Skullduggery

Ukrainian President Zelensky on Saturday posted a video of himself bravely walking in the streets of the besieged capital city of Kyiv standing defiant as Russian forces close in bombarding the city and leaving a trail of death and destruction in their wake. Zelensky's refusal to back down in the face of Vladimir Putin's aggression is being seen throughout the world as an inspiring David vs. Goliath battle that may yet end tragically for him and his country. But much depends on what is conceivably going on inside the head of Goliath. Why is Putin doing this? What does he really want? And what, if anything, can the west do to stop him. We talk to two renowned experts on Putin's Russia and Zelensky's Ukraine - Catherine Belton, a special correspondent for Reuters and the author of the book, Putin's People - and also Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of international relations at the New School and the great-granddaughter of another Russian leader, the late Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

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President Biden this past Friday introduced his choice for the Supreme Court. And the nominee, DC Court of Appeals Ketanji Brown Jackson, introduced herself the country. It was a historic pick on multiple grounds. Jackson is the first African-American woman ever nominated for the court. If confirmed, she'll also be the first Supreme Court Justice who worked as a public defender bringing a new sensibility to how the criminal justice system impacts the world of real life defendants. But there is much more to her life story. A stellar student in high school, graduated from Harvard and Harvard Law School, with a family that includes a brother who was a Baltimore city cop and an uncle who was. Miami's Police Chief and yet another uncle who has been wrapped up in the drug trade. We'll talk to one of her oldest friends from High School - appellate lawyer Richard Rosenthal, about what we should know about Ketanji Brown Jackson and what her nomination will bring to the Supreme Court.

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• Richard Rosenthal, former law clerk to the Honorable Levin H. Campbell of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and to the Honorable Edward B. Davis, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

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• Yahoo News' Christopher Wilson's most recent piece about Ketanji Brown Jackson - Here.

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While the Biden White House waits nervously to see if Russia invades Ukraine, perhaps in the next few days, the biggest political story this week that took place was as local as it gets. In San Francisco, where voters, by an overwhelming margin, recalled three school board members. Why? Incompetence and frustration to be sure over the board's decision to keep public schools shut down all last year over Covid even as schools elsewhere were opening. But perhaps even more the recall vote was a rejection of the board members progressive woke agenda. In the name of racial justice the board was looking to rename schools. Even those named after Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. It had ended merit based admission to one of the city's elite high schools because it lead to too many Asian-American students and not enough African-American and Hispanics getting in. That vote has been seen as a wake up call for Democrats when the eyes of some have too often embraced the progressive agenda that has alienated voters across the political spectrum. Washington Post columnist Matt Bai joins us to talk on why the woke agenda has alienated him and what the radical drift of both political parties could mean for the country's future.

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• Matt Bai (@mattbai), Contributing columnist focusing on politics at @washingtonpost

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Back in 2019, United States Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, testified about the notorious phone call between then President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky. The one where Trump pressured the new foreign leader to launch investigations into that would embarrass Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Vindman's plain spoken account was a pivotal and dramatic moment that ultimately led to Trump's first impeachment. But Vindman's closing words addressed to