Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-08-31 Monday

Episode Date: August 31, 2026

Headlines for August 31, 2026; “Catastrophe of Unimaginable Proportions”: Nepal Flood Death Toll Tops 900; Near 5,000 Still Missing; The Real Reason There’s a Munitions Shortage? Too Many Wars & a Dysfunctional Pentagon: William Hartung; “Left Behind and Overlooked”: Indiana Energy Company Left Majority-Black Gary Powerless for Weeks; “We’re Not Going Back”: Ron Daniels on the Legacy of 1972 Gary Convention & 1963 March on Washington; Jane Fonda Exclusive: Dolly Parton, a Feminist, Wrote the Anthem for Working Women with “9 to 5”

From New York, this is Democracy Now. My older brother works at Milan Hydropower. He has been missing since the day the floods hit Nepal. I've been searching for him for the past three or four days without getting any sleep. These 900 people are dead. More than 4,700 missing in Nepal and Tibet following the devastating flash flood last week, brought on by the collapse of a mountain glacier. We'll go to Nepal for the latest.

Then powers finally been restored in Gary, Indiana, where a storm left nearly 40,000 residents without electricity for two weeks. You got to think about Gary is predominantly black. And look how they're treating us. It's terrible out of her, man. It's terrible. We'll go to Indiana and speak with Gary Mayor, Eddie Melton. And we'll be joined by Ron Daniels. He attended the National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Indiana in 1972,

and this weekend joined thousands for the 63rd anniversary of the March on Washington. Daniels was there in 1963 as well. Then Bill Hartung, author of the trillion-dollar war machine on the U.S. war in Iran and the real reason there's a munitions shortage. And finally, Dolly Parton was laid to rest this weekend, We'll speak with her 9-to-5 co-star Jane Fonda. Dolly's song for the film became an anthem for working women. One day about, I don't know, three or four weeks into the shooting,

she called me and Lily over. I've written a song. And she starts singing 9-5, using her nails as percussion instruments. And I just, Lily and I looked at each other. We both have the biggest goosebumps we'd ever had. Coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.

U.S. forces targeted two Iranian launchers on Lark Island on Sunday. A U.S. official confirmed it's the first U.S. strike on Iran. In over a month, Iran retaliated by striking U.S. forces based in Jordan and U.S. military targets at the Al-Minhad Air Base in the UAE. It comes as the Washington Post reports. Several U.S. military leaders warns Secretary of Defense Pete Hegset that prolonging the war against Iran is unsustainable as it weakens the U.S. ability to respond to threats. Meanwhile, Iranian leaders acknowledge foreign trade is shrunk by a third due to U.S. sanctions and blockade. This is Iran's president, Massoud Pazashkian. We do not seek war. That has been our message to the world until now. However, in the face of aggression, we will not stand by. We are capable of delivering a decisive response. Instability in this region would affect everyone and create serious problems.

Instability is in no country's interest. President Trump Friday confirmed the United States has struck a deal with Venezuela to control more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil. Trump said on truth social, the agreement would more than double U.S. oil reserves. and, quote, substantially lower gas prices for all Americans, unquote, amidst the U.S. Israeli war and Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. On Saturday, Venezuela's interim president, Delci Rodriguez, hailed the deal as an economic revival for Venezuela. One thing must remain absolutely clear. Venezuela retains ownership and sovereignty over its resources while utilizing capital, technology, and operational capacity to support. the recovery of a strategic industry that has been severely affected by sanctions. But many economists warn Venezuelans won't actually see significant benefits from the agreement.

The deal also sparked widespread condemnation of the U.S. takeover of Venezuela's oil reserves after the abduction of former President Nicolas Maduro and the First Lady Celia Flores in January. U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen said, quote, this is proof. Trump put our service members at risk to get Venezuelan oil for his billionaire buddies. Putting our soldiers' lives on the line for private profit is a gross dereliction of his constitutional duty, Senator Van Hollen said. In Nepal, more than 900 people have been confirmed dead after a massive wall of water, mud, and debris crashed through a Himalayan River Valley on the border with Tibet. The number of missing people has top 4,700. Rescuers are now digging into roughly a dozen hydropower tunnels where more than 900 workers are trapped, debris blocking

the entrances. Meanwhile, in Kathmandu, morgues are full as families are searching hospitals for their missing loved ones. crews have buried hundreds of unidentified bodies in shallow graves. This is a farmer who has four missing family members. Everyone is hoping to find relatives. The army camp is crowded and we need to wait for some time. There is hope, but bodies may be lying in nearby fields or farmland. But their families, like us, are hopeful. I left my work in Kathmandu to come here and look for our missing relatives. After headlines, we'll go to Kathmandu to speak with journalist Kunda Dixit.

