Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-12-09 Tuesday

Episode Date: December 9, 2025

Headlines for December 09, 2025; “Merger Madness”: Trump at Center of Rival Netflix-Paramount Bids for Warner Bros.; “Honor Our History”: Trump Slammed for Ending Free National Park Entry on Juneteenth & MLK Day; Save Mumia’s Eyesight: Supporters March to Prison to Demand Medical Care for Him & Aging Prisoners

From New York, this is Democracy Now. Paramount, it was supported by Jared Kushner, Mr. President. Would that impact your decision? If Paramount is? I don't know. I've never spoken over. With financial backing from President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and sovereign funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi, Paramounts launched a hostile takeover bid for Warner Brothers discovery just days after losing out to Netflix in a bidding war for the company. We'll look at the competing deals that could reshape the film industry and media landscape. then outcry is growing after the Trump administration drops free admission at national parks on the only two federal holidays honoring Black history, Juneteenth, then Martin Luther King Day.

Instead, the parks will be free on Donald Trump's birthday. Then to the case of Mumia Abu Jamal, the imprisoned journalist and former Black Panther, who's been jailed for 44 years. I have been for all intents and purposes. Unable to read, unable to write, unable to see anything more than the masthead of a newspaper and not even its headlines. Blurry television, bursts of color. The television is my radio now. Supporters of Mumia Abu Jamal have marched over 100 miles, ending at his radio. his prison today to urge the state of Pennsylvania to provide him with medical care needed

to prevent him from permanently losing his vision. We'll speak with one of the march organizers and one of Mumia Abu Jamal's attorneys. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman, Israel's military chief has told soldiers occupying the Gaza Strip that the yellow line dividing the Palestinian territory under President Trump's ceasefire plan will become a new border for Israel. The comments by Lieutenant General Ayalz Amir come, despite a provision in the October ceasefire deal, stating that, quote, Israel will not occupy or annexed Gaza, unquote. Such a move would give Israel control of more than half of Gaza's territory, including farmland and the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. Meanwhile, a new report by Reporters Without Borders finds Israel's killed more journalists in 2025 than any other country for the third year running. The report found Israel's military liable for the deaths of 29 Palestinian journalists among 67 journalists killed around the world this year.

In occupied East Jerusalem, the United Nations, has condemned a raid by Israeli forces on the headquarters of the UN's Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees, known as UNRWA. A spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary General said the raid directly violates international law. Police motorcycles as well as trucks and forklifts were brought in, and all communications were cut. Furniture, IT equipment, and other property was seized, and the U.N. flag was. was pulled down and replaced by the Israeli flag. This compound remains United Nations premises and is inviolable and immune from any other form of interference. The U.S. Supreme Court signaled Monday.

It's prepared to make it easier for President Trump to fire independent government officials despite laws barring the president from removing them without cause. On Monday, the court heard oral arguments in the case of Federal Trade Commission. member Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, who was fired by the White House in March. The court's right-wing majority cast doubt on a 90-year-old precedent known as Humphreyshire's executor, which grants a president the power to fire a board member only for, quote, inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance and office, unquote. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that move would, quote, destroy the structure of government,

unquote, while Justice Elena Kagan warned it would grant the president near unlimited power. So the result of what you want is that the president is going to have massive, unchecked, uncontrolled power, not only to do traditional execution, but to make law through legislative and adjudicative frameworks. A ruling in the Supreme Court case is expected by June. Until then, the court has allowed the White House's firing of Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and other commissioners to remain in effect. President Trump has walked back his remarks last week when asked if he would release video showing a series of strikes on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean on September 2.

Previously, Trump said he had, quote, no problem releasing the footage. But speaking to reporters Monday, Trump defended Defense Secretary Hegseth while insulting ABC's Rachel Scott who pressed him on whether he would release the full video. I've admitted to releasing the full video. Didn't I just tell you that? You said that it was up to the secretary. You're the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place. Let me just tell you, you are an obnoxious, a terrible, actually a terrible reporter,

and it's always the same thing with you. I told you, whatever Pete Hankseth wants to do is okay with me. Recently, President Trump called CBS's Nancy Cordes stupid, Katie Rogers from the New York Times ugly, and when Catherine Lucy of Bloomberg News asked him about releasing the Epstein files, Trump told her quiet, piggy. Despite claiming to target alleged drug boats in the Pacific and the Caribbean, President Trump has used his power to pardon about a hundred people accused of drug-related crimes. That's according to a Washington Post analysis. Just last week, Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison for

conspiring to distribute more than 400 tons of cocaine. in the United States. On Monday night, the Honduran Attorney General announced he'd instructed his government in Interpol to arrest Hernandez. Meanwhile, a 2016 video unearthed by CNN of Defense Secretary Hegeseth shows him repeatedly warning the U.S. military should refuse unlawful orders. If you're doing something that is just completely unlawful and ruthless, then there is a consequence for that.

That's why the military said it won't follow unlawful orders from their commander-in-chief. Republican lawmakers have unveiled a bill to authorize $901 billion in military spending for the next fiscal year. House Speaker Mike Johnson says the National Defense Authorization Act would, quote, ensure our military forces remain the most lethal in the world, unquote. In a statement, public citizens Robert Weissman responded, quote, the last person who should be entrusted with an even bigger budget is the dangerous and lawless Pete Hegseth. As Hegseth illegally target civilian boats near Venezuela with expensive hellfire missiles, wastefully and recklessly, deploys the National Guard in cities around the country,

and teases an unconstitutional and costly war, Congress should refuse to add a penny to his budget, unquote. Meanwhile, lawmakers have attached a provision to the NDAA, that would withhold money from Hegseth's travel budget if the Pentagon refuses to hand over video of the September 2nd boat strike. President Trump's announced a $12 billion aid package to farmers struggling from the devastating effects of his tariffs. Farm bankruptcies rose by nearly 50 percent this year compared to last. President Trump's tariffs on China cut its imports of U.S. soybeans to zero before a deal was reached in October. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon criticized the bailout for farmers, saying, quote, instead of proposing government handouts, Donald Trump should end his destructive tariff spree

so American farmers can compete and win on a level playing field, he said. In Minnesota, students at staff at Augsburg University and Minneapolis say federal immigration agents pointed guns at a crowd that gathered to protest the arrest of an undergraduate student Saturday. In a statement, the university wrote that the ICE agents lacked a signed judicial warrant, which is required for them to enter private buildings. It was just one of several reports of ICE agents, physically threatening and wrongfully detaining people swept up in what ICE is calling Operation Metro Surge, targeting Minnesota's Somali community, which President Trump has described in a racist tirade as garbage. In Washington State, Democratic Senator Patty Murray is condemning an incident where ICE agents released an attack dog on one of her constituents last month in Vancouver. According to Senator Murray, Wilmer Toledo Martinez suffered horrific injuries after an ICE agent lured him out of his home before violently arresting him. His neighbor, John Williams Sr., witnessed the attack.

He spoke to TV station KGW. This wife screaming, the kids in the car screaming, and I'm glad that seven-year-old wasn't here, the two- and three-year-old was here. And you were trying to ask what's going on, and they're telling her how to get back, get back, are we going to stick the dog on you? I never saw nothing like this in my life close up for no one, you know. And it hurts. It really hurts, man, especially happening to a young man like that, man.

You know, a good, honest young man. Toledo Martinez was hospitalized, received stitches for gruesome injuries. His attorney says ICE delayed his medical care for several hours and that a prescription for antibiotics was never filled by staff at the Northwest Ice Processing Center in Tacoma, where he's been held since his arrest. In a statement, Senator Murray said, quote, this should shock the conscience of every one of us. I do not want to live in an America where federal agents can sick attack dogs on peaceful residents with impunity and face no consequences, the senator said. California's Department of Justice has announced a new online portal for members of the public to share videos, photos, and other evidence documenting unlawful activity by ICE agents. This follows similar efforts in other states, including Illinois and New York.

Meanwhile, the maker of the smartphone app ice block has sued the Trump administration on First Amendment grounds after the Justice Department pressured Apple to remove its software from its app store. Before Apple banned the software in October, ICE Block allowed users to anonymously track reported sightings of ICE agents. A dozen former FBI agents filed a lawsuit accusing FBI director Cash Patel and other officials of unlawfully firing them for kneeling during a 2020 protest after the death of George Floyd. The lawsuit claims the agents knelt to, quote, diffuse a volatile situation. not as an expressive political act, unquote. Meanwhile, Patel reportedly yelled at agents on the security detail for his girlfriend

to drive her allegedly drunk friend home. This comes as a leaked report compiled by retired and active duty FBI special agents and analysts called the agency under Patel a, quote, rudderless ship and chronically underperforming. Paramount Skydance has launched a nearly $78 billion hostile takeover offer for Warner Brothers discovery just days after Warner Brothers accepted a $72 billion deal from Netflix. Paramount said it's secured funding commitments from the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar, along with support from affinity partners, the private equity firm run by Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law.

President Trump reportedly favors Paramount to acquire Warner Brothers discovery and remarked over the weekend, he'll intervene in the federal review process of Netflix's proposed deal. We'll have more on this story after headlines. President Trump's accused his political enemies, including Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, of mortgage fraud for claiming more than one primary residence on her loans. Now a Republican investigation finds President Trump himself did the same thing in the 1990s when he took out two Florida mortgages and claimed each home would be his main residence. According to ProPublica, President Trump never lived in the two Florida houses and instead used them as rental properties.

