i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. continue our conversation with award-winning a author anad journalist masha gessen, author of "the future is history: how totalitarianism reclaimed russia." nermeen: i asked gessen how she thinks president donald trump is distorting language. example she cites is on nato, one that trump said at one point that nato is obsolete. and then later that it was no longer obsolete. >> the way he is mangling the english language is something dangerous.k is so americans are a little bit innocent to that danger. this is where oddly, having grown up in the soviet union and lived in russia as a journalist for some years, i am externally sensitive to what happens to language. to totalitarian journalist -- italian journalist about this. they lived through much milder form of what i am served in russia, but they say berlusconi over 20 years of his reign, did so much damage to the language, they are so recovering their ability to describe what they're dealing with. trump does two things. mean theports

i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. turn now to look at america's staggering opioid epidemic, the secretive family making billions from crisis and how congress undermined efforts to restrict the flow of pain pills that have led to tens of thousands of deaths. president trump's commission on combating drug addiction and the opid crisis has said "america is enduring a death toll equal to september 11 every three weeks." but this week, his nominee for drug czar republican congressmember tom marino had to withdraw from consideration after a "washington post"/"60 minutes" investigation found he led a drug industry-backed effort to weaken the u.s. drug enforcement administration's ability to crack down on addictive opioids and keep them off the black market. the ensuring patient access and effective drug enforcement act passed in 2016. it made it nearly impossible for the drug enforcement administration to intervene in cases where large, suspicious shipments of opioids are delivered to pharmacies bound for the black market. t

i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. n now to a major decision by the federal communications commission to eliminate a decades-old rule that ensures community residents can have a say in their local broadcast tv station. the regulation is known as the "main studio rule" and it requires broadcasters to have a physical studio near where they have a license to transmit. this comes as the fcc also announced plans to abolish longstanding media-ownership rules, including limits on how many stations or newspapers one company can own in a single market. fcc chairman ajit pai testified wednesday during a congressional hearing. >> if you believe as i did the federal government has no business intervening in the news, then we must stop the federal government from intervening in the news business. and that is why this afternoon i shared with my fellow commissioners in order that will reform our media ownership rules and help pull the government once and for all out of the newsroom. we will vote on this order at our november 16 meetin

nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. we begin today's show with the political crisis in spain. the spanish government has taken control of catalonia, stripping the northeastern region of its autonomy in efforts to crush catalonia's independence movement. on friday evening, spanish prime minister mariano rajoy announced his cabinet had fired catalan president carles puigdemont and dissolved catalonia's parliament. >> today, i have dissolved the parliament of catalonia and have called for elections next december 21st in that region. yesterday, the president had a chance to return to legality and call elections. that is what the great majority of the people in catalonia were asking for. he did not want to do this. so the government of spain will take the measures to recover legality. nermeen: prime minister rajoy's announcement came hours after catalonia's regional parliament voted for independence by a margin of 70 votes to 10. the sp

nermeen: and i'm nermeen shaikh. welcome to all of our listenerss and viewerers from around the coununtry and around the world. today we look at the fallout from two shocking investigations by "the new yorker" and "the new york times," which revealed a slew of rape and sexual assault allegations against disgraced and now-fired movie producer harvey weinstein, who had been one of theheost powerfrful men n hollywood for decades. weinstein has also been a major contributor to the democratic party. this week, "the new yorker" reported three women say harvey weinstein raped them, while more say weinstein masturbated in front of them or forcibly touched them without their consent. among the accusers is former asaspiring actress luciaia evan, who sasays she had just finished her junior year at middlebury college when she was invited to a daytime meeting with weinstein at the miramax office. she said he pushed her head down and "forced me to perform oral sex on him. i said, over and over, 'i don't want to do this, stop, don'

i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. n as the "main studio rule" and it requires broadcasters to have a physical studio near where they have a license to transmit. this comes as the fcc also announced plans to abolish longstanding media-ownership rules, including limits on how many stations or newspapers one company can own in a single market. fcc chairman ajit pai testified wednesday during a congressional hearining. >> if yoyou believeve as i did e federal government has no businessss intervening in n the news, then we must t stop thehe federal government from inintervening in the news business. and d that is why this aftererni shared with my fellowow commmmissioners s in order t thl reform our media ownership rules d help p pull the governmnment oncece and for all out of the newsroom. we will vote on this order at our november 16 meeting. the mamarketplace today is n nog like it was in n 1975. newspapers are shutting dodown. many radio and tv statations a e struggliling, especicially in smalleler markets. onlinene comp

i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. een: we turn now to guantanamo, where hunger striking prisoners say u.s. military officials have stopped force-feeding them and are denying them basic medical care in a move the prisoners anand theieir lawyers say threatens to kill them. in an op-ed for the guardian, hunger striking guantanamo bay prisoner khalid qassim writes -- "they have decided to leave us to waste away and die instead. now as each night comes, i wonder if i will wake up in the morning. when will my organs fail? when will my heart stop? i am slowly slipping away and no one notices." qassim has been imprisoned for 15 years without being charged with a a crime, and writes thata hunger strike was "the only peaceful way i thought i could protest." he is one of 41 men remaining in guantanamo. 10 were charged or convicted before a commission, but the rest are being held in indefinite wartime detention without trial. amy: human rights lawyers have long opposed force-feeding in guantanamo, saying the brutal way its impleme

s nermeen shaikh and i spoke with about his new book "the climate swerve: reflections on mind, hope, survival." in the midst of the massive hurricanes and the wildfires in california, i asked him about climate change, what he has called the apocalyptic twin of nuclear war. >> climate change is the apocalyptic twin. we saw in those images of the hurricanes just in the last couple of months, and still a , theof apocalyptic damage destruction of cities, of islands, of most of puerto rico -- a large area, and doubts about the capacity to recover and to really prevent the most long-standing damage to these places. there has to be a kind of perspective survivors, somebody who imagines is happening. but now we have visual evidence in these hurricanes, not caused by, change, but rendered much more extreme according to much scientific evidence. we have evidence which the rest of us can take in as perspective survivor's of furth c climate dadamage that t threatens s oure civilization. i call thehem apopocalyptic t ts cause on t these two threats, these two developments can destroy the human sp