Category Archives: economics

Michael McFaul AUTOCRATS VS. DEMOCRATS: CHINA, RUSSIA, AMERICA, AND THE NEW GLOBAL DISORDER and Jeff Mangan THE MONTANA PLAN

In our first segment we speak with Stanford University Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies, Michael McFaul. He served for five years in the Obama administration, first as special assistant to the president and senior director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House (2009-2012), and then as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2012-2014).

His latest book is AUTOCRATS VS. DEMOCRATS: CHINA, RUSSIA, AMERICA, AND THE NEW GLOBAL DISORDER, published by Harper Collins. His earlier books include Russia’s Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin and the NYT bestseller, From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia.

In our second segment, we speak with Montana’s former Commissioner for Political Practices, Jeff Mangan, about a proposed amendment to the Montana State Constitution, titled The Transparent Election Initiative. It has garnered tremendous interest and excitement nationally, and is being dubbed The Montana Plan. If enacted, it would effectively kill Citizens United in Montana, and would serve as a model for other states. Instead of being cut off at the pass by the Supreme Court’s first amendment ruling that money is free speech, it instead asserts a 10th amendment states’ right to govern and control corporate charters to determine what they can and cannot do.

Articles, etc. that are pertinent to these interviews:

MONEYBOMB: The Montana Plan To Kill Citizens United Tom Moore w/David Sirota https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuZ0cVE-nHM

The Transparent Election Initiative https://transparentelection.org/

AG: Anti-dark-money ballot initiative doesn’t meet legal requirements https://dailymontanan.com/2025/10/30/ag-anti-dark-money-ballot-initiative-doesnt-meet-legal-requirements/

Attorney general rules ‘anti-dark money’ ballot initiative has too many parts https://montanafreepress.org/2025/10/27/montana-ag-rules-anti-dark-money-ballot-initiative-has-too-many-parts/

Satisfaction with democracy below 50% in eight out of nine western countries, poll finds https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/14/state-of-democracy-survey-ipsos-western-countries

The Right’s Secret Plan to Help Billionaires Buy Elections https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/jd-vance-right-plan-billionaires-elections-1235445122/

China’s latest aircraft carrier enters service to extend reach into high seas https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/07/chinas-latest-aircraft-carrier-enters-service-to-extend-reach-into-high-seas

China advises against travel to Japan amid escalating row over PM’s Taiwan comments https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/15/china-advises-against-travel-to-japan-amid-escalating-row-over-pms-taiwan-comments

Hegseth Is Purging Military Leaders With Little Explanation http://5 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/us/politics/hegseth-firing-military-leaders.html

Taiwan vice-president presses case at EU parliament for joint efforts to counter China https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/08/taiwan-vice-president-presses-case-at-eu-parliament-for-joint-efforts-to-counter-china

Trump’s dollar delusion: how trade war risks ending the US’s ‘exorbitant privilege’ https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/nov/09/trump-trade-war-dollar-value

Resilience of Europe’s populist right carries warning for US Democrats https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/10/rightwing-czech-republic-poland-hungary-democrats

Trump says US will boycott G20 summit in South Africa, citing treatment of white farmers https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/07/trump-boycott-g20-south-africa-white-farmers

Reagan-Appointed Federal Judge Rebukes Trump In Damning Resignation Letter https://www.huffpost.com/entry/federal-judge-resigns-letter-trump_n_69121c3ae4b0b840aac12569?origin=home-whats-happening-unit

Brutish, bullying, imperialistic: the Ugly American is back https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/10/donald-trump-ugly-american

Nexperia row shows how China is weaponising EU relationship – and winning https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/nov/11/nexperia-row-china-trade-brussels-beijing-chips

Donald Trump has wielded power as no previous president has, often in open defiance of the law. His actions have raised a chilling question. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/31/opinion/trump-autocracy-democracy-report.html

Forget diplomatic niceties: it’s beyond time Europe denounced Trump’s trashing of democracy in the US https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/28/europe-donald-trump-democracy-us

Playing dirty used to be the west’s preserve. Now we’re letting Moscow beat us at our own game https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/04/west-moscow-berlin-airlift-cold-war-civilians

Putin’s repressive machinery turns inward to target pro-war figures https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/06/putin-repressive-machinery-turns-inward-target-pro-war-figures

Trump’s Gilded Ballroom and the Fall of the American Republic https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/trumps-gilded-ballroom-and-the-fall

Henry Giroux and Nate Bellinger

Today’s show is in two parts. First, longtime friend of Forthright Radio, scholar, public intellectual, McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest, and The Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy, Henry Giroux, joins us again to discuss many issues facing our nation and the world – from the increasing militarization of America at home and on the seas, to the young people he teaches who are rising to the challenges of becoming effective cultural producers in this era unlike any in human history.

