Background Briefing: May 8, 2024
Trump’s Delaying Tactic is Working as Three of the Four Trials He’s Facing Will Likely Not Be Heard Before the Election
We begin with the Trump-appointed judge overseeing the classified documents case in Florida delaying the start of the trial indefinitely in a blatant display of fealty to Trump, combined with obvious inexperience and incompetence having been chosen by the Federalist Society because of her ideological fidelity to Leonard Leo’s judicial litmus test. Joining us to discuss the serious and provable nature of the case is Michael Greenberger, the former Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General at the U.S. Justice Department where he supervised work on national security matters. He is the founder and director of the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland where he also teaches Constitutional Law.
Following His Fifth Inauguration, Putin is Now Called “Imperator”, the Formal Title For the Russian Tsars
Then we assess Putin’s speech at the Kremlin ceremony for his fifth inauguration, which was replete with appeals to imperial Russia’s historical glory and full of references to the “motherland” and “historical lands,” prompting sycophants on State Media to refer to Putin as “imperator,” the formal title of the Russian tsars. Joining us is Azamat Junisbai, a Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College. A native of Kazakhstan, his research interests include Russian imperialism and social stratification and public opinion about inequality and decolonization in Central Asia.
Student Protests in the Age of the New McCarthyism
Then finally we speak with Henry Giroux, who holds the Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University, Canada. His recent books include Disposable Futures: Violence in the Age of the Spectacle, America at War with Itself, and Insurrections. His latest book, just out, is Fascism on Trial: Education and the Possibility of Democracy and we discuss his article at Counterpunch, “Poisoning the American Mind: Student Protests in the Age of the New McCarthyism.”