Center Left Radio

What Supreme Court? : The Friday Show

CLR Show 1933. Air Date May 24, 2024.  Justice Samuel Alito has flown insurrectionist flags over his main and vacation homes. Justice Clarence Thomas has facilitated the insurrectionist activities of his wife, as evidenced in her emails. Both have taken lavish vacations paid for by major republican/MAGA supporters. And Alito authored the Dobbs decision. Both men are disqualified from any further service on the Court. Until they are formally sanctioned or impeached, the US Supreme Court is a non-functional body and its decisions are tainted in the most literal sense of the word. No need to wait for Trump to destroy the Constitution. It's already happening.  And we damned well better do something about it. With Friday Co-Host, David Bach.

'Travel is Fatal to Prejudice, Bigotry and Narrow Mindedness'

CLR Show 1932. Air Date May 21, 2024. The title quote is from Mark Twain, but its significance is wholly contemporary. More than that, an openness to new experiences and new people will be an absolutely critical component of our attempting to establish a reasonable level of civic and civil discourse as we begin to contemplate life in recognizably united America after the era of Donald. The vectors are beginning to line up.    

The Fog of Outrage

CLR Show 1931. Air Date May 14, 2024. The outrage of college students over Israel's continued hostilities in Gaza and that of the MAGA crowd over anything that challenges Donald's ability to do whatever he pleases have something in common: a total and infantile lack of realistic expectations. The college students seem incapable of defining exactly what it is their universities should or shouldn't be doing to support Israel and haven't the foggiest notion how peace and governance would be maintained if Israel summarily left Gaza without a firm peace agreement in place. The MAGA crowd has can't seem to grasp the notion that we all live under a single Constitution and that Donald cannot suspend it at will for his own purposes. One would think in an age of instant everything, including information, such infantile thought processes would no longer be possible. Regrettably, that is not the case. 

Throw It At The Wall: The Friday Show

CLR Show 1930. Air Date May 10, 2024. After a clearly unsuccessful cross examination of Stormy Daniels, Donald instructed his lawyers to demand a mistrial and demand that the gag order against him be immediately revised to permit him to attack Stormy Daniels on social media and the campaign trail. These are irrational requests and were rightfully denied. Clearly, team Donald has nothing to work with  and is looking to simply muddy the waters in the hope that some insanely false claims made by Donald will boomerang back and infect the jury deciding his case. The better odds are that Donald will be found guilty in less than a month. Then the real challenges to our democracy will begin. With Friday Co-Host, David Bach. 

Hicks... And Other Forms of Hope

CLR Show 1929. Air Date May 6, 2024. The notion that Hope Hicks' testimony in Donald's New York criminal trial will somehow 'prove' that Donald was motivated only by love of Melania in facilitating an illegal campaign contribution is as credible as him throwing himself on the mercy of the court during his sentencing. No rational or even on-the-fence juror will be swayed by such a specious argument. The bigger question remains, what will the republican party do once Donald is sentenced to prison time, as any other person in his position would be.  It is unlikely they will spontaneously embrace hope and run a more rational candidate. The base hasn't been prepared for such a sea change. They may have to confront a 2024 loss by more than 15 million votes by an incarcerated Donald who could never be paroled to serve even if he won. 

Sorry, No Easy Answers

CLR Show 1928. Air Date April 30, 2024. There are no easy answers to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. There is a single, logical, reasonable goal; a two state solution permitting functional autonomy to Palestinians. But the current Israeli government is diametrically opposed to this solution. And Hamas is devoted to the elimination of Israel, not coexistence with it.  That means American college protestors will continue to press unreasonable and/or incomprehensible demands that serve only to keep Hamas and the real plight of the Palestinians in the news while exacerbating an anti-semitic trend that has been building in the US for a decade or more. The solution can only lie with a negotiated settlement brokered by honest brokers. Which is to say, things are not looking especially promising at the moment.

Catch and Kill––SCOTUS Style : The Friday Show

CLR show 1927. Air Date April 26, 2024.  The US Supreme Court, or at least its conservative majority has essentially declared itself an extension of Donald's warped will.  Speaking in legally dulcet terms during a hearing on Executive immunity, it effectively precluded any possibility that Donald's insurrection and other crimes could be tried before the November election, apparently with no concern for the obvious and chilling message this action sends to the vast majority of Americans and the world. Joe Biden has no choice but to add a minimum of three and possibly four new justices immediately after the election in November. And America has no choice but to reelect him if we expect to continue as a functional democracy. With Friday Co-Host, David Bach.

Sink or Swim... Republicans?

CLR Show 1926. Air Date April 23, 2024. With the passage of the foreign aid bill over the weekend by two thirds of all republicans and all the threats of the clown car republicans to destroy the speakership of Mike Johnson thwarted, republicans have set their unsavory endgame in motion. Donald no longer owns them. But will they still feel compelled to embrace him in an effort to placate a constantly shrinking extreme MAGA base that will cast the functional republican party into an extended diaspora––with unknown effect on the our entire governance system––or take the first painful steps––now––to create a new post-Donald party modeled after some earlier iteration(s) of traditional republicanism?     

The Sum of the Vectors: The Friday Show

CLR Show 1925. Air Date April 19, 2024. Four discrete events; Israeli retaliatory missiles fired into Iran, protestors being removed from the Columbia campus in 48 hours, the Trump NY criminal trial jury being seated and Speaker Johnson moving foreign aid packages to the floor of the House, can be individually viewed as evidence of the political and governance failures that spawned them. But collectively, viewed as force vectors from 50,000 feet up, they can also be seen as a series of first steps in a positive global direction. Hopeful signs, perhaps. The important thing is to view no current event in isolation or out of context. With Friday Co-Host, David Bach.

OR...Wake Up and Smell the Ashes

CLR Show 1924. Air Date April 16, 2024. Once again, the unthinkable has happened for the trumpists: Donald is actually sitting a criminal court room facing the virtual certainty that he will be convicted of what Michael Cohen has already done jail time for. One can only imagine––and hope––that whatever rational heads may remain in the technical republican party are weighing the real world options: Donald cannot win; funding his legal bills is a pathway to up and down ballot failure; he is best removed from the ticket before the republican convention to avoid an internal insurrection (his Daughter-in-law's efforts to the contrary notwithstanding); that the real choice is between loss of an election cycle or two or the death of a republican party that chooses to go over the cliff with Donald. Their decisions will impact the entire nation for many years to come.