08/17/22 08/17/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> no office in this land is more important than the principles we are all sworn to protect, and i well understood the potential political consequences of abiding by my duty. amy: liz cheney, trump's cheap house republican foe, has lost

her primary in wyoming. unalaska, lisa murkowski, another republican trump credit, will move forward to the general election. we will get an update from the nations johnichols. then as united nations warns a staggering 95% of afghans are not getting enough deed, the biden administration says it will rule out releasing some $7 billion in foreign asss held by afghanistan's central bank on u.s. soil. we will get response from a member of the central bank of afghanistan. >> to avoid economic and humanitarian catastrophe, the united states should release afghantan reserves that belon to afghan people and to the central bank of afghanistan. amy: we will also speak with medea benjamin, cofounder of

unfreeze afghanistan. the president biden signs into law the sweeping $739 billion inflation reduction act. pres. biden: this is the biggest step forward on climate ever, ever. amy: we will look at what is in the ira with professor ashley dawson. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. voters in alaska and wyoming went to the polls tuesday for primary elections. in wyoming, pro-trump primary challenger harriet hageman has unseated incumbent congressmember liz cheney, who has emerged as the leading anti-trump republican in congress. cheney voted for trump impeachment and is serving as vice chair on the house january 6 committee. hageman won about 66% of the vote.

cheney received about 29%. cheney, who is the daughter of former vice president dick cheney, spoke to supporters last night in jackson, wyoming. >> two years ago i won his primary was 73% of the vote. i could easily have done the same again. the path was clear. but it would have required that i go along with president trump about the 2020 election. it would have required that i enabled's ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attacked the foundations of our republic. that was a path i could not and would not take. amy: in alaska, former governor and 2008 republican vice presidential candidate sarah palin appears set to be one of four candidates to advance to november's general election for alaska's sole house seat which was held by don young, who died in march. meanwhile, alaskan republican senator lisa murkowski and her fellow republican rival kelly

tshibaka, who has been endorsed by trump, have both advanced to november's general election. we will have more on the primary results later in the broadcast. president biden has signed a sweeping $739 billion bill to address the climate crisis, reduce drug costs, and establish a 15% minimum tax for large corporations. pres. biden: this bill is the biggest step forward on climate ever, ever. it will allow us to fully take additional steps toward meeting all of my climate goals, the ones we set out when we ran. it includes ensuring that we create clean energy opportunities and front line communities that have been smothered -- smothered by the legacy of pollution and fight environment injustice that has been going on for so long. amy: at a signing ceremony at the white house, biden handed his pen to conservative

democratic senator joe manchin, who agreed to back the deal after securing a number of major handouts to the fossil fuel industry. manchin is the largest recipient of fossil fuel industry donations in congress. we will have more on biden's signing of the inflation reduction act later in the broadcast. "the new york times" has revealed the fbi interviewed two of donald trump's top white house lawyers earlier this year about classified documents being stored at trump's mar-a-lago estate in florida. white house council pat cipollone and his deputy patrick philbin are the highest known -- highest officials known to be interviewed as part of the probe. "the times" reports philbin tried to help the national archives retrieve the materials but was opposed by trump who reportedly said, "it's not theirs, it's mine." last week, the fbi searched trump's residence and seized 11 sets of documents. the unsealed search what revealed trump is being investigated for violating the espionage act, obstruction of justice, and criminal handling

of government records. the russian defense ministry has admitted a major blast at a russian ammunition depot in occupied crimea on tuesday was caused by act of sabotage. on tuesday night, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy thanked those "who oppose the occupiers." he also urged ukrainians to stay from russian military bases and ammunition stores. meanwhile, russian president vladimir putin has accus the united states of trying to drag out the war in ukraine and to provoke china over taiwan. he spoke at the moscow conference on international security. >> the situation in ukraine shows the united states are trying to drag out this conflic and act in exactly the same way, feeling the potential for conflict in asia, africa, and latin america. we also see the collective -- seeking to expand its bloc system similarly to nato in

