John Bolton, one of the Republican Party's most hardcore foreign policy hawks, was named as President Trump's third National Security Advisor yesterday after the president fired LTG H.R. McMaster. Bolton was a recess appointment as Ambassador to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration because even the Republican-controlled Senate refused to confirm him.
Donald Trump signed a $1.3 trillion federal budget, by far the largest in the country's history. It does nothing to protect the Dreamers from deportation, but it does increase defense spending wildly. The bill does however also increase domestic non-military spending, and many Democrats in Congress voted for it. Angie Kim, the Community Engagement & Advocacy Coordinator for NAKASEC (the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium), Jack Rasmus, a professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California and at jackrasmus.com, and Daniel Lazare, a journalist and author of "The Frozen Republic", "The Velvet Coup", and "America's Undeclared War", join the show.
China yesterday announced $3 billion in retaliatory tariffs against US products in response to President Trump's announcement that he would put $60 billion in new tariffs on Chinese goods. 128 different products will be affected, particularly in the farming, aluminum, and steel industries. Brian and John speak with writer and political analyst Ajit Singh.
Students across the country are converging on Washington DC tomorrow to participate in what will be a massive rally against gun violence. Chicago student activists and organizers Damayanti Wallace, Madison Miller, Ardamis Sims, and Taylore Norwood who are on their way to the March for Our Lives Rally in Washington, DC, join the show.
Does corporate tax deductibility affect the salaries of corporate chief executive officers? The Center for Economic and Policy Research conducted a study to determine that. They found that there is little evidence of a link between corporate performance and CEO pay. Indeed, skyrocketing CEO pay is largely a result of broken corporate governance. Dean Baker, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, joins Brian and John.
Mick Mulvaney, the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Board, has quietly dropped the agency's investigation of a payday loan collector, and he is considering ending cases against three more high-interest lenders. Dr. Jack Rasmus, a professor of economics at Saint Mary's College of California, author of "Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the Coming Depression," and at jackrasmus.com, and Nicole Roussell, a producer of Loud & Clear, join the show.
Another Friday, another week of the worst and most misleading headlines. Brian and John speak with Steve Patt, an independent journalist whose critiques of the mainstream media have been a feature of his blog Left I on the News, which you can find at lefti.blogspot.com.
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