"Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon and three others were arrested and charged with defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors who contributed to a fundraising campaign for a private border wall, the US attorney's office for the Southern District of New York said Thursday," The Hill reported. What are we to make of all of this?
"Weekly initial claims for jobless benefits rose by 135,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.1 million in the week that ended August 15, the Labor Department said Thursday," the Wall Street Journal reported. "The number of people collecting unemployment benefits through regular state programs, which cover most workers, decreased to about 14.8 million for the week ending August 8. That marked the lowest number on benefit rolls since April." What do these numbers tell us?
Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) has become the first woman of color on a major party's presidential ticket. Democrats formally nominated Harris for the vice presidency on Wednesday night, and she accepted the nomination. Just for clarity, then-US Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) became the first Black candidate to run for an American major party's presidential nomination in 1972, but she didn't win the Democratic contest. How significant is all of this, and what does it say about the Democrats' message and direction?
Ex-FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith "pleaded guilty Wednesday to altering an email that one of his colleagues relied on as he sought a court’s blessing to surveil a former Trump campaign adviser during the bureau’s 2016 investigation of Russia’s election interference," the Washington Post reported Wednesday. Another day, another detail that undermines the veracity of the Russiagate fiction, which is unraveling like a cheap angora sweater. What are we to make of this?
A Thursday New York Times headline read: "Aleksei Navalny Hospitalized in Russia in Suspected Poisoning." The article's subhead noted, "The prominent opposition leader was reported to be in serious but stable condition in intensive care in Siberia after his flight to Moscow was forced to make an emergency landing." Who is Navalny, and could he be the new Sergei Skripal?
"The state of Michigan is expected to announce a settlement this week to pay residents of Flint $600 million to resolve civil claims from the city’s lead-tainted drinking water crisis, according to a person familiar with the settlement," the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
"Yemen is already living through what the United Nations calls 'the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,'" MintPress News reported Wednesday. "Yet despite twin epidemics of cholera and COVID-19 raging through the embattled nation, the Saudi-led coalition continues to target medical and water infrastructure, having done so over 200 times since the conflict began, a new report from Oxfam claims."
"Iran displayed a surface-to-surface ballistic missile on Thursday that Defense Minister Amir Hatami said had a range of 1,400 kilometers and a new cruise missile, ignoring US demands that Tehran halt its missile program," Reuters reported. Meanwhile, the Tehran Times reported on Thursday, "Presidential chief of staff Mahmoud Vaezi said on Wednesday that the tankers seized by the United States and the cargo they were carrying did not belong to Iran."
Guests:
Dr. Colin Campbell - Washington, DC, senior news correspondent
Richard Lachmann - Professor at the State University of New York at Albany and author of "First Class Passengers on a Sinking Ship: Elite Politics and the Decline Great Powers"
Ted Rall - Political cartoonist and syndicated columnist
Alexander Mercouris - Editor- in-chief of The Duran
Mark Sleboda - Moscow-based international relations and security analyst
Julie Hurwitz - Civil rights attorney
James Carey - Editor and co-owner at Geopolitics Alert
Caleb Maupin - Journalist and political analyst
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