Month: June 2023

India’s Controversial Leader Modi Gets the Royal Treatment at the White House But is an Alliance with the US in the Cards?

We begin with today’s White House visit by India’s controversial Prime Minister Modi who was banned from entering the US in 2005 for stoking sectarian violence and since he became PM in 2014 has cracked down on the press, not had any press conferences, jailed his opponents and expelled the opposition leader from parliament while having the much ballyhooed world’s largest democracy downgraded as a “flawed democracy,” a “partially free democracy” and an “electoral autocracy.” Joining us is Dr. Sumit Ganguly, who holds the Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations at Indiana University. His latest book is The Oxford Handbook of India’s National Security. We discuss his article at Foreign Affairs, “The Folly of India’s Neutrality: In the Face of Chinese Aggression, New Delhi Must Align With Washington.”

A Supreme Court Captured by Plutocrats Has Thomas and Alito Serving Their Billionaire Buddies

Then we look into the extent that the Supreme Court has been captured by the plutocracy with Justices Thomas and Alito slavishly serving the interests of their billionaire buddies instead of taking care of equal justice under the law. Joining us is Leah Litman, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Michigan who teaches and writes on constitutional law, federal post-conviction review, and federal sentencing. She clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court and is now a regular contributor to the Take Care blog, and the co-host and creator of Strict Scrutiny, a podcast about the U.S. Supreme Court.

Homelessness is Caused by Loss of Income and Just $300 a Month Could Keep People Off the Streets

 Then finally we look into surprising and encouraging findings from a new study on homelessness that finds addiction and mental health problem are not the cause of homelessness but that the main reason the vast majority of Californians become homeless is the loss of income and that as little as a $300 a month subsidy would stop them falling onto the streets. Joining us is Dr. Margot Kushel, a Professor of Medicine and Division Chief at the Division of Vulnerable Populations at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center and Director of the University of California Center for Vulnerable Populations and University of California San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. She is a principal author of their new report, “The California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness.”