This week we bring you another current events episode because, frankly, there is just too much insanity going on right now to stay silent.  As with the last episode on current events, we take a good hard look at the sad state of affairs at home and abroad under the Trump administration, while reserving plenty of ire and disgust for the Democrats as well. You’ll recall that we primarily focused on the European Theater in our previous episode. This time, we look at the developments happening in the Americas.

And while the developments are new, the story's contours are familiar.  First, you have the goons at ICE targeting individuals based on their political views. Over the last few days and weeks, we’ve witnessed activists like Mahmoud Khalil, Ranjani Srinivasan, and Radha Alawieh being targeted by the Fourth Reich Gestapo simply because they decided to exercise their constitutional right to free speech and speak up against genocide. As our listeners know full well, silencing dissent literally by disappearing dissenters is a tried and true tactic of fascism. 

We then turn to the Trump administration’s plan to deport hundreds, if not thousands, of Venezuelan nationals (for now) to El Salvador, where they will languish in concentration camps, out of reach from lawyers, journalists, and human rights defenders, as they await removal proceedings by Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. And, as far as we can tell, the strategy of deporting the undesirables is not going to end with the Venezuelans.  Trump’s lap dog “lil” Marco Rubio has even been in talks with El Salvador’s President Bukele to work out a plan to send undesirable U.S. citizens to serve their criminal sentences in Salvadoran black site jails. 

The rotten cherry on top of this putrid cake is that, in the past few weeks, the Trump administration has also targeted several prominent law firms in retaliation for their political involvement in the 2016 election and beyond.  Through executive orders, Trump has barred federal agencies from working with these law firms, revoked any security clearances that the firms' lawyers might have had, and even restricted their access to certain federal buildings.  If that sounds familiar, it should, as it is precisely the kind of thing that Adolf Hitler did back in the day. It’s the purge and intimidation of the nonconforming elements of the bourgeois elite to unify the ruling class behind the criminal state, in preparation to crush into submission the working classes when crisis inevitably hits.

We give a brief preview of the economy and the ingredients for a crash stewing on the boiler, and draw just a couple of the seemingly innumerable parallels to previous fascist apex moments before bringing it all back home to what this podcast is all about: calling out both parties in the sorry spectacle that passes for a democracy, exposing the historical roots of their mutual fecklessness and self-interested cruelty, and urging our listeners to join us in building - albeit from a whisper - the foundations for a new political formation built on truth, justice, and love. 

In sum, the Fourth Reich alarm bells are ringing. These are scary times. So sit back, try to relax (we know that is a tall order these days), and be sure to put on that PPE—this dig is another one that qualifies for hazard pay.