After spending a short tenure as one of the front page writers here I moved over to Salon where, for the most part, I write exclusively. I also host a podcast which has become a type of informal Trump University—except that folks are not scammed out of their money and there are actual experts who want to help the global public understand the disaster that is Trump’s regime.
This week my podcast features Stephen Hassan. He is one of the world's foremost experts on cults and mind control.
Steven Hassan is the author of several bestselling books including Combating Cult Mind Control: The #1 Best Selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults, Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, and Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults & Beliefs.
He and I discuss how Donald Trump is a political cult leader and if it is possible to free Trump's followers from his thrall. Steven also shares his thoughts on the power of social media and advertising over free will. He also offers up some information that may be new to many people: as a child Donald Trump was raised in a church whose leaders used mind control techniques against their followers.
In this week's episode, I also discuss how Trump's White House is corrupt and likely a criminal enterprise. The most recent example? Jared Kushner receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from Citibank and Apollo Global Group. I also connect the dots between Trump's abuse of power as a means to make money from the presidency, the latest revelations about Kushner and the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and General Smedley Butler's warnings about war profiteers and other gangster capitalists.