Missionary Renegade: Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Wednesday, January 13, 2016
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An Alternative State of the Union: Progressives on Obama's Legacy & Their Hopes for His Final Year

President Obama’s State of the Union Tuesday night was the seventh and final of his presidency. Obama defended his record while implicitly criticizing the Republican candidates who want to succeed him. While mostly avoiding specific policy proposals, Obama spoke out against stigmatizing vulnerable communities, including Muslims, immigrants and lower-income Americans. He defended his historic agreements with Iran and Cuba while touting the U.S. as "the most powerful nation on Earth." Obama called for change in the U.S. political system to stop the outsize influence of wealthy donors, and urged Congress to take meaningful action on climate change—including stopping its denial. We host a roundtable discussion on President Obama’s final SOTU and progressive hopes for his last year in office with five guests: Maryland Democratic congressmember and U.S. Senate candidate Donna Edwards; public TV broadcaster and author Tavis Smiley; Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza; CodePink founder Medea Benjamin; and migrant justice activist and military veteran Claudia Palacios.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: President Obama’s State of the Union on Tuesday night was the seventh and the final of his presidency. Obama defended his record while making implicit criticism of the Republican candidates who want to succeed him. While mostly avoiding specific policy proposals, Obama spoke out against stigmatizing vulnerable communities, including Muslims, immigrants and lower-income Americans. He defended his historic agreements with Iran and Cuba, while touting the U.S. as, quote, "the most powerful nation on Earth." And he called for change in the U.S. political system to stop the outsize influence of wealthy donors. Obama began his address by listing some of his presidency’s remaining goals.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I will keep pushing for progress on the work that I believe still needs to be done: fixing a broken immigration system, protecting our kids from gun violence, equal pay for equal work, paid leave, raising the minimum wage. All these things—all these things still matter to hard-working families. They’re still the right thing to do. And I won’t let up until they get done.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Obama also urged Congress to take meaningful action on climate change—including stopping its denial.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Look, if anybody still wants to dispute the science around climate change, have at it. You will be pretty lonely, because you’ll be debating our military, most of America’s business leaders, the majority of the American people, almost the entire scientific community and 200 nations around the world, who agree it’s a problem and intend to solve it.

AMY GOODMAN: Today we host a roundtable discussion on President Obama’s final State of the Union. Joining us are five guests: U.S. Senate candidate Congresswoman Donna Edwards of Maryland; public TV broadcaster and author Tavis Smiley, he’s editor of the new book, The Covenant with Black America–Ten Years Later; Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza also joins us; CodePink founder Medea Benjamin; and immigrants’ rights activist and military veteran Claudia Palacios.

We welcome you all to Democracy Now! Let’s begin with one of our guests who were in the House last night, in the Congress as President Obama delivered his last State of the Union address. Congresswoman Donna Edwards, welcome to Democracy Now! Your thoughts on President Obama’s State of the Union?

REP. DONNA EDWARDS: Good morning, Amy. I mean, I think the president really laid out a vision for America. I think he dealt with the political reality that not a lot of anything will be accomplished over this year, given that it’s an election season. But I think he also cautioned us to remember where we started and to use that as a basis for moving forward to strengthen the economy, to grow jobs for the 21st century and to invest in the American worker. I heard that message really clearly, and I think that his message was for Republicans to stop being so divisive, to stop calling out those of us who share a different faith, a different race, a different background. And I think that that was an important and optimistic message for a united America.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Congresswoman, in terms of the president being able to assert his accomplishments or his legacy, that this was billed as a speech that would do that, how successful do you think he was in that sense?

REP. DONNA EDWARDS: Well, I think the president was very clear in talking about the importance of an Affordable Care Act that’s delivered healthcare to 18 million people. I think that he was really clear about seven years of economic growth—not, you know, the kind of growth that we need to see overall in the economy for working people who have had stagnant wages, but we’re not losing 700,000 jobs every month. I think he pointed to an auto industry that Republicans, frankly, would have let failed and that we revived as Democrats. And so, I think that he was really clear about laying out what he accomplished, but also putting forward a vision for the United States that is not one that’s going to be achieved in his presidency, but one that we should aspire to.

AMY GOODMAN: Alicia Garza, you are not used to being on the inside; you’re usually on the outside protesting in the streets, co-founder of Black Lives Matter. Yet last night you were invited into the inner sanctum. You were there for the address, invited by Congressmember Barbara Lee. Your thoughts not only on the speech, but—this isn’t his first speech, it’s President Obama’s last State of the Union, and so it must be compared against his record.

ALICIA GARZA: Mm-hmm. I mean, first and foremost, it was such an honor to be a guest of such an incredible visionary for working people, for women. I was so glad and honored to be there as the guest of Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

The thing that I think was glaringly missing from the conversation last night was really the conversation around not just gun violence broadly, although that is a major issue in our country, but police violence as it relates to black communities. And as I was sitting there last night, I couldn’t help but think about Samaria Rice, and I couldn’t help but think about all the mothers who have lost their children, not just to gun violence broadly, but to the very people who are supposed to protect and serve us.

And so, to be quite frank, I think this message that President Obama came in with eight years ago around hope and change is a message that I think people are still looking for. How are we going to accomplish that? And ultimately, I think last night’s speech was definitely a vision for where we think the country can go, but certainly I think that many people who have been involved in this movement certainly wanted to hear President Obama, possibly the last black president in our country’s history, really talk about what’s going on in black communities specifically, really address the question of race, racism and structural racism and structural violence, and then, certainly, to talk about what kinds of proposals are on the table to ensure that black people can live full lives in this country like everyone else.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And following in that vein, I’d like to ask Tavis Smiley, who’s here in our studio—there were a lot of things that were not mentioned, including the president’s failure really to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But this whole issue of how he missed the opportunity to really make a final statement on the situation in black America?

TAVIS SMILEY: Yeah. I think, first of all, the president, into history, is going to be regarded and treated much more kindly then than he is now. That’s number one. He did get some things accomplished, and we ought to give him credit for the things that he did do.

Having said that, I think where the historians, Juan and Amy, are going to have a very difficult time is trying to juxtapose how, in the era of the first black president—and to Alicia’s point, maybe the last black president—but how, in the era of Barack Obama, did the bottom fall out of black America? What this book, The Covenant–Ten Years Later, underscores, Amy, is that we, black America, have lost ground—and it pains me to say this—we’ve lost ground in every major economic category over the last decade. Not one, two or three, Juan, but in every major economic category, black folk have lost ground over the last 10 years. Surely these issues existed before he arrived, but we didn’t make any ground. We didn’t cover any ground. And how do we redeem the time after he’s gone? And so that’s the part, I think, that Alicia is raising with specific regard to police brutality and police misconduct, but there are so many other issues, as I mentioned a moment ago, where we just lost ground for the last 10 years. And I think, again, the historians are going to have an interesting time trying to juxtapose those two realities.

AMY GOODMAN: Claudia Palacios, you were arrested on Friday in the streets of New York outside of ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, protesting the—the dawn of 2016, with that came these massive new raids, rounding up women, children, men, to deport them. Talk about your own experience. You were a marine; you’re a military veteran.

CLAUDIA PALACIOS: I mean—good morning, Amy. First of all, we have to understand that there hasn’t been an increase in deportations or raids. Annually, it’s been an average of 200,000 deported migrants from the United States, though it’s this—it’s a spectacle that was created by the mainstream media. In June of 2014, there was images that were leaked of inhumane detention centers, which allowed for the expansion of detention centers and an increase in law enforcement. And that was part of our demands as protesters on Friday, is that we need ICE out of these communities. We need to stop criminalizing people of color.

And, I mean, as a group of activists, we understand that we are part of the mass—of the anti-incarceration movement, because that is what is destroying our families, not only in the black communities, but in the migrant communities, comprised of brown, black people from all over the world, refugees. So these nonprofit industries are literally profiting off of creating situations in other countries where we’re forced to migrate, and we’re displaced. And then we come to this country, and we’re pushed, funneled into different industrial complexes, have it be, as myself, the military-industrial complex or the prison-industrial complex.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And yet the president had one of the leaders of the DREAMers movement sitting up in the gallery next to Michelle Obama, but the actual speech had very little reference, other than saying we have to fix our broken immigration system, little reference to his own record or legacy in terms of immigration.

CLAUDIA PALACIOS: Right. I mean, I think it’s a mockery to have him be a guest, an honored guest, at the State of the Union, and then have no—not even initiate the conversation of immigration and how we are going to deal with this or how we’re going to create sanctuaries for people that are being targeted. And we’re talking about women and children; we’re not talking about felons over families. And I mean, that’s what—like, as activists, that’s what—like, we’re boots on the ground. We’re willing to put our bodies on the line to send the message across that we want ICE out of our communities, and also we want our folks to know, our people, our pueblo, to know that we are willing to fight, we are willing to be out there and put everything.

AMY GOODMAN: Which brings us to Medea Benjamin. We weren’t sure if we were going to actually have you on the show today, Medea, co-founder of CodePink, whether you’d be interrupting the State of the Union address last night and maybe be in custody. We weren’t sure. You have been known to interrupt President Obama, for example, when he spoke at National Defense University laying out his drone program—you wrote a book on drones—protesting the people who have been killed by drones. What was your assessment of President Obama’s last State of the Union address?

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Well, first, I think it’s important to recognize the historic foreign policy accomplishments in terms of Cuba and Iran. And I think it is so important that he counter the Islamophobia that is rising in this country. But his policies have really not been kind to Muslims around the world. He has authorized the largest weapons sales to Saudi Arabia ever in history, $46 billion during his term. This is being used not only to repress people inside Saudi Arabia, but to kill people in Yemen. He has increased the U.S. military aid to the repressive government of Israel. He has opened up the U.S. military cooperation with the repressive Egyptian government. He has used drone strikes to kill thousands of people in countries that we’re not even at war with. And he talked last night about wanting to close Guantánamo, and yet he’s said that for seven years, while he could use his executive power to actually close Guantánamo. I think if he really wanted to help Muslims around the world, the best thing he could have done was to call for an arms embargo to the Middle East. That would have been much more in line with the Martin Luther King call that he used for unarmed truth and unconditional love.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Medea, I wanted to ask you about his comments on climate change, which I think were some of the most pointed comments that he made in his speech. I think we have a floater where he’s talking about the continued denial by many in Congress of climate change. Let’s see if we can get that floater up there.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Medea, that was the president on climate change. Your assessment of his legacy in this area and of his challenge to the Congress?

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Well, there’s positive things in that he listened to the grassroots to stop the Keystone pipeline, that—the presence of the U.S. to try to come to some agreements in Paris. And yet his government has continued the subsidies to Big Oil. He talks about changing the relationship to coal, but keeps supporting it. And he supports the TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would be disastrous for the environment. And then, finally, we should recognize that the U.S. military is the largest polluter in the world and something that continues to grow under the Obama administration.

AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember Edwards, you won’t be able to spend the whole hour with us, so I wanted to get your response to a few things that were raised so far. On the issue of President Obama and war, the drone wars, can you talk about, as you run for Senate, what is your critique? And also, where do you think he has—how do you assess his policy around—well, he inherited two wars, but he’s also extended the longest war in U.S. history, in Afghanistan.

