Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-08-17 Monday

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

Headlines for August 17, 2026; “Operation Puppet Master”: Trump Admin Spied on Minnesota Activists & Unions After ICE Killings; Exclusive: Palestine Action Lawyer Rajiv Menon Breaks Silence on Facing Contempt Charges in U.K.; “The Nerd Reich”: Author Gil Durán on Big Tech Fascism, Peter Thiel, JD Vance & the War on Democracy

is democracy now. The federal government was conducting an illegal and murderous campaign of terror against immigrant working class people in Twin Cities. So it's not a surprise to us that they were using these methods to try and infiltrate and map the folks who were organizing opposition to their campaign. After federal agents killed Renee Good and Alex Prete in Minneapolis, did the federal government investigate? Yes. The Department of Homeland Security spied on activist groups and unions that were involved in the protests against ICE's deadly crackdown. We'll get the latest. Then in an

exclusive interview, the prominent British human rights attorney Rajiv Menon speaks out on being charged with contempt of court for what he said during his closing argument in the trial of his client, Palestine action protester. Finally, the journalist Gilderan on his new book, The Nerd Reich, Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. The Nerd Reich is a cult of dangerous billionaires who believe it is their destiny to overthrow American democracy in the 21st century using technology, specifically AI, crypto, and the Trump administration. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now, Democracy Now. dot org, the war and peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. President Trump has reportedly threatened to bomb the

S out of Oman if it, quote, gets in the way of the U.S. blockade of Iranian ships in the strait of Hormuz. It comes as Trump has downplayed concerns about conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln and aircraft carrier that's been deployed for more than 260 days, one of the longest deployments in U.S. military history. Two U.S. military newspapers, the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes, have reported multiple attempts by sailors to jump overboard amidst deteriorating conditions on the Lincoln, including food rationing, plumbing backups and shortages of basic supplies, including toothpaste and soap. This is President Trump talking to reporters Friday, saying the deployment hasn't been long enough. is proving right now, or very shortening, and it's being replaced with another very similar. Have this appointment gone on to bomb?

And nearly long enough. Not nearly long enough, the president said. This comes as President Trump says the U.S. will substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, noting Seoul had declined to join the U.S. war on Iran. He said his decision is based in his, quote, very good relationship with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un, adding the country has. has been, quote, unthreatening and respectful as long as he's been president. Meanwhile, in Qatar, officials are denying Iranian accusations that Doha is secretly holding three

Iranian airmen as prisoners of war. The dispute dates to the third day of the war. When Qatar said it shot down to Iranian warplanes and claimed were threatening its airspace. On Sunday, Iran's military announced a $30,000 bounty for killing or capturing U.S. soldiers, which would be doubled if it's carried out by a woman. Whoever, any dear combatant kills an American or captures one and hands them over to any of the units of the Islamic Republic of Iran army, supported by those dear individuals who wish to participate in financial jihad, but under the guarantee of the army alongside the great rewards of jihad, we will provide a proper gift. This gift is equivalent to $30,000, approximately $5,000.

billion Tomans. In Lebanon, Israeli, our strikes killed at least 11 people, including children on Saturday, one of the deadliest Israeli attacks in Lebanon since the so-called ceasefire with Hezbollah took effect in June. Israel has been striking Lebanon since early March after Isbola fired into Israel and retaliation for the U.S. Israeli war on Iran. Israeli strikes have killed more than 4,300 people in Lebanon this year. According to the U.N., more than a million people have been forced to flee their homes. President Trump's son-in-law and envoy Jared Kushner has met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Israel rejected a 15-point plan for Gaza, promoted by President

Trump's so-called Board of Peace. The proposal would see Hamas gradually disarm and turn over governance of the Gaza Strip to an international force in exchange for Israel's withdrawal. Over the weekend, Kushner met in Cairo with Hamas' political, chief, Khalil al-Haya. Also joining the talks was Egyptian President Abdel Fattal Sisi, former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and Qatari, Turkish, and Egyptian mediators. In the occupied West Bank, Israel's military has announced plans to hand over responsibility for policing Israeli settlers to a civilian Israeli police force.

Palestinian officials condemn the plan as a flagrant violation of international law, calling it another step towards Israeli annexation of the West Bank. This comes as a siege by Israeli settlers on the village of Kusra, has entered its second week with 15 Palestinians, including two children cut off from food, water, and electricity, by armed Israeli settlers backed by soldiers. Human rights groups say it's part of a concerted effort by Israelis to seize even more Palestinian land.

