01/06/23 01/06/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> the events that day felt like a wake-up call for me and many others, that political violence is real. the worst part is our elected leaders allow this to happen and yet this week people who encouraged and even intended -- attended the insurrection are now taking places as leaders in

the new house majority. amy: two years ago today, supporters of donald trump violently stormed the capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. the january 6 insurrection shut down congress as lawmakers had to flee for safety. today part of congress is effectively shut down again as republican lawmakers cannot agree on a house speaker. until then, no member of the house can be sworn in. this all comes as five members of the trump backed proud boys are on trial for seditious conspiracy. we will talk about all this with author andy campbell, "we are proud boys: how a right wing street gang ushered in a new era of american extremism." then as russian president blood more prudent unilaterally declares the 36 hour cease-fire in ukraine to mark russian orthodox christmas, we will hear from bishop william barber on

why he supports christmas truce on both sides. >> it can set the stage for a more long-term diplomatic action that can lead to a long-term -- a cease-fire for as long as it holds that no one is being killed by war. and that means, just maybe, the difficult work of begetting serious negotiations can go forward. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president biden announced thursday the united states will begin blocking migrants from haiti, nicaragua, and cuba from applying for asylum if they're apprehended crossing the u.s.-mexico border outside of ports of entry. the asylum seekers will instead be expelled to mexico without

due process as part of an expansion of the contested trump-era title 42 pandemic policy. this comes as the supreme court set to decide todd a 42's -- title 42's fate in its next session. biden also announced a small number of haitians, nicaraguans and cubans will qualify for a relief program granting them permission to live and work in the u.s. if they apply for the relief from their home countries and already have financial sponsors in the u.s. the announcement came just days before biden is scheduled to visit el paso, texas, to meet with local officials. it will be his first trip to the u.s.-mexico border as president. duringis remarkshursday, biden made no mention of the harsh u.s. sanctions that have contributed to poverty in nicaragua and cuba, nor did he acknowledge the catastrophic legacy of u.s. intervention in haiti. pres. biden: my message is this. if you're trying to leave cuba, nicaragua, or haiti, you have

agreed to begin a journey to america, do not -- do not just show up at the border. stay where you are and apply legally from there. starting today if you don't apply to legal process, will not be eligible for this new parole program. amy: in a statement, the american civil liberties union said -- "title 42 expulsions were already an unjustifiable misuse of the public health laws. let's be clear: nothing requires the administration to expand title 42 while it claims to be preparing for its ending. there is simply no reason why the benefits of a new parole program for cubans, nicaraguans, and haitians must be conditioned on the expansion of dangerous expulsions." the house of representatives adjourned for the third consecutive day thursday evening without electing house speaker after republican leader kevin mccarthy failed to gain the needed 218 votes after 11

ballots. 25 right republicans continue to oppose a car the even after he offered them major concessions, though reports emerged late thursday some holdouts may be on the verge of throwing their support behind mccarthy. all 212 democrats backed new york congressmember hakeem jeffries at every round of voting over the past three days. until a house speaker is elected, no member of the house of representatives can be sworn in. we will have the latest on this story later after headlines. president biden is delivering a speech today to mark the two-year anniversary of the deadly january 6 capitol insurrection. biden will also award presidential citizens medals to 12 people who responded to the insurrection and trump's attacks on democracy after the 2020 election. among them, ruby freeman and shaye moss, a pair of mother-daughter election workers from georgia, who received death threats and torrents of online

abuse from trump supporters. president trump again attacked them this past week on social media. another honoree is former washington, d.c., police officer michael fanone, who was beaten and electrocuted with a taser by the right-wing mob who attacked the capitol. fanone called the experience a wake-up call about the dangers of political violence. >> people who encouraged and even attended the insurrection are now taking their places as leaders in the new house majority. people like representative marjorie taylor greene, who said insurrectionists would have one on january 6 if she had been involved. or representative matt gaetz who encouraged voters to arm themselves at the polls. amy: on thursday, the partner of deceased capitol police officer brian sicknick, who died one day after responding to the insurrection, sued donald trump

and two rioters who attacked sicknick, for his wrongful death. sicknick died after suffering two strokes. the medical examiner said the events of january 6 "played a role in his condition." we will have more on the second anniversary of the capitol insurrection after headlines. south carolina's supreme court struck down the state's six-week ban thursday, ruling it violates south carolina's constitution. meanwhile, democratic lawmakers in minnesota have advanced a bill to codify abortion rights in their state, where the procedure is still legal after the u.s. supreme court overturned roe v. wade in june of last year. but in a blow for reproductive rights, idaho's supreme court upheld a near total ban on abortion. idaho's high court also reaffirmed a law allowing some family members of a fetus to sue health workers who provide an abortion and a law criminalizing

health providers who perform the procedure after cardiac activity is detected, which can happen as early as 4-to-6 weeks into a pregnancy. russian president vladimir putin has unilaterally declared a 36-hour ceasefire in ukraine to mark russian orthodox christmas. despite the declaration, fighting continued today along the eastern front. in kyiv, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy rejected putin's truce, saying that russia wants to use christmas as a pretext to stop ukrainian advances in the russian-occupied donbas region. >> they no want to use christmas as a cover, alit briefly, to stop the advances of our bullets in donbas and bring equipment ammunition and mobilize troops closer to our position. amy: united nations secretary-general antonio guterres said thursday he would welcome any truce in ukraine during orthodox christmas but

warned talks between moscow and kyiv to bring the war to a permanent and are not yet possible. >> i think we are still not in situation where we can bpeace. this we believe will have to come -- this on the u.n. charter of international law. amy: his remarks came after turkish president recep tayyip erdogan offered to mediate an and to the war in ukraine. this week, the u.s., germany, and france announced plans to supply ukraine with armored combat vehicles, including french-made light tanks and u.s.-made bradley fighting vehicles. the 50 bradleys would be part of a new u.s. military aid package to ukraine worth nearly $3 billion. the u.n. security council on thursday called for maintaining status quo at jerusalem's al aqsa mosque, following a highly criticized visit to the site by

israel's new extremist security minister itamar ben-gvir. but the security council did not commit to any action in response to the provocation by israel. for decades, the al aqsa mosque has only allowed muslims to worship at the holy site. meanwhile, a new proposal by the freshly installed far-right government coalition, led by benjamin netanyahu, would sharply limit judicial powers by allowing a simple majority of lawmakers to invalidate supreme court decisions. elsewhere, the longest-serving palestinian prisoner in israel, karim younis, was freed thursday after spending four decades -- spending more than 40 years behind bars. younis was arrested in 1983 over the killing of an israeli soldier. he was welcomed home in his village of ara, which is located within israel. younis also visited the gravesite of his mother who died just eight months ago. he spoke when he was released. >> it is clear for everyone now the israeli government,

especially the current one, is seeking to subdue our people. they want us to be our slaves. they want us to be nothing so they can use as always. we say it is not going to happen and they will not get what they want. amy: here in t united states, the nation is reporting harvard's kennedy school of government has withdrawn a fellowship from the former head of human rights watch, kenneth roth, over roth's and hrw's condemnation of israel's rights abuses. china says it will reopen its border with hong kong this weekend after three years of pandemic restrictions that left hong kong largely cut off from the chinese mainland. the reopening comes after the world health organization accused china of downplaying the severity of a massive covid-19 surge that's going largely unreported in china's official statistics. this is the who's emergencies director mike ryan. >> we believe the current number

being published from china upper represent thtrue impact of the disease in terms of hospitalizations, in terms of icu admissions. amy: china has been reporting daily covid deaths in the single digits even as experts say it's in the midst of a surge that could kill hundreds of thousands of people. meanwhile, the european union has urged member nations to require travelers from china to show proof of a recent negative coronavirus test and suggested governments should expand genomic surveillance at airports for new coronavirus variants. chinese officials rejected the restrictions as discriminatory and politically motivated. they also denied underrepresenting the severity of china's covid outbreak. in utah, eight people were found dead at a home in the town of enoch wednesday in an appare murder-suicide. authorities say 42-year-old michael haight fatally shot his

mother-in-law, his wife, and their five children before turning the gun on himself. the kiings came two weeks after haight's spouse filed for divorce. according to the gun violence archive, there have already en 12 mass shootings in the united states since the start of the new year. and here in new york, uber drivers held a one-day strike thursday as they continued to demand the ride-hailing corporation drop its lawsuit aimed at blocking a pay raise approved by the taxi and limousine commission. it is the second 24 hour strike by uber drivers since wage increases failed to go into effect in december. democracy now! spoke with bhairavi desai, the executive director of the new york taxi workers alliance at a picket line thursday. >> this was a raise and the hands of the drivers. the city of new york voted on it after almost a year of public hearings.

uber in the middle of the night snatched this race out of the drivers' hands to put it in their own pockets. meanwhile in the same lawsuit, uber has admitted a been charging the public in new york city 48% more since 2019. the only ones that have not got this increase are the drivers and they are the ones who desperately need it. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. coming up, we look at the second anniversary of the january 6 insurrection and how far right republicans have effectively shut down congress again. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "hollow talk" by choir of the young believers. founder jannis noya makrigiannis died late last month at the age of 39 after a short illness. this is democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. today marks two years since the january 6 capitol insurrection when president donald trump incited thousands of supporters to violently storm congress, in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. the attack on the capitol briefly shut down congress as lawmakers fled for their safety from the mob, which included members of the proud boys, the oathkeepers, and other violent extremist groups. many of them, armed. two years later, part of congress has been effectively shut down again. this time because a group of far right republicans, including many who supported the january 6 insurrection, have blocked republican leader kevin mccarthy's attempt to become house speaker. this means no member of the house of representatives can be sworn in. over the past three days, the

house has held 11 votes to choose a speaker. mccarthy has failed each time to win the needed 218 votes to become speaker despite making numerous concessions to his critics in the so-called freedom caucus. this is now the longest speaker election since 1859, just before the civil war. meanwhile, president biden is preparing to get a major speech today marking the second anniversary of the january 6 insurrection. he will also award presidential citizens medals to 12 people who responded to the insurrection and trump's attacks on democracy after the 2020 election. among them, ruby freeman and shaye moss, a pair of mother-daughter election workers from georgia, who received death threats and torrents of online abuse from trump supporters. another honoree will be former

washington, d.c., police officer michael fanone, who was beaten and electrocuted with a taser by the right-wing mob. fanone spoke thursday and made the link between the january 6 insurrection and the chaos playing out in the house today. if i can guarantee one thing, this is just the beginning. this type of chaos will happen every single dayn the house. and some of the most extreme politicians our country has ever seen hold our democracy hostage. i should know. tomorrow marks two years since the day i almost died defending the capitol from people who thought overthrowing the government was a good idea. the events that they felt like a wake-up call for me and many others, that political violence is real. the worst part is that our

elected leaders allowed this to happen. and yet this week, people who encouraged and even attended the insurrection are now taking their places as leaders in the new house majority. people like representative marjorie taylor greene who said insurrectionists would have won on january 6 if she had been involved. our representative matt gaetz who encouraged voters to arm themselves at the polls. amy: that was former washington, d.c., police officer michael fanone. on thursday, the partner of the deceased capitol police officer brian sicknick, who died one day after responding to the insurrection, sued donald trump and to have the rioters who attacked sicknick for his wrongful death. brian sicknick died after suffering two strokes.

the medical examiner said the events of january 6 played a role in his condition. biden will also honor carolyn edwards who suffered a brain injury after being beaten by rioters. she testified before the january 6 house select committee in june. >> when i fell behind that line and i saw -- i can just remember my breath catching in my throat because what i saw was just a war scene. it was something like i had seen out of the movies. i could not believe my eyes. there were officers on the ground. they were bleeding. they were throwing up. i saw friends with blood all

over their faces. i was slipping in people's blood. i was catching people as they fell, you know. it was carnage. it was chaos. i can't -- i can't even describe what i saw. amy: the second anniversary of the january 6 insurrection comes as five members of the far-right group proud boys are on trial for seditious conspiracy. opening arguments are expected next week. we are joined now by andy campbell, a senior editor at huffpost and the author of "we are proud boys: how a right wing street gang ushered in a new era of american extremism." andy, welcome back to democracy now! today is the second anniversary. two years ago today the violent

mob attacked the capitol. and it is so interesting, as they stopped congressional proceedings than for a time, that today, two years later, we are seeing the house paralyzed -- no member of the house of representatives can be sworn in. the new ones or the old ones. no one gets classified briefings . nothing. because of what is happening here. can you draw the parallel between who was involved two years ago and who is involved today? >> thank you for having me on again. look, we are seeing a gop -- this is a party that has built its identity around nationalism, around bigotry, around political violence. particularly around trolling, not around policy, necessarily.

so now you have these 20 holdouts who are that directive personified. you have people like lauren boebert and marjorie taylor greene. you have paul gosar, and it about sort of white nationalist character who pals around with extremists and goes on -- goes to white nationalist conferences to speak. so you have these very extreme far right voices throwing a wrench in the spokes and this is exactly what the maga party has built for themselves. so they are kind of seeing the consequences of their own actions when these holdouts are kind of holding congress hostage. but what they're doing is they are displaying power. the very far right, very racist, very loud and popular troll wing of the gop has sort of been building this parallel power structure alongside the gop for

years under trump. and now it is four vote majority that republicans have in the house, they are able to exercise that power by holding the speaker hostage here. so it is interesting that this is happening on the anniversary of january 6 because those same people who are holding congress hostage now are the same people who helped foment the insurrection and after-the-fact still cast doubt on the 2020 election. many of them are trump loyalists and election deniers and voted to overturn the election. so what we are seeing is the spirit of january 6 is still very much alive and we are seeing it play out in the halls of congress today. amy: so if you can talk about, since he wrote the book "we are proud boys, the connection

between the pro-insurrectionist congress members and the proud boys come and talk about who they are, but i wanted to ask you about the people who are leading this movement right now. you have matt gaetz, the congressman from florida who is under investigation for underaged sex trafficking. you have loaned -- lauren boebert who ran a restaurant in colorado called "shooters grill." it has been shut down because the owners of the building would not renew her lease. she encouraged her waiters to openly carry guns as they served their customers. and now they have removed -- this is one of the demands of the so-called freedom congress -- from the house. she had originally, i think it is the reason why house speaker the time nancy pelosi have put up magnetometers and said she

was going to carry a clock on the floor of the house, looking at "the new york post," they said she refused to say tuesday if she plans to bring a got into the house of representatives as authorities removed house speaker nancy pelosi's magnetometers from the entrances . go through these people one by one and talk about their connection to proud boys, oathkeepers, three percenters, and what happened two years ago today. >> sure. lauren boebert is sort of leading the charge here on this ultra-far right group of holdouts. she also called ilhan omar a terrorist. if you try to look at lauren boebert's policies, they are few and far between. a lot of these guys want to push very nationalist policy. they want to push the anti-woke agenda. i think they want to criminalize doctors who give gender

affirming care. so these are sort of cruel policies if you look really hard but most of all, these are sort of bigoted trolls, very connected to the insurrection. you have paul gosar, like i said, went on to speak at a white nationalist conference two years running alongside marjorie taylor greene. he said at one point that he fomented the revolution on january 6. you have matt gaetz who has pushed what's premises conspiracy theories about the replacement of white men and also had proud boys work security at his events over the years. so you have these characters are connected to the insurrection in the way that they believe it was justified or at least believe the election was stolen. in the proud boys are these

footsoldier's that act on behalf of the gop's grievances. so while the boeberts and gaetz's are pushing anti-lgbtq sentiment, anti-immigrant sentiment, the proud was are mobilizing on these grievances and certainly we know dozens of proud boys joined hundreds of other extremist to make january 6 happen. so there is absolutely a connection there between the people sitting there in the house today and the proud boys. i think it shows that what we are looking at happening out there --boebert is not trying to make some real policy changes happen today. she is trying to show power and show this small group of ultra-far right insurrectionists

can wield power in the republican party. and the proud boys, being those foot soldiers, are sitting in court today -- the jury is been selected for their trial. what is interesting about their trial, we're going to learn more about their connections to the gop leading up to january 6 because there are a number of proud boys who have already pleaded guilty and they will be testifying against their own and that seditious conspiracy trial. we may learn more about the connections to people like roger stone, trump's top confident, who counts the leader of the proud boys is one of his friends and mentees. we may learn more about the security they did for certain members of congress. we may learn more about their connection to trump's inner circle. so this is going to be a huge trial and it is going to be having a big implication for the

gop going forward. amy: tell us who the proud boys are, who henrique tarrio and at least four other who are on trial are. >> there proud boys are a far right extreme gain that were launched in late 2016, early 2017. they were created on a far right talkshow gavin mcginnis, and he built them to basically mobilize on trump and the gop's grievances and go out there and do what crusty old republicans can't do and fight people in the street based on what the gop is complaining about. so on any given day, the complaint might change. sometimes this blm, sometimes lgbtq. right now it is very much lgbtq. and sometimes it is the election. and they have mobilized over the

years over and over based on those grievances. now, there are five proud boys on trial for seditious conspiracy. the justice department believes they had a hand not only in making the insurrection happen on the day, but planning it leading up. trump during a debate in 2020 said "proud boys, stand back and stand by" and there some debate about what he meant for that but the proud boys immediately took it as marching orders. one of the guys on trial, joe biggs, he posted a blog titled "the second civil war is coming." he said "clean your guns, get mo, and be ready because it is about to get really bad." enrique tarrio started raising funds, amassing weapons, messing people, recruiting -- he told me in an interview that he has never gotten so many recruiting calls and in the moments after

trump said "stand back, stand by" at that debate. but they were gearing up for january 6, which they saw as their final stanford trump. they were doing what they do best, which is amassing all of these people, different extremists from across the country, telling them to show up on january 6 for danl trump. and we know from the january 6's committees reports and the convictions that have already happened, that once the plan was in place, once the insurrection began, trump did absolutely nothing to stop the mob and in fact inside of them throughout the day to continue on this parade of violence. amy: i want to go to youtube video created in 2018 which features gavin mcginnis, the founder of the proud boys, discussing the group's origins as well as calling for violence

in the streets. >> i started this gang called the proud boys. >> what is proud was about? >> we will kill you. that is the proud boys in a nutshell. we look nice. we seem so. but like bill the butcher the bowery boys, we will assassinate you. part of the reason i agreed to do the talk -- we can fight our way in and out. i think it iour job to do it. [bee] amy: if you can talk about mcginnis and also this latest headline this week, nypd facing new backlash after officers escorted members of the far right proud boys to a subway station, apparently helping them evade their fares after they sought to disrupt drag story hour, popular reading event for children at a queens library last year? you have them cracking down on

fare evasion, but they are escorting the proud boys? >> right, right. what you heard right there is gavin mcginnis. that guy you just heard is expected to possibly be a character witness for his proud boys at their sedition trial. so you can see what their ideology is. their ideology is political violence. he put political violence in their rule set and certainly the misogyny and anti-lgbtq and racist sentiment is within their tenets. he unleash them on the world. but like you said, this incident in new york, the proud boys have shown resiliency time and time again despite being involved and all sorts of domestic extremism events. january 6 and all of the hundreds of prosecutions that we have seen following that has

done almost nothing to tamp down our street level political violence extremist set. the proud was are mobilizing today at rapid clip. yep tucker carlsen on fox news complaining about drag queen story hour and the proud boys are harassing and attacking the story hours. this is not just in new york. it is across the country and liaries or anywhere they have drug events. america andy, you're headed down to washington, d.c. to cover this trial of the proud boys and we hope to have you back on. andy campbell, senior editor at huffpost and the author of "we are proud boys: how a right wing street gang ushered in a new era of american extremism." the russian president has declared a cease-fire in ukraine. we will hear from bishop william barber on why he supports a christmas truce on both sides. back in 30 seconds. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "silent night." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. russian president vladimir putin has unilaterally declared a 36-hour ceasefire in ukraine to mark russian orthodox christmas which will be celebrated on saturday. in kyiv, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy rejected putin's truce, saying that russia wants to use christmas as a pretext to stop ukrainian advances in the russian-occupied

donbas region. >> they now want to use christmas as a cover, albeit briefly, to stop the advances of our boys in donbas and bring you quit munitions and mobilize the troops closer to our position. what will at give them? only another increase. amy: on the streets of kyiv, there is skepticism over the cease-fire. >> i think this is utter hypocrisy. on december 31, there was no peace. we were under such bombing for new year's eve. it is hypocrisy. >> this is not a funny joke. and history our country, 70 times we trusted the russians and it has never been anything good. we can't trust them and we have to be cautious. >> i don't believe russian president vladimir putin will go through the cease-fire. we celebrate with bombs and

missiles on new year's eve. there was peace for an hour or two and that was it. amy: blood reference announcement -- vladimir putin's announcement about a 36-hour ceasefire comes as calls grow for an end to the devastating war which began when russia invaded ukraine on february 24. on thursday, turkish president tayyip erdogan spoke to both putin and zelenskyy by phone. turkey has offered to mediate between the two countries. here in the united states, over 1000 faith leaders recently called for a christmas truce in ukraine. the signatories included members of the russian orthodox church, but also the reverend jesse jackson and bishop william barber. we turn now to hear bishop william barber of the poor people's campaign in his own words. during an event organized by repairers of the breach, barber gave a sermon on christmas eve titled "no war: a moral call for a christmas truce." after reflecting on the christmas truce in 1914 during world war i, barber said now is the time for ceasefire in ukraine. >> we desperately need cease-fire and negotiations to end the brutal russian war in

ukraine today. like rachel in the bible and pope francis who just the other day wept in public over this war , we must mourn publicly over the war. something is terribly wrong in our churches and places of worship if we try to have christmas without doing that. listen to the pope's prayer. immaculate virgin, today i would have wanted to bring you the thanks of the ukrainian people for peace. this is what he said before he was overwhelmed by emotion. and then he said instead, once again, i have to bring you the pleas of children. the pleas of the elderly, the pleas of the fathers and mothers, the young people, of the martyred man which is

suffering so much. the report present zelenskyy what congress this week sounded like a modern-dayescription of the context in which isaiah prophesied. russia he said has turned the ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people. russian troops have fired 1000 missiles in ukraine. and they used drones to kill us with decision. we need a cease-fire. a cease-fire doesn't mean both sides are equally culpable for starting the war, but it can have the impact of stopping the massive, massive killing on both sides.

