COUNTERPOINT RADIO, hosted by Scott Harris, is heard every Monday night on WPKN 89.5 FM, Bridgeport, CT between 8:00 – 9:30 pm ET. Webstreaming and audio archive at http://wpkn.org

Some segments featured on Counterpoint are edited for re-broadcast on the syndicated Between The Lines radio news magazine. Visit their web site at http://www.btlonline.org for free subscriptions to mp3 - podcast audio files, program summaries and interview transcripts. An archive of current and past Counterpoint interviews are accessible for free at our Counterpoint Radio web site: http://counterpointradio.org The full 1.5 hour unedited program can be accessed for a 2 week period after the show, at the WPKN Radio archives: http://archives.wpkn.org/bookmarks/search/counterpoint

1) Democrats Should Worry that Biden-Harris Gaza Policy Will Lose Votes in Must-Win Battleground States

Richard Eskow, host and managing editor of "The Zero Hour" and the lead writer for Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign. He recently wrote the piece "Dems Are Afraid Gaza Will Cost Them the Election. They’re Not Afraid Enough." He discusses the Biden/Harris administration's position on Israel's savage war in Gaza and how it may impact the turnout of voters Kamala Harris needs to win the battleground states essential for an electoral college victory. He'll also assess Kamala's move to the center on a host of issues during this campaign, and what progressive activists must do if she wins to advocate and agitate to support progressive policy initiatives.

2) Trump's Misogyny and Role in Eliminating Reproductive Rights Have Made Women's Votes Pivotal in Determining Presidential Election Winner

Amanda Marcotte, a senior politics writer at Salon.com, author of "Troll Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters…" and publishes the biweekly politics newsletter, Standing Room Only. She'll discuss election issues including the critical role the gender gap will play in the election outcome, and the long-term post-election damage we can expect from Trump's toxic, hateful message targeting immigrants and the trans community.

3) Disinformation Floods US Election Campaign Fueling Distrust in Government and Inciting Violence

Nora Benavidez, senior counsel and director of digital justice and civil rights with the media democracy group Free Press, discusses the important issues examined in Free Press' recent reports on how social media platforms have degraded or abandoned content moderation, creating an environment that could fuel the spread of dangerous disinformation before and after the November 5th election, which could lead to deepening distrust in the electoral process and violence. She'll also explore policies Free Press has researched that could be implemented to better control the spread of both misinformation and disinformation adjacent to future elections and public health crises/ pandemics.

4) Election Outcome will Decide Future of Social Security and Medicare

Alex Lawson Executive Director of Social Security Works talks about his work ahead of the election to protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare, with a focus on opposing Trump - GOP proposed cuts to benefits, and support for updating the Social Security COLA formula, V.P. Harris' proposal to expand Medicare to cover long-term care at home, and provide Medicare more power to negotiate lower drug prices.

COUNTERPOINT RADIO, hosted by Scott Harris, is heard every Monday night on WPKN 89.5 FM, Bridgeport, CT between 8:00 – 9:30 pm ET. Webstreaming and audio archive at http://wpkn.org

Some segments featured on Counterpoint are edited for re-broadcast on the syndicated Between The Lines radio news magazine. Visit their web site at http://www.btlonline.org for free subscriptions to mp3 - podcast audio files, program summaries and interview transcripts. An archive of current and past Counterpoint interviews are accessible for free at our Counterpoint Radio web site: http://counterpointradio.org The full 1.5 hour unedited program can be accessed for a 2 week period after the show, at the WPKN Radio archives: http://archives.wpkn.org/bookmarks/search/counterpoint

1) Media's Credulous Coverage of Trump's Candidacy is Journalistic Malpractice

Chris Lehmann, DC Bureau chief for The Nation magazine and a contributing editor at The Baffler discusses his recent article, "The Press Needs to Start Taking Trump Literally," addressing the media's coverage of Trump's unhinged and dangerous comments pronouncing January 6th as "a day of love," calls to use the US military to round up his political enemies, and his admiration of Adolph Hitler.

