US Vice President Mike Pence announced Tuesday that the Trump administration's Coronavirus Task Force would be winding down, with operations expected to conclude by June 1. However, US President Donald Trump contradicted him Wednesday on Twitter after The Critical Hour's recording, saying that the task force would "continue on indefinitely." The administration has framed the pandemic in the context of war. Is it possible to declare victory when the enemy continues to attack and take ground, or would that just be waving the white flag of surrender?
On Tuesday, we discussed that the New York Board of Elections canceled the state's Democratic presidential primary last week, citing the risk of spreading coronavirus. A Wednesday Common Dreams headline read, "Victory for 'Basic Democracy' as Judge Orders New York to Reinstate Sanders, Yang, and Others to 2020 Primary Ballot." The article noted, "The ruling by Judge Analisa Torres of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, which came in response to a lawsuit filed by Andrew Yang last week, means the New York Democratic presidential primary will take place on June 23 as previously scheduled, barring a successful appeal." The saga continues.
"The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments in the Trump administration’s attempt to allow more employers to refuse to provide insurance coverage for birth control for female employees because of religious or moral objections," the Washington Post reported Wednesday. One thing you can say about these so-called right-to-lifers: they are persistent if nothing else. Yes, there’s a definite so-called right-to-life issue here, but is there also male patriarchy involved here as well: men thinking they can still tell women what to do with their bodies and the age-old adage that women are supposed to stay home barefoot and pregnant?
A great piece ran Wednesday in CounterPunch, entitled "The Washington Post’s Neocons are Beating Cold War Drums…Again," wherein Melvin Goodman writes, "The Washington Post has a reputation as liberal and even left-of-center, although its editorial pages are dominated by neoconservatives who support the idea of American exceptionalism and the extreme operational tempo of America’s military. In the past week, we have been treated to a series of op-ed essays that are supportive of expanded American military power and a political, if not military, confrontation with China."
GUESTS:
Dr. Richard Lachmann — American sociologist and specialist in comparative historical sociology and professor at the State University of New York at Albany. Dr. Lachmann is best known as the author of the book "Capitalists in Spite of Themselves," which has been awarded several prizes, including the American Sociological Association Distinguished Scholarly Book Award.
Khalilah L. Brown-Dean — Associate professor of political science at Quinnipiac University, political analyst, adviser, commentator and co-author of "50 Years of the Voting Rights Act: The State of Race in Politics"
Dr. Emmitt Riley — Political scientist and assistant professor of Africana studies at DePauw University.
David Schultz — Professor of political science at Hamline University and author of "Presidential Swing States: Why Only Ten Matter."
Vijay Prashad — Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and chief editor of LeftWord Books. He is also a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter.
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