Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, worker's rights
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Emphasis On Christian Nationalism
Several recent developments in the United States have highlighted an increased emphasis on Christian Nationalism within government policies, raising concerns about the separation of church and state and its impact on daily life.
This heretical form of Christianity is being forced upon us. It is super masculine, misogynist, nationalist, homophobic, white, supremacist, and racist. It is Christian in name only. The religion of egalitarian Jesus, who preached the values of the sermon on the mount, is not their religion. The Christian nationalists want to use the power of the state to impose on us their brand of Christianity. It is not the solidarity of humankind.
In February 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order creating the White House Faith Office. This office aims to strengthen partnerships between the federal government and faith-based organizations, enabling them to compete for federal funding and collaborate on initiatives addressing social issues. The order underscores the administration’s recognition of the significant role these organizations play in community development.
Also in February 2025, Trump announced the formation of a task force dedicated to eliminating what he termed “anti-Christian bias” within the federal government. This initiative involves a comprehensive review of federal agencies to identify and address policies or practices perceived as discriminatory against Christians. The task force’s mandate includes ensuring that faith-based organizations receive equal treatment in government programs and services.
The appointment of Russell Vought as the head of the Office of Management and Budget has raised concerns among critics. Vought, known for his Christian nationalist views, has been instrumental in shaping policies that integrate Christian principles into governance. His influence is evident in initiatives that seek to align federal policies with specific religious values, potentially affecting the secular nature of government operations.
Guest – Andrew Seidel, author and attorney who’s defended the First Amendment for more than a decade, both in and out of court. Andrew dedicated his career to challenging religious privilege and battling Christian Nationalism.
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A Golden Age of Oligarchs
Last month, Elon Musk said something about the Trump election with which we agree. He said “this was no ordinary victory. This was a fork in the road of human civilization.“ How true. Now our democracy, however, restricted by class and race, is in the process of being replaced by a super wealthy oligarchy. There are more than 800 billionaires in the United States. They are now in the saddle.
The Citizens United Supreme Court case of 2010 eased the process. Trump was elected with money, truly big money from 10 people. Elon Musk alone contributed $277 million. Biden himself in his farewell address warned of the takeover by an oligarchy. Echoing President Eisenhower‘s famous warning of a military industrial complex, Biden talked about the “tech industrial complex.“
This second Trump term will not be like the first. It won’t be incoherent and chaotic. This has been guaranteed by the Heritage Foundation which wrote a 920 page playbook for dismantling democracy.
The process has begun with Trump pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord and calling for more drilling. “Drill baby drill” is his mantra. This is a race towards human extinction. On January 21st he pulled out of the World Health Organization. The day he was sworn in he pardoned some 1500 people who participated, and even lead the January 6th insurrection. This is a greenlight for fascist mobs who now must feel they can get away with anything.
The Democratic Party has greased the skids for this transition. It cannot be relied on for the defense of the American people. Biden and Harris after accurately calling Trump a fascist to the last few weeks of the election, then did an about face welcoming him in to the White House saying they would cooperate with him and praising the peaceful transition, a transition that Trump if he lost promised not to abide by.
Guest – Chris Hedges, the journalist and author spent two decades as a foreign correspondent serving as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for The New York Times where he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of 14 books including War is a Force That Gives us Meaning, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which he co-wrote with the cartoonist Joe Sacco, and The Death of the Liberal Class. Chris’ forthcoming book is titled A Genocide Foretold.
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Crony Capitalism, Human Rights, Prison Industry, Targeting Muslims, worker's rights
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Understanding Capitalism
The great German playwright, and political figure, Berthold Brecht, observed that to understand fascism you have to understand capitalism, from whence it springs. Today, it is also helpful for us to understand that the rise of fascism in Germany 100 years ago, has parallels we can see now with the rise of fascism in the United States.
Prior to World War I, which began in 1914, the German working class and middle class were relatively prosperous. The German unions were strong and influential. Prior to World War I, Germany also had the largest and strongest socialist party in the world, and it was the second largest political party in the German Parliament. The German economy was booming. And German culture was the jewel of Europe.
This all came to a crashing end in 1917, when Germany was defeated in what was an inter-imperial war against the United States, France, Great Britain and Russia. The consequences of that defeat brought us fascism and World War II, 20 years later. In the 1920’s, inflation wiped out the savings of the German people. When the depression hit in 1929, the German working class was desperate. The ground was fertile for the rise of Adolf Hitler, a ruthless, cunning and violent demagogue.
Here in the United States, our economy boomed for 100 years, from the end of the Civil War until the 1970s. But since then, American workers have not made any progress. Their wages, in real terms, have not risen in 50 years! “Neo- liberalism”, which is just another word for aggressive capitalism, has wiped out 30 million industrial jobs in the US, starting in the 1980s. Women were driven back into the workforce. People had to work two jobs just to keep up.
In Germany, it was the Jews who were blamed. Here in the US, it is immigrants and people of color who are scapegoated. The demagogue Trump, like Hitler before him, is a captivating speaker and a very effective cult leader, who is now poised to take the power of the government and turn it against “we the people.”
Guest – Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus from the University of Massachusetts, and the author of the forthcoming book, “Understanding Capitalism”. According to New York Times, Richard Wolff is, probably America’s most prominent Marxist economist. He is the founder of Democracy at Work and host of their national syndicated show Economic Update. Professor Wolff has authorized numerous books on capitalism and socialism, including most recently “The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us From Pandemics or Itself“, “Understanding Socialism“; and “Understanding Marxism”, which can be found at democracyatwork.info.
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Present Danger Of Fascism In The United States
The rise of Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters has transformed American politics, perhaps more than anything else has since the gathering of forces of the rebellious slave owners in the south, a century and a half ago. His first four years in office were chaotic, uninformed programmatically, and not animated by any kind of cadre of capable administrators. It was, instead, full of his statements and actions that many critics deemed to be racist, sexist and Xenophobic.
He lost the election in 2020, although he received 74 million votes! As he runs for the Presidency again, this time he is talking rather openly about wanting dictatorial authority, if he is elected again.
And this time if he does win, he now has the aid of the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which has produced the 900-page “Project for 2025” document on how to radically change our country so as to make it far, far more conservative, providing far fewer rights to the American people, and allowing any president so inclined, to run the country as an authoritarian, a virtual dictator. He has an authoritarian right wing Supreme Court, which in its latest decision, aptly named “Donald Trump versus the United States of America,” has given the presidency carte blanche immunity, placing the president above the law, allowing the president to do almost anything he or she wants to do, as long as it’s deemed to be “an official presidential act”.
Today’s program is the lead off to a series of shows on fascism, how to resist it, and how to defend against it. I will be conducting this series with my co-host, Michael Smith, who cannot be with us today due to illness.
Guest – Chris Hedges, the journalist and author spent two decades as a foreign correspondent serving as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for The New York Times where he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of 14 books including War is a Force That Gives us Meaning, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which he co-wrote with the cartoonist Joe Sacco, and The Death of the Liberal Class.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Guantanamo, Supreme Court, Targeting Muslims, Torture, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, worker's rights
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Present Danger Of Fascism In The United States
The rise of Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters has transformed American politics, perhaps more than anything else has since the gathering of forces of the rebellious slave owners in the south, a century and a half ago. His first four years in office were chaotic, uninformed programmatically, and not animated by any kind of cadre of capable administrators. It was, instead, full of his statements and actions that many critics deemed to be racist, sexist and Xenophobic.
He lost the election in 2020, although he received 74 million votes! As he runs for the Presidency again, this time he is talking rather openly about wanting dictatorial authority, if he is elected again.
And this time if he does win, he now has the aid of the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which has produced the 900-page “Project for 2025” document on how to radically change our country so as to make it far, far more conservative, providing far fewer rights to the American people, and allowing any president so inclined, to run the country as an authoritarian, a virtual dictator. He has an authoritarian right wing Supreme Court, which in its latest decision, aptly named “Donald Trump versus the United States of America,” has given the presidency carte blanche immunity, placing the president above the law, allowing the president to do almost anything he or she wants to do, as long as it’s deemed to be “an official presidential act”.
Today’s program is the lead off to a series of shows on fascism, how to resist it, and how to defend against it. I will be conducting this series with my co-host, Michael Smith, who cannot be with us today due to illness.
Guest – Chris Hedges, the journalist and author spent two decades as a foreign correspondent serving as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for The New York Times where he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of 14 books including War is a Force That Gives us Meaning, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which he co-wrote with the cartoonist Joe Sacco, and The Death of the Liberal Class.
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Guantanamo Bay Prison: 30 Suspects Remain
Once a front-page story, the U.S. prison on Guantanamo Bay is seldom in the news these days or, apparently, on the minds of the American people. But it certainly should be. Because the history and on-going operation of Guantanamo Bay Prison, or “GITMO” as it is often called, exposes the lie behind our claim to be a nation governed by the “rule of law”. Condemned by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and many other such groups, it is a permanent stain on the character of the American people.
Since 2002, at the height of its operation, close to 800 captives from many different Muslim nations were held there under tortuous conditions as “suspects” rather than being classified as “prisoners of war”, which they clearly were, and accorded all of the rights they were entitled to as prisoners of war. The youngest was 13 years old! In fact, 21 of the detainees were children. All of the detainees were subjected to barbaric forms of torture. Some committed suicides. Hundreds were convicted in sham trials and in illegitimate military tribunals. Many, if not most suspects, clearly bore no responsibility for combat operations in the Muslim nations where we were waging war.
