Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-11-14 Friday

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

Democracy Now! Friday, November 14, 2025

From New York, this is Democracy Now. These attacks and their mounting human cost are unacceptable. The U.S. must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extradition. judicial killing of people aboard these boats, whatever the criminal conduct alleged against them. Despite mounting international criticism, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has formally announced what he called Operation Southern Spear. The U.S. has already blown up 20 boats in Latin America, killing at least 80 people claiming their drug traffickers without evidence. We'll speak to Human Rights Watch. And also look at their new report, you've arrived in hell about the Venezuelans

sent by the U.S. to El Salvador Saccat mega prison, where they were tortured and abused. Then the trillion-dollar war machine will speak to Bill Hartung about how runaway military spending drives America into foreign wars and bankrupts us at home. Finally, how did he do it? We'll talk to Zoran Mamdani's field director about his historic mayoral campaign in New York fueled by over 104,000 volunteers. Every door knock and every phone call is a statement of belief that politics is for all of us. Because of you, we will make this city one that working people can love and live in again. All that and more coming up.

Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced Operation Southern Spear. A military campaign, he said, would target narco-terrorists across the Western Hemisphere. Heg-Seth's announcement on social media came as the Pentagon said had blown up another boat in the Caribbean, reportedly killing four people aboard. It's the 20th such strike, bringing the reported death toll to 80 people. The Pentagon claims the boats were carrying drugs, but officials have acknowledged they don't know who's been killed. The attacks have been condemned as unlawful, extrajudicial killings by the UN's human rights chief, governments including Mexico, Colombia, and the European Union and U.S. lawmakers, among others. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has denied reports by CNN.

that the United Kingdom stopped sharing intelligence on drug trafficking vessels over concerns about the U.S. strikes. I did see a CNN report yesterday. I'm not going to go into great detail than to say that it's a false story. It's a fake story. We'll have more on the boat strikes and the Trump administration's military buildup in the Caribbean after headlines. In Gaza, officials warn more than 900,000 displaced Palestinians face the risk of flooding as a storm system brings heavy rains and colder temperatures to a region where Israeli attacks have left 85% of road, water, and sewage networks damaged or destroyed.

Municipal authorities warn entire neighborhoods are at risk of being flooded by overflow from sewage stations left damage from Israeli attacks are unable to operate due to a lack of fuel. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian boys in a village north of Hebron. then seize their bodies. Separately, three Palestinians, including a 14-year-old child, were injured after Israeli forces fired on them during a raid southeast of occupied East Jerusalem. This comes amidst a record wave of violent attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians during this year's olive harvest. On Tuesday, masked Israeli settlers stormed a dairy plant near the town of Baitlid, setting fire to vehicles. And on Thursday, settlers set fire. to the Hajjahmi Damask in the Palestinian village of Deir Istia.

This is local activist Nazmi Salman. This attack comes within the framework of the declared war against the Palestinian people by settlers with the support of the occupation government. This attack violated the sanctity of places of worship in mosques. There were racist slogans written on the northern walls of the mosque. In Ukraine, at least six people were killed and 30 others injured as Russia launched a massive overnight assault on nearly every district of the capital Kyiv. Officials said Russia's attack involved 430 drones and 18 missiles, making it one of the biggest on Ukraine's capital since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

Many of the attacks struck residential high-rise buildings, scattering debris and sparking huge fires. I was terrified. So terrified, I didn't know what to do first. Should I rescue myself and my child? Or should I run to help others because many people were screaming and needed help? Russian drones also struck Ukraine's southwestern Odessa region, killing at least two people. Meanwhile, Russian officials say at least one person was injured when Ukraine launched drone attacks on Russia's Belgorod region. And President Volodemir Zelensky said his forces had fired long-range cruise missiles. to Russia. This all comes as Zelensky responded to a growing corruption scandal by firing Ukraine's justice and energy ministers who are accused of taking part in a massive bribery scheme.

Here in the United States, many food banks are reporting record demand, even after the longest government shutdown came to an end with a promise to restore SNAP food assistance benefits that the Trump administration withheld beginning November 1st. A tally by the Associated Press found about two-thirds of states had issued only partial benefits or none at all before the government shutdown ended late Wednesday. Meanwhile, the White House says the Bureau of Labor Statistics may never release October data on inflation and job losses blaming the government shutdown. Data from the private sector firm ADP estimates the U.S. economy lost 11,000 jobs per week

through late October. Federal agents in Chicago have released preschool teacher Deanna Santiana Galliano, a mother of two from Colombia, whose arrest by ICE drew international outrage. Her arrest in front of parents and children by federal agents who did not produce a warrant came even though she had authorization to work in the daycare center and had undergone a background check. She's returning to work today at the Raito de Seoul Spanish immersion early learning center. Meanwhile, Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino has reportedly left Chicago and will travel to North Carolina to oversee a new immigration crackdown in the city of Charlotte. Local officials, including the Mecklenburg County Sheriff, say they were given no advance warning of the deployment. The Trump administration is also reportedly planning to surge federal agents in New Orleans, Louisiana. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has rebuked the Trump administration's mass deportation policies calling for an end to what it called dehumanizing rhetoric and violence.

