Month: December 2024

Background Briefing: December 18, 2024

The Democratic Old Guard Shoots Down a Rising Star Who Appeals to the Youth and Latino Vote

We begin with the Democratic old guard, led by Nancy Pelosi, sabotaging AOC’s attempt to be the ranking member on the Oversight Committee following an election which was lost because the party’s leader held onto power too long and young and minority voters were not inspired. Joining us to discuss how a rising star with 8.1 million followers who appeals to the youth and Latino vote was shot down by party elders is Alexander Sammon, a politics writer at Slate who has previously written for Mother Jones, The New Republic and the American Prospect. We will discuss his latest article at Slate, “AOC Should Have Won This Fight: Nancy Pelosi led the charge to keep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez out of a key House position. It was a bad move.”

 

An Expert on Terrorism on Charging Luigi Mangione With Terrorism

Then with the murder suspect of the shooting of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare Luigi Mangione charged with terrorism we will speak with an expert on domestic and international terrorism Tom Mockaitis, a professor of history at DePaul University, where he teaches courses in British, Modern European, and Military History. His research and writing cover international security, terrorism, unconventional conflict, and military history. He has taught counter-terrorism courses at venues around the world as part of the U.S. Department of Defense Counter-terrorism Fellowship Program and is the author of 6 books including ‘New’ Terrorism: Myths and Reality, Violent Extremists: Understanding the Domestic and International Terrorist Threat and Iraq and the Challenge of Counterinsurgency. A regular contributor to The Hill, we discuss his latest article, “Is Luigi Mangione a new type of lone wolf?” and how much Americans are more accepting of political violence.

 

Jeff Bezos Bends the Knee Today at Mar a Lago as Trump Muses About Privatizing the USPS

Then finally with the extortionist Trump musing about privatizing the Postal Service and with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos at Mar a Lago today bending the knee in the hope Trump won’t have his attack dog the Postmaster General Louis DeJoy disrupt the USPS’s arrangement with Amazon, we speak with Christopher Shaw, an author, historian, and policy analyst. He is the author of Preserving the People’s Post Office, Money, Power, and the People, The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic and, most recently, First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat.