Tag: christian right

Background Briefing: January 24, 2023

Another Mass Shooting in California, a Record 39th So Far This Year in the US

 We begin with yet another mass shooting in Half Moon Bay California in which 7 lives were lost just days after as mass shooting in Monterey Park took 11 lives and before that 6 including a teenage mother and her baby were shot in a horrific cartel massacre in Goshen, California. So far just a little over three weeks into the year, there have been a record 39 mass shootings in the US which means 2023 is on track to exceed the record 690 mass shootings in 2021. Joining us is John J. Donohue III, a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has written numerous publications on gun control policy and is the author of Shooting Down The More Guns, Less Crime Hypothesis.

 

Assessing Russia’s Anti-Putin Partisan Movement and How Much the US Should Support Russia’s Armed Opposition

Then we examine the anti-Putin partisan movement inside Russia and Ukraine’s use of foreign fighters from the Caucasus, Central Asia and Chechnya along with displaced Tartars and Turkic-speaking refugees. Joining us is Douglas London, a retired Senior CIA Operations Officer and a Professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies. Over the course of his 34 years in the CIA’s Clandestine Service, almost 17 of which were in the foreign field as a recruiter and agent handler, he served in the Middle East, South and Central Asia, and Africa, including three assignments as a Chief of Station, the President’s senior intelligence officer at post, and Chief of Base in a South Asia conflict zone. He is the author of The Recruiter: Spying and the Lost Art of American Intelligence and we discuss his article at The Hill, “How far should US intelligence go in supporting Russia’s armed opposition?

The Alarming Growth of Spirit Warrior Christianity

 Then finally, with the Religious Right abandoning Trump after he criticized them for being disloyal and not endorsing his third run for the presidency, we investigate the alarming growth of Spirit Warrior Christianity and speak with Katherine Stewart, a journalist and the author of The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children. Her latest best-selling book is The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism now out in paperbackand we discuss her article at The New Republic, “The Rise of Spirit Warriors on the Christian Right.