Episodes
Wednesday Jul 29, 2020
Ep. 7.29.20: A Very Stable Fascist
Wednesday Jul 29, 2020
Wednesday Jul 29, 2020
THE HOME FOR PROGRESSIVE POLITICS
This Week’s Discussion:
Trump says he passed a very difficult cognitive test, possibly demonstrating he is not excessively brain damaged, and thus is his argument for remaining President. Then he goes about unleashing his Gestapo on American cities, and thus is his argument for remaining President.
When he is not fomenting civil war, Trump continues to protect the US from the deadly COVID pandemic by sacrificing US lives by the tens of thousands. As confirmed US death tolls surpass 150,000, the Republican criminal organization in the Senate introduces a relief bill apparently designed to cause maximum destruction of US workers. The GOP bill has three goals in mind: Stealing their way to further riches and perhaps reelection, class warfare, and hamstringing a future Democratic government.
Also, some of the latest in our corruption watch, baseball is back, and Biden shows us the alternative!
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Forward Nation Radio with Professor David Leventhal
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Tuesday Jul 21, 2020
Ep. 7.21.20: Extremism and Dvisiveness
Tuesday Jul 21, 2020
Tuesday Jul 21, 2020
THE HOME FOR PROGRESSIVE POLITICS
This Week’s Discussion:
The death of civil rights icon and long-time US Congressman John Lewis gives us chance anew to discuss what it means to be extremist in America today. Republicans further embarrassed themselves when two GOP Senators tweeted pictures of deceased congressman Elijah Cummings in their disingenuous tributes to John Lewis. But the greater insult was in the faux tribute to a man they were attacking yesterday and will be attacking again tomorrow.
Congressman Lewis gives us another chance to look at false equivalences and extremism. Lewis represented what extremism is on the left: a willingness to fight for social justice and opportunity. Several prominent republicans represent what it is on the right: support for donald trump, the lunatic right-wing conspiracy group QAnon, and fantasy over reality.
Dave discusses the latest in President trump's efforts to battle the coronavirus by sweeping it under the rug, as he continues his assault on facts and reason. Is destroying America and killing Americans somehow a campaign strategy, such as by creating an excuse to close polling places? That's probably giving trump too much credit for being something other than a blunderbuss whose privileged life has rendered him incapable of doing anything other than self-promotion. Dave posits that that is why America is so divided; we have a President who knows only divisiveness.
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Forward Nation Radio with Professor David Leventhal
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Thursday Jul 16, 2020
Ep. 7.16.20: Dave Solves the COVID Crisis
Thursday Jul 16, 2020
Thursday Jul 16, 2020
THE HOME FOR PROGRESSIVE POLITICS
This Week’s Discussion:
To get even trump supporters on board with beating COVID, Dave suggests doing the unimaginable; making republicans accountable! Let's make people who don't follow guidelines personally liable for the injuries that result. (in fact, let's even have some guidelines!)
Even better, Dave offers an additional modest proposal. Since people not practicing good safety practices are posing a direct threat to others, let's invoke Stand Your Ground laws (instituted to allow whites to shoot black people with impunity) to justify shooting anyone not wearing a mask in public! And of course, let's vote the threat-in-chief out of office in November!
Even the most selfish people respond to incentives.
We continue our discussions on free speech, American exceptionalism, the rich, and in light of trump's commutation of his henchman Roger Stone's sentence, our fascist-wannabee president. For fascists and rich people, both categories in which our president falls, the law is never an obstacle...or a concern.
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Forward Nation Radio with Professor David Leventhal
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Wednesday Jul 08, 2020
Ep. 7.8.20: July 4: Trump's celebration of secession
Wednesday Jul 08, 2020
Wednesday Jul 08, 2020
THE HOME FOR PROGRESSIVE POLITICS
This Week’s Discussion:
Happy July 4 everybody! For most of us, a celebration of US independence; for our president, a celebration of secession and the US Civil War. In a bitterly racist and divisive speech at Mount Rushmore on a day of national unity, Trump continues to make it clear that the 2020 election will be a battle for white supremacy...and totalitarianism.
We take stock in America for Independence Day. As Americans pat ourselves on the back for our imagined superiority, we put our exceptionalism in a somewhat harsher light judged by world events. Our "exceptional" failure to address a deadly global pandemic is a symptom of a country with a huge segment of its population that is exceptional only in its ignorance, its stupidity, and its selfishness. And with a political criminal organization that can achieve electoral success only by ensuring they remain that way.
That brings us back to the latest arguments in support of a re-examination of how we treat free speech in America. One of our most vaunted parts of our revered founding document, its application is being used to create the opposite of the "marketplace of ideas" it was intended to create. Instead, it is a facilitator of hate and lies and Dave questions whether a society as ignorant as ours can survive it. We look at the NY Times decision to publish a hate and lie-filled op-ed by a US Senator, and Dave argues that responsible media needs to stop printing lies and manipulative content.
Meanwhile, China's crackdown on Hong Kong is a lesson for the US protests for justice: if you stop, you will lose.
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Forward Nation Radio with Professor David Leventhal
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Wednesday Jul 01, 2020
Ep. 7.1.20: The Undisputed Champion of Killing Americans!
Wednesday Jul 01, 2020
Wednesday Jul 01, 2020
THE HOME FOR PROGRESSIVE POLITICS
This Week’s Discussion:
Dave switches gears a bit from our prior show on hope to talk about how Republicans elevate the interests of those who kill humans above the interest of actual humans. We take a few minutes to reflect on corporate America's role as undisputed champion of killing Americans.
Dave talks about "tort reform" and other ways bad actors avoid suffering the consequences of their own actions. These basic themes not only explain the actions of corporate America, but also those of the trump administration and of the police that have led to the current movement for social justice.
With the Fourth of July holiday approaching, we would never forget some of President Donald Trump's latest betrayals of his country. This week we learn that US intelligence agencies told the President that US geopolitical enemy (but, more importantly, friend of the President) Russia offered a bounty to the Taliban in Afghanistan on the heads of US military personnel. In response to our adversary's (but friend of Trump's reelection prospects) conspiracy to murder Americans with our enemy, the President chose to do nothing. His excuse: I'm too stupid and too much of a security risk to have been told about it. (Editor's note: turns out he was told about it!)
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THE HOME FOR PROGRESSIVE POLITICS
Forward Nation Radio with Professor David Leventhal
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