Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael
Society & Culture
On this edition of Parallax Views, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston returns to the program to discuss his new book The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family. According to David's reporting the Trump Organization made a between a whopping 1.6 to 1.7 billion dollars during the Trump Presidency. Although Trump ledged to receive only a salary of $1 for his time as President (and, in fact, did donate his salary to charity), it appears Trump himself along with his daughter Ivanka Trump, Ivanka's husband Jared Kushner, and other associates of the 45th President of the United States of America profited greatly from the Trump Presidency. In this way Trump is arguably the embodiment of a form of gangster capitalism. And "gangster" may well be apropos as David argues that the Trump family is actually a generational crime family. Despite all this, figures like Trump and Steve Bannon have promoted themselves as heroically trying to remember the "forgotten man" of the working class. Nothing could be further from the truth according to David Cay Johnston, who, it should be added, reports on the ways in which Trump bilked supporters in hospice and retirement out of their money in a very devious manner. In this conversation we cover all that as well as the story of Brian Kolfage and the "We Build the Wall" charity, how corruption under Trump differs from corruption of yesteryear like that associated with the Pendergast Machine and Tammany Hall, Donald Trump's effect on foreign policy, the story of the curious Trump associate Tom Barrack, why David refers to Trump as a carny huckster like P.T. Barnum (with one major difference) and his supporters as marks, Super PACs and the need for reforms, white collar crime, the Trump family history, Trump and Christianity, the death of conservatism in the United States, Trump and the Atlantic City casino business, Trump stealing from a dog charity, and much, much more!
The Delay of the Yemen War Powers Resolution w/ Hassan El-Tayyab/Understanding Hanukkah and Jewish Culture w/ Deborah Dash Moore
Israeli Politics from a Progressive Jewish-American Perspective w/ Abe Silberstein/Combating the Israeli Far-Right and Antisemitism at the Same Time w/ Stephen Zunes
The Life & Films of Steven Spielberg + Myth and Reality in THE FABELMANS w/ Joseph McBride
Lawsuit Over JFK Documents, Lee Harvey Oswald, & the CIA w/ Jefferson Morley/FBI Surveillance and the ”Black Identity Extremist” Label w/ Patrick Eddington
The Problems of U.S. Arms Sales Policy w/ Jordan Cohen/Student Confronts Liz Cheney Over Iraq War w/ Mitch Robson
Money-Driven Politics in an Age of Global Tumult w/ Thomas Ferguson/Railroad Workers, Corporate Power, and Congress w/ Jack Rasmus
New Film FARHA Tells a Coming-of-Age Survival Story Set Amidst the Nakba w/ Darin J. Sallam/The Sordid History of Guantanamo Bay w/ Andy Worthington
Is Turkey Preparing for a Ground Operation in Syria? w/ Giorgio Cafiero
Railroad Workers Sound Off on Their Grievances, Biden, Sick Leave, and the Rail Carriers w/ Marilee Taylor, Jeff Kurtz, and Maximilian Alvarez
U.S. Foreign Policy, Saudi Arabia, & the Arms Industry w/ Annelle Sheline & William Hartung/Geopolitics & U.S. Foreign Policy w/ Doug Bandow
Israel, Biden, and the FBI’s Shireen Abu Akleh Investigation w/ Mitchell Plitnick
The Iran Protests and The State of Resistance: Politics, Culture, and Identity in Modern Iran w/ Assal Rad
The FTX/SBF Crypto Scandal & Elon’s Twitter Takeover w/ Mike Swanson/A Critique of Psychedelic Capitalism w/ Daniel Pinchbeck
The Russia-Ukraine War w/ Patrick Cockburn/The Kyrie Irving Controversy and Black Hebrew Israelites w/ Jacob S. Dorman
The ADL and the FBI w/ Grant F. Smith
FIFA Uncovered and the Qatar World Cup w/ Miles Coleman/The World Cup & Qatar’s Soft Power Foreign Policy w/ James M. Dorsey
The Peaceful Transfer of Power w/ David Marchick/The Hidden History of Neoliberalism w/ Thom Hartmann
Bridge to the Sun: The Secret Role of the Japanese Americans Who Fought in the Pacific in World War II w/ Bruce Henderson
The Far-Right’s Electoral Victory in Israel w/ Richard Silverstein
The Israeli Election and What Netanyahu’s Victory Entails w/ Yossi Gurvitz
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