The bishops issued their statement after a nearly unanimous vote at their annual fall meeting in Baltimore. This is the conference's general secretary, Reverend Michael J.K. Fuller. in cities across the united states our migrant brothers and sisters many of them are fellow catholics face a culture of fear hesitant to leave their homes and even to attend church for fear of being randomly harassed or detained holy father please know that the bishops in the united states united in our concern will continue to stand with migrants and defend everyone's right to worship free from intimidation. At the same meeting, U.S. Bishops voted in favor of a ban on gender affirming care for

transgender patients at Catholic hospitals. The Trump administration's issued new visa restrictions for foreigners and immigrants seeking to visit or live in the United States. Under the latest directive, applicants may be denied a U.S. visa over certain medical conditions such as diabetes or obesity and lack of economic resources and assets. The State Department's reportedly directed embassy and consular staff to rigorously vet visa applicants to demonstrate they will not seek any public benefits, including food aid from the U.S. federal government, saying such people could become a public charge and drain U.S. resources. Immigration rights advocates have denounced the measure as dangerous, saying it'll further curtail the already limited legal pathways for people to come to the United States. The rocket company, founded by Amazon multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos,

has successfully landed the first stage of its giant new launch vehicle in a major challenge to Elon Musk's SpaceX, which dominates the commercial space industry. Blue Origin's new Glenn rocket took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Thursday afternoon, carrying a pair of NASA space probes bound from Mars. By successfully landing its booster stage on a drone trip down range, Blue Origin seeks to dramatically cut the cost of launching satellites to Earth orbit and beyond. That's central to plans by Jeff Bezos to build a constellation of Internet satellites to compete with Elon Musk Starlink, which has about 9,000 operational satellites on orbit.

In Seattle, first-term mayor, Bruce Harrell, has conceded defeat in his re-election fight against community organizer Katie Wilson, who campaigned on a message of affordability in a city where the cost of living has soared. Wilson's platform calls for progressive taxation to raise revenue from the wealthiest households and corporations to pay for affordable housing and social programs benefiting families. Wilson spoke to reporters Thursday after the mayor conceded. I want everyone in this great city of ours to have a roof over their head. I want universal child care, free K through 8 summer care. I want world-class mass transit. I want great, safe public spaces where kids can run around with abandon. I want stable, affordable housing for renters.

I want social housing. I want much more land and wealth to be owned and stewarded by communities instead of corporations. I want a robust economy with thriving small businesses, great living wage jobs, and strong rights for workers. And more than 1,000 workers at 65 Starbucks stores across the United States held one-day strike Thursday to protest Starbucks campaign of union bus. and its refusal to negotiate union contracts. The baristas held the action on Red Cup Day, typically one of Starbucks' busiest days of the year. Starbucks Workers United calls the company one of the most egregious violators of U.S. labor law in modern history with the National Labor Relations Board finding over 500 labor law violations.

Another 700 pending unfair labor practice charges have yet to be litigated. This is Ray Shao, a 23-year-old barista at a Starbucks service. here in Manhattan. I'm putting in overtime every week just so I could afford my rent, so I could afford bills. It's crazy that we're working a full-time job, and I still can't afford to pay the basic necessities I need to live. And meanwhile, our CEO is making $96 million, and he, for only four months of work. And meanwhile, our CEO is riding in a private jet, and I'm barely able to afford the MTA fair to go to work.

On Thursday, New York mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani wrote online while workers are on strike. I won't be buying any Starbucks, and I'm asking you to join us together. We can send a powerful message, no contract, no coffee, Mamdani wrote. To see our interview with the field director of Zoran Mamdani's campaign, go to DemocracyNow.org, where we'll interview her at the end of today's broadcast. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York, joined by Democracy Now is Juan Gonzalez and Chicago.

Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. Defense Secretary Pete Hegsafe has announced the launch of Operation Southern Spear to target suspected drug traffickers, he says. In a post on X. Heggseth wrote, quote, Today I'm announcing Operation Southern Spear, led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and Southcom. This mission defends our homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our hemisphere, and secures our homeland from the drugs that are killing our people, unquote.