REP. DONNA EDWARDS: Well, I mean, I have long said, Amy—thanks for the question. You know, I celebrate President Obama in so many ways on a number of issues. On issues of the increased militarization, those are issues on which I and a handful of members of Congress have disagreed with him. On the increased use of a drone strategy, I think it’s been very counterproductive to what we need to have happen in civilian communities and destroyed relationships with families and communities, people that we actually need if we’re going to have a stronger vision for peace in some of those very difficult regions.

And I think the president was right last night in saying that if we—if we want to decide as a nation that we’re going to go forward in this area of military expansion, then Congress has a responsibility, too, to provide for a current Authorization for the Use of Military Force. Now, I’m not saying that I would agree with that kind of authorization, but I think it is ridiculous to continue military operations absent a new authorization or an updated authorization. I think the president has said that several times, and he put it back at the feet of the Congress again. I think it’s high time that we had that debate in the Congress of the United States. And I’m actually convinced that if we have a thorough debate, then the grassroots around this country are going to speak up and say that there has to be a limit in terms of what the United States and the role that the United States ought to play, from a military perspective, around the world. And so, were those things—that was missing? Yes. But the call to Congress to act when it comes to authorizing the use of military force with respect to ISIS, ISIL, I think that that’s important, and we can’t continue to run military operations, significant military operations, off of an authorization that’s, you know, the better part of 15 years, 10 to 15 years old now.

AMY GOODMAN: Michelle Obama sat next to an empty seat last night, that seat symbolizing the thousands of people who are missing in this country, killed because of gun violence. Could that seat have also represented the number of people who have been deported? Even some of President Obama’s closest allies in the Latino community and Latino organizations have called him the deporter-in-chief.

REP. DONNA EDWARDS: Well, I mean, I don’t think it’s my job as a member of Congress to call the president names, but what I will say is that last week I called out the president’s policies when it comes to deportation and this sort of extreme enforcement in communities that, in the congressional district that I represent, is causing so much great fear in communities—children not going to school, people not going to work, being afraid to be seen and visible in their communities. And I think it’s irresponsible. In fact, I just last week had a pretty heated conversation with ICE officials about their enforcement activities in my congressional district and across the country. And, you know, look, there is another place where the administration has discretion, and it can use that discretion to leave in peace families. You know, go after felons, go after lawbreakers, but leave families alone. And in the absence of this Republican Congress refusing to engage in a serious way on comprehensive immigration reform, I don’t think it is the responsibility of the administration to cover that up by deporting families.

AMY GOODMAN: So what did ICE tell you?

REP. DONNA EDWARDS: I couldn’t hear you. I’m sorry.

AMY GOODMAN: What did ICE tell you? You said you had a heated interaction with them. How do they explain? As President Obama says Congress is stopping comprehensive immigration reform, he’s not stopping, he’s not reforming, but he is actually moving forward, an acceleration we haven’t seen before.

REP. DONNA EDWARDS: I don’t think that there is—I mean, I don’t think that there is a response, frankly, that ICE can give now. I think their enforcement, the enforcement that they’re engaged in now, is unacceptable. I’ve joined on with a letter with over a hundred members of Congress to the administration to stop these deportations, these enforcement actions. Now, some people have described them as raids. I think that they’re pretty routine enforcement actions. The problem is that the administration has discretion when it comes to making a decision about whether to engage in this heightened level of enforcement or not, and they are taking that action to the extreme. And so, I hope that the administration, the president, are going to hear what we’re calling for as members of Congress, to stop this kind of heightened enforcement in our communities and stop putting the fear into families and children afraid to go to school, people afraid to go to church, because they’re afraid of these enforcement actions.

AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember Edwards, we want to thank you for being with us. Congressmember Edwards is running for the U.S. Senate from the state of Maryland. We will continue with our other guests. Tavis Smiley, author of The Covenant with Black America–Ten Years Later, a PBS broadcaster, radio and television. Alicia Garza will continue with us, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter. She attended Obama’s State of the Union address last night as Congressmember Barbara Lee’s guest. We’re also joined by CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin. And we’re joined, as well, by Claudia Palacios, who is a military veteran and a migrant justice activist, just arrested on Friday trying to stop the ICE raids. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Our guests for the hour are Claudia Palacios, a Marine veteran, a migrant rights activist—she has a fascinating story herself, how she could have fought—served this country, and now her own birth certificate is being questioned—afterwards. We’re also joined by Alicia Garza, who’s the co-founder of Black Lives Matter; CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin; as well as PBS broadcaster and author of The Covenant with Black America, Tavis Smiley. Juan?

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, as we continue to talk about President Obama’s State of the Union and his legacy, we have the discussion that I’d like to talk to Tavis about, the foreign policy aspect of the president’s speech. He’s devoted quite a bit of time to foreign policy, and he particularly, at one point, talked about how we cannot be—try to take over and rebuild every country. Let’s hear that part of it.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: For more than a year, America has led a coalition of more than 60 countries to cut off ISIL’s financing, disrupt their plots, stop the flow of terrorist fighters and stamp out their vicious ideology. With nearly 10,000 airstrikes, we’re taking out their leadership, their oil, their training camps, their weapons. We’re training, arming and supporting forces who are steadily reclaiming territory in Iraq and Syria. If this Congress is serious about winning this war and wants to send a message to our troops and the world, authorize the use of military force against ISIL. Take a vote. Take a vote. But the American people should know that, with or without congressional action, ISIL will learn the same lessons as terrorists before them. If you doubt America’s commitment, or mine, to see that justice is done, just ask Osama bin Laden.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: That was the president talking about the fight against terrorism. But the increasing drone wars across the world, especially in the context of growing inequality at home, which has become a major subject of the Democratic presidential candidates, your sense of how the president has done in this area?

TAVIS SMILEY: Yeah, that’s a great question, Juan. A few thoughts. One, let’s be clear about this: With all due respect to President Obama, he has deported more people than George Bush deported. He has used drones to kill more innocent women and children than George Bush killed. We have a drone program on steroids. And so we kind of dance around these things. Let’s just come to the truth of what the facts tell us, what the data tell us, and that’s the reality. He’s killed more innocent women and children with drones than George Bush did.

Having said that, it’s also telling to me that while he got a nice applause line on the authorization issue, the Republicans have had far less issue with this president on foreign policy than they have on his domestic agenda. And that ought to tell you something, that Republicans, more often than not, have been with him on his foreign policy agenda than they have opposed him and obstructed him, quite frankly, on his domestic policy agenda. So that’s important, number two.

But thirdly, what’s really fascinating for me—the last time I was here, I think I was here talking about my book on Dr. King, Death of a King, about the last year in King’s life. And it is always fascinating for me to watch this president pivot in any speech to a Kingian notion. In this particular speech, it was unarmed truth, as Medea Benjamin mentioned earlier, unarmed truth and unconditional love. That’s at the heart of every speech that Martin gave—unarmed truth and unconditional love. So you pivot to quote Martin on the one hand, but what Martin was talking about, as we all know, at the end of his life, was that triple threat facing our democracy. It’s King who says that if we don’t deal with this triple threat, we’re going to lose our democracy. What is the triple threat? Racism, poverty and militarism.

So, for all that Barack Obama has in fact accomplished—and I must say, against a strong headwind, against a lot of obstructionism, he got some things done—but for all that he did accomplish, I judge this president—this is just me; since you asked me, this is my assessment, Juan—I judge this president, and any other president, by where they stand vis-à-vis a relationship to King’s legacy and that triple threat. Where do you stand, what did you do, on racism, poverty and militarism? Now, if that’s the scorecard that we’re grading this president on, it’s a very different conversation that we could have about what he has and hasn’t gotten done.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, talk about that.

TAVIS SMILEY: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: You, when, a few years ago, we were talking to you—I can’t remember where, I think it was Ohio, when you were on a poverty tour.

TAVIS SMILEY: Mm-hmm.

AMY GOODMAN: But you have written The Covenant with Black America–Ten Years Later. You wrote it in 2006. Interestingly, it basically covers the Obama presidency.

TAVIS SMILEY: Yeah, it does.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And there’s a greater poverty percent—

TAVIS SMILEY: Oh, there’s no doubt about it.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: —percent of people in poverty now than there were when the president came in.

TAVIS SMILEY: There’s no doubt about it. Poverty is threatening our very democracy. And not just that, speaking of national security, poverty is now a matter of national security. These numbers are just not sustainable. So, again, on racism, poverty and militarism, the grade’s not so good. But you have Alicia Garza on this program today, and it is amazing, again, that in this era of the first black president, black boys and black men are being shot dead in the streets, and too many cops are getting away with that. In this era, black women are still dying disproportionately from preventable diseases. In this era, black children are still struggling to gain access to an equal, high-quality education. In this era, environmental racism abounds. In this era, the digital divide still exists. And so, progress has been made, but it’s just troubling for me.

And what the book gets to, Amy, is how the president’s most loyal constituency over that period—the book is not about Obama. It’s about, again, where we are 10 years later. But it does, as you point out, cover most of his presidency. But how does the president’s most loyal constituency end up being the group that falls the farthest behind? Look at the gay and lesbian community. I celebrate this, but look at what they’ve accomplished over the last 10 years—because they made demands. The environmentalists has something to celebrate—because they made demands. Wall Street always gets what it wants; it’s always in celebration. But the president’s most loyal constituency, not much to celebrate.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Black Lives Matter certainly emerged during this period, Alicia Garza. Talk about what you think were the—was the greatest progress you made. And, I mean, President Obama is not at the end of his term. This is his last State of the Union address; he still has another year. What can the president do? And what do you feel must be left to people in the streets?

ALICIA GARZA: Sure. Well, first, let me talk about what I think we’ve accomplished, because, to be quite frank, even though President Obama did not speak in the way that we—that many would have wanted him to in the State of the Union address about race and racism, the reality is that there is a conversation that is happening all over the world about race, state-sanctioned violence and racism, that has not happened in this way in, you know, quite a long time. And I think that that is a very significant, very, very significant advance. Additionally, you know, what I heard yesterday was that many people in—many of the Congressional Black Caucus members, in particular, have been talking about various proposals for criminal justice. And without, you know, rubber-stamping any of those proposals, I do think it’s important that this issue has come up and is being moved, right, in a positive way.

But to be really, really frank, I think the biggest thing that we’ve accomplished is pressure from the outside, and to say, you know, we’re not endorsing Democrats or Republicans—both are equally culpable for the conditions that black folks are facing in this country and around the world. And so, certainly, there—what my hope would be is that there is an independent political force that is building in this country, that will move a different type of agenda, that will prioritize people and the planet over profits. That’s my hope.

