The Cast of Characters Feeding the Bogus and Delusional Intel Trump is Using to Justify a War With Venezuela
We begin with Trump, Rubio and Hegseth poised to go to war with Venezuela based on the most ridiculous intelligence from a couple of shadow warriors and threat fabricators financed by the Overstock CEO behind the “Kraken” election deniers which makes the Iraq War WMD fraud pale since now, ahead of time, the justification for war with Venezuela is bogus as opposed to going to war then finding out Iraq’s WMD did not exist. Joining us is Jonathan Larsen, the creator of The F**king News. He has been involved in some of the most popular and well thought of programs in TV news: Most notably, as executive producer of “Up with Chris Hayes.” He also worked for many years on “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” and helped launch “Anderson Cooper 360.” He writes at jonathanlarsen.substack.com where he has an article we discuss, “Trump Got Venezuela Intel from Controversial ‘Fixer.’”
Apparent Russian Sabotage of Poland’s Rail Link to Ukraine
Then we examine the sabotage on the main Warsaw-Lublin rail link in Poland that carries supplies to Ukraine which PM Donald Tusk blames on “foreign services,” presumably Russia. Joining us is Mietek Boduszyński who teaches U.S. foreign policy at Pomona College. He previously served as a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State with postings in Albania, Kosovo, Japan, Egypt, Libya and Iraq. In 2022-2023 he worked at the Pentagon for the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy as a policy advisor on issues of civilian protection as well as atrocities, war crimes and accountability in Ukraine. He is the author of two books, the most recent of which is US Democracy Promotion in the Arab World: Beyond Interests vs. Ideals.
As They Throw Money at the Pentagon, When Will Our Politicians Address the Guns Versus Butter Issue?
Then finally we address the “guns versus butter” issue that politicians avoid while throwing money at the Pentagon and speak with Ben Freeman, the director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute. Previously, he was Director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative at the Center for International Policy and a National Security Fellow at the Project On Government Oversight where he spear-headed the “Foreign Influence Database.” He is the author of The Foreign Policy Auction and he recently co-authored a new book with William Hartung, The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home.