Back in the United States, at least one person's been confirmed dead. And 15 are still missing at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona after 4,000. flash floods swept through the canyon Saturday. Over 60 people were evacuated from the park. In immigration news, ICE plans to spend as much as $2 million to purchase robot dogs to aid in immigration enforcement operations. It follows the agency's recent decision to purchase electric shock gloves for officers. CBS News reports that in the span of 10 days, the Trump administration deported more than 100 immigrants from the U.S. to at least eight countries in Africa. they have no ties to, among them Afghans who help U.S. military members.

The U.S. deportees have been sent to the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, and several other nations across Africa's Trump expands secret of third country agreements. This comes as another federal appeals courts block the Trump administration's efforts to indefinitely detain immigrants without access to bond hearings. This was the eighth ruling rejecting the policy. In more related news, the Board of Immigration Appeals has overturned a policy that allowed people with deferred action for childhood arrivals or DACA to travel outside the United States and re-enter the country with government permission. The policy is known as advanced parole. The Trump administration will now have the ability to penalize DACA recipients who leave the U.S. under advanced parole by denying them the right to apply for permanent U.S. residency for at least 10 years.

In the occupied West Bank, at least three Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strike on Janine Friday. This was the first Israeli air strike in the West Bank in months. As Israel escalates military raids, the Palestine Red Crescent, said Israeli soldiers briefly detained medics and blocked their access to the site of the strike. In more news from the West Bank, masked Israeli settlers assaulted, a Palestinian woman and three members of an NBC news team reporting on the ground. Saturday. The news crew was interviewing Ida Ahmed Abdullah and her family in the town of Jaloud near Nabilis when they were attacked. Abdullah and her family had been violently forced from their home by Israeli settlers. In Gaza, an Israeli strike killed two Palestinians, including a three-year-old boy identified as Tiam Handan in the Central Gaza Strip on Sunday. Since last October's so-called ceasefire, Israel's killed over 1,200 Palestinians.

in Gaza. This comes as Ha'arets reports, armed Palestinian militias have become an operational arm of the Israeli army and the counterintelligence agency Shibet inside Gaza. In an Israeli Air Force officer who spoke with Haarets said, quote, you see the state of Israel, the IDF, and Shibet sending armed trained militias to commit war crimes, and I'm the one who has to protect them during their operations so they don't get hurt, unquote. A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administrations violated the constitutional rights of international students and seeking to deport them for their pro-Palestinian activism and criticism of Israel.

In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Noel Wise wrote, quote, in the United States, free speech, including the freedom to criticize the government and its leaders, is not a sign of our democracy's fragility. It is evidence of its strength. That strength is diminished when members of our society, citizens and non-citizens alike must self-censor and behave or suffer the government's retaliation, unquote. The lawsuit was filed by the student newspaper, the Stanford Daily, which claim that some of its writers who are on student visas declined to cover pro-Palestinian protests or report on topics related to Israel. and requested their articles on such topics be removed fearing deportation.

In Ukraine, a Russian attack on a weapons depot on Friday night triggered enormous explosions and fires that engulf dozens of homes and buildings killing 38 people. It's Russia's deadliest attack on Ukraine this year. On Saturday, Russian strikes on Kiev killed a two-year-old girl and injured 12 others. On Sunday, Russian troops dropped by. on private houses, killing two people, including a 13-year-old. In Russia, Ukraine hit a commercial facility Sunday, killing two people. Another person was killed in a Ukrainian attack in the Russian control part of Le Hansk region in eastern Ukraine.

President Trump Sunday threatened to report NBC's Kristen Welker to the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, for her comments on Trump's endorsement of GOP candidates. In a post on truth social, Trump said, Welker, who's the longtime host of Meet the Press, should face, quote, rebuke or punishment, unquote, from the FCC for saying Trump's political endorsements have yielded, quote, mixed results in recent primary elections ahead of midterms in November. Trump lashed out, quote, how can anyone be allowed to say this working for freely given public airwaves, unquote?

Trump went on to accuse what he described as the, quote, radical left news. unquote, of harassment and libel. FCC chair, Brendan Carr, has often sided with Trump and his attacks against the press and free speech. Here in New York, protesters gathered outside Madison Square Garden to rally against a visit from Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of the RSS, a far-right paramilitary organization closely linked to India's ruling BJP party. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a member of the group, and Baguat's rally in New York marks the beginning of a global speaking tour for the 100th anniversary of the RSS. Democracy Now spoke to Sunny Singh, a sick activist at the rally. The RSS has state power in India right now, which is not only a threat to people in my community,

as the Indian government targets us for assassinations and parts of the diaspora in the U.S. and Canada, but also to our Muslim brothers and sisters, our Christian brothers and sisters, other religious minorities, and Dalit and Bohodian people. So I stand in solidarity with all those communities. I'm also here to stand up for my own community. And in Washington, D.C., 63 years after Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered as I Have a Dream speech, thousands assembled Friday to warn against the attacks on voting rights. It comes as the Supreme Court this year significantly weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,

making it harder for plaintiffs to challenge discriminatory voting maps. Friday's event drew union members, students, members of black fraternities and sororities and activists from around the country. speakers included Martin Luther King Jr.'s granddaughter Yolanda Renee King and his son, Martin Luther King III, as well as U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Democratic Congress Member Alexandra Casio Cortez of New York. Clear about the country that we are fighting for. We, the people, demand full, protected, and restored voting rights in the United States of America. Civil rights leader Ron Daniels will join us later in the broadcast. He attended this weekend's commemoration and was there for the

March on Washington in 1963. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. In Nepal, more than 900 people have been confirmed dead after a massive wall of water, mud, and debris crashed through a Himalayan River Valley on the border with Tibet. More than 4,700 people are missing. Rescue efforts are also underway for more than 900 hydro power workers, believed to be trapped in more than a dozen underground tunnels blocked by debris. Families are searching hospitals for the missing and crews have buried hundreds of unidentified bodies in shallow graves. This isn't a polyman searching for missing family members. Everyone is hoping to find relatives. The army camp is crowded and we need

to wait for some time. There is hope, but bodies may be lying in nearby fields or farmland. But their families like us are hopeful. I left my work in Kathmandu to come here and look for our missing relatives. On Sunday, the World Health Organization, WHO, partnered with the Nepal army to Russia's central supplies to flood-affected parts of central Nepal. This is WHO team lead in Nepal, Dr. Balander Singh Chala, describing the scale of the discretion. been washed away. The health facilities have been washed away and people are in that need of support. WHA has been trying to assess the needs and respond to the government of Nepal to whatever test. We can at this moment. We have been supporting with our IEHK kids. We've been supporting retains.

We're supporting with other supplies as required. There are other supplies that are coming from Kathmandu to this place. For more we go to Kathmandu, Nepal. where we're joined by Kunda Dixon. He's a former editor and current publisher of Nepali Times. His most recent pieces headlined, Nepal Avalanche, was live on drone camera. Dixit is author of Dateline Earth, Journalism, as if the planet mattered. And also a People's War trilogy of the Nepal conflict. He's also a media educator and chair of the Center for Investigative Journalism, Nepal.

Kunda Dixit, welcome back to Democracy Now. it's an honor to have you with us. Our condolences over the horror of what has taken place. Well over 5,000 people dead or missing at this point. The numbers may be going up. Still, people are being searched for, especially in these hydroelectric hydropower tunnels. Can you talk about what's happening on the ground? Well, on the ground, I think we're just picking up the pieces now. Hope is fading for most of those who are. missing. These are, this runs into thousands, mainly because many of them are buried under, you know,

100, 200 meters of debris. Our bodies are being washed up in all the way down in India, 250 kilometers downstream. So this is a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions. I in my career have never seen anything like it, and we have covered other glacial lake bursts in the Himal there before. You know, because there's so little news of bodies, their relatives are really distraught, as you showed here earlier, and they're, you know, thronging to hospital morgues. The morgues are full, so their bodies are being buried after DNA identification, so that they can be brought up later for cremation. But actually, the strange thing is there are very few bodies compared to the, you know, the numbers were missing.

So it's a terrible situation. It's a huge human tragedy, but it's also an economic loss for the country. Much worse, in fact, than the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, which killed 9,000 people. Can you talk about the fact, and people refer to an act of God. We're talking about a glacier, something you have written about extensively and the effects of climate change on your community, on the country of Nepal, on Tibet. And what this means when you are right next to the largest greenhouse gas emitter, China, and of course I'm speaking to you from the historically largest greenhouse gas emitter of the United States, and what this means for a country like Nepal. not responsible to say the least for climate change. Yeah, we are now, we are next to India and China, who are the biggest emigators together.

But in per capita terms, they're not as high as industrialized countries, even now. And China is taking great leaps in renewable energy, so is India going that way. So, I mean, this is historical. The build-up of greenhouse gases has led to this. We used to say that the glaciers are melting in the Himalaya. now it seems like the mountains are cracking up. And this seems to be the case in this event, which happened on a mountain in Nepal,

near the Chinese border, where mountains that are already fragile because of seismic activity, are now losing the permafrost ice that used to be inside the cracks in the rocks, which have now melted because of global warming. and then the mountains are literally crumbling. And what happened this time, it seems, is that the rocks, the bedrock underneath a glacier, gave way. So it came down with the rocks and the ice on top of it into the valley below, into a river that then flowed into Nepal.

So this has sort of redefined what global warming and climate change is doing, not just to Nepal and the Himalais, but to the planet. Can you talk about what the Red Cross is saying right now? I mean, the number of people, we don't know the numbers at this point, and particularly the hydropower tunnels and what is happening? Yeah, this happened on a river called the Thrisoli, which actually starts in Tibet and flows into Nepal. And it is a major economic corridor. It is for tourism. A lot of trekkers and mountaineers go through this valley to go climb mountains and hike in them.

It's an extremely scenic area. It's very beautiful. It's also the economic corridor to China, Nepal's second largest trading partner. Most of our trade goes through a border checkpoint, which now no longer exists from Nepal into China. the highway leading to that checkpoint has been swept away. And it's also a conduit for pilgrims going up to holy lakes, up in the mountains in Nepal, as well as in Tibet. And this Friday was actually the full moon day was one of the holiest days of the year for pilgrims. So the valley was full of tourists and pilgrims and travelers and traders, trucks and buses. So that's why the death toll among the visitors was so high.

But we can't even imagine. I mean, no one has even calculated precisely the death toll among Nepali people in the settlements and the towns and the villages that were completely wiped off the map. This is exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, speaking on Sunday. The recent flash floods in the Nepal-Tibet border region, particularly in the Kyrang on the Tibetan side and in the Rasa area of Nepal, have caused great loss of life, suffering and destruction. For the benefit of the deceased, those missing, we will pray to Avulah Kaichifara and recite the six-syllable mantra.

May these prayers help and benefit all those affected by this tragedy. Can you talk under Dixit about what is needed from the international community at this point? Well, I think at the point immediately we needed that specialized digging equipment to reach those tunnels of the hydropower plants that you mentioned. There are about 900 workers and engineers who are stuck inside. Some of them have been now approached, but they found no survivors inside and no sign of life. The others are in remote areas, and even the entrances have now been completely plugged by the sediment that came down the river. I think in the longer term, this is going to take years, if not a decade, to rehabilitate and find jobs and find economic activity, find homes,

for people who have been displaced downstream. And this is going to run into hundreds of thousands of people who will be affected indirectly. It might actually spur more out migration to cities and abroad, people leaving just to take care of their families and to rebuild. The government is now, we have a new government in the law, it's just been in power for six months after the Gen Z uprising exactly a year ago. And they have some amazingly talented technocrats with international exposure. And I'm sure that, you know, they understand the gravity of the situation and are approaching in multilateral donors as well as countries abroad for specialized help. as well as long-term assistance for development and to get the economic activity going again. And you face the possibility in this last 30 seconds of another flood, Kunda?

Yeah, it's raining heavily outside. I'm looking outside my window towards the north where the valley is. And I see on the weather radar that the area that where the flood originated behind Langtang Mountain is now under very heavy thunderstorm and snowfall. So we're not out of these woods yet. Kunda Dixit, former editor and current publisher of Nepali time, most recent piece, Nepal Avalanche was live on drone camera, author of Dateline Earth, journalism as if the planet mattered, and a People War trilogy of the Nepal conflict. Coming up, the Washington Post revealed several U.S. military leaders have advised the Defense Secretary against extending the war in Iran.

We'll speak with William Hartung, author of the Trillion Dollar War Machine. Stay with us. To me, some say you look like your father. Small Things by Kasi Velaza performing at the Brooklyn Folk Festival. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The Washington Post revealed several U.S. military leaders of advised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth against extending the war in Iran because the six-month-old war has degraded the military's ability to confront threats elsewhere.

The warnings appeared in a classified assessment recently shared with Hegsett. The Washington Post reports the warnings were detailed by the heads of the Army, Navy, Navy, and Air Force, and the four-star commanders overseeing U.S. operations throughout Europe, Asia, and Latin America. This comes after multiple reports have revealed the U.S. is facing ammunition shortage. According to Reuters, the U.S. Army has used up much of its global stockpile of surface-to-surface long-range missiles. We're joined now by William Hartung, principal advisor at the Project on Government Oversight. His new piece for the nation headlined the real reason there is ammunition shortage. His latest book is titled The Trillion Dollar War Machine, How Runaway Military Spending Drives

American to Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home. So what is the real reason for this shortage and do you believe there is one bill? Too many wars. I mean, if you're going to arm a genocide, wage and illegal war in Iran, the prior army of Ukraine, you're going to run out of munitions. And of course, these interceptors are dealing with drones that cost tens of thousands. It cost millions. So the Pentagon is completely dysfunctional when it comes to fighting this kind of war. They have depleted some of these things to some degree, perhaps a third to a half. But the reason they're saying this is because then I would be ready for a war with China. If we have a war with China, we're in deep, deep trouble. We really have a diplomacy gap more than a munitions gap.

I mean, we were just reporting on the U.S. attacking Iran again for the first time in a month. Yeah, well, I think Hague-Sept and Trump, they have a foreign policy more based on fantasy and the president's ego than any kind of analysis. I mean, he thought he was going to swoop in there, put in a, you know, leader that was conducive to U.S. interests, and he's got a six-month war on his hands. So whether they'll listen to the military leaders is hard to know, but the fact that they spoke up is kind of unique in Trump world. Can you talk about the U.S. using, to say the least, expensive missiles to attack Iran's, to say the least inexpensive drones? Well, yeah. You know, an Iranian drone might cost $30,000 or $40,000. A cruise missile is $2 million. Some of the Patriot Interceptor batteries are over $10 billion, $10 billion, the THAD missile defense system, a full battery. could be $18 billion.

So the so-called cost exchange ratio is not in the U.S. favor. And, of course, these things take time to build. So it's great as a money-making machine for the weapons industry, but it's not any way to wage a conflict. Of course, a conflict that shouldn't have been started in the first place. Your book is called The Trillion Dollar War Machine. The U.S. has never spent more on the military than it is now, and it has a critical shortage of weapons?

Yes. It's partly because they like to build the big, ticket things. The F-35, the bombers, the aircraft carriers. What about the F-35, which you've to say the least criticized? Well, it's probably the most dysfunctional weapons program in living memory. It was supposed to do many things, does none of them well. It's in the hangar half of the time. It was supposed to be a revolution in military procurement. It's kind of proven why you have to take those claims with a grain of salt, like the new tech claims about how the miracles they're going to do, are probably just that. A market.

technique. Can you talk about how the weapons are being used? Last week's Democracy Now headline, this comes as the Associated Press reports the Pentagon faces a beyond critical shortage of Patriot Missile interceptors in Europe after exhausting most of its supply, defending U.S. bases and Israel from Iranian drones and missiles. Talk about the role of the interceptors. Talk about the role of the interceptors, specifically what role they play in the U.S. defense of Israel? Well, yes. You know, these drones can be quite capable, and as you said, they're relatively cheap by military terms. So to defend Israel, to defend U.S. bases, to defend U.S. communication nodes, they need to use these expensive missiles. And you can't build them

quickly, so they've taken them from Europe. They'll probably use fewer in the Gulf, although they have to defend parts of the Gulf. So it's really, I think they thought they could bully their way to victory. And they really didn't build. Our military is less about defense than about enriching contractors. So that dysfunction is. And what about that? The level of profit of the military contractors at this point.

Well, you know, more than half the Pentagon budget goes to contractors. And usually in wartime they get more because they're supposed to, to go quicker and so forth. But for example, out of Ukraine, they gave General Dynamics money to build an ammunition plant that literally didn't produce anything in two years, as Politico-pro-publica reported. So this idea, push it out the door more quickly,

is working against a dysfunctional arms industry. Final comments. And what people should understand at this point and what you feel should be the direction this country is going. And given the amount of dark money in politics right now, in campaign contributions, do you also hold the Democrats responsible? Yeah, it's a bipartisan problem. Trump, of course, is shouting it from the rooftops.

But I'm not worried about a munitions gap. I'm worried about a democracy gap, a public health gap, environmental protection gap, equality gap. Those are the things that are going to harm people, certainly more than Iran. or even more than China. So we need to demand that rather than doubling down on the bigger arms industry, we start meeting people's needs.

William Hartung, principal advisor at the Project on Government Oversight, will link to your new piece, the real reason there's ammunition's shortage. His latest book, co-authored with Ben Freeman, is titled The Trillion Dollar War Machine, how runaway military spending drives America into foreign wars and bankrupts us at home.

This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now, Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. We turn now to Gary, Indiana, where thousands of residents recently spent two weeks without power following a storm that ripped through the majority of black city. Indiana Governor Mike Braun and others have called for investigations into why it took the private utility company, Northern Indiana Public Service Company, Nipsco, so long for power to be restored. Nipsco is privately owned and partially owned by Blackstone. The Blackout impacted all aspects of life from residents being trapped in apartments to gas stations running out of fuel to grocery stores being forced to close during the blackout residents of Gary decried

the company's failure to restore power. You got to think about Gary is predominantly black. And look how they're treating us. It's terrible out of her, man. It's terrible. And it shouldn't even be this way in 2026, man. 2026 is still like this and it's terrible, man. That's terrible. I feel bad. To be honest, Richard, man. Officials have estimated the storm might have resulted in up to $5 billion in

damages in Gary and other Indiana communities. Gary is a majority black city, about 80%, which is home of what was once the world's largest steel mill in the world. But deindustrialization has taken its toll on the city. In the 60s, the city's population. reached over 175,000. Today, it stands at under 70,000. About a third of the population lives below the poverty line. We go now to Gary, Indiana, where we're joined by the city's Mayor Eddie Melton. Welcome to Democracy Now. Can you talk about the state of your city right now,

as we reported over the last two weeks, tens of thousands of people without electricity and all that that means and where you're standing right now. Me on the show, as you can imagine, a city without power for over two weeks is still a recovery. We have about 95, 97% of the population that is back with power. Many of the folks that are without power is because they receive personal damage to their homes ripping off weatherheads and things of that nature. So we've been raising the dollars before there was a commitment from the state and federal government so we can help those individuals restore power. So we're still in the recovery

phase as we speak. Can you talk about the role of the private energy company Nipsco, for the country, for the world to understand what took place? Actually, you used to work for them. Is that right, Mayor Milton? Yeah, absolutely. So I understand the process. So I would tell you that for a storm that came through, they say that it's almost as a category two, hurricane came through northwest Indiana, swept through three counties, Lake County, Porter County, and Laporte County, portions of Laporte County. Heavy wind and rain. That rain went to central Indiana where there's significant flooding that occurred there as well, ripping trees up out of the ground, causing a lot of destruction to our grid system. So having worked there,

