Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the announcement today by Attorney General Jeff Sessions that the Trump Administration will withhold $4.1 billion in DOJ grants unless some 300 American communities can certify that they are not so-called sanctuary cities and counties. Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, the Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice in Boston, who is the first to sue the Trump Administration on behalf of sanctuary communities, joins us. Wediscuss how the issue of state’s rights comes into play in this case when the Federal government is trying to impose its will and muscle smaller communities that want to uphold the law for all citizens into adopting policies that will result in minority communities not cooperating with local police.

Part 2

Then, following today's call from Senator Schumer for Paul Ryan to replace Devon Nunes, we assess whether the Republican Chair of the House Intelligence Committee is trying to sabotage inquiries into the Trump Administration’s alleged ties to Russia or if he is just a dumb guy put in charge of overseeing intelligence. David Halperin, a former counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee joins us to discuss the desperate and clumsy attempt to give Trump cover with so-called “intelligence” that Nunes was given by the White House the day before he showed up there again to hand the target of an investigation “evidence” that Trump claims exonerates him.

Part 3

Then finally we look into the extent to which Trump can sabotage Obamacare, which after the Trump-Ryan repeal and replace plan blew up, a chastened Paul Ryan reminded us is now the law of the land. An expert on health policies, James Morone, a professor of Political Science and Urban Studies at Brown University and author of “The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office” joins us to discuss whether Trump can make his claim that Obamacare will “explode” a reality.

Full Program

Part 1

We will begin with the Senate Democrats vowing to filibuster Judge Gorsuch after nomination hearings in which he said as little as possible while insisting he is fair an open-minded. We will discuss Gorsuch’s most shocking ruling which Senator Franken tried to question him on and that is the case of the frozen truck driver, an appropriate subject of a day when Donald Trump had a photo-op with a bunch of truckers. Robert Fetter, a labor lawyer whose client was Alphonse Maddin, joins us to discuss how Gorsuch put corporate interests over the survival of a man freezing to death. We look into how six of seven judges sided with Mr. Maddin against TransAm Trucking who fired him for unhitching his trailer with frozen brakes to seek warmth and fuel for his truck in minus 27 degree Arctic weather. As opposed to waiting for a repairman who was three hours late and freezing to death. But one judge sided with the company who fired Maddin, which brought Neil Gorsuch to the attention of the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation and made him popular with the Chamber of Commerce, with all three promoting his Supreme Court candidacy for siding with business over regulation.

Part 2

Then we look into the extraordinary lengths that Devin Nunes, the Republican Chair of the House Intelligence Committee went to in trying to give Donald Trump cover for his lie that Obama phone-tapped him and extricate Trump from an impasse since Trump refuses to apologize to Obama for calling him “a bad (or sick) guy!” James Bamford, an investigative journalist specializing in national security issues and author of “The Shadow Factory: Inside the Ultra-Secret NSA, from 9/11 to Spying on America”, joins us to discuss the need for an independent investigation and his article at Foreign Policy “The Multi-Billion-Dollar U.S. Spy Agency You Haven’t Heard of”.

Part 3

Then with today’s delay of the vote on the Trump-Ryan repeal of Obamacare, Trump’s first piece of legislation now hanging by a thread, we will examine what he has achieved so far. James Goodwin, a Senior Policy Analyst with the Center for Progressive Reform joins us to discuss Trump’s successes so far via the Congressional Review Act which includes allowing mentally ill people to buy guns, big oil to pay bribes, the dumping of mineral waste into headwaters and the killing of bears and wolves in Alaska’s wildlife refuges.