Certainly, I think Obama—this is—it is his last year, and he still has time left. And I think what we should be pushing him around, in particular, is to use his power of executive order. I mean, quite certainly, Obama has really explicitly talked about race only a handful of times in the eight years that he has been president. And quite frankly, I think the sentiments that I’ve been hearing is that we can’t wait any longer. Again, when I was sitting in that chamber last night, all I could think about was Sandra Bland’s family, and how did Sandra Bland end up dead in a jail cell that she shouldn’t have been in in the first place? As I was sitting in the chamber last night, all I could think about was—you know, when we’re talking about unemployment rates dropping, I’m thinking, "Yes, for everybody but black women." When we’re talking about gun violence, I’m thinking to myself, "Well, what about violence that’s also impacting the transgender community, where we had a little more than 25 murders of trans people, trans people of color, and most of them black trans people?" And then, of course, I’m thinking about the raids that have been happening in the beginning of this year. And I do think that Obama, while he kind of noted that it’s an election year and that he was acknowledging a, quote-unquote, "political reality" that not much might move this year, I do think that he can exercise more leadership and move things through his power as president through the tool of executive order. Now, yes, that’s going to make Republicans angry, but, quite frankly, I think that if anything is going to shift, we’re going to need to see some leadership. I understand this notion of bipartisanism, but for many of our communities, we can’t wait for people to reach across the aisle and figure out how to compromise. There does have to be some leadership for a progressive agenda that is really centralizing the needs of our communities, who are, quite frankly, under attack.

AMY GOODMAN: Alicia Garza, we have to take a break, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, special projects director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, attended Obama’s State of the Union address, pivotal also in the $15-an-hour—the push for the $15-an-hour minimum wage. Stay with us.

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Why Has a Texas-Born Marine Veteran Been Left "Stateless" Under U.S. Immigration Policies?

We speak with Claudia Palacios, a racial and migrant justice activist and a U.S. Marines veteran. Palacios was among seven people arrested on Friday after blocking traffic in New York City to protest the federal government’s new round of deportation raids against Central American families. She was born in Texas through the help of a midwife, rather than in a hospital, because her mother feared being deported. While the military recognized Palacios’ birth certificate, allowing her to serve for five years, including stints abroad, the State Department has refused to issue her a passport. "I’m basically stateless, because the U.S. does not recognize my birth certificate," Palacios says.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. We are spending the hour looking at the state of the union, not only the address, but the state of the union today. We’re joined by PBS broadcaster, journalist Tavis Smiley; his latest book, The Covenant with Black America–Ten Years Later. We’re also joined by CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin, Alicia Garza of the Black Lives Matter movement, and Claudia Palacios, who is a military veteran and a migrant rights activist. Juan?

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Claudia, I’d like to ask you—about the only time last night when the president got applause from everyone in the chamber, Democrats and Republicans, was when he said that we have the strongest military in the history of the world. You are a military veteran. And could you talk about his legacy in terms of the military? And also, you’re—right now you’re facing a situation where you don’t even have a passport, even though you were born in the United States and you have served in the military. Could you talk about your personal experience?

CLAUDIA PALACIOS: Of course. So my family is indigenous brown people. We were forced to migrate into state-sanctioned United States. And then, there, from then, I was funneled into the military-industrial complex. And when I joined the military, I presented my vital records, right? Due to the fear of immigration communities of deportation, I was born through a midwife in the state of Texas. That birth certificate was recognized by the military in order for me to join the service. Once I was an active-duty servicemember, I applied with the Department of State for a passport, and they failed to recognize my birth certificate.

AMY GOODMAN: Wait, so you served in the military for five years.

CLAUDIA PALACIOS: Correct.

AMY GOODMAN: You were in Okinawa.

CLAUDIA PALACIOS: I served in the military. I served my first years in Okinawa, then in California, deployed from California to countless countries. I was able to travel with a military ID, which I was then stripped from once my end of service—once I ended my service. So now I am—I’m basically stateless, because the U.S. does not recognize my birth certificate. So, then, wait, I can’t leave my country. I haven’t seen my family.

AMY GOODMAN: You have something in common with Obama, when it comes to some people, right?

CLAUDIA PALACIOS: Correct.

AMY GOODMAN: Not recognizing his birth certificate.

CLAUDIA PALACIOS: Correct. So the fact—so the fact that he brings this veteran as an honored guest, I say it’s a mockery, because there’s a community of deported veterans. Like, this is not an isolated case.

AMY GOODMAN: But they have nowhere to deport you to. You were born here.

CLAUDIA PALACIOS: They have nowhere to deport me to, no.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And aren’t supposedly people who serve in the military, even if they are not citizens, even though you say you are, because you were born here—

CLAUDIA PALACIOS: Correct.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: —eligible to be made citizens?

CLAUDIA PALACIOS: Right. But the issue now is, is that how could I be naturalized when I’m stateless? Because I was born in the United States, but I can’t naturalize myself if I do not come from anywhere else, correct? So, and—go ahead.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: So, in terms of when you’re seeing the situation of how the military is being deployed around the world, by not only this president but so many others in the past, your concerns?

CLAUDIA PALACIOS: I mean, it’s completely unacceptable, you know, his foreign policies and just military occupation, in general. As a servicemember who was serving countless countries, like, the sentiment and the climate is the same. Local nationals do not want us there. You know, we’re destroying their land, we’re creating hostile environments, and all for military presence, all so that the—so that the U.S. empire can have more control over countries and enforce these neoliberal economic policies that then, again, cause migrations, cause wars and migrant communities to come here, just so they can be criminalized and then thrown into detention centers. So it’s this vicious cycle, you know? It mimics the prison-industrial complex the same way.

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Tavis Smiley Calls Out Corporate Media for Uncritical Coverage of "Racial Arsonist" Donald Trump

The broadcaster Tavis Smiley made headlines this week for an appearance on ABC’s "This Week" when he called out Donald Trump for being an "unrepentant, irascible religious and racial arsonist." Trump responded by calling Smiley a "hater and racist." Smiley responds to Trump while also criticizing the corporate media for what he calls a lax response to the Republican front-runner’s views.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: So, the question is where we go from here. And let’s look at the 2016 presidential race. Tavis, I wanted to play a clip of your appearance on ABC’s This Week on Sunday that’s been making headlines this week.

TAVIS SMILEY: What troubles me, though, is that Trump is still, to my mind at least, an unrepentant, irascible religious and racial arsonist. And so, when we talk about how Donald Trump is rising in the poll, you can’t do that absent the kind of campaign he’s running, the issues that he’s raising. And for us to just say, "Donald Trump is rising in the polls," and not connect that to the base message that he’s putting out there, I think, just misses the point.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Tavis Smiley on This Week, the ABC Sunday morning talk show. Well, Donald Trump responded on Twitter, saying, "Why does [This Week] allow a hater & racist like Tavis Smiley to waste good airtime? ABC can do much better than him!" OK, Tavis, your response?

TAVIS SMILEY: Well, I’m laughing, because my grandmother said to me many years ago that "Be careful, baby, of stooping so low that you can’t get back up." So I don’t want to go so low that I can’t—in responding to Donald Trump, that I can’t get back up.

Let me say, before I answer that, if I can, very quickly, this story just hits me. There’s such a fine line between cynicism and skepticism. And I think skepticism is healthy, cynicism is a bit unhealthy for me. But this is why people don’t trust government. This is why so many Americans are cynical. That we could use the services of this young sister to fight and defend this country, but—I mean, it’s just—I’m sitting here, I’m trying to wrap my brain around this story that she just shared about the condition that she’s in, and she’s basically stateless.

Having said that, back to Donald Trump, again, this is why this is so scary, because if Donald Trump were to have his way, it’s not just this sister who would be in trouble, but all the other folks that he wants to deport and Muslims who he doesn’t want to let in. I just hope that at some point our consciences are pricked and that we come to fundamentally address the question of what kind of nation do we really want to be. That’s the question, Juan: What kind of people are we, really? Not what we profess, but what we really—but who are we, really? And I just think that we’re headed in such a dangerous direction, when Trump is rising in the polls.

So, Amy, the only point I was trying to make was—is that it’s not just about Trump. I’m just sick and tired of the media for giving him the pass. As I’ve said before, he’s being covered, but he’s not being challenged. He’s being covered, but he’s not being condemned. And we just titillate. I mean, the mainstream media is just so excited—and I get this part—they’re so excited, Juan, to have a race where the establishment is not in control of anything. And this is making money, it’s getting ratings, it’s selling newspapers. So Trump is—Trump is—he’s entertaining to a lot of people in this business. But there’s a price to pay for that kind of xenophobia, long-term. And I wanted to challenge Trump to stop that nonsense, but also challenge the media to be more honest in their coverage of him.

AMY GOODMAN: South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, whose parents immigrated from India, used the official Republican response to the State of the Union to criticize Donald Trump.

GOV. NIKKI HALEY: Today, we live in a time of threats, like few others in recent memory. During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation.

AMY GOODMAN: Nikki Haley’s speech did not go over well in all Republican circles. Ann Coulter took to Twitter and wrote, quote, "Trump should deport Nikki Haley." Medea Benjamin, as we begin to wrap up, the figures are very interesting now, a new poll showing Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders leading by five points over rival Hillary Clinton in Iowa, just weeks before the Iowa caucuses. The survey from Quinnipiac found 49 to 44 percent for Sanders. Meanwhile, the New York Times/CBS poll shows that Clinton’s lead over Sanders nationally has virtually disappeared. He’s particularly appealing to young people. Can you talk about the issues that are being raised now and how 2016, from Republicans to Democrats, this election is breaking down your typical divisions?

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Well, yes, but, Amy, I want to say that I think it’s important we learn the lessons from this Obama time that whether it’s a Trump that comes to office or the war-like Hillary Clinton, or even Bernie Sanders, for that matter, we need the grassroots to be stronger. The Black Lives Matter movement has been fantastic, environmental movement, immigrant rights. But the antiwar movement has really lost its steam during these years in Obama. And if we’re going to ever shift the money from the military to support expanded Social Security, addressing the environmental crisis, we’re going to have to rebuild that movement. And that’s the appeal I want to make in this last moments that I have on your show.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Tavis Smiley, that issue of Trump and Sanders’ equivalency on either sides of the spectrum?

TAVIS SMILEY: I took that on Sunday and been doing it on this tour all week long, as well. I mean, they are appealing to a particular group of people, but not for the same reasons, and I’m tired of the media and pundits lumping them together. And finally, on Donald Trump, as you know, there have been robocalls on his behalf by a white supremacist group now. Donald Trump immediately got on Twitter to take me on, but unless something happened since I’ve been on your set this morning, he still hasn’t gotten around yet to denouncing this white supremacist group now doing robocalls on his behalf. This is what I mean when I say the media aren’t asking the right questions of Donald Trump.

AMY GOODMAN: And as far as I know, Donald Trump has not apologized to the Muslim activist in Rock Hill, South Carolina, who quietly stood up with a T-shirt that said "Salam, I come in peace" and was taken out by security, along with a Jewish immigration lawyer, activist, who, too, like her, was wearing a yellow star, going back to World War II, the Jews that were identified by the Nazis.

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Medea Benjamin: Gitmo, Korean Peninsula, "Toxic" U.S.-Saudi Ties Should Top Obama's Agenda in 2016

Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of CodePink, known worldwide for activism in the cause of justice and determination to confront politicians directly. Benjamin has been removed from scores of congressional hearings for speaking out against militarism and torture. In 2013, she famously interrupted President Obama several times to criticize his policies on drones and Guantánamo Bay. At the end of their exchange, Obama said, "The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to." As Obama delivers his final State of the Union, Benjamin outlines her hopes for a foreign policy agenda during his last year in office.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’d like to ask Medea—we have about just less than a minute, but your sense of what the president could still do in his last year, that you would like to see him accomplish?

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Well, certainly, he could use his executive authority to close Guantánamo. I think it’s very important that he do something about the critical state in the Korean Peninsula, and that would be, instead of sending B-2 bombers over North Korea, to start a peace process with North Korea that’s been missing since 1953. And I think that we need to stop the toxic relationship with Saudi Arabia. That’s why we’re organizing a summit in Washington March 5th to 6th, and we hope your listeners will come join us to build a movement against the relationship with Saudi Arabia.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to leave it there, but we’ll continue to cover all of these issues. I want to thank you, Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink. Thanks so much, as well, to Tavis Smiley, public TV and radio broadcaster, journalist; his new book, The Covenant with Black America–Ten Years Later. Thank you to Claudia Palacios, who is a racial and migrant justice activist and a U.S. Marines veteran, and, as well, to Alicia Garza, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, special projects director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

That does it for our broadcast. We have job openings at Democracy Now! Democracy Now! is hiring a director of finance and operations as well as a director of development. Visit democracynow.org for more information.

... Read More →

Headlines:
Obama Condemns Islamophobia in Final State of the Union
President Obama delivered his seventh and final State of the Union address Tuesday night. Obama defended his record, including his historic deals with Iran and Cuba, while implicitly criticizing the Republican candidates who seek to succeed him. While mostly avoiding specific policy proposals, Obama spoke out against stigmatizing marginalized communities, including Muslims.
President Barack Obama: "When politicians insult Muslims, whether abroad or our fellow citizens, when a mosque is vandalized or a kid is called names, that doesn’t make us safer. That’s not telling it what—telling it like it is. It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals. It betrays who we are as a country."
We’ll have more on Obama’s State of the Union address after headlines.
Iran Releases 10 U.S. Sailors Who Entered Iranian Waters
Iran has released two U.S. Navy patrol boats carrying 10 crew members hours after detaining them for entering Iranian waters. The Obama administration says the boats drifted after experiencing mechanical problems. The detention came just days before a landmark nuclear deal between Iran, the U.S. and other world powers is set to be implemented.
Pakistan: Suicide Bomber Attacks Polio Center, Killing 15
In Pakistan, a suicide bomber attacked a U.N.-backed polio eradiction center in Quetta, killing 15 Pakistani security forces and wounding 24 people. Militants have targeted polio campaigns after it was revealed the CIA used a fake vaccination program in its effort to locate Osama bin Laden.
Turkish Authorities Blame ISIS for Deadly Attack in Istanbul
Turkish authorities have blamed a suicide attack that killed at least 10 people Tuesday in Istanbul on the self-proclaimed Islamic State. Most of the attack’s victims were German tourists.
Iraq: 2 Journalists Shot Dead in Diyala Province
In Iraq, two journalists with the independent Al Sharqiya TV station have been shot to death near Baquba, the capital of Diyala province. Saif Tallal and his cameraperson, Hassan al-Anbaki, were reportedly killed while returning from a reporting trip. Iraq is among the deadliest countries in the world for journalists.
Saudi Arabia Arrests Top Human Rights Activist Samar Badawi
Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally, has arrested a leading human rights activist. Samar Badawi is the sister of blogger Raef Badawi, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and received 50 lashes in a public square last year. She also campaigned for women’s rights and the release of her husband, attorney Waleed Abu al-Khair, who is serving a 15-year sentence related to his activism. Amnesty International calls Samar Badawi’s arrest "the latest example of Saudi Arabia’s utter contempt for its human rights obligations."
United Methodist Church Pension Board Blocks Investment in 5 Israeli Banks
In what’s being hailed as a historic victory for the global campaign to boycott and divest from Israel over its occupation of Palestinians, the pension board of one of the largest Protestant denominations in the United States has blocked investment in five Israeli banks. In a statement, a group within the United Methodist Church said it was the first time a major church pension fund has "acted to preclude investment in Israeli banks that sustain Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land." The church still invests in other Israeli companies.
Israeli Air Raid Kills 1 in Gaza; Soldiers Kill 3 Palestinians in West Bank
In the latest from the Occupied Territories, an Israeli air raid today killed a Palestinian in Gaza and wounded three. Israeli officials said the men were plotting an attack. On Tuesday, Israeli soldiers fatally shot three Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including one accused of trying to stab a soldier.
Denmark Poised to Pass Law to Strip Refugees of Their Possessions
Denmark is set to pass a law to confiscate refugees’ possessions, in a move that has drawn comparisons to Nazi Germany and condemnation from the United Nations. The law would force refugees to surrender anything over about $1,500 in valuables in order to pay for their stay as they apply for asylum. Meanwhile, a new United Nations analysis reveals the number of people migrating to foreign countries increased by 41 percent over the past 15 years to 244 million in 2015; of those people, the U.N. considers 20 million to be refugees.
France: Calais Refugees Vow to Peacefully Defy Eviction of "Jungle" Camp
In France, residents of the Calais refugee camp known as the "jungle" have vowed to peacefully resist authorities’ efforts to evict them and bulldoze parts of the camp. Thousands of refugees live in makeshift tents in Calais as they seek to enter Britain through the Channel Tunnel. But French authorities want to resettle about 1,500 of them in storage containers which the refugees say resemble a prison and lack common areas—like the makeshift kitchens and places of worship in the camp. Authorities have given the residents until tonight to move before they bulldoze a third of the camp on Thursday. In a statement, the residents said: "We, the united people of the Jungle, Calais, respectfully decline the demands of the French government with regards to reducing the size of the Jungle. We have decided to remain where we are and will peacefully resist the government’s plans to destroy our homes." To see our report from the Calais refugee camp in December, go to democracynow.org.