accurate numbers are difficult to find, but it is clear at least thousands of ukrainian civilians and many tens of thousand ukrainian and russian military forces have been killed already. a cease-fire could stop the killing. a cease-fire is not the same as an end to war, but he can set the stage for more long-term diplomatic action that can lead to a long-term peace. a cease-fire for as long as it holds means no one is being killed by war, and that means maybe, just maybe, the difficult work of beginning serious negotiations can go forward. we do need a cease-fire in ukraine. in fact, the question might be, when do we need a cease-fire in ukraine? and we might answer, we have needed a cease-fire since

february 24. exactly 11 months ago today when russia invaded ukraine. yes, some say the u.s. government provoked moscow by expanding nato to the east and stationing new their weapons in europe. but even if that is true, it is also true that none of these provocations justify russia's invasion. russia's war is illegal, immoral, deadly, and dangerous. the day russia began seizing ukrainian territory and killing ukrainian civilians, we needed a cease-fire. when ukrainian troops began turning the tables and started reclaiming some of the lost territory, we needed a cease-fire to prevent more death

and destruction. we needed a cease-fire then and we need a cease-fire today. why? first, because the human cost. especially for the ukrainian civilians. is too high. this is not a contest on a battlefield. it is a struggle for control that takes place every day and at the places where people live and work and worship and go to school. the war is in the streets and the homes. too many elders, too many children, too many babies and men and women are dying as consequences of this war. ukrainians are not the only people being hurt by this war. the economic impact is dire. especially on the poor. their people and into global south, people facing more hunger and more cold as a result of this war. true be it, our whole planet is at risk as the war leads to an

increase in fossil fuels being mined and shipped around the globe. and enever country spend more war, there's always less money available for things that actually keep us safer. we need a cease-fire in every war being fought around the world. a cease-fire in -- i fragile cease-fire in yemen is barely holding. we need a cease-fire incident, south sudan, myanmar and beyond. many wars are being waged in the name of fighting against terrorism or against drug cartels or the mystic opponents and in many of these wars we can see the impact complicated ways. where u.s. arms are being used by both sides. however they got them. and despite our own government's humanitarian work, we cannot ignore the historians, media

reports, and even some military officials who have shown how some of our action in history and some other actions in the present have imposed economic and security policies around the world that have resulted in desperate, environmental catastrophe, refugee crisis, authoritarian rulers, and more. we have a moral obligation to stop supporting wars and call for a cease-fire. way back in our own civil war of these lands, a general by the name of william sherman said to those anxious to engage in war, "i have been where you are now and i know just how you feel. it is entirely natural that there should beat in the breast

of everyone of you hope and desire that someday you can use the skills you have acquired here, but suppressive," he said to these young troops. "you don't know the horrible aspects of war. i have been through two wars and i know. i have seen cities and homes in ashes. i have seen thousands of in-line on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. and i tell you, war is hell." and was dwight eisenhower who said when he was leaving office, "the conjunction of an immense military establishment, of a large arms industry is new in the american experience, and yet we must not fail to comprehend its great implications and the council of government.

we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence whether salt or unsolved, military additional complex." the first he said the congressional military complex. "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." the other night, even in the midst of his request for more weapons, president zelenskyy slipped in a prophetic word or the spirit slipped in a prophetic word if we were paying attention, he said, "being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace." this must be deeply wrestled with in this complex and contrary world. we need a cease-fire everywhere.

according to brown university's watson institute, nearly a million people have died in the post on 11 wars. 38 million people have been displaced by war, forced to flee their homes and community's to try to make a life somewhere else. the poor people's campaign found the u.s. alone has spent $21 trillion on war. incarceration over the past two decades. many we have not invested and housing, green infrastructure, living wages. the cost of war is too high. we need cease-fires everywhere. militarism is central to all of the interconnected injustices that we fight against. military spending diverts funds away from desperately needed social programs, from health care, childcare, jobs to sustainable energy, from

eldercare to education and more, even now we are passing a spinning package that does not include living wages. for the more than 55 million poor low-wage workers in this country. it does not include health care for the more than 87 million people without health care or underinsured. and we now know that over 300,000 people have died so far from covid because of the lack of health care not because of the germ or virus. and thousands more have died because of how poor and unprotected they were not because of the power of the virus. we are passing a budget that includes more money for the war economy than ever in history. we are doing it without passing protections for voting rights, without restoring the voting rights act that lyndon johnson said it was the greatest victory in this country even of all of

our military victories. and because we are doing this, it leaves us with any impoverished democracy. we need a cease-fire. this year the military budget will talk $858 billion, a sum greater than the entire budget of 70 countries in the world including turkey, the netherlands, saudi arabia, and switzerland. that is a small percentage of that money could provide living wages for every american, could provide health care for every american, could provide for child care. and in a country so rich that we waste hundreds of millions of dollars, we still have tens of millions of children living in poverty, going to sleep hungry. it is a moral crime. at christmas, the prophecy in the prophetic truth of christmas

demands that we interrupt this madness. it calls for cease-fires. say this does not have to be. so we need a cease-fire for the people of ukraine. we need a cease-fire for the poor and hurting people around the world. wherever there is war and violence, whether that war and violence is because of greed or lust for power or racism or anti-semitism or islamophobia or homophobia, we need a cease-fire. and finally, we need a cease-fire in ukraine right now because we are facing the most serious threat of nuclear escalation in 60 years. russia and united states

together hold 90% of all the nuclear weapons in the world. each side has enough nuclear weapons and nuclear firepower to destroy the whole world several times over. and that is incredibly dangerous for flawed human beings, prone to be the god we say we love, to have that kind of power. not only because of russia's regulus -- reckless to clear threat, not only because of washington's tray and dollar investment and strengthen icing modernizing its nuclear arsenal, we need a cease-fire. i don't believe either

washington or moscow is planning a deliberate nuclear attack, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. unlike other war zones where the u.s. and russian forces have faced each other, there is no u.s.-russian military to military hotline to avoid accidental escalation. they have had that in syria but they don't have it in ukraine. an accidental move on either sideould escalate to a nuclear exchange -- it is not likely, but when we are talking about potential nuclear war, any threat that is not zero is simply too large. more than half a century ago, even before his speech in 1967, dr. king said the trajectory of

modern war persuaded him that war could no longer be imagined as a negative good, and necessary evil to prevent some greater harm. the potential come he said, disruptive nest of modern weapons totally rules out the possibility of war ever again achieving a negative good. he said if we are shown mankind has the right to survive, then we must find an alternative to war and destruction. we stand and live at midnight, we are always on the threshold of a new dawn. but our own sinfulness and actions could keep us from getting there. we need a cease-fire in order to make an honest assessment of where we are.

and i for nymex the whole world blind. --an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. if we could see it maybe if we pause for a moment, count the cost. if we could just stop closing their eyes. and turning our eyes away and look at the bodies in the blood and the brokenness and assess the destruction, then maybe, for our sake and our children's sake , a cease-fire could help us realize that the world needs an antiwar coalition. we can put our weapons down for

just one night, and maybe we could put them down for one tomorrow. and if we could put them down for one tomorrow, maybe we could put them down for one week. if we could put them down for one week, maybe we could put them down for one month. and if we could put them down for one month, maybe we could put them down for one year. war no more. maybe studying war no more doesn't have to be in the after and eternal life. we have power to stop them, the madness. we can stop it today. stop it tomorrow. so we want to welcome -- we can't give up hope.

we have got to dare to commemorate, remember, and praise god even in the midst of all of the warring madness. now is the time for a christmas truce. now is the time to try. but the word go out. it happen 108 years ago. there are no more humans no stronger than we are. all it requires is listening to the spirit and just stop. just stop. stop cease firing. let the night go silent and hear the voice of god until the night

becomes holy without the sound of war. and we study war no more. amy: bishop william barber of the poor people's campaign and repairs of the breach giving a sermon on christmas eve bishop barber recently joined with over a thousand faith leaders in the united states: for christmas truce in ukraine. other signatories include reverend jesse jackson, professor cornell west, rabbi arthur wasik, reverend jim wallace, reverend liz theoharis, plum village buddhist commission. william barber spoke in goldsboro, north carolina, where

he has been pastor for 30 years. he just announced he is retiring as the church's pastor to become the founding director of the new center for public theology and public policy at ayle divinity school. to see the whole