09/28/22 09/28/22 [captioning made psible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> people in southwest florida, this is going to likely make landfall as a category 4 hurricane. there will be catastrophic flooding and life-threatening storm surge on the gulf coast region. amy: hurricane ian strengthens into a devastating category 4

storm as it approaches florida and more than 2.5 million people in florida have been ordered to evacuate. we'll get an update from community radio wmnf in tampa. "score it a win! senator joe manchin big oil gift is scuttled, for now." he abandons his proposal to speed the federal review of energy projects like the mountain valley pipeline. we will speak with bill mckibben and, scientist peter kalmus who was arrested for chaining himself to a j.p. morgan bank to protest fossil fuel investments and climate inaction. he tweeted -- then "lady justice: women, the law, and the battle to save america." >> a message this country does

not tolerate violence based on racial and religious hatred in any form. amy: we will speak with dahlia lithwick about her new book profiling women who fought racism and sexism. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. more than 2.5 million people in florida have been ordered to evacuate as hurricane ian strengthens into a cegory 4 storm. winds rching 15miles per ur, just shy of category. e storis projeed to ma landfa this ternoon zens ofiles sth of taa bay. rts of the ste are alrea facing hvy wind d floodi. on tuesday, florida governor ron

desantis urgedesidents to follow evacuation orders. >> there will be catastrophic flooding and life-threatening storm surge on the gulf coast region and the highest risk will be in that southwest florida region from naples up to sarasota. there is the potential f flash flooding and river flooding with 10o 20 inches across central and northeast florida. amy: hurricane ian is -- has already devastated cuba. the storm knocked out power to the entire country and killed at least two people. western cuba suffered substantial damage. this is abel hernandez, a tobacco grower in cuba. >> it was disastrous. it was never seen this way before. sometimes hurricane passed through here, but not of this magnitude. it destroyed our houses, farms, trees, everything. amy: this all comes as about a

third of puerto rico remains without power 10 days after hurricane fiona hit the island. the european union says damage to two major gas pipelines connecting russia tourope was caused by sabotage. leaks were discored on t nord stream 1 and 2 pipelines after e lines sustained what has been described as unprecedented damage in three sections. seismologists in sweden say they have detected two explosions in the area that might have caused the damage. on tuesday, lish pri minister zgnierau suggested russia may have attacked the pipeline. >> we are not in a position to reject the notion that this could be an element of russian hybrid war. amy: meanwhile, poland's former foreign minister radek sikorski appeared to suggest that the united states could have been involved. he posted a picture on twitter of a water disturbance near the site of the leaks with a message

that read, "thank you, usa." authorities in four russian-occupied areas of ukraine claim residents have overwhelmingly voted to support becoming part of russia, paving the way for moscow to annex the areas. the united states and its allies denounced the votes as sham referendums. this is ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy speaking last night. >> the crime of aggression against our country, called the referendum by occupiers, the preparation of a new attempt at the annexation of ukraine territory. these are all steps by which russia finishes off the u.n. charter. amy: the associated press reports nearly 200,000 russians have fled to georgia, kazakhstan, and finland since russian president vladimir putin announced a partial mobilization to draft at least 300,002 fight in ukraine. traffic jams heading into

georgia have been up to 10 miles long. one russian man spoke to reuters after crossing into georgia with his children. >> people who are against the regime, are not ready to go to war, it means they are ready to fight -- when you're defending your home, it is fair. you go and you're not afraid. when you go to fight in a stupid war to kill your brother, it is aware about nothing,nd that is what people are leaving. and because a kinof saudi arabia has now named crown prince mohammed bin salman to be prime minister, making him the official head of the saudi government. up until now, the king held the position of prime minister. sarah leah whitson, the head of dawn, said on tuesday -- "there is one reason, and only one reason, mbs has now added 'prime minister' to his many unearned titles -- a desperate gambit for immunity in the lawsuit we've brought for the murder of jamal khashoggi, as well as other lawsuits for his many crimes."

jury selection has begun for the trial of oath keepers founder stewart rhodes and four other members of the far-right group. they are charged with seditious conspiracy for plotting to block congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election on january 6, 2021. meanwhile, a supporter of donald trump from iowa named kyle young has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison for assaulting washington, d.c., police officer mike fanone during the january 6 insurrection. in related news, the house select committee to investigate the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol has postponed its public hearing scheduled for today due to the hurricane in florida. in news from capitol hill, senator joe manchin has abandoned, at least for now, his proposal to speed up the federal review of energy projects by shortening public comment periods on proposed fossil fuel projects, while weakening environmental and public health laws. on tuesday, manchin requested

the proposal be removed from a stopgap funding bill after it became clear it didn't have enough votes to pass. manchin's proposal had faced fierce oppositn from climate justice grps. food & water watch executive director wenonah hauter said -- "tonight's turnaround represents a remarkable, against-all-odds victory by a determined grassroots climate movement against the overwhelming financial and political might of the fossil fuel industry and its senate enablers." we will have more on the mountain valley pipeline and more after headlines. in pennsylvania, republican gubernatorial candidate doug mastriano's views on abortion are in the spotlight after nbc unearthed a 2019 interview where he said women who violated abortion bans should be charged with murder. his comment came during an interview with the radio station witf. >> you can give me a yes or no

on this, would that woman who decided to have an abortion, which would be considered illegal, be charged with murder? >> back to the basic question, is that human being? is that a little boy or girl? if it is, he deserves equal protection under the law. amy: in virginia, thousands of students walked out of middle and high schools tuesday to protest republican governor glenn youngkin's plan to roll back the rights of trans students. walkouts were reported in over 100 schools with many students chanting "trans rights are human rights" and "doe, let us be." under governor youngkin's plan, schools would be required to categorize students based on their assigned sex at birth and bar students from changing their name or pronouns at school without a court order. walkout participants included 17-year-old casey calabia, a non-binary senior in high school who criticized governor youngkin's policies. >> i would tell him he is not

protecting anyone. he is not protecting parents rights, trans students. all of his talk, progressives standing up for kids like me. i am scared of this man. my friends are scared of this man. how can he stand there and say he loves this country and this state if he wants to hurt us? amy: california governor gavin newsom had signed a bill outlawing what's known as the pink tax. the new law bars companies from charging different prices for products marketed for women. newsom also signed legislation aimed to better identify gender and race-based pay disparities. the international monetary fund has issued a rare warning to britain over its plans to cut taxes. the imf said the move by the prime minister's new government could fuel inflation and cost economic equality.

on monday, the british pound fell to a record low gives the u.s. dollar. the longtime feminist, socialist, author, and activist meredith tax has died at the age of 80. she helped found a number of organizations including the pen american center women's committee, the committee for abortion rights and against sterilization abuse, and the women's world organization for rights, literature, and democracy. her books included the novels "rivington street" and "union square." she also wrote about the role of kurdish women in her book "a road unforeseen: women fight the islamic state." she oncerote -- "men are taught to be active, to go and seek what they need, not to look pretty and wait for it to come into their vicinity. men don't observe each passing cloud over human relations as if their whole future depended on it. there's a reason for that. it doesn't. women are hyper-aware of their surroundings. they have to be. walk down a street without being tuned in and you're in real danger. our society is one in which men rape, mug and murder women whom they don't know every day." the words of meredith tax.

she died on sunday at the age of and those are some of the 80. headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by democracy now! co-host juan gonzález in new brunswick, new jersey. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. more than 2.5 million people in florida have been ordered to evacuate as hurricane ian strengthens into a categy 4 storm. this trump already lhing t florida southern tip, projected to make landfall this afternoon with dozens of miles south of tampa bay. on tuesday, florida governor ron desantis urged the residents to follow evacuation orders. >> there will be catastrophic flooding and life-threatening storm surge on the gulf coast region and the highest risk will be in the southwest florida region from naples up to sarasota. there is the potential for flash flooding and river floing with

10 to 20 inches across central and northeast florida. amy: hurricane ian is approaching florida after devastating cuba. the storm knocked out power to the entire country and killed at least two people. western cuba says that ash suffered substantial damage. this is a longtime tobacco grower in cuba. >> it was disastrous. it was never seen this way before. sometimes hurricanes pass through here but not of this magnitude. it destroyed our houses, our farms, the trees, everything. amy: this all comes as about one third of puerto rico remains without power 10 days after hurricane fiona hit the isnd. as hurricane ian approaches possible category five big status, we are joined by sean kinane from public radio. thank you for joining us on democracy now! as you are

informing the public in tip of a about the latest news, which is so critical to disseminate that kind of information. tells what y know at this point and what is happening. >> thank you for having me on. the hurricane is expected to be a category 4, hit landfall south of tampa. a few days ago in the tamp bay area, we were very concerned about storm surge at eight to 10 feet in tampa bay, which would have completely inundated most of the lowying areas in the barrier islands. now it looks like it has turned. turned a little to the right, more toward the east. it will make landfall south of the sarasota area, which is south of tampa bay for those people were not familiar with the florida area. it will still be a very strong storm for people in the area expecting very strong conditions.

it will also move through the center of the state and cause a lot of rainfall as governor desantis mentioned in the clip you played. we are bracing for winds, rain, through the area. juan: would it have meant if the storm had made a direct hit on the temp area, tampa say pete, obviously saint pete out even further westward, even more exposed. tampa is considered onof the most vulnerable cities in the world in terms of storm surges? >> that is right. hurricanes of this drink have not hit the tampa bay region directly in more than 100 years. forecasters are saying when that happens, when a large storm like ian hits the to probate. directly, -- it's the have a bay area directly, it is devastating. along tampa bay, there's a shallow bay and the wind eed

and direction is just right, it will push water up tampa bay and inundate very low-lying areas, hospitals are there, downtown city of tampa is right there on the bay. a 10 foot storm surge would be completely devastating for this region. as you mentioned, the barrier islands, st. petersburg. it is speculated category 4 or five big hits directly, the peninsula will be essentially cut off as an island. i have been living on one of those islands, which is one of the reasons i evacuated because it would have been no way for me to have gotten off the iand if there habeen thikind of inundation that locallin the mpa bay aa, we e not suected -- are thiing we n'tave -- but could happen in southwest florida. there are barrier islands along lee county and sarasota county. they are in the path of this

hurricane, juan. juan: the landfall is expected now around fort myers. inland from that is immokalee, where many migrate farmworkers, who often live in substandard housing, live. any since were idea what those migrant workers might be exposed to, what can of shelter or even support from the state they would be getting? >> a lot of the evacuation orders are ordered by zone, which essentially is how close you are to the coast and rivers and how low-lying you are. it also the evacuation orders include substandard structures. if you are far inland and on high ground, you have been asked to evacuate if you live in a bile home or manufactud home or something that might not withstand strong nds. the immokalee workers, the woers in mokalee, florida, certnly living in those kinds of conditions. many of them,everalamilies

living under one roof and it might even be a stretch to call it a roof. oftentimes i live in substandard housing, which might be completely devastated and hurricane like this. hurricane andrew 1992 they came through homestead in south florida a large farming area near miami, and a lot of the farms and farmworkers were hit by hurricane andrew. it is very likely a lot of the community in immokalee, substandard structures will probably be completely destroyed and a large hurricane like hurricane ian. amy: just before we went on air, i watched governor desantis giving a news conference in some areas there telling people no longer to evacuate but to stay in place. yep official saying wear helmets, protect yourself because they were saying it was too late. if you could talk about the significance of that and also of

wmnf, a gem in the community radio network around the united states. you focus a lot on climate change. watching cnn last that when they asked a guest about the link to climate and he said, "i don't want." to talk about that right now." sean, you've always had that front and center on the news at wmnf. >> how can he not talk about climat news right now? i wanted tell you thank you. we are trying to keep her audience engaged and informed about this dangerous storm. climate change, there is so much that can be linked to climate change in this storm. meteorologists often say you can't say one particular thing -- here's what climate change has done. this made the waters warmer. that causes storms to be stronger.

climate change has made our atmospheric moisture. that is one of the reasons that will be 24 inches of rain in orlando this week. climate chan has made the seas higher and that increases the damage from storm surge. if you have 10 foot storm surge oversee level, that certainly is different than what would have been if the seas were one foot lower. all of these things are very mu impacted by clement disruption. amy: i want to thank you for being with us, sean kinane. you are on the air nonstop, news and public affairs director, community radio station wmnf. living in tampa, florida. please be safe. we will get back in touch to see how you're doing and the community of tampa bay. we come back, we will be joined by bill mckibben, author, educator, environmentalist to find out why he was protesting

world bank in washington, d.c., yesterday and deeply concerned about what we're seeing happen throughout the caribbean into florida right now. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. in major news, climate news from capitol hill, senator joe manchin has abandoned at least for now his proposal to speed up federal review of energy projects that the mountain valley pipeline. he wanted to short public comment periods on proposed fossil fuel projects weakening environmental and public health laws. his proposal would have nearly guaranteed the approval for the mountain valley pipeline in west virginia. tuesday, he requested his proposal be removed from a stopgap funding bill after it beme clear he did not have enough voteso pass. this proposal had faced fierce oppotion from climate justice

groups. we're joined right now by bill mckibben, author, educator, environmentalist, the founder of the organization third act, which organizes people over 60 for progressive change. 60 he is also a founder of 350.org. his new peace, "score it a win! manchin's big oil gift basket scuttled for now." bill, thank you for joining us. you were protesting in washington, wrote this piece about the latest news that surprised a lot of people, the scheduling and mentioned -- manchin partially is bill, and while the storm is hitting florida. >> it is her tremendous reminder of what we have to do this work. sean kinane did a great job of describing the climate implications of hurricane ian. everyone needs to remember the ocean is a foot higher already than it was the last time a major hurricane hit the area. our job now is we can't prevent

that foot. we have to keep it from getting much higher still. yesterday was a pretty remarkable event. climate justice, frontline groups. the climate justice alliance, people versus fossil fuel. environment on network. they were back cap by e big green groups, sierra club, league of conservation for voters, others. and of course there was tremendous mobilization by people in appalachia. third t virginia. appalachian voices. groups that scribbled to make the casegainst that pipeline in particular and against the rest of the giveaways in this bill due to the fossil fuel industry. the same sort of thing was mirrored on capitol hill.

stoppard progressives came out first against this. bernie a on the house side, ro khanna. in the last week or so, they were back cap by others who were somewhat unexpected. one of the turning points was when tim kaine from virginia came out songly against, including this fossil fuel giveaway and the continuing budget resolutio to mccain is not a member of the squad. he was hillary's running mate in 2016. organizers did a tremendous job in the environmental justice movement of taking this and making an issue that was hard to avoid. it does not mean, as you know, all environment victories are temporary. this would may be more temporary than most. there's already news today manchin and the republicans are going to try to bring it back, touching it in december, not to

the budget but to the defense authorization act. look, big oil never sleeps and it never gives up but for a day, anyway, and oppressive win by grassroots environmentalists. juan: phil, this was surprising because there was supposedly a deal between manchin and chuck schumer in terms of this permitting -- expediting permitting processes. what does this say about chuck schumer's ability to control his own delegation? >> i don't know that much about all the inside baseball here, but i do know when senators got to look at this thing, they understood -- in essence, it said the federal agencies had to grant permits for this mountain valley pipeline, that those permits basically could not be

challenged in court. if there were going to be new chlenges, directed which court they would go to. they were picking a court they thought would be conservative. this is the absolute definition of corrupt back room cronyism. it has nothing to do with policymaking in the normal sense of the word. manchin's attempt at extortion. he already got a lot of goodies for big oil in the original inflation reduction act. there's wasted money on things like carbon sequestration and things but not content with that, he try to go for this gift basket. at least for the moment, the progressives in the house and senate said, no, we're not going to deliver that. amy: you are part of a protest outside the world bank stuck in explain why? >> i was in washington for two protests yesterday. one on capitol hill abouthis

giveaway to big oil and the other outside the world bank. there is a broad coalition, again, led by moderate -- al gore has really be in the lead of it, trying to get ahead of the wod bank fired because he is not taking climate change very seriously. in fact, last week in an interview in new york, with "the new york times," he was given six opportunities to say global waing was rl, that huns we heating t planet. he passed every o of them finally saying, "i am not a scntist." which is about as tired and lame a dodge as is possible to imagine. yesterday morning, a lot of us showed up at the world bank and we started reading all morning the actual peer-reviewed science footnotes and all outside through microphone so he could hear what scientists think. the idea you need to be a climate scientist order to take action on any of this is

nuts. you're going have a bona fide climate scientist on in a minute and i think he will say you don't need a phd in order to understand what is happening here. were burning fossil fuel that puts carbon into the atmosphere, a molecular structure of carbon traps heat that would otherwise radiate back to space. period. in of story. the end of the story is things like hurricane ian. it is things like epic heatwave that has gripped china all summer. it is things like completely unheard of flooding in pakistan right now. we should remember as we grieve for our brothers and sisters in florida as this happens, that this kind of stuff is happening [indiscernible] people displaced from their homes and a pakistan. that is everybody from boston to baltimore.

