Trump’s Cynical Demonization of Latinos
We begin with a response to President Trump’s State Of The Union in which he appeared to be laying the groundwork for declaring a national emergency to build his border wall. Laura Munoz Lopez, a special assistant for Immigration Policy at the Center for American Progress where she has an article “7 of the Top Immigration Lies from the Trump Administration”, joins us. We discuss the fact that apprehensions on the southern border have declined by 75% since 2000 yet the president built his address to the Congress around making a case that the greatest threat to the nation comes from what he describes as an open border though which drugs, criminals and terrorists are flooding into the country murdering innocent Americans in their beds while taking jobs from working class Americans as the political elite remain comfortably ensconced inside gated communities walled off from the mayhem. We assess whether Trump’s cynical use of Latinos as invading alien criminals and rapists, racist lies with which he began his presidential campaign, is still working as a means to divide America and justify the building of his wall which he promised Mexico would pay for.
The Stream of Lies and Exaggerations from Trump’s SOTU
Then we speak with bestselling author and veteran investigative journalist, Charles Lewis, the founder of The Center For Public Integrity and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and author of “935 Lies: The Future of Truth and the Decline of America’s Moral Leadership”. He joins us to dissect the stream of lies and exaggerations which issued forth from Trump last night to be greeted with ritual applause from Republicans springing to their feet like Jack-in-the-Boxes. We will look into why Trump still has the support of 30 to 40% of the country many of whom are fundamentalist Christians who appear to be overlooking God’s commandment that “thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor”.
“Don’t Let the Democrats Become the Party of War”
Then finally we examine how much the Democratic Party, in opposing any policy associated with Trump, are becoming the party of war. Stephen Wertheim, professor of U.S. History at Columbia University and author of the forthcoming book “Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy in World War 11”, joins us to discuss his article at Foreign Policy “Don’t Let Democrats Become the Party of War”. We explore the dangers of the gambit by some Democrats to out-hawk Trump instead of rescuing and reviving diplomacy.