September 20 – How the Rest of the World Reacted to Trump’s Crude Threats on the World Stage; A Report From Mexico City on Rescue Efforts Following Tuesday’s Earthquake; The Power of Plutocrats Like the Mercers to Manipulate Us and Control Our Politics

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Part 1

We begin with the international response to Donald Trump’s crass and contemptible speech before the UN and speak with the former New York Times bureau chief at the UN, Barbara Crossette who is now the UN correspondent for The Nation. She joins us to describe how the representatives of the nations of the world reacted to the leader of the most powerful nation on earth threatening to destroy a country of 25 million people in what was a campaign-style speech meant to rile up Trump’s base of at best 35% of the country, delivered on the world stage in the name of the 65% of Americans who are left to endure this embarrassment and insult to what Thomas Jefferson referred to as “the good opinion of mankind”.

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Part 2

Then we go to Mexico City to get an update on rescue efforts underway following Tuesday’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake 60 miles south of Mexico City that collapsed buildings and schools resulting in a death toll of at least 250 so far with many more trapped under the rubble. Dudley Althaus, a Wall Street Journal correspondent for Mexico and Central America joins us to discuss how the earthquake coincided with earthquake drills on the anniversary of the deadly 1985 quake and the heart-wrenching search underway for school children buried under the rubble.

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Part 3
 
Then finally we examine the increasing focus on Facebook, the social media platform from which 67% of Americans get their news and information that operates in total opacity as it boasts to advertisers of its powers to reach billions of users, while refusing to be held accountable for its content whether it is from “Jew Haters” or Russian bots and trolls. David Carroll, a professor of media design at the Parson School of Design joins us to discuss his article at Medium “Confronting a Nightmare for Democracy: Personal Data, Personalized Media and Weaponized Propaganda” and the risk of ceding our democracy to the dark databases and vast resources of plutocrats like the Mercers who manipulate the public to increase their power over our political life and economic future.      
 
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