europe. this purse, bellicose militaries political alliance are being formed. amy: the israeli newspaper haaretz is reporting an internal israeli military report has acknowledged that an israeli air strike near the jabalia refugee camp in gaza killed five palestinian children on august 7. the youngest child was four years old. the finding contradicts public statements by the israeli government officials who had said the palestinian children had died after being hit by an errant rocket fired by the militant group islamic jihad. over the past two weeks, israeli forces have killed 19 palestinian children. the united nations has denounced the surge in child deaths as "unconscionable." kenya is facing a political crisis following last week's presidential election with the apparent runner-up rejecting the results of the vote. on monday, the chair of kenya's election commission announced deputy president william ruto had won the election. but four of the seven members on the election commission have

disavowed ru's victory and are critiquing how the votes were counted. the apparent runner-up, former prime minister raila odinga, has also refused to concede. >> in our view, there is neither -- amy: former brazilian president luiz inácio lula da silva has formally launched his campaign to challenge brazil's far-right president jair bolsonaro in october's election. on tuesday, lula held his first campaign rally at a car factory outside of são paulo. lula denounced bolsonaro's handling of the covid pandemic which has killed nearly 700,000 brazilians. lula also vowed to reshape the role of government in brazil if he returns to office.

>> we don't want to government that distributes weapons. we want a government that distributes books. we don't want to government that seeks eight. we want to government that seeks love. amy: while polls show lula in the lead, fear is growing bolsonaro may try to steal the election, possibly with help from the brazilian military. european officials are expressing hope that a new irann nuclear deal is within reach. on monday night, iran submitted a wrten response to what's been described as the final of -- final text of the new agreement. officials have told "the new york times" that iran has asked for some clarifications but has not raised any significant new objections to the text. the biden administration has not yet submitted its comments on the final text federal officials have announced a new round of water cuts to the states of arizona and nevada as an extreme drought has caused plummeting water levels on the colorado river which supplies water to 40 million people in the west. lake mead and lake powell are now at about a quarter of their

capacities. seven states are part of the century old colorado river compact which determines how water is distributed among the states. tanya trujillo, an official at the u.s. interior department said -- "in order to avoid a catastrophic collapse of the colorado river system and a future of uncertainty and conflict, water use in the basin must be reduced." first lady jill biden has tested positive for coronavirus. she has been prescribed the antiviral drug paxlovid and is reportedly experiencing mild symptoms. this comes nearly a month after president biden first tested positive. meanwhile, defense secretary lloyd austin has also tested positive and is reportedly experiencing mild symptoms. a coalition of immigrant rights organizations have sued the data broker lexisnexis for collecting detailed personal information on millions of people and then

selling it to governmental entities, including immigration and customs enforcement, or ice. the lawsuit alleges lexisnexis has helped create a "a massive surveillance state with files on almost every adult u.s. consumer." the groups also accuse ice of using informatn collected by lexisnexis to circumvent local policies in sanctuary cities. plaintiffs in the lawsuit include organize communities against deportations and just futures law. the academy of arts and sciences has formally apologized to indigenous activist and actress sacheen littlefeather. in 1973, she took the stage at the oscars on behalf of marlon brando, who boycotted the ceremony to protest hollywood's portrayal of native americans. some members of the audience booed and mocked littlefeather as she addressed the awards

ceremony wearing traditional apache clothing. the actor john wayne reportedly attempted to remove her from the stage but was restrained by six security guards. clint eastwood mocked littlefeather later in the ceremony. this is part of what sacheen littlefeather said on that night in 1973. >> he regretfully cannot accept this very generous award. and the reason for this being our the treatment of american indians today by the film industry -- excuse me. [applause] and on television and movie reruns and also with recent happenings at wounded knee. amy: in september, the academy

museum of motion pictures will host sacheen littlefeather for an evening of "conversation, healing, and celebration." and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. this week marks one year since the taliban takeover of afghanistan after more than two decades of u.s. war and occupation. as the united nations warns a staggering 95% of afghans are not getting enough to eat, with that number rising to almost 100% in households headed by women, the biden administration announced this week that it had ruled out releasing roughly $7 billion in foreign assets held by afghanistan's central bank on u.s. soil. that is according to "the wall street journal," which reports biden's decision not to return the funds came after he ordered the assassination of al qaeda's leader in kabul. on monday, state department spokesperson ned price disputed

reports that the biden administration has ruled out releasing the billions of dollars in foreign assets. >> i don't need to play media critic today, but there has also been some inaccurate, highly inaccurate reporting today regarding the ultimate disposition of the 3.5 billion dollars in reserve funds. the idea that we have decided not to use these funds for the benefit of the afghan people is completely wrong. it is not true. our focus right now is on ongoing efforts to enable the $3.5 billion in reserves to be used precisely for the benefit of the afghan people. the presence of so worry on afghan soil with the knowledge of senior members of the afghani television network only reinforces the deep concerns that we have regarding the potential diversion of such funds to terrorist groups.

right now we're looking at mechanisms that could be put in place to see to it that these $3.5 million in preserved assets make their way efficiently and effectively to the people of afghanistan in a way that doesn't make them right for diversion to terrorist groups or elsewhere. amy: for more, we are joined by two guests. shah mehrabi is the chair of the audit committee of the central bank of afghanistan and a professor of economics at montgomery college. he is also a former advisor to the afghan president. his recent piece for al jazeera is headlined "afghanistan's economy is collapsing, the u.s. can help stop it." also with us is longtime peace activist medea benjamin, cofounder of unfreeze afghanistan and codepink. she last visited afghanistan in april with the american women's peace and education delegation. we welcome you both to democracy now! shah mehrabi, can you clarify what the u.s. is doing? what the $7 billion is, why the u.s. is holding onto it -- if

they are? >> thank you very much for inviting me to stop it is important i think i mentioned the fact president biden on february 11 split afghan reserves into $2.5 million that could be used as president biden mentioned "benefits of afghan people" and the remaining $3.5 billion to be set aside for september 11 plaintiffs to litigate. the policy of splitting this has created situation with the central bank of afghanistan could easily to capitalize the central bank -- d capitalize the central bank. publishing a mechanism that will allow central banks to use this reserves for the purpose of the

central bank -- it is to bring stability and strengthen the currency and also stabilize the economy. it is very important. i think this function cannot fulfill its primary objective of stability [indiscernible] against foreign currency to provide stability. [indiscernible] if there are no stable prices, they're not going to be able to buy basic household goods at reasonable prices. inflation now is at 52%. optioning will allow a situation where this inflation of double-digit of 52% could be reduced. higher prices are one of the major causes of poverty.

now more than 70% of the world's poorest people are women. you have women and children cannot afford to buy the basic necessities. they cannot buy bread. they cannot buy cooking oil. they cannot buy sugar in fuel. i think it is very important afghans be allowed to have their cash to be able to buy these basic necessities, to have access to cash. afghanistan reserves need to be returned to the central bank so that all the ahans will be able to have access specifically to before -- [indiscernible] the cap that is placed on the businesses, even at that cap many cannot get access because there is a shortage of reserves

and at the country. suggested back in september they united states should allow limited monetary release of reserves to pay for imports. i suggest 150 million dollars. an access could be unspecific use. this can be independently monitored and audited. amy: so ned price, the state department spokesperson, directly addressed the issue of the money going to the afghan central bank. this is what he said. >> we don't see recapitalization of the afghan central bank as under term option. we engaged and still continue to engage technocrats with the central bank for many months now about measures to enhance the country's economic equity economic stability. but we don't have confidence the

safeguards and monitoring are in place to manage those assets responsibly. amy: shah mehrabi, he is directly addressing your bank, says can't handle it. >> this is what i said. there has to be a mechanism established, a trust building mechanism. release the funds and monitor it. to see if the money is being released for the purpose it is to be used. if this process could build confidence and could be considered a trust building mechanism between the u.s. government and taliban. the u.s. government needs to be actively engaged and i think dialogue should continue i think

what exists now is unattainable. [indiscernible] there has to be dialogue and engagement. otherwise i think i would argue the united states will see higher price if afghanistan collapses. could create more space for terror organization. amy: medea benjamin, "the wall street journal" reports the biden administration has ruled out releasing the billions of dollars in foreign assets because they are learning of and then killing of the al qaeda leader in kabul. your response? >> 38 million afghan people should not be punished because a 71-year-old figurehead of al qaeda was living in kabul. this money belongs to the afghan

