09/14/20 09/14/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: f from new york, thisis is democracy now! emergency.a climate this is real. and it is happening. this is the perfect storm. unprecededentedin ways year in and year out. amamy: californinia, oregon, and wawashington are facining a clie ococalyp as dedevastatining firs burn across ththe west coast. the president trump refuses to lilink the fires to the climate crisis, blaming forest

management. we will look at how farmworkers are particularlyly vulnerable as the state alallows harveststingo cocontinuen many evacuatioion zones. >> from the beginnnning of the pandememic, there wawas the recocommendation t to stay homed protecect yourself. but for our immigrant community, thatat is s not a viablele opti. how arare we supposed to survive the nextxt two or threree weeksw it has been halflf-year without any income and without support from the government? this is almost impossible. amy: we will also speak to former firefighter come now a wildland fire ecologist in oregon. 2% of oregon's population are under evacuation orders. then with early voting beginning later this week for the november election, we will speak to the reverend william barber about a new campaign to mobilize, register, and educate voters ahead of the election. >> we have to o make sure we overerwhelm the system a

registration and participation. we also have to make surure our people know about mail-in ballots and early voting. you have to fight for all of those things. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the death toll from unprecedented fires raging across california, oregon, and washington has risen to 35 as smoke from the record-shattering blazes brought some of the world's most polluted air to portland, los angeles, san francisco, seattle, and other cities. nearly 5 million acrcres have burned, with entntire towns consumed by flames. president trump is visiting california today but is refusing toto link the fifires to the c e crisis. california governor gavin newsom says there is nono question abat what is fueling the fifires. cook's california puts is

america fast-forward. what we are experiencing right here is coming to communities all across the united states of america unless we get our act together on climate change and unless we disabuse ourselves of all of that b.s.@@ that is being spewed by very small group of people. amy: on friday, governor newsom signed a bill allowing former prisoner firefighters to have their records expunged, paving the way for them to get jobs as municipal firefighters. as the u.s. covid-19 death tolol approaches 200,000, with over 6.5 million coconfirmed cases, president trump held a campaign rally in henderson, nevada sunday. it was trump's indoor event first since his june rally in tulsa, which was linked to a surge in coronavirus infections. the rally was attended by thousands, violating nevada's restriction on gatherings of 50 or more people. politico is reporting the health department's communications aides have been demanding to review a and alter weekly repors

from the centers f for disease control and prprevention about e coronavirus. the aides complained negative reports would d undermine trum's opoptimistic mesessaging about the pandemic. in immigration news, "the washington post" reports immigration and customs enforcement agents flew imprisoned migrants to virginia in order to also fly homeland security tactical teams to the washington area to suppress protests around the capital. ice employees are barred from traveling on such charter flights unless detainees are also aboard. dozens of immigrant prisoners tested positive for covid-19 after the transfer, and over 300 prisoners became infected at the farmville, virgiginia, ice jai onone person died.d. world health o organizatation hs announunced a record one-day rie in new coronavirus cases around the world. nearly 308,000 confirmed cases

were reported over the past day, with a total caseload now topping 29 m million and a death toll t topping 924,000. israel is imposingng a three-we, nationwide lockdown as cases there cocontinue to surge. among the first countries and in the world to impose a second national lockdown. 90 u.n. peacekeepers in south lebanon have tested positive for the coronavirus. meanwhile, the u.n. refugee agency says it is stepping up measures in syrian refugee camps in jordan after the first five cases were confirmed last week. in france, which confirmed a record 10,500 coronavirus cases saturday, police fired tear gas at protesters in paris as the yellow vest demonstrations returned to the capital. in medical news, oxford and astrazeneca are resuming their coronavirus vaccine trial after it was halted last weeeek when a participant developed severe neurological symptoms. the brazilian state of bahiaia says it will tesest russia's

coronavirus vaccine and plans to bubuy 50 million doses. in fedederal appeals court fridy blocked hundreds of thousands of floridians w with fees and fines from past felony convictions from registering to vote. the ruling comes less than two months before the november election in a major swing state where those votes could tip the outcome. florida voters overwhelmingly supported amendment 4, which re-enfranchised people with felony convictions in a 2018 ballot measure. nicole porter of the sentencing project said -- "the ruling undermines democracy. efforts to disenfranchise citizens with felony conviction histories intentionally minimizes the black electorate ," she said. in other election news, the wisconsin supreme court temporarily blocked absentee ballots from being mailed last week, one week before the deadline, while the court decides whether to add the green party's candidate to the ballot. meanwhile, in pennsylvania, election officials are not able

to send out ballots due to a slew of lawsuits and other challenges. president trump is defending the fatal police shooting of portland anti-fascist activist michael reinoehl as retribution after he was accused of killing a far-right trump supporter. trump's remarks to fox news came after a witness said reinoehl did not appear to have a gun and was not threatening officers, who never announced themselves or gave commands before killing him in a hail of gunfire on september 3. pres. trump: this guy was a violent criminal and u.s. marshals killed him. i will tell you something, that is the way it has to be. there has to be retribution. amy: democratic senator brian schatz of hawaii called out his republican colleagues for refusing to condemn trump's remarks. he tweeted -- "extrajudicial killings are something many republican u.s. senators oppose if they happen outside of the united states. but they won't say anything about this."

israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is in n washington, d.c., today ahead of tuesday's white house ceremony, where he will sign the u.-brokered normalization deals between israel and the united arab emirates and bahrain. palestinians protested over the weekend following the announcement of the deal with bahrain friday, just weeks after it was announced israel and uae would establish diplomatic relations. this is saeb erekat, the sesecretary general of the palestine liberation organization. >> deburring i'm cap israeli israelnt -- the bahrain, agreement is not about peace or elections between countries. we are witnessing an alliance, military alliance being c creatd in the region. itbe they want to call israel-nato. amy: analysts have pointed to a clause in the accords with bahrain and the uae that leaves the door open to allowing jewish

prayer at the holy site of al-aqsa, which is now forbidden, and could be seen as a major act of aggression. the long-anticipated intra-afghan talks officially launched in doha saturday. members of the afghan government and the taliban will meet after months of delays and derailed peace talks as violent attacks have continued to plague the war-torn nation. the two sides will have to reach an agreement on major issues including women's rights, civil liberties, democraracy, andd security. in spain, a former salvadoran army colonel was convicted friday for the 1989 murder of five jesuit priests, as well as a momother and her teenage daughter. inocenente orlando monontano sed as el salvador's security minister. he was sentenced to 133 years for ordering the attack that was carried out by a u.s.-trained counterinsurgency force. montano lived in the united states for 16 years and was extradited to madrid in 2017. the death squad killed six

jesuit priests. their housekeeper, and their daughter. at five of that jersey would priests were from spain. itit was there murdede that he s convicted up. in p peru, lawmamakers have oped impeachmenent proceedings againt president martin vizcarra, who is accused of trying to obstruct an investigation into the allocation of government contracts to a relatively unknown singer. lawmakers say president vizcarra may have intervened to award the singer the contracts for motivational talks. this comes as peru is grappling with a major e economic isisis d one of the world's worst covid-19 outbreaks, ranking fifth in confirmed cases, despite a population of just 32 million. a warning to our audience, this next story contains descriptions of violent sexual assault. in pakistan, outrage is mounting after two violent rapes that took place over recent days. one was of a five-year-old girl who was kidnapped, raped, and set on fire in karachi. the other involved a woman who was gang-raped in front of her children after her car broke

down. the lahore police chief blamed the woman for traveling at night without a male companion and not making sure she had enough gas in her car. this is human rights activist tahira abdullah speaking at a protest in islamabad saturday. >> a woman gets gang raved in front of her children in a big metropolitan city and the chief of police officer blames her instead and says she should not be out on the road at night. she should not be driving alone, she should have taken this road, not that, etc., etc. i think it is a shame. amy: in the democratic republicc of congo, , at least 50 0 people have died afafter heavy rains caused a gold mine to collapse in south kivu province. deadly accidenents are not uncommon in the mostly unregulated artisanal mines. in addition to gold, congo also produces 60% of the world's cobalt, which are useded in cell phones and other electronic devices.

back in the united states, in gegeorgia, a a sheriff's deputyn has been fired after being filmed beating a black man, roderick walker, during a traffic stop near atlanta in front of his children. he and his kids were passengers in rideshare. two deputies can be seen on top of walker, with one punching him repeatedly. in compton, los angeles two sheriff's deputies were shot by an identified gunman who walked up to their parked car, opened fire, and ran away. both officers survived and are out of surgery. in august, compton mayor aja brown said of the sheriff's deputies -- "they terrorize ththe community and then they cover their tracks. it is unacceptable, we will not take this." mayor brown, who is black, was herself was pulled over by sheriff's deputies and searched, despite dog nothinwrong. mewhile, kc reporterosie ang, who w coverinthe shshooting and protests in

respse, was ckled an arsted by deputiewho pinn her ce down to the pement. congss is laching an vestigatn after series o deat at the rt hood litary ba in texa arly 30 ldiers he died s far th year, iluding vessa guille who wasexually harass before e was murdered the in suspe in her se died by icide. twsoldiersrom nava nation ha also di at fortood this ar. inexas, hureds of ump suorters dve throu the ci of lare on satuay in pport t e u.s.-mexico boer wa. the so-lled "trp train" demonstrion was rtly ganized the natnal bord patr councilwhich plned to drive ov a gianttreet mul reading, "defund the wall. fund our futures." they canceled those plans after veterans of the u. m mility bilized repaintnd defend e mural. charlotsville, rginia, crowcheered turday mning workersook down statue

of a confederate soldier, near ththe site of the deadly, whitie supremacist "unite the right" rally in 2017. virginia will decide the fate of two otother s statues. portrtland, oregon, has become e first u.s. city to ban the corporate use of facial recognition surveillance. the ban will bar public agencies and private businesses from using the technology in public spaces. facial recognition has been found to reflect racist biases and violate basic freedoms. oracle has wonon its bid to acquire u.s. operations for the popular video-sharing app tiktok, beating out microsoft. trump moved to ban tiktok, which is owned by the chinese company bytedance, unless it was sold to a u.u.s. company by tomorrrrow, septptember 15. the deal must still undergo a white house review. and in sports news, tennis

superstar naomi osaka won the u.s. open saturday, her third grand slam title. during the tournament, naomi -- who has a japanese mother and a haitian-american father-- donned seven masks, each bearing the names of a black people who was killed -- breonna taylor, elijah mcclain, ahmaud arbery, trayvon martin, george floyd, philando castile, and tamir rice. this is naomi osaka responding to espn's tom rinaldi. >> what was the message you want to dissent? >> what was the message t that u got come is more the question. i feel l like the point is to me people start talking. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. california, oregon, and washington are continuing to face a climate apocalypse as devastating fires burnrn across the west coast. at least 35 people have died but the death toll is expected to be far higher.

oregon say it is bracing for a "mass fatality event." entire towns have been destroyed. nearly 5 million acres have already burned. parts of the west coast now have some of the worst air quality in the world. president trump is visiting california today but is refusing to link the fires to the climate crisis. california governor gavin newsom says there is no question about the e climate crisis. >> the debate is over around climate change. oft come to the state california. observe it with your own eyes. it is not an intellectual debate, what we are experiencing, the extreme droughts, the extreme atmospheric rivers, the extreme heat -- just think, in the last few weeks alone, you've experienced the hottest august in california history. we had 14,000 dry lightning

strikes over a three-day period. we are experiencing temperatures, worldd record-breaking temperatures in ththe state ofof california. 13130 degrees. amy: some ofof the most vulnlnee people on ththe west coast have been farmworkers, many of whom are undocumented. first came the pandemic, and now the climate-fueled fires. despite the risks, many feel they have to keep working even if that means working inside evacacuation zones.. authorities in california have repeatedly allowed growers to continue harvesting despite evacuation orders putting workers at great risk. the intercept reports agricultural commissioners in california's wine regions have worked closely with the sonoma county farm bureau and sonoma county winegrowers to repeatedly grant permission to grape growers to harvest in wildfire-evacuation zones. the issue is not new. in 2017, the sonoma county agricultural commission issued evacuation zone entry permits to 280 groups of people to conduct

"critical functions." the intercept reports such critical functions included "harvesting, feeding and watering livestock, managing fermentations, and irrigating nursery crops." farmworkers have also been disproportionanately hit by the pandemic. hervacio p peña lopez z is a for farmworker who now serves as the executive director of the cultural movemement of indigenos alliance. >> f from the beginning of the pandemic, , there e was a recommendation to stay h home ad protect yoururselves. but fofor our immigrgrant comom, thatat was not a viaiable optio. hohow are you gogoing to surviv? at the time withthout for the nt two or three weeks.. now it h has been have a y yr. withouout an income and without support from the government, this was on mr. possible. amy: we will hear more from hervacio peña lopez in a moment. but first, we are joined by estella cisneros, agriculture

worker program legal director at california rural legal assistance. she joins us from fresno, california. welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with this, although under these dire circumstances. can you explain what farmworkers are facing right now? so many in california are not being forced to evacuate our stay in their homes at all possible because the horrendous air quality conditions from the fires. this on n top of c covid-19. but what about the f farmworker? >> thank y you, amy.y. such a pleasurure to be her. right now farmworkers are facing a triple threat. they're facing the dangers of covid-19, wildfire smoke, as well as unprecedenented heat wa. farmrmworkers, as many already know, are essential workers. they havave continued working throughout thihis entire pandem. our cultural workers include those in the fields, but also those who work in dairy as well as reprocessing and other food

processingng locations, as weles people whoho work in packinghous and d nurseries. now, farmworkers have contitinud to work during t this whole time despite fears of contracting covid-19 andnd workplacece, dese fearars of getting heat s stress whilile at work, and now despite fears s of the dangers that wildfire smoke brings. the reason wildfire smoke is so dangerous, not just for farmworkers, but anybody who inhales it, is because smoke tends to have particulate matter which is 2.5 microliters or smaller. calledion of what is particular matter 2.5 or smaller is very, very dangerous for one's health. it can lead to long-term both lung, heart, and respiratory illnesses. so the fact that farmworkers are ,ut there working in the fields

facing the dangers of covid-19 as well as the dangers of heat stress and wildfire smomoke, isa very dire situtuation.n. amy: i want to turn to go back to former farmworker, hervacio peña lopez, now executive director of the cultural movement of indigenous alliance. he is describing to democracy now! the dangerous working conditions undocumented farmwoworkers face as they are forced to work in vineyards in sosonoma countnty amid the wildfires. with ththisuation smoke, bececause we h have experienced this before, it t is already knowown thaha emploloyes should provide masasks to prorot the workers, whihich is still in thing ththat filtersrshe toxic particles.s. it workingng in the fields,s, everything moves very fast.. sometimes the w workers t theels do notot want to b bring masks becacause they could not well.l. they have toto move at a v veryt pacece because the promises they

are paper the e work they produ. the e typical amount of producto harvest t in one day o or one nt is like two tons of grapeses. so they receive twowo payments r two minimum wages, but it is because they have to earn it. if you can explain further, are the farmers, are the owners of, for example, the vineyards, are they forcing workers to work? do they lose their jobs if they don't? also, whwhat kind of access toto they have e to masks? >> so unfortunately, there are a lot of farmworkers who face the very well risk of losing their jobs if they either speak up about unsafe working conditions or if they refuse to work. before being provided in this respirator. we have had a lot of casases of

workers who have faced retaliation after they have spoken up in the workplace about ththeir righthts, so there is a very, very real d danger of losg your job i if you speak up.. now, there is that aspect of things but a also thehe unspoken aspect of working in a workplace resespirators are not provided to you. even if an emploloyer doesn't tl you you will be fired ifif you stopop working, what kind of message are workers getting when employers arere not affffirmatiy following their duty in california, which i is to addres workplace health and safety hazards. what c can a message are employr sending it they'rere not proactively, as the law requires them to do, providing the training as well as the equipment and materials, the personal protective equipment that people e need to accessss? whetherhen it comes too farmworkers are having access to n-95 masks, and forcrcefully, te

reports that we are e hearing ot in the field is that hurley any farmworker is getting access too n-n-95 respirators, which is really the only thing that is going to keep them safe from particulate matter inhalation. amy: i want to talk about the people that are coming out of the fields, even more so, andnd start t with the farmer farmworr hervacio peña lopez. this is what he said when you're talkining about thtrtriplehreae. due to ththe covid-19 pandemim, many people were left t without askrk in other indusustries suh hotels, reauaurants, factotories so m many people in our cocommu, because theyey have the necesesy and because thehedo not havave documents s and do o not receivd from t the l local or state e or federaral governmnment, they hao other option but to go to work in the fields. and many of them do not know the risks. amy: estella cisneros, can youou

talk aboutut who are the farmworkers in the fields and tell us further where they'y're coming from. >> certainly. so farmworkers in the state of california and certainly across thee nation tend to be immigrgrants. theyey tend to be undocumented. and they tend to speak a language other than english. so a lot of farmworkers have a very similar situation to with a gentleman was describing in the sense that they were working in another industry, they have been displaced from that industry, and they have translated that skill set to working in the fields. however, there are other large number of farmworkers who are essentially lifelong agricultural workers. so they have been working in the fields for many, many years. that is certainly the population that is still acveve in e elds today. amy:ow much farmworrs get id?

and wh about ding ts rrifific piod? >> the sta minimumage in cacalifoiaia, whh is e of the ghest inot the ghest, currentl is $13n hou if y have 26 or me emoyees. but it i $12 an ur if you have 25 fewer eloyees. eventual, , thatinimum we wi incncree to $15 buwe' still a couple of yearoff.f. farmrkers toe one ofhe lost pdndustriesn n the united states. evenen wn woworks are pa by wh is called ece rate wch ishen you're paiby the bucket othe pound, sometng otr than b the hour, rmworkerstillave very low wage d the fa that t u'reaid by piece rate is actually disincentive in terms of slowing down, in terms of taking health and safety breaks because the more that you work, the more

that you get paid. so you either have workers who are being paid the minimum wage, which is not enough, nor near enough, or you have workers who are paid by piece rate, which actually is a disincentivive to continue to work more and work through all of the rest breaks and lunch breaks that aree legally required as well as work through the pandemic. anand wildfires in the heat. amy: and what kind of benefits do they get from the government? dealing g with thihis period ofe pandemic a a the fires? a worker has s legal status, which a lot of farmworkers down, they may have access to the state's unemploymement insurance program as well as a varietyty f otheher public assistance progrs . however, such a large percentage of the farmworker population is undocumented. they really don't have any other

