October 31 - The White House-Fox News Propaganda Machine; Can the Reality-Based World Penetrate the Trump Media Bubble?; Trump's Chief of Staff is Even More Reactionary Than He Is

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the flagrant and cynical use of propaganda by the Trump White House Press Secretary and by so-called news operations like Fox News, along with the right wing echo chambers of Sinclair and Limbaugh and his clones, all of whom have become Trump’s “Pravda” or more Orwellian, his Ministry of Truth. Jason Stanley, a Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and author of “How Propaganda Works”, joins us to discuss the capture of almost half of the country by a fascist-style propaganda machine similar to what Joseph Goebbels used and Putin uses today. While Trump himself tweets out daily his own fake news to his 40 million twitter followers, the main support for Trump in post-truth America is orchestrated by Rupert Murdoch and other oligarchs like Bannon’s paymasters the Mercers. They have succeeded in creating an alternative media universe immune to facts and evidence and they will resort to any lie or manufacture any fiction no matter how absurd, to keep their president in power and his supporters sealed in a bubble of delusion.  

Part 2

Then we examine the first of 12 counts enumerated in the indictment against Paul Manafort and that is “Conspiracy Against the United States”.  Lawrence Douglas, a Professor of Law, jurisprudence and Social Thought at Amherst College joins us to discuss his article at The Guardian “How will Donald Trump respond to the Russia Investigation?” We look into the challenge facing the reality-based majority in this country to convince Trump’s base that he chose an exemplar of the Washington swamp to run his campaign and that when top people in his own party and administration call him a “f-ing moron” and are concerned he might blow up the world, they should pay attention.

Part 3

Then finally we assess the overwhelming evidence now apparent that Trump’s Chief of Staff General John Kelly is not “containing” Trump but is rather completely compatible if not much further to the right than the spoiled toddler he supposedly has under adult supervision. American historian Adam Goodheart, the author of “1861: The Civil War Awakening”, joins us to discuss Kelly’s opinions expressed on Fox News that “Robert E. Lee was an honorable man and that “the lack of an ability to compromise” led to the civil war.