This is a video filmed by Aisha Hassan, whose family's been confined to their home for over a week while Israeli soldiers occupy a neighboring building. We are in our besieged house and have been under siege for the last seven days. The soldiers are stationed on the nearby house of my brother Yusuf. They keep screaming and singing all day. In Russia, officials say at least 10 people were killed over the weekend. when Ukraine launched one of its largest drone attacks since the start of the war, Moscow's

defense ministry claims it shot down nearly 1,500 Ukrainian drones over 24 hours, a massive fire tore through a distribution warehouse operated by the Russian online retailer wildberries just outside central Moscow. Ukrainian officials say Russia struck 13 locations across Ukraine over the same period, killing seven people. In Afghanistan, the Taliban of Mark five years. in power since U.S. forces withdrew from the country. Since retaking control in 2021, the Taliban have stripped away the rights of women and girls, with UNESCO reporting some 2.4 million girls are now barred from secondary and higher education. United Nations warns more than half of women's groups still working in Afghanistan could cease operations within the next year due to

funding problems. This is the permanent representative of Denmark to the United Nations. The Taliban's systematic repression of women and girls has become a defining feature of the current system. Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls are banned from secondary and higher education. The grave abuse of the right to education is also having far-reaching consequences for Afghanistan's economic development and provision of essential public services. Hundreds of migrants in Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta gathered for a protest Sunday demanding they be granted asylum. They're among the thousands who remain there after more than 70,000 people crossed into the enclave in recent weeks seeking protections. Dozens died mostly from drowning in their attempt to reach the Spanish territory amidst an intensifying crackdown along the border with Morocco.

Many of those who stayed in Ceuta are now forced to start. sleep on the beach or in the city's outskirts. This is a migrant from Morocco who swam there. We have problems and bad situations in our country. There are so many talents in our country that have been lost. We are truly suffering. We are sleeping next to the sea with cold, with bad smell. We are suffering a lot. The police doesn't let us go downtown. They always kick us out, telling us to get the hell out of there. In Indonesia, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck the country. Saturday was followed by nearly 1,000 aftershocks, killing more than 50 people.

The largest earthquake hit just north of Flores Island, followed by a second 6.4 magnitude quake in Indonesia's western Sumatra Island. An estimated 5,000 people have been evacuated to search and rescue teams, race to find survivors. Many evacuees have been forced to sleep in the streets, afraid of more. aftershocks. Meanwhile, tents have been set up amidst the rubble of collapsed hospitals to serve as makeshift emergency rooms to treat injured patients. Landslides have also blocked roads and parts of Flores Island, raising concerns of dwindling aid and resources as people go hungry.

My husband in the morning took Rohini's baby and went to the store, and he got us three loaves of bread to share. One loaf of bread, I felt so sorry for. my nieces and nephews had to be divided, little by little. She's pregnant. I feel so sorry for her, so I only ate a small amount. Even a single banana would be divided among three people. We were desperately hungry. This is Indonesia's deadliest quake since 2022 when an earthquake in West Java killed hundreds. In the United States and northern Michigan and gunmen killed five people Friday, prompting a manhunt that ended when the shooter was found dead alongside one of his victim. Separately, police in Petersburg, Virginia, arrested a 19-year-old suspect on Saturday

following an overnight shooting at Virginia State University that left five people injured, one of them critically, just hours after officials welcomed freshmen to campus. According to the Gun Violence Archive, the U.S. has seen at least 305 mass shootings since the start of the year. President Trump's former personal attorney, now Attorney General, Todd Blanche, has declared to pledge that the Justice Department will operate independently of the White House. Blanche was asked about the topic by NBC's Meet the Press host, Kristen Welkin. Welker. You, of course, used to be President Trump's former personal defense attorney.

Can you pledge that the Justice Department will always act independently of the White House? Well, there's a big difference between saying we will be, we will always do our job and investigate any case and act independently of the White House. No, I'm not going to pledge that. A federal judge has ruled the state of Idaho must allow abortions when the pregnant person's health and life are at risk. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Windmill ruled Idaho state officials cannot prosecute physicians who perform abortions under these circumstances, saying Idaho's near-total abortion ban

violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment. Physicians faced up to five years in prison if found in violation of the ban. his ruling, Judge Wynneau wrote, quote, it's about self-preservation and the limit of the state's power to make a woman suffer for the sake of an unborn child. A pregnant woman's health is not a state resource to be allocated at the legislature's whim, he said. And the Democratic National Committee has approved sweeping changes to the 28 presidential primary calendar under the new schedule. South Carolina voters would cast the first ballots January 22nd, followed by Nevada on February 1st, Iowa, New Hampshire would no longer be the first states to hold nominating contests.

The move could expand the influence of black and Latino voters on narrowing the field of presidential contenders. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. And I'm Anjali Kammoth and welcome to all of our viewers and listeners around the country and across the world. Operation Puppet Master.

That's the name of an expansive surveillance program launched by the federal government against activists, left-leaning political organizations, labor unions and other groups in Minnesota last winter, as hundreds of thousands of residents joined protests demanding an end to the violent mass deportation campaign in the state by ICE and other federal agencies known as Operation Metro Surge. The spying program was launched by HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, four days after federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a nurse and protester,

and just weeks after agents shot another protester, Renee Good. The spying program came to light in court documents filed in federal district court in Minnesota and first reported on by the New York Times. The documents were filed by defense attorney Kevin Rich in the federal case against 15 purported Antifa members. Minnesotans accused of conspiracy to, quote, impede or injure federal officer. and to quote, violently oppose immigration law enforcement. Rich represents one of the accused Isaac Sant.

In Kevin Rich's motion, he reveals that undercover agents posing as protesters spied on community members at meetings and churches, parks, libraries, schools, and union halls. And that HSI secretly obtained the financial records of national labor unions, including the SCIU and the communication workers of America. CWA, as well as national nonprofits like the Sunrise Movement. The financial records go back three years. Democracy now spoke to Karen Knudsen, president of the CWA Local 7250 on Sunday to get his response. We were outraged but not surprised to learn this news.