Kathleen Engel, a Suffolk University law professor and leading expert on mortgage finance, told ProPublica, quote, given Trump's position on situations like this, he's going to either need to fire himself or refer himself to the Department of Justice. Trump has deemed that this type of misrepresentation is sufficient to preclude someone from serving the country, unquote. Fighting between Thailand and Cambodia has erupted again after Thailand launched airstrikes Monday along its disputed border with Cambodia. A Thai soldier and four Cambodian civilians were killed in the renewed fighting as both sides accused each other of breaching a ceasefire deal brokered by President Trump in October. Earlier this year, at least 48 people were killed and 300,000 forced to flee their homes. in the five-day conflict. This is the spokesperson for the Cambodian Defense Ministry.

The second invasion activity by the Thai side shows clearly their intention to grab their neighbor's stand, using a unilateral map, and using force to change borders. And here in New York, the longtime peace activist, Kora Weiss, has died at the age of 91. after decades of advocacy demanding civil rights, nuclear disarmament, gender equality, and the abolition of war. In the 1960s, Cora Weiss was a national leader of Women's Strike for Peace, which played a major role in bringing about the end of nuclear testing in the atmosphere. She organized protests against the Vietnam War and served as president of the Hague Appeal for Peace. She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize multiple times. Cora Weiss also served for decades on the board of downtown community television.

She last appeared on Democracy Now in 2022. Climate change and nuclear weapons are the apocalyptic twins. And we have to prevent one and get rid of the other. We have to abolish nuclear weapons immediately. There should be no question about it. anymore. They're too dangerous and unnecessary. And who wants to destroy the world and the lives of everybody in it? Cori Weiss's husband, Peter Weiss, the well-known human rights attorney, died several weeks ago just shy of his 100th birthday. Coral Weiss died yesterday on Peter Weiss's

100th birthday. 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 Juan Gonzalez and Chicago. Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. Well, Paramount has launched a hostile bid to take over Warner Brothers Discovery. Just days after Netflix announced an $83 billion deal to acquire Warner Studio and streaming assets, including HBO. Max. Paramount's largest shareholder is Larry Ellison, one of the world's richest men and a close ally of President Trump. Paramount is attempting to fund the takeover of the Warner Brothers Discovery Company

with funding from sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar, as well as affinity partners, the private equity fund led by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, critics of media consolidation of warned against both Netflix's offer and Paramount's hostile bid. Actor and activist Jane Fonda, who recently relaunched her father's free speech organization from the 1940s, called the Committee for the First Amendment, published an op-ed in the Ancler last week, headlined, The WBD Deal puts Hollywood and democracy at risk. She writes further consolidation will mean, quote, fewer jobs, fewer opportunities to cell work, fewer creative risks, fewer news sources, and far less diversity in the stories

Americans get to hear. And when only a handful of mega companies control the entire pipeline, they gain the power to steamroll every guild, SAGA, the WGA, the PGA, the DGA, IATSI, everyone, making it harder for workers to bargain, harder to stand up for themselves, and harder to make a living at all, the words of Jane Fonda. The future of Warner Brothers may rest in part in the hands of federal regulators who must approve any merger. On Sunday night, prior to Paramount's hostile bid, President Trump said Netflix Warner merger, quote, could be a problem. They have a very big market chair. And when they have Warner Brothers, you know, that chair goes up a lot.

So I don't know. That's going to be for some economists to tell. And also, and I'll be involved in that decision, too. But it is a big market chair. There's no question about that. It could be a problem. On Monday, after Paramount announced its hostile bid, President Trump was asked about the competing bids for Warner Brothers,

including the involvement of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. I know the company's very well. I know what they're doing, but I have to see. I have to see what percentage of market they have. We have to see the Netflix percentage of market, Paramount, the percentage of market. I mean, none of them are particularly great friends in mind. You know, I just, I want to do what's right.

It's so very important to do what's right. The Paramount is supported by Jared Kushner, Mr. President. Would that impact your decision? If Paramount is, I don't know, I haven't, I've never spoken to them. We're joined now by Craig Aaron, the co-CEO of Free Press and Free Press Action, two media reform organizations not to be confused with Barry Weiss is the free press, which is now owned by Paramount. Craig's most recent article is headline Stop the Merger Madness.

Free Press has also just published a new report headline chokehold Donald Trump's War on Free Speech and the need for systemic resistance. Craig, Aaron, welcome back to Democracy Now. If you can respond to all that has happened in just a matter of days, there was enormous criticism of Netflix bid. and now, of course, you have this hostile bid by none other than President Trump's son-in-law. Can you talk about all of this? Absolutely. Good to be with you, Amy and Juan. This is really a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation where we have these giant companies trying to take control of even more of what we watch, see here and read every day.

So Netflix, of course, if they could get this deal done, would dominate online streaming. Paramount itself has a huge streaming business and, of course, is a major movie studio. So this is another situation where we're talking about giant companies merging, spending billions and billions of dollars, all the lawyers and bankers getting rich, but you don't have to look very far in the past to understand that media consolidation, after media consolidation deal are disastrous for the workers in these industries. They're disastrous for the audience who see prices go up and choices go down. And pretty much every time they're disastrous for the businesses as well.

This is the third giant merger in recent time just to involve Warner Brothers. We'll go back to AOL Time Warner. We've had AT&T in Time Warner. All of these deals collapsing, falling apart. costing thousands and thousands of jobs, Warner Brothers Discovery itself the product of failed mergers. And now we're being told we need more concentration, more consolidation, and we have to be asking ourselves, who does this serve? It seems to serve these executives. Maybe it serves Donald Trump.

He seems very interested in competition for his favor, not very interested in actual competition when it comes to media, when it comes to entertainment. And Craig, you mentioned Trump, this spectacle of the president saying he will be involved in the decision on this merger, one way or the other. Forget about the fact that his son-in-law is a participant, obviously, in one of the bids. How frequently have presidents in the past directly involved themselves in these kinds of merger decisions where the FCC is involved? Well, you know, certainly these are political fights, and so the White House might have a stake, they might have an interest in the outcome, but the idea that the president would be announcing that he's personally going to be involved, the idea that someone as close to the president as a member of his own family could be poised to benefit from a decision of the administration, this would be completely unthinkable. And even the way this whole decision is being made really does look like, you know, a mafia type situation, not anything that is recognizable in terms of policymaking. Paramount and the Ellison's entire argument for why they should be the company that wins this bidding war essentially boils down to Donald Trump likes us better.

And they've been very clear in trying to win over Trump. That's why Jared Kushner's involved. They're trying to win over Trump. They're saying, we want to control CNN. We're going to make CNN better for you. look what we've done at CBS where we've muted 60 minutes, where we've put Barry Weiss in charge of the news operation. This is their entire package and selling point to the administration is that if they go with Paramount Skydance, then that's going to be good for Trump because these media executives

understand, unfortunately, that's how you get things done in the Trump era, is you appeal to the ego of Trump, you flatter Trump, and you try to line Trump's pockets or the pockets of those close to him. That's how business gets done in the Trump era. And what are the next steps here? What agencies do have to have oversight? And you mentioned Paramount, but isn't the head, the chief legal officer of Paramount? Wasn't he the head of antitrust division of the Justice Department during Trump's first term? That's right, Juan. The revolving door is spinning. So, Akhandel Rahim, who was the top antitrust enforcer, Under the first Trump administration, now, of course, he's Paramount's top lawyer trying to work the system to get approval for their hostile takeover if it's announced.

So there are a lot of things that are going to happen in the weeks ahead. I would remind folks that every time a merger is announced, all the companies involved want to treat it like it's a done deal. Like it's about to be finished. That is not the case. That's just PR and spin. We're looking at at least a year of evaluating this deal. And that's not even including the fact that there are multiple suitors. here trying to appeal to the Warner Brothers Board and now directly to their shareholders in a

hostile takeover. But whatever deal Warner Brothers pursues probably by the end of this month, by December 22nd, that would have to go before the Justice Department. That is going to be, I believe, who will review this deal at the federal level. Of course, the Justice Department is also not what it used to be even when Delrahim was there. You know, it has become an arm of the, a direct arm of the Trump administration pursuing the Trump administration's political goals. But if they actually follow the law, of course, they would have to scrutinize this deal and really looking at the basics there, there's no way a deal like this should even be considered. Now, it's not just the Justice Department that will look here. State attorneys general could have a role. That's very

important. If you're the Attorney General of California or New York, you should have a lot of interest in what is going to happen to this huge industry that is such a big part of your state. And this is a big enough deal that European regulators and others around the world are also going to be scrutinizing it because it is such a ginormous multi-billion dollar deal between these huge companies that, you know, really will reshape the entertainment industry as we know it. And I wanted to ask you about another merger under consideration, this one by the FCC. That's of Next Star, the country's largest owner of TV stations with a competitor Tegna. Tell us, Next Star is pretty well known as a very conservative company, isn't it?

That's right, and especially during the Trump administration. Next Star has been collecting hundreds of television stations across the country in this wave of media consolidation. They are now going to the Federal Communications Commission and asking them to waive laws to actually overturn explicit instructions from Congress that limit the amount of television stations, the size of the audience. audience one television chain can reach. They're trying to get that thrown out so they can take over Tegna. And they've done that again by appealing to the Trump administration, by promising to crack down on critical journalism, and by doing things like taking Jimmy Kimmel off the air. This was one of the companies, along with Sinclair Broadcasting, another very partisan broadcaster, that when the FCC chairman went on a podcast and started complaining about jokes Jimmy Kimmel was making about Charlie

Kirk. It was next star rushing to immediately yank him, pull him off the air, while having this multi-billion dollar deal before the FCC. So again, we have the media executive seeing that the way to get ahead in the Trump administration is appealed to Trump. We have the Trump administration abusing its power, really shaking down these companies, demanding loyalty, demanding they erase and eliminate their diversity and equity programs and demanding that in some cases they pay off the administration through specious lawsuits, or maybe if they offer big movie contracts to the president's wife, or do favors for his son-in-law's equity firm. This is the way the Trump administration has been working. This is what they're pursuing to try to do a takeover of the

media and make sure the mainstream dominant media is really only there to serve Trump. And you can see that in all of these deals. You know, over the weekend, Trump expressed skepticism of Netflix, but then when 60 Minutes interviewed Marjorie Taylor Green, well, maybe he doesn't like CBS and Paramount so much anymore. This is the game they're playing. It's all about control and dominance and one narrative. And unfortunately, media executives in broadcast, in cable, in Hollywood,

instead of fighting back against this infringement on free speech and freedom, have simply capitulated, hoping it will get their deals done. Craig Aaron, I want to thank you for being with us. Co-CEO of Free Press and Free Press Action, we'll link to your new report titled Chokehole, Donald Trump's War on Free Speech, and the need for systemic resistance. His new article is headline, Stop the Merger Madness. We'll link to it at DemocracyNow.org. Next up, outcry is growing.

after the Trump administration drops free admission to national parks on the only two federal holidays honoring Black history, June 10th and Martin Luther King Day. Instead, the parks will be free on Donald Trump's birthday. Stay with us. We're going to be able to be. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Outcries growing over the Trump administration's move to drop free admission at national parks. On the only two federal holidays, honoring Black History, June 10th, and Martin Luther King Day.

Instead, the parks will become free on Donald Trump's birthday, June 14th. In addition, the Interior Department has announced a new fee structure to charge more money for non-U.S. residents to visit the parks and what it's calling, quote, America-first entry fee policies. The new move comes months after President Trump signed an executive order titled restoring truth and sanity to American history, which called for the elimination of, quote, divisive race-centered ideology at federal institutions. The Interior Department claims the new changers are part of an effort to make national parks, quote, more accessible, more affordable, and more efficient for the American people, unquote.

But not everyone agrees with that assessment. We're joined now by two guests who've spent years trying to make the national parks more accessible. Audrey Peterman is with us. She's been an advocate for national parks for over 30 years, promoting the history of people of color in national parks. She's the recipient of the NPCA's Centennial Leadership Award and author of the books Our True Nature, Finding a Zest for Life in the National Park System. She's joining us today from Kingston, Jamaica. And in Burlington, Vermont, Carolyn Finney is a storyteller author and cultural geographer who served on the National Parks Advisory Board for eight years under the Obama administration.

She's the author of the book, Black Faces, White Spaces, Reimagining the Relationship between African Americans and the Great Outdoors. She's currently a scholar artist in residence in the Franklin Environmental Center at Middlebury College. We welcome you both to Democracy Now. Carolyn Finney, let's begin with you. First, your simple response to what has just been announced. that no longer will there be free admission to the national parks on Martin Luther King's birthday

and the celebration of the end of slavery, Juneteenth. Thank you. First, thank you for having me on the show, Amy, and I love how you said simple response because I don't think there is one. But what I will say is that you can take away the holiday, but you can't erase the truth. And it's not going to change how we feel, not just as black Americans, but Americans in general about honoring our history because our history tells us who we are. So somewhere in my mind, it actually doesn't matter, not in the way that I think he hopes it matters. That's my simple response. And Audrey Peterman.

Sorry, Juan. Yeah, and Carolyn, this idea of a president, declaring a free admission on his own birthday? Yeah, you know, I don't like to give it much airtime, you know. It's his prerogative. He is the most powerful leader in the free world. That says more about him. It says actually nothing about us.

And I mean us collectively as American citizens. I'm more interested in what it means to try. try to diminish and dismiss history. That's not just black history. It's American history. And what we all lose when that happens. So why don't you talk about what you mean by your title, Black Faces, White Spaces. Yes.

Oh, what do I mean by that? Well, and the funny part is I came up with that with a white colleague who actually we came up with that title together. I just want to make sure that I say that. I was really pointing to when I was interested in looking at, at national parks in particular, it's because national parks historically were created as a way to represent American identity in the world. We didn't have the old cathedrals of Europe, you know, 400 years ago, but what we had were spaces like the Grand Canyon and Yosemite and the Everglades and Yellowstone.

