points, it is all relative because a victory is a victory. is the clinton i believe strongest candidate to take on a very dangerous man. to theillo and i are progressive democrats who have moved the ball in california with regard to drivers license, health care friend document at children, the dream act, in-state tuition for undocumented students who have done incredibly well in california. three clinton has been highly supportive of these policy issues and in fact last week on saturday, she was very clear, very open to the rest of the nation that she supports comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship, supports dapa and a daca.

within the first 100 days of her presidency, she will move forward a conference of immigration reform that leads a pathway to citizenship -- comprehensive immigration reform that leads to a pathway to citizenship. i have a lot of respect for bernie. i have a lot of admiration for bernie sanders. i think he is an incredible with regards to this presidential campaign. at the time is now because the clock is ticking for us to unite as a party to move forward. this is a big tent party. yet progressives, those who are pragmatic, individuals who are little more moderate and conservative within the democratic party. that is the mosaic diversity of who we are as a political party. at the time is now to move forward to unite and i do believe bernie sanders will do the right thing. i have a lot of respect and admiration for him. i have a lot of friends who are staff members on his side --gil cedillo is a very good friend of

mine. he is a strong supporter of bernie sanders since day one. i have been a strong supporter since 2008 of hillary clinton. i am a progressive individual who has gotten a lot of work done in california that we believe is the model for the entire nation. not theoretical, abstract concepts. amy: kevin de leon, let me ask -- >> and limiting intoto real lif. amy: last night your with hillary clinton when you are -- with the announcement was made by ap and nbc news. what was her response since you are speaking to her? some news concerned reports were saying the clinton camp did not want this as much as the sanders cap? they did not want this announcement? >> well, you know, she is working very hard. i was with her last night in long beach at the l.a. long beach city college. she told me she was going to

work very harard to make sure se gets every single vote in california, in new jersey, and other states as well. so she is not counting her chickens before they hatch. ap, as well as nbc, will do their own projections. you cannot control the media outlets. everyone is out to get their stories out first. she is taking nothing for granted until she finally -- crosses the finish line tonight. there's a strong confidence she wiwill be thee presumptive democratic nominee. it sounds like a broken record, but it is s what it isis. it is sisimple math and time for us to unite as a democratic party and move forward to defeat -- don amy: i want to turn to the latest -- quite donald trump. >> i want to turn to donald trump enforced by federal judge to release internal trump university document admits to an ongoing lawsuit arguing the defunct for-profit schchool to fraud its students. trump is going after the judge,

doubling down on judge gonzales , most are silly at a campaign rally in san diego. >> i have a judge who is a hater of donald trump. a hater. he is a hater. his name is gonzalo curiel. the judges mexican, which is great. that is fine. you know what? i think the mexicans are going to end up loving donald trump when i give all of these jobs -- ok? amy: on monday, the clinton campaign released an ad featuring republican lawmakerers and ofofficials criticizing trtrump's s recent rememarks abt judge gonzalo o curielel. >> if you're saying he c cannoto his job bebecause hisis race, s that not the definition racism? .> we're building a wall he is a mexica >> how darhe question a dge'e's rerespsibibity, a jud's during the constution bause his of mecan descent.

is th not a racist statatemt? >> iould notisisagree more withth atatememe like that. >> are you comrtable with a potetentl presint attacacng a federal judge for his heritag >> no. this is one of theororst mistakesrump has made. i inink iss eusable. >> he says when he qstions ether thjudge cabe fair because his mican ritage, at is t racist. do you agree? >> look, i d't condone e comment. >> i cometely d dagree -- >>e is just as amerin n as donald tmp. mecan-americans bleed jusas y other americanhehen th go war.. theyey bd just aany othe amicican after 9/11. th f fight for america. they are america. whwhate is doing is disgusting. i am livid aboutt. ifhis is the strategfor r m to w win over hispanics, hehe ia hell of a wake-up call. amy: that last voice was

republican strategist and an of arrow. the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell in there, bob corker, house speaker paul ryan, and former house speaker newt gingrich come all of those voices in that ad. gil cedillo, this attack on the judge come on judge curiel, a judge who was first nominated, chosen from the bench by governor schweitzer nager or report -- republicacan, who is faced death threats fromom mexin drug cartels, born in indiana, your response? it wasn't so serious, it would be hilarious. this is just ridiculous. it is absurd. he is a demagogue. , it is racistism by definition. it just shows the danger that this candidacy poses for the nation.

you know, since donald trump first came forward as a candidate, we introduced legislation in a los angeles city council for us to divest ourselves from him, from his holdings, for the city to separate ourselves from him because of his racist comments. maybe that is what he means when he says mexico doesn't send in their best, they send their worst. people who get educated, people who become professionals, people who become judges, maybe considers that the worst that m mexico can send th. amy: kevin de leon, president pro-tem of the california senate also of mexican heritage, your response to this attack? , to ournk trump's disgusting. let's call it what it is. they are racist. there anti-immigrant. if he doesn't like an individual

or group of individuals because they don't concur with his views, he calls them out and he doesn't call them out based on their ideology. he calls them out based on the color of their skin, based on their origin, their ethnic origin. that is racism. there's that thing ambiguous -- amy: he was directly asked if he would -- >> lives in san diego know, just mentioned a few moments ago, i am from the san diego region, one of the worst are cartels on the border of tijuana, the felix brothers, one of the worst mexican drug cartels, his life was under threat by the drug cartels because he was one of the prosecutors in the u.s. attorney's office. his life was on the line, doing anything possible to help stop the flow of drugs in the united states. and for donald trump to just outrtright call him what he dids abhorrent.

if you recall during the republican primary win jeb bush was speaking spanish, trying to connect to the latino community, he said, why are you speaking mexican, jeb bush? he did not say, what are you speaking spanish or where you speaking another limits, he said, why are you speaking mexican? he says things i purpose to you visit -- illicit a reaction that can further divide the united states. let me underscore and a besides, this man is the most dangerousus maman to come outt ever for r te presidency. many folks have underestimated him because who would've ever fathomed that this man would vanquish marco rubio, ted cruz, lindsey graham, and jeb bush, chris christie from new jersey, and other established political republican opponents?

so we take this man very seriously, even of his comments are comical. amy: would you call him -- >> clownish. amy: would you call him a racist? >> i would. let me be clear so it is in a big was, donald trump is a racist. he is anti-american. amy: gil cedillo? >> i think the record speaks for itself. his comments speak for themselves. i think the senator said it best, he is anti-american. he is demonstrated he is anti-mexican, anti-women, anti-muslim, anti-gay, anti-disabled -- i mean, he is the anti candidate and we must be united to defeat him. black livesfornia, matter activist jasmine richards faces up to four years in prison at her sentencing today after she was convicted of a rarely used statute in california law

known up until recently as felony lynching. police accused her of trying to de-arrest someone during a peace march. it has sparked a firestorm of protest and was supporters vowing to pack the court today. kevivin de leon, your president pro-tem of the california senate step your thoughts? >> listen, i'm not familiar with the legal details of this case but nonetheless, i think perhaps prosecutors have been a little too harsh were extremely harsh with regard to the prosecution or the years that they're trying to give the fact that it is black lives matter. the fact is, black lives matter, whether people concur are not concur with them, they have brought to light many of the abuse issues that young african-americans, latinos and other minorities, people of color, have endured, have faced the store click, not just in california but throughout the nation. perhaps the prosecutors are

being overly harsh. i want to underscore, i do not know the legal details of this prosecution. i'm aware of the general prosecution, but it seems like it is much, much, much too harsh. amy: in los angeles city councilmember, gil cedillo, that she would be charged under this law originally set up so that if a mob pulled away -- actually, for african-americans against lynching -- pulled away a person from pulleys, that they would be held accountable for felony lynching and yet it is now being used against this young black woman. >> i also don't know the details of the case but it does seem wholly inappropriate. think about this, amy. you started your show talking about someone from stanford who rapes a woman and get six months , then you have got a woman who is part of a black lives matter movement who is trying to bring forth the challenges that face

us in america around racism and racial discrimination. and she is participating, trying to exercise her first amendment rights and s she is going toto e given four years? something is wrong with that picture. amy: we have to leave it there. kevin de leon, president pro-tem of the california senate. gil cedillo is a los angeles city council member. when we come back, we will be joined by radio host rose aguilar to talk about other aspects of the california primimary that are n not gettins muchch attention. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. voters are heading to the polls in six states today but most of the nation's attention is focused on california, the largest date in the union. addition to the hillary clinton/bernie sanders race, voters will be deciding who'll face off in november to secede your senator barbara boxer. extra 2010 law, california voters are expected to choose two democrats, state attorney

general kamala harris and yes representative loretta sanchez. to talk more about the primary california, we're joined by rose aguilar, host of "your call," a daily public affairs radio show on npr-affiliate kalw in san francisco. rose, welcome to democracy now! first, your response on n ap and nbc news calling the naming hillary clinton as the democratic presidential, the presumptive nominee. >> this is the first time in decades like california's primary actually matters. it is amazing to see so much excitement in the state. i was at the event in san francisco last night attended by about 10,000 people. the breaking news came down while we were at the rally. a lot of people were so disappointed because they feel like it will do to people from actually voting. we're also going to be choosing a senator. we have a lot of really important races.

in san francisco, an important race with the local democrats and so people are really disappointed by this and said, look, people are already disenchanted with this process and we need as many people as we can do go to t the polls. feeling thing that is exciting, amy, is so many people have registered in california. this is a massive state. we have about 40 million people in california that are now 17 million people are registered to vote. the last two months, running up to the election, we had 600,000 new registrants. a lot of people are excited. an announcement like this on the day before the california primary sends a really bad message to vototers. i heard that at the rally l last night. amy: to be clear, you're at the bernie sanders rally? >> yes, last night in san francisco. amy: did he address this issue -- oh, he knew at that point the called, been basically

did he address it when he was begin dollar view? > know, he didn't really address it. he said he is taken as all the way to the convention. that is about it. he did not go much further. is s reporting health 20's voting primary process has excluded tens of thousands of independent voters from voting in the presidential primaries so far and those numbmbers are expected to grow according to information provided to kcra 3 by leaving little data firm. -- by a leading political data firm. if you wanted to vote in the democratic primary and you were an independent, yet do it decide this months before, before any debate, before any primary, before it was clear it would be this close. so millions of people could not vote. how it works, voting rights advocates say california's process for voting is an independent in a presidential primary is

confusing. this is part of a psa created by the nonprofit independent voter project to help explain the process to voters. what's the democratic libertarian and american independent party's let t you ve for the candidate as long as you're not a memember of another pay.y. these parties s have somewhat closed, that lets independents or others request a ballot. if you want to vote for these party candidate and receive your ballot by y mail, call your couy registrar before may 31 and tell them to send the ballot you want or you will get one with no presidential candidate. if you missed the deadline, you can still vote at the polls were as an independent you need to request a ballot for the party candidates you want. amy: so if you could explain, rose aguilar, what that means when people go to the polls today. what are they supposed to ask for? >> here is w what you need to d. if you are a no party voter -- in california, it is not even inindependent. the independents are no party preference.

if you are no party preference voter and you want to vote for a democrat for president, you have to ask for a crossover ballots. a legally have to give you one. again, ask for a crossover ballots, try to go to the polls early because, amy, i am a rehearing reports people are concerned that polling places are going to run out of ballots because we've had such a massive voter surge in california. you cited the report from case e.r.a. --kcra. 250,000 people have turned in their ballots and his organization did a neck that poll and asked these people, all right, how many of you turn in a ballot without voting for president? it was 42%. they wanted to vote for presesident and they did not. they wanted to vote for a democrat. that is almost half. almost 25,000 people. amy: why didn't they?? >> 57% of the voters said they

wanted to vote for bernie sanders. people are turning in ballots without voting for a president. you have to ask for a crossover ballots. to make matters even more confusing, the los angeles times had a really good report about a month ago and found 500,000 californians checked off the american independent party box thinking, well, that is the independent p party. seems logical. that is an ultra, ultra right party in california. l.a. times found 75% of those voters had no idea it was an ultra right party. it is shameful the rules are so confusing. to make matters even more confusing, if you live in san francisco and d what to vote and are very important democratic central committee race, you have to be a democrat. it is too late to change. if you are a no party preference voter and ask for crossover ballots, you can vote for democratic president but you race in sanin the

francisco. i wish the state hadad done a better job of getting the word out and the media had done a better job of getting the word out. we did what we could, but i have been paying attention and i've not seen many psa's, , have not heard much about this. it is such an important issue because people are going to be so upset if they cannot vote for president. 125,000 people in california have already turn in their ballots without voting for president. amy: i did not understand why they did get a ballot, but did not check the box for president. >> there is no president on the ballot. if you are a no party preference voter, there is no president on your ballot. you have to request a democratic that it -- ballot. eithererave to call in, or if you are vote by now, you have to do it in advance. what you can do right now if you live in califorornia, take your ballot, if you're a vote by mail voter, take your ballot into the polling place with you and ask

for crossover ballot. if you're not vote by mail, go early and ask for crossover ballot because we're consignees polling places will run out of ballots because so many people, hopefully, will be requesting a democratic ballot to vote for president. amy: something else unusual, explain the senate race that is taking place, how the system works right now that could lead to only democrat on the ballot for the senate race. explain who is running and how you vote. >> we have only had two debates for senate. frankly, they were not that exciting. the president is getting all of the attention. the down ticket is not getting that much attention. kamala harris and loretta sanchez are the top of the ticket. a lot of republicans and most people have not heard of. there are third-party candidates running but in the system, they are not getting any media coverage. they were not invited for the debate. the voters decided they wanted the top two vote getters to be

on the ballot regardless of party. is notublican party doing well in california. the democrats are to much control this state. we're probably going to have kamala harris and loretta sanchez on the ballot, two democrats. what will happen is the republican party will most likely vote for loretta sanchez because she is the more sort of moderate democrat on certain issues. it is just the republicans really don't have a chance when it comes to running for senate in the state of california. at the bernie sanders rally last night. what do you think will happen with the bernie sanders camp? i mean, we still don't know. they cannot predict what will happen run-up to the convention. but how do you think -- what do you think needs to happen? just listening to your last interview talking about this ridiculous things that trump has

said, i'm afraid the next five to six months it is going to be trump said something ludicrous, hillary clinton responded, and we're not going to talk about issues or things that really matter to peopople. i think it is important to remember that this time last year, bernie sanders was 63 points behind hillary clinton. one of the most well-known politicians in the world. and at this time last are, most people had never heard of bernie sanders. they did not know who he was. the media called him the old socialist who has a bad haircut. universal health care, free tuition for public schools, banning fracking them overturning the death penalty -- these are radical ideas, we heard, when in fact, these are center right positions.. amy: rose aguilar, thank you for being with us, host of "your call," a daily public affairs radio show on npr-affiliate kalw in san francisco.

that does it for the broadcast. democracy now! is hiring a news producer and an office coordinator. find out more at democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 6 ..

ok i think it't's a scienence-fiction magazine tht joe e campbell used to publish that my dad subscribed to. i used to read for ratio sleep.

to read voraciously. when i was eight or nine years old that was like 1960. no one had been to the backside of the moon at that point. in the story, these astronauts are going to go to the backside of the moon and figure out what is on the backside of the moon. everyone has always wondered. we have only seen the front side. and theyin the capsule sign off, radio silence, it is going to break the radio waves. they are going to turn off the vacuum tubes and save the leg the city. 1960 toss. -- save the electricity, 1960's. they look out the window and there is this cast. a debate breaks out. shall we tell them?

would see. what they a crashed spaceship? a lost civilization? lizard people? what is on the backside of the moon? they were so horrified by what they saw that it almost turns into a fist fight in the capsule. eventually they come to the conclusion that they were just going to say it looks just like the front. we are not going to tell anybody. because the backside of the mood was made out of the two by fours that they made roller coasters of and it held up a canvas for lock that held up the front start. -- front side. a hollowed-out thing. i think it is a perfect metaphor

for our economy. we have been through this before. we have teetered out what our economy is like and what to do. we have figured out the solution. to call up the swedish economist and ask, how do we fix this? there is an economic part to it also aou but there is philosophical part. why would someone put into place economic policies that essentially haven't destroyed the american -- have destroyed the american middle class. we are still in the middle of the crash of the 2008. it never resolved. bubble gum and bailing wire. they held off for rational political partisan purposes.

the obama administration is doing the same thing, trying to hold off until november 2016. the difference is he has got the entire republican party trying to bring it down around his years. hold it not able to off. it still blew up. -- stock market hit 16,000 80% of the stocks are on the top 20%.%. that is the wealth of the wealth. we are not looking at the economy. they say the economy is great. all these houses. -- a veryge of those large percentage of those houses have lost money. people rents cars. the equity has been taken out.

mess of this 00 physicalness of this, -- my fatherdream went to japan as part of the occupation. back on the g.i. bill, he went to college. he wanted to be a history professor. be a phd. he and my mom met and fell in love and got married in 13 months later i came along. mom had d already graduated. he hadad not.. he got a good job. he ran the office, knew the machines.

a sinking company. because he had a good union jobs he was able to buy a house. note. a three percent guaranteed by the federal government. was he went to college she paid to go to college. it was free. he had the house paid off at the end of 20 years. in 2006.re he died he had attention which not only survived him but hate for my mom, and to. -- but paid for my mom, too. occasion. he bought a new car every three years and turn the old one in. this was the american dream. he had it all. the basement with 20,000 books, most of which he had read.

we did not live high on the hog, the house he bought was a three-bedroom one baththroom hoe that he bought in 1956 and there was me in three brothers but it was fine to us. -- he died that was the american dream. lottery dream came along. now the dream is to be the next guy who invents facebook. you cannot build an economy on a few billionaires. it does not work. pointed out -- does anyone have a copy of my own that i may borrow? thank you. and thisnted out -- was not unique -- i remember this from the 1960's.

we went and bought magazines and finally found the article. it pointed out that from the george washington administration to the ronald reagan as productivity increase, and that is the amount of stuff increase per unit of labor, as part of vivid productivityas increased from the cotton gin to industry, wages went up along with it. those two lines. it starts in 1947. they tracked each other. thatrkers do came more of turned into higher wages or lower working hours.

40 hour work week now. 70 hour work week at the civil war. in addition to lower numbers of hours worked, people made more money. that continued. continue.ty our businesses continue to make things. wages have been flat since 1980. this cap has opened up. has opened up. corporate revenues go up. there is a lot more money. that has not been going to the middle class. wages have in flat all this time. in therage wage earner .960's was $20,000 people like to quote household income, which i think is to set

it. household income is $43,000 per year. if there is a reason why. -- but there is a reason why. that is because there are more than onepeople -- more person working in the household or more than one person working more than one job. 1970's throughout the t to work.m wen two people started working, raising a family. that was not enough. to maintainsaid, our standard of living, let's tap out our house. my brother sold his. let's tap into that equity.

they took equity out of their homes. then credit cards. 1970's x, i was running a business. and i were running a business. that year i make more money than my dad and my dad was real proud of me. i was 25 years old. i finally qualified for an amererican expressss card. i had never been able to g get a credit c card. you could not get a credit card unless they knew you were solid. you had to pay it off every month. if you were one day late they would take it away from you and it took a year before you could apply again. no-nonsense. the average credit card debt in the united states runs from

$9,000 per person up to $20,000 per household. it has exploded. getst who died last week credit card applications. then it was like, ok, what are we going to do now? we have wiped out the credit cards. we have rented a car. .et's put the kids into debt i went to college. i did not graduate. michigan state. over an anti-war riot, which is a hole on -- whol e other story. lived inre in 1968 and the park. a whole other story. i paidwent to college, my way through college by working a weekend job as a dj. absolute minimum wage.

as a worked at a big boy cook and a dishwasher. and when the waitresses went on strike i was a waiter, and ever since then i have been an in scene tepper -- an obscene tipper. i worked at a gas station. you cannot do that anymore. when i went to college, 80% of colleges were paid foror by stae governments. abe lincoln came up with this idea. you give them a chunk of land so that the college can work that land so that the students could go to college for free. abe lincoln was not the first to come up with this idea of freeee college. thomas jefferson created the university of virginia which was the first free college and he was so proud of that that on his tombststone it s says founder oe university of regina -- of

virginia. those were the things he was real proud of. that was his legacy. free college. byby the time i got there, 80% s paid for. tuition was a couple of hundred dollars her term. it was not a whole lot. now it is upside down. collegesf the cost of paid for by tuition and 20% by the state and federal and local government and the college of self. -- college itself. looking not at what , described to you, this gap wrotes 1966 that "time" this article.

productivity had followed the wages. they said it is going up. robots. computers. what are we going to do? what is it going to meet? what is the year 2000 going to be like? they concluded that if wages totinue to follow to the -- " everyoneuctivity, in the u.s. will be independently wealthy." "even nonworking families will have an annual income of 40 houston dollars." $40,000. how to use leisure meaningfully will be our problem." that would be $200,000 in today's money. how did this happen? what is the philosophical story

behind this? with the familiar conservative worldview. my father was conservative and republican until the day he died. when i was 13 i went door to door for eric goldwater. two years later i was getting tear gassed that msu -- at mus. -- msu. understood russell kirk. he wrote a book called "the conservative mind." ,n animated william f buckley barry goldwater. it is the idol of the modern conservative. it is still in print. still wildly -- widely read.

intelligentsia will speak of this book. it was not a villainous philosophy. shouldat how society the. the conservative and the liberal way. johnattle goes back to adams and thomas jefferson. they started whenever he came through town. it haso it the way always been done. jefferson said we need a revolution every 20 years. he saw changes a good ring. two fundamental worldviews.

thomas payne eventually supported the american revolution. he spent two weeks at his house. he got into this too-weeklong battle. wrote an entire book, "the rights of man," as a rebuttal. here is the modern english version. a ruling class and everybody else. manays it does no harm if a is servile as a candle maker. he iss violence if allowed to participate in the government. way, is the same

kind of thinking that has animated laws across the united states. suppress the vote. john adams wanted to use that with people of lower means. we do not want the rabble participating. kirk basically predicted the american middle class was growing. it is something the world had never seen before. if he keeps going like this and this happens for another couple of decades, you are going to see people who are going to have this leisure time and they are going to cause trouble. this is the rabble. ,o back to thomas hobbes without the iron fist of church

or state life would the nasty, brutish, and short. being the first of modern-day conservative philosophy spurs. -- philosophers. kirt predicted there would be got if the middle classs too big. so let's slow down the pace of stuff. he understands the arc of history. wrong with that. legitimate worldview. his book had been out for a couple of decades. a soft-spoken lawyer , i spokesented tobacco

with him, read about him, watching videotapes about him, and have come to the conclusion that he was actually a good and decent man of good heart and thought he was doing the best for his country. there was no villainy in this. in 1971 it looked like russell kirk's production was coming true. young people were having sex like no tomorrow. women were demanding the right to participate in the work place. young people were smoking dope and taking lsd and saying i am not going to the war and -- you had thens

civil rights movement. cities that were burning. gay people saying, what what about us? in 1979. happened it was as if every sector of society had just interrupted. -- erupted. everywhere these guys looked, what they saw was chaos. they genuinely believe they .hought this was not good chaos this is the kind of thing that leads to bolshevik revolution and brings down government and destroys society. people were not going to church. the force. women were openly talking about war since. -- about abortions. people know that they were simply abortions.

there are was a lot of discussion about this kind of thing. all these things that happened, challenges to the established order. that societyt shouldld move slowly and gradually. this was a horror show. was that in part 1965, 1966, rachel carson wrote "silent spring." inticides not only killing out-- insects but thinnining and shall so that the birds were not hatching. the planes are spraying ddt over our house. wether or not ddt is toxic, and there is some indication it is

toxic, it is definitely toxic to birds and bees in one day we are going to wake up and the spring is going to be silent and that is the beginning of the death of the earth. you had the whole industry under intact from an environmental movement. and that, did yoyou seriously fix ande the gas tank decided not to do it because only one out of 10 people would sue? cheaper not to put the bolt in? this is the stuff that was being exposed. the corporate lawyer and the social conservative look atat ts and said, we are under siege.

we have got to get control of public opinion. we need to create ink tank's that will put this out. instead of rachel carson on the it's one offe," our guys. broccoli, came the heritage foundation, the coke the american enterprise institute. we have got to take control of state legislatures. they vote on model legislation that gets induced -- introduced. we have got to get control of colleges. hotbeds of marxism. but given what is going on on campus. we have got to do something about this. corporationsarge

funding chairs where only conservatives are allowed to be hired to teach. we have got to take control of government itself. we have got to take control of the courts. federalist society. more than half of our judges are federalist society, very tense vervet of. -- very conservative. take control of the media. , went to richard nixon and said every day we come up with talkingng points for republicans and we send them out on airplanes to tv stations all over the nation on tapes. before the internet. we will call it "goptv." all these notes on the margins.

