Day: September 6, 2022

Background Briefing: September 6, 2022

 

Trump, Who Has Contempt For the Law, Has an Unqualified Judge He Appointed Give Him More Than He Asked For

We begin with the decision by the unqualified Trump-appointed judge in Florida who was confirmed after Trump had lost the election and had barely practiced law and was never a judge but was a member of the Federalists and she was able to give Trump what he wanted but then much more by shutting down the DOJ’s investigation into the missing classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. With almost all legal analysts and even Bill Barr questioning Judge Cannon’s ruling, we speak with a Florida attorney Daniel Uhlfelder, who served as a law clerk and staff aide in the White House, the United States Attorney General’s Office, the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, and at various law firms in Florida and Washington, D.C. Known widely as the Florida Grim Reaper, he works to draw attention to Governor Ron DeSantis’ disastrous mishandling of the Covid pandemic and his organization Remove Ron is dedicated to funding any future Democratic challenger to DeSantis.

 

After Months of Leadership Paralysis, the UK Has a New PM Who Promises Tax Cuts For the Rich While Most Britons Can’t Pay Their Utility Bills

Then we go to the UK to get an assessment of the new Prime Minister Liz Truss and speak with Paul Whiteley, a professor in the Department of Government at the University of Essex where he does research in Political Communication, Political Economy and Elections, Public Opinion and Voting Behavior. He was previously professor of Political Science at the University of Arizona and the Pamela Harriman Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. With the ruling Conservative party paralyzed for months by leadership struggles, the energy crisis caused by Putin’s war in Ukraine is only being addressed now as prices for gas and electricity have gone through the roof and will leave most Britons out in the cold this winter. Nevertheless today Liz Truss entered number 10 Downing Street promising tax cuts for the super-wealthy.

 

The Role Of Ranked Choice Voting in the Recent Elections in Alaska

Then finally we look into how ranked-choice voting made a difference in the recent elections in Alaska in which Sarah Palin was defeated prompting Senator Cotton to claim the voting reform is a “scam.” Joining us is David Daley, a senior fellow for FairVote and the author of Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America’s Democracy, which helped spark the recent drive to reform gerrymandering. Dave’s second book, Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy, chronicles the victories and defeats in state efforts to reform elections and uphold voting rights. A digital media fellow at the Wilson Center for the Humanities and the Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia, he is the former editor-in-chief of Salon.com, and the former CEO and publisher of the Connecticut News Project.