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The Supremes’ First Trump Case of 2025, plus This Week’s Protest Roundup | Start Making Sense Mar 05, 2025

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On this week's episode of Start Making Sense:Trump suffered a big loss at The Supreme Court in the first challenge to his unconstitutional seizure of power: an order to release USAID funding appropriated by Congress. The suit was brought by Public Citizen; their co-president, Robert Weissman, will explain.

Also: John Nichols with our protest update for the week. Topics include: includeTesla dealer showroom picketing; Ukraine support demonstrating; national park protesting, and Town Hall yelling.

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The End of the PKK w/ Gönül Tol and Djene Bajalan | American Prestige Mar 04, 2025

Show notes

Derek welcomes back to the program Gönül Tol, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, and Djene Bajalan, associate professor of history at Missouri State University, to talk about leader Abdullah Öcalan’s call last week for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to disarm and disband. They talk about Öcalan’s history in this conflict, the need to manage his constituencies when announcing this ceasefire, how this fits into Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s plans, whether this move could broaden rights and protections for Kurds in Turkey, the potential implications for Syria, what this means for Kurds elsewhere in the region, and more.

Read Gönül’s book Erdoğan's War: A Strongman's Struggle at Home and in Syria.

Listen to Djene’s radio show/podcast Talking History.

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Trump Upturns American Foreign Policy w/ Stephen Wertheim | Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer Mar 02, 2025

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On this episode of the Time of Monsters, Jeet Heer is joined by Stephen Wertheim to discuss how 'America First' went from rhetoric to policy.

During his first term in office, Donald Trump often talked about his radical America First agenda but in practice his foreign policy was that of a conventional Republican hawk. Just five weeks into his second term, there has been a marked shift. As Stephen Wertheim, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, recently noted in The Guardian, Trump 2.0 is marked by a turn toward a foreign policy that is much more focused on the Western Hemisphere and away from Europe and more geared toward tariffs as a weapon of economic warfare. In other words, Trump has now found advisers who are willing to implement the core strategy of America First in a real way.

This shift has frightened many American allies, particularly the NATO countries and Mexico. Yet mixed with Trump’s advocacy of a new Manifest Destiny have been welcome indications that his administration will be more open to negotiating with Russia, Iran and perhaps even China.

To make sense Trump’s conflicting foreign policy messages and actions, I was happy to talk to Stephen Wertheim, who shares my belief that we need to distinguish between Trump’s rhetoric and his actions.

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PKK Disarmament, US/Ukraine Mineral Deal, German Election | American Prestige Feb 28, 2025

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Danny and Derek, the greatest news anchors since Lennon/McCartney. This week's American Prestige News Roundup: Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan calls for the group’s disarmament (0:32); Syria hosts a “National Dialogue” conference to work through the country’s transition (6:34); Israel and Hamas salvage a hostage deal, but the end looms on Saturday (10:07); Yoon’s impeachment trial concludes in South Korea (20:46); in Sudan, increased fighting rages around Al-Fashir (23:27), the military makes gains in the country’s south (25:13), and the RSF and military set up dueling governments (26:43); Ukraine and the US potentially agree on a minerals deal (29:42); the results of the German election (34:41); Austria’s government attempts to form a coalition (38:17); Trump ends a sanctions waiver for Venezuela (40:35); the Trump admin muses kicking Canada out of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network (42:29); the US announces tariffs on the EU, potentially Canada, and maybe even Mexico (44:20); Trump announces the “gold card” visa plan (46:45); and Trump’s attempts at a humanitarian aid blockade continue (48:45).

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Protesting Tesla Can Hurt Elon Musk w/ Ed Niedermeyer | Tech Won't Save Us Feb 27, 2025

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On this episode of Tech Won't Save Us, Paris Marx is joined by Ed Niedermeyer to discuss the trouble with Tesla’s business model and how that makes Elon Musk’s power vulnerable to protest and boycott.

Ed Niedermeyer is the author Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors and a co-host of the Autonocast.

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Ro Khanna and Thomas Geoghegan on What Is To Be Done | Start Making Sense Feb 26, 2025

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House Progressive leader Ro Khanna says “economic empowerment” for the working class should become the Democrats’ “defining cause.” And he comments on this week’s battle in the House over the Republican budget.

Also: Thomas Geoghegan argues that, to win back the working class, Democrats need to “promise something big – and keep it simple.” His suggestions: a bigger and better Social Security program, and an end to employers’ freedom to fire workers for any reason.

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MAGA Defense Cuts? w/ William Hartung | American Prestige Feb 25, 2025

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On this episode of American Prestige, William Hartung — senior research fellow focusing on the arms industry and US military budget at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft — joins the program to discuss reports that the Trump administration is planning “sweeping budget cuts” for the Pentagon. We talk about these “cuts” being more accurately termed “reinvestments” into other areas, the enormous amount of defense spending and the culture that engendered this, how the defense industry has changed in the past 20 years, actual moves that could meaningfully reduce the military budget like reducing bloated systems (F-35s, aircraft carriers) and overseas bases, whether there exists an influential constituency to support military budget cuts, and more.

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US-Ukraine Tension, RSF in Sudan, and Trump's Proposed Defense Budget Cuts | American Prestige Feb 21, 2025

Show notes

Danny and Derek are back with the news, but without much of a choice. This week's American Prestige News Roundup: the US and Russia meet in Riyadh to discuss future bilateral discussions to end the war in Ukraine (0:38); Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump feud in public comments (3:38); The Daily Telegraph reports on a US mineral rights deal that Zelenskyy rejected (8:22); in Israel-Palestine news, Saturday’s hostage exchange was successful (12:49) and Hamas offers an expedited hostage release schedule (15:08); Israel decides to ignore the withdrawal deadline in Lebanon (19:26); the US State Department decides to change the wording on a fact sheet about Taiwan and China responds negatively (21:58); in South Korea, former president Yoon goes on trial (24:43); the RSF militia in Sudan attempts to form a government and controversy ensues (26:35); in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, M23 (supported by Rwanda) takes Bukavu while continuing to advance north and south (31:10); Argentinian president Milei is accused of a rug pull after the cryptocurrency he endorsed collapses (33:34); and in the United States, Trump and Musk fire National Nuclear Security Administration workers without understanding what their jobs meant (35:34), and Trump proposes cutting the defense budget (39:09).

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How DOGE is Remaking the US Government w/ Makena Kelly | Tech Won't Save Us Feb 20, 2025

Show notes

Paris Marx is joined by Makena Kelly to discuss how Elon Musk’s DOGE is reshaping the US government and the consequences that has for government employees and the wider public.

Makena Kelly is a senior writer at WIRED and writes the weekly Politics Lab newsletter.

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Elon Musk’s First Political Contributions of 2025; plus The History of Culture Wars | Start Making Sense Feb 19, 2025

Show notes

The first big election of 2025 will be in Wisconsin, which elects a new Supreme Court Justice on April 1. Elon Musk is spending hundreds of millions in that race. That’s both a threat, and an opportunity for Democrats. On this episode of Start Making Sense, John Nichols will comment.

Also: How did we end up with Trump back in the White House? We got here in part because Republicans built a movement over several decades centered on what are called “the culture wars.” But there’s a long history behind the culture wars, going back at least a century to the Scopes Trial, in 1925, about teaching evolution. It’s still an issue today. Adam Hochschild is on the show to explain.

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