Episodes
7 days ago
The Fog of Outrage
7 days ago
7 days ago
CLR Show 1931. Air Date May 14, 2024. The outrage of college students over Israel's continued hostilities in Gaza and that of the MAGA crowd over anything that challenges Donald's ability to do whatever he pleases have something in common: a total and infantile lack of realistic expectations. The college students seem incapable of defining exactly what it is their universities should or shouldn't be doing to support Israel and haven't the foggiest notion how peace and governance would be maintained if Israel summarily left Gaza without a firm peace agreement in place. The MAGA crowd has can't seem to grasp the notion that we all live under a single Constitution and that Donald cannot suspend it at will for his own purposes. One would think in an age of instant everything, including information, such infantile thought processes would no longer be possible. Regrettably, that is not the case.
Friday May 10, 2024
Throw It At The Wall: The Friday Show
Friday May 10, 2024
Friday May 10, 2024
CLR Show 1930. Air Date May 10, 2024. After a clearly unsuccessful cross examination of Stormy Daniels, Donald instructed his lawyers to demand a mistrial and demand that the gag order against him be immediately revised to permit him to attack Stormy Daniels on social media and the campaign trail. These are irrational requests and were rightfully denied. Clearly, team Donald has nothing to work with and is looking to simply muddy the waters in the hope that some insanely false claims made by Donald will boomerang back and infect the jury deciding his case. The better odds are that Donald will be found guilty in less than a month. Then the real challenges to our democracy will begin. With Friday Co-Host, David Bach.
Monday May 06, 2024
Hicks... And Other Forms of Hope
Monday May 06, 2024
Monday May 06, 2024
CLR Show 1929. Air Date May 6, 2024. The notion that Hope Hicks' testimony in Donald's New York criminal trial will somehow 'prove' that Donald was motivated only by love of Melania in facilitating an illegal campaign contribution is as credible as him throwing himself on the mercy of the court during his sentencing. No rational or even on-the-fence juror will be swayed by such a specious argument. The bigger question remains, what will the republican party do once Donald is sentenced to prison time, as any other person in his position would be. It is unlikely they will spontaneously embrace hope and run a more rational candidate. The base hasn't been prepared for such a sea change. They may have to confront a 2024 loss by more than 15 million votes by an incarcerated Donald who could never be paroled to serve even if he won.
Tuesday Apr 30, 2024
Sorry, No Easy Answers
Tuesday Apr 30, 2024
Tuesday Apr 30, 2024
CLR Show 1928. Air Date April 30, 2024. There are no easy answers to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. There is a single, logical, reasonable goal; a two state solution permitting functional autonomy to Palestinians. But the current Israeli government is diametrically opposed to this solution. And Hamas is devoted to the elimination of Israel, not coexistence with it. That means American college protestors will continue to press unreasonable and/or incomprehensible demands that serve only to keep Hamas and the real plight of the Palestinians in the news while exacerbating an anti-semitic trend that has been building in the US for a decade or more. The solution can only lie with a negotiated settlement brokered by honest brokers. Which is to say, things are not looking especially promising at the moment.
Friday Apr 26, 2024
Catch and Kill––SCOTUS Style : The Friday Show
Friday Apr 26, 2024
Friday Apr 26, 2024
CLR show 1927. Air Date April 26, 2024. The US Supreme Court, or at least its conservative majority has essentially declared itself an extension of Donald's warped will. Speaking in legally dulcet terms during a hearing on Executive immunity, it effectively precluded any possibility that Donald's insurrection and other crimes could be tried before the November election, apparently with no concern for the obvious and chilling message this action sends to the vast majority of Americans and the world. Joe Biden has no choice but to add a minimum of three and possibly four new justices immediately after the election in November. And America has no choice but to reelect him if we expect to continue as a functional democracy. With Friday Co-Host, David Bach.
Tuesday Apr 23, 2024
Sink or Swim... Republicans?
Tuesday Apr 23, 2024
Tuesday Apr 23, 2024
CLR Show 1926. Air Date April 23, 2024. With the passage of the foreign aid bill over the weekend by two thirds of all republicans and all the threats of the clown car republicans to destroy the speakership of Mike Johnson thwarted, republicans have set their unsavory endgame in motion. Donald no longer owns them. But will they still feel compelled to embrace him in an effort to placate a constantly shrinking extreme MAGA base that will cast the functional republican party into an extended diaspora––with unknown effect on the our entire governance system––or take the first painful steps––now––to create a new post-Donald party modeled after some earlier iteration(s) of traditional republicanism?
Friday Apr 19, 2024
The Sum of the Vectors: The Friday Show
Friday Apr 19, 2024
Friday Apr 19, 2024
CLR Show 1925. Air Date April 19, 2024. Four discrete events; Israeli retaliatory missiles fired into Iran, protestors being removed from the Columbia campus in 48 hours, the Trump NY criminal trial jury being seated and Speaker Johnson moving foreign aid packages to the floor of the House, can be individually viewed as evidence of the political and governance failures that spawned them. But collectively, viewed as force vectors from 50,000 feet up, they can also be seen as a series of first steps in a positive global direction. Hopeful signs, perhaps. The important thing is to view no current event in isolation or out of context. With Friday Co-Host, David Bach.
Tuesday Apr 16, 2024
OR...Wake Up and Smell the Ashes
Tuesday Apr 16, 2024
Tuesday Apr 16, 2024
CLR Show 1924. Air Date April 16, 2024. Once again, the unthinkable has happened for the trumpists: Donald is actually sitting a criminal court room facing the virtual certainty that he will be convicted of what Michael Cohen has already done jail time for. One can only imagine––and hope––that whatever rational heads may remain in the technical republican party are weighing the real world options: Donald cannot win; funding his legal bills is a pathway to up and down ballot failure; he is best removed from the ticket before the republican convention to avoid an internal insurrection (his Daughter-in-law's efforts to the contrary notwithstanding); that the real choice is between loss of an election cycle or two or the death of a republican party that chooses to go over the cliff with Donald. Their decisions will impact the entire nation for many years to come.
Tuesday Apr 09, 2024
Eclipsing Hopelessness
Tuesday Apr 09, 2024
Tuesday Apr 09, 2024
CLR Show 1923. Air Date April 9, 2024. Most people experiencing yesterday's total eclipse realized moments of unanticipated joy and connection, well beyond any connection provided by nationality, race, ethnicity, education, political affiliation or religion. In essence, they experienced an unanticipated affiliation with the Universal Energy that defines, binds and empowers us all, and connections us with all life and matter that every has or ever will exist, beyond all time and throughout the multiverse. This recognition of affiliation is the source of all hope (which is just another word for love) and the starting point for solving all the problems that confront us as a species. Really.
Friday Apr 05, 2024
When The Better Becomes The Best: The Friday Show
Friday Apr 05, 2024
Friday Apr 05, 2024
CLR Show 1922. Air Date April 5, 2024. The pure obstructionist/do-nothing mode of the republican congress has prevented any number of positive, democratic-sponsored laws from being passed, but should not obscure the fact that Joe Biden has done a great deal with the few legislative tools he has. For democrats to focus on what he may not have accomplished in full is wrong-headedness in the extreme. Marvel instead on what he has been able to do and consider what would happen if he were not available after 2024 to prevent republicans from deconstructing the Constitution and ending America's leadership role in the world. With Friday Co-Host, David Bach.