Caitlin and Trent chat with civil rights lawyer Joshua Erlich about the state of civil rights under Trump. What civil rights has this administration targeted? How are they achieving their goals? Is there anything that can be done to get in their way?

Resources:

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, by Richard Hofstadter: https://www.amazon.com/Anti-Intellectualism-American-Life-Richard-Hofstadter/dp/0394703170

“Alligator Alcatraz” conditions https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/allowed-lawmakers-split-conditions-alligator-alcatraz-rcna218498

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alligator-alcatraz-florida-detainees-conditions-fungus-mosquitoes-rcna220205

SCOTUS education ruling https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/07/supreme-court-clears-the-way-for-trump-administration-to-massively-reduce-the-size-of-the-department-of-education/

Dept. of Ed can’t resolve civil rights complaints in a reasonable time https://www.wxyz.com/us-news/education/civil-rights-work-is-slowing-as-trump-dismantles-the-education-department-agency-data-shows

Lawsuit against DOGE https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2025/01/20/trump-will-face-first-lawsuit-targeting-elon-musks-doge-moments-after-taking-office/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/20/doge-trump-musk-ramaswamy/

Trent and Caitlin check in with Maureen Kosse, linguist and researcher of far-right ideologies, about the various strains on the right when it comes to Israel and America’s involvement therewith. They go over the different groups of right-wing Israel supporters, including those opposed to sending military aid to Israel or to its striking of Iran, and talk about the reasons each has for throwing their weight behind the country. They also look at how individuals across the alt-right try to attract less-plugged-in folks to their movement, at first hiding their xenophobic and anti-semitic beliefs only to reveal them later.

Resources

Half of evangelicals support Israel for restorationist reasons: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/05/14/half-of-evangelicals-support-israel-because-they-believe-it-is-important-for-fulfilling-end-times-prophecy/

Ted Cruz tries to use Genesis to defend Israel: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14826517/ted-cruz-israel-support-iran-tucker-carlson.html

Marjorie Taylor Greene on Jewish Space Lasers:

https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/marjorie-taylor-greene-penned-conspiracy-theory-laser-beam-space-started-deadly-2018

MTG votes no on aid for Israel (2023)

https://greene.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=589

MTG files space laser amendment (2024) https://www.businessinsider.com/mtg-marjorie-taylor-greene-jewish-space-lasers-israel-aid-bill-2024-4?op=1

MTG votes no on anti-boycott bill (2025) https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/5/us-bill-to-ban-israel-boycotts-faces-right-wing-backlash-over-free-speech

MTG votes no on aid for Israel (2025) https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5392660-marjorie-taylor-greene-stop-israel-aid/

Groypers view Israel as an expression of Jewish world control: https://globalextremism.org/post/groyper/

History of Christian Zionism:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christian-Zionism

https://www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/evangelical-zionism

https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/olj/ad/ad_v9_2/daw01.html

https://www.globalministries.org/mee_resources_christian_zionism_koshy/

Thumbnail assets:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=163339506

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22007612@N05/51770690611

Caitlin and Trent speak with Eiynah about how people simply cannot be normal about NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, the way the New York Times keeps getting puppetted by far-right propagandists, and the manufactured nature of “newsworthiness.”

Resources:

News media propagate moral panics: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203828250/folk-devils-moral-panics-stanley-cohen

“Newsworthiness”: https://discourses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Teun-A.-van-Dijk-1991-Racism-And-the-Press.pdf

Iteration: https://nupress.northwestern.edu/9780810107885/limited-inc/

Reported speech can be recontextualized: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378216699000806

The Bulwark Podcast June 17: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/zohran-mamdani-fypod-crossover

New York Times June 21: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/nyregion/mamdani-globalize-intifada.html

https://theintercept.com/2025/07/10/mamdani-globalize-intifada-democrats/

Don’t quote the ADL: https://truthout.org/articles/its-time-to-break-with-the-adl-as-a-source-for-news-and-research-on-extremism/

Dan Goldman’s bias should be mentioned: https://www.dangoldmanforny.com/israel

Jon Chait asks, why won’t he denounce the phrase? https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/zohran-mamdani-globalize-intifada/683300/

Jon Chait hates attacks over a “decontextualized phrase or weaponized misunderstanding” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/cancel-culture-illiberalism-dead/681031/

NYT Columbia hacked https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/nyregion/columbia-university-hacker.html

NYT Columbia “exposé” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/nyregion/mamdani-columbia-black-application.html

NYT looking for justification: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/us/census-racial-categories.html

“Black New Yorkers”? https://nypost.com/2025/07/04/us-news/black-new-yorkers-rage-over-mamdanis-african-american-claim/

https://thehill.com/opinion/robbys-radar/5388110-black-new-yorkers-slam-zohran-mamdani-over-race-claims-on-his-college-application/

Why the NYT keeps getting played: https://www.findinggravity.net/p/christopher-rufo-and-elise-stefanik?utm_source=publication-search

https://www.theverge.com/culture/700082/nyt-mamdani-news-judgment

Chris Rufo lying about a drag queen: https://x.com/caitlinmoriah/status/1582415915508895746

Chris Rufo lying about eating cats in Ohio: https://web.archive.org/web/20240914120637/https://christopherrufo.com/p/the-cat-eaters-of-ohio

Crémieux/Jordan Lasker https://www.cjr.org/news/times-mamdani-college-application-race-article-hack.php

Lasker is a grad student who believes in racist pseudoscience https://x.com/thecollegehill/status/1847372903077335501

Mamdani’s policies are not out of step with US opinion https://www.yahoo.com/news/poll-zohran-mamdanis-policies-are-popular-with-americans-outside-new-york--even-if-mamdani-is-not-162406841.html

Mamdani eats with his hands: https://newrepublic.com/post/197538/maga-reaction-zohran-mamdani-eating-food-hands