Month: August 2024

Background Briefing: August 11, 2024

 

Americans Are Being Denied the Truth About Trump’s Mental Instability and Possible Dementia 

We begin with how the American Psychological Association and the press are denying Americans from receiving the most critical education about Donald Trump whose obvious and manifest mental instability and possible dementia were on display at his rambling press conference on Thursday. We discuss how, if what the Generals saw inside the Oval Office in his first term was made public and acted on instead of covered up, America would have been saved from Trump’s catastrophic first term making the need to avoid a second term even more critical. Joining us is Dr. Bandy Lee, a medical doctor, forensic psychiatrist and a world expert on violence who taught at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School for 17 years before transferring to Columbia and Harvard. She became known to the public by leading a group of mental health professional colleagues in breaking the silence about Donald Trump’s dangerous psychology and publishing the New York Times bestseller, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President. She is currently president of the World Mental Health Coalition and she is the author of Profile of a Nation: Trump’s Mind, America’s Soul and her latest book is The Psychology of Trump Contagion: An Existential Threat to Democracy and All Humankind and she also blogs at bandyxlee.substack.com

 

How Does the Veteran Community Feel About the Latest Round of Swift-Boating?

Then we examine the latest round of “Swift Boat” attacks against Tim Walz by Trump’s campaign manager, who was behind the original “Swift-boating” of John Kerry in 2004 which was financed by Harlan Crow, Justice Clarence Thomas’ billionaire sugar daddy. Joining us is Robert Young Pelton, an author, filmmaker, journalist, and explorer. He is the publisher of Dangerous magazine and has a first-hand perspective on the war on terror from direct contact with the world’s most infamous jihadi, rebel and insurgent groups. His books include: The World’s Most Dangerous Places, Come Back Alive, Three Worlds Gone Mad, Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror and his autobiography, The Adventurist.

 

Can A Deal For Iran Not to Retaliate in Exchange For A Ceasefire in Gaza be Made?


Then finally we assess whether a deal could be made to avoid another war in the Middle East with Iran abandoning its vow to retaliate against Israel in exchange for a ceasefire in Gaza. Joining us to discuss whether Netanyahu would go along with such a deal is Mitchell Plitnick, the president of ReThinking Foreign Policy and former vice president at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. A political analyst and frequent writer on the Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, he served as director of the U.S. Office of B’Tselem and co-director of Jewish Voice for Peace. He is the co-author with Marc Lamont Hill of Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics.