OK Talks

After sharing our barely-awake reactions to the last Presidential debate, former Republican and current Democrat Abroad Robert Gerrard again joins me to react to the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump - one which definitely left us both feeling a lot different than we did after the last one.

In this episode, I throw some shade at some of the latest antics from the anti-Israel movement including their attempts to mess with the Democratic National Convention, and at some in the pro-Israel community who have jumped all over a single line in President Biden's convention speech and unfairly written off Democrats as having given in to the antisemitic wing of the horseshoe left.

The Democratic Convention is a reminder that for the vast majority of Democrats, it’s perfectly possible to both care deeply about Israel’s security and recognize the humanity of Palestinian Arabs and want a better life for them - most of us really don’t have that hard a time wanting both those things at the same time and they shouldn’t be seen as contradictory.

With the benefit of 24 hours to process, here is my initial off-the-cuff of the pick by Kamala Harris of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate.

In this episode, I look at a mix of topics:

- Good journalism on display at the National Association of Black Journalists (and Trump's pathetic and racist behavior in response to it)

- Bad journalism in the domestic press and foreign policy space (unserious coverage of the election at the expense of Democrats, biased coverage at the expense of Israel, and lack of coverage of the spike in antisemitism globally)

- Unfolding events in the Middle East

- Antisemitism in the Veepstakes

Views my own.

In this episode, I discuss the weirdness of Republicans' obsession with having children and denigration of people who don't for whatever reason, as crystalized in the selection of JD Vance to be Trump's running mate. Views my own.

In this episode, I weigh in on the decision by President Biden to withdraw from the Presidential campaign. I also give my takes on the shooting at Trump's rally, the judicial travesty wrought by the deeply corrupt Florida judge in the classified documents case, and the selection of JD Vance to be Trump's running mate. Views my own.

Below is the link to The Atlantic piece by David Frum referenced in the episode

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/07/donald-trump-democracy-dictator/679006/

In this episode, intended to come out two weeks ago, I discuss the loss in a high-profile primary of Congressman Jamaal Bowman. We have a look at the rise (and failure of the Republicans to curb) more extreme members of Congress (mostly within the GOP but also among Democrats), the comparison between Republicans and Democrats vis-à-vis this issue, the implications of Bowman having lost, and another faceplant by the NYT. Views my own.

In a ruling that has shocked most legal observers and just about everyone else, the far-right Supreme Court has ruled that a President can basically just... commit crimes. This is nuts. And it's hardly the only crazy thing this court has done lately. In this episode, I explore that, and the way in which the behavior of this court should focus the minds of voters this fall.

Initially alarmed by the optics of the debate (boy do I hope President Biden mainlines vitamin C before the next one), I'm joined at 5:30AM Barcelona time by former Republican and current fellow Dem Abroad Robert Gerrard to provide our half-asleep reactions to the debate, and, hopefully, some counter to the doom-and-gloom narrative that's been the initial reaction. I mean come on, the NYT ran their first "Biden should drop out" op-ed before we even made it to the first commercial break of last night's presidential debate.

This past weekend, elections were held across the EU for the European Parliament, with the results showing an undeniable shift rightward. I examine what could be the reason for this outcome (digging into questions of how Europeans view immigration and security), and what it might mean. Views my own.