people. the u.s. for 365 days have been holding their money in a new york vault while afghan people are boiling, selling kidneys, are watching their children starve. this is unconscionable. that money has to be returned. the u.s. for 20 years build up a central bank in afghanistan with monitoring mechanism. it is one of the only things that continues to exist after 20 years of u.s. occupation. and now it wants to hollow out that central bank, create a separate and is on. i think the biden administration , instead of listing to the war hawks in his own party and republicans, should listen to the women's organizations in afghanistan, the 9/11 family members, the economists from around the world including joseph stiglitz, human rights

organizations who have all said this humanitarian crisis can only be solved by reinvigorating the economy and returning the afghan's money to their central bank. amy: we're talking about i don't know if it is $7 billion or $9 million, but half of that, because the other half the biden administration has determined would go to the 9/11 victims, if you could respond to that, medea? also this issue, i mean, you are longtime women's rights activists, feminist, enormous crackdown on women and girls in afghanistan, how that money would not go to supporting the taliban you're doing this? >> the lawsuits by a small number of 9/11 family members really will and rich the lawyers more than anyone else. i think we should listen to the september 11 families for people of tomorrow's who have

spearheaded a letter that 76 family members have signed saying that not a penny of that money should go for the 9/11 families, it should all go for the afghan people. as a feminist, and certainly opposed to the policies of the taliban, which have been horrific in not letting girls go to secondary schools and forcing women to cover themselves when they out in public and saying they cannot travel around the country without a guardian -- all of these things must be opposed. we are in touch with the afghan women every day that are working to change those policies, but they are already victimized by the taliban and should not be victimized by the united states by stealing the funds they need to get there economy going. there are about 50,000 women businesses that are still trying to function in afghanistan. they need access to the bank to pay for the salaries of their staff. pensioners, women, need access to the bank to get their

pensions. so as a feminist and i think all feminists should say, let's help reinvigorate the afghan economy so people can get jobs and they can ed their children. amy: shah mehrabi, your final comments? and would you support a third-party getting that money? >> i think a mechanism that is under negotiation that will enable the transfer of funds to be used, for my point of view, price stability and also for reducing the volatility i think is a positive move. now, there has been a pause and hopefully it is temporary and i think negotiation and dialogue that will enable that central bank of afghanistan that have access to its reserve must continue as it is not only in

the interest of the united states, but the best interest -- i want to also mention there's no increase -- higher prices of basic commodities. [indiscernible] severe consequences could ripple to afghan society and harm the most vulnerable people. we have the tools and mechanism to be able to reverse it. i think the freezing of afghan assets will not weaken the taliban and administration. the overwhelming impact will be fully not innocent afghans who have suffered decades of war and poverty. while we have the means to be able to reverse this, why not go ahead and reverse the worst

economic humanitarian crisis? by releasing the afghan reserves that rightfully belongs to afghan people who establish an independent central bank and allowed the central bank to be able to manage, maintain its reserve and to be able to safeguard the international valu of the national currency and restore and keep price stability and also be able to allow and foster the quiddy and also bring money in exchange for policy. amy: shah mehrabi, thank you for being with us, chair of the audit committee of the central bank of afghanistan. professor of economics at montgomery college and former advisor to the afghan president. medea benjamin, please stay with us. we come back, sanctions on cuba, making it difficult for cuba to

effectively respond to recent tragic fire. also the military budget that has been proposed and the sentencing of a saudi feminist, two decades in prison in saudi arabia. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we look at the aftermath of one of cuba'worst of our middle dasters and decades in the rgest oil fire in his history. last month a fire in the western province began after lightning struck part of the oil depot. one person killed, some 120 injured and the blaze worsened electricity on the island which relies heavily on imported foreign oil and is already facing an energy crisis due to soaring global fuel costs. for more we continue with medea benjamin who has been following this closely, spent many visits to cuba. you tweeted -- "it is infuriating that biden

administration sanctions on cuba make it difficult for cuba to effectively respond to the recent tragic fire. tell biden to take cuba off the list of state sponsors of terrorism!" can you lay out that has happened since this fire come the largest in cuba's history? >> it is very difficult for groups like us in the united states that want to help humans, have been raising money to send the goods to cuba because the banks in the u.s. won't deal with funds destined for cuba post of companies do not want to sell if you tell them the destination is cuba. we have to go around a lot of issues that the u.s. puts in the path and that is because cuba is on the state sponsor of terrorism list, which is absolutely ridiculous. it was put on that list because cuba had hosted rebels from

colombia for peace talks. thospeace talks are resuming now with a new government of colombia that has had cuba should be off of that list. cuba, if anything, is the state sponsor of global healthcare, sending doctors and nurses around the world, not a state-sponsored terrorism. so we have a campaign we would love to people to join on the codepink website to push congress and biden to take cuba off that list so that we can help cuba in times like this to get the medicines, to help the burn victims, to reinvigorate the economy -- especially where people are suffering as a result of this fire. amy: medea benjamin, i want to move on to saudi arabia. you're the author of a number of books including "kingdom of the unjust: behind the u.s.-saudi connecti." i want to ask you about the saudi rumen -- women's rights defender salma al-shehab has been sentenced to 34 years in

prison over her advocacy. it's reportedly the longest sentence ever given to a saudi women's rights activist. she was initially sentenced to a six-year prison term over tweets she posted critical of saudi arabia's treatment of women. but an appeals court last week increased the sentence to 34 years behind bars and banned al-shehab from leaving the kingdom for an additional 34 years. human rights advocates warn of worsening conditions for saudi women as crown prince mohammed bin salman intensifies his crackdown on dissent and strengthens his relationship with the biden administration. >> this is a barbaric sentence of a woman who is a phd student, was going to saudi arabia to visit family and was detained for her tweets. she had 2000 followers. that was the extent of her

twitter supporters. 159 followers on instagram. this woman should not be in prison and this draconian sentence is unconscionable. it shows the united states should not be selling weapons to saudi arabia. the crackdown on women continues . i think this is something that we should all be pushing the biden administration to demand her release and to stop cozying up to the dictator mbs in saudi arabia. amy: medea benjamin, your founder of codepink. and our next segment, we will be talking about the inflation reduction act shaped by chris of arizona, once participated in a codepink protest. i want to get your response to this.

the associated press reported this week how sinema -- the ap reports son of a vein forced a series of changes to the ira, including cutting a proposed carried interest tax on private equity earnings while "securing a 35 billion-dollar exemption that will spare much of the industry from a separate tax increase, other huge corporations now have to pay." now, you have a connection to her because democratic senator kyrsten sinema of arizona once joint and coping protests, including against israel and a pack. your thoughts on her now? >> well, we don't know what happens.

sinema has been possessed fronting a one-time antiwar activist two being such an obstacle for any progress in the united states. we have watched her in horror and tried to protest her along the way and now that we see she is a supporter of every increase in the pentagon budget, the enormous increases that are now coming out of the biden administration, and increased were in the house and senate when you have people like kristin sinema who disregards the real needs of people that are her constituents and instead promotes the interest of the corporations including the weapons industry. amy: finally, the military budget that president biden has released for 2023, 700 $73 billion total military budget reportedly exceeds $800 billion.

your response? >> we just talked about afghanistan and the u.s. wound down this war a year ago, think it would be a "peace dividend" in which the pentagon budget would go down. instead it has increased over $100 billion from airing their trump time and now the house has put another $37 billion on top of what biden asked for in the senate will add more to that. it just shows how we have to build a stronger, more effective peace movement together with environmentalists, people working for a good health care system, an end to the student debt. all of us have to come together to say this money should be taken out of the pentagon budget and put into the real needs of people and the climate. amy: medea benjamin, thank you for being with us, cofounder of codepink and unfreeze afghanistan. as we talk now about president

