Trump’s DC Plot: the Police State Coming to a City Near You

On The Freedom Side LIVE, Thursday, 8/21 at 3pm ET/12pm PT, Rania Khalek and Eugene Puryear are joined by special guests:

Lawrence Grandpre, Director of Research at Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, joins the show after Trump branded Washington a city of “crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor” and called in the National Guard and FBI to patrol its streets. Grandpre will explain how liberals rushing to oppose Trump’s crackdown are pushing many of the same policies under a softer label. From curfews and youth incarceration to slum clearances, Grandpre will argue that their “balanced approach” is just right-wing policing repackaged in the language of reform.

Josh Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, joins us to discuss the ongoing massacres of ethnic minorities in Syria. The Druze and Alawite communities of Syria are being massacred by the HTS-backed interim government led by a former ISIS and Al-Qaeda commander Ahmad al-Sharaa. Landis will explain how Israel is using this violence as a pretext to expand its occupation and grab more Syrian land.

Kurt Hackbarth, writer for Jacobin and host of Soberanía: The Mexican Politics Podcast, joins the show to discuss Mexico’s successful campaign to lift 13.4 million out of poverty. New data shows President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s policies achieved this major milestone within his six years in office. While corporate media relentlessly attacks the ruling MORENA party and President Claudia Sheinbaum, Hackbarth presents the major economic victories of the fourth transformation and why this threatens US corporate interests.

Dr. Ashok Kumar, Associate Professor at Birkbeck University, joins to discuss Jeremy Corbyn’s launch of a new left-wing party in the UK that’s poised to transform politics. As anger grows at the Labour Party over the genocide in Gaza and its failure to address the cost of living crisis, Corbyn and MP Zarah Sultana’s new political project will coalesce around a progressive agenda and has already gained over 700,000 supporters before its even decided its official name.

Aminah Sheikh, union organizer and campaign strategist, joins the show to discuss Unifor, Canada’s largest union, calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to suspend all arms exports to Israel. Sheikh will discuss this significant step by a union representing 320,000 workers, and why Canada’s role in a global arms embargo and urgent labor action are essential to ending the genocide in Palestine.

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