Ex-Pence Aide: Stephen Miller’s “Racist Hysteria” Made It Harder for Afghan Allies to Get Visas

Democracy Now!Aug 27, 2021
As thousands of people in Afghanistan attempt to flee the country before the United States’ withdrawal on August 31, we look at how the Trump administration made it much harder for Afghans who worked with the U.S. to apply and receive what is known as a special immigrant visa, or SIV. Oliva Troye, a former top aide to Mike Pence who resigned in protest, has placed the blame on Trump’s xenophobic adviser Stephen Miller, saying he peddled “racist hysteria” in White House meetings about bringing Afghan allies to the U.S. “Stephen Miller would say, ‘Well, these are terrorist cells in the making if you bring them here,’” says Troye, director of the Republican Accountability Project and former homeland security adviser to Pence. “I know for a fact that the Trump administration was planning this withdrawal for several years,” says Troye. “Why were they not actively prioritizing this population so that we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in today?”

Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Legacy: A Conversation with Pulitzer Prize Winning Historian Kai Bird

Commonwealth Club of CaliforniaAug 27, 2021
Historian and journalist Kai Bird’s new book, The Outlier, is being acclaimed as a definitive account of President Jimmy Carter’s presidency, including how President Carter’s often-controversial policies and initiatives appear in historical perspective.

Carter assisted Bird in his research, giving him exclusive access to the private papers of Charles Kirbo, Carter’s longtime personal lawyer and political adviser, as well as to the unpublished diaries of Carter White House aides Langdon Butler, Tim Kraft and Jerome Doolittle. Bird points out that as president, Jimmy Carter was not merely an outsider: he was an outlier. He was the only president in a century to grow up in the heart of the Deep South, and his born-again Christianity made him the most openly religious president in memory. Bird says this outlier brought to the White House a rare mix of humility, candor and unnerving self-confidence that neither Washington nor America was ready to embrace.

Bird traces the arc of Carter’s administration, from his aggressive domestic agenda to his controversial foreign policy record, taking readers inside the Oval Office and through Carter’s battles with both a political establishment and a Washington press corps that proved as adversarial as any foreign power. Mr. Bird shows how issues still hotly debated today—from national health care to growing inequality and racism to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—burned at the heart of Carter’s America, and consumed a president who found a moral duty in solving them.

Bird won the Pulitzer Prize for biography for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. His work includes critical writings on the Vietnam War, Hiroshima, nuclear weapons, the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the CIA.

Now, join a fascinating conversation with Kai Bird about this highly regarded American leader whose presidential legacy Mr. Bird says has been deeply misunderstood.

NOTES

This program is part of The Commonwealth Club’s Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

Author photo by Joshua Bird.

WED, AUG 18 2021 SPEAKERS

Kai Bird Executive Director and Distinguished Lecturer, City University of New York Leon Levy Center for Biography; Pulitzer Prize Winning Historian and Journalist; Author, The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter

In Conversation with Dr. Gloria Duffy President and CEO, The Commonwealth Club of California; Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Clinton

Program Chair: Dr. Mary Bitterman President, Bernard Osher Foundation; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors

Mega Disasters: Mega Freeze Devastates the Globe (S1, E11) | Full Episode | History

HISTORYAug 27, 2021
Could North America and parts of Europe be headed for a “big chill?” Many experts fear that an abrupt climate change could have catastrophic effects across the planet, including devastating winters, in Season 1, Episode 11, “Mega Freeze.”

‘MSM don’t give a damn about women in Afghanistan’ | By Robert Inlakesh

RTAug 27, 2021
In a last-ditch effort to turn the tide in Afghanistan, mainstream media is still banging on women’s rights, even though those rights weren’t respected in big parts of the country prior to the U.S. withdrawal…

Popular California Beach Nuked? (w/ Kevin Kamps)

Thom Hartmann ProgramAug 27, 2021
There are a combination of failures: why 3.6m pounds of nuclear waste is buried on a popular California beach? Plus – Are the Fukushima operators building an undersea tunnel to release treated water? Is this safe?

Slavery and Salvation – History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi Episode 17

BBC News Africa– Oct 18, 2020

In this episode, Zeinab Badawi visits Ghana and sees how momentum in the trans Atlantic slave trade led to competition for enslaved Africans between European nations who built numerous slave forts along West Africa’s Atlantic coast. She hears about the inhumane conditions in which slaves awaiting shipment were kept and how women were selected and subjected to rape by their captors. Also what do African academics believe were the main reasons behind abolition and why did many Africans return to the continent such as to Liberia? And how were they received by local communities?

See related:

• The Africa Map Circle – Introduction & Digital Resource Directory
• Learning Under Lockdown: Some Tools & Tips for Online Learning About Africa & the World
• Mapping the Slave Trade: 1556-1823 – A Digital Humanities Project
• What is the “Africa Map Circle?” What does it Do? What can it help me do? [Excerpt of “Looted Past”]
• The African Historical Graphics Archive
• The Africa Map Circle – a brief introduction.
  and
• The Africa Map Circle – “Explorations”
• University of Cape Coast – Conference Resources
• Repatriating” African History – Digitizing Historical Maps, Images & Artifacts to Enhance Global Collaborative Research & Understanding
  and
• Curating a Fractured Past: The Role of Museums, Maps, Manuscripts, Prints, Rare Books, Photos, Artifacts, Literature & the Arts in Embracing Our Common Humanity….

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NASA’s Next Search for Life Is in Extraterrestrial Oceans

Bloomberg Quicktake – Aug 25, 2021

It’s thought that many planetary bodies in our solar system contain liquid water deep below their icy surfaces. NASA is sending a probe, called Europa Clipper, to investigate the potential habitability of one of these ocean worlds.

What The Next Space Station May Look Like

CNBC – Aug 25, 2021

The International Space Station will likely be retired within the decade. NASA hopes to save money by having commercial companies build the next space outpost. Some companies including Sierra Space and Axiom Space are already working on a commercial space station. But the question is, will these stations be ready in time?

Gulf Coast braces for Tropical Storm Ida

CBS This Morning– Aug 27, 2021

Tropical Storm Ida is moving toward the Gulf of Mexico, and is expected to make landfall on Sunday. CBS News meteorologist and climate specialist Jeff Berardelli is tracking what could be a devastating storm.

Climate change: Deadly floods 20% more likely

Reuters – Aug 24, 2021

Climate change has made extreme rainfall events of the kind that sent deadly torrents of water hurtling through parts of Germany and Belgium in July at least 20% more likely to happen in the region, scientists said.