February 15 – The White House’s Dangerous Dysfunction; Institutionalized Lying in the White House; Trump’s “Burgers and Boobs” Bully Bows Out as Labor Secretary

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the dangerously dysfunctional White House that prompted a high ranking serving senior officer, General Tony Thomas, the head of JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command, to warn that “our Government continues to be in unbelievable turmoil. I hope they sort it out soon because we are a nation at war”. A veteran observer of Washington politics, Norman Ornstein, a contributing writer and editor for The Atlantic and co-author of “It’s Even Worse Than it Was”, joins us to discuss how the White House’s chaotic first month undercuts Trump’s appeal to the electorate that he is a successful businessman who will get things done. But in spite of this it, the Republican leadership, who are busy enacting an aggressive agenda as they implement their right wing wish list, appear to be quite happy with the situation and don’t see the need for any investigations.

Part 2

Then we speak with Lawrence Douglas, a Professor of Law, Jurisprudence & Social Thought at Amherst College. He joins us to discuss his article at The Guardian “Lying got Michael Flynn fired. But that’s what the Trump White House does best” and the extent to which lying has become institutionalized in the Trump Administration whose use of “fake news” plays well with their core constituency inside the Fox News bubble. The roughly 30% of Americans Trump talks directly to via Twitter, who are in an alternative universe to the readers of what Trump calls the “failing” New York Times

Part 3

Then finally we examine the downfall of Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Labor, Andy Puzder, who withdrew his nomination amid mounting concerns about his record of alleged domestic violence and spousal abuse. Judith Conti, the Federal Advocacy Coordinator for the National Employment Law Project joins us to discuss the other factors that cast doubt on the nominee such as his repeated failure to provide documents leading to five separate delays of his confirmation and the opposition to Puzder’s hostility towards workers by the “Fight For $15” movement.