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As the remains of Jimmy Carter arrive in Washington, D.C., as part of a weeklong state funeral, we speak with historian Greg Grandin about the former U.S. president’s legacy. Carter, who served a single term from 1977 to 1981, promised to restore faith in government after the twin traumas of Watergate and the Vietnam War and to reorient U.S. foreign policy toward upholding human rights. “He came to power promising … a new kind of doctrine, that the United States was moving away from both the ideological excess and the support for dictatorships that led to wars like Vietnam or coups in Chile,” says Grandin. “Pretty quickly, events got ahead of him.” Carter’s “mixed and confused” legacy was nowhere more apparent than in Latin America, where he moved to limit aid to some right-wing dictatorships while supporting others, especially in Central America. He also began funding the mujahideen rebels in Afghanistan, which ultimately led to the Taliban and the 9/11 terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda. “For all of his decency and humanity, especially compared to the … clown circus that we’re living under now, we have to look at the more unfortunate legacies of Carter’s administration,” says Grandin.

Israeli forces are continuing their unrelenting attacks across the Gaza Strip, killing scores of Palestinians in the first week of 2025 even as Israeli and Hamas officials resume talks in Qatar aimed at reaching a ceasefire. The official death toll in Gaza is nearing 46,000, although experts say the true figure is likely much higher. The United Nations has warned its efforts to bring humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip are at a “breaking point” after Israeli forces opened fire on a World Food Programme convoy over the weekend, and healthcare facilities across much of the territory are destroyed, shuttered or barely functioning. For more on the deteriorating situation in Gaza, we’re joined by acclaimed Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha. His latest piece for The New Yorker is headlined “Requiem for a Refugee Camp,” examining Israel’s destruction of Jabaliya. He describes the double devastation of Palestinians who have not only been displaced during the 1948 Nakba but also during Israel’s current genocide of Gaza, placing refugees “farther and farther from [the] dream of return.”

I suspect it's gonna get much uglier before it's all said and done. And we're here for it! A "MAGA Civil War"? Count us in on The BradCast! [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.] But, first up, some other news today... Repeated "wildfire weather" warnings from the National Weather Service for Los Angeles, predicting [...]

Follow @GreenNewsReport... (Or use "Click here to listen..." link below.) IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: New year, new punishing extreme weather; 2024 was the hottest year in human history; President Biden bans new offshore drilling across most U.S. coastal waters; PLUS: The legacy of Jimmy Carter, one of the greatest conservation presidents in U.S. history... All that and [...]

In his new book Building the Black City: The Transformation of American Life, academic Joe Trotter Jr., explores the role of Black Americans in creating, sustaining, and expanding American cities all over the nation. 

The U.S. House of Representatives in late November 2024 passed a dangerous piece of legislation that many are calling the “nonprofit killer” bill.