October 1 – Trump Turns the Puerto Rico Tragedy Into a Twitter War; An Update From Spain on the Violently Contested Referendum in Catalonia; A Critique of the PBS Series on the Vietnam War From Inside the White House at the Time

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an assessment of the relief effort underway on the devastated island of Puerto Rico that Donald Trump has turned into a contentious political issue in flurry of 18 tweets on Saturday that were full of anger and blame and completely lacking in compassion, inspiration, hope and leadership that presidents usually offer to their fellow Americans at a time of need and a time for unity.  Alexander Betancourt, the Chair of the Department of Political Science and Professor at the University of Puerto Rico, joins us to provide a local perspective on what is happening in Puerto Rico compared to the rosy self-congratulation coming from Trump who again is addressing the alternative universe of his base inside the Fox News, Sinclair, right wing talk radio bubble, feeding them his brazenly cynical lies while attacking the rest of the media for reporting what they are seeing with their own eyes as the American citizens on this small, hurricane-ravaged island search for food, water, medicine and their missing loved ones.

Part 2

Then we go to Spain for an update on today’s violently contested referendum over independence for Catalonia that the Madrid government is forcefully shutting down by closing polling places and arresting voters trying to cast ballots injuring up to 500. Anthony Geist, a Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature who is the Vice Chair of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives and author of “They Still Draw Pictures: Children’s Drawings from the Spanish Civil War” joins us to discuss how much this referendum is exhuming the ghosts of the Spanish Civil War as Catalonians young and old are being beaten up by the national police for expressing their independence.

Part 3

Then finally we get a critique of the PBS series on the Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick from Roger Morris who served on the senior staff of the National Security Council under Presidents Johnson and Nixon until resigning with Anthony Lake over the invasion of Cambodia. He joins us to discuss how the Vietnam War was many wars, not just in Vietnam, but inside the White House, between the press and the government and on the streets of America between protesters and supporters of the war.