Monthly Archives: July 2020

Paul Pierson – Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality

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Paul Pierson is the John Gross Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley. LET THEM EAT TWEETS: HOW THE RIGHT RULES IN AN AGE OF EXTREME INEQUALITY is one of several books he has written with Jacob Hacker, who is director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies and a Political Science Professor at Yale University. Their other books include American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper, Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer–and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class; Off Center: The Republican Revolution and The Erosion of American Democracy. Professor Pierson has also written many other books including the prize winning, Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher and the Politics of Retrenchment.

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Some articles referenced or relevant to the interview:

Wisconsin court upholds Republican laws curbing powers of Democratic officials      https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/09/wisconsin-court-upholds-laws-curbing-powers-of-democratic-officials

Julian Zelizer on the rise and fall of Newt Gingrich: The man who was Trump before Trump    https://www.salon.com/2020/07/14/julian-zelizer-on-the-rise-and-fall-of-newt-gingrich-the-man-who-was-trump-before-trump/

Joe Biden Expresses An Openness To Eliminating The Senate Filibuster   https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-filibuster_n_5f0dcfa1c5b648c301eff41e

Democrats Will Be Lost Without the Senate                       https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/senate-democrats-biden/

Grover Norquist’s Anti-Tax Group Took Money From the Paycheck Protection   Program   https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/07/grover-norquist-ppp-coronavirus.html?via=recirc_engaged

Sanders: “Richest 1 Percent Is Responsible for 70 Percent of All Unpaid Taxes”   https://truthout.org/articles/sanders-richest-1-percent-is-responsible-for-70-percent-of-all-unpaid-taxes/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=a7771b1b-9aeb-4d90-aa38-cec6e4aaf0ef

Dozens of Trump veterans cash out on K St. despite ‘drain the swamp’ vow   https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/08/trump-administration-veteranslobbying-348273

Chief Justice John Roberts Is Carrying Out Corporate America’s Long-Term Plan Perfectly     https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/07/john-roberts-supreme-court-chief-justice-chamber-commerce

How Could Human Nature Have Become This Politicized?    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/opinion/trump-politics-psychology.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Unpresidented   https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/07/23/trump-unpresident-unredeemed-promise/

Trump Has Emergency Powers We Aren’t Allowed to Know About     https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/opinion/trump-coronavirus-emergency-powers.html?searchResultPosition=1

What 11 Republican senators had to say about Trump’s racism     https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/06/silent-republican-lawmakers-are-handmaidens-white-supremacy/

The Day the White Working Class Turned Republican    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/books/review/the-hardhat-riot-david-paul-kuhn.html?action=click&algo=bandit-all-surfaces_desk_filter&block=editors_picks_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=108758887&impression_id=284217827&index=0&pgtype=Article&region=footer&req_id=857707508&surface=home-featured

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patrick Cockburn WAR IN THE AGE OF TRUMP: The Fall of Isis, The Betrayal of the Kurds, The Conflict With Iran

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Patrick Cockburn is the winner of the Martha Gelhorn Prize, the James Cameron Prize, The Orwell Prize, Foreign Commentator of the Year numerous times. He has been a Middle East correspondent for the Financial times and the Independent, and is a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books.

His many books include Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein, written with his brother, Andrew, prior to the war in Iraq, and republished as Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession; The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq; Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq; The Rise of Islamic State: Isis and the New Sunni Revolution; The Age of Jihad: Islamic State; and The Great War for the Middle East.

His latest book is WAR IN THE AGE OF TRUMP: THE FALL OF ISIS, THE BETRAYAL OF THE KURDS, THE CONFLICT WITH IRAN to be released by OR Books on July 7, 2020.

In this interview, we began by discussing the impact on the region of the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani by the Trump Administration on January 3, 2020.

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The plight of the Kurds in Iraq and Syria, and their role in fighting the Islamist State, was discussed.

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Patrick Cockburn’s intrepid journalism keeps us informed of the ever changing situation on the ground in the Middle East.

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Articles relevant to this interview:

Donald Trump’s withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan is an unavoidable recognition of failure            https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/trump-afghanistan-taliban-troops-withdrawal-kabul-a9539241.html

Iraq will be hit harder by the oil price drop than by coronavirus or Isis     https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/coronavirus-oil-price-fall-economy-iraq-protests-isis-a9505421.html

Russians squeeze U.S. troops in Syria amid uproar over Trump’s dealings with Moscow               https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/30/russians-us-troops-syria-uproar-trump-345584

Data on Financial Transfers Bolstered Suspicions That Russia Offered Bounties     https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/us/politics/russian-bounties-afghanistan-intelligence.html

Iran Issues Arrest Warrants for Trump and 35 Others in Suleimani Killing   https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/world/middleeast/iran-trump-arrest-warrant-interpol.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage

Iraq Raids Iranian-Backed Militia Accused of Attacking U.S. Forces    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/world/middleeast/iraq-militia-iran-hezbollah.html

Will the ‘War on Terror’ ever end?                                                         https://www.bbc.com/news/world-53156096

Pentagon plans for expected Trump order to pull thousands more troops from Afghanistan     https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/pentagon-plans-for-expected-trump-order-to-pull-thousands-more-troops-from-afghanistan/2020/05/27/3068c5c2-a025-11ea-9d96-c3f7c755fd6e_story.html

U.S. Used Missile With Long Blades to Kill Qaeda Leader in Syria    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/world/middleeast/syria-qaeda-r9x-hellfire-missile.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage