Background Briefing: October 28, 2018
The Week of Hate Inflamed By Trump and Murdoch
We begin with the week of hate in America starting last Monday with a pipe bomb delivered to George Soros then on Wednesday a white supremacist shot two African Americans at random in a store in Kentucky, then as the week proceeded more pipe bombs were delivered to two former presidents, a Secretary of State, an Attorney General, a former head of the CIA, the former Director of National Intelligence, two U.S. Senators and a Congresswoman. By Friday the would-be assassin and bomb-maker was caught after mailing 14 pipe bombs to prominent Democrats singled out by Trump for vilification. And just as the bomber’s pro-Trump profile and burning hatred of Democrats, Jews, gays, Muslims, blacks, Latinos, and CNN emerged, on Saturday a heavily-armed white man shouting anti-Semitic hate opened fire in a Pittsburg synagogue killing 11 worshipers and wounding two more as well as four police officers. David Neiwert, an award-winning journalist, author and expert on right-wing extremism whose latest book is “Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump”, joins us. We will discuss the obvious connection between Trump’s rhetoric and his apparent inability to criticize American neo-Nazis and white supremacists which has enabled fringe movements to enter the mainstream, emboldened to act on their sick beliefs and tortured conspiracies that are propagated by Fox News, Breitbart, Limbaugh and Alex Jones.
How Steve Mnuchin Made the MAGA Bomber Homeless
Then we look into why the alleged bomber Cesar Sayoc was attracted to Trump with cult-like fervor to the point he decided to assassinate Trump’s critics in the leadership of the Democratic Party, along with top former intelligence officials and Trump’s “enemies of the people”, the press. David Dayen, a contributing writer to Salon.com and The Intercept where his latest article is “Cesar Sayoc’s Home Was Foreclosed on by Steve Mnuchin’s Bank Using Dodgy Paperwork”, joins us to look into how Sayoc became homeless and ended up living in a van and blaming Democrats instead of those who are taking away what’s left of a social safety net this ill and troubled man so clearly needed.