The Israel-Gaza war continues unabated, but now Israeli rules of engagement are starting to be questioned by the nation’s allies. There are also fears about a larger conflict in the Middle East after Islamic State takes credit for a deadly bombing in Iran. The President of Harvard resigns in the wake of twin scandals. Is she a victim of culture war…

The US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a cease fire in the war between Hamas and Israel. This despite 13 nations voting for it. The Biden Administration is getting hard blowback, and not just from the expected places. A federal judge approves a settlement barring the separation of migrant families. An appeals court has upheld bu…

Last time out I told you the war between Israel and Hamas was fast becoming a propaganda war fought on social media. The actual battlefield remains real, but so too does the fights on social media. Just ask Elon Musk. Are we finally rid of George Santos? The chair of the House Ethics Committee has ruled he has none, he’s announced he’s not running …

The war between Israel and Hamas has become a protracted struggle not just on the battlefields but between competing propaganda machines. Who’s winning? Meanwhile, the House passes a bill providing aid to Israel but not to Ukraine. Wait, what??? The damages trial against the Trump organization rolls on with his kids and the old man himself schedule…

Hamas and Israel, and the question that no one seems to want to ask. And of course, who stuck his foot in his mouth yet again? You know who, that’s who. The House Speakers’ sweepstakes, and the self-destruction of the Republican Party. A truly frightening study on climate change. George Santos, what again? And the labor market chills a bit.…

Israel and Hamas, at war again after the surprise attack against Israel. Chaos in the House, as Republicans try to figure out who their next speaker will be. Some in Congress think it ought to be Donald Trump? Seriously? Honestly? How did aid to Ukraine end up a litmus test for right wing lawmakers? A judge rules Alabama’s gerrymandered congression…

More bad road for Donald Trump, as judge rules inflated his worth and one of his defendants cops a plea. Just to show alleged corruption knows no one political party, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez is indicted on corruption charges, and some of his allies say it’s time to go! Senator Diane Feinstein passes away at age 90, and a replacement has bee…

Joe Biden’s son Hunter indicted on gun charges. This has given rise to all manner of speculation, including charges of a hoax by the Deep State to whether Biden will now quit his bid for re-election. At the same time, the coward known as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tries to keep the ultra-right wolves away from his door by announcing an impeachmen…

We’ll be taking a look at, guess who, and his mug shot. Don’t be fooled, there’s another story that’s not being covered. There’s the story of Andrew Clyde, congressman and gun shop owner. Any wonder he’s against common sense gun legislation? Not too long ago, here were whispers about Michelle Obama running for president. Recent stumbles by Joe Bide…

The fires in Hawaii are America’s latest climate tragedy. Did Maui’s utility do enough to contain them? A while back, I screened the gripping documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. It’s all about artist Nan Goldin’s fight against the Sackler family, makers of, among other drugs, Oxycontin. The family eventually settled lawsuits for $6 billio…

In this episode, we ask the one question no one seems to ask about Donald Trump and the 78 charges he faces, so far. Why do his defenders employ whataboutism as a default defense? Is the Hunter Biden probe worth the time for those who want to tie his wrongdoing to his father? Saudi Arabia extends its cut to oil production by a month. Does that mean…

New charges against Donald Trump while he threatens Republicans who fail to do his bidding. Vladimir Putin cosies up to Africa, Mitch McConnell freezes during a press conference. Will Joe Biden end up being collateral damage? And the truth about wellness. Or at least some wellness.Mark Riley

Donald Trump and his minions have big plans should he win the election next year. Trust me, you don’t want to know them. At the same time, his documents trial has been set for May next year. That’s before the presidential election. Republicans in Congress shame themselves yet again with their attack on LGBTQ Americans. The White House pressures AI …

Inflation has cooled down sharply in the US, will it help President Biden in his quest for re-election? The Supreme Court stopped the Biden Administration from cancelling student debt. The Education Department just did an end around. Wait, what? Why is the far right trying to defund support for Ukraine? With 40% of the world enveloped in a searing …

How is that counteroffensive in Ukraine going? Why is the US ready to supply the government with cluster bombs and why is the rest of the West so nervous? Not to keep harping on climate change, but yes, I’ll keep harping on it as the South and Southwest are baking more than usual. There’s a new challenge to Twitter in social media, and Elon Musk is…

Republicans in Congress honor the January 6th insurrectionists. At least 37 people, mostly students have been killed after suspected militants raided a school in western Uganda. When will people stop targeting the young? Southern Baptists move to oust women from the leadership of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. What’s next, taking awa…

Donald Trump is indicted, what, again? The wages of climate change envelopes the East Coast in a shroud of smoke. It may be back to normal now, but is it really? The House is paralyzed by the far-right members of the Freedom Caucus. The Supreme Court in a surprise move, voids gerrymandered voting districts that would have diluted black voters’ powe…

Donald Trump. He’s asking for the judge in his Stormy Daniels case to be replaced. On another front, there appears to be a recording where he acknowledges he couldn’t declassify documents after he left office. Gee, didn’t he say he could? Do you know about the Brics countries? They’ve got a huge swath of the world’s population, and they want to cha…

Do Republicans eat themselves? When it’s Texas, and the person in question is Attorney General Ken Paxton. There’s a deal in the debt ceiling debacle. Is it time to put the whole thing out to pasture? There’s the story of the lawyer who used ChatGPT in court. Suffice to say it did not go well. Why are judges rebuking Social Security for massive err…

Exploring Political Deception: Why Politicians Lie and Voter Reaction - Democratic Party's Immigration Divide - Post-Title 42 Border Challenges under Biden - Debt Ceiling Crisis: Possible Solutions and Impact - The Jordan Neely Case: A Closer LookMark Riley

Good ol' USA...Mass Shootings, Abortion Rights, Clarence Thomas, Donald Trump, the Proud Boys, Tucker Carlson, and Texas. Did I leave anything out?Mark Riley

Fox News settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $787 million dollars. This was just as the 1.6-billion-dollar lawsuit was set to get underway. What does it mean for Fox, Dominion, Smartmatic, which still has a suit pending, and journalism in general? Two knocks on wrong doors, two people shot. Is this really Stand Your Ground? War is ravaging Sud…

I’ve reluctantly, painfully concluded that America is creeping toward a form of fascism I think most of us would never imagine. The signs are there, and I’m not at all sure that most people see them. Over the past week or two, I’ve been thinking to myself, what has America come to? American democracy, criminal justice, healthcare, and more have bee…

You know what leads this episode. The only former president in US history to be indicted on criminal charges, what else? But don’t go partying in the streets just yet. Donald Trump has been charged, but he’s nowhere near being convicted. Besides, the indictment helps him raise money from those suckers, ‘er, supporters who still back him. After the …

Upheaval in France; why is the right wing linking the Manhattan District Attorney to George Soros. George Soros? How does that work? Members of Congress rake the CEO of Tik Tok over the coals, while Utah is thinking about banning the app for kids. And what’s this about the huge number of guns stolen from cars?…

Will Donald Trump get indicted? He seems to think so and has called on supporters to protest. And as that unfolds, his Proud Boys supporters are turning their trials into shambolic spectacles. Top it off with the reports that Trump tried in a second phone call to get the results of the Georgia vote overturned in 2020 and you have a trifecta of roug…

As President Xi Jinping consolidates his power, the Chinese broker a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia that leaves the US sitting on the sidelines. This as President Biden bans Tik Tok from all federal devices. Where is Tik Tok based. You guessed it. Speaking of the president, when he ran, he had a proposal to shore up Social Security’s finances. …

In this episode, golden chocolate bars, Trump Jr. mocks Fetterman, booing Nikki Haley, and Trump is staying. A clown show? No, CPAC! Lawmakers want more action on child migrant labor, and well they should! Google has bowed to pressure and is now auditing its products for racial biases. They’re only following Meta and Apple. What took it so long? An…

In this episode, we take a long look and a deep dive into the extraordinary erosion of the Republican Party in the United States. A sitting member of Congress calls for what she says is a national divorce. Funny, I thought that was settled in 1865. The Speaker of the House decides to outsource the GOP revision of the January 6 th insurrection by gr…

Some embarrassing communication among Fox News stars about the 2020 election and whether it was stolen. Democrats and Republicans have sharply differing views on how to “fix” Social Security and Medicare. What can US youth learn from an insurgent candidacy in Nigeria that’s drawn massive support from young people? And could an indictment of Donald …

The tragedy of Turkey and Syria. Beyond the number of people killed and left homeless, politics is rearing its ugly head. The US, and now he US and Canada are shooting flying objects out of the sky, including three just this past weekend. Are they all Chinese spy balloons? 21 Attorneys General, including New York’s formidable Leticia James, are ask…

Lots to talk about, starting with the Chinese spy balloon that the US shot down this past weekend. We talked before about the nation’s overall economic picture, and how it’s been getting better. Figures late last week show things are better than even expert economists thought. The question is, will the public notice? The College Board waffles on AP…

What’s up with presidents and classified documents, and why saying one is worse than the other is a zero-sum game. Andrew Tate is still detained in Romania, yet another example of why influencers should find something else to do. Another sad sack is George Santos, Republican Congressman from Long Island, at least for now. New reports say high level…

