The Biden White House’s First State Visit by France’s President Macron
We begin with the Biden White House’s first state visit with President Macron of France not only representing the United States’ oldest ally but the leadership of Europe now that Angela Merkel has stepped down. Joining us to discuss today’s White House press conference with the two leaders as well as what they have likely been discussing in private is David Andelman, a contributor to CNN, twice winner of the Deadline Club Award, and a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor. He is the author of A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today and A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen. Formerly a correspondent for The New York Times and CBS News in Europe and Asia, he runs the Substack blog Andelman Unleashed and we discuss his article at CNN, “Why Putin would want a truce” and another at NBC News, “State dinner niceties can’t erase simmering U.S.-France tensions.”
Railway Workers are Denied Paid Sick Leave in Today’s Senate Vote to Avert a Strike
Then with the Senate voting 80 to 15 to avert a rail strike after voting down a bill pushed by progressives to provide 7 days of paid sick leave per year for railway workers, we speak with Nelson Lichtenstein, Distinguished Professor in the Department of History at University of California Santa Barbara. He directs the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy and is the author or editor of 16 books, including a biography of the labor leader Walter Reuther and State of the Union: A Century of American Labor, Achieving Workers’ Rights in the Global Economy, The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business and The Right and Labor in America: Politics, Ideology, and Imagination.
The Plutocratic Takeover of Our Information Space
Then finally we assess the extent we are less of a democracy and more of a plutocracy not just because money dominates our politics since those with the most of it have the most influence, but more importantly the control of our information space by a few tech billionaires like Zuckerberg and Musk whose social media platforms are the means through which most Americans get their news and information. Joining us is Jeffrey Winters, a professor in the Political Science department at Northwestern University where he specializes on oligarchs and elites spanning a range of historical and contemporary cases, including ancient Athens and Rome, medieval Europe, the United States, as well as Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines. He is the author of Oligarchy and his forthcoming book is Domination Through Democracy.