And so when I think about the parks as a place representing American identity, American identity is diverse and deep. for me, that's the good and bad and the ugly of who we are, who we've been, right? And so I was thinking about slavery. I was thinking about reconstruction. I was thinking about Jim Crow segregation. When I was thinking about black people in particular, and we could have up longer conversations about people of Asian descent and indigenous people, but thinking about black people in particular, it was almost ironic that we had created the space representing American identity. But if you had black, skin, your ability to move freely in those spaces was highly limited. And that's really what I was trying to point to. And I was trying to poke the bear of that, of that particular truth of what that means. And it didn't matter that it was a beautiful beach or a beautiful natural surrounding a forest, a national park, a mountain. It didn't matter. It wasn't just about restaurants and movie theaters. It was any space in this country. And we still have it. It's still present. It's very deep in some of our legislation. It's very deep in our

cultural mores. It's very deep in who we are. We still believe certain people shouldn't be living in certain neighborhoods. Certain people shouldn't be landowners. When you look about the history of farming and black farmers and their inability to get financial support for the work that they were doing, we've been doing this for a very long time. And just because you're out in the natural environment doesn't change that. So I wanted to point to that. Because The other side of that is the magnificence of those spaces, the beauty of those spaces, the fact that as American citizens, we pay taxes to support those spaces, and I believe we should be doing that. They tell us something about who we are. They tell me something about who I am and the idea that my movement can be limited.

And I'm not saying that somebody can say to me, I can't walk into the park, but it's also about behavior. It's also about the way I've been stared at, the way people. can feel uncomfortable about you because of the way you look, they know nothing about you, but they make assumptions about you. I want to tell you something else. That book was on a park shelf at some National Park Service Center, and I'm not sure where. And I got an email once, a couple of years ago from a woman who described herself as Sarah the Great. She described herself as being white. And she said, when she saw that book, she removed it and put something else in front of it and told me to stop being racist. And, you know, I initially,

got really angry about that. But over time, I've come to really feel some compassion for Sarah the Great because I realized Sarah the Great never crack the cover. I'm not, I don't talk about or try to diminish the experience of people who identify as white, right? But whiteness is about power, as James Baldwin said. What I'm interested in is making space for all of our stories. And the reality is I'd love to sit down with Sarah the Great and say, what was it that antagonized you about that. What came up for you? Her response to me said more about her than it did me, and I'm interested in that conversation, so we can start to bridge that divide. I'd like to bring Audrey Peterman into the conversation. Audrey, how has the visual

propaganda to the American public from Hollywood, from park marketing, from outdoor brands, perpetuated this myth that black people don't belong in the world? Well, I would say that in building has been to shape the public narrative, that has been true. But in later years, like in the last five years or so, that has begun to change because of the assiduous action from people within communities of color striving to change that narrative. Ruhmapper outdoor afro actually had alignment,

has a line of public uploading for people of color. So we've moved a long way from that. But if I might address the question of the president's action, may I? Yes, surely. Oh, thank you so much. Because I want to say, I love it, I love it, I love it. I think it's the greatest thing he could have done. because it is going to backfire spectacular.

For multiple years, people like Dr. Carolyn and I and other black and brown environmental and national park leaders who are domiciled together at the diverse environmental leaders speaker's bureau, we have been striving to have this conversation about what the national parks are to America, right? Who gets to enjoy them? and the stories they have, right? And as you can imagine, that conversation has dissipated tremendously since January 20th of this year.

And now, lo and behold, we're talking about it because the president aligned himself with racial animus against the National Park and an American hero. I think that there are people who didn't even know that Martin Luther King had anything to do with the national park system. You know, but no, they do. And there's a common thing, a common parlance that says there's nothing that you can do to make people take greater interests than to have them free that you're trying to keep something from them. You know, this administration has taken a lot and kept a lot from us. But I think in this actual case with the National Parks and fee-free days, we can flood the parks en masse to learn about our history within them.

Because the entire history of America, the entire history of every racial and ethnic group in America is in the national park system. And I have traveled from coast to coast. And I'm telling you, once you know that history, you become a totally different person. The Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nicole Hannah-Jones, the founder of the 1619 project, wrote on social media, quote, it might be easy to find things like this merely petty or superficial. But that would be a mistake, demeaning, erasing or eliminating celebrations or acknowledgements of Black America is straight from redemption playbook and is intended to reinforce the racial hierarchy and signal its reinstatement. Today's renaming of military bases for Confederates, reinstalling Confederate statute, denigration of Black holidays,

refusal to acknowledge black contributions while decimating civil rights by an openly white nationalist administration is all to say, the restoration of the racial order, unquote, she said. And I wanted to ask you, Audrey Peterman, data collected from the National Park Service revealed Latinos and Asian Americans made up less than 5% of visitors to U.S. national parks and less than 2% visitors identify themselves as African Americans. Can you talk about the historical context and how you have spent so many decades trying to increase the population of color in the national parks of the United States? Yes, absolutely.