Today, about 30 suspects remain in the U.S. prison on Guantanamo Bay. Sixteen are “cleared for release”, but it has not yet been made clear to what country they can be released. Three have not been charged, nor have they been cleared for release. And nobody can reasonably predict when, if ever, they will be freed. And in the latest shameful twist, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has now upended a plea deal for the three prisoners accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks. It would have allowed the men to plead guilty and be sentenced to life in prison…and instead, given Austin’s intervention, they will now face the death penalty if they are tried and convicted.
Clearly, GITMO is a consequence of America’s imperialist wars in Muslim countries, wars for those Muslim countries’ oil, and for geopolitical gain. Of course, over the many years of these wars, U.S. presidents have repeatedly claimed that we are not at war with Islam. Well, tell that to the families of the millions of dead and wounded Muslims our bombing and invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan caused; tell it to the thousands of Muslims forbidden to enter America through travel bans; tell it to the countless numbers of Muslim citizens and residents of America, who’ve been discriminated against at work or in public; tell it to the Muslim children attacked on their way to school and called “terrorists;” or, tell it to the Muslim worshipers whose mosques have been infiltrated by government spies.
And…for that matter… tell it, as well, to the Palestinian Muslims. Because America’s desire for Mideast oil is also a big reason why Israel exists in the Middle East. A big reason why the United States has partnered with it in its war on the Palestinian people, and why we’ve sent billions in military aid to Israel over the years to keep Israel secure in its role as our “advanced military force” in the oil rich Middle East.
Guest – Shane Kadidal, a Senior Managing Attorney of the Guantanamo Project, at the famed Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, where he has worked on several significant cases arising in the wake of 9/11, including the Center’s legal challenges to the indefinite detention of men at Guantanamo.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Criminalizing Dissent, genocide, Human Rights, Right To Dissent, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
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The More Effective Of Two Evils
The extensive growing repression and censorship in our country is manifest daily. Already some 3000 students have been arrested and many of their encampments on college campuses have been violently closed down. The leading newspaper, the New York Times, has instructed reporters not to use the words “genocide” or “ethnic cleansing.” Journalist Chris Hedges has been removed from The Real News Network for interviewing, Dennis Kucinich, the independent candidate for Congress in Ohio and for not supporting the presidential candidacy of Joe Biden.
The necessity for independent political action, independent of both the Republican and the Democratic parties, is the lesson many social activists are drawing. The journalist, Glen Ford, of the Black Agenda Report , coined the phrase “the more effective of two evils” in describing the Democratic Party.
The Democrats are trying to beat people into their camp by haranguing about how horrible Trump is. That’s true. But look at how effective Biden has been in supporting the Israeli genocide. It has only been the independent action of the courageous students that may succeed in tempering the onslaught. It has already had some effect. Activist are now focusing on the fact that it was the Democratic Party on a national and local scale that coordinated attacks on the Palestine solidarity encampments. Just as they did under Obama in closing down Occupy.
The Democrats prevented Bernie Sanders from getting the nomination. Had he not supported the Democrats and became an independent our movement would’ve been much more effective than his lobbing Biden. He has been reduced to the edge of relevance. Significant social change comes from organizing people independently. The rise of the CIO, the civil rights movement and the movement to end the war in Vietnam are illustrations of this truth.
In appreciating the role of the Democratic Party, social activists are increasingly concluding that independent, political action now will help us against Trump should he get elected. Conversely herding people in to supporting the Democratic Party will disarm us.
Guest – Chris Hedges, the journalist and author discusses the collapsing media landscape, what happened to him at The Real News Network and how we preserve journalism. He spent two decades as a foreign correspondent serving as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for The New York Times where he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of 14 books including War is a Force That Gives us Meaning, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which he co-wrote with the cartoonist Joe Sacco, and The Death of the Liberal Class.
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Early Detection: Catching Cancer When Its Curable
The “war on cancer“ declared by President Richard Nixon over 50 years ago has been a failure. Mortality rates for victims of cancer have not decreased, except for the successful campaign against smoking.
Attorney Michael Ratner, when he was the President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, helped found Law And Disorder radio 20 years ago. We lost him to cancer eight years ago.
Michael’s younger brother Bruce Ratner has co-authored the book Early Detection: Catching Cancer When It’s Curable. It Is dedicated to the memory of Michael Ratner. Bruce and Michael shared similar values. Over the years, cancer rates have pretty much remained the same. Very high. Particularly affected are poor people, rural people, and people of color.
Most money spent on fighting cancer by big pharmaceutical companies goes into researching and developing medicines for late-stage cancers. These medicines have proven to only prolong life for several months. So, what is the answer to truly combating cancer? Early detection. And it must be quite early on.
