Day: September 8, 2026

Why Do Trump, Kushner and Witkoff Show Such Slavish Deference to Putin?

We begin with the embarrassing press conference Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff held in Kyiv in which they parrotted Kremlin talking points in calling for an end to Puin’s war on his terms and when asked by a Ukrainian reporter why they support a war criminal, Witkoff replied that Putin has always been respectful and professional in their dealings with him. Joining us to investigate why Trump shows such slavish deference to Putin is Luke Harding, an award-winning journalist, writer, and foreign correspondent for The Guardian. He served as their Moscow bureau chief before the Kremlin expelled him from the country in the first case of its kind since the Cold War. His books include Mafia State: How One Reporter Became an Enemy of the Brutal New Russia and Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump Win the White House, and his latest book is Betrayal: Trump, Putin and The New Age of Conquest, a book no U.S. publisher has made available to the American public apparently out of fear of being sued by Trump.

The Macroeconomic Roots of the Collapse of the Political Center in the U.S.

Then we speak with Thomas Ferguson, professor emeritus of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and the Research Director at the Institute for New Economic Thinking. He is the author of Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Part Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems and co- author of a new report from the Institute for New Economic Thinking we discuss, “The Macroeconomic Roots of the Collapse of the Political Center in the US.”

More People Across the Ideological Spectrum Now Feel That Violence is a Legitimate Means of Resolving Political Disputes

Then finally we look into a case involving a worker who set fire to a Kimberly Clark warehouse claiming he was fighting against capitalism. In his Instagram post he says “You know, if you’re not going to pay us enough to f****ing live or to afford to live, at least pay us enough not to do this,” then he lit a roll of toilet paper saying, “All you had to do is pay us enough to live.” Joining us to discuss how more people across the ideological spectrum now feel that violence is a legitimate means of resolving political disputes is Brian Levin, a Criminologist, civil rights attorney, professor emeritus of criminal justice and founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. His work focused on analysis of hate crime, terrorism and legal issues and previously, Professor Levin served as Associate Director-Legal Affairs of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Klanwatch/Militia Task Force in Montgomery, Alabama; and he has testified before Congress’ Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence and is the Chair of the California Commission on the State of Hate.