Background Briefing: January 16, 2022

On By gram

 

The Supreme Court’s Power Grab Puts the Authority of All Government Departments and Agencies in Jeopardy

We begin with the most disturbing aspect of the Supreme Court’s ruling against vaccine mandates and that is its implications going forward for all government oversight through departments and agencies such as OSHA and the EPA whose expertise no longer counts and can be replaced by the whims and dogma of unelected political hacks in robes, otherwise known as the Federalist Society judges who dominate our judicial branch. Joining us to examine this power grab by the Supreme Court’s right wing majority is Kimberly Wehle, an author, lawyer, media commentator, and Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law. She is also a former Assistant United States Attorney, Associate Independent Counsel in the Whitewater Investigation, and author of How to Read the Constitution and Why, What You Need to Know About Voting and Why, and the forthcoming book out soon is How to Think Like a Lawyer and Why: A Common Sense Guide to Everyday Dilemmas. We discuss her article at The Bulwark, “Here’s Why Capitol Insurrectionists Are Being Charged Under a Post-Enron Law” and another at Politico, “The Supreme Court Just Made an Incredible Power Grab.” 

 

“Seditious Conspiracy” Charges Against the Oath Keepers and Their Plans to Hold the Capitol

Then with the recent arrest of Stewart Rhodes the leader of the Oath Keepers militia along with 10 others charged of “seditious conspiracy”, we look into their role in the January 6 insurrection and the extent of their plans to bring an arsenal of weapons stashed in Virginia to the Capitol to hold it hostage along with Speaker Pelosi prompting Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and martial law. Joining us for a profile of Stewart Rhodes is Spencer Sunshine, who has written about the U.S. White Nationalist movement including the Alt Right, neo-Nazis, and esoteric fascists, the Patriot movement and militias, and antisemitic currents for the past two decades. 

 

Prince Andrew Blows Up The British Royals’ Symbiotic Relationship With the Tabloids

Then finally with the British Royal Family having cut Prince Andrew loose and stripped him of his military trappings and “Royal Highness” title to defend himself in a trial brought by an underage victim of Epstein’s sex trafficking, we examine the symbiosis the Royal Family has with the tabloids which is now coming back to haunt them. Joining us is Toby Miller, a visiting professor at Tulane University; Research Professor of the Graduate Division, University of California, Riverside and Sir Walter Murdoch Distinguished Collaborator, Murdoch University. His most recent books are A COVID Charter, A Better World, Violence, The Persistence of Violence and How Green is Your Smartphone?