Background Briefing: April 2, 2025
Hope on the Horizon for Democrats
We begin with hope on the horizon for Democrats following a record-breaking filibuster by Senator Booker and a defeat for Musk with the decisive victory in Wisconsin to stop a Republican takeover of the state’s Supreme Court which has already enabled gerrymandering to the point a 50-50 red/blue state has 6 Republicans representatives in the House to only 2 Democrats. Joining us is Richard Parker, who teaches economics and public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and is a Senior Fellow at the Shorenstein Center. He is a former managing editor of Ramparts, was a cofounder of Mother Jones magazine, and serves on the editorial board of The Nation. His books include, The Myth of the Middle Class and John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics.
Trump’s Erratic Middle East Policy as He Threatens to Bomb Iran While Israel Annexes Gaza
Then, with Israel’s Defense Minister announcing that Israel will annex territory in Gaza, we will look into Trump’s erratic Middle East policy and speak with Jonathan Guyer, program director at the Institute for Global Affairs. A reporter and editor focused on foreign policy, national security, and the Middle East, we discuss his article at The American Prospect, “The Trump Factor in the Middle East: Alternately belligerent, self-enriching, militaristic, and realist,Trump’s haphazard path is different from the establishment’s slow road to obliterating Gaza.
Will the Earthquake in Myanmar Spell the End of the Military Junta?
Then finally we assess how long it will be before the brave people of Burma get rid of the brutal military thugs who have stolen their country now ravaged by an earthquake. Joining us is Simon Billenness, Executive Director of the International Campaign for the Rohingya and Director of the Campaign for a New Myanmar. Tagged by the New York Times as “a super-specialist” in human rights advocacy, for 30 years he has helped unions, investors, non-profits, universities, and communities use their power to lobby their governments and hold corporations accountable to standards of human rights, environmental responsibility, and social justice.