The Bipartisan Discharge Petition Working Around Speaker Johnson’s Protection of Trump and Epstein
We begin with Trump thrashing about with mad threats against Obama to distract from the continuing focus on his relationship with his best friend Epstein that has his lackey Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, shutting down the House early for the August recess in the vain hope that when they come back in September the public will have lost interest in the Epstein scandal. Joining us to discuss the very-much-alive bi-partisan discharge petition to work around Johnson’s protection of Trump is James Thurber, the University Distinguished Professor of Government and Founder and Former Director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University, Washington, D.C. He is author of numerous books and more than eighty articles and chapters on Congress, interest groups and lobbying, and campaigns and elections and he is the author of Congress and Diaspora Politics: The Influence of Ethnic and Foreign Lobbying, Campaigns and Elections American Style, and, most recently, Rivals for Power: Presidential-Congressional Relations.
The Weaponization of Confidential IRS Data Now Being Handed Over to ICE and DHS
Then we look into the weaponization of confidential data in IRS files now being handed over to ICE and DHS to round up immigrants with personal information and home addresses that may or may not be accurate. Joining us is Christopher Bing, a Washington-based reporter at ProPublica covering technology and national security, with a focus on intelligence, cybersecurity and foreign affairs. He has a new report at ProPublica, “The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE.”
The Deliberate Starvation of Children in Gaza With Over 1,000 Palestinian Aid-Seekers Killed Since May
Then finally we speak with Alex de Waal, the Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation and Research Professor at Tufts University. Considered one of the foremost experts on Sudan and the Horn of Africa, his scholarly work and practice has also probed humanitarian crisis and response, human rights, HIV/AIDS and governance in Africa, and conflict and peace-building. His latest book is Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine and we discuss the deliberate starvation of children in Gaza and the killing by Israeli soldiers and contractors with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation of over 1,000 desperate Palestinians trying to get food.