recourse in terms of income replacement. they are really struggling right now. if they are displaced, either by the fires or the wildfire smoke because they don't have access to the safety nets that citizens and residents of the united states do -- amy: go ahead. >> including stimulus payments, as well as unemployment insurance payments.. languages are instructions given in? are people getting accurate information about what is happenining from covidid to the climate catastrophe? >> unfortunately, we have heard reports of either employers or other individuals in n the community giviving and correct information about covid, so that is one issueue. it may alalso exist for informrmation ababout heat stress as well as wildfire smoke. even the information provided by

state and government and other governmental agencies, unfortunately, is not provided in's and. -- divided in spanish. this mororning i looked on the calfire website as well as that for the president county sheriff's department, which is -- the two agencies giving information o on the wildfires s well as evacuauation zones, as well as evacuation orders. the -- neither of those are availablble in spanish. the other issue is a lot of farmworkrkers do not speak spanh come they speak native mexican indigenous languages. these communities are facing even a greater challenge to the very critical and necessary information that they need in order to keep themselves and their families say. amy: estella cisneros, recorded the intercept at the topop which has an article saying in california's wine country, document a great picketers forced to work in evacuation

zones. the article stating "officials that regulate evacuation owner exemptions have close relationships to agricultural associations that serve local business owners' interests." your response anand what needs o be done? >> what t i don't haveve personl informatation about the facts in ththe article, unforortunatelylt hahas been a common occurrencncn our experieience that the safety of f farmworkekers is nonot prioritized and wilill actuallye sacrificed in the nameme of prot and business interesests. certainly, the reaeasons that thosose permits were given, takg care of livestock, picking fruits and vegetables, to a farmworker -- the fact that some people may believe thahat is essential, right? it is very difficult t to comprehend when their liberal h health and safey -- littltle health and safety as wellll as that of theheir famils

is being compromised. the other r part is even in ares where you're not being evacuated , there is so much wildfire smoke in the air that you hahave two setsts of workers it yoyou'e worried about.t. one of the wororkers who are working in evacuauation zones, such as those cited in the article, but you also have a signgnificant number of farmworkers who continueue to wk atpite the e air qualityy index hahazardous levels. is, f firstasking for of all, employers to follow w te law. ththere is a wildfire smoke emergency regulation ththat iss currenently in effect in califofornia thahat requirires employerers to provide workersrs with n-95 masks or mask respirators, as well as take otother measures to ensure thatf a worker must work outside a and they are expososed to wiwildfire smokoke, that they have the

correct equipment in order to protect them from ininhaling tht harmful smoke. asas well as the wide distributn of n-95 masks. we have yet to speak to worker that has been provided one by their employerr.. as well as robust and widespread enforcement of current regulations. amy: estella cisneros, thank you for being with us, agricululturl worker program legal director at california rural legal assistance. when we come back, we go to oregon to speak with a former firefighter now wi-lan failure ecologist -- wi-lalan fire ecologist, as fires burn across the west coast. presididt trump continues to deny the climate crisis. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "pressure drop" by toots and the maytals. reggae pioneer toots hibbert passed away y at the age of 77 n friday. this is democracy now!, democracacynow.org, the war anad peace report. i'm amy goodman. as california, oregon, and washington face unprecedented fires, president trump is refusing to link the devastation to the climate crisis.

after ignoring the fires for a week, trump is traveling to california today. over the week and he blamed it on poor forest management. pres. trump: it is about forest management. please remember the words, very simple, forest management. please remember. governor newsom it.cted >> i'm a little exhausted that we have to continue to debate this issue.. this is a client emergency. and i'm not going to suggest for a second that the forest management practices in the state of california over a century plus have been ideal, bubut that is one poinint but is nonot "the" poinint. amy: los angeles mayayor eric garcetti also pushed back on trump's characterization of thte wildfires as a forest management issue, spepeaking on n ene in, said the president was reluctant toto help californiaia, oregon,d washington because they have democratic governors. >> this is climate change and

this is an administration that has put his head in the sand. what we have democratic and republican mayors across the country stepping up to do their part, this is an administration, president who wants to withdraw from the parents climate of words later this year. the only country in the world to do so. talk to a firefighter if you think that climate change is real. it seems like this administration is the last vestiges -- we need real action. amy: in washington state, where firefighters are tackling 15 large fires, governor jay inslee also emphasized that climate crisis is most responsible for the wildfires. >> these are not just wildfires. they are climate fires. we cannot and we will not surrender our state and expose people to have their homes burned down and their lives lost because of climate fires. amy: meanwhile, in oregon, six of the military helicopters operated by the state's national guard that could have been used

