Trump Says Maduro’s Days Are Numbered as War Against Venezuela Could Break Out at Any Time
We begin with Trump telling Politico that Venezuela’s Maduro’s days are numbered, refusing to rule out a U.S. ground invasion. With the strikes on so-called drug boats meant to frame the coming conflict in the way weapons of mass destruction were the prelude to the Iraq war, this time the justification appears to be a militarization of the war on drugs. Joining us is William LeoGrande, a professor of government and former dean of the American University School of Public Affairs. He is a specialist on Latin American politics and has been a frequent adviser to congress on issues of U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America including as a staffer to the Democratic Policy Committee of the United States Senate. He has written five books, including most recently, Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana. We discuss his article at The Nation, “Trump’s Gunboat Diplomacy: A wannabe emperor goes in search of an empire.”
The Ellison’s Have Promised Trump They Will Revamp CNN to Trump’s Liking
Then, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that David Ellison’s hostile takeover attempt of Warner Brothers is a move to appease CNN’s most vocal critic, Donald Trump after Ellison’s father had promised the White House that they will get rid of CNN hosts Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar, we speak with Victor Pickard, a Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania where he co-directs the Media, Inequality & Change Center. He is the author of America’s Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform, and his latest book is Democracy without Journalism?: Confronting the Misinformation Society. He has an article at The Nation which discusses the new report he co-authored, “A New Roosevelt Institute Report Confronts the Roots of Our Media Crisis—and Calls for Breaking Up Corporate Media.”
Australia’s Social Media Ban and How the “Tech Left” Can Mobilize Against Techno-Utopianism
Then finally we speak with Mike Pepi, a technologist and author who has written widely about the intersection between culture and the Internet. An art critic and theorist, he self-identifies as part of the “tech left” –digital natives who want to reshape technology as a force for progressive good. His writing has been published in Spike, Frieze, e-flux, and other venues. He is the author of Against Platforms: Surviving Digital Utopia and he writes the Substack, “Heavy Machinery.” We discuss Australia’s social media ban for under 16 year-olds and how techno-utopianism is a cruel hoax as big tech manipulates, commands and drains us at every turn.