Tag Archives: democracy

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

Sarah Schulman: The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity

Sarah Schulman, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, nonfiction writer, and AIDS historian is the Ralla Klepak Professor of English at Northwestern University.

She was a member of ACT UP, New York from 1987 to 1992, and a co-founder of the Lesbian Avengers. Today she serves on the Advisory Board of Jewish Voice for Peace, and is co-director of The ACT UP Oral History Project ( https://www.actuporalhistory.org/).

She is the author of 21 books, including Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP, New York 1987-1993; Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility and the Duty of Repair; and The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness To A Lost Imagination.

Her latest book is THE FANTASY AND NECESSITY OF SOLIDARITY, published by Thesis.

We spoke with her on September 4, 2025.

This edition ends with excerpts from the text of a talk given by Bernice Johnson Reagon at the 1981 West Coast Women’s Music Festival in Yosemite, titled: COALITION POLITICS: TURNING THE CENTURY. https://www.rootsofjusticetraining.org/uploads/1/3/9/1/139148852/coalition-politics.pdf

The Zionist consensus among US Jews has collapsed. Something new is emerging https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2025/oct/07/american-jews-zionism

President of Northwestern, a School Attacked by the G.O.P., Will Resign https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/us/northwestern-president-resigns.html?searchResultPosition=1

President of Northwestern University quits amid layoffs forced by Trump cuts https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/04/northwestern-university-president-resigns-trump-cuts

‘Censorship’: over 115 scholars condemn cancellation of Harvard journal issue on Palestine https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/aug/14/harvard-journal-israel-gaza-cancellation

The chilling effect of Title VI investigations: the professors accused of antisemitism https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/11/campus-investigations-professors-gaza-antisemitism

UC Berkeley shares 160 names with Trump administration in ‘McCarthy era’ move https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/uc-berkeley-trump-administration-antisemitism

US imposes sanctions on Palestinians for requesting war crimes inquiry https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/04/us-sanctions-palestinian-human-rights

US reportedly suspends visa approvals for nearly all Palestinian passport holders https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/31/palestine-passport-visa-approval-suspension

Ursula von der Leyen calls for suspension of EU trade with Israel https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/10/ursula-von-der-leyen-suspension-eu-trade-israel

From Washington to Westminster, the populist right needs to erase history to succeed. It’s up to us to resist https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/09/washington-westminster-populist-right-smithsonian-nigel-farage

Leaked ‘Gaza Riviera’ plan dismissed as ‘insane’ attempt to cover ethnic cleansing https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/01/leaked-gaza-riviera-plan-dismissed-as-insane-attempt-to-cover-ethnic-cleansing

Palestinians warned of a genocide in 2023. Why weren’t we believed? https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/30/israel-gaza-palestine-genocide

Democrats Wrote Off Anti-War Activists In 2024. Now Concern For Gaza Is Unavoidable. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-failure-gaza-big-lesson_n_68acd3a5e4b0495eade021bf

Norway wealth fund sells Caterpillar stake over Israel allegations https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/26/norway-wealth-fund-excludes-caterpillar-over-israel-allegations

From the streets of Baghdad, I saw a clear line to the bloodshed in Gaza https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/26/gaza-iraq-baghdad-west-war-crimes

Trump unlawfully cancelled $2.2bn in Harvard research grants, judge rules https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/03/trump-administration-harvard-funding-cut

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

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/

Lerone A. Martin THE GOSPEL OF J. EDGAR HOOVER: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism

It was really difficult to schedule an interview with our guest today, Dr. Lerone A. Martin, PhD. We emailed back and forth more times than I care to mention, but when we were finally able to find a time which each of our calendars made possible, it was one of those moments when one says to oneself, “well of course that’s when it needed to be!” …. January 20, 2025, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the second inauguration of Donald J. Trump.

You see, Dr. Martin is the faculty director for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, where he is also an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies. His books and scholarship provide critical context for the forces of religion, politics, and race that have shaped the contemporary American political and social landscape.

His appointment to the position of Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor was the result of a national search to succeed the storied King Institute’s founding director after more than 40 years in the role, making Dr. Martin only the second faculty director. Among his responsibilities as the MLK Institute’s director is the ongoing work of editing Dr. King’s significant sermons, speeches, published writings, correspondence and unpublished papers.

It was while researching his award winning first book, Preaching on Wax: The Phonograph and the Making of Modern African American Religion, that his second book had its roots: THE GOSPEL OF J. EDGAR HOOVER: HOW THE FBI AIDED AND ABETTED THE RISE OF WHITE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM. We spoke with him via Skype.

Articles pertinent to this interview:

‘Contempt is a dangerous way to lead a country’: here is the sermon that enraged Donald Trump https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/24/bishop-mariann-edgar-budde-sermon-that-enraged-donald-trump

Revealed: Trump Pentagon nominee endorsed extremist Christian doctrine on podcast ttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/24/trump-pete-hegseth-extremism

Bulldozers kill man in tent in Atlanta clearing homeless camp near MLK’s church https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/18/atlanta-homeless-encampment-bulldozer-death

Henry Giroux -The Terror of the Unforeseen

“Power is never so overwhelming that there’s no room for resistance.” Henry Giroux

In this interview with Professor Henry Giroux, we discuss his latest book, THE TERROR OF THE UNFORESEEN, published by LARB Provocations, from The Los Angeles Review of Books. Just the latest of over 65 books he has written.

Henry Giroux is the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest & The Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. The Toronto Star has named him one of the 12 Canadians Changing the Way We Think. He has also been named in Routledge’s Key Guides as one of the top fifty educational thinkers of the modern period. He is on the editorial and advisory boards of numerous national and international scholarly journals. He is on the Board of Directors for Truthout.

Henry Giroux is a regular contributor to a number of online journals including Truthout, Truthdig, and CounterPunch. He has published in journals including Social Text, Third Text, Cultural Studies, Harvard Educational Review, Theory, Culture, & Society, and Monthly Review.

His primary research areas are: cultural studies, youth studies, critical pedagogy, popular culture, media studies, social theory, and the politics of higher and public education. He is particularly interested in what he calls the war on youth, the corporatization of higher education, the politics of neoliberalism, the assault on civic literacy and the collapse of public memory, public pedagogy, the educative nature of politics, and the rise of various youth movements across the globe.

Articles cited in this interview:

History Holds the Antidote to Trump’s Fascist Politics https://www.truthdig.com/articles/history-holds-the-antidote-to-trumps-fascist-politics/

As Ilhan Omar Said, Trump Is a Fascist — and His Rallies Prove It https://truthout.org/articles/as-ilhan-omar-said-trump-is-a-fascist-and-his-rallies-prove-it/

Trump’s race-baiting rallies echo a dark past https://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/9548102-trump-s-race-baiting-rallies-echo-a-dark-past/?fbclid=iwar2ddin-vvf0layxzxiowidbsrkpj0oqk8l7zxgomemfvwnp-uaht5xvyzc

How ignorance lost its innocence https://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/9505301-how-ignorance-lost-its-innocence/

Against the dictatorship of ignorance in the age of Donald Trump: Parts 1 & 2

https://www.salon.com/2019/05/18/against-the-dictatorship-of-ignorance-in-the-age-of-donald-trump-part-1-of-2/ https://www.salon.com/2019/05/19/against-the-dictatorship-of-ignorance-in-the-age-of-trump-part-2-we-can-still-fight-back/

If Classrooms Are “Free of Politics,” the Right Wing Will Grow https://truthout.org/articles/if-classrooms-are-free-of-politics-the-right-wing-will-grow/

Pedagogical Terrorism and Hope in the age of Fascist Politics https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/10/pedagogical-terrorism-and-hope-in-the-age-of-fascist-politics/

Rethinking the Normalization of Fascism in the Post-Truth Era https://www.tikkun.org/rethinking-the-normalization-of-fascism-in-the-post-truth-era

The Ghost of Fascism in the Post-Truth Era https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/22/the-ghost-of-fascism-in-the-post-truth-era/

Insisting on Resistance in an Age of Ignorance https://www.truthdig.com/articles/insisting-on-resistance-in-an-age-of-ignorance/

SF Board of Supervisors declare National Rifle Association a domestic terrorist organization https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SF-Board-of-Supervisors-NRA-domestic-terrorists-14411936.php

The media has become gossip, clickbait and punditry. This threatens democracy https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/27/bernie-sanders-media-democracy

Twitter Wits Go Bonkers Over ‘Trump Gibberish’ That ‘Media Is Destroying The Free Press’ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-gibberish-twitter-reacts-media-destroying-free-press_n_5d620682e4b0b59d2575c3c7

These Fascists Inadvertently Raised Over $35,000 For A Cause They Hate https://www.huffpost.com/entry/portland-fascists-donations-latino-immigrants_n_5d624b7fe4b0dfcbd48eae54

The myth of the free speech crisis https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/03/the-myth-of-the-free-speech-crisis

Political correctness: how the right invented a phantom enemy https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/30/political-correctness-how-the-right-invented-phantom-enemy-donald-trump

Violence in the name of Trump Dozens of supporters of Donald Trump have carried out or threatened acts of violence. Here, the Guardian lists them all https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2019/aug/28/in-the-name-of-trump-supporters-attacks-database

US teacher strikes generated victories. So why are they ready to strike again? https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/aug/29/us-teacher-strikes-generated-victories-so-why-are-they-ready-to-strike-again

Billionaires v teachers: the Koch brothers’ plan to starve public education https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/07/arizona-fight-koch-brothers-school-vouchers

A teachable moment: educators must join students in demanding climate justice https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/30/climate-strike-teachers-students-greta-thunberg

To rescue democracy, we must revive the reforms of the Progressive Era https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/30/democracy-capitalism-progressive-era-gilded-age

Henry Giroux – Democracy in Exile

“It is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and the crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.” from A Democracy in Exile Fights Against Fascism

In this edition of Forthright Radio, we welcome back Professor Henry Giroux, who holds the McMaster University’s Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies Department, and who is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. He is a prolific author and journalist. His books -more than 65 – include AMERICA AT WAR WITH ITSELF; DISPOSABLE FUTURES: VIOLENCE IN THE AGE OF SPECTACLE; HEARTS OF DARKNESS: TORTURING CHILDREN IN THE WAR ON TERROR; ZOMBIE POLITICS AND CULTURE IN THE AGE OF CASINO CAPITALISM, and THE VIOLENCE OF ORGANIZED FORGETTING.

Articles by Professor Giroux cited in this interview include:

A Democracy in Exile Fights Against Fascism https://truthout.org/articles/a-democracy-in-exile-fights-against-fascism/

Trump’s Racist Language of Pollution Drives His Neoliberal Fascism https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-racist-language-of-pollution-drives-his-neoliberal-fascism/

Striking Teachers Beat Back Neoliberalism’s War on Public Schools https://truthout.org/articles/striking-teachers-beat-back-neoliberalism-s-war-on-public-schools/

Neoliberal Fascism and the Echoes of History https://www.truthdig.com/articles/neoliberal-fascism-and-the-echoes-of-history/

Henry A. Giroux on Developing a Language of Liberation for Radical Transformation https://truthout.org/articles/henry-a-giroux-on-developing-a-language-of-liberation-for-radical-transformation/

Trump’s act of state terrorism against children https://theconversation.com/trumps-act-of-state-terrorism-against-children-98612

Neoliberalism in the Age of Pedagogical Terrorism https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/22/neoliberalism-in-the-age-of-pedagogical-fascism/

Killing Children in the Age of Disposability: The Parkland Shooting Was About More Than Gun Violence https://truthout.org/articles/killing-children-in-the-age-of-disposability-the-parkland-shooting-was-about-more-than-gun-violence/

Education as a Weapon of Struggle: Rethinking the Parkland Uprising in the Age of Mass Violence https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/26/education-as-a-weapon-of-struggle-rethinking-the-parkland-uprising-in-the-age-of-mass-violence/

Donald Trump’s fascist politics and the language of disappearance https://www.salon.com/2018/11/18/donald-trumps-fascist-politics-and-the-language-of-disappearance/