February 28 – Trump Kills the Clean Water Act; Trump Can’t Govern; Trump Passes the Buck on the “Successful” SEAL Raid

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the executive order Donald Trump signed today to roll back the Clean Water Rule as a first step to dismantle EPA protections enacted by President Obama. Wenonah Hauter, the author of “Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America” and the Executive Director of Food and Water Watch, joins us from across the street from the White House in Lafayette Park where she has organized a demonstration along with Bernie Sanders’ “Our Revolution” and a diverse group of activists in what they are calling “A Resistance Address: Defending American Values in a Time of Moral Crisis”. We discuss Trump’s plan to cut the $8 billion budget of the EPA down to $6 billion as a way to offset a $54 billion increase in defense spending upping the Pentagon’s budget to $603 billion a year, with the additional amount of $54 billion being the equivalent of the entire amount of what Russia spends on defense per year.

Part 2

Then we assess Donald Trump’s upcoming State of the Union address with John Stoehr, a lecturer in political science at Yale University and a contributing editor at U.S. News and World Report where he has an article “Trump Can’t Govern: The Democrats Best Play Might Be to Highlight the Trump Administration’s Incompetence”. We will discuss his idea that rather than expose Trump’s white nationalist sympathies and express alarm at the rise of fascism in America, the best way forward for the growing opposition may be to stress what is abundantly clear, Trump can’t govern.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Robert Young Pelton, an author, filmmaker, journalist and explorer who has been on a number of Special Forces raids in Afghanistan and Iraq. He joins us to discuss the call for an investigation into the recent raid in Yemen by the father of the SEAL Ryan Owens who died in the raid, and Donald Trump’s remark on Fox News this morning where he passed the buck saying “They examined what they wanted to do, the generals, who are very respected. My generals are the most respected we’ve had in many decades, I believe. And they lost Ryan”. We also look into the real possibility that the Trump Administration will launch a war against Iran.