Day: September 25, 2018

Background Briefing: September 25, 2018

 

Plowing Kavanaugh Through in Spite of Mounting Evidence Against Him

We begin with a posse of angry old white men in the  White House and the Republican Senate determined to “plow through” with the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court regardless of Thursday’s testimony by Dr. Blasey Ford and have a vote of the full senate on his confirmation as early as next Monday or Tuesday. Bob Schiff, an attorney who served as Chief Counsel for former Senator Russ Feingold for 12 years and is the co-author of an article at Time Magazine“Brett Kavanaugh Can’t be Trusted. We Know Because We Worked as Counsel to Senators When He Was in the Bush White House”, joins us. We will discuss the contrast between the growing evidence against Kavanaugh and the increasing resolve of the Republicans to ram his confirmation through the senate, in stark contrast to the 8 months Mitch McConnell held up Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court who never even got a hearing. We will assess whether Kavanaugh’s third accuser who her lawyer Michael Avenatti is scheduled to unveil on Wednesday, could be sufficient for Senators Collins and Murkowski to break from the lockstep of GOP determination not to have an FBI investigation into these new and perhaps even more damning charges. Apparently she is accusing both Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge who the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are preventing from testifying.

 

Trump Embarrasses America Before the World

Then we speak with the founder of PassBlue, Dulcie Leimbach, who has covered the United Nations for decades and was an editor of The New York Times for more than 20 years. She joins us to discuss President Trump’s address to the United Nations General Assembly at which his absurd boasts about being the greatest president ever who has achieved a miraculous turnaround having made America great again in just two years, was greeted with mocking laughter from the leaders of the world gathered in the chamber. We assess whether the two thirds of Americans who are embarrassed by Trump’s pandering to the ignorant isolationist delusions of the one third minority of the country who believe a global bureaucracy is about to destroy America’s sovereignty, will stand up and be counted in November.

 

John Bolton’s Overheated Threats Against Iran

Then finally with President Trump chairing tomorrow’s UN Security Council meeting at which he is expected to single out Iran as enemy number one, we will speak with revolutionary Iran’s first Ambassador to the United Nations, Mansour Farhang, a professor emeritus of international relations at Bennington College. He joins us to discuss the overheated belligerent threats today from Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton warning Iran “If you cross us, our allies, or our partners; if you harm our citizens; if you continue to lie, cheat and deceive, yes, there will indeed be HELL TO PAY’