08/10/20 08/10/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from nenew york, this is democracy now! >> then yesterday, as soon as we arrived, they started tear-gassing us. there were sound bombs, live bullets -- not what i expecteted at all from a country who has already lost so much. amy: lebanon's government is on the brink of collapse following last week's devastating explosion in beirut's port

which killed at least 200 and injured thousands. mass protests were held over the weekend. at least government ministers three have resigned. we will go beirut for the latest. plus, we look at how the new postmaster general, a major trump fundraiser, shaking of the postal service, slowing down mail d deliverery just as trump escalates his s attack on n main voting. >> t today we hahave the fridady night masassacre. he fired all the senior servicee stal execucutives, the p people who o have run thehe day-to-dayy operationsns of the post o offi. ththis is nothining less than nd trumump and his popolitical cros trying to ststeal ththe electioy blocking or delaying vote by mail. amy:y: then we lookk at the new executive orders. a number of republican lawmakers join democrats slamming trump's actions as unconstitutional. all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.o.org, the quarante report. i'm amy goodman. in lebanon, protests raged over the weekend following the catastrophic explosion last week at the port of beirut, which killed at least 200 people and injured thousands more and leveled neighborhoods. the explosion was triggered by 2700 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate left unattended in a warehouse for six years. protesters stormed three ministries as security forces unleashed tear gas and rubber bullets on demonstrators. this is a protester speaking saturday. hooked i am endangering myself, just like others, because we have reached our limit. enough corruption. exploded.stances on top of this, there are still people at the port who are beieg shot with pellets and rubber

bullets. they are slaughtering people. amy: a number of politicians have resigned amid the growing unrest and accusations of corruption and negligence. the media is reporting prime ministster hassan diab w will sn submit his resesignation. we'llll have more from m lebanon lateter in the broadcast. president trump signed four executive order saturday after congress to agree on a new coronavirus relief bill. a number of republican lawmakers join democrats slamming trump's actions as unconstitutional. under the orders, unemployed workers will continue receiving an additional $400 a week, but only if states put up a quarter of the money and set up a new system to distribute the payments -- a process that could take months. trump also ordered the deferral of payroll tax collections from workers earning under $100,000, but the taxes will still need to

be paid back next year after the election. trump also signed an executive order on evictions but it does not extend the federal moratorium that r recently expired. this all comomes as confirmed cororonavirus cases s in the und states have topped 5 5 million - by far the highest caseload in the world, though the true number of cases is likely much higher. as the new school year starts or approaches for kids around the united states new report by the , a american academy of pediatrics found that nearly 100,000 children contracted covid-19 in the last two weeks of july. in georgia, a high school that recently suspended two studentss for posting images of classmates ignoring social distancing guidelines and not wearing masks, being packed by the hundreds in the hallways, announced it is implementing remote learning for part of the week after at least nine students and staffers tested

positive for covid-19. additionally, sophomore hannah watters, who posted the photos, had her suspension reversed. in south dakota, tens of thousands of motorcyclists rolled into the town of sturgis friday for the annual 10-day motorcycle rally in spite of the concerns o of local residents. health experts warn it could turn out to be a super spreader event as images emerged of attendees without masks and not social distancing. the cheyenne river sioux set up checkpoints to block the motorcyclists from entering their land t to prevent a possie outbreak. in california, the director of ththe department of publicic heh abruptly resignened following te sunday d discovery of a cocompur system failure that led d to an underercounting of california'ss covid-19 cases. meanwhile, the coronavirus continues s to ravage prisons across the countntry. over 800 prisoners and 60 prison

staff have now died according to the marshall project. in northern california, san quentin has now reported 24 deaths. "the orlando sentinel" found many of the prisoners who have died from covid-19 in florida prisons were eligible for parole. over 60 prisoners have died in florida according g to the r re. globally, coronavirus s deaths e approaching three quarters of a million, with nearly 20 million cases. india, the third most infected country, hit a new single-day record with 64,000 cases reported sunday. this comes as at least 10 people died in a fire at a hotel l in e state of andhra pradesh that had been converted into a coronavirus care center. just a few days earlier, a covid-19 hospital in ahmedabad caught fire, killing eight patients. brazil has become the second country after the united states to pass the milestone of 100,000 deaths as the outbreak there

shows no sign of abating. in cuba, authorities placed havana back on lockdown saturday after a new spike in cases, closing restaurants, bars, pools, and beaches. in france, people in paris will be required to wear a face mask in busier areas starting this week in anan effort to slow doda ririse in infectctions that exps warnrn could spin n out ofof co. other european countries have also reported new spikes inn recent days, including ireland, germany, spain, and italy. new zealand remains a rare bright spot as it marked 100 days without a domestic transmission sunday but warned residents not to become complacent in the fight agaiaint ththe pandemic. in hong kong, media tycoon jimmy lai was arrested today, the most high-profile arrest yet under the china-imposed new security -- national security law. jimmy lai is accused of

"colluding with foreign powers." police also raided the newsroom of his publication "apple daily." on friday, the trump administration imposed sanctions on a number of top officials in hong kong, including chief executive carrie lam, over the crackdown on mass protests. in belararus, police fired stun grenades, water cannons, and beat and arrested protesters as demonstrations broke out sunday over the results of the presidential election. protesters are calling the elections a fraud after incumbent authoritarian president alexander lukashenko was declared the winner with 80% of the vote. his main challenger, 37-year-old teacher and political newcomer svetlana tsikhanouskaya, had gathered significant public support with packed d campaign rallies. she entered the race after her husband, who was plannining to run, was arrested as part of the government's crackdown on opposition. president lukashenko has been in power for 26 years and is facing mounting criticism over the

failing economy, his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and his human rights record. mauritius has declared a state of environmental emergency after a stricken tanker carrying 4000 tons of fuel began leaking into the indian ocean. miles of the mauritius coastline have been covered in black sludge as conservationists warn protected coral reefs and endangered species are in serious peril. this is reuben pillay, who operates a virtual tour website of mauritius. >> thehe oil trail is right next reserve.and, a natural tortoises.iant aid tois a tree there s be 400 years old. for the local people, it has been terrible.

these are fishermen, divers. theyey live from the sea a and t from the sea. amy: in somalia, at least eight people were killed and 14 others injured after a suicide bomber attack on a military base in the capital mogadishu over the weekend. the islamist militant group ac-shabab has claimed respsponsibility f for the atta. in yemen, aiair raids in the noh of the countryry killed at least nine children according to a united nations official. it's the third such attack, resulting in the killing of children, in thehe houthi-controlled region over the past month. in other news from yemen, historic houses in the unesco-listed old city of sana'a have been collapsing under heavy rains that have battered yemen for months. the u.n. says the torrential rains and flooding have compounded the situation in the world's worst humanitarian crisis. in venezuela, a court sentenced two former u.s. special l forces sosoldiers to 2020 years in prin over a failed coup attempt in april. former green berets luke denman and airan berry were two of 10

men who took part in the attempted ouster of president nicolas maduro. the other eight were killed on site by venezuelelan authoritie. in afghanistan, president ashraf ghani approved a measusure to release 400 taliban prisoners -- one of the major roadblocks in the embattled peace deal between the afghan government and the taliban. talks between the warring parties are expected to start in doha this week. back in the united states. the new postmaster general louis dejoy has overhauled the leadership of the u.s. postal service in a move that critics say will give dejoy more power ahead of the november election when a record number of mail-in ballots are expected to be cast. 23 postal service executives were reassigned or displaced on friday in what democrats described as a friday night massacre. since taking office, dejoy has instituted a number of cost-cutting measures that have slowed down the delivery of the mail dramatically. there is now a days-long backlog

of mail across the country. prior to becoming postmaster general, dejoy was a major donor to donald trump and ththe republican p party. in other election news, hawaan state setotor kakaheheleon thehe primary to replace ririring congressmemb a and fmer decrcraticresisideial candidate tui i gabbd. kahele woulde e justhe secon native hawaiian inonongres since statehoo hawaii bomomes t fififthtate to conctct an ectitionntirelel or primari, , by ml. in tenneee, envinmental justice tivist a politic newcomerarquita adshaw handilwon the mocratic nonation f retirinu.s. setor lamaalexand's se. in arizonana, rmer sheff j joe arpaio h lost hibid to w ba his oldosition his foer chief deputy. in 2017, president trump pardoned arpaio for defying a court order to stop his deputies from racial profiling. in puerto rico, election officials had to partially

suspend voting sunday as a number of polling centers had still not received ballots. puerto ricans expressed anger and frustration at the election-day chaos, as the island is still grappling withth last year's political turmoil which forced thehen-governor ricardrdo rossello to o resign r offefensive leaked messages and accusations of corruption. san juan mayor and president trump foe carmen yulin cruz is running to become governor. louisiana supreme court hahas upheld a life sentenence for an african-americanan man who w was convicicted of attempting to stl hedge clippppers fromom a home nearly a quarter-century ago. fair wayne bryant's life sentence for the 1997 burglary followeded his fourth felony conviciction, which carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 20 years u under louisiana lalaw. in otherer news from louisiana,n african american gulf war veteran, derek harris, will be releaseded from prison after the

louisiana supreme court overturned his life sentence for selling less than $30 of marijuana to an undercover police officer. meanwhile in kentucky, authorities are cracking down on protests demanding justice for breonna taylor, a black louisville resident who was shot inside her own home in march. louisville's metro police department said sunday that protesters may no longer march in the street and that car-caravan protests could face citation or arrest if they disobey traffic c laws. in salt lake city, utah, black lives matter protesters who broke windows and splashed red paint outside the district attorney's office in july face a maximum sentence of life in prison after prosecutors charged them with felony criminal mischief and a gang enhancement. the move to label protesters as gang members has drawn renewed attention to utah's 1990's-era street gangs law, which disproportionately targets

communities of color. meanwhile, a u.s. didistrict jue in oregon has extended a a restraining order against the u.s. marshals service and agents with the department of homeland security, ordering them to stop attacking journalists and legal observers at black lives matter protests in portland. and markrked 75 years since thee sunday u.s. dropped an atomicc bomb on the japanese city of nagasaki, which killed 74,000 people. three days earlier, the u.s. dropped the world's first atomic bomb on the city of hiroshima, killing some 140,000 people. this is nagasaki mayor tomihisa taue speaking at a commemoration ceremony where he urged the japanese government to r ratifya 2017 nuclear ban treaty and called for a worldwide ban on nuclear weapons. the n novelh

coronavirus, whichch we did not fear until it began s spreading among our immediate surroundings, humanity is not aware of the threat. amy: andnd those a are some of e headlines. this is s democrcracy now!, democracynow.org, , the quarante i'm amy goodmaman. multiple sources are reportingng the lebanese government is on the brink of collapse amid protests over last week's massive explosion that devastated much of beirut and killed at least 200 people and injured thousands. dozens are still missing, many of them foreign workers. the explosion was triggered by 2700 tons of ammonium nitrarate left unanattended in a w warehoe at the port for over six years. so far at least three ministers and nine members of parliament have resigned, including the justice minister, information ministerer, and enviroentt minister. the prime mininister hassan n db said saturday the only sololutin

is to h hold early elections. as we broadcast, some outlets are reporting diab will submit his resignation shortly. protesters have also called for a rally to demand the ouster of president michel aoun. al jazeera reports a lebanese judge has begun questioning the heads of the country's security agencies about the explosion. this comes after t thousands of protesters in beirut stormed government institutions and clashed with security forces over the weekend and put up symbolic nooses at beirut's martyrs' square to hang politicians whose corruption and negligence they blame for the blast, as well as the country's deep economic c crisis. >> our first reaction after the explosion is that we wanted to help the people that have been affected. we cleaned the first day i'm a second, and the third day and that is it. what happened is not something new. it is been like this for years.

this is unacceptable. it has to end. >> yesterday as soon as we arrived, they started to tear gas as. there were sound bombs, live bullets -- - not what i expected at all from a country who has already lost so much. amy: international leaders have pledged at least $300 million in humanitarian assistance that will be "directly delivered to the lebanese population." in a minute, we will be joined by "wall street journal" reporter dion nissenbaum, who is in beirut. he went to the blast site on saturday a few hours before the protests broke out and filmed journalists there as they question the prime minister. >> are you going to go under the streets and speak -- >> i am not sure when. i'm not afraid of people shooting. >> do they have a right to be furious? >> they have a right to be angry . not just because of this.

this is diabolical. however, they were furious before that. unbelievable corruption. amy: that is lebananon's p prime minister speaking at the blast site. for more, we're j joined by "wal street journal" reporter dion nissenbaum. he co-wrote their investigation headlined "behind the beirut explosion: seven years of official neglect." his four-year-old daughter iman was injured in the blast, and we aoke last week to his wife day after the blast. dion, welcome to democracy now! as we speak, is itit true that lebanon's gogovernment is falli? >> i it is true. in between the time you started your broadcast and now, a fourth minister, the financee m minist, announceced his resigignation. dominoes are falalling. it does s seem likike the prime minister is reluctant to step

cabinetut if an mininisters resign, it will effectively become a caretaker government one way or another. amy: explain what happened over the weekend, these mass protests , talking about a hard-hit population -- i mean, already dealing with the pandemic. you see all of these masked protesters in the streets and last week on tuesday, this massive explosion that rocked and leveled a part of the capital city beirut, killing -- now the number is, what, over 5000 people injured and killing over 200? >> one thing to remember about this government is this is meant to be a technocratic government. falls installed after last , very joyful and peaceceful anticorruption protest that brought down the former prime mininister. so this was a government that was meant to step in and fix the problems and not be too tied the

politicians that have run this country for decades. there was wariness when they started that they rereally wer't going to be able to do that. as you jusust laid outut all ofe problems -- hyperinflation, thee currency has colollapsed, peopoe cannot buy basic goods, the power outages up to 22 hours a day. this is all before the explosion. this incredible tragedy happens on this beautiful city anand people first think, it must be israel, and must be part of the war. when people find out that it appears to be government negligence, we still have to find out what the trigger was, but the fact they stotored all f this ammonium nititrate in this warehouse e for years knowiwingt was a powdwder cake,e, it basicy has been the straw that broke the camels back. people have no faithth in this government. they are out in the streets. people are disillusioned,, disenchanted, and they're g goig

to look for some sort of change again. shipyou track where this came from. telus very quickly before we talk about the mass protests and what you saw in the streets, what people are calling for, what happened in 2013? talked about this ship that came through h and why it ended up wh this massive amount of ammonium nitrate? thetonsns of it took down obama city building, killing almost 170 people years ago. this is 2700 tons s of it. of questions lot we don't haveve answered about thisis ship. we know it came from georgia. it was supposed to be going to mozambique. georgia, the old country.oc close yes, of course. it stopped off in lebananon.

there wawas a series of bubureaucratic and financial issues that came up. it was here to try to load on more cargo to help pay its way to get down south. then it was deemed too dangerous to travel with the weight. it basicically was held at the port a and the crew was held on board and they were saying we are sitting on top of a powder keg. then it became mired in this years.ratic travails for it was eventually offloaded -- john amy: the workers s were hed on the ship for 11 months before they themselves said they are sitting on a powder keg? >> that's right. they were putting up posters and sending out photographs and we have to get out of here stop we are sitting on the timebomb, essentially. amy: and the ship was headed to mozambique? >> thatt -- these are questions that i will have to tell you

we're still searching for answers for. somee time -- with reportining from mozambibique sg there are no indications it was supposed to be coming there. there is an ongoing investigation. we are doing an investigation. journalists are doing an investigation to determine where this is going, whyhy it was the, what purposes people were intending to use for it, why they never got rid of it. there are more questions than answers at this point. amy: so they had this volatile substance being out of the port of beirut. how many people knew about it? early on after tuesday, they said they arrested some port guards who were in charge of what? they can't be in charge of prprecting it. >> they've arrested 19 people, including the people that run the port. they''re going to o likely be -- the government official at the highest levels new about this

for years. this is not a hiddenen secret. the port officials tried repeatedly with the e courts to off or sellion it it in some wayay. it was caught in this legal tussle for years. they apparently were going to the wronong port to ask for this and the court t caps on, we're t the people who can approve this. they kept t asking t the same et over and o over again so it is t clear why those people were asking thihis court that was not the right forum to ask for it but everybody knew it was there. as i said, it is a tragedydy of errors that t they never moveve, they never acted on it over more than six years, she said. amy: talk about the scene at this protest. you were there before e the protesters gathered. the questioning of the prime minister. and then with the protesters are demanding. i mean, the day after thehe explosion, the french president

emmanuel macron came and visited beirut, ultimately the teargas -- the protesterss were teargas with fridge teargas, is that right? the don't know about province of the teargas itself, but certainly there wasas a lotf anger at the prime minister for not turning out before the president of france, the prime minister of france came. there was a lot of real anger on the streets. is seen nowminister as an ineffective leader. i don't know how you'll have him lead an effective investigation with everything that is happening at this point. when i was at the blast site, there was no sign of actual mastication going on. all you had were didivers searching for bodies.. all you had was dogs searching for bodies.

they were picking up the grain and the c corn, leavaving ththe countrtry devastated, , on the e of a humanitarian disaster. tragedy her. upon the factor president of france was the one to come here and go out and be the people before the prime minister of lebanon really drove home the point for a lot of people that this is not the government of the people. amy: so their demands -- and you were rececording as the prime minister of lebanon was being questioned by reporters, but the demands of the protesters in the streets?s? and will these protests continue even after the current government, well, what looks like, falls? >> what happens when this government falls, they could becocome the caretaker untntil y can putt in a new caretaker government and then you have the negotitiation start over who is going to be inin the new c carer government. the last time they did this, they ended up with this government that really did not

have the confidence of the people. there will be continued protests for an effective government. you already have pressure from paris and washington to distance itself from hezbollah who has significant power and allied with iran. you're facing a a number of prpressures on lebanon from varirious points. give u.s. and france kinda put pressure for their agenda. you have people in the strtreets looking for some sort of systemic changes to the political sectarian system here and that corrupted system that created this layer upon layer of problems of this country. it is difficult for many of us here to see things getting better in the near term for lebanon. amy:dion, i would ask how your four-year-old daughter iman is?

we spopoke with your wife last week right after the blalast. you have both just raised d r to the hospitalal. talk aboutut what happenened tor and hohow she is doing nowow. >> thank you for asking. she was ththe most seriously injured of the thrhree of us in the b blast. i tried to shieield her with my body as s the glass and the w wd blasted through our apapartment. i threw myself on top of her. we were able to get her into an ambulancnce. you hahave the footage of my wie singing to her in the ambulance as we tried to get to the hospital. the doctors were doing amazing work in a mass casualty situation. hats off to all of the medical professionals here who handled that situation across the city. iman was able to get out of the hospital after a day with lacerations. she has wounds on her arms and legs and abdomen. she walked out of the hospital.

she limped out on her own two feet. she is a very y brave girl. of screenching a lot time these days as we try to turn the page. she said to us over the weekend, "maybe we could move somewhere where there are two explosions?" oh, we'rere showing vidideo right now of her walking veryy slowly. and the hospitals that are so hard-hit anyway from the covid into -- you just got iman the hospital before they closed their doors. and noww facing thousands andd thousands of people injured in this blast? coursehe corononavirus of is a major issue here, the several hospitals here e lost al of their windows as a result of the e blast as well. son of them m did have to shut - the hospital we were at was hit but they continue to operate. the strains on the system here

are just mounting. the doctors and the nurses and the medical teams do amazing work. there are aid groups in the streets treating people intense, suturing people in the ruins. some of they are heroes here. if there is a silver lining, it is really in the people, the medical teams and the volunteers that are out in the streets helping the country rebuild. amy: dion n nissenbaum, thank yu for being with us, co-wrote the article "behind the beirut explosion: seven years of official neglect." his four-year-old daughter iman was injured in the blalast. next up, we look at how the new postmaster general, major trump fundraiser, with massive investments in u.s. post office competitors is shaking up the postal serervicend slowingng don mail d delivery just as prpresit

trump escalates hihis attackss n mail-i-in voting. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "l"lil watan" by mashrou' leila. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. democratic lawmakers are accusing the trump administration of sabotaging the united states postal service ahead of november's election when a record number of votes are expected to be cast by maia. on friday, the nation's new popostmaster general louisis dey shook up the leadership of the agency in a move that critics say will give dejoy more power. 23 postal service executives were reassigned or displaced in -- or fired in the restructuring. prior to becoming postmaster general, dejoy was a top republican donor. he had donated more than $1.2 million to the trump victory fund and had been in charge of fundraising for the 2020 republican national convention. since taking office, dejoy has instituted a number of

cost-cutting measures that have slowed down the delivery of the mail. there is now a days-long backlog of mail across the country. this comes as prident trump continues a attacmailil-i voting, claiaing the pt ofoffi can't hale a an creasesen ballots. democratic cgrgressm gererry connolly of virginia aused dejoy of engaging in "deliberate sabotage to disrupt mail service on the eve of the election." democratic congressman peter defazio of oregon criticized reststructuring of the agency. >> today we have the f friday nighght massacre.e. he fired all t the s senior sere postal executitis, the peoeoe who ha run the day-to-day operations at the post office. this is noththing less thahan dd trump anand his polilitical cros tryiying to steal the election y ylockiking or delayaying vote mail. trump hahas sued states to try o block vote by ml.

thatat won't work. bubut he's s going to try t to p the mail from being delivevered. this is outrtrageous. amy: meanwhile, senator lisbeth horn has urged the poster inspector general to investigate the changes implemented by dejoy. she also inquired about t the financial holdings of dejoy and his wife. president trump's s nominee to e amambassador to canada. the couple holds as much as $75 million in assets in competitors or contractors of the postal service according to a financial disclosure mild. -- filed. this all comes as the u.s. postal service is facing a financial crisis in part due to losses during the pandemic as well as a controversial 2006 law which requires the post office to prefufund its wororkers post-r-retirement t health care costs, 75 years into the future -- something no other government agency is required to do. we a are now joined by two gues. mark dimondsteen is the

president of the american postal workers union. david dayen is executive editor of the american prospect and author of the new book "monopolized: life in the age of corporate power." david, let's begin with you. some demococrats are calling ths the friday night massacre. explain what place. reshufflingallyly a of these top executives -- somee of whom were in positions for decacades -- into new parts of e business. a couple were displaced, but mostly it was a reshuffling. ththink about it. if the person who runs were soundboard now has to do the camera and the person that runs the camera is now hosting the show. obviouously, these are different skill sets. it seems like therere were sortf a randomness to the design of this that would only make sense if you are trying to delay and hihinder the maiail from being

delivered. amy: talk about how thatat mails being hindered and also who louis dejoy is. >> you said it yourself. louis dejoy is a trompe l'oeil list. he is a long time donor. his wife is the nominee for the ambassador to canada. he was set to be the lead fundraiser on the charlottes republican national convention. obviously, this is someone with close ties to the president. weeks, hematter of has instituted these measures that have led to this backlog of days within the postal service, testing new w sortingg systems t seemingly don't need to be tested right now when the mail is under stress, blocking over, and other measures that have created this delay that pretty much everyone sees. talk to anyone who has had

trouble getting their mail and you'll know that this is very widespread. and because the fact that dejoy and his wife, who is now be considered to be the ambassador to canada -- this came out in her filings for that position -- toething like $75 million 100 million dollars invested in the u.s. maiail service competetition or its contracact? >> yeah, it is pretty surprising. we talk about the impact of this on the elections, but i think a larger goal -- and it is a stated goal of much of the republican party and certainly this apparatus -- is to privatize the service and give up the monopoly on the mailbox and allow ups and fedex prprimarily to enter into direct competition. degrade the service overall. it seems clear that t is the

ultimate intent. amy: let's bring in their president of the american postal workers union mark dimondstein. if you can respond to everything that has taken place now and the attack on the postal service and whatat some are calling the friy night massacre, what this means for the workers and for the country. i mean, the u.s. postal service is older than ththis country. >> that's s right. thank you so much for having me on. firsrst, let me jujust say this. any policy that slows down the mail runs cocounter to everythig a postal worker s stands for. we are completely oppososed to these policies that are delaying mail and we have let this new postmaster general know that and we have donene it with vehemenc. postalal workers treat the mails if it t is our own. that is our dna. our job is to get it to the customer.

we work under a laww t that says prompt, reliabable, efficicient service. prprompt m means quickly. so o obviously, it is a demoraralizing thing f for postl workers. we are out in the frontnt linesf the pandemic as essential workers, connecting the country in these difficult and challelenging times. then be told to delay mail. the friday night or r friday massacre, i am more focucused on thee policy and who isis running what and who is assigned too whatat. i think that is where we have to look. the most signifificant thing, a, on fridaday, in n my opinion, ws the new postmaster general was absolutely silent on the most pressing issue facing the public u.s. postal servrvice, and thats congress coming through with stimulus, fifinancial relief to the impact of theandemic on the post s servi. sohe h hou of rereesentatis has passed $25 billilionf covid relad relief to get ushrough

this ergency. normly t there is no taxpayer dollars. this is one exception. it is now in the hands of the senate and this administration. it is an unanimous ask. in march, this administration took care of the p private sideo the tune of over $500 billion. it is about t time that congrers to c care of t the public side, including the united states postal service. and there was absolute sililence on thahat key questition facinge people this country right now in terms of what is going to happen toto the pubublic postal servic. amy: chuck schumer a nancy pelosi called dejejoy to the hil on wednesday. can you talk abobout what happed at that meeting? >> i was not at that meeting. i can read the news and apparently they certainly weighed in their concerns about these e policies of slowing down the mail, focused arbitrarily on

singers not going to be anymore overtime. here we are in a covid world,, 40,000 posostal work is i've ben quarantined in's marchch. honestly, leave is up. amy:y: how many poststal workeks have dieied? >> w we have had over 75,000 postal workers who have passed away from covid, and that is just w what i is known anand idenentified. so it certainly is more than that. lost -- dylan got amy: i was asking what they talked a about in n the meetingh dejoy. >> from thehe news, they voiced their c ccerns about the policies about ortime, transptatation changespulling out of sorting machines. i know that was raised from readinththe ne. i'm que sure tt boboth raised e need for theovid fancial illiono thtune of 25

llars. that $25illion inotoing to ceos a shareholders,t is ing to t people the countrto make ree can ntinue tcarry out whawe ca uniniveal servi m mdate. no matteter who we are and where we live,e, we have an n equal as to public postal service at a uniform and reasonable rate. amy: last took the trump campaign sued the state of nevada over its plan to send absentee ballots to all registered voters but the president has supported mail-in voting and a photo. last week trump said parart of e reason is that florida has a republican governor. pres. trump: florida has a great republican governor and it had a great republican governor. it has ron desantis, rick scott, two great governors. over a long period of time, they been able to get the absentee ballots done e extremely professionally. florida is different from other states.

in nevada we have a governor who said, let's send out millions of valid and the post office cannot be prepared -- i have not spoken to the post office but i don't know how they could possibly be prepared. amy: president trump has been seriously attacking mail-in vointing. won'tdayenn, how he trusted. about the signinificance of this and what he said. because there's been such pushback by republican governors in the country, that use mail-in voting, he is saying no in republblican states you can have it, you can trust it. also campaigns demonizing vote by mail, republicans are losing what i is a traditional advantae for republicans who traditionally vote by mail in higher numbers. and this was sabotaging the efforts to get out the vote and

bank those votes early in the election. , there is anely effort underway to delegitimize this election. it is obvious they going to take longer to count absentee and mail-in ballots than it would to count ballots that are cast at ththe polling placeses. so november 3, we are not going to see the end of ththis electi. trump is setting the stage on the night of november 3, whatever the count is, he can use that potentially to declare victory. it is a very dangerous situation . the public i don't think is necessarily fully informed. this is going to be a long procesess. like we see in my state of california where it takes weeks to eventually count all of the ballots and sometimes -- will lead to cries of

delegitimization. it is very difficult situation. amy: you write the postal service has informed states they will need to pay first class 55 tot postage to mail ballots voters rather than their normal 20 sent bulk rate? >> my understanding is there was a meeting where the postal service officials said they would like to see that happen. that will take quite a bibit of doing, changes in the rep. torres: system and some other factors that will obviously be litigation to that. but just the threat of this that they will almost triple the price that it would take her states and counties to pay to get those ballads out could lead some s states to say we'rere not going to take up the expense just fearing that the rates will increase -- even though there's a short window to do this and it

may be unlikely, may be used as a very convenient excuse to hinder ballots from getting out. amy: mark k dimondstein, do you think president is trying to sabotage the u.s. postal service in thehe lead up to the elelect? >> i think we can let president donald trump speak for himself on this question. june 28,8, office of management budget of the white house e pu out in writing a a proposal toto privatize, i.i.e. break up the postal service and s sell itit o private corporations, where they can then make private profit and of course f for the people geget popostal s services at all willn depend o on who they are, where they l live, andnd how mucucit d cost i if they can even get services at all bececause someby would have to then be able to make her want to make a a quick buckck. it is in writing. it is theieir plan. so we're very concerned that any policies that unundermine and degrade service t to the peoplef

this country have a g goal of underminining the public suppppt for the postal service. you can'n't privatize a private postal service that people trust, people love -- 91% of the peoplele of the country in a recent poll bring to the post office favorably at 91%, the most popular -- the numberer one branand during his covid pandem. that is an indication of how much people appreciate the role of postal workers come h how muh people trust. still the only way you can get the privatization is if you undermine people's confididence and support in the institution. ananything that slows s down the mail doeoethat. vote by say, just on mail. we have been doing both, for generatitions as postal woworke. we are not bolded any candidate or any political party. it is part of our proud civic respsponsibility and duty to the people in the country. whatat is more important than providingg access to the ballolt

boxes? ever more popularar from electin cye e to electction cycle 2018,1 amamong people voted by mail including ththe presidident him. there's no difference e between vovote by mail a and absenentee balloting and it has been proven the fact say that it works. the state of oregon has b been doing it 19 yeyears. over r 100 million ballots cast.. 15 cases of voter fraud. this idea it is corrupt, i it is fraudulelent, the results of the electionon should nonot be acced or the to rentable trial balloon, somehow the election should be e postponed because ef the fraudulent prproblems witith vote by mail,l, that in itself s a fraud on the people of this cocountry. people can trust vote by mail. people have to vote quickly when they get there balallots. but t in this pandemic, literal, it w will ma t the differerence between weather tenends headlins of people have access to the ballot box. postal workers can handle ththi. capacity isno

wrong. it works well and d it is s a gt way for people to exercise the hard-fought -- john amy: mark dimondstein, , thank you for beg with us president of the , american postal workers union. david dayen, after the break, we want t to look at president trump's new exexecutive orders.. what did they m mean? even repubublican lalawmakers he slammethem as unconstitutialal. stayay wh us.. ♪ [music eak]

amy: " "please mr. postman" " be marvelelettes. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peacace report. i'm amy y goodman. president trumump signed four executive order saturday, inincluding measures to extend unemployment benefits end of her payroll taxes after congress failed to agree on a new coronavirus bill but it does not look like those unemployment benefits will necessarily be seen by people who are and laid. a number of republican lawmakers joined democrats fleming transactions as unconsnstitutitional. democrats openen to extend the program to give unemployed workers an additional $600 in with benefits and to extend a federal moratorium protecting some renters from election. under trump's order, unemployed workers would d continue r receg an additional $400 a week but only once states put up a quarter of that money and set up a new system to distribute the payments, a process that could take months -- if they can

afford it at all. trump also signed an executive order on evictions but it won't stop any evictions from happening, it simply instructs the treasury department and the department of housing urban development to consider taking action. trump also ordered the deferral of payroll tax c collections for workers earning under $1000 but the taxes will still need to be paid back next year after the election. and trump vowed to pursue the permanent limit nation of the payroll tax, is used to fund social security and medicare if he is reelected. house speaker nancy pelosi crcriticized trump's executive actions in an interview with fox news sundaday. has the illusion of saying we're going to have a moratorium on evevictions, says i'm gogoing to ask the folks in charge to study is that seasonable once he says he is going to do the payroll tax, whatat he is doing is underminig the secucurity and mededicare. amy: stillll with us, david day,

executive editor of the american prospect where he writes a daily update on the coronavirus pandemic called "unsanitized." his book is just out titled "monopolized: life in the age of corporate power." -- so you'rek -- crcrisis in this couountry right now. >> talks between democrats and the white house broke off and as a result trump decided to go forward with these executive orders. as you mentioned, there a lot less than meets the eye here. on unemployment, it is $400 a week, which is much less thanan the $600 week used that had been given. states are supposed to supply a quarter of that. states are very cash-strapped right now. it is supposed to come from a budget that has already been given to the states but a lot of that money is already spoken

for. government$300 the -- federal government is supposed too supupply, that coms from a fund for disaster relief, fema disaster relief. it is done undnder a different program that has to now be put into the state unemployment systems, which are very rickety. some of them usese programming code that is decades and decades old.d. the last time when the $600 boost came in, that took weeks in some states to actually get done. the amount of money being appropriated for this purpose would only last maybe five weeks tops, even though it is supposed to extend until december. amy: and if the state does not put in $100 of the $400 from the federal government won't put in ththe other $300. >> i am not sure that iss true, but the problem is that you have to get the system to actually

work correctly. and each state, there is no sort of each state getting at $300. each state has to dodo it and it is first-come, first-served. if the money is drained, distraint. -- it is drained. you can see the pastor states getting up to speed and s states thatigight take m months to get this done getttting just locked out and unemployed residents and of getting no benefit whatsoever. even a state that is "fast" about this, residents are probably not seeing any benefitsent extended until at least september. amy: trump walked out of his announcements -- by the way,, he''s s holding these news confererence and announcements t his private golf club in new jersey. wiwith the people around himim - >> in front of country club

there ando pay to be were pretty vocal, i think, during a couple of these press conferences. that is where he in fact signed these. it is very much just sort of political theater. the question is, while i do believe these are unconstitutional, congress has the power of the purse, he is reprogramming funds, who is exactly going to sue over this and deny workers even a meager amount of unemployment benefits? i think this is going to set a really dangerous precedents that executives have much more power in the physical realm than previously thought. amy: the government is giving billions to companies, for example, round viruses, some that -- vaccines, some that have never even made vaccines. i mean, billions and billions of dollars. what about the moratorium on evictions?

>> it is an non-proposal. it is a an order that sayays, h, hud and treasure, come up with something, help us out, maybe don't allow people to be evicted or foreclosed upon. it is not an extension of the moratorium in any way either on evictions or on foreclosures. it is completely unknown what steps will be taken by treasury or the department of housing and urban development in exchange. it protects really nobody. dealer protections that are in place are at the state level, and many of those are expiring. of course when you take away that $600 week support from unemployment, a lot of these unemployed residents are going to be -- many of whom are renters -- are going to have trouble making that next rent payment. the census bureau put together a thing called a household pull survey initial is about one quarter of americans were

renting feared they're not good to be able to make that next payment. amy: talalk about the payroll t, trump basically saying what this means for social security? >> it is a deferral. you are eventually going to have to pay that. i suspect a lot o of businesses will just put that money in escrow so that they're not told later down the road,, yet to pay all l that, and then garnishing their employees checks to the tune of the entire checks worth. so i suspect thihis will have almost no stimulus effect. if trump succeeds in making us permanent, he would need congress to do that. that would be a complete undermining of the system of funding for sosocial sececurityd medicarere, and democrats honesy jumped right on that -- obviously jumped right on that after the announcement was made. amy: thank you for being with us, david dayen executive editor

, of the american prospect where he writes a daily update on the coronavirus pandemic called "unsanitized." that does it for our show. 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 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possibl . grafta

crime traditional. country town. we now have forever probably. the distinction of having given the world a man is turned out to be as strong as worst mass murder at this. ten dago