Law and Disorder October 19, 2026

Understanding Trump Era Capitalism

Just prior to the 2024 presidential election, we interviewed 7 leading socialist thinkers and activists on whether, and if so to what degree, they were fearful that if Trump was elected to a second term Americas already weakened democracy would be further weaken and if so, to that extent. And did they think Trump was essentially a would-be fascistic, authoritarian president. Our guests over a number of weeks were Chris Hedges, Dianne Feeley, Henry Giroux, Bill Mullen, Margaret Kimberley, Kshama Sawant and Richard Wolff. All of them felt Trump and the Project 21 proposals he was promoting suggested he would, if elected, demonstrate fascistic and authoritarian desires, and act accordingly.

After the election, OR Books published the book, From the Flag to the Cross: Fascism American Style, which provided, in essay form, the contents of the interviews of those seven guests. Today, we interview one of those guests, Richard Wolff on to what extent his fears about Trumps politics and manner of rule has come to pass and if so, in what ways and to ask him the best ways to fight back against the actions and policies of the Trump Administration.

Guest - Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus from the University of Massachusetts, and the author of Understanding Capitalism. According to New York Times, Richard Wolff is, probably Americas most prominent Marxist economist. He is the founder of Democracy at Work and host of their national syndicated show Economic Update. Professor Wolff has authorized numerous books on capitalism and socialism, including most recently The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us From Pandemics or Itself, Understanding Socialism; and Understanding Marxism, which can be found at democracyatwork.info.

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I Did It for My Country: Sirhan Sirhan, Palestine, and the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy

Historian Michael Fischbach's new book I Did It For My Country is on the 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan. He was a Palestinian refugee who shot RFK in the head at a Los Angeles hotel the night Kennedy won the California presidential primary.

Sirhan and his family were driven out of their native country of Palestine by Zionist settlers in 1948. History Professor Michael Fishbachs book is a unique contribution to our understanding of the unfolding of the tragedy of relatively recent American history.It is unique because of the many books written on the assassination