09/15/20 09/15/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from nenew york, this is democracy y now! >> at the end d the day, now we are forced to live i in a state where the e united statetes citn will have to choose between putting food on their kids play for voting. amy: a federal appeals court has blocked hundreds of thousands of floridians with fees and fines from past felony convictions from registering to vote in a move that could determine this year's presidential race. we will look at the attack on voting rights across the county

from wisconsin to florida. then as fires continue to devastate the west coast, trump rejects climate science and blames the fires solely onon forest management. pres. trump: please remember the words, forest management. please remember. amy: we will speak to an indigenous fire e expert in california who studied how returning to indigenous ways of caring for the land could foster greater climate resiliency. and as amazon ceo jeff bezos becomes the first person in the world to be worth $2$200 billio, we will look at how amazon increased prprofits by price gouging during the pandemic -- marking up products by as much as 1000%. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracycy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. nearly 90 wildfires continue to

ravage the west coast, where over 5 million acrcres have alreadady beenen scorched. san francisco, seattle, and portland have the worst air quality of any major city in the world. hazy conditions from the fires have spread as far as new york and washington, d.c. president trump was in california monday where he was challenged by california's natural resources secretary wade crowfoot over hihis denial of climate change. >> if we ignore that science and think it is all about vegetation management, we're not going to succeed protecting california. pres. trump: it will start getting cooler. you just watch. >> i wished science agreed with you. pres. trump: i don't think science knows, actually. amy: "i don't think science knows," trump said. democratic presidential candidate joe biden slammed trump as a climate arsonist.

pres. trump: if you give a client arsrsonist for more year, why would anyone be surprised if we have more america blaze. amy: and related news, oregon prisoners report being pepper-sprayed by guards after they were evacuated due to the wildfires, making it even more difficult to breathe amid the smoke and air pollution. we'll have on the recocord-shattttering wildfiress later in the broadcast. the total number of global covid-19 infections has topped 29 million with nearly 930,000 dead. the ceo of the world's largest ,argest vaccccine manufacturer serum institute of india, has told the financial times it might take up to five years to vaccinate everyone in the world once a covid-19 vaccine is approved if it is a two-dose vaccine. in other covid-19 news, infection levels are spiking in the midwest as north dakota,

south dakota, missouri, and iowa report recorord levels off infectionsns. inin new york cicity, at l leas5 public school staff have recently tested positive for covid-19. one new york city public school in the bronx was forced to close temporarily before students even entered the building for the new school year after two coronavirus cases were confirmed there. meanwhile, the american academy of pediatrics and children's hospital association is estimating nearly 550,000 children in the unitited statets have tested positive foror the virus since the beginning of the pandemic. this comes as the u.s. death toll approaches 195,000, the highest in the world. on monday, cnn aired new audio from journalist bob woodward from an interview he did with president trump on april 13. at the time, trump was publicly urging the u.s. economy to be reopened but privately he

-- trump compared covid-19 to the plague. pres. trump: this think is a killer if he gets you. if you're the wrong person, you don't have a chance. >> yes, exactly. this is a scorch and -- pres. trump: it t is a play. amy: four days after trump said these words s to bob woodward in april, he sent out tweets calling on supporters to liberate the states ofof michig, minnesota, and virginia, sparkingng a series of prorotess agaiainst covid-d-19 lockdowns meananwhile, the city of hendern , nevada, has issued a $3000 fined to the venue that hosted a large indoor trump rally over the weekend for violating nevada's covid-19 guidelines. thousands attended the event. most did not wear masks. a local reporter asked trump if he was concerned about gettingng infected.. >> aren't you concerned about getting covid? pres. trump: i am not concerned.

i am more concerned about how close you are.e. you u know why? veryon the stage that is far away. so i'm not at all concerned. amy: he said he was not concerned because he was able to socially distance. the thousands of people inside the henderson facility were closely next to each other and not wearing masks.s. a federal appeals court ruled monday the trump administration can end immigration protections for some 400,000 people under the e temporary protected status program. nationals with tps from el salvador, haiti, nicaragua and sudan could be subject to deportations starting next year, some as early as january. many tps recipients have been living in the u.s. for decades, and have children who are u.s. citizens. plaintiffs say they will appeal the ruling. the national tps alliance is launching a cross-country "journey 4 justice" caravan next week. a nurse at a georgia immigraratn and customs enenforcement prison

says the irwin county detention center is performing hysterectomies on prisoners without their consent. project south sent the explosive whistleblower account to the department of homeland security and the office of the inspector general. one jailed migrant recounted -- "when i met all these women who had had surgeries, i thought this was like an experimental concentration camp. it was like they're experimenting with our bodies." nurse dawn wooten, the whistleblower, also described neglect and under-testing for covid-19 at the jail, wch is run by the foror-profifit lasale corrections. palestinians in gaza and the west bank are holding a day of rage to protest the united arab emirates and bahrain's decision to become the e first air countries to normalize rations withth israel i in over 25 year. president trump, israeli prime minister netanyahu come and officials from uae and bahrain our meeting today at the white house to sign the agreements. over the weekend, the

palestinian factions of hamas and fatah agreed on forming a "unified field leadership" to lead a joint resistance against the israeli ococcupation. a boat carrying refufugees capsized off the coastst of liba in the mediterranean, leaving at least 24 people dead or mimiing. at least 45 people s survived. the u.n. called out the restrictions imposed on ngo's by european nations, including unnecessary and long stand-offs at sea. over 400 refugee deaths have been recorded so far this year in the mediterranean sea. in greece, thousands of f refugs remain withohout shelter o one k after the e burning wnwn of thee massive,e, overcrowd m moria encampment. some 13,000 were left t homeless and many stitill do not have access to running water or food, and are unable to leave the island of lesbos. many are also refusing to go to a new camp set up by greek authorities, saying they do not trust the new facility. refugees have been holding

protests over their conditions and pleading for help from othtr european nations. over the weekend, police fired tear gas at the demonstrators. a human rights watch report found that belarusian security forces arbitrarily detained thousands of people and tortured or mistreated hundreds in the crackdown following last month's presidential election. despite the reports of violence, another 100,000 people took to the streets of the capital minsk again sunday to demand the resignation of president alexander lukashenko. police again attacked and arrested hundreds of protesters. on monday, russian president vladimir putin said he would loan $1.5 billion to lukashenko to help stave off an economic crisis as he attempts to retain his grip on power. in germany, russian opposition leader alexei navalny has posted on instagram a picture of himself from his hospital bed after coming out of an induced coma. navalny is a vocal critic of russian president vladimir putin who was poisoned last month while on a flight in russia. -- flight in siberia. in japan, yoshihide suga is

expected to become the country's new prime minister after winning the ruling liberal democratic party's leadership contest in a landslide monday. suga is expected to take up his predecessor shinzo abe's push to revise parts of japan's pacifist constitution. suga supported laws allowing the military to join combat operations with japanese allies. he is also seen as one of the most pro-immigration politicians in japan. a large chunk of ice, twice the size of the island of manhnhatt, has broken off the arctic's largest remaining ice shelf in greenland. last month, scientists said greenlanand's ice shsheet has sk past the point of f return. in related news, u.s. government scientists s said this summer oke the rerecord for hottest ever in the northern hemisisphe. in brazil, thousands of fires in the world's largest wetland have scorched more than 5.8 milillion acres of some of the planet's most bio-diverse land. the fires in brazil are often

set to clear land for logging and farming but have been exacerbated by severe climate change-fueled drought. conservationists say historic fires this year have cause a devastating loss of wildlife, including endangered species, as animals including jaguars, rare birds, and reptiles hahave been charred or starved to death. hurricane sally is approaching the gulflf coast, , threateninig potetentially lethal flooding ad storm surges. for just the second time ever recordeded, and the firsrst timn nearly h half a century, five tropical cyclones have formed simultaneously in the atlantic ocean. a university of delaware professor and known climate change denier has been tapped for a top position at the national oceanic and atmospheric administration. david legates has written papers calling for more fossil fuel emissions and has had his work supported by the robert mercer-funded heartland institute and koch industries, as well as major gas companies.

in a f facebook livestream, heah and human servrvices spokespersn michael caputo claimed without evidence that armed, left-wing militants s are preparing for insurrection after the e electin and that gun owners shouldld stk up on ammunition. he said joe biden would refuse to concede the election and that "when donald trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shshooting will begin." caputo also spewed conspiracy theories related to the coronavirus pandemic, accusing government scientists of sedition against trump, and performingthe cdc of just forming a resistance unit within cdc to undermine trump. separately, michael caputo went on a twitter rampage in which he called for teargassing reporters, among other things. his account appeared to have been disabled monday. meanwhile, house democrats say

they are investigating a recent report that politicacal appoints at hhs, including michael caputo, have reviewed and altered weekly coronavirus rereportfrfrom the cenenters for disesease control and prevention in order to support trump's optimisticic messaging about the pandemic. a federal judge has blocked thte trump administration from enforcing new asylum restrictions related to employment after it ruled chad wolf is likely serving unlawfully as acting secretary of the department of homeland security. the house homeland security committee subpoenaed wolf last -- to testify this week over whistleblower allegations that he told hhs officials to alter intelligence. eight people were arrested in lancaster, pennsylvania, monondy as protesters took to the streets following the fatal police shooting of 27-year-old ricardo munoz. police also used tear gas and rubber bullets on crowds. body camera footage shows a police officer shooting munoz, who is holding a knife, after responding to a domestic disturbance complaint. munoz's family said he suffered from schizophrenia and paranoia.

and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i am amy goodman in new york, joined by my cohost juan gonzales at his home in n new jersrsey. juanan: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around thehe country and around the world. amy: monday marked 50 days until the november e election. we begin today's show looking at the attack on voting rights across the statates. in a pivotal decision that could gigive democratic presidential candidate joe biden a big boost in wisconsin, the state's supreme court rejected an appeal by the green party's candidate howie hawkins to invalidate thousands of already-mailed ballots so that they could be reprinted with his name on them. in a 4-3 decision monday, a conservative justice split with the right-wing majority and allowed wisconsin's voting process to proceed as planned. the ruling comes just days before the start of mail-in

voting in the state. hawkins called it a "travesty of justice." meanwhile, in iowa, a judge sided with republican incumbent donald trump's presidential campaign and voided more than 90,000 absentee ballot r requess in the state's most democratic-leaning county. johnson county is now the third iowa county to have its ballot request forms voided because county election officials mailed the forms to voters with personal information filled in to simplify the process. affected voters will either have to fill out a new blank form to request an absentee ballot or vote at the polls on election day in the midst of the pandemic. in colorado, a federal judge just upheld a temporary restraining order that stops the u.s. postal service from sending out mailers that the state's attorney general says have incorrect election information on them. the list of major developments goes on, from pennsylvania,

where election officials are not able to send out ballots due to a slew of lawsuits and other issues, to florida, where a court on friday blocked hundreds of thousands of people with fees and fines from past felony convictions from registering to vote. for more on all of this, as well as concerns about a sabotaged census, we're joined d by ari berman, senior writer at mother jones, reporting fellow at the type media center, and author of "give us the ballot: the modern struggle for voting rights in america." his latest piece is titled "conservative judicial decisions keep boosting gop voter suppression." welcome back to democracy now! let's start in florida. can you talk about what has happened there? >> good morning. it was really pivotal decision in florida because in 2018, 60 4% of floridians apprproved a lw restoring voting r rights to people with past felony convnvictions. befefore that, floridida prevented one in 1010

people, including one in five african-americans, from m votin. thatthe gop legislature said people have to pay out all fines, fees, and restitutition's to b be able t to vote. , upheldtrump majority that law. what it means in practice is that according to studies, 775,5,000 people and for the s l owe money on their sentences and might not be able to vote. by 530 a state decided seven votes in 2000. hundredsds of thousands of peop, maybe not being able to vote in floridida who shouldld've had te rights restored in a state decided by only a few hundred votes in the past. and because i wawant to go to desmond meade, who is the one who really was the author of amendment 4 that wasas overwhelmingly passed. we spoke with him yesterday.

he is presidident of the florida rights restoratition coalition d chair of the floridians for a ffair democracy y about his reresponse to ththe ruling. >> we are finitely vieng the recent decision by the 11th circuiuit as a blow to demococr. i thinink democracy is the b bit loser here. atat the end of f the da now, we are e forced to lilive in a stae where the uniteted states cititn will have e to choose between puttining food d on their kididy or vototing. so chohoose betweween paying rer their mortgagege and voting. anand this is nonot what d demoy all a about. so floririda rightrerestoration coalition, we as an organizizatn remain committtted in spite e of this recenent ruling to o contie ouour efforts toto engage as man returning citizensss posossible throrough our finenes and fees s wherere we have had patriots, defenders ofof dememracy acrosos the country, , donating moneyeyo we are a able to helpp people py off their legal nanancia

obobligations anand get them reregistered to vote so thehey n participate e in what t we feelo be the most important presidential election this country has ever seen. amy: that is desmond meade, the force behind mms 4 that was overwhelmingly passed in florida that gave over one million people who had served time in prison for felonies the right to vote. can you talk about the significancece of him m say mils of d dollars are availablele? how do p people find d out about this? that's right. the flororida righghts restoratn coalition led d desmond m meade has a fund that t has ised $3 million to pay offff people's fines and f fees so people can o to their website and d donate to that. the big problem inin floridada t now, amy, is this law passed by the legislature is kind ofof lie a popoll tax meets a literacy t. it is like a poll tatax because you have to pay to be able to vote stop yet to be able to pay off the fines, fees, and

restitution you owe toto be able to vote, which could be tens of thousands of dollars, even millions of dollllars. itit is like a lititeracy test because florida can actuallyy tell you how much money you owo. there is no centralizeded databe in florida for someone with a past felony conviction to go t o toto see whether they still owe money. so this isis really incomprehensible to pepeople. flflorida seset up a law that it actually cannot enforce. that is why it i is going g to e voterad to mass moto disenfranchisement.t. juan:: h has there been -- is te any dadata about how m many peoe hahave had the right to vote restored, foformer convicted felolons? >> yes, there has been, juan. 85,000 people of f had their rights restored so far. they are still eligible to vote.

it does allow those 85,000 people that have had the rights restored to be able to vote. but we're talking about 1.4 million people who were said t o have the rights restored. 85,000 people have had ththr rights restored, but thehere are still hundreds of thousands of people that have notot had the rights restored. the question is,s, will they be eligible t to vote?? will they decide about? or even if t they don't owe money, , will they be dissuaded from voting because with the legisislature did and e court of appeal? i it is just an unfortunate situatioion becausui think floririda voters made it very clear they wanteded peopleo be able e to vote e if they paid theieir debt to society.y. the legislatature added this cry new w wrinkle, have to pay off l your fines, fees, and restitution.n. the only reaeason it was uphelds assignedonald trump fiveve judges. this weeeek mitch mcconnell is going to confirm eight more judges to the federal bench, but

they're not doing anything else to helelp the amamerican people. switch to o wisconsin and situation there thth the court decision on the green party? could you explain why it w went down to the wire e for even t te court to consider this case gigiven that the elelection isiy 50 days away? >> it went down to the wire in wiscononsin bececause the greren party filed late to try to get on the ballot. there was a dispute first at the wisconsin election commission of whether they should be on the ballot and then the question was, should they delay sending hundreds of thousands of ballots with the green party on the ballot? the wisconsin s supreme courtrt basicacally said, we're not decidingng t this on the meritsf whether t they should be on thee ballot, it is just too l late to add them to the ballot. tetens of thousands of ballots have already gone out, hundreds of thousands more are going out this week. there has been over a millioion absentee ballot request t in wisconsin. this week is the day they start sending them out.

i think this decisision would he led to major voter confufusion. a lot of people would've had to get another one and there was a risksk they would be confuse, tt some people might vote twice o r so, not vote at all. irrespective of the merits of whether the green party should be on the ballot, election officials are reading this i really they do not haveve to sed out new ballots. juan: what about the situation in iowowa? what was the personal information that the courtrt fet ---- i mean, t that ofofficialst should not havee been on the ballot? could you talk about thahat and why specififically in democratic counties?? >> what happened was in iowa, the democratic, in particular decided to come on their own, said absentee ballot request t o voters. in plalaces lilike cedar rapidsd iowa city comeme the democratic

auditors decided to send these ballots toto make it easier, filled in person informatition because i went pastst a new votr id law. onone of the provisions s of tht law is you have to h he a pin threree drivers licensese on the ababsentee ballot. a lot of people don't know w wht that number r is most of the auditors tried to make it easier by filling in the information, including the drivers license pin number, which nobody knows what that iss. instead ofof say, hey, thank you for making it easier for people to vote, in response to a lawsuit by the trump campapaign, the courts h have i invalidated absentee b ballot requests. itit is very confusing for vote. imagine you reququested anan absentntee ballot and now you think k you're getting one in te mail and i gotot to do the whole process over again -- and i get to do the whole process over again 50 dayays or less before e election. people are already confused about how to vote in this elelection and these court decisions are making it harder. amy: talk about pennsylvania.

it seems like across the country as the republican party sues, it delays. talk about what is happening in pennsylvania, then in colorado if you could explain what is happening there, federal judge ordering the u.s. postal service to immediately stop sending mailers that contain false information. and thenn talk k about mcconnell and the u.s. postal service. pennsylvavania, therere's s a ton of lilitigatin right now that the trump campaign is s litigating for example to try to p prevent vots from dropping off their r balane at drop boxes to avoid postal dedelays. there are disputes s over whethr hehe should d be able to s start counting m mailed ballots bebefe the election. right now you can't, which means it could take longer for the votes to count. republicans are refusing to allow boats to be counted earlier because they want uncertainty in terms of the processes. there'a lot of litigation in pennsylvania. ballots have not gone out there,

either, and this is a pivotal swing state. in colorado, the post office it may list all 50 states, basically telling people if you request an absentetee ballot,, request it early. the problem in colorado, do o nt haveve to request an absentee ballllot. they automomatically sit ballols to all registered voters. they could turn around ballots quicker because the vote by mail state. what election officials were worried -- angry about, the post office said this one-size-fits-all millage all iters as opposed to making state specific. the voting laws in colorado are veve differe t than those inn europe. election o oicials told the post office,, this will in dubbing a form of voter suppression.. the post office did not listen and now there is an injunction. in terms of what m mitch mcconnl is doing, the ononly thing is doing in washington right now is confirming more federal judges for donald trump. he has confirmed over 200 federall judges for donald trum.

