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There are many books exploring how and why voters in the United States elected President Donald Trump, but author Susan Neiman argues that “Nobody has really focused on the moral background to this administration and to our acceptance of it.” It was that void she sought to fill in her newest book, “Call It Evil: Understanding the Trump Era.” Neiman joins Hedges in this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to discuss her new book and examine the crises of today: the rise of fascism, the ravages of neoliberalism, and how institutions and individuals have surrendered to them. Ideology, Neiman explains, are assumptions so ingrained in a culture that individuals often see them as “iron laws,” rather than ideas they have about the world. In reality, they are “philosophical ideas which we could question if we wanted to,” as has happened in the past. Most are unable to offer this analysis, Hedges claims, because these assumptions of American hegemony have “infected not just economics but all sorts of disciplines, academic disciplines, including religion.” Our beliefs drive our motivations and actions. People behave differently when they believe that “we exist to perpetuate our own self-interest,” a notion driven by neoliberalism and capitalism, than they do in more socialized nations where social and political rights are recognized and integrated into the body politic.

For all of President Trump’s recent threats to “annihilate Iran,” the reality is that the United States is running out of both options and time to resolve this US- Israeli-initiated war. The US has made overtures toward renewing a hot war, but it has not gone further than that as the economy, both domestically and globally, deteriorates and other countries reconsider their relationships to the US and to each other. The midterm elections this Fall, with Republicans not poised to do well, are further impacting decisions being made by the Trump administration as well. Professor John Mearsheimer, a former Air Force captain and author of numerous books on foreign policy and the Middle East, joins The Chris Hedges Report to unpack the competing interests surrounding the war, and to discuss what options are available to the US. Mearsheimer says, “We have no strategy for producing victory in Iran, other than hoping that their economy collapses, which leads to regime change, and then they make all the necessary concessions to us.” This is highly unlikely to happen. Mearsheimer predicts that the Trump administration is aware that the US has failed and is waiting until after the midterm elections to make a decision about next steps, but he cautions that the US will be in the same position militarily as it is now — the world could enter a long-term economic recession, or worse, depression, by that time. The Bessent strategy of increasing sanctions and recruiting allies to participate in an economic blockade of Iran isn’t working either, as major powers like China and Russia have already defied the US and continue to work with Iran. The clock is ticking as the closure of the Strait and the successful Ansar Allah attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure, blocking Gulf oil coming through the Red Sea, are causing oil supplies, including what remains in the strategic reserves, to dwindle. As it currently stands, the US and Israel have failed to achieve virtually all of their military objectives. Israel’s most important stated goal, preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, is hardly even discussed anymore. With the Supreme Leader assassinated, one of the last remaining impediments to Iranian nuclear armament is gone, and the new guard is increasingly considering developing nuclear weapons. With the US and Israel facing military defeat and devastating economic consequences, a new regional power is rising, and the relationships that have defined the era of US hegemony are shifting rapidly.

The images created by socialist and antiwar political cartoonists during the period around World War I were powerful tools for countering the elite’s propaganda of the time. The Russian Revolution had just occurred, and in response to extreme wealth inequality, a militant working class was on the rise in the United States. The ruling class was afraid and responded to the growing dissent with severe measures – a massive propaganda campaign, laws that limited free expression, deportations, violence and imprisonment. It was an era that echoes the repression – ICE raids, the designation of Leftists as “terrorists” and restrictions of academic freedom - that is occurring today. In his new graphic novel, “Dissidents, Autocrats, Vigilantes, Communists, and Cartoonists,” political cartoonist and writer Derf Backderf analyzes this period through the untold stories of contemporary cartoonists who were targeted by the Wilson administration. Backderf joins Chris Hedges to discuss his new novel and its lessons for today on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report. Hedges and Backderf explore some of the most prominent political cartoonists and writers of the early 20th century, leftist publications, such as The Masses, and the initially subtle methods of censoring them. Hedges explains, “This is the way totalitarianism always works…it was incremental.” Then came the Red Scare and more overt oppression through the American Protective League and the Palmer raids. The parallels between the period of the anti-socialist and anti-communist efforts one hundred years ago and the current demonization of socialism and communism today under the Trump administration are stark. Hedges and Backderf describe the impacts of the Red Scare on Leftists of that period and what we have learned, or failed to learn, from that. “That's why the book is so important because when these ruling capitalist elites feel threatened, they're vicious,” adds Hedges. At the same time, there are reasons for optimism because the United States avoided a fascist turn in the past. Backderf concludes, “I hope that's what people take away from this book, that it doesn't have to be inevitable.”

The blowback of the failed 2024 Biden-and-then-Harris Democratic presidential campaign, which supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza, continues as another grassroots candidate runs for Congress. Dr. Karishma Manzur, a scientist who is running for senate in the September New Hampshire Democratic Primary against Chris Pappas, joins Chris Hedges in this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to talk about her campaign. Manzur, who is also an activist for peace and climate justice, has had firsthand experiences with elected officials through her non-profit work, revealing to her the corrosive power of money in politics. She witnessed the ways big donors, such as AIPAC, control the politicians and both political parties, and the corruption and deceit, which she says are most pervasive at the federal level. She finally asked herself, “Why am I being forced to pick the lesser of two evils because the lesser of two evils is still evil. We’re having to choose between bad and really bad.” Both the Democrats and Republicans engage in anti-democratic practices and demonstrate their allegiance to the wealthy. Manzur criticizes the revolving door between Congressmembers and corporations: “The money in politics is not just bribing our lawmakers and bribing our candidates, these lawmakers themselves are part of the big money.” A major focus for Manzur is what it means to be a public servant. She loathes the culture of treating politicians as celebrities rather than people who work for the public. Manzur’s campaign rejects corporate donations and is running on a popular program of Medicare for All, affordable housing, living wages and stopping wars, all of which are gaining traction with voters. Despite the Democrat’s efforts to marginalize Manzur and the wide disparity in fundraising between her and her opponent, Manzur is optimistic that she can win.

John Mearsheimer breaks down the current state of the Iran War, and how the conflict increasingly appears to look like the most dire strategic mistake in US history.

Chris Hedges, who has extensive experience as a former New York Times Middle East Bureau Chief, describes the information published by the Israeli State as lies: “If there is one indisputable fact, it is that Israel lies like it breathes.” The task of professional journalists and media outlets is to review evidence and verify the information they are reporting, but when it comes to Israel, Western establishment media function as stenographers, echoing their lies globally. In this episode of The Chris Hedges Report, Hedges explores the mechanisms by which Western media function as propaganda outlets for Israel with media scholar Robin Andersen, who documented these practices in her new book, “The Complicit Lens.” They begin with a discussion of the ways media corporations control the narrative through omissions of historical context, dehumanization of Palestinians and censorship of specific words, such as ‘massacres.’ Journalists who work for these commercial outlets are aware of their complicity but sacrifice their integrity and honesty for access to those in power and to protect themselves from retaliation. Hedges and Andersen explain the ways that media outlets manipulate language to cover up war crimes being committed by the Israelis and shift the blame for Israeli attacks on civilians and infrastructure, such as hospitals and schools, onto the victims, Palestinians themselves. Outlets engage in ‘atrocity propaganda,’ amplifying horrific lies about sexual assault and “beheaded babies” told by the Israeli State without factchecking them to generate public support for the genocide of Palestinians, who are characterized as ‘terrorists’ and members of the demonized organization, Hamas. Andersen reports, “The Israelis were presented in their whole humanity… and the Palestinians are dead bodies, and that’s it.” Another method of information control is by limiting access. Foreign journalists are restricted from entering Gaza, and those who are allowed in are vetted by Israel in advance. In violation of international law, the Palestinian press is censored through murder. Over 270 Palestinians, including those who work for major media outlets, and their families have been targeted and killed by the Israeli military. The price that we all pay for this complicity by the media is the legitimization of genocide, the absence of accountability and the lack of reliable news sources. As Andersen concludes, our loss is that there are “fewer and fewer voices, fewer and fewer documentation [that] can make sense of this and bring it to global publics.”

The bipartisan US-backed genocide in Gaza exposed the corruption of the political system in the United States and the hypocrisy of the Democratic Party, which claims to represent working people. Rather than recognizing this fact and shifting its stances to better represent its voting base, the Democratic Party establishment is attacking candidates who run on progressive platforms and is setting the stage for another Republican victory. In this episode of The Chris Hedges Report, Chris Hedges speaks with Dr. Adam Hamawy, a military veteran and trauma surgeon running for Congress in New Jersey to replace the retiring representative Bonnie Watson Coleman. Similarly to Dr. El-Sayed, who won his Democratic primary in Michigan despite record spending to oppose him by the Israeli lobby, AIPAC, and Democratic Party leadership’s support for his opponent, Dr. Hamawy recently won the primary and will face a Republican in the November election. Hamawy discusses how his experiences of talking to members of Congress after coming home from volunteering in hospitals in Gaza drove him into politics and describes the vicious, racist and false attacks launched against him, his family and co-workers since the start of his campaign. He laments the influence of money on politics, especially by the military industrial complex, that puts profits over people and robs communities of funding for basic necessities. Hamawy calls for the consistent application of laws, especially the Leahy Law, which restricts foreign aid to countries that violate human rights. Hedges and Hamawy analyze the failures of the Democratic Party to unify around a platform that represents their voting base’s interests, instead trying and failing to push progressive candidates out of the party. Dr. Hamawy says, “The Democratic Party has actually shifted more to the right and we are really holding that center.” Hamawy outlines his political priorities if he is elected and the struggles ahead for this new “wave of candidates that are fighting for the people,” saying, “We are going to fight to start bringing these resources back home.”