biden signing into law the sweeping 739 billion-dollar inflation reduction act. back in a minute. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president biden on tuesday signed into law the inflation reduction act, a sweeping $739 billion bill to address the climate crisis, reduce drug costs, and establish a 15% minimum tax for large corporations. at a signing ceremony at the white house, biden praised the ira as one of the most significant measures in the history of the united states. pres. biden: this bill is the biggest step forward on climate ever and it is going to allow us to boldly take additional steps toward meaning all my climate goals, the ones set out when we

ran. it includes ensuring that we create clean energy opportunities in frontline and fence line community's that have been smothered by the legacy of pollution and fight environment injustice that is been going on for so long. amy: despite biden's high praise, many climate groups and indigenous land and water defenders have criticized the package for including major handouts to the fossil fuel industry, which were added to win the support of conservative democratic west virginia senator joe manchin, who is the largest recipient of fossil fuel industry funding in congress. the center for biological diversity described the bill as a climate suicide pact. among the concessions manchin won was a side agreement to expedite fossil fuel permitting, including for the controversial mountain valley pipeline. if built, it would carry 2 billion cubic feet of fracked gas across more than 1000 streams and wetlands in appalachia, including parts of west virginia. last week democracy now! spoke to tara houska, indigenous

lawyer, land and water defender, and founder of giniw collective, after the bill at that time was passing in the senate. >> in order to get to renewable energy dollars and investment up front, the fossil fuel industry has handed off millions and millio of acres of public lands, of waters, side project deals where you see the rolling back of bedrock environmental law, all of this just to get investment into renewable energy. i mean, that is not a climate solution. mother nature does not deal in u.s. dollars. that's my response. amy: well, for more, we're joined in rosendal new york, by ashley dawson, professor of environmental humanities at the city university of new york, is the author of "people's power: reclaiming the energy commons" and a member of the public power new york campaign. welcome back to democracy now!

professor dawson, if you can start off by responding to the law, many environment groups also while harshly critical of what could have been in it, set if this is the best we can get, we should start here. can you talk about the pitfalls but also what you think can be accomplished under this new law? >> amy, it is good to be with you. i will start by talking about some of the positive sides of the law. it's called the inflation reduction act but it is basically a climate bill because it includes $370 billion to address the climate emergency. that includes a 10 yr extension of existing credits for wind and solar, provisions for consumer rebates for heat pumps, solar, purchases of electric vehicles. and all these measures projected to decrease u.s. carbon emissions by about 40% from 2005

levels by 2030. and that represents 80% of the u.s. commitment to the paris agreement of 2016, which was designed to keep global warming below two degrees celsius. this is obviously absolutely crial legislation. the fact just a couple of weeks ago it looked like any kind of measures to address the climate emergency were completely dead, has led some environmental groups to really celebrate this. there are also other important measures here. there is methane regulation. methane is 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide, so curbing methane is absolutely necessary. it also closes some tax loopholes for wealthy people and big corporations, which is a climate venture which is often not described that way as

wealthy people and corporations are responsible for so much of carbon emissions. as president biden said i need clip you played, the measure also includes $60 billion worth of funding for frontline and fence line communities. there are positive measures in the ira, but there are also lots of issues, as tara houska said in her interview last week. amy: you have also been talking about the bill creating a lot of jobs and a green energy and carbon reduction, but also concerns about the nonunionized labor in that large area. >> right, right. so what the bill does is to essentially continuee obama-ra policies of providing tax credits to for-profit renewable energy companies, and that comes

in the form of investment tax credits and production tax credits for clean energy projects. the for-profit renewablenergy sector is notoriously unionized. -- un-unionize. there is a history here that we need to really unpack behind these tax prints. these go on the way back to the reagan administration in the 1980's, which means developers who want to have some kind of new renewable energy program will get tax credits for generating solar power and wind energy will stop the thing is, most of these developers don't

owe taxes up front. they don't have tax bills when they approach these projects. that means they need to partner with third-party credential partners in order to take advantage of these tax credits. who exactly are those third-party financial partners? they tend to be big banks j.p. morgan chase and bank of america . so essentially, renewable energy developers kind of cell their tax breaks to these big banks in return for the upfront funds to invest in the projects. it is called tax equity. the problem, though, is that when when they can't attract enough partners and if that happens the project don't actually get built. the projections about how this is going to decrease emissions by 40% are based on a history of