he has been blocking $25 billion for the post office for over 120 days. he has been blococking legislatn to restore the voting rights act for over 280 days. he has been blocking legislation to prevevent foreign election ininterference for over three under 20 days. he is not dog anything for the american people. the only thingng mitch mcconnell is doing r right nowow is config morere extreme rightht when juds fofor donald trump because t ths the with republicans rigged thte electoral system. if they get t the judges they want, , they can uphold the exat modern-day poll tax. this is the republican p party's game. don't to anything for the american people, make it as hard as you can devote, then put in place judges that will uphold the new voteter suppression law. jujuan: i want to ask abobout te bibigger picture of this nationl move because -- especially because of the pandemic toward -in voting. thosose of us who have covovered elections for decades know the old system had manany, many problems in terms of b being abe

to deliver a clear accouount on election day. clearly, the move too mail-in ballot income especially given that every jururisdiction, every state, sometimes every county m meetir own methods, will it is inevitably that we are going to have many,y, many more problems in terms of being able to actually count votes -- not to mention the fact there will be a lot of pepeople whohose bat will be discounted because they did not properly fill out the mail-inn ballots.. i'm wondering if you can step back and give us a big picture of what to ask act, election day -- to expect come election day? >> it makes sense in a papandemc pepeople would want to vote by mail b but people have to be careful about mail voting. there were over 500,000 mail ballots rejected because they arrived too late or people did not sign them correctly or they did not sign them at all. there's a lot of concern with

mail voting well it is safer to vote in a pandemic, if you're not careful, these ballots can be rejected at a higher rate than in person voting. i think if you vote by mail, you have to do itt early, send it back early, or drop it off if possible. sign it and sign it carefully. i think people are proactive about mail voting, there wilill not be problems. if everybody decides to vote by mamail at last m minute and elen officials are overwhelmed, the post office is overwhelmed, there could be real problems with mail voting and a real chance of major voter disenfranchisement. what republican legislatures are also doing in states like wisconsin and minnesota and pennsylvania is they are not allowing the officials to start counting the ballots before election day -- which means it will take longer to count the ballots. donald trump is going to say, oh, only the election a vote should cap, which disqualifies all of the mail b ballots.. if you what to avoid that, with

the republicanan legislatures sm to do in these states is say that people shouould start coununting thehe votes earlier d then it will not take weeks s to certify y the winter. we will know who won thehe election, maybe not on election night, but in a quick -- relatively quick period of timim republicans are catalyzing to try to boost their efforts to make a hundred vote. amy: i would to switch to the senses and we'll have a minute to go but a federal new york blocked the trump administration from excluding undocumented immigrants from the 2020 census, ruling undocumented people "qualify as 'persons in' a 'state'" who must be counted. advocates called the ruling a victory for voting and immigrant rights. this comes as a federal judge in california has temporarily halted the trump administration from ending its census collection efforts one month early, pending a court hearing later this month. the census bureau is being challenged by a coalition of rights groups, local governments, and native american communities after it announced

it would end its collection efforts at the end of september instead of the end of october, which could lead to a vast undercount of immigrants and communities of color. if you could talk about the significance of this, , ari bern ? >> the trump administration has been trying to sababotage the census since day one. luckily,y, the courts are pushed back. the problem is there's a lot of fear among communities that they should not respond to the census . if y y look at t the numbers, te response rate in 2020 is lower than 2010 and 2 2000. and very low i in some immigrant communities, very low o on t trl reservations whehere fewer than 20% of people have responded. time is s running g out. the couount will eieither end ae end of this month or the end of next month. the applplications are huge. $1.5 trillion inin federalal fug for the next decade. how state e and federal voting districts are drawn, how much electoral votes and representation states received. we only get a c chance to do ths once every decade.

it would be a real shame if we had a deliberate underercount of certain communities to try to benefit the trumpet administration's aim opposed to benefiting all o of sociciety, h is what the censnsus i is suppod to do, serve everyone, not just a shrinking white minority represented by donald trump. amy: ari berman, thank you for being with us, senior writer at mother jones, author of "give us the ballot: the modern struggle for voting rights in america." we will link to your latest piece "conservative judicial decisions keep boosting gop voter suppression." asas fires continue to devastate the e west coast, trump rejects climate science. we will go to california to speak with an indigenous fire expepert about how return to indigenous ways of caring for ththe land c could fosr r greatr climate resiliency. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report.

i'm amy y goodman with juann gonzalez.. we turn to the west coast, whehe wildfires fueled by the climate crisis have burned more than 5 million acres and darkened the skies from canada to mexico with smoke and ash. as nearly 90 wildfires burned, portland marked the worst air quality of any major city in the world monday, with san francisco, seattle and los angeles not far behind. hazy conditions from the fires has spread as far as new york and washington, d.c. the fires have killed at least 35 people, forced mass evacuations, dozens are missing, laid barthe reality of the changing climate. but on monday, president trump continued to deny the climate crisis in an exchange with california's natural resources secretary wawade crowfoot. >> if we ignore that science and put our head in the sand and think it is all about vegetation management, we're not going to succeed protecting california's. pres. trump: it will start getting cooler. you just watch. >> i wish sides agreed with you. pres. trump: well, i don't think

