Background Briefing: September 28, 2023
With the Deck Stacked Against American Workers, the Competition to Win Their Votes
We begin with the competition for the vote of American workers with Biden on the picket line with striking UAW workers and Trump at a non-union venue appealing to UAW members past and present. Joining us is Kate Andrias, a Professor of Law at Columbia Law School whose scholarship probes the failures of U.S. law to protect workers’ rights, examines the efforts of historical and contemporary worker movements to transform legal structures, and analyzes how labor law and constitutional governance might be reformed to enable greater political and economic democracy. Previously, she worked for several years as an organizer with the Service Employees International Union, clerked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court, served as associate counsel and special assistant to President Barack Obama and as chief of staff in the White House Counsel’s Office and served on President Biden’s Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court.
The Rise of Antisemitism and the Role of Conspiracy Theories in Our Politics
Then we look into the current rise in antisemitism and the role that conspiracy theories play in our politics and speak with Mike Rothschild, a journalist and conspiracy theory expert whose work has examined scams, frauds, moral panic, conspiracy theories, and how their impact has gone from the online world into everyday life. He has testified to Congress on the threat of election disinformation, and is the author of The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything, and his latest book, just out, is Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories.
With 60,000 Emails Hacked From the State Department, An Assessment of the Government’s Cybersecurity
Then finally with the State Department revealing that 60,000 of its emails were hacked along with the emails of the Secretary of Commerce, we assess the state of the government’s cybersecurity with Dr. Herb Lin, a senior research scholar for cyber policy and security at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. He is Chief Scientist Emeritus for the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board at the National Research Council of the National Academies and, in 2016, served on President Obama’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. He was also a professional staff member and staff scientist for the House Armed Services Committee where his portfolio included defense policy and arms control issues.