Then at 90.5 w p k t n w p k t h d one Norwich at 89 point one w e t w f m Stamford at 88.5 w. Southampton at 91.3 and w. Npr dot org Support for the college McEnroe show on Connecticut Public Radio comes from the Mark Twain House and museum and this program was previously recorded. The theme of the show today I think is going to be American sadness now of course not everybody in America about the direction the country is taking a lot of people maybe including. Me We're going to talk to a writer who's tried to put all of that into words. An entire generation is really about the Supreme Court with the Supreme Court ruled that certain very much review your rights about what's been happening at the border. With climate change creasing Lee I worry that we're about to leave the next generations a broken world and a broken country. So we're going to get phone calls about the 2nd and 3rd segments of you will join that conversation and I think you'll enjoy the writer we have at the top of the show. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Jack Speer a 3 year old girl has died following a stabbing attack in Boise Idaho Saturday night suspect now faces 1st degree murder charge and several other felonies Boise State Public Radio's James Dawson has the story the 3 year old girl had been celebrating her birthday Saturday night when Boise Police say 30 year old Timmy canner attacked her and others nearby can her had been staying at the complex which is home to many resettled refugees but was told to leave last week the victims included 5 other children ranging in age from 4 to 12 and 3 adults according to police a judge ordered her to be held without bail citing risk to the community according to local media reports those reports also say the suspect asked the judge to represent himself but was assigned a public defender for n.p.r. News I'm James Dawson in Boise Idaho President Trump is predicting a positive relationship with Mexico's new president elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador from speaking at the White House today says he talked for about 30 minutes with the newly elected leftist leader now we talked about border security we talked about trade we talked about NAFTA we talked about a separate deal just Mexico and the United States we had a lot of good conversation I think the relationship would be a very good one we'll see what happens but I really do believe it's going to be a very good one drop aside he intends to lay efforts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA until after the November election on the separate topic of proposed tariffs imported on imported autos The president says u.s. Officials will meet soon with officials from the European Union a.b.c. News investigative reporter Brian Ross announced today he is leaving the network after 24 years N.P.R.'s Eric Degen says Russia's departure comes months after he was suspended following Iranians reported valving President Trump former national security adviser in his time at a.b.c. News Ross has won any Peabody and Polk awards but after reporting in December that Michael Flynn would testify that Donald Trump ordered. To contact Russian officials before the election Ross revised his account of what his source said he's not clarifying that saying according to Flynt candidate front desk during the campaign to find ways to repair relations with Russia and other hot spots Ross was suspended for weeks without pay and a.b.c. News apologized for the air now the correspondent and his producer Rhonda Schwartz are leaving the network saying in a joint statement they are quote hardly leaving investigative journalism without specifying where they might work next Eric Duggan's n.p.r. News manufacturing sector expended an unexpectedly robust raid last month these 2 for Supply Management says its manufacturing index rose to its highest level since February signaling another sign of strength in the u.s. Economy because factories have been on a 22 month winning streak on Wall Street stocks recovered some of their earlier losses to end the session higher the Dow was up 35 points 22400307 The Nasdaq rose 57 points today you're listening to n.p.r. . Well the producer Harvey Weinstein says he expects to be fully vindicated in the wake of new charges alleging a sex crime against a 3rd woman that's according to Weinstein's lawyer Ben Brafman who contends any actions were consensual that charging his client as a predator is quote simply not justified Brafman who issued a statement today in response to announcement of an updated indictment against Weinstein by Manhattan d.a. Cyrus Vance the new indictment alleges the movie mogul formed a forcible sex act on a woman in 2006 Mexico City is the hub of progressive policy for the country leading marriage equality and pro-choice movements as James Frederick reports in the capital will now be governed by a woman for the 1st time Claudia shine bombs resume doesn't read like a politician's she's an environmental engineer from a family full of scientists and just a few years ago was doing air quality research at Mexico's National University on Sunday she became the 1st woman elected mayor of Mexico City winning a landslide victory nearing her party's presidential candidate and the race Manuel Lopez Obrador known as Shinedown has previously served as environmental minister for the capital cities government when I was mayor here she focused her campaign on expanding public transportation improving air quality and sorting out water supply for n.p.r. News I'm James Frederick in Mexico City Seattle Washington is saying so long to the plastic straw also plastic utensils are going by by the city believe be the 1st in the u.s. To ban single use plastic straws and plastic utensils in the food industry businesses will be allowed use compostable utensils straws and cocktail pics I'm Jack Speer n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include the Ford Foundation working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide to address an equality in all its forms learn more at a Ford Foundation dot org and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We're going to go on the air there were some technical problems and I typed out to the producer Betsy Kaplan don't wear it because I have the force and she tied back ha exclamation point is if I don't have the force I actually do I have the force it was a joke I have a force All right so because I have the force and we just quickly tell you 2 quick stories before we get to our point and these lead up to our point one of them is I saw this week and I saw the movie 1st reformed which is which stars Ethan Hawke as a minister who on the one hand has become consumed with despair understandably about climate change and attendant environmental woes and that despair is closely matched with. Toxic conditions that exist in his own body and toxic conditions that exist in his own soul and all of those things plus some other occasions for despair begin to function as mirrors for each other. With all the ways in which he's drifting downward the planet is drifting downward everything seems to be pointed into a nosedive for which there can be no actual recovery. It all begins to sort of compound and I think it's actually a pretty good statement about how a lot of people feel right now and in fact well actually I'll skip my 2nd story. Before I'd seen the movie I had read this article in Slate and then on Friday but he kept on then I began talking about it and we both agree that a lot of people are feeling these days I mean not everybody obviously a lot of people to be with the direction things are going in but those of us who worry about the environment are very worried about permanent irreparable damage to the environment now something that will be bequeathing to our children our children's children and their children if there are if they can even be around something that is so badly broken that the. Cannot easily be fixed and then those things are starting to also have kind of a hall of mirrors in the Supreme Court at the American and Mexico Mexican border. You know as we look in the actual corruption that seems right in the White House and so I had read this piece by lily livered burrow in Slate called the America we thought we knew is gone and it did I think begin to sort of condense. Like gas into water. A lot of feelings that I was having to as though these problems have reach some kind of tipping point where they're not going to be easy to fix we're not going to just win a midterm election and I say we the Democrats are not going to win in a midterm election and fix it and it's possible that even a change of power in 2020 will won't fix it. That there are things that are irreparably wrong or or at least long lasting Iraq so this kind of conversation a little bit today about American sadness Lisa sadness in one segment of America and I'm going to talk a little here at the beginning and then for the final 2 segments I'm going to invite you to call in as we often do on Mondays and have a conversation with me I want about the number it is too soon for you to call in Instead I'm going to further introduce the woman I've been referring to Lily look borough writes about culture gender and politics for Slate She's written for several other publications New York Times Magazine The Guardian Los Angeles Review of Books you get the idea she's an accomplished journalist and her essay which I really do direct your attention to the America we thought we knew is gone seems to be a good starting place for our conversation today so 1st of all Lily Welcome to our show and. Maybe just let's just start with that you know I mean what with the notion that the just. Into your entire essay and it's one of demoralization and maybe one that you maybe that's a feeling that you weren't expecting to have the American narrative as you point out is often one of the disappointments followed by victories for both sides right there's always kind of a thesis and to this is this back and forth back and forth and now there's a feeling like maybe one side as got the car kind of spinning its wheels in one position. Yes I think I think that's right and that's the feeling that was a stink really really coalesced with Justice Anthony Kennedy is now spent that he was retiring at the end of July because of course as I'm sure your listeners know that means that we won't be able to have the midterm election affect the outcome of that Supreme Court appointment which in effect. Gives this administration the power to appoint 2 Supreme Court justices which very likely means the end of overseas Wade and likely signals erosion of a number of civil right. So it's that is that is damage that is not contingent on one election that is damage that will last for decades. And I mean you could even say that there's sort of a doubling down effect in the sense that conservatives and Republicans that typically care more about Supreme Court constituent constitutions than Democrats do in other words if you want to motivate Republicans at the time of the election you talk about the Supreme Court and who's going to appoint to the Supreme Court and it's not that the Democrats are deaf to this but just even at the level of polling data it's clear that you can motivate Republicans about the Supreme Court and maybe under the current circumstances you could motivate Democrats too but I mean oddly enough if you wanted to make the Supreme Court a big issue for the 2018 midterms that might be in fact to the advantage of the Republicans but what's your response to that. I think that's absolutely right I mean I think I think that Justice Kennedy time does this to give this administration and the Republicans maximal advantage going into the election and for the forseeable future. So that is certainly a distressing development and one that I think. Tarnished the legacy that had at least some signs of of neutrality and it would be one thing if. We could trust. That these appointments would actually take into account the view of the majority of America. But it does not this is a minority elected president and abortion for example of over his waist is an issue that the vast majority of Americans support they support the right of a woman to have an abortion but that's not going to factor in. If the defendant ever. Trampled point I don't like it all and there's little reason to expect it. I think you know one point that you make in your article is one that I've been feeling acutely for a long time it's kind of goes back to the notion of the Overton Window You know in political science there is this notion of the Overton Window which is the circumference of things that can be acceptably discussed and said you know there are things that we are capable of debating each side of and there are even maybe some closely held truth about which there's very little debate and then there's a whole bunch of things that you just kind of don't sorry you know there really can't be a debate about those although we started to feel in 20152016 is that that Overton Window was expanding in a very unhealthy way and things were being set where you say in your essay for example this was already an unhealthy country in many ways but at least lies were still resented now there celebrated I'm also going to play back to you a clip that's very familiar to you this is Donald Trump at a Maga rally last week I hate it I mean these people they call him the elite these people I look at them I say that's elite. We got the money we got more brains we got better houses apartments we got I suppose we're smarter than they are and they say the elite we're the elite you're dealing with. So I said the other day a let's keep calling these people and like let's face it they've been stone cold losers the elite the elite. So let's let them keep calling themselves the elite but we're going to call ourselves and remember you are indeed if you work harder but you are indeed smarter than them let's call ourselves from now on the super late with the Super Bowl all right for those of you listening unfamiliar with our club it might even be going to hard to follow because of the way that it uses language but he uses that term the. Elite which is ordinarily politically in the last election cycle kind of a damning term applied to 2 Democrats are living on on either coast they're the elite and he kind of twisted around and says that he actually resents them being called the feel heat you know even though that's not usually used in a particular complimentary way but he still resents them being called the elite and then he says we have more money we were smarter we have bigger boats all this kind of stuff and then he. Gets the term super elite to describe himself and his supporters Louie I think this does kind of fit into that whole rubric of stuff you would never expect to hear a politician say in the pursuit of leadership of a democracy. Right well yeah I mean you know c. Are absolutely right the only label is something that Fox News cultivated is a kind of pejorative freedom of press and everyone else on the left and even though it has no basis in reality really like includes journalists who make $40000.00 a year and are breed in student loans that includes you know restaurant workers and adjunct professor each who makes $33000.00 per course but they use it because it in terms of class warfare and it makes like a prosperous and safe and comfortable feel that they are the victims and I think that that's you know I think that there are a lot of ways in which trump selection has been narrated as a quote working class appraising and that that does not mean to have it at all I mean a lot of studies have shown that in fact voters for Clinton were lower income. But but this is this does feel like a sharpening of what has been called Revolt of the rich you know. Trump has never really quite mastered dog whistles he just kind of says the thing. He hates that they're not calling him the elite and and he's right he is the elite and so are his cronies This is not really a partisan issue in fact I mean as as I like the conservative Wall Street Journal reported today he's taxing the free press with a news print here I mean you know Trump's motives are not subtle and neither is are his actions he called journalists the enemy of the people and closed them and then does his rallies and ran away from them on video and they asked him if he had some words of comfort to offer after the recent shooting that caused journalists their lives and now he's taxing them you know so. The problem with that. What I really see there's just. The rich have become. I don't know in 2012 there was a really interesting article in The American Conservative I hasten to add by Republican u.s. Congressional aide called the revolt of the rich or he says that the super rich have achieved escape velocity from the gravitational pull of the very society they roll over they have to see to it from America and he goes on to say what I mean by secession is the withdrawal into enclaves and internal immigration whereby the rich disconnect themselves from the civic life of the nation and from any concern about its well being except as a place to extract loot. And I think that quote that you played really registers that intention and what that vision is of what civic life is and what America is for. You right I am sad about it all because the damage being done now no longer feels like it's in be stemmed little and reversed with a single election that will last decades the downturns my generation has already weathered 2000 and crisis that hinged on obscure derivatives traded by a privileged few robbing wealth for millions were only the beginning education is now a luxury pensions barely exist health care is under threat the tyrant is to those my age a cruel joke we've been waiting for recovery for relief for some semblance of an American dream we can access let me just ask you this sometimes when we say something when we get it down on paper or on a computer screen or say it out loud we feel better or use dogs now as you were when you wrote this. As I they're alive Vasily quite a bit between there is there is there is a a real English that I think is is perhaps coming. And not over the surface yet. I think that Mr Freddy. The more that I think about this and I'm so I'm 63 and I sort of wonder what I'll see in what remains of my time as an American and I do find myself thinking I mean reading your articles and there been other articles with similar themes and tones of a lot of them kind of clustered around there at the present moment there's something about that Kennedy resignation and just some of the other stuff was going on right around. That that made people I think think this way but I also find myself wondering about the future and whether in fact what we're really going to see is the end of the old older paradigms you know I mean we I have lived through a quote kinds of like the late sixty's where you really felt that America was at a kind of to multi kind of chaos where people could get hurt and wasn't really particularly safe country for quite a while and I've seen. America as you say occasionally feel or frequently fail to achieve its ideals or to live out its core principles. But you always could identify that as a failure or. An inability to be everything that we say we want to be in this does feel like a slightly different moment I find myself wondering and I apologize for babbling. If we'll just see I don't know you know California will be a defense separate country in 10 years or the backlash against what we're seeing now will lead to something other than a democracy something in which a whole generation much more comfortable I think with socialism. Any of its predecessors may institute out or in the dark side a continuation of