Pushback with Aaron Mate

David West, a retired two-time NBA All-Star and two-time NBA Champion, discusses the NBA walkout over racist police violence; the challenges of activism in pro sports; his involvement in a new league challenging the NCAA's exploitation of young players; the neocon attacks on the NBA over China, and more. Guest: David West. Retired 15-year NBA player; two-time NBA All-Star and two-time NBA Champion; and chief operating officer of the Professional Collegiate League. Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

Attorney and writer Malaika Jabali reports from Kenosha, Wisconsin, where a 17-year old right-wing white militant killed two people during the protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake. "I think the problem is that we live in a right-wing country," Jabali says. "There will always be ways to justify gun violence. But if you go anywhere else in the world, it's absurd that you can have an armed vigilante just walking around with an assault rifle willy-nilly in public spaces like this. It's absurd that we have police officers who just take out their guns for mild indiscretions or small furtive movements... [that] they will kill black people specifically for." Guest: Malaika Jabali. Attorney, writer, and Guardian columnist Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, discusses the connections between the global US empire and the record US death toll during the coronavirus pandemic. "We're really not doing anything very well or right, and that's a consequence in part at least of our fascination with an attempt to maintain and even expand this empire that we've created since 1945," Wilkerson says. He also discusses the breakdown of US-Russia talks on expanding a key nuclear weapons treaty, and new revelations about the Bush administration's drive to invade Iraq. Guest: Col. Lawrence Wilkerson. Former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell; currently a distinguished professor at the College of William and Mary. Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

In a new article for Foreign Affairs, scholar Joshua Landis and former Obama administration official Steve Simon write that US sanctions on Syria "further immiserates the Syrian people, blocks reconstruction efforts, and strangles the economy that sustains a desperate population during Syria’s growing humanitarian and public health crises." Landis, a leading expert on Syria, joins Pushback. Guest: Joshua Landis, Sandra Mackey Professor of Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

In his new book "A Case for the American People," former House Judiciary Committee attorney Norman Eisen tells the inside story of the Democrats' impeachment efforts against President Trump. Eisen joins Aaron Maté to debate and discuss the Mueller probe, Ukrainegate, and Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Guest: Norman Eisen, former special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, including for the impeachment and trial of President Trump. Previously served under President Obama as ethics czar and ambassador to the Czech Republic. His new book is "A Case for the American People: The United States v. Donald J. Trump." https://www.normaneisen.com/ Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

At the funeral for John Lewis, former president Bill Clinton disparaged Stokely Carmichael's (later Kwame Ture) leadership role in the black freedom struggle of the 1960s. "There were two or three years there where the movement went a little bit too far towards Stokely," Clinton said, "But in the end, John Lewis prevailed." Dr. Peniel Joseph, professor at University of Texas at Austin and author of "Stokely: A Life", responds to Clinton's comments and discusses Carmichael/Ture's legacy as a black power revolutionary. "Bill Clinton was a terrible president for black people," Dr. Jospeh says. "So the disparaging of Kwame Ture/Stokely Carmichael is really just another example of this kind of racism and patronizing attitude coming from the forces of political reaction that people like Bill Clinton represent." Carmichael meanwhile "exposed the depths of state-sanctioned violence against black bodies in the context of the 1960s, and exposed the moral and political hypocrisy of American democracy and fantasies of American exceptionalism." Guest: Dr. Peniel Joseph, Barbara Jordan chair in ethics and political values at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Author of "Stokely: A Life" and his latest, "The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr." https://lbj.utexas.edu/joseph-peniel Dr. Joseph on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PenielJoseph Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

The catastrophic explosion in Beirut followed years of ignored warnings by government officials about the ammonium nitrate stored at the port. Lecturer and activist Rania Masri says that the disaster is the product of a corrupt, sectarian political system maintained by foreign powers. Guest: Rania Masri, lecturer and activist. Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

A long-awaited UK government report finds no evidence of Russian meddling in British domestic politics, including the 2016 Brexit vote. But that hasn't stopped the fear-mongering: the report claims the UK government didn't find evidence because it didn't look for it, and backs increased powers for intelligence agencies and media censorship as a result. Afshin Rattansi, a British journalist and host of RT's "Going Underground", responds. Guest: Afshin Rattansi, British journalist and host of RT's "Going Underground." Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi is being challenged on the November ballot by democratic socialist Shahid Buttar, who is running on a staunch progressive platform for Pelosi's Congressional seat in California. Buttar joins Pushback to discuss his campaign against the country's most powerful Democrat. Guest: Shahid Buttar, Congressional candidate challenging Nancy Pelosi in CA-12. https://shahidforchange.us/ Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate

A new open letter signed by prominent pundits and intellectuals warns of a growing problem with cancel culture. The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal discusses how many of its prominent signatories have spent their careers trying to silence dissenting voices on critical issues such as Israel-Palestine and Syria. They are also part of a growing establishment "hyper-liberal" cancel culture that elevates identitarian issues at the expense of class ones; promotes reactionary projects like Russiagate by co-opting righteous causes; and supports the cancelation of foreign countries via aggressive U.S. foreign policy. Guest: Max Blumenthal, editor of The Grayzone and author of "The Management of Savagery."