latina. it is a thought-provoking dinner party with some of the latina trail blazers shaping american culture. we promised not to replace them. that is all the time i have for today. i am alicia menendez. i will see you back here, next weekend, at 6 pm eastern, four more american voices. but for now, i handed over to mehdi hasan. hi, this mehdi. >> a, at least. yeah so interesting to usa to be able to watch elect you know superhero with your kid. because it meant so much to my two daughters to watch ms. marvel racing plea on disney+. >> amazing. >> huge. >> what it did give me a thrill as a proud new jersey. >> yeah, i mean, people just don't get it until it happens. that, for me, is it fundamentally. when you see it happen, a lot happens. >> i was gonna say, it's important for what it means to you. but it's also important for what it means to everyone else who has never seen someone like

that, who doesn't live in community with someone like that, and has a perception of who we are based on falsehoods and lines. >> it is a win-win situation across the board when they get it right, as you pointed out. have a great rest of your evening, alicia. great to see you. >> same. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> tonight on the mehdi hasan show, a major, major victory tonight for the democrats and for our planet. the senate have passed inflation reduction act, capping of a historic week for the presidents joe biden, former white house chief of staff mick john podesta is here to explain what this all means. plus, disinformation wars. alex jones finally paid the price for his years of dangerous, toxic lies. but what about his gop enabling enablers? and covid, monkey pucks, and now polio? how these illnesses expose the fault lines and our unequal society? a powerful new book breaks it down. plus, my take on the latest violence in gaza. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> good evening.

i am mehdi hasan. we begin tonight with breaking news. vice president kamala harris has cost the decisive 51st vote to pass the democrats sweeping inflation reduction act in the senate, which will be the biggest investment in the climate in american history. and will lower some prescription drug prices as well. you know, ali gore used to say, when he was vice president, when i am voting, we are winning. and today, when kamala harris gusted deciding vote on what could end up being the most important legislation of the biden presidency, democrats were definitely in the words of al gore, winning. winning the day. >> the yays are 50. the nays are 50. the senate being equally divided. the vice president votes in the affirmative, and the bill, as amended, it's past. >> capping off an amazing week for the democrats, president joe biden has never had a week like this one, in fact. maybe no president in living

memory has. i mean, i am the guy who has had to spend the last year telling you every week on this show how joe manchin and kyrsten sinema have managed to ruin something for the democrats. but not this time. take a look at how the week actually unfolded for joe biden and his party. on monday, biden announced that the u.s. had killed al-qaeda leader ayman also irie, via drone strike as he stood on his balcony in kabul. some of his three predecessors spent 21 years trying and failing to do. on tuesday, the senate passed a bill to expand coverage for veterans, exposed to toxins from burn pits. and biden signed legislation into it will help u.s. chip makers compete with china, both bipartisan bills. and the people of kansas on tuesday, overwhelmingly voted to keep abortion legal in that state. wednesday marked 50 straight days of falling gas prices across the country. and on thursday, kyrsten sinema actually agreed to vote for the monumental inflation reduction act. she said yes. came on board. on friday, the american economy

added a record number of jobs, 528, 000, to be exact. president biden having officially recovered all of the jobs that trump lost in the initial months of the pandemic. the president, while in quarantine for covid, took his victory lap. have a listen. >> we are almost at 10 million jobs, almost at 10 million jobs since i took office. that is the fastest job growth in history. today, we also matched our unemployment rate in america in the last 50 years. 3.5%. yes. 3.5%. today, there are more people working in america than before the pandemic began. in fact, there are more people working in america then at any point in the american history. >> and tonight, a signature piece of legislation we has not died in the senate. it's kind of stunning. kirsten sinema did not find a way to cinemas the proceedings, making sure that private equity

got an exemption from the new 15% minimum corporations acts. and did you happen to catch how she voted to advance the bill yesterday? oh, so casually, with her thumbs up. but hey, at least, she finally voted yes to a bill that is historic in many ways. it will fund the biggest ever increase for the irs, which right now lacks the ability to enforce its rules and catch tax dodgers. it would also be the biggest ever u.s. investment in climate change, which let's face, it is a curve here. nevertheless, it will provide nothing to sneeze at 400 billion dollars in tax credits for americans to invest in electric vehicles and homes solar, and for utilities to move towards renewable and energy sources. and overall, it will help reduce carbon emissions by 40% by the end of the decade. that is huge. the bill also allows democrats to make good on a promise decades in the making, allowing medicare to negotiate that down. negotiate down the price of some prescription drugs.

look, the passage of this remarkable bill was far from easy, because nothing in the united states senate is ever easy. debate and voting on amendments kicked off last night. bill does a vote-a-rama with final passage not coming until almost 20 hours later. republican senator marco rubio complained about having to her back to d.c. from florida, for the vote-a-rama, also known as doing his job. and over the course of the proceedings, republicans in the senate blocked a price cap on insulin payments for patients with private insurance. that isn't universal health care we're talking about here. it was merely trying to keep insulin affordable for diabetics, and that was apparently too much to ask for. only seven republican senators came on board for that, which wasn't enough to overcome the filibuster, which let's not forget, manchin and sinema still support. republicans were allowed to block cheaper insulin, which is pretty cruel, again, as the atlantic's adam, famously put it, the cruelty is the point. look the, bill passed.

the republicans in the senate lost, and tonight, the question is, can democrats dare to dream? many have all between off the democrats in the coming midterms. and last week, there was even a poll showing most democratic voters went to a different presidential candidate joe biden, come 2020. so, today, will this week be a turning point for the biden presidency, for the democratic party? here to help me on answer that is john podesta, who served in the both, clinton and obama white house as chief of staff, he joins me now. john, thanks for coming back on this show. former clinton administration official david rothkopf described this past week as arguably, quote, the most productive first two years of any presidency in history. as someone who's worked for both presidents obama and clinton, help us put this past week into historical context, from your point of view? is that hyperbole, to say the president has had a week like this, or even two years like this? >> well, you probably have to

go back to lyndon johnson, to think about the legislative production that joe biden has. and it is historic. it's meant that the wind has really changed. and this is just a great night. this struck legislation, the victory today, that will secure, not only democratic votes, caps, in which he actually got bipartisan legislation that you mentioned. the chips act, earlier last year, though, the bipartisan infrastructure bill. that act that was concerned with veterans, and people exposed to burn pits, all came with bipartisan votes. so, joe biden has promised to get some things done, and indeed, he has delivered. and what that means, mehdi, is that young people who i think

had a disillusion with the slow pace of legislation, or can take a second look. first time biden voters can come back, and first-time voters can come back and say, you know, the democrats are really producing here. and of course, i've been, in my time on the climate provisions, they are truly historic. >> so, you are a big climate action guy. you and i have discussed on the show before the need for radical action on the climate. this bill is huge in terms of reducing emissions, transitioning energy sources, incentivizing everything from electric cars to solar. but as senator bernie sanders pointed out, there are also poison pills in eight too. joe manchin got them to agree to open up millions of acres of federal lands for new oil and gas leaks, that is bad, is it not? >> yeah, it is bad. you know, it is a compromise. i think energy innovation, the think tanks which model these kinds of questions, found that the emissions reductions are 24

times as big as the additional emissions that will come from those concessions that senator manchin got included and agreed with on senator schumer. i think they will continue to fight to ensure that we provide clean energy, and i think this bill gives the tools to see a massive expansion of clean power, clean transportation, clean buildings, clean manufacturing. it's gonna put millions of people to work. it's gonna be great for the economy. and so, it came with a few concessions, but i think on the balance, this is historic. it puts the united states back in the league, when it comes to climate action in the world. >> john, let me pick here on electoral brain, it cites from working in the white house as. you're also around the 2016 election campaign. if you are running the dccc, or the dnc, and helping to craft the message for the midterm, do

you run on abortion rights, post the amazing victory and energy in kansas? do you run primarily on democracy and all the amazing revelations out of the january 6th hearings, and the damage to trump? or do you run on this bill, on prescription drugs, on climate money? what is gonna help democrats most, come november? what's the priority? >> look, i think what you gotta do is iran on the contrast. a party that delivers on things that are important to the american people, important to the world versus a party that's gone a radical extreme, or maga republicans who are embracing total bans on abortion, even with respect to the rape and incest. you know, it's a strong contrast between people who want to protect pharma, and again, vote against lowering the current price of insulin, versus the people who want to extend health care for the

people. but i think you have to make it a choice. and i think that the republicans are helping right now, the mehdi, by nominating in the primaries really radical people who deny the support the january 6th insurrection, deny that joe biden won fair and square. but there are also, their economic program, the program with regard to rights, it's just out of touch. and i think, particularly those voters that were this, when voters in this upcoming election, particularly young people, i think. they had something before, as was something to be against. >> quick last question, before i let you go. she finally did the right thing, but i have to ask. when you look at the democratic senator like you're stan sinema, who has benefited hugely from donations from the private equity in the industry, making sure the spill today exams private equity firm the new corporation tax. how does that not look corrupt to the average american? not working for their

constituents footprint their donors? >> i will let senator sinema explain that. to their voters of arizona. i just think we need to celebrate the fact that after all this time, you know, ten days ago, this bill was given up for that. and now, with the support of democratic senators with the tie breaking vote all vice president harris, we are gonna have something to celebrate. it's still got to pass the house. i'm confident that's gonna happen. >> all right, john, i will let you go celebrate. thank you for your time tonight. appreciate it, john podesta. >> thanks. >> next, 49 million reasons for alex jones to finally stop spewing lies. but how come some republicans are still totally fine with it? ♪ ♪ ♪ bingo! i'm moving to the lake... gotta sell the house... ooh! that's a lot of work. ooh! don't worry. skip the hassels and sell directly to opendoor. bingo! when life's doors open,

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america's foremost racist

conspiracy theorist, do not host a primetime show on fox, was finally held accountable for his efforts to defame families impacted by the 2012 sandy hook massacre. a texas jury ruled on friday that jones lines should cost him some 49 billion dollars in compensatory and punitive damages. it is a mammoth figure, yes. keep in mind, this is only the beginning. jones is shortly due to stand trial for similar defamation charges and connecticut. frankly, it's rather hard to sum up the texas court proceedings. it was a surreal affair, with unhinged twists, a spanish so oprah than any episode of low and order. the infowars king pin clashed with opposing counsel and judge maya gamble repeatedly once even getting to an argument of whether or not he showed a picture of gamble burning to death during a recent broadcast of his show. spoiler alert, he did. you may have also heard that joan's own lawyer accidentally leaked years worth of his phone records, text messages to the

other side's attorneys, prompting questions about perjury. the mind numbing absurdity, there were some incredibly powerful moments like when scarlett lewis, whose son jessie was killed at sandy hook, finally got a chance to confront jones. >> there is records of jesse's, i mean, me. i have a history, and there's nothing that you could have found, because it doesn't exist, that i am deep state. it's just not true. i know you know that. that's the problem. i know you know that. you keep saying it. you keep saying it. why? why? for money? this isn't staged. like, one of your people said. this is a real event. it seems so incredible to me that we have to do this. >> incredible, indeed.

with a character as colorful as bombastic as yosemite alex jones it can be easy to forget that is incoherent bile has hurt and destroyed real people. his ratings are untethered from reality, yes, but with each viral broadcast, in fact more americans with his hate and his paranoia. >> so, i never expected trump charging into a goblins nest, to not get some goblin vomit and some blood on it i just want to catch him -- >> i declare, in 2022, there will be a declaration of independence against the alien force on this planet today, raging or against humans, our biology, and our very future that is attempting to exterminate the majority, and force the -- the minority that's left to merge with the ai computers and become slaves of satan. >> the u.s. number one cause of death a suicide now, because

they get people suicidal on mass murder pills. >> they're bashing into this. i don't like gay people. i don't want to put fish in the water that turned to -- do you understand that? serious crime. >> jones may be in the headlines this week for his monstrous conspiracy monger-ing around the sandy hook massacre. but let's not forget his long, long history of talking all sorts of hateful, dangerous, bigoted bs. consider his claims that 9/11, the oklahoma city bombing, and the eight aurora colorado shooting, and the unite the right nazi gathering in charlottesville, virginia, were all false flag psyops. consider is contingent about anthony fauci and bill gates should be put to death for the role in the, quote, bio attack that was the coronavirus pandemic. consider as long running insistence that michelin boma is secretly both a man in a murderer, equal parts racist

and transphobic. on the topic of jones's views on minorities, he quoted that he repeatedly said that child abuse is a central tenet of mainstream islam, he claimed that jews around the world are involved in an evil conspiracy with the communists in the japanese. he quoted that africans would recede back into total barbarism with whites. we still haven't even addressed his lies that have resulted in a real world violence, such as pizzagate back in 2016. jones suggested that he had evidence that politicians were hiding child sex slaves in the basement of washington d.c. pizza parlor, that -- ping-pong pizzeria, hostage while searching for kidnap children who did not exist. and i imagine it won't surprise you to learn that he was a purveyor of 2020 election lies the night before the insurrection our favorite in four warriors in washington d.c. telling them to declare 1776 on the new world order.

amid this parade of far-right fever dreams to you, it's worth mentioning who alex jones is. who is groom to be by the most powerful figures within the u.s. conservative movement. >> i just want to finish by saying your reputation is amazing. i will not let you down you will be very, very impressed, i hope,, and i think we'll be speaking a lot. >> that was donald trump's cushy embrace of alex jones on a show back in december 2015. after, i should note, he had been starting off racist conspiracies for years, jones, not trump, but trump as well. -- accessibility. a patented that the worst actors on the right had fought to protect, just as jones has increased his wildly dangerous and inflammatory lies. folks like tucker carlson, who himself has appeared on infowars in the past, and continues to fallen over jones, calling him one of the most important truth tellers in

america today. tucker is not alone, the most prominent republican and conservative figureheads have made it their mission to defend outgrown's, and infowars. marjorie taylor greene, high prices of the modern gop, one of the biggest fundraisers of the party, continues even now to routinely appear alongside jones, complimenting him defending, him and echoing his most disturbing garbage. it's a symbiotic relationship, you see. in 2008, both jones and republican mouthpieces dedicated most of their times to circulating racist of all the memes. now 14 years later, their core ideological mission, it seems is to topple american democracy as we know it. if you want to understand just how far the modern mega lead gop has gone off the rails all you have to do is look at the way they embrace alex jones. alex jones! and brought him in from the fringe. joining me now are -- the president of media watchdog media matters, and nicole hammer, director the rogers

center at vanderbilt university, and author of the book participants, the conservative revolutionaries who remade american politics in the 1990s. thanks for joining me, angela me start with you, how hard are folks like donald trump and marjorie taylor greene work to normalize alex jones? he got a price pass to the white house when trump isn't government. how firm is the embrace between gop leaders, and the mad, dishonest alex jones? >> it's not even just a gop leader is now, it's the full gop. the connective tissue, the thing holding them together, is that the right-wing media is basically fully embracing a lot of us jones has been saying. back in 2006, jones would've attacked republicans in the bush administration. trump was the catalyst for that, but i think if you just think about the concept of the deep state. that's been an alex jones conspiracy for 20 years, and that's the standard, not even controversial republican talking point, all the way from kevin mccarthy on down. it's not even considered outrageous to say the tens of thousands of people have some

mostly infiltrated the american government, and are coordinating a conspiracy to take down, because they're in cahoots with the media. that's just a normal thing now. but the bond is the right-wing media. that's the thing that really holds it together. >> so, nicole, picking up on what angela saying, where does alex jones in infowars fit into the modern american conservative ecosystem? what is in forwards's relationship, or john's relationship with the fox are now in? >> so, in many ways, the conspiracy theories to be here on oan, or on fox, have their origins on infowars. he's not often cited, necessarily, on those shows, but if you think about the groomer slur that has really picked up any mainstream gop in recent weeks and months. that is something that, again, comes out of pizzagate, comes out of alex jones. so many of those ideas, or those conspiracy theories, get cleaned up by something like

fox news. you see this especially around tucker carlson, and his ideas around january 6th. the idea that it was a false flag operation. the other people who conducted it are actually political prisoners. those are people that began a show like infowars, it make their way into the mainstream, and now make their way into the mainstream pretty quickly, and relatively unchanged. >> yeah, san angelo, over the course of a trial, we learned quite a bit about alex jones in infowars his financials. i one point in 2018, i believe they were making 800,000 a day, we can dismissing as a fringe person, but he's not in a basement, he's running a multimillion dollar info detainment and fire. >> we've seen this before, so going back and the other right-wing media -- we have to buy golden survival seeds, but it was only a small portion of. it when john says in that for example that you place, all these poisons, all these liberals, all these people

putting the chemical in the water, all these other things. and i have a magic product that is going to prevent you from becoming weak, or during covid -- he got in trouble for that by several attorney generals. but his entire product now is actually more of an infomercial than anything else. and that is a problem, what's really scary about it, though, is because the republican party is now essentially organizing power on one used to be considered the fringes, this is sort of where all the ideas, as nikole pointed, out about republican orthodoxy or germinating. >> nicole, one last question to you, there is a cemetery here in our coverage, and you would've talked about this before, a republicans and democrats. somebody in the squad says something about defunding the police, that becomes democrats or extreme left, the, fringe they've gone too far to the far left. on the right you have people like gates and marjorie taylor greene. greene appeared on the show just a few weeks ago, appearing

on this crazy mans crazy far-right show, without any consequence, any penalty, any pressure on kevin mccarthy or mitch mcconnell to disown him. >> that's exactly right, and there won't be, right? people go on his show in order to show that they can't be held back. that they can't be contained. that they are the ones who are the most open to different ideas, and that there are the ones who can't be silenced. that framework of free speech and standing up to the establishment. that's so powerful within the gop right now, and appearing on alex jones's show functions to give somebody like green that kind of credibility. >> yeah, we are just plain some pictures there of the recent golf tournament. trump, marjorie taylor greene, and tucker carlson, i can't think of more three quote unquote mainstream figures that have helped oust jones in recent years. --

thanks both for your analysis, i appreciate it. still to come, the two faces of fox. but first, richard louis is here with the headlines. . >> hello -- muslim community to be on alert, following a string of murders. police say three muslim men have been killed in the past two weeks, including one who was fatally shot friday night. a fourth murder occurred in november, additional police officers are patrolling the city. the british defense ministry says at least three russian generals have been relieved from their post due to poor performance during the invasion of ukraine. including general dvornikov, who is originally assigned to lead an invasion. biden is scheduled to travel to kentucky, to toured the devastation caused by deadly flooding. at least 37 people died during historic flooding there. more storms are expected in the region this week. more the mehdi hasan show, after this break. after this break ll my own vegetables

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major foreign policy win this, week when he announced the u.s. has conducted a drone strike that killed al-qaeda leader ayman al-zawahiri. it even received where praise from supposedly straight news fox and, who called it a huge win for the u.s.. but when the primetime conservative propagandists got on air, the praise stopped, and the real fox showed up. now, you would think the quote unquote public america network with celebrated the death of a foreign terrorist battey. i mean, it's not like they would celebrate when republican president does it, right? >> the elected president, they loathe them. they're capable of acknowledging and accomplishment no matter what it is. trump is bad. trump killed baghdadi. therefore, killing baghdadi was bad. >> biden gave a speech boasting that he has killed and al-qaeda figure in afghanistan.

great, it feels safer. of course you don't. >> i would hate to be on the side. that is sad, baghdadi is gone. if you can't handle that you are a big baby. >> what is hard about giving him credit is that he refuses responsibility for the bad stuff. >> it's very problematic when people on the left are only focusing on the president. >> it is just a political move, which is just a way to distract from a horrible series of new cycles. >> donald trump is killing terrorists by the boat a lot, and the democrats are upset that he's bragging about it. >> some terrorists from afghanistan, or from wherever, has crossed into the border of our country, and the biden administration has not done anything about it. >> many in the corrupt media mob, of course, they use this weekend's operation, let's attack donald trump. >> he was killed in afghanistan where a terrorist organization has now become a safe haven. they have been rapidly gaining ground since biden abandoned the country. as a result, the world is a much more dangerous place. >> -- gotta love them.

next, them and putting a face on the human toll, when inequality and disease collide. author steven thrasher is here. plus, don't forget, you can listen to the mehdi hasan show, anytime, free wherever you get your podcasts. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (driver) conventional thinking would say verizon has the largest and fastest 5g network. but, they don't. they only cover select cities with 5g. so, for me and the hundreds of drivers in my fleet, staying connected, cutting downtime, and delivering on time depends on t-mobile 5g. and with coverage of over 96% of interstate highway miles, they've got us covered. (vo) unconventional thinking delivers four times the 5g coverage of verizon. and it's ready right now.

