Background Briefing: February 28, 2021

On By gram

 

Trump’s GOP Weaponizes the Big Lie of “Stop the Steal” to Steal the Next Elections

We begin with the transformation of the party formed by Abraham Lincoln into an anti-Democratic cult on display at the CPAC conference underway in Florida where conservatives are now turning a failed coup against American democracy into the launch of a 2024 presidential campaign for the leader of the insurrection against the U.S. government. Dr. Allen Frances, a Professor Emeritus and former Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Duke University and author of Twilight of American Sanity: A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump, joins us to discuss how Trump’s GOP is turning the big lie of Trump’s “stop the steal” claims into voter suppression against the real winners of the election as the Republican Party establishes a “Committee on Election Integrity.”  With 253 Republican bills to restrict voting pending in state legislatures, Dr. Frances argues that Congress should form an independent, bipartisan commission to combat this Orwellian deception and power grab with facts and truth. 

 

What is Wrong With Paying Workers a Living Wage?

Then with the House passage of the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill with the raise in the minimum wage to $15 destined to be stripped out by the senate, we speak with Steven Greenhouse a reporter for The New York Times who covered labor and the workplace for 19 years and is the author of Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, And Future of American Labor. He joins us to discuss his articles at The Guardian “‘We deserve more’: an Amazon warehouse high-stakes union drive” and “A $15 minimum wage isn’t just about justice, it ‘s good economics.”

 

Could the Revelations in Trump’s Tax Documents Land Him in Jail?

Then finally we look into the possibility that the claim by Mary Trump that her uncle will end up in jail as a result of the information handed over by the Supreme Court to the New York prosecutors might come to pass. An expert on taxes and tax-avoidance, James Henry, an economist, lawyer and investigative journalist who is the co-founder with David Cay Johnston of the new investigative reporting website DCReport.org, joins us to discuss what trouble Trump could be in with revelations involving who guaranteed the generous Deutsche Bank loans that kept Trump afloat after multiple bankruptcies.