Background Briefing: August 25, 2024
The Contrast Between the Best and Worst of America and Why Does Anyone Support Trump’s GOP?
We begin with the contrast between last week’s Democratic convention in Chicago which showed the best of America and the earlier Republican convention which displayed the worst of America and get an analysis of why anyone would support Trump’s GOP. Joining us is Dr. Allen Frances, a Professor Emeritus and former Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Duke University. He is the author of the award-winning international bestseller Saving Normal and the reference work Essentials of Psychiatric Diagnosis and his latest book is Twilight of American Sanity: A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump, now out in an updated paperback version.
A Wrap Up of the DNC and How Will RFK Jr’s Endorsement of Trump Impact Swing States
Then we get a wrap up of the DNC and an assessment of how RFK Jr’s withdrawal and endorsement of Trump will impact the key swing states like Pennsylvania and speak with Will Bunch, who is an award-winning national opinion columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He blogs at attytood.com and is the author of The Bern Identity: A Search for Bernie Sanders and the New American Dream and, most recently, After the Ivory Tower Falls: How College Broke the American Dream and Blew Up Our Politics—and How to Fix It. We discuss his latest articles at the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Chicago’s DNC: A pulsating rave where the ecstasy is a vision of MAGA-free America” and “In Chicago Dems Redefined What it is to be American: Then Claimed it.”
A Military Analysis of Ukraine’s Incursion Into Russia and the Escalation Ladder to Nuclear War
Then finally we get a strategic analysis of Ukraine’s incursion into Russia and discuss what Ukraine appears poised to achieve and how it might fail with Stephen Biddle, a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, Director of the International Security Policy Concentration and adjunct senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. His books include Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle and Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias.