Category Archives: economics

Susanne Mueller Redwood: Competitive Autocracy in the Trump Era

Susanne Mueller Redwood is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Montana State University. Her research focuses on the international dimensions of authoritarianism. She investigates the role that economic cooperation plays in the survival and breakdown of authoritarian regimes. Her work has analyzed the role of trade, central banking, and currency politics under dictatorship, and has been published in different outlets, including the Review of International Political Economy and Cambridge University Press.

The broadcast of this Forthright Radio program ended with an interview by The Kyiv Independent’s Chris York with U.S. historian and author, Marci Shore, who had announced that she — along with her husband, historian Timothy Snyder, and colleague Jason Stanley — would be leaving their posts at Yale University and moving to Canada to teach at the University of Toronto.
It ended with John Lithgow‘s reading of Timothy Snyder‘s 20 Lessons on Tyranny. Due to copyright issues, we do not include them in this recording, however they can be accessed here:

Why this US historian is leaving Trump’s America https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noJ4rMMYvdo

20 Lessons on Tyranny: by Timothy Snyder / read by John Lithgow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXR5HLodsT8

Articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

Democratic Senate & House members hold shadow hearing on Trump DOJ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcP8zEQgUC8

Personalism and the politics of central bank independence under authoritarianism https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09692290.2022.2127118#d1e125

To Save Democracy, Here’s a Playbook That Works https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/opinion/poland-democracy-us.html

Trump’s counter-terror cuts will harm fight against far right, experts warn https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/30/trump-counter-terrorism-cuts

Vance’s posturing in Greenland was not just morally wrong. It was strategically disastrous https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/31/trump-greenland-us-morally-wrong-strategy-disastrous

Logging is quietly ravaging US forests. Trump is taking an axe to protections https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/31/trump-logging-us-forests

Former Trump Cabinet Official Explains Why Trump Loves Tariffs: ‘It’s Personal Power’ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ryan-zinke-trump-tariffs-presidential-power_n_67ec11ade4b0c630d055461a

Fraudster-In-Chief On A Pardon Spree Of His Fellow White-Collar Criminals https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-fraud-pardon-spree_n_67eafd86e4b0d17863f2f781

If Putin Designed a Plan to Collapse America, What Would It Look Like? https://hartmannreport.com/p/if-putin-designed-a-plan-to-collapse-2ce

The Path to American Authoritarianism: What Comes After Democratic Breakdown https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/path-american-authoritarianism-trump

A turning point for the dollar is coming https://www.ft.com/content/7b97f48b-87e2-4cb3-bd3c-4e963356f109

‘Invasion’ barges, subsea cable cutters and surprise naval drills: how China is testing Donald Trump https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/14/china-taiwan-military-drills-trump-barges-asia-pacific-security

Henry Giroux & Michael Klare

Returning in our first segment, is Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in critical pedagogy and Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest at McMaster University, Henry Giroux.

In our second segment is Michael Klare, who is a Five Colleges professor emeritus of Peace and World Security Studies, whose department is located at Hampshire College. He is currently the secretary for the Arms Control Association board of directors, and a senior visiting fellow working on emerging technologies—such as lethal autonomous weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles—and how arms control strategies can mitigate their adverse impacts.

We spoke with Henry Giroux on March 24, 2025 from his home in Hamilton, Ontario, and Michael Klare on March 25th from his in Washington, D.C. Our conversation with Michael Klare begins at 25:05.

What a week! When we interviewed Michael Klare, the news of the Signal Group Chat had just broken. Since then, more has come to light. We were able to report that against the wishes of the government of Greenland, Usha Vance, Michael Waltz (he of the inclusion of the Atlantic’s Editor in Chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, in the infamous group chat) and Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, would be coming, whether Greenland wanted them to or not. Then, Vice President JD Vance announced he didn’t want “Usha to have all the fun,” so he would be coming, too. Then, the Prime Minister of Denmark condemned Trump’s escalated rhetoric. Now, The visit by the Americans is to be limited to the US Military Base in Northern Greenland. That’s as of the afternoon of March 27th. Who knows what will have happened by airtime on March 28th? Word has it that Greenlanders have created red MAGA caps – Make America Go Away.

We ended the program with the news from the talented Marsh Family, who turn current events into parodic art. They are a British mom, dad, 2 brothers and 2 sisters. We shared “You Were Not Supposed to Message It Through” and “I Put Up Tariffs.” Although we were not able to include them in the audio, due to copyright/royalty issues, the links to them are included below.

Articles and videos pertinent to this edition of Forthright Radio:

You Were Not Supposed to Message It Through https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPfwtXulKS4

I Put Up Tariffs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DyNjjSxO8s

Trump’s Reign of Cruelty: Gangster Capitalism and the Unraveling of the Social https://www.laprogressive.com/progressive-issues/gangster-capitalism

Law in Mahmoud Khalil’s Case Was Once Struck Down — by Trump’s Sister https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/us/politics/mahmoud-khalil-trump-sister-law.html?searchResultPosition=1

Trump is setting the US on a path to educational authoritarianism https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/17/trump-us-path-educational-authoritarianism

Yale professor who studies fascism fleeing US to work in Canada https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/26/yale-professor-fascism-canada

Government Science Data May Soon Be Hidden. They’re Racing to Copy It. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/climate/government-websites-climate-environment-data.html

A New Military-Industrial Complex Arises https://tomdispatch.com/a-new-military-industrial-complex-arises/

How a Cheap Drone Punctured Chernobyl’s 40,000 Ton Shield https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/25/world/europe/drone-chernobyl-shield-ukraine-war.html

Pete Hegseth’s Dangerous War on America https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-hegseth-woke-democracy-military-dei/

Trump Confronts a Rising China https://tomdispatch.com/trump-confronts-a-rising-china/

Town Hall Bozeman Public Library 3-21-25 https://kgvm.org/show/town-hall-bozeman-public-library-3-21-25/

Veterans Rally Helena, MT 3-14-25 https://kgvm.org/show/veterans-rally-helena-mt-3-14-25/

A Montana Senator Seeks to Be Trump’s Voice in Beijing https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/world/asia/trump-china-xi-daines.html?searchResultPosition=1

UN Moves to Expand Autonomous Weapons Discussions https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2024-12/news/un-moves-expand-autonomous-weapons-discussions

Beyond a Human “In the Loop”: Strategic Stability and Artificial Intelligence https://www.armscontrol.org/issue-briefs/2024-011/beyond-the-loop

Democrat vows to ‘stop Doge’s illegal power grab’ at non-profit peace institute https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/18/don-beyer-musk-doge-usip

Countries must bolster climate efforts or risk war, Cop30 chief executive warns https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/18/countries-must-bolster-climate-efforts-or-risk-war-cop30-chief-executive-warns

Chinese state media celebrates Trump’s cuts to Voice of America and Radio Free Asia https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/mar/18/chinese-state-media-celebrates-trumps-cuts-to-voice-of-america-and-radio-free-asia

Inside the El Salvador mega-prison where Trump is sending hundreds of immigrants https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-deportation-el-salvador-cecot-prison-b2716191.html?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

‘Segregated facilities’ are no longer explicitly banned in federal contracts https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/03/18/nx-s1-5326118/segregation-federal-contracts-far-regulation-trump?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Justice department removes disability guidelines for US businesses https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/justice-department-disability-business-guidelines

Major-power conflict ‘no longer unimaginable’, Australian intelligence review finds https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/21/australia-independent-national-intelligence-review-2024

Senator Claude Malhuret on the End of American Democracy https://washingtonspectator.org/senator-claude-malhuret-on-the-end-of-american-democracy/

Trump’s firings of federal workers with DEI jobs were illegal, complaint claims https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-firings-federal-workers-with-dei-jobs-were-illegal-complaint-claims-2025-03-26/

Lydia Reeder and Pagan Kennedy

This edition of Forthright Radio is in two segments. In the first part, award-winning author, Lydia Reeder, discusses her latest book, THE CURE FOR WOMEN: DR. MARY PUTNAM JACOBI AND THE CHALLENGE TO VICTORIAN MEDICINE THAT CHANGED WOMEN’S LIVES FOREVER, published by St. Martin’s Press. It explores the pseudoscience that ties women’s health issues to their reproductive biology, and highlights the women doctors, scientists and suffragists, particularly Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, who fought back against these attempts to control women’s bodies and lives. At the end of her book, she quotes Ely Van De Warker, who wrote, “A woman’s ovaries belong to the Commonwealth; she is merely their custodian.”

We spoke with Lydia Reeder via Skype on March 7th, 2025.

Mary Putnam Kennedy

Then, in our second segment, we speak with Pagan Kennedy about her latest book, THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE RAPE KIT: A TRUE CRIME STORY. Our interview with Pagan begins at 25:50.

We spoke with Pagan Kennedy on March 10, 2025.

Rape Kit and Contents

Judge clarifies: Yes, Trump was found to have raped E. Jean Carroll https://web.archive.org/web/20240116123815/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/19/trump-carroll-judge-rape/

Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit for Sexual Assault Examination https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_2009657

‘I screamed and the world listened’: how astronaut Amanda Nguyen survived rape to fight for other victims https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/mar/05/i-screamed-the-world-listened-how-astronaut-amanda-nguyen-survived-rape-fight-for-other-victims

Pronatalists are ascendant on the right. Can they agree on how to make Americans have more babies? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/11/what-is-pronatalism-right-wing-republican

Idaho’s parental consent law prohibits minors from accessing rape kit exams without parents https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/08/06/idahos-parental-consent-law-prohibits-minors-from-accessing-rape-kit-exams-without-parents/

Idaho’s anti-trans law makes it illegal to medically examine child rape victims https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/08/idahos-anti-trans-law-makes-it-illegal-to-medically-examine-child-rape-victims/

Idaho set to train 250 sexual assault nurse examiners by the end of the year https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/08/09/idaho-set-to-train-250-sexual-assault-nurse-examiners-by-the-end-of-the-year/

Andrew Tate, Accused of Sex Trafficking, Is Trump’s Kind of Guy https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/opinion/andrew-tate-donald-trump.html?searchResultPosition=1

Ultrasound now needed for pill abortions in Wyoming after lawmakers override veto https://apnews.com/article/wyoming-pill-abortion-bill-law-veto-override-087e35a9d245a8d063fc8c047f4fe050

Dana Frank WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE GREAT DEPRESSION? Stories of Ordinary People & Collective Action in Hard Times

Dana Frank, Professor Emerita of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is a longtime historian of labor, women, and social movements in the US and beyond. For many years she has worked on human rights and US policy in Honduras. She has been an expert witness testifying in the US Congress, The House of Commons in The Canadian Parliament, as well as the CA Legislature.

Among her seven books are Buy American: The Untold Story of Economic Nationalism; The Long Honduran Night: Resistance, Terror, and the United States in the Aftermath of the Coup; and, with Robin D.G. Kelly and Howard Zinn, Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls and the Fighting Spirit of Labor’s Last Century.

Her work has been published in diverse outlets ranging from the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, to Labor Notes, The Nation, The Baffler, The Jacobin, The Progressive, to Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, to mention just a few, as well as in many scholarly publications.


Her latest book is WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE GREAT DEPRESSION? STORIES OF ORDINARY PEOPLE & COLLECTIVE ACTION IN HARD TIMES, published by Beacon Press.

We spoke with her on February 24, 2025, the third anniversary of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, via Skype from her home in Santa Cruz, CA.

‘Fixing a problem we didn’t cause’: the Black Appalachian activists cultivating community power https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/23/black-appalachia-activists

Neo-Nazi group plots rebuild as Trump’s FBI chief takes helm, audio reveals https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/24/neo-nazi-trump-fbi-chief

No Money, No Milk https://hammerandhope.org/article/black-wet-nurses

You Know About the KKK, but What About the Black Legion? https://jacobin.com/2024/10/black-legion-white-supremacist-violence

Donald Trump Has Already Spent $10.7 Million Of Taxpayer Money Playing Golf https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-golf-doge_n_67b50fbfe4b0319f377e6c6a

Kristi Noem Says $200 Million DHS Ad Campaign Thanking Trump Was His Idea https://www.yahoo.com/news/kristi-noem-says-200-million-035856089.html

Lessons for the resistance 2.0 on how to fight back against Trump https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/21/lessons-for-the-resistance-20-on-how-to-fight-back-against-trump

With Babies and Banners: Story of the Women’s Emergency Brigade https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa75V-tdBko

Opinion: Trump says he’ll expel a million immigrants. Believe him — it happened before https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-10-10/donald-trump-immigration-repatriados-depression

America Is Pushing Its Workers Into Homelessness https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/opinion/crisis-working-homeless.html

Cory Doctorow: Picks and Shovels

Cory Doctorow is a multiple awards winning author, blogger, critic and activist. He has co-founded an open software company, been the European Affairs Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and he helped establish their Open Rights Group.
When he left the blog site, Boing Boing after 19 years of co-ownership, MetaFilter called it “the equivalent of the Beatles breaking up for the blog world.” He metablogs currently at pluralistic.net.
Cory Doctorow popularized the term “metacrap” and created the neologism, “enshitification,” which the FCC does not allow us to use on the air, which we replaced with “enpoopification,” defined as “the process of degradation of an online environment caused by greed.”
He is a prolific author in many genres, fiction and nonfiction.
His nonfiction books include: THE INTERNET CON: HOW TO SEIZE THE MEANS OF COMPUTATON; CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM: HOW BIG TECH AND BIG CONTENT CAPTURED CREATIVE LABOR MARKETS AND HOW WE’LL WIN THEM BACK (written with Rebecca Giblin); and HOW TO DESTROY SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM.

His most recent fiction books include THE LOST CAUSE, A NOVEL OF TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION IN OUR POLARIZED FUTURE, which has been described as “A solarpunk, hopepunk novel of the climate emergency, endorsed by Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, Rebecca Solnit and Kim Stanley Robinson.” The first of his Martin Hench books, RED TEAM BLUES, which actually features Mendocino County in a small but crucial role, was published in 2023. This was followed by Bezzle, and the third book, which will be published on February 18, 2025, PICKS AND SHOVELS. We spoke with him about it via Skype on February 11, 2025.

Wired Portrait of Cody Doctorow above by Julia Galdo and Cody Cloud (JUCO) 5

Articles, etc. pertinent to this interview:

Picks and Shovels with Yanis Varoufakis (Jacobin/virtual), Feb 15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkIDep7Z4LM

With Great Power Came No Responsibility: How Enshittification Conquered the 21st Century and How We Can Overthrow It (Indiana University/virtual), Mar 7 https://events.iu.edu/mediaiub/event/1783095-with-great-power-came-no-responsibility-how-enshitti

Capitulating to Trump: why people are warning about ‘Vichy’ America https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/31/vichy-france-trump-democrats

Who is helping Elon Musk gut the US government? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/08/elon-musk-doge-team-staff

Russell Vought: Trump appointee who wants federal workers to be ‘in trauma’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/who-is-russell-vought-trump-office-of-management-and-budget

Trump orders USDA to take down websites referencing climate crisis https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/31/trump-order-usda-websites-climate-crisis

To Obey or Not to Obey (Masha Gessen) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/opinion/trump-power-surrender.html

Capitulating to Trump: why people are warning about ‘Vichy’ America https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/31/vichy-france-trump-democrats

I met the ‘godfathers of AI’ in Paris – here’s what they told me to really worry about https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/14/ai-godfathers-paris-industry-dangers-future

How the roots of the ‘PayPal mafia’ extend to apartheid South Africa https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/26/elon-musk-peter-thiel-apartheid-south-africa

Jesse Welles Black Hawks and DEI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xAswA556a8

Vince Beiser POWER METAL: THE RACE FOR THE RESOURCES THAT WILL SHAPE THE FUTURE

Lately I have been thinking a lot about ecologist and one time presidential candidate, Barry Commoner, and his Four Laws of Ecology, which he enumerated in his 1971 book, THE CLOSING CIRCLE. They are:

  1. Everything is connected to everything else. There is only one Ecosphere for all living organisms, and what affects one affects all.
  2. Everything must go somewhere. There is no “waste” in Nature, and there is no “away” to which things can be thrown.
  3. Nature knows best. Humankind has fashioned technology to improve upon Nature, but such change in a natural system is likely to be detrimental to that system.
  4. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Exploitation of Nature will inevitably involve the conversion of resources from useful to useless forms.

Our guest on this edition of Forthright Radio, award winning author and journalist, Vince Beiser, begins his latest book, POWER METAL: THE RACE FOR THE RESOURCES THAT WILL SHAPE THE FUTURE, with the statement, “There is no such thing as clean energy,” so I thought it would be good to find out more about his reporting from “over 100 countries, states, provinces, kingdoms, occupied territories, no man’s lands and disaster zones. He has exposed conditions in California’s harshest prisons, trained with US Army soldiers, ridden with the first responders to natural disasters, and hunted down other stories from around the world.”

His earlier book, The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization, was a finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. As well as A California Book Award. He has written for the Oakland Tribune, The LA Times, Village Voice, The Nation and Rolling Stone, as well as being the former senior editor of Mother Jones. We spoke with Vince Beiser from his home in Vancouver, British Columbia, via Skype.

POWER METAL: THE RACE FOR THE RESOURCES THAT WILL SHAPE THE FUTURE is published by Riverhead Books. Vince Beiser also writes on Substack, which you can access here: https://powermetal.substack.com

Due to time limitations, we were not able to discuss his chapter, “New Lives for Old Things,” on the Right to Repair movement. In it he writes about a couple of Cal Poly Tech students, who became so incensed at products designed to preclude owners from repairing them that they created a website iFixit, which hosts a free online repository of more than 103,000 do it yourself repair manuals for some 54,000 separate products. Here is a link: https://www.ifixit.com/

During the broadcast, I referred to the recent 5-2 Montana Supreme Court opinion, which upheld a permit the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation issued to Tintina Montana Incorporated (now Sandfire Resources) to manipulate approximately 250 millions gallons of groundwater in pursuit of a 14 million-ton copper deposit in Meagher County, and which environmentalists fear will endanger the pristine Smith River. I misspoke, mentioning the transnational Rio Tinto mining company instead of Tintina Montana Incorporated.

Montana Supreme Court upholds Tintina’s copper mine permit https://montanafreepress.org/2025/01/02/montana-supreme-court-upholds-tintinas-copper-mine-permit/

Other articles pertinent to this interview:

A Toxic Pit Could Be a Gold Mine for Rare-Earth Elements https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/science/berkeley-mine-pit-rare-earths.html

Playing gods with the cradle of life’: French Polynesia’s president issues warning over deep-sea mining https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/01/french-polynesia-deep-sea-mining-pacific-warning-president-moetai-brotherson

The Surprisingly Lucrative Business of Recycled E-Waste https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-surprisingly-lucrative-business-of-recycled-e-waste?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Revealed: US hazardous waste is sent to Mexico – where a ‘toxic cocktail’ of pollution emerges https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/jan/14/monterrey-mexico-steel-us-toxic-waste

‘Live sick or flee’: pollution fears for El Salvador’s rivers as mining ban lifted https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jan/01/el-salvador-environment-rivers-water-pollution-mining-ban-repealed-authoritarian-nayib-bukele-protest

‘The last drops of our water’: how a mine left some of Peru’s poorest high and dry https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/feb/04/the-last-drops-of-our-water-how-a-mine-left-some-of-perus-poorest-high-and-dry

