Background Briefing: December 12, 2024
Will Trump and His Shills for Russia like Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard Turn Us Into Putin’s America?
We begin with the resignation of FBI Director Chris Wray making it easier for Trump to foist Kash Patel on the nation along with Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence and RFK Jr’s daughter-in-law Amaryllis Fox as the deputy head of the CIA. With Kari Lake as the head of Voice of America it would seem that Trump’s team of shills for Russia will go a long way towards the United States becoming Putin’s America. Joining us is Robert Young Pelton, an author, filmmaker, journalist, and explorer. He is the publisher of Dangerous magazine and has a first-hand perspective on the war on terror from direct contact with the world’s most infamous jihadi, rebel and insurgent groups. His books include: The World’s Most Dangerous Places, Come Back Alive, Three Worlds Gone Mad, Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror and his autobiography, The Adventurist. He is working on a documentary about Jared Kushner’s secret deals ahead of the Abraham Accords which lined Kushner’s pockets.
Israel and Turkey Appear to be the Winners in Syria While Russia and Iran are the Losers
Then we look into how Israel and Turkey appear to be the winners with the fall of the Assad regime in Syria while Russia and Iran are the losers. Joining us from Doha, Qatar to assess the changing geopolitical landscape in the Middle East is Nader Hashemi, the Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and a Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. A Non-Resident Fellow at Democracy for the Arab World Now, he is the author of The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future and Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East.
How Rising Food Prices Played a Decisive Role in the Election and Efforts to Rein in Food Monopolies Like WalMart
Then finally, with the rising price of groceries playing a decisive role in the last election, we look into the food deserts in the country and efforts to rein in the monopolies like WalMart by dusting off a law from 1936, the Robinson-Patman Act. Joining us is Stacy Mitchell, the co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and the author of Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses. We discuss her article at The Atlantic, “The Great Grocery Squeeze: How a federal policy change in the 1980s created the modern food desert.”