As astonishing as it might seem - among all the astonishing changes in today’s America - it turns out that there is no legal way to stop Trump’s unprecedented financial profiteering from his presidency, even when it damages the nation's interests. We're learning that laws have always been important, but the main reason that America's democracy endured was because most people - from the president on down - followed a set of behavioral norms: They knew it was wrong to act like a dictator, and to make government decisions designed mainly to make them richer. Walter Shaub, former head of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, details Trump’s corruption in a gripping, distressing conversation. And he has urgent advice for government employees who do, despite Trump, want to act ethically.

Trump is calling on Congressional Republicans to "nationalize" elections. His Justice Department is suing states to get their voter rolls. Trump's FBI has raided election centers. Trump's allies are installing election deniers on state voting boards. And now Trump supporters are floating a draft plan for him to declare a national emergency before the elections and seize control. So why on earth does our guest, David Becker, feel confident that America's elections will turn out to be free and fair? David - who runs the nonpartisan Center for Election, Innovation and Research - says the election system is so decentralized, and the vast majority of election officials are so principled, and judges have been so consistent rejecting Trump's efforts to meddle, that your vote will matter as always. So, David says, vote!

The US government outlawed debtors' prisons in the 1830s, the Supreme Court ruled they're unconstitutional more than 40 years ago, and you'll find sentences like this on the internet: "Today it is illegal to put someone in prison because of a debt." So how is it that courts across the country lock up thousands of low-income people each year, according to estimates, because they haven't paid up their traffic tickets, garbage collection bills and other minor violations? Lisa Foster, a former judge and co-founder of the Fines and Fees Justice Center, says many courts have become "a place of oppression" because they "make the measure of justice the measure of someone's wealth. That is fundamentally un-American and it is unjust," Lisa tells us. "But our system does it every day."