Music: Yussef Dayes — ‘Turquoise Galaxy’
What if Israel’s plan all along was for no ‘day after’ for Gaza?
Just like the US did in Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel has entered a war in Gaza with vague and overambitious aims. But what US officials don’t care to admit is that Israel is not thinking about an end to the military phase, and a beginning of a civilian reconstruction plan, argues Nathan Brown, professor of international relations and political science at George Washington University. Brown tells host Steve Clemons that Israel has purposely designed the carnage in Gaza to…
U.S. offers assurances to Israel this week in the event of full-blown war with Hezbollah
CNN reports: Senior US officials reassured a delegation of top Israeli officials visiting Washington this week that if a full-out war were to break out on Israel’s northern border between Israel and Hezbollah, the Biden administration is fully prepared to back its ally, according to a senior administration official. The in-person assurances came as an increase in cross-border attacks in recent weeks between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah have intensified concerns about the possible outbreak of another full-fledged conflict…
Churches accuse Israel of ‘coordinated attack’ on Christian presence in the Holy Land
The Associated Press reports: Leaders of major churches have accused Israeli authorities of launching a “coordinated attack” on the Christian presence in the Holy Land by initiating tax proceedings against them. While Israeli officials have tried to dismiss the disagreement as a routine financial matter, the churches say the move upsets a centuries-old status quo and reflects mounting intolerance for the tiny Christian presence in the Holy Land. In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, the heads…
Trump campaign seeks to head off convention revolt from its right flank
The Washington Post reports: Arizona delegates to the Republican National Convention gathered this month in a Phoenix suburb, showing up to get to know each other and learn about their duties. Part of the presentation included a secret plan to throw the party’s nomination of Donald Trump for president into chaos. The instructions did not come from “Never Trumpers” hoping to stop the party from nominating a felon when delegates gather in Milwaukee next month. They instead came from avowed…
In Trump we trust. The religious right on a crusade to make their man president
The Observer reports: God’s army is on the march. And many of its foot soldiers are wearing “Make America great again” regalia, sensing that their unlikely standard-bearer, former US president Donald Trump, is once again close to the promised land. “I do not believe that America can survive another four years of Joe Biden,” Ralph Reed, founder and chair of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, told a gathering of the religious right in Washington on Friday. “I haven’t felt this way since…
Michael Flynn has turned his Trump-world celebrity into a family business
The New York Times reports: In 2021, retired Gen. Michael T. Flynn, Donald J. Trump’s first national security adviser, became chairman of a 75-year-old nonprofit organization — the kind of small charity where chairmen typically work for free. But Mr. Flynn received a salary of $40,000, for working two hours per week. The next year, he got a raise: $60,000, for two hours. Mr. Flynn’s charity also paid one of his brothers, two of his sisters, his niece and his…
Disappointment and ‘depression’: Biden’s biggest fundraisers watch their advantage vanish
Politico reports: Joe Biden’s campaign planned to bury Donald Trump in an avalanche of cash. Instead, his allies are bracing for a slugfest without the benefit of a fatter wallet, as financial reports showed Trump outraising Biden in back-to-back months, hauling in huge sums after his 34 felony convictions and erasing Biden’s longstanding financial edge. Democrats in recent days largely downplayed Trump’s new financial lead in the same way Trump’s allies had when Biden was running ahead in the money…
Music: Yussef Dayes — ‘Chasing The Drum’
Ilan Pappé: The Israel lobby is real. This is how it works
If you mention the Israel lobby in the mainstream media then, more often than not, you’ll face accusations of antisemitism. There are of course people who talk about the Israel lobby in antisemitic terms, but that doesn’t undermine the fact that it exists, and has existed for well over a century. This week’s guest is Israeli historian and author Ilan Pappé. His new book details the origins of zionism and the struggles against it throughout the 19th and 20th…
Rev. William Barber: Poor & low-wage Americans are the real 2024 swing voters
Dr. Rev. William J Barber II argues that the issue of poverty in America is often racialized and marginalized as a Black issue, ignoring millions of impoverished white people. In his new book, the esteemed civil rights campaigner aims to expose myths about race and class in order to reconstruct American democracy. He joins the show to discuss the causes of poverty and the policies that can address it.
Trump keeps flip-flopping his policy positions after meeting with rich people
Politico reports: Donald Trump privately hinted at a shift in immigration policy at a Business Roundtable meeting last week. He told the group “we need brilliant people” in this country, according to one of the attendees, who was granted anonymity to describe a private meeting. And when he talked about finding ways to keep American-educated talent at home, some top CEOs, like Apple’s Tim Cook, were seen nodding their heads. The public move came a week later: On “The All-In…
Sotomayor issues dire warning on Supreme Court ruling on noncitizens
The New Republic reports: In a ruling delivered Friday, the Supreme Court decided 6–3 that U.S. citizens have no constitutional interest in their noncitizen spouses being able to enter the United States—despite the fact that a married person has an inherent interest in their spouse being able to live in the same country as they do. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned the ruling is an obvious sign the court will seek to overturn protections for marriage equality next. Sotomayor…
Robert Reich: 60 years ago today, the Klan murdered my protector
Robert Reich writes: I’ve shared some of this with you, but today marks 60 years since it happened — when the Klan murdered my protector. I was always the shortest kid in school, which made me an easy target for bullies. To protect myself, I got into the habit of befriending older boys who’d watch my back. One summer when I was around 8 years old, while visiting my maternal grandmother at her cabin in the Adirondack Mountains, I found…
America’s top export may be anxiety
Derek Thompson writes: The argument that smartphones and social media are contributing to the rise in teen mental distress is strong. A number of observational and experimental studies show that teen anxiety started rising just as smartphones, social media, and front-facing cameras contributed to a wave of negative emotionality that seems to be sweeping the world. But I have one small reason to question the strongest version of the smartphone thesis. You can find a summary of it on page…
How a ‘dominance’ mindset encourages leaders to put others at risk
Hemant Kakkar and Garrett L Brady write: In the aftermath of the 2008 financial debacle, a term that was once confined to economic textbooks found its way into the public discourse: ‘moral hazard’. The term describes the inclination toward risky decision-making in circumstances where someone else – not the decision-maker – bears most of the costs. In the case of the financial crash, taxpayers ended up involuntarily bankrolling a bailout of the institutions whose reckless gambles precipitated the catastrophe. It’s…