President Donald Trump on Sunday became the first sitting US President to step foot into North Korea where he met Mr. Kim Jong Un. The meeting took place in the Demilitarized Zone or DMZ where Trump stepped over the line dividing North from South Korea and enthusiastically shook hands with Mr. Kim. He stepped into the country for just about a minute before returning back to the South Korean side. Here is Trump speaking to reporters alongside Kim. The meeting signified progress after a series of diplomatic setbacks. But critics point out that the Trump administration has made no effort to extract a deal from the North Koreans to stop their nuclear weapons testing. According to the New York Times, Trump is favoring an idea that, “would amount to a nuclear freeze, one that essentially enshrines the status quo, and tacitly accepts the North as a nuclear power, something administration officials have often said they would never stand for.” Meanwhile, Trump’s new Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham apparently got into a spat with North Korean security officers during Trump’s visit over US media access.  

In other news, one of the largest parades in the history of the LGBTQ rights movement took place in New York City on Sunday marking the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. Hundreds of thousands of people marched for almost 12 hours as roads were closed and parade marchers filled the streets with color, music, and merriment. Critics of the main parade contended that it had become too commercialized over the years, dominated by corporate sponsorship. A smaller crowd gathered in front of the original Stonewall Inn. On the other side of the country, a massive pride parade unfolded in San Francisco where some protesters, angry about the inclusion of police, briefly blocked a street. 

As we head into the July 4th weekend, President Trump has reportedly asked for a show of military hardware including tanks to be displayed on the national mall during his address this Thursday. Trump also wants a flyover by Air Force One, as well as a stealth fighter jet and a marine helicopter. According to the Washington Post, “The Defense Department has not released any estimate for how much the celebration could cost. But the use of numerous aircraft could drive it well into the millions when counting fuel and maintenance…the administration has organized a far more ambitious celebration than was originally planned, at a yet-to-be specified additional cost to taxpayers.”

The President’s son Donald Jr. over the weekend once more waded into controversy when he retweeted a post from a right wing extremist questioning Senator Kamala Harris’ credibility as a spokesperson for the black community in the US. According to the New York Times, the original tweet read, “Kamala Harris is implying she is descended from American Black Slaves. She’s not. She comes from Jamaican Slave Owners. That’s fine. She’s not an American Black. Period.

FEATURING MATT GINSBERG-JAECKLE – June 28th marks the tenth anniversary of the US-backed coup in Honduras that ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya and unleashed a new chapter of violence in the Central American nation. 

The coup was backed by the Obama Administration and especially by then State-Secretary Hillary Clinton. Now, a decade later, Hondurans join waves of Central American refugees in fleeing the drug and gang violence that is plaguing their nation. 

Despite the incessant discussion of immigration in the US, few are connecting the dots between the US support of a devastating coup and how its aftermath has generated an exodus northward. 

For more information visit http://hondurasresists.blogspot.com.

Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle, member of the Honduras Solidarity Network.

FEATURING KELECHI UBOZOH – Every day more than a hundred Americans take their own lives. More than a quarter of Americans over the age of 18 years experience depression. We have a mental health epidemic and yet the resources to support those struggling with it are constantly dwindling. Patients are prescribed antidepressants and/or end up being criminalized. 

Now, a growing movement of people directly impacted by the mental health crisis are demanding a radical new approach that transforms how we think about the issue and challenges the conventional bio-medical framework that marks our discussions.

Kelechi Ubozoh, Nigerian American singer, writer, mental health advocate and co-editor of the new book, We’ve Been Too Patient: Voices From Radical Mental Health.

The second night of the first round of Democratic Presidential debates took place on Thursday night with ten candidates battling it out on a variety of issues. A general consensus in the media was that California Senator Kamala Harris emerged as the clear winner of the debate, particularly during a pointed and powerful confrontation with former Vice President and frontrunner Joe Biden on issues of race and segregation. In the 1970s Biden had opposed a federal student-busing bill. Here is part of the exchange. A day earlier ten other candidates faced off, with the highest profile one being Senator Elizabeth Warren, who held her ground with her popular progressive policies. Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders went in to that debate as the top two frontrunners in a crowded field of more than 20 candidates. After the debate polls may reflect a different reality. What is clear from the debates however is that the Democratic Party appears as a whole to have moved closer to the left on issues of immigration, climate change, healthcare, war, and more.

In other news the Supreme Court this week issued a number of rulings of critical importance. First on the question of the US Census, Chief Justice John Roberts joined the liberal justices in blocking the Trump Administration’s desire to ask Census respondents their citizenship status. According to the majority ruling the Commerce Department’s, “sole stated reason — seems to have been contrived. We are presented, in other words, with an explanation for agency action that is incongruent with what the record reveals about the agency’s priorities and decision making process.” The ruling suggested that had the Commerce Department’s reasoning been sincere it might have passed muster. President Trump said on Twitter, “I have asked the lawyers if they can delay the Census.” The Census is required by the Constitution and has never before been delayed. 

