Brian Klaas is the guest on this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show. He is a fellow in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics. In addition to writing columns and essays that have appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, Foreign Affairs and numerous other publications, Klaas is the author of several books. His newest book is "The Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy."

During this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Professor Brian Klaas and Chauncey discuss how Trump's behavior is in keeping with despots around the world, the ways that political polarization helps democracy to fail, and how Trump's apparent incompetence lulled the public and the news media into a false sense of complacency which made American fascism possible. Klaas also explains how Trump's election is a powerful reminder of how there are tens of millions of Americans who have fascist and authoritarian inclinations.

In this week's Christmas week episode, Chauncey DeVega shares some stories about the real people who are the targets of Trump and the Republican Party's vicious and evil "tax reform" bill, a plan that is really designed to kill the useless eaters. To that end, Chauncey reads some stories about elderly people who have been evicted from nursing homes and thrown out into the street. And to close out this week's podcast, Chauncey--who loves animals--can't help but share how macaques are apparently now having sex with deer in Japan.