Full Program

Part 1

We begin with what was advertised as a major address on the  economy that Donald Trump delivered today to the Detroit Economic Club in which he gave away the store to the wealthiest of the 1% while reaching out to downsized workers in the rustbelt states whose jobs have been outsourced. Economist James Galbraith, a professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and author of “Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice: The Destruction of Greece and the Future of Europe”, joins us to discuss Trump’s portrayal of himself as the deliverer of jobs and prosperity while casting his opponent as the steward of stagnation.

Part 2

Then we look into the crisis in journalism that the Trump campaign has brought about which is making life uncomfortable for mainstream, non-opinion journalists who privately find Trump a dangerous demagogue but publicly have to stick to the textbook of “fair and balanced” American journalism. David Mindich, a professor and former chair of media studies, journalism and digital arts at Saint Michael’s College and author of “Just the Facts: How “Objectivity” Came to Define American Journalism” joins us to discuss his article at the Columbia Journalism Review “For journalists covering Trump, a Murrow moment”, and whether Trump’s role as the GOP candidate for president confers a dignity on the hateful racist whose outrageous statements objective journalists may lose sight of.

Part 3

Then finally we analyze Donald Trump’s authoritarian tendencies with Jonathan Weiler, the author of “Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics” and discuss his article at The Huffington Post “Understanding Trump”: It’s Still the Authoritarianism, Stupid” in which Weiler argues that after decades of Republican dog-whistle racism and the demonization of the “other”, the GOP has created the conditions in which a Frankenstein monster has been able to emerge.     

Full Programs

Part 1

We begin with the debriefing of an Islamic State fighter from Germany, Harry Sarfo, who was trained in Syria by the Emni, the intelligence arm of ISIS, to return to Europe and kill as many people as possible. His story is featured extensively in Thursday’s New York Times and we speak with Dr. John Mueller, a senior fellow at The Cato Institute and a Professor of Political Science at Ohio State University who has an article at Reason Magazine “ISIS Isn’t an Existential Threat to America: Why Politicians shouldn’t overestimate the terror group’s power”. We discuss how the would-be terrorist’s trainers see America as an easy target “It’s much easier to get them over the social network… because they say Americans are dumb – they have open gun policies…we can radicalize them easily… they can buy guns.”  

Part 2

Then we speak with Ian Millhiser, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and an editor of ThinkProgress where he has an article “If Trump Drops Out: The Result Will Be A Horrible Legal Quagmire.” We discuss what the RNC can do if Trump quits, but if he does so after the ballot deadlines, it gets complicated, then more so if it comes down to the Electoral College making the choice, or even more so if the lame duck Republican-dominated House of Representatives gets to decide who the next president is.

Part 3

Then finally we discuss the latest report released by Election Protection, the nation’s largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition, “The 2016 Primaries in Review”. The author of the report, Jennifer Patin, a writer and editor at the Voting Rights Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, joins us to discuss what citizens in the states no longer protected by the Voting Rights Act can do to exercise their rights as American citizens in the face of concerted efforts to suppress their votes, many of which federal courts recently struck down as flagrantly targeting minority voters with “surgical precision”.