Todays mainstream democrats are pretty much what used to be called moderate republicans. And republicans are just off the stratum. Amy today noam chomsky for the , hour. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In North Carolina, 11 people were arrested over the antitransgender law. Hundreds of people dissented on the state legislature as part of the moral monday action calling for North Carolina to repeal the law. Known as hb to come or the bathroom bill, the measure nullifies ordinances protecting lgbt people from discrimination and forces transgender people to use the bathroom that matches what they were assigned on their birth certificate. The Justice Department has sued North Carolina over the law, which calls because discriminatory. North carolina has sued the government to defend the law. On monday, the aclu and lambda legal asked the judge to block enforcement of the law by issuing preliminary induction will injunction. Releasing a singer burned her birth certificate on stage. She came out as transgender in 2012. Democratic voters head to the polls in kentucky and oregon today. The primaries come after supporters of Bernie Sanders protested procedures they saw as favoring Hillary Clinton at the Nevada Convention over the weekend. Back in february, initial results in nevada favored clinton, but then sanders mobilized more support at the county conventions, making it appear he might actually end up with more delegates. At the state convention saturday, sanders supporters erupted in protest after they say the delegate allocation rules were abruptly changed in clintons favor. They also claimed about 60 sanders supporters were wrongly denied delegate status. Clinton emerged with 20 pledged delegates to sanders 15. On monday, Bernie Sanders campaigned in puerto rico, which holds its democratic primary june 5. Sanders said puerto ricos 70 billion debt must be restructured in a way that doesnt deepen its economic crisis. It is unacceptable to me that vulture funds on wall street are demanding that puerto rico fire teachers, close it schools, cut pensions, and abolish the minimum wage so that they can reap huge profits off the sufferings and the misery of the children and the people of puerto rico. We cannot allow that to happen. We will not allow that to happen. Amy republicans also vote in oregon today, even donald trump even though donald trump has become the Presumptive Republican president ial nominee. His two rivals, john kasich and ted cruz have dropped out of the race. On monday, an attorney with the Trump Organization suggested trump might sue the New York Times over an article about his treatment of women. The times interviewed dozens of women who interacted with trump, from a beauty pageant contestant who said trump kissed her on the lips to a woman executive who said trump commented on her weight, telling her, you like your candy. The article also referred to his exwife ivanas allegations trump raped her in a fit of rage. In the book, lost tycoon the many lives of donald j. Trump, trumps lawyers insisted a statement by ivana trump be placed in front, which read, i referred to this as a rape, but i do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense. The Supreme Court has declined to rule on a major case involving access to Birth Control under president obamas Signature Healthcare law. The Obama Administration has already exempted churches and other houses of worship from a rule requiring Employer Health plans to provide Birth Control coverage to employees without a copay. Religiously affiliated nonprofits simply need to notify the Health Insurer or government that they object to providing Birth Control coverage, at which point the government takes over and they have no further role. But a number of nonprofits argue the notification process itself violates their religious freedom. The Supreme Court has been left with just eight justices following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and republican efforts to block obamas nominee. On monday, the court handed the Birth Control cases back to lower courts, instructing them to find an approach that accommodates religious freedom while ensuring employees by the nonprofits have equal access to Birth Control. In afghanistan, a massive demonstration over better access to electrical power gripped capital kabul monday. Security forces tried to block routes to the president ial palace with shipping containers. Thousands of members of Afghanistans Hazara minority took to kabuls streets to demand a planned Power Line Pass through provinces with large hazara populations. Philippine president elect Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to seek to restore the death penalty. In his first comments to journalists following his victory in last weeks election, he said he would also give Security Forces the power to shoottokill for suspects who evade arrest. During his campaign, duterte vowed to kill tens of thousands of criminals. He addressed reporters on monday. [indiscernible] amy he has been called the filipino trump. Executions have been suspended in the philippines since 2006 amid opposition from the catholic church. The cias internal watchdog has admitted it mistakenly destroyed its only copy of the senates report on cia torture. Yahoo news said the acknowledgment came as Justice Department lawyers assured a federal judge copies of the report were being preserved. The cia reportedly does have another copy. The 6700page report has never been released. Another journalist has been murdered in the mexican state of veracruz. Manuel torres was shot in the head saturday as he returned home. He worked with a local city council and was editorinchief of the news site noticias mt. A statement from the veracruz attorney general did not acknowledge torres as a journalist. At least 16 journalists have been killed in baruch use since killed in veracruz since 2010, another three have disappeared. In upstate new york, residents opposed to the storage of natural gas in underground salt caverns at seneca lake have been dealt a blow by federal regulators. The federal Energy Regulatory commission has extended a permit allowing a subsidiary of the texasbased company Crestwood Midstream another two years to expand its Natural Gas Storage facility in the salt caverns. Opponents of the plan say seneca lake provides Drinking Water to 100,000 people in the heart of new yorks scenic wine country. More than 500 protesters have been arrested protesting the gas storage plans, which they say could lead to a disastrous leak and threaten public health. In new york city monday, more than 100 people rallied outside the Shareholders Meeting of conedison to protest the utilitys plan to jointly own the gas storage facility. Seneca county farmer jan quarles invoked the recent methane leak in california, where 100,000 tons of methane leaked from an underground storage site. Shareholders and ratepayers really want this risk . No and porterane leak ranch, california, was a complete disaster. If forced 5000 people to evacuate, and socalgas is being sued for over 2 billion. New york cannot afford that. Amy the intercept news site has begun releasing a trove of internal newsletters from what it says is the most significant division of the National Security agency. The documents from the signals Intelligence Directorate date back to 2003. In addition to more mundane details about employees vacations, the intercept says the internal newsletters, reveal which were leaked by edward snowden, reveal details about how the nsa helped pave the way for the iraq war, and how its personnel worked alongside the cia and other agencies on interrogations at guantanamo. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We are on the road on our 100 city tour, today broadcasting from chicago. The United States and russia are cochairing a meeting in vienna today of the 17nation International Syria support group aimed at easing the fiveyear conflict. According to a recent report by the Syrian Center for policy research, the death toll in syria has reached close to half a Million People nearly twice , the number counted by the United Nations a year and a half ago when it stopped keeping track of the numbers killed because of the datas unreliability. Just last month president obama , announced the deployment of 250 more special operations troops to syria in a move that nearly doubles the official u. S. Presence in the country. Syria is only one of a number of conflicts in the middle east. Last year, a record 60 Million People were forced to flee their homes becoming refugees. , well, for more on these conflicts, from syria to iraq to yemen and the United States , role in the ongoing violence, we continue our conversation with internationallyrenowned political dissident, linguist, author, noam chomsky. He has written over a hundred 100 books most recently who , rules the world . Noam chomsky is Institute Professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of technology, where hes taught for more than 50 years. I began by asking him about the conflict in syria. Syria is spiraling into real disaster. Of a virtual suicide. And the only sensible approach, the only slim hope, for syria is efforts to reduce the violence and destruction, to establish small regional ceasefire zones and to move toward some kind of diplomatic settlement. There are steps in that direction. Also, its necessary to cut off the flow of arms, as much as possible, to everyone. That means to the vicious and brutal assad regime, primarily russia and iran, to the monstrous isis, which has been getting support tacitly through turkey, through to the alnusra front, which is hardly different, has just the the alqaeda affiliate, technically broke from it, but actually the alqaeda affiliate, which is now planning its own some sort of emirate, getting arms from our allies, qatar and saudi arabia. Our own the cia is arming them. We dont know at what level. It is clandestine. As much as possible, cut back the flow of arms, the level of violence, try to save people from destruction. There should be far more support going simply for humanitarian aid. Those who are building some sort of a society in syria notably, the kurds should be supported in that effort. These efforts should be made to cut off the flow of jihadis from the places where theyre coming from. And that means understanding why its happening. Its not enough just to say, ok, lets bomb them to oblivion. This is happening for reasons. Some of the reasons, unfortunately, are we cant reverse. The u. S. Invasion of iraq was a major reason in the development, a primary reason in the incitement of sectarian conflicts, which have now exploded into these monstrosities. Thats water under the bridge, unfortunately, though we can make sure not to do that not to continue with that. But we may like it or not, but isis, the isil, whatever you want to call it, does have Popular Support even among , people who hate it. The sunni much of the sunni population of iraq and syria evidently regards it as better than the alternative, something which at least defends them from the alternative. From the western countries, the flow of jihadis is primarily from young people who live in conditions of humiliation, degradation, repression, and want something decent want some dignity in their lives, want something idealistic. Theyre picking the wrong horse, by a large margin, but you can understand what theyre aiming for. And theres plenty of research and studies. Scott atran and others have worked on this and have plenty of evidence about it. And those conditions alleviating and dealing with those real problems can be a way to reduce the level of violence and destruction. Its much more dramatic to say, lets carpet bomb them, or lets bomb them to oblivion, or lets send in troops. But that simply makes the situation far worse. Actually, weve seen it for 15 years. Just take a look at the socalled war on terror, which george w. Bush declared actually, redeclared. Reagan had declared it but redeclared in 2001. At that point, jihadi terrorism was located in a tiny tribal area near the afghanpakistan border. Where is and since then, weve been hitting one or another center of what we call terrorism with a sledgehammer. Whats happened . Each time, it spreads. By now, its all over the world. Its all over africa, southeast asia, south asia, everywhere you look. Take the bombing of libya, which Hillary Clinton was strongly in favor of, one of the leaders of, smashed up libya, destroyed a functioning society. The bombing sharply escalated the level of atrocities by a large factor, devastated the country, left it in the hands of warring militias, opened the door for isis to establish a base, spread jihadis and heavy weapons all through africa, in fact, into the middle east. Last year, the according to u. N. Statistics, the worst terror in the world was in west africa, boko haram and others, to a considerable extent an offshoot of the bombing of libya. Thats what happens when you hit vulnerable systems with a sledgehammer, not knowing what youre doing and not looking at the roots of where these movements are developing from. So you have to understand the understand where its coming from, where the appeal lies, what the roots are there are often quite genuine grievances at the same time try to cut back the level of violence. And, you know, weve had experience where things like this worked. Take, say, ira terrorism. It was pretty severe. Now, they practically murdered the whole british cabinet at one point. As long as britain responded to ira terrorism with more terror and violence, it simply escalated. As soon as britain finally began incidentally, with some helpful u. S. Assistance at this point in paying some attention to the actual grievances of Northern Irish catholics, as soon as they started with that, violence subsided, reduced. People who had been called leading terrorists showed up on negotiating teams, even, finally, in the government. I happened to be in belfast in 1993. It was a war zone, literally. I was there again a couple of years ago. It looks like any other city. You can see ethnic antagonisms, but nothing terribly out of the ordinary. Thats the way to deal with these issues. Incidentally, whats happening in syria right now is horrendous, but we shouldnt useful to remember that its not the first time. If you go back a century, almost exactly a century, the end of the First World War, there were hundreds of thousands of people starving to death in syria. Proportionally, proportional to the population, its likely that more syrians died in the First World War than any other belligerent. Syria did revive, and it can revive again. Amy we will continue with noam chomsky, worldrenowned political dissident, author, his latest book who rules the after break. [music break] amy sinead oconnor, black boys on mopeds. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We are the road in chicago, illinois. We continue part two of our conversation with worldrenowned political dissident, linguist, and author, noam chomsky, Institute Professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of technology, where he has taught for more than half a century. His latest book who rules the , world . I asked him to talk about saudi arabias role in the middle east. There is a long history, the basic story is the United States, like britain before it, has tended to support radical islamism against secular nationalism. That has been a consistent theme of imperial strategy for a long time. Saudi arabia is the center of radical islamic extremism. Patrick cockburn, one of the best commentators and most knowledgeable commentators, has correctly pointed out that what he calls the wahhibisation of sunni islam, the spread of saudi extremist wahhabi doctrine over sunni islam, the sunni world, is one of the real disasters of modern of the modern era. Its a source of not only funding for extremist radical islam and the jihadi outgrowths of it, but also, doctrinally, mosques, clerics, and so on, schools, you know, madrassas, qaran, isjust study spreading all over the huge sunni areas from saudi influence. And it continues. Saudi arabia itself has one of the most grotesque human rights records in the world. The isis beheadings, which shock everyone. I think saudi arabia is the only country where you have regular beheadings. Thats the least of it. Women have no cant drive, so on and so forth. And it is strongly backed by the United States and its allies, britain and france. Reason . Its got a lot of oil. Its got a lot of money. You can sell them a lot of arms, i think tens of billions of dollars of arms.