Background Briefing: August 11, 2021

On By gram

 

Now That Cuomo is Gone, Time to Save Newsom

We begin with the end of a problem in New York and the beginning of one in California and speak with Harold Meyerson, a contributor to The Los Angeles Times and editor-at-large with The American Prospect where he has an article, “Cuomo Dispensed With; Time Now to Save Newsom.” We will discuss the frightening prospect that Larry Elder, a rabid right-wing talk radio host who is the leading opposition candidate, could unseat the California governor with as little as 20% of the vote in the undemocratic recall election coming up on September 14. With California on fire and suffering from a drought due to climate change, Elder is a global warming denier who wants to overturn Roe v Wade, is against the minimum wage but for abolishing the IRS and cutting government spending by 80%. And while these positions are an anathema to this heavily-Democratic state, if Newsom does not get 50% of the vote then whoever is ahead of the pack in the long list of challengers, becomes the next governor of the fifth largest economy in the world. Meanwhile this Trumpster who was a Trump before Trump, who is the mentor of the dark-side Trump-whisperer Stephen Miller, could be California’s next governor. With the Republican minority in the state fired up by this recall which is the only way they could get a Republican governor elected in California, the Democratic majority need to stop thinking this is a bad joke and wake up and vote.

 

Is There a Technological Fix to Remove CO2 From the Atmosphere?

Then we look into an aspect of global warming that gets little attention because the phenomenon called “wet bulb” does not begin to describe the horrific fact that there are now places on this earth where human beings cannot live because of the climate and there will be more of them as global warming increases. Joining us is Tapio Schneider, Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at the California Institute of Technology who collaborates with other scientists, engineers, and applied mathematicians in the Climate Modeling Alliance that develops next-generation models for weather forecasting and climate prediction. We discuss whether as more and more global warming gasses doom the planet, there could be a technological fix to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

 

Can We Undo the Damage The War on Terror Has Done to America and the World?

Then finally we speak with Spencer Ackerman, who for nearly the entire War on Terror has been a national security correspondent for The New Republic, WIRED, The Guardian and currently The Daily Beast. He shared the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service Journalism and joins us to discuss his latest book, just out, Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump. With the 20th anniversary of 9/11 coming up, we assess whether we can undo how American has been transformed with fear replacing freedom and suspicion diminished rights while we have had neither peace nor victory.