In the last part of the show Nate Bellinger, Our Children’s Trust’s Supervising Senior Staff Attorney, shares with us about the latest in the recent federal district court decision that Federal District Dourt Judge Dana Christenson rendered on October 16, 2025, in the Lighthiser v Trump case, and their on-going legal efforts representing their youth plaintiffs suing for a livable climate.

The link to read the students’ Public Intellectuals Project essays Henry Giroux mentioned in our interview: https://publicintellectualsproject.humanities.mcmaster.ca

In the KZYX pledge drive show, we read this poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko:

Talk

You’re a brave man they tell me.
I’m not.
Courage has never been my quality.
Only I thought it disproportionate
so to degrade myself as others did.
No foundations trembled. My voice
no more than laughed at pompous falsity;
I did no more than write, never denounced,
I left out nothing I had thought about,
defended who deserved it, put a brand
on the untalented, the ersatz writers
(doing what anyhow had to be done).
And now they press to tell me that I’m brave.
How sharply our children will be ashamed
taking at last their vengeance for these horrors
remembering how in so strange a time
common integrity could look like courage.

by Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Translated by Robin Milner-Galland and Peter Levi

Articles pertinent to these interviews:

Stephen Miller and the Making of the Fascist Subject https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/17/stephen-miller-and-the-making-of-the-fascist-subject/

Trump’s America: Echoes of a Fascist Past https://socialistproject.ca/2025/10/trumps-america-echoes-fascist-past/

Pedagogies of Repression: Ford, Trump and the War on Education https://socialistproject.ca/2025/09/pedagogies-of-repression/

Charlie Kirk’s Death Is a Symptom of a National Political Culture in Crisis https://truthout.org/articles/charlie-kirks-death-is-a-symptom-of-a-national-political-culture-in-crisis/

Trump’s Theater of Cruelty: Fascism’s Malignant Return https://www.laprogressive.com/immigration-reform/theater-of-cruelty

The Democratic Party: Architects of Cowardice, Accomplices to Fascism https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/08/the-democratic-party-architects-of-cowardice-accomplices-to-fascism/

The War on Memory: How Trump’s Cultural Erasure Threatens Democracy in the U.S. and Canada https://www.laprogressive.com/democracy/trumps-cultural-erasure-threatens-canadian-democracy

Plastic surgeons wrestle with requests for ‘Mar-a-Lago face’: ‘You’re going to look like Maleficent’ https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/nov/18/mar-a-lago-face-plastic-surgery

Trump’s Warfare State: Domestic Terrorism and Spectacular Violence https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/29/domestic-terrorism-and-spectacularized-violence-in-trumps-warfare-state/

Resisting the Deadly Language of American Fascism https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/07/11/resisting-the-deadly-language-of-american-fascism/

A Broad Wave of Firings Followed Charlie Kirk’s Assassination https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/us/kirk-critics-fired-free-speech.html

New Trump Order Among ‘Scariest Things I’ve Seen in US Politics,’ Civil Rights Attorney Says https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-vigilante-portal

Kamala Harris Thinks Trump Is a “Communist.” That’s Insane. https://jacobin.com/2025/09/harris-newsom-trump-communist-oligarchy

‘An unworkable request:’ Federal judge dismisses climate lawsuit https://dailymontanan.com/2025/10/16/an-unworkable-request-federal-judge-dismisses-climate-lawsuit/

The Kids Who Sued Trump Just Lost Big in Court. Or Did They? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/climate/climate-lawsuit-children-montana-trump-health.html

Judge Throws Out Children’s Lawsuit Against Trump’s Energy Policies https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/climate/montana-youth-trump-climate-lawsuit-dismissed.html

Young Activists Say 3 Trump Orders Violate Constitutional Rights https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/climate/lighthiser-trial-climate-trump.html?searchResultPosition=2

Young People Suing Trump Over Climate Have Their Day in Federal Court https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/climate/montana-lawsuit-trump-executive-orders-energy.html

Hawaii Settles With Young Plaintiffs in Climate Case https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/climate/hawaii-youth-climate-lawsuit.html

Youth Climate Activists Get Major Win in Montana Supreme Court https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/climate/held-montana-youth-climate-lawsuit.html

Howard French THE SECOND EMANCIPATION: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide

Joining us once again is journalist, author and professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Howard French. He has been a decades long New York Times reporter, serving as its bureau chief for the Caribbean and Central America from 1990 to 1994, covering Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and other countries. He was one of the Times’ first black foreign correspondents, and from 1994 to 1998 he covered West and Central Africa, reporting on wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Central Africa, with particular attention to the fall of the longtime dictator of Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko. From 1998 to 2008 he served as the Times bureau chief for Japan, Korea and Shanghai, from which experiences he wrote Everything Under the Heavens: How China’s Past Helps Shape its Push for Global Power; and China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa.

His latest book, THE SECOND EMANCIPATION: NKRUMAH, PAN-AFRICANISM, AND GLOBAL BLACKNESS AT HIGH TIDE, is being released on August 26, 2025 by Liveright. The link to our earlier interview when his book, BORN IN BLACKNESS: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War, was published is below.

His very well documented books are packed full of information and insights rarely seen outside the academic world. Best of all, his writing style is lucid, fluid and a pleasure to read.

We spoke with Howard French via FaceTime on August 19, 2025.

Links to articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

The Man Who Saw the Future of Africa https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/opinion/africa-future-kwame-nkrumah.html

Mali’s junta arrests generals and French national over alleged coup plot https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/15/mali-junta-arrests-generals-and-french-national-over-suspected-coup-plot

Howard French BORN IN BLACKNESS: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War https://forthright.media/2022/12/22/howard-french-born-in-blackness-africa-africans-and-the-making-of-the-modern-world-1471-to-the-second-world-war/

Stuart Reid THE LUMUMBA PLOT: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination https://forthright.media/2023/12/08/stuart-reid-the-lumumba-plot-the-secret-history-of-the-cia-and-a-cold-war-assassination/

Adam Shatz THE REBEL’S CLINIC: THE REVOLUTIONARY LIVES OF FRANTZ FANON https://forthright.media/2024/03/12/adam-shatz-the-rebels-clinic-the-revolutionary-lives-of-frantz-fanon/

Birth of Ghana Lord Kitchener https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=057BmLQ9MfU&list=RD057BmLQ9MfU&start_radio=1

E.T. Mensah-Ghana Freedom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sivj_40ZaHc&list=RDSivj_40ZaHc&start_radio=1

Why Trump’s ‘anti-woke’ attack on the Smithsonian matters https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/27/why-trumps-attack-on-the-smithsonian-matters

The Guardian view on Africa and maps: drawn true, its scale and promise can’t be ignored https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/22/the-guardian-view-on-africa-and-maps-drawn-true-its-scale-and-promise-cant-be-ignored

Equal Earth • Political Wall Map https://equal-earth.com/equal-earth-projection.html

David Daley Texas Redistricting & Our Democracy

When Governor Greg Abbot called The Texas Legislature into special session ostensibly to deal with the aftermath of the devastating flooding of the Guadalupe River, but instead listed first on the agenda a highly unusual mid-decade redistricting to re-gerrymander the already gerrymandered redistricting after the 2020 Census, with the stated intention of providing 5 more Republican seats in Congress ahead of the 2026 midterm election; and After enough Democratic members fled Texas to deprive the Republican majority of the necessary quorum to do this, we invited Dave Daley back to help us understand what the heck is going on.

We had him on in September, 2024 when his book, Antidemocratic: Inside the Far Right’s 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections, came out; and in 2022 right after the midterms; and in 2020 when his book, Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy, was published.

We spoke with him on August 5, 2025 via Zoom.

