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October 10 - Comparing Nixon's Madman Strategy to Trump's Mad Threats; Trump's EPA Kills Obama's Clean Power Plan; The Withdrawal of Kenya's Opposition Leader From the Rerun of the Overturned August Election
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We begin with a president who instead of governing is lashing out at an ESPN sportscaster, challenging his Secretary of State to an IQ test and tweeting out a new round of insults against the Republican Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, referring to him as “Liddle” Bob Corker in a snide reference to Corker’s height. Tim Naftali, a clinical professor of history and public policy at New York University, who was the first director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, joins us to discuss his article at The Atlantic, “The Problem with Trump’s Madman Theory” and Corker’s rejection of the notion that there is some kind of madman strategy akin to Nixon’s behind Trump’s belligerent threats against North Korea. We will also examine the historical record of the waning days of the Nixon administration regarding an impaired Nixon’s access to the nuclear button, compared to the concerns raised by Senator Corker that “Trump may be setting us on a path to World War III”.
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Then we assess the impact of the repeal of Obama’s Clean Power Plan by the head of the EPA who declared that the phony war on coal is over. David Freeman, who helped bring about the EPA, headed the TVA, New York Power and the LA DWP, and is the author of “All Electric America: A Climate Solution and the Hopeful Future” and a new autobiography “The Green Cowboy”, joins us. We will discuss the commonly- held delusion that switching from coal to natural gas is a move in the right direction and the need to immediately outlaw fossil fuels as poisons to the planet while rapidly converting to available clean solar and wind alternatives. |
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Then finally we examine the withdrawal of Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga from the rerun of the disputed August election overturned by Kenya’s Supreme Court and scheduled for October the 26th. Kefa Otiso, A Professor of Geography and Director of the Global Village at Bowling Green State University and the founding president of the US-based Kenya Scholars and Studies Association joins us to discuss the standoff between Odinga’s followers who want election reforms instituted before a new election and the Kenyetta government who are treating Odinga’s withdrawal as a concession instead of the protest that it is.
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October 9 - A Reality Show Presidency in a White House Adult Day Care Center; Trump's Cynical Game on Immigration; The Growing Tyranny of the Minority in Trump's America
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We begin with Donald Trump’s tweet storm attacking the Republican Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Corker who replied by tweeting “It’s a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning”. Derek Shearer, a former U.S. Ambassador to Finland who is currently a Professor of Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College where he serves as Director of the McKinnon Center for Global Affairs, joins us to discuss the state of U.S. diplomacy and Corker’s fear Trump is treating the presidency like “a reality show” and is steering the US “on a path to World War 111”. We will assess whether Senator Corker’s warning that Trump “Concerns me. He would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation”, will prompt other Republican senators to express in public what they say in private since Corker is apparently not alone in being alarmed about Trump, claiming “the vast majority of our caucus understands what we’re dealing with here”.
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Then Wendy Young, the Executive Director of KIND, Kids in Need of Defense, the leading organization for the unaccompanied children who enter the US immigration system alone, joins us to look into the cynical game Donald Trump is playing by trying the fate of the 800,000 DACA “Dreamers” to a hardline wish list that is dead on arrival with Democrats who Trump can then blame for the failure of immigration reform. We discuss how Trump again throws red meat to his base as a way to distract from his failure to govern, by insisting on building his wall, hiring 10,000 more border patrol, denying federal funds to “sanctuary cities” and closing the door on thousands of children fleeing violence in Central America. |
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Then finally we explore the growing tyranny of the minority in America as an increasingly unpopular president whose approval rating continues to shrink, throws the full weight of his Administration behind satisfying the wish-lists of right wing extremists and religious zealots. Gretchen Borchelt, Vice President for Reproductive Rights and Health at the National Women’s Law Center, joins us to discuss how the vast majority of American women can now be denied birth control coverage in order to satisfy a vocal minority of anti-abortionists who have succeeded in making abortions more likely, numerous and frequent.
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October 8 - Trump Forces North Korea to Move to a Nuclear Hair Trigger; An Update on the Mueller Investigation; Employers Can Now Deny Women Contraceptive Coverage Based on Specious "Moral" Objections
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We begin with the reality TV president teasing upcoming episodes of the Apprentice in the Oval Office by cryptically warning about “the calm before the storm” then tweeting that “only one thing will work” with North Korea, implying military action. Mark Fitzpatrick, the Executive Director of the Washington-based Americas office of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and head of their Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Policy Program and author of “Asia’s Latent Nuclear Powers, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan”, joins us to discuss how Trump’s threats are forcing Kim Jong-un into a hair trigger posture with North Korea’s nuclear weapons based on the “use them or lose them” logic of striking first. We examine the symbiosis of hawks on both sides leading us into a holocaust and the dangers of provoking a cult-like regime whose hardliners are buoyed by delusional propaganda and the belief that they could not only survive a nuclear war with the United States, but win. |
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Then we get an update on the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and speak with investigative journalist James Henry, the co-founder of DCReport.org and a global justice fellow at Yale and the lead researcher for the Tax Justice Network. He joins us to discuss the significance of the special counsel’s interviews with the author of the Steele dossier and Robert Mueller’s focus on the Trump campaign’s use of data mining in social media and micro-targeting voters in key swing states with the possible magnification of their messaging involving help from Russian bots and troll farms. |
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Then finally we examine the consequences of the Trump Administration’s reversal of the Obamacare contraceptive mandate which will now allow employers to deny their female employees contraceptive coverage under health plans on the specious basis of a moral objection. Frances Kissling, a feminist activist and the former President of Catholics for Choice and a consultant to the Western Hemisphere Region of the International Planned Parenthood Federation joins us to discuss how employers can now save money by claiming to have a moral objection to birth control which will likely result in many more women seeking abortions. |
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October 5 - The Thin Line Separating Us From Chaos; Trump is a Clear and Present Danger; Republicans and the NRA Head Off Real Gun Safety Reform
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We begin with the crisis in American foreign policy with our Secretary of State calling the president an “f-ing moron” and the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee warning that Rex Tillerson, General Mattis and General Kelly are the “people who help separate our country from chaos”. David Rothkopf, a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a columnist at The Washington Post and the former editor and publisher of Foreign Policy Magazine, joins us to discuss reports that Trump’s top cabinet secretaries have formed a “suicide pact” in which if one is suddenly fired by an unstable and impetuous president, the others will walk out of the White House, and how Trump has undercut Tillerson publically to the point where he has no credibility abroad. We will also look into the consequences of Trump’s intention to pull out of the Iran deal next week which will sow further chaos in U.S. foreign policy and lead to more isolation and self-marginalization of the United States on the world stage.
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Then we are joined in the studio by Dr. Lance Dodes, who was a clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and is a contributor along with 26 other Psychiatrists and Mental Health experts who have contributed to the new book assessing President Trump, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump”. We examine the consensus that Trump is dangerously mentally ill and that he presents a clear and present danger to the United States and the world as long as he has access to the nuclear codes allowing him to start a nuclear war because of a childish tantrum or some other trigger that could unhinge Trump’s frail psyche. |
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Then finally we look into the signals by the Republican Congress and the NRA that they will head off any serious moves on calling for gun control following the worst mass shooting in U.S. history by banning so-called “bump stocks” on semi-automatic assault rifles that allow the weapon to fire bullets at a rate similar to fully automatic machine guns. An expert on the 2nd Amendment and the history of gun control, Saul Cornell, Chair of American History at Fordham University, joins us to discuss whether any real reform will happen after the Las Vegas massacre.
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October 4 - How Trump's "Tax Reform" Rewards the 1% of the 1%; Trump Could Go from the Oval Office to a Federal Pen; An Activist Who Helped Get a Background Check Law Passed in Nevada That the AG Blocked
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We begin with an analysis of the Trump Administration’s tax overhaul plan from the former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation Edward Kleinbard. Now a Professor of Law at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law, he joins us to discuss his article at Vox.com “The GOP says its business plan will help workers and small business. It won’t”, and the cynical way Republicans are trying to sell this latest giveaway to the 1% or the 1% claiming it will help the middle class and working Americans. And while this so-called “tax reform” is clearly a gift to the donor class by the Republicans, these lackeys of the plutocrats are counting on satisfying their political masters by conning their voters into believing they are getting the government off their back when in fact Trump and the Congress are making ordinary Americans shoulder more of the tax burden so that the already-rich can get even richer. |
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Then we speak with one of the country’s leading experts on taxation who, because of his investigative journalism, has been called the nation’s de facto tax enforcer-in-chief. Pulitzer Prize-winner David Cay Johnston, the founder and editor-in-chief of DC Report.org whose latest book is “The Making of Donald Trump”, joins us to discuss how the soulless hirelings of the rich in Congress are trotting out the same tired old trickle-down lies, and the real possibility that Donald Trump could be the first American president to do a perp walk in an orange jumps suit, on his way from the oval office to a federal penitentiary. |
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Then finally we speak with Natalie Hernandez, a Nevada gun violence prevention organizer with Battle Born Progress, a part of a coalition of gun safety activists who successfully passed Question 1 on last November’s ballot only to have the law stymied and the will of the people trampled on by Nevada’s Attorney General Adam Laxalt. We will discuss what impact the massacre in Las Vegas on Sunday might have on finally instituting the background check law and whether Adam Laxalt will be punished in his expected race for governor in the 2018 elections.
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