2) Michelle Obama Powerfully Addresses What's at Stake for Reproductive Rights in US Election

An excerpt of former First Lady Michelle Obama's speech delivered in Kalamazoo, Michigan on October 26th, where she powerfully spoke about the issue of reproductive rights and what's at stake in the 2024 election -- directly addressing the urgency of the issue for men, who's wives, sisters, mothers, cousins, aunts and girlfriends' lives are jeopardized by Trump's abortion ban.

3) New Book 'Vigilante Nation' Describes MAGA's State Based Attack on Democracy

David Noll, Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development and a Professor of Law at Rutgers University, who discusses his new book, "Vigilante Nation: How State-Sponsored Terror Threatens Our Democracy," co-written with UCLA professor of law Jon Michaels, which examines Trump/Republican election denialism, xenophobia and embrace of political violence in the 2024 election campaign.

4) If Kamala Wins, Trump-GOP Have a Plan to Subvert Election Outcome

Teddy Wilson, a journalist and researcher on the U.S. radical right discusses the threat posed to the 2024 presidential election by Republican operatives, including the American First Legal Foundation, that are filing multiple lawsuits and laying the groundwork to challenge county and state election outcomes if Trump loses, as well as sowing chaos with plans to delay the certification of election results.

1) Trump's Fascist Threats Increase as 2024 Campaign Nears End

Jason Stanley, the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and author of "How Fascism Works," talks about his newest book, "Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite The Past To Control The Future," and the threat posed to democracy by Donald Trump and the Republican Party in the 2024 election and beyond.

2) Israel Appears to Be Provoking War with Iran that Could Draw In U.S.

Josh Ruebner, Adjunct Lecturer at Georgetown University's Justice and Peace Studies program, and author of "Shattered Hopes: Obama's Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace," discusses the ramifications of Israel's killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the rising death toll in Israel's invasion of Lebanon, Biden/Harris administration calling for an end to Israel's Gaza war, and ongoing concern about a war with Iran involving the U.S. and a wider regional Middle East war.

3) Rev. Dr. William Barber on the intersection between Faith and Social Justice

Excerpt of a speech by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, Co-Chair of the Poor People's Campaign, made at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana on April 6, 2024. In the speech Rev. Barber talks about the intersection between faith and morality, and the issues of labor rights, universal health care, reproductive rights, immigration and income inequality.

4) Naming 7 Corporations Undermining Democracy Worldwide

Olivia Rosane, a staff writer with Common Dreams, discusses her recent article, "Meet the 7 Corporations Doing the Most to Undermine Democracy Worldwide," touching on the role of corporate America in shaping our politics and elections after the SCOTUS Citizens United ruling in 2010.

1) Trump, GOP Plan to Undermine Presidential Election Results if They Lose

Justin Glawe, an independent journalist, frequent contributor to Rolling Stone magazine, writes the newsletter American Doom. Glawe, whose forthcoming book is tilted, “If I Am Coming to Your Town, Something Terrible Has Happened,” discusses the important issues examined in his recent articles re: GOP threats to undermine the 2024 election, with a focus on the conduct of Georgia's election board and the mass purging of eligible voters in that state.

2) Project 2025's Sabotage of Federal Disaster Response

Andra Watkins, a New York Times best-selling author, who’s devoted many months researching and dissecting Project 2025 on her Substack online newsletter, “How Project 2025 Will Ruin Your Life,” talks about her recent article, "What Nobody is Reporting About Project 2025 Disaster Response" and the deadly disinformation that's being spread by Donald Trump and his supporters that has undermined hurricane Helene and Milton disaster response.

3) Senator Bernie Sanders Pushes Legislation to Block Offensive U.S. Weapons Sales to Israel

Miranda Rector, a member of the leadership team of Jewish Voice for Peace in New Haven, CT talks about VT U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' advocacy for Senate adoption of the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval that would block the sale of offensive U.S. weaponry to Israel. The JRD is the only mechanism available to Congress to prevent arms sales from advancing. Each resolution applies to specific weaponry, and documents cases in which Israel has used this weaponry in violation of international laws, and in which the US providing this weaponry has violated U.S. federal laws.

4) New Book Provides a Guide to the Nuts & Bolts of Progressive Electoral Success

Robert Creamer, a veteran political organizer and strategist for five decades, talks about his new book, "Nuts and Bolts: The Formula for Progressive Electoral Success," a step-by-step field manual for how progressives can win electoral campaigns, and a textbook for anyone who wants to know how electoral politics really works.

1) US Media Sanitizes US Role in Israel's Brutal Gaza War

Norman Solomon, co-founder of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, talks about his latest book, "War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine," with a just published revised edition that includes a new afterword on the Gaza War. On the one year anniversary of the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel, he'll examine the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Israel in the conflict, and corporate media's bias reporting on Israel's now expanding regional war that has resulted in the slaughter of more than 42,000 Palestinians and thousands more now being killed in Lebanon.

2) Corporate Media 'Sanewashing' Trump's Obvious Cognitive Decline

Parker Malloy, publisher of the Present Age newsletter, media critic and former editor-at-large at Media Matters for America, discusses her critique of corporate media for "sanewashing" Trump's often unhinged and incoherent speeches and interviews -- as well as soft-pedaling or sanitizing Trump and Vance's advocacy of disturbing policies such as Trump's 'violent day' of policing that will end crime, the lie that Democrats advocate the killing of babies after they're born, and Trump and Project 2025's plan for the US military to round up millions of immigrants (both legal and illegal) for mass deportation.

3) Hurricane Helene's Destruction Fueled by Climate Change, Provokes Renewed Calls to Hold Big Oil Accountable

Aaron Regunberg, Senior Policy Advisor with Public Citizen’s Climate Program, discusses the focus on "Make Polluters Pay" legislation after the enormous destruction wrought by hurricane Helene in the southeast U.S. -- with a focus on legislation passed in Vermont, and similar bills proposed in California and New York.

4) The Challenges Mexico's First Female President Faces as she Takes Office

Javier Porras Madero, an organizer and a historian of Mexico and Guatemala currently based in Mexico City, discusses the inauguration of Mexico's new president Claudia Sheinbaum, the issues she'll face as her nation's first woman president, touching on some of the issues covered in his article, "What’s Left of Morena?" re: the challenges ahead for Sheinbaum's Morena Party and Mexico's progressive left.

1) Israel's Attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon Threatens to Ignite Long Feared Wider War

John Feffer, director of Foreign Policy In Focus and Global Just Transition at the Institute for Policy Studies, discusses his recent article, "A Ceasefire Is Not Enough in Gaza," focusing on Netanyahu's successive actions that appear designed to provoke a wider Middle East war, and the Biden administration's failure to use its powerful leverage to pressure Israel to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza. With Israel's war now expanding into Lebanon, and the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Feffer believes it's critical that Biden use his remaining months in the White House to initiate serious regional negotiations to address the Palestinian people's right to self determination, and deescalate tensions with both Iran and Hezbollah.

2) Georgia GOP Election Deniers Working to Sabotage 2024 Election

Julie Houk, managing counsel for Election Protection at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law talks about her group's work in Georgia, including the filing of a lawsuit "to bar enforcement of provisions in a new Georgia law that would permit baseless mass challenges to large swaths of eligible voters," and concern about new rules issued by Georgia's election board requiring a hand-count of election day ballots that could cause a consequential delay in certifying the state's presidential election winner, endangering the democratic process.

3) Trump Has Made Immigration a Toxic Issue in Election 2024

Dulce Guzmán, executive director of Alianza Americas, discusses how the issue of immigration is being debated by the candidates and covered by the news media in the 2024 presidential election, with a focus on Donald Trump's demonization of immigrants stoking hate and fear, and an assessment of Vice President Kamala Harris' stated policies on immigration, with a review of her recent trip to the U.S. Mexico border on September 27th.

4) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's Reckless Action in Ukraine

Joe Lauria, editor-in-chief of Consortium News talks about his recent article, "The Madness of Antony Blinken," focusing on Sec. of State Blinken's advocacy for allowing Ukraine to launch conventional British long-range missiles against Russia, and western news reports that the Kremlin responded by saying it would consider any assault on its territory supported by a nuclear power to be a joint NATO attack, and threatened the use of nuclear weapons.

1) Escalating Conflict Between Israel and Hezbollah Could Erupt into Regional War

Jennifer Loewenstein, former associate director of Middle Eastern Studies and senior lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides analysis of Israel's two waves of attacks targeting Hezbollah via pagers and walkie-talkie explosions that killed at least 14 and injured 2,800, the escalation of missile and airstrikes across the Israeli and Lebanese border, that could lead to all-out war, as well as the ongoing slaughter in Gaza, and stalled progress on cease fire talks there.

2) Trump's Abortion Ban is Now Literally Killing Women

Amy Littlefield, the abortion access correspondent with The Nation magazine and a freelance investigative reporter who focuses on the intersection of religion and health care, discusses her new Nation article, "An Abortion Ban Killed Amber Thurman—and Likely Many More," with a focus on how women at the local level are fighting back, and the ways in which these deaths may impact the outcome of the 2024 election.

3) US Poverty Rose When Federal Pandemic Safety Net Programs Expired

Karen Dolan, director of the Criminalization of Race and Poverty Project at the Institute for Policy Studies discusses recent U.S. Census Bureau data which finds that U.S. poverty rates have increased, leading advocates to urge lawmakers to enact and expand the anti-poverty solutions that have been proven to work during the pandemic, so the nation can decrease rather than increase the number of American families experiencing poverty.

4) Singer Songwriter Billy Bragg on Politics, Hope and the Power of Music

Part #2 of Scott's interview with rebel singer/songwriter Billy Bragg, who, in 2023 celebrated 40 years of making music and political activism with the release of a 14-CD box set titled, The Roaring Forty, 1983 – 2023. He talks about political activism, his optimism about the future and getting older. Billy Bragg will be playing a show at Norwalk, CT's District Music Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 15.

1) Donald Trump's Repeated Stochastic Terrorism Now Targets Haitian Immigrants
Wajahat Ali, creator of Left Hook substack, co-host of The Democracy-ish podcast, and author of "Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American," discusses the presidential debate and election campaign, with a focus on Trump's threat to democracy, his demonization of immigrants and white supremacist rhetoric and action, as well as corporate media's skewed election coverage.

2) Common Cause Protecting 2024 Election Against Multiple GOP Threats

Jay Young, executive director of Common Cause Illinois and Cheri Quikmeyer, executive director of Common Cause Connecticut, discuss the work Common Cause is doing on election protection, i.e. addressing voter suppression, mass purges of the voting rolls, intimidation of poll workers, GOP election deniers' threats to delay certification of vote totals and sow chaos — and the group's recruitment of volunteers to be poll watchers.

3) Rebel Singer/Songwriter Billy Bragg on His 40-Year Career, Political Activism and Getting Older

Rebel Singer/songwriter Billy Bragg, who, in 2023 celebrated 40 years of making music and political activism with the release of a 14-CD box set titled, The Roaring Forty, 1983–2023, talks about highlights of his career, working on three albums of songs written by legendary American folk singer Woody Guthrie, political activism and getting older. Billy Bragg will be playing a show at Norwalk, CT's District Music Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 15.

4) El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele Provokes Growing Repression and Violence

John Guiliano, executive director of the Tamarindo Foundation in El Salvador talks about growing repression and violence across the impoverished Central American country under authoritarian President Nayib Bukele, who has targeted critics, sent troops into the legislature, and violated the country’s constitution to maintain his hold on power.