Will an Acquittal of Rittenhouse Embolden the 30% of Republicans Who Believe Violence is Necessary?

We begin with the Kyle Rittenhouse trial now in the hands of the jury where outside the courthouse, protestors are gathering and the Wisconsin National Guard has been deployed. Joining us is Patrick Blanchfield, a journalist and Faculty Member at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research. His book, Gunpower: The System of American Violence will appear from Verso Books later this year, and he joins us to discuss his article at Gawker, “Kyle Rittenhouse Is an American: Our country’s legal history renders the teen’s case familiar if not inevitable.” We discuss the possibility of an acquittal which the judge appears to want and whether that will send a signal to the 30% of Republicans who in a recent poll agreed that violence might be necessary, that it is now open season on left wing protestors.

 

The Defiance of Back Row Americans Who Consider Being Unvaccinated a Badge of Honor

Then we speak with Chris Arnade, a freelance writer and photographer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, TheGuardian, Washington Post, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal among many others. He has a PhD in physics from Johns Hopkins University and worked for twenty years as a trader at an elite Wall Street bank before leaving in 2012 to document addiction in the Bronx. He is the author of Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America and has an article at his Substack, “Among the Unvaccinated: Meaning, Death, and Owning the Elites” and we discuss the defiant attitudes of back row Americans who consider their unvaccinated status a badge of honor.

 

Trump’s Vengeance Tour in West Virginia Against a GOP Rep. Who Voted For the Infrastructure Bill

Then finally we speak with Anne Marie Lofaso, a Professor of Law at West Virginia University College of Law, where she teaches labor and employment law, jurisprudence, and comparative labor law. She is also a Research Scholar for the NYU Center for Labor and Employment and we discuss Trump’s vengeance tour in West Virginia where he is backing a congressman he is endorsing over another Republican congressman who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill.