Day: June 25, 2025

With Trump and Hegseth’s Bombastic Claims of “Total Obliteration” Blowing Up, Will Iran Now Sprint to a Bomb?

We begin with a leaked report from the DIA contradicting Trump and Hegseth’s  bombastic claims of “total obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear sites with an assessment that Iran’s nuclear program has only been set back a month or two. Assuming that Iran still has enough centrifuges and the 400 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium, do they now have an incentive to covertly sprint to a bomb? Joining us to discuss whether we are worse off now or whether there is a diplomatic exit is Jennifer Kavanagh, a senior fellow & director of military analysis at Defense Priorities where her research focuses on U.S. national security and defense policy. Previously, she was a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and is now a professor at Georgetown University’s Center For Security Studies. We discuss her article at Foreign Affairs, “The Real Obstacle to Peace With Iran: Credible Assurances Are the Key to Countering Tehran’s Nuclear Ambitions.“

While Talking Peace, This is Trump’s War and It’s Only Just Beginning

Then we speak with Joseph Cirincione, Vice Chair of the board for the Center for International Policy and a national security analyst and author with over 35 years of experience working in Washington, D.C. He is the author or editor of seven books, including Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before It Is Too Late and Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons. He worked for over nine years on the professional staff of the Armed Services Committee and the Government Operations Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. He has an article at The New Republic we discuss, “This Is Donald Trump’s War, and It’s Only the Beginning.” 

Trump and Miller’s ICE Stormtroopers’ Reckless and Brutal Roundups of Non-Criminals on the Streets of LA

Then finally we look into what kind of law enforcement officers ICE is recruiting to what some suggest is Trump’s own Militia of stormtroopers who have been behaving recklessly and brutally on the streets of Los Angeles arresting immigrants with no criminal records. Joining us is Brian Levin, a Criminologist, civil rights attorney, professor of criminal justice and founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino where he specializes in analysis of hate crime, terrorism and legal issues. Previously, Professor Levin served as Associate Director-Legal Affairs of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Klanwatch/Militia Task Force in Montgomery, Alabama; and he has testified before Congresses Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence.