Chapman University
Pete Simi is professor of sociology at Chapman University, where he studies extremist groups, violence and lone wolf attackers. He is the author of American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement's Hidden Spaces of Hate. He is a former professor of criminology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
The Las Vegas Strip turned into a war zone A gunman shot and killed at least 58 people and wounded more than 500 at a Country Music Festival in Las Vegas. Automatic gunfire rained down on a crowd of 22,000 from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Hotel. ISIS, the terrorist group, claims the shooter was a convert, but the FBI calls that “nonsense.” Local police say the shooter killed himself just as they blew open the door of his room. Sixty-four-year-old Stephen Craig Paddock was a Nevada resident with no criminal record. It’s believed he acted alone. President Trump has called for national unity after the incident he described as “an act of pure evil.”
Hate, Terrorism, and America's Religious Pluralism Since they first arrived in the US more than 100 years ago, Sikhs have experienced brutal discrimination. Since September 11, they've been subject to scorn and retaliation. Now six have died along with a gunman, after a shooting spree in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Others are on the critical list. Investigators are trying to determine why Wade Michael Page shot up the Sikh house of worship. We hear from a man who knew him as part of the hate music scene and raise some disturbing questions about American intolerance of a major world religion.
Personal Rage, Hostility and Deadly Gunfire America's latest mass killing took the lives of seven people, including the gunman, who shot up a Sikh house of worship in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Law enforcement agencies want to know if Wade Michael Page acted alone. We talk with a criminologist who knew him as part of the hate-music scene. Since they first arrived in the US more than 100 years ago, Turban-wearing Sikhs have experienced brutal discrimination. They were the first targets of retaliation in the US after the attacks of September 11. Was this a hate crime or an act of domestic terrorism? How could it happen in a country based on tolerance of religious pluralism?
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
Will the Senate write a healthcare bill in secret? While Democrats and Republicans argue White House relations with Russia, another question is being decided behind closed doors: who gets help buying health insurance and who doesn't? We hear how the pros and cons are being shrouded in secrecy.
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.