Day: July 15, 2019

Trump Doubles Down on His Racist Attacks on “The Squad”

We begin with the reaction to Trump’s racist trolling of Congresswomen Ocasio Cortez, Tlaib, Pressley and Omar which appears to have temporarily unified the Democrats in outrage but nevertheless has Trump doubling down with even more insulting language suggesting the minority women should go back to where they came from even though three of the four congresswomen were born in the United States. The congresswomen known as “the squad” held a press conference today at which they made clear they are not leaving the country and are here to stay with Ocasio-Cortez rebuking Trump saying “I want to tell children across this country that no matter what the President says, this country belongs to you”. Nikhil Singh, a Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History at New York University and author of “Race and America’s Long War” joins us to discuss the blatant nature of Trump’s overtly racist appeal to white America that is no longer a dog whistle but a howl against the browning of America. As Trump himself has made clear, white Europeans from Norway as opposed to African S***-hole countries are welcome like the first lady Melania and her chain-migrated family, but not dark-skinned migrants from south of the border, they are to be put in cages and held in camps. With no polling available on exactly what percentage of the American population is racist, we speculate on what the majority who believe in decency, respect, civility and tolerance can do reverse the coarsening of the discourse as Trump lowers the inhibitions against outright racism and hate speech.

Trump’s Strategy to Split the Democrat’s Midwest Firewall

Then we look further into the strategy behind Trump’s racist attacks on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and speak with David Schultz, a professor of Political Science at Hamline University and the University of Minnesota School of Law who studies American politics, ethics, election law and the media. He joins us to discuss his latest article “The Nixon-Trump Southern Strategy Goes North: The Midwest, Race, and the 2020 Presidential Election”. With Trump now sounding more like George Wallace than Richard Nixon, his strategy of splitting the Democrat’s Midwest firewall is underway with Ilhan Omar now in the crosshairs.

As Bad as Trump’s Cabinet Secretaries Are, Their Successors Are Worse

Then finally as bad as the just-resigned Secretary of Labor was to many people, his successor is far worse, and we will get an assessment of this “out-of-the-fire-into the-frying-pan” phenomenon which is unique to the Trump White House where thirteen cabinet heads have already resigned or been fired with Jeff Hauser, the Executive Director of the Revolving Door Project at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He joins to discuss how Acosta’s deputy Patrick Pizzella, now in charge of the Labor Department, is worse because he is Koch-trained ideologue dedicated and determined to undermine the department and its mission.