This week, senior members of the Biden administration presented their defense before history, explaining or pointing fingers over their support for Israel’s assault on Gaza. In this episode, we pick that defense apart and compare it to earlier justifications of US imperial crimes.

Read NPR’s article, sourced from a couple dozen senior Biden officials: “We Didn’t Do Enough”

If we understand the failings of the establishment Democratic party, we empower ourselves to overcome them. And a rising crop of challengers aim to do just that, willing to name this moral collapse and oppose it.

Plus, the enormous Global Sumud Flotilla, carrying aid to Gazans, gives us hope, even as US warships threaten Venezuela on the other side of the ocean.
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This episode features part two of our conversation with Catholic Worker organizers Lenore Yarger and Steve Woolford, and their son Quinn. From their rural North Carolina home base, they’ve spent 20 years running the GI Rights Hotline, an anonymous lifeline for soldiers looking to get out, resist, or simply not follow illegal orders. Their hotline blew up when Trump ordered National Guard deployments to Los Angeles.

What happens when the empire turns inward? What kinds of calls do they get from soldiers at the breaking point?

We also learn some history of resistance to right-wing, anti-immigrant nativism in Siler City, a small North Carolina town.

Links:

1. GI RIGHTS HOTLINE: (877) 447-4487, girightshotline.org
2. A documentary recommendation from the Iraq War era: Sir, No Sir!

Support the show at theleftunsaid.net, and help us keep bringing you the stories official history leaves out.

This week, the tide may finally be starting to turn against genocide. A majority of Democratic Senators voted with Bernie to cut off some weapons to Israel. Not enough, but a major step forward.

Zohran Mamdani polls overwhelmingly ahead in the New York mayoral race, including among Jewish voters. Over in the UK, Jeremy Corbyn launched a new leftist party and immediately matched Labour’s membership. Turns out “don’t fund a genocide” is a winning platform.

But apparently, it's still a tough sell for some in Congress. And ambitious centrists seem to think they can run without strong moral opposition to forced starvation. From Roy Cooper's Senate ambitions here in North Carolina to Kamala’s resurrection tour, the "moderates" are scrambling to catch the cultural tide without getting too wet.

Then, we turn to something radical in a whole other way. Patrick, Meg, and Finn are joined by friends and Catholic Worker organizers Lenore Yarger, Steve Woolford, and their son Quinn. They talk about anarchist Catholic hospitality, voluntary poverty, and raising kids while forging an alternative to the dominant US family culture.

Part two of that conversation, on military resistance and Steve and Lenore's work with the GI Rights Hotline, is coming soon.

ALSO IN THIS EPISODE:

• The rise of Zohran social media clones with none of his substance

• The European hornets that attacked Patrick

LINKS:

• Join The Left Unsaid newsletter⁠⁠
• The Labour Files, a docuseries on Corbyn and the Labour Party
• Zeteo's parody of centrists copying Zohran
• And Liam Elkind's real-life campaign video parroting Zohran's style without the substance.