nixon said we cannot afford to do that. good luck. find a billionaire and do-it-yourself. is the chairman of fox news. let's stabilize business, society. from my dad's perspective, reasonable. what these things did was they open this to the predators. the people that game the system and take advantage of the system -- let me explain about commodities. this is not the big thing that caused the crash, but more responsible than anything else. all own theat you bakery. midwest.ed out in the

it is the beginning of the growing season. is goingr, the wheat to be expensive. you want stability. good price of bread. i take half my crop and put it on the futures market. wheat is a commodity. i will sell this in advance. we can budget for a year. we are guaranteed to buy that wheat. if it is higher we win. if it is lower, we lose. it does not matter. stable business. these are called commodities futures. all about stability. weather it is we, poor alleys for the bacon industry -- pork itly for bacon, whatever

may be. the people who are selling or buying are called counterparties . this is how the commodities market works. it was regulated by federal agents see the commodities futures trading agents the in washington, d.c. regulated through the exchange on which commodities are traded at a chicago, the chicago board of exchange. there was this guy called ken lay who wanted to get a couple of things done. he had a problem with the banks. 800 companies. he was running a ponzi scheme. put all of this profit in another company and took nine paychecks out of the profitable companies. the bankers started to figure out what was going on.

banks, savings banks, mortgage banks, were not allowed to trade in stocks. stock brokerages, investment banks were not allowed to i issue a c checkboo. ken lay was very concerned that banks would figure out his scam. he wanted to get into the commodities trading business. energy, whicht was not something that could be traded on the commodity market -- you can drive down the street and see acorn silo. electricity? it does not fluctuate wildly from year to year in ways that would justify being traded as a commodity. he had figured out a way to make money at this. he started lobbying the federal agency. wendy gramm was the head at the time.

the wife of the senator from texas. he lobbied this agency to allow energy to be regulated. , that6, wendy gramm said is cool. we will eight you do that. that is not an off. then she left her job with the federal government and went to a well-paid job as a member of the board of directors of enron. that was not enough for can. he also wanted to be able to have his own bank said he could hide what he was doing. he wanted his own bank so that he could gamble. down auld require taking lot that was set up in 1935 to prevent banking crashes. the united states has never gone more than 15 years without a major nationwide tank can it. -- bank panic. they separated these types of banks. -- gamblingnks

banks went down all the time, but in commercial banks, your checkbook with dave -- was safe. when the c caution husband -- wendy's husband introduced legislation that did what he wanted. -- blew up will out the law. anyone can own a bank. we will change how banks are regulated. commercial banks and investment banks can merge. ken was excited. secondly, he pushed through a bill called the commodities futures modernization act. we can take futures, commodity we have been wheat talking about and they do not have to be physical things. it can be other things. insuranceen trade in on things as if they were commodities.

he started doing this with energy to stop then enron blew up because of this. the banks got this and they started doing it with mortgages. mortgages is cool, because you cannot drive down the street and see mortgages. you cannot say that a house is underwater or has a loan. you couldn't see that. they push together these clumps of commodities, mortgages. they called commodities. then they went to aig and said, we want to buy insurance. we do not want this to go bad. else, and it is literally a bunch of guys in say, you, they would have $1 million worth of mortgages and a $10 million insurance policy.

we will buy $100 million. $100 million in the fact that the policy may go bad stop someone else goes along and that's. someone else comes along. they say that that $10 billion policy will not go bad. each one of these, because they have this underlying value, from which they derive their distance, these are called derivatives. here are the numbers. the gross domestic product in , it is roughlyes $15 trillion. the gross domestic product of the entire plan is roughly 65 million -- exceed $5 trillion. before they made these changes, there was virtually no serious trading of derivatives. this was a brand-new word for

all of us. 2008, according to a bank of international settlements, in 2008, the amount of money in ,erivatives that these banks this is what they were writing. trillion dollars. gdp of the planet is $65 trillion of stop if you look at a number like that, you go that something fishy is going on. when the crash happened, it gogt back up. it is back up now. we have got to do something. we have to unwind. we have to roll back the reagan revolution. make if ioint i would mentioned in 1976, the year that i got my first american express

card and make more than my dad, the next year, our cpa said, you guys are taking too much hay out of this company. we were competing with a guy who eventually ate our lunch. we were doing pretty good.d. he said,d, you guys arare takino much money. i just bought a brand-new volvo. i was having a great time. client he said, you will be paying 50% in income tax. he said it is crazy. whenid, take your money you sell your business. take it as capital gains stop put it back in the company and buy some new advertising. do some research and design. do with american business does. why thethe reason average ceo pay was three times average worker pay.

wasake more than 30 times crazy. you would have a 74% income tax. reagan dropped down to 28% of stop the money comes flooding out. it is the same thing that happened in 1921. there will privatize things. there was less government regulation. the first thing he did was he rocked the top tax rate. all the money flooded in. it created a wild speculative double. they both burst. we were off to the races. we are repeating the exact same mistake. stoped to undo that will with that, i will wrap this up. i will take some questions and answers. thank you for showing up. [applause]

>> let go right to it. if this crash happens, how serious will be social disruption be? crimes, riots, clalass warfare. what can we do to prepare for it? >> i do not agree with the gladback dystopia, get your guns. if we look at the history of crashes in the united eight, the great crash of 1929, people pulled together. in 1896, people pulled together. 1857 led to a civil war, regionally, people pulled together. in the american revolution, people pulled together. i'm strongly of the opinion that this could be a healing ring. it will be a painful thing. it already is. the great depression as a phrase was not used until the 40's.