I understand the process of restoration of power. I didn't work on the operations side. I didn't work on the operation side, but I dealt much with that aspect of it. And knowing mutual aid that comes from other communities, I was sad to see that we didn't receive that mutual aid as much as the size of Gary is. Gary is 52 square miles. So it takes a significant amount of labor and hands on deck to restore a lot of that system. When the city, when the state, when the company announced its restoration. Did it mention, was Gary even included in the schedule? That was where the initial outcry from us started. When an energy company releases their estimated time of restoration, it typically lists out those communities in certain regional areas and pockets. But this was an

abnormal storm. And I urge the utility company to break down the city separate from the other regional populations that they were identifying. When we did not see Gary listed in the beginning, it felt as if we were being left behind and overlooked. So we pressed and we called before the public and we told them to come before the public to do a press conference to articulate what was the how long it's going to take for restoration and to start listing Gary separately from other cities. So we can have an accurate account and we can track it from a transparency perspective. Do you think it had something to do with Gary being more than 80% black, a third of the population under the poverty line? Well, that's what I felt at that moment.

When you look and you do not see your city, listen on there. Now, granted, there were other cities that weren't mentioned. But when your power is out at your home in your city, you're looking for your city. So to omit the city, it felt very overlooking and not to direct attention that it need in an emergency such as that. Many climate studies have shown that climate chaos were experiencing all over this country, not to mention the world. We were just talking about Nepal. Will disproportionately hurt under-resourced and underserved communities? Can you talk about the efforts underway in Indiana to protect its citizens from future storms

and also the lawsuits that have already been brought, for example, against Nipsco? Yes. So we put together a series of demands to the utility company. one of that is hardening the infrastructure. If we had six storms last year, and this year we've had 14 already before the end of the year, and we've never seen wind this strong before. If we're seeing winds close to 100 miles or over 100 miles an hour, they need to ensure that the utility grid system is going to sustain that type of wind. So there's going to be what type of poles are going to be used?

Are they going to be hardened with a different type of material instead of just the typical, wood, wooden poles. Are they going to put cement in the base of these? Are they going to upgrade the circuitry as well as the transformers? All of this stuff has to take place for a city the size of Gary to endure more and severe storms. Right now, we have received the federal declaration of a natural disaster for the state of Indiana. And the governor himself also provided some resources. And today, there'll be, FEMA will be on the ground. I'll be meeting with FEMA hands-on and a governor to ensure that the resources are deployed throughout the entire city. Eddie Milton, I want to thank you for being with us, Mayor of Gary, Indiana. This is Democracy

Now, Democracy Now.org, the war and peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. In 1972, Gary, Indiana, was the site of the historic National Black Political Convention. To many, it was known as the Gary Convention, its impact still felt today. Among those who intended, O'Coretta Scott King, Betty Chabazz, the wife of Malcolm X, Jesse Jackson, Bobby Seale, Lewis Farrakhan, Shirley Chisholm, Harry Belafonte, and Mary Baraka, the Great New Jersey Poet, and others. The convention led to the founding of the National Black Political Assembly. Our next guest, Ron Daniels, served as president of the assembly from 74 to 1980. Ron Daniels joins us now, president of the Institute of the Black World 21st century, convener of the National African American Reparations Commission,

host of Vantage Point on WBAI 99.5 FM, New York, and on the Pacifica Network, just back, actually, from the 63rd anniversary of the March on Washington, where thousands gathered this weekend for that incredible day, 63 years ago, when Dr. King gave his eye, have a dream speech. Dr. Daniels, if you can start off by talking about placing Gary, Indiana in this political context, this historical context that many young people who are watching and listening to this show right now had never heard of. Well, there are a lot of young people now asking about the Gary Nassal Black

political convention. It was one of the great gatherings in the history of black people in this country. I did have the honor of playing an incredible role in it, actually coming out of Youngstown, Ohio. I'm listening to all of these steel towns, and Youngstown is a steel town, had the opportunity to serve as co-convenor of the Ohio delegation, along with Mayor Stokes of Cleveland. and so the Gary Convention set forth a black political agenda, which if you look at it and I read it occasionally, you would think we're still in the same spot. We're not asking the same spot, but some of the same issues, D.C. statehood, for example, that was raised at the March on Washington. I'm reflecting back on how D.C. statehood was a major call at the Gary National Black Political Convention. Its historic outcome really more than anything else was it led to a watershed number of black-elected officials leaving with the idea that it wasn't necessarily the skin color or the character of a person that was important or the individuals.

It was about an agenda. No permanent friends, no permanent enemies, but a permanent agenda. That process of having periodic gatherings to say, What is our agenda? That's what we should be fighting for. And when I think about Gary, I think about Richard Gordon Hatcher, one of the most, I think the most influential and most progressive mayor of his time, along with Marion Barry of Washington, D.C., and made of Jackson first term.

