Background Briefing: November 30, 2022
Why the Seditious Conspiracy Convictions of the Oath Keepers’ Leaders Matter
We begin with the DOJ’s successful prosecution of the leaders of the Oath Keepers militia who were found guilty of seditious conspiracy, a rarely-used Civil War era law. Joining us to explain the difference between treason and seditious conspiracy and why these convictions matter is Carlton Larson, Professor of Constitutional Law and Legal History at the University of California Davis. One of the nation’s leading authorities on the law of treason, he is the author of On Treason: A Citizen’s Guide to the Law and The Trials of Allegiance: Treason, Juries, and the American Revolution.
Why Americans Like Nick Fuentes and Elon Musk Admire and Support Putin
Then with both Republican leaders McConnell and McCarthy expressing outrage at Trump’s Thanksgiving dinner at Mar a lago with the anti-Semite Kanye West and the holocaust-denier Nick Fuentes, very few with the exception of Liz Cheney are pointing out the Nick Fuentes is one of the country’s leading cheerleader for Vladimir Putin, so little wonder Trump said Fuentes “gets me.” Joining us to explore why influential Americans like Elon Musk admire and support Putin is Robert Mackey, a Senior Writer at The Intercept who writes about national and international news through the prism of social media. Previously he was a reporter and columnist for the New York Times, where he anchored the newspaper’s breaking news blog, The Lede, for five years, and wrote a news analysis column, Open Source, from 2014 to 2016. We discuss his latest articles at The Intercept, “Left-Wing Voices Are Silenced on Twitter as Far-Right Trolls Advise Elon Musk”, “Rupert Murdoch Is Having the Same Problem Dr. Frankenstein Once Faced With His Monster” and “Twitter Allows Russian Officials to Share Antisemitic Cartoon of Zelensky.“
The Epidemic of Fentanyl Deaths Enabled by Social Media and the DEA’s Response
The finally we look into an alarming article in Tuesday’s LA Times, “Fentanyl deaths in LA county soared 1,280% between 2016 and 2021, report finds” and speak with Sam Quinones, a journalist, author and storyteller whose two acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction about Mexico and Mexican immigration —True Tales from Another Mexico and Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream — made him, according to the SF Chronicle Book Review, “the most original writer on Mexico and the border.” His books include Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic and his latest book just out in paperback is, The Least of Us: True Tales of America Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth.