Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the revelation that the Mexican government used sophisticated spyware to neutralize the work of a team of international investigators the Mexican government was forced to accept to solve the case of the missing 43 students whose disappearance in 2014 roiled the nation. Laura Carlsen, the Director of the Mexico-based Americas Program of the Center for International Policy, joins us to discuss how the cyberweapon Pegasus, which can only be sold to governments on the condition it is used against terrorists and criminals, was used to stymie an investigation into one of Mexico’s most gruesome human rights atrocities which the Pena Nieto PRI government clearly does not want solved.

Part 2

Then we look into who Donald Trump Junior, Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were meeting with in Trump Tower shortly after Trump became the Republican candidate for president. Bill Browder, who was the largest foreign investor in Russia until his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was murdered for uncovering government corruption, joins us to discuss who this disgusting, sleazy lawyer the Trump boys met with is. We examine the role of Natalia Veselnitskaya, who was not only Putin’s point person to go after the Magnitsky Act the congress passed to punish the murderers of Browder’s lawyer, but she defended the Kremlin-connected Russian gangsters who laundered the stolen $230 million of tax money meant for the Russian treasury.

Part 3

Then finally we get an update on the state of the resistance and the Democratic opposition now that Vice President Mike Pence is beginning to raise campaign money as the Republicans gather a war chest to buy the 2018 and 2020 elections with overwhelming resources. The co-founder of Mother Jones, Richard Parker, who teaches Economics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, joins us to discuss how organized people with small donations can compete against the organized money of the Koch brothers network.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the latest NPR/PBS/Marist poll that finds 54% of Americans think Trump’s dealings with Russia were unethical or illegal while 73% of Republicans believe Trump did nothing wrong with only 4% saying he has done something illegal. The author of “National Insecurity: American Leadership in an Age of Fear” and “The Great Questions of Tomorrow”, David Rothkopf, a columnist for The Washington Post and a visiting professor at Columbia University and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, joins us. We discuss Donald Trump’s unprecedented attacks on American political leaders and institutions on foreign soil as he stood next to Poland’s authoritarian leader who is cracking down on his press and was no doubt pleased to hear Trump’s attacks on the American Press, along with his trashing of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the U.S. Intelligence community.  

Part 2

Then we speak with Timothy McCarthy, a Lecturer on History, Literature and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and author of “”Protest Nation: Words That Inspired a Generation” and “The Indispensable Zinn: The Essential Writings or the People’s Historian”. He joins us to discuss the extent to which Trump has laid the groundwork with his supporters by convincing them that the press propagates “fake news” so that when the real news about Trump’s ties to Putin comes out, 35% of Americans won’t believe it.

Part 3

Then finally we look into the stark division in U.S. foreign policy between the Trump family and his coterie of right wing fringe ideologues, and the broader U.S. defense, intelligence and diplomatic community otherwise known as the “deep state” that have been laid bare by Saudi Arabia’s attack on Qatar. David Hearst, the Editor of Middle East Eye, joins us from the U.K. to discuss the contentious report on the Saudi role in radicalizing young Muslims in Britain and how Trump and his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared’s financial ties to the Saudi Crown Prince are dictating a dangerous Middle East policy that goes against U.S. interests in the region.