The announcement comes as the Pentagon continues to amass warships in the Caribbean, the USS Gerald R. Ford, aircraft carrier, arrived earlier this week. The U.S. now has 15,000 military personnel in the region. It's the largest buildup in the region in decades, according to the New York Times. Over the past two months, the U.S. has blown up at least 20 boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. The latest strike killed four people on Thursday. The Pentagon claims the boats were carrying drugs, but officials have acknowledged they don't

know who's been killed. Critics have denounced the strikes as illegal, extrajudicial killings. We begin today's show with Juan Papiat, the America's deputy director at Human Rights Watch. We welcome you to Democracy Now, Juan. Begin by talking about Operation Southern Spear and what this means. Amy, thank you for having me. We don't know what Operation Southern Spear means. The Secretary has not provided details, but we have every...

reason to be concerned because in the build-up of this announcement, as you mentioned, 80 people have been killed in what are extra judicial executions under international law. There is no denying that the problem of narcotics in the United States and the problem of organized violence in Latin America are serious, but they are not armed conflicts, and the U.S. government cannot pretend otherwise to circumvent its obligations under international law. The U.S. government cannot strike votes as its pleases. These are extrajudicial execution. which are grave violations. And, Juan, isn't it true that most of the drugs that come into the United States, whether it's

fentanyl or cocaine, come through Mexico, and yet the Trump administration is directing all of its attention to the Caribbean and the Pacific just off the coast of South America? Well, fentanyl comes from Mexico. Cocaine comes mostly from Colombia, in most cases, through the Pacific. But regardless of the drug routes that are being employed to bring these drugs, striking boats is not the appropriate way to respond to organized crime. These people should be brought to justice. They should be prosecuted.

And importantly, the United States should be supporting everything. effort to dismantle disorganized crime groups. Striking vessels in the Caribbean are extrajudicial executions which are banned by international law. And has there been any attempt by international organizations, especially the United Nations, to address this issue? Well, the UN Human Rights Chief Volker, has expressed concern. I have a consternation about these violations. We have seen expressions of concerns. concerned by Latin American governments, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, amongst others.

And we at Human Rights Watch have a team ready to document what is happening in the Caribbean and to make sure that we expose and denounce violations of human rights law as they're occurring. We're talking to Juan Papier, the America's Deputy Director at Human Rights Watch, and our own Juan Gonzalez. Juan, you were in Panama for the U.S. invasion. This was during President George H.W. Bush. You certainly know and have studied and have been there throughout Latin America when it comes to U.S. foreign policy. Can you talk about your observations of what's happening here with these extrajudicial killings of scores of people?

It is astounding that the U.S. has not presented any evidence that they are knockout, terrorists, as Pete Higgseth says. Yeah, well, I mean, I think with the, especially now with, not only with these, these attacks on boats and these killings, but now with the arrival of an unprecedented military force, we're talking the aircraft carrier, the largest aircraft carrier in the world, the USS General Ford has just arrived in the Caribbean with another 5,000 troops and several other battleships accompanying it. We now have 15,000 U.S. troops in the region, thousands of them based in Puerto Rico. The government has reopened Roosevelt Roads Naval Base, which they had closed, and U.S. planes at the old Ramey Air Force Base in Aguadilla. All of these soldiers are not there to hang out. They're there to take military action.

We have to be clear. Even though the government hasn't announced it, it's clear that this is what's coming. Our government is embarking on a totally unprovoked military assault and regime change operations in Latin America. The Trump administration has openly accused not one, but two Latin American presidents of drug dealing without any proof. Nikola Maduro of Venezuela and Gustavo Petro of Colombia and threatened to kill Maduro. This is a bizarre return to the gumboat diplomacy of the early 20th century. and the big prize being not democracy or not stopping drug trafficking, but grabbing the Venezuelan oil fields, the largest oil reserves in the world. The problem is this is not the old

Latin America that the U.S. could bully at will. The countries of the region are today independent sovereign states. For most of South America, the U.S. is no longer even the main trading partner. China is. Next door to Venezuela is Colombia, the country that for more than 50 years was involved in the longest-running civil war in the region's history and has perhaps the largest number of veteran left-wing guerrillas in Latin America's history. The governments of Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Cuba, and Nicaragua will not just quietly accept U.S. aggression on Venezuela. President Maduro has appealed for international volunteers to come to Venezuela, to oppose any U.S. invasion. And you can bet that perhaps thousands of young Cubans, Nicaraguans, Colombians, and other Latin Americans will do just that. So progressives and people of goodwill of the U.S. and Puerto Rico, it's time for those of us here to stand up and say that we will not support any attempt. to bring back the old gumboat diplomacy and to invade another Latin American country. And we need to do it soon because this stuff is moving very quickly.

One, you mentioned that you have Venezuela, the largest oil producer in Latin America, that the U.S. is targeting. Then to everyone shock, including many in his own administration, Trump announced he's going to attack Nigeria, which is Africa's most populous country and the largest oil producer in Africa. He said that the attack would be vicious and sweet. And then you go back to Iraq, one of the largest oil producers

in the Middle East, before the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 after 9-11, which Iraq had nothing to do with. Yes. It's a clear continued a policy of the United States

to control. control oil production as much as it can as it continues, as the Trump administration continues on this crazy, bizarre attempt to corner as much oil supply as it can as it continues to deny the existence of the climate change or the climate catastrophe we face. Well, coming up, you've arrived in hell, a new Human Rights Watch report. details how Venezuelans sent by the U.S. to El Salvador's Seqat mega-prison were tortured and abused. Juan Papier will stay with us.

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So I'm My Corace Against everything by Ilae, performing in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. The nightmare began the moment they took me off the plane. Those are the words of 26-year-old Gonzalo, one of 252 Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S. who were flown to El Salvador earlier this year in the dead of night and indefinitely

imprisoned at the Salvadoran mega-prisoned Seccat. the terrorism confinement center. The detainees endured about four months of confinement and abuse with no ability to communicate with the outside world. They were finally released to Venezuela in a prisoner exchange in July. A new report based on interviews with 40 of the men and 150 others with credible knowledge of their confinement has just been released by Human Rights Watch and Christosal, a human rights organization that works across El Salvador and Central America.

The report is headlined, you've arrived in hell, torture and other abuses against Venezuelans and El Salvador's megap prison. We're joined now by co-authors Juan Papier, America's deputy director at Human Rights Watch, as well as Noah Bullock, the executive director of Christosol. They're both joining us in Washington, D.C. Noah, let's start with you. What did you find? Why were these men sent to the mega-prisoned SACOT and what happened to them? Hi, Amy, and thank you for the coverage. Yeah, I think your question is the same question that those men asked when they found themselves in SACOT, wondering what they were doing there.

About 252 Venezuelans were sent to the Salvador in prison, the terrorist confinement center, said, quote, without any due process. No judges convicted them of anything, and they were sent to be imprisoned indefinitely in a place in a prison system where we know the human rights violations have been systematic. What we found in the report are also more about the profiles of who these people were. The idea that they were sent to this prison was predicated on the use of war powers act, the Alien Enemies Act, and the idea that these people were national security threats to the American people. But in our report, that allegation is unfounded. We use public information requests to get access to criminal background checks, both in the United States and countries of transit.

We also used FOIA request to get access to information about their immigration status. These people were migrants. 19 of them had suffered persecution directly in Venezuela before they left the country. And 65 of them of the 130 that we were able to investigate were in the United States and had open asylum claims pending when they were forcibly removed. These people were migrants seeking protection. They weren't terrorist or security threats to the United States. And what were some of, Noah, what were some of the abuses that they sustained?

Could you give some details? Sure. This report for us, our organization has been documenting torture and killings in Salvador in prisons for the last four years almost under a state of emergency that's been in place in El Salvador. And so what we saw in this report is the continuation of similar patterns. One of the conclusions we make is that torture is institutionalized in Salvador and prisons. It's a state policy. It's almost as if the prison guards operate on a protocol. It's impossible. This is the actions of bad guards or bad apples. People were subjected to beatings

almost daily. Upon arrival, they were beaten. When they asked for food and water, they were beaten. When they asked for medical care on the way to the clinic, they were beaten. They were often denied food, water, clothing as a basic hygiene as a tool of punishment or reprisals. And in the case of the report, we also showed how the Venezuelans resisted and protested the beatings. But then were subjected again to more beatings. There was a punishment cell called the island in their module where a tiny space of solitary confinement cell where they were taken and beaten regularly. They would be deprived for hours of food and water or some cases days. And even, sadly, we were documented cases of sexual abuse.

And it's important to note that the testimonies were consistent across 40 different individuals who gave testimonies. We were able to document and corroborate their testimonies with photographic evidence that was assessed by forensic, independent forensic experts. And Juan Papier, these guards at times wore hoods and took videos and photos of the beatings that they were exacting on their prisoners? Yes, we were able to document, based on the interviews with these that they need, that the guards were hoods. They didn't share their names. They used aliases. They were clearly trying to hide their identities, while they were torturing these Venezuelan migrants, who in many cases fled the dictatorship of Maduro in Venezuela,

came to the United States, seeking asylum, seeking protection, and ended up in a prison, in a mega-prison, in a prison, in a prison, Salvador, where they were brutally tortured. I'm wondering, Noah Bullock, if you can talk more about the secretive nature of Seq, how there is practically no access to the facility. And this question, are any people, Venezuelan or others, sent from the United States still there? And of course, how many Salvadorans are there?

And what happens to them? That's right, Amy. The Salvadoran prison system has been under a state of emergency for almost four years. And in that state of emergency, families, defense lawyers have no access to the prisons. There's no public information about who is being held in the Salvadoran prison system. Our organization made a public information request in El Salvador to determine the identities officially of the Venezuelans and Salvadorans that were sent to the Seacot. That request was denied. We also presented 76 different habeas corpus claims with Venezuelan families to try and confirm their whereabouts and their identities.

Also, those claims were not responded to by the Salvadoran court. So, in a sense, these people were sent to a judicial black hole. They were disappeared with no access to their families. The Secott itself is a prison where up to this point nobody has left. In fact, that's one of the novelties of this report that we're publishing today is it's the most complete information that we have of conditions inside Sikot, as these are the first individuals who have ever left. Amy, it's important to remember that the Venezuelans were constantly threatened and reminded that they would never leave Sekot alive. It's a prison that was created, not as a place where people serve sentences after due process and convictions, rather, a place where people are sent for permanent punishment and separation. There was a group of family members, Venezuelans, who came to El Salvador to attempt to visit them to activate different institutions in the state of El Salvador to be able to find access, and they were all denied.

This is a prison system that operates in the shadows and outside of rule of law. We want to thank you so much for being with us, Noah Bullock, Executive Director of Christosol, Human Rights Organization working across Salvador and Central America. Christa also co-authored this new report with Human Rights Watch titled, You've Arrived in Hell, Torture and Other Abuses against Venezuelans and El Salvador's mega prison. And we want to thank Juan Papier, the America's deputy director at Human Rights Watch, which just published this report that we'll link to at DemocracyNow.org. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. As the U.S. expands its military presence in Latin America, defense secretary Pete Hegseth declared earlier this week, the Pentagon's now on a war footing.

In a major speech, Hegseth, called for weapons companies, executives to speed up production of weapons for the military. Every dollar squandered on redundancy, bureaucracy, and waste is a dollar that could be used to outfit and supply the warfighter. We must wage an all-out campaign. To streamline the Pentagon's process, to unshackle our people from unproductive work and to shift our resources from the bureaucracy to the battlefield. Our objective is simple.

Transform the entire acquisition system to operate on a wartime footing. To rapidly accelerate the fielding of capabilities and focus on results, our objective is to build, rebuild the arsenal of the world. of freedom. We're joined now by William Hartung, co-author of the new book, The Trillion Dollar War Machine, how runaway military spending drives American to foreign wars and bankrupts us at home. Bill Hartung, a senior research fellow at Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Bill, welcome back to democracy now. How unprecedented is the Pentagon budget at this point and what the military is doing? I mean, for example, even President

Trump, in his executive order, renaming the Department of Defense, the Department of War, although only actually Congress can officially do that. Well, the Pentagon budget has never hit a trillion dollars before. Even its most ardent supporters kind of didn't believe we would ever hit this mark. But now that they're there, all bets are off. And speeches like that by Pete Hanks said, they're basically saying, not only we're going to spend a trillion, there's not going to be rules. You know, we're not going to have independent testing of these weapons.

We're not going to vet them for human rights when we export them. It was basically a gift to the arms industry. And, you know, they talk about speeding it up when it comes to weapons speed kills. So, go ahead, Ryan. Bill, Bill, I wanted to ask you about the increasing shift in the military machine of the United States. States, from actually troops to machines, this shift of this new defense industry that has arisen from Silicon Valley that, I guess, dreams of being able to fight wars without losing any human beings and just depending on remote control, killing abilities, robots, AI.

You talk about to what degree this has moved forward? Well, it's definitely moving. I mean, in Washington, the two ways to make money. I mentioned China, mention AI, or if you mention both, even better. And it's part of a long myth that technology can win wars, which didn't happen in Vietnam, didn't happen in Iraq, didn't happen with Reagan's alleged leakproof missile defense. So, you know, they're selling kind of a bill of goods that's kind of stale.

It's old ideology with new software. And they're much more aggressive than the head of like Lockheed Martin, who might say to his shareholders, oh, you know, this turbulence is going to create business for us. You know, Palmer Lucky is saying, we're going to have war with China in two years, we're going to bury them, we're going to have more ammunition. They're sort of acting like they're in charge of our foreign policy, and they view themselves as almost the new technological messiah. So I think their ideology and their political influence is almost as dangerous as the weapons they want us to use. and in your book you have an extensive discussion of the war on Gaza and how U.S. companies have how the Gaza war became big business for U.S. companies. Could you talk about that?

Yeah, well, there's this mythology in the Pentagon that sending arms is better than sending troops because our troops aren't at risk and countries will, quote, defend themselves. But of course, Israel is committed genocide in Gaza. It was not defense under any terms. And when you're sending weapons, all the money goes to the companies. You're not doing troops. You're not doing logistics. It's almost pure revenue. You know, when you say it's military aid to Israel, it's really military aid to Lockheed Martin and Palantir, because the money rests in Israel comes right back to them. Palantir even had its board meeting in Israel during the Gaza war and tried to get other companies profiting from the war to be more vocal in their support of

