Full Program

Part 1

We begin with Donald Trump’s speech today on foreign policy in Youngstown, Ohio, the heart of the rust belt, where he called for “a new approach to halt the spread of radical Islam” and the “extreme vetting’” of immigrants along with an ideological test for entry into the U.S. allowing in only “those who share our values and respect our people”. Arun Kundnani, a Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University and the author of “The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, Extremism and the Domestic War on Terror”, joins us to discuss Donald Trump’s dystopian vision of a world under constant attack and our homeland threatened by impending terror. We assess how Trump will screen out “those who believe Sharia law should supplant American law”, since there is scant evidence many such people exist in the U.S. although some states have passed Islamophobic laws to preempt this imaginary takeover of the judicial branch of our government.  

Part 2

Then we speak with John Dean, who was White House counsel to President Nixon whose Senate testimony helped lead to Nixon’s resignation. The former Goldwater Chair of American Institutions at Arizona State University, he joins us to discuss the current disarray in the Republican Party which he sees as being much worse than during the Watergate crisis, and the real possibility that Trump could split the GOP in two, with some doubt as to whether its Tea Party wing or more traditional Chamber of Commerce wing would end up in charge of the rump Republican Party.

Part 3

Then finally, Dr. Shelia Carapico, a Professor of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Richmond and author of “Arabia Incognita: Dispatches from Yemen and the Gulf”, joins us to discuss U.S. complicity in the destruction of Yemen with the head of the U.N. condemning Saudi Arabia for bombing a school and a hospital in Yemen and, calling Saudi Arabia “an unreliable ally”, Senators Rand Paul and Chris Murphy are considering blocking an arm sales to Saudi Arabia in protest of its wanton destruction of Yemen and the callous bombing of civilians and historical sites.

Full Program

Part 1

We  begin with an analysis of what goes on at Donald Trump’s rallies where his supporters often shout out “kill her” or “kill the bitch” after Trump disparages his opponent who he calls “crooked Hillary”. Mark Potok, the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project and the editor of their journal Intelligence Report and the Hatewatch blog, joins us to discuss how Trump’s campaign rhetoric both signals dangerous ideas to his more extreme followers and could inspires them to act on his call to arms to stop Hillary Clinton from taking away their guns, an absurd and frequent claim Trump’s 2^nd Amendment people believe. We will examine the belief system of Trump’s more ardent and heavily armed followers who see themselves as the real American patriots who in Thomas Jefferson’s words, “must refresh the tree or liberty from time to time” with their blood and the blood of tyrants, who Jefferson clearly meant to be the King of England, not today’s government of the United States.

Part 2

Then we will look further into the possibility that Vladimir Putin is planning to restart his war with Ukraine using an absurd pretext of a hapless overweight Ukrainian with soda bottles in a backpack that are supposed to be bombs, who allegedly killed a Russian Intelligence officer and a soldier although no bodies have been produced. Nevertheless there is a massive military build-up underway on the de-facto border between Crimea and Ukraine and in the Donbass and Andrew Kutchins, A Senior Fellow at the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at Georgetown University joins us to discuss similarities to Putin’s 2008 war with Georgia that broke out in August during a presidential election while everyone was watching the Beijing Olympics.

Part 3

Then finally we discuss the just-released damning report by the Department of Justice on the Baltimore Police Department and speak with Kenneth Burns, a reporter with WYPR covering Baltimore City and Baltimore County. He is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and we will examine the report which details systemic harassment of Baltimore’s black citizens, one of whom, an African/American man in his 50’s, was stopped 30 times in five years without an arrest.