On tonight’s Big Picture, Thom discusses the Trump administration’s war on drugs and what it means for states’ marijuana legalization with Lt. Commander Diane Goldstein (Ret.). Then, Thom talks to Valerie Ervin of the Working Families Party and Kymone Freeman of We Act Radio about adviser Stephen Miller’s comments on the judiciary, and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach advising Trump to crack down on voter fraud.
The four-decade-long assault on our democratic institutions by corporations has left them weak and largely dysfunctional. These institutions, which surrendered their efficacy and credibility to serve corporate interests, should have been our firewall. Instead, they are tottering under the onslaught.
Labor unions are a spent force. The press is corporatized and distrusted. Universities have been purged of dissidents and independent scholars who criticize neoliberalism and decry the decay of democratic institutions and political parties. Public broadcasting and the arts have been defunded and left on life support. The courts have been stacked with judges whose legal careers were spent serving corporate power, a trend in appointments that continued under Barack Obama. Money has replaced the vote, which is how someone as unqualified as Betsy DeVos can buy herself a Cabinet seat. And the Democratic Party, rather than sever its ties to Wall Street and corporations, is naively waiting in the wings to profit from a Trump debacle.
“The biggest asset Trump has is the decadent, clueless, narcissistic, corporate-indentured, war-mongering Democratic Party,” Ralph Nader said when I reached him by phone in Washington. “If the Democratic strategy is waiting for Godot, waiting for Trump to implode, we are in trouble. And just about everything you say about the Democrats you can say about the AFL-CIO. They don’t control the train.”
Pie is dismayed at everything about Brexit!
Special Guest Mark Blyth explains his beliefs of neoliberalism in America.
Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United for Separation of Church & State. If you’re an American who cares about the separation of church and state – you should be very worried about Neil Gorsuch – Donald Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court. The reason why?
Donald Trump has lived his entire life inside of a millionaire’s (billionaire’s?) bubble, never having to endure anything that he didn’t like. But now that he’s outside of that bubble and in the real world, suddenly the world seems scary and mean. He cries about “fake news” and negative polls, but that’s just reality, Donald, and you’d better get used to it.
Watch how Nancy Pelosi responds to an informed college student asking her about the current situation the Democratic Party find themselves.
At the National Prayer Breakfast President Trump vowed to “totally destroy” the Johnson Amendment, which maintains a barrier between churches and politicians. Undoing this amendment would allow religious organizations and churches to bribe politicians in the same way multinational corporations do by lobbying them and contributing to their political campaigns. It would move us down the path towards a theocracy—and it can’t stand.
A fake Peter Daou account makes a mockery on the Democratic Party’s mistakes.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of the most famous and outspoken scientists in the United States, told a sold out crowd in North Carolina that the lack of emphasis on the sciences, as well as the political assault on science, is creating a dangerous epidemic in the U.S. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.
Always Question Authority 