science knows, actually. amy: "i don't think science knows, actually," trump said. california governor gavin newsom also addressed president trump, who has repeatedly blamed the fires in california on forest management. >> there is no question when you look past this decade, looking past almost 1000 plus years, that we have not done justice on our forest management. i don't think anyone disputes that. weinal point, negligent -- have known each other too long and as you suggest, the working relationship i value. we obviously feel very strongly that the hots getting hotter, the drys getting dryer. the hottest august ever in the history of this state, the veracity of these fires, the drought five plus years, losing 160 trillion million trees, something has happened in the plumbing of the world. we come from a perspective, humbly, where we submit the

science in and observed evidence is self-evident that climate change is real, and that is exacerbating this. amy: governor newsom said that 57% of california's forests are on federal land compared to just 3% that is owned by the state. the rest is privately owned. well, today we look at california's history of forest management and how a century of fire suppression has made the current climate fires even more destructive. fire is a natural part of life in califorornia. for thousands of years, native american tribes would regularly burn the landscape to steward the land. but colonization led to the suppression of these tactics and decades of misguided policy. for more o on this history and w a return to indigenous stewardship of the land could foster greater c climate resisiliency, we go to chico,, california, where we're joined by don hankins, a pyro-geographer and plains miwok fire expert. he is professor of geography and planning at california state university, chico.

welcome to democracy now! us,s great job you with professor hankins. can you talk about what is happening in california now, trump saying it is just two words, forest management, and gavin newsom saying, yeah, we also have to weigh climate change in this book k forest management is a major issue?? >> g good morning.g. , we havehe situation over 3 million acres ablaze over short period of time. i think the political jargon being pushed around right now is an unforortunate situatition gin the situation o of the s state. there e are aspects of both what the president and the governor are s saying are definitely correct, not justt a one-piece solutionon. forest management is definitely part of the problem. although, climate change is happening and we have to recognize that. when we think about what is

going on in our region, throughout the state of california and the west coast, we have prolonged drought. the governor mention five years. i would say it is going on at least 20 years of drought. we had punctuated time he bangs with rain that is comment -- time periods with rain in 20, but the rain we have is not enough to saturate the ground and allow for the groundwater to recharge that is so important for our landscape to thrive and be heaealthy. then we added that the accumulation of fuels within that landscape and so forth and the inability to put fire to scale that it needs to be that it is such a huge part of this problelem. juan: professor, could d you tak about, if you can come about the difference betweween fedederal policies the federally owneded lands and state policies? afterr all, as governor newsom mentntioned, most of the forest land is federal land. in facact, almlmost half of alaf california is federally y owned

oregon isis of federally y owned landnd. how is the federal government dealing with its own policies by mamanaging these forests? >> that is an interesting question.. when we think about the ownership, will we talk about state ownership of land, that state ownership is not really owned by the state a a lot of tt is privately owned land. communitieses different landowneners on those lands. and within the states of the state responsibility area, sra, calfire under the department of four street and fire protection is that. the entity to steward over it. on federal lands, for service, national park service, etc., all are part of that. they're different policies and the terms of the way fire is

allowed to be used. when think about the federal fire policy aspect, the national while of corrugated roof and other entities allow for the integration of policies. some of those policies include burn policies and allow for wildlife test wildland fire use. calfire is mandated to put those fires out -- those are some of the differences that are there between those areas. i thinknk the bottom line is coming d dn to the amount of reage were allow too see burn on an a annual basis, but also how much money is b being t into those efforts. i would say it is pretty minuscule. for instance, when wewe think about the targets for the forest servicee within this pararticulr timefrframe of this year, i want to say it was about half a million acres so 500,000 acres of land. with these fires, 3 million acres currently burning or more. no where a are we getting closeo

the scale of being able to put the type of fires that historically have occurred within this landscape back into this landscape to mitigate the effects of climate change and make the landscape more resilient. juan: could youou talk about the histstory of firee suppression a tool of colonization? there was a piece in the guardian where susan cagle w wre "the spaninish weree the f first califofornia colonizers to prert indigenousus people from burning the land." in 1850, the u u.s. government passed the act foror the government and protetection of indianans, which outlawed intentional burning and a a calilifornia, even b before it a state. >> right. those are huge policieies. only think abobout the early spanish colonization, 1769, we have missions established along the california coast and thus missions had verery specific policies that were put d down by the spanish govevernor of california that obeyed people

from setting fires. the spaniards were not accustomed to the idea of indigenous people burning. they saw it as a risk to their infrastructuture and their way f life. that put harsh penalties, upwards of death, to indians were setting fire. that is a way of life, thatt is void the people hahave livived n this land for millennia. that tool l began to be removovd from the toolbox of native people. when we adadd to the american colonization, she point out, the state had not even really become a state yet, we had policieses wiwithin the state t that also r bid d the use of fire by inititl populations from the same e kind of penalties -- where the same penalties were applied. people would not be able to set fires if their life was on the line for i it. we see a r real decline in the e of fire and the inability for people to access lanand which hd gone on for many thousands of

