Air Date 10/15/2024

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JAY TOMLINSON - HOST, BEST OF THE LEFT: Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Left podcast. 

Just as COVID tended to expose the preexisting fractures and inequalities in our society causing undue harm, supercharged by disinformation, so do natural disasters. And the impact of disinformation and conspiracy has only grown in recent years.

Sources providing our Top Takes in about 50 minutes today include:

Unf*cking The Republic

The BradCast

Democracy Now!

CounterSpin

Alex Wagner Tonight

All In w/ Chris Hayes

Then, in the additional, Deeper Dives half of the show, there’ll be more in four sections:

SECTION A - NATURAL DISASTERS

SECTION B - INTERSECTIONAL ISSUES

SECTION C - POLITICS

SECTION D - TRUMP AND DISINFORMATION

Election Denials_ Asheville, Israel & Inequality. - Unf*cking The Republic - Air Date 10-25-24

MAX - HOST, UNFTR: A relative of mine who works in the renewable energy financing sector said something a couple of years ago that really stuck with me.

He [00:01:00] and his wife were thinking about having a child and evaluating the best places to start a family, while keeping their career prospects open. Now, as a New Yorker, I'm used to these conversations all along the age spectrum because of the insane cost of living here. And it seems like 9 out of 10 relocation conversations involve somewhere in the southeast of the United States. So-and-so moved to Florida. Our friends just bought a place in South Carolina, twice the size, half the price. There's a ton of New Yorkers in North Carolina. It just feels like home. Blah, blah, blah. 

But my relative wasn't thinking that way. According to the models he and his team had built, a band of real estate from upstate New York, all the way through Quebec, will have more favorable climate conditions in the coming decades.

Investing down south was simply more of a risk for the large scale projects they work on, because, you know, climate change. North Carolina in particular has seen a huge influx of New Yorkers. In fact, New Yorkers make up the largest [00:02:00] percentage of transplants in the state, and one of the idyllic places we often hear about is beautiful Asheville, North Carolina.

SKIT: Asheville, it's a magical artsy southern futopia bubble. These blue mountains inspire you to try new things. Like doing mountain pose on top of a mountain, or blowing your own glass then drinking your craft beer out of it. There are sound baths, forest baths, and luxurious spa baths. And the food? Have you ever planned your day around a biscuit?

We can describe Asheville, but to really feel it, you kind of have to be here. Explore Asheville dot com. 

CLIP: North Carolina is cleaning up from the worst flooding ever on record for the state. More than 100 people are dead from Helene, a number that's still expected to rise. Hundreds more are missing and roughly 2.1 million customers are without power across the region. 

At least 57 of those who died are from Buncombe County, North Carolina. That's where Asheville is. 

I haven't seen my kids. I'm tired. I'm [00:03:00] hungry. I still have no power. I have no gas to get to my kids. I don't know where to get gas. So there's that.

MAX - HOST, UNFTR: Asheville is one of the areas in the United States that has been billed as a so-called "climate haven" or, quote, "receiving zones of climate migration," as they call it. 

Building on the success of this type of campaign and possibly even the models my relative and his team were building, cities such as Madison, Wisconsin; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Buffalo, New York; and Burlington, Vermont have latched onto this idea as a marketing tool.

But flash floods in Vermont have become more common in recent years due to warmer weather and more precipitation. Buffalo's infamous snowstorms are deadlier than ever. Wisconsin experiences an average of 23 tornadoes per year, and it's not even in quote unquote "tornado alley." And though Asheville is located inland, Hurricane Helene's intensity caused extensive damage, highlighting the [00:04:00] vulnerability of mountainous regions to hurricanes.

As the storm made its way across the southeast, heavy rainfall overwhelmed rivers and streams leading to severe flooding in Asheville and the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains. The French Broad River, which runs through Asheville, swelled beyond its banks, inundating homes, businesses, and infrastructure. Many parts of the city were submerged, and residents faced displacement as floodwaters entered the neighborhoods.

Roads were washed out. and landslides became a dangerous reality due to the saturation of the soil in the region's steep terrain. The devastation was compounded by the isolation of some communities, as fallen trees and landslides blocked major roads, making rescue and relief efforts difficult. In rural areas surrounding Asheville, farmland and livestock were also heavily impacted, leading to, as of yet, unknown long term economic hardships.

This week in the vice presidential debate between J. D. Vance and [00:05:00] Tim Walz, The candidates were pressed on the issue of climate change against the backdrop of the devastation in North Carolina. Now, each man expressed sorrow at the tragic events before moving coolly into the same old talking points we've been hearing for years.

Vance said he didn't want to argue about, quote, "weird science." But said if one were to believe that carbon emissions are to blame for climate change, then the answer is to reshore manufacturing. And then stated that we're the, quote, "cleanest economy in the world." Walz made sure to hammer home the point that we're producing more oil and natural gas than ever before, and that the Biden/Harris administration created more manufacturing jobs.

After burnishing the country's resume on clean energy and oil and gas production, he concluded saying, we can do it all. But now we need to, quote, "start thinking about how do we mitigate these disasters?" 

In The Future of Denial, author Tad DeLay writes, quote, "Perhaps our descendants look back on the lack of urgency [00:06:00] in the long 21st century as the great dithering," end quote.

It seems we've normalized the talk of climate change already to such a degree that growing our manufacturing base is seen as a logical answer to battling the effects of it. DeLay speaks to this level of normalization by recounting Kim Stanley Robinson's dystopian novel, New York 2140. Quote, "Set in its titular city and year, multi-meter sea level rise overcomes a seawall and permanently inundates Lower Manhattan. Instead of abandoning the city, people occupy buildings that occasionally collapse into eroded foundations. They travel by gondolas and skywalks, by boats instead of taxis. They trade financial instruments indexed to sea level rise and property values. All normalized. Robinson pitched the story as an absurd extension of capitalism beyond ecological limits, but it's not a prediction. Science fiction isn't about the future. It's the now, [00:07:00] turned up a notch."

Meteorologist Guy Walton on Hurricane Milton's threat to Florida - The Bradcast - Air Date 10-8-24

BRAD FRIEDMAN - HOST, THE BRADCAST: Over the past 15 years, he notes, North Carolina lawmakers have rejected limits on construction on steep slopes, which might have reduced the number of homes lost to landslides. They blocked a rule requiring homes to be elevated above the height of an expected flood.

They weakened protections for wetlands, which increasing the risk of dangerous storm runoff and slowed the adoption of updated building codes, making it harder for the state to qualify for federal climate resilience grants, the ones that Project 2025 wants to do away with entirely. Those decisions, notes the Times, reflect the influence of North Carolina's home building industry, which has consistently fought rules forcing its members to construct homes to higher, more expensive standards that, according to Kim Wooten, an engineer who serves on the [00:08:00] North Carolina Building Code Council, the group that sets home building requirements for the state.

Quote, The Home Builders Association has fought. Every bill that has come before the general assembly to try to improve life safety. She said many of whom are themselves, many of these lawmakers who are themselves home builders or have received campaign contributions from the industry They vote for bills that line their pockets and make their home building cheaper, she says.

In 2009 and 2010, lawmakers from the state's mountainous western region wanted statewide rules to restrict construction on slopes with a high or moderate risk of landslides. Their legislation failed in the face of pushback from the home building and real estate industries. Efforts to weaken building standards in North Carolina picked up [00:09:00] steam after Republicans won control of both houses of the state legislature back in 2010.

In 2011, lawmakers proposed a law that limited the ability of local officials to account for sea level rise in their planning. Again, so much for small local government. Let's tell them what they can and cannot do. At least if it helps our political cause. And then two years later, lawmakers overhauled the way North Carolina updates its building codes.

That change attracted far less attention than the sea level rule. which I think we might have covered on Green News Report at the time. Oh yes, we did. But this, in fact, this updating of the building codes would prove to be more consequential when it came to Helene. Every three years, the International Code Council, a non profit organization in D.

C., issues new model building [00:10:00] codes developed by engineers and architects and home builders and local officials. Most states adopt a version of those model codes. Which reflect the latest advances in safety and design. And again, they come out every three years, but in 2013, the North Carolina legislature now dominated by Republicans decided that the state would instead update their codes every six years.

Instead of every three. Sure, there may be helpful, new codes that help to keep our constituents safe, but let's ignore them for three years, shall we? The change proved very important because in 2015, the International Code Council added a requirement that new homes in flood zones be built at least one foot above the projected height of a major flood.

North Carolina did not adopt that version of the building code until [00:11:00] 2019. Since they were then only updating the codes every six years at that point and by the way, even then the state stripped out the new flood prevention standard that was in those new codes rather than make elevation mandatory in flood zones around North Carolina, the state decided that the requirement should only apply if local officials chose to adopt it, which is quite a racket because there were first they're preventing local officials from doing what they actually want.

And then they blocked the state from issuing mandatory codes, leaving certain things up to the states. A recipe, frankly, for nothing ever getting done, leaving homeowners in danger, raking in the dough. In the meantime, for the home builders that are giving money to the lawmakers, it's a pretty sweet deal.

That decision most likely left more homes exposed to flooding, according to experts cited in Flavel's reporting. The Republican legislature [00:12:00] took other steps as well that may have exacerbated flooding. For example, in 2014, lawmakers passed laws to weaken protection for wetlands and which can help reduce flood damage by absorbing excess rainfall.

Three years later, the legislature made it easier for developers to pave over green spaces, increasing the risk of flooding caused by heavy rains. Last year, efforts by Republican lawmakers to ease the states, to ease the state's building codes further. that erupted into confrontation with Governor Roy Cooper, who is a Democrat.

The legislature passed a law that essentially blocked the states, blocked the state from adopting new building codes until, wait for it, 2031. So they used to do it every three years. Then they moved it to every six years. Now they don't want to have new building codes again until 2031 [00:13:00] in North Carolina.

Cooper vetoed that bill saying it would wipe out, quote, wipe out years of work to make homes safer. But. Republicans, who have super majorities in the state legislature, they overrode Governor Cooper's veto. And how much will that cost homeowners today? After Helene? I don't know. Hope folks in North Carolina are asking.

The new law has made it harder for North Carolina to qualify for FEMA grants to fund climate resilient construction projects, which prioritize states with up to date building codes. The governor's office has estimated that North Carolina has lost some 70 million in grants because of the 2023 law. And then just this past summer, the Republican legislature in North Carolina again passed a series of reforms, [00:14:00] weakening the state's approach to building standards.

The law gave the legislature rather than the governor. the authority to appoint or approve members of the state's powerful building code council. It removed the requirement that the council include licensed architects. What are we going to do with architects on the council? And it included other changes like preventing the state from requiring that electric water heaters be located on campus.

Off the ground in order to protect from flooding. Governor Cooper again, vetoed that legislation and yes, you guessed it. Republicans again, use their super majority to override the governor. Now, why is this happening? Here's one reason. The Home Builders Association has contributed some 4. 3 million to North Carolina politicians over the past three decades, with Republicans receiving nearly twice as much as Democrats, according to data from [00:15:00] OpenSecrets, which tracks political spending.

And here's where it really, here's where it's really a racket. Really a racket for the home buyers in all of this. They save money when they're building houses and other buildings because of the, easing of the codes. And when they have to rebuild, they make a lot of money again because they failed to the thing, the houses they built failed to stand up to completely predictable disasters.

So guess who gets the contracts to rebuild? Quite a racket.

Six Factory Workers Feared Dead In Tenn. After Being Swept Away During Hurricane Helene - Democracy Now! - Air Date 10-3-24

NERMEEN SHAIKH - CO-HOST, DEMOCRACY NOW!: We look now at the impact of Hurricane Helene. Power outages and water shortages continue across six southeastern states. The death toll from the storm is nearing 200, with hundreds more still missing and presumed dead. This includes six plastic factory workers in Erwin, Tennessee, who were swept away as floodwaters [00:16:00] swelled around their workplace after their boss reportedly threatened to fire anyone who left during the storm. This is the family of an Impact Plastics worker named Lidia Verdugo.

FERNANDO RUIZ: [translated] She was still working when she called me, and she told me that it was really raining. And I told her to leave. But she told me they weren’t telling her anything.

COMMUNITY TRANSLATOR: If they would have told them to leave earlier, maybe we would be here — they would still be here today, and we wouldn’t be looking for them. But when they tried to leave, it was too late.

AMY GOODMAN - HOST, DEMOCRACY NOW!: The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating how some workers said Impact Plastics threatened to fire anyone who left ahead of the storm. This is Robert Jarvis, one of the survivors.

WCYB REPORTER: What would you say to the company?

ROBERT JARVIS: Why did you make us work that day? Why? We shouldn’t have worked. We shouldn’t have been there. None of us should have been there. And that’s what I should have said to them.

AMY GOODMAN - HOST, DEMOCRACY NOW!: Impact Plastics said Monday in a statement it had monitored weather conditions [00:17:00] during the storm and that managers had dismissed workers, quote, “when water began to cover the parking lot and the adjacent service road, and the plant lost power,” unquote.

For more, we’re joined by Cesar Bautista, campaign director at the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, has been working in Erwin, Tennessee, to assist with relief efforts after Hurricane Helene.

Cesar, welcome to Democracy Now! We only have a few minutes. Can you explain what happened? This plastics factory is right next to a river. What were they told? Why were they so afraid they’d be fired if they didn’t come to work?

CESAR BAUTISTA SANCHEZ: Yes. Hi. Good morning. Thank you so much for having me on.

Yes. So, a lot of the family members, you know, expressed, just like on the clip that you showed, that they were told, like, not to leave yet, that they were still asking questions, like, you know, “Should we leave or not so far?” They kept going back and forth, I believe, with one of the secretaries at the office. But as [00:18:00] they were trying to get answers, they were noticing that the water was getting higher and higher, like in the parking lot area. And, you know, once, like, the factory did make the decision of telling people, “OK, you can go,” it was just too late. And the water had rised too high, to the point that they couldn’t move their cars anymore and try to get to safety.

NERMEEN SHAIKH - CO-HOST, DEMOCRACY NOW!: And so, what are you calling for, Cesar? You’re obviously advocating on the rights of these workers. What are you calling for?

CESAR BAUTISTA SANCHEZ: Well, you know, in these moments right now, it’s very difficult, you know, and we are standing in solidarity with all the families that they lost a loved one. And like most importantly, what we’re calling is just to be sure that there’s equitable access to the recovery plan that the city and the state have initiated, so just making sure, you know, that there’s no language barriers, that everybody has the equal amount of access to any kind of resources that are being provided, just to be sure that the families have what they [00:19:00] need in order to rebuild their lives after this hurricane.

AMY GOODMAN - HOST, DEMOCRACY NOW!: So, talk about how typical this was. Now, again, to emphasize, Impact Plastics said, “At no time were employees told that they would be fired if they left the facility.” But if you can, overall, talk about the fear of migrant workers? And also, we’re talking about a vast area of six states right now. You work with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. We don’t really know how many people have died, close to 200 at this point quantified, but hundreds more missing. And where are people going for refuge?

CESAR BAUTISTA SANCHEZ: You know, so, here in Erwin, Tennessee, a lot of people right now have been going to the county high school for any kind of refuge or resources that they’re looking for. That has been a great source also. The local [00:20:00] church, one of the local churches, St. Michael, has been just a great supporter for the community to gather, to mourn, to just really process everything that has been happening. And so, that has been, you know, where people have been going mainly just to try to find some comfort and support with the community. I would say, too, you know, that the community, overall, has shown a very great — they’ve come up as a unified forum, you know, just, like, to really support each other and just to keep each other together throughout this tough process right now.

AMY GOODMAN - HOST, DEMOCRACY NOW!: And the understanding about climate change — for many immigrants, one of the reasons they came to this country, fleeing the devastation of climate change in their country, and then dealing with it today here. All the reports are saying the intensification, the rapidity with which this storm [00:21:00] intensified, due to climate change.

CESAR BAUTISTA SANCHEZ: Right. And so, you know, with climate change, as we see this — you know, this is starting to be more of a pattern now here in Tennessee. You know, we had the hurricane just a couple days ago. Last December, we had a tornado go through Nashville, Tennessee. And then, two years before that, there was another tornado. And so, we’ve noticed that this is starting to become a pattern.

And so, what really we’re urging, you know, our municipalities and, like, in the state, not just in Tennessee, but across the country, is that they have to have, like, you know, those evacuation plans for each city, but also now for each company that has, like, all these workers there, in order to be sure that people are safe, 

Derek Seidman on Insurance and Climate, Insha Rahman on Immigration Conversation - CounterSpin - Air Date 10-4-24

JANINE JACKONS - HOST, COUNTERSPIN: In your super helpful piece for Truthout, you cite a Washington Post story from last September. Here's the headline and [00:22:00] subhead. Quote, "Home insurers cut natural disasters from policies as climate risks grow. Some of the largest U. S. insurance companies say extreme weather has led them to end certain coverages, exclude natural disaster protections, and raise premiums," close quote. 

I think that drops us right into the heart of the problem you outline in that piece. What's going on? And why do you call it the insurance industry's self-induced crisis?

DEREK SEIDMAN: Thank you. Well, certainly there is a growing crisis. The insurance industry is pulling back from certain markets and regions and states because the costs of insuring homes and other properties are becoming too expensive to remain profitable with the rise of extreme weather. And so we've seen a lot of coverage in the past [00:23:00] few months over this growing crisis in the insurance industry. 

But one of the critical things that's left out of this is that the insurance industry itself is a main actor in driving the rise of extreme weather through its very close relationship to the fossil fuel industry. And in this narrative in the corporate media, the insurance industry on the one hand and extreme weather on the other hand are often treated like they're completely separate things, and they're just coming together, and this quote unquote "crisis" is being created. And it's a real problem that the connections aren't being made there.

So I guess a couple of things that should be said first, that the insurance industry is -- the fossil fuel industry and its operations could not exist without the insurance industry. We can look at that relationship in two ways. 

So first, of course, is through insurance. The insurance giants -- AIG, Liberty Mutual and so on -- they collectively rake in billions [00:24:00] of dollars every year in insuring fossil fuel industry infrastructure, whether that's pipelines or offshore oil rigs or liquefied natural gas export terminals, this fossil fuel infrastructure and its continued expansion -- this simply could not exist without underwriting by the insurance industry. It would not get its permit approvals. It would just not be able to operate. It couldn't track investors and so on. So that's one way. 

Another way is that -- and this is something a lot of people might not be aware of -- but the insurance industry is an enormous investor in the fossil fuel industry. Basically, one of the ways the insurance industry makes money is it takes the premiums and it pools a chunk and invests those. So it's a major investor. And the insurance industry across the board has tens of billions of dollars invested in the fossil fuel industry. And this is actually stuff that anybody can go and look up, because some of it's public. So for example, the insurance giant AIG, because it's a big investor, it has to [00:25:00] disclose its investments with the SEC. And earlier this year, AIG disclosed that, for example, it had $117 million dollars invested in ExxonMobil, $83M invested in Chevron, $46M in ConocoPhillips, and so on and so on. 

So on one hand, you have this sort of hypocritical cycle where the insurance industry is saying to ordinary homeowners who are quite desperate, we need to jack up the price on your premiums, or we need to pull away altogether. We can't insure you anymore. While on the other hand, it's driving and enabling and profiting from the very operations, fossil fuel operations, that are causing the extreme weather in the first place, that the insurance industry has been using to justify pulling back from insuring just regular homeowners.

JANINE JACKONS - HOST, COUNTERSPIN: This is a structural problem, clearly, that you're pointing to, and you don't want to be too conspiratorial about it, but these folks do literally have dinner with one another. [00:26:00] These insurance executives and the fossil fuel companies. 

And then I want to add, you complicate it even further by talking about knock-on effects that include making homes uninsurable. When that happens, well then that contributes to this thing where banks and hedge funds buy up homes. So it's part of an even bigger cycle that folks probably have heard about. 

DEREK SEIDMAN: Yeah, absolutely. This whole scenario, it's horrible because it impacts homeowners and renters. If you talk to landlords, they say that the rising costs of insurance are their biggest expense and they are in part taking that out on tenants by raising rents, right?

But it also really threatens just global financial stability. With the rise of extreme weather and homes becoming more expensive to insure, or even uninsurable, home values can really collapse. And when they collapse, aside from the horrific human drama of all that, [00:27:00] and banks are reacquiring foreclosed homes that in turn are unsellable because of extreme weather and they can't be insured.

The big picture of all this is that it leads to banks acquiring a growing amount of risky properties, and it can create a lot of financial instability. And we saw what happened after 2008, as you mentioned, right? With private equity coming in and scooping up homes. 

And so yeah, it creates a lot of systemic financial instability, opens the door for financial predators like private equity and hedge funds to come in.

JANINE JACKONS - HOST, COUNTERSPIN: And it seems to require an encompassing response, a response that acknowledges the various moving pieces of this. I wonder, finally, is there responsive law or policy, either on the table now or just maybe in our imagination, that would address these concerns? 

DEREK SEIDMAN: There are organizers that are definitely starting to do something about it. And there are some members of Congress that are also starting to do something about it. For [00:28:00] this story, I interviewed some really fantastic groups. One of them is Ensure Our Future. And this is a broader campaign that is working with different groups around the country and really demanding that insurers stop insuring new fossil fuel build out, that they phase out their insurance coverage for existing fossil fuels, for all the reasons that we've been talking about today. 

At the state level, there are groups that are doing really important and interesting things. So one of the groups that I interviewed was called Connecticut Citizen Action Group, and they've been working hard in coalition with other groups in Connecticut to introduce and pass a state bill that would create a climate fund to support residents that are impacted by extreme weather. Connecticut's seen its fair share of extreme weather. And this fund would be financed by taxing insurance policies in the state that are connected to fossil fuel projects, it's also a kind of disincentive to investing fossil fuels. In New York, there a coalition of groups and lawmakers just [00:29:00] introduced something called the Insure Our Communities bill. And this would ban insurers from underwriting new fossil fuel projects, and it would set up new protections for homeowners that are facing extreme weather disasters. I spoke to organizers in Freeport, Texas with a group called Better Brazoria. And these are people that are on the Gulf coast, really on the front lines. And Better Brazoria is just one of a number of frontline groups along the Gulf coast that are organizing around the insurance industry, and they're trying to meet with insurance giants and say to them, look, what you're doing is we're losing our homeowner insurance while you're insuring these risky LNG plants that are getting hit by hurricanes and fires are starting, and trying to make the case to them that this is just not even good business for them.

And then more recently, you've seen Bernie Sanders and others start to hold the insurance industry's feet to the fire a little more, opening up investigations into their connection to the fossil fuel industry, and how this is creating financial instability. 

So I think this is becoming [00:30:00] more and more of an issue that people are seeing is a real problem for the financial system. It's something that we should absolutely think about when we think about the climate crisis and the sort of broader infrastructure that's enabling the fossil fuel industry to exist, and continue its polluting operations that are causing the climate crisis and extreme weather. So I think we're going to see only more of this going forward.

Trump's politicized lies about Helene recovery calls to mind his abysmal record handling disasters - Alex Wagner Tonight - Air Date 10-4-24

ALEX WAGNER - HOST, ALEX WAGNER TONIGHT: Okay. In August of 2020, Donald Trump was campaigning for reelection amid a series of ongoing crises. We were in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. The summer saw a wave of protests and uprisings over the murder of George Floyd. And to top it all off, the state of California was experiencing its largest wildfire season in recorded history. And it was that last crisis that prompted Donald Trump to say this during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

DONALD TRUMP: And I see again, the forest fires are starting. They're starting again in California. I said, you [00:31:00] got to clean your floors. You got to clean your forests. They have many, many years of leaves and broken trees, and they're like, like so flammable. You touch them and it goes up. I've been telling them this now for three years, but they don't want to listen.

The environment, the environment. But they have massive fires again in California. Maybe we're just going to have to make them pay for it. 

ALEX WAGNER - HOST, ALEX WAGNER TONIGHT: Maybe we're just going to have to make them pay for it. Trump bizarrely and falsely claimed that wildfires were somehow the result of California officials not cleaning the floors of the forest. And then threatened to make California pay for its own disaster relief. For the record, Trump's claim has been thoroughly debunked. The state of California owns only 3 percent of its forests. The rest are owned by private groups or the federal government. And federal agencies do take regular steps to mitigate the buildup of debris in the forest. I don't know if that includes cleaning the [00:32:00] floors, whatever that means. 

But that reality didn't keep Trump from repeating this claim over and over again. The previous year, when California wildfires were also raging, Trump treated an angry screed at California Governor Gavin Newsom. This is what it said: "I told him from the first day we met that he must clean his forest floors. And then he comes to the federal government for financial help. No more." 

The year before that, it was the same thing, almost like a California wildfire tradition. That year, Trump tweeted, "Billions of dollars are given each year with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments." 

That was how Donald Trump acted when he was president, during moments of national disasters. He blamed the libs and threatened to withhold aid. He is still doing it. Just two weeks ago at a fundraiser in California, Trump threatened to withhold future fire aid [00:33:00] if Governor Gavin Newsom didn't agree to change the state's water usage rules.

DONALD TRUMP: And Gavin Newscomb [sic] is going to sign those papers. And if he doesn't sign those papers, we won't give him money to put out all his fires. And if we don't give him the money to put out his fires, he's got problems. He's a lousy governor. 

ALEX WAGNER - HOST, ALEX WAGNER TONIGHT: That threat is not just bluster. Trump has actually tried to do this before.

A bombshell new report today from E&E News reveals that in 2018, President Trump actually did try to withhold disaster aid from California, just because it was a blue state. To punish the Americans who didn't vote for Trump. Mark Harvey, a former senior disaster relief official in the Trump White House, told E&E News that he was only able to get Trump to approve disaster relief for California by pulling up voting results from conservative-leaning Orange County to show President Trump that his own supporters had been heavily affected by the [00:34:00] fires. Harvey told the outlet, "we went as far as looking up how many votes Trump got in those impacted areas to show him these are the people who voted for you." 

And it wasn't just California. E&E News also found that as president, Donald Trump directed FEMA to cover 100 percent of the costs for disasters in conservative areas, like the Florida panhandle, while objecting to and slow walking aid for blue territories, like Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands after Hurricane Maria. Though Trump did manage to throw the people of Puerto Rico a few paper towels.

President Biden responded to this new reporting about Trump's nakedly political decisions on disaster aid, writing on X, "You can't only help those in need if they voted for you. It's the most basic part of being president, and this guy knows nothing about it." 

Right now, the Biden administration is in the middle of trying to deal with the latest natural disaster to hit this country. [00:35:00] The full extent of the damage from Hurricane Helene has yet to be realized. But right now, NBC News reports that over 220 people have died as a result of that storm, and hundreds of people are likely still missing. 

More than a week after Hurricane Helene, nearly 700,000 people are still dealing with major power outages. Loss of connectivity has made it difficult, and in some cases nearly impossible to reach people. Residents are also dealing with the health risks posed by the lack of access to clean water and toxic contamination that has resulted from the storm. 

FEMA has already processed 45 million dollars in direct assistance to the people affected by Hurricane Helene. But amid that ongoing relief effort, Trump has decided to use this disaster as fodder for his political campaign.

At a rally last night, Trump falsely claimed that hurricane victims are being denied relief money because the Biden administration [00:36:00] spent FEMA dollars on housing for migrants. Now, for the record, this is totally false. The White House has responded in a statement saying no disaster relief funding at all was used to support migrants, housing, and services. None. At. All. Trump may just be projecting here. The Washington Post reports that back in 2018, Trump himself diverted money from FEMA so that the Border Patrol could use it for migrant detention. Trump's claims about the Biden-Harris response to Hurricane Helene seem to follow the bizarre Trump rule that every accusation is a confession.

But that hasn't stopped the spread of misinformation among Trump supporters, especially online, where Trump has been aided by his pal Elon Musk in a quest to propagate lies. In addition to letting misinformation about the storm spread wildly on his platform, X, Elon Musk himself has been amplifying fake news.

[00:37:00] Things have gotten so out of hand here that FEMA has had to make its own landing page on the FEMA website dedicated to debunking these rumors about recovery efforts.

'Enraging' Republicans ‘suddenly’ see disinformation problem amid hurricane crisis - All In w/ Chris Hayes - Air Date 10-9-24

CHRIS HAYES - HOST, ALL IN: Far right kooks and conspiracy theories of all sorts have been part of our political landscape for a very long time now. But they're more powerful than they've ever been in my lifetime. They're on social media. They're on Fox. Some now hold elected office, even at the very top. Now, whether they do it out of cynicism or self delusion, or like they've just got brain worms, they're all happy to promote outrageous disinformation about the libs and the globalists and immigrants and lots of other people who can't defend themselves. But then, every once in a while, their ceaseless lies present a practical problem to the Republican political establishment they serve. 

There's a moment that I think exemplified this back in November of 2020. After Joe Biden won, and Donald Trump started spinning lies about a rigged result, there was still, remember, [00:38:00] a pair of critical Senate runoff elections in Georgia which would determine party control of the Senate. And Ronna Romney McDaniel, the RNC chairwoman at the time, struggled to convince Georgia Republicans to vote because they falsely believed their votes wouldn't be counted. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Machines are switching the votes. And we go there in crazy numbers. And they should have won, but then there's still... 

RONNA ROMNEY MCDANIEL: Yeah, we have to, we didn't see that in the audit. So, we've got to just... that evidence I haven't seen. So, we'll wait and see on that. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are we gonna give money and work when it's already decided. 

RONNA ROMNEY MCDANIEL: It's not decided. This is the key. 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do we know? 

RONNA ROMNEY MCDANIEL: It's not decided. If you lose your faith and you don't vote and people walk away, that, that will decide it. 

CHRIS HAYES - HOST, ALL IN: Oh really? Oh now, you don't like that disinformation, Ronna Romney McDaniel. Now you're standing up to tell them, no, no, no, it's not decided, it's not rigged. Now it's time to tell the truth that there will be bad consequences. [00:39:00] Republicans lost both those elections, by the way. 

And so now here we are watching Hurricane Milton hitting Florida while still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in the southeast. And I keep thinking of that Ronna Romney McDaniel clip because you've got government officials of both parties and apolitical civil servants struggling to combat the rampant misinformation that far right politicians, pundits, and influencers are spreading about the storms and disaster response. 

From Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene posting repeatedly about "they can control the weather", to Elon Musk, the die hard Trump supporting owner of the website formerly known as Twitter, using his site and his personal account to spread lies that officials say are hampering recovery efforts. Listen to some of the lies that Congressman Chuck Edwards decided he needed to rebut. To be clear, he's a Republican whose district covers some of the parts of North Carolina that were worst hit by helines. He felt the need to tell his own constituents that no, Hurricane Helene was not geo [00:40:00] engineered by the government to seize and access lithium deposits in Chimney Rock, adding, "nobody can control the weather".

He also stressed that FEMA has not diverted disaster response funding to the border or foreign aid. More on that particular lie in a moment. Also stating that no, FEMA is not going to run out of money and that FEMA cannot seize your property or land. That's a conservative Republican congressman trying to save his constituents from disinformation spreading primarily among Republicans and conservatives on social media.

He's not alone. When social accounts started spreading a false rumor that FEMA was hiring private security contractors in Florida to keep evacuees away from their homes, Well, it was debunked online by Christina Pushaw, a staffer for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, saying "Spreading LIES like this could have serious consequences. If people in an evacuation zone see this and decide NOT to evacuate, despite [00:41:00] warnings from state & local emergency management, they are unnecessarily putting their own lives (& lives of first responders) at grave risk". 

If Pushaw's name sounds familiar, it's because she has spent much of her career spreading antisemitic, anti-gay, anti-media conspiracy theories and fake news. She helped popularize the term "groomers", a disgusting term, to condemn anyone critical of Florida's Don't Say Gay law. Now, imagine how bad the misinformation has to be for Christina Pushaw to say enough is enough, you're endangering people's lives. Same can be said for Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who just last week, as we quoted on the show, was telling his social media followers, "you can't trust the Biden White House and Bureau of Labor Statistics on jobs numbers. Another fake jobs report out from Biden Harris government today. All the fake numbers in the world aren't going to fool people". But this week, Rubio was on Twitter, telling his followers the path of Hurricane Milton mirrored what federal weather officials told him was a worst case scenario. You see, now he needs his constituents to [00:42:00] trust federal civil servants and follow their guidelines to survive the storm. Just days after he told them that the same federal civil servants lie. See the problem here, right? And of course, the ultimate example of this is the big lie circulating about FEMA. 

DONALD TRUMP: Kamala spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars on housing for illegal migrants.

MATT GAETZ: Housing assistance under FEMA, almost any reasonable person would think, would be available for Americans who are displaced from their houses in a time of disaster, but that has been used on illegal immigrants. 

JD VANCE: How can we afford to give billions of dollars to illegal immigrants in this country, but we've got to go back to the well to provide disaster relief for our own citizens? That's a disgrace. 

STEVE SCALISE: Look, they can't even take care of people in North Carolina from a hurricane because they're too busy spending our taxpayer dollars taking care of illegal aliens. 

SEAN HANNITY: This is the Biden Harris administration caught red handed [00:43:00] dedicating a massive amount of money that was supposed to be there for emergency relief for Americans in North Carolina, Georgia and elsewhere to dispense to illegal immigrants while hurricane ravaged victims all over the country are left out to dry.

CHRIS HAYES - HOST, ALL IN: To be clear, it's not like one of these things where it's a matter of interpretation or a kernel of truth. It's an absolute lie. Stone cold lie. Started by Donald Trump, then spread by his running mate. His supporters on Capitol Hill, all the lackeys you saw there, Steve Scalise, the number two man in Congress, his supporters on Fox. The lie says that FEMA lacks the resources for disaster victims because it spent the cash on undocumented migrants. It is a lie that, as you just heard, was debunked by a Republican congressman from the affected area. 

So, here are the facts. FEMA has enough funding in the short term to address immediate needs for both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, and there is no funding connection between shelter for migrants and funding for [00:44:00] disaster relief. There is no intermingling of funds between these two programs. That's not me saying it. It's the Republicans in charge of the House Appropriations Committee. In a fact sheet they shared yesterday with Chad Pergam, the congressional reporter for Fox, because they felt the urgent need to push back on a lie that is being spread by Fox News and by Donald Trump. A lie started by their candidate for President, Donald Trump, and amplified, as you see, by his campaign surrogates, passed along on the social media site owned by the billionaire funding one of his super PACs. 

Republicans who suddenly see a conflict between the welfare of their constituents and the toxic effect of their party's propaganda and also don't want to fly back to Washington for an emergency session to fund FEMA when FEMA has money. Now, struggling to explain to their audiences that, well, up is up and down is down and water is wet and 2 plus 2 equals 4. And you could laugh at it when their disinformation was mainly just costing them votes in winnable elections [00:45:00] like Georgia. But now it could cost lives in a massive, complex disaster recovery. It is enraging that it took a crisis of these proportions to convince politicians who politicized everything that some government functions need to be above politics.

Hurricane Milton Menaces Florida; Fact Report after Helene with NC blogger Tom Sullivan - The BradCast - Air Date 10-7-24

BRAD FRIEDMAN - HOST, THE BRADCAST: Now, to their credit, the North Carolina State Board of Elections, they were out very quickly after the storm announcing that they would be sending out mobile, so called Elections In A Box kits to affected areas to help register folks to vote and to process absentee ballots. Now the City of Asheville itself, as I said, is very Democratic leaning area, but the communities around it in, the mountains and so forth, I understand are very Republican leaning. 

First, I know you were in touch today, I believe, with a local county elections chief out there in Asheville. What did you learn from him as far as how they can be preparing for an [00:46:00] election amid everything else that's going on, with an election just less than a month away now?

TOM SULLIVAN: Well, I mean, early voting starts next week. And we're having to scramble right now with the damage and the loss of power and water at a lot of the sites. They're having to scramble right now. They're not going to have a meeting until tomorrow to, well, basically we were going to have 14 early voting sites open for two and a half weeks. We will have fewer. How many fewer and what hours they will be run, that all has to be hashed out and on the fly. 

But the Board of Elections just issued a press release this afternoon. And what they're having to do is all the planning for early voting and the voting operations have to be submitted to the state board and then approved. And once [00:47:00] that's approved, this pretty much locked in. Well, they're having to be more flexible for this. And so they're allowing for, I'm looking like 13 counties, they're going to be giving them a little more flexibility to change those plans on the fly to suit the fact that some of the sites we were planning on using may not be available. We have 80 precincts on election day. Some of those may have to be combined and all that's yet to be determined. 

BRAD FRIEDMAN - HOST, THE BRADCAST: After speaking with the local county elections chief, Tom Sullivan, in Asheville today, do you have confidence that everyone in North Carolina, or at least everyone in Asheville, who wants to vote will be able to vote this year? Do you feel that they are nimble enough in the state, across the state, to accommodate this disaster that's gone on? And by the way, you guys just have put in a new photo ID restriction. A lot of folks, [00:48:00] I suspect, lost their photo ID in the storm, in the wind, in the rain. Do you have confidence that voters in North Carolina of any and all stripes will in fact, be able to cast their vote if they want to this year?

TOM SULLIVAN: Well, that's the plan. We've got one of the best boards in the state. We've got some of the best voter turnout in the state. Our problem is we're not as big as Raleigh or Meck or Charlotte. But, we do a really good operation here. And we don't expect any other kinds of shenanigans, if you want to read into that. But we will do the best we can. And we're really very effective at this. So I'm not too worried about that. But your comment about loss of I. D., that could pose a problem. And I haven't had a chance, this just came up, I haven't had a chance to read through what sort of flexibility the local boards will have [00:49:00] regarding handling that problem. 

BRAD FRIEDMAN - HOST, THE BRADCAST: On that, I might be able to help you, Tom, because while you had no power, I was trying to keep my own eyes on this. And apparently, if you identify yourself, if you don't have an ID, if you lost your ID, but you come from one of the affected counties where there is a state of emergency, you will be allowed to sign an affidavit And I believe fill out a provisional ballot and then vote, and that should be counted. But of course, there's always concerns about provisional ballots. Those are easier to not count, easier to toss than, real ballots. So that's a concern. But as I understand it, that is currently the process for those counties that are currently, I guess, under a state of emergency, which is a bunch of counties in North Carolina.

In theory, folks should be able to vote if it's something they can even think about. [00:50:00] Karen in Oakland, calls in to ask, "Has Tom seen Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson anywhere, like tossing paper towels at storm victims?" Yes. is he out and about? People who don't know he's kind of the loony, to put it nicely, Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina who is running against the Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein for governor this year. Has Mark Robinson showed up in Asheville yet? 

TOM SULLIVAN: I've seen a headline that he was out making some comments about the disaster, but I think it was something that popped up while I was completely cut off from comms, so I didn't get to see it. But I saw a photo and a headline, but I don't even know where he was when he made his comments.

BRAD FRIEDMAN - HOST, THE BRADCAST: It sounds like you are doing well. It sounds like the community there is pulling together, even if the rest of the world is [00:51:00] going batty around you, but do you have any sense—it may be too early, I realized, Tom—but do you have any sense of how all of this may affect the presidential race this year? Any overall understanding of that?

TOM SULLIVAN: I think Mecklenburg got added to one of the disaster counties. That's Charlotte. Their voter turnout has historically not been as good as it could be. And I believe that some of the out of state groups and some of the folks here are being encouraged to go help with their voter turnout. And if they could improve voter turnout in Charlotte, that could turn the election. Because... 

BRAD FRIEDMAN - HOST, THE BRADCAST: In favor of the Democrats. 

TOM SULLIVAN: In favor of the Democrats, a heavily Democratic county that doesn't turn out. A lot of people there are recent immigrants, [00:52:00] people who transition through Charlotte for jobs and then out again, it's not quite as cohesive a county as Wake County, where Raleigh is, which is a... government's the business. It's a company town. Their voter turnout is always terrific. Ours is always terrific. And that's been a weak spot and they've got a real good program. They've got a new chair there who's raising a ton of money and I think he's going to be getting a lot more help than they've used to, they're used to seeing. And, I've got my fingers crossed. 

Note from the Editor on how to work with distrust in government

JAY TOMLINSON - HOST, BEST OF THE LEFT: We’ve just heard clips starting with:

Unf*cking The Republic looking at the hurricane impacts in Asheville 

The BradCast discussed building codes and the impact of regulation

Democracy Now! highlighted the factory workers washed away by floodwaters 

CounterSpin looked at the role of insurance companies and their relationship to fossil fuels

Alex Wagner Tonight reported on Trump’s politicizing of disaster recovery 

All In w/ Chris Hayes explained the [00:53:00] impact of disinformation amid the election and natural disasters

And The BradCast discussed the impacts of the storm on the election in North Carolina

And those were just the top takes, there’s lots more in the deeper dives sections, but first, a reminder that this show is supported by members who get access to bonus episodes featuring the production crew here discussing all manor of important and interesting topics, often trying to make each other laugh in the process. 

To support all our work and have those bonus episodes delivered seamlessly to the new, members-only podcast feed that you’ll receive, sign up to support the show at bestoftheleft.com/support [there’s a link in the show notes], through our Patreon page, or from right inside the Apple Podcasts app. 

Members also get chapter markers in the show but, depending on the app you use to listen, may be able to use the time codes in the show notes to jump around the show similar to chapter markers, so check that out. 

If regular membership isn’t in the cards for you, shoot me an email requesting a financial hardship membership because we don’t let a lack of funds stand in the way of hearing more information.

Now, before we [00:54:00] continue on to the deeper dives half of the show, I have just a quick thought on the decades-long effort to delegitimize the government and the effects its had. 

I saw a reference to people commenting online about FEMA, calling them - effectively - a scam and refusing to donate to them. Wouldn’t donate to them. That’s not just a demonstration of how disinformation leads people to turn against those in government trying to help, it also demonstrates the sort of all pervasive idea that every group, every institution or program is doing their work while constantly asking for donations. 

FEMA doesn’t ask for donations. Government doesn’t ask for donations. They’re funded, their people are paid salaries and now they’re here to help. That’s all.

Everyone knows that money can be misspent within a private or nonprofit organization, and there’s relatively little accountability. And so, if you’re [00:55:00] doing supposedly good works but you’re also soliciting donations at the same time there’s that question that arises about how well those donated funds are being used. 

Are the executives getting paid way too much? What’s percentage of donations actually gets to those in need? These are the questions that always come up and haunt nonprofits while they’re fundraising. 

That’s a complicated issue that I have lots of thoughts about - for another day - but what’s clarifying is the contrast with the relative simplicity of the government. 

It’s funded through appropriations from congress, employees are paid based on a legally established tiered salary system - they don’t have to spend money on advertising asking for donations - in fact, they just have to advertise so that people know about the support the government is trying to provide.

But in our society that has spent so many decades demonizing government, people, exemplified by those anti-FEMA commenters refusing to donate to the cause, are [00:56:00] trapped in a worldview that sees all organizations related to the government as grifters when the reality is much more often the exact opposite. 

Now, the one drawback to FEMA only dropping into a disaster area after the fact is that they don’t have the kind of local knowledge and connections that organizations on the ground might. 

The Atlantic wrote a piece recently, “America Needs a Disaster Corps” and argues for a sort of hybrid model for the spending power of the government to be partnered with local organizations that, for the most part, already exist in communities across the country but don’t have the resources they need when disaster strikes. 

Recognizing that disasters are only going to get more frequent and devastating, tapping into existing organizations and networks is probably the fastest way to ramp up preparedness while also reducing the effect of disinformation thanks to the nature of local organizations to have the credibility that many wouldn’t afford FEMA. [00:57:00] 

We’re big fans of meeting people where they are. Usually that just means rhetorically, framing political arguments in ways that speak to peoples existing understanding of their needs - but it can also mean designing programs in a way that addresses the reality of a mistrust in government even if we know that mistrust is unfounded. 

Maybe this hybrid Disaster Corps idea is just what the climate crisis is calling for.

SECTION A - NATURAL DISASTERS

JAY TOMLINSON - HOST, BEST OF THE LEFT: And now, we’ll continue to dive deeper on 4 topics. Next up: 

SECTION A - NATURAL DISASTERS

Followed by SECTION B - INTERSECTIONAL ISSUES

SECTION C - POLITICS

 and SECTION D: TRUMP AND DISINFORMATION

Meteorologist Guy Walton on Hurricane Milton's threat to Florida Part 2 - The Bradcast - Air Date 10-8-24

DEZI DOYEN - CO-HOST, THE BRADCAST: Florida is bracing for another intense storm. The second major storm in just two weeks as we go to air Hurricane Milton in the Gulf of Mexico rapidly intensified into an extremely dangerous [00:58:00] category five storm fueled by the record hot waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Caused by man made global warming, which also rapidly intensified the deadly, wildly destructive Hurricane Helene just over a week ago. Milton will hit Florida's beleaguered west coast on Wednesday, likely in the Tampa Bay region, which hasn't seen a major storm since 1921 and is particularly vulnerable to storm surge.

Officials warn that debris still on the streets from Hurricane Helene Could become projectiles where Milton makes landfall, will make the difference between impacts that are extremely destructive versus catastrophic. 

BRAD FRIEDMAN - HOST, THE BRADCAST: A huge difference. 

DEZI DOYEN - CO-HOST, THE BRADCAST: Mandatory evacuations have been ordered, and Tampa Bay Mayor Jane Castor was blunt about holdouts on CNN.

CLIP: Helene was a wake up call. Uh, this is literally catastrophic and I can say without. any dramatization whatsoever. If you [00:59:00] choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you're going to die. 

DEZI DOYEN - CO-HOST, THE BRADCAST: And yes, climate scientists see the fingerprint of climate change in both Milton and Helene record hot gulf of Mexico.

fueling each storm's size, intensity and rapid intensification. Rising sea levels have also increased the severity of storm surge and scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that climate change caused over 50 percent more rainfall during Hurricane Helene because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture.

BRAD FRIEDMAN - HOST, THE BRADCAST: The fact that the mayor is sort of downplaying Helene to, uh, note how bad Milton can be gives you a kind of an idea because Helene was terrible. 

DEZI DOYEN - CO-HOST, THE BRADCAST: Yes, it was. The Biden Harris administration has already approved Florida's request for federal assistance for Milton and FEMA is already on the ground pre positioning resources.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell says the agency is ready for Milton [01:00:00] amid its ongoing disaster assistance for victims of Helene. The death toll from Hurricane Helene is now more than 230 people across six states. 

BRAD FRIEDMAN - HOST, THE BRADCAST: Yes, but is Donald Trump pre positioning his lies? about the next hurricane rolling into Florida.

DEZI DOYEN - CO-HOST, THE BRADCAST: Well, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump certainly has unleashed a relentless torrent of disinformation for his own political gain, which has been amplified by Fox News and social media 

BRAD FRIEDMAN - HOST, THE BRADCAST: and is endangering people. 

DEZI DOYEN - CO-HOST, THE BRADCAST: Yes, he's outright lying about the federal hurricane response to Haleen.

Republican senators and governors of those states have repeatedly debunked the right wing disinformation and demanded it stop. The editorial board of the Charlotte Observer published a scathing editorial saying, quote, shame on Donald Trump for Haleen tragedy with political lies. FEMA's Criswell was on ABC News warning that Trump's disinformation [01:01:00] campaign and lies are demoralizing first responders and harming the victims of Hurricane Helene.

CLIP: This dangerous, truly dangerous narrative is creating this A fear of trying to register for help. You know, people need resources and we need them to get into the system 

DEZI DOYEN - CO-HOST, THE BRADCAST: long term. A new study released late last week suggests that hurricanes that strike the United States can result in thousands of additional deaths in future years.

The researchers publishing in the journal Nature analyzed 85 years of excess mortality data, finding as many as 11,000 additional deaths after. each storm and the death rates in affected states remain elevated for up to 15 years after a storm makes landfall. The researchers theorize it may be due to the health effects of stress, new pollutants and toxins released into the environment, loss of income, and lasting damage to homes, healthcare systems, [01:02:00] economies, and social networks.

They also found tax revenue declines after a storm, reducing healthcare and government services. 

Complete Neglect Thousands Not Evacuated from Florida Jails & Prisons Ahead of Hurricane Milton - Democracy Now! - Air Date 10-10-24

AMY GOODMAN - HOST, DEMOCRACY NOW!: Jordan, explain what the situation has been now in Florida for prisoners.

JORDAN MARTINEZ: Yeah, the ongoing situation, Amy, in Florida has been one of almost complete neglect and fiction writing by the Florida Department of Corrections and various county sheriff’s offices, jails, etc., claiming that incarcerated people are in fact being evacuated. The Florida Department of Corrections claims 5,600, almost, incarcerated people were evacuated, but in the list of facilities that they released, the vast majority of those evacuated were from work camps, halfway houses, work release centers. And in many cases, they were evacuated to, quote-unquote, “hardened facilities” literally across the [01:03:00] street. For example, Lowell Work Camp, which is part of the Lowell Correctional Institution women’s prison, that organizers in Florida with Change Comes Now have been fighting around various conditions, Lowell Work Camp evacuated dozens of yards away to Lowell Correctional. And so, we’re seeing this fiction being raised by FDOC, as well as the county sheriffs.

We attempted to help force evacuations in multiple mandatory evacuation zones along the west coast, and we were able to achieve one evacuation of the Orient Road Jail in Hillsborough County. But Manatee County, Lee County, Pinellas County, as well as St. Johns County on the eastern coast, all left prisoners in mandatory evacuation zones in the jails.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And, Jordan, you mentioned Pinellas County. The sheriff [01:04:00] there stated that, quote, “It’s really not possible to evacuate the jail because of the number of inmates,” and he instead moved people to higher floors. Can you talk about that?

JORDAN MARTINEZ: I think this is, again, part of the fiction that the sheriffs and officials in Florida like to spin to project a sense of confidence in the face of conditions that are entirely unpredictable in hurricane situations. For the vast majority of hurricanes that we’ve organized around, the actually most dangerous portions of the hurricanes are not the immediate storm surges that might flood the first floor of a prison, jail or detention center. It’s actually the aftermath in the days and weeks following, in which water is cut off, access to food is cut off, power is cut off, medical supplies are cut off. And so, evacuating people to higher floors when the bottom floor is completely destroyed that [01:05:00] houses the majority of those facilities that keep the entire system running within the prison, that people need to survive, their basic living necessities, it can create conditions in which, as has been reported on Democracy Now! before, people are forced to drink water from the toilet because they have no other access. And we see this again and again and again in disaster situations.

And the fact that they are unable to evacuate people in mandatory evacuation zones, I think, goes to show the complete lack of prioritization of the lives of incarcerated people during hurricanes. And I think we can all agree, if we are prioritizing the safety of our communities, those communities must include the incarcerated people inside, that are themselves organizing on the inside to fight for better conditions and quite often being forced during hurricanes to prepare to protect their communities via forced slave labor with sandbags or in cleanup in the aftermath.

AMY GOODMAN - HOST, DEMOCRACY NOW!: And, Jay, The [01:06:00] Intercept reports prisoners in North Carolina were left in their cells without running water or power for nearly a week, cut off from communication with the outside world and forced to keep their waste in plastic bags in their cells, from Helene. Your final comments on what needs to be done?

JORDAN MARTINEZ: Well, I think the final comments on what needs to done is there needs to be mandatory, in-place rules and regulations during evacuations when a certain category of hurricane is coming in, that require and force state and local county officials to have evacuation plans in preparation, in advance.

And lastly, I want to close with a quote from inside that we have with Jailhouse Lawyers Speak, who are the folks that reported those inside conditions. And we believe it’s very important that incarcerated people are allowed to speak for themselves in these conditions. So, this is coming out of the Florida Department of Corrections itself.

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak says, “We urge the public to [01:07:00] understand our plight as people in jails and prisons. We suffer during natural disasters in locked, dark cells, not knowing if we will survive or not. This is not just a logistical failure, it’s a profound moral failing. While entire towns are evacuated and communities band together to seek safety, we remain locked within these walls, treated as less than human. It is heartbreaking to think that while the world prepares for survival during a pending natural disaster such as Hurricane Milton, we are still treated as if we don’t matter, as if our lives can be tossed aside in the name of protocol. We must end this normalized routine. We beg the public to pay attention and have a heart of compassion.”