in the 1930's, they refer to it as the panic, or "current difficulties." from now, we will look back on right now and call it be great to russian. we are still in the middle of it. it has to unwind it help. in terms of what to do, i am not an invnvestment advisor. good economist who seem to know this kind of stuff suggest that , youthese crashes happen can buy stuff for a whole lot less than it used to cost. values fall. you want to be debt freree and have as mumuch cash as possisib. some of the great fortunes in america were majoring the 1930's. they could buy up land for pennies on the dollar. i had another guy on the program say that if you cannot be debt free, bs in debt as possible. [laughter]

that pushes the edge of fraud. >> there are a couple years to prepare for that. this could happen next week. the thing is, for people who get hurt in these crashes, they are the people who have half the equity in their house. suddenly their house is underwater. try to get outut of that positi. >> you say the future is optimistic, but there is a slow worsening of thing since reagan stop wide you think we will follow the enlightenment, and not fascism? >> to answer the second part of 1933, ition first, in hit the world all the same. we had fdr.

that is why it matters who is in the white house. it matters who is involved in politics. it matters that you get up there and be politically active stop humans show up. you must show up in party politics. when fdr came into office, you would that he'd paid the huge occupied movement. world war i soldiers had a coupon in 1940 four a bonus for their service. they were broke. he had an army all the way down to the potomac river. tens of thousands of people. it was a huge movement. it happens all over the country. the political will was there. it was pushing him. frankly, if president obama had come into power a year later, if we have been leaving 800,000 jobs a month for a year, or two years later, like fdr.

in after three years of herbert hoover doing nothing. he would have had the political will. he would have had the people behind them. he doesn't right now. if we look at this history of ,rashes in the united eight when the last man who remembers the last great war dies, the horrors of the last great war died. the next great war becomes inevitable. those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat it stop we are making the same mistakes. it is not just will be made in the 20's. it is what we did in the 1850's and the 1700. the good news is that every time we reboot ourselves. the 1700s, we came out as an

egalitarian country stop it was the first liberal democracy in 3000 years. we came out of the civil war with a legal antislavery. we had the 17th amendment with the direct election of senators. women being able to vote. there was positive progressive change. we came out of 1929 with the 40 hour work week. unionization. the list goes on and on. there is a lot that needs to be done. i believe that once that political will is there, that will happen. >> you have an optimistic note. you talk about the letter to your great-grandchildren. in 2090. >> you who are living 80 years from now. it does -- it takes 60 years for people to forget.t.

and then it takes 20 years to make stupid mistakes. that is the cycle. we see this over and over again. 1920's, werer the harding set up the crash of 1929. he dropped the top tax rate and deregulated banking. he outsourced government functition. he did the same things that we have been doing recently. had in the 1930's, along and 1950's come said if this works so well we do not need it anymore, that is the argument he made to congress. batman,ike to say that there would be people who had lived through that administration. they would have laughed at him. maybe robert burkett. but other than him, everyone was dead or talking with grandpa.

they were not taking him seriously. that is what happens. it takes 60 years to forget or for people to die out and then some new genius, smartest guy in the room, ken lay steps in and saysys, let you this. in my letter t to my great-grandchildren, should be have any, and we have none so far. say, here is what we went through. please learn from our mistakes. this country does not need to go through this again. we need to wake up. we are talking about leadership right now. this question from the audience that president obama and his administration have embraced the worst aspects of his corrosive

trend. we see hillary clinton as the de facto front-runner. now my speakers were. she accepted money and speakers these from goldman sachs. does that take away her moral authority? >> here's the thing. here's the thing we have to understand. it is not about people. it is not about politicians. it is about the times. it is about we, the people. the constitution makes no reference to leaders. it makes reference to representatives. we elect people to represent us. franklin roosevelt was a wealthy governor of the most corrupt the in the united

states. new york in the 1920's. when he was running new york, there was corruption right under his own notes. he did nothing about it. you could build a case that he was one of the most corrupt politicians. you think hillary clinton is bad? greg roosevelt was a mess. and he ran for president on a platform initially balanced budget incremental change, let's just keep doing what herbert hoover is doing. then he came into office and people were there. the great was there. the way it works in america is enough of us formed a parade, whether it is on these poker in the streets, if enough of us formed a parade, a politician will jump out in front, when they fly, and say, this is my parade. look at the tea party right now.

>> it is not working out so well for them. i can give you a long list of areas where it is a great president obama and hillary clinton on policy. we, the national spirit, the zeitgeist of america, changes in a big way, that is what you will continue to get. you will get the same old politicians. every 80 years, we get one of these generational -- it was franklin roosevelt. . thomas jefferson we are ready. the birth pains will be the crash. we will get through the birth pains and d what comes out of tt will be a new life. it i is a wonderful thing. i am not willing to trash hillary clinton or s say she is

not good enough. i personally prefer elizabeth warren. clinton, she knows how to take names and kick out. i can say that. if the times push her, she will do it. if the times push barack obama, he could do it. he only had 13 weeks from the time ted kennedy died where he had a filibuster proof senate. that was it for the whole, entire presidency. he had that health care legislation past. he got a lot of good stuff done. and then absolute obstruction. -- what it will take happens when a crash happens is

that for the average person in america, reality rips open. it cracked open. leonard:, -- cohen, the light comes through. someone s in and says, here is the solution. we do not haveve to llll an economist from sweden.n. we know how to do this. one wonders if there's any segment of our society that will be affected stop who will be hit the hardest? >> the people who are in the process of building your equity. we have seen this. have our own recent history to look at. the people who have invested in the stock market. it is in a bubble. , there are market places where it is starting to go back into a bubble. basically it is middle america who get hurt the most. the working pooror are always huhurting stop the very rich

always the great out. some of the biggest fortunes in america were made in the 1930's. the rich and profit. they will profit. >> i have a few headlines from recent days to throw out at you. here in california, we were facing a state budget of $60 billion underwater. we just learned that this year it will be 2.4 billion. is that a sign? sign of a a crash coming? >> i do not think that relates to the crash. thatat is really good news. california is leading the way for the rest of the country. a lot of that is coming out there be change of how you redistrict. it reflects the will of the people.

a few hours ago, i got a newsletter. the new headline, and this is the guy who protected the crash last time, he is pointing out top something percent, i forget what it is, it is the same thing in united eight, it has gone from being a couple of hundred percentage points being richer do hundreds and hundreds of percent richer. wealthy couldly be the salvation of our economy will stop i can dig it out of my phone, but it would take a few minutes. these kinds of conversations are starting to be had. solid-statek to a for r the econonomy. >> i have immediate question. there were a couple media questions. audience, one of the

few progressive p point. why is that? a question from the audience, to what degree is our 24 hour news media helping or hindering our expectations? >> one of the things that reagan did that was most pernicious and that needs to be rolled back 1982 he stopped enforcing the sherman antitrust act. the last guy who did that was jimmy carter who broke up at&t. richard nixon started that process. when reagan came into office in 1980, and some of you may be old enough to remember this, they used to drive across america. every town was different. every downtown was locally owned. every shopping center was locally owned. now you can drop out of a plane from 100,000 feet and land anywhere.

you would have no idea where you are. it is all macy's and mcdonald's and whenever. the same thing happened in the media. this incredible consolidation started happening. the consolidation is being run by corporations who are not real fond of the e methods that i hae been sharing. on the other hand, there is an audience for stop they like making money. they will sell you the rope that you hang with. i should not say that. hand, we haveher seen some changes. when the big radio networks. state.a big swing there were four major stations. it is the same thing in florida. we were pulling incredible numbers. they replaced us with a sports station.

it never made the e kind of mony we made. you have to look at those decisions and say, are these i do not wantens? to get into a huge conspiracy. on this, but the fact is, rupert yearch lost $100 million a for five years. secondly, if you look at these conservative institutions as shelley a olson -- sheldon adelson referred to himself, when they put money into politicians, they are getting a return. they are getting lower taxes. they are getting less regulation. they are getting lower wages for their workers. george soros gives money to liberals, and he is jacking up his own taxes. it just makes sense that you

would have a whole lot more conservatives running everything from the media and what not to philanthropy. traditionally, we have seen in these cycles, there is a conservative overreach. harding, coolidge, and hoover were classic examples. franklin roosevelt had to deal with william randolph spurs. -- hearst. when enough people wake up, and it is typically caused by a crash, then progressive change will happen. they can out shout the voices of greaeat wealth and power. a 13morgan agreed to sell -- agreed to a $13 billion settlement. put that in perspective for us. that seems like a lot of money. practices in connection with --

it is not a lot of money. jpmorgan has $20 billion just thing in a on, waiting for this kind of thing. they will be able to deduct a lot of this in their taxes. all you have to do is look at their stock price. this was announced and their stock price went up, not down stop that should tell you. every now and then, i waxed like about ronald reagan. in 1983, he deregulated these evenings and loan industry -- savings-and-loans industry. three years later they crashed. reagan investigated over 1000 people, put 600 of them in prison. john mccain almost went down. rating put these guys in jail. l nationalized the s and industry. he told the stockholders that they have lost everything.

ownsederal government these snl -- s and l's. he was on my show a couple times and he died recently. he put him in charge of the thing and said, you have 20 years to unwind this and re-privatize it. this is what sweden did in 1997. they nationalized their banks. this is we should have done in 2008. >> someone asked, what could be done to get workers to join a union? interesting well about co-ops. >> more people work for worker owned co-ops and unions. it is astounding. there are some states that make to form aeasy worker-owned co-op.

other states make it difficult. we need to push for it to be easy. wherever democracy is in the workplace, the workers are owning the work days or they are members of a union. egos i, a couple of harry truman, but it got passed by a republican congress. it has allowed these days to do their thing. frankly we need to reverse that. >> we have time for one more question. someone asked, will the obamamacare history of low overn time for the 2016 elections? >> there is an interesting article in the new york times about how the republican party has changed their messaging on this. they are asking members to push out to all of their mailing list , do you have obamacare horror stories? they are making this a very concerted effort. they know.

they have experienced medicare and a redacted it would be a disaster. they saw this as social security. they predicted that would be a disaster. at least they did not try to sabotage it. once people get benefits like this -- >> we are the only country in the industrialized world that does not do this. >> and we're working on in a half-baked way. they know that this will be very successful and that success will help president obabama and the democrats. they are trying to kill it. i do not think they will be successful. i think the american people are smarter than that will not -- then that. i just started talking about this on radio and tv. you talk about states like louisiana with bobby jindal and they say they will not take this hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funds to care for people who make more