1) Trump, GOP Plan to Undermine Presidential Election Results if They Lose

Justin Glawe, an independent journalist, frequent contributor to Rolling Stone magazine, writes the newsletter American Doom. Glawe, whose forthcoming book is tilted, “If I Am Coming to Your Town, Something Terrible Has Happened,” discusses the important issues examined in his recent articles re: GOP threats to undermine the 2024 election, with a focus on the conduct of Georgia's election board and the mass purging of eligible voters in that state.

2) Project 2025's Sabotage of Federal Disaster Response

Andra Watkins, a New York Times best-selling author, who’s devoted many months researching and dissecting Project 2025 on her Substack online newsletter, “How Project 2025 Will Ruin Your Life,” talks about her recent article, "What Nobody is Reporting About Project 2025 Disaster Response" and the deadly disinformation that's being spread by Donald Trump and his supporters that has undermined hurricane Helene and Milton disaster response.

3) Senator Bernie Sanders Pushes Legislation to Block Offensive U.S. Weapons Sales to Israel

Miranda Rector, a member of the leadership team of Jewish Voice for Peace in New Haven, CT talks about VT U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' advocacy for Senate adoption of the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval that would block the sale of offensive U.S. weaponry to Israel. The JRD is the only mechanism available to Congress to prevent arms sales from advancing. Each resolution applies to specific weaponry, and documents cases in which Israel has used this weaponry in violation of international laws, and in which the US providing this weaponry has violated U.S. federal laws.

4) New Book Provides a Guide to the Nuts & Bolts of Progressive Electoral Success

Robert Creamer, a veteran political organizer and strategist for five decades, talks about his new book, "Nuts and Bolts: The Formula for Progressive Electoral Success," a step-by-step field manual for how progressives can win electoral campaigns, and a textbook for anyone who wants to know how electoral politics really works.

1) US Media Sanitizes US Role in Israel's Brutal Gaza War

Norman Solomon, co-founder of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, talks about his latest book, "War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine," with a just published revised edition that includes a new afterword on the Gaza War. On the one year anniversary of the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel, he'll examine the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Israel in the conflict, and corporate media's bias reporting on Israel's now expanding regional war that has resulted in the slaughter of more than 42,000 Palestinians and thousands more now being killed in Lebanon.

2) Corporate Media 'Sanewashing' Trump's Obvious Cognitive Decline

Parker Malloy, publisher of the Present Age newsletter, media critic and former editor-at-large at Media Matters for America, discusses her critique of corporate media for "sanewashing" Trump's often unhinged and incoherent speeches and interviews -- as well as soft-pedaling or sanitizing Trump and Vance's advocacy of disturbing policies such as Trump's 'violent day' of policing that will end crime, the lie that Democrats advocate the killing of babies after they're born, and Trump and Project 2025's plan for the US military to round up millions of immigrants (both legal and illegal) for mass deportation.

3) Hurricane Helene's Destruction Fueled by Climate Change, Provokes Renewed Calls to Hold Big Oil Accountable

Aaron Regunberg, Senior Policy Advisor with Public Citizen’s Climate Program, discusses the focus on "Make Polluters Pay" legislation after the enormous destruction wrought by hurricane Helene in the southeast U.S. -- with a focus on legislation passed in Vermont, and similar bills proposed in California and New York.

4) The Challenges Mexico's First Female President Faces as she Takes Office

Javier Porras Madero, an organizer and a historian of Mexico and Guatemala currently based in Mexico City, discusses the inauguration of Mexico's new president Claudia Sheinbaum, the issues she'll face as her nation's first woman president, touching on some of the issues covered in his article, "What’s Left of Morena?" re: the challenges ahead for Sheinbaum's Morena Party and Mexico's progressive left.

1) Israel's Attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon Threatens to Ignite Long Feared Wider War

John Feffer, director of Foreign Policy In Focus and Global Just Transition at the Institute for Policy Studies, discusses his recent article, "A Ceasefire Is Not Enough in Gaza," focusing on Netanyahu's successive actions that appear designed to provoke a wider Middle East war, and the Biden administration's failure to use its powerful leverage to pressure Israel to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza. With Israel's war now expanding into Lebanon, and the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Feffer believes it's critical that Biden use his remaining months in the White House to initiate serious regional negotiations to address the Palestinian people's right to self determination, and deescalate tensions with both Iran and Hezbollah.

2) Georgia GOP Election Deniers Working to Sabotage 2024 Election

Julie Houk, managing counsel for Election Protection at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law talks about her group's work in Georgia, including the filing of a lawsuit "to bar enforcement of provisions in a new Georgia law that would permit baseless mass challenges to large swaths of eligible voters," and concern about new rules issued by Georgia's election board requiring a hand-count of election day ballots that could cause a consequential delay in certifying the state's presidential election winner, endangering the democratic process.

3) Trump Has Made Immigration a Toxic Issue in Election 2024

Dulce Guzmán, executive director of Alianza Americas, discusses how the issue of immigration is being debated by the candidates and covered by the news media in the 2024 presidential election, with a focus on Donald Trump's demonization of immigrants stoking hate and fear, and an assessment of Vice President Kamala Harris' stated policies on immigration, with a review of her recent trip to the U.S. Mexico border on September 27th.

4) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's Reckless Action in Ukraine

Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News talks about his recent article, "The Madness of Antony Blinken," focusing on Sec. of State Blinken's advocacy for allowing Ukraine to launch conventional British long-range missiles against Russia, and western news reports that the Kremlin responded by saying it would consider any assault on its territory supported by a nuclear power to be a joint NATO attack, and threatened the use of nuclear weapons.

1) Escalating Conflict Between Israel and Hezbollah Could Erupt into Regional War

Jennifer Loewenstein, former associate director of Middle Eastern Studies and senior lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides analysis of Israel's two waves of attacks targeting Hezbollah via pagers and walkie-talkie explosions that killed at least 14 and injured 2,800, the escalation of missile and airstrikes across the Israeli and Lebanese border, that could lead to all-out war, as well as the ongoing slaughter in Gaza, and stalled progress on cease fire talks there.

2) Trump's Abortion Ban is Now Literally Killing Women

Amy Littlefield, the abortion access correspondent with The Nation magazine and a freelance investigative reporter who focuses on the intersection of religion and health care, discusses her new Nation article, "An Abortion Ban Killed Amber Thurman—and Likely Many More," with a focus on how women at the local level are fighting back, and the ways in which these deaths may impact the outcome of the 2024 election.

3) US Poverty Rose When Federal Pandemic Safety Net Programs Expired

Karen Dolan, director of the Criminalization of Race and Poverty Project at the Institute for Policy Studies discusses recent U.S. Census Bureau data which finds that U.S. poverty rates have increased, leading advocates to urge lawmakers to enact and expand the anti-poverty solutions that have been proven to work during the pandemic, so the nation can decrease rather than increase the number of American families experiencing poverty.

4) Singer Songwriter Billy Bragg on Politics, Hope and the Power of Music

Part #2 of Scott's interview with rebel singer/songwriter Billy Bragg, who, in 2023 celebrated 40 years of making music and political activism with the release of a 14-CD box set titled, The Roaring Forty, 1983 – 2023. He talks about political activism, his optimism about the future and getting older. Billy Bragg will be playing a show at Norwalk, CT's District Music Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 15.

1) Donald Trump's Repeated Stochastic Terrorism Now Targets Haitian Immigrants
Wajahat Ali, creator of Left Hook substack, co-host of The Democracy-ish podcast, and author of "Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American," discusses the presidential debate and election campaign, with a focus on Trump's threat to democracy, his demonization of immigrants and white supremacist rhetoric and action, as well as corporate media's skewed election coverage.

2) Common Cause Protecting 2024 Election Against Multiple GOP Threats

Jay Young, executive director of Common Cause Illinois and Cheri Quikmeyer, executive director of Common Cause Connecticut, discuss the work Common Cause is doing on election protection, i.e. addressing voter suppression, mass purges of the voting rolls, intimidation of poll workers, GOP election deniers' threats to delay certification of vote totals and sow chaos — and the group's recruitment of volunteers to be poll watchers.

3) Rebel Singer/Songwriter Billy Bragg on His 40-Year Career, Political Activism and Getting Older

Rebel Singer/songwriter Billy Bragg, who, in 2023 celebrated 40 years of making music and political activism with the release of a 14-CD box set titled, The Roaring Forty, 1983–2023, talks about highlights of his career, working on three albums of songs written by legendary American folk singer Woody Guthrie, political activism and getting older. Billy Bragg will be playing a show at Norwalk, CT's District Music Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 15.

4) El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele Provokes Growing Repression and Violence

John Guiliano, executive director of the Tamarindo Foundation in El Salvador talks about growing repression and violence across the impoverished Central American country under authoritarian President Nayib Bukele, who has targeted critics, sent troops into the legislature, and violated the country’s constitution to maintain his hold on power.

1) New Book Warns Voters that 2024 is "The Inflection Election: Democracy or Fascism"

Mark Green, former two-term New York City public advocate and author or editor of 26 books on U.S. politics, discusses his newest book, "The Inflection Election: Democracy or Fascism in 2024," which warns Americans that this November will be a choice between a Party of Progress and a Party of Dangerous Extremism that may determine the path for American governance for generations.