SECTION B - INTERSECTIONAL ISSUES

JAY TOMLINSON - HOST, BEST OF THE LEFT: Now entering Section B: Climate.

Corporate Greed Costs Lives During Catastrophic Flooding In Tennessee - The Majority Report - Air Date 10-1-24

SAM SEDER - HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: Death toll is already over 130. Anticipated to be more. and, you know, frankly, this is like the new normal is we have a once in 100 year storm once or twice a year. we are just simply not [01:08:00] set up for this. We are not set up for these type of changes. But here is a perfect example. I mean, how many times have we?

Heard a story like this. there were workers at a Tennessee based company called Impact Plastics. people died there because they were basically, with, Helene bearing down, a private enterprise is going to Air on the side that is going to make them the most money or, you know, not prevent them from making money.

This is the story of those buses in Katrina, the outsourcing and the outsourcing and the outsourcing, the subcontracting to private enterprise to be responsible for those buses at Katrina meant that when the guy was like, the guy with the final contract, if I send those buses and they don't need them.[01:09:00] 

And I send them, two hours down the road and they're waiting out there. those buses are gone to the drivers are going to be costing me. I'm going to lose money on this private enterprises. Job number one is always make money, not protect your workers, not, create a situation for the community.

That's what it is. And, here is this, worker from Impact Plastics in Tennessee, interviewed by News WCYB. 

IMPACT PLASTICS WORKER: Have you seen the statement the company sent out when you saw that? What's your first thought? It was anger hurt. It was life. It was just frustration. What really happened that day? We were we were all working and the power went out and I got a text right when the power went out from another employee saying that the parking lot was flooded.

And [01:10:00] I started walking. up towards the break room. That's where you walk out at the parking lot. And I seen the parking lot flooded and I was like, what do I do? And I told me to move my car. I said, move my car. So I moved my car to higher ground, which it was still on water. There wasn't no, no at all dry ground in the parking lot.

I got out. I said, can we leave? And the woman said, no, not until I speak with Jerry. About 10 minutes later, she came back and said, y'all can leave. It was too late. We have one way in one way out. And when they told us we could leave, the one way out was blocked off. So we were stuck in traffic on that road, waiting to see what we're going to do.

Cause everybody knew it was just one way. And then we turned around. We all felt like I turned around and some people going up this big old train road, old train road for a driver, getting up there barely and people were getting stuck trying to get up [01:11:00] there. So they see. down. So some of the other employees from another company sent us down.

They said they cut open the fence on 26. So we went down there and as we're trying to go down there, my car, I lost my car and I'm sort of floating down the river. Well, we didn't know what to do. We were in a panic mode. So the water was coming up and then we did what we had to survive. It was a guy in a four by four came, picked a bunch of us up and saved our lives.

Well, we'd have been dead too. What does that feel like now to be, you know, one of the, I guess, few that made it out? I don't know how many. It hurts. It hurts knowing that they didn't make it and I did. I don't know. I mean, it just doesn't seem fair to me that they didn't make it. What would you say to the company?

Why'd you make us work that day? Why? We shouldn't [01:12:00] have worked. We shouldn't have been there. None of us should have been there. And that's what I should have said to him. Why did you make us work when you knew, you said in your statement, you were monitoring it. Why did you make us stay and work? Um, is there anything else?

 I mean, when they let us, when they told us we could leave, it was just too late. I mean, there was no way out. Some people made it out with four wheel drive, but if you didn't have four wheel drive, or if you were stuck in that line I was stuck in, it was too late. Because, I mean, like I said, my car got washed down the river.

All right, down the road. Um, 

SAM SEDER - HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: this is, like, reminiscent of COVID and Like I say, Katrina, the idea that these workers [01:13:00] feel so compelled and are so insecure in their status as working at this place that they can't even exercise that judgment of being able to say, like, I don't think I should go into work today.

Like that there is no margin for error for them. If they don't go into work and there's no 100 year catastrophic flood, they get fired. So if they're going to stay out from work, you better hope that's the situation that they're placed in. 

EMMA VIGELAND - CO-HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: Yeah, I'm not sure if they're a unionized workforce, but I would bet you Everything they're 

SAM SEDER - HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: not.

EMMA VIGELAND - CO-HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: Yeah, 

SAM SEDER - HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: Tennessee 

EMMA VIGELAND - CO-HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: I mean, I'm reminded of the Kentucky candle factory where eight workers died two years ago Because they weren't allowed to go home during a tornado and that same tornado also killed six amazon warehouse workers in illinois And then when you [01:14:00] mentioned covet i'm reminded of was it Dan Patrick, the Lieutenant Governor, who said that in Texas?

Where, essentially, he said that some people would have to basically be sacrificed for the economy to keep going. We said old 

MATT LECH - PRODUCER, THE MAJORITY REPORT: people would be sacrificed, but, then we proceeded to sacrifice both old people and, workers. 

EMMA VIGELAND - CO-HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: And, that's essentially how they view their work, their workers, at least in terms of how they treat them.

MATT LECH - PRODUCER, THE MAJORITY REPORT: That's what the prevailing narrative is by all these, Restore the Republic grifters, like Bobby Kennedy, Russell Brand type of people. The problem with COVID was the shutdown and they didn't let businesses continue operating. Not that a bunch of people were maimed and killed by a virus. 

Election Denials Asheville, Israel & Inequality. Part 2 - Unfcking The Republic - Air Date 10-25-24

MAX - HOST, UNFTR: Inequality 

CLIP: the meantime, we turn to the economy tonight into this crippling strike. Tens of thousands of Union dockworkers up and down the East Coast and the Gulf, walking off the job, threatening the nation's supply chain, and of course then, the prices you could potentially pay. 

MAX - HOST, UNFTR: The recent strike by dockworkers, represented by the International Longshoremen's [01:15:00] Association, is already significantly impacting ports along the East Coast and Gulf Coast.

This action, the first of its kind since 1977, is rooted in disagreements over wages and the automation of port operations, which the union argues could jeopardize jobs. The workers are demanding substantial pay increases to compensate for inflation and to oppose the growing trend of automation in port logistics.

All told, the strike currently affects 36 major ports, including key facilities in New York, New Jersey, and Florida. If the work stoppage extends beyond a few weeks, it could lead to shortages of certain goods, especially in industries like automotive and pharmaceuticals. But many companies preemptively stocked up on goods in anticipation of the strike, so the immediate consumer impacts could be limited.

As the world emerged from the pandemic, broken global supply chains had differing effects on the economy. On the one hand, it was a significant driver of inflation, though as we've demonstrated in prior episodes, multinational [01:16:00] corporations took great advantage of this phenomenon to raise prices beyond rational limits, using supply chain shocks as cover for corporate greed.

The result was a double shock to the consumer wallet. Another effect was the need to hire a great number of workers to meet pent up demand from the sudden halt to all economic activity. So taken together, in the United States at least, the economy has been incredibly difficult to read. Some areas of the economy look to be in the early stages of recovery, while others appear to be heading into a prolonged recession.

The Federal Reserve responded to inflationary pressures by increasing rates dramatically, thereby making all debt related activity extremely expensive and curbing investments. Revised employment data led the Federal Reserve to recently cut interest rates, saying that it achieved the soft landing it was looking for, and most of Wall Street and the mainstream media nodded its collective head in response to this and seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

But all of this overlooks the [01:17:00] fact that the average American is still under an extreme amount of pressure right now. Accumulated household savings from government stimulus packages during the pandemic have all but been depleted. Consumer debt is at an all time high. There's a housing shortage and a homelessness crisis.

Republicans are blaming migrants for suppressing wages, taking jobs from American citizens, and taking all the available housing. Democrats are offering tax credits down the road to offer assistance for certain segments of the population, most of whom would be hard pressed to figure out how to apply for them.

Dock workers, like the rail workers and auto workers before them, understand the power of organizing and will either win certain key provisions or be obliterated by the Biden administration if this goes on long enough to hobble the economy. And of all the strike activity we've seen since the pandemic, this one has the potential to do immediate harm, so it's going to be interesting to see how the administration responds.

It's a [01:18:00] good reminder that the power is in the hands of the workers, but only to a limited extent. A hobbled economy could break the fragile electoral tie and produce Trump 2. 0, and there's no doubt that the organizers of the strike are keenly aware of this fact. It's solid brinkmanship that could pay dividends by inviting federal intervention on the side of workers to end this thing quickly in their favor.

Then again, the Biden administration isn't known for acting quickly, and has also come down on the wrong side of these disputes as in the case of the rail workers. The bigger reminder is that there is no plan for the American worker, not from the Democrats and certainly not from the Republicans. As they did with the Affordable Care Act, the Democrats crafted legislation and passed spending bills collaboratively and in favor of large corporations.

And it all passed because Republicans knew that as the minority, they could put up a stink for the sake of optics, but let it pass because Nothing materially changed on the ground for the American [01:19:00] worker. The calculus being that if they're successful in taking back the White House, they'll be the beneficiaries of corporate welfare programs that line the pockets of their donors.

So all they have to worry about is cutting taxes on corporations and the wealthy, just like they always do.

So, what's the upshot? If you've been watching the debates or paying attention to the election messaging at all, and I know you have, unfuckers, Then you'll know that our leaders are having all the wrong conversations. Both sides are in denial about climate change, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the struggles of American workers.

There's plenty of lip service to go around, but no plan on any of these fronts that even has a remote chance of making things better. There's no such thing as a climate haven. There's no justification for funding the massacre of civilians in Gaza and now Beirut. And there's no justification [01:20:00] for promoting the inverted totalitarian state.

It's clear that the Republican Party is openly and transparently the enemy of the people. What's so utterly mystifying to me is why the Democratic Party is trying so hard to beat them at their own game. If we dodge a bullet in November and elect the Harris Waltz ticket, there will be no time to rest.

KC Tenants helps launch a national effort for tenant protections - Up To Date - Air Date 8-11-24

ZACH WILSON - HOST, UP TO DATE: So right out of the gate, in plain terms, explain the Tenant Union Federation and its mission to our listeners. 

TARA RAGHUVEER: The Tenant Union Federation is a union of tenant unions, and we're banding together across state lines because we know our landlords are organized across state lines, and we've got a lot of work to do to figure out how The art and science of tenant organizing, you know, we've gotten a really strong start here in Kansas City and you spoke to some of the power that we've built and the wins that we've, uh, that we've been able to secure here, but the truth is where we've barely scratched the surface [01:21:00] on what tenant organizing could be and what it could look like.

We really see ourselves right now as in a similar, similar place to where the labor movement was at the beginning part of the last century before mass membership, before formal process. before organized money, um, and with a lot of urgent opportunity to go build a new kind of power in this country. 

ZACH WILSON - HOST, UP TO DATE: Uh, tenants unions in Kentucky, Illinois, Connecticut and Montana are also a part of this federation.

How long has this been in the works and what initially inspired this as a collaboration? 

TARA RAGHUVEER: In one way or another, this has been in the works for years. The unions that we're starting this federation with have been working together for several years, mostly on federal campaigns. We've been focused on getting the federal government to think about tenants, protect tenants, condition federal financing on a set of tenant protections.

We've been organizing a lot around the rent in the last several years with [01:22:00] that group of unions and several more. And We decided to take this next step because we saw a real limit on the power that we could organize if we didn't get serious about what defines a tenant union and started to apply some rigor to that organizing practice.

ZACH WILSON - HOST, UP TO DATE: So what went into determining who would be a part of the organization? 

TARA RAGHUVEER: We spent a lot of time working with one another among that founding crew to try to understand what makes a tenant union, a tenant union. And it's interesting, even in your introduction of Casey Tenants, you describe us as an advocacy organization.

That's not how we understand ourselves. We understand ourselves to be a tenant union. And a union is actually something different than an advocacy organization. We think of ourselves as organizers, not activists. And to The sort of general listener, this might sound like parsing terms, right? Just a matter of semantics.

To us, the difference is actually really meaningful. Uh, the difference is about people [01:23:00] fighting for their own liberation. No one's speaking for the tenants. The tenants are speaking for themselves. In a tenant union, much like a labor union, uh, the tenants, like workers, organize their own power, bargain for their own protections, get their landlord to the negotiation table, uh, determine every strategic step, make decisions as a collective, and that's the type of thing that we're trying to figure out with this federation, how to do that better and more powerfully.

ZACH WILSON - HOST, UP TO DATE: And how is organizing at the national level different from organizing at the local level? Is it a much different operation when you're talking about something at that scale? Thank you. You're welcome. 

TARA RAGHUVEER: In some ways it is. In other ways it isn't. Um, really what we're trying to do with this federation is strengthen each of our local efforts.

We have a lot to learn from some of the other unions at this founding table. I just spent a week with the tenants in Bozeman, Montana. And, you know, they're doing some things in Montana that we haven't tried to do here in Kansas City. So there's a lot to learn there. The local that is starting the federation, [01:24:00] um, from Connecticut is based out of SEIU 1199 Northeast, so they're based out of a labor union and they've experimented a lot more with structure based organizing in a labor organizing sense than we have.

So we have a lot to learn from each of these groups, um, and like I said, I think we're really just getting started. 

ZACH WILSON - HOST, UP TO DATE: So you say you want to find like a standard approach to organizing across all the local unions. What do you exactly hope that approach looks like? 

TARA RAGHUVEER: I hope it looks like something that can meaningfully contest with all that we are up against. And what I mean in saying that is 650, 000 people sleep outside in the richest country in the history of the world.

That to me, Is one piece of evidence about the failure of our current system. In addition to that, tens of millions of people pay over 50 percent of their income in rent. The rent is too damn high, and it has been for a long time. [01:25:00] The realities of the market that we exist in today, that is the product of a real estate industry that is more and more powerful.

They're, they're the most powerful today than they've ever been. One of the most potent and powerful forces, not only in the American economy, but the global economy. So we have to be serious about what we're up against. And We need to seriously contest as poor and working class tenants against those forces and to protect the people and most importantly to house the people.

ZACH WILSON - HOST, UP TO DATE: Uh, so you, you obviously want to get more people involved in moving forward beyond just the five unions that are involved so far. Uh, does this include starting new tenant unions in cities across the country or is it more about bringing more unions that already exist into the fold? 

TARA RAGHUVEER: It'll probably look like a little bit of both, and it's not my decision to make.

I think one of the beautiful and interesting and challenging parts of an experiment like this is it's an experiment in real democracy. It's an experiment in [01:26:00] building real democratic process among people and institutions. So the Tenant Union Federation is founded by these five locals. Each of them has two representatives elected to a leadership team that will be making all kinds of decisions.

decisions about structure and strategy in answer to the questions like the ones that you're asking. So it'll be up to the leadership team to determine exactly what expansion looks like. We do plan to expand in 2025 and we're starting small on purpose, right? That wasn't, that wasn't an accident. We're starting small because we want to prioritize real methodological alignment.

over smoke and mirrors. We could have said we're starting with 50. We got all these numbers. It wouldn't have been a realistic picture of what this movement looks like right now. 

ZACH WILSON - HOST, UP TO DATE: And what does that leadership team look like? How is that organized? 

TARA RAGHUVEER: It's one organizer and one tenant leader per founding local.

So each union gets one vote. And again, that's an experiment in democratic process. We're kind of [01:27:00] making the road while we walk it. And that's a beautiful thing. And like I said, it's also a challenging thing. We've got a lot. of us. 

ZACH WILSON - HOST, UP TO DATE: Uh, you've been behind a lot of change here in Kansas City with KC tenants and creating change federally, I expect is going to be harder.

Uh, how hopeful are you that you'll be able to accomplish the goals that you find out here today? 

TARA RAGHUVEER: I'm very hopeful. I mean, I think the The joy of my life is being an organizer who gets to engage with people who are impacted by these issues every day. And those people are some of the most powerful, some of the sharpest, uh, some of the most disciplined people I've ever met in my life.

And all of that gives me hope, Zach. And I also think that The evidence is in what we've won, right? Like, I think that the hope comes from the fact that we've seen this type of change happen in Kansas City, poor and working class tenants have asserted their place here and they've started to [01:28:00] win. That's true across the country.

And even on a national stage in the last several years that These tenant unions have been working together. We've gotten the federal government focused on the rent. We're hearing presidential candidates talk about the rent for the first time in decades, maybe ever. Right. There's a new presidential ad out this week that has the rent in all caps.

People are starting to recognize this as what it is, which is what it is. One of the most significant economic issues of our time. So all of that gives me hope. We've already traveled a distance and now we need to move from message to material outcome. People's lives need to change for the better. 

ZACH WILSON - HOST, UP TO DATE: And before we leave this conversation, I want to ask you to reflect on the work that you've done to get here so far and what else you hope to accomplish in 30 seconds.

What do you hope people take away from seeing the work you're leading? 

TARA RAGHUVEER: The people have power. And more often than not, people just need an invitation to exercise that power. And that [01:29:00] invitation comes from vehicles like tenant unions.

SECTION C - POLITICS

JAY TOMLINSON - HOST, BEST OF THE LEFT: Up next, Section C: Risk.

DeSantis Playing Politics With Hurricane Milton Relief - The Majority Report - Air Date 10-9-24

SAM SEDER - HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: You know, there's so many issues involved with the, this hurricane that's barreling towards florida now. Still, my last, the last check, it's back up to a category four. 

EMMA VIGELAND - CO-HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: It's been a category five. The hope is that it when it reaches landfall It's a category four by that point, but either way we're talking about one of the strongest storms to hit florida in my lifetime, 

MATT LECH - PRODUCER, THE MAJORITY REPORT: let's keep in mind times live coverage is saying as of now, it's a category four leading to its landfall 

SAM SEDER - HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: As of Monday, the anticipation was at this juncture, it would be closer to a category three, right?

And, it looked like it was losing steam. Then it sort of jumped back up. So we really don't know. we spoke about earlier, we played that, that clip of the mayor from Monday. We have no [01:30:00] response as a society in terms of providing evacuation notices. I mean, providing evacuation services, making it possible for people to evacuate, which, you know, in many ways, these storms are like COVID in that they expose and heighten failures that we have within our society that already exist.

Right, like the, What happens to your health care if you're not going into work? What happens to, you know, how do we do what happens with education when we have families who don't have the same technology, or money to spend on technology? In this instance, what happens to people who don't have the money to rent another apartment to own a car to drive out of town?

maybe they're disabled and don't have access to these things. I mean, these moments of crises [01:31:00] expose the weaknesses that we have that exist in society. Invariably, they're all around money because of the way that our society is structured. And we're going to have to address things for non crisis periods of time to make us more, durable and, strong enough to sustain through crises.

And, one of the problems that we also have at this point is as a society, a complete misunderstanding of like what happens in Congress, how things get funded, what services the federal government provides, et cetera, et cetera. Just contemplate this. Donald Trump wanted to get rid of the entire federal government's apparatus to track hurricanes.

He wanted to open the door for private corporations to do this work. Which means it's behind a paywall.

Just [01:32:00] contemplate that for a moment. And we know the Republicans, I mean, under him, he wanted to cut FEMA. The Republicans refused about another, 10 billion of a supplemental aid just a month ago to the FEMA budget. And then the super effed up notion about it is they will lie with essentially impunity.

Not saying they should be punished, but there's no accountability for it within their own sort of like ecospheres as to, I'm sure you've went over this the past couple of days, you know, payments to, people who suffered in Helene. there's no accountability in the sense that like, you know, Ron DeSantis outlawed the use of the words climate change in all of their sort of like, how do you address these things?

And so here is the, essentially Harris tried to, apparently [01:33:00] call DeSantis, in the run up to, Milton to offer support, find out what he needs, et cetera, et cetera. here she is basically retelling the story. President 

KAMALA HARRIS: Sanchez, NBC is reporting Governor DeSantis is ignoring your calls on hurricanes, resources and health.

How does that hurt the situation here? You know, moment of crisis, if nothing else, should really be the moment that anyone calls himself a leader, you're gonna put politics aside people first. People are in desperate need of support right now and [01:34:00] I 

EMMA VIGELAND - CO-HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: if you recall, Chris Christie, the governor of the state I grew up in, Was photographed during Hurricane Sandy, basically putting his arm around President Obama, because Obama mobilized the federal government to help New Jersey in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

And that, I don't know, you can't, like, go back in time and say that's what killed his chances in terms of his 2016 presidential ambitions. But, at the very least, the base reacted to it in such an insane way. Like, how dare you touch Satan incarnate, Chris Christie. Or a black guy. Or, well. I mean, one and the same for the base, but like, before Trump came on the scene as the guy that was gonna talk tough and be the bully, I mean, that was Chris Christie's whole persona, an East Coast Republican that likes to talk a bunch of shit, He [01:35:00] cratered under that, and so DeSantis is trying to go the opposite way, and he's making a show of not taking Harris calls, but Harris is also making a show of the fact that he didn't take her calls, which she should, because they are playing politics, but this should be a moment where we're also talking about, like, Republicans are uninterested, for the most part, in building up systems that will mitigate the harms of this in the future.

Brian Kemp is Because if you do that Yeah. 

SAM SEDER - HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: You're conceding that there's something going on now. Right. Which they also don't want to address. 

EMMA VIGELAND - CO-HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: Right, right. and, you know, it also gets in the way, I think, right now of her now two month long campaign for a moderate Republican voters. But, you know, that is the reality.

And Trump had been trying to do this and force Brian Kemp into lying to say that Biden, hadn't been answering calls from, or sorry, that, Biden hadn't called, or, so yes, that was true, answered calls from Brian Kemp, [01:36:00] Georgia's governor in, in. the response to Hurricane Helene. I don't know what the salience of this is anymore.

It's just like how can we get through to an electorate on the Republican side that thinks climate change is a hoax and like just seems to take the results of these extreme weather patterns at face value and then these Republican governors probably don't do anything for them. 

DeSantis Playing Politics With Hurricane Milton Relief Part 2 - The Majority Report - Air Date 10-9-24

SAM SEDER - HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: Let me just preface this by saying I am sympathetic to the plight of a Politician 30 days out less from an election, trying to get elected.

But, at one point

democratic politicians, and I don't anticipate that all will do this or that half, but some need to, not be afraid of politicizing these things. And I don't mean like [01:37:00] politics as a caddy sport. politics as is like selfish, but take this opportunity and I understand at this moment, it might be impossible to do.

And so, you know, don't misinterpret. Some people are going to be like, you know, a little bit oversensitive to this, but these are the opportunities to explain to people that there are certainly in this, I mean, even Bill Clinton was one of his best achievements was to basically rebuild FEMA. and George Bush came in and started to privatize all these services again.

When they talk about cutting FEMA. That's what they want to do. They want these to be private services. 

EMMA VIGELAND - CO-HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: And we saw how that worked 

SAM SEDER - HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: out with Katrina, by the way, exactly. And you want to take the opportunity. And it's it's it's not easy to express the people like this is what society is [01:38:00] about. Tampa cannot address this on 

strength of having a country as large and as wealthy as ours is that we have the ability to respond to these crises. That don't hit everybody and part of it is you don't know if you're going to be one of those people.

Same concept behind single payer health insurance. Frankly, 80 percent of healthcare costs are borne by 20 percent of the people, but we don't know which 20 percent this is going to be. We don't know if it's today, it's Tampa getting hit by Milton or, you know, in a year, whether it's going to be.

I don't know, Craryville in upstate New York up in the mountains or something, or, Asheville, or, it's going to be, an extreme drought. We don't know where these crises are going to hit. And this is an opportunity for politicians to say, this is a fundamental difference between the policy orientation of these two [01:39:00] parties.

One understands that our strength as a country, our strength, as being this rich is that. We can help people when they are, in crisis one of the ways that we can help people when they're in crises is to mitigate these crises before they happen. That means build a public transportation system so that people can't evacuate.

That means mitigate, to the extent that we can now, the forces that are driving climate change. That means provide health care, provide resources, so that if somebody actually does have to, evacuate, and go rent a hotel at an exorbitant fee, 15 hours away, They're going to have at least some savings and some ability to do so because other aspects of their necessities in their lives have been decommodified.

I mean, this is a missed opportunity in that way. And I'll tell you something, you look at the polling on immigration right now. [01:40:00] And the turnaround of where the American public at is, is nuts. 

EMMA VIGELAND - CO-HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: It's also a global phenomenon, I'll say, too. Like, this is a failure of, the left more broadly, I mean, liberal parties aren't really the left, but, in Europe, the right is just much more organized around this particular topic of nativism, and they've successfully incorporated Orban style politics about this with, into right wing parties throughout Europe and North America.

 

SAM SEDER - HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: But America has a unique relationship with immigrants relative to Europe, right? I mean, this country literally was built. Yes. There was no Americans 250 years ago. this country was uniquely built and the speed in which This turnabout happened far more rapid in this country than in a European country.

This has been a problem in Europe for, at least a decade. This is change of the past two or three years, and I would [01:41:00] contend it is a function of essentially Democrats leaving a vacuum, moving to the right on this as a way, instead of actually engaging in The rhetorical battle. They attempted to do what was the easy thing to do in this instance and attempt to placate this in a sway, these fears, instead of actually challenging the existence of these fears and in the short run, it may help you in the long run, you're never going to be as fashy on immigrants as the Republicans.

They're just going to move more to the right on this, where they're talking about, mass deportations. And you've left a vacuum here, that is going to end up both hurting you politically, but also in terms of like, well, economically, frankly. and I think that's [01:42:00] just a question of justice.

EMMA VIGELAND - CO-HOST, THE MAJORITY REPORT: It's a failure of liberalism to be able to combat fascism. I mean, this is something I think we've talked about many times. Like, the United States is unique in that it's a massive settler colonial society, different than Europe. I do think that some of those problems, remain the Democrats like they are.

This is what happens when they're basically doing campaigns and Harris's campaign. It's almost as if given that she took over the Biden campaign infrastructure. I'm not sure she had too much of a choice, and this is the path they've gone down, but it's just everything's from a focus testing perspective, run to the right on these issues, solidify your base to the right, and they haven't built up mechanisms to do.

The opposite, the party, while it's in a better position in terms of, like, delivering for people, the strategy's long term to beat back fascism is, not, they are very [01:43:00] poorly equipped. I worry about whatever this, like, they, they could win in the fall, but if they don't adjust their strategy for a post Trump world, we're in deep trouble.

SECTION D: TRUMP AND DISINFORMATION

JAY TOMLINSON - HOST, BEST OF THE LEFT: And finally Section D: Trump and disinformation.

Hurricane Milton Menaces Florida; Fact Report after Helene with NC blogger Tom Sullivan Part 2 - The BradCast - Air Date 10-7-24

BRAD FRIEDMAN - HOST, THE BRADCAST: Meanwhile, as they prepare for another storm in Florida, officials in the Sunshine State and about five others are still responding to the catastrophic effects of the last one, of Helene.

Making matters worse is the fact that public officials are also being forced to contend now with widespread and persistent disinformation that is hampering relief efforts. And it is being spread by, yes, Donald Trump and Fox News and right wing Twitter, which is to say at this point, pretty much all of Twitter now known as X to some misinformation that suggests the FEMA is nowhere to be found and that the Biden Harris administration has pretty much left folks out there to die.

Particularly in Republican leaning areas, which is [01:44:00] out and out, false, and wildly dangerous. Roy Cooper, the governor in North Carolina, took to Twitter and called it a, quote, relentless vortex of disinformation dialed up by bad actors and platforms like X, or Twitter. A North Carolina Republican state official had to take to social media and plead for an end to right wing conspiracy theories about Helene disaster recovery.

Brian Beutler, in his off message newsletter today, described MAGA's Hurricane Helene lies as, quote, a trial run. for the election. Apparently it all got so bad so quickly that FEMA had to put up a rumors page on its website just to debunk the nonsense and the lies coming from right wingers via social media.

These rumors are still circulating and are still dangerous for those struggling to rebound from Hurricane Helene. But as we [01:45:00] pride ourselves here in a public service, as a public service journalism, I was hoping to share at least some of these, uh, today from FEMA, from their rumors web page that they had to post in order to respond to all of this stuff and nonsense kicked off by Donald Trump and Rick Scott and all the rest.

But now, with Milton headed to shore, I think it's even more important that folks here understand what is actually going on so they can help shut down the lies and the dangerous nonsense that many on the right, who I think have been hoping for their own, for years, for their own Hurricane Katrina, but with a Democrat in the White House so they could blame the Democrat, well, they may not have Katrina, or they may soon, but either way, they're trying to blame the White House.

Even if there is nothing to blame them for. So, uh, just a couple of these, uh, [01:46:00] for example, um, the, uh, this, uh, Donald Trump has been claiming that, uh, FEMA disaster, uh, money was diverted to support international efforts or border related issues. The fact is, according to FEMA, that this is false. No money is being deferred, diverted from disaster response needs.

FEMA's disaster response efforts and individual assistance is funded through the Disaster Relief Fund. It's a dedicated fund for disaster efforts. Disaster Relief Fund money has not been diverted to other non disaster related needs. efforts. There's also been a claim that Oh, 750 is the is what the Biden Harris administration is giving to survivors to support their recovery and that they will give no more.

Well, FEMA says this too is false. This 750 is a type of assistance that you may be approved for soon after you [01:47:00] apply. It's called serious needs assistance, and you get it almost immediately. It's an upfront flexible payment to help cover essential food, essential items like food, water, baby formula, breastfeeding supplies, medication, and other emergency supplies.

There are other. Forms of assistance that you may also qualify for, qualify to receive, and serious needs assistance is just an initial payment that you may receive while FEMA assesses your eligibility for additional funds. As your application continues to be reviewed, you may still receive additional forms of assistance for other needs, such as support for temporary housing, Personal property and home repair costs.

And yet we've seen folks out on, out on the Twitters. Over the past week, saying, yeah, the Biden Harris administration, all they're doing is giving 750 to survivors. 

DEZI DOYEN - CO-HOST, THE BRADCAST: Which is interesting, because remember, during the Trump administration, it was also 750 for that [01:48:00] first day, and he never said a word about that.

Because 

BRAD FRIEDMAN - HOST, THE BRADCAST: that's how the fund works. Exactly. 

DEZI DOYEN - CO-HOST, THE BRADCAST: And Republicans have also stopped, periodically, any attempt to increase that emergency assistance fund that you can get from that 750 or something. That would be more helpful. 

BRAD FRIEDMAN - HOST, THE BRADCAST: This one is a particularly dangerous one that FEMA had to rebut. FEMA is in the process of confiscating Helene's survivor property, according to this rumor.

If I apply for disaster assistance and my land is deemed unlivable, my property will be seized. That is false, and it is really dangerous. Because it could lead to harm against FEMA workers who show up at people's homes trying to help them. But if they believe that FEMA might be there to confiscate their property I don't even want to think what happens.

That is another false rumor. I will link to their, uh, to the FEMA rumors page. The idea that we even have to have one.[01:49:00] 

Welcome to 2024.

How Will Project 2025 Turn Hurricanes Into Even Deadlier Threats - Thom Hartmann Program - Air Date 9-30-24

THOM HARTMANN - HOST, THOM HARTMANN PROGRAM: Good news, I suppose, was that the hurricane missed us. You know, it, it, it went, uh, it, originally there was some concern that it might be heading toward New Orleans. Um, the bad news is that this hurricane, this is going to be the new normal. I mean, this thing went from not even being a hurricane to being a Cat 4 hurricane when it hit, hit land, made landfall.

In just, what, two days, as I recall? I mean, you know, very, very quickly. And why? Because the Gulf of Mexico is much warmer than it has ever been in the history of humanity. Or at least in the history, in recorded human history. And now at least 115 people are dead across six states. Officials fear the death toll can rise.

Uh, there's many more people missing. Hundreds of roads remain closed, especially in the Carolinas. Carolinas got hit really, really hard. Everybody was worried about the wind, right? Oh, is it still a Category [01:50:00] 4 or 3 or 2 or 1, you know, when it hits? But, you know, what people were not counting for or expecting, and what the media, frankly, is not talking about, is that because our atmosphere is warmer, it's one and a half degrees warmer than it was just 30 years ago, um, or certainly at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, um, Because of that, it holds more moisture.

Warm air holds more moisture than cold air does. It's, you know, it's, it's why in the winter, you know, the humidity collapses. You know, it's because cold air can't hold moisture. And once it gets below freezing, it pretty much really has a hard time holding moisture. And, uh, but the warmer it gets, the more moisture it can hold.

So there was just a mind boggling amount of water That this storm had picked up out of the Atlantic and then dumped on the Carolinas and and every place in between I mean Georgia's in big trouble You know Yeah, it's just just right up the coast So there's [01:51:00] a meat and and by the way, there's an it's a they're describing it as a medium chance that a new storm Will develop in the Western Caribbean or the Gulf of Mexico later this week and You know, it's too early to know what's going to happen with that.

Uh, President Biden says he's going to visit some of the affected communities as soon as they're kind of back on their feet. He doesn't want his visit to slow down or impede any rescue operations, which is just, you know, reasonable. Um, but, uh, he's, he's sending, you know, all kinds of socialist aid to these, uh, red states.

Uh, you know, I, it's now, now you've got, uh, Brian Kemp going, uh, please, uh, President Biden, send us some of that socialism. Meanwhile, of course, Project 2025 wants to do away with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. You know, the people who predict these storms and tell us what to look out for.

And they want to cut back FEMA, uh, radically. So, you know, all in the service of lowering taxes on billionaires. [01:52:00] It's crazy. Asheville, North Carolina, has been particularly hard hit. Uh, we had some friends who moved from Los Angeles to Asheville some years ago. You know, looking for a little more affordable place to live and, you know, a nice quality of life.

And Asheville certainly has that. And they just loved it. They moved back to L. A. last year, you know, so Uh, you know, they're, they're okay, but, wow, I mean, the floodwaters, uh, just, just wiped out this town. I mean, it didn't wipe out the town, but it has isolated the town. There's no cell service. Uh, I'm, I'm guessing they're, some of this is coming back today, but, uh, damaged roads, lack of power, lack of cell service, um, this is across Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee, and in North Carolina alone, more than 400 roads, uh, remained closed over the weekend.

Some gas, most of your gas stations were closed. They didn't have electricity to pump gas. The few that were open had lines that were wrapped around the block. [01:53:00] Um, again, Asheville home to 94, 000 people, about 700, 000 people across North Carolina without power right now.

Rep. Frost Trump & GOP hurricane relief lies can ‘cost lives’ - MSNBC - Air Date 10-9-24\

REP. FROST: Well, thank you so much for having me on, Lawrence, and I'm here in Orlando. We're a few hours away from getting the really serious part of the storm. We've had rain and wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour so far.

Being on that plane a few days ago was terrible. Uh, very enlightening and educational experience and a very intense experience. You know, my entire life growing up in the state of florida. I've gotten used to hurricanes. I've gotten used to waking up, looking at the news, seeing the prediction of where to go, seeing all these models, but not fully understanding where this information comes from.

Even though we have great technology now, there are still data points that have to be collected within the hurricane. And for people who don't know, Noah, which is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, um, has an amazing heroic team that they call the Hurricane Hunters. And these folks are pilots, technicians, [01:54:00] engineers, scientists and meteorologists.

And they fly into these storms, uh, flights going anywhere between eight and 12 hours, and they drop beacons within the storm, drop different things within it to collect data about the pressure, um, the how the size of the waves and a bunch of different things. They send this data to the National Hurricane Center, and that is how we get all the information that we get about these storms.

So this data can be used. Literally saves lives. And I have to mention that there are people in Congress who have voted against funds for this important administration. And not just that, but Project 2025 wants to get rid of NOAA. And so it would literally cause us to not be able to save more lives. And so Either way, it was incredibly intense experience.

There were times where we free fell thousands of feet because of the way that they fly the plane within the hurricane. But it was an honor to be there. I learned so much about how important the work Noah does is and how important the hurricane hunters are. 

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL - HOST, MSNBC: I just want to go back over that point [01:55:00] about Project 2025 wanting to abolish NOAA, along with abolish the Department of Education.

Abolish is a word that appears frequently in that document, but they want to abolish the scientific collection of data by the federal government that has been able to warn people in Florida, how to save their lives and how much time they have to save their lives. They just want to just eliminate that information system.

REP. FROST: Yes. And this whole thing of project 2025 and wanting to get rid of NOAA while at the same time wanting to get rid of the mention of climate change and the climate crisis as well shows that not only do the That not only do they want to deny the issue, but they want to deny us the means and solutions to deal with the issue.

And we see this happen all the time. You know, I'm on the House Oversight Committee. I have my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who constantly want to badger and talk [01:56:00] about. Um, a lot of our, uh, uh, agencies and departments, they're not doing their job. They're horrible. They're bureaucrats. This and that.

And then at the same time, vote against budget increases to ensuring these agencies have the resources that they need. It's complete hypocrisy. And it's what's going on here in Florida and the thing about it. is this data saves lives. There are people who have already died because of this hurricane today, and we're gonna have more discussions over the coming days and weeks about how these two hurricanes that seemingly came out of nowhere are here because of the climate crisis and because it's here.

But, you know, I'll tell you, Lawrence, when I was driving back from that hurricane hunters mission, I was on I four leaving kind of the Tampa area coming back to Orlando, and I broke down being in the car because I'm in the Stop and go traffic. I'm looking to my left and right and all you see is all these cars full of families, seniors, people, and you look at their face, they've packed up their entire livelihood.

and they are scared. And this is becoming more and more of a [01:57:00] normal occurrence for Floridians. And so when we talk about the impacts of climate change, of course, it's human lives. That's a death toll. But it's also people being displaced and people having to leave their homes time and time again. It's really sad.

We've been focusing on making sure people are prepared here in Central Florida. We were at the emergency operations centers earlier today. I met with lunch workers who serve lunch to kids at school who are staying overnight in shelters to feed the people in the shelters three meals a day while we get through this storm.

So if I know one thing is for sure, it's that here in Central Florida and across the state, we're going to help each other get through this. Um, we're going to clean up and then we're going to continue to have these conversations on how we need to make sure. We prevent these kind of events happening again.

I mean, we're having too many once in a hundred year storms over just the last five years. 

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL - HOST, MSNBC: In all of your conversations with the people living in the path of this hurricane, have you found people who believe Republican Marjorie Taylor [01:58:00] Greene's statement that, I guess, President Biden controls the weather?

I 

REP. FROST: haven't just yet. But what I have had is I've had people come up to me and ask questions about some of the misinformation they've seen out there. We saw, uh, former President Donald Trump talking about the 750 number without talking about the fact that there are different buckets that people can apply to to get direct assistance from FEMA.

One of the buckets is an immediate cash send out to help people with things they might have lost where they need food. Baby formula, stuff like that with 750 can go a long way with that. There's another bucket of funds where people can help get money to help recover their home. So there's a lot of misinformation out there.

And the problem here and president Biden brought this up is that when that misinformation goes into the public and people believe it, it means they don't believe or have any kind of faith in their government. And when they don't have faith in FEMA, it means they won't come to these organizations to get the help they need.

Which [01:59:00] means that there are people out there who will need help, who won't seek help because they've been lied to. And so what everyone should know is President Biden and Vice President Harris signed and authorized a pre landfall emergency declaration for FEMA for this hurricane hitting now. FEMA and the federal government has resources up and down the state, working closely with the state and municipal governments.

And we are working together to handle this thing. And the last thing we need are politicians trying to make political points and score political points out of this horrible tragedy. Right now, it doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican. We have to come together to save lives and keep people safe, especially people in our most vulnerable communities.

LAWRENCE O'DONNELL - HOST, MSNBC: Unfortunately, a lot of the victims in the path of this hurricane right now cannot hear you say that. They don't have access to television right now for obvious reasons. Uh, they might, uh, their phone batteries might be dying and they might not be able to have internet access over the course of this. And so [02:00:00] in situations like this, word of mouth actually becomes more important than it normally is, and Donald Trump has been poisoning and Marjorie Taylor Greene have been poisoning the word of mouth or trying to anyway, how much is that getting in the way of helping people?

REP. FROST: It gets in the way. It really does get in the way because what it does is it erodes faith. When, when I come to a mic and I say something, when our county mayor comes to a mic and says something, when someone from FEMA comes to a mic and says something, we need folks who are watching. And who get this information to help us disseminate it so our neighbors understand something we always say here in Florida.

It's like communities. We have to take care of each other. Neighbors have to take care of neighbors. I'm I'm here in my parents house right now. Um, you know, getting through the storm with them. It's going to hit here in Orlando in just a couple hours. We haven't gotten the worst of it yet. Um, but when I got here to the house, you know, my dad was out talking with neighbors talking to each other.

Mhm. taking care of each other. And the [02:01:00] problem is when people start believing this, this and misinformation, they could be spreading lies. And again, if those lies get spread, people might not reach out to get the help that they need and the help that they deserve. And so again, it is dangerous. It can cost us human lives when politicians, especially people with large platforms, spread mis and disinformation.

Just to try to get ahead, just to try to get political points. It's a damn shame and it's going to cost lives. And so we need people to focus on the truth. We cannot play politics with these hurricanes or these storms. We need to focus on saving people, helping people and making sure we get on the other end of this.

Trump's politicized lies about Helene recovery calls to mind his abysmal record handling disasters Part 2 - Alex Wagner Tonight - Air Date 10-4-24

ALEX WAGNER - HOST, ALEX WAGNER TONIGHT: George, just first, because you're a sort of student of Trump's strange psyche, what does the, the clearly confessional nature of these accusations tell you about, I don't know, where his head is at right now? 

GUEST 1: Well, I mean, you're absolutely right. It's a form of projection.

He attributes to others motives that he himself has. But it's more [02:02:00] than that. I mean, the words that came to mind when I read about this controversy today is the Große Lüge. That's German. I don't speak German, so forgive my pronunciation, but Große Lüge is Big lie. It means big lie. It was a phrase coined by Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf in 1925 for the, for a propaganda technique by which you tell as big a lie as possible so that people will believe bigger lie.

They will believe bigger lies more than they will be believe smaller lies because they simply believe, think that it's impossible for anybody to have the temerity to tell such an amazing, an amazingly large lie. But Donald Trump. Does that as a matter of course, he's a pathological liar and a sociopath.

This is par for the course for Donald Trump, just as his lies about the, about the supposedly stolen election in 2020 where gross and Luger, and this is what he does. And it's why he is a cancer on American public life that must be removed once and for all. 

ALEX WAGNER - HOST, ALEX WAGNER TONIGHT: I will say, [02:03:00] Michelle, you know, it's, um, I won't speak German on this broadcast.

I'll save our audience from that. Uh, but, but the, the lies. In particular, and of late, are really focused on people of color and specifically migrants. And the toxicity has possibly, if it was even possible, have increased in their sort of poison grade since the Springfield debacle. The lies that Haitian immigrants there were eating pets.

This is what happened tonight at a Trump rally. And this is evidence, Michelle, of how, how successful Trump has been in, in poisoning his audience. Let's take a listen. 

CLIP: This week, this week, we have learned that not only did 13, 000, 13, 000 murders illegally cross our border, but FEMA is out of money because they have been providing 9, 000 to every illegal.

Enough. Enough is enough. We must [02:04:00] put Americans first. How soon will you start deporting the murderers? 

DONALD TRUMP: So, let, let me just tell you that you're right about that, it's, uh, 13, 099 to be exact, and murderers, many of these people murdered more than one person, some, one, did seven. These are not people we want in our country.

ALEX WAGNER - HOST, ALEX WAGNER TONIGHT: The crime, the crime statistics are a whole nother kettle of fish. Some of that happened under the Trump administration. Those numbers have not been verified by NBC news as far as I know, but to get to the point of the, this woman in the audience believes that FEMA gave 9, 000. And I 

GUEST 2: think this vicious sort of demonization is the precondition for Trump's mass deportation plan.

When J. D. Vance was asked what mass deportation looked like at the debate, he didn't want to give a straight answer, because nobody wants to [02:05:00] talk about what it would mean to have a network of detention camps. dotted throughout this country, what it means to have the national guard going into neighborhoods and rounding people up.

And if you want to get even part of the American people to consent to that, you re and, and I mean, this actually does deserve probably some sort of German analogy, but you actually do need to convince people that they are not human beings. Yes. Like you and I. 

ALEX WAGNER - HOST, ALEX WAGNER TONIGHT: I just want to add on the JD Vance answer. He was asked explicitly, how are you going to deport 20 maybe what he termed 25 million people over here without their papers, Michelle.

And he outlined how one, 1 million of them would, would leave because the wages wouldn't be what they wanted them to be. And the rest, I guess in the parlance of Mitt Romney would self deport. There was no explanation of how that would all work. Um, um, Um, you know, George, for your former party of Republicans, the, the, the, even I think attempted the truth [02:06:00] has become kind of a fool's errand today, as in like October 4th, the year 2024 Marjorie Taylor green, who is now weirdly because the party is so extreme because becomes seen as.

Maybe one of the more rational actors in the Republican conference in the house tweeted, sorry, yesterday, October 3rd, yes, they can control the weather. It's ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can't be done. This is a member of Congress. It's part of the inner Trump sanctum. The truth does not matter, George.

GUEST 1: No. The truth doesn't matter. In fact, they compete with each other to tell the biggest lies. They are all into the Grosse Luge. And the phrase that you're looking for, that Michelle was talking about, there is a German phrase. Unter Mensch. It's, he, they, they are, they are. Persuading the American public that people who come from other countries are under, are beneath them, um, beneath man, beneath human.

And that, this is the kind of, of, of poison that the [02:07:00] Republican party is spreading now. It is really inhumane. Really sick and and it's it's difficult to chase it all down because they tell so many lies. So many big lies so quickly. I mean, I looked at today. I walked in a CVS this morning and I saw a big headline in the New York Post about this lie.

Perpetuating this lie that the government had blown all its money on, on migrants instead of, instead of the hurricane. And you know, it, it just, it's, it's chasing down all this, these lies is hard and difficult work and it makes, it gets in the way of people actually getting help. 

ALEX WAGNER - HOST, ALEX WAGNER TONIGHT: I will say, Michelle, you know, I think it's laudable that FEMA has created its landing page to debunk these rumors.

But you put that effort up against Tucker Carlson out there about Elon Musk, about any number of right wing actors propagating these lies, the, you know, the, the unbridled enthusiasm for disinformation that is the internet. Um, and I, I wonder [02:08:00] if you have a thought about how, for example, Kamala Harris should be handling this.

You know, she came out with the statement, Biden came out with the statement, you know, what is the correct pushback? On a, on a topic in particular where Republicans have mud on their hands at best, they've consistently refused to fund FEMA. It is funded through these stopgap funding measures in Congress.

The irony here is so thick, you couldn't even slice it. 

GUEST 2: I mean, look, she has to go out and be on the ground to just talk about what the government is doing and calling out Donald Trump's lies over and over again. But. I don't think that that's an antidote. And this is what people were worried about when Elon Musk bought Twitter.

You know, a lot of times you can ignore the fact that Elon Musk has spent this enormous fortune to buy himself, um, a microphone for his own boundless narcissism. But when you have a natural disaster, that is a situation in which you need reliable information. And what they're doing is [02:09:00] something vicious and cruel.

To the people in those regions who need to know who they can trust. I mean, they're telling you some of some of the lies that are out there. Or that FEMA is going to confiscate your supplies, you know, that FEMA can't be trusted. And so what does that do to somebody who needs to go to FEMA for help?

They're instilling fear and paranoia in people who are already deeply, deeply traumatized. And this is only going to get worse because if you have a party That denies climate change, that calls it a hoax, as Donald Trump says. And there's going to be more and more climate related disasters. They can only explain that with recourse to, um, ever escalating conspiracy theories.

ALEX WAGNER - HOST, ALEX WAGNER TONIGHT: Yeah. That's such a good point, right? They don't want to do anything about climate change. Red states tend to be on the forefront of climate change. They don't want to fund FEMA, which is the last, you know, saving grace for people in harm's way. And then they're going to lie about migrants [02:10:00] who, um, help propel the American economy in a fundamental way.

Hurricane Milton Menaces Florida; Fact Report after Helene with NC blogger Tom Sullivan Part 3 - The BradCast - Air Date 10-7-24

BRAD FRIEDMAN - HOST, THE BRADCAST: Now this woman on TikTok, Who explains that she is from Western North Carolina, perhaps the hardest hit region from Hurricane Helene and, and, and she is a paramedic. She says, uh, in a video posted, I believe on Sunday night, that she is enraged from what she is now seeing online now that her power is back.

And she's a, you know, able to see how the world has been talking about what is going on in Helene and particularly in Western North Carolina. This, uh, you know, it was quite a surprise to her apparently since the power has been restored enough to see the way that these false rumors have been spreading on social media over the past week.

I want to play you some of what she said. 

CLIP: I just got access, um, back at my house to the world around me yesterday. And I've never made a post before, but I am [02:11:00] enraged at the number of people spreading lies about the community that I live in and I call home. Um, what I will say, the National Guard. is here.

They have been here since Wednesday, two days before the storm hit. They activated the Wednesday. FEMA is here. They're set up. Their home base is mission hospital in Nashville, North Carolina on Biltmore Avenue. They have been here. They are here. I think there's some confusion about what FEMA's job is.

FEMA is not boots on the ground. FEMA is not going into your house and searching for people. FEMA's job with the government, I'm angry, is to make sure that funds are distributed. are allotted the way they're supposed to be. FEMA comes in and they assess what the need is and then they appropriate those funds to the places that the need is.

Um, FEMA is not denying, um, donations [02:12:00] technically because FEMA doesn't take donations. FEMA doesn't take donations. They don't take money. They don't take goods. That's not their job. That's not what they do. So all these people coming on here saying that FEMA stopped me and said I couldn't. Like, take my truckload of donations.

First of all, we don't want people just coming in here. There's nowhere for you to go, okay? There is nowhere for you to go. Thousands of people lost homes. Um, those people are staying in all of our hotels. Those hotels are full. We, we have 35 active right now. Sorry, shelters for people. Most of those are at capacity.

Um, as they reach capacity, we build more shelters. Not build, but you know what I mean, make space for more people. Um, we're not building buildings. I don't want anyone to take me out of context. But we create more shelters. The Army Corps of Engineers is here. The Marines are here. Um, I didn't even know that was a thing that they did.

But they're here, um, [02:13:00] interestingly enough. Um, there are people here from all over the country. There are people here from Canada. So anyone who comes on this app and tells you that we are just not receiving help, we are. Do we need more help? Yes, we do. We need help in the form of awareness. We need help in the form of monetary donations.

Um, Needs change. Initially, what we needed was gas. What we needed was

hygiene products. Um, those things are going to change over time. My biggest concern is people are going to forget about this in two weeks, and we're not going to continue to have the support that we have. And what we have is great. Like, I am grateful for the support we have. But anyone coming on the staff and telling you that we are bulldozing bodies and the government is coming in and usurping our property, that is not happening.

It's not happening. I'm here. Those are the mountains. I'm North Carolina. I'm North [02:14:00] Carolina native. I'm a paramedic. I am Telling you right now Please do not listen to the propaganda and the people who are using the death of our neighbors our friends and our family to tell you that this is some sort of political scheme.

The government did not cause this hurricane. That's not a thing. Um, Just stop. We're hurting. I mean, literally, as I'm talking right now, there's an osprey flying. I don't know if you can hear it. The one landed right there about an hour ago and dropped supplies. The government is here. And I think it's ironic that the same people who are fighting for less government and fighting to cut all of these programs are the ones who are criticizing the government and saying they're not here.

Because they are here. can be here. Um, so if yo with your [02:15:00] running water, water and your warm, comf sofa, just like shut up, to say, you don't know wh through. You don't know w We are people. We are people who have lost loved ones. We are people who are suffering and yeah, stop it. I'm so sick and tired of it.

Stop it.

BRAD FRIEDMAN - HOST, THE BRADCAST: That's a paramedic in Western North Carolina, enraged about the lies being told by yes, by folks on the right. about what is going on out there in the wake of Hurricane Helene, where they're still struggling. Even as another monster storm, Milton, is now headed toward the west coast of Florida.

Credits

JAY TOMLINSON - HOST, BEST OF THE LEFT: That’s going to be it for today.

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The additional sections of the show included clips from:

Up To Date

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Unf*cking The Republic

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The Thom Hartmann Program

MSNBC

and Alex Wagner Tonight.

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