years through past climate change events. amy: what has to happen right now, fester hankins? talk abobout your owown family,m the delta area, the san francisco bay area, how you've en the landed change with regard t to stewardship and what you want to see happen? >> what we need to see happen at this point is the ability for indigenous practitioners working with others, you know, it is not just indndigenous peoplele thate able to do this. we have 40 million people living in the state. there'ss only 1.5% or so of the ststate of elatition is indndigs just popopulation is indigigeno, oror native amererican, based on identification. i think it i is important if wee all wowork togetether and we use processdset in terms of anand being able to ususe fire withthin the landsdscape, we can start to put f fire back in at e scala needs to be for the right ecological purposes.

of howwe ask the questionon can we restotore the landscape ork to what i it was in 171769 1850, that is not what t i'm asasking for. that is not whatat i think needs to happen. climate changnge does happen and the ecosystems that are here at present have a relationship with fire. so if we put that same type of in the exactnto them same way, we are able to ensnsue that climatete is lazy in those landscapes but also ensure the biodiversity that a carbon capture and all of the other attributes of what we mamay be called ecosysystem services as part o of that to make those beneficial. in terms of the delta region, sasan francisco bay area, foror instance, we have a lot of landscape change that has happened. undere a lot of areas

that time period of 1852 the present that was turnened under the e plow. grasslands --rshes, they all are part of those landscapes but a lot of those places have been very heavily impacted. one thing i particularly focus on in my research is how we can use fire as a conservatioion to, which is part of that indigenous set of ways of burning. we think about california's valulue of woodlands where the's only 2% remaining throughout the state, that is an endangered ecosystem. with small pockets of 100 acres here or 200 acres there, if f fe gegets into those places, we loe the diversity of those forests. will is the carbon that is captured in them. thosose are the places i c can s in on in a lot of my work, but that work also extends from the wetland areas alall the way to e tops of the sierras and thee mountains. it is an interconnected and

interrelated relationship with fire. amy: we want to thank you for joining us. personally, how are you dealing with the massive -- well, right now, the pollution in the air? yet los angeles -- san francisco, portland, seattle, the worst air in a major city in the world.. and especially the native american tribes. what are people doing on the ground? >> well,l, a lot of people e hag to stay indoors. i will say on my drive down to chico this morning, i was have to look up and see the stars. so the constellations are out there. i will also popoint o out withir native ways of thihinking aboutt there benefits to smoke we have to be aware of as welell. that includes fumigation, includes pulling of our streams r salmon, anand other thingsgs lilike that. so while we are dealaling with a very toxic c cloud of smoke, ths is not what our indigenous buyers wouldld have created. this wouldld have been spread

throughout the year. ii think as a society we need to get used to a lite bit of smoke, but not the level of smoke we are e experiencing rigt now and hope we never get to this toxic level again. amy: professor hankins, thank you for being with us. we asked of forced service don hankins pyro-geographer and , plains miwok fire expert. professor of geography and planning at california state university, chico. he is speaking to us from there. only, come as amazon co jeffff bezos becomes the first person in the world to be worth $200 billion, we look at h how amazon has gouged people during ththe pandemic. up to o 1000%. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amamy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine rereport. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. as the covid-19 pandememic keeps manyny of us sheltering at home and d shopping online, the o one giant amazon h has made an extraordinary amount of money.y.

ceo jeff bezos has seen his personal wealth increase by $48 billion between march and june alone. he is now the first person in the world to bee worth $2020 billion.n. bebezos has made so much, in fa, that oxfam estimat h he couldd give all 876,000 amazon employees a onetime $105,000 bonus anand still come away with as much money as he had befofore the pandemic. this comes as a nenew report documents how amazon set prices for essential products during the crisis at t levels that woud violate price gouging laws in many states. public citizen reports amazon marked up some products by as much as 1000% -- for example, disposable face masks sold for $40 instead ofof $4. prices shot up amid shortages for pandemic-related supplies in

february and march and are still high. this is new york governor andrew cuomo announcing in early march that the state had started using prisoner labor to mamake hand sanitizer. >> bececause you can't get it on the market. and when you get it, it is very, very expensive. mr. amazon andby mr. ebay, if you continue the price gouging, we will introduce our product, which is superior to your product and you don't even have t the f floral bouque. so stop price gouging. amy: for more on this new report "prime gouging: how amazon raised prices to profit from the pandemic," we are joined by its author, alex harman, competition policy advocate for public citizen. welcome to democracy now! i bet it was extremely hard to get this informamation, alex. cacan you talalk about how you t it and the f findings of your report? >> it was very hard. we s searched r products on

amazazon and they were price gouging. this is an ongoingng thing. they are doing this currently.. theyey have beenen doing it throughout the pandemic. when this firsrst started, there was a lot of talk about, from amazon andnd others come about third-party sellers taking advantagage and gououging. we h heard about hand sanitizer control of paper, other things. soso we started looking at thiso give people guguidancece o on hy could protect themselves, howow they could avoid it. it became very clear that third-party sellers are still doing this deite amazon's accounts closing those and removing those products. it amazon itself is also doing ththis. the distinction is on the websitite whehen a third-pararty sellerer is selelling, it says'l buy that cellalar" and when it s amazon, says "sold by amazon." we focused o on productsts thate

soldld by amazon that had significanant price increaseses. it is very importanant to point out that their produducts were talkining about -- a sample of products, are deemed essential. that is under prprice gouging statutes are defined as during an emergency and then n specific products that are essential to that emergency. so you will have water during wildfire,or during a in this case itt is hand sanitizezer or ppe type products and toilet paper. juan: could you give some examples of some of the levels in prices onses some of these particular products? also, could y y talk abouout ths whole issue e of how china becae after souource in the monthshs the initial outbreak of ththe pandemic for some of these products? >> sure.

one of the things we don't know is m much abouout sourcing. so amazon is not very t tnsparent about where they're getetting products, who the wholesalers are. a given n oduct cann flip back and forth between being sold by amazon and being sold byby a third-party, and the sourcing can be all over the place. atwe were not looking questions of counterfeits or quality because they just don't make thahat information availabe through their search. but, y yeah, the types of produs -- toilet paper. we looked at toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap. we were looking for products where there was a significacant prprice increase. so price gouging statute ranange from state to state.. most states have them but it on the low minimum

income tempers temper sent increase is price gouging. in other states it is more. but figure 25%. the lowest price increase we found on these products that we identified was about 50%. the highest come as amy mentioned, it was close to or slightly over 1000%. for example, in a pack of paper towels was over 500% increase. aretype of increase we talking about, what we're comparing to come and dealing we were comparing it to previous amazon prices. so it was truly apples to apples. where we could, we would find that product concurrently available at another national online retailer for significantly lower. price.ed it the expected it is the price that others are selling a four or amazon has prevususly sold it f f. juan: many people are familiar with the w whole ideaf war profiteering, butt we are about

pandememic profiteering or disaster p profiteining by thehe companies. whatat, done in a situation whee you're talking about international company, clearly seservicing g its ststomers ovee internetet, and local state prie gouging laws? what needs to be done? >> if you do businesess in a state,e, while amazozon is onli, there e definitetely in's datesh their warehouses and distribution channels, so they shouould bee subjeject to all oe very state lawaws. however, we are advocatingng foa fedederal law to fill the gaps o the variousus state lawaws and states that dodon't have laws. but during the pandemic, kentucky, the attorney general someht someme cases against third-partyellers in partnershihip with amazon, actually. an outside group, adc-based

group, s sued the kentucky attoeyey general over r there prprice gouging s statute urging doing its attempt to regulate onlinene prices was in fact unconstitututional, as it basically was kentucky setetting thee price for all s states. in kentucky.. as it ststands come the kentucky statute is invalilid. otheher states have nonot had te challengeses but it is a reasasonable possibility they could i if they attempt to enfoe them. we belieieve it is clearer thahn ever we e need a federal statut. to be cleaea there is no federal crime of pririce gouging currently. thisi wanted to go back to issue we raised in the lead of bezos becoming, to say the least, the wealthiest man in the world, $200 billion, right?

-- the first person in the world to have made that. bezos has made so much, in fact, that oxfam estimates he could give all 876,000 amazon employees a onetetime $10505,000 bonus and still come away with as much money as he had before the pandemic. and also about this amazon saying they're goioing to hire 10000,000 more workers. > 100,000 more workers at effectively minimum wage. it is trououbling. we focusused on hohow amazon presented price g gouging. amamazon came out early saying t was unacceceptable to them. bess himself identified thisis issue inn his shareholders lettr in april. our primary concern was are they doing anything? we would argue they are not. it has been a marketing campaign

in our view, not an actual effort to stop this process. they would argue there are millions of products and it is a wacko multi-process to try to stop this. you can write no good amazon.com insert searching for central products and fine price gouging. this is not a whack-a-mole but a pervasive problem. they either don't care or they are in private mode motivation.. we were focused on amazon n as e sellller but they have arguably the greater profit motive is motivation. third-party and amazon doing this s so justt they do notot se thisis as a a problem because they're lookingoo maximize profit durining a pandemic. amy: alex harman, thank you for being with us, author of the new report "prime gouging: how

amazon raised prices to profit from the pandemic." per our show. we will link to that at democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693

♪ hello. glad to have you with us on nhk "newsline." i'm yamamoto miki in tokyo. we start with the latest political developments in japan. a new cabinet of veteran ministers is nearly complete, and nhk has details about who will serve in kekey posts.