the regime that we have now in a way that also doesn't really feel terribly like elective democracy so now that I'm done babbling you can respond about but I sort of you know I wonder if we're just going to see the normal Rise and Fall of dualistic electoral politics or if we're headed for something different. I think yeah I agree with you and I wish I knew and I don't and I do think that the extent to which you know quote unquote norms that everyone has agonized over so much. Have have been eroded I think that's the point of no return you know Mitch McConnell. Refusing to consider Merrick Garland and allow that to happen was the beginning of the end and it is attributable to him the fact that the norms are unlikely to. To endure I think moving forward and that you know I what you're saying about the Overton Window is absolutely right I think. You know I wrote I wrote after the election that we like there had been just an expectation of like smashing the glass ceiling and instead what I think we smashed was the overreaching window I think we're in a moment where every option is thinkable. Women are are making headway in the conversation about what they deserve in the workplace what respect they deserve how their careers have been negatively impacted by sexual harassment and assault and at the same time we have a president who clearly believes in a $950.00 s. Version of the family even though he himself can't hold himself to that standard. So it's very hard to say what will happen. And I don't know that hearing tomorrow that one side no longer respect is either strategically or or pragmatically feasible at this point so I hear what you're saying and that seems likely to me let's a since you said that that's a nice segue to an awful lot of people talking about your article over the weekend and sharing it on social media another article that's really started to be shared today in particular is one by Amanda Ripley we've both read it it's called complicated complicating the narrative the whole story will make sure we share it on the web page for this particular show but. Her argument is will be a little bit more hopeful she's she really went in visited with people who specialize in difficult conversations people who specialize in creating dialogue where none exists and who specialize in understanding our Are our irrationality in situations where we're kind of poised against what we perceive as somebody with a completely different values that one that results that she says that a kind of hyper vigilance where we're each side is very quick to watch for offenses from the other side and interpret everything as an attack or an assault that needs to be parodied or countermanded so but she sort of looked at all that and you know found some little rays of light in there about what it might take to get us all talking and be communicating more effectively what did you make of her her central promise. I agree 100 percent with your central premise and. Ahead Tony I worked for many years as as an interpreter special dish and. So it has been my job for Hunter him to kind of look for the places where miscommunication is happening and not always just at the level of language but also at the level of cultural assumptions and I respect that mission hugely and I think she's right and I think that's important and I think we're singularly bad about Iran Errol. I will say that my. My current read signal of my own failure to translate. I was raised very conservative and so I'm not familiar with a lot of the world views that I think shaped you know much of what Trump supporters believe. And I think what alarms me is that I'm failing to find common ground even with assumptions that I thought that I was raised sharing as a conservative child. So that to me has been very destabilizing. But I mean I I am hopeful that she's right and I'm hopeful that that some people will be reachable I don't think that the administration is and it was not my concern is that. We are we are really approaching kind of all of our cake status between Citizens United which allows kind of the of the uninterrupted flow of corporate money to govern elections. There the influence of the people on a one on one basis has been eroded so systematically and so successfully that I am not sure whether that stranglehold can be broken and I sincerely hope that it can very well on that so my uplifting note we're going to end this segment and thankfully look borough who writes about our culture gender politics for Slate You should read her article in America we thought we knew is gone when we come back I'm going to invite you to call in but you can do right now 860-275-7266 if you have a reaction to what you just heard eat 602757266. Fuel to. Rule. 2. Makes me. Think too much of. This dream scream. Support for arts and culture reporting on Connecticut Public Radio comes from the Hartford Symphony Orchestra this week in This American Life Andrew Collins was a crooked cop over 60 cases of his were overturned when the truth came out he got thrown in prison for it turned over a new leaf but the problem is he lives in such a small town that it's hard for him to avoid bumping into people who he totally screwed over as a cop with a glance and I know it's about the baby like counts. I hope you can join us tonight at 9. Am shame Clasen coming up next on the point a.b.c. News anchor Elizabeth Vargas joins us for a frank conversation about her battle with alcoholism plus astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson has cosmic questions about space and time he'll bring it all down to earth for us that's coming up on the next on point from n.p.r. . Tune in tomorrow morning at 10. Good evening and thanks for joining us I'm Bruce barber and you're listening to an encore presentation of today's college McEnroe show. All right so the rest of the show is just you and me you're on the phones I'm here are numbers 860-275-7266 so people are to call in and I'm scared talk a little bit just so you have some time to call up and get on the board a couple of things so I have 28 year old son and I think for me and for producer Betsy Kaplan a lot of the thinking about this show is about our kids and about the world we're bequeathing to them in this movie 1st reformed at one point. In the character played by Ethan Hawke this minister takes down whatever was on that sort of you know letter press board thing that's outside churches and say What's his what the sermon is or what the next big event is or something like that and he replaces it with Will God forgive us and there's do seem to be 70 things wrong right now some of