Ralph speaks to Dr. Feroze Sidhwa for an update on the death toll in Gaza as well as the new documentary film “American Doctor.” Then Ralph and economic William Lazonick discuss Nvidia’s planned $235 billion stock buyback.
Dr. Feroze Sidhwa is a general, trauma, and critical care surgeon in California. He is also a humanitarian surgeon who has worked in Palestine, Ukraine, Haiti, Zimbabwe, and Burkina Faso. He most recently volunteered at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, Gaza. He was blocked from entering Gaza by Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence service in November 2025. His work in Gaza is featured in the new documentary film American Doctor.
If I’m remembering the exact time right, March of 2016 was the deadliest month for children that [Airwars] had ever studied anywhere—so that’s the 31 days of March of 2016. In the first 25 days of the US-Israeli assault on Gaza, the rate of killing of children was 71 to 142 times higher than in the deadliest month they had ever studied for children anywhere else. And just to put these numbers in a little bit of perspective…If you look at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine versus Israel’s invasion of Gaza, Russian forces killed the same percentage of children in Ukraine in 10 months as the US and Israel kill in Gaza every 18 to 37 hours.
Dr. Feroze Sidhwa
I want to emphasize to people that [American Doctor] is not a gory movie. This movie is nothing— Saving Private Ryan is a much bloodier movie than this. But nevertheless, this movie is a tough watch sometimes because the things you see (like what [Dr. Mark Perlmutter] shows at the very beginning) are difficult. They are scenes of dead bodies—not bodies that have been ripped to shreds, but bodies that are just dead. And it forces you to realize what our bombs do to people. You know, our bombs are not made of magic and pixie dust. They cause pressure waves, they cause blast injuries, they cause all sorts of death and destruction. And in that opening scene that’s what Mark is trying to get the director [Poh Si Teng] to understand—that if she blurs these images, if she pixelates them, if she refuses to show people what it looks like to kill children and what dead children actually look like and force people to look (to really just look), that she’ll be doing people a disservice. And you hear it at the end of the trailer when he’s saying “People have a right to know the truth.” Well, the truth is pretty uncomfortable.
Dr. Feroze Sidhwa
The most effective medical care that human beings provide to each other is provided to small children so that they can reach the age of five (at that point they become a bit more robust and they can survive the challenges that the world throws at them) and to pregnant women. Those are the two groups that benefit most from medical care. When you destroy a medical system…This is literally every hospital in Gaza, and not just the hospitals. Most of the clinics have been destroyed. Most of the pharmaceutical warehouses have been destroyed. Most of the veterinary medicine spots have been destroyed. So when you attack a health care system like this, you’re basically condemning women and children to die. There’s no other effect that it could even be expected to have. The same goes with the destruction of Gaza’s sewage system, it’s the destruction of its educational system, the destruction of the water treatment facilities, the destruction of almost all of the housing in Gaza, the destruction of the entire arable land and food distribution system, the destruction of almost every bakery in Gaza, the destruction of every chicken farm, it just goes on and on and on. Everything that sustains life, especially for an urbanized population, has been destroyed. And that’s why the vast majority of international experts consider this to be genocidal.
Dr. Feroze Sidhwa
William Lazonick is a professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and co-founder and president of the Academic-Industry Research Network, a non-profit research organization . His recent work includes Predatory Value Extraction: How the Looting of the Business Corporation Became the US Norm and How Sustainable Prosperity Can Be Restored, and Investing in Innovation: Confronting Predatory Value Extraction in the U.S. Corporation.’
When [Nvidia] issued this press release a couple days ago about the [$235 billion] buyback, one of the things it says is that it’s “returning capital to shareholders”. I mean, Jensen Huang (who’s a founder and CEO of Nvidia) knows that’s nonsense. The only time they ever raised money from shareholders on the stock market was in their IPO in 1999 (January 1999). And that was $40 million. One of his three co-founders, Curtis Priem, sold all his stock in 2006 for about $30 million. It’s estimated that if he had held the stock to the present, it would be worth $70 billion. So if those people who originally bought the stock at the IPO had held on to it, you don’t need to return anything else to them. They’ve got plenty and plenty of money for holding on. So this is just a manipulation of the stock market.
William Lazonick
News 10/2/26
Our first story this week comes to us from Florida, where Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Angie Nixon made news by saying in an interview with Newsweek that she thinks “there needs to be a moratorium [on the construction of data centers] until more research is done,” but that “if people want to build a data center, they should put it on Mar-a-Lago.” Nixon is careful to explain that she is open to data center construction given the appropriate safety guidelines and under the correct circumstances, such as “requiring or creating a mechanism for communities affected by data centers to receive some form of financial benefit.” While the invitation to build a data center on Mar-a-Lago is obviously incendiary, Nixon rejects the notion that her campaign is primarily about Trump, saying “I’m not pushing an anti-Trump message,” in the president’s adoptive home state, instead arguing that she is “pushing a message about how people should decide what their economies and communities look like.”
Meanwhile the Hill reports Senate Democrats, led by Senators Mark Warner, Brian Schatz and Andy Kim, sought to pass a package of AI guardrails via unanimous consent this week, but were blocked by Ted Cruz. According to this report, the Artificial Intelligence Risk Management and Security Act of 2026 sought to “establish a permanent AI safety board within the Commerce Department,” which “would develop standards for evaluating frontier models and securing their testing environments, with developers required to give the panel access to models at least 45 days before they go public.” Cruz blocked the unanimous consent resolution on the basis that it would “give the executive branch too much power over private AI companies.”
For our final tech story for the week, the Huffington Post reports that shortly after the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute fiasco which saw the group accept, then reject major donations from Palantir, the controversial high-tech surveillance firm was apparently “acknowledged as a supporter of the annual gala” for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, the CBC’s “charitable arm,” in Washington. Many remarked on the perverse symbolism of “one digital banner…[upon which] the firm was listed among the conference’s ‘top supporters…’...[while] The background featured a faded portrait of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress, whose campaign motto ‘unbought and unbossed’ symbolized resistance to corporate influence.” This piece observes that Palantir has “long sought to curry favor with Democratic-aligned institutions,” while simultaneously cultivating close ties with ICE and the military and the firm’s founders, notably Peter Thiel, publicly espouse far-right ideas. In a statement, Palantir wrote that they are “proud and honored to support the CBC Foundation’s mission of creating pathways for promising young people to enter public service who may not have the networks or financial means to do so without support.”
Turning to local news, the first corruption trial for DC councilmember Trayon White has ended in a mistrial, according to WTOP. White represents Ward 8, Washington’s most heavily African-American and historically most impoverished district. United States Attorney for the District of Columbia and former Fox News host Jenine Pirro said in a statement that “We have video showing piles of cash being given to a D.C. councilmember as part of a $156,000 bribe. Rest assured that we will retry this case and every corruption case to verdict.” However, White maintains that “The prosecutors knew, and the FBI knew that they didn’t have a strong case…[because] there was never a quid pro quo.” White further posted on social media that the jury split was nine-to-three in favor of a not guilty verdict. White, who was reelected to the council last year after being unanimously expelled added that his “focus remains on serving our residents, and [his] office remains open to help with constituent concerns.”
In New York City, the legal battle over Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax grinds on. This week, CNN reports Judge Wayne M. Ozzi of Staten Island ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, who “did not challenge the legality of the tax itself, but…alleged the city had incorrectly ‘identified their homes as potentially subject to the surcharge,’ despite being their primary residences.” The tax was intended to impose a “surcharge on non-primary residences in New York City valued over $5 million, as well as co-ops valued at $1 million.” In effect, this ruling cancels the 17,000 notices sent out to residents notifying them that they either had to file for exemption or submit to the tax. Judge Ozzi allowed that new notices can be sent out only if they comply with a particular list of rules. In a statement, Mamdani spokesperson Matt Rauschenbach said “The pied-à-terre surcharge is about a basic principle of fairness: if you can afford a luxury second home in New York City, you can afford to pay your fair share for the schools, streets and parks that make this city work…Our Administration is fighting every day to deliver for working New Yorkers. The ultra-wealthy are fighting in court to avoid paying their fair share. They have filed lawsuit after lawsuit to protect their privilege, and we will not back down.” The Mamdani administration has already filed to appeal the ruling.
Our final local story of the week takes us to Los Angeles, where mayoral hopeful Nithya Raman is in the news this week for sticking to her guns and defending her use of the term genocide to describe Israel’s murderous campaign in Gaza during a Jewish Federation forum at the Skirball Cultural Center. The LA Times reports Raman was questioned about her relationship with DSA, as well as with streamer Hasan Piker – recently described by the Financial Times as the Republican Party’s bogeyman – and finally about her use of the term genocide, which moderator Alex Cohen called a “highly inflammatory term.” Raman reportedly said that she deferred to international experts, including within Israel, adding that she used it because she “felt compelled to speak out about…the targeting of hospitals, the deaths of children.” Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass indicated that she does not think the term genocide is appropriate because it engenders “divisiveness.” Pressed further on her views on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, Raman called it “a legitimate form of peaceful protest” and vowed to “fight for that right” whether or not she agrees with the protesters. Bass said she would block a BDS bill even if it made it through the LA City Council.
Elsewhere in California, the incoming class of left-wing House freshman, including Melat Kiros, Adam Hamawy, Chris Rabb, Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez, and Donavan McKinney – a group some have begun to dub “the Bloc” – are moving in force to support the campaign of Mai Vang in the Golden State’s 7th Congressional District. The Bloc will “collectively endorse” Vang in her insurgent challenge against incumbent Democratic Congresswoman Doris Matsui and travel out to the district, which includes Sacramento, to bolster her campaign. This from POLITICO. Matsui is 82 years old and running for her 12th term in the House; Vang is four decades her junior. Vang finished first in the June primary, winning 31.2% to Matsui’s 29.1%,
POLITICO is also reporting that Bernie Sanders is “cracking open his war chest” on behalf of campaigns he is backing, including the Senate campaign of Peggy Flanagan, and Attorney General reelection campaign of Keith Ellison, both in Minnesota, and the Angie Nixon Senate campaign in Florida. In addition to direct transfers of funds to these campaigns, Sanders is “also spending to hire more full-time organizers in Michigan, Minnesota and Florida…and is planning get-out-the-vote text campaigns for federal candidates he’s endorsed,” as well as planning a California swing where he will campaign with Aisha Wahab and Randy Villegas, in the state’s 14th and 22nd Congressional Districts. This piece also indicates he may rally with Rebecca Cooke, running to oust a Republican incumbent in Wisconsin. Cooke has openly said she does not want to campaign with Kamala Harris, but said Sanders speaks to many of the same voters who backed Trump, and emphasized that his “sincerity about standing up for people who are getting screwed resonates a lot with families like mine.”
Turning to foreign affairs, this week British Prime Minister Andy Burnham delivered a blockbuster speech at the Labour Party conference, which included calls to bring back public control of public services, most notably water, and reform the voting system toward a proportional representation model. Yet, what garnered the most attention in international news was his hinting that the United Kingdom could go “all the way” towards rejoining the European Union. Reuters reports Burnham saying Brexit has “done more harm than good” and that the country should explore all options for a future relationship with Europe, including options short of full membership, such as “rejoining the EU’s single market and/or a customs union.” However, while Burnham may want to split the baby as it were, others within the EU are more skeptical of these half measures. French President Emmanuel Macron is quoted saying “when [Great Britain] wants to re-engage with us…you cannot pick and choose among the Union’s freedoms, nor can you decide to take only what suits you while rejecting the rest.” Support for rejoining the EU has skyrocketed in the UK, now standing at 55% support among voters and only 34% opposed, though individual aspects such as adoption of the Euro or reentry into the Schengen Area may prove more politically unpopular. Burnham is set to participate in a summit with EU leaders next month.
Our final story this week is a dark and stunning expose published on the After-Action Report Substack, titled “The CIA Killed Him. The Navy Blamed My Friend.” In this story, journalist Seth Hettena recounts the story of Dan Cerrillo, a Navy SEAL prosecuted for the barbarous abuse of Iraqi prisoner Manadel al-Jamadi at the Abu Ghraib prison in 2003. Cerrillo, who died at age 50 in 2023, went to his grave denying this and maintaining that instead, he was set up to take the fall for the CIA. Now, a declassified report by the CIA Office of the Inspector General confirms this quite directly, with damning excerpts reading “OIG determined that…officers contributed to the death of Al-Jamaidi by failing to abide by Agency interrogation policies and displaying a reckless disregard for his welfare while in their custody,” and “Agency officers took steps that impeded the subsequent investigations…into Al-Jamaidi’s death,” including withholding evidence from investigators, removing key evidence from the death scene, and even destroying evidence while the OIG investigation was ongoing. The full report is worth reading, as it traces the full story, including the author’s battle to pry information from the CIA using FOIA over the course of 20 years. In an era when conspiracy theories, often centering on the CIA, are everywhere, it is worth examining a genuine case of a CIA crime and coverup, and how even just one person can expose the truth.
This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.
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