Background Briefing: August 23, 2021

On By gram

 

The Blame Game Continues Without Considering 20 Years of Disastrous Decisions

We begin with the media’s blame game piling on about the chaos at the Kabul airport often featuring pundits who supported the disastrous 20 year preface to today’s TV images in which politicians, pundits and military experts kept offering up what Einstein considered a definition of insanity in doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome. Joining us is David Rothkopf, a contributing columnist at USA TODAY and The Daily Beast and producer of the podcasts National Security Magazine and Deep State Radio which Rothkopf hosts. We discuss his article at The Daily Beast, “Biden Insiders: Our Afghanistan Exit is a Part of a Much Bigger Reset” and assess why many Democrats are buying into Republican arguments that blame Biden without considering decisions made over the last 20 years. History indicates that debacles like the exit from Saigon have a way of coming up with surprise endings as Vietnam today is with its market economy and booming tourist trade. Meanwhile the current blame game could serve as a distraction from the threat to American democracy that Republicans pose along with the existential threat to the planet from climate change.

 

A California Ruling and the Future of the Gig Economy

Then we look into the ruling in California overturning Proposition 22 which Uber, Lyft and DoorDash poured over $200 million into under the guise of helping their drivers but in effect they were taking away their rights by limiting the State Legislature’s ability to organize and have access to workers’ compensation. Jacob Silverman, a contributing writer to The New Republic who covers tech and national security and is the author of Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection, joins us to discuss his latest article at The New Republic, “The Battle Over the Future of Gig Work Isn’t Even Close to Finished.”

 

The Center of Attention Senator Sinema Vows to Stop the $3.5 Trillion Infrastructure Bill

Then finally with Senator Sinema now saying she simply won’t back the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill which needs every Democratic vote in the Senate as nine Democrats in the House insist that Speaker Pelosi should pass the Sinema/Portman bipartisan infrastructure bill first, we examine the senator from Arizona who appears to enjoy being the center of attention. Jeremy Duda, the Associate Editor of the Arizona Mirror and a veteran Arizona politics reporter who spent 8 years with the Arizona Capitol Times, joins us to discuss the career path of Kyrsten Sinema from the far-left to the farthest to the right for a Senate Democrat.