Episode 68

The tightening of Donald Trump's authoritarian grip on power is in evidence this week in a series of legally dubious firings of top officials. We'll talk about the state of these standoffs and the one guardrail that will be hardest for Trump to break past; Dr Jennifer Layden, one of the top officials that resigned in protest from the CDC this week, speaks out about how the recent chaos at the agency will endanger public health; we'll look at President Trump's record on violent crime as he threatens to deploy National Guard troops to the streets of an unwilling Chicago.
With the Republican Party simply being a vessel for Trump and his authoritarian inclinations, it's more important now than ever that the Democratic Party rise up and defend our democracy. But whether its national leadership is unwilling, or simply unable, to do so, they are largely not meeting this moment; the chaos unfolding at the CDC is a flashing red warning about the politicization of public health in America. But there is a critical lesson we can learn from recent history; and as the war in Gaza reaches day 694, Israel has now begun the initial stages of its operation to take control of Gaza City and more than 500,000 Palestinians are experiencing famine.
This week's Velshi Banned Book Club meeting features "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier.
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