StocktonAfterClass
Ron Stockton was a professor of political science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn for 48 years. His specialty was non-western politics and political change. He taught classes on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Religion and Politics, the Politics of Revolution, Non-Western politics, and American politics. He also taught in the Honors Program, focusing upon foundational readings from the 18th and 19th centuries. He has an interest in religion and politics and in the role of religio-ethnic groups in the political system. The listener can anticipate talks on Arab-Americans, Jews, African-Americans, the Scots-Irish, and Evangelicals. He has lectured and written on American politics, public opinion, and voting behavior and on the role of religious organizations and ideologies in the political system. There will be occasional discussions of books and films that address serious issues. And he has lectured and published and even taught a class on gravestones, especially those of different ethnic and religious groups such as Muslims, African-Americans, Jews, and Native Americans. The goal of the podcast series is to provide analysis and commentary by a political scientist to explain and make accessible political, historical, and cultural developments in the United States and around the world, and to give the listener analytical tools to understand those developments. It is also to entertain the listener.
Episodes
225 episodes
Trump in Decline. An Explanation
I am very cautious about predictions. All the pundits are doing those, plus most of them seem to be chasing headines. I have made an exception in this case, because I think Trump has peaked and is on his decline.
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29:13
The Georgia Vote Stealing Case. Dismissed today November 26, 2025. What Were the Charges?
Biden carried Georgia by just under 12,000 votes. They had a Republican governor and Republican Secreatary of State. Trump called them and asked them to "find" those votes. I just need one more than Biden got to carry the stat...
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32:57
Turning Point in the Revolution: King's Mountain.
After the catastrophic defeat at Charleston, the Patriot forces were on the ropes. General Clinton, commander of the British army, was so confident of the outcome, that he left his deputy, General Cornwallis, in charge and headed north. &...
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20:25
An American in Palestine: A Love Story. Memoir and Insights from Christa Bruhn
Christa Bruhn was my student back in the 1980s. I remember very well the first time I met her. She told me she had lived for a semester in Gaza. I have been to Gaza twice and did not consider it a place for a young American wo...
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1:16:49
To Deport or Not to Deport. Stories From an Expert Witness (me)
I have been an expert witness in four deportation hearings. The job of an expert witness is to given the judge reasons to permit the individual to remain in the U. S. The cases were people from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Palest...
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30:05
No Heresy Trial (Yet). Four Entertaining Stories About Religion.
This is a bit different from my typical podcast. This is four stories inspired by religion. The story of Rachel and Rebecca, and the mandrake. (You have never read this story so you know nothing about the mandrake (or e...
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28:56
Marx and the Jews. Not What You Expect. The 1844 Manuscripts.
Bruno Bauer, an intellectual colleague of Marx, wrote two essays to which Marx reacted strongly. The first was called “The Jewish Question” (Die Judenfrage), the second “On The Capacity of Present-Day Jews and Christians to Become Free.” ...
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45:57
The Gaza Genocide. A Public Talk
This is a public talk I delivered on the concept of genocide and the arguments presented in the South African genocide charge against Israel in late 2023. Several people who wanted to attend but could not asked if it could be recorded. We...
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21:36
The Logic of the Israeli Hard Right.
There are extremist groups in Israel that trace their origins to Rabbi Meir Kahane. Today they control the balance of power in the Israeli cabinet. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are the most prominent personalities. Both are extremel...
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34:56
International Memoirs: Opening Paragraphs.
This is Part II of a project I developed for my Honors Class. I typed up the opening paragraphs of scores of memoirs in my personal library. My students would read these and discuss them. They really liked this assignment. Par...
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32:34
John Brown of Harper's Ferry Fame. The beginning of the Civil War.
Jane and I recently went to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. This was the place where John Brown, in October of 1859, conducted his famous strike against slavery. Brown and all of his men were killed, which he anticipated might happen. ...
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38:00
That REALLY, REALLY Bad Word for African Americans. And My Struggle With It.
I sometimes tell people that I am a recovering racist. It is not really my fault. I grew up in a culture (the 1950s in the border South) when that was just the way things were. The outward and visible sign of our moral failure...
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28:54
Is Christianity Polytheistic? The Doctrine of the Trinity. A Reposting
Today, June 15, is not only Father's Day. It is also Trinity Sunday. To me, the concept of the Trinity is incomprehensible. Which is why I am the perfect person to explain it to the rest of you. This podcast start...
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33:40
Visit to Palestine During a Time of War and Genocide, One Year Anniversary. Reposting.
In June of 2024 I spent eight days in occupied Palestine, i.e., the West Bank. It is now a year later and I thought this report might deserve a reposting. I went with a group of people who had religious connections.&nbs...
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36:50
Famous People I Met Along the Way
This is the last lecture I delivered in my academic career. I discovered that I had miscalculated the end of the semester and that I had an extra class. I did have a regular academic topic but my wife said, "You are a senior profess...
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1:16:00
The Logic of a Moral Assassin. Why I Killed Gandhi. Relevant to the Killing of Two Israeli Embassy employees.
Why I Killed Gandhi by Nathuram Godse Two employees of the Israeli Embassy in D. C. were shot to death this week (May, 2025) . The Manifesto of the shooter shows him to be very distressed by the mass death in Gaza...
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25:44
The Election of Pope Leo XIV, An American Pope.
I was amazed at how much information is available on the internet about this election. Of course, biographical information is public, but the cardinals swear an oath of secrecy before they go into the conclave. And yet somehow infor...
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22:06
Everything You Wanted To Know About the Catholic Church (But Were Afraid to Ask). Reposting
This was an orientation lecture in my course on Religion and Politics in 2020. It does have a few of those classroom comments ("don't forget to turn in your papers" sort of things), but otherwise it has quite a bit of information about sometime...
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1:00:39
Pope Leo XIII. Rerum Novarum (an inspiration for Pope Leo XIV). A Reposting
Are you interested in why the new pope took the name of an old pope? Is he sending us a message? Leo XIII was a modernizing pope whose most famous encyclical (1891) was called Rerum Novarum (New Things). This is a class...
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1:11:17
I Am Running for Pope. (Seriously. Don't Laugh)
Back in 2013, when Pope Benedict stepped down, I was concerned for the future of the Church and threw my hat into the ring. I am not sure how many votes I got but the vigorous insistence of the Vatican that they had never heard of me conv...
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9:53
Interview with Adel Bsesio regarding his family archive of property held in southern Palestine, confiscated by the Israelis in 1948.
This is interview three on this remarkable project. The frist interview was with Amine Zreikh who made me familiar with this historical cache of documents -- deeds, maps, contracts, etc. Adel Bsesio is the posessor of his family arc...
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52:18
Glitch: This is a duplicate of the interview with Adel Bsesio. Sorry for that. Please listen to the other Bsesio interview. It focuses upon the archive.
This is a duplicate n interview with Adel Bsesio regarding the Bsesio family deeds and documents, now an archive. This family had extensive holdings in southern Palestine that were confiscated by the Israelis in 1948. They ar...
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52:18
A Unique Story of Palestinian Land in 1948. Original interview with Amine Zreikh
My former student, Amine Zreikh, contacted me about an archive of deeds from pre-1948 Palestine, and the effort to create a site where those could be stored. I conducted three interviews on this project. One with Zreikh and two are ...
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24:47
Pope urges American Bishops to pursue Christian policies towards immigrants, not Trump policies.
Just after being released from the hospital, where he nearly died, the Pope issues a pastoral letter to the American Bishops. He urged them to focus upon Christian principles, and to support immigrants as they face the actions of the Trum...
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16:50