Having as our special guest ben rhodes. He will speak and then he will speak and then. He and i will have a conversation. To postrage you all questions through the q a feature. Limited to the second half, i will begin to wrap up our discussion and i will start posing some of your questions. This will run about one hour. I want to mention next week, next wednesday we will have our last webinar for the seminar partnerll be with our novelg about his new which is a look into the future of warfare and cyber warfare. He is a fantastic thinker and writer. Rhodes. Y, ben he is the former National Security deputy National Security advisor. Of pensee the world and ae the world, friend of ucla. Take it away. Mr. Rhodes thank you everyone for joining us for this. Commentske some open summarizing the argument i was and that this piece can set up the directions we go when in our conversation. Me, the genesis of this idea about the end of the 9 11 era is like anyone else, the extremity of the lockdow
Deployment in germany comes at a tremendous cost also coming up a stunning legal victory for the community in the United States the mostly conservative Supreme Court rules that the 964 civil rights law protects gay and transgender people from discrimination at work. And funding the Coronavirus Vaccine the German Government buys a 23 percent stake in the german fire take firm the same company that the u. S. Government reportedly tried to acquire back in march. Im jarred raid in berlin welcome to the show or u. S. President donald trump has announced a large cut to american troop numbers here in germany trump said he would reduce those station here to 25000 thats down from a figure that fluctuates between 3452000 troops now trump says hes responding to germanys failure to meet its defense funding commitments to nato the north atlantic treaty organization. One of the only countries that hasnt agreed to pay what this supposed to pay is germany so i said until they pay were removing our sol
Oppression of certain peoples by federal troops. Wounded knee occurred in 1890, and the trueblue saloon we will encounter today, it is the name whicharticular bar at american soldiers were assaulted hile, at antry of c major port along the coast. I want us to consider the ways in which the u. S. Army and navy were envisioning their future. Considering the past presentations the ways in which the armed forces, especially certain elements of the officer corps, were anticipating great power conflict. Infusedegree of anxiety their beliefs. Historians dont have any radically or persuasively clear understanding of exactly why americans of this age were so , and at the same time there was a lot of optimism about prosperity and increasing productivity and benefits for american power. There were other americans who that thely worried extension of American Interest globally would implement the for regional aspirants for power such as japan. Presented opportunity the world at the end of the long
Fundamentally alter our national priorities, now is the time. Whether it is fighting against systemic racism and police brutality, transforming our Energy System away from fossil fuel, ending a cruel and dysfunctional Health Care System or addressing the grotesque levels of income and wealth inequality in our country, now is the time for change, real change. And when we talk about real change, it is incredible to me the degree to which Congress Continues to ignore our bloated 740 billion Defense Budget which has gone up by over 100 billion since trump has been in office. Year after year, democrats and republicans who disagree on almost everything come together with minimal debate to support an exploding pentagon budget which is now higher than the next 11 countries combined, now higher than the next 11 countries combined and which represents more than half of our discretionary spending. Incredibly, after adjusting for inflation, we are now spending more on the military than we did duri
And accompanied by months of denial and coverup by the Chinese Communist government. As of this hour, neither the white house, nor the Statement Department will reveal the agenda of those talks, nor exactly who is attending the meeting. This kind of secrecy is outside American Government tradition. That is, transparency and forthrightness in u. S. Foreign policy. The meeting is more in line with totalitarian states like china that dont recognize the right of the public to know what their government is doing. The Chinese Government wont acknowledge that a meeting is even being held, let alone what is under discussion. But the meeting comes at a time of heightened hostility between the United States and china. Brought on by beijings coverup and their dispatch of the deadly china virus pandemic, their aggressive military posture in the South China Sea, their recent takeover of hong kong and, of course, that aggressive Disinformation Campaign against the United States. One of this countrys