Day: January 5, 2025

Trump’s Ominous Response to the Recent Terrorist Attacks

We begin on this day before the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection with Trump seizing on the terrorist attack in New Orleans to justify the mass roundup of immigrants who he is blaming even though the perpetrator of the New Orleans massacre was a US Army vet and the other American who blew up the Tesla cyber truck in front of the Trump Hotel was an active duty US Army Green Beret. Joining us to analyze Trump’s ominous response to the recent attacks is Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law school, an international studies fellow at the New America Foundation, a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as the editor-in-Chief of the The Aon Cyber Brief. She is the author of The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo’s First 100 Days and Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State, Subtle Tools: The Dismantling of American Democracy from the War on Terror to Donald Trump, and Our Nation at Risk: Election Integrity as a National Security Issue. We discuss her article at Tom Dispatch, “Trump Brought the War on Terror Home—and He’ll Do It Again.”

An American Despot is About to Take Charge With So Much More Power Than Hitler Had in 1933

Then we speak with a specialist on the rise of fascist regimes just ahead of an American despot taking power with so much more control Hitler had in 1933 since the Supreme Court has given Trump blanket immunity and he not only controls the judiciary but the House and Senate too. Joining us is Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian who writes about authoritarianism, democracy protection, and propaganda. She is Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University, the recipient of Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other fellowships, and Advisor to Protect Democracy. She is also an MSNBC opinion columnist, a regular contributor to CNN and The Washington Post. Her latest book is Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, and she publishes Lucid, a newsletter on threats to democracy, where her latest article we discuss is “Stay and Resist, or Go into Exile? The dilemma of whether (and when) to leave the country when autocracy arrives?“

A Republican Court Kills Net Neutrality to Reward Unpopular and Antiquated Cable and Telecom Giants

Then finally we examine the 6th Circuit Republican court’s killing of net neutrality to reward unpopular and antiquated cable and Telecom giants in a decision that will let the incoming Trump FCC abdicate its responsibility to protect internet users so it can focus on its new priority of threatening TV broadcasters and social-media sites to carry more pro-Trump views. Joining us is Craig Aaron, president and co-CEO of Free Press Action. He is the editor of two books, Appeal to Reason: 25 Years of In These Times and Changing Media: Public Interest Policies for the Digital Age. We discuss his article at Common Dreams, “How Big Companies and the Courts Killed Net Neutrality.”