therealnews--2020-05-19--Mutual Aid In Public Housing Continues After Housing Authority Pushback

In early April , Baltimore City ’ s Housing Authority threatened Reverend Annie Chambers with arrest and eviction for distributing food to her neighbors at Douglass Homes , citing a policy barring non-government organizations from giving food donations to public housing residents .
Rather than stopping Chambers ’ mutual aid initiative , the incident led to widespread support for her work .
Chambers says that the Housing Authority has not interfered with a giveaway since , and that the public attention has resulted in an increase in donations .
” We have not had any trouble from them since .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , New York , Philadelphia and Virginia , ” Chambers told The Real News Network .
“ Senator [ Mary ] Washington and the Teachers Union called the Housing Authority .
Many single individuals have called the mayor and The Housing Authority on our behalf.
” Maryland State Senator Mary Washington , who expressed support for Chambers , noted that food insecurity in Baltimore City increased rapidly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic .
Senator Washington said she received a briefing from Baltimore City ’ s Office of Sustainability stating that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that a quarter of a million people [ in Baltimore City ] are going to be food insecure in a month , ” Washington told The Real News Network .
According to the most recent census data available , that city briefing suggests that more than 40 % of Baltimore City residents will suffer from food insecurity by June .
Washington noted that SNAP benefits are being processed more slowly than usual , worsening Baltimore ’ s food crisis .
Lawyer Alec Summerfield filed a cease-and-desist letter on behalf of Chambers , arguing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of eviction violate Maryland ’ s stay-at-home order as well as the UN Charter on Human Rights .
“ Article 25 [ of the UN Charter on Human Rights ] states that all people have the right to have access to food , particularly in times of crisis and political strife , ” Summerfield said .
“ And given the extent to the price gouging and how hard it is for people to get to grocery stores with the food deserts in Baltimore , it ’ s a violation of those rights for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to give food to people.
” According to Summerfield , The Housing Authority violated Maryland ’ s stay-at-home order , which bans all evictions until further notice .
He says he is in touch with two other Douglass residents who volunteered with Chambers and were also threatened with eviction during the stay-at-home order .
The Housing Authority told The Real News Network that they attempted to shut down food giveaways at Douglass Homes because of a standard policy that prohibits non-government organizations from distributing food to public housing residents and not because of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Authority has a responsibility to “ help bring Ms .
Chambers and her organization into compliance ” with health and safety regulations rather than impede their efforts .
“ People want to help so instead of setting up bureaucratic obstacles , we should figure out how to help them .
The CDC , and Baltimore City Health Department have regulations for what the best practices are [ during COVID-19 ] , ” Washington said .
“ As long as people are abiding by those rules , they should be supported- and there should @ @ @ @ @ @ @ follow those rules .
Anyone who wants to do that should be part of the overall strategy .
I felt what happened was a bureaucratic knee-jerk response that was not solution oriented.
” Activists and Douglass residents have reason not to trust the Housing Authority—not only because of how they threatened Chambers but also because of a 2016 lawsuit that revealed Housing Authority employees had demanded sexual favors in exchange for necessary maintenance .
The Housing Authority ’ s attempt to shut down food giveaways at Douglass Homes occurred while Baltimore City began @ @ @ @ @ @ @ residents to some of the same grassroots organizations that donate to public housing .
The 211 service in central Maryland , provided by the nonprofit United Way , connects state residents to both government-funded and non-profit emergency resources .
Grassroots organizations Baltimore Food Rescue , 4MyCity , and So What Else have all been delivering food to Douglass homes since before the April incident , and they have been delivering food to 211 callers since early April .
United Way ’ s new relationships with the grassroots organizations have been necessary to respond @ @ @ @ @ @ @ assistance in light of COVID-19 .
“ Our call volume has increased over four hundred percent , ” Suzanne Poandl of United Way said .
“ We have staff who man the calls , most of them have a social work background .
We have brought on 70 plus volunteers to help with those calls [ since the pandemic ] .
” The Greater Baltimore Collaborative , an alliance of 11 nonprofit groups including United Way , awarded grants to Baltimore Food Rescue , 4MyCity , and So What Else in April , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Office of Sustainability .
The collaborative was formed to create a COVID-19 Relief Fund for Baltimore City , and it was first put to use to give grants to 11 food aid organizations recommended by Baltimore City officials .
Molly Rath , Baltimore City ’ s Director of Communications and Engagement , outlined the city ’ s response to the food crisis in a May 4 email to The Real News Network : “ On April 21 , Mayor Young announced a comprehensive strategy to respond to growing food need during the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make up a core component of that strategy , ” she said .
Between March 16-April 16 , the city distributed 705,155 meals and 1,840 grocery boxes and they plan to increase the number of meals they distribute in May and June .
Chambers says the city food sites won ’ t be able to alleviate hunger unless they turn their focus to fresh produce , meat , eggs , and other take-home groceries .
“ When the city truck comes and you ’ re hungry , and you ’ ve been hungry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with one piece of baloney between two pieces of bread , that ’ s like saying ‘ go die ’ and that ’ s all the help we ’ ve been given , ” Chambers said .
“ But we ’ ve been blessed that other people have seen the need and helped us.
” Public housing residents aren ’ t the only ones relying on grassroots activists to alleviate food insecurity .
Mutual aid networks and non-profits across the city are working to increase the amount of food they distribute to meet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 4MyCity , and So What Else rely on donations of fresh food that is hard to sell because it is considered visually imperfect or has damaged packaging .
“ The majority of it is recovery food .
We wouldn ’ t be able to do this without recovery food , ” said So What Else Volunteer Coordinator Christine Garrahan .
The nonprofit 4MyCity usually gives out an average of 50,000 pounds of food per week .
Chris Dipnarine , CEO of 4MyCity , says that the organization distributed over 100,000 pounds of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and that they aim to give out that amount consistently in the future .
Baltimore Food Rescue and So What Else each distributes 10,000 pounds of free food weekly .
The nonprofit An End to Ignorance shifted its focus to food aid in light of the pandemic , and now gives out 10,000 pounds of food weekly .
Matt Burke of Baltimore Food Rescue said that he hopes the city partnership will lead to opportunities to expand his own work , and he also wants to see increased support and funding for lesser @ @ @ @ @ @ @ city .
“ I met folks in Harlem Park who opened up their home as a food kitchen , ” Burke said .
“ There ’ s so many folks all over the city , I know folks who open up their homes as a shelter for folks that are homeless , and no one knows who they are , they get no recognition or funding and they do it anyway.
” Washington wants to make sure that smaller grassroots organizations receive more funding as non-profit groups parner with Baltimore City to provide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ] are doing some of the work that the city itself is not doing and stepping up , ” Washington said .
“ And one of the things I want to make sure is that these grassroots organizations get some of the money that is coming down the pipeline.
” In East Baltimore , mutual aid organizations The Baltimore Redevelopment Action Coalition for Empowerment [ BRACE ] and Reclaiming Our Community provide customized grocery boxes to seniors and people with dietary restrictions weekly .
Donald Gresham , President of BRACE started the initiative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t eat salt due to diabetes or hypertension and who don ’ t own vehicles .
“ For people of color , we have generational diseases in our communities , ” Gresham said .
“ We ’ ve been having these problems since before the virus took place .
So we ’ re not going to cry and say ‘ poor me , ’ we ’ re just going to go to work .
We know we ’ re going to be the last to get anything , so we need to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In Baltimore ’ s low-income communities , neighborhood organizations are left with few options but to take on the challenges of coordinating aid during a global pandemic .
Throughout Baltimore City , residents are relying increasingly on dynamic , personal mutual aid networks to survive the rise in poverty caused by COVID-19 .
“ We didn ’ t have to wait for Hogan to tell us , it ’ s a homegrown thing .
Crisis doesn ’ t divide us , crisis brings us closer together .
Because we only need to look @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will survive anything , ” said Gresham .
Note : The author has participated in food aid organized by Baltimore Food Rescue , BRACE , and an End to Ignorance .
They delivered food for So What Else while writing this article .

In early April, Baltimore City’s Housing Authority threatened Reverend Annie Chambers with arrest and eviction for distributing food to her neighbors at Douglass Homes, citing a policy barring non-government organizations from giving food donations to public housing residents.
Rather than stopping Chambers’ mutual aid initiative, the incident led to widespread support for her work. Chambers says that the Housing Authority has not interfered with a giveaway since, and that the public attention has resulted in an increase in donations.
”We have not had any trouble from them since. People called The Housing Authority from Washington, New York, Philadelphia and Virginia,” Chambers told The Real News Network. “Senator [Mary] Washington and the Teachers Union called the Housing Authority. Many single individuals have called the mayor and The Housing Authority on our behalf.”
Maryland State Senator Mary Washington, who expressed support for Chambers, noted that food insecurity in Baltimore City increased rapidly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Senator Washington said she received a briefing from Baltimore City’s Office of Sustainability stating that the city agency “anticipate[s] that a quarter of a million people [in Baltimore City] are going to be food insecure in a month,” Washington told The Real News Network.
According to the most recent census data available, that city briefing suggests that more than 40% of Baltimore City residents will suffer from food insecurity by June. Washington noted that SNAP benefits are being processed more slowly than usual, worsening Baltimore’s food crisis.
Lawyer Alec Summerfield filed a cease-and-desist letter on behalf of Chambers, arguing that The Housing Authority’s threats of eviction violate Maryland’s stay-at-home order as well as the UN Charter on Human Rights.
“Article 25 [of the UN Charter on Human Rights] states that all people have the right to have access to food, particularly in times of crisis and political strife,” Summerfield said. “And given the extent to the price gouging and how hard it is for people to get to grocery stores with the food deserts in Baltimore, it’s a violation of those rights for the city to deny non-profits the right to give food to people.”
According to Summerfield, The Housing Authority violated Maryland’s stay-at-home order, which bans all evictions until further notice. He says he is in touch with two other Douglass residents who volunteered with Chambers and were also threatened with eviction during the stay-at-home order.
The Housing Authority told The Real News Network that they attempted to shut down food giveaways at Douglass Homes because of a standard policy that prohibits non-government organizations from distributing food to public housing residents and not because of COVID-19.
Washington said that The Housing Authority has a responsibility to “help bring Ms. Chambers and her organization into compliance” with health and safety regulations rather than impede their efforts.
“People want to help so instead of setting up bureaucratic obstacles, we should figure out how to help them. The CDC, and Baltimore City Health Department have regulations for what the best practices are [during COVID-19],” Washington said. “As long as people are abiding by those rules, they should be supported- and there should be support and resources to help people follow those rules. Anyone who wants to do that should be part of the overall strategy. I felt what happened was a bureaucratic knee-jerk response that was not solution oriented.”
Activists and Douglass residents have reason not to trust the Housing Authority—not only because of how they threatened Chambers but also because of a 2016 lawsuit that revealed Housing Authority employees had demanded sexual favors in exchange for necessary maintenance.
The Housing Authority’s attempt to shut down food giveaways at Douglass Homes occurred while Baltimore City began directing 211 emergency calls from food insecure residents to some of the same grassroots organizations that donate to public housing. The 211 service in central Maryland, provided by the nonprofit United Way, connects state residents to both government-funded and non-profit emergency resources. Grassroots organizations Baltimore Food Rescue, 4MyCity, and So What Else have all been delivering food to Douglass homes since before the April incident, and they have been delivering food to 211 callers since early April.
United Way’s new relationships with the grassroots organizations have been necessary to respond to the spike in calls for food assistance in light of COVID-19.
“Our call volume has increased over four hundred percent,” Suzanne Poandl of United Way said.
“We have staff who man the calls, most of them have a social work background. We have brought on 70 plus volunteers to help with those calls [since the pandemic].”
The Greater Baltimore Collaborative, an alliance of 11 nonprofit groups including United Way, awarded grants to Baltimore Food Rescue, 4MyCity, and So What Else in April, at the direction of Baltimore City’s Office of Sustainability. The collaborative was formed to create a COVID-19 Relief Fund for Baltimore City, and it was first put to use to give grants to 11 food aid organizations recommended by Baltimore City officials.
Molly Rath, Baltimore City’s Director of Communications and Engagement, outlined the city’s response to the food crisis in a May 4 email to The Real News Network: “On April 21, Mayor Young announced a comprehensive strategy to respond to growing food need during the coronavirus pandemic, and meal distribution sites make up a core component of that strategy,” she said.
Between March 16-April 16, the city distributed 705,155 meals and 1,840 grocery boxes and they plan to increase the number of meals they distribute in May and June. Chambers says the city food sites won’t be able to alleviate hunger unless they turn their focus to fresh produce, meat, eggs, and other take-home groceries.
“When the city truck comes and you’re hungry, and you’ve been hungry, and they hand you a sandwich with one piece of baloney between two pieces of bread, that’s like saying ‘go die’ and that’s all the help we’ve been given,” Chambers said. “But we’ve been blessed that other people have seen the need and helped us.”
Public housing residents aren’t the only ones relying on grassroots activists to alleviate food insecurity. Mutual aid networks and non-profits across the city are working to increase the amount of food they distribute to meet the increased need. Baltimore Food Rescue, 4MyCity, and So What Else rely on donations of fresh food that is hard to sell because it is considered visually imperfect or has damaged packaging.
“The majority of it is recovery food. We wouldn’t be able to do this without recovery food,” said So What Else Volunteer Coordinator Christine Garrahan.
The nonprofit 4MyCity usually gives out an average of 50,000 pounds of food per week. Chris Dipnarine, CEO of 4MyCity, says that the organization distributed over 100,000 pounds of food during the first week of May and that they aim to give out that amount consistently in the future. Baltimore Food Rescue and So What Else each distributes 10,000 pounds of free food weekly. The nonprofit An End to Ignorance shifted its focus to food aid in light of the pandemic, and now gives out 10,000 pounds of food weekly.
Matt Burke of Baltimore Food Rescue said that he hopes the city partnership will lead to opportunities to expand his own work, and he also wants to see increased support and funding for lesser known grassroots food relief efforts throughout the city.
“I met folks in Harlem Park who opened up their home as a food kitchen,” Burke said. “There’s so many folks all over the city, I know folks who open up their homes as a shelter for folks that are homeless, and no one knows who they are, they get no recognition or funding and they do it anyway.”
Washington wants to make sure that smaller grassroots organizations receive more funding as non-profit groups parner with Baltimore City to provide COVID-19 relief.
“[Grassroots volunteers] are doing some of the work that the city itself is not doing and stepping up,” Washington said. “And one of the things I want to make sure is that these grassroots organizations get some of the money that is coming down the pipeline.”
In East Baltimore, mutual aid organizations The Baltimore Redevelopment Action Coalition for Empowerment [BRACE] and Reclaiming Our Community provide customized grocery boxes to seniors and people with dietary restrictions weekly. Donald Gresham, President of BRACE started the initiative to deliver food to seniors who can’t eat salt due to diabetes or hypertension and who don’t own vehicles.
“For people of color, we have generational diseases in our communities,” Gresham said. “We’ve been having these problems since before the virus took place. So we’re not going to cry and say ‘poor me,’ we’re just going to go to work. We know we’re going to be the last to get anything, so we need to get masks and gloves and educate.”
In Baltimore’s low-income communities, neighborhood organizations are left with few options but to take on the challenges of coordinating aid during a global pandemic. Throughout Baltimore City, residents are relying increasingly on dynamic, personal mutual aid networks to survive the rise in poverty caused by COVID-19.
“We didn’t have to wait for Hogan to tell us, it’s a homegrown thing. Crisis doesn’t divide us, crisis brings us closer together. Because we only need to look at each other to know that we will survive anything,” said Gresham.
Note: The author has participated in food aid organized by Baltimore Food Rescue, BRACE, and an End to Ignorance. They delivered food for So What Else while writing this article.
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therealnews--2020-05-19--US Sanctions On Iran Fueled By Hate And Money

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therealnews--2020-05-19--Stir Crazy! Episode #37: Hydroxyholdafuqup


therealnews--2020-05-20--Stir Crazy! Episode #38: Generation WTF!

Studio Technician (former)
Coming from a background in video production and filmmaking, Tunde Ogunfolaju was a studio tech for TRNN from 2018-2020. He operated, monitored, and adjusted audio, video, lighting, and broadcast equipment for the purposes of handling day-to-day production of in-studio, remote and live streamed interviews involving current political news for TRNN. He is a Baltimore native and great enthusiast of 90’s R&B as well as old school wrestling.


therealnews--2020-05-20--How Islamophobia And Trump Are Dividing Major Jewish Organizations

This is a rush transcript and may contain errors .
It will be updated .
Marc Steiner : Welcome to Real News .
I ’ m Marc Steiner .
Great to have you all with us once again .
Antisemitism , racism , Islamophobia have bubbled up and becoming daily headlines in United States .
Since the rise of the Trump Administration , especially .
The right wing antisemites say that a Jewish lobby controls the White House and progressives don ’ t like to use that term because they think it is a term that is antisemitic and racist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because it smacks of antisemitism .
The reality is there are pro-Israeli lobbying groups like AIPAC , and a number of evangelical Christian groups like Christians United for Israel that advocate to have this country support the right wing Israeli administration .
The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations , known as CoP , is an organization which claims to speak on behalf of Jewish communities inside the United States and is supposed to be a watchdog against antisemitism .
Since the occupation of ’ 67 and especially during the era of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about supporting the right wing in Israel with many , if not most American Jews questioning that .
Many centrist , peace , and left wing Jewish organizations are not allowed to become members of CoP .
So , in a new article published in +972 magazine , McMoRan analyzed the recent elections for the president of that group , CoP , and where Dianne Lob won by a wide margin , but she came under a vicious attack from Morton Klein , who ’ s president of the Zionist Organization of America @ @ @ @ @ @ @ un quote “ non Jews ” because of her work with HIAS , which is a refugee aid organization that was targeted in the Pittsburgh shooting in 2018 at the synagogue , in which 11 people were murdered .
Klein , I ’ m not saying he ’ s like this person , but like the murderer fiercely opposes giving shelter to refugees coming into the United States .
HIAS , which used to settle Jewish refugees now works in large part with helping many Muslim refugees settle here in United States and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his racist views crystal clear time and time again .
Last September , he spoke at the Center for Security Policy .
Let ’ s hear some of what he said .
Please brace yourselves , these words are not easy to hear .
And they clearly , and certainly , are not the views are represented by Real News Network or me .
Morton Klein : It is not a coincidence that the two leading antisemites in Congress are both Muslims .
It pains me to say this .
It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that 34 % of American Muslims are antisemitic .
The Koran , the standard Koran , preaches that Jews are under the curse of Allah , that Allah has transformed disobedient Jews into apes and pigs and such at the west point of Islam in Cairo , Al-Azhar University , they preach hatred against Jews .
They even give sermons preaching the Hadith lines about seeking out the Jew , whether it be behind a tree or a rock and kill him .
Imams have been videotaped all over America , all over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and asking that every Jew be annihilated one-by-one .
It ’ s shocking that I ’ m saying this , but this is the painful truth .
Marc Steiner : We are joined by Mik Moore , writer , producer and former Jewish communal professional , who lives in New York City .
He ’ s founder of Moore and Associates , a creative agency specializing in comedy and cultural strategy and wrote this article in +972 , How a U.S. Jewish Leadership Race Became Mired in Islamophobia .
And Mik , welcome @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Mik Moore : It ’ s great to be here .
Marc Steiner : So , a lot of people watching this broadcast probably are really not familiar with the group .
So let ’ s just start there just really quick , a quick primer .
Why are we focusing on this group and why ’ s it important to do so ?
Mik Moore : Yeah .
So the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations , which is a long name that doesn ’ t come off the tongue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Basically what had been happening is anyone who knows the Jewish world is familiar with the myriad of organizations that represent different Jewish interests .
And one of the challenges that existed in the fifties was lots of Jewish organizations were trying to get their views presented to the Eisenhower Administration .
And eventually the Eisenhower Administration said , we need to hear from a single voice that reflects the broad consensus of the community , so please create an organization and we will work with that one organization .
So , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as the name implies , is an umbrella organization .
And today I think it has over 50 , around 50 , organizations that are members .
And in theory , what the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations is supposed to do is to find a genuine consensus of where the American Jewish community is on a range of issues although primarily issues of sort of Jewish security , which tend to focus on issues of antisemitism and issues around Israel , although not exclusively .
And one of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of us have had with the Conference of Presidents is that it does not reflect where most Jews are .
In fact , it doesn ’ t even reflect where most Jewish organizations are .
What it presents as a consensus view is really the view of a fairly small minority of the American Jewish community .
Marc Steiner : I ’ m picking up on that idea .
I mean , there are estimates of five to eight million Jews in this country , and many of them kind of tend to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t support things like racial profiling and segregation , torture , obviously .
But when you look at the leadership of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations , you see people who are really pro-Israel , who will actually support racial profiling , segregation , torture , anything , when it comes defending Israel , many of them pro-Trump .
And so this disconnect is very real between what maybe the majority of Israeli Jews think , even though I wouldn ’ t say the majority of American Jews @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t necessarily for ending all settlements in the West Bank , but that number is growing .
But there ’ s a disconnect , in a larger sense , between that leadership and where most Jews are in this country .
And you look at the polls about who ’ s supporting Trump and who ’ s not , I mean , in every minority group in this country , Jews have the largest percentage of people who say no to Trump .
So why does CoP have this kind of outsized @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s that struggle about inside , and how ’ s that taking place ?
Mik Moore : Well , it ’ s complicated .
I mean , I think one of the reasons it has influence is because administrations , since Eisenhower , have treated it as the place to go for those sort of consensus opinions of the community .
And so that has , I think helped give it a certain stamp of authority .
And the second reason , which is related to that , is the outgoing head @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for over three decades , Malcolm Hoenlein , had a significant amount of influence based on his personal relationships , both here in the United States and abroad .
And so it ’ s a combination of , I think the way in which American administrations have treated the umbrella group , and the way in which the head of the group has sort of taken advantage of his relationships with key leaders to wield a lot of influence .
And this is an individual who is very much pro-settlement and has , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aligned with his views .
But the dynamic that ’ s complicated is there are in fact a good number of organizations that are members of the Conference of Presidents that are more of the mainstream liberal Jewish organizations .
So the Reform Movement , the National Council of Jewish Women , right ?
These are organizations whose membership primarily reflect those sort of Democratic Party demographics of most American Jews and have more liberal positions than what often comes out from the Conference itself and definitely diverge from where their are sort-of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I think there ’ s been a conversation long standing from more liberal organizations about whether or not it ’ s still worthwhile to play a role inside an organization that has tended to put forth a more conservative viewpoint , particularly on Israeli policy issues , and to try to influence it from the inside , or whether to sort of withdraw from that space .
And this fight that just happened over the current board president , I think was one manifestation of that internal battle that ’ s happening over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and whether it ’ s worth continuing to engage with it .
Marc Steiner : Just very quickly , when you ’ re looking at the significant stuff , the present struggle internally , where you had Dianne Lob , who ’ s part of HIAS , which is this Jewish refugee organization founded in the late 1800s that helped settle Jews from around the world when they were refugees , no matter where that was , kind of has shifted gears clearly to working with many other kinds of refugees , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was attacked for that by Klein and other ZOA , Zionist Organization of America people , in this vote , even though she won the vote overwhelmingly .
So , and she ’ s not going to come out and say dismantle all of the settlements and get rid of them .
I mean , some of us might and the Jewish Voices for Peace might and others , J Street , so why is this so significant ?
What ’ s happening inside there ?
Mik Moore : Yeah , so what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of America is one of the member organizations of the Conference of Presidents .
And it ’ s run by Mort Klein .
And where Klein has been well known for many years because of his role running this organization , which has always been a tiny organization , at least in recent history , it ’ s been around for a long time , but he has leveraged his title as president and his position as a member of the Conference of Presidents to gain sort of more prominence and influence than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ views are , most of his views I would say are pretty fringe in terms of what a typical American Jew believes .
He ’ s extremely pro settlement .
He is extremely anti-Muslim .
He ’ s embraced the Trump administration wholeheartedly .
He did a dinner that honored Steve Bannon , who ’ s reviled by the overwhelming majority of American Jews .
So you have a person like that utilizing his role inside this organization to advance an agenda that is explicitly Islamophobic and far to the right of American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the size and influence of an organization like HIAS , which was the group that Dianne Lob was the former board chair of , and you look at Zionist Organization of America , HIAS is way more aligned with the viewpoints of American Jews .
And I think in part , because of this , what Mort Klein did in his campaign to object to her ascension to this chair position was to essentially say , not essentially , to explicitly say that HIAS is not a Jewish organization .
And this attack @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two elements in this , one is there ’ s an attempt by the most conservative elements within the organized Jewish world to define Jewish organizations whose mission is driven by Jewish values , but doesn ’ t necessarily involve direct service worker support for Jews to define those groups as being not Jewish or outside of the Jewish community .
So HIAS describes itself or its journey as being an organization that went from helping refugees because they were Jewish to helping refugees because we are Jewish , essentially an assertion of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So that ’ s one big fight that ’ s going on that ’ s playing out within this battle .
The second has to do with American Jewish attitudes towards Muslims .
And there is a significant minority within the Jewish community that explicitly says , as Klein does here , and others that support for Muslim refugees is support for antisemitism .
And one of the things I ’ ve tried to underscore in this article is that while that particular perspective is not a mainstream point of view .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the members of even the Conference of Presidents don ’ t embrace it , there ’ s also a tolerance for that kind of viewpoint .
So somebody like Mort Klein or others can say something along those lines in a Jewish space and it ’ s not seen as outrageous , it ’ s become normalized .
And so one of the things I tried to underscore was why that ’ s so problematic and why it ’ s really important every time this happens to call it out for what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of the things you said in the article that I want to kind of as we close out , kind of look at this and also think about the nature of the kind of supremacist views in the White House and how this fits into all of this .
You had this great line saying that this debate taking place , I think the quote was , the long standing universalists versus particularist debate .
The Tikkun olam Jews versus [ inaudible 00:14:26 ] Israel Jews .
And you say , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A , let ’ s define those terms for everybody who doesn ’ t speak Hebrew and understand what that means and talk about what that is in the context of the ongoing struggle that seems to be growing in this country inside the Jewish community .
Well , let ’ s stop there and then I ’ ll have a final thought after that .
Mik Moore : Great .
So without getting into all the details , sort of Tikkun Olam means repair the world .
And [ inaudible 00:14:52 ] @ @ @ @ @ @ @ love the Jewish people .
And there has been a debate , those sort of more or less correspond to Jews who believe that both Jewish law and Jewish tradition is inclusive of other communities , which is to say that things that we ’ re commanded to do or ways to behave are not addressed specifically or exclusively to how we treat other Jews , but how we are supposed to treat other people .
And so organizations that take those Jewish values and then implement them in the world , see @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by some Jews as not being Jewish .
The Jews who are more particularist or who believe that the focus of Jewish organizations should exclusively be focused on serving the needs of other Jews .
And that can be serving the needs of other Jews in a direct service way , so providing food , or like HIAS used to do , providing refugee support or immigration support for Jews .
But it can also translate into a very narrow understanding of how Jewish values should be applied when it comes to Israel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get the sense that in any debate , if there is a Jewish side and a non-Jewish side , that Jews should always side with the other Jews , which translates into the Israeli government , even when those policies , like in the case of say the occupation and the settlements are clearly in violation of what most Jews see to be Jewish values .
And this is a longstanding debate , and it ’ s been used as a way for conservatives to marginalize quote Tikkun olam Jews as inauthentically Jewish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behalf of the Jewish community .
And therefore , in this case , HIAS , as one of those organizations , should not be , according to people like Mort Klein , in the Conference of Presidents , which claims to be the voice of American Jews .
Marc Steiner : So in closing it out here in a larger sense , when you look at Trump ’ s policies towards Israel and people like Klein and the role they play in the world of Trump and that minority , but significant in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that certain people have inside the Trump administration and you look at their approval of the annexation of land on the West Bank , the Palestinian land , and moving the embassy to Jerusalem , and this kind of weird convergence of certain orthodox and especially some Zionist groups and the evangelical Christian right coming together all in this kind of perfect political storm for them .
I mean , this , to me , everything that you wrote about and what happened in the council or organizations seems to all fit into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
You can ’ t separate that .
I mean , this is the politics that is fueling that , right ?
Mik Moore : Yeah .
I think that ’ s a hundred percent right .
I mean , what Jewish leaders like Mort Klein would like is for the only organizations or umbrella organizations that are seen as representative of Jews , be ones that reflect his narrow viewpoint about Israel , the settlements , Muslims , et cetera .
And so , as I said earlier , there ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ want to define out of the Jewish community those Jews whose politics differ from theirs and they ’ re using this as a wedge .
And what we ’ re seeing and have been seeing in Israel for decades is essentially a choice point between Israel as a democratic state for all citizens and Israel as a Jewish state that favors its Jewish citizens .
And annexation more potentially than any other action so far really has been calling that question .
And the truth is most American Jews , while supportive of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state .
And if it becomes through annexation an explicitly undemocratic state , there ’ s I think an open question about whether or not they will continue to be supportive the way that they have been .
And that ’ s the moment we ’ re in now .
And I would just say , Klein would like to just define all of those Jews that are uncomfortable with annexation out of the community and really replace them with evangelical Christian who are better Jews than the Jews .
I ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But that Jewishness has become defined no longer by whether your mother was Jewish or whether you affiliate with a Jewish institution , or whether you self identify as Jewish , but on how you view both Israel and Israeli policy towards the settlement and whether or not you hate Muslims .
And that ’ s kind of where we ’ re at .
We ’ re at this choice point moment .
Marc Steiner : Two seconds here .
Do you think that Lob becoming President will change anything ?
Mik Moore @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think she ’ s going to have a position of power to be able to do anything , but I do think there are some really good people who are involved with the Conference of Presidents .
And my hope is that they will take advantage of the fact that their viewpoints are more reflective of American Jews than Klein ’ s and they use that to shape the future of if not the Conference of Presidents , at least the voice of American Jewish organizations .
Marc Steiner : Well Mik Moore @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to talk with you .
And I appreciate the piece you wrote for +972 , look forward to talking to you more as we delve into this in deeper ways .
Thanks for [ inaudible 00:20:56 ] for your work and appreciate that and we ’ ll be talking to you soon .
Mik Moore : Great .
Thanks for having me on .
Marc Steiner : Thank you .
And I ’ m Mark Steiner here with the Real News Network .
Thank you all for joining us .
Please let us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ideas and thoughts and what you ’ ve been watching , and please still stay home .
Be safe , stay healthy .
I ’ m Marc Steiner here with the Real News Network .
Take care .

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations’ incoming Chair-elect Dianne Lob faced attack from of Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America because of her work with Muslim refugees.
Story Transcript
This is a rush transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Marc Steiner: Welcome to Real News. I’m Marc Steiner. Great to have you all with us once again. Antisemitism, racism, Islamophobia have bubbled up and becoming daily headlines in United States. Since the rise of the Trump Administration, especially. The right wing antisemites say that a Jewish lobby controls the White House and progressives don’t like to use that term because they think it is a term that is antisemitic and racist to the Jewish lobby, but also because it smacks of antisemitism.
The reality is there are pro-Israeli lobbying groups like AIPAC, and a number of evangelical Christian groups like Christians United for Israel that advocate to have this country support the right wing Israeli administration. The Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, known as CoP, is an organization which claims to speak on behalf of Jewish communities inside the United States and is supposed to be a watchdog against antisemitism.
Since the occupation of ’67 and especially during the era of Trump, CoP has become more fanatical about supporting the right wing in Israel with many, if not most American Jews questioning that. Many centrist, peace, and left wing Jewish organizations are not allowed to become members of CoP. So, in a new article published in +972 magazine, McMoRan analyzed the recent elections for the president of that group, CoP, and where Dianne Lob won by a wide margin, but she came under a vicious attack from Morton Klein, who’s president of the Zionist Organization of America. Klein accused Lob of helping quote un quote “non Jews” because of her work with HIAS, which is a refugee aid organization that was targeted in the Pittsburgh shooting in 2018 at the synagogue, in which 11 people were murdered.
Klein, I’m not saying he’s like this person, but like the murderer fiercely opposes giving shelter to refugees coming into the United States. HIAS, which used to settle Jewish refugees now works in large part with helping many Muslim refugees settle here in United States and across the globe. Morton Klein makes his racist views crystal clear time and time again. Last September, he spoke at the Center for Security Policy. Let’s hear some of what he said. Please brace yourselves, these words are not easy to hear. And they clearly, and certainly, are not the views are represented by Real News Network or me.
Morton Klein: It is not a coincidence that the two leading antisemites in Congress are both Muslims. It pains me to say this. It’s not a coincidence. ADL polls show that 34% of American Muslims are antisemitic. The Koran, the standard Koran, preaches that Jews are under the curse of Allah, that Allah has transformed disobedient Jews into apes and pigs and such at the west point of Islam in Cairo, Al-Azhar University, they preach hatred against Jews. They even give sermons preaching the Hadith lines about seeking out the Jew, whether it be behind a tree or a rock and kill him. Imams have been videotaped all over America, all over America, promoting this type of hatred and asking that every Jew be annihilated one-by-one. It’s shocking that I’m saying this, but this is the painful truth.
Marc Steiner: We are joined by Mik Moore, writer, producer and former Jewish communal professional, who lives in New York City. He’s founder of Moore and Associates, a creative agency specializing in comedy and cultural strategy and wrote this article in +972, How a U.S. Jewish Leadership Race Became Mired in Islamophobia. And Mik, welcome, good to have you with us.
Mik Moore: It’s great to be here.
Marc Steiner: So, a lot of people watching this broadcast probably are really not familiar with the group. So let’s just start there just really quick, a quick primer. Why are we focusing on this group and why’s it important to do so?
Mik Moore: Yeah. So the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, which is a long name that doesn’t come off the tongue easily was founded in the mid-fifties. Basically what had been happening is anyone who knows the Jewish world is familiar with the myriad of organizations that represent different Jewish interests. And one of the challenges that existed in the fifties was lots of Jewish organizations were trying to get their views presented to the Eisenhower Administration. And eventually the Eisenhower Administration said, we need to hear from a single voice that reflects the broad consensus of the community, so please create an organization and we will work with that one organization. So, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, as the name implies, is an umbrella organization.
And today I think it has over 50, around 50, organizations that are members. And in theory, what the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations is supposed to do is to find a genuine consensus of where the American Jewish community is on a range of issues although primarily issues of sort of Jewish security, which tend to focus on issues of antisemitism and issues around Israel, although not exclusively. And one of the challenges, I think, that many of us have had with the Conference of Presidents is that it does not reflect where most Jews are. In fact, it doesn’t even reflect where most Jewish organizations are. What it presents as a consensus view is really the view of a fairly small minority of the American Jewish community.
Marc Steiner: I’m picking up on that idea. I mean, there are estimates of five to eight million Jews in this country, and many of them kind of tend to be liberal to progressive, and they don’t support things like racial profiling and segregation, torture, obviously. But when you look at the leadership of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, you see people who are really pro-Israel, who will actually support racial profiling, segregation, torture, anything, when it comes defending Israel, many of them pro-Trump.
And so this disconnect is very real between what maybe the majority of Israeli Jews think, even though I wouldn’t say the majority of American Jews, I mean to say, aren’t necessarily for ending all settlements in the West Bank, but that number is growing. But there’s a disconnect, in a larger sense, between that leadership and where most Jews are in this country. And you look at the polls about who’s supporting Trump and who’s not, I mean, in every minority group in this country, Jews have the largest percentage of people who say no to Trump. So why does CoP have this kind of outsized control over the dialogue? And what’s that struggle about inside, and how’s that taking place?
Mik Moore: Well, it’s complicated. I mean, I think one of the reasons it has influence is because administrations, since Eisenhower, have treated it as the place to go for those sort of consensus opinions of the community. And so that has, I think helped give it a certain stamp of authority. And the second reason, which is related to that, is the outgoing head of the organization who had been there for over three decades, Malcolm Hoenlein, had a significant amount of influence based on his personal relationships, both here in the United States and abroad. And so it’s a combination of, I think the way in which American administrations have treated the umbrella group, and the way in which the head of the group has sort of taken advantage of his relationships with key leaders to wield a lot of influence. And this is an individual who is very much pro-settlement and has, I think steered the organizations to be aligned with his views.
But the dynamic that’s complicated is there are in fact a good number of organizations that are members of the Conference of Presidents that are more of the mainstream liberal Jewish organizations. So the Reform Movement, the National Council of Jewish Women, right? These are organizations whose membership primarily reflect those sort of Democratic Party demographics of most American Jews and have more liberal positions than what often comes out from the Conference itself and definitely diverge from where their are sort-of key leadership has been. So, I think there’s been a conversation long standing from more liberal organizations about whether or not it’s still worthwhile to play a role inside an organization that has tended to put forth a more conservative viewpoint, particularly on Israeli policy issues, and to try to influence it from the inside, or whether to sort of withdraw from that space. And this fight that just happened over the current board president, I think was one manifestation of that internal battle that’s happening over the direction that this umbrella group goes and whether it’s worth continuing to engage with it.
Marc Steiner: Just very quickly, when you’re looking at the significant stuff, the present struggle internally, where you had Dianne Lob, who’s part of HIAS, which is this Jewish refugee organization founded in the late 1800s that helped settle Jews from around the world when they were refugees, no matter where that was, kind of has shifted gears clearly to working with many other kinds of refugees, including lots of Muslim refugees. So she was attacked for that by Klein and other ZOA, Zionist Organization of America people, in this vote, even though she won the vote overwhelmingly. So, and she’s not going to come out and say dismantle all of the settlements and get rid of them. I mean, some of us might and the Jewish Voices for Peace might and others, J Street, so why is this so significant? What’s happening inside there?
Mik Moore: Yeah, so what’s interesting is the Zionist Organization of America is one of the member organizations of the Conference of Presidents. And it’s run by Mort Klein. And where Klein has been well known for many years because of his role running this organization, which has always been a tiny organization, at least in recent history, it’s been around for a long time, but he has leveraged his title as president and his position as a member of the Conference of Presidents to gain sort of more prominence and influence than he might have otherwise. So his views are, most of his views I would say are pretty fringe in terms of what a typical American Jew believes. He’s extremely pro settlement. He is extremely anti-Muslim. He’s embraced the Trump administration wholeheartedly. He did a dinner that honored Steve Bannon, who’s reviled by the overwhelming majority of American Jews.
So you have a person like that utilizing his role inside this organization to advance an agenda that is explicitly Islamophobic and far to the right of American Jews. So if you look at the size and influence of an organization like HIAS, which was the group that Dianne Lob was the former board chair of, and you look at Zionist Organization of America, HIAS is way more aligned with the viewpoints of American Jews. And I think in part, because of this, what Mort Klein did in his campaign to object to her ascension to this chair position was to essentially say, not essentially, to explicitly say that HIAS is not a Jewish organization. And this attack is sort of, there’s two elements in this, one is there’s an attempt by the most conservative elements within the organized Jewish world to define Jewish organizations whose mission is driven by Jewish values, but doesn’t necessarily involve direct service worker support for Jews to define those groups as being not Jewish or outside of the Jewish community.
So HIAS describes itself or its journey as being an organization that went from helping refugees because they were Jewish to helping refugees because we are Jewish, essentially an assertion of Jewish values around support for refugees. So that’s one big fight that’s going on that’s playing out within this battle. The second has to do with American Jewish attitudes towards Muslims. And there is a significant minority within the Jewish community that explicitly says, as Klein does here, and others that support for Muslim refugees is support for antisemitism.
And one of the things I’ve tried to underscore in this article is that while that particular perspective is not a mainstream point of view. And in fact, I would say most of the members of even the Conference of Presidents don’t embrace it, there’s also a tolerance for that kind of viewpoint. So somebody like Mort Klein or others can say something along those lines in a Jewish space and it’s not seen as outrageous, it’s become normalized. And so one of the things I tried to underscore was why that’s so problematic and why it’s really important every time this happens to call it out for what it is.
Marc Steiner: So one of the things you said in the article that I want to kind of as we close out, kind of look at this and also think about the nature of the kind of supremacist views in the White House and how this fits into all of this. You had this great line saying that this debate taking place, I think the quote was, the long standing universalists versus particularist debate. The Tikkun olam Jews versus [inaudible 00:14:26] Israel Jews. And you say, but that’s too simplistic. But A, let’s define those terms for everybody who doesn’t speak Hebrew and understand what that means and talk about what that is in the context of the ongoing struggle that seems to be growing in this country inside the Jewish community. Well, let’s stop there and then I’ll have a final thought after that.
Mik Moore: Great. So without getting into all the details, sort of Tikkun Olam means repair the world. And [inaudible 00:14:52] means sort of love of Israel or love the Jewish people. And there has been a debate, those sort of more or less correspond to Jews who believe that both Jewish law and Jewish tradition is inclusive of other communities, which is to say that things that we’re commanded to do or ways to behave are not addressed specifically or exclusively to how we treat other Jews, but how we are supposed to treat other people. And so organizations that take those Jewish values and then implement them in the world, see themselves as Jewish, but are seen by some Jews as not being Jewish. The Jews who are more particularist or who believe that the focus of Jewish organizations should exclusively be focused on serving the needs of other Jews.
And that can be serving the needs of other Jews in a direct service way, so providing food, or like HIAS used to do, providing refugee support or immigration support for Jews. But it can also translate into a very narrow understanding of how Jewish values should be applied when it comes to Israel. And that’s where you get the sense that in any debate, if there is a Jewish side and a non-Jewish side, that Jews should always side with the other Jews, which translates into the Israeli government, even when those policies, like in the case of say the occupation and the settlements are clearly in violation of what most Jews see to be Jewish values. And this is a longstanding debate, and it’s been used as a way for conservatives to marginalize quote Tikkun olam Jews as inauthentically Jewish, and therefore unable to speak on behalf of the Jewish community. And therefore, in this case, HIAS, as one of those organizations, should not be, according to people like Mort Klein, in the Conference of Presidents, which claims to be the voice of American Jews.
Marc Steiner: So in closing it out here in a larger sense, when you look at Trump’s policies towards Israel and people like Klein and the role they play in the world of Trump and that minority, but significant in terms of wealth and power and influence that certain people have inside the Trump administration and you look at their approval of the annexation of land on the West Bank, the Palestinian land, and moving the embassy to Jerusalem, and this kind of weird convergence of certain orthodox and especially some Zionist groups and the evangelical Christian right coming together all in this kind of perfect political storm for them. I mean, this, to me, everything that you wrote about and what happened in the council or organizations seems to all fit into this. This is part and parcel. You can’t separate that. I mean, this is the politics that is fueling that, right?
Mik Moore: Yeah. I think that’s a hundred percent right. I mean, what Jewish leaders like Mort Klein would like is for the only organizations or umbrella organizations that are seen as representative of Jews, be ones that reflect his narrow viewpoint about Israel, the settlements, Muslims, et cetera. And so, as I said earlier, there’s this debate around authenticity. So they want to define out of the Jewish community those Jews whose politics differ from theirs and they’re using this as a wedge.
And what we’re seeing and have been seeing in Israel for decades is essentially a choice point between Israel as a democratic state for all citizens and Israel as a Jewish state that favors its Jewish citizens. And annexation more potentially than any other action so far really has been calling that question. And the truth is most American Jews, while supportive of Israel, support Israel as a democratic state. And if it becomes through annexation an explicitly undemocratic state, there’s I think an open question about whether or not they will continue to be supportive the way that they have been.
And that’s the moment we’re in now. And I would just say, Klein would like to just define all of those Jews that are uncomfortable with annexation out of the community and really replace them with evangelical Christian who are better Jews than the Jews. I’ve mentioned that also in the article. But that Jewishness has become defined no longer by whether your mother was Jewish or whether you affiliate with a Jewish institution, or whether you self identify as Jewish, but on how you view both Israel and Israeli policy towards the settlement and whether or not you hate Muslims. And that’s kind of where we’re at. We’re at this choice point moment.
Marc Steiner: Two seconds here. Do you think that Lob becoming President will change anything?
Mik Moore: No. I don’t think she’s going to have a position of power to be able to do anything, but I do think there are some really good people who are involved with the Conference of Presidents. And my hope is that they will take advantage of the fact that their viewpoints are more reflective of American Jews than Klein’s and they use that to shape the future of if not the Conference of Presidents, at least the voice of American Jewish organizations.
Marc Steiner: Well Mik Moore, it’s been a pleasure to talk with you. And I appreciate the piece you wrote for +972, look forward to talking to you more as we delve into this in deeper ways. Thanks for [inaudible 00:20:56] for your work and appreciate that and we’ll be talking to you soon.
Mik Moore: Great. Thanks for having me on.
Marc Steiner: Thank you. And I’m Mark Steiner here with the Real News Network. Thank you all for joining us. Please let us know what you think, hit your ideas and thoughts and what you’ve been watching, and please still stay home. Be safe, stay healthy. I’m Marc Steiner here with the Real News Network. Take care.
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therealnews--2020-05-20--This is Not a Drill: LIVE, May 20th

This is Not a Drill: LIVE, May 20th

What strategic opportunity remains for left organizers to build political power within the Democratic Party after Bernie? Are the Democrats in internal crisis, exacerbated by the broader health, political, and economic crises? And, how can we best fight the right wing? Join us for the next episode of This is Not a Drill: LIVE as we talk 2020 political and electoral strategy in the face of a global pandemic.
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therealnews--2020-05-20--A Just Reopening Prioritizes People Over Profits

This is a rush transcript and may contain errors .
It will be updated .
Jaisal Noor : Welcome to The Real News , I ’ m Jaisal Noor .
The coronavirus pandemic has taken a staggering toll on the United States , which has just over 4 % of the world ’ s population , but more than 30 % of the world ’ s confirmed cases and 28 % of the world ’ s deaths .
And in the United States COVID-19 has hit low income communities of color the hardest .
Meanwhile , most states are rushing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health officials .
Well , joining us to discuss this is Sarah Lazare , web editor and reporter for In These Times , who ’ s done an excellent series of reporting on COVID-19 and especially around issues around reopening and the power that corporations are wielding right now to shape public discourse .
Sarah , it ’ s now something like 48 states are reopening this week over the objections of health experts and scientists .
You write in public discourse , the language of reopening is largely being conceded to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like , because we see this throughout news reporting , whether it ’ s newspapers or media , the right is really taking hold of this .
And at the same time when the government hasn ’ t really provided a safe alternative to opening and also not given real benefits , like many other countries have .
A $ 1,200 stimulus check and unemployment benefits for those who can get them right now , it ’ s really put people in a tight spot .
Sarah Lazare : Yeah .
We really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump , the GOP , right-wing think tanks or CEO ’ s frame this rush to unsafely send people back to work at the reopening because what they are in fact doing is unraveling the conditions that we need to have an actual , safe , just and sustainable reopening .
In order to actually have our society reopen again , to do all of the things we desperately want to do , which is , stroll through the park safely without a mask , go to the library , go to work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those things in a way that is all just the first thing you need to do is contain coronavirus , that ’ s what shelter-in-place is for .
Shelter-in-place is for not only containing the coronavirus , but also putting aggressive public health measures in place so that you can have the level of containment that you need to actually have a safe reopening .
The Trump administration has not been putting any of those public health measures in place in any kind of a coordinated and effective way , so as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have to move towards an actual safe reopening has been largely squandered .
But another thing that you need to have a reopening that ’ s anything like safe or just is you need to give people a way to survive during the very difficult containment process .
On the one hand , we have Republicans sending us into a very lethal , dangerous hasty “ reopening ” that we know is going to kill large numbers of people .
And based on the evidence we have so far black and Latino people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the deaths , which is a really horrific thing .
And then on the Democrat side , what we ’ re seeing is people supporting shelter-in-place instructions but not giving people a way to survive while they ’ re sheltering in place .
For people to shelter-in-place , you really need to be paid to stay home , that ’ s really the only just way to do this .
The labor union UE is calling for people to be paid to stay home , but instead what we ’ re seeing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unemployment insurance that undocumented people do not qualify for at all .
According to One Fair Wage , 44 % of people across the country who have applied for unemployment have not yet received it .
It is also incredibly unjust to not give people the things that they need to survive while sheltering in place .
What I think we need is a coordinated , holistic , social justice-based approach to a crisis that allows us to collectively move forward without sacrificing human lives and without leaving anyone behind or consigning anyone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or potentially losing everything .
And I think that the left has a big role to play in defining and determining what that looks like in this moment .
Jaisal Noor : One thing that I think a lot of us noticed is how you had , especially on Mayday , you had workers protesting around the country and around the world saying that , “ We ’ re being forced to go into , ” essential workers being forced to go in and work under very unsafe conditions .
And that got @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reopen protests , which are astroturf because similar to the way The Tea Party in 2010 , under President Obama , claimed to be this organic grassroots movement .
There ’ s actually evidence now that these reopened protests are funded by some of the wealthiest , most corrupt organizations on the planet and you right with the funding from the Koch Foundation , Exxon Mobil , and a bevy of wealthy donors , The Heritage Foundation is at the center of the political efforts to prematurely restart the economy .
Talk about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what they ’ re doing to sort of pull these strings to really astroturf these protests that are ongoing till this day .
Even as 48 States have started to reopen , they ’ re pushing for a rapider and wider reopening .
Sarah Lazare : Just to be clear , there are several Koch-Funded Think Tanks , The Heritage Foundation , ALEC , Americans for Prosperity .
They have at least publicly distanced themselves from the actual reopen protests .
There was a Politico article that came out a few weeks ago @ @ @ @ @ @ @ themselves from the protests .
Those protests are still being astroturfed by wealthy organizations , for example , FreedomWorks .
It ’ s highly involved in those protests as well as white supremacist organizations .
But the Koch-Funded Think Tanks while publicly disavowing the actual protests are doing incredibly aggressive lobbying and advocacy work pushing for an unsafe sending of people back to work .
They are on legislator calls , they are lobbying , they are getting all this space in outlets .
The Heritage Foundation is very influential in the Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Trump administration ’ s transition team along with… The Heritage Foundation history goes way back , it was involved in the sort of Reagan era tax cuts and has been behind a lot of the really anti-worker anti-poor people and racist legislation of our times .
For example , The Heritage Foundation claims that it had a big role in pushing Trump to pass work requirements for food stamps .
And so a lot of these Koch-funded organizations that have decades-long history , opposing unions , fighting the good public programs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outset of the coronavirus crisis saying we should send people back to work knowing fully well that it ’ s going to mean that people die .
And they are essentially continuing what they ’ ve always been doing , but they are doing so in escalated conditions , because now they ’ ve proven that they ’ re willing to call for an unsafe “ reopening ” knowing that people are going to die .
While they might publicly distance themselves from the actual protests , they ’ re very much part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ similar goals to the protests and you could argue that they ’ re far more influential with the Trump administration and with the Republican Party overall in pushing those goals .
And you ’ re totally right that the reopen protests which were astroturf and far smaller than the wave of the labor militancy and strikes and people being very courageous have gotten… the “ reopen ” protests have gotten far more attention , which is really too bad because workers are being incredibly brave , they ’ re fighting for their lives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I think there ’ s been this sort of patronizing head padding line out there saying , “ Essential workers are heroes.
” One of our reporters , Hamilton Nolan ’ s at a piece where he interviewed a bunch of grocery store workers , and a lot of them told him , “ No , I don ’ t want to be risking my life .
I ’ m here against my will , I ’ m here because I have no other way to survive .
I want to live , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so there ’ s a profound amount of economic coercion just implicit in the way we use the word essential workers , economic coercion , disciplining labor .
And I think that the ways that workers are fighting back and organizing and banding together in solidarity in this moment are incredibly powerful and with way more coverage .
Jaisal Noor : And finally , Sarah , to kind of build off your point about how essential workers they ’ re being allegedly honored for sacrificing , putting their lives at risk , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to do .
But that really made me think of the military flyovers we ’ ve been seeing over the hardest hit cities , because these are planes that cost millions of dollars .
It costs tens of thousands of dollars per hour to keep them in the air .
But I think it ’ s important to keep in mind that the role that the military and Pentagon plays and everything from the budget .
More than half our discretionary budget goes to the Pentagon .
To this piece that you wrote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Other Countries to Risk Their Lives for U.S .
Arm Industry Profits .
And in it you write , “ Workers are being asked to risk their lives , or as one union that represents General Dynamics workers in Maine put it , become “ sacrificial lambs ” so that the U.S. war machine can keep humming.
” Talk about the union and the workers you talk to and what that situation is like ?
Sarah Lazare : There are many layers to the injustice of what you just described .
The first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s belligerence and aggression is making the world far vulnerable to coronavirus and it ’ s making the world a far more dangerous place .
Five years of U.S. onslaught on Yemen have left the country ’ s healthcare system really decimated .
Yet , U.S. Saudi bombings have continued during the crisis , and now Yemen has the coronavirus outbreak that could be really horrible because of those conditions .
The U.S. ratcheted up sanctions on Iran , even as doctors warned that people were dying in large numbers because sanctions were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We saw the U.S. deploy a ship to the Caribbean to hedge against Venezuela , sorry , more than one ship , it was a few ships .
And we ’ re seeing the U.S. ratchet up militarily in terms of rhetoric towards China at a time that we need global cooperation to deal with a global pandemic .
All of these acts of aggression hurt most of the people in those countries that are being targeted by aggression , but also hurt the whole world because this is a global pandemic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world everywhere .
We ’ re told that we need all of this military spending for “ national security.
” I think we ’ re seeing right now that the U.S. military does not keep anyone safe and that the whole framework of national security is a false framework .
Given that the U.S. have invoked national security as the reason that we need to keep the defense industrial base going during this crisis .
The U.S. defense industrial base has been declared essential , which means that workers who build tankers and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are being told , “ We still need you working because the work that you do is essential.
” Because of the reasons I mentioned , we should reject that framework altogether .
On top of that workers that I talked to are not happy that their lives are being risked for something that one could argue , or for something that they think is not essential .
I talked to one worker who works for a contractor for Lockheed Martin who requested anonymity .
And he said that it ’ s really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ every day , he doesn ’ t have social distancing conditions , someone at his facility had tested positive for coronavirus .
As you mentioned , the union that represents General Dynamics workers in Bath , Maine , said that workers are being treated like sacrificial lambs .
All of that is really horrible .
On top of that there ’ s even a more belligerent thing that ’ s happening , which is , the Pentagon is mobilizing to pressure Mexico and India to push workers in their countries who are either @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to keep going to work .
There is this idea that workers in other countries , in Mexico and India have to put their lives at risk for the sake of U.S. arms companies like Lockheed Martin .
This was just a whole other level of injustice because poor and working people in the U.S. already don ’ t have very much say about the actions of the U.S. government or military , but a worker in Mexico or India has no say .
The idea that they would sacrifice their safety , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their hands for the purpose of U.S weapon companies being able to do manufacturing of weapons that are in turn making the whole world more dangerous at a time of profound vulnerability is just completely unconscionable and I think deserves a lot more attention .
I think we can ’ t talk about the coronavirus crisis like it ’ s just a domestic crisis to be dealt with domestically .
The U.S. has 800 military bases around the world , the U.S. hums the biggest military empire humanity has ever seen .
That @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to right now immediately take its boot off of the neck of people in other parts of the world trying to survive a profound crisis .
Jaisal Noor : All right , Sarah Lazare , web editor and reporter for In These Times .
Thank you so much for sharing some of your incredible reporting .
In these last few months we know it ’ s a challenging time for everybody , but it ’ s important that we stay connected to these different struggles happening around the world and recognize the role @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or at least , decreasing the suffering that ’ s happening in the rest of the world .
Thank you so much for joining us .
Sarah Lazare : Thank you so much .
Jaisal Noor : And thank you for joining us at The Real News Network .

As Trump’s “reopening” endangers lives, Democrats must advance policy that gives working people something to fight for, argues In These Times’ Sarah Lazare.
Story Transcript
This is a rush transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Jaisal Noor: Welcome to The Real News, I’m Jaisal Noor. The coronavirus pandemic has taken a staggering toll on the United States, which has just over 4% of the world’s population, but more than 30% of the world’s confirmed cases and 28% of the world’s deaths. And in the United States COVID-19 has hit low income communities of color the hardest. Meanwhile, most states are rushing to reopen against the advice of public health officials. Well, joining us to discuss this is Sarah Lazare, web editor and reporter for In These Times, who’s done an excellent series of reporting on COVID-19 and especially around issues around reopening and the power that corporations are wielding right now to shape public discourse.
Sarah, it’s now something like 48 states are reopening this week over the objections of health experts and scientists. You write in public discourse, the language of reopening is largely being conceded to the right. Talk about what this looks like, because we see this throughout news reporting, whether it’s newspapers or media, the right is really taking hold of this. And at the same time when the government hasn’t really provided a safe alternative to opening and also not given real benefits, like many other countries have. A $1,200 stimulus check and unemployment benefits for those who can get them right now, it’s really put people in a tight spot.
Sarah Lazare: Yeah. We really should not let the administration of Donald Trump, the GOP, right-wing think tanks or CEO’s frame this rush to unsafely send people back to work at the reopening because what they are in fact doing is unraveling the conditions that we need to have an actual, safe, just and sustainable reopening. In order to actually have our society reopen again, to do all of the things we desperately want to do, which is, stroll through the park safely without a mask, go to the library, go to work without fear.
In order to do those things in a way that is all just the first thing you need to do is contain coronavirus, that’s what shelter-in-place is for. Shelter-in-place is for not only containing the coronavirus, but also putting aggressive public health measures in place so that you can have the level of containment that you need to actually have a safe reopening. The Trump administration has not been putting any of those public health measures in place in any kind of a coordinated and effective way, so as a result, this important time that we have to move towards an actual safe reopening has been largely squandered.
But another thing that you need to have a reopening that’s anything like safe or just is you need to give people a way to survive during the very difficult containment process. On the one hand, we have Republicans sending us into a very lethal, dangerous hasty “reopening” that we know is going to kill large numbers of people. And based on the evidence we have so far black and Latino people are going to disproportionately bear the burden of the deaths, which is a really horrific thing. And then on the Democrat side, what we’re seeing is people supporting shelter-in-place instructions but not giving people a way to survive while they’re sheltering in place.
For people to shelter-in-place, you really need to be paid to stay home, that’s really the only just way to do this. The labor union UE is calling for people to be paid to stay home, but instead what we’re seeing from Democrats is paltry one-time payments, unemployment insurance that undocumented people do not qualify for at all. According to One Fair Wage, 44% of people across the country who have applied for unemployment have not yet received it.
It is also incredibly unjust to not give people the things that they need to survive while sheltering in place. What I think we need is a coordinated, holistic, social justice-based approach to a crisis that allows us to collectively move forward without sacrificing human lives and without leaving anyone behind or consigning anyone to destitution, poverty or hunger, or potentially losing everything. And I think that the left has a big role to play in defining and determining what that looks like in this moment.
Jaisal Noor: One thing that I think a lot of us noticed is how you had, especially on Mayday, you had workers protesting around the country and around the world saying that, “We’re being forced to go into,” essential workers being forced to go in and work under very unsafe conditions. And that got a little media coverage compared to these reopen protests, which are astroturf because similar to the way The Tea Party in 2010, under President Obama, claimed to be this organic grassroots movement.
There’s actually evidence now that these reopened protests are funded by some of the wealthiest, most corrupt organizations on the planet and you right with the funding from the Koch Foundation, Exxon Mobil, and a bevy of wealthy donors, The Heritage Foundation is at the center of the political efforts to prematurely restart the economy. Talk about who these groups are, and also what they’re doing to sort of pull these strings to really astroturf these protests that are ongoing till this day. Even as 48 States have started to reopen, they’re pushing for a rapider and wider reopening.
Sarah Lazare: Just to be clear, there are several Koch-Funded Think Tanks, The Heritage Foundation, ALEC, Americans for Prosperity. They have at least publicly distanced themselves from the actual reopen protests. There was a Politico article that came out a few weeks ago in which Koch-funded orgs tried to distance themselves from the protests. Those protests are still being astroturfed by wealthy organizations, for example, FreedomWorks. It’s highly involved in those protests as well as white supremacist organizations. But the Koch-Funded Think Tanks while publicly disavowing the actual protests are doing incredibly aggressive lobbying and advocacy work pushing for an unsafe sending of people back to work.
They are on legislator calls, they are lobbying, they are getting all this space in outlets. The Heritage Foundation is very influential in the Trump administration, it actually had a role in the Trump administration’s transition team along with… The Heritage Foundation history goes way back, it was involved in the sort of Reagan era tax cuts and has been behind a lot of the really anti-worker anti-poor people and racist legislation of our times. For example, The Heritage Foundation claims that it had a big role in pushing Trump to pass work requirements for food stamps.
And so a lot of these Koch-funded organizations that have decades-long history, opposing unions, fighting the good public programs. Have been very aggressive from the outset of the coronavirus crisis saying we should send people back to work knowing fully well that it’s going to mean that people die. And they are essentially continuing what they’ve always been doing, but they are doing so in escalated conditions, because now they’ve proven that they’re willing to call for an unsafe “reopening” knowing that people are going to die.
While they might publicly distance themselves from the actual protests, they’re very much part of a similar… okay, they have similar goals to the protests and you could argue that they’re far more influential with the Trump administration and with the Republican Party overall in pushing those goals. And you’re totally right that the reopen protests which were astroturf and far smaller than the wave of the labor militancy and strikes and people being very courageous have gotten… the “reopen” protests have gotten far more attention, which is really too bad because workers are being incredibly brave, they’re fighting for their lives, they’re speaking out. I think there’s been this sort of patronizing head padding line out there saying, “Essential workers are heroes.”
One of our reporters, Hamilton Nolan’s at a piece where he interviewed a bunch of grocery store workers, and a lot of them told him, “No, I don’t want to be risking my life. I’m here against my will, I’m here because I have no other way to survive. I want to live, this is not by choice.” And so there’s a profound amount of economic coercion just implicit in the way we use the word essential workers, economic coercion, disciplining labor. And I think that the ways that workers are fighting back and organizing and banding together in solidarity in this moment are incredibly powerful and with way more coverage.
Jaisal Noor: And finally, Sarah, to kind of build off your point about how essential workers they’re being allegedly honored for sacrificing, putting their lives at risk, which many of them don’t want to do. But that really made me think of the military flyovers we’ve been seeing over the hardest hit cities, because these are planes that cost millions of dollars. It costs tens of thousands of dollars per hour to keep them in the air. But I think it’s important to keep in mind that the role that the military and Pentagon plays and everything from the budget.
More than half our discretionary budget goes to the Pentagon. To this piece that you wrote titled, The Pentagon Wants Workers in Other Countries to Risk Their Lives for U.S. Arm Industry Profits. And in it you write, “Workers are being asked to risk their lives, or as one union that represents General Dynamics workers in Maine put it, become “sacrificial lambs” so that the U.S. war machine can keep humming.” Talk about the union and the workers you talk to and what that situation is like?
Sarah Lazare: There are many layers to the injustice of what you just described. The first thing is that the U.S. military’s belligerence and aggression is making the world far vulnerable to coronavirus and it’s making the world a far more dangerous place. Five years of U.S. onslaught on Yemen have left the country’s healthcare system really decimated. Yet, U.S. Saudi bombings have continued during the crisis, and now Yemen has the coronavirus outbreak that could be really horrible because of those conditions. The U.S. ratcheted up sanctions on Iran, even as doctors warned that people were dying in large numbers because sanctions were cutting off vital supplies like ventilators.
We saw the U.S. deploy a ship to the Caribbean to hedge against Venezuela, sorry, more than one ship, it was a few ships. And we’re seeing the U.S. ratchet up militarily in terms of rhetoric towards China at a time that we need global cooperation to deal with a global pandemic. All of these acts of aggression hurt most of the people in those countries that are being targeted by aggression, but also hurt the whole world because this is a global pandemic, so an outbreak anywhere affects the whole world everywhere.
We’re told that we need all of this military spending for “national security.” I think we’re seeing right now that the U.S. military does not keep anyone safe and that the whole framework of national security is a false framework. Given that the U.S. have invoked national security as the reason that we need to keep the defense industrial base going during this crisis. The U.S. defense industrial base has been declared essential, which means that workers who build tankers and bombs and drones here in the U.S. are being told, “We still need you working because the work that you do is essential.”
Because of the reasons I mentioned, we should reject that framework altogether. On top of that workers that I talked to are not happy that their lives are being risked for something that one could argue, or for something that they think is not essential. I talked to one worker who works for a contractor for Lockheed Martin who requested anonymity. And he said that it’s really scary he’s going to work every day, he doesn’t have social distancing conditions, someone at his facility had tested positive for coronavirus. As you mentioned, the union that represents General Dynamics workers in Bath, Maine, said that workers are being treated like sacrificial lambs.
All of that is really horrible. On top of that there’s even a more belligerent thing that’s happening, which is, the Pentagon is mobilizing to pressure Mexico and India to push workers in their countries who are either suppliers or subsidiaries for U.S. arms companies to keep going to work. There is this idea that workers in other countries, in Mexico and India have to put their lives at risk for the sake of U.S. arms companies like Lockheed Martin. This was just a whole other level of injustice because poor and working people in the U.S. already don’t have very much say about the actions of the U.S. government or military, but a worker in Mexico or India has no say.
The idea that they would sacrifice their safety, that they would take their lives into their hands for the purpose of U.S weapon companies being able to do manufacturing of weapons that are in turn making the whole world more dangerous at a time of profound vulnerability is just completely unconscionable and I think deserves a lot more attention. I think we can’t talk about the coronavirus crisis like it’s just a domestic crisis to be dealt with domestically. The U.S. has 800 military bases around the world, the U.S. hums the biggest military empire humanity has ever seen. That empire needs to be dismantled and needs to right now immediately take its boot off of the neck of people in other parts of the world trying to survive a profound crisis.
Jaisal Noor: All right, Sarah Lazare, web editor and reporter for In These Times. Thank you so much for sharing some of your incredible reporting. In these last few months we know it’s a challenging time for everybody, but it’s important that we stay connected to these different struggles happening around the world and recognize the role that we can play in helping, or at least, decreasing the suffering that’s happening in the rest of the world. Thank you so much for joining us.
Sarah Lazare: Thank you so much.
Jaisal Noor: And thank you for joining us at The Real News Network.
Production: Genevieve Montinar, Will Arenas, Andrew Corkery
Studio: Will Arenas
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