Conflict of Interest

The Jan. 6 effort to overturn an election and KILL the vice president and speaker the House seems so long ago. And Trump has effectively made us forget. But Mark Bowden has not forgotten. The author of Blackhawk Down and many other deeply reported books put Jan. 6 and its aftermath into one comprehensive book. It has all the receipts. To understand what’s happening now when the entire leadership of th government believes the Biden win was stolen, you have to go back to Jan. 6. Bowden takes us through the highlights and leaves the details for the book - a great read.

The award-winning documentary filmmaker has faith (some) that the system can withstand Trump and Musk. That’s a lot for a a guy who makes a living examining the abuse of power by powerful people - Trump, Lance Armstrong, ENRON, Elizabeth Holmes and Scientology. Next up? Elon Musk.

Trump-Musk is unprecedented, lawless, and dangerous. But we knew that. What exactly constitutes the coup? What steps do citizens take? Constitutional scholar and professor Austin Sarat has some answers - not magic bullets, but a dedication to democracy by speaking out and getting involved. Sarat is less gloomy than most and sympathizes with the college students of today. And discusses how the current situation has changed his teaching.

I get the question every day - Why can’t we solve this? Roseanne Haggerty is solving it. First she bought a hotel in New York and housed people. Then she won a MacArthur “genius’’ fellowship. Now she advises cities all over the country how to solve it. Turns out it’s not that complicated. It takes what tough problems have always required: political courage, collecting data about those in need and a healthy dose of caring about people.

When Sherri Goodman arrived at the Pentagon in 1993 for her job as a deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Environmental Security, the Defense Department was one of the biggest polluters on the planet. The legacy of our nuclear weapons program along with pollution from military bases all over the country. Her job? Clean up the mess. And as things went on, start factoring energy and climate change into how the military operates. How did it go? And what happens now that the Trump people have taken over?

The flu is in 16 states and more than 900 dairy herds. That means the milk is threatened. Can it jump to humans? Yes. Will it jump to humans in a big way. I ask NY Times science reporter Apoorva Mandivilli all the questions and she gives the answers. It’s not COVID, she says. Yet.

Will Trump follow through on his draconian threats to deport millions, go after his enemies and jack up the price of everything? Every liberal Democrat I find say yes. But I found a journalist who doesn’t think so. Michael Powell of The Atlantic says the worst won’t happen. And he has a lot of experience watching politicians who promise bug and can’t deliver. He write sports for the New York Times, been on Pulitzer-winning teams. Most of all - he is from New York and watched all kinds of pols up very close. He has been there. So Trump is nothing new to him. 

Wherein some of the Ellis family gathers to assess, analyze and argue about the election. How was it lost? How was it won? No holds barred. It’s all men because the women in our lives have serious work to do and refused to be compromised by contact with the men. But there are nuggets. Harris played not to lose. (ME) And so much more.

The Democratic Party sabotaged his bid for president. He is running for a fourth term. He is the most famous name in politics until Trump came along and changed everything. Bernie Sanders on why Harris needs to win and how the Democrats lost the working class. 

Charity Clark is the chief law enforcement officer for the state of Vermont and she is suing Meta and Mark Zuckerberg to top them from addicting young people to bad stuff on Instagram, stealing their privacy and identity, selling it to advertisers and lying about what they do.