Background Briefing has a new home at BackgroundBriefing.org.
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Background Briefing has a new home at BackgroundBriefing.org.
Please visit and bookmark the new site. You can search show archives here.
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With the former rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination standing together on stage in New Hampshire today, we begin with the belated endorsement of Hillary Clinton by Bernie Sanders. Joining us is Neil Sroka, the Communications Director for Democracy for America whose members contributed 2 million dollars to the Sanders campaign after 88% of its over one million members had enthusiastically endorsed the Vermont senator’s presidential campaign. We discuss the endorsement today of Hillary Clinton by Democracy for America which has raised more than $32.7 million to elect 843 progressive candidates nationwide and the organization’s statement that “We’re backing Hillary Clinton because she gives our country the opportunity to smash one of its last great glass ceilings and will be the partner we need in the White House to realize the agenda that Bernie Sanders’ political revolution fought for in the primaries – from tuition-free college to Social Security expansion." |
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Then we examine the ruling handed down by the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea in The Hague today that finds China has no historical rights to the waters or the resources in the South China Sea and is violating the Philippine’s sovereign rights with its military and territorial buildup on the disputed reefs and islands. Alfred McCoy, who holds the Harrington Chair in History at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and is the author of “Policing America’s Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State” joins us to discuss China’s angry denouncement of the ruling and the muted response from the new president of The Philippines who appears to have been bought off by the Chinese. |
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Then finally we look into the internal split in the NRA over its response to recent shootings and the danger and confusion that the open carry laws in Texas created for the Dallas police who were recently under fire from a sniper who killed five officers and wounded seven others. John Donohue, a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and author of “Shooting Down The More Guns, Less Crime Hypothesis” joins us to discuss the impact that the open carry law in Ohio will have on next week’s Republican convention in Cleveland. |
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We begin with the Dallas police chief’s remarks that society is asking too much of police officers expecting them to be mental health professionals, marriage counselors, dog catchers and school monitors. Lisa Campbell, who comes from a family of police officers and served 20 years in Law Enforcement joins us to discuss both sides of the issue as a female African/American police officer and someone who does not want see black brothers and sons gunned down by either the police or gangs. We discuss her new film “Shoot, Don’t Shoot”, a documentary that tries to bridge the gap by addressing the underlying issues leading to the escalation of violence by and against the police in urban communities like Chicago, Baton Rouge, St. Paul and Dallas. |
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Then we investigate the possibility that Putin is tipping the scale for Trump against Hillary Clinton since it was Putin’s propaganda outlet RT that first published hacked emails in March of 2013 from Clinton’s private server that first led to the revelation of the server that has dogged her campaign. Jacob Heilbrunn, a Senior Editor at The National Interest and author of “They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons”, joins us to discuss Putin’s ties to General Michael Flynn who is apparently Trump’s favorite pick for VP and Flynn’s new book co-authored by the prominent neocon Michael Ledeen “The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and its Allies”. |
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Then finally we look into the resumption of the civil war in South Sudan that has already wreaked havoc and death upon the world’s newest country whose leaders have all but destroyed their country over the personal rivalries between the president and the vice president. Lako Tongun, a professor of International and Intercultural Studies and Political Studies at Pitzer College who was born and grew up in South Sudan, joins us to discuss the head of the U.N’s urgent call to massively reinforce the U.N. mission after two Chinese peacekeepers and a U.N. staff member were killed along with hundreds of civilians. |
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We begin with the roiling political turmoil in the country over race relations and gun control following the shooting of African/American men in Louisiana then Minnesota, then the payback massacre of police officers in Dallas by an African/American sniper who shot dead five policemen and wounded seven others in the midst of a peaceful demonstration against police violence. Garrett Duncan, a Professor of African/American Studies at the University of Washington in St. Louis joins us to discuss the sudden shift from public sympathy for victims of police violence to public sympathy for the police as victims of violence as well as the role of guns in our society since Philando Castile in Minnesota was apparently killed because of his mere possession of a gun, which flies in the face of the NRA’s claim that guns prevent violence as opposed to attracting it.
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Then we speak with the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Linda Greenhouse who covered the Supreme Court for The New York Times for nearly 30 years and currently teaches at Yale Law School. We will discuss the recent decisions from an evenly divided Supreme Court that is unable to seat a replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, Judge Merrick Garland, who President Obama has nominated because the Republican Majority Leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell wants to wait for the results of the next election to see if his candidate Donald Trump, who McConnell has not endorsed, will win and thus be able to pick a right-wing replacement. We will also discuss Linda Greenhouse’s latest book, just out, “The Burger Court and the Rise of the Judicial Right”. |
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Then finally we examine to travails of Roger Ailes, the Republican political powerbroker and head of Fox News who is now facing sexual harassment charges from a former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson, with a number of other women coming forward who buttress her claims. Dr. Kerwin Swint, a professor of politics at Kenneshaw University and author of “Dark Genius: The Influential Career of Legendary Political Operative and Fox News Founder Roger Ailes” and his latest, “The King Whisperer: Power Behind the Throne, From Rasputin to Rove”, joins us. |
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We begin with the latest police shootings of African American men caught on video, first in Louisiana and the next day in Minnesota. Vernellia Randall, emerita professor of law at the University of Dayton and author of “Dying While Black” joins us to discuss the growing outrage at yet more graphic evidence of police shooting African American men who were killed for selling CD’s in front of a convenience store in Baton Rouge in the first instance, then in the second killed after being pulled over in a St. Paul suburb for a broken tail light. We look into this persistent problem with police culture where police officers often see the neighborhoods they patrol as enemy territory with many having been recruited from the military after service in warzones in Iraq and Afghanistan. |
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Then as speculation grows that Donald Trump appears more interested in winning the presidency than serving as president, together with the scenario that Trump will seek an exit strategy before the election to avoid a humiliating loss, we speak with Alexander Keyssar, a Professor of History and Social Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and author of “The Right to Vote: the Contested History of Democracy in the United States”. He joins us to discuss the possible scenarios involving the Electoral College that would come into play if the unconventional candidate decided the fun was over and he did not want the grueling job of governing and would rather return to his business as an ever bigger media celebrity. |
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Then finally we examine how abortion politics are preventing the urgent action needed to stop the Zika virus from spreading in the United States as House Republicans try for the fifth time in seven years to eliminate the Title X Family Planning program which provides contraception and family planning services to low-income American women. Arthur Kaplan, Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center’s Department of Population Health joins us to discuss his article at The Chicago Tribune ”Congress Lets Abortion Politics Derail Zika Fight” and the irony that many of the 24 states trying to defund Planned Parenthood who have declined Medicaid expansion are in the South where the Zika virus will spread unabated. |
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We begin with the release of the much awaited and anticipated Chilcot Report whose Iraq Inquiry investigated the U.K. decision to join the Bush Administration’s determination to go to war in Iraq, an intervention that the report states went “badly wrong” leading to the Iraqi people suffering greatly with consequences still being felt to this day. Juan Cole, a professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan, joins us to discuss the glaring fact that no such inquiry has been conducted in the U.S. and while the former U.K. Prime Minister is blasted for overstating the threat from Saddam Hussein, sending ill-prepared troops into battle with “wholly inadequate” plans for the aftermath, Tony Blair did not go to jail as a war criminal which under the U.N. charter is the fate that he, Bush and Cheney should have faced.
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Then, following the FBI’s rebuke of Hillary Clinton we examine the role of Russian Intelligence and its propaganda arm, the English language TV network “Russia Today” as the source of much of what has come to light from digging up dirt on Hillary Clinton by hacking her emails and into the Clinton Foundation’s servers as well as the DNC’s server. Franklin Foer, a New America Fellow and a contributing editor at Slate Magazine joins us to discuss how and why Putin is supporting Donald Trump and his latest article at Slate, “Putin’s Puppet: If the Russian president could design a candidate to undermine American interests – and advance his own – he’d look a lot like Donald Trump”. |
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Then finally we speak with John Dunbar, the Deputy Executive Editor at the Center for Public Integrity and creator of Consider the Source, the Center’s ongoing investigation into the impact of money on state and federal politics. He joins us to discuss his latest article “Koch brothers’ plight is likened to that of civil rights worker in the 1950’s” which reveals how America’s billionaire plutocrats have got a Federal Judge to rule that their rights to spend unlimited amounts of “dark money” to shape elections is comparable to the rights of the NAACP to keep its membership lists secret from the KKK who were out to kill civil right workers in the 1950’s. |
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Taking listeners deep into the underlying issues and forces that shape our world.
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