You know, the federal government was conducting an illegal and murderous campaign of terror against immigrant working class people in Twin Cities. So it's not a surprise to. us that they were using these methods to try and infiltrate and map the folks who are organizing opposition to their campaign. And, you know, it's our understanding that they've surveilled our members, that they have infiltrated meetings that we co-sponsored and possibly even entered our office once as undercover cops for the federal government as part of this operation. So, yeah, It just shows what kind of government we're up against.

In the motion filed with the court attorney, Attorney Kevin Rich writes, quote, with no evidence, the government alleged to the grand jury that the conspiracy in this case extends far beyond the defendants to include the AFL-CIO, the Minneapolis Federation of Educators, the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, Monarcha, Veterans for Peace, and the Greece Pit Bicycle Repair Shop, among others. So far, none of the groups targeted by the HSI inquiry have faced charges. The executive director of the sunrise movement, Arushinia J, said, quote, while federal agents repeatedly broke the law, ordinary people exercise their First Amendment rights to protect their neighbors. The surveillance operation arose from a White House directive known as National Security Presidential MMO 7, an SPM-7, which identifies a potential domestic terrorist as someone expressing, quote, anti-Christian, anti-capitalist, or anti-American views.

For more, we're joined by two guests. Isaac Sant is a health care worker in St. Paul, Minnesota, one of the 15 protesters charged by the federal government in June. It was his attorney, Kevin Rich, who filed this motion and released these documents on Thursday. And Emilio Gonzalez-Avalos is Executive Director of Unitos, Minnesota, a grassroots group and immigrant advocacy organization that would, was also spied on by the federal government. We welcome you both to Democracy Now.

I wanted to turn first to Isaac Sunt and St. Paul. It's your attorney who released these documents. It has been explosive around the country to see the federal government after the killing of Alex Pretti and Renee Good investigating who? The activists who are protesting these killings and the deadly immigrant crackdown. Now, your attorney advised you not to speak. speak today, but you've chosen to. Why? Talk about what's happened in the Twin Cities. Hi, Amy. Thanks for having me. I believe this case is a blatant act of political repression

against anybody who was brave enough to protest against ICE's terroristic rampage through our streets in December and January. And I think the calculus here is a little different than in a normal criminal trial. I think these are politically motivated charges. intended to quell dissent and that my little organization is not really the target of these. I'm under indictment and it's obviously very stressful, but the whole community is really the target here. This is intended to have a chilling effect on protest and to intimidate people out of the street. Isaac, were you one of the groups that was under surveillance and did you suspect anything during the time? I did suspect that we might have been under surveillance.

I mean, I was at a mass meeting immediately after the brutal murder of Renee Good. And I thought there might be undercovers in the room, sure. What were you indicted for, Isaac? I was indicted for conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer and also for interstate stalking. I want to bring in Amelia Gonzalez Avalos into the conversation, Executive Director of Unidos, Minnesota. Amelia, can you talk about your organization? I'm looking at this chart that Homeland Security Investigations put out called The Conspiracy, and there's a group called Monarcha right at the top.

And this is a project of Unidos, your group. Can you talk about your experience with federal surveillance? Of course. Well, Monarcha is, as you said, our constitutional observing program. It is an on-ramp for community organizing where we developed these massive forums for people to learn about how to legally and constitutionally observe what was happening in our streets with a deadly force being used upon our immigrant families. And that's all we did.

We were teaching people how to use their First Amendment. What does a warrant, an administrative warrant looks like differently from a judicial warrant? What were the rights and opportunities that we have to protect the rights of immigrants in detention? Or while they are being detained, how do you locate a person that has just been detained? We also talked about Fourth Amendment rights. And this program grew to almost 30,000 people before Metro Search and reached to 50,000 people after MetraSarch and reached to 50,000 people after metric source and it continues to grow. And so we were shocked. We were sick to hear that we were also in this list of people that were organizing using their First Amendment rights and the right

to petition to their government, but also not surprised. We have learned through history that this is one of the tactics they have used across the world to repress and scare and disrupt movements that are organizing with other people against racism, that are organizing for justice, and that are organizing for a multiracial, high function in democracy. I want to go to what the U.S. attorney for Minnesota said in a news conference, he refused to answer repeated questions about whether any federal agents or officers were injured by the defendants. whether or not they actually, at the end of the day, cause bodily harm is not the measure of whether or not they committed a serious federal crime.

And I would dare say, you know, we just cannot have in this country all of all people giving together, engaging in all of these violent acts, and then simply saying, well, you know, nobody got hurt. So how bad could it have been? That was the U.S. attorney for Minnesota, Daniel Rosen, who also. also suggested there could be more charges related to ongoing investigations and to anti-ice activism during so-called Operation Mesterouserge. If you are actively conspiring to impede law enforcement, actively conspiring to commit the acts that today's indictment alleges, you ought to go on the assumption that we're watching you and that will get you.

