Global

America is under shutdown for the last 31 days and Gaza Strip has been under siege for the last 19 years. So, how did Gazans manage to survive and what lesson can American learn from Gazans during the government shutdown to make ends meet?

First of all, with almost no aid allowed in and food prices soaring, parents and children in Gaza are risking their lives to get even small amounts of food or safe water. Many are walking for hours, waiting in crowds, or dodging dangerous strikes and fire – only to return empty-handed.

 However, Gazans have adapted to extreme food shortages by relying on a few meals a day, often skipping meals to feed their children. The UN World Food Program (WFP) reports that most families in Gaza survive on one meal a day, with one-third going entire days without eating. The meals available are often thin broths, lentils, rice, or a combination of herbs and olive oil known as "duqqa." 

Since October 1, Congress failed to pass appropriations bills, leading to a lapse in funding for non-essential government operations. This situation can significantly disrupt employment and unemployment across the country.

I was born and grew up in New York City. I rode the subway to school way, way downtown. School buses were for sissies. I was a typical New York City tough kid. For years I lived with my mother in run-down old hotels owned by my father who was clawing his way up from a modest life on the Lower East Side.

The idea of ‘affordable housing,’ a shibboleth now popular with the general public, barely existed. On those distant days, save on the wilder shores of leftwing unionism, you worked hard as hell to pay your rent or slept on the roof or in the park.

In 1991, Zohran Mamdani appeared in the big city out of nowhere. Mamdani had won an election as an assemblyman in New York’s 36th District. He had been born in Uganda and, like many ethnic Indians, fled the rampages of despot Idi Amin. Uganda’s Asians have produced a large number of highly talented people, among them the young Mamdani. Astoundingly, he is a proud Muslim in a city dominated by pro-Israel, wealthy Jewish residents, Latin Americans and Haitians.

Has Donald Trump's sharp rebuke of Israel in his October 23 Time Magazine interview fundamentally changed the calculus in the Middle East? His comments immediately sparked two opposing views: for some, his position represents the clear demarcation of a genuine shift in US foreign policy; for others, it is nothing more than a political ploy designed to claw back credibility lost by the US during two years of Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Hour 1
We begin with the obvious question:  Does Trump have dementia?

Of the past six presidents, 3.5 have been incompetent.

Our resident expert DR. NANCY NIPARKO concurs on Reagan, a bit on W but less so on Biden & moreso on Trump. 

Co-host MYLA RESON challenges the idea that Trump’s murders in the Caribbean  are rooted in dementia rather than corporate greed.

We note that MAGA commentator Tomi Lahren is screaming at Trump for bailing out the Argentine cattle industry while destroying the one here in the US.

Co-host MIKE HERSH then introduces ANTHONY FLACCOVENTO who explains to us his innovative Rural New Deal.

From the rural woodlands of central California JULIE LEVINE warns us of lethal alienation.

We then welcome legendary network news veteran DAVID SALTMAN to offer alternatives to the billionaire-dominated “legacy” media that now all sounds like Fox.

Hour 2
The World-Changing Transition from Fossil-Nukes to Solartopia is Happening Now

With just a few days until applications close on October 31st, I wanted to reach out and personally enco

I’m trying to find my way back into The Possible Future, the working title of the book I started over a decade ago and eventually lost hold of. Somewhere deep inside me I feel compelled to reclaim it, but almost simultaneously I feel like I’m kidding myself. The topic is beyond me: our evolutionary necessity to transcend war and dehumanization and build humanity around the belief that power is collective.

Yes, I’ve done lots of research – in particular on Restorative Justice, a.k.a., the peace circle process – but . . . what? There’s a sense of doubt in me – a deep hole – that I can’t seem to overcome. Who do I think I am? I’m just an ordinary soul. How can I presume to write a book of such scope that it influences human evolution? By myself?

Well, here’s a piece of it from the likely first chapter, discussing the myth, which I refer to as the “old story,” around which humanity has organized itself:

I met with Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez just days after he was kidnapped. I’ll tell you about that, and the current President Nicolas Maduro’s visit to my New York office. But first, you must know three things about Venezuela to understand why Donald Trump has ordered a covert operation to overthrow their government.

Look it up: According to OPEC’s own site, Venezuela’s 303 billion barrels in proven reserves are four times the reserves of Saudi Arabia.

(By the way, Donald, when you announce a “covert” operation, it’s no longer covert. But never mind.)

For years, I was BBC Television’s correspondent covering Venezuela and US attempts to overthrow their elected government. Trump invented nothing. This is at least the fourth US-backed attempt at overthrow and assassination of a Venezuelan president.

Israel is the only place in the world where you can steal human organs of another person without being punished or considered a criminal. The act of stealing from enemy's dead or wounded combatants is considered a war crime under both customary international law and international treaties. The Fourth Hague Convention specifically bans the looting of the corpse of an enemy soldier or the wounded left on the battlefield. The law also applies to non-combatant populations.

It has been documented in the last 20 years in both Palestinian and Israeli media and in court proceedings that Israeli Occupation Forces are operating a human butcher shop, at Abu Kabir in Tel Aviv. Israeli forces routinely kidnap Palestinians at checkpoints, raids, hospital wards, or exhume them from cemeteries in order to harvest their organs for profit inside and outside of Israel, all without the family’s knowledge.

We are nine months into the Donald Trump presidency and the road ahead seems pretty clear. There is an unsustainable one trillion dollar Pentagon budget supporting a newly renamed Department of War and Washington is engaged in conflicts that could escalate in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. If it were possible to stage a bellicose incident near or in Antarctica that would also no doubt become a target, just as the Arctic region is currently playing into fantasies involving Greenland and Canada. Trump has even stopped talking to friendly neighbor Canada about trade relations over an ad that he did not like and no doubt will be discussing invasion soon.

The Orange King, Donald Trump, has given people literally thousands of reasons to hate him. A few current issues: $172 million so Kristi Noem can have two private jets, $200 million to build Trump a ballroom, $40 billion to bail out Argentina—for a MAGA billionaire. But no bailout for soybean farmers crushed by tariffs, No support for families drowning in grocery prices, No help for anyone who can’t find a job in this economy and no mercy for immigrants.

I will explain my hatred of Trump by considering 3 categories: Character, Domestic policy, Foreign policy.

Character: The entire world knows that Trump is a narcissist, a racist, a misogynist, and a pedophile. We also know that he lacks empathy, and is cruel beyond imagination. He is a stupid man, not well educated, not well read, not a student of history. He may be the only person in America who has never visited a National Park, with the exception of photo ops at Arlington Cemetery. He is simply a clueless, bumbling idiot.