Lady Gaga performed at halftime of Super Bowl LI last night in a performance that some hailed as a  missed opportunity—while others point out the political  fervor thrumming beneath the surface. Compared to Beyonce's 2016 halftime performance (perhaps the  most radical of her career) that paid homage to the black panthers, Malcolm X, and spoke directly to the #BlackLivesMatter movement, Lady Gaga’s moment on the world’s largest stage was more subtle. Can “subtle” apply to Lady Gaga? Dennis Trainor Jr examines the performance + gives us run down of today’s top stories in Trumplandia, including:  - Trump's immigration ban facing a  new legal hurdle. - Trump may not “make America great again”—but he just might make  SNL great again. - Trump angered to learn that he  does not actually know the details of the Executive Orders Steve Bannon is having him sign.  *****  Tags Lady Gaga Super Bowl, Lady Gaga halftime show, Lady Gaga Trump, Donald Trump, podcast, Trump podcast, 

005 Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl Performance v. Trumpland

A Trump Show is a podcast exploring justice in the Trump era.  Critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker Dennis Trainor Jr offers analysis, commentary, and hosts in-depth interviews with activists, scholars, journalists, artists and others working towards justice either in response to or in the shadow of, the 45th President of the United States—Donald J. Trump—and his administration. New episodes every Wednesday.
(ATrumpShow.com | @AtrumpShow)

News & Politics

Covered on the podcast:
How US Foreign Policy helped Create the Immigration Crisis * Arundhati Roy on the “Shelf Life of Power” * That time I was told to prepare to turn my email over to the Senate Foreign Intelligence Committee’s Investigation into Russian Election Interference (really) * Reform or Revolution * Over 2000 of Manifest Destiny’s Children

#Civility for Team Trump? Why Activists Are Telling the Establishment to Shove it

NPR recently ran a story entitled “Trump Embraces One Of Russia's Favorite Propaganda Tactics — Whataboutism” that—even in the eyes of this anti-Trump agitator—reads as is maddeningly simplistic at best and distractingly harmful at worst. The article argues that “this particular brand of changing the subject is called "whataboutism" — a simple rhetorical tactic heavily used by the Soviet Union and, later, Russia. And its use in Russia helps illustrate how it could be such a useful tool now, in America. As Russian political experts told NPR, it's an attractive tactic for populists allowing them to be vague but appear straight-talking at the same time.” Okay, so two playground bullies who grew up to be leaders of world powers are asshats who employ the age-old magician's trick of distracting you with one hand while the other hand handles the magic trick. This does not prove that Trump colluded Russians any more than it proves that Trump colluded with magicians on hijacking the 2016 election. Furthermore, we should point out that this Whataboutism tactic can—and should be— applied to the Democratic party. After failing in historic fashion to defeat the most unpopular presidential candidate in the history of the United States— a man who was caught bragging on a hot mic that he could grab a woman by the pussy and do whatever he wanted with them because he was rich and famous- the Democrats are all too happy not to take an honest look in the mirror and find out why they failed so historically to resonate with the American people- how they were exposed, by those very emails that Trump asked anyone to leak that they actively suppressed the people’s choice – among Democrats anyway- Bernie Sanders and instead ushered through Hillary Clinton who would not know a personal conviction unless it was wrapped in a triangulation of polling data, wrapped around a rock and thrown through a glass ceiling. Instead, we have a massive- and justified resistance to Trump that is being hijacked by that same Democratic party who is pushing—and pushing hard—what Matt Taibbi called in his recent piece in Rolling Stone, The Putin Derangement Syndrome.