I mean, this is quite something. When there are accusations of violence, the U.S. attorney cannot name one example of violence that the defendants were involved with. Can you respond to this, Isaac Sint? On the advice of my attorney, I'm not going to talk about the details of any overt acts. I'm alleged to have committed in the indictment. but what I can tell you is that our activism, me and all of my co-dependence, was nonviolent throughout Metro Surge. And as I said, this is a naked act of political repression.

This is not about what we did. This is about who we are and what we believe. This is about the suppression of our politics and more broadly of any opposition to ISIS campaign of terror across the country. And yeah, I didn't hurt anyone. I'm not alleged to have heard anyone. And there's nothing in the indictment that I'm accused of. The tens of thousands of people also didn't participate in as acts of protest when ice was rampaging through our streets. I want to bring Amelia back into this conversation, this indictment against the 15 defendants, you know,

accuse them of everything from throwing ice chunks to setting up blockades. But the surveillance documents released last week now show the government was monitoring peaceful library meetings about de-escalation tactics. What are your thoughts on the kind of evidence being gathered by the Trump administration and the financial records that have been collected of the SEIU, Sunrise Movement, three years of financial records? Well, I am not an attorney and I also have never experienced. or witnessed a network of surveillance that tries to fish and hunt for the behaviors that they want to polarize and then act using that acting with the strength of the Department of Justice. It is also said that in this administration, a ham sandwich can get an indictment. And so it is very dangerous, the times that we're living, the discretion in which the rule of law is being used. And I hold two things at the same time.

Courts decide on individual conduct, and everybody has the right to the process. Everybody gets a defense. And a government that puts a bicycle collective in a teacher's union and a network of regular people like Unido, on a conspiracy chart, in my opinion, loses the right to be believed about who the dangerous people are. Emilio Gonzalez-Avalos, thank you so much for being with us, Executive Director of Unidos, Minnesota, and Isaac Sand, health care worker and activist in St. Paul, one of the 15 Minnesotans charged with conspiracy to impede federal officers during their immigration crackdown last winter. It was his attorney who released the documents.

Coming up in an exclusive interview, the prominent British human rights attorney Rajiv Menon speaking out on being charged with contempt of court for what he said during his closing argument in defense of his client, a protester with Palestine action. We'll go to London. Stay with us. If you think you have the answer, don't be surprised. If what you say is met with anger, contempt and lies, no matter how hard you may want to, just walk away. Reach out you'll find me there beside you because I keep you. I keep faith by the British musician Billy Bragg, performing in our democracy now. studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Anjali Comet.

We turn now to the case of a leading human rights attorney in Britain who is facing criminal charges himself over his representation of a client in court. Rajiv Menon-KC., King's Council, is accused of criminal contempt over his closing speech at the trial of six Palestine action activists for their direct action protest at a weapons factory owned by Elbit Systems, a supplier of arms to Israel in Filton in August of 2024. Menon is being accused of misleading the jury and ignoring the judge's directions in his remarks. He's believed to be the first defense attorney in Britain to be prosecuted over statements in a closing speech. Mr. Justice's court order read in part, quote,

the respondent made statements which were capable of suggesting to the jury that the court was not impartial, in that he referred to the defendants being prevented from giving evidence about Elbit systems and later referred to Elbit systems being protected and whined and dined in the corridors of power. Garden Court Chambers, where Menon has worked as a barrister for 30 years, said the charges brought against him were unprecedented and have, quote, sent shockwaves to the legal profession, unquote. The chair of the Criminal Bar Association has said the charges have left attorneys afraid of doing their jobs. Amnesty International said, quote, the prosecution of Palestine action lawyer, Rajiv Menon, KC, is a serious threat to fair trial rights and the right to protest, unquote.

For more, we're joined by Rajiv Mennon, KC., himself in his first television broadcast interview since the charges were brought. He's joining us from London, where democracy now just was. Thanks so much for being with us. Why have you decided to speak out? In fact, you encourage your clients, Palestine action protesters, not to speak directly to the press, is that right? And yet now you're the focus of the court. Firstly, thank you for inviting me. I've decided to speak out because for the last few months, a number of senior judges in this country have decided to make the most serious allegations against me in public publishing those allegations on the judicial office website.

And of course, you've already highlighted the fact that I'm the first lawyer, as far as I'm aware, as far as my lawyers are aware, ever to be prosecuted for contempt of court in British legal history. And I just feel that it's important that I have a voice in this and that I at least address some of the matters in general terms that I'm accused of, as opposed to simply waiting for my opportunity in court months from now to say what I need to say. And, Rajiv, can you explain why these contempt charges are being brought against you? What exactly did you say that was considered contempt of court? So I made a closing speech in a Palestine action protest case, as you said, on the 8th of January this year, on behalf of my client, Charlotte Head, who was one of those engaged in direct action against the Elbit Systems factory. And the judge subsequently made seven specific allegations of contempt against me. I'm probably not wise for me to go into the full detail of that, but suffice to say, perhaps,

that I categorically deny deliberately breaching any judicial order, and as far as I'm aware, as far as I believe, didn't inadvertently breach any order either. I mean, contempt of court is a complicated jurisdiction, but in essence, it involves a serious interference with the administration of justice, and I categorically deny that anything that I said in that closing speech amounted to a serious interference with the administration of justice. But that's the allegation in a nutshell. Grisjev Mennon, since our systems are a little different, the legal system is not only in the United States and Britain, but around the world, if you can say in late terms, in your closing

argument, what is the argument you were making? I mean, we have a defense in the United States, where we have a description, for example, called jury nullification. They can say someone did something, but they don't feel they should be found guilty. Talk about what the Palestine action defendants were accused of, who you represented, and what your argument was. Yes. So my client, Charlotte Head, was charged with aggravated burglary, violent disorder, and criminal damage. and she had statutory defenses to aggravated burglary and violent disorder.

The problem was, in relation to criminal damage, there was no dispute that she had participated with others in damaging property belonging to the Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems. And the trial judge had withdrawn her only available defense of lawful excuse to that charge. And so on the face of it, she had no defense to the charge. But of course, she's innocent and have proven guilty. And ultimately, the facts are for the jury, not for the judge. The jury are the sole judges of the facts. And so in my speech, I told the jury about a very famous case from 1670, excuse me,

of William Penn and William Mead, who had been charged with unlawful preaching on the streets of London. And in that case, the trial judge had directed the jury to convict. and the jury had refused to convict. And the jury was subsequently imprisoned. And when they continued to refuse to convict, were fined. And some of those jurors refused to pay the fine. They were locked up. And that case that came to be known as Bushell's case is one of the most famous cases in British legal history. And I told the jury about that case, as hundreds, if not thousands of other lawyers have done before me. And I told the jury, jury about a plaque at the old Bailey, probably the most famous courtroom in the world, where that

case is celebrated, again, something that's been done by countless lawyers before me. And what I've been accused of is that by doing that, I was informing the jury about their right to acquit a defendant according to their conscience and was inviting them to do so. And that is an allegation I categorically deny. What you call jury nullification in the United States is called. jury equity here. But I categorically deny, I need to make this absolutely clear that I either informed the jury of the existence of that principle, that fundamental principle, or invited them to invoke it. What I did do was tell them about that famous case and about the plaque that celebrates the case. And that's at the very heart of the allegation that I face.

Rajee, I want to turn to a clip of your client, Charlotte Head, speaking to AJ Plus earlier this year. Her son will never be forgotten and for me it's something that I will never stop supporting and fighting for and wanting to scream from the rooftops we wanted to stop the manufacturing of weapons on British soil

that were being used by Israel in the genocide in Gaza. I think we'd asked nicely, we'd asked so many times in every different way and the government wasn't listening having been in prison which is obviously not even comparable to what people are going through in Gaza but experiencing a smidstitch

that isolation. Having people tell you that you're not alone and that people are there and that you're never going to be forgotten, I think that's probably the most poignant thing I could say. Rajiv Menon, tell us about your client, Charlotte Head, and what exactly she was charged with and she's back in prison now? She is. She, well, she's an extraordinary woman, I should say that from the outset, who has dedicated most of her adult life to helping those less fortunate than her. She spent three years working in the refugee camps in Calais, doing a number of different jobs at the time

to assist refugees and asylum seekers. At the time of her involvement in the action against the factory in Filton, she was working with women suffering domestic and children suffering domestic violence and abuse in London. So she's someone who's dedicated, as I said, most of her adult life to helping others

and was driven to participate in this action by the genocide that was being life-strand. streamed onto our televisions and our mobile phones in this country. As I said, she was charged with aggravated burglary, violent disorder, and criminal damage. She was acquitted by the jury at the first trial of aggravated burglary, which was the most serious charge that she faced, a charge that can technically attract a sentence of life imprisonment. The prosecution subsequently dropped the charge of violent disorder against her.

The jury at the first trial were hung on that charge. As far as criminal damage is concerned, the jury couldn't decide. at the first trial, but she had a retrial later in April and May, and at that retrial, she was convicted of criminal damage and was given a custodial sentence of five years imprisonment. She's currently serving that sentence. And in addition to that, the trial judge found that her offending, quite extraordinarily, the first time this has ever happened in a protest case in this country, that her offending had a terrorist connection. And as a result, she's subject now to a draconian regime within the prison system, which has, in real terms,

lengthen the time that she will have to spend in custody. And that is a matter that's currently subject to appeal. And the judge in this case in the first trial and the second trial put several restrictions on what was allowed as a defense. Is that right? Can you explain that? Yes. Yeah. So because the trial judge had withdrawn their justifications from them, as I mentioned earlier, Charlotte's defense of lawful excuse was withdrawn from the jury. Other justification defenses were withdrawn. The judge restricted what the defendants could say about their underlying motivations and specifically about what they could say about Elbit systems. And so on a number of occasions during the first trial, defendants were stopped from telling the jury what they had learned about

Elbit Systems prior to their involvement in the action. But they still managed to say a great deal. And to be fair, the judge never directed the jury at the first trial, that the jury should disregard what they said. At the retrial, when they were solely facing the charge of criminal damage, further restrictions were placed on them. And they were not allowed to say anything to the jury at the retrial about the reasons or underlying motivations that they had for either joining Palestine action or participating in the action against the Filton factory or their specific views about Elbit system. So that further restriction was placed on them at the retrial that was not there at the first

trial where they were facing other charges as well. I mean, it's quite complicated this, but I hope that explains it in a nutshell. Before we end, we want to talk about that larger issue of Palestine action being considered a terrorist organization in London. I was there last week, and I asked the British MP Jeremy Corby about Prime Minister Andy Burnham's apology for the Labour Party's initial stance on Gaza. And part of his response was about that crackdown on Palestine action. This is what MP Corbyn said. if he is serious about a complete change of policy, if he's serious, it's a big if, then why are we criminalising people who take part in protest in Britain? A number have already been convicted and face long stretches in prison.

