Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the anonymously authored op-ed in The New York Times by a senior Trump Administration official “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration” which has the president lashing out in a fury as a flurry of denials are issued from his senior White House staff in an ominous atmosphere of threatened purges. Dr. Michael Carpenter, the former foreign policy advisor to Vice President Joe Biden and director for Russia on the National Security Council who has an article at Foreign Affairs co-authored with Joe Biden, “How to Stand up to the Kremlin: Defending Democracy Against Its Enemies”, joins us. We discuss the op-ed’s charge that Trump fought against sanctioning Russia for the nerve agent attack in Britain and how the unnamed author describes the resistance inside the administration as not the work of the “deep state” but “the work of the steady state”. We examine the possibility that the few adults in the room could be purged by a paranoid president who could install Ivanka and Jared to run the show. And on top of what both the op-ed and Bob Woodward’s book make clear that our president himself is a danger to America’s national security, we explore the even grimmer possibility that Trump is a compromised tool of a malign foreign power.

Part 2

Then, with the November elections fast approaching, we assess the likely political impact of the charges against their leader on the supine and craven House and Senate GOP enablers of Trump by a Republican official on the inside of Trump’s administration who is sounding the alarm about a dangerous and dysfunctional presidency. David Rothkopf, a visiting professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and the former editor of Foreign Policy and author of “The Great Questions of Tomorrow”, joins us to discuss the anonymous author’s invocation of John McCain at a time when there is an ugly partisan determination by GOP senators to seat Trump’s choice for the Supreme Court.

Part 3

Then finally we go to the U.K. to speak with Nico Hines, the London editor of The Daily Beast who previously was a reporter for the Times of London and their Washington correspondent. He joins us to discuss his article at The Daily Beast “How Russian Spies Used a Fake Nina Ricci Perfume Bottle to Smuggle Novichok Nerve Agent Into England” and what steps the unpopular British government can take to retaliate against Russia to deter future attacks.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the first day of the confirmation hearing to seat Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court which began with protests from the audience and objections from the Democrats that they were given only 10% of Kavanaugh’s paper trail while being rail-roaded by the Republican majority who are both rushing the hearing through while concealing Kavanaugh’s record as if they have something to hide. Caroline Fredrickson, President of the American Constitution Society who focusses on civil and human rights, judicial nominations and the importance of the courts in America, joins us to discuss the limited options facing the Senate Democrats. Do they boycott the hearing which Senator Blumenthal called “a charade and a mockery” or use them to inform the American people via the TV and radio coverage what is at stake and how this obvious rush to confirm Kavanaugh while concealing 90% of his record suggests there is something about this nominee that the Republicans are hiding.

Part 2

Then on a day when the President attacks his Attorney General for enforcing the law against two crooked Republican Congressmen and we learn from Bob Woodward’s new book that senior staff refer to the White House as “Crazytown” and Trump as “unhinged”, we speak with Paul Waldman who blogs at the Washington Post’s Plum Line and is a columnist for The Week as well as a senior writer at The American Prospect. He joins us to discuss his article at The Washington Post “The GOP’s contempt for democracy is on full display at Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing” and the thuggish behavior of the Republican majority whose majority in the Senate will only increase to the point where by 2040 70% of Americans will live in 15 states meaning that 30% from the Red States will choose 70 senators allowing the Republicans to control the senate and therefore the courts into the future.

Part 3

Then finally we examine the tragic loss of Brazil’s cultural heritage from a fire which destroyed the 200 year-old National Museum and 90% of its treasures and speak with Maria Luisa Mendonca, director of Brazil’s Network for Social Justice and Human Rights as well as a professor in the international relations department at the University of Rio De Janeiro. We discuss this blow to the country’s morale a month ahead of a presidential election which could result in the election of a fascist because the leading candidate is in jail, and now Brazilians have to deal with the loss of a priceless collection of art and artifacts representing their national identity.