Today’s BradCast is perhaps better listened to than explained. But here’s a quick summary and some links for more details. [Audio link to full program follows this summary.]
We focus today on the largely peaceful pro-Palestinian protests that have sprung up on college campuses across the U.S. over the past week or two in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s punishing, ongoing assault of Gaza and the Biden Administration’s facilitation — reluctant or otherwise — of that effort. Our central focus is on the responses to the protests here in the U.S. by counter protesters, media, politicians (including remarks by Joe Biden today), and, most disturbingly, armed riot police who seem to be touching off the bulk of the violence, or at least the eye-catching “if it bleeds it leads” scenes of chaotic confrontations that are easy to show on television news, whether they capture the truth of the moment or not.
As noted, today’s program is better listened to than explained, I think. But, among the source material referenced in our coverage…
- L.A. Times: “More than 200 arrested as police dismantle UCLA pro-Palestinian camp”
- David Kurtz: “Another Wave of Campus Arrests Overnight as Police Intervene in Protests”
- Thomas Zimmer: “Student Revolt and the Curtailing of Critical Speech”
- MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on American protests and proportionality.
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on her response to young progressives or Arab-Americans who say they can’t vote for Biden this year.
- Ernie Canning: “Third-Party Myopia v. Democracy’s Survival”
As usual, I welcome your responses in comments below or via email. If you can keep ’em short and sweet perhaps I’ll share them on the show.
Also today, Desi Doyen covers the damning new report [PDF] from Congressional Democrats exposing how the oil industry spent decades deceiving the public and sowing doubt about the dangers of burning the fossil fuels that are the primary drivers of our climate crisis. Internal documents reveal how Big Oil shifted from outright climate denial to a covert strategy of “deception, disinformation and doublespeak” to delay the transition to clean energy and preserve their profits — publicly professing support for reducing emissions while privately lobbying against climate laws and regulations. The tranche of subpoenaed communications were the focus of a Senate Budget Committee hearing on Wednesday, with expert testimony delving into the details of the oil industry’s ongoing efforts to mislead the public about fossil fuels and the climate crisis.
And finally, our latest Green News Report with a bit more on the above, and on the unforgiving costs the world continues to pay for it, including this week with extreme heat and storms in Asia and the oil industry-facilitated plastic pollution crisis across the globe…
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