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🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Shawn Gude is the former editor of Jacobin and author of American Socialist: The Life and Legacy of Eugene V. Debs. He joins Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss how Debs went from moderate railroad unionist to one of America’s most influential socialist leaders. ✊ Get the book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/American-Socialist/Shawn-Gude/9781668056738 0:00–3:51 Why Eugene Debs Still Matters 3:51–10:10 How Debs Became a Socialist 10:10–18:30 Debs’s Personality and Political Appeal 18:30–25:28 When Socialism Thrived in the Midwest 25:28–29:24 What Socialism Meant to Debs 29:24–35:31 The Defeat and Decline of Debs’s Movement 35:31–40:26 What Debs Can Teach the Left Today 40:26–43:28 What Shawn Learned About Debs While Writing the Book 🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership In Michigan and Maine, a tale of two campaigns. 🌹 Full article by Nathan J. Robinson: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-consultants-will-kill-you 🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership 🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership If there’s a visual language that connotes credibility and authority, why not take advantage of it? 🌹 Full article by Nathan J. Robinson: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/in-praise-of-suit-socialism 🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership 🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Jennifer Welch, co-host of I’ve Had It and author of Not Today, Fascists, joins Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss the rise of Christian nationalism, her political evolution from establishment Democrat to outspoken progressive, and why she believes the Democratic Party needs a radical overhaul. 🔥 Not Today, Fascists: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/not-today-fascists-jennifer-welch?variant=45897489088546 🔥 Subscribe to I've Had It: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ5cvDR2HhVUcdVoTvvQKLw 0:00 Trump and the Megachurch Pastor Mentality 4:08 How Should Progressives Talk About Religion? 6:27 Can Bernie-Style Populism Win in Red States? 8:21 Kamala Harris in 2028? 10:41 Gaza and the Democratic Party’s Moral Failure 13:45 Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, and Democratic Leadership 16:46 Jennifer Welch’s Political Radicalization and Kamala’s Liz Cheney Strategy 24:59 Why Democrats Need to Offer a Real Alternative 29:28 Billionaire Influence, Money in Politics, and the Supreme Court 31:50 Should Progressives Embrace the Word “Socialism”? 34:51 JD Vance and the Future of MAGA 40:19 Rapid-Fire: Newsom, Buttigieg, AOC, and More 🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Jasper Nathaniel is an independent journalist who recently returned from reporting in the occupied West Bank, where he documented Israeli settler violence, land seizures, military raids, home demolitions, and the daily realities of life under occupation. 🇵🇸 Subscribe to Infinite Jaz: https://www.infinitejaz.com/ 🇵🇸 Follow Jasper on Twitter: https://x.com/infinite_jaz 0:00-6:01 The escalating situation in the occupied West Bank 6:01-8:29 How Israeli politics enables settlement expansion 8:29-11:32 What the West Bank’s fragmented zones feel like on the ground 11:32-13:54 Why settler violence so often goes unpunished 13:54-18:52 How violence and displacement work together 18:52-26:55 The double standard on Palestinian self-defense 26:55-30:44 Western governments’ empty posturing on settlements 30:44-37:05 Palestinian resilience under occupation 🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership CODEPINK co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, along with national co-director Danaka Katovich, join Current Affairs to reflect on 25 years of the post-9/11 War on Terror, the founding of CODEPINK, and the politics of fear that have fueled endless war. 🌸 Pam Bailey's Current Affairs Article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/9/11-began-25-years-of-nonstop-war-and-abuses-of-power 🌸 Danaka Katovich's Common Dreams Article: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/un-american-to-care 🌸 Medea Benjamin's Common Dreams Article: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/was-the-us-reaction-to-9-11-wrong 0:00-10:56 Barbara Lee, 9/11, and the politics of fear 10:56-19:59 How CODEPINK was born from the War on Terror 19:59-25:51 Being smeared as foreign agents and terrorist sympathizers 25:51-32:30 Fighting fear and reclaiming political power 32:30-35:12 What CODEPINK is organizing around now 35:12-37:15 Why Yemen matters to the antiwar movement 37:15-45:42 Lessons from 25 years of antiwar activism 🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Rachel Cohen is an attorney and organizer who previously resigned from the law firm Skadden Arps amid the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against major law firms.  She joins Current Affairs to discuss her article “Business as Usual at the Department of Injustice,” which examines how Trump has intensified the politicization of the Justice Department while relying on prosecutorial powers, institutional habits, and forms of state violence that long predate his administration. 🏛️ Follow Rachel on Instagram: https://cohen489.substack.com/ 🏛️ Subscribe to Rachel's Substack: https://www.instagram.com/cohen.489/?hl=en 0:00-5:20 What’s happening at the DOJ under Trump? 5:20-8:08 Disturbing trends under Trump 8:08-13:36 What Trump didn’t change 13:36-18:21 The injustice was already built in 18:21-23:06 The problem goes beyond Trump 23:06-25:40 The “presumption of regularity” 25:40-31:26 Resistance and refusing conformity 🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Astra Taylor is a writer, activist, and co-author of End Times Fascism, and Aaron Regunberg is a climate lawyer and contributing editor at The New Republic. They join Current Affairs to discuss how the right has begun co-opting animal welfare politics, why the left has neglected animal rights, and how abandoning climate politics risks leaving an opening for a much darker ecofascist response to ecological crisis. 🐄 Read the article: https://newrepublic.com/article/213747/maga-stole-animal-rights-left 🐄 Get Astra's book: https://naomiklein.org/end-times-fascism/ 0:00-8:25 How MAGA is co-opting animal rights 8:25-14:18 P’Nut the Squirrel and the right’s animal politics 14:18-18:29 MAHA and the political vacuum on animal welfare 18:29-33:05 Why animal rights belong in left politics 33:05-37:59 Why the left stopped talking about climate 37:59-42:44 Ecofascism and the politics of climate collapse 42:44-49:14 Making climate politics impossible to ignore 🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Mohammed el-Kurd is a Palestinian writer from Jerusalem, The Nation’s Palestine correspondent, and editor-at-large at Mondoweiss. He joins Current Affairs to discuss his book, Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal, which examines how even sympathetic discourse about Palestine can reproduce racist assumptions, sanitize Palestinian resistance, and demand that Palestinians prove their innocence before being granted solidarity. 🇵🇸 Get the Book: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2499-perfect-victims 🇵🇸 Article in The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/mohammed-el-kurd-book-excerpt/ 0:00-3:04 deconstructing liberal solidarity with Palestine 3:04-6:30 the assumptions behind “women and children” 6:30-10:56 why Palestinian anger and resistance are legitimate 10:56-13:29 how the language of occupation shapes the debate 13:29-17:23 Ro Khanna and the double standard on resistance 17:23-19:49 the politics of the “perfect victim” 19:49-22:18 Refaat Alareer and the refusal to sanitize Palestinians 22:18-24:27 what Palestine’s allies still get wrong 24:27-27:22 Israel’s political prison system 27:22-31:46 Hamas members are entitled to human rights 🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Track AIPAC is an advocacy and watchdog project that tracks AIPAC and other pro-Israel political spending in U.S. elections. Co-founders Cory Archibald and Casey Kennedy join Current Affairs to discuss how the Israel lobby intervenes in Democratic primaries, how its money is routed through a growing network of PACs and outside groups, and why more candidates are beginning to reject its support. 🔎 Track AIPAC: https://www.trackaipac.com/ 0:00-5:53 Why Track AIPAC was founded 5:53-8:51 How AIPAC hides its money 8:51-13:04 How AIPAC intervenes in elections 13:04-17:33 How AIPAC corrupts the democratic process 17:33-21:45 Democrats are turning against AIPAC 21:45-24:58 Forcing Israel into the political conversation 24:58-31:40 Track AIPAC’s litmus test for candidates 🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Dan Osborn is an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Nebraska and a former union leader who first gained national attention during the 2021 Kellogg’s strike. He joins Current Affairs associate editor Alex Skopic to discuss why he rejects the two-party system, the crisis facing rural hospitals, healthcare reform and Medicare for All. 🛠️ Dan's Website: https://www.osbornforsenate.com/ 0:00-2:03 Why run as an independent? 2:03-5:25 Rural hospital closures 5:25-9:11 Medicare for All and healthcare monopolies 9:11-10:56 Rejecting lobbyist influence 10:56-16:19 How can we strengthen the labor movement? 16:19-19:13 The PRO Act, card check, and right-to-work laws 🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Eli Clifton is an investigative journalist and co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and Ian Lustick is a political scientist specializing in U.S. foreign policy and Israel-Palestine. They join Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss their new book, Israel’s Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power, which examines the history, methods, and influence of the Israel lobby on American politics and U.S. foreign policy. 🏛️ Get the book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Israels-Lobby/Eli-Clifton/9781668210840 0:00-4:00 The Origins of Israel’s Influence on U.S. Policy 4:00-9:22 How the Israel Lobby Changes U.S. Policy 9:22-12:06 When Presidents Defy the Israel Lobby 12:06-15:43 How the Lobby Punishes Politicians 15:43-18:32 How the United Democracy Project Influences Elections 18:32-22:14 How Accusations of Antisemitism Are Weaponized 22:14-26:46 American Jews vs. the Israel Lobby 26:46-28:33 Does the Republican Party Need the Israel Lobby? 28:33-31:12 Citizens United, AIPAC, and Abdul El-Sayed 31:12-36:24 The Israel Lobby Under Biden and Trump 🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Abby Martin is a journalist, filmmaker, and creator of The Empire Files. She joins Current Affairs editor in chief Nathan J. Robinson to discuss her new film, Cuba After Castro, which features a rare, in-depth interview with Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel. 🇨🇺 Watch Cuba After Castro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIAApY3b_i4&t=1162s 🇨🇺 Subscribe to The Empire Files: https://www.youtube.com/@UCG29FnXZm4F5U8xpqs1cs1Q 0:00-6:06 What’s Happening on the Ground in Cuba 6:06-10:22 America’s Efforts to Destroy Cuba’s Economy 10:22-12:48 How the Media Manufactures Consent 12:48-18:52 Palestine, Iran, and Cuba 18:52-27:06 The Myth of the Anti-War Right 27:06-30:09 The Legacy of Fidel Castro 30:09-41:33 The Ideals of the Cuban Revolution 41:33-46:01 The Threat Cuba Faces Today 46:01-53:11 How We Fight Back 🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Nathan J. Robinson returns to The Will Cain Show to defend Medicare for All, California’s proposed billionaire tax, and Zohran Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax. 🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership 🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Why should other people’s children be the ones who die in the wars he promotes? 🌹 Full article by Alex Skopic: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/send-ben-shapiro-to-iran 🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership 🦩 Merch: https://shop.currentaffairs.org/