FEATURING HELEN MOORE – Military recruiters often tout the accessibility of a college education as one of the biggest reasons why a young person might want to enroll in the Army or Navy. But how many veterans of the US military actually take advantage of the G.I Bill’s educational perk and do so successfully?

In a new book, author Ellen Moore explores the experiences of college students who are military vets of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and how they transition to civilian campus life. She also examines the ways in which vets on campus impact anti-war activism and how programs intended to support veterans often overlap with a blanket support of militarism, leading to a suppression of debate.

Ellen Moore, A fellow at the Slow Science Institute and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues at the University of California. She works as a social worker for recent immigrants at La Clinica de La Raza in Oakland, CA. Her new book is called Grateful Nation: Student Veterans and the Rise of the Military Friendly Campus.

**This segment was originally broadcast on April 10, 2018.

FEATURING DEBORAH MENKART – The school textbook publishing giant Scholastic is under fire – for its children’s books about President Donald Trump. Scholastic publishes a large numbers of books that are in wide use throughout American schools and libraries. While the corporation has gotten in trouble before, this new scandal has irked many Americans over the rosy picture the kids’ books paint about Trump.

The books in question are both written by the same author, Joanne Mattern. One, for older kids is part of the ‘A True Book’ series. The other one, for younger kids is part of the ‘Rookie Biography’ series. While the books were published last year they have received renewed scrutiny recently after a social media backlash. The group Teaching for Change just reviewed the books and many are using #StepUpScholastic to call the company out its portrayal of a dangerous president as utterly normal.

Find out more at www.teachingforchange.org.

Deborah Menkart, Executive Director of Teaching for Change.

**This segment was originally broadcast on June 22, 2018.

President Donald Trump has said he is sending Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Saudi Arabia ‘immediately’ over the increasing controversy over the death of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi was a vocal critic of the Gulf Arab monarchy and was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. There is strong evidence that Saudi Arabia, and in particular Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was behind Khashoggi’s killing. According to the New York Times, “The Turkish government has … told the Trump administration that it possesses audio recordings of what occurred inside the consulate that day — evidence that U.S. officials said supports the conclusion that Khashoggi was interrogated, tortured and then murdered.” Trump tweeted on Monday morning, “Just spoke to the King of Saudi Arabia who denies any knowledge of whatever may have happened ‘to our Saudi Arabian citizen.’ He said that they are working closely with Turkey to find answer. I am immediately sending our Secretary of State to meet with King!”

Trump was asked about the Khashoggi killing in an interview on PBS’s 60 Minutes over the weekend discussing the murder of Saudi journalist and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi. According to Associated Press, “Saudi Arabia on Sunday threatened to retaliate for any sanctions imposed against it after President Donald Trump said the oil-rich kingdom deserves ‘severe punishment,'” if it is found responsible for Khashoggi’s fate. Additionally, “international business leaders are pulling out of the kingdom’s upcoming investment forum, a high-profile event known as ‘Davos in the Desert,’ and the sell-off on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock exchange showed that investors are uneasy.”

Republican Senator Marco Rubio in an interview on Sunday underscored the strong pressure that the Trump administration faces from Congress in order to hold the Saudis accountable. In a CNN interview Rubio said, “I believe the Trump administration will do something. The president has said that. But if he doesn’t, Congress will. That I can tell you with 100% certainty. With almost full unanimity, across the board, Republicans and Democrats. There will be a very strong congressional response if in fact the Saudis lured him into that consulate, murdered him, cut up his body and disposed of it. There is going to be a very strong congressional response.”

In other news, thousands of survivors of Hurricane Michael – which slammed into the Florida Panhandle with frightening speed last week – are furious saying there is no government help coming their way. One survivor named Barbara Sanders told the Daily Beast, “that not a single relief agency had come by to check on them. Only the police had come and it was to tell everyone to leave.” She said, “They told us there’s nothing they can do and it’s gonna take a long time to rebuild.” According to the outlet, “The destruction is everywhere, at every corner, as far as the eye can see. Mexico Beach, where the hurricane’s eyewall slammed into Florida with 140 mph winds, is flattened. Panama City, gem of the Emerald Coast, looks like a bomb has been dropped on it.

FEATURING JAY WEXLER – According to Rising Up host, Sonali Kolhatkar, “As a child, when I visited my home country of India, I sometimes got to witness the amazing Hindu religious spectacles that unfolded on the streets of Mumbai. One of the most striking was the last day of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival, where masses of people would carry giant idols of the Hindu elephant-headed god, Ganesh, and march to the sea and submerge the idols as a symbolic gesture. I always wondered what happened to the idols in the days and weeks following…”

Jay Wexler is a Professor at Boston University School of Law, where he has taught Environmental Law and Church-State Law since 2001. He is the author of When God Isn’t Green: A World-Wide Journey to Places Where Religious Practice and Environmentalism Collide.

**This segment was originally broadcast on May 17, 2016.

FEATURING ELIZABETH ESTHER – You’ve heard of drug addiction. Alcohol addiction. Even gambling addiction. Or porn addiction. But what about religious addiction? Apparently that’s a thing. When people who are religious become so emotionally dependent on their faith that they develop an unhealthy attachment, they literally become addicted to it. That’s the story of my guest, Elizabeth Esther, who has written a handbook of sorts about how to kick your religious addiction.

Read more of Elizabeth’s work at www.elizabethesther.com.

Elizabeth Esther, author of Girl At the End of the World: My Escape From Fundamentalism in Search of Faith with a Future. Her new book is called Spiritual Sobriety: Stumbling Back To Faith When Good Religion Goes Bad.

**This segment was originally broadcast on April 21, 2016.

FEATURING TERRY HEATON: Televangelist Pat Robertson is not happy that Donald Trump is facing mass criticism for his unprofessional, dishonest, and unconstitutional policies. Robertson said recently, “the Lord’s plan is being put in place for America and these people are not only revolting against Trump, they’re revolting against what God’s plan is for America.”

He added, “These left-wingers and so-called progressives are trying to destroy the country that we love and take away the freedoms they love. They want collectivism. They want socialism. What we’re looking at is free markets and freedom from this terrible, overarching bureaucracy.”

Trump, whose lifestyle isn’t exactly terribly Christian, has embraced evangelical constituencies and their values as stated by Robertson. It is worth, now more than ever, to examine the origins of the movement that sees capitalism and selfishness as a religious virtue.

Terry Heaton, former Executive Producer of The 700 Club on Christian Broadcasting Network, who worked alongside Pat Robertson. He is the author of the new book, The Gospel of Self: How Jesus Joined the GOP.

**This segment was originally broadcast on March 10, 2017.

Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday leaving a trail of destruction across hundreds of miles, and a death toll of at least 2. The storm is considered one of the strongest to ever hit the continental United States and ripped the roofs off houses, downed structures, and submerged whole areas deep in water. Earlier this week the hurricane was expected to hit land as a Category 3 but finally made landfall as a Category 4 and was even on the verge of being big enough to classify as Category 5. It moved rapidly heading to Georgia and the Carolinas where residents had not yet recovered from the devastation of Hurricane Florence – the slow moving storm that killed dozens and caused untold damage this past summer. Hurricane Michael was downgraded to a “tropical storm” by nighttime. In the 167 years since storms were documented there has not been a stronger hurricane to hit the Florida Panhandle.

While the storm was devastating Florida, President Trump was holding yet another campaign rally – this time in Pennsylvania. He opened his speech by briefly offering his “thoughts and prayers” to those caught in the storm and brightly said, “We will always pull through. … We will always be successful at what we do.” He also said he would travel to the state soon.Associated Press pointed out that six years ago when President Barack Obama attended a political rally during Superstorm Sandy, Trump sharply criticized him, tweeting, “Yesterday Obama campaigned with JayZ & Springsteen while Hurricane Sandy victims across NY & NJ are still decimated by Sandy. Wrong!”

During his Pennsylvania rally Trump once more chastised Democrats for opposing his Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh, calling their actions a, “national disgrace.” He also claimed that his rival party wanted to, “impose socialism and take over and destroy American health care.” And, he mocked the #MeToo movement saying it was preventing him from being able to say what he wanted to say at a political rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday essentially decrying the fact that he can’t use sexist language in the era of #MeToo.

Newly seated Supreme Court justice Kavanaugh ruled on a case involving the rights of immigrants and, predictably he voted as Trump expected him to. According to the LA Times, “Kavanaugh spoke up Wednesday in defense of the Trump administration’s view that legal immigrants with criminal records must be arrested and held for deportation, even years after they were convicted and completed their sentences.” The case, which was brought by the ACLU, centers around a federal law that requires the detention and potentially the deportation for any non-citizen that has been convicted of a crime. It covers legal immigrants too. The ACLU was contending that there ought to be a statute of limitations on whether a person can be arrested decades after a conviction. Kavanaugh thought there should be none, saying, “Congress did not put in a time limit…That raises a real question with me whether we should be superimposing a time limit.”

On Wednesday the FBI Director Christopher Wray  testified in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Senator Kamala Harris,

FEATURING RACHEL GUMPERT – Hotel workers with Marriott are striking in cities around the country. About 7,700 workers have walked off their jobs in 8 cities over contract negotiations that have stalled. According to USA Today, “Oahu and Maui in Hawaii have 2,700 Marriott workers on strike, San Francisco has 2,500 and Boston has 1,800. The other affected cities are: San Diego, Oakland, San Jose and Detroit. Almost two dozen hotels have been affected.” Unite HERE represents the workers and its president D. Taylor said, “Marriott is the richest and most profitable hotel company in the world, and by taking them on in this historic hotel worker strike, Unite Here union members are going to change the lives of all workers in our industry.”

Rachel Gumpert, Press Secretary with Unite HERE.

FEATURING KANDI WHITE – Hurricane Michael has made landfall on the Florida panhandle. As of this recording, winds had reached speeds of 145 mph. According to CBS News, “Michael could be the worst storm ever to hit the Panhandle.” Florida Governor Rick Scott had issued evacuation orders earlier this week and on Wednesday morning he tweeted, “The time for evacuating along the coast has come and gone.” About 30 million people are in the hurricane’s path.

As if underscoring the advent of yet another intense hurricane, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a major report on October 8 and warned that we have about a dozen years before the worst impacts of climate change can be staved off. Debra Roberts, a co-chair of the working group on impacts said, “It’s a line in the sand and what it says to our species is that this is the moment and we must act now. This is the largest clarion bell from the science community.” The report was the product of the Paris Accord signed in December 2015 and will be formally presented at the next UN climate conference in Poland later this year.

The question of how we transition to a new economy and adapt to a changing climate are among the things I want to discuss with my guest,

For more information about the programs ‘Just Transition,’ visit Indigenous Environmental Network.

Kandi White, Native Energy & Climate Campaign Organizer with Indigenous Rising, a project of the Indigenous Environmental Network.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, has resigned and will leave her post by the end of the year. In a joint press conference on Tuesday, President Trump praised her work. “She’s has done a fantastic job, we’ve done a fantastic job together, we’ve solved a lot of problems, we’re on the process of solving a lot of problems. In the beginning, North Korea was a massive problem. And now, we’re moving along; it’s moving along really nicely.”

The Washington Post describes Haley’s exit as odd, saying, “The White House is effectively announcing the exit of its most popular Cabinet official — the extremely rare one who has strong approval among Republicans and Democrats — just before voters vote. Apart from perhaps Defense Secretary James Mattis, nobody is seen as being such a steadying influence in an unwieldy administration as Haley is.” Some consider Haley a presidential contender in 2020, but she has denied it. Trump is expected to name her replacement in the coming days. According to The Atlantic on the short-list for a new UN Ambassador is, “his former deputy national-security adviser, Dina Powell; the recently confirmed ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell; and a wild-card pick: Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka.”

Hurricane Michael is just hours away from making what the National Hurricane Center is calling, a “potentially catastrophic“ landfall on Florida. As of this morning winds had reached speeds of 145 mph. According to CBS News, “Michael could be the worst storm ever to hit the Panhandle.” Florida Governor Rick Scott had issued evacuation orders earlier this week but on Wednesday morning he tweeted, “The time for evacuating along the coast has come and gone. First responders will not be able to come out in the middle of the storm. If you chose to stay in an evacuation zone, you must SEEK REFUGE IMMEDIATELY.” Those last three words were capitalized to emphasize their urgency. About 30 million people are in the hurricane’s path.

The Trump administration on Tuesday indicated it will lift federal restrictions on summer sales of ethanol-blended fuels. The proposal is a gift to corn farmers in Iowa, and according to AP, “is something of a reward to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman led a contentious but successful fight to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.” Currently the Environmental Protection Agency allows about 10% of gasoline to consist of corn-based ethanol. But in the summertime a high-Ethanol blend is banned because of concerns that it worsens smog. But advocates of ethanol say that is not true.

The first trial over the Trump Administration’s controversial citizenship question on the US Census is expected to start on November 5. The trial is the result of two major lawsuits in New York that two top Trump administration officials are expected to testify at: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Justice Department official John Gore. But the Trump’s Justice Department attempted to block their depositions and was denied by a federal appeals court. Now the decision about their testimonies heads to the US Supreme Court where Justi...