A Trump Show with Dennis Trainor Jr

NPR recently ran a story entitled “Trump Embraces One Of Russia's Favorite Propaganda Tactics — Whataboutism” that—even in the eyes of this anti-Trump agitator—reads as is maddeningly simplistic at best and distractingly harmful at worst. The article argues that “this particular brand of changing the subject is called "whataboutism" — a simple rhetorical tactic heavily used by the Soviet Union and, later, Russia. And its use in Russia helps illustrate how it could be such a useful tool now, in America. As Russian political experts told NPR, it's an attractive tactic for populists allowing them to be vague but appear straight-talking at the same time.” Okay, so two playground bullies who grew up to be leaders of world powers are asshats who employ the age-old magician's trick of distracting you with one hand while the other hand handles the magic trick. This does not prove that Trump colluded Russians any more than it proves that Trump colluded with magicians on hijacking the 2016 election. Furthermore, we should point out that this Whataboutism tactic can—and should be— applied to the Democratic party. After failing in historic fashion to defeat the most unpopular presidential candidate in the history of the United States— a man who was caught bragging on a hot mic that he could grab a woman by the pussy and do whatever he wanted with them because he was rich and famous- the Democrats are all too happy not to take an honest look in the mirror and find out why they failed so historically to resonate with the American people- how they were exposed, by those very emails that Trump asked anyone to leak that they actively suppressed the people’s choice – among Democrats anyway- Bernie Sanders and instead ushered through Hillary Clinton who would not know a personal conviction unless it was wrapped in a triangulation of polling data, wrapped around a rock and thrown through a glass ceiling. Instead, we have a massive- and justified resistance to Trump that is being hijacked by that same Democratic party who is pushing—and pushing hard—what Matt Taibbi called in his recent piece in Rolling Stone, The Putin Derangement Syndrome.

Donald Trump escalates his war on the planet with his “Energy Independence” Executive Order. Trump’s order rolls back President Obama’s Clean Power Plan. Let’s call it the Donald Trump Dead Planet Plan. Diana Best, a Greenpeace energy campaigner who is charged with halting the social influence of the oil industry during Trump’s administration, joins me on the podcast to break down the meaning and scale of this administration of Climate change deniers, the significance of Trump not stepping away from the 2015 Paris Agreement, and the diversity of tactics required to fight back. Also, Steve Bannon, the White House chief strategist, has publicly declared that the “Judeo-Christian West is collapsing” and U.S. is in what he calls “the fourth American turning” in which an all-out civilization war is inevitable. In fact, according to Bannon, it has already begun. These views would be easy to dismiss if Steve Bannon was the editor of a widely-discredited news website and the host of a fringe radio show, as was the case less than a year ago. Today, Bannon is Trump’s main “ideas guy.” Abbie Martin—host and producer of the Empire Files—will discuss her recent expose on Steve Bannon. While Bannon calls himself an economic nationalist, it is a brand of nationalism that fear mongers over anyone outside the Judeo-Christian tradition and benefits only white people. So, does that make him a white nationalist? And how can we stop him before he escalates the all-out civilization war that he thinks has already begun? Finally, Rou Reynolds, front man of the dynamic rock band Enter Shakairi, joins me for an interview about the band's current tour, and how it's progressive message is going over here in the US in the Trump era. In discussing the influence of the Zeitgeist movement on his life, art and lyrics, I ask Rou about living with the contractions of waging an anti-capitalist struggle in the modern world.

John Kiriakou, an ex-CIA analyst, and whistleblower who exposed the Bush-era torture program and served 23 months in federal prison joins me for the interview on the podcast. The author of The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA’s War on Terror tells me: "I'm sure yet, that the American people fully appreciate how important this is and what a big deal this is. A former CIA colleague of mine said yesterday that he had not seen anything like this since Iran-Contra or maybe even since the beginning of the Watergate scandal. I have been wrong on this issue for the past six months or so where I have gone on a myriad of news outlets and said that I'm just not seeing any evidence of Russian hacking, and if there had been Russian hacking, what exactly is it that we're accusing the Russians of doing? Director Comey made that far more clear [Monday] that this was a concerted covert action effort by the Russian government to influence the outcome of the election. Now whether or not it was the Russians that got Donald Trump elected, I still have doubts over it, but it was, indeed, interference in the US election. That's interesting, and it causes me to shake my head.” ABOUT THE GUEST John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He became a political prisoner after he exposed the CIA’s illegal and immoral waterboarding torture program, becoming the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration's torture program.(www.johnkiriakou.com)

