August 15 - Trump's "the Muslims are Coming" Foreign Policy; John Dean on the GOP's Disarray; US Complicity in Saudi Arabia's Wanton Destruction of Yemen

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with Donald Trump’s speech today on foreign policy in Youngstown, Ohio, the heart of the rust belt, where he called for “a new approach to halt the spread of radical Islam” and the “extreme vetting’” of immigrants along with an ideological test for entry into the U.S. allowing in only “those who share our values and respect our people”. Arun Kundnani, a Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University and the author of “The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, Extremism and the Domestic War on Terror”, joins us to discuss Donald Trump’s dystopian vision of a world under constant attack and our homeland threatened by impending terror. We assess how Trump will screen out “those who believe Sharia law should supplant American law”, since there is scant evidence many such people exist in the U.S. although some states have passed Islamophobic laws to preempt this imaginary takeover of the judicial branch of our government.  

Part 2

Then we speak with John Dean, who was White House counsel to President Nixon whose Senate testimony helped lead to Nixon’s resignation. The former Goldwater Chair of American Institutions at Arizona State University, he joins us to discuss the current disarray in the Republican Party which he sees as being much worse than during the Watergate crisis, and the real possibility that Trump could split the GOP in two, with some doubt as to whether its Tea Party wing or more traditional Chamber of Commerce wing would end up in charge of the rump Republican Party.

Part 3

Then finally, Dr. Shelia Carapico, a Professor of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Richmond and author of “Arabia Incognita: Dispatches from Yemen and the Gulf”, joins us to discuss U.S. complicity in the destruction of Yemen with the head of the U.N. condemning Saudi Arabia for bombing a school and a hospital in Yemen and, calling Saudi Arabia “an unreliable ally”, Senators Rand Paul and Chris Murphy are considering blocking an arm sales to Saudi Arabia in protest of its wanton destruction of Yemen and the callous bombing of civilians and historical sites.