He and I were very close friends. We worked together in the Jackson campaign. Of course, he was chairman of the 1988 Jackson for president campaign. I served as a deputy campaign manager. And when you look at really where we are today, in terms of urban policy, you look at Gary and you raise the question about cities being left back, the whole question of deindustrialization. You had Mayor Hatcher, one of the most progressive mayors. He was sharp. He was brilliant. But the fact of the matter is that town was run by U.S. Steel. U.S. Steel was the second largest steel producing center. It may have had the biggest plant. Pittsburgh, number one, Gary number two, Youngstown was number four.

So when U.S. Steel dictated its terms or when U.S. Steel eventually pulled out, it was a devastating blow to the city of Gary, leading to increasing crime and poverty, the kind of situation that you see now. And it really raises questions, really about an agenda moving forward. For example, I'm listening about the private electrical company. Well, you know, Amy, one of the things that a lot of people have forgotten about is there was a time when we had a much more robust public space. And I argue that the public space is the great equalizer in a racialized capital system. So we need public utilities. But instead of having public utilities, we're negotiating with private utilities. And they don't serve almost any community well, but they certainly don't serve black and brown and marginalized communities well.

And I do mean by that also poor white communities. So there's a lot to be unpacked in terms of what's going on in Gary, but it's also important to look forward in this moment to the need of black folks to come together. You know, one of the outcomes, ultimately, that relationship between Richard Gordon Hatcher and Jesse Jackson, the Rainbow Coalition, we're in a period now where we need something similar to a Rainbow Coalition to really address the critical issues that were talked about at the March on Washington, that just occurred. Kudos to Reverend Sharpton and Martin King the 3rd and Andrea Waters King

for convening again a huge number of leaders that came together which we need for this moment because this is one of, if not the most dangerous moment in the history of these United States of America. That's the negative side. The positive side is we have the capacity

utilizing the concept of King's beloved community and a rainbow formation to actually lead the way to a very positive agenda, in fact, a game-changing, transformative agenda that will deal with finally getting rid of some of the kinds of things that you just talked about, the money, dark money, and politics, and also really beginning to deal with the question of a basic standard of living

for all human beings in this society in terms of not only Medicare for Air, but Medicare for all, McKean's call for a guaranteed annual income, a bill of rights that would talk about education for all. These bold ideas is what we need right now. Bold, bold, transformative ideas. Ron Daniels, on Friday, you were in Washington, D.C., 63 years after Dr. Martin Luther King stood in the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and gave his I have a dream speech. Thousands assembled on Friday, including you to warn against the attacks on voting rights.

among the people who spoke Martin Luther King's son, Martin Luther King, Senator Bernie Sanders, Alexandra Casio-Cortez, as well as Martin Luther King Jr's granddaughter Yolanda Renee King. We will pick up the baton. We will restore the dream when voting rights are weakened. We will restore the dream when hatred tries to divide us. We will restore the dream when children are afraid to go to school. We will restore the dream when people are. are treated as less than human because of their race, religion, gender, immigration status, whom they love, how much money they have, or where they were born. We will restore the dream.

So that is Martin Luther King Jr.'s granddaughter, Yolanda Renee King, speaking. You were there on Friday, Dr. Ron Daniels, and you were there 63 years ago. your final comments about the significance of this moment and the attack on the Voting Rights Act and voting overall. Well, I think the other theme is we're not going back. And we need to know that history because we've been here before. Every time there's been significant progress in terms of black Americans and people of color and the oppressed, there's been a backlash. This is the ugliest backlash we've seen. It is perhaps the sort of the dying gasp of a, system that needs major overhaul. And one of the things that was so inspiring about the march on Washington, there were really, really thousands of young people there as well. And they spoke out,

and you saw them assembled under the leadership of the NAN youth division and whatever. So I'm very optimistic that as Maya Angelou says, strong young women and men, strong people keep coming on. We are going to change this country. No matter how difficult it is, we're not going back. Daniels, president of the Institute of the Black World 21st century. Thank you so much for being with us. Coming up, Jane Fonda remembers Dolly Parton, who was laid to rest this weekend. They started together in 9 to 5. That was Dali Parton, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin, who together starred in 9 to 5. This is Democracy Now. This is Democracy Now. Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. Yes, the legendary singer-songwriter, country superstar Dolly Parton, who died Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee, surrounded by her loved ones, 80 years old, reportedly battling

cancer, was laid to rest in a private burial Friday. News of Parton's death sparked tributes around the world honoring a musical legacy that spanned decades. Dolly Parton won multiple Grammys, numerous other awards. She also starred in the 1980 film 9 to 5. Yes, with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. I spoke with Jane Fonda this weekend behind the stage at the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, where she was being honored and has a new film, Gaslit. I asked her about her relationship with Dolly Parton and the film Nine to Five. So this is how nine to five came to be what it was.