The Yes Men Denounce War in Hoax at European Parliament
The culture jamming prankster group The Yes Men has struck again. On Tuesday, in the European Parliament in Brussels, a so-called defense and security consultant calling himself "Archibald Schumpeter" delivered a presentation about how drone killings, mass surveillance and military action fail to address terrorism.
"Archibald Schumpeter": "Unfortunately, responses that we’ve seen so far have not been very intelligent. In fact, it’s been pretty much stupid all the time. As far as terrorism is concerned, France’s attacks are like fighting fire with gasoline. It’s guaranteed to generate more terrorists, just as the U.S. attacks on Iraq have. For war to work against terrorists, you would have to kill everyone in the country, and as we know, that’s just not possible."
The presenter was actually Andy Bichlbaum of The Yes Men. After dismissing attempts to address terrorism through military action, he presented an "industrial" solution—an "ENDURAsphere," he said would allow citizens to shelter inside a "fully-defended orb" to withstand any terrorist attack. A person inside an "ENDURAsphere" costume appeared in the Parliament as he described the invention. Bichlbaum says the prank was aimed at "highlighting that there really is no solution to terrorism within the defense and security paradigm."
Report: New, Smaller U.S. Missiles May Increase Likelihood of Nuclear War
A new report reveals how the Obama administration has upgraded the U.S. nuclear arsenal to create smaller, more precise nuclear bombs. The New York Times reports that despite his advocacy for a "nuclear-free world," President Obama’s administration has potentially increased the likelihood of a future president deploying a nuclear weapon by creating more precise warheads whose explosive force can be dialed up or down. A former top nuclear strategist for Obama, General James Cartwright, acknowledged "what going smaller does is to make the weapon more thinkable." The B61 bomb is part of a fleet of new warhead types planned under an effort that will cost up to $1 trillion over three decades. Russia has called U.S. tests of the missile "irresponsible" and "openly provocative." The U.S. is the only country ever to use a nuclear weapon in war.
Sanders Leads Clinton in Iowa; MoveOn Endorses Him by Record Margin
A new poll shows Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders leading by five points over rival Hillary Clinton in Iowa. Just weeks before the Iowa caucuses, the survey from Quinnipiac University found 49 percent of likely Democratic caucusgoers back Sanders versus 44 percent for Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll shows Clinton’s lead over Sanders nationally has virtually disappeared. And members of the progressive advocacy group MoveOn have voted to endorse Sanders by the largest margin in the group’s history. A record 78.6 percent of more than 340,000 MoveOn voters backed Sanders. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has taken aim at Sanders’ plan for single-payer healthcare, calling it "risky." At a campaign event, Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea Clinton, claimed that Sanders wants to dismantle Obamacare. Sanders attributed the attack to his surge in the polls, saying the Clinton campaign is "in serious trouble."
NYC: Protesters Target Bill Clinton over Conditions in Haiti 6 Years After Earthquake
Tuesday marked six years since a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti, killing an estimated 300,000 people. Tens of thousands of Haitians are still living in tents. Here in New York City, a group of Haitians gathered in front of the Clinton Foundation to protest former President Bill Clinton’s role as head of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission. Activist Dahoud Andre was among them.
Dahoud Andre: "Today is the 12th of January 2016, six years after the earthquake. And for us, it was important to be in front of the Clinton Foundation, because Bill Clinton, as head of the IHRC, Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, was responsible for the $6 billion that came into his hands. He had unlimited control of this money. Six years after the earthquake, not much has changed, and as a matter of fact, Haiti is in worse condition than it was in 2010. Only Bill Clinton can tell the world what happened with this money."
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Deploys National Guard over Flint Water Crisis
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has deployed the National Guard to help distribute water and filters in Flint amid a crisis over the lead in the city’s water. The poisoning began after an unelected emergency manager appointed by Governor Snyder switched the city’s water source to the long-polluted Flint River in a bid to save money. Residents have reported lasting health impacts, including cognitive impairment. Residents have called for Governor Snyder’s resignation and arrest.
Los Angeles Police Chief Backs Charges Against Officer Who Killed Homeless Man
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck has recommended criminal charges against an officer who fatally shot an unarmed African-American homeless man in the back last year. Police say Officer Clifford Proctor shot 29-year-old Brendon Glenn while Glenn was on his stomach trying to push himself back up. Officer Proctor is African-American. Prosecutors have not said whether they will file charges against him.
Pennsylvania: Constable Fatally Shoots 12-Year-Old While Trying to Evict Her Family
In Pennsylvania, a state constable has fatally shot a 12-year-old girl during an attempt to evict the girl’s family from their home. Police say the girl’s father pointed a gun at Pennsylvania State Constable Clarke Steele, so he opened fire. The bullet hit the father’s arm, then struck 12-year-old Ciara Meyer, killing her.
Oregon: Judge Says He'll Bill Militia $70,000 Per Day for Refuge Occupation
And in Oregon, Harney County Judge Steve Grasty says he’ll bill the right-wing militia members who have occupied a federal wildlife refuge up to $70,000 a day for their cost to the public. Grasty says shuttered schools and closed government offices as well as increased security are costing taxpayers. The militants have torn down a fence and say they have been going through government documents at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. They occupied the refuge earlier this month in support of two ranchers sentenced to prison for setting fires that burned federal land.
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