While progressives cheered the Census decision they denounced the Court’s ruling on a gerrymandering case on Thursday. In a vote of 5 to 4 the Supreme Court decided that federal courts do not have the authority to hear challenges to districts that are drawn in an extremely partisan manner. Writing for the dissenting justices, Elena Kagan denounced the majority saying, “in the face of escalating partisan manipulation whose compatibility with this nation’s values and law no one defends — the majority declines to provide any remedy. For the first time in this nation’s history, the majority declares that it can do nothing about an acknowledged constitutional violation because it has searched high and low and cannot find a workable legal standard to apply.”

The Supreme Court on Friday announced that it would take up the case of whether the Trump administration had the right to shut down the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The program gives reprieve from deportation and authorization to w...

FEATURING PETER MAYBARDUK – The state of Connecticut is leading a nation-wide lawsuit against the world’s biggest generic drug manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals and a number of other drug makers alleging a pervasive system of price-fixing. The lawsuit goes back to 2014 and has grown to 44 state Attorneys General joining in.

Drug prices, including those of generic drugs have been skyrocketing. The industry has explained the increase by claiming that companies have consolidated leading to less competition, and that FDA-ordered closures of factories were to blame. But now prosecutors say that companies have simply been illegally colluding with one another to fix prices high.

Among the evidence being presented are deleted messages between the top executives of the companies being sued.

Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Program.

**This segment was originally broadcast on May 13, 2019.

FEATURING LISA ROSENBERG – Amazon.com has for years been positioning itself as a retailer for all things, mowing down competition wherever it can, gobbling up a lion’s share of online retail sales. But what most customers of the company may not realize is that Amazon doesn’t just want our business, it wants the government’s business.

A new report by Open the Government called Government Inc: Amazon, Government Security and Secrecy, has exposed the corporation’s controversial relationship to the national security state and law enforcement apparatus.

Read the report HERE.

Lisa Rosenberg, Executive Director of Open the Government, which just published the report, Government Inc: Amazon, Government Security and Secrecy.

**This segment was originally broadcast on May 10, 2019.

FEATURING ERICA CHENOWETH – London, England has been the epicenter of a growing global movement to combat climate change with a grassroots non-violent rebellion taking root and demanding militantly that politicians declare a climate emergency and take swift action. The Extinction Rebellion has captured the imagination of the public and drawn a broad swath of society to demand change.

Roger Hallam, the founder of Extinction Rebellion credited as one of his inspirations the research of a Harvard Professor who wrote about the effectiveness of large-scale non-violent protest movements.

Erica Chenoweth, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and a Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She is the author with Maria Stephan of the influential book, “Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict.” Her forthcoming book is called Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know.

**This segment was originally broadcast on May 14, 2019.

FEATURING JONATHAN H. MARKS – The idea of public-private partnerships to spur innovation or to promote public health, is not controversial. Local and state governments, and even the federal government often rely on relationships with private corporations to fund initiatives, making an implicit assumption that competitive pricing and efficiency will result in better outcomes.

But a new book exposes the ugly downside of public-private partnerships. In entering into agreements with private companies, government institutions are loathe to hold accountable the entities on which they depend and end up trading away the rights of real people. When the line between the private good and the public good is blurred, the public often pays the price.

For more information visit www.jonathanhmarks.org or follow him on Twitter @EthicsLawPolicy. Watch his TED talk HERE.

Jonathan H. Marks, director of the Bioethics Program at Penn State University, and affiliate faculty in Law and International Affairs. He is also an academic member of Matrix Chambers, London and Geneva, a leading group of human rights lawyers.  His TED talk, In Praise of Conflict, has over a million views and was the basis for his new book, “The Perils of Partnership: Industry Influence, Institutional Integrity, and Public Health.”

**This segment was originally broadcast on April 11, 2019.

FEATURING DR. GARY FULLER – Climate change denialists like to question scientific research, perhaps assuming that the general public won’t connect the dots between increased carbon dioxide levels and a warming planet. But on the science of air pollution, there is no argument that can explain away what people see before their own eyes and what they experience with their own health.

Air pollution is a global threat to human and planetary health and yet is a problem that can be stopped with strong legislation. Unfortunately in the current rush to deregulate industries could turn back the clock on the little progress we’ve made.

Dr. Gary Fuller is an air pollution scientist at King’s College London. He is author of The Invisible Killer: The Rising Global Threat of Air Pollution – and How We Can Fight Back. He writes the Pollutionwatch series for The Guardian.

**This Segment was originally broadcast on April 9, 2019.

FEATURING JOHN PATRICK LEARY – Anybody who is struggling with unemployment in the US today knows that acquiring a job means “marketing” oneself to companies that are hiring. Being open to “flexible” hours, engaging in “creative,” and “innovative,” thinking, and developing a “personal brand,” are all considered essential to finding a way to make ends meet.

Where did this glossy language originate? And what do the words obscure about the reality of today’s capitalist job market?

John Patrick Leary, Associate Professor of English at Wayne State University in Detroit. His earlier book is A Cultural History of Underdevelopment: Latin American in the US Imagination. His new book is called Keywords: The New Language of Capitalism.

**This segment was originally broadcast on January 31, 2019.