A Conversation with Gary Lachman About Donald Trump, the "Alt-Right", Magic and the Occult

Gary Lachman is the guest on this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show.  

He is the author of several books and has lectured across the United States, Britain and Europe on the relationship between consciousness, esoteric knowledge, politics, history and culture. He is perhaps best known as a founding member of the New York new wave band Blondie, in which he played bass from 1975 to 1977. His new book is "Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump."

 
During this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Gary and Chauncey discuss mass psychology and how symbols and other types of images and narratives influence emotion, Trump's power over his followers, the concept of synchronicity and "magic", and the ways that Vladimir Putin has been able to recreate reality for the Russian people with the goal of expanding Russian empire. Gary also explains the deep connections between the occult and esoteric knowledge as practiced by such figures as Stephen Bannon and the so-called "alt-right" movement.

In this week's episode, Chauncey DeVega comments on the anti-climactic meeting in Helsinki where Donald Trump publicly betrays the United States to his handler and boss Vladimir Putin.

And at the end of this week's show Chauncey shares a warning from Harry Leslie Smith, who is 94-years-old, a veteran of the RAF in World War 2, and also a writer for the Guardian, about the rise of Trumpism and right-wing authoritarian movements around the world.

This episode with Gary Lachman can be downloaded from Libsyn and also listened to here.

A Conversation With Malcolm Nance About Donald Trump and Russia's Plot to Destroy American Democracy

Malcolm Nance is the guest on this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show. He is a career intelligence and counterterrorism officer for the United States government. In his more than three decades working in that capacity, Nance served with U.S. Special Operations forces, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies. He has worked in the Middle East, North Africa, the Balkans, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

A frequent guest contributor on MSNBC, Nance has authored several books, including the bestselling The Plot to Hack America: How Putin’s Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election.

Nance’s new book is The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin and His Spies Are Undermining America and Dismantling the West.

During this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Malcolm Nance and Chauncey discuss how Donald Trump is Russia and Vladimir Putin's agent, the overwhelming evidence that Russia colluded with Donald Trump and his inner circle to steal the 2106 presidential election and how the Russians were able to undermine American democracy by exploiting conservatives and other members of the right-wing.

Malcolm Nance also sounds the alarm about why the 2018 midterm elections may be the last chance the American people have to save the country's (and global) democracy from Trump, the Republican Party, and Vladimir Putin's autocratic plot.

In this week's episode, Chauncey DeVega offers some comments on Trump's hate rally in Montana and how white children are learning the lessons of white supremacy from their Trumpist parents. On this week's episode Chauncey continues to highlight the human cost of Donald Trump and the Republican Party's campaign of ethnic cleansing and white racial terrorism against black and brown refugees, migrants, and immigrants.

At the end of this week's installment of The Chauncey DeVega Show, our intrepid host shares some emails from listeners about the importance of protest movements, and if we should in fact shun and marginalize Trump supporters.

This episode with Malcolm Nance can be downloaded from Libsyn and also listened to here.

Independence Day and White America's Democracy Problem

Every year, on America's birthday, I read Frederick Douglass's essay "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?"

I was first introduced to Frederick Douglass while in elementary school. My sixth grade teacher, a stern but kind black woman, knew that I, the only black boy in her class, would benefit greatly from his wisdom and example. She was right.

The book "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" was wondrous.

It was the amazing adventure of a man who fights to free his people by first liberating his mind and then his body from the evils of white-on-black slavery.

Douglass tricks gullible white children to teach him how to read

Douglass beats the hell out of his evil overseer, Edward Covey.

Douglass escapes to freedom, avoiding slave patrollers and other evildoers.

Douglass goes on to fight for the freedom of black Americans -- and along the way becomes one of America's greatest orators, activists and thinkers.

What was there for a black child (and later on an adult) not to love?

In high school I would then discover his landmark speech and essay "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?".

At first I admired Douglass' masterful oratory and command of the English language.

There is searing truth:

I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. — The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.

Then Douglass lays in the body blows:

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.

Eventually I began to read "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" as political performance art and drama. As I learned and studied more, the naive optimism of Douglass's belief that white supremacy and racism would wither away as incompatible with a post-slavery America became more obvious and problematic. This too was a gift from Douglass: his hope reveals much about the contours and tensions within the black freedom struggle. Black folks are a hopeful people who all too often love a country which does not love us back. This is a special power. It is also a horrible curse.

But for all of the multiple valences of meaning in "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" there is one unifying theme. Douglass and his life are testimonies to the force of black Americans' love of freedom, and an unrelenting stubbornness to do all that is necessary to be fully equal and free citizens.

In the age of Donald Trump, when white supremacy is openly resurgent, and an unapologetic racist authoritarian is president, Douglass's "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" resonates even more.

A Conversation With Richard Painter About the Dangers of Trump's Regime and How the Republican Party Became So Dangerous

Richard Painter is the guest on this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show. Painter was White House chief ethics counsel under George W. Bush and is a frequent political commentator and analyst on CNN, MSNBC and other news networks. He is also a professor of corporate law at the University of Minnesota and the author of several books, including "Getting the Government America Deserves."

Although he has been a Republican nearly all his life, Painter is now running as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate seat recently vacated by Al Franken.

During this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Richard Painter and Chauncey discuss the threat to American democracy embodied by Donald Trump, why he is no longer a Republican, and how the Republican Party became so revanchist, racist, and dangerous. Painter also offers a warning to the Democrats about the perils of "identity politics" for the 2018 midterms and 2020 presidential election.

In this week's episode, Chauncey DeVega wonders if protest movements such as the marches against Trump's evil treatment of black and brown refugees have any power against a neoliberal authoritarian regime. Chauncey also tries to help Democrats, liberals, and progressives--especially those cowardly "centrists"--work through their stages of grief about Justice Kennedy retiring, the Muslim ban, the assault on unions, and other Trump victories.

At the end of this week's installment of The Chauncey DeVega Show, our intrepid host shares a story about a right-wing "Christian" church which is located next to one of the Trump regime's prisons for children--and how the wicked Trump Christians there support the abuse of Latino and Hispanic refugees and immigrants.

This episode with Richard Painter can be downloaded from Libsyn and also listened to here.