As Trump kicks off his fall campaign, and we wonder who is behind it, who benefits from destroying our republic, here is the story. The religious nationalists see him as a fierce leader. They believe God sends such kings to

Blurring the lines between law enforcement and vigilantism, why are off duty police at the polling stations mainly in black and brown neighborhoods? New Jersey in 1981 is a case study in what has happened and most likely will happen

Other countries, like those we defeated, use the paramilitary domestically, not America. Or so it was before the Department of Homeland Security was transformed into the ideal authoritarian tool. Former CIA analyst and professor of government at Johns Hopkins University

Donald Trump IS the Republican Party of 2020. So what of the future of the party; is there one? According to David Smith, Washington Bureau chief for The Guardian, some party members quietly hope for a Democratic landslide so they

Trump’s experiment failed. His TV ads trying to gin up fear of protesters backfired. According to George Lakey, long time activist, retired Swarthmore professor, and author of many books, the center is now even more likely to defend against invasions

The Covid 19 crisis is being used to bolster authoritarianism around the world: Trump, Orban, Bolsonaro, the list goes on. John Feffer, director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies explains how the coronavirus is being

Chaos and anarchy engulfing America. Won’t that be the result of “defunding the police?” A Trump ad (audio included herein) gins up that fear. But using war-fighting methods and equipment demonstrably feeds and exacerbates violence. Fighting crime after the fact

With the killing of George Floyd and the resulting rage in the streets, this is a year like none other. Old reassuring myths are falling away. Statues are being ripped down. What is still worth preserving?  Can we use today’s

In 1980, candidate Ronald Reagan had the advisors and discipline to be subtle enough about racist messages. Southern white fundamentalists and the NAACP’s Ralph Abernathy all endorsed him for president. As our guest author Rick Perlstein says, Trump turned a

For nearly 20 years, the goal of America’s perpetual war has been about dominating the world. It has been largely out of sight, but now it’s on our streets. Our president has turned the weapons on us; again the goal

Denial is the final stage for a successful genocide. Since Nuremberg, we’ve heard the phrase “Never Again.” But that requires facing real history, hearing the voice of the victims not just the winners. Though the Turkish genocide of a million

You’ve seen the pictures: heavily armed angry protesters at state houses demanding an end to stay at home orders. They call such safety measures “medical martial law,” and see it as the start of government tyranny, providing them with a 

On May 4, 1970, Laurel Krause was just 15 years old. That night in a hospital with her parents she identified her 19-year-old sister Allison’s lifeless body. The bullets that killed Kent State University students Allison, Jeff, Sandy and Bill,

Both the Great Depression and today’s recession started off in a time of  great economic inequality. Both economic calamities brought to the surface systemic inadequacies. Perhaps the most recognized authority on the history of the Great Depression, Stanford history professor

Could the coronavirus-caused sudden disruption of the worldwide economy result in unforeseen exercise of harsh nationalism and extended government emergency powers? The people protesting with AR-15s are of course threatening the rest of us taking appropriate precautions. Meanwhile our guest

Trump as usual: kicking something when it’s down. The Republicans saddled the USPS with a $72 billion burden, now they are going full steam to just eliminate the postal service. After all, if it doesn’t make money, what good can

Why did so many Obama voters go for Trump in 2016? What happens when party elites don’t know how to react to changes of popular opinion at the ground level? While they may try to do both: keep the elite

As our guest author Rebecca Gordon explains the term “deep state” is from Turkey, where they have government by a criminal gang. And though Trump clearly enjoys accusing others of what he displays, the legitimate government, the one filled with

Often called the father of scientific or objective history, the ancient Greek philosopher Thucydides did not see himself that way. According to our guest, history can never be a blueprint. We just can’t make sense of it. There are no

A new executive order by President Trump stamps a radical new definition on the meaning of anti-semitism. Its purpose is to clamp down on freedom of speech. A Chicago area rabbi says her congregants have said “this feels like the

Bolivia’s first indigenous president Evo Morales brought better lives to many of the dispossessed, yet he was recently overthrown. What of the role of the US and Brazil’s right wing leader Bolsonaro? On part one Bolivia scholar Nicole Fabricant explains

Why did so many Obama voters go for Trump in 2016? What happens when party elites don’t know how to react to changes of popular opinion at the ground level? While they may try to do both: keep the elite

It’s not only Trump who is pushing cruelty. Since right wing Republicans have very successfully gained control over the third branch of government, the judicial branch, we should expect to see many examples of cruelty dictating decisions by the Supreme

Across Europe tens of millions of refugees are living in horrible conditions, as countries erect razor wire to keep them out. Our guest today Tim Horgan of the World Affairs Council argues it is best to keep people where they

Did Trump mean to be anti-Semitic with his insistence that Jewish Americans who vote Democratic are disloyal? According to our first guest, civil justice advocate and attorney Mark Bello, without question yes, Trump is anti-Semitic. And he says Trump is

We take democracy for granted, but as author Richard C.Lyons tells it, democracy is a recessive gene. Tyranny is much more able to dominate. Tyranny? What does that ancient word even mean? In his new book: The DNA of Democracy,

What keeps Trump was his false version of “Roses.” An uplift from everyday dullness. Looking at the upcoming election, our guest today Professor Ed Simon argues that “those that will be the most successful will be those that speak of

Did you ever imagine we would have actual concentration camps in America? What would you have done in Germany in the 1930s? Never Again means never again. On the first half, Sara Caplan talks about the new grassroots movement called

Trump is not the first. Author of many history books Adam Hochschild writes: “The last time we had anything similar from Washington was almost exactly 100 years ago and it, too, involved a flood of angry rhetoric and a fear

On the first half of the podcast, from Barcelona Spain, professor of political philosophy and journalist Santiago Zabala reports on the rise of the new European nationalistic fascism. He answers these questions: What is it? Why is it happening? How