them are politically wrong some of them are environmentally wrong and I don't know how I would feel if I were a 28 year old person right now I feel angry and I'd feel demoralized and I'd feel as though I'm being handed a series of problems I didn't create. And asked to solve them and I wouldn't be terribly interested I don't think in the rules that other people the older people gave me for solving them I did. I think I would be probably about as outraged as any currently outraged millennial So that's a lot of sort of the incentive for the show I think is that we we feel this way we feel really terrible about the state of things both are potentially and I guess that's what I see the state of things on the one hand yes climate change in the environment and then on the other hand the potentially broken state of our democracy and I do feel as though Then this point was I thought really able to be made on the Slate Political Gabfest last week with Emily basil on John Dickinson and David Plotz were one of the things that they were saying is. That you you have a president who has arrived into office with an unprecedentedly expansive notion of executive power. And you combine that with what plots called a supine leadership in Congress I mean ultimately the Republicans in Congress yes there's a McCain there and a Lindsey Graham there to Jeff Flake once in a while but by and large the Republicans in Congress rather than differentiating themselves from from Trump's expensive ideas about his own power and extreme views about the course America should chart Republicans the Republican majority in Congress has pretty much laid down alongside him on this so you get those 2 things in then you add the fact that he will now appoint his 2nd Supreme Court justice and a court because that implies I think like all 3 of them at this point but a court that was formerly perceived the Supreme Court actually usually does pretty well in approval rating polls because even though it's had a very conservative tilt in the John Roberts era it's seen as a counterweight for extremism on both sides but but one senses that if Donald Trump does what we think he will do which is to appoint the kind of Supreme Court justice he has consistently said that he would pour appoint someone who will frack far to the right of Kennedy we're going to have a 3rd branch of government that in a way is calcified into a state of conservatism that it has a pretty previously had so you really do have and I think was John Dickinson used this phrase just this expression of power and unity that very few presidents perhaps know presidents maybe maybe you could go back to f.d.r. But a sense of power and unity. Connected to it once again this very expansive an unprecedented notion of his own presidential power. And. Very few checks on that. Very few ways in which anybody could call him to account or say now this is really the way things are so you know when people when I say people are sad demoralized worried fearful that least in the political sense that's kind of what I'm talking about here's Brandon in Branford I'm Brandon you're on the air. Hi Thanks for taking my call Sure I wanted to ask about what you were just talking about the report I don't I am really worried you about all these rulings especially about the union is going to be a future starting in September but when it comes to Roe v Wade I I don't I don't know what your opinion is I don't know I think John Roberts. Voting to get rid of Roe v Wade I don't know what he's said things in the because based on his rulings on some other cases like the. Ruling in the past few years I don't know if I see him doing that I don't know what your opinion is I wish we had 1st of all been written thank you very much for your call and good luck with your new career. I wish we had somebody like Emily basil on who's an occasional guest on the show with us right now she would be a much better parser of the some somewhat things like kind of nuance of John Roberts than I could ever be I mean Robert seems to have a whole bunch of different somewhat competing allegiances one of those allegiances is to his own legacy and I don't think that he would like the notion that he presided over an extremist court so that would sort of argue on in the direction that Brennan is going but you know when you look at. Roberts And when it has become necessary I think he is I mean he might become the new William Kennedy of his own court. Rather than have a court that was really known as I say for an extremist point of view we'll see because there obviously an awful lot of other things in John I mean he wasn't appointed to be that person back in the day and illogically and he's not I don't think really a centrist I think he tracks more to the right but you know the other thing is Supremes Court justices change over time you know I I mean Harry Blackmun only one of the most liberal Supreme Court justice ever was in Nixon appointee David Souter who was appointed by the Bush 40 through 41 so. You never entirely know what is in any Supreme Court justice for all we know 56 years from now you'll Gorsuch could be moving in a more centrist direction kind of doubt that. But you can't control for it all that well and John Roberts might be the guy who moves a little bit I mean because he likes balance I think and maybe that's sort of what brands are referring to all right let's go to Mary in handed my our number by the way 860-275-7266 Mary welcome to the conversation Hi Carla thank you for taking my call Sure I'm very concerned about the Supreme Court along with so many other things that are happening the country but it seems to me that one of the things that comes to mind is that when I was a student and high school years and years ago we were taught that in civics class I don't think they teach that they doing much anymore in schools they were taught that the 3 branches of government were meant to check and balance one from another and in this country and with the way the Supreme Court is likely to go we won't have that check and balance and well there's this rate is definitely of concern but the larger concerns is if we can recuperate as a country to a kind of stable balanced position we are totally flowing or are floating out of control. The other comment that I have that I'd like to make is about the super only I teach and one of the things when I was teaching Greek arts last semester I told I talked a lot about the kinds of things that we got from the Greeks in terms of government and oligarchy is a term that comes up during the Greek republic and that's what we have now the super elite a very very small group of people who seem to be running the country isn't all of our key we don't have a democracy we have an oligarchy and that's not unlike. Russia at the moment so these are things that concern me. And more importantly I I'm a black American I grew up despite all the injustices that I've seen over the years directed at people of color I've always maintained or hoped or believe somehow in the overall system of government of the United States and the Constitution and today I feel that that is kind of a fraudulent document only those aspects the 2nd Amendment that certain people want to uphold those are the ones that are peril that are upheld and everything else seems to be being flushed down the toilet of some sort. I'm not as hopeful as you are I think the wild card in all of this is the planet the planet Earth cannot sustain the kind of injustices that we're applying to it alright Well Mary thanks so much for your phone call you know I'm hopeful most days although I will say that one of the reasons we're doing this show in this way right now is I'm a little less hopeful now I mean for me it wasn't even so much the Kennedy resignation or retirement but come accumulation of stuff and I mean I've been. Worried and depressed all along throughout 201520162 me you know use the term merry oligarchies another term that gets thrown around is kleptocracy you know a new should in which the notion of a state in which stealing is a virtue. And or if not a virtue. A tool to be effectively deployed one of the things that has shocked me about this government is its rampant corruption whether we're talking about Pruitt or Wilbur Ross or Jared Kushner or the president himself who do this day and we have no idea where he gets money from he won't disclose his tax returns it is clear that he's on the payroll of foreign powers. Just the fact that we don't you know I didn't grow up in a society that would push back stuff like that and like all those people they still have their jobs you know they're still basically in place and it just doesn't seem to matter what comes out about them and that worries me it worries me that we don't have that all right here's that Tony in Watertown I Tony you're on the air 'd Tony went away Oh Ok too bad Be patient be patient I'll get to all of you I swear all right so let's try and by the way we do love to have women calling. Our number 860-275-7266 I see Monica from Weathersfield by the way I have to say we have our intern Senator Allen is. Getting calls a day and she is amazing at that I've put it to the test on a previous Monday and she's she's up to it so anyway you're in good hands when you call it 62757266 years Monica from Weathersfield Hi you're on the air. Mark Owen I just want to give a little perspective of someone who came to this concert earlier so I go I'm at a concert event right now and I just feel like this is not the America that I came to I don't feel what's going on right now in this country is not I don't feel that for you and you know what to Carlos you know a few years ago and what the editor by The Wanted to deliver and and what's going on right now with the situation and President Trump I'm going to be scared I have a little children although I have a girl and I'm going to be on the easy right on the right now with the way the things that are growing and you know maybe. The people who are voting in this country. They don't know history so much they don't know what the. Countries that crashed and. You know coming in the country I doing you know what what that government and I and maybe don't they don't realize what can happen here in this. With the way that. Haranguing the concept I know right 1st of all Monica thank you so much for your call even though it chills my heart to hear what you say and to agree with what you say thank you for making that call you know I went back and I read something that I wrote in 2007 when I was really upset with the way the Bush administration had gravitated into the open use of torture and into holding people without charges in cells in places like went on a map and to the practice of rendition where people were captured and sent to black sites where they could be tortured and God knows what else I mean all those things seem like such incredible departures Not that I believed in a stainless America I understand about the school for the school of the Americas in Fort Benning Georgia where you know Latin American death squads and. Latin American military were brought up there appeared to learn some of those techniques from us I get that we were were not virgins but even in 2007 I felt like wow this guy wrote this piece called The American glow that I kind of remembered for us from my childhood and thought that it was really gone but the argument there was there was a post 911 argument about al Qaeda related groups and the central argument of the Bush Cheney Rumsfeld group arms were finding monsters so we have to act like monsters it's Ok just for now if we act like monsters because we're fighting monsters I didn't happen to believe that but that was their argument I think Monica to mark his point these days we're talking about people who. We're not fighting monsters with people who are running away from monsters people who are fleeing monsters in Honduras El Salvador Guatemala some of those monsters are something that we had some connection to making and they're running away from those monsters and we're acting like monsters towards them that's the shift that I'm seeing now it's no longer necessary to make the argument oh we're fighting monsters that we have to be monsters now we're fighting the helpless and still we're going to be monsters All right let me take a one more phone call here let me take it from the cabin and then we're going to go to a break we'll get some more calls on the air after the break Kevin from New Haven Hi you're on the air a college good to good to talk to you thanks for calling I just wanted to bring up an idea and I have to say I'm still very hopeful for the future you know as I have been a little bit depressed over the past year but I am hopeful and I sort of have this idea about. States rights and this is kind of inspired by the fact that our coastal cities and large cities like New York and France and San Francisco have agreed to still stay more or less within the confines of the Paris climate accords despite what the federal government is doing and I wonder if it's wouldn't be in the Democrats' best interest or better interest to bring back the idea of allowing the states more of their own freedoms to make decisions about