Day: April 4, 2019

Background Briefing: April 4, 2019

 

Mueller’s Investigators Are Angry at Barr’s Misrepresentation of Their Report

We begin with the revelations in The New York Times that some of the investigators who prepared the Mueller report now in the hands of William Barr are simmering with frustration that the Attorney General has put his pro-Trump spin on its contents while downplaying the alarming case made against the president in order to shape public opinion to neutralize one of the most consequential investigations in American political history. Bill Yeomans a Professor of Law at Columbia Law School who served for 26 years in the Department of Justice and was Acting Assistant Attorney General, joins us to discuss emerging indications that those who prepared the Mueller report feel its contents are being misrepresented by Barr. With the growing demand from Congress to get the complete unredacted report which was likely Mueller’s intention before the report was intercepted by Barr, the AG is now in the process of scrubbing the report with redactions. Furthermore members of Mueller’s team apparently are angry that the summaries they wrote for the report and every section of the report which they deliberately made sure contained no classified or grand jury material, were ignored by Barr. And that his four page summary without even a complete sentence from Mueller’s 400 page report, has allowed Trump to declare himself exonerated and the Republicans to claim House investigations by the Democrats are a waste of time and money because the president has already been cleared.

 

Stoning Gay Men While Importing Call Girls

Then we speak with Francisco Bencosme, the Asia Pacific Advocacy Manager at Amnesty International USA about the imposition of Sharia Law in oil-rich Brunei by the Sultan who now is free to stone gay men to death while he and his brother continue to import Playmate models and expensive call girls for their private sexual gratification. We will assess how the call by Ellen DeGeneres, Elton John and George Clooney to boycott the luxury hotels in the U.S., the U.K., France and Italy the Sultan owns is being effective in spite of criticism that Saudi Arabian Sharia Law should also provoke a similar boycott.

 

The Frontier of Opportunity Is Now the Wall of Reactionary Populism and Racist Nationalism

Then finally with Trump heading to the border at Calexico on Friday for a photo-op and a possible announcement on whether he will close the border with Mexico, we will speak with Greg Grandin, a professor of history at New York University about his latest book “The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America.” We will discuss how America’s endless promise of the frontier has now turned inward to become the new reality of the wall which, whether built or not, will survive as a rallying point for reactionary populism and racist nationalism.