and that is just any given moment on this earth now. the planet is overheating and we need people like the president of the world bank who are in sitions of serious trust to actually take it seriously. if this guy -- that this guy is not taking it siously should not come as a surprise. he was with the trump administration. before that, his biography reads economist for bear stearns and the six years before it went bankrupt. we cannot afford the planet's climate system to go bankrupt. we better get somebody else in there who is a little more on the ball. juan: bill, in terms of taking the issue seriously, how do you assess the initial years of the biden administration in terms of attacking climate the crisis head-on? >> i think that made a good-faith effort.

it will be interesting to see what happens now. david operating with one hand tied behind their back because they desperately needed manchin's vote to get essentially what became the inflation reduction act, and that meant they could not use executive action without fr of offending him. so after the election, either the mocrats will have no power at all, they will have lost the senate and the house, or they will have picked up, one hopes, a few senators. in either scenario, manchin's leverage is reduced and hence the president's ability to use executive action should increase on. so we may see a different kind -- we're probably not going to see the big spending bill under the second half of the biden administration, but we may see pressure for aion in other ways from the administration.

amy: bill, thank you for being with us, author, educator, environment list, founder of the organization third act, which organizes people over 60 years old for progressive change. also cofounder of 350.org. we will link to all of your pieces. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we turn now from a climate activist to a climate scientist who is an activist as well. ononday, nasa successfully crashed a robotic spacecraft into an asteroid in a fit-of-its-kind test of technolo that uld one day, perhaps, prevent a comet or asteroid from hitting the earth. mission engineers at johns hopkins university's applied physics laboratory erupted in cheers monday as the double asteroid redirection test spacecraft, known as dart, live-streamed its final moments plunging toward the asteroid dimorphos at 14,000-miles-per-hour. the event was carried live on nasa tv.

>> getting visual confirmation. >> all right! >> we have an impact. amy: astronomers will observe dimorphos and the much larger asteroid it orbits to see how dart deflected their paths through space. nasa hopes to prove that, with enough warning, it will be able to nudge an earth-bound comet or asteroid off course, averting a catastrophe. the earth is constantly peppered by small meteorites that fall harmlessly into the ocean or gush over remote areas, but rarely much larger rocks fall on human settlements. on february 15, 2013, an asteroid the size of a house entered the atmosphere above chelyabinsk, russia, a city of more than one million people. the sulting meteor explod th the force of a nuclear bomb 14 miles ave the gund, leaving a brilliant stak of

firecross the rning sky. the meteor's shock wave shattered windows, blew doors off hinges, and injured more than 1600 people, mostly from broken glass. no deaths were rorted. nasa hopes to one day be able to prevent a similar -- or much worse -- disaster. although the odds of a catastrophic impact remain vanishingly small. as the dart mission draws the world's attention to threats from outer space, nasa scientists continue to warn about threats right here on earth. peter kalmus, a climate scientist at na's jet propulsion laboratory, tweeted -- "it's great that nasa is testing the ability to deflect an asteroid or comet if necessary, but the actual clear and present danger to humanity is of course earth breakdown from burning fossil fuels. #dontlookup" for more, peter joins us from

raleigh, north carolina. welcome to democracy now! peter, we realize you are strictly speaking on your own behalf and not in a professional capacity. it is great to have you with us. we have been arrested protesting. make the link to what the world was watching around this dart hitting asteroid and what you feel we should be focusing on. >> i am a space nerd. i love science fiction when i was a kid. i love what nasa does. this mission was psychological tour de force. it was amazing what they did. for me it felt kind of like what you could call a #dontlookup" moment. we are such an incredible species. we can redirect asteroids. we can get prepared for potential asteroid that could take out a city.

those might come to earth around one per thousand years or so. so it is not a bad thing to be prepared for that, but it just feels so weird to me as a climate scientist that we can do all this amazing stuff and yet we are still careening headlong into climate catastrophe. i keep yelling at the top of my lungs, and risking arrest, i've been forced to become a climate activist because i've got two kids and i'm terrified of the inaction of world leaders who keep dancing around the real issue which is we have to rapidly ran down the ssil fuel industry. that is what is using this. they keep wanting to expand the fossil fuel industry. it is a bittersweet thing where we're doing these amazing missions like redirecting asteroids and yet with all that technologywith all that knowledge, somehow is not translating into stopping what is clearly the biggest threat

facing humanity, which is global heating. juan: peter, in april you were arrested for chaining herself to a j.p. morgan bank in los angeles, california, to protest fossil fuel investments and climate inaction. amy: we actually have a clip of that moment. let's go to it. >> the last two because scientists -- and willing to take a risk for this planet. we have been trying to warn you guys for so many decades that we are headed toward a [beep] catastrophe and are being ignored. it is got to stop. we are going to lose everything. we have to stop the fossil fuel industry. we have to stop the financing of fossil fuels. we have to stop new fossil fuel projects. juan: could you explain what

happened after that? also, what is been the reaction in nasa by colleagues your activism? >> the ipcc released a report which says the very obvious which is this is caused by the fossil fuel industry and we have to stop expanding the fossil fuel industry and yet world leaders, including this administration, keep calling for expansion of the fossil fuel industry. joe manchin, chuck schumer, the mount on the pipeline received about $300,000 this election cycle to fund the pipeline. there is huge pressure, corruption from the fossil fuel industry controlling politicians to expand the fossil fuel, taking is completely in the wrong direction. the science is so clear. 80% of global heating is called by burning fossil fuel. the rest is animal agriculture. you have to stop that, otherwise, all of the things

we're saying, hurricanes, fires, flooding, heat waves, increasingly crop yield losses, increasing food prices which -- i mean, none of this will stop until we ramp down the fossil fuel industry. this is not a new normal, this is an escalator for basically a hellish planet we are leaving not just for young people and kids, but ourselves. people are dying more and more from climate-related catastrophes today. what really frightens me is there are some thresholds, for example, deadly human heat, which we are approaching. we're just going to go through those thresholds. i think it is going to feel like there is not a lot of deaths from heat waves until suddenly in a matter of a few years, there are huge heat waves with millions of people dying, causing blackouts and mass deaths, and we are going to

wonder, how? ? did this happeso fast amy: peter kalmus, nasa's massive new multibillion-dollar moon rocket has just been delayed again, this time, ironically, because of hurricane ian's approach. can you talk about climate change and hurricanes? i was watching the national weather service and one of the top guys say, i don't want to talk about climate change right now. >> yeah, no, there's a pretty clear link was i think your earlier guests at a great job talking about it. more than 90% come around 93% of excess energy coming into the planet relative to what is going out because of increasing greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, is going into the ocean. that excess heat in the ocean is a major bar--the engine

hurricanes. warmer atmosphere -- warmer air just holds more water vapor, basic physics, and that is leading to increased rainfall, increased flooding. then of course you have the higher sea level that bill mckibben was talking about, which increases damage from storm surges. all of it together means we are going to expect more and more damage from hurricanes in the future. that is just one climate impact we are seeing from global heating. you take all of these together and it is just like taking gut punch aftegut punch toward civilization. you push against a wall and every day you increase the force against that wall, eventually, the wall will collapse. it can't help it. that is what worries me. this is not a new normal, it is a trend and every year things are getting rse. we have to end the fossil fuel industry and an openable a

domestically and internationally. juan: peter, i did not get your response, the second part of my question earlier, the response by her colleagues and nasa and also your supervisor to your activism? >> so far, it is been positive. i was in jail for about eight hours after that action. the next morning i had a voicemail on my phone confirming i had done that action on my own time. and i did. i took a vacation day. that was the only formal contact i have from nasa about that. i was worried i might get fired for the action. since then, and my colleagues have come up to me privately and thanked me and expressed gratitude for what i had done. i was called to them to start doing similar actions because, you know, our careers are one thing but our kids, our young people, irreversible damage to the only place in the universe

we know that has life, that is something else. that really transcends our careers. this is the time to take a stand. getting that dirty deal out of washington, at least temporarily, i think that government officials who -- the fossil fuel industry are starting to underestimate the climate movement. this is the time to make that movement stronger. redaction is the only thing that is going to turn this around. the rich people in charge, they're not going to change things just because we politely ask them. amy: peter kalmus, thank you for being with us, climate scientist, nasa's jet propulsion lab speaking in his own personal capacity. one of his last tweets was #dontlookup" referring to the hollywood movie. the film and allegory for humanity's failure to address

