Giordano of Juice Media asks world-renowned intellectual, activist, and political dissident Noam Chomsky about the unfolding train wreck of the 2020 US election, the state of humanity, the breakdown of democracy, the rise of conspiracy theories, the prosecution of Julian Assange, the role of satire – and what helps to keep him going amidst all this.
In part two, American theologian and priest Matthew Fox traces out the links between the fascist wing of the Catholic Church, Opus Dei, American Cardinal Burke, and Steve Bannon, former Trump advisor and former Executive Chairman at Breitbart News. He explains how Cardinal Burke and other neofascists in the Catholic Church opposed the Second Vatican Council, which sought to update the Catholic Church. He then explains how both Co-Chairman of the Federalist Society, Leonard Leo, who drew up lists of potential conservative judges to be appointed to the Supreme Court, and President of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, share a right-wing Catholic ideology.
Eric Blanc (Jacobin Magazine), fears a Corporate Democrat repeat of the 2000 elections when Gore refused to fight once the Supreme Court gave the election to Bush. He says a workers’ movement is needed to push back the right and points to the recent teacher strikes as an example. On theAnalysis.news with Paul Jay.
As the Trump administration tries to destroy the U.S. Postal Service, Juice Media finds the solution to mail in voting.
The current climate crisis emerged out of a specific set of historical and economic factors which have maintained capitalist accumulation and class inequalities to this day. Jason W. Moore, geographer and Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University, explains how the development of capitalism fueled European colonialism and Western imperialism, resulting in a novel form of climate destruction.
The Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA), which the United States was a signatory to but abandoned under former President Trump, is unlikely to be revived. Barbara Slavin, a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center and journalist with extensive experience reporting from Iran, underscores Iran’s desperate need for sanctions relief. She argues that the JCPOA is an outdated framework, given President Biden’s refusal to sign an executive order to bring the U.S. back into the deal, and that current twisted American foreign policy greenlights Israel’s maniacal plans to target Iran.
Paul Street argues that it’s wrong to call January 6th an “insurrection”; this wasn’t a grassroots rank and file populist uprising by the people, it was instigated from the top down and part of a larger organized fascist effort.
Chomsky is a lot of things, all of them heroic. He sets before us an example of what a virtuous life can look like. As far as I can ascertain he is without vanity or the slightest hint of self aggrandizement. What a beautiful fragrance !
Since the presented interview, the President has been afflicted by coronavirus. How badly we do not know. His spokespersons, medical and otherwise – those who themselves are not afflicted – have not given the public a reliable, consistent evaluation. What seems true is that Joe Biden will benefit in the coming election from the President’s disability. Sen. Biden was not soliciting the Left for votes before Pres. Trump’s illness was announced, and he has no reason to do so now.
The case for voting for him made by Prof. Chomsky is less urgent now. People like me who find Biden unprincipled, a political opportunist, may now afford the luxury of voting for a minor candidate whom they would really like to see in the White House, even if that is next to impossible – the chances of a Trump victory seem to have been so greatly diminished.
Noam’s beard looks just like a wise man’s should.
Noam says we have to vote for Biden even in safe states because Trump’s contribution to climate change is incalculable. Obama’s rhetoric was different, but not his actions. On the contrary, he bragged about being the president under whom more pipeline was laid than any other. His regime granted unprecedented licenses for oil drilling. His Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar was responsible for approving the very kind of deep sea oil drilling that gave us Deepwater Horizon. “That was me who did that,” said Obama in the famous YouTube video of the US regaining its place as world’s leading producer of oil. And not even for domestic use. But to ship it overseas like one more ka-ching. We have Obama and the Dims to thank for Trump. What makes Noam think a cleverer Mussolini-like Trump won’t be the result of the regime of the senile Joe Biden? I expect Illinois to be double-digits Dim. In which case I’ll vote for the Orange Menace to register my contempt and disgust with the enabling Dims. Even if it’s close I would trust Biden any more than I do Trump to make things a shade better. I’ll vote third party.
More likely the October surprise will be that it becomes impossible to ignore Biden’s increasing dementia and Trump wins a second term. The Dims have put up two of the worst imaginable candidate to challenge the worst. You have to acknowledge the Dims for their unfailing ineptitude. And corruption.