back in the 70s, the anti-Vietnam War movement, our movement was called the Indochina Peace Campaign, and one of my colleagues was Karen Nussbaum, an activist from Boston. And her day job was organizing women office workers. And every time she'd see me, she'd tell me stories about the kind of things that women office workers had to put up with. And eventually I said, I got to make a moment. movie about this and it began as a kind of a dark comedy but dark and then one day I heard that Lily Tomlin was doing a one-woman show downtown called Appearing Nightly and I had never seen her work and I went down and I saw her 15 characters and she embodied every one of them

I was smitten I had never seen that kind of brilliance before And as I was driving home, I was enjoying myself. I'd had a beer. I was driving, and I realized that I couldn't make a movie about secretaries without Lily Tomlin being in it. I didn't want to. And I turned on the radio, and it's two doors down. Dolly Parton is singing Two Doors Down. I suddenly, I saw Dolly.

She's a secretary. She's typing. She can't see her fingers. Dolly, Lily, and Jane. Needless to say, we had to approach it a little differently. It became an outright comedy and directed by Colin Higgins and the rest is history. But that's how it came about. And what was it like working with Dali?

You gave her her first acting job. That's right. That's right. I did. Well, first day of work, she shows up and she's memorized the entire script. She thought that she was supposed to learn it all. And then one day, one day about, I don't know, three or four weeks into the shooting, she called me and Lily over during the lunch break.

You come here. You know, she had little nails like this. She put in the corner. And she said, I think I've written a song. And she starts singing nine to five using her nails as percussion instruments. And I just, Lily and I looked at each other. We both have the biggest goosebumps we'd ever had. And it was like, oh, my God.

This is it. This is it. At least the song is going to be a hit. This is great. This is the anthem of the Secretary's movement. And Dolly, if she had gotten to the end of the day without her and her friends laughing so hard, they had to cross their legs, then she would create a cause for laughter. She laughed all the time and made sure that everybody around.

her guffawed all the time. I know because I spent 10 days with her on her tour bus, touring Appalachia, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, because I was about to play a hillbilly. Dolly's the only hillbilly I knew, so she helped me find a hillbilly that I could base my character on. And you've talked about how smart Dolly was. She often said, I'm not insulted when someone says,

dumb, blonde, because I'm not dumb and I'm not a blonde. I know. She wasn't dumb. She had the ability, like x-ray vision. She could see through people to their essence. Whatever the outside was, she could see, good or bad, to the essence of a person, which is interesting because what she saw in me was a virgin. She told Lily, she said, Jane's like a virgin.

And you sang with her? One of the ways that she helped me with a character of the hillbilly that I played in the dollmaker, she invited me to Nashville. And then we spent 10 days driving through Appalachia and meeting people. But the first night I was in Nashville, she announced to me that I was coming with her to the grand old opera and I was going to sing backup. I sang backup for Dolly at the Grand Old Opera. Nobody knew who I was. This was 19.

77, I think, 78. And, yeah, I sang back up with Dolly. As we talked today, Dolly was just buried. But her, the legend of Dolly Parton will live on. What did she ultimately mean to you? She meant love. She really did.

She loved everyone. One day we were having on a photo session me dolly and Lily and for fun We crossed our eyes and they took a picture of us with her eyes crossed and she got very upset She said we never can show this to anybody she said it looks like we're making fun I have a relative who's cross-eyed I don't ever want to see this picture You know she just you know I was I was in deep hollows of Tennessee and Arkansas where People lived in tar paper shacks with no electricity or running water. And she would come in in her full regalia.

I never saw her without full regalia. And they loved her so much that they accepted my presence. And it was so clear that she absolutely respected them. That was why there was so much love. She never played down. She never, she always was pulled together. She was always who she was. was out of respect for her fans.

She taught me the importance of acknowledging and respecting fans. And finally, would you call Dolly a feminist? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. She knew from the get-go who she was. She knew that people would make fun of who she was, because of how she looked. And so she did it first, and she did it so smart. And she was always in charge of her life. She was always in charge of her talent and her business and her career.

It came from her. So yes, she was in charge of her life. She was a feminist. Jane Fonda, thanks so much. The legendary actor and activist Jane Fonda speaking about Dolly Parton. They starred together in the film 9 to 5 with Lily Tomlin. Dolly Parton was laid to rest next to her husband, Carl Dean, in a private burial on Friday in Nashville, Tennessee. Jane Fonda's new film is Gaslit. We'll talk more about that in the coming weeks.

And that does it for today's show. A very happy birthday to Hanukes. Missoude. I'll be at the Firehouse Cinema at DCTV in Manhattan today for the Q&A after the 3.30 screening of the documentary Runisimi. On Saturday, September 5th, I'll be in Madison, Wisconsin at the Baramore Theater at 7.30 for a screening of Steel the Story, please, and in Chicago on Sunday, check out Democracy Now.org. Special thanks to Mike Burke and Nicole Salazar. I'm Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.