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first, it was the covid-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 1 million people in the u.s. alone. now, there is monkeypox, which the white house just labeled a public health emergency. and also, if you can believe it, polio seems to be maybe making a come back, as the new york health department warns hundreds of people may be infected with the virus. how did the u.s. bungle this nightmarish trifecta? well, the next guest believes he has the answer. doctor steven thrasher of northwestern university is out in the new book, on the subject, called viral underclass, the human toll inequality and deceased collide. he addresses the societal reaction to viruses, writing, quote, viruses show where the cracks in our society are. they offer a stark revelation of inequality. in times of mass crisis, those cracks get wider and more people fall into them. i call it the viral underclass. and doctor steven thrasher joins me now. thanks so much for coming on this show. stephen, most people would say, yeah, we get it. it is sad. poor people get harder hit by

viruses, by public health crises. briefly explain how your book and its thesis goes beyond that, and why america is almost uniquely bad on this in the western world? >> one of the things that is really strange, is when you look at a different virus, you keep getting the same kinds of populations, and they're often really different kinds of viruses. and some things made sense, we might understand why monkeypox and hiv, which have high rates of sexual transmission might be affecting the lgbtq community. but the lgbtq community is also very affected by covid-19. and that's not because there is anything particular to sexual expression or actions, or gender identity that makes covid trans for more, it's really a matter of class. and lgbtq people are made economically precarious, where they are more likely to work in retail, or be poor, and on hounds, unhoused not having access to insurance. that's why we end up with higher rates of covid-19. i also try to use this analysts in my book to both give people

something to think about, how this is all happening, to really root it in the experience of class. and to show that in some ways in the u.s., it happens unusually so, where once you become infected with the virus, you are going to move economically downward. so, you know, in the uk, if you go to health care, of course, there are social determinants of health that make people susceptible to sickness, and maybe, make them end up in a hospital. but they're not going to leave with infection. here in the u.s., if you get a monkeypox likenesses right now, you're going to be quarantined for at least a month, without any economic support from the state. and that's gonna have a really deleterious effect on your economic and of course physical health going forward. >> stephen, you write in the book about how the u.s. respond to viruses, by creating, quote, borders of whiteness, were healthy white people are on one side of national building, and people living with viruses are kept outside it. race, as you just mentioned, played a big role in our catastrophic response to covid in particular, didn't it? >> it certainly did.

the amount of people getting covid, getting seriously sick with it, dying of it, are disproportionately black. that was one of the things that really caught my eye, initially, based on research i had done in st. louis, around hiv and a.i.d.s., i have seen of course, a very high rate of people being infected, people to die of covid incent lewis were black. summer things happened around the country. we're seeing the same thing happened with monkeypox now, even though it's primarily happening within communities of men who have sex with men. the first data sets out of the cdc are showing really clearly, about two thirds of those people are black or latin. and as we try to get vaccines to people, there is vaccine inequity that makes it so that white people may get the vaccines faster. and therefore, the virus will keep moving in the black and latin communities. >> steven, let's talk monkeypox. how is the biden administration handle it so far, in your view? and how worried are you about it being stigmatized as a gay disease? >> the biden administration has

done a really poor job at it, many people including myself started in april and may, we were seeing which was happening with this virus, already having outbreaks in canada and europe. and we're pushing the biden administration to very proactively start vaccinating communities of men have sex with men, because we were seeing how that it was moving and other countries. i wrote, i think, i was calling for vaccination to have been at gay pride events throughout the month. it didn't really happen the biden administration, the new york times later wrote, have had vaccines, they kind of wanted to wait and see what happened. and that's let the virus move much more. i'm concerned with stigma. i think that homophobia transphobia are enormously terrible forces in the american society right now, and have really gut effect on peoples healths. but i also think it's really important to name, and not to have shame about, how the virus is moving right now. it's almost exclusively moving

through men who have sex with men, with a few other communities being affected a little bit. but there is really, actually, good biological reasons to think, we need to study more. because it looks like sexual transmissions happening with this variation of the virus that didn't happen with monkeypox before, there is a doctor in nigeria who is looking at this in 2017, and his warnings were not heated. so, we really need to study, and make sure that we see how it's moving this way, and make sure we are protecting the communities that are most vulnerable. and that needs to be done in tandem with dealing with homophobic transphobia. and a lot of this, terrible laws are being passed around the u.s. that are creating bad disparities for gay people. >> quick last question, stephen, 30 seconds, is it not crazy to live in the country where they want us to live with covid, live with it in a country with no paid sick leave? >> it certainly is. it's not good to have that for covid. it's not good to have it for monkeypox. if there is a polio outbreak, upper class people who chose not to vaccinate their children, they will get good health care if they need it.

but the polio itself will start affecting lower class children, who are more vaccinated. but they're going to be the people who take the brunt of it circulating more. and we actually have to bring sick leave to get them under control. professor steven thrasher, we'll have to leave it there, thanks so much for time. tonight, at 10 pm eastern, join justino machado, for the culture is latina. -- dinner party with latina trail blazer, gina torres and more, plus an exclusive interview with activist rosie perez, that's tonight 10 pm, msnbc. we'll be back in this show with a moment, with my take on what's been happening in gaza. been happening in gaza. so save money shopping back to school on amazon. while they... 0oh... uh... figure their stuff out.

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military officials, and security experts, give to their now regular bombardments of gaza. mowing the grass. think about, not just how blasé that is, the bombing of gaza had killed hundreds upon hundreds of innocent civilians over the past decade, kids included. but also, think about how dehumanizing that is. the palestinians aren't people in the scenario, they're weeds the need to be trimmed down to size, or better yet removed from the earth. to quote david weinberg, an israeli security analyst writing the jerusalem post last year, quote if you failed to do so, weeds grow wild and snakes begin to slither around in the brush. now, of course, he would say and israelis would say, they are referring to palestinian militant groups, to hamas and islamic jihad which control -- right now. they justify their latest attack on gaza as an attack on islamic jihad, they say they've

managed to kill two senior jihad commanders on the ground, they've also killed multiple innocent palestinians in the process, including a five-year-old girl on friday. on saturday, another four palestinian children were reportedly killed in an explosion in got gaza, the palestinian authority saves an israeli strike, but the israelis say it was a failed rocket launch by islamic jihad, which killed those palestinian kids. and of course, islamic jihad has fired hundreds of rockets towards israel, since the israeli bombardment of gaza began on friday. tonight, it seems, thankfully, there is a mutually agreed cease-fire in place. but every time there is violence in gaza, i want to remind you of some context which you may not see elsewhere. gaza have blockaded and besieged by the israelis with egyptian help since 2007, the people of gaza has been essentially invited by the rest of the world, by the western world and the muslim majority world. more than 20 people live, crowded in 141 square mile

patch of land, that even the former conservative british prime minister david cameron referred to as an open air prison. today,, according to the un and relief organizations, about 70% of causes population are refugees. 50% of our of all godsons, are under the age of 18. the unemployment rate there is 47%, and for young people more than 60%. 59% of glistens live in poverty. and, yes violent groups like hamas and -- they've been accused by human rights groups of committing crimes against their own people and against innocent israelis. but the israeli government, with an assist from the egyptian government, controls causes land borders, territorial waters, an airspace. their blockade, according to un experts, is a form of collective punishment. also according to the un, the israelis may have disengaged from gaza in 2005 but they still technically occupied

under international law,, and according to human rights groups they carry a regular deadly airstrikes -- may amount to war crimes. we can't just ignore all of that, and go back to ignoring gaza because there is a cease-fire now in place, and just wait for the next time that israel wants to mow the grass there. quote, i would like gaza to sink into the sea, but that won't happen, and a solution must be found. as really prime minister yet sacral been was reported to have said in 1992. put aside the racist and almost genocidal mindset behind that, sink into the sea, and focus on the solution part. he was right, a solution must be found. and yet, 30 years later. his successors gonna take turns running down fire on one of the most densely populated and poorest places on earth. so, here's my solution, and it's backed by international law. let the people of david folkenflik will gaza be free.

truly free, don't just disengage and keep control of the borders wall periodically bombing back into mom and kill militants, and civilians to, whenever you feel like it over the course of 15 long years. end the blockade. and the siege. and the occupation.

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eastern, you can now find that show on the msnbc hub on peacock, and stupid anytime. plus, there are new -- monday through thursday. now it's time to hand it over to sam stein, who is in for ayman mohyeldin. good evening. >> good evening, thank you, good evening, welcome to ayman, i'm sam stein, infer ayman mohyeldin. coming up tonight, the breaking news on capitol hill, have seen the democrats score a major win, passing the climate health bill. plus, a dangerous trend, republican candidates refusing to concede it elections that they indisputably lost. the florida state attorney firing back after ron descendants suspended him, over his pledge not to enforce new abortion restrictions. let's get started. tonight we begin with breaking ne