Month: December 2020

Background Briefing: December 27, 2020

 

Trump’s Delicate Ego has America Suffering as he Sulks and Settles Scores

We begin with millions of Americans suffering because of Trump’s delicate ego as he sulks and settles scores, playing golf while letting the stimulus bill die rather than veto it and have the congress override his veto. Yesterday 14 million unemployed lost their benefits along with the promised $600 stimulus check, and in a few days the eviction moratorium runs out and if we are still in limbo at midnight on Monday, the government runs out of money. Joining us is American University political historian Allan Lichtman who has correctly predicted every presidential election since 1984, including Trump surprise win in 2016 along with the recent Biden victory. We discuss the disgraceful behavior of a sick man who is now showing the world how deranged he is, even though it has been apparent all along to anyone who entered the Oval Office that Trump was out of his depth and out of his mind. We also look ahead to a Biden presidency which by the summer, should be blooming and booming as the country emerges from the pandemic. We assess whether the changes in behavior will last as Americans now have savings and more people work from home and drive and fly less, all of which saves money and helps the environment.

 

The Lasting Legacy of Trump and McConnell’s Stacking of the Courts

Then we examine the lasting legacy of Trump and McConnell’s stacking of the Federal bench which will mean that as Americans increasingly reject unpopular Republican policies of favouring plutocrats over people, the reactionaries installed on the courts by Opus Dei’s Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society will legislate from the bench and continue to shred what is left of America’s social safety net. Lisa Graves, who was Deputy Assistant Attorney General at DOJ, Chief Counsel for Nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Deputy Chief of the article 3 judges division for the U.S. courts, joins us to discuss the likelihood that Trump’s lackey Jeffrey Rosen, the Acting AG, will facilitates a flurry of corrupt pardons and lay traps for the Biden administration.  

 

The Q-Anon and 5G Connection to the Nashville Bombing

Then finally we look into the bombing in Nashville which appears to be the work of Anthony Warner, a QAnon follower who believed 5G was behind Covid which is why he blew up the AT&T building along with himself. Scott Horton, a professor at Columbia Law School and a contributing editor at Harper’s in legal affairs and national security, joins us to discuss Trump’s slavish loyalty to Putin over his oath to protect and defend the United States. As he continues to blame China for the Russian hack we will discuss how Russia’s boosting of Q-Anon is paying off since America’s idiocracy is ripe for exploitation by malign foreign actors.