to help fight the wildfires are not available because they were sent to afghanistan earlier this year. this is oregon governor kate brown speaking friday. >> well over one million acres of land has burned, which is over 1500 square miles. right now our air quality ranks the worst in the world due to these fires. there is no question that the changing climate is exacerbating what we see on the ground. we had, as we mentioned earlili, unprecedented weather event with winds and temperatures come in addition we added a ground that has had a 30 year drought. so it made for extremely challelenging circumstances and has certainly exacerbated the situation. amy: for more, we go to eugene, oregon, where we're joined by

timothy ingalsbee, a wildland fire ecologist and former wildland firefighter. now director of firefighters united for safety, ethics, and ecology, known as fusee. welcome to democracy now! first, describe thehe scene in oregon. >> the situation changes day by day, even by the houour. this past week, we have had over two dozen very large fires burning on the west side of the cascades. these e have been explosive rats of growth, tens of thousands of acres, seveveral miles p per da. have these fires coming down from the mountains, barreling down our valleys, marching up to the doorsteps of m major metrtropolitan areas like portld and eugene. so even beyond those e people within -- the whole region is

under a cloud of smoke literally blocking out the sun. some ofoted, we have the world's worst air quality. smokestingly, this dense has granted the fleet of helicopters and air tankers that would normally be working on these wildfires. refuses,ident trump even being in reno, nevada, to make the connection to the climate crisis. he said this is linked to two words, "forest management." talk about the link to the climate crisis and what we are seems not to west. and these fires are going way beyondnd -- they are in montana, colorado, as well as oregon and washington andnd california that they are devastatating. fires.e are climate they are the product of extreme heat waves and prolonged

droughts, and very low humidity. thisis really rare about event here in oregon is there was a regionwide when event. thewinds screaming from the east side of the mountains of over these v valleys and just propel these flames. scientists hesitate to tribute a single event to climate change, but these are exactly the conditions predicted by climamatologists. once they were rare. they are not entirely unprecedented in our prehistoric past. they will become much more frequent in the days ahehead. just the combination of heatat d dryness and winds and lightning storms are making these fires explosive. t thatat about the fact

six helicopters that are -- that to be fighting could be used to fight the oregon ---- ia mean come afghanistan? >> we're fighting one war or the other across the planet. in addition to that, there has been several firefighters and engigines and crews f from oregn that have bebeen in califofornir cocolorado for a weeeek. itit is really a a west-wide phenomenon. another indication of climate change. trump isn''t entirely wrong abot forest m management playaying ae becaususin additioion to these fires bein propelled by esee hot, dry w winds, they are also raging through thehe industrial tree fires that were clear-cut in the 1970's and 1980's, covered over with densely stocked young trees.

rare, highvery intensity fire to kill those trees, but it doesn't tatake muh for thesese tree farms to just e incinerated. what we e have seen in the oregn landscape this kind of time gogoing in reverse. the green veneer of tree farms that are being stripped off and will just be these proverbial moonscapee set bear nash covered slopes as these tree farms are ininnerated, that is whatt is earning in the holiday farm fire outside my town. about your you talk experience as a firefighter and what you think needs to happen right now? we had heard that something like 10% of the population of oregon was under evacuation orders, but that was taken back. what is happening? >> well, again, it is very

chaotic. when these fires erupted, in some cases, thehe wood event blw dodown powerer lines in the darf neck right on the edge of town, and so people had almost no warning. walls lapping at their and they had to flee for their lives. notfirstcrcrews to arrive or even able to engage the fire. they hope people evacuate. it wasn't for a c couple of days that firefighters were actctualy able to fight the fire and be more like traffic control cops.. you are reallyly shorthanded. aa very important point, no amount of firefighters, engines, air tankers, or whatever r wille able too handle phehenomena like this. this is a climate-driven wildfire. nature is much more powerful than us.

unless and until we get a handle on her fossil fuel immersions, there's nothing we can do that will realllly prevent these kins of events from happening. and what's happening, very little then just get out of the way. you timothy ingalsbee, if can talk about your daughter's lawsuit. last year democracy now! spoke to kelsesey juliana, who was the lead plaintitiff in a landmark youth climate lawsuit against the u.s. government. i started by asking her about the lawsuit. >> this lawsuit is a constitutional climate change case against the u.s. federal government filed by 21 courageous young individuals in 2015. at the time, the youngest was eight and the oldest, myself, was 19. this case looks at the actions of the federal government for the past several decades, helping to perpetuate the climate crisis by continuing to fund the fossil fuel economy.

endangering the lives of all citizens, but especially y armig ththe lives of young citizens ad futurere generatioions. amy:y: so thatat is your daught, tim. explain this lawsuit and what is happening to it. >> > i'm very proudud of my daur and her peers who are taking on the federal government. the important point for people to undnderstand is it is not the inaction of the federal governmentnt that is part of the climimate crisis, it is their deliberate actions pushing more fossil fuel extraction and promoting thenow, alteration of the planets atmospher and oceans. this i is the constitutional bae case that is causing -- the government iss causing my daughter'ss generation, future generations, all species for that matter, significant harm.

it has been tied up in court for years. my daughter was a young girirl which he stararted this case. who knows when it will be resolved. amy: started under obama, is that right, now w moved on the trump? >> t this has been both parties, all the ministrations, for decades, have knowingly been putting the planet in p peril by -- i amamfossil f fuel hopeful the case will be resolved in our favor. but in the meantime, these are big, big, huge problems dealing with climate change, dealing with rural sprawl. so many people are in the pathway of these fires. in the legacy of clearcut logging, stop grazing -- livestock grazing, other things that really damaged the good

systems, made them less resilient to climate change. amy: timothy ingalsbee, if you could talk about wealthy people hiring -- taking out cadillac insurance and what this means, hiringng private firefighters. >> right. purchaseeople can private firefighters to protect their property y in case of a fire. that goes back to the early days of municipal fire departments wherere you wowould have to buy protection and they would skip over homes that were not part of the service and protect those that were. but what that pretense is the further decline in the public forcies and their ability crews to protect all of us in fafavor of just ththose who are wealthy enough to buy their own prprotection.. just like the papandemic, thoug. wildfires -- it makes no

distinction to the rich and poor. in oregon, we suddenly realize we are all in the fire zone, even those of us in the middle of thehe city. it just takes one home to ignite and then we have house to house ignition like a domino. we are all in this together, really. amy: governor newsom just signed a law that will allow some prisoners who are firefighters who have not been able to become firefighters once they get out of jail, though among the most experienced, that they will have the records expunged, making it easier for them to become professional firefighters when they are released and apply for jobs. newsom tweeted friday -- on "california's, firefighter program is decades old and long needed reform," along with the picture of him signing a law in force.hed some of these firefighters are the former prisoners who could

not get in to get into the public firefighting forces. in california, the inmate firefighters have a reputation to be some of the bravest, most hard-w-working, fearless firefighters. it is about time. it is a matter of justice, with a pay their sentence, they should be members of society with job opportunities. we have to kind of get beyond monopolization byby the government agagencies d really there's a huge role that communities and citizens should play as partners with government agencies in preparing their homes for fires. we know we can't prevent all of these fires. large fires are natural and inevitable, but urban fire disasters are entirely

avoidable. amy: timothy ingalsbee, thank you so much for being with us wildland fire ecologist and , former wildland firefighter. now director of firefighters united for safety, ethics, and ecology, fuseeee. reverenende back, got william barber inonorth rolilina tatalk about a new vototing camn . stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: "take me home country roads" by toots and the maytals. he died onon september 1 11 in jamaica.

this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman. this week inbegins many states with november 30 election just seven weeks away. i voting rights advocates are sounding the alarm over efforts to disenfranchise voters as president trump and others cast out on voting by mail. in florida, federals appeals court has ruled hundreds of thousands of former prisoners must first pay court fines and fees before they can register to vote. the ruling overturns ruling by federal judge to compare the restriction to an unconstitutional poll tax. this comes nearly two years after voters in florida proved landmark referendum to restore voting rights to people with felony convictions. in other election news, the wisconsin supreme court has temporarily blocked absentee ballots from being mailed last week, one week before the deadline, while the court decides whether to add the green party's candidate to the ballot. in pennsylvania election officials delayed sending out ballots due to a slew of lawsuits and other challenges.

to talk more about voting rights and the election, where joined by reverend william barber, cochair of the poor people's campaign and president of repairers of the breach. the poor people's campaign is running a campaign ahead of the election called morecambe at mobilizing organizing registering education people for movement that votes. reverend barber is joining us fromom raleigh, north carolina,a key swing state. what are you doing now, reverend barber, to get people out to the polls as clearly that right is been crackeded down on all over the country? >> we must do more, amymy, and thank you for having me on. we must do more mobibilizing, educatining people for the movement. voting is power and least there is a great f fear of people of every race, creed, color, particularly local people organizing. there is a fear that has been around ever since this other strategy was implement by people like george wallalace and strom thurmond and richard nixon andnd

lee atwawater because they know poor, local peoeople mobilize togethther, they can change the outcome of election -- not just emotional, that is empirical. what we'e're doing is we have ts campaiaign and tonight you can o websitete at 7:00 p.m. . east coast and wewe are having a national moral monday. voting is s power unleashehed teach-in. we had three main people who showed up in june two view. we invnvited them and mimillions more to trara people onon the power of the vote, the power to protect outcome the power to shape public policy by the vote. and here with the metrics say. in the last election, 63 million poor and low well people did not vote. 63 million were eligible. 29 million voted w was up 34 million did not vote.

