Is the world facing the President in 2017 on fire, as many argue, with the chance of major war greater than in decades or are present challenges exaggerated and sensationalized…
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Is the world facing the President in 2017 on fire, as many argue, with the chance of major war greater than in decades or are present challenges exaggerated and sensationalized distractions from fundamentally positive trends in the arc of world affairs?
How should history grade President Obama in his management of national security matters? What will be the understanding by both historians and in popular and world culture, of the foreign policy of Barack Obama?
Guests: Zack Beauchamp, World Correspondent for Vox.com Trudy Rubin, Worldview columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer Thomas Wright, Fellow and project director, Brookings Institution Phyllis Bennis, Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies
Pervasive and growing inequality is corroding American democracy, and only ambitious solutions—including healthcare for all, a living wage, and the elimination of corporate money from the political process—will be sufficient to remedy the crisis.
That is the conclusion of a new report published Monday by the Next System Project and the Institute for Policy Studies. Their analysis makes overwhelmingly clear that despite the Trump administration’s self-serving celebrations of the stock market boom and recent monthly job data, the vast majority of Americans remain locked out of America’s tremendous wealth.
Building on the research of economists Thomas Piketty, Gabriel Zucman, and Emmanuel Saez—who recently found that the bottom half of the income distribution has been “completely shut off from economic growth” for the past several decades—the new report highlights the systemic causes of America’s vast inequities, including the concentration of political power at the very top, systemic racism, and the dwindling power of organized labor in the face of sustained corporate attacks.
All of these factors, combined with the changes wrought by globalization and technological change, have converged to produce inequities that are vast and ultimately unsustainable.
On the heels of a unanimous vote by the United Nations Security Council to impose new sanctions on North Korea following a series of ballistic missile tests, Pyongyang charged on Monday that the punitive measures are a “violent infringement” of the nation’s sovereignty and vowed “thousands-fold” revenge.
“My hope is that the Trump administration recognizes that, okay, tighter economic sanctions is one possibility, but frankly, we’ve tried that, and it hasn’t really worked.”
—John Feffer, Foreign Policy In FocusThe retaliatory threats were issued by the Kim Jong-un regime and broadcast by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley hailed the sanctions as “the single largest economic sanctions package ever leveled against the North Korean regime,” a message echoed by President Donald Trump.
“It’s a wild idea to think the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] will be shaken and change its position due to this kind of new sanctions formulated by hostile forces,” Pyongyang said in response. The regime also warned that there is “no bigger mistake than the United States believing that its land is safe across the ocean.”
THE POLITICAL BURLESQUE show running at the White House seems to consume the overwhelming majority of attention among cable news pundits and personalities. Such attention is not entirely unfounded given the potential for criminal indictments to hit members of Donald Trump’s family and inner circle. Any issue or scandal with potential to challenge the viability or very existence of the current presidency deserves intense scrutiny. But the rest of the world still exists and U.S. military involvement in an array of wars and conflicts also demands far more coverage than it receives. This has always been true, including under President Barack Obama, but under Trump, the stakes have been raised dramatically.
Trump has exhibited a disturbing pattern of reckless spontaneity, usually expressed publicly through his Twitter feed, when announcing what could rightly be construed as new U.S. policies. Indeed, when Trump’s senior adviser Sebastian Gorka was asked on Fox News what leverage Trump has left to pressure China to do more to contain potential threats from North Korea, Gorka shot back: “We have, you know, the president’s Twitter feed.”
Chuck Collins is the great-grandson of Oscar Mayer. As a member of the 1 percent you might stereotype him as a callous rich person who doesn’t have any reason to care about the poor. But in 1986, he donated his inheritance of half a million dollars to charitable organizations rather than letting it mature to the $6 or $7 million it would be today. Today, he’s an inequality expert, among other things, who wrangles other wealthy people to not only contribute to building a more equitable and sustainable society, but to take the majority of responsibility for fixing the future. He expects a lot of the wealthy, since they have more resources while others are just trying to survive. He thinks the struggle for economic justice and income equality should be led by those excluded from wealth and opportunity in order to avoid paternalism or a “we know what’s best” mentality on the part of the rich. Wealthy people have more responsibility because they have more resources, but they should not assume they are experts on what those without means need; one of their primary responsibilities is to get to know disadvantaged people and listen.
His latest book, “Born on Third Base,” is in service of his mission to change the stories we tell about wealth and privilege to more accurate ones and begin to foster empathy between the rich and the poor in order to reverse inequalities. “To build a movement, we need to win hearts and minds to the shortsightedness of an economic system that funnels most income and wealth to the few. Ultimately, we need to change the story of wealth, how it is created, where it comes from and why it is distributed the way it is.”
This is an honest and personal book intended to challenge common assumptions that contribute to inequality, such as “poor people are lazy,” “wealth is virtuous and earned,” and “people are self-made.” The book offers some concrete suggestions for what to do, if we find the political and social will.
There isn’t space to include all of my two-hour conversation with Collins, but below are some highlights that I hope will both encourage you to read “Born on Third Base” and share it with others — particularly members of the 1 percent — and expand your thinking about income inequality.
The income gap is getting wider every day, but what can people do about it? What about the people at the very top of the wealth pyramid? We talk to Chuck Collins about solutions in his book “Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good.”
Protests and denunciations of the Trump administration’s modified travel ban have broken out in several cities.
The White House intensified its Islamophobia on June 29 with the implementation of a “revised” travel ban against immigrants from six predominantly Muslim countries. It happened only three days after the Supreme Court gave the green light for discrimination against these travelers.
The top court ruled in favor of a “partial ban,” to take effect until the justices deliberate on the case in October. Meanwhile, the court said entry could be denied to anyone from those countries without a “connection to the U.S.” and to those without a “credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity,” such as a business or school here.
Those coming from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen are prohibited from entering the U.S. for 90 days unless they meet these criteria. Additionally, the ruling gives the government the go-ahead to stop entry for all refugees for 120 days.
Missing from this ruling is the fact that many people in these countries are fleeing U.S.-led or U.S.-backed wars or drone attacks, with families divided because of these dire circumstances.
Studies have also found that the rich exert far more influence over government than the rest of us. This imbalance means that wealthy people who do something about inequality may have more power to make an impact than everybody else. As scholars of social change, we wanted to learn more about how a small number of affluent Americans choose to spend their own time, clout and money fighting inequality.
