Since Israel launched its war in Gaza a year and a half ago in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack, Israeli armed forces have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in their quest to destroy Hamas. But more and more experts say what’s happening in Gaza isn’t just a war — it’s genocide.

Today on Lever Time, David Sirota sits down with Washington Post columnist Shadi Hamid to talk about why so many have trouble using the word “genocide” to describe Israel’s mass violence, why that word must be in the discourse, and why linguistic choices can have lasting consequences.

You can read Shadi Hamid’s op-ed here.

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Why did Republicans rush their massive tax cut bill through Congress? What are they hiding? As the media focuses on specific provisions, David Sirota digs into the bill’s far-reaching consequences, warning it could reshape society for generations. 

He calls up an old friend, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who explains how the bill will hurt working-class voters and why its rationale is, in his words, “total bullshit.” They also talk political fear, arson, and whether lawmakers will be held accountable.

Get Lever Time Premium, with ad-free episodes, bonus content and extended interviews, by becoming a member at levernews.com/subscribe

If you’d like to leave a tip for The Lever, click the following link. It helps us do this kind of independent journalism. levernews.com/donate

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Seventy-two minutes. That’s how long it could take from a country launching a nuclear weapon to global nuclear winter and the end of human civilization. 

If that’s not scary enough, the United States is right now involved in two proxy wars involving nuclear powers — one in Ukraine, and the other in the Middle East. 

Today on Lever Time, David Sirota asks acclaimed investigative journalist Annie Jacobsen, author of Nuclear War: A Scenario, the big bombshell questions: What scenarios are most likely to trigger a nuclear conflict? What can be done to pull us back from the brink? And just how close are we to the worst-case scenario?

As a bonus to our paid subscribers, we're also releasing our full interview with Annie Jacobsen, exclusively on Lever Time Premium. Click here to access that interview.

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Donald Trump just launched America into a war with Iran, and he’s done so without any authorization from Congress. A growing group of lawmakers says this is illegal and unconstitutional, and they are calling for an emergency session of Congress to force a vote to stop him. 

Sirota talks to U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who is currently leading the fight to stop Trump’s escalation and pressure his fellow Democrats to follow his lead. The big question: Will there be enough votes from Democrats and MAGA Republicans to halt a conflict that could escalate into World War III?

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Early voting in New York City’s mayoral primary race is well underway, and the rest of the country is watching. That’s because this year’s publicly funded city election is a battle for the future of the Democratic party, and the two frontrunners — a disgraced, corporate-backed Democrat and an upstart, young progressive — reveal a political schism that stretches far beyond the Big Apple.

Today on Lever Time, David Sirota speaks with one of the race’s surprising front-runners, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, to explore how he’s using campaign finance reforms and other innovative approaches to take on New York’s former governor, Andrew Cuomo. David also talks with former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to understand what’s truly at stake in the election

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Just when it seemed the geopolitical horrors in the Middle East couldn’t get worse, Israel went from leveling Gaza to launching a war against Iran. The offensive started while President Donald Trump was pressing for an Iran nuclear deal that would limit the country’s capacity to build nuclear weapons — and yet still Trump reportedly greenlit Israel’s attack. 

Today on Lever Time, editor-in-chief David Sirota speaks with Matt Duss, former Senate foreign policy aide for Bernie Sanders and current executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, to explore what triggered this new offensive and what role the U.S. government is playing. Is the endgame here World War III? 

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The national deficit usually feels like an abstract talking point: America’s permanent credit card bill that just keeps getting bigger, without ever coming due.

But suddenly, our national debt has a real cost. As President Donald Trump’s proposed tax cuts threaten to add trillions to the deficit, every major credit rating agency has now downgraded the United States’ credit rating, suggesting that the U.S. is no longer a reliable borrower — a move with potentially disastrous, far-reaching consequences for the global economy.

To unpack what’s at stake, David Sirota sits down with Stephanie Kelton, a world-renowned economist and pioneer in Modern Monetary Theory, to ask her big questions: What does a credit downgrade mean? Should we really be thinking about America’s spending and debt like it’s a household budget? And how exactly could too much national debt bankrupt the country? 

The answers, argues Kelton, necessitate transforming our perception of money itself.

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There’s a new evil genius on Capitol Hill, one that privacy experts warn could empower tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to issue their own private currencies. The Senate is poised to pass the GENIUS Act, which would give so much free rein to such “stablecoins” that it could destabilize the rest of the economy.

Today on Lever Time, Arjun Singh sits down with Lever reporter Luke Goldstein to understand the GENIUS Act, how it could turn Big Tech companies into unregulated banks, and why this should be a concern for the rest of us.

You can read Luke’s full story on the GENIUS Act and the future of “ZuckBucks” here.

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He came in with a bang but is going out with a whimper. After his 24/7 role on Trump’s election stage and his high-profile rampage through the federal government, billionaire Elon Musk says he’s scaling back his work for the administration and ramping down his political spending. With his image tarnished and businesses facing turbulence, is Musk down for the count — or planning his return as America’s most infamous oligarch?

Today on Lever Time, David Sirota talks to Michael Scherer, a reporter for The Atlantic who has the inside scoop on what happened to Musk and what kinds of ticking time bombs he and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency may have left inside the federal government.

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As part of the Tax Revolt series, Arjun Singh appeared on the podcast "Why is this Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast" to breakdown the latest developments of Trump's tax cut, which recently passed the House. 

This is a preview of the discussion, for the rest of this conversation, download Why Is This Happening wherever you get your podcasts or watch on YouTube at msnbc.com/withpod.