Background Briefing: July 25, 2021

On By gram

 

Why is the Communist Chinese Government so Afraid of an Investigation Into Covid 19’s Origins?

We begin with the rapid spread of the Delta variant of Covid now infecting the unvaccinated, raising the possibility of many more deaths in the U.S. above to 600,000 who have already died. Meanwhile in China there has been 12 new infections with an official death toll at 4,636 yet there has been an overheated reaction from China’s Communist Party government to the head of the World Health Organization’s suggestion that all theories about the origins of the Covid pandemic should be investigated including the possibility of a lab accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Joining us to discuss what is at stake for Xi Jinping’s regime if the U.S. Intelligence Community’s findings expected mid August conclude the virus did not emerge from a zoonotic leap from animals to humans is Jamie Metzl. He is a member of the World Health Organization’s international advisory committee on human genome editing who was the lead drafter and co-organizer of four expert’s open letters on pandemic origins. The author of Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity, he previously served on the National Security Council and at the State Department as well as the United Nations and we discuss his article at CNN “We cannot give China veto power over the investigation into Covid-19’s origins.”

 

What Happened to the 4,500 Tips Into Kavanaugh’s Background?

Then we investigate what happened to the 4,500 tips the FBI got about Brett Kavanaugh’s background during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing which were sent to the White House Counsel’s office resulting in only 10 additional interviews. Joining us is Lisa Graves who served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the DOJ, Chief Counsel for Nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee and as Deputy Chief of the article 3 judges division for the U.S. Courts. We discuss how Leonard Leo and his dark money have stacked the federal bench and created the 6 to 3 far-right majority on the Supreme Court and why Kavanaugh should be impeached for perjury.

 

Blowback as New Waves of Refugees Head From Latin America to the U.S.

Then finally we speak with Greg Grandin, a Professor of History at Yale University about his new book, out in an updated and expanded edition, Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States and the Making of an Imperial Republic. We discuss the blowback underway as new waves of refugees head to the U.S. from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela and how Latin America has been “buffeted by the United States’ revolutionary ambition and battered by its counterrevolutionary cruelty.”