we also did a story with a professor of columbia and it showed frorom maryland to new mexico, there are 193 electoral college e votes. sue ever luck set up -- sue ever luck set up, goes in with the race. wewe also found out in the data, 15 s states, many in the s soutn states and across the midwest, if pooooand low wealth voted for just 1% to 19% increase from 20%0%, not 21%, 30%, just t 1% to 90% incncrease among poor and low wealth h ople regardless of race, creed, or shifts allamentally the elections from the gubernatorial to the senate to the president. they can literally determine who sits in the scenes. and we can break the silence out. that is why our campaign is really about mobilizing poor and low wealth voters. tonight, we have them coming on.

we also invited biden and trump to talk about their campaigns. trump never responded. biden said yes and is coming on. here are three things i stated and found out, poor and low wealth people have not voted for three reasons, not necessarily in hierarchy. one is voter suppression. the other is t transportatioiond time o off from work. but t the third is s issues. not hearing candidates talk to them. they talk about the middle class and the wealthyhy, but not talkg to port and low wealth people. we say poor and low wealth people, we're talking about the 62 million people who work every day for less than a living wage. we are talking about 140 million poor low will people prior to covid. of theards of nearly 50% nation after covid. we cannot leave this demographic untouched, and transformed, and

unorganized. amy: president trump recently suggested people i in north carolina break the law by voting twice in the upcoming presidential election. person mail and then in to test the election system. this is what he said. pres. trump: let them s send itn and let them vote and if their system is as good as they say there is, they won't be able to vote. if it isn't tabulated, they will be able to v vote. that is what they shshould do. amy: under federalal law, voting twice is i illegal. it is also illegal t to induce summative vote twice. republican national committee the trump campaign h have sued e state of montana to block an expansion of mail-in voting. if you can comment on this and what just happened in florida with the appeals court ruling that hundreds of thousands of people -- this is a key swing state where this could clearly tip the balance -- will not be able to vote if they have felonies on the record and can't afford to pay all of the costs

related to this at once. >> first of all, trump is criminality personified. he would put his people at r rik because ththere is a five year felony p prison sentence for dog exactly what he said do. he wants to confuse the system. he knows in north carolina, for instance, we have numerous days of early voting, same-day registration. we also have absentee balloting. we also have on election day. he knows that people engage, they fundamentally lose. we just finished r reading all f the races voter suppression all that tom tillis, who is writing --in, in north carolina can helped put in place. this is the first election where we are not under those voter suppression laws. northurts have v voted -- carolina can easily turn with people turning out to vote. he simply wants to confuse

everything. we see in these other states, the great fear repubublicans hae a people voting. they don't want anyone to vote. the only one they want people to vote are small groups of people that support them. they don't want persons who have paid their debt to society to vote. we're having strange decisions. one thing -- one decision we saw in north carolina, we just won a decision that would allow a larger number of formerly incarcerated people to vote even if they have not finished paying their monetary debt to society. what we're saying is in our constitution, the 15th amendment is says no one can deny or abridge the rigight to vote. what we are seeing is an attempt to --e to deny the right in real time. that is why we have to fight back. that is why we have to know the law. that is why we cannot allow these watches he's talking about sending in to question people, intimidate us, that is why we can't let precincts close.

that is why people have to engage early voting. we need to know our legal righghts. thatat is one e of the things tonight, we have t two lawaw fis that are fought against voter suppression. they are going to be laying out what your power is to protect your vote. we have to stay in and be steadfast because nobody woululd be fighting this hard to keep people from voting if it was not rooted -- dylan amy: we just have 20 seconds. tomorrow, , tuesday, septembere, the anniversary of the bombing of the birmingham church that killed the four little girls in 1960 three. in these last 20 seconds, our thoughts on what we should know today? laying al be there wreath and s speaking to the nation that just like labor and faith cacame together in birmingham to transfsform the nation, even after their death and before, we have to do the

same today. tune in at 11:00 central, 12:00 eastern. live a message to the nation, calling everybody to join together to fight against regressive is him and racism in stand up for life. amy: that

hello. glad to have you with us on nhk "newsline." i'm yamamoto miki in tokyo. appears to have decided on the lineup of the party's executive posts. suga yoshihide won t the parart leadership race on monday by taking nearly 70% of the votes. he is set to