Angela Keaton and Lucy Steigerwald take a crack at what we hope will be a brand new, weekly podcast for the site. We’ll talk war, antiwar, police, imperialism, and all that chipper stuff. In episode one, Keaton and Steigerwald talk Chelsea Manning, new President Trump, and whether the women of this week’s marches are allies, or not. (Hint: maybe, but Hillary Clinton ain’t.)
Author: Lucy Steigerwald
Obama’s Hiroshima Speech Was Lovely, Frustrating, and Infuriating
President Obama’s #apology tour keeps a-rollin’ on, am I right? No, hang on.
As unforgivable as Obama has been on foreign policy in myriad ways — and how much worse, perhaps, a Clinton or any Republican ever might be with the help of Obama’s drone precedents — there is something about him which almost looks like better than it could be. At least in certain lights. That is to say, Obama kills people, but he also occasionally appears to notice that the US has made foreign policy mistakes. This is what the hawks and right-wingers dub the apology tour, even though “sorry” never crosses the president’s lips when he’s discussing the heavy handed US response to 9/11, or admitting America’s role in the 1953 coup in Iran.
Obama is the first sitting president to visit Hiroshima. The opening act for his visit to the site of the first nuclear bomb ever dropped on human beings was Secretary of State John Kerry, who went last month. Kerry’s delicate acknowledgement that the bombing was a tragedy gave conservatives a case of indigestion. Obama’s Friday speech may make them lose their minds entirely. Continue reading “Obama’s Hiroshima Speech Was Lovely, Frustrating, and Infuriating”
Lucy Steigerwald Covers the GOP Debate for Playboy
In Trump’s Absence, Republicans Had Something That Resembled a Debate
By Lucy Steigerwald
There is a pre-packaged narrative that says Donald Trump won the final, pre-Iowa Caucus debate by virtue of his not even showing up. Google searches confirm that frontrunner Trump was on the minds of many, even if he was busy staging his own rally down the road. His – to put it politely – pet cause of immigration was one of the prominent topics on stage.
And yes, the opening question Fox News co-moderator Megyn Kelly tossed first at Sen. Ted Cruz was about “the elephant not in the room” and what Trump was saying to Iowa by not attending the debate like the good boys all had.
Everyone said their piece. There was a weasely-sounding quip from Cruz and an awkward one from former Gov. Jeb Bush about leaving the stage like you-know-who. Sen. Marco Rubio called him “the greatest show on earth” but said the proceedings were not about Trump. Later Cruz tried and failed to start a Trump-ish squabble with Fox News but abandoned that tactic when co-moderator Chris Wallace gamely fought back with “it is a debate, sir.”
After a spirited round of pandering to Iowa (“Iowa in 2017 will not be fly-over country. It will be fly-to country,” vowed Cruz, in one of the night’s weird lines that almost worked but totally didn’t) the night moved on to less Trump-as-Voldemort topics. And it worked. Every candidate besides the somnambulant Dr. Ben Carson seemed to be stretching their legs and picking up speed without Trump there to trip them up.
Lucy Steigerwald On Ron Paul Liberty Report: Talking Cheney and Neocons
Two Fridays ago, I had the pleasure of being on the Ron Paul Liberty Report, along with Dr. Paul and Daniel McAdams, the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity Executive Director. We chatted about my Antiwar piece “Who Is Listening to Dick Cheney?”, about the lack of consequences for warmongering (or any government outrage, in fact!), and had time to sneak in a brief drug war chat at the end.
Lucy Steigerwald and Sheldon Richman Talk ISIS, Mid East, and The New Bush
On Tuesday, Sheldon Richman and I had another podcast chat. As usual, Richman’s depth of knowledge was impressive and made it difficult to keep up (in the best possible way). So did his passionate rants against the warfare state (but that was because I had my thyroid removed, which makes raging slightly more difficult!).
Check him and me out. We covered Iran, Iraq, Syria, ISIS, and the horrors of the 2016 class of hawks, as well as the old school neocons’ plans to remake the Middle East in their own image.
You can listen to an audio-only version of the podcast series over here. And check out Sheldon and my other chats here. (And while you’re at it, Scott Horton’s “Eye on the Empire” series with Jeffrey Tucker is also a very worthy watch.)
Lucy Steigerwald and Sheldon Richman Talk Iran, War, Israel
On Tuesday, I had the privilege and pleasure of podcasting with Sheldon Richman, as I do these days. Not every episode is about war, but they do tend to lean that way because both Sheldon and I are crazy peaceniks like that. Richman was particularly on fire in this episode. Many antiwar rants were had. Check it out. Sheldon knows his stuff, and I…also know a few things.
You can listen to an audio-only version of the podcast over here. And check out Sheldon and my other chats here. (And while you’re at it, Scott Horton’s “Eye on the Empire” series with Jeffrey Tucker is also a very worthy watch.)