Israel. Of course, they also gave them software to accelerate the bombing. So it's one of the more shameful episodes in the history of an industry that, of course, is not based on morality. It's based on profit. And I think, unfortunately, a lot of people who are kind of, you know, into tech are like, oh, these are amazing people. You know, they put, you know, rockets in space. It'll be cheaper and so forth. But we'll pay a big price if we put our trust in these companies. And, of course, they're very much into the Trump administration, including Jay Z. Vance, who groomed in Silicon Valley and is a creature of Silicon Valley owes Peter Thiel, essentially his career. When he was appointed VP, the champagne corks went off in Silicon Valley, and huge amounts

of money came in behind Trump. So they're trying to basically displace these huge companies like Lockheed Martin, and what the government's going to do is pay off both of them. I mean, Golden Dome is going to have, you know, hardware by Lockheed Martin, software by, you know, Anderl and other companies. So that just means that trillion dollars is going to be. in the rearview mirror in a few years, if we don't fight back it and fight back hard, which means not accepting the myth of technological superiority. You have two fascinating chapters in this book, the militarization of American science, buying the ivory tower,

and capturing the media, how propaganda powers the war machine. Talk about both. Well, you know, this move towards AI and advanced tech means they need the university folks more, because Lockheed Martin doesn't have those kind of people. They're prized now, and so they're doing much more recruiting, sending much more money. Johns Hopkins gets a billion dollars a year to work on things like ballistic missiles. But the average student there wouldn't know it. The lab is 40 miles away.

They're occupied with other things. Berkeley helps run a nuclear weapons lab. If you walked into a student on the quad, likewise they would not know that. So they're accelerating that, and also the pipeline from, you know, engineering students into the weapons industry. And, you know, the media, well, you know, between, you know, vetting Hollywood scripts, you know, spokespersons from think tanks funded by the weapons industry, just the framing, you know, very few outlets now really do deep critiques of the military. And then on top of that, they're not covering it.

You know, some papers don't even have a Pentagon reporter anymore. So they just print up the, you know, Pentagon press release. And then paragraph 32, somebody like Bill Hartton makes a little quote so they can you know, say they're being balanced. But the whole framing is pro-military. And there's this notion that if something happens in the world, if we don't respond with the military, we're quote-unquote not doing anything. Of course, whenever we do it, it's disastrous. I mean, you have a member saying, oh, peace through strength. Well, we haven't won a war in this century. We've caused immense harm. We've spent $8 trillion. We've got troops with PTSD and the hundreds of thousands who are not

taking care of. And yet that myth persists. So I think there's a kind of a cultural, educational tasks that has to happen as well as, you know, pulling back the money we're thrown at these companies. And Bill, you begin your book by citing Trump's 2024 campaign speech in Wisconsin where he pledged to end endless wars. But ultimately, as you point out, Trump wasn't very different from Biden on many of these metrics. They both turned out to be staunch supporters of the U.S. war machine. Could you elaborate? Yeah, well, Trump uses that tool when needed, like when he beat, you know, he beat Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton over the head about Iraq, which, of course, he did not oppose when it was happening. And I think this stuff about war profiteering is a message

to those parts of his base who are sick of corporate welfare, sick of war, somebody been voted for him because they believed this idea that he was going to be less interventionist. But here we are blowing innocent people out of the water off of Venezuela, continuing to arm genocide in Gaza, giving away the store to these companies, we'll give you money, we won't regulate you, you'll get to do pretty much what you want. And his first term, he did a similar thing

until he cozyed up to Saudi Arabia to sell them record amounts of arms and then claimed they were job creators in the United States. So he really views the arms industry as a political ally, and he's not going to go after them in any big way. But every once in a while, he'll lapse into that or he really says, we have too many nuclear weapons. But there's no evidence in his policy. In fact, they're increasing spending on nuclear weapons.

So it's, you know, he's erratic. But there is a political purpose, which is just to keep that part of his base, that's skeptical of war, feeling like, you know, he maybe will do something about it. Before we end, I wanted to ask you about Axios yesterday reporting Israel seeking a new 20-year security agreement with the United States. while the past agreement promised Israel around $4 billion per year in military aid, and Israel's likely to seek at least that much going forward. Well, yeah, they want to be kind of a permanent client in the United States and for us to pay for their aggression. And, you know, the current one that runs out had a few little things they didn't like.

Like they used to be able to spend U.S. military aid to build up their own arms industry. That was supposed to come to an end. And it certainly will be waived if it's negotiated under the Trump administration. So basically, if they do that, they're permanently tying themselves to whatever Israel does in the region. For example, when Israel bombed Iran, while the U.S. was supposed to be, you know, negotiated with them, Trump followed right behind with bombings and false claims about how they'd obliterated Iran's nuclear program. He even chided some of his own people for acknowledging that that was not the case. So it's one of the worst moves that could be made.

It's tying us to an archaic damaging, destabilizing policy and egging on the worst forces in Israel. So I'm hoping there be some pushback. The problem is these deals are often done behind closed doors. And Bill, one more question about this. In this trade war between the United States and China, the issue of rare earth has continued to come up as a major weakness of the U.S. military establishment and also obviously in other industry as well. How big an issue do you think this is and a weakness for the United States? Well, it goes against their notion that they can create this self-sufficient garrison state

because it's a global economy and they can't do everything here. They don't have every resource, don't have every technical kind of expertise. So this idea that they're going to have this perfect system, all controlled by the United States, is a pipe dream. You know, even at the most dominant moments of the United States in history, we were never completely self-sufficient. So Trump is actually, he's selling a bill of goods that is not possible to actually fulfill, which, of course, is happening in other spheres as well, but is, you know, more dangerous when you're talking about peace and security. Bill Hartung, want to thank you for being with us. Senior Research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. His new book, co-author with Ben Freeman, is just out, the trillion-dollar war machine. A runaway military spending drives America into foreign wars and bankrupts us at home.

Coming up, how did he do it? We'll speak to Zoran Mamdani's field director about his historic mayoral campaign here in New York, fueled by over 1004,000 volunteers. Stay with us. We sit in at the top having our way. Whole city came out to watch us play. We all on a hunt that sees the day. We see you when it's time to slay. Get your popcorn ready. It's the sight to sea

Competition heavy Go hard and compete Action going steady It's too close to call It's about to get messy We just hear the ball Play is going off Temper start to flare

There's pressure in the air We just hear the win And someone hurts then we don't care Sportsmanship goes out the window When it's never fair We sit at the top having our way whole city came out to watch us play We are on a hunt

Let's seize the day We see you in this time to slay We sitting at the top heavy in our way Whole city came out to watch us play We are on a hunt Let's seize the day We see you in this time to slay

This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez We end today's show here in New York City, where Mayor Alexoan Mahdani is less than two months away from taking office. The Democratic Socialists will make history as the city's first South Asian and first Muslim mayor, and will be the youngest mayor of New York in more than a century. We end today's show looking at the history-making campaign grounded in community organizing that propelled the little-known state assembly member to victory. Mamdani famously began the campaign pulling in.

just 1% and went on to defeat the disgraced former governor, Andrew Cuomo, twice, first in the Democratic primary and then again in the general election. By election day, more than 2 million New Yorkers had cast their ballots, a level of turnout that hadn't been reached in more than half a century. The campaign was fueled by more than 104,000 volunteers. This is Mayor Elect Mamdani on election night. And it's for all of you, the more than 100,000 volunteers who built this campaign into an unstoppable force. Because of you, we will make this city one that working people can love and live in again.

With every door knocked, every petition signature earned and every hard-earned, and every hard-earned conversation, you eroded the cynicism that has come to define our politics. The person who introduced Mayor-Elect Mamdani that night and led the organizing operation with the campaign field director, Tasha Van Aachen. She spoke before the mayor-elect at his election rally. 104,000 volunteers. We love numbers. We love metrics.

But I want to talk first about what's behind those numbers. Every number is, in a way, an act of bravery. Door knocking is not the easiest thing. For many, including myself, it takes a moment of bravery at the beginning, asking a stranger something about their lives and sharing something about yours. Sharing what you want to see in the world, it can be daunting. be daunting. Thousands, thousands of people did it. And every time, every volunteer went to a door and talked to a stranger, they offered their vision to that stranger and invited that stranger

to be a part of shaping their vision. We love strangers. Every doorknock and every phone knock and And every phone call is a statement of belief that politics is for all of us. This campaign and this city is all of ours to shape. That's Tasha Van Aachen, and she joins us now in our New York studio. Welcome to Democracy Now. I mean, this election rocked the country and definitely sent a message to the Democratic establishment. You are at the center of it. I mean, how often is the field director, the person who introduces the winning candidate?

But that's how important you were in this campaign. Talk about your strategy and your experience. How you organized a campaign with Zoran Mandani that started with 1% name recognition against almost 100% for Andrew Cuomo to this massive win. Thank you, Amy. It is very exciting. And it's, you know, I keep saying to people that I really feel the history in this election and all that has happened that has led to this campaign being possible, the years of organizing that thousands and thousands of people have done that led to this place. I think when we started the field operation in December, we, knew that we wanted it to be very big. We had a goal of a million doors. And so what we did was

we prioritized developing leadership and bringing in as many volunteers as possible. And so the first thing we did was we launched a canvas in about eight locations across the city in December. Those canvases were anchored by members of Democratic Socialists of America who had been an early endorser of the campaign and had worked on campaigns prior. So we were able to get a big scale right at the beginning to demonstrate what we wanted to do. And honestly, I mean, from the first canvas that we did, we had folks coming back from doors. We were talking about the three planks, the affordability agenda. So it was fast and free buses, universal child care and freezing the rent.

And we had such a positive reception from day one when we went to people's doors. We had canvassers coming back who had never done it before, who were quite nervous to do it, who were just excited. And they were like, I had so many amazing conversations. And so that's where we started concretely, was just talking to voters. And where were you physically in the city? Where were you coordinating all of this? In my apartment.