‘This river is doomed’: Peru’s gold rush threatens waterways and the people who depend on them https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/dec/22/illicit-gold-mining-loreto-peru-indigenous-peoples-fight-protect-amazon-rivers

Thailand bans imports of plastic waste to curb toxic pollution https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/07/thailand-bans-imports-plastic-waste-curb-toxic-pollution

A dedicated cyclist and activist hails a program aimed at reducing car traffic. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/06/nyregion/congestion-pricing-nyc-new-jersey#a-dedicated-cyclist-and-activist-hails-a-program-aimed-at-reducing-car-traffic

Roman Empire’s use of lead lowered IQ levels across Europe, study finds https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jan/06/roman-empires-use-of-lead-lowered-iq-levels-across-europe-study-finds

Tom Lehrer’s “The Elements” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGM-wSKFBpo

Melissa Hornbein & Anne Hedges: MT Supreme Court Ruling Upholds Held Verdict

On December 18, 2024 in a 6-1 ruling, The Montana Supreme Court upheld District Court Judge Kathy Seeley’s verdict in favor of the 16 Youth Plaintiffs in the Held v State of Montana case. They had sued the state for violations of their rights to a clean and healthful environment under the Montana State Constitution.

Melissa Hornbein Western Environmental Law Center

After the ruling, I invited Western Environmental Law Center attorney, Melissa Hornbein, a member of the plaintiffs’ legal team, and Anne Hedges of the Montana Environmental Information Center, whose lawsuits over the decades were cited by Chief Justice Mike McGrath’s opinion, and who had been an expert witness during the trail.

Anne Hedges Montana Environmental Information Center

Below are links to our coverage during the June 2023 trial, as well as other articles, etc. pertinent to the case and our interview.

Text of MT Chief Justice Mike McGrath’s Opinion with Justice Dirk Sandefur’s Concurring Opinion and Justice Jim Rice’s Dissent: https://dailymontanan.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Opinion-Published.pdf

Text of Helena District Court Judge Kathy Seeley’s 2023 Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law : https://mtclimatecase.flatheadbeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Findings-of-Fact-Conclusions-of-Law-and-Order.pdf

Testimonies of Witnesses from the June 2023 Trial:

Mae Nan Ellingson http://kgvm.org/show/held-mae-nan-ellingson-testimony-6-12-23/Ricki Held http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-ricki-held-testimony-6-12-23/Dr. Steven Running http://kgvm.org/show/held-dr-steve-running-testimony-6-12-23/Grace Gibson-Snyder http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-grace-testimony/Eva http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-eva-testimony-6-12-23/

Dr. Cathy Whitlock http://kgvm.org/show/held-dr-cathy-whitlock-testimony-6-13-23/Mica http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-mica-testimony-6-13-23/Dr. Daniel Fagre http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-dr-dan-fagre-6-13-23/Badger Busse http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-badge-testimony-6-13-23/

Dr. Lori Byron http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-dr-lori-byron-testimony-6-13-23/

Dr. Shane Doyle http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-shane-doyle-testimony-6-14-23/ Michael Durglo, Jr. http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-michael-durglo-jr/Sariel Sandoval http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-sariel-sandoval-testimony-6-14-23/

Taleah Hernández http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-taleah-hernandez-testimony-6-14-23/ Georgianna Fischer http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-georgianna-fischer-testimony-6-14-23

Kian Tanner http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-kian-tanner-testimony-6-15-23/

Anne Hedges http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-anne-hedges-testimony-6-15-23/

Claire Vlases http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-claire-vlases-testimony-6-15-23/

Peter Erickson http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-peter-erickson-testimony-6-15-23/

Mark Jacobson http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-mark-jacobson-testimony-6-16-23/

Olivia V. http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-olivia-v-testimony-6-16-23/

Dr. Lise Van Susteren http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-lise-van-susteren-testimony-6-16-23/

Lander Busse http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-lander-busse-testimony-6-16-23/

