A Doctor in Gaza/Trump Immunity

We hear from Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a Palestinian American doctor who spent time in Gaza trying to administer to a civilian population under relentless siege. Plus, Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, takes apart the Supreme Court’s decision to grant the president of the United States the powers of a king. 

Dr. Thaer Ahmad is a Palestinian-American emergency physician who has made numerous relief trips to Gaza. Dr. Ahmad is Assistant Program Director for the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at Chicago’s Advocate Christ Medical Center. He also serves as the Global Health Director and Medical Ethics Director for the Emergency Department at Advocate Christ. Dr. Ahmad is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a board member for MedGlobal, a medical humanitarian NGO that works at building healthcare capacity and reducing health inequities globally.

I don't think [Palestinian healthcare workers] get enough credit for what they've had to deal with over these last several months… These doctors are also displaced. Their families are displaced. They are living out of tents and they are showing up every day at the hospital to treat the community that's there. They've not been paid—the health ministry collapsed—they have no money. They're totally dependent on the scarce aid that gets in. These doctors are showing up to work when they should be in line at the bakeries that are producing some of the bread—where they should be in line collecting some of the aid that's being distributed. But they're showing up.

Dr. Thaer Ahmad

I work with MedGlobal. They're doing fantastic work on the ground. They're in Gaza—more than 110 physicians and nurses who are Gazans are running medical points throughout the Gaza Strip. They have a malnutrition center that they're also using to help with the starvation that we were talking about. So I think that that's an excellent organization to contribute to—medglobal.org .

Dr. Thaer Ahmad

Bruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law.  Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.

[On Trump v. United States]: The court gave nothing more than the equivalent of, “We know when it's not immune when we see it, but otherwise you try to guess what that's going to be.”

Bruce Fein

It's a judicial counter-revolution. It's a violation because it basically turns the Constitution into a scrap of paper—it means whatever the Justices want it to mean. It doesn't have to find even a single word in the Constitution to justify the opinion.

Bruce Fein

It's really a judicial coup d'etat that occurred on July 1, 2024. It's hard to fathom the belief that these six judges think they're going to get away with it. There is going to be all kinds of damage to all kinds of people—regardless of their political labels—and there's going to be a big pushback. Do they think they're going to get away with it? These unelected, lifetime-position judges?

Ralph Nader

News 7/10/24 

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. Haaretz reports that in the immediate wake of the October 7th attack, the Israeli Defense Forces implemented the ominously named “Hannibal directive” which “directs the use of force to prevent soldiers being taken into captivity.” In other words, the explicit order of the Israeli military was for Israelis to kill Israeli soldiers to prevent them from being taken hostage by Hamas, in order to deny the group leverage in negotiations. As Haaretz reports, this directive also put civilian lives at risk. The Hannibal Directive had been a secretive but official Israeli policy since the 1986 capture of three soldiers by Hezbollah in Lebanon, but was formally revoked in 2016. 

2. Lancet, the prestigious British medical journal, has published a study estimating that as many as 186,000 people have been killed in Gaza as a direct or indirect result of the genocidal Israeli military campaign. This casualty count, far higher than the commonly cited figure of under 40,000, supports estimates offered by advocates. If accurate, this would mean Israel has wiped out nearly 8% of the total population of the Gaza Strip.  

3. Due to previous legal entanglements, the United Autoworkers union is subject to a consent decree with the federal government. Included within this consent decree is a federal monitor assigned to the union. Yet, the Detroit News reports that this monitor, Neil Barofsky, went far beyond his mandate to pressure the union over its position on the crisis in Gaza. According to this report, following UAW’s official call for ceasefire, Barofsky called UAW president Shawn Fain to share his “concerns” about the union’s position. Later, Barofsky signed off on an email which included an ADL complaint about the union’s call for a ceasefire. Benjamin Dictor, outside counsel for the UAW, wrote to Barofsky saying “Your call to President Fain on an issue so blatantly outside of the Monitor’s jurisdiction was inappropriate…[and] represents a surprising lack of integrity.”   

4. More misbehavior from the ADL is on display in a recent expose from the Guardian. According to this report, based on a leaked internal memo from 2020, “the ADL collected information on a Black Indianapolis activist, Tatjana Rebelle, who worked on Deadly Exchange, a national campaign against an ADL-backed program to send US police officials for training with the Israeli military.” Rebelle is quoted in this piece saying “It scared the s**t out of me…It stopped me from moving forward because I don’t want to put people in my life at risk – I work with youth, so it stopped me in my tracks.” The ADL calls itself the “leading anti-hate organization in the world,” with a straight face. 

5. AP reports Boeing has taken the deal offered by the Department of Justice, and will “will plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge stemming from two crashes of 737 Max jetliners that killed 346 people.” The plea deal, which must still be approved by a federal judge, dictates that Boeing must pay an additional $243.6 million fine and submit to independent monitor-ship for three years, among other provisions. Ike Riffel, whose sons Melvin and Bennett died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, is quoted saying “Boeing has paid fines many a time…When people start going to prison, that’s when you are going to see a change.” 

6. President Biden shows no intention of stepping aside as the Democratic nominee. This is despite open calls from prominent Democratic lawmakers, such as Jerrold Nadler and Adam Schiff, as well as a full-blown revolt from major Democratic donors like Abigail Disney. Recent polls show Biden losing most swing states by a substantial margin, including an AARP poll in Wisconsin showing him running 12 points behind Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin. Infuriating many of those who wish to avoid a second Trump term, Axios reports “President Biden indicated…[in his interview with George Stephanopolous] that he would be at peace if he lost to former President Trump ‘as long as I gave it my all.’” 

7. Hurricane Beryl is ravaging Texas, leaving millions without power, according to CNN. This widespread power outage will only compound an incoming heatwave, with the Houston heat index reaching 100 degrees on Tuesday. Las Vegas hit a record high temperature of 120 degrees the same day, per Fox 5. As many have remarked, this is likely to be the coldest summer for the rest of our lives. 

8. The Daily Beast reports the Pope has excommunicated Carlo Maria Vigano, an ultra-conservative archbishop who served as the Vatican’s ecclesiastical diplomat to Washington from 2011 to 2016. A long time opponent of Pope Francis, Vigano has become increasingly unhinged in his criticisms, including accusing the supreme pontiff of being a “servant of Satan.” Other wild claims he has made in recent years include retweeting a Marjorie Taylor Greene post stating that  “The Covid vaccines are killing people,” and calling Black Lives Matter protests the machinations of “the children of darkness.” Vigano was accused of schism and found guilty.  

9. In the United Kingdom, the New Arab reports five pro-Gaza independent candidates won seats in the House of Commons, including Shockat Adam, who defeated shadow Cabinet minister Jonathan Ashworth. Most prominent of these however is Left-wing luminary and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who successfully defended his seat in Islington North after being expelled from the Labour Party over his criticism of Israel. Reuters reports that upon his victory, Corbyn said voters are “looking for a government that on the world stage will search for peace, not war.”  

10. Finally, beating all expectations, the French Left emerged victorious from the second round of legislative elections. The New Popular Front lead by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, won the most seats, followed by Macron’s centrist bloc, after the two formed a “Republican Front” to defeat the Far-right, led by Marine Le Pen. Now, negotiations are underway to choose the country’s next Prime Minister, according to France24. Mélenchon has campaigned on a very simple platform, stating “I'm not saying we will create a paradise from one day to the next, but we will put an end to hell.” 

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.  

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe