June 5 - Is Trump Not Just Out of His Depth But Also Out of His Mind?; The Motives Behind the Blockade of Qatar

We begin with the increasing attacks by Donald Trump on the Mayor of London who is dealing with the aftermath of a terrible terrorist attack which would normally elicit support and solidarity from allies not petty insults and unseemly opportunism. A CIA veteran Robert Baer, who is now the national security affairs analyst for CNN, joins us to discuss the possibility that the leader of the free world in not just out of his depth, but is out of his mind. We examine our tenuous reliance on the few adults in the room that we rely on to contain Trump’s erratic behavior as we learn that Generals Mattis and McMaster were overridden by Stephen Bannon and Stephen Miller who edited Trump’s NATO speech at the last minute to remove America’s support for Article 5 of the NATO treaty. We also assess the pressure on the British PM Theresa May to release a secret report she oversaw as Home Secretary on Saudi funding and influence in jihadist groups inside the U.K. who just carried out a third attack with one of Saturday’s terrorists featured in a documentary shown last year on Britain’s Channel Four “The Jihadis Next Door” who was filmed holding up the ISIS flag in Regents Park complaining about the treatment of Muslims in the U.K. And now that six Arab states have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and are essentially blockading the country to bring about regime change, we will look into whether this confrontation is a step towards a war with Iran.

Part 2

Then we examine further the motives behind the growing crisis in the Gulf as a Saudi-led blockage of neighboring Qatar is underway cutting off transportation links and food supplies as well as isolating important American military bases in the Middle East. David Hearst, the Editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye where his latest article is “Three potential motives behind the spat between Qatar and Gulf neighbors”, joins us to discuss the subtexts beyond the Saudi charge that Qatar is too friendly towards Iran. We will look into whether this is a part of a U.S.-Saudi-Egyptian-Israeli strategy to defund and isolate Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and contain Iran and how much it is payback for the “Arab Spring” from reactionary monarchs and military dictatorships who were rattled by popular revolts and want to continue to hold onto power at any cost.