Tag: environment

Briefings

Background Briefing: January 28, 2021

On By gram

 

Censuring or Removing the QAnon Congresswoman the Republicans Placed on the Education Committee

We begin with efforts underway in the House to censure or remove the QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene who the Republicans have appointed to the Education Committee which has Speaker Pelosi outraged, perhaps because Taylor Greene liked a Facebook post calling for someone to put a bullet in Pelosi’s head. Pelosi complained to the Republican leadership about “Assigning her to the education committee when she has mocked the killing of little children at Sandy Hook Elementary school. When she has mocked the killing of teenagers in high school at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Joining us to discuss the extent to which the GOP is still Trump’s party and could become the QAnon Party is Anna Merlan, the author of Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power. She is a Senior Staff Writer at Vice Features where her latest article is “Major Q Figure Urges Followers to Go Back to Their Real Lives” and we discuss whether House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is visiting Trump in Mar-a-Lago today, has had his much-advertised “conversation” with Taylor Greene and whether voters can be educated about candidates rather that have their votes overturned because they chose a rabid ignoramus to represent them in Congress.

 

An Army of Small-Time Speculators at War With Wall Street Hedge Funds

Then we speak with Jacob Silverman, contributing writer for The New Republic who covers tech and national security, about his articles at The New Republic, “The GameStop Saga Shows How Casino Capitalism in Eating the World” and “GameStop Is Teaching Republicans to (Pretend to) Hate Wall Street.” We examine how GameStop, the most traded stock on Wall Street on Tuesday, is at the heart of a battle between insurgent day traders and the Wall Street establishment who are losing billions in a short squeeze as they struggle to respond to an army of small-time speculators at war with the big hedge funds.

 

Biden and Car-Makers Want All-Electric Vehicles by 2035

Then finally we look into Biden’s climate initiatives as they relate to transportation with most car-makers, including GM, agreeing to go all electric by 2035, ahead of the Biden goal to get rid of the internal combustion engine by 2040. Luke Tonachel, Director of the Clean Vehicles and Fuels Group as well as the Climate and Clean Energy Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, joins us.