The Fatal Combination of a Mentally Ill President and a Mentally Deranged Billionaire Out to Destroy Our Government and Democracy
We begin with the fatal combination of a mentally ill president in league with a mentally deranged multi-billionaire running roughshod over the US government to eviscerate American democracy and usher in a fascist regime in the service of an oligarchy. We discuss what can be done to stop this coup underway in plain sight and speak with Robert Kuttner, the co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect and the Ida and Meyer Kirstein Chair at Brandeis University. He was formerly an assistant to the legendary I.F. Stone, a chief investigator for the Senate Banking Committee, and for 20 years wrote a column at Business Week. His books include Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? and Going Big: FDR’s Legacy, Biden’s New Deal, and the Struggle to Save Democracy, and we discuss his latest article at The American Prospect, “Will the Republic Strike Back?”
Stopping the Deadly Fentanyl Trade in Mexico, China and Now India
Then we go to Mexico to examine the deal its new president made with Trump over immigration and fentanyl which bought her a month delay in the implementation of Trump’s 25% tariff threat. Joining us to discuss the absurdity of blaming Canada for the fentanyl trade and what can be done about China as well as India which is now exporting chemical precursors to make fentanyl is Ioan Grillo, a contributing writer at the New York Times specializing in crime and drugs. Based in Mexico City, he is the author of El Narco, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and Gangster Warlords, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and a Guardian Book of the Year. His latest book is Blood Gun Money: How America Arms Gangs and Cartels and he blogs at crashoutmedia.com.
The Folly of a Trade War With China and a Saner Way To Ease Tensions
Then finally we examine the folly of a trade war with China and discuss a saner way to ease tensions with Van Jackson, a scholar of international relations specializing in East Asian and Pacific security, critical analysis of defense issues, and the intersection of working-class interests with foreign policy. A senior lecturer in international relations at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, he served as a strategist and policy adviser in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he worked on issues ranging from defense planning for U.S. Asia strategy to nuclear negotiations with North Korea. A senior nonresident fellow at the Center for International Policy, he is the host of the Un-Diplomatic podcast and the author of five books including, On the Brink, Rival Reputations and Pacific Power Paradox: American Statecraft and the Fate of the Asian Peace. He is the co-author with Michael Brennes of the new book, The Rivalry Peril: How Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy.