Tag: corruption

Background Briefing: July 13, 2023

 

Birth Control Pills Will Soon be Available Over the Counter Without a Prescription

 We begin with news that a birth control pill, Opill, that has been on the market for 50 years will now be available early next year over the counter without a prescription. Joining us to discuss what this means for young women, teenagers and those who can’t afford doctors or have time to go to the doctor to get a prescription is Michele Bratcher Goodwin, the O’Neil Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy and Co-Faculty Director of the O’Neil Institute at Georgetown University. She is the host of the popular podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin, at Ms. Magazine and is the author of a number of books, most recently, Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood.

 

A Brazen Coup Attempt in Guatemala Which Has the Leading Presidential Candidate Suspending Her Campaign

Then we look into today’s most brazen electoral coup attempt by Guatemala’s crooked President Giammattei, his crooked Attorney General Consuelo Porras and his crooked Chief Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche which has led to the top vote-getter in the presidential election to suspend her campaign. Joining us is Jo-Marie Burt, the President of the Latin American Studies Association, a senior fellow at the Washington Office for Latin America and a professor of political science and Latin American Studies at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. She writes about war crimes prosecutions in Guatemala and has published widely on political violence, state-society relations, human rights and transitional justice in Latin America.

 

What Has Happened to the GOP, the Party of Law and Order?

Then finally, after the insane attacks on the Republican head of the FBI at yesterday’s clown show by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee in defense of Trump’s lawlessness, we assess what has happened to the party of law and order. Joining us is a recovered Republican Mike Lofgren, who has spent twenty-eight years working in Congress, the last sixteen as a senior analyst on the House and Senate Budget Committees. He is the author of the New York Times Bestseller, The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless and the Middle Class Got Shafted and he has an article at The Nation, “The party of pollution, disease and death: When Republicans tell you who they are, believe them; In the name of imaginary freedom, Republicans are willing to let many people die. In fact, they’re proud of it.”