Also included are excerpts from an interview with Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Security Works. Here is a link to the full interview: https://forthright.media/2025/08/06/alex-lawson-90th-anniversary-of-the-social-security-act/

Links to our earlier interviews with David Daley: https://forthright.media/2024/09/27/david-daley-antidemocratic-inside-the-far-rights-50-year-plot-to-control-american-elections/

From 2020: https://forthright.media/2020/06/06/david-daley-unrigged-how-americans-are-battling-back-to-save-democracy/

From 2022: https://forthright.media/2022/11/12/david-daley-paul-pierson-post-midterms-2022/

Articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

Judge Rules Utah Must Redraw Its Congressional Map, Frustrating Republicans https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/us/utah-congress-gerrymander-redistricting.html

State voting rights acts recognize proportional ranked choice voting as a way to protect voters https://fairvote.org/state-voting-rights-acts-recognize-proportional-ranked-choice-voting-as-a-way-to-protect-voters/

Gov. Greg Abbott’s options to force a redistricting vote are more limited than they appear https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/04/greg-abbott-texas-democrats-redistricting-00492100

California moves to dismantle GOP map — and Trump’s grip https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/04/california-fires-back-at-texas-redistricting-00493314

Federal court says Alabama must use map that creates 2nd Black majority district https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/07/federal-court-alabama-must-use-map-black-majority-district-00499369

The America We Knew Is Rapidly Slipping Away https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/opinion/columnists/friedman-trump-labor-firing.html

The Supreme Court Has Finally Found a President It Likes https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/opinion/supreme-court-trump-administration.html

The Origins of the Political Power Grab in Texas https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/us/politics/texas-redistricting-politics.html

Group releases text of proposed Montana Constitutional amendment to curb dark money https://dailymontanan.com/2025/08/01/group-releases-text-of-proposed-montana-constitutional-amendment-to-curb-dark-money/

Donald Trump’s golf tab for taxpayers continues to skyrocket. Here’s the eye-popping new estimate https://www.pennlive.com/news/2025/08/donald-trumps-golf-tab-for-taxpayers-continues-to-skyrocket-heres-the-eye-popping-new-estimate.html

Democrats sound alarm over Trump’s reported $1bn plan to retrofit gifted Qatari jet https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/07/trumps-qatar-jet-retrofitting-democrats-letter

Malcolm Harris WHAT’S LEFT: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis

On this edition of Forthright Radio our guest is journalist, author, activist and critic, Malcolm Harris.

After being arrested in the October 2011 Occupy Wall Street protest on the Brooklyn Bridge, his court case became “a significant focus of attention for its involvement of posts to social networking sites and legal arguments over who controls that material” as the prosecution sought to undermine his defense using his own Twitter posts which he had deleted.

His books include Kids These Days: The Making of Millennials; Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World; and most recently What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis, published in Spring, 2025 by Little, Brown.

We spoke with Malcolm Harris about his latest book, which includes a reference to Judi Bari, on July 21, 2025 via Zoom. He was very patient and kind, re-connecting after a couple of disruptive technical problems.

Articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

Gil Duran on Trump, Tech, and “The Nerd Reich” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2W3tmCBEnE

What’s the Matter with Abundance? https://thebaffler.com/latest/whats-the-matter-with-abundance-harris

Kurdish leader Ocalan issues message from prison, urging PKK to disarm to make peace with Turkey https://apnews.com/article/turkey-pkk-ocalan-peace-talks-68decd55c35fa537f04b117bc9736128

Kurdish leader Ocalan told the PKK to disband, it did: Here’s what to know https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/13/kurdish-leader-ocalan-told-the-pkk-to-disband-it-did-heres-what-to-know

Trump fossil-fuel push setting back green progress decades, critics warn https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/20/trump-energy-environment-agenda

The Revolutionary and Radical Tenderness of Andrea Gibson https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/opinion/andrea-gibson-poetry.html

Andrea Gibson – Homesick: A Plea For Our Planet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsmKDa2qQ-w&list=RDJsmKDa2qQ-w&start_radio=1

Andrea Gibson – Say Yes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfh3z55AL9s

Andrea Gibson MAGA HAT IN THE CHEMO ROOM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCX-0zJTEbk&list=RDWCX-0zJTEbk&start_radio=1

Andrea Gibson – Living Proof https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KADJJ4W9p3c

When It Comes to Undermining America, We Have a Winner https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/opinion/trump-authoritarianism-republican-party-democracy.html

Has America learned anything from the George Floyd uprisings? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/13/has-america-learned-anything-from-the-george-floyd-uprisings

Nearly 300 pages of Atlanta’s ‘Cop City’ records released after first-of-its-kind ruling https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/20/atlanta-police-foundation-cop-city-records

Is Decarbonization Dead? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-jesse-jenkins-jane-flegal.html

‘We were heard’: the Pacific students who took their climate fight to the ICJ – and won https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/25/pacific-students-who-won-climate-case-icj-international-court-of-justice-hague

Caribbean leaders hail ICJ climate ruling as ‘historic’ win for small island states https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/25/caribbean-leaders-hail-icj-climate-ruling-as-historic-win-for-small-island-states

Vali Nasr IRAN’S GRAND STRATEGY: A National History

Vali Nasr is the Majid Khadduri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. His books include THE DISPENSABLE NATION: AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY IN RETREAT; THE SHIA REVIVAL: HOW CONFLICTS WITHIN ISLAM WILL SHAPE THE FUTURE, and (with Ali Gheissari) DEMOCRACY IN IRAN: HISTORY AND THE QUEST FOR LIBERTY.

His latest book, IRAN’S GRAND STRATEGY: A POLITICAL HISTORY, which was published by Princeton University Press in late May, 2025.
We spoke with Professor Nasr from Brussels, Belgium via FaceTime .

We spoke with Professor Vali Nasr on Monday, June 9th, 2025. On Thursday, June 12, The International Atomic Energy Agency declared that Iran was not complying with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations, the first time the UN watchdog has passed a resolution against the country in 20 years. A few hours later, Israel launched what Defense Minister Israel Katz called “preemptive strikes” simultaneously in many places Iran, hitting both civilian and military targets. One remembers Supreme Leaders Khamenei’s skepticism of the value of diplomacy, when this happens as the talks in Vienna were happening.

Then, on June 21, 2025 the US military under orders of Donald Trump executed a night time bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.

The Ayatollah Has a Plan (by Vali Nasr) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/opinion/iran-nuclear-ayatollah-cease-fire.html

How the Attacks on Iran Are Part of a Much Bigger Global Struggle https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/22/opinion/iran-israel-attack-global-struggle.html

How Iran and Israel are rethinking strategy https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/22/world/video/gps-0622-us-iran-israel-middle-east

Trump’s ‘total obliteration’ of Iran’s nuclear capabilities isn’t ‘100% accurate’: Scott Lucas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzLo1emW6Oc

Leah Litman LAWLESS: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes

University of Michigan Law Professor, Leah Litman teaches and writes on constitutional law, federal courts, and federal post-conviction review. Her research examines unidentified and implicit values that are used to structure the legal system, the federal courts, and the legal profession. With her fellow law professors, Kate Shaw and Melissa Murray, she co-hosts the popular podcast, Strict Scrutiny, providing in-depth and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court – its cases, culture, and personalities.

Her book, LAWLESS: HOW THE SUPREME COURT RUNS ON CONSERVATIVE GRIEVANCE, FRINGE THEORIES, AND BAD VIBES, is published by Atria/One Signal Publishers. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse wrote this: “Lawless is a lively narration of how big special interests captured the Supreme Court and redeployed it to deliver on the least popular policy planks of the Republican Party. Litman ably documents the Court’s devolution, as it was yoked into service to a political party and a billionaire class.”
We spoke with her on May 6, 2025.

Trump asks Supreme Court to allow cancellation of legal status for 500,000 immigrants https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/08/trump-supreme-court-parole-00336940

Trump Administration Live Updates: U.S. Welcomes White South Africans Given Refugee Status https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/05/12/us/trump-news

David H. Souter, Republican Justice Who Allied With Court’s Liberal Wing, Dies at 85 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/us/david-souter-dead.html

150 Former Judges Tell Pam Bondi They’re Not ‘Deranged’ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/former-judges-pam-bondi-letter_n_6819403de4b085c2f857aeb9

Trump order targeting law firm Perkins Coie is unconstitutional, judge rules https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/02/trump-perkins-coie-unconstitutional

Ketanji Brown Jackson Gets Standing Ovation For Slamming ‘Relentless Attacks’ On Judges https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kentanji-brown-jackson-slams-relentless-attacks-on-judges_n_681486aae4b0c3c651ebe017

TRUMP’S BIGGEST BENEFICIARY: HIMSELF https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/opinion/trump-crypto-musk-spacex.html

