July 2 - Trump and Patriotism on the 4th of July; Canada's 150th Birthday; Putin and Trump's Upcoming Meeting

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the latest display of presidential childish whining, this time on Saturday before a group of veterans and evangelicals where the president attacked the media again proclaiming that “The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House. But I’m president, and they’re not”. A highly decorated combat veteran who was awarded 2 Silver Stars, 2 Legions of Merit, 2 Bronze Stars, and 2 Purple Hearts, Phillip Butler, joins us. In 1965 he was shot down over North Vietnam where he spent 8 years as a POW and is now a peace and justice activist with Veterans for Peace. We discuss what patriotism means on this 4^th of July holiday in a country led by a man who has deliberately divided the American people against each other while attacking the press as the enemy of the people. And examine the uncomfortable possibility that Trump, who expropriated the patriotic mantle of the declaration of independence, proclaiming to the evangelicals that “America always affirmed that liberty comes from our creator. Our rights are given to us by God”, could in fact be proven to be a traitor.

Part 2

Then we look into Canada’s celebration of its 150th year as a country, with its youthful Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stressing Canada’s inclusiveness as the country’s first nation indigenous protesters set up a teepee on Parliament Hill calling for a “reoccupation”. Cleo Paskal, a Visiting Trudeau Fellow at the University of Montreal’s Center for International Studies and a fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, London, joins us to discuss how her country is managing its relationship with its powerful neighbor now headed by a leader whose policies could not be more different than those of Canada’s Justin Trudeau.

Part 3

Then finally we examine what might transpire at the upcoming G-20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany at which President Trump will meet with Russia’s President Putin for the first time. Kathryn Stoner, Director of International Policy Studies and a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and its Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University, joins us to discuss whether the meeting will be a love fest or whether Trump will try to act tough with Putin to distance himself from lingering charges of collusion with the Russians.