attracting funding that we can't be absolutely sure will work, which is quite problematic because it means, essentially, we are giving big banks deciding power over what projects get built and where they get built and who builds them. we feel that public power new york campaign that these decisions should be made genuinely democratically and projects should be built when and as needed, not depending on when they're going to make money for big banks. amy: let's end with big power. you wrote "people's power: reclaiming the energy commons." what is the public power new york campaign and how can that be unleashed in the country? >> the public power campaign began in new york state because we looked at what the history of tax credits for-profit renewable corporations had accomplished and we felt it had not come

through. in new york state, we only have about 4% wind and solar power. that is despite over a decade of these kis of policies and despite the passage of a law in 2019 in new york state called the climate act that mandates a very speedy transition to renewable energy. so what we felt we need to have public power, we need to make sure there is an entity which is democratically controlled which can step in when market forces are not doing what we want them to do and what we need them to do given the climate emergency. the public power of new york campaign has put forward a bill which almost passed in the state legislature last spring session which would mandate the new york poweruthority spped in and get the state to its renewable

energy goals. the new york power authority is something that was created last year by franklin delano roosevelt something similar that was happening back then. for-profit utilities that gouge people with high utility rates of fdr decided, well, we need a kind of public alternative was something thacan bring energy to people who need it and something that can charge affordable rates to people. we feel because of some of what i outlined about how these tax credits put power in the hands of for-profit enterprises linked to big banks, which incidentally are the same banks which continue to find fossil fuel projects, we feel we need a public alternative which can be democratically mandated by law -- which can also include very strong prounion policy so we can

be guaranteed a justransition for not just frontline communities, but also the working class or broadly. amy: ashley dawson, thank you for being with us, professor of environmental humanities at the city university of new york, is the author of "people's power: reclaiming the energy commons." as we move on now to look at tuesday's primary, liz cheney, trump's chief house republican foe, has lost her primary and wyoming. she addressed supporters. >> two years ago, i won this primary was 73% of the vote. i could easily have done the same again. the path was clear. but it would have required that i go along with president trump's lie about the 2020 election. would have required i enabled his ongoing efforts to unravel our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic. that was a path i could not and

would not take. amy: hungers member liz cheney was defeated by harriet hagerman who in 2016 called trump supporters racist and xenophobic. >> i did not do this on my own. obviously, we areery grateful to predent trumpho recognized that wyoming has only one congressional representative and we have to make it count. clear and raving support from the beginningropelled us to victory tonight. amy: alaska senator lisa murkowski and kelly tschibaka have both advanced to the general election in alaska. for more we go to john nichols, national affairs correspondent, whose latest piece is headlined "i hope liz cheney wins, but i couldn't vote for her." welcome back to democracy now! while she did not win and in fact she was trounced yet the

vice chair of the january 6 committee investigating the attack on u.s. capitol lost by something like i think hageman got two thirds of the vote, one of the biggest trouncings in u.s. history in a primary. if you can talk about the significance of this and what this says about the republican party? >> thank you for having me. absolute wipeout. when all the votes are counted, it looks like there is a very good chance harriet hageman will defeat liz cheney by almost 40%, something in the range of 66-28 break. cheney really struggles to even get a quarter of the vote in wyoming, a state where, she note she won a wide margins in the past. what this tells us is donald trump's control of the republican party continues to advance. there were 10 republicans who voted to impeach donald trump.

four of them decided not to seek reelection by a large because they feared being opposed by -- four more have been defeated. only two of them are still in the running at this point. one of them could get alternately. we have a signal, standing up for donald trump by a large leads to your defeat. there will be exceptions but those are the exceptions to the rule. as we head for the november election, the clear message is that this is donald trump's republican party. amy: i want to go back to liz cheney's concession speech tuesday night. >> the great and original champion of our party abraham lincoln was defeated in election for the senate and the house before he won most important election of all. amy: there you have it. she is talking about abraham

lioln losing a house race, like her, losing a senate race, then going on to become president. is she telling us something, john nichols, that what her plans are for the future? >> of course she is. i covered the cheneys for a long time and liz cheney since before she came to congress. she has been incredibly ambitious. she is ambitious for power. she wants to be a leading figure in our policy, just as our father did before her, dick cheney. what she is talking about there is first and foremost maintaining her public profile. and she will do that with the january 6 committee where, frankly, she has done some very good work. but beyond that, i think she is signaling and openness to run for president of the united states. not announcing her candidacy, but certain suggesting she would not mind if people talked about it, as we are right now, and that she might do so in republican primary.

