Month: July 2024

J.D. Vance’s Foreign Policy Views Plus Trump’s Ties to Putin Spell Doom For Ukraine

We begin with Trump’s Vice Presidential pick J.D. Vance in the limelight at the Republic Convention on Day 3 which is focused on foreign policy and investigate Vance’s foreign policy views and the extent to which his isolationism and belief that Putin does not represent an existential threat to Europe will buttress Trump’s pro-Putin stance and be fatal for Ukraine if they are elected. Joining us is Joshua Shifrinson, a Professor at the Center for International Security Studies at The University of Maryland. His research focuses on U.S. grand strategy, the durability of NATO, U.S. relations with its allies during and after the Cold War, and the rise of China. The author of Rising Titans, Falling Giants: How Great Powers Exploit Power Shifts, we discuss the influence of the billionaire tech bros on our foreign policy since Vance’s mentor Thiel and Musk appear to support Putin while making billions out of government defense contracts.

75 Years of Rightwing Conmen, Quacks and Charlatans Making Money Attacking Liberals, Influencing the Wider Political Landscape and Moving the Country to the Right

Then with the Trump/Vance ticket a combination of a grifter and a troll, we speak with Joe Conason, the editor-in-chief of The National Memo, a daily political newsletter, and a senior fellow at Type Media Center. His articles have appeared in many publications around the world and he was executive editor of The New York Observer and a staff writer at The Village Voice. He is the author of The Hunting of the President and Big Lies and his latest book, just out, is The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism. With the sugar-daddy of the incarcerated grifter Steve Bannon, a Chinese fraudster with murky ties to Chinese Intelligence, sentenced today for a billion-dollar ripoff, we look into the book which tracks 75 years of rightwing conmen, quacks and charlatans who have made money attacking liberals while influencing the wider political landscape, moving the country to the right. We discuss how it all began with Roy Cohn’s anti-communist crusade in the mid-1950s, then through the rise of the Christian hucksters of the Moral Majority, to the attempt to bring down Bill Clinton, to the rise of the Tea Party, ending with Roy Cohn’s protege, Donald Trump, now poised to retake power.