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Dave Marash  – February 25, 2022 |  View this email in your browser

Backward and Forward
February 25, 2022

A shock, but not a surprise: that's Donald J. Trump's repeated salutes to Vladimir Putin's "savvy" and "genius," even as the Russian president is in the midst of a rampage of crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
 
It should always be shocking to hear a former president disparage his successor in the midst of an international crisis, but more shocking when the disparagements undermine the American in favor of the nation's self-proclaimed enemy.
 
That "the former guy" should be the perpetrator of these historic crimes against the institutions of the presidency and the post-presidency and against the American people  who can claim to be surprised at that?
 
Is this the "too far?" Is this the expression of Trump's true self that finally jumps the shark, that leaves at least some of his cult behind?
THIS WEEK: HOW FEDERAL FUNDS SHOULD BE SPREAD AROUND; HOW HEALTHY FOODS CAN PENETRATE THE PANDEMIC; AFRICAN KLEPTOCRACY WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS AND GULF WAR VETS NEGLECTED
This was a great week for nuts and bolts on HERE & THERE. On Monday, University of Michigan and Brookings Institution economist John C. Austin talked about some of the nuts and bolts of the Biden Administration's one big legislative success  the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law. How do you keep the wheels on the car when it's being driven in sometimes irreconcilable directions, like spending the "Build Back" money quickly, efficiently and where it is needed most.  Even two out of three would be miraculous.

You can find Monday's show here.
Tuesday's guest, journalist and farmer Dean Kuipers of The Nation and Red Canary, dug his fingers deep into the dirt of a food hub, and how he and his wife built one in Los Angeles during the pandemic.  A food hub connects farmers to distributors to consumers, and Kuipers' was as green as it could be, an aspiration that unites several successful food hubs and farmers in Minnesota and New Mexico. 

You can find Tuesday's show here.
On Wednesday, a dissection of the working parts of multi-billion dollar kleptocracy in the DRC, The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Our guide is John Dell'Osso, senior investigator for The Sentry, an anti-crime news site started by George Clooney and John Prendergast, the team that showed the reality of Darfur to the world. The other parties to Congo's so-called "Deal of the Century" are all entities controlled by the government of China. 

You can find Wednesday's show here.
On Thursday, we brought back an HERE & THERE from last May, featuring Kelly Kennedy, managing editor of The War Horse, that award-winning news site devoted to military and veterans' issues. Kennedy fought in Gulf War One and saw fellow fighters afflicted by a medical mystery that came to be called "Gulf War Syndrome."  Most of the mysteries have been solved, but many of the vets suffering from the syndrome's diverse symptoms are still having a hard time getting proper care or compensation.
You can find Thursday's show here.
NEXT WEEK: NEW MEXICO'S 2022 LEGISLATIVE SESSION; FLAT EARTH BELIEF LIVES; WHO GOT RICH FROM THE PANDEMIC AND AMERICA THE VULNERABLE.
The recently-completed 30-day session of the New Mexico Legislature produced relatively few bills, but more than a few surprises. Monday's HERE & THERE guest Andy Lyman of the New Mexico Political Report and KSFR FM news says the biggest impact may be what got in and what got left out of a record breaking $8.48 billion budget. Good news for teachers and police officers. Bad news for environmental advocates.
 
On Tuesday, you might think the flat earth obsession was old hat, knocked into anachronism after so many people knew people who'd flown around the world in planes, But flat earth belief has more adherents today than ever before.  Kelly Weill's new book Off the Edge looks at the history of the Flat Earth movement and the other conspiracy theories it might have helped to flourish.
 
The Coronavirus crisis produced the opportunity to create miracle vaccines. So much for the good news. The bad news is, the vaccine-makers are breaking the bank over-charging the world. Wednesday's HERE & THERE guest John Nichols' new book Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers holds politicians and corporate chiefs accountable for making villainy and greed a public-private partnership.
 
How did so much poison get into the drinking water at the waterworks in Oldsmar, Florida, and what would have happened if the hackers who unsuccessfully targeted a tiny dam in New York's Westchester County had succeeded at the dam they really wanted to hit...a much, much bigger one out West? Jack Gillum of Pro Publica originally told us last April about America's vulnerable infrastructure. The situation now is as bad as ever.
 
— dmarash

 

ATTENTION ART LOVERS: 

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Listen to Here & There Mondays through Thursdays at 4:07 MDT on KSFR FM 101.1 in Santa Fe or live-streamed on ksfr.org, or catch up with us on WMNB LP in North Adams, Massachusetts; KENW in Portales, New Mexico; KSVR in Mount Vernon, Washington; KCSB in Santa Barbara, California; KUPR in Placitas, New Mexico; WYAP in Clay County, West Virginia; KRZA in Alamosa, Colorado;KENE in Eagle Tail, New Mexico; KENG in Ruidoso, New Mexico; KENM in Tucumcari, New Mexico; KMTH in Maljamar, New Mexico; and KMXT, Kodiak Island, Alaska.

We have joined the exit from Spotify, but you can still access HERE & THERE online via Apple Podcasts and Stitcher, as well as at davemarash.com.

And if you care to contribute to defray our expenses, just click here.
And look on our davemarash.com website to see what the radio and podcast can’t show you – the great editorial illustrations of Amy Marash. Come for the info, stay for the art. And if you know appropriate readers, know that the prestigious journal The Lancet: Oncology recommends Amy’s book Cancer Is So Funny to all sufferers from cancer and their caregivers and friends.
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