April 12 - Organizer of Saturday's Tax March to Get Trump to Release His Tax Returns; Putin's Buyer's Remorse Over Trump; Strategies of Resistance in tthe Absence of a Democratic Party

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the organizer of a national and international protest that will take place on Saturday April 15, otherwise known as Tax Day.  Jennifer Taub, a law professor at Vermont Law School, whose research focuses on corruption, corporate political spending and the links between money and politics, joins us to discuss how she was inspired by Kellyanne Conway’s dismissive remark that voters don’t care whether Trump releases his tax returns. She, along with some comedians and the creator of “House of Cards” have created a movement that has stimulated 130 national and global events in a Tax March taking place on Saturday to point out that while ordinary folks have to pay taxes, Trump does not even feel he owes voters the transparency of whether or not he pays taxes.  Meanwhile Trump and the Republicans are preparing what they refer to a tax reform that will give even more tax breaks to the rich and begin the dismantling of Social Security.

Part 2

Then we speak with Steven Pifer, the Director of the Brookings Institution’s Arms Control Initiative. He served on the National Security Council as senior director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia and joins us to discuss today’s meeting in Moscow between Secretary of State Tillerson and Vladimir Putin. We discuss the wild swings in U.S. foreign policy of late and speculate whether Putin regrets helping elect Trump now that his former friend finds it beneficial to distract the public from the Russia investigation by bombing Putin’s Syrian ally Assad.

Part 3

Then finally George Lakoff joins us in the studio. He is a professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley and author of “The All New Don’t Think of an Elephant”. We discuss what strategies of resistance are forming in response to the Trump Administration in the absence of any strategy coming from the Democratic Party, and look into ways in which progressives can engage conservatives who support Trump even though he has no empathy for them or the issues they care about.