issues like climate change in immigration as a better check on the federal government and to kind of reject return to that idea which was really you know something that the Founding Fathers were pretty adamant about using States of their own experiments for law and in order write it Kevin it's a great point I could tell that you're. Very smart person to know that one of the reasons the founding fathers made that argument because there. A lot of things that they wanted to do that we would necessarily approve of now and states' rights are a double edged sword obviously and even now there are a double edged sword because of states' rights we have in fact turned a Republican to a series of 50 different gas stations where you go to the one that has the cheapest price so there is a little bit of a race to the bottom that's going on through states' rights like who can cut education who can cut the safety net enough so that taxes will go down so you can attract people to move there you can attract businesses to move there by lowering your environmental regulations you know I mean the problem with say Florida as we know from Governor Scott's visit to Connecticut is yes it has a lot of coastal cities on it but it also is trying to attract business by saying we don't have so many regulations we're not going to get in your way can do what you need to do you can run your business the way you need to run it we're not going to worry about protecting workers we're not going to worry about unions and we're not going to worry about environmental regulations so you're going to be able to do the things that you need to do to run your business and that's the problem with state's rights you're absolutely right it also makes States incubate As for innovation and improvement and cities too I mean yes there are green movements going on in individual cities green movements going on in individual states there are more progressive immigration policies in those states but you have to balance that off against the opposite of that and it's always going to be a problem with states rights is that race to the bottom let's see who can be the next Mississippi All right we're going to take a quick break we'll come back after this. And in any. Way close ties is to get it. The Adventure Park at stores offers up wine and climbing fun to enter to win for tickets and for contest rules visit w npr dot org slash contests your entries must be submitted by noon on Friday when President Trump levied tariffs on billions of dollars in Canadian goods Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau issued a strong rebuke to be clear these tariffs are totally unacceptable now with Telia Tory tariffs from Canada have gone into effect will examine the impact they'll have on the u.s. Financial markets tomorrow on Morning Edition. Joining us from 5 to 9 support comes from a smile oh cancer hospital at Yale New Haven. Just weeks after hurricane struck doctors were saying we have people in the morgue. So surpassed. My own accounting nearly a year later how many people really died in Puerto Rico that's coming up from the Center for Investigative Reporting and p.r. X. . Hope you can join us Saturday afternoon up for. McEnroe show was previously recorded. All right the producer I should say usually Cairo no Will does the thank you's at this point she's off today so the producer of the shows but Kaplan on the board taking the place of Cancun Wolf is on the new pants Zenda Al and already mentioned her she's our excellent intern she's screening the calls today and that's our job to do on a day when we're so reliant on calls and let's see I think everybody have to think and remodels contribute in some major way I'm sure there were other people who did and thank you all Jeanne just you know intruder came in and fix a whole bunch of things about her before we went on the air would be a different show if Gene had done that all right so we're going to go back to the phone calls 860-275-7266 do you like to hear from people who don't feel the way that I do I think Anthony might be one of those people I Anthony you're on their high contact or take my call Sure one of the reasons why to end your show is that it's really refreshing to get a different perspective on things but I have to say that you know when you're in your kind of monologue and going to recent things it's just I think if it would be helpful if you addressed you know kind of the outlook as far as like. You know with when Obama was in power you know things like you know mention things like ruling likening executive order and things like that and you know use the comparatives like oligarchy and things like that I mean the same argument can be made from the other side and it would be interesting to hear. You know that side as well. And I think I'm to n.p.r. Be better served I think if they had that other perspective on there as well I think would be served educationally you know intellectually also monetary early because I mean I don't you know. Telling all this is a show just to get a different other perspective I understand that. You know it's not you know your show does it does a little new ideas and things like that and it's not the same as like English but Sean is not the same as a troll and is a word that's just a constant banging the drum of the same type of rhetoric repeated over and over again but it would be nice to hear the comparison between Obama's administration the Bush administration the Clinton administration I think wading into this area where. You know if we should start to develop but that kind of dialogue as opposed to you know we're cursed at Marshall we're living in dangerous times and this is a very depressing time to think like that you know so education I think is help people wake up from back and I'm always if you're feeling that way and I think it may help that you think that if your perspective kind of makes sense yeah you know I think you make a lot of sense and 1st of all that's one reason I brought up this article and I really encourage people including you Anthony I think you'd like it to read this piece by Amanda Ripley It's called complicating the narratives the whole story by Amanda Ripley complicating the narratives the whole story and we'll post it up on our Web site at w n.p.r. Slash column making sv very similar points to what you're saying and you know Anthony I do agree with you that in the Obama administration I would see them Obama was kind of like Macbeth you know with Macbeth there's always this question about was he always that person or did circumstances conspire to make him a person he never