episode rundown 1. Trump on deportations: 'It's a military operation' President Donald Trump, meeting with business leaders at the White House on Thursday, described his administration's moves to deport undocumented immigrants as a "military operation," a label that runs counter to what his administration has previously said. This new view, combined with the assertion that, according to the government, basic constitutional principles do not apply fully at our borders—and that out “borders” are a 100 mile zone at any external boundary. That means 200 million people are in these zones where constitutional principles do not apply. 2. Bannon and Trump: Make America White Again. At CPAC, shit is getting crazy. We’ll Discuss. 3. Why is Rachel Maddow—perhaps the most respected pundit of the liberal main stream media, going all full Red Commie Scare Joe McCarthy with her Russia obsession when even MSNBC “experts” claim there is no there, there?

Chase Iron Eyes on Standing Rock’s Last Stand Wednesday, February 22 2017— Today in North Dakota the last remaining water protectors at Standing Rock face a 2pm deadline to vacate the camp. In a moment, I’ll speak with Standing Rock Sioux member, Chase Iron Eyes is a Native American activist, attorney, politician, and a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe—Chase is a member of the Lakota People's Law Project and a co-founder of the Native American news website Last Real Indians and in 2016 ran unsuccessfully for US Congress. In brief, here is where we are in the epic- almost year long struggle to protect the water by stopping the Dakota access pipeline from drilling under the Missouri river. It has been a peaceful and prayerful protest that has been ongoing since April of 2016 and has captured the imaginations of people all over the world faces and that today faces overwhelming force of local, state and federal agencies—including Morton County police, Bureau of Indian affairs, National Park Service Rangers, and the Department of Homeland Security—armed for war are prepared to enforce the deadline. The tactic of the militarized police state, acting as agents in our country’s longest war—our war against the Native Americans— has been well documented. Water protectors have been shot with rubber bullets, tazed and blasted with water cannons in freezing temperatures. The water cannon tactic reminiscent of the civil rights protests in the 1960s. As reported in the Guardian, FBI representatives have contacted several ‘water protectors’, raising alarm that an indigenous-led movement is being construed as domestic terrorism. Mni Wiconi, or Water is Life—has become the rallying cry for this movement— and on December 4th, 2016— I was at Standing Rock when a victory—albeit temporary—was achieved when President Barack Obama had the Army Corps of engineers deny an easement that Energy Transfer partners needed to finish construction the pipeline. As part of the delay, an Environmental Impact Statement was to be completed. Donald Trump reversed that decision, and halted the Environmental Impact Statement when Donald Trump issued an executive order on January 24—during his first week as president—ordering the go-ahead of the Dakota access pipeline. Although not explicitly written on Trump’s Executive Order, it may has well have been titled: money is life. Yesterday, I spoke with Chase Iron Eyes as he was making final preparations for the coming deadline. Here is our conversation. That was Chase Iron Eyes— Native American activist, attorney, politician, and a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. I want to bring in now Michal Nigro, with whom I also spoke yesterday. Michael is an award award-winning filmmaker, Emmy nominated writer-director and social justice activist. He is a photojournalist and often travel partner of mine—we were at Standing Rock together back in December. Here is my conversation with Michael as he prepared to spend what will likely be the last night at Oceti Sakowin Camp. That is our show for Wednesday, February 22 2017. For more information, additional podcast visit Atrumpshow.com where you can support this show for as little as $5 a month- that’s atrumpshow.com Tags, Standing rock, Standing Rock protests, water protectors, standing rock Sioux, Mni Wiconi, Donald Trump, Chase Iron Eyes, Police State, a trump show,

A Trump Show podcast is a daily exploration of justice in the Trump era. Donald J. Trump was the most hated Presidential candidate in modern American history—with myriad good reasons. To cover the 45th President of the United States, Dennis Trainor Jr will offer commentary, analysis, and host in-depth interviews with activists, scholars, journalists, artists and other experts to chronicle this critical moment in history.