Day: March 30, 2026

The Strategic and Moral Danger of Having Adolescent Bullies Running an Ill-considered War of Choice

We begin with Trump flaying about and doubling down on threats of “obliteration” upon more “obliteration” as the Iranians refuse to yield and the region is poised for more death and destruction and the world for massive economic damage. We discuss the strategic and moral danger of having a Commander-in-Chief and a Secretary of so-called “War” who are adolescent bullies issuing bloodthirsty threats accompanied by macho movie memes and video game clips and montages of blowing stuff up. Joining us is Stephen Biddle, a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, Director of the International Security Policy Concentration and adjunct senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. His books include Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle and Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerrillas, Warlords, and Militias. He has an article at Foreign Affairs we discuss, “The Price of Strategic Incoherence in Iran.”

An Assessment of the Damage Being Done to the US and Global Economy

Then we assess the damage being done to the US and global economy from Trump’s war of choice which he apparently did not anticipate would have adverse economic repercussions. Joining us is Dean Baker, senior economist and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive economic think-tank based in Washington DC. He is the author of Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer, and writes the popular economics blog, “Beat the Press” where he has an article, “Donald Trump’s Big Wealth Tax” and another “A Batshit Crazy Trump Complains About Allies Not Being Grateful for His Attack on Iran.”

In Stripping Birthright Citizenship, Trump and Miller Want to Create and Exploitable Class of Non-Citizens

Then finally we speak with Garrett Epps, the Legal Affairs Editor at The Washington Monthly who taught Constitutional Law at the University of Baltimore Law School and Oregon University Law School as well as American University, Boston College, and Duke University. We discuss his latest article at The Washington Monthly, “Birthright Citizenship: Supreme Court Could Create an Exploitable Noncitizen Class.”