Trump receives widespread backlash to social post calling himself ‘king’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/19/trump-backlash-social-media-king

Wisconsin Judge Arrest: What We Know https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/26/us/wisconsin-judge-hannah-dugan-arrest.html

The US used to be the gold standard for press freedom. Not any more https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/28/press-freedom-us-trump

The Henchmen Strategy: What Trump Is Doing To Make The Law His Own https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-henchmen-strategy-what-trump-is-doing-to-make-the-law-his-own_n_680fe032e4b0a4f4db7f0bfd

Trump warns ‘nothing will stop me’ at rally to celebrate 100 days in office https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/29/trump-100-days-rally-michigan

Hegseth Directs 20% Cut To Top Military Leadership Positions https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ap-us-pentagon-leadership-cuts-pete-hegseth_n_681923a9e4b09d0e11f7c9a5

Judge Orders Elections Board to Certify Democrat’s Victory in Contested N.C. Race https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/05/us/north-carolina-supreme-court-federal-ruling.htm

Trump’s Justice Department Is Squandering Its Biggest Asset https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/05/06/trump-justice-department-trust-supreme-court-00329222

Judge strikes down Trump executive order punishing prominent law firm https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/02/trump-law-firms-executive-00324973

Trump asks Supreme Court to let DOGE access sensitive Social Security data https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/02/trump-doge-supreme-court-social-security-00324876

Trump’s immigration ‘shock and awe’ is losing in the court of law https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/02/trump-immigration-court-losses-00324683

US supreme court allows Trump trans military ban to take effect https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/06/trump-trans-military-ban-court

E.P.A. Plans to Shut Down the Energy Star Program https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/climate/epa-energy-star-eliminated.html

Feds Urged To Investigate Pizzas Sent To Judges Using Name Of Judge’s Murdered Son https://www.huffpost.com/entry/federal-investigation-pizza-deliveries-judges_n_681a0193e4b09d0e11f86cad

No One Has Ever Defeated Autocracy From the Sidelines https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/opinion/trump-authoritarianism-democracy.htm

Paul Pierson Liberty or Tyranny?

Paul Pierson is the UC Berkeley John Gross Endowed Chair of Political Science. He was our guest in 2022 to comment on the midterm election and in 2020 when his book, co-authored with Jacob Hacker, LET THEM EAT TWEETS: HOW THE RIGHT RULES IN AN AGE OF EXTREME INEQUALITY, was published. They also collaborated on the books, WINNER TAKE ALL POLITICS; and AMERICAN AMNESIA: HOW THE WAR ON GOVERNMENT LED US TO FORGET WHAT MADE AMERICA PROSPER.

We were curious to learn what he was thinking of the first 90 days of the second Trump administration. We spoke with him first via Skype on April 21st, and when Skype refused to function half way through, he graciously agreed to another interview via FaceTime on April 22nd.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

The rise of end times fascism https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk

Trump Power Flex Over Universities, Judge Rules on Trump Admin. Contempt, Prof. David Cay Johnston https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N09BEuLMi8

Playing Chicken With the Constitution | Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAzzhPSE8i4

Heather Cox Richardson Speech – 250 Year Lantern Anniversary – Old North Church https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv5lfpOMUiE

Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doge-data-collection-hhs-epa-cdc-maternal-mortality

Time for a Civic Uprising https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/opinion/trump-harvard-law-firms.html

Trump administration shutters US office countering foreign disinformation http://Trump administration shutters US office countering foreign disinformation

The Trump-Harvard showdown is the latest front in a long conservative war against academia https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/20/harvard-trump-conservative-history-academia

Blackfeet tribal members sue feds over Canada tariffs https://montanafreepress.org/2025/04/07/blackfeet-tribal-members-sue-feds-over-canada-tariffs/

‘An Enormous Usurpation’: Inside the Case Against Trump’s Tariffs https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/21/trump-tariffs-supreme-court-legal-arguments-00299467

Six Men Are Charged After Woman Was Dragged From Idaho Town Hall https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/us/idaho-coeur-dalene-town-hall-charges.html

Don’t believe the doubters: protest still has power https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/22/protest-trump-resistance-power

The Next Terrorist Attack https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-next-terrorist-attack

Meet the new American refugees fleeing across state lines for safety https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/24/american-refugees-escape