In December, I was in my apartment. Materials were delivered to my apartment. It was before we had an office. Yeah, I was the only person on the field team at that point. We were a very small team. There were just a small handful of us. And, yeah, volunteers came to my apartment, helped bundled things. We got them out to multiple locations.

And we launched a canvas and demonstrated what we wanted to do at a massive scale for the rest of the campaign. And could you talk about also some of your beginnings? Tasha, you started back in 2008 with the Obama campaign in Pennsylvania. you know, Obama was certainly a candidate of hope and change, but certainly not a Democratic socialist. And could you talk about this, the impact of the ideology of DSA on the organizing that you did in the differences between this campaign and others you've run? Sure, yes. The Obama campaign, I credit that field operation for really setting the bar for me. So I wasn't politically organized before that.

I had political leanings. I wanted to participate. I wanted to do something. I didn't know where to go. I think a lot of people feel that way. And so I think about that point in my life a lot. And when Obama won the primary, there was this amazing movement around him. And that is what pulled me into that campaign.

And I was lucky enough to get a job in a field office for the last couple months of the general. And when I walked into that, I became part of this incredible. incredible organizing operation on his field campaign. The architect of that is Marshall Gans, incredible longtime organizer. And a lot of the sort of organizing theories that he had put into that field operation really stayed with me through the years. And it's all about leadership development. It's all about this idea that anybody who wants to can learn leadership skills and step into roles of responsibility and learn how to build power with other people. And he was at the victory party.

I was just starting to interview him when you started talking. Yes, yes, he was there. It was really, it was incredible. It's been incredible to meet him and get to know him through this campaign. So I think that's what I really took from the Obama campaign, were those organizing philosophies as well as just like an A-plus field operation, technically. And so I think it was many years before I joined. Democratic Socialists of America and Bernie ran for president. And I think what changed for me

at that point was really understanding how important organization, long-term organization is for building long-term power. You can't house everything in a single campaign. You have to have someplace people get activated through these moments of change where they feel like something else is possible. And then they need some place to go to continue having a political home and learning and organizing and experimenting and trying things. And I think that DSA was that for me in, you know, right around when Bernie ran. And of course, we have the news that just came out of another victory of an insurgent mayoral candidate, Katie Wilson in Seattle, also a community organizer, also someone who wasn't expected initially to have a chance. Your sense of how

this insurgent progressive movement is taking shape across the country? Yeah, very exciting. I just, I have a, my brother lives in Seattle and his partner sent me that information yesterday. I think that, yeah, moments like this feel very important because they really you know, the zeitgeist, people start to understand that other things are possible. And it's been

overwhelming to hear from folks across the country all over the place who are inspired by this campaign and are organizing to change things. So Tasha Van Okun, you are still the field director, but the campaign is over. But actually is it? Because, I mean, you have President Trump threatening to take billions from the city, even threatened to detain and deport Zoran Mamdani, clearly going to target him. The response, seems is the same as the response in the campaign. Is people rising up across the city? You have 104,000 volunteers. Are you keeping them organized? And what exactly would they do? How do you carry out this campaign from free buses to child care to city-run grocery stores? It is a very good question.

It is the question, in my opinion. I think from the very first training that, we did in January, we've said from the beginning, it is very important for people to see this as one step towards more organizing. And that is incredibly important to continue organizing after the campaign is over. I think we're in this exciting moment in terms of infrastructure, organized infrastructure that can help move this agenda as well as help, I think, respond to what might happen. It is also a very scary moment for all the reasons you listed. I think there are, we have this moment where we have organizations, progressive and left organizations in New York City, who are organized and have been building, like I said, like a lot of them building towards

this campaign being possible. And they will all be organizing. And then I think we also have this exciting opportunity to vision out what the government looks like. And to, demystify the government and access to the government, access to politics for people. And that, to me, has been at the centerpiece of all of this work, is really, like, opening up a lane of access for folks so that anybody can consider themselves political, understand, and learn what they can do that can actually change and move the needle in our world. About 30 seconds left, but how do you guard against the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, the movement to demobilize, in essence, that has happened with many progressive movements once

they come into power. Even under Obama, the Obama campaign was forced often to contend with those on the ground who are still demanding more change. 15 seconds. You know, I think it's good for there to be organizing outside of the administration. I think that that is good. So I think, and I think that Zoran and everyone from the campaign is very excited for their to, be lots of levels and tears of organizing. Tasha Van Aachen, we thank you very much for being with us. Congratulations on this momentous historic win. Field director for Zoran Mamdani's mayoral campaign.

And that does it for our show. I'll be in Amsterdam, the Netherlands tomorrow, at the largest international documentary film festival in the world. The film, steal the story, please. We'll be playing twice. Go to our website at DemocracyNow.org. I'm going to go.