The United States and Israel’s attacks on Iran have inflamed West Asia to the point that it has turned “into a matrix of smaller wars taking place across the region, all of which are interconnected, but all of which have quite separate agendas,” describes Alistair Crooke of Conflicts Forum, a former diplomat who served in the Middle East and who authored, “Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution”. In this episode of the Chris Hedges Report, Hedges and Crooke explore the wide-reaching geopolitical and economic ramifications of the war on Iran and what options remain for the Trump administration, which has been forced multiple times to walk back its threats of escalation. The war on Iran has depleted a significant percentage of US munitions, costing tens of billions of dollars so far, and has lowered the US’ strategic petroleum reserves to its lowest level in over forty years. The closure of both the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab Strait have blocked oil exports from Saudi Arabia completely, as well as other products that were previously traded through these major transit routes. This has rocked the global economy, sending Japan into a debt crisis. As countries scramble to adjust to these new realities, there is no end in sight to the crisis. The Trump administration is running out of options. Crooke describes the fall of US military hegemony in the region and how this has changed the mood in Iran, saying, “It’s triggered something much more profound, a memory of Iran as a major civilizational power, as something that has been a dominant influence in the region for thousands of years.” He states that Iran is prepared for and expects a long war as negotiations with the United States are not a reliable route to peace. Hedges and Crooke discuss the numerous and growing wars in the region from the state of Israel, where leaders are pushing to force Palestinians out of the West Bank ahead of the October election, to the increasingly fragile situation in Iraq, to the hot war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. No country in the region is untouched as even Egypt and Jordan are positioning troops along their borders. The fate of millions of people in West Asia is at stake as Washington scrambles to protect dollar hegemony and risks what Crooke refers to as a “slow tactical nuclear weapons strike,” the destruction of infrastructure that provides the energy and water necessary to sustain their lives.

Under the radar, the billionaire class is building the infrastructure and models necessary to create a dystopian future in which cities become billionaire fiefdoms - completely privatized, governed by dictatorial CEOs and financed by subservient taxpayers. The buildout of data centers is one essential part of the effort to construct a totalitarian capitalist society, which is already advancing. In this episode of The Chris Hedges Report, Hedges interviews investigative journalist Whitney Webb, the author of “One Nation Under Blackmail,” who unravels the complex relationships between elected leaders, the National Security State, the state of Israel and Big Tech. Webb discusses the methods being used in the Silicon Heartland, the area around Columbus, Ohio, where Les Wexner, who has ties to organized crime and was Jeffrey Epstein’s most notable benefactor, and other powerful billionaires such as Peter Thiel of Palantir, have made significant headway in creating a privately-run city — New Albany. She describes their use of innocent-sounding front groups, such as Jobs Ohio, private development corporations and political bribery to enrich themselves and create what they are marketing as Smart Cities. Hedges and Webb expose the connections between the billionaires behind this effort and the State of Israel. Webb argues that Israeli startups have been promoted to Big Tech “so that US technological infrastructure on multiple levels would be so intimately enmeshed with Israeli interests that they could never meaningfully boycott Israel.” The same technological infrastructure is also being fused with the National Security State – intelligence and the military – to also make it dependent on the private sector. The ideology underlying this new model of feudalism originates from the Neo-Reactionary Movement. Beyond that, Webb explains, the billionaires involved believe fervently in a transhumanist future where “the end goal of humanity is to have humanity merge with AI in some capacity” such that there are two classes, the wealthy and a large underclass that is either exploitable or expendable, and obedience is enforced through technology. There is still time to prevent further development of this dystopian future by, among other actions, unplugging from the very technology being employed to create it.

In Abby Martin's new film, 'Earth's Greatest Enemy,' she exposes how the US military has unleashed death, devastation and more pollution than any other institution in the world on the global populace.

Compared to other wealthy Western nations, the United States stands out for its high incarceration rates and military spending and declining standard of living. In her new book, “Crime and No Punishment: Wealth, Power and Violence, in America”, Professor Marie Gottschalk connects the dots between the “twin evils of state violence at home and imperial violence abroad.” She chronicles the rise of President Trump as a manifestation of the failures of the Democrats to stem police violence and address economic insecurity when they had opportunities to do so, and illustrates how the tendrils of US Empire permeate the current crises. Chris Hedges explores this history with University of Pennsylvania Professor Gottschalk in this episode of The Chris Hedges Report. They begin with Frederick Engel’s concept of ‘social murder’ in which the state creates conditions of social decline that shorten the lifespans of the general population. Hedges and Gottschalk point to deindustrialization during the mid-twentieth century and the oligarchic class’s fears of popular backlash as precursors to mass incarceration. They also discuss the growing militarization of policing as returning veterans were hired into the force and equipped with excess military equipment. The Great Recession of 2008 was another critical turning point as millions of people lost their pensions and homes. Gottschalk refers to the Obama administration paving the way for the election of Donald Trump by refusing to prosecute those responsible for crashing the economy and then giving the banks billions of dollars in bailouts while people struggled financially. The public’s awareness of this disparity, plus the fact that corporations and law enforcement are permitted to commit crimes with impunity, has fueled growing mistrust in Congress. Rural communities, which represent President Trump’s political base, have been hit particularly hard by the unequal recovery. Gottschalk describes the shift in police violence and incarceration from urban to rural communities where there are white majorities. Rural communities feel abandoned by the Democrats. Hedges explains, “We have a figure like Trump, a con artist, demagogue because the one thing he did was tap into that very legitimate sense of betrayal, by both parties, a sense of anger and in some ways the mask has been ripped off and we’re seeing all of the poisons that you document in the book being turbocharged by the Trump administration.”

We are living in an age of climate collapse, which will most likely result in mass displacement and death, warns Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion in the United Kingdom on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report. . And while that reality is hard to accept, it is an honest assessment of what lies ahead that must be addressed as we decide how to navigate what Hallam calls humanity’s “darkest hour.” In his new book, “Suicide: The Political and Legal Implications of Creating Endless Mass Death,” written while he was in prison for climate action, Hallam shares his background in academic sociology and organizing for social change to provide tools for resisting under the current repressive legal and political systems. People often respond to repression with greater courage and resolve to resist it. Hallam’s experiences in prison and elsewhere taught him that “we always have that opportunity to choose how we’re going to react and how we’re going to live our lives in response to the involuntary hell that’s imposed upon us by the powers that be.” Hedges and Hallam explore the ways that societies can fracture as they are collapsing, tending towards violence or hedonism. Some people may “retreat into crisis cults” as demonstrated by the growth of the Christian Right in the United States. They emphasize the necessity of a form of spiritual or moral grounding that transcends the individual and awakens our sense of connection, of being part of something greater than ourselves, of being willing to ask difficult questions and to make sacrifices. It is through organizing and collective action that people can confront the power structure effectively and build a different society. Finally, Hedges and Hallam analyze the state of social movements and what it takes to create a popular revolution. They call out the liberal class, including mainstream climate organizations, that “perpetually undermines the ability to bring along the objective revolutionary conditions, which are strategically and ethically undeniably necessary at the present time.” They point to the dire need for revolutionary demands and prophetic leaders who will guide social movements. In the end though, Hallam points out that social transformation is the result of door-to-door organizing in our communities, building support systems and challenging power in the streets.

Forced to leave her home country due to political and economic repression under the dictatorship of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish author Ece Temelkuran sought an understanding of how a population can be led down the path to fascism. Whether it is under Narendra Modi in India, Erdogan in Turkey or Donald Trump in the United States, she found that the stages are very similar and so are the mistakes people make along the way. Temelkuran strives to provide readers with an understanding of the roots of the fascist new world order and the language necessary to change direction. In this episode of The Chris Hedges Report, Hedges and Temelkuran discuss her newest work, “Nation of Strangers: Rebuilding Home in the 21st Century,” and a previous book, “How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Fascism.” Temelkuran connects the crises of today to the neoliberalism of the late twentieth century, which made promises of prosperity but instead destroyed social infrastructure and financial security and increased state repression to subdue resultant popular struggles. Hedges calls this ‘cutthroat capitalism’, a system that divides people and pits them against each other and against their own interests. Temelkuran states, “I think people have been cheated enough with this liberal democracy promises, which were never fulfilled, so, they are perhaps taking a revenge on the entire political establishment.” While it is tempting to believe that ousting particular political leaders, such as President Donald Trump, will solve the current crises, Temelkuran emphasizes that the crises are systemic in nature and require a long-term approach to organizing resistance. Fundamental to that effort is breaking with a culture of fear, hatred and hostility that has been instilled by the ruling class. In this new world order, Temelkuran explains that more people are becoming ‘unhomed’ in the sense that the life they once knew no longer exists and won’t return. The antidote is a greater sense of connectedness and solidarity, of realizing that we are all vulnerable in a state that knows no boundaries in the violence, exploitation and displacement it will inflict on populations. Many people in the United States are waking up to this new phenomenon and are searching for answers. Temelkuran advises, “What neoliberalism made us believe, a dim view of humanity, we need to see that humanity and have faith in it…. Our entire economic and social system stands upon that fundamental definition of human.”

United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese shares stories of the immense suffering in Palestine and laments the gutting of international law in her new book, “When the World Sleeps”.