Unauthorized Disclosure

For this week's show, Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola welcome Jamie Kilstein, a stand-up comedian and host of "The Jamie Kilstein Podcast," to the show. Jamie is a prominent performer and longtime friend of the show's hosts. He recently returned to comedy and podcasting after going through a transformation personally. We talk to him about what led to this dramatic change. We have a wide-ranging discussion about identity politics and cancel culture, as it manifests itself within left-wing discussions of issues and current events. Later in the show, Jamie talks about the difference between selling out and wanting to communicate with people who you think can be reached without sacrificing principles, even in the era of Donald Trump.Shaving Mirror Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola spend the hour with journalist Todd Miller, whose book, Empire of Borders: The Expansion of the U.S. Border Around the World, was released this month. Miller's is an exceptional and revealing work of journalism. He traveled to various border zones, particularly where security regimes are influenced by the United States, and he describes what he found over the past several years. The United States government has developed a multi-layered border strategy that involves recruiting countries to help prevent refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, etc, from ever reaching the U.S. border. Miller outlines how border zones are increasingly internationalized. There are more than "77 border walls, billions upon billions of dollars' worth of surveillance technology—including biometrics—and tens of thousands of armed agents guarding the dividing lines between the Global North and Global South." It is estimated that there are over 2,250 detention centers throughout the world that are crammed with people. Miller recounts his trip to the Zacapa military base in Guatemala. He talks about freedom of movement—who is really free to travel—and the U.S. special operations unit, the Border Patrol Tactical Unit or BORTAC. Later in the interview, Miller addresses how the security states that are developed around these border zones are designed to control poor populations. In fact, the very people who are likely to be oppressed by these systems are also the cheap labor making the tools for these state-of-the-art border zones. The final part of the interview highlights Israel's role in pushing security technology that can be used against populations and the funding the U.S. has provided to Jordan to control the flow of Syrians fleeing their country. Note: For those of you who are patrons, there is bonus material with Todd Miller for further listening. Thanks again for all your support.Shaving Mirror Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

For this week's show, Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola discuss the massacres in El Paso and Dayton, and Rania describes how the raids by ICE in Mississippi made her very angry. She also shares the rage she felt when she learned about this terrible story of a man's to Iraq, which resulted in his death. Rania highlights the seizure of a food shipment in the Panama Canal due to the United States' blockade of Venezuela. Kevin provides an update on Chelsea Manning. A federal judge refused to reconsider harsh fines against her, and she remains in jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks.Shaving Mirror Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

For this week, we have a crossover episode with "." In our main episode, Katie joins Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola to discuss how the centrist Democrats were encouraged to gang up on Bernie Sanders by CNN. We highlight how Sanders and Elizabeth Warren stood their ground. Katie shares some of media bias against Sanders. Kevin highlights parts of his at Medium, "A Guide To Bad Faith Arguments Against Bernie Sanders." We discuss how questions were addressed to candidates and share some general critiques about how the debate unfolded over the two nights. We also mention how distressed we are that Vice President Joe Biden might be the nominee, given how unsteady and heedless his answers to questions have been in the first two debates. In a second bonus section for patrons, we get into how Tulsi Gabbard confronted Kamala Harris and discuss Harris' criminal justice record. We also talk about Biden a bit more, as well as some of the candidates polling less than one percent, who were present on the stage.Shaving Mirror Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola are joined by author Jeremy Kuzmarov, who discusses his forthcoming book, Obama's Unending Wars: Fronting the Foreign Policy Of The Permanent Warfare State. Kuzmarov highlights how President Barack Obama developed a brand and came up with a story that could be marketed to the masses to help him rise to prominence in politics. As Kuzmarov argues, "Obama was especially perfect for an age when diversity was being celebrated as an exemplification of American progress, marginalizing critiques of capitalism and American imperialism." During the episode, Kuzmarov compares Obama to President Woodrow Wilson, who Obama seemed to be influenced by when it came to foreign policy. Kuzmarov calls attention to how Obama sold the war in Libya and the way in which he patronized populations throughout the continent of Africa. That helped pave the way for the proliferation of United States military bases and neo-colonialism. From Somalia to the Congo to Djibouti, Obama presided over military action that further destabilized and ruined impoverished countries. He opened countries up to corporate predators that could exploit people. The legacy of Obama looms over U.S. politics, with nearly every progressive politician unwilling to critique his foreign policy. But that record must be confronted in order to truly resist President Donald Trump.

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola interview Charlotte Kates, who is the international coordinator for the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. She's American and Canadian, and she lives in Germany. Her husband, Khaled Barakat, was by German authorities from giving a speech on President Donald Trump's so-called "deal of the century," as well as the Arab and Palestinian responses to this proposal. Barakat received an eight-page document that informed him he was not "allowed to give speeches in person or over video, participate in political meetings or events or even attend social gatherings of over 10 people." If he did, he could be put in prison for up to a year. The attack on freedom of political expression is part of a series of attacks, which Kates describes, as she recounts how police stopped Barakat and her to block them from holding an event. Kates addresses how the German government sought to tie Barakat to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to justify repressing him. Later in the interview, Kates describes how the repression against individuals who support Palestinians or the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli apartheid extends beyond activists to include artists and entertainers.Shaving Mirror Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This week, hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola discuss the new charges brought against Jeffrey Epstein, a former financial manager who socialized with prominent figures, like Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, Larry Summers, and Woody Allen. Both address how the U.S. establishment press should have been more diligent in covering this case, especially as the #MeToo movement spread in 2017. Even though the Miami Herald published a major feature on disgraced former labor secretary Alex Acosta's role in shielding Epstein, there was not much interest in the case, even as survivors of his crimes pushed prosecutors to correct the injustice they had done in Florida. Later in the show, the hosts talk about further evidence of a possible mass extinction event as a result of ocean acidification. They highlight about the casual indifference toward the very real threat of climate disruption. The show ends with a discussion about past guest and friend Aaron Maté, who appeared on Tucker Carlson's show on Fox News and was shamed for it on Twitter.Shaving Mirror Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola are joined by Katie Halper of "The Katie Halper Show." She is a writer and contributor to FAIR. Her work has appeared at various outlets like The Nation, New York Magazine, etc. During the show, Katie, Rania, and Kevin cover many of the highlights from the first 2020 Democratic presidential debate—and then some moments that have gone under-reported and have not been discussed. They critique the . format. Katie gets into the media bias on display against Bernie Sanders. They talk about John Hickenlooper and John Delaney and how evident it is that Sanders has pulled debates over within the Democratic Party to the left. Later in the show, they celebrate Kamala Harris using her rhetorical talents to go after Biden over segregation and racism. Other Biden moments are discussed, like how he praised himself for passing a bill with Mitch McConnell that made the Bush tax cuts permanent as well as how he falsely claimed he ended the Iraq War. Rania shares her view on why U.S. foreign policy was so overlooked in the debate, and they talk about the right-wing politics of Miami residents—particularly those from Latin American countries.   *Note: This show is typically posted on Sunday. It is published early while what happened in the first debate is still somewhat of a fresh topic of interest. Enjoy!

Hosts Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola are joined by Gareth Porter, an award-winning journalist whose work has been published at Salon, The Nation, and Consortium News. He is the author of "Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story Of the Iran Nuclear Scare," which was published in 2014. Gareth talks with the hosts about what we know about the incident that allegedly occurred against a tanker in the Gulf of Oman, which President Donald Trump's administration says was attacked by Iran. He outlines what the Trump administration has not proven and some of the many questions that should be answered. He reacts to news of Iran shooting down a U.S. military drone and addresses how Trump seems to be the only prominent official in the White House reluctant to go to war against Iran. And later in the show, Gareth discusses what a war with Iran would look like and why the U.S. military remains extremely reluctant to commit troops and resources to an open-ended conflict.Shaving Mirror Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

For this week's episode, Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola interview a researcher for Food and Water Watch named Oakley Shelton-Thomas. He worked on the organization's recent , "Fracking Endgame: Locked Into Plastics, Pollution, and Climate Chaos." The report describes how fossil fuel companies are building a "wave of new gas-fired power plants" and relying on the proliferation of plastics plants to prop up business. Industry is propping up the fracking industry. "Our latest research shows that their endgame is a world locked into plastics, pollu-ion and climate chaos. In addition to the buildout of a growing pipeline network, we’ve discovered that more than 700 new facilities have been built or proposed to capitalize off a glut of cheap fracked gas," according to the report. In the organization's assessment, "These new projects [will] bring dangerous air pollutants associated with heightened cancer risks and respiratory illnesses, and color where they are most commonly located." "If even a fraction of them come to fruition, they will condemn the planet to a future of climate chaos," the report declares. Later in the show, the hosts stick with the issue of climate change and discuss a report from Brown University's "Cost Of War" project that how the Pentagon is the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases. They conclude the show by highlighting Bernie Sanders' "Democratic Socialism" speech and some of the reactions to the speech among Democratic presidential candidates and establishment media.