Kevin McCarthy, the price of fame, and how low can one Speaker go? South Carolina’s Supreme Court rules the state’s constitution includes the right to abortion. The US economy isn’t as bad as some have predicted, with the latest jobs numbers telling an interesting story.Mark Riley

In this episode, anti-abortionists want to jail people who traffic in the abortion pills that have become popular since the Supreme Court gutted Roe v. Wade. President Joe Biden wants to improve relations with countries in Africa, in part to keep up with China. Will it work? Florida Governor DeSantis facing opposition from, of all people, the right…

Donald Trump, remember him, now wants to shred the Constitution because, wait for it, voter fraud from 2020. He also got himself a couple of setbacks in recent days! Brittney Griner has been freed from a Russian gulag, but not everyone is happy. The House passes legislation to protect same sex and interracial marriages; and Germany arrests some rig…

In his episode, as we head into the Holiday season, are the gaps between haves and have-nots getting wider? Why are some in Media just started to pay attention? The real heroes of the 2022 World Cup aren’t much talked about, and they’ll remain heroes no matter the outcome of the games. Wonder how many mass shootings there have been since the start …

Like a bad penny, like a recurring boil, he’s back. I predicted wrongly on this, but why is Donald Trump running for president again? Elon Musk may have inflicted a death blow on Twitter. Can he stop the bleeding? Quick takes on Nancy Pelosi stepping aside from her role as House Speaker, more homophobic murders, this time in Colorado. And a convers…

Well, the midterms are done, and all I can say is “Mea Culpa”. While I never thought there would be a red wave, or tsunami, or anything else the punditocracy predicted. I did, however, think that the Democrats might lose both houses of Congress. Thankfully, that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. And who dos the Trumpster blame for the GOP’s l…

we talked about Kanye West and Anti-Semitism last week. Well now, it’s Kyrie Irving’s turn. Why do these tropes keep coming up? It’s become intergenerational. And why do some people spring to the defense and Irving and West? The FBI issues a waning to synagogues in New Jersey. Will Republicans run the table in Wisconsin? Barack Obama joins Presiden…

The midterms are coming up in a hurry, and if the polls are to be believed, I can say I told you so. Are Republicans injecting race into some races across the country? Are Black Americans going to stay home election day? We’ll talk about all that, and Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. A letter in Ukraine has a lot of people upset, and the New York T…

Could Vladimir Putin use nukes to counter losses in Ukraine? The nation’s jobs growth slows, so who wins and who loses? President Biden pardons stoners...er..I mean, marijuana users caught by the Feds. And we've got two abortion stories: one a judge in Arizona presses pause on a new total ban; and Herschel Walker’s ex says he urged her to get an ab…

Vladimir Putin decides Russia has annexed four regions of Ukraine. Trouble is, Russian forces have had to retreat from a major city in one of those same regions. The Conservative government in the UK is under severe pressure, and some in their own party think it’s a self-inflicted wound. Back in the day, then congressman Ron DeSantis voted against …

New York’s Attorney General Leticia James takes center stage as she sues the Trump Organization in an action that could cost $250 million dollars. Meanwhile, Trump says he can declassify documents just by thinking about it. That’s right, just by thinking. Further afield, the referenda on whether some regions of the Ukraine want to be annexed by Rus…

The battle between the Justice Dept. and Donald Trump goes on, while his biggest problem may be in Georgia. Why are Republican governors sending migrants north to cities like New York and now, Martha’s Vineyard? Yeah, we know what they’re saying, but what’s the real reason? Insurance companies are taking police departments to task, we’ll tell you w…

The world watches as HM Queen Elizabeth II passes away and Prince Charles becomes King Charles III. Will the war in Ukraine throw large parts of the developed world into recession, and will Ukraine’s biggest supporters stay the course Threats of political violence a year and a half after January 6th are now focusing on individual lawmakers. One cas…

Joe Biden takes the gloves off, guess who his target might be? Donald Trump throws a left jab and the Department of Justice responds with an uppercut. A United Nations report on Chinese mistreatment of Uyghurs is devastating to Beijing. Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation, is a lesson in climate change, and how the effects of aging infrast…

It seems we’ve got those Old Mar-a Lago Blues again. Donald Trump’s supporters can’t figure out who to badmouth these days as a redacted version of the affidavit in support of the Mar-a Lago raid is made public. President Biden cancels student loan debt for a huge number of Americans. Some of the people who had their own loans forgiven aren’t happy…

Trump's former lieutenant pled guilty on tax charges and the success of Trump endorsed candidates (including beating Liz Chaney) is apparently making some Republicans jittery...A pair of abortion stories,(Florida, Nebraska), show some parts of the country are more than a little off the wall on the subject...the Centers for Disease Control throws it…