Financial regulation comes in many forms, and freeing Americans from the most pernicious ones should be a high priority for Congress. Jennifer Schulp and Norbert Michel explain where to start.
Beautiful Brace Belden joins us to look at Trump’s tariff’s, possible annexation of Canada, halt on federal funding, and other breaking admin news. We also discuss New York Mag’s party report from the NYC MAGA scene, and Brace briefs us on what we should know about the murderous “Zizian” rationalists, and how they fit in among all the other people who’ve broken their brains online.
TrueAnon’s in-depth coverage of the Zizians here: https://pod.link/1474001390/episode/a778bfc3221464a5eff8d657bc89eb8a
Amanda Holmes reads Stevie Smith’s “The Frog Prince.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.
This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.
Tariffs postponed for a month after deals reached with Mexico and Canada. Elon Musk's DOGE team moves to shut down US Agency for International Development, which distributes aid around the world. Thousands of FBI employees under scrutiny for their work on the Capitol riot case. CBS News Correspondent Jennifer Keiper with tonight's World News Roundup.
Retired Air Force Gen. Jay Santee takes us inside the high-stakes operation to dispose of Syria’s chemical weapons—on a ship. Plus, Trump’s grudge against Canada resurfaces, this time over fentanyl and trade. In The Spiel: How legitimate critiques of DEI programs got stupefied and weaponized into a political sledgehammer.
In the latest installment of the ongoing interview series with contributing editor Mark Bauerlein, Spencer A. Klavan joins in to discuss his recent book, “Light of the Mind, Light of the World: Illuminating Science Through Faith."
Intro music by Jack Bauerlein.
The president of the United States is putting his Jan 6 accomplices in charge of the Justice Department and the FBI, and clearing out any officials who would be willing to investigate the administration. It's anti-democratic, it's a coup, and it's allowing Elon and his 20-something DOGE buddies to act with impunity as they illegally access classified information and the Treasury's payment system. Meanwhile, the White House can't even get its messaging straight on the tariffs as they sabotage our relationship with allies in the process. Plus, the ethnic scapegoating continues and the Dems at the DNC go all Portlandia when they need to be fighting the aspiring authoritarians.
Sometimes there's an interview that brings radical clarity about the current moment. Professor Anita Say Chan's book Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech & Our Fight for an Independent Future ties Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and the tech billionaires empowered under Trump to eugenics movement of the 19th and 20th centuries with chilling specificity. She offers two key insights: first, that the focus on "merit" is an effort to convince Americans to give up democracy (in which everyone gets a vote/say/rights on the basis of their humanity) in favor of a system where various characteristics (such as IQ/race) "qualify" one for human rights. Second, she argues that by claiming only they (and their individual genius) can save the world, tech giants are persuading Americans that government should shrink to a "benevolent autocracy" where the rich rule. As Peter Thiel has said, "I no longer believe that freedom and Democracy are compatible." Seen through the lens of the eugenics movement, the end goals become shockingly clear, as does the role the left must play.