2) ACLU Lawsuit Pushes Back on University Repression of Student Gaza War Protests

Bryce Greene, a graduate student and writer, assesses the repression of pro-Palestinian anti-war protests on college campuses across the U.S. and his involvement in an ACLU lawsuit against Indiana University for their suppression of the right to free speech during a vigil last May.

3) The World is at a Crossroads on Our Climate Future: Apocalypse or Utopia”

Activist and author Brian Tokar, a board member of the Institute for Social Ecology, examines the climate crisis and how we can chart a new path to a future that is not only sustainable, but better than the way we currently live and interact with technology. Tokar will be addressing this topic at Hamden, Connecticut's Unitarian Society on Sept. 14.

4) Portland, Maine City Council Unanimously Votes to Divest from Israel

Abigail Fuller, co-chair of Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights talks about her group's recent successful campaign resulting in a unanimous 9 to 0 vote in the Portland, Maine City Council passing a resolution directing the city to divest from corporations that are complicit in Israel's occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people and how this divestment effort could be a model for other cities across the U.S.

1) Gaza War Continues to Kill as Massive Israeli Protests Blame Netanyahu for Hostage Deaths

James Zogby, co-founder and president of the Arab American Institute, discusses the effort at last week's Democratic party nominating convention in Chicago to address U.S. policy supporting Israel's brutal war and mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, as well as the threat of a regional war and Israel's latest lethal military raids into the West Bank, the largest in 20 years.

2) Coalition Demands US News Media Aggressively Cover Election Campaign Threats to Democracy

Nora Benavidez, senior counsel and director of digital justice and civil rights with the media democracy group Free Press, talks about the coalition led by Free Press calling on corporate media outlets to report on rising authoritarianism and threats to democracy during the 2024 election campaign, covering six practices the media should adhere to during moments of crisis.

3) Author Asks Do We Work to Live or Live to Work?

Claudia Strauss, the Jean M. Pitzer professor of cultural anthropology at Pitzer College and the author of "Making Sense of Public Opinion," talks about her new book titled, "What Work Means: Beyond the Puritan Work Ethic," where she unpacks the relationship of the American worker to their job and explains how inaccurate popular conceptions lead to poor policy decisions, a threadbare social safety net and an inability to prepare for the coming technological changes to the workplace.

4) Unique CT Cafe's Nonprofit Mission Promotes Inclusion, Tolerance & Racial Justice

Mark Thiede, owner of Two Wrasslin' Cats Coffee House in East Haddam, CT, talks about the non-profit group which operates his unique community cafe whose noble and big-hearted mission is, "to support inclusion, racial justice, reproductive freedom and the right to love and be loved."

• US Doctor Shares His Eyewitness Account of Gaza War Horrors
Dr. Ahmad Javed Yousaf, MD, an internist and pediatrician practicing in Benton, Arkansas, who will recount his horrifying experience providing life saving health care to Palestinian civilians under attack by Israel in Gaza, with a focus on what Americans should know about the human suffering of Gaza's 2.3 million residents, and our nation's role in the carnage.

• James Risen: Trump’s Racism is the Primary Driver of Voter Support
James Risen, a best-selling author and former New York Times reporter, is The Intercept's Senior National Security Correspondent, who waged a seven-year battle, risking jail, after the Bush administration and later the Obama administration sought to force him to testify and reveal his confidential sources in a leak investigation. He’ll discuss the important issues of race and racism in the 2024 election campaign examined in his recent Intercept article, "Racism Is Why Trump is so Popular," where he argues: "Trump’s popularity with his base isn’t the result of economic anxiety, as many claimed in 2016. It’s about race and demographics."

• Elik Elhanan: Former Israeli Soldier Condemns His Nation’s Gaza War as a Monstrosity
Elik Elhanan, a former Israeli Special Forces soldier, a co-founder of the Israeli-Palestinian group Combatants for Peace, now an Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at the City College of New York, discusses U.S. service men and women now speaking out in opposition to America's support for Israel's war in Gaza, and shares his views re: the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, Israeli public opinion and the looming threat of a wider war in the Middle East.

• Greg Palast: Trump-Backed Election Board Issues New Rules that Could Sow Certification Chaos
Greg Palast, investigative journalist and New York Times best-selling author of "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy," and director of the film, “Vigilante Inc.: America's New Vote Suppression Hitmen, talks about Georgia's five-member state election board, dominated by MAGA election deniers, that adopted new rules raising alarm about the potential for confusion and interference in the election certification process this November, examined his article, "Prepare for November’s Quiet Coup."

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