Background Briefing: August 2, 2021

On By gram

 

Unnecessary Cruelty as the Eviction Moratorium Ends

We begin with the end of the eviction moratorium mandated by the CDC back in September to protect people from Covid which ended on Saturday. Now evictions are starting today for as many as 15 million Americans who will be on the streets facing a deadlier and more virulent form of Covid. Congresswoman Cori Bush, who was the first to camp out on the Capitol steps in protest, has been joined by Congresswomen Omar and Pressley with Senator Warren and Congressman Jim McGovern visiting them overnight. Joining us is Gary Blasi, a professor of law emeritus at UCLA who has 40 years experience in property law, housing and homelessness and we discuss how this eviction crisis is entirely preventable because there is plenty of money in the pipeline to cover rents and to pay landlords but bureaucracy and the Supreme Court, along with Senate Republicans are in the way of stopping this unnecessary cruelty.

 

California’s Governor Newsom Could be Replaced by a Crackpot with Less Than 20% of the Vote

Then, with polls in California indicating that the recall vote for the removal of Governor Newsom scheduled for September 14 is close within the margin of error, meaning Newsom could be succeeded by one of 46 other hopefuls, many of them crackpots who could be elected with as little as 20% of the vote or less, we speak with Larry Gerston, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at San Jose State University. The author of Not So Golden After All: The Rise and Fall of California and Recall! California Political Earthquake, he joins us to discuss this undemocratic mechanism the fired up Republican minority is using against an apathetic Democratic majority.  

 

Congressional Investigations and Mounting Legal Troubles Face Trump

Then finally we speak with Lloyd Green, who was opposition research counsel to George HW Bush’s 1988 campaign and served in the Justice Department and is now a contributing writer to The Guardian where he has an article “Republicans will defend their Caesar but new revelations show Trump’s true threat.” He joins us to discuss what can be done to loosen the grip of the Trump cult on the GOP and that Steve Bannon’s warning on January 5 that “All hell is going to break loose” could be applied to the Congressional investigations and mounting legal troubles Trump is facing.