Weaponizing Women’s Rage
We begin today’s 2018 retrospective with an interview from September 26. With a third accuser of Judge Kavanaugh who provided a declaration under penalty of perjury which not just supports the evidence so far from the first two accusers, but goes beyond what is inferred in the books by Kavanaugh’s best friend Mark Judge. She shows a pattern and a purpose to the heavy drinking at house parties involving the spiking of drinks so that the young women would lose inhibitions and be so drunk that they could be gang raped by a train of boys including Kavanaugh and Judge, lined up outside rooms waiting to take their turn. Soraya Chemaly, an award-winning writer and activist who is the Director of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project and author of the new book “Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger”, joins us to discuss how women’s rage at being overworked and underpaid, called sluts or prudes and when harassed, told they asked for it, is being transformed in the 21st century into one of the most important resources women have. With the #MeToo movement sweeping the country, the Kavanaugh hearing now seems like a watershed moment in which women as victims who have held in anger and humiliation for decades often having it turn into depression, are now bravely speaking out and challenging a ruthless patriarchy intent of ignoring them while placing a misogynist cloaked in piety on the highest court in the land who will roll back women’s rights and criminalize their right to choose.
A President Out of Control But With the Nuclear Button
Then we go to a discussion on October 3rd about the uncontrolled outburst that spewed from President Trump at a rally in Mississippi as he belittled Dr. Blasey Ford who testified against Judge Kavanaugh. Despite having been repeatedly cautioned by his handlers not to inflame a delicate political situation as Kavanaugh’s fate hangs by a thread, Trump clearly could not restrain himself and his vitriolic mockery of Dr. Ford offended the very senators who are the swing votes Trump needs to seat Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court. Joseph Cirincione, the President of the Ploughshares Fund and author of “Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons”, joins us to discuss the danger of having a president who cannot control himself but has access to the nuclear button. Although we have been lucky the country has not faced a crisis so far, the fact remains that Trump has the power at his fingertips to destroy the world. We will assess the difference between a Trump Administration full of unqualified amateurs like Ambassador to NATO, Kay Bailey Hutchison, who just threated to “take out” Russian nuclear missiles on their territory, and how President Kennedy handled the Cuban missile crisis by overruling his hawks who recommended a nuclear strike which would have led to a nuclear war. In contrast if a real crisis struck, an erratic and uncontrollable Trump would be goaded on by his hawks John Bolton and Mike Pompeo.
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin on Her Book “Leadership: In Turbulent Times”
Then finally we go to an October 4th interview with world-renowned presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin about her latest book “Leadership: In Turbulent Times”. Having written major works on Teddy Roosevelt, LBJ, FDR, and Lincoln in the runaway bestseller “Team of Rivals”, the basis for Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning film “Lincoln”, we discuss her latest book on all of the afore-mentioned presidents and assess how good leaders become great leaders. This in contrast to our current leader who Senator Ben Sasse, a member of Trump’s own Republican Party just said “is unable to lead the country”.