Power from the states incoming. Overnor, democrat roy cooper this week, republicans introduced dozens of new bills to rewrite the states balance of power. We will speak to the reverend william barber, president of repairs of the breach and head of the North Carolina naacp. Then to donald trump and his generals. Mr. Trump i know more about isis than the generals do, believe me. Amy on the campaign trail, donald trump lambasted the performance of u. S. Military generals. Now he is surrounding himself with generals in many top post. We will speak with Andrew Bacevich to talk about the generals and trumps overall foreign policy. Aboutknows as as much National Security as i know about running a business. And what im about running a business is next to nothing. Amy then to pirates of the caribbean. We will look at how the revolving door with puerto ricos republican make is a fiscal catastrophe for the erto rican people. All of that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The Syrian Government says its temporarily suspended the evacuation of civilians from eastern aleppo after accused the antigovernment rebel fighters of breaking the terms of the ceasefire. One of the terms called for antigovernment rebels to allow for the evacuation of wounded civilians in another part of syria two governmentheld towns in idlib province, which have been besieged by rebels. About 8000 people did successfully escape from eastern aleppo thursday before the evacuations were halted. There are also separate news reports of evacuation convoys being fired upon. On thursday, dozens of United Nations workers staged a walkout in new york city to show solidarity with the syrian people. We stand united in solidarity with the people of syria. We call upon the Member States of the United Nations, in particular the security council, to take urgent, Practical Action to end the horror in syria. Amy in the United States, president obama has vowed to retaliate against russia over russias alleged meddling in the u. S. President ial election to help donald trump win. This is president obama speaking on npr thursday. Pres. Obama i think there is no doubt that when any Foreign Government tries to impact the integrity of our elections, that we need to take action. And we will at a time in a place of our own choosing. Some of it may be explicit and publicized, some of it may not be. Is well aware of my feelings about this because i spoke to him directly about it. Amy according to nbc, unnamed u. S. Intelligence Officials Say russian president Vladimir Putin was personally involved the effort to meddle in the 2016 u. S. President ial election to help donald trump win. The cia has accused russia of intervening, and president obama has ordered a review of russias role. President elect donald trump has called the claims ridiculous. Donald trump has tapped the far right bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman to be the u. S. Ambassador to israel. Many are calling friedman an unprecedented pick for the position, given his support for israelis and palestinians and his disregard for international law. Friedman has no diplomatic experience. He supports jewish only settlements and says he does not think would be illegal for israel to annex the entire palestinian territory. Despite the fact it would be blatantly illegal under international law. On friedman also said he opposes thursday, a twostate solution for israel and palestine. The Trump Administration will never pressure israel into a two state solution or any other solution that is against the wishes of the israeli people. Amy in response to the announcement, jewish voice for peace said it is a distressing signal that the new administration will give the Israeli Government a free hand to deepen its fundamentally undemocratic and abuse of control over Palestinian Land resources and rights. Donald trumps cabinet is the richest in history. The 17 people trump has selected for either cabinet or cabinetlevel positions so far have nearly 10 billion in combined wealth. Thats more than the 43 million poorest americans have combined, and trump has still not filled some key positions. One of trumps top advisers has suggested that trump may give his eldest daughter ivanka and her husband jared kusher formal positions in the white house, claiming the Trump Transition Team believes theyve found an exception to the United States antinepotism laws kellyannconway said the antinepotism law apparently has an exception if you want to work in the st , bethe presiden able to appoint his own staff. Trump has already sparked increasing concerns about conflicts of interest by including his Adult Children in key political meetings, including the vetting of potential cabinet members given , his childrens role in running the trump business empire. In new york city, dozens of native americans and allies held protests at four separate Bank Branches thursday to demand wells fargo, citibank, and td divest from the 3. 