Christopher Dorrington & Sonja Nowakowski http://kgvm.org/show/held-v-state-of-montana-day-6-christopher-dorrington-sonja-nowakowski/

Sonja Nowakowski & Dr. Terry Anderson https://forthright.media/2023/06/20/held-v-state-of-montana-day-6-part-2-cross-examination-of-sonja-nowakowski-final-witness-dr-terry-anderson/

Closing Arguments https://forthright.media/2023/06/21/held-v-state-of-montana-day-7-closing-arguments/

Here are links to the Daily Audio Digests

Day 1 https://forthright.media/2023/06/13/held-v-state-of-montana-day-1-daily-digest/

Day 2 https://forthright.media/2023/06/14/held-v-state-of-montana-day-2-daily-digest/

Day 3 https://forthright.media/2023/06/15/held-v-state-of-montana-day-3-daily-digest/

Day 4 https://forthright.media/2023/06/16/held-v-state-of-montana-day-4-daily-audio-digest/

Day 4 (Peter Erickson) https://forthright.media/2023/06/18/held-v-state-of-montana-day-4-daily-digest-peter-erickson/

Day 5 https://forthright.media/2023/06/17/held-v-state-of-montana-day-5-daily-digest-dr-lise-van-susteren-lander-busse/

Day 5 (Dr. Mark Jacobson) https://forthright.media/2023/06/18/held-v-state-of-montana-day-5-daily-digest-dr-mark-jacobson/

Day 6 (Christopher Dorrington & Sonja Nowakowski) https://forthright.media/2023/06/20/held-v-state-of-montana-day-6-daily-digest-christopher-dorrington-sonja-nowakowski/

Day 6 (Dr. Terry Anderson) https://forthright.media/2023/06/20/held-v-state-of-montana-day-6-part-2-cross-examination-of-sonja-nowakowski-final-witness-dr-terry-anderson/

M. V. Ramana NUCLEAR IS NOT THE SOLUTION: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change

Professor M. V. Ramana, a physicist by training, is Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security and the director of the graduate program at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He previously worked at the Nuclear Futures Laboratory and the Program on Science and Global Security, both at Princeton University. He is a member of the International Panel on Fissile Material, The International Nuclear Risk Assessment Group, and the team that produces the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report. His earlier books are The Power of Promise: Examining Nuclear Energy in India, and Bombing Bombay? Effects of Nuclear Weapons and a Case Study of a Hypothetical Explosion.

Increasingly alarmed by more and more reports of well respected climate scientists, such as James Hansen, who promote nuclear energy as an important part of responding to rapidly increasing climate catastrophes, we spoke with Professor Ramana via Skype on November 4, 2024 about his latest book, NUCLEAR IS NOT THE SOLUTION: THE FOLLY OF ATOMIC POWER IN THE AGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE, published by Verso.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

Meta signs deal with nuclear plant to power AI and datacenters for 20 years https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jun/03/meta-nuclear-power-ai

Dangerous Hype: Big Tech’s Nuclear Lies https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/11/01/big-techs-nuclear-lies/

Biden Tees Up 2 More Major Nuclear Power Wins for Trump https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-nuclear-pledge-climate-summit_n_67352fc1e4b0958bad3e15f4

The Cost of a Nuclear Arsenal https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/02/opinion/nuclear-arsenal.html

The Price https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/10/opinion/nuclear-weapons-us-price.html

Three Mile Island, Notorious in Nuclear Power’s Past, May Herald Its Future https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/30/business/energy-environment/three-mile-island-nuclear-energy.html

Big Fire Breaks Out at Nuclear Submarine Plant in Britain https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/30/world/europe/fire-nuclear-submarine-uk.html

Why even environmentalists are supporting nuclear power today https://www.npr.org/2022/08/30/1119904819/nuclear-power-environmentalists-california-germany-japan

Robot retrieves radioactive fuel sample from Fukushima nuclear reactor site https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/02/robot-retrieves-radioactive-fuel-sample-from-fukushima-nuclear-reactor

Japanese nuclear reactor which survived earthquake that badly damaged Fukushima power plant restarts https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/japanese-nuclear-reactor-which-survived-19870742.php

Donald Trump can’t stop global climate action. If we stick together, it’s the US that will lose out https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/07/donald-trump-cant-stop-global-climate-action-if-we-stick-together-its-the-us-that-will-lose-out

Trump voters want a revolution. It’s time for progressives to offer their own https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/07/trump-voters-revolution-politics-right

Our mistake was to think we lived in a better country than we do https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/07/us-progressive-election-trump-maga

Tsunehisa Katsumata, Top Executive in Power Plant Meltdown, Dies at 84 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/01/business/tsunehisa-katsumata-dead.html

Richard A. Fineberg, Relentless Skeptic of Alaska Pipeline, Dies at 83 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/01/climate/richard-a-fineberg-dead.html

Yael Bridge THE BIG SCARY “S” WORD & Lois Lipman FIRST WE BOMBED NEW MEXICO https://forthright.media/2024/05/24/yael-bridge-the-big-scary-s-word-lois-lipman-first-we-bombed-new-mexico/

Arlie Russell Hochschild STOLEN PRIDE: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right

Arlie Russell Hochschild is University of California Berkeley Professor Emerita of Sociology. She is the author of many groundbreaking books, including THE SECOND SHIFT, WORKING FAMILIES AND THE REVOLUTION AT HOME; THE TIME BIND, WHEN WORK BECOMES HOME AND HOME BECOMES WORK; and her best selling book, STRANGERS IN THEIR OWN LAND, ANGER AND MOURNING ON THE AMERICAN RIGHT, was a National Book Award finalist. In addition to her many honorary degrees from Harvard, and European universities, She also received the Ulysses medal from University College, Dublin, and the Helmholtz Medal from the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. And if that weren’t enough, she was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2022.

Her most recent book is STOLEN PRIDE: LOSS, SHAME, AND THE RISE OF THE RIGHT, published by The New Press in September, 2024. In it she explores the question, what happens when a proud people in a hard-hit region suffers the deep loss of pride and are confronted with a powerful political appeal that makes it feel “stolen?” Dr. Hochschild, prompted by CA Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, who was working with KY-5th District Republican Congressman, Hal Rodgers, went to Pikeville in the heart of Appalachia in his district, which is the whitest and second poorest in the United States. 30 years ago, it was in the political center, but in 2016 and 2020, Trump received 80% of the district’s vote.

26 year old Neo-Nazi, Matthew Heimbach, sought a permit for a white supremacist march to be held there on April 30, 2017. It turned out to be a trial run for the August Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, for which he was a core organizer. He is just one of the people she interviewed and followed, and whose character actually evolved in surprising ways. We spoke with Arlie Russell Hochschild from her home in Berkeley, CA via Skype on October 22, 2024.

In honoring the passing of Fernando Valenzuela, hero for Dodgers and Mexican baseball fans, who died on October 22, at age of 63, and whose team, the LA Dodgers face the New York Yankees in the first game of the World Series that evening, we ended this edition with beloved poet/publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s ode to Latino baseball, “Baseball Canto.”

Nancy MacLean BAD FAITH: Christian Nationalism’s UnHoly WAR On Democracy

Nancy MacLean is the William H. Chafe Distinguished Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University. A historian of the modern U.S., she is the author of several award-winning books, most recently, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America. A New York Times bestseller, it was a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award in Current Affairs and the Lillian Smith Book Award for outstanding writing about the U.S. South.

She is accompanying the documentary, BAD FAITH: Christian Nationalism’s UnHoly War on Democracy, conducting Q&A sessions afterward. In Montana alone she is visiting Missoula, Helena, Bozeman, Great Falls and Billings, in addition to screenings in other states.

You can hear our 2019 updated edition of our 2017 interview with Nancy MacLean here: https://forthright.media/2017/09/20/nancy-macclean-democracy-in-chains/

You can watch BAD FAITH here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5whhOWgQH5Y