Author: Asher Price

The Democrats as a Vision Starved Blob Made up of Candidates, Billionaire Donors and Data Addled Consultants

We begin with the soul-searching underway as the traditional party of the working class, the Democrats, try to grapple with the recent defeat having lost an increasing number of working Americans who voted for Trump twice. Joining us to discuss a party described as “a vision-starved blob made up of candidates, nonprofits, billionaire donors, and super PACS—all connected by data-addled consultants” is Max Kiefel, a Fellow at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School. A political economist, he is writing a book on Social Democratic renewal that evaluates three “Anglo-American” parties: the US Democrats, the UK Labor Party and the Australian Labor Party and he has an article we will discuss at The Baffler, “The Consultant Con.”

Trump Wins by Calling the System Rigged While the Democrats Remain Silent

Then we examine Trump’s success with voters as he continually says the system is rigged, something the Democrats, with the exception of Bernie Sanders, refuse to say even though clearly MAGA’s solutions will make things worse. Joining us to talk about this and the brutal crackdown on demonstrations in the former Soviet State of Georgia in favor of joining the EU is Lincoln Mitchell, who teaches in the School of International and Public Affairs and the Department of Political Science at Columbia University. He has written numerous books and articles about international affairs, American politics and baseball and is the author of the popular Substack Kibitzing with Lincoln where his latest article we will discuss is, “The Truths That Facilitate Trump’s Lies.”

Will the FBI Survive a Fanatical Pro-Trump Ideologue?

Then finally we assess how the apolitical rank and file at the FBI will survive a fanatical pro-Trump ideologue Kash Patel as the bureau’s new director who has promised to shut down the FBI Headquarters building in Washington DC and reopen it the next day as a museum of the “deep state.” Joining us is Scott Horton, a professor at Columbia Law School and a contributing editor at Harper’s in legal affairs and national security. He serves on the American branch of the International Law Association, and has represented a variety of journalists and whistleblowers.