8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. The actions were organized by a group of native americans who traveled from Standing Rock to new york city, bringing with them a sacred drum from wounded knee. The group blocked traffic during rush this is Saige Pourier from hour. The Pine Ridge Reservation in south dakota. They are the biggest involved with the Dakota Access pipeline. We are telling them no. Water is sacred. This is life. Without it, nobody can survive. It is for our children. Amy the actions thursday in new york city were part of a monthlong campaign to target the major wall street banks funding the Dakota Access pipeline. This is Standing Rock sioux nation member chase iron eyes during one of the disruptions. We were never the aggressors. All we wanted was peace and to raise our families and to know the power of these. But we do not know peace because your money is funding genocide in north dakota right now. Take a long, hard look and you will know why we are here and why we are never going away. Amy meanwhile in iowa, residents rallied in support of farmers and landowners who are fighting the Dakota AccessPipeline Companies use of Eminent Domain to seize their land to build a pipeline. The 14 landowners argued in the state Court Thursday that regulators should not have authorized use of Eminent Domain in this case because the pipeline does not serve the public good. Partners, ther Company Behind the pipeline, is moot given the pipeline has are ready been built despite residents resistance. In charleston South Carolina, a , jury has found dylann roof guilty on 33 counts of federal hate crimes for murdering nine black worshipers, including pastor, clementa pinckney, at the historic Emanuel Ame Church in june 2015. The verdict, reached after the jury deliberated for less than two hours, came after 30 witnesses testified over six days. One of the witnesses was felicia sanders, who said she watched as roof pulled out a glock. 45caliber hagun and began shooting, striking and wounding her son and killing her aunt. She says she took cover underneath a table with her 11yearold granddaughter and tried to cover herself and the girl in other peoples blood so roof would think they were already dead. Roof embraced white supremacist views and was shown in photographs posing with the Confederate Flag and a pistol. Dylan ruths dylan ruths is facing the death penalty, a sentence that will be decided in the penalty phase of the trial, slated to begin january 3. In new york city, a jury has convicted former rikers correction officer brian coll of beating prisoner ronald spear to death in 2012. Officer coll was accused of repeatedly kicking spear in the head while two other officers held him down, causing spears heart to stop. During the trial, the prosecutors said not only did officer coll not regret killing ronald spear, but he was proud of it and displayed a framed article in the Village Voice about the killing in his bedroom. Officer coll faces life in prison. And in chile, today is the launch of a new art exposition entitled 2054, which reveals for the first time testimonies of survivors of torture under the pinochet dictatorship that the government had sought to keep secret for decades. The stories were collected as part of a commission launched in 2003 in order to document the torture under the dictatorship of general pinochet. In 2004, the chilean government passed a law ordering the testimonies to remain secret for 50 years until 2054. , but a project launched by chilean artist francisco papas fritas and torture survivors has now succeeded in declassifying these testimonies. This is one of the torture survivor Scarlett Mathieu loguercio. On linden street, i was held approximately 10 days. While i was there, i suffered all kinds of tortures, specifically sexual, political violence, psychologically torture threatening me with attention of my children. Psychological torture forcing me to listen to how other people were tortured, which is something difficult to endure. Psychologically, youre left traumatized because when they torture you in some way, your all the time resisting. It when you listen to how they torture other people, and i have talked about this with several people, it is one of the most difficult things to endure. Amy on democracy now spoke thursday, with artist francisco papas fritas about the importan of declassifying these testimonies. For chile important because it opens up the real chance for chile to take control into demand truth about what happened under the dictatorship. This is something that neither the executive branch nor the legislature or even the judiciary which has had its hands tied, have been able to do. This is what the families are asking for just as in the reconstruction of memory. Amy and those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan and im juan gonzalez. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are being accused of waging a legislative coup by attempting to strip power from the states incoming governor democrat roy cooper. Cooper narrowly beat Republican Governor Pat Mccrory by 10,000 votes last month. In an unprecedented move, republicans filed dozens of new bills during a special session of the General Assembly called to consider relief for Hurricane Matthew victims. The republican lawmakers are attempting to impose measures to slash the number of state employees appointed by the governor, require Senate Approval for all of the governors cabinet picks, and strip the governor of the power to appoint university of North Carolina trustees. Another bill aims to weaken the governors control over the state elections board. Yet another republican bill would strip some power away from the democratic governor and give it to the Lieutenant Governor who happens to be a republican. The bills were being considered until after republican governor Patrick Currie conceded defeat. Governorelect roy cooper criticized the actions of the republican lawmakers. Republican leadership in the general simile has put forth a number of proposed pieces of legislation over the last 12 to 24 hours. Most people might the this is a partisan power grab. But it is really more ominous. It is really about hurting Public Education, working families, state employees, health care and clean air and water. Amy at least 17 people were arrested at the State Capitol thursday protesting the republican efforts. The naacp of North Carolina has decried the legislative actions describing it as a form of jim , crow governance. Meanwhile, another effort by republican lawmakers to pack the state Supreme Court, which just tilts democratic, appears to have been defeated. Republicans were threatening to try to add two more justices to the court after democratic African American judge mike morgan defeated a republican incumbent in the november election, tilting the court 43 democrats. The North CarolinaSupreme Court has seven judges for the last 80 years. Tol, for more, were going North Carolina we are joined by reverend dr. William barber, president of the North Carolina naacp. Welcome back to democracy now so it took the republican governor mccrory about a month to concede defeat, right . He is the first he is the only republican incumbent goverr who was defeated in the sweep through the country this year. Then explain what happened. Thank you so much, amy, for having me on democracy now let me say to all of the head to thell roads general simile. We need to there by 10 00 a. M. We have his election, and what you have are a group of extremist desk to party extremist who are very afraid of the changing south and the chiming do changing demographics of North Carolina. You are right, the governor refused to concede. They are scared because we are the only state that held off the full weight of trumpism in the south. Our movement has been working for years. We were able to change the consciousness of the state. In the governor lost the election. Amy, theafter, republicanled state board of election put in place 158 less voting sites, early voting sites, then we had in 2014 and 2012. They lost the worst Voter Suppression deal they pushed. The court said it was surgical racism. They lost on redistrict. The courts have demanded we have to redraw lines and happen election next year with the legislature. They lost the governors race come the secretary of race, the auditors race, the attorney generals race, and the Supreme Court became more progressive with an africanamerican winning 76 of the 100 counties and winning by over 300,000 votes. It is a sign of things to come when we organize in the south. So the governor and those extremists did everything they could. They even purged votes during the election. They lost again. We forced votes to be put back on the books. They tried everything. It when there is a moral movement of the people, we can change the south. If you do that, you change the nation. So now with these losses, theyre engaging in this extreme power grab and policy grab. Juan reverend barber, you wrote recently in a column for think progress you think youre seeing the third reconstruction. What do you mean exactly . The first reconstruction in the 1800s, black and white worked together after slavery a fundamentally changed the south. Then you had this massive reaction to turn back all of those policies which actually came to the strongest point with , who wastion of hayes a president ial candidate who lost the popular vote but was selected through the electoral process with the promise that he would restore the white hierarchy, if you will, in the country by his appointment and by changing the Supreme Court. The second reconstruction was the civil rights movement. You had all of the massive changes of the Civil Rights Acts , the war on poverty, the 1954 to 1968, then a reaction called the southern strategy led by ken phillips and Richard Nixon, law and order to stop Richard Nixon claimed kevin phillips, excuse me, told me if you find out who hates who and who fears you, we can fit people against one another in the south and we can rule be south for 50 years. If you rule be south, if you can control the south, you control 171 electoral votes by just controlling the former 13 confederate states. You control 26 senators in the United States center desk senate. You control 31 of the United States house of representatives. Governors andl 13 13 general a sum was that control state boards of election. If you break through that, then you a fundamentally changed politics. I believe all of the pushback we are seeing, the redistricting is see thethe extremists possibility of a third reconstruction. They know if we registered 30 of the unregistered africanAmerican Voters and we added that whites and progressive rights and latinos, you will have changed the south. If you ever change that math and you empty down organizing that gets people to stop voting against their own interests, grownup conversations about race and economics, and people begin to see themselves as allies blacks and whites and no longer fea