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Ralph welcomes Professor Theodore Postol, Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology and National Security Policy at MIT. We discuss the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel/ Palestine and breakdown what the weaponry being used in both conflicts tells us about the intentions and capabilities of all parties involved. Plus, Ralph answers listener questions!

Theodore Postol is Professor of Science, Technology and National Security Policy Emeritus in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. His expertise is in nuclear weapon systems, including submarine warfare, applications of nuclear weapons, ballistic missile defense, and ballistic missiles more generally. He previously worked as an analyst at the Office of Technology Assessment and as a science and policy adviser to the chief of naval operations. In 2016, he received the Garwin Prize from the Federation of American Scientists for his work in assessing and critiquing the government\u2019s claims about missile defenses.

We have a very complicated situation. In some ways, there's no right or wrong. There are different groups of people with deep ethnic commitments, and a central government in Kiev that has acted in a way that's completely intolerant of a significant fraction of its own citizens who happen to be of Russian descent. And right from the beginning, there was hostility from the West.

Theodore Postol

There's a long history of the central Ukrainian command not supporting their troops at the battlefront. This is a real problem with the troops. The morale of the troops has been tremendously affected in an adverse way by the sense that their military leadership is not concerned about their life. It's one thing to ask a soldier to go risk their lives or lay down their life for their country and be providing everything you can to protect them and make it possible for them to fight. It's another thing when you're sending them to a certain death just because it looks good.

Theodore Postol

The people in leadership roles are clueless, to a point that it's astonishing. The last situation that I know of historically where the leadership was so clueless was Tsar Nicholas II in 1917.

Theodore Postol

In Case You Haven\u2019t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 4/23/24

1. According to AP, the United States has vetoed Palestine\u2019s latest bid for full membership in the United Nations. The vote in the 15-member U.N. Security Council was 12 in favor, including close U.S. allies like France, Japan, and South Korea, with the U.K. and Switzerland opting to abstain. Only the United States voted against the resolution. If U.S. had not blocked the resolution, the question would have gone to the full U.N. General Assembly, where no country holds veto power. While the U.S. claims this vote \u201cdoes not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood,\u201d these words obviously ring empty. Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the council \u201cThe fact that this resolution did not pass will not break our will and it will not defeat our determination\u2026The state of Palestine is inevitable. It is real.\u201d 140 countries recognize Palestine. Palestine currently sits as a non-member observer state at the U.N.

2. Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a prominent Palestinian-American academic, was arrested at her home in Jerusalem last week, Democracy Now! reports. According to this report, Dr. Shalhoub-Kevorkian \u201cwas suspended by Hebrew University last month after saying in an interview Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.\u201d Sarah Ihmoud, a co-founder of the Palestinian Feminist Collective who teaches at College of the Holy Cross is quoted saying \u201cWe see this as yet another example of Israel attacking Palestinians wherever they are, whoever they are. It underscores that no Palestinian is safe under Israel\u2019s racist apartheid rule.\u201d Now, Ryan Grim of the Intercept reports that Dr. Shalhoub-Kevorkian is communicating trough family that she is being tortured in Israeli custody. Maddeningly, it appears unlikely that President Biden will hold Israel to account for the possible torture of an American citizen.

3. Left-wing Israeli journalist Nimrod Flaschenberg reports Israeli refusenik Tal Mitnick and Sofia Orr \u201cwere both sentenced this week by the Israeli army to prison terms of 45 days+15 days probation. This will bring Sofia to a total of 85 days and Tal to 150. The Israeli army is relentless. But these brave kids are not about to give up.\u201d This is Mr. Mitnick\u2019s 4th term in military prison and Ms. Orr\u2019s third, accoring to Pressenza. The international press agency further reports \u201cprobation is unprecedented and aims at deterring the refusers by enabling the military court to extend their next sentence beyond the 45-day limit\u2026[and] In addition to Mitnick and Orr, conscientious objector Ben Arad is serving his first term of 20 days in prison.\u201d

4. Much has been made of the recent pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University. Prem Thakker of the Intercept reports, organizers of these protests say over 50 Barnard students and over 30 Columbia students have been suspended, with Barnard students losing access to dining and housing services. Reports on the ground show the universities dumping students belongings in the street. At the protests themselves, organizers emphasize that Jewish and Muslim students shared prayer space, and stress \u201cColumbia wants you to believe we are enemies to protect their genocidal investments, but there is no deeper solidarity."

5. Following SUNY Binghampton\u2019s adoption of a BDS resolution, New York State Legislators sent a letter to SUNY Chancellor John B. King calling for the expulsion of the student leaders behind that campaign. Moreover, this letter calls for \u201cthe ouster of any faculty and committee members who played a role in promoting or supporting this resolution.\u201d This letter was signed by both Republican and Democratic state legislators in Albany. As prominent DSA member Aaron Narraph aptly put it, this campaign against the student activists constitutes \u201cour very own mccarthyism.\u201d

6. In more campus news, The Lens, a New Orleans based outlet, is out with a blistering report on LSU\u2019s pay-for-play arrangement with fossil fuel companies. They write \u201cFor $5 million dollars, Louisiana\u2019s flagship university will let an oil company help choose which faculty research projects move forward. Or, for $100,000, a corporation can participate in a research study, with \u2018robust\u2019 reviewing powers and access to resulting intellectual property.\u201d This report links to documents that outline LSU\u2019s fundraising pitch to oil and chemical companies, and \u201cRecords [which] show that after Shell donated $25 million in 2022 to LSU\u2026the university gave the fossil-fuel corporation license to influence research and coursework for the university\u2019s new concentration in carbon capture, use, and storage.\u201d It is telling that, like pro-Palestine speech, the so-called campus free speech defenders are not standing up to corporate capture of research institutions.

7. Against the backdrop of escalating diplomatic tensions in Latin-America over Ecuador\u2019s raid on the Mexican embassy, Progressive International reports \u201cEcuador [has voted] NO in the referendum on investor-state arbitration\u2026rejecting President Noboa\u2019s underhanded efforts to override the Constitution to protect foreign investors over labor rights, Indigenous communities, and environmental regulations.\u201d The Investor-State Dispute System \u2013 which places international corporations on the same legal footing as sovereign governments and hands over adjudication to the World Trade Organization \u2013 has come under heavy fire by left-wing skeptics of so-called \u2018free trade\u2019 in recent years, contributing to the ultimate demise of the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal engineered in the late Obama era. The ISDS has had a particularly troubling history in Latin-America, with tobacco companies suing Uruguay over anti-smoking legislation to name just one example. At the same time however, Ecuador overwhelmingly passed an anti-gang referendum in a victory for Noboa, per Reuters. Expect to see more about Ecuador in the coming weeks.

8. Techcruch reports \u201cTesla is recalling all 3,878 Cybertrucks that it has shipped to date, due to a problem where the accelerator pedal can get stuck, putting drivers at risk of a crash, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.\u201d This article goes on to say \u201cThe recall caps a tumultuous week for Tesla. The company laid off more than 10% of its workforce on Monday, and lost two of its highest-ranking executives.\u201d The Guardian now reports that Tesla plans to cut prices on the Cybertrucks, which cost over $100,000 each. We beseech our listeners to be wary of these vehicles and to do thorough research on Tesla\u2019s auto safety record.

9. In more transportation news, transportation blog Second Ave. Sagas reports \u201cThe feds are threatening to sue [New York City] if city vehicles [such as NYPD patrol SUVs] do not stop parking on sidewalks and crosswalks in ways that \u2018impede the access of people with disabilities to pedestrian pathways.\u2019\u201d According to the Justice Department\u2019s letter, \u201cThe City of New York (and, more specifically, the NYPD) has failed to ensure that the pedestrian grid is \u2018readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities,\u2019... NYPD vehicles and the personal vehicles of NYPD employees frequently obstruct sidewalks and crosswalks in the vicinity of NYPD precincts\u2026a recent study identified parking behaviors at 91% of the NYPD\u2019s precincts that resulted in obstructions to sidewalks and crosswalks with the potential to render those pathways inaccessible.\u201d We commend the Justice Department for taking action to ensure the ADA is enforced, even against the NYPD which routinely behaves as though it is above the law.

10. Finally, the United Autoworkers have prevailed in their union election at the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant, winning by an overwhelming 2,628 to 985 margin, per the Guardian. This marks the first time workers have unionized a foreign-owned auto plant in the South and serves as a repudiation of the anti-union campaign backed by Republican Governors such as Tennessee\u2019s own Bill Lee. UAW President Shawn Fain responded to this campaign, saying \u201cThey\u2019re liars\u2026These politicians are showing that they\u2019re just puppets for corporate America, and they don\u2019t give a damn about working-class people. They don\u2019t care about the workers being left behind even though the workers are the ones who elect them.\u201d Seizing on the momentum of victory,\xa0 said \u201cThe workers at VW are the first domino to fall. They have shown it is possible\u2026I expect more of the same to come. Workers are fed up.\u201d UAW now plans to target a Mercedes plant in Alabama; according to the union, \u201cA supermajority of Mercedes-Benz workers have filed a petition with the\u2026NLRB\u2026for a vote to join the UAW.\u201d As the Guardian notes, \u201cMercedes has been considerably more outspoken against the union than VW was, with a top Mercedes official telling workers: \u2018I don\u2019t believe the UAW can help us to be better.\u2019\u201d Yet Fain is confident, saying \u201cAt the end of the day, I believe that workers at Mercedes definitely want a union\u2026and I believe a big majority there will vote in favor.\u201d

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven\u2019t