Background Briefing: October 24, 2024
What Does North Korea Get in Return For Sending Cannon Fodder to Ukraine?
We begin with Putin’s escalation of the war in Ukraine in violation of the UN Charter as elite North Korean troops enter the battle against Ukraine on the Russian side raising questions about what North Korea gets in return for dispatching cannon fodder which likely involves the transfer of nuclear and missile technology enabling North Korea to strike the United States. Joining us is Aram Shabanian, the National Investigative Reporter for New Lines Magazine. He recently taught in Non-Proliferation and Terrorism Studies at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey where his research focused on the Cold War and contemporary histories of Eastern Europe and the Middle East. His latest report at New Lines Magazine is “The Russo-Ukrainian War: In Context.”
Another South African Billionaire, the Owner of the LA Times, Comes to the Aid of Donald Trump
Then we look into the impact on the election by another South African billionaire, Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of The Los Angeles Times who spiked the paper’s Editorial Board from endorsing Kamala Harris to the glee of the Trump campaign that is crowing about how California’s biggest newspaper won’t endorse the Californian Vice President and presidential candidate. Joining us is Victor Pickard, a Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania where he co-directs the Media, Inequality & Change Center. He is the author of America’s Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform, and his latest book is Democracy without Journalism?: Confronting the Misinformation Society. He has an article at The Alliance for Democracy, “Our Media Landscape Needs Structural Transformation.”
This Election as a Reckoning on Whether America Has Abandoned Democracy for Dictatorship Under the Spell of a Convicted Felon and Serial Liar
Then finally we discuss how much this election will be a reckoning on whether the American people have abandoned democracy and embraced dictatorship under the spell of the charlatanry of a convicted felon and serial liar. Joining us is Jonathan Alter, an analyst, historian and documentary filmmaker and a contributing correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC. He is the author of The Promise: President Obama, Year One and The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope, both New York Times bestsellers, and his latest books are The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies and His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life. We will discuss his new book just out, American Reckoning: Inside Trump’s Trial—and My Own and he runs the Substack newsletter Old Goats.