the climate crisis. i can't help noticing how much dinardo dicaprio looks like you. >> thank you, amy. next up, dahlia lithwick on her latest book "lady justice: women, the law, and the battle to save america." back in 30 seconds. ♪♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. on monday, the supreme court will begin a new term. this comes as follows continues

to grow from the court over turning roe v. wade in june. since then, at least 14 states have imposed bans on abortion. we spend the rest of the hour with dahlia lithwick who hosts the podcast amicus. her new book is just out, "lady justice: women, the law, and the battle to save america." if you can talk about -- we are seeing state after state ban abortion. the latest is arizona unless something happened this morning. but you actually are holding out hope by documenting a resistance movement of women all over this country who are fighting back. lay out "dy justice first of all, thank you for having me, amy. i think i would say it is really easy to look at everything that has happened in this country thugh the lens of just politics. if you look at what is happening

in iran, that is a political -- we have legal power. we have massive legal power. the book sort of starts at the beginning of the trump administration with one massive win after another that don't always get recognize. kind of what i wanted to do was say let's look at this through the lens of the court and the law. let's look at it to the lens of all of the victories. we don't always celebrate that happens both in the trump era and after and that's lash ourselves to the justice system which stipulated -- it is gruesome right now, but it is not nothing. juan: you profile many women in the book. you begin with sally yates, forgotten by most people already , but she was thacting attorney general and agreed to stay on as interim head of the

justice department after trump was inaugurated. she refused to sign off on his travel ban and was sent packing. >> that's right. the book starts with sally yates both because she stood for the rule of law, stood up to the justice department, refused to put the perimeter of the justice department on the travel ban. she thought it was lawless. she thought it was full of religious animus against muslims. she really just said no. she was the first of many, many lawyers. -- who refused to bend the law to trump's. the book starts with sally yates and the head of the leadership conference and ends on stacey abrams in georgia, who at that point wasn't just using court cases, was really using a massive amalgam of women, largely women of color, to get out the vote, to register voters come to challenge boats

oppression loss. in a sense, i think the book sparks from the one lone hero that is sally yates needs to be held up and celebrated and lands onveryday women. we saw in michigan a few weeks ago, a valid initiative on the ballot -- a ballot initiative on the ballot to protect russian rights. i think i want to make the claim every single woman and every single ally of people who are worried about women's rights can do this. it doesn't have to be sally gates. it doesn't have to be in the justice department. but it has to happen soon. amy: you talk about sally yates because you make the point that many people after the trump ministration are writing votes, talking about how they disagreed with him though they stayed. yates did something different went to her shop she gets this text from -- like many people do from "then your tums" or whatever, trump is imposing a muslim ban so early on and his adnistration. what did she do as acting

attorney general? >> she quickly -- first of all, she had been in the white house that day. nobody vetted it to the justice department or through many other cabinet agencies that should have had a look at it. she gets in her car and she's going to the airport read the rest of us found out about the muslim ban and she essentially scrambled a team of her highest lawyers at doj and a workshop over the weekend whether they could defend it, and then she essentially gave a statement saying "i cannot in good conscience send my lawyers out" representing the department of justice which is meant to be independent from the president and defend this." she was summarily fired. she knew she would be. there is an important point, there should have been hundreds of cases. there should have been people quitting their jobs rather than enforcing the migrant abortion

seekers who were not allowed to get abortions rather than enforcing family separation. a lot of people quit quietly and a lot of people, like you said, wrote books. to me, sally gates was the high watermark of somebody who said no. amy: also profile pauli murray, who is not known by many, hugely influential. from thurgood marshall to ruth bader ginsburg, they talked about her pink seminal for civil rights law. she died way before trump. i was at this point, they would have been "they." this is a rect cliprom "my name is uli murr," which features never-before-seen footage and audio recordings of pauli murray in their own words.

>> my me is pai murray my wle personal hiory has been trouble tmeet sndards excelnce in societyhich has be domated by edeas at blas were ierently inferior to wtes and women were inherently inferior to men. amy: a clip from "my name is pauli murray." dahlia lithwick, while you feel pauli murray was so critical to cover in your book? >> it was so important for me to start with pauli murray for exactly the reasons you said. thurgood marshall and ruth bader ginsburg about the fact they stood on the shoulders of pauli

murray and pauli murray was not just black and had doors closed their entire life because of it, a woman and had doors closed her entire life because of it, but also was very strongly of the view that she was a man trapped in a woman's body before there was language for that or any cultural understanding of that. the reason i am obsessed with pauli murray and folks should run out and see the documentary is because in some ways this book is not just a meditation on the astonishing women lawyers who i inc. saved republic and continue to do so, but because it is a meditation on who gets famous and who gets credit. it is very much a story of people who can toil away in the vineyards for decades. pauli murray wrote what became the bible of desegregation. pauli murray wrote what became the spine of brown v board him

got credit. wrote what became essential theory of gender equality that ruth bader ginsburg used as an attorney edited murray for. almost no credit, no recognition. so much the kind of out of the rock face of constitutional history, what we think of as modern equality both for race and gender. i wanted the book to start with pauli murray as a way of saying the sort of love the tote bags and memes for ruth bader ginsburg belief that only bader ginsburg could save as is so wrongheaded because there are a lot of people who don't get famous, who worked for decades i don't get credit. they are the people i think we should be lifting up. for me, the book starts with pauli murray as a meditation on this great man theory of justice that bob muller is going to save

us and adam schiff is going to save us. i disagree. i think we argoing to save as and it requires the pauli murray s all around us. juan: could you talk about the apter yowrote on judge alex kaczynski and leah whitman, a law professor at the university of california irvine and others who spoke out about alex kaczynski's alleged sexual harassment come at times he was on the powerful night -- ninth circuit court of appeals? >> this is a painful chapter to write but it was important to me. if i was covering the truck era also talked about the #metoo. that was also cap not and allegations about him. this is one of those stories because i had clerked on the ninth circt court appeals court, i knew it had been an open secret on that court that alex kaczynski, a brilliant visionary writer and speaker

about the law, an open secret how he treated his lock for decades and nobody did anything about . in 2017, finally a few women came forward and said we kept the secret on the net. -- secret long enough. it is a chapter in which i, a, his seat inappropriate behavior myself and, b, cap that secret for decades, and see, that are really used it as a launchpad to think about what it means not just at the federal judiciary did nothing for decades, but all of us cap secret because judge kaczynski -- if you clerked for

him, you ended up at the supreme court. i wanted that chapter stand for the proposition that all of us included people in the press let myself who kept the secret for decades, are really part of the problem here and we have to ask ourselves why we were willing to subordinate the truth to having access to power. juan: you mentionedust as brett kavanaugh. you also wrote about christine blasey ford who had accused him of inappropriate behavior and also anita hill. >> yeah, i wanted to have the center of the book be some reflections on #metoo, was it worked and was it did not work, meaningful investigations and due process. i wanted to think about christine blasey ford as an avatar for the position that people believed her. i was in the room when she testified. i don't think anyone in the room. she was lying.

but nevertheless, judge kavanaugh was elevated to the supreme court and went on this spring to be a vote to overturn roe. i think we disturbed both dr. ford -- who took a huge risk -- and i think we disturbed judge kavanaugh by not having any meaningful investigation. what was the point of all of that other than i think to have this kind of public forum that was not a formal legal process and then step over dr. ford and say, oh, well, bygones. and now we are locked into a supreme court probably for decades thatill be disrespectful of women's rights. amy: we just have a minute, because of profiled stacey abrams and roberta kaplan. why? >> i wanted to have a black woman, white woman, somewhat at a big law firm, somebody and organizer. i think i just went every young person in the country who's going to law school to see something of themselves in one

or another of these heroes. amy: roberta kaplan, people may not know, an attorney who took on the kkk, far right in charlottesville, where you live for so many years. your pivotal to her coming down here and suing them. >> she is someone who filed a wsuit in 2017 but did not go to trial until 2021 but got a masse $26 million judgment against white supremacists and nazis charlottesville. shows how the law is slow and takes a long time but at its best, you really can make us all freer and safer and restored unity to those who have been harmed. amy: dahlia lithwick, that you for being with us, covering the courts and the law for slate and hosting the podcast amicus. her new book is out, called "lady justice: women, the law, and the battle to save america." that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who

appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

ñl (sophie fouron) we're right in the middle of the atlantic. and out of nowhere are these nine volcanic islands. the azores were and still are a point of transit for sailors and fishermen. there's a strong sense of hospitality here, and generosity. everywhere you go, people offer food or drink. it's very charming. in the azores, there are more cows than there are humans.