FEATURING SHANE BURLEY – Donald Trump’s propensity for fascism has long been undeniable. He has expressed open admiration for dictatorial figures and fantasized out loud about repressive tactics against his detractors. Now, the city of Portland, Oregon has become a flashpoint with federal officers now known to be affiliated with the Department of Homeland Security, being deployed to repress Black Lives Matter protests. 

There are numerous documented instances of protesters being attacked, maimed, tear gassed and arrested without charges or documentation. Trump has openly admired the gestapo-like tactics and dismissed concerns saying those being targeted are “anarchists” who “hate our country.” The White House has pointed to other cities like Chicago and Milwaukee where the use of federal officers could be expanded.

Read Shane Burley’s article ‘Inside the battle for Portland with the independent journalists on the streets,’ HERE.

Shane Burley, writer and filmmaker based in Portland, Oregon. His work has appeared in ROAR Magazine, In These Times, Labor Notes, and make/shift. He is the author of Fascism Today: What It Is And How to End It.

FEATURING KATHA POLLITT – Mary Trump’s book about the President was not the first tell-all book by far about Donald Trump. Insiders, journalists, and former staffers have written numerous books dishing dirt about the most controversial American president in living memory. But Mary Trump’s book is unique in that it tells the story of the President from the perspective of a family member who had an inside view into his psyche. And, Ms. Trump has a Ph.D in clinical psychology. 

Joining us to review the book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, is Katha Pollitt. 

Read Katha Pollitt’s new piece in The Nation, ‘Donald Trump’s Niece Dishes the Dirt,’ HERE.

Katha Pollitt, essayist and author, long-time contributor to The Nation. She has written numerous books including Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights, The Mind-Body Problem and more. She is also an award-winning poet and has taught poetry at Princeton and Barnard and women’s studies at the New School University.

The long-time Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis passed away on Friday at the age of 80. The revered lawmaker represented Georgia’s 5th district for over 3 decades. Lewis cut his activist teeth in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s and was a leading participant in the 1965 Voting Rights march in Selma, Alabama where he and others were beaten by state troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in what came to be known as “Bloody Sunday.” Some are now calling for that bridge to be renamed after Lewis. Writing in the Washington Post, former Attorney General Eric Holder said, “John Lewis fought for voting rights. If you’re against that, you’re against him.” California Representative Karen Bass reiterated that message in calling for the passage of the Voting Rights Advancement Act and Senator Kamala Harris called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to introduce the bill in the Senate. In recent years conservatives on the US Supreme Court unraveled key sections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that Lewis helped win the fight for and the Voting Rights Advancement Act is aimed at renewing the full right to vote. Republicans in particular have worked hard to suppress votes. In the wake of Congressman Lewis’ death, two GOP Senators — Marco Rubio and Dan Sullivan—posted photos on social media to try to commemorate Lewis but mistakenly posted photos of another late Black Congressman, Elijah Cummings. The state of Georgia will decide on Monday who is to replace Lewis on the November ballot as he was up for reelection and had just won his primary. 

Meanwhile President Donald Trump on Sunday in a wide-ranging interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace equated the Black Lives Matter movement with support for the Confederate Flag – a pro-slavery symbol. When asked if he was offended by the confederate flag Trump said, “I’m not offended either by Black Lives Matter, that’s freedom of speech… When people proudly have their Confederate flags, they’re not talking about racism. They love their flag, it represents the south.” But Americans are increasingly rejecting racist symbolism and embracing the Black Lives Matter movement. On Monday thousands of people walked off their jobs in a political expression of solidarity called Strike for Black Lives. Labor unions in particular including the American Federation of Teachers and SEIU were involved in the strike. 

Also during Trump’s hour-long interview with Wallace on Sunday, the biggest story of the world was a main focus and that is the on-going coronavirus pandemic. The Washington Post explained that Trump, “defended his fumbled management of the pandemic with a barrage of dubi...

FEATURING DR. PRAGYA AGARWAL – The Black Lives Matter movement has gained a widespread following here in the United States and also inspired movements against racism worldwide. At a time when there is a national and even international dialogue about race, racism, prejudice, and bigotry, we turn today to a behavioral scientist whose new book about implicit bias helps us understand our propensity to accept stereotypes. 

Dr. Pragya Agarwal is a behavioral scientist, with expertise in cognition, HCI and User-centered Design, focused especially in diversity and inclusivity.

FEATURING HANIEH J. BARNES – Former Vice President Joe has maintained a significant lead over incumbent President Donald Trump in polls for many weeks now. Mr. Biden’s strategy has largely been to remain under the radar and emerge every now and then with a scathing critique of Trump. 

Still, his campaign last week released a document of more than 100 pages that laid out a vision for climate change, the economy, criminal justice, healthcare, and more, that was the result of months of negotiations with Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. The resulting document, while far to the left of Biden’s comfort zone, nonetheless excluded such signature bread-and-butter progressive demands such as Medicare-for-All and a Green New Deal. 

A month ahead of the Democratic National Convention, we turn today to a Bernie Sanders delegate from California – part of the largest Sanders delegation to the DNC – to examine how much the Vermont Senator’s progressive platform will play a role in the months to come. 

Hanieh J. Barnes, Bernie Sander’s Delegate Candidate in California. She was part of the National organizing body for Muslims for Bernie.

The United States broke yet another record in the number of new Covid-19 infections. More than 75,000 new cases were recorded on Thursday with the New York Times remarking, “The number of daily cases has more than doubled since June 24, when the country registered 37,014 cases after a lull in the outbreak had kept the previous record, 36,738, standing for two months.” Three states alone: Florida, Texas, and California, account for 20 percent of all cases worldwide. The situation is so dire that one of the US’s top vaccinologists, Peter Jay Hotez of Baylor College predicted, “In the next few weeks, every single American’s going to know someone who’s seriously ill from COVID-19.” More than 1,400 Americans died from Covid-19 on Wednesday marking the beginning of an expected surge in deaths that follows from the beginning of the surge in infections. 

There are indications that the Trump administration is well aware of the dire situation unfolding across the nation but is unwilling to take steps to tackle it. On Friday the Center for Public Integrity published an internal document that had been prepared for the White House Coronavirus Task Force recommending that, “more than a dozen states should revert to more stringent protective measures, limiting social gatherings to 10 people or fewer, closing bars and gyms and asking residents to wear masks at all times.” The document was dated July 14th but the White House has not chosen to make it public or act on it. Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute said, “The fact that it’s not public makes no sense to me…Why are we hiding this information from the American people? This should be published and updated every day.”

Instead of addressing the pandemic, President Donald Trump at a Thursday news conference bragged about how his administration had brought back incandescent lights and weakened the Clean Water Act. A new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows Trump’s disapproval rating soaring to 60%. Specifically, “More than 6 in 10 say they do not trust what he says about the outbreak, including 2 in 3 political independents and nearly 3 in 10 Republicans.” The poll also found that, “A 63 percent majority say it is more important to try to control the spread of the virus even if it hurts the economy.” 

Trump’s niece Mary, who has been going on an interview spree about her new tell-all book revealed on Thursday in an MSNBC interview that she often heard her uncle use racist language.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday

FEATURING JOHN NICHOLS – While all eyes are on the Presidential race on November 3rd, there are also 35 seats in the US Senate up for election. Even if a Democrat wins the White House this fall, it is control of the US Senate that determines how effectively a new President can govern. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has demonstrated as much, controlling the legislative agenda and judicial nominations like no one in recent memory.

Read John Nichols’ latest piece in The Nation entitled ‘Democrats Will Be Lost Without the Senate,’ HERE.

John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation magazine and host of the podcast, ‘Next Left.’ He is a contributing writer for The Progressive and In These Times and the associate editor of the Capital Times. He is also the author of numerous books including Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse: A Field Guide to the Most Dangerous People in America (Nation Books) and his latest piece in The Nation is entitled Democrats Will Be Lost Without the Senate.

FEATURING ALEX MORGAN – The US Supreme Court in a 6-3 ruling on Thursday affirmed that former felons in Florida will not have the right to vote if they have not paid off all fines related to their incarceration. Florida residents had passed a ballot measure to allow voting in this demographic but Republican state lawmakers stopped its implementation in just one of many ways in which the conservative party has worked to block voting. 

Now, as the nation struggles with an exploding coronavirus pandemic, many fear that in spite of low poll numbers President Donald Trump could eke out a win in November if not enough voters turn out. 

Alex Morgan, Executive Director of Progressive Turnout Project.

The world passed a grim new milestone in the coronavirus pandemic this week when a record single-day total of 230,400 new infections were documented. Of that number, 66,300 were in the United States alone – that was the second highest single-day total observed in the country. The US has had 3.5 million cases of infection overall and infection rates are rising in 41 of 50 states. Some Republican lawmakers appear to be in denial of the situation such as Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp who on Thursday declared that no cities or counties in his state could require mask wearing among the public. Atlanta City mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms had ordered a mask mandate in her city and her office shot back saying, “The Mayor’s Order remains in effect, as science and data will continue to drive the City’s decisions. Masks save lives.” President Donald Trump, who has mostly eschewed mask-wearing made an appearance recently at Atlanta’s airport maskless. The mayor slammed the supposed “law-and-order” president saying, “by not having on the mask, President Trump did violate the law in the city of Atlanta.” In Florida where Covid-19 cases have overwhelmed hospitals, and where a whopping one-third of children who were tested are infected, state Rep. Anthony Sabatini claimed, “Florida’s doing just fine.” Maryland’s Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is bucking his party with a new op-ed in the Washington Post where he accused Trump of abandoning even Republican governors like him in the fight against the coronavirus. Hogan also related how Trump disparaged South Koreans when the Governor tried to obtain test kits from his wife’s home country. 

Even states run by Democrats are seeing cases rising. In California, a record high of 11,000 new cases in a single day were documented this week. The virus is impacting farm workers in the state and is particularly rampant through the state prison system. Roughly half of all inmates at San Quentin prison have been infected.  In the state of Washington, where the virus first made headlines, a resurgence is being documented six months after the state went into a very early lockdown.

A large part of the problem of controlling the virus is a very long lag t...

FEATURING SONIA SHAH – Coronavirus cases are skyrocketing across the US with global data showing that poorer nations—and the US—are driving infections up internationally. Misinformation about the virus abounds on the internet, in large part stemming from a mistrust of government that President Donald Trump and his supporters thrive on. 

Now, a science journalist who has written about pandemics even before this year, says we need a paradigm shift on how we think about contagious diseases if we are to survive.

Read Sonia Shah’s article, ‘It’s Time to Tell a New Story About Coronavirus—Our Lives Depend on It,’ HERE.

Sonia Shah, science journalist and the author of PANDEMIC: Tracking Contagion from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond. Her latest book is The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move.