These are non-violent direct action protests and there are also probably 2,500. to 3,000 people who've been arrested for holding a placard in Controvention of the Terrorism Act 2000, which is basically labeling anyone that holds a placard up saying, I support Palestine action, calling them a terrorist. These includes people in their 80s and even 90s, retired Anglican clergy people, and many others. It's an absurd situation. So that's British MP Jeremy Corbyn when we were in London last week. As we wrap up, Rajiv Menon, if you can talk about how you're fighting the charges against you, the contempt of court charges, and also the chilling effect this has on how far lawyers will go to represent cases like these.

Absolutely. Well, let me deal with the latter first. I mean, there is no question as the chair of the Criminal Bar Association and the chair of the bar council in this country have both publicly said that the prosecution being brought against me for contempt of court is having a chilling effect on criminal defense lawyers and the worries that they undoubtedly have these days, particularly in protest cases, about what they can and cannot say. And that's obviously because of the unique, extraordinary and unprecedented action being taken against me. I mean, I think that's irrefutable. I mean, there's so much evidence about it. And literally hundreds of people have contacted me, lawyers and others, to talk about that chilling effect. And I mean, that clearly is something that is extremely worrying. It's been described by some as a dissent into authoritarianism. As far as the case against me is concerned, already the court of appeal in this country in a judgment in May has held that the trial judge in the Filton case, and another senior member of the British judiciary, a Lord Justice of Appeal, a member of the Court of Appeal, acted unlawfully against me in an excessive jurisdiction by allowing a direct referral to the High Court being made against me for contempt of court. So we have already had that

victory. The case then went back to the trial judge, who has now instituted consent of court proceedings against me under a different procedure. We are now appealing against that as well, on the basis that that also was unlawful. We're awaiting a date for that appeal. We think it'll probably be in October or November. Depending on the outcome of that appeal, of course, there are different possibilities. If I win that appeal, then this may go away.

Alternatively, it may be referred to the attorney general to make a decision as to whether or not I should be prosecuted. If I lose my appeal, then I will stand trial for contempt of court at some stage, either later this year or early next year, with the risk of a potential two-year prison sentence hanging over my head. So this is a serious matter with serious constitutional implications, which is of tremendous worry and concern to members of the criminal bar and other members of the legal profession in this country.

Rajiv Menin, I want to thank you for being with us and agreeing to do this interview against your own lawyer's wishes, a leading British human rights and criminal defense lawyer, facing an unprecedented contempt of court charges and could be sentenced up to two years in prison for his closing speech for a Palestine action defendant, speaking to us from London. Coming up, the Nerd Reich, Silicon Valley Fascism,

and the War on Democracy. Stay with us. We are here by Scott Donaldson and Richard Samuel Nolan. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Anjali Kamen. The Nerd Reich, Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. That's the name of a new book by our next guest, the journalist Gil Duran. The book looks at how tech billionaires, including Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, are pushing what Duran calls tech fascism. Gil Duran also documents how Teal had played a pivotal role in J.D. Vance's rise to power. Duran writes, quote, Vance is almost entirely a creation of Teal

who bankrolled his brief stint as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and United States senator. With Vance at Trump's side, Silicon Valley had one of their own in the White House, a tech venture capitalist, one heartbeat away from the presidency. Gil Duran joins us here in New York. He's the former opinion editor of the Sacramento Bee, an editorial page editor at the San Francisco Examiner. He now publishes two newsletters.

The Nerd Reich and Frame Lab. Welcome to Democracy Now. So let's start with the title, The Nerd Reich, Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. Why'd you choose it? Well, in 2024, I wrote a series for the New Republic about the extremist ideological beliefs coming out of Silicon Valley. And after I'd written a story that went really viral and got me under attack by one of these guys, someone reached out to me from the crypto world and said, you know, we've been calling these guys the Nerd Reich from. years. And that blew my mind and I saw that no one was really using that title. And so I rebranded my newsletter, which had some boring other name, as the Nerd Reich. And that became the main message of it. But I thought it was amazing that from within their own community, this was a label that was applied to them. People understood it was fascist and was echoing Nazism in nature. But I want to just say, the billionaire tech bros, as they are known,

another name for them, haven't always been the way they are now. In fact, when Trump was first coming into office, talk about how they have changed. During the first Trump administration, we saw something called tech against Trump, where there were all these tech companies standing up to Trump, filing lawsuits, opposing his crackdowns and immigration. This time around, it's completely different. He was removed from X. Yeah, removed from X. Facebook banned him. Now we see the opposite. happening. I think what happened is that Trump was able to tap into some undercurrents in Silicon Valley with his return to power. Billionaires had become radicalized by things like the Me Too movement, by Occupy, by the Black Lives Matter movement, and then by the pandemic. And so when Trump is

able to return to power, they are now in a very different mentality. They've made billions and billions of more dollars. They're even more against taxes in government, even though government is generally the basis for many of their fortunes. And so now we see a complete alignment behind Trump. In fact, Trump is being funded and supported by Silicon Valley. He wouldn't be able to do the things he's doing without the billions of dollars he's raking in and open crypto corruption. You know, in the epigraph to your book, you quote Peter Thiel from 2010. So in a way, they've changed, but this also goes back and has a longer history. And the end of that quote is technology is this incredible alternative to politics.

Can you talk about what he meant by that and what that means in terms of the kind of influence Peter Teal has? And who he is? Some billionaires appear to have changed, but Peter Teal hasn't really changed. He's been right-wing for a very long time. Peter Teal was born in Germany, came to the United States as a child, went to Stanford, became a lawyer, studied philosophy, and then got very lucky to be in Silicon Valley in the late 1990s as things were about to take off. In 1997, he read a book called The Sovereign Individual,

which predicted that in the 21st century, technology would overthrow democracy, specifically something called cyber currency, or what we would today call crypto, which would undermine government authority, and advanced automation, which we would call AI, which would collapse the economy by destroying most jobs and concentrating wealth in the hands of a savvy few that were called the sovereign individual. And Peter Tillis credited this crazy book with being the inspiration for PayPal, which he says was an effort to get ahead of this digital currency. It didn't quite work out that way, but it made him a billionaire eventually because it provided the basis for his fortune, and he's been able to use his money to grow this influential

cult of right-wing ideas in Silicon Valley, which, by the way, they were always there, this libertarian, it was called Vibe, coming out of Silicon Valley in the 80s and the 90s. There were a handful of writers who wrote about it then. But what we've learned is these guys were never libertarians. They just wanted to be in charge of the government. They weren't against the government unless they don't get to be the government. So now that they are the government, we see with their true face, they're fascists and their authoritarians. You know, you tell this story in the book, a remarkable story of a group of these billionaire tech bros.

It's not just Peter Thiel. It's several other men. Can you talk about some of these other characters that you talk about? And what is their crusade against democracy? They have this idea, largely stemming from this sovereign individual book, that technology means democracy is an obsolete software system, that the United States is an obsolete country, that it won't survive the 21st century.

And I want to say, I know this sounds crazy to people, but much of my book is told in the words of these men from in podcasts, in interviews, and long essays they write about it. And their problem with democracy is that they don't get to have all the power. So you didn't have to get secret documents. I mean, you have some remarkable statements in this book. You have Balaji Srinivasan and also, Curtis Jarvin and Curtis Jarvin, I believe, talking about in an early blog post, perhaps,

talking about San Francisco and what to do with the poor. Yeah, so this idea is that they've got some call at the network state. Curtis Jarvin called it patchworks. Part of their apocalyptic vision for the future is that the country will be broken up. It will no longer be one country. It'll be broken up into these sort of corporate zones or fiefdoms called patchworks or network states. And the new governing structure will be these autocratic,

dictator-like corporations that will have total power over their citizens, Yarvin wrote that they could even turn unproductive people into biodiesel to fuel city buses. But he said he was just kidding about that, but that what we really need for the poor is an humane alternative to genocide. So these are the kinds of ideas you see. And what's disturbing is that Balagis Shuna Vasa, another Peter Thiel protege, because Curtis Jarvin is funded by Peter Thiel. That's the only reason anyone's ever heard of him, goes on to create this idea called the network state, which is a more startup-friendly version of this that corporations and billionaires should fund their own cities and countries. And we're seeing that grow.

Let's go to Curtis Yorvin, in his own words, at the Institute of Art and Ideas, where he explained why he supports monarchical system of government. Let's debunk this concept of liberal democracy. There's actually no such thing. Democracy in today's world just means a good or legitimate government. a claim to a legitimate government. Just because you call yourself a democracy doesn't mean anything. North Korea calls itself the DPRK, Democratic People's Republic of Korea. That is three euphemisms for democracy, one place name, and it's a monarchy. Anything that works is a monarchy. So, for example, if you take your iPhone and you look at the box that your iPhone comes in, it says,

designed by Apple in California, manufactured in China. So that is two monarchies. Apple has a CEO, and China has a dictator. And one, old. oligarchy, which is the government of California, which is, by the way, basically a single-party state. They're no longer competitive elections in California. So when you try to imagine the state of California in which I live trying to build an iPhone or design an iPhone, the concept is ridiculous. Let's go back to 2021 when J.D. Vance, then a candidate in Ohio for U.S. Senate, appeared on the conservative Jack Murphy live podcast. Murphy asked Vance how to root out so. called wokeism from American institutions. There's this guy Curtis Jarvin, who's written

about some of these things. And so one is to basically accept that this entire thing is going to fall in on itself, right? I tend to think that we should seize the institutions of the left and turn them against the left, right? We need like a debaptification program, but like a de-wokification program in the United States, right? So that was J.D. Vance back in 2021. And the latest news is out of the Washington Post that President Donald Trump recently told donors in private that he wants to see his vice president, J.D. Vance, win the 2028 presidential election, a sign that he's open to publicly backing J.D. Vance. There's been this kind of war between J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State. But talk about the significance of this. And as you said, J.D. Vance being a creation of Peter Thiel. J.D. Vance is a dangerous extremist who embraces a set of ideas that should put a chilled on the spine of every American. He went on in that interview to say that Donald Trump would likely win the 2024 election, and that when he did, he should purge the federal government, just like Yarvin had recommended,

and in fact he should defy the courts and the law and challenge the Supreme Court justices to force him to follow their dictates. It's pretty amazing that you have a man on the political stage in the White House, a heartbeat away from the presidency, who has espoused such radically anti-American ideas. And I think people need to understand the degree to which she is so closely related to Peter Thiel. We wouldn't have a J.D. Vance without a Peter Thiel. Peter Thiel is even the reason that J.D. Vance converted Catholicism. He's the reason J.D. Vance became a venture capitalist and a millionaire. How did they hook up?

Peter Thiel likes to go around speaking to schools and graduate schools, and in 2011, he went to Yale Law School. school and gave a speech. And J.D. Vance said it was one of the most significant moments of his life and that Peter Till was one of the most intelligent people he'd ever heard. And basically, that speech convinced him to not be a lawyer and instead to become a venture capitalist. And at every step of J.D. Vance's life since then, it has been Peter Thiel, who has made him who he is, who has essentially created him whole cloth. And it's not just J.D. Vance, right? I mean, it's Bloomberg, I think, reported that 16 people connected to Teal are in the Trump administration. Can you talk about, you know, what kind of effect this has had in terms of policies?

Like, you know, when we hear these ideas, they sound a little outlandish, to say the least. It's hard to see them being translated into policy, but then what we've been living over the past two years, you're seeing a lot of this coming to fruition. So can you talk about, you know, Doge, for example, or the, you know, mass layoffs at federal jobs, what happened to USAID and where those ideas came from? The main argument of Curtis Jarvin for a long time has been that a president should act as a dictator. And one of the ways to cement this dictator's power is to purge the federal government of anyone who is unwilling to follow the orders of the dictator, basically to destroy the civil service. In addition, this is 15, almost 20 years ago.

He recommended that the United States pretty much destroy its diplomatic standing in the world and eliminate international aid programs. We saw all of that happen during Doge. In fact, Yarvon had updated his idea to say that it should be a CEO who the president should install as a dictator to run rampant over the federal government. And Doge was an almost perfect expression of that. So these ideas that used to be... And what did Curtis call it rage? He called it rage, retire all government employees. So even the four-letter all-caps acronym is an echo of Yarvin.

And these are ideas that were on an anonymous, weird, blog, marginal in Silicon Valley 15 years ago. and have now become policy under the Trump administration. Because when you're a billionaire, you have the power to impose these crazy ideas on everyone else. And that's what's happening. Peter Till's entire inner circle has infiltrated government at the same time that the Trump family is now becoming tech venture capitalists and crypto cartel moguls. There's this joining of forces. The corporate is becoming the state. And both of it's combined with apocalyptic religious movements.

And that is the heart of fascism. Where does Elon Musk fit into this picture? Elon Musk and Peter Thiel go way back to PayPal. They started it together. They've had some tensions. The so-called PayPal Mafia. The so-called PayPal Mafia. But you'll note that Peter Thiel's considered the godfather of the PayPal Mafia,

even though Elon Musk is the wealthiest man in the world. Musk is certainly aware of these ideas. And when he was thinking of starting his own political party, after he left Doge, he consulted with Curtis Jarvin about how to do that. what the party should say. So here's Yarvan, who knows nothing about anything, but he's considered a genius by these billioners, largely because he tells them what they want to hear. So Elon Musk is clearly radicalized, is clearly open to these ideas. I'm not sure that he reads a lot about these things, as much as he just believes the basic idea behind this, which is that

wealthy white technologists should be the ruler of the world, and then the galaxy and the universe. This is the cosmology coming out of Silicon Valley these days. Where do women and people of color fit into this picture? At the bottom of the hierarchy, if they exist at all, look at what's happening with the USAID cuts. A targeted hit delivered against the poorest people in the world by the richest man in the world, with millions of people projected to die. These billionaires who promise abundance because of AI, well, we already have abundance, and we're not sharing it.

Look at what they're doing to the poorest people today. And if you listen to the apocalyptic visions that AI will kill all jobs and transform everything, they say that, well, don't worry, everyone will get a share of the extreme universal wealth that's created. But that's not what we're seeing today. And we can't really believe that when they say that. Fascism is about imposing a hierarchy, a moral order. And white, wealthy, Western men are at the top of that moral order in fascism.

Gilderan is author of The Nerd Reich, Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. If you have time, we're going to do part two of this discussion. and then we're going to post it online at DemocracyNow.org. Again, the book, The Nerd Reich. I'll be speaking after the screening of Steel the Story, please, in Middlebury, Vermont on August 28th, check our website at DemocracyNow.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Anjali Comment.