GUESTS
Taylor Hudak - Journalist, Activist, and Co-Founder of Action for Assange | Julian Assange Hearing Live From London
Margaret Kimberley - Senior Columnist and Editor for Black Agenda Report | 2020 Election
Danny Max - News Anchor at KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles | California Wildfires & Heat Wave
In the first hour, Shane and Garland were joined by Taylor Hudak live from London where she has been covering the extradition trial of Julian Assange. She gave an update on the latest in the trial, which is entering a second day and is expected to last weeks, and discussed how a motion by Julian Assange’s defense team to move the trial date so that they could deal with new accusations was denied. She said there was some mainstream media coverage of the trial’s first day which she did not expect to last, but she said that she was heartened by the presence of hundreds of protesters who came out in support of Julian Assange. Taylor discussed implications of the trial on press freedom and the potentially dangerous precedent in such a case where English law seems to supersede international law. She also discussed the importance of the independent media in covering the Assange story.
In the second hour, Garland and Shane were joined by Margaret Kimberley, who talked about the nationwide protests and the upcoming election. Margaret said she believes Joe Biden should be much further ahead right now, however she thinks he is a weak candidate and at the end of the day is effectively no different than Trump. Margaret discussed her own political journey beginning in the early 2000s and how she went from a more traditional Democrat to a Green and that this affected the way she saw the Obama administration. Margaret said she was concerned that too many progressives put too much faith in the electoral process and said she sees a need for movement politics and real-change activism. She said that she believes that establishment Democrats are trying to purge the ranks and will do so no matter what the outcome of the election is.
In the third hour, Shane and Garland were joined by newsman Danny Max, and they discussed the record two million acres of wildfires currently burning in Southern California. He said this level of fires are unprecedented, particularly so early in the fire season. He also said that the concept of the fires has become heavily politicized, with Democrats saying the fires are caused by global warming, but he pointed out that many firefighters and others believe that there have not been enough controlled burns to stop the fires. He also said that the recent record temperatures in Los Angeles are only a couple of degrees cooler than the previous record but still significant and have contributed to the fires. They also discussed the role of lightning in the current fire epidemic and ended by discussing the additional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the fire situation.
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