Background Briefing: September 19, 2024

Musk Promotes Russian Fake News Claiming Kamala Harris Injured a Black Girl in a Hit and Run That Did Not Happen

We begin with Russian fake news that Elon Musk is promoting in the form of a fake video from a fake San Francisco news outlet that claims Kamala Harris permanently injured a young black woman in a hit and run in 2011 that did not happen. Joining us to discuss how the original Trump/Putin colluders from 2016 are back like Groundhog Day with George Papadopaulos now spreading Russian propaganda is Olga Lautman, a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis. She is the creator and co-host of the Kremlin File podcast series which features expert discussions on the Kremlin’s internal affairs, global operations, and tactics used from their hybrid warfare toolkit to destabilize Western democracies. Olga has a Substack newsletter covering Russia, Ukraine, Eastern, and Central Europe with a focus on Russia’s intelligence operations available at olgalautman.substack.com.

 

Women Are Dying Because of Abortion Bans by Trump and “Christian” Republicans Who Won’t Let Doctors Practice Medicine For Fear of Going to Jail

Then we look into the cruel and unnecessary deaths of two mothers in Georgia who are victims of Trump’s abortion ban enacted by Republican men who claim to be “Christians” which has untreated patients dying because doctors are unable to practice medicine for fear of losing their medical licenses and going to jail for 10 years. Joining us is Michele Goodwin, a O’Neill Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy and Co-faculty Director of the O’Neil Institute at Georgetown University. She is the host of the popular podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin, at Ms. magazine and is the author of a number of books, most recently, Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood. In 2018 she was bestowed the Sandra Day O’Connor Legacy Award by the Women’s Journey Foundation.

 

How Bilious Billionaires Like Musk Are More Influential Than World Leaders

Then finally we speak with Rob Larson, a professor of economics at Tacoma Community College and author of Bit Tyrants: The Political Economy of Silicon Valley and Capitalism vs. Freedom: The Toll Road to Serfdom. He writes for Jacobin and Dollars & Sense, and is the House Economist for Current Affairs magazine. His latest book is Mastering the Universe: The Obscene Wealth of the Ruling Class, What They Do with Their Money, and Why You Should Hate Them Even More and we examine how bilious billionaires like Elon Musk have become more influential than world leaders.