Background Briefing: April 7, 2022
The War in Ukraine Could Last For Months If Not Years
We begin with an assessment of the war in Ukraine lasting months if not years and how that will impact domestic politics with the November elections coming up and the likelihood that, as Ukraine is pounded into rubble and thousands of civilians are massacred, Republicans will start blaming Biden for not doing enough. Joining us is Lincoln Mitchell, a professor of Political Science at Columbia University, where he also serves as an associate scholar in the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. The author of numerous books on the former Soviet states, baseball, and democracy the latest of which is The Giants and Their City: Major League Baseball in San Francisco, 1976-1992, we discuss his article at NBC News, “Biden probably didn’t expect Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to last this long – that’s a problem.”
As Long as Students Are Exploited For Profit, Extending the Moratorium on Student Debt Does Not Solve the Problem
Then we examine the Biden administration’s announcement today that it is extending the moratorium on federal student debt which stands at $1.7 trillion and counting. Joining us to discuss how much the problem is being kicked down the road with the latest pause ending on August 31 just before the midterm elections, is Barmak Nassirian, the Vice President for Higher Education Policy at Veterans Education Success where he develops and executes the organization’s higher education policy priorities. He has worked on the last three congressional reauthorizations of the Higher Education Act, including multiple rounds of negotiated rulemaking with the U.S. Department of Education, and has testified before congressional committees on various higher education topics.
Oklahoma’s Punitive Abortion Ban Anticipates SCOTUS Overturning Roe
Then finally we speak with Carol Sanger, a Professor of Law at Columbia Law School where she teaches courses on reproductive rights, family law, the legal profession, and law and gender. Her latest book is About Abortion: Terminating Pregnancy in the 21st Century. We discuss the punitive new abortion ban in Oklahoma which is being overrun by medical refugees from Texas seeking abortions, and the likelihood that, in June, Roe v. Wade will be overturned or neutered by our reactionary Supreme Court.