intended to be and at a certain point when I saw President Obama near the end of his term I thought wow you have this constitutional scholar but you're still presiding over this administration has been incredibly hostile and hostile towards the press you know an unprecedented prosecutions of the press in the name of squelching Leaks presiding over extra judicial executions drone strikes stuff like that not able to close Guantanamo you know and I would look at oh at Obama and I would think you know I but that's not who you thought you were but that's who you are right now and in terms of even that oligarchies Yeah I would say that even though I think he took over a sinking ship in 2009 and rated it you know he did it in a way that was focused on financial institutions as opposed to delivering a greater amount of direct relief to people I think there's a very different big difference between the the the vision of say a Bernie Sanders and the. Vision of President Obama got a lot of respect for President Obama and Lord knows he seems like an. Boy class act compared to what I see now. I mean he knew how to treat people he knew how to talk to people but that doesn't mean he was mistake free that doesn't mean he was pure didn't mean anything like that in my view he was a vast vast vast improvement over what came before and what we have now but that doesn't mean he was without imperfections All right let's see if we can find another a contrarian up here on the board I think it might be Eric from Southern tonight Eric you're on the air Good afternoon Conan Thanks for taking my call for just a couple of things you and I are not that far apart in age and I have a 56 year old African-American and I can say unequivocally that I'd be would like much rather live in 2018 than in 1068 or 9600 yeah you bet. That's a no brainer 2nd I think. Those of like minded people including myself we found it complacent back in 09 we thought that Obama was elected and everything was going to be hunky dory and what happened was we did we start that the president was the only member of government that matter. And we discovered shortly thereafter when. Democrats lost state legislatures at an unprecedented rate and the Congress flipped and we forgot about those institutions and realize and that was the beginning of to where we are now I think it behooves all of us particularly millennial is to understand that the president is not the be all and end all of government and thinking that. One man going to save your regardless of what side of the aisle you're on is a recipe for trouble don't touch with the other institutions state legislatures Congress local and you miscall government. We've set ourselves up for for failure and the complacency that we had even in 2016. Led us to where we are now if democracy in what we believe in is worth having then we have to. Pay in a constant vigilance and that's something that I think we've all forgotten great points. And. I'll just sort of let all those ideas sit partly because I want to get one on one more caller on the air running out of time and so as usual you screwed the Millennial but I'm from all could we do have a little bit of time to talk to you so what's on your mind a column I love this show but I just kind of want to call with a little bit of an observation. The same age as your son 28 and part of what I've noticed in the brief amount of time I've been watching politics is just sort of a. Evolution into just the awesome versus the winning if you will outlook it doesn't matter what the fights about what matters is winning and a lot of the time I feel like people I talk to because I make it a point to try to talk to everyone across spectrum and just to kind of get a feel for who I know and what people believe. Everyone she cares about winning they don't even care about that anymore I kind of think Trump is personification if you will be on both sides not just Republican or Democrat I agree once again I really am i mean i'm sounds like a minor payroll but if you could read Amanda Ripley writing for the solutions journalism network this piece is called complicating the narratives it's aimed at journalist but I mean it's exactly what you're saying to him which is that we get into that state of conflict and the conflict becomes more important than its constituent policy elements right all of them and we just drift and social media really reinforces this we drift into this state of hyper vigilance towards one another in our suspicions of the other side exceed our interest in any set of specific policies and I think that's what Tim is talking about too that just sort of focus on when all right so we try to live in a lead on and and uplifting so I do have this 20 year old son and so I was talking to him last night and I have said this thing to him now for 10 years and I don't know I'm guessing it's 10 years and I don't know exactly. Like what all the things that dad's say to sons I feel like maybe about 40 percent of it you know lands at all but I always tell him these 3 things any time he's talking to me about a problem he's having was talking to me last night about a problem is having an issue that's bothering him I see these 3 things I say courage honesty and generosity if you approach your life and your problems with those 3 things guiding you I mean you know you can pick 3 other Spencerian virtues but those are the 3 that I've been saying to him all along have courage be honest be generous if you do those things in your own life you'll do so much better you know and you'll you may expose yourself in some ways to parts of you that are vulnerable through courage honesty and generosity but you'll grow that way to you and you'll be last phone. Well ultimately to things that were you so I don't know I feel like I should leave you guys you guys can be my twin your 8 year old son that's what I believe in anyway they don't all that stuff we approach it with courage honesty generosity we're going to do better. On the next fresh air rapper producer screenwriter and film director boots ride he's the son of grassroots activists and front man for the coup a good pop band whose members describe themselves as a revolutionary music collective his new film sorry to bother you starring Atlanta's like Keith Stanfield is a social satire inspired by his time as a telemarketer join us. Tonight And tonight at 10. On the next on being Lucas Johnson and Rami Nashashibi on the lived practicalities of the strong demanding love to which Martin Luther King Jr called the world of his time a call that is rising again in ours I'm Krista Tippett Please join us.