Episode

6/13 Why Israel Is Losing; Hochul Wrecks NYC Congestion Pricing w/ Greg Stoker, Hayden Clarkin

June 13, 2024

It’s an EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Greg Stoker, co-host of the Colonial Outcasts podcast, to discuss the recent military operations by Israeli forces in Gaza. Then, she speaks with Hayden Clarkin, also known as the Transit Guy on Twitter, to discuss New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s recent decision to delay congestion pricing. First, Emma runs through updates on reproductive care in the US, ceasefire negotiations, Israel’s continued siege on Gaza, Biden’s asylum ban, Ukraine-US relations, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court decision on reparations for the Tulsa Race Riots, Elon’s harassment allegations, and the crackdown of Argentina’s police state, also diving deeper into the Supreme Court’s recent dismissal of a challenge to Mifepristone, and when the other shoe will drop. Greg Stoker then joins, diving right into his military background, the major influence that working with “kinetic” Drone strikes under Obama (alongside the following decade of growth) had in awakening him to the indiscriminate violence of US imperialism. Shifting focus, Stoker looks to Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Gaza, which has made the US military look nearly discriminate by contrast, walking through how Israel has eviscerated every central piece of infrastructure of Gaza society, and demonstrated a divide in the tactics of Western Imperialism and outright genocide. Expanding on this, Greg and Emma tackle the narrative around ongoing ceasefire negotiations, assessing why this conflict has largely been a success for Hamas and a failure for Israel, with no real end in sight for the occupier, also touching on Israel’s increasingly irrational violence towards other regional actors like Iran. Wrapping up the interview, Stoker touches on the US’ dwindling soft power, what that means in the context of their supposed foreign policy pivot to Asia, and what THAT means in the context of US support for Israel’s genocide. Hayden Clarkin then slowly walks Emma through the background for NY Gov. Hochul’s astounding recent decision to kill New York’s congestion pricing plan for Manhattan, with the policy already a long time coming at the time of NYC’s 2017 MTA state of emergency, when it was first put forward as a solution to issues of traffic and transit maintenance and upgrades, with its 2023 approval immediately seeing the launching of a thousand lawsuits from NY’s Jersey neighbors over its supposed cost, and ultimately leading to Hochul’s move. Expanding on this, Transit Guy assesses who this pricing plan would *actually* impact (some 1.5% of commuters into Manhattan), the myriad exemptions ironed in, and the wide array of transit-infrastructure-related projects it would fun, also touching on the statistics behind Manhattan’s ongoing traffic crisis. Wrapping up, Clarkin discusses the new lawsuit from NYC Comptroller Brad Lander over this killing of myriad major MTA projects, and the unsurprising financial influences behind this fiasco.

And in the Fun Half: Emma is joined by Matt Binder and Brandon Sutton as they listen to George Latimer struggle not to prove the point of a caller accusing him of “tokenizing” and “marginalizing” Black constituents who critique him, and unpack some car-spiracies. Robert in Manhattan on terror and the state, and Daniel in LA on housing policy. Sinclair Broadcasting pushes the “Biden mental health deteriorates” story en-masse, which Kevin McCarthy happily joins in on, and Donald Trump embraces the son he never had, Logan Paul. Annie from Washington discusses her ongoing campaign for Washington’s state house seat in District 38, plus, your calls and IMs!

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