Background Briefing: May 3, 2020
Trump is Using Guns As An Instrument of Political Intimidation
We begin with the insurrectionist protests the President of the United States is encouraging calling the heavily-armed group who stormed the Michigan state house brandishing assault rifles, confederate flags and in some cases nooses and swastikas, “very good people”. We will explore the double standard of Trump’s attacks on unarmed Antifa protesters compared to his ardent support for neo-Nazis and anti-lockdown goons and the extent to which guns have become an instrument of political intimidation with lawmakers assailed in their chamber by armed storm-troopers screaming abuse up close without face masks in a misdirected protest against a virus they are likely spreading. Patrick Blanchfield, a journalist and faculty member at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research whose new book Gunpower: The System of American Violence, will be out soon, joins us. We discuss how without guns, the original territorial seizure by white settlers and the ethnic cleansing of native Americans would not have been possible. Nor would the institution of slavery protected by the Fugitive Slave Act been sustainable but for the only object named in the country’s founding document, the U.S. Constitution. With Americans owning 40% of all guns on the planet, Trump is encouraging armed protesters to LIBERATE a number of states with Democratic governors with a direct appeal to Virginia’s gun-toting activists who are now only able to but one gun a month, claiming they are victims of an assault on the 2nd Amendment
A Collapse of Leadership at a Moment of Crisis
Then we speak with an American University historian who has studied the both the American right and the the presidency. Joining us is Allan Lichtman, the author of the Keys to the White House: A Surefire Way to Predicting the Next President, a system which has correctly predicted the outcomes of all elections since 1984 including the last one, when against all odds, he predicted a Trump victory. We discuss where the Trump/Biden race stands at the moment and the total collapse of leadership in this country with Trump’s manifest failure in the face of a clear and present crisis. As for November, how could Trump ever be reelected with Americans dying in record numbers and an economy in ruin, without voter suppression and help from Putin?
Biden’s Accuser’s Peculiar Love For Putin
Then finally we investigate the rhetorical record of Biden’s accuser Tara Reade who clearly has the Democratic presidential challenger in a bind and his female VP hopefuls who attacked Kavanaugh for sexual assault, now on the defensive accused of hypocrisy for defending Biden in the #MeToo era. Julia Davis, a columnist for The Daily Beast and a featured expert on Russian propaganda with the Atlantic Council’s Disinformation Portal who is the creator of the Russian Media Monitor, joins us. We will discuss how Tara Reade suddenly shifted from praising Biden for his stance on sexual assault while condemning Putin, to expressing an intoxicated admiration for the murderous kleptocrat. One of many example is her article “Why a Liberal Democrat Supports Vladimir Putin” in which she gushes, “President Putin has an alluring combination of strength with gentleness. His sensuous image projects his love for life, the embodiment of grace while facing adversity. It is evident that he loves his country, his people and his job”.