Funds currently misdirected could be used in this effort. Prostate, breast, colo-rectal, and lung cancers can be detected early. But too often they are not. Even when they are, many people don’t follow up with treatment. A blood test has been developed to identify 50 different cancers. But what’s missing is a massive program of education and organization to catch cancer in its early stages.
Guest – Bruce Ratner studied science at Harvard, graduated from Columbia law school and then taught at NYU Law School. New York City Mayor John Lindsay appointed Bruce to be the Commissioner of Consumer Affairs. Bruce went on to develop real estate in Manhattan and Brooklyn and brought the first professional athletic team, the Brooklyn Nets, to Brooklyn, where he developed the Barclay Center. He also sits on the boards of Weil Cornell Hospital in Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital. He has initiated the Michael D. Ratner Center for Early Detection of Cancer.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, Uncategorized, Violations of U.S. and International Law
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Chris Hedges: Israel’s Trojan Horse
The Israeli military is the fourth most powerful military in the world. In the last six months it has turned the Gaza Strip into a howling wilderness. Most of us 2.2 million inhabitants have been driven into a tiny corner in the south in the city of Rafa where they face an invasion planned by Israel with American support. Israel sent a delegation to Washington last week. The story spun by the Biden administration is that they are working with Israel to try to “moderate” Israel. This is perception management.
Meanwhile, in another PR move, the United States, announced that it is building a temporary pier on the Mediterranean shore of Gaza to facilitate the importation of food stuffs. But it doesn’t say that the pier will facilitate the export of Palestinians in to permanent exile.
Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war. The United States is not serious about getting food for Palestinians. It continues to supply the Israelis with weapons, including opening up its weapons storage facility in Israel for the Israelis to freely use.
Contrary to American law, the Biden administration, has circumvented Congress 100 times to send even more weapons and bombs which have killed more than 32,000 people and injured another 70,000 while destroying most of the homes in Gaza, their hospitals, schools, mosques , water and sanitation plants, and electrical infrastructure.
Israel’s reaction to the judgment of International Court Of Justice, the highest court in the world, was to ignore their founding of “plausible, genocide“ and to ignore their decisions – taken together amount to a cease-fire. Israel’s goal is to ethnically cleanse Gaza and resettle it with their own people. Last week Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner gave his opinion on the subject calling the western shore of Gaza “good beachfront property“ most suitable for development now that the Palestinians have been driven out of their homes.
Defenders of Israel say that Israel is acting in self-defense, that Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon are behind Hamas, and that in any case the figures of death and injury of Palestinians are lies perpetrated by the Gaza Ministry of Health, which is controlled by Hamas.
Guest – Chris Hedges, award-winning journalist and political writer. Chris Hedges reported for The New York Times from 1990 to 2005 and served as the Times’ Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief during the wars in the former Yugoslavia. In 2001 Hedges was one of the Times’ writers on an entry that received the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. Prior to his work for the Times, he worked as a freelance war correspondent in Central America for the Christian Science Monitor, NPR and the Dallas Morning News. His books include “Death of the Liberal Class”, “War on America”, “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt”, and his book “War Is a Force That Gives US Meaning”, which was a finalist for the national Book Critics Circle Award for Non-Fiction.
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Billionaires, Economies And Elections
There were 614 billionaires in America four years ago before the pandemic. Now there are 737. Their total wealth is more than $5 trillion. In the last four years they went from having 2,947,000,000,000 to having 5,529,000,000,000. The golden rule in the United States is that he who has the gold makes the rules. A corollary to this rule is – follow the money.
The immense concentration of wealth among a handful of billionaires in America has destroyed every institution in our country from education to politics. What effect does it have on elections? We have two parties. Both support capitalism which has resulted in having two parties of big money. They make it nearly impossible to challenge their hegemony by forming a third party.
The Supreme Court decision in Citizens United ruled that corporations are people. Thus, they can exercise their free speech rights and donate an unlimited amount of money to preserve and advance their perceived interests. In 1937 the great political journalist Ferdinand Lundburg analyzed wealth and class in the USA in his book America’s 60 Families. He wrote about how they functioned for the purpose of gaining and keeping political and economic power.
In 1968 Lundburg published The Rich and the Super Rich. It shows how the ruling elite controls the mainstream media and the US economy and have virtually uncontested influence over American political institutions. The infamous names of the ruling class back then were Rockefeller, Ford, Vanderbilt, Melon, Dupont, Guggenheim, Whitney, and Astor. They made their money in oil, steel, chemicals, that is to say, basic industry. But their wealth was relatively small compared to today’s economic titans who have made their money in tech industries and speculation.
Guest – Patrick Martin, senior editor at the world socialist web site where he covers a range of political issues in the United States.
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