The Smallest Man With The Biggest Job in America Calls Out China in a Hegemonic Showdown
We begin with the smallest man with the biggest job in America, our belligerent nuclear-gunfighter Pete Hegseth, who called out China in a hegemonic showdown on Saturday in Singapore, at the same time assuring Xi Jinping that the U.S. does not stand for human rights or care about climate change. Joining us to discuss the warning of China’s imminent threat to Taiwan from the woefully unqualified Secretary of Defense, who was cast in the role by his Reality TV boss because of Hegseth’s square-jawed macho blustering on Fox News, is Michael Swaine, a senior research fellow and former director of the Quincy Institute’s East Asia program. One of the most prominent American scholars of Chinese security studies, he previously worked for nearly twenty years as a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace specializing in Chinese defense and foreign policy, U.S.–China relations, and East Asian international relations. He also advises the U.S. government on Asian security issues. His books include Remaining Aligned on the Challenges Facing Taiwan and Conflict and Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Strategic Net Assessment. We discuss his article at the Washington Quarterly “Taiwan: Defending a non-vital U.S. interest.”
Trump and Musk’s Refugees From an Imaginary White Genocide
Then we speak with Ryan Cooper, Managing Editor at The American Prospect. He is the Cohost of the Left Anchor podcast as well as the author of the new book How are You Going to Pay for That? Smart Answers to the Dumbest Question in Politics. We discuss his latest article at The American Prospect, “How I Survived White Genocide in South Africa,” a tongue-in-cheek reference to Musk and Trump’s embrace of racist white South Africans welcomed into the U.S. as refugees from imaginary genocide while real genocides are being ignored and migrants with deep roots in America are being rounded up and deported.
Part 2 of George Packer’s Atlantic Article on Our Next President: “The Talented Mr. Vance”
Then finally, we continue yesterday’s conversation with George Packer, an award-winning author and staff writer at The Atlantic. His books include The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America; The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq; Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century; and Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal. He is also the author of two novels and a play and the editor of a two-volume edition of the essays of George Orwell; his forthcoming novel is The Emergency. We continue the discussion on his latest article at The Atlantic, “The Talented Mr. Vance.”