Background Briefing: March 9, 2025
Trump’s March 6 Executive Order Signals His Revenge Tour is Underway With Bondi, Patel, Bongino, Ratcliffe and Gabbard as the Executioners
We begin with an executive order from Trump on March 6 that signals the beginning of the revenge tour that he is leading with Bondi, Patel, Bongino, Ratcliffe and Gabbard as the executioners. Joining us to investigate the targeting of the law firms Perkins Coie and Covington and Berland is Scott Horton, a former lecturer at Columbia Law School and a contributing editor at Harper’s in legal affairs and national security. He serves on the American branch of the International Law Association, and has represented a variety of journalists and whistleblowers. Trump’s order means that from now on, whistleblowers and any critics within or fired from the IC, will have no counsel or law firm to represent them against the full might of the US government.
An Update on How Ukraine is Surviving After Trump Cuts Off Intelligence And Arms
Then we get an update on how Ukraine is surviving after Trump’s cut off of intelligence and arms at the same time as he is pretending to be upset that Russia was “bombing the hell out of Ukraine” thanks to Trump’s treasonous gift to Putin. Joining us is Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Stockholm Free World Forum, a professor at the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at Georgetown University and a former senior fellow at The Atlantic Council. A member of the Russian academy of Natural Sciences, he worked as a Swedish Diplomat in Moscow and served as an economic advisor to the governments of Russia and Ukraine. His books include Ukraine: What Went Wrong and How to Fix It and Russia’s Crony Capitalism: The Path From Market Economy to Kleptocracy.
As Trump Eyes Canada, Greenland and Gaza, Climate Change Will Lead to Land and Resource Grabs
Then finally we look into the land grabs underway as Trump eyes Canada, Greenland and Gaza and how climate change is fueling the race for other people’s land and resources. Joining us is Michael Albertus, a professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. His research examines democracy and dictatorship, inequality and redistribution, property rights, and civil conflict. He is the author of the new book Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies, and he has an article at Foreign Affairs, “The Coming Age of Territorial Expansion: Climate Change Will Fuel Contests—and Maybe Wars—for Land and Resources.”