or she might do so as an independent. the bottom line is liz cheney is not some but he who is going to walk away from politics most of the other thing to remember is liz cheney is every bit as right-wing as donald trump, perhaps even more right wing than him on some issues. people should be very cautious about imagining she would seek office in the future as some sort of moderate republican or something like that. that is not who she is. she has been good on standing up to trump on these democracy issues but the bottom line is, she is an extreme right wing conservative. amy: then we go to alaska. if you first can talk about rank choice voting. the way the media covers it, you just have to be patient because alaska takes forever for the results to come in. but explain the significance of it and why it might have saved lisa murkowski as she moves forward to the election come the

senator who i think trump said he perhaps despised the most. >> you are right, amy. if donald trump had a list of people he wanted to get rid of in this year's elections, liz cheney would have topped the list and lisa murkowski would have been very high on the list. lisa murkowski, who has opposed trump on a number of issues, moderate to conservative republican, was facing a trump backed candidate but because of rank choice, a system that allows multiple candidates to be on the ballot but voters rank them one through four in the case of alaska, then the votes can be redistributed upwards. that is what will happen in november. now in the first primary, which is -- which occurred yesterday in alaska, have a full list of candidates and in this case, the top four, not in ranked choice system but a top four go through

to that ranked choice election in november. this murkowski will be one of the four that goes through. she will go through with a trump backed republican and probably with a lesser-known democrat, another candidate as well. now when you get to that november election, the ranked choice voting will almost certainly -- it will certainly put lisa murkowski in the running and give her a very good chance with the redistribution of boat -- of votes from the two lesser-known candidates, give her a good chance of winning the election and going back to the senate. amy: and of course there is sarah palin. >> sarah palin is in two elections -- was in two elections yesterday. in one that was a special election to fill the congressional seat of don young, longtime alaska congressman who passed away, she has come through and -- ranked choice

election, has come through second to a woman that has run a very strong candidate is a democrat. but there is another republican in that ranked choice about. his votes are likely to be redistributed more to sarah palin than the democrats, so there is a decent chance she will win but not a certainty. we have to watch how that rank choice redistribution goes. that may take a couple of weeks. the second race sarah palin was in is for november. she is one of the top four, so was the democrat we spoke about, so is another. so we will do this all over again in november with ranked choice. i think the real take away here is there is a very substantial vote for progressive democrats in alaska, and we should always look at the states people right off as all republican or only looking at the republican races.

the fact of the matter is, a progressive democrat did very very well in alaska last night. amy: pennsylvania. the senate race that could determine the ballot -- balance of the senate, mehmet oz versus fetterman, who just survived very serious health challenge, so you have the cardiologist versus the heart patient. he has been mocked -- mehmet oz, for going into grocery store, naming it wrong and sankey was getting ingredients for crudité. >> it is an incredible race. the bottom line is this, john fetterman, who has had health challengesis back the trl. he had huge rally t other day, but up wh ecdc --/dc. feermais running a deep roots campaign. dr. oz, who lived in new jersey before he got into this race

seems to keep on stumbling. he looks like a candidate that trump put ahead into the final race but not 70 that trump can get elected. amy: john nichols, thank you for being with us the nation's , national affairs correspondent and we will link to your piece "i hope liz cheney wins, but iúc

(sophie fouron) when you think of taiwan, you think of a big city: taipei. i didn't refer to taiwan as an island even, but it is. it's not like any other island i've been to before. it's huge and 75% of the island is covered with mountains. we all grew up with "made in taiwan" and they do produce lots and lots of things. the parts in your cellphones are probably from here. but it's way more than that. tn