January 4 - How Trump's Chief Propagandist Reconstructs Reality; Why Does Trump Keep Denying Russian Hacking?; The Trump Administration Will Be Enablers of Monopolies

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the skillful use of propaganda by the Trump campaign that will continue as they shape the narrative for a presidency based on political stunts by the entertainer-in-chief while the real president Mike Pence enacts the Koch brothers and the DeVos family agendas of resource extraction and “Christian” fundamentalism. Jason Stanley, Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and author of “How Propaganda Works”, joins us to explain the key role of Trump’s strategist Steven Bannon as a propagandist who reconstructs reality which in turn Fox News and the right wing press disseminates to an ill-educated population and polarized society in which there is no longer a consensus of what is true anymore, thus providing a fertile landscape for the propagation of fake news and propaganda.

Part 2

Then we try to understand why Donald Trump is doubling down on his increasingly desperate denials of Russian involvement in the recent elections as he sides with Julian Assange over the Russian hacks while implying that some kind of conspiracy has led the America’s intelligence community to conclude that Putin helped him become our next president. Dr. Michael Sulmeyer, the Director of the Cyber Security Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, who was recently the Director of Plans and Operations for Cyber Policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, joins us to discuss why evidence points to Russian hacking and what possible reason Trump may have for continuing to deny Russian involvement.    

Part 3

Then finally we examine the extent to which the new Trump Administration will be enablers of monopolies, given that Trump celebrated the election-night results with a successful monopolist David Koch and an avowed monopolist Peter Theil. Barry Lynn, who directs the Open Markets Program and is a Senior Fellow at The New America Foundation, joins us to discuss his article at The Washington Monthly “Democrats Must Become the Party of Freedom” and how Democrats should embrace small business, entrepreneurs and reengage with unions.