Trump-Russia Obsession is Holding Back the Resistance

Donald Trump escalates his war on the planet with his “Energy Independence” Executive Order. Trump’s order rolls back President Obama’s Clean Power Plan. Let’s call it the Donald Trump Dead Planet Plan. Diana Best, a Greenpeace energy campaigner who is charged with halting the social influence of the oil industry during Trump’s administration, joins me on the podcast to break down the meaning and scale of this administration of Climate change deniers, the significance of Trump not stepping away from the 2015 Paris Agreement, and the diversity of tactics required to fight back. Also, Steve Bannon, the White House chief strategist, has publicly declared that the “Judeo-Christian West is collapsing” and U.S. is in what he calls “the fourth American turning” in which an all-out civilization war is inevitable. In fact, according to Bannon, it has already begun. These views would be easy to dismiss if Steve Bannon was the editor of a widely-discredited news website and the host of a fringe radio show, as was the case less than a year ago. Today, Bannon is Trump’s main “ideas guy.” Abbie Martin—host and producer of the Empire Files—will discuss her recent expose on Steve Bannon. While Bannon calls himself an economic nationalist, it is a brand of nationalism that fear mongers over anyone outside the Judeo-Christian tradition and benefits only white people. So, does that make him a white nationalist? And how can we stop him before he escalates the all-out civilization war that he thinks has already begun? Finally, Rou Reynolds, front man of the dynamic rock band Enter Shakairi, joins me for an interview about the band's current tour, and how it's progressive message is going over here in the US in the Trump era. In discussing the influence of the Zeitgeist movement on his life, art and lyrics, I ask Rou about living with the contractions of waging an anti-capitalist struggle in the modern world.

Donald Trump’s Dead Planet Plan

FBI Director James Comey dropped not one but two bombshells into the public record in his sworn testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on Monday. Specifically, that the FBI has been investigating the Russia attempt to influence the 2016 US Presidential election including a potential collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. Additionally, Comey said there was no evidence to Trump's claims that Barack Obama wiretapped him and Trump Tower, as the current president alleged in a series of now infamous tweets earlier this month. John Kiriakou, an ex-CIA analyst and whistleblower who exposed the Bush era torture program and served 23 months in federal prison joins me for the interview on the podcast. The author of The Reluctant Spy:  My Secret Life in the CIA’s War on Terror tells me: “I have been wrong on this issue for the past six months or so where I have gone on a myriad of news outlets and said that I'm just not seeing any evidence of Russian hacking, and if there had been Russian hacking, what exactly is it that we're accusing the Russians of doing? Director Comey made that far more clear yesterday that this was a concerted covert action effort by the Russian government to influence the outcome of the election. Now whether or not it was the Russians that got Donald Trump elected, I still have doubts over it, but it was, indeed, interference in the US election. That's interesting, and it causes me to shake my head.” About the guest (www.johnkiriakou.com) John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He became a political prisoner after he exposed the CIA’s illegal and immoral waterboarding torture program, becoming the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration's torture program.

Ex-CIA Analyst: I Was Wrong on Russia. FBI Director Comey’s Testimony is Game Changer

In remarks would be stunning coming from the mouth of anyone with a middle school science education—to say nothing of the current head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Pruitt continued his long history of flouting the facts in an interview with CNBC host Joe Kernen on Thursday saying that carbon dioxide emissions are not a major contributor to global warming. Joe Kernen: "Do you believe that it’s been proven that CO2 is the primary control knob for climate? Do you believe that?" Scott Pruitt: "No, I––No, I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do, and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact. So, no, I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see." Joe Kernen: "OK. All right––" Scott Pruitt: "But we don’t know that yet, as far as—we need to continue debate and continue the review and the analysis." His statements could put him at odds with the law. Federal courts have ruled the EPA is obligated to regulate carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act. Here is what the EPA website says about CO2: Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas that is contributing to recent climate change. CO2 is absorbed and emitted naturally as part of the carbon cycle, through plant and animal respiration, volcanic eruptions, and ocean-atmosphere exchange. Human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels and changes in land use, release large amounts of CO2, causing concentrations in the atmosphere to rise. The current CO2 level is higher than it has been in at least 800,000 years. Understanding that many Trump supporters are willing to look the other way as we sail over the Climate cliff as long as Trump delivers jobs we will also discuss Trump’s promise, oft repeated, that pipeline projects will be built with “American Steel.” As with most things that come out of Trump’s face, this lands squarely in the land of #alternativefacts. As first reported by Steve Horn at DeSmog Blog, the steel to construct the Keystone XL pipeline will not be produced in the United States, as Trump has so boisterously promised, but the frim that will benefit is a Canada by a subsidiary of Evraz, a company 31-percent owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who is a close ally of Putin and a Trump family friend. Evraz has also actively lobbied against provisions which would mandate that Keystone XL's steel be made in the U.S. Hm, I wonder if anyone else is looking into this Russia thing? Get in touch via email or by calling the listener feedback line at (888) 213-5353 ****

005 Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl Performance v. Trumpland

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