Background Briefing: November 11, 2024
Too Little Too Late, Biden is Finally Ready to Stand Up to Israel
We begin with Wednesday’s deadline of the US 30-day ultimatum to Israel fast approaching to increase humanitarian aid into Gaza or face a cut-off of arms or even suspension of veto protection at the UN. Joining us to discuss the likely move by the Biden administration to hold Israel non-compliant that Trump will reverse once in office is Josh Paul, the Director of A New Policy. He spent over 11 years working as Director in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs at the state department, which is responsible for U.S. defense diplomacy, security assistance, and arms transfers. In October 2023 he became the first official in the Biden administration to publicly resign in opposition to the administration’s arms transfer policy towards Israel. He is currently a Non-Resident Fellow at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) and a recipient of the 2023 Callaway Award for Civic Courage.
On Veterans Day, Will We Have Trump Wars and More American Veterans?
Then on this Veterans Day we speak with a member of a storied American military family, Lucian Truscott IV, a journalist, screenwriter and author of five bestselling novels. A graduate of West Point, he has covered the wars in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan and is a regular contributor at Salon where his latest article is “Betting it all on fluoride: Trump takes a risky final gamble to let RFK Jr. ‘go wild’ on health” and he blogs at luciantruscott.substack.com.
We are Entering America’s Strongman Era
Then finally we examine how much we are entering a strongman era as plutocrats like Musk hang out with Trump almost acting as co-presidents. Musk deployed his influential platform X to help elect Trump along with being his largest donor and Jeff Bezos on bended knee, congratulated Trump after spiking a Washington Post endorsement of Harris to please Trump. Joining us is Will Bunch, national opinion columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer and author of several books, the latest of which is After the Ivory Tower Falls: How College Broke the American Dream and Blew Up Our Politics—and How to Fix It. He has won numerous journalism awards and shared the Pulitzer Prize for spot news reporting. We will discuss his latest article at The Philadelphia Inquirer, “2024’s other big loser? The mainstream media. Is there any path forward?”