And I completely agree with the code that you cited. And here's another side to that. We know that the president thrives on making people feel outraged. And I will not give in the benefit of that. I have been to 195 units of the 433 units of the national park system around the country. So I dare say I know the state. country and feel connected to it in more ways than he does and are that a lot of other people and that's why we have been trying to get the word out particularly to americans of credit

to say look you need to embrace the national parks get the normal national parks and uh and visit them in order to see the tremendous historic contributions and legacy and that your ancestors have left here. So I think that there's a lot of, there's a very false understanding about America and also about the natural system. And I will tell you this, you know that old story about the six blind men

who went to see the elephant, they heard about this amazing animal, and one fell against its flank and said, oh, it's a wall. And the other one felt its, it's trun. and said, oh, it's a snake. You know, that is kind of what we're like in America now. And the national park system provides the anatomical material of what our country is.

And this is why we're trying to get the word out for 30 years, ourselves and many other people. But it's, you know, it's a heavy lift to let 150 million people who don't know about the national. parks. And when they hear about a national park, they probably only think of that the playground down the street. And they don't know that, you know, Yellowstone can hold New York City 11 times. And Yellowstone has half of all the dizers on earth. They don't know that the Buffalo soldiers were the ones who saved the giant Sequoias in Sequoia National Park and in Yosemite National Park. There are millions of people from all over the world. come to see these 3,000-year-old giants that were alive at the time Jesus walked in Earth.

I mean, the National Parks have so much to offer every, every racial and ethnic group and every American. My God, I really think that this conversation that the president has opened by trying to shut out Martin Luther King, trying to shut us out of the holidays, has opened a head, which I hope will am you a great. awareness among all Americans and greet a passion and love for our national thoughts. Audrey Biderman, I want to thank you so much for being with us. Audrey Piederman has been an advocate for national parks for over 30 years, promoting the history of people of color in national parks,

author of the books Our True Nature, finding a zest for life in the national park system. Carolyn Finney, thank you as well, joining us from Burlington, Vermont, author of Black Faces, White Spaces, Reimagining the Relationship between African Americans, the Great Outdoors, served on the National Parks Advisory Board for eight years under the Obama administration now teaches at Middlebury College in Vermont. Coming up, we get an update on how Mumia Abu Jamal,

the imprisoned journalist and former Black Panther, who's been jailed for 44 years, is doing in Pennsylvania. his supporters have marched over 100 miles to his prison to urge the state to provide the medical care he needs to see. Stay with us. I'm going to lay down my sword and chill down by the riverside down, down by the riverside, down by the riverside, down, down by the riverside, I'm going to lay down my sword and chill. I don't study war no more. I ain't going to study war no more. I ain't going to study war no more.

I ain't going to study war no more. I ain't going to study war no more. No I ain't going to study war no more. Ain't going to study it war no more. I'm going to lay down the bombs and guns and gun way down by the river Sweet Honey and the Rock performing down by the Riverside in our firehouse studio years ago. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.

One of the world's most well-known political prisoners, Mumia Abu Jamal, was arrested on this day in 1981 for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, for which Mumia Abu Jamal has always claimed innocence. Amnesty International and Human Rights groups have found he was deprived of a fair trial. His lawyers say evidence shows his trial was tainted by judicial bias and police and prosecutorial misconduct, like withholding of evidence, bribing or coercing witnesses to lie. Evidence in boxes discovered in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office by D.A. Larry Krasner in 2019 includes notes from one of two key witnesses to prosecutors requesting, quote, the money owed to me, unquote. Mumia Abu Jamal is an award-winning journalist member of the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panther Party ultimately sentenced to death, but went on to write 15 books and record a weekly column while global movement built around his case. he spent 29 years in solitary confinement. In 2012, Mumia Abu Jamal was moved from death road to the general prison population after a federal appeals court in 2011 upheld the overturning of his death sentence by a federal judge

citing improper jury instructions and prosecutors agreed to a life sentence rather than a new sentencing hearing. Mumia Abu Jamal is now 71 years old, was recently blind for eight months until he had cataracts, but needs more medical care to prevent him from permanently losing his vision. Dozens of his supporters who hope to draw attention to his claims of medical neglect on 103-mile 12-day March that's ending today in Fratville, Pennsylvania, where Mumia is imprisoned at SCI Mahanai. We're taking that long walk because the walk for freedom is a long walk. And we do it with an intense, extra-motivated passion because we just lost a bold freedom

fighter and Imam Jamil Abdullah Alameen in the clutches of the state. And that should not have happened. So under no circumstances, can we allow the state to take any more of our freedom fighters. It's time to get with me all the health care needs. In a minute, we'll speak with someone on the march and a member of Mumia Abu Jamal's legal team. But first, this is a prison radio commentary that he recorded in August titled Mumia's

vision, a message for the movement. I have been reluctant to talk about my eye problems. The reasons may have alluded some, but I explain that, you know, in the context of being in prison, any sign of weakness is to be avoided at all costs. These are, unlike many other institutions in society, heavily male and therefore gender conscious in a way that society is not weakness brings predation

so I kept it quiet and I kept it quiet simply because I wrongly believed that once I got examined and once it was was clear that this was a real, visual, contextual problem, that I would get a rather quick response. Boy, was I wrong. I was, as the saying goes, as wrong as two left feet. What I got was evaluation, after evaluation, after evaluation, after evaluation, after a

evaluation, literally. It was only when I went outside, and those prior evaluations were repeated by a noted ophthalmologist that the ball began to roll. And even then, the ball rode exceedingly slowly. I have been, for all intents and purposes, unable to read, unable to write, unable to see anything more than the masthead of a newspaper and not even its headlines. Blurry television, bursts of color. The television is my radio now.

Mumia Abu Jamal, speaking from prison, SCI State Correctional Institution, Mahanoi, in Pennsylvania. For more, we're joined by Larry Hamm, chair of the People's Organization for Progress, one of the elders on the march for Mumia. He is in Frackville, Pennsylvania, where the prison is. And here in New York, one of Mumia's lawyers, Noel Han-Rahan, founder and producer of Prison Radio, which has been recording and distributing Mumia's commentaries from prison since 1992. Larry, let's begin with you. You're on this more than 100 March that's ending today. Why did you march? What are you calling for? Good morning, Amy. Good morning, Juan. Good morning. Noel. We are marching to free Mumia and free all political prisoners.

We are marching to draw attention to Mummia's medical problems, but more importantly, to demand that he get the surgery and medical treatment he needs. We are marching for humane treatment for all prisoners, especially our elders. I'm a witness to the fact that we have an aging prison population, and like Mumia, many of them are not getting the medical care they need. So we're marching today to demand freedom for Mumia and all political prisoners, and to demand that Mumia get the urgent surgery and medical treatment he needs.

And Noelle, I'd like to ask you, in terms of his battle for health care, Mamia's battle for health care, why has it been so difficult for him to get that health care? In health care in this country, and in particular for prisoners, there are contracts by WellPath that specifically state that they limit ophthalmological care in prison to on-site monitoring. They do not send people routinely out for specialist care. We had to fight the abolitionist law center, the lawyers, and the movement had to come together to demand that Mumia get care just for post-catteract surgery. When we got the specialists to look at Mumia, they discovered two other conditions that could mean that he

loses his eyesight permanently if he is not treated. He has not been treated for these conditions. since June. So what are you demanding right now? That Mumia get specialist care for his glaucoma and his diabetic retinopathy and that he is given the treatment that he deserves. But we're not just calling for Mumia because there are many inmates. They know who's blind in prison. They are refusing care to save money for well path.

Why is ophthalmological care particularly limited? I don't know if it's particularly limited. It's the one we've researched right now. I believe that they likely limit all care that might cost the money, like our lawsuit for Hep C care in 2017, that one care, the first preliminary injunction for hep C care. They did not treat Mumia with a fast-acting cure for two years, causing likely the diabetic retinopathy. And, you know, well, Philadelphia has a supposedly progressive DA, district attorney Krasner, who his own office found forgotten files on Mamea that showed bias in his trial. Why has there been no movement by the DA to reopen this case? I think the DA has been pressured to actively litigate this case by being impeached by the Pennsylvania Senate, also by being called up. in a special, there was a King's Bench petition that deposed Larry that asked him specifically

if he was going to prosecute Mummia. There are pressures. Mummia is the third rail in Philadelphia. He is, like everyone else in prison, the 5,000 people that are serving life without possibility of parole just in Pennsylvania. He's one of a class of many. And Krasner, he will do the right thing. He is elected by the people. He's elected by the abolitionist ecosystem, we have an obligation to make it impossible for him to not support us, but there's pressure. And on what grounds are you asking for his case to be open now? There are three ways that any lifer can get out. It would be a post-conviction relief application, which we are developing, that he doesn't have one in court right now. His last one was denied in March

by a lower court that did not fairly review his case. He can also go through the pardon board, which is five-member panel and also the governor. Six have to be unanimous. or compassionate release, which is extremely limited. Finally, if you can comment, Larry Hamm, on what you're doing today in front of the prison in Frackville, Pennsylvania, what this more than 100-mile marches meant for you, you're about the same age as Mumia, Abu Jamal. I am exactly the same age as Mumia, and our birthdays are in the same month. Yesterday, we reached a hundred mile mark, and today we will march the last three miles to Mahanoi prison where Mumia is incarcerated.

We will have a press conference and a rally there to once again make the call for Mumia to get the medical care that he needs. And for all prisoners, especially our elders, to get the medical care. And Noel Hanahan, 10 seconds. It's really from the inside out. This was built by prisoners. It was built by prisoners' families, the Abolitionist Law Center, Salim Holbrook, Brett Grody, the lead attorney. We are going to win and create the world that we deserve.

Noah Hanarhan is one of Mumia Abujima's attorneys and founder and producer of prison radio. Larry Hamm is chair of the People's Organization for Progress on the March for Mumia, speaking to us from Frackville, Pennsylvania, where he is imprisoned. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.