Daily Take: The Cruelty Machine: Inside Trump’s America, Where Pain is Policy & Fear is the Fuel

As the Trump clown show rolls on, can 'We, the People' ever claw back power and rebuild the middle class?Plus- Thom reads from "Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions" by Johann Hari.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

History is filled with politicians who believed they were untouchable. But the pattern always cracks. Always. The lie gets too big. The system bends just far enough. The coverup fails…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How much do the Republicans have to take apart- the constitution, our rights, the economy, our institutions, our credibility- before America is fundamentally no longer the same country?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Putin and Orbán showed us the edge. Trump’s ready to push us over…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The scammers are having a field day under the grifter-in-chief, while Trump's ruinous economic policies are starting to bite. Can Republicans lie their way through and maintain control?Plus- Thom reads from "The Old Is Dying and the New Cannot Be Born" by Nancy Fraser.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Why 51 Texas lawmakers fled the State to stop a power grab, and what it means for us all…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Pain is policy, and fear is the fuel... The casual cruelty and flaunting of the law by ICE- Trump's domestic terror squad- is a means to an end, a page cribbed wholesale from the authoritarian playbook. Before this is over, will brown immigrants be the only ones for whom America's freedom becomes a temporary and revocable condition?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As the nights become more deadly in Kyiv, and the Russians crawl forward on the front, foreign correspondent Phil Ittner shares the latest with Thom.Plus- Thom reads from 'Midnight at Chernobyl' by Adam Higginbotham.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Trump is building luxury apartments on the site of a NATO bombing in Belgrade that many had seen as a memorial to the Yugoslav war. Beyond the obvious corruption, is there a deeper symbolism? Substack author Jason Egenberg joins Thom for a deep dive.Plus- Thom reads from Micheal Cohen's book 'Revenge', and from 'Big Dirty Money' by Jennifer Taub.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Housing bubbles, financial scams, and political sabotage are converging into a historic, preventable disaster.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.