Category: 3-DailySometimeCommentary

On Monday, the Washington Post published a damning account of America’s war in Afghanistan. Titled “The Afghanistan Papers,” the report features dozens of interviews with people directly involved in the war, detailing the lies, deception, and misleading of the public that kept the war going. At once shocking and completely unsurprising, the papers are a secret history of America’s longest war.

Guest: Fred Kaplan writes for Slate and is the author of the forthcoming book The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War, due out in January 2020.

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• British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defends his title today as the nation holds general elections. He’ll be facing threats from all sides, including UK Bernie Jeremy Corbyn. 
• Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers announced that they’ve come to a tentative agreement with his accusers. If we learned anything about rich men in power, we should've guessed that Weinstein’s offer wouldn't be good. 
• And in headlines: cocaine sweaters, Khalil Mack is on the nice list, and WAD’s Person Of The Year.

Two maps can help tell the story of a looming public health problem in rural America. One, published by the CDC, shows 220 of the most vulnerable counties in America either experiencing or at risk of an HIV outbreak. The other, published by the Washington Post, shows where pharmaceutical companies sent most of their pain pills at the height of the opioid crisis. These maps almost perfectly matchup. And in Cabell County, West Virginia, a place acutely affected by the opioid crisis, 80 new cases of HIV have been diagnosed since last year. Today on the show, what’s going on in West Virginia and what can be done to help?

Guests: A. Toni Young, AIDS activist and founder of the Community Education Group. Dr. Steven W. Thrasher, professor of journalism and LGBTQ health at Northwestern University. He recently wrote an op-ed in the New York Times.

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• House Democrats have reached a deal with Trump on the United States Mexico Canada Agreement, which will replace the artist formerly known as NAFTA. We discuss what that means. 
• A new report shows that Greenland’s ice sheets are melting fast. To get technical, they’re now melting in dog years. 
• And in headlines: Spygate 2, SATs, and Trump appoints himself President Of Judaism.

Underneath the Oval Office there’s this room. It’s a windowless place with terrible cell phone reception but, right now, it’s home to a team crafting President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense strategy. Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Treasury aide Tony Sayegh started the effort to protect the president only in the past few weeks, but they’re already seeing results. How has this team circled the wagons for the president? And why is one senator in particular pleased to see the White House mount a proper defense?

Guest: Sarah Ellison, reporter covering media and politics for the Washington Post.

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• A report from the Inspector General has revealed Trump’s claim that the FBI spied on him in 2016 to be false. We talk about what else we learned from this scorching hot doc.
• Report two is from the Washington Post, about how American officials repeatedly lied and hid evidence that the conflict there was unwinnable. We discuss. 
• And in headlines: Golden Globe noms, the case of Cannon v. Shady, and Warren wins the war for transparency.