Puerto Ricans Call for Aid Amid Catastrophe: "We're American Citizens. We Can't Be Left to Die"

2017-09-28T16:43:49.067Z

Six days after Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, 3.4 million U.S. citizens in the territory remain without adequate food, water and fuel. But as the massive crisis became clear over the weekend, President Trump failed to weigh in, instead lashing out at sports players who joined in protest against racial injustice. It took the president five full days to respond, with comments that appeared to blame the island for its own misfortune. We examine the dire situation in Puerto Rico with Yarimar Bonilla, Puerto Rican scholar, who wrote in The Washington Post, "Why would anyone in Puerto Rico want a hurricane? Because someone will get rich." And we speak with Puerto Ricans in New York who have been unable to reach loved ones after nearly a week.

Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on nearly 1,400 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream 8-9AM ET: https://democracynow.org

Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of American Empire

2013-09-12T03:20:11.854Z

The 9/11 terror attacks continue to send shock waves through the American political system. Continuing fears about American vulnerability alternate with images of American military prowess and patriotic bravado in a transformed media landscape charged with emotion and starved for information. The result is that we have had little detailed debate about the radical turn US policy has taken since 9/11.

Hijacking Catastrophe places the Bush Administration's original justifications for war in Iraq within the larger context of a two-decade struggle by neo-conservatives to dramatically increase military spending while projecting American power and influence globally by means of force.

At the same time, the documentary argues that the Bush Administration has sold this radical and controversial plan for aggressive American military intervention by deliberately manipulating intelligence, political imagery, and the fears of the American people after 9/11.

Narrated by Julian Bond, Hijacking Catastrophe features interviews with more than twenty prominent political observers, including Pentagon whistleblower Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, who witnessed first-hand how the Bush Administration set up a sophisticated propaganda operation to link the anxieties generated by 9/11 to a pre-existing foreign policy agenda that included a preemptive war on Iraq.

Joining Kwiatkowski in a wide-ranging, accessible, and ultimately empowering analysis of American foreign policy, media manipulation, and their global and domestic implications, are former Chief UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter, former Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams, author Norman Mailer, MIT professor Noam Chomsky, Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin, defense policy analyst William Hartung, author Chalmers Johnson, and Army Special Forces Master Sergeant Stan Goff (Ret.).

At its core, the film places the deceptions of the Bush Administration within the larger frame of questions seldom posed in the mainstream: What, exactly, is the agenda that drove the administration's pre-war deceptions? How is 9/11 being used to sell this agenda?
Directed by Jeremy Earp, Sut Jhally. With Tariq Ali, Benjamin Barber, Medea Benjamin, Julian Bond.

"Powerful, clear & moving" - Matt Damon
"Devastating" - Howard Zinn
"Gripping" - SF Chronicle
"Horrifing" - Variety
"The Best of the Bush Documentaries" - NY Daily News

All Videos Tagged Catastrophe: (True Skool Network) - True Skool Network

Puerto Ricans Call for Aid Amid Catastrophe: "We're American Citizens. We Can't Be Left to Die"

Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of American Empire