Month: February 2022

The Shadow of Nuclear Weapons Looming Over the Ukraine Crisis

We begin with the one thing Russia and America have in common and that is vast nuclear arsenals which could destroy the world many times over. Joining us to discuss the looming threat of the use of nuclear weapons as a war against Ukraine is poised to erupt is Joseph Cirincione, a distinguished fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a national security analyst and author with over 35 years of experience working in Washington, D.C. He is the author or editor of seven books, including Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World before It Is Too Late and Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons. He previously served as president of Ploughshares Fund and was director for nonproliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, among other positions. He also worked for over nine years on the professional staff of the Armed Services Committee and the Government Operations Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. We discuss his new report at The Quincy Institute, “Achieving a Safer U.S. Nuclear Posture” and calls from Russian generals demanding Putin resign and stop “the criminal policy of provoking a war in which Russia would be alone against the united forces of the West,” which raises the question of a breakdown in Russian command and control of nuclear weapons should war break out.

Trump’s Ripping, Burning and Toilet Flushing of Protected Documents

Then we look into the National Archives call on the Department of Justice to investigate Trump’s destruction of documents and violations of the Presidential Records Act including reports he clogged up the White House toilets with wads of documents requiring periodic visits to the White House residence by a plumber. Joining us is Julian Zelizer, a Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University whose recent books include Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party and his latest, Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement. The co-host of the “Politics & Polls” podcast and a CNN Political Analyst, we discuss his latest article at CNN, “Ripping and burning: How the Trump White House handled some legally protected documents.”

Trump Ally Peter Thiel’s $5 Billion Deployed to Elect Trumpsters to House and Senate

Then finally we look into the resignation from the Facebook board of the billionaire Trump ally Peter Thiel who is now directing his fortune to get Trumpster candidates elected to the House and Senate and speak with Max Chafkin, a features editor and a tech reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek whose work has also appeared in Vanity Fair and The New York Times Magazine. He is the author of the new book, The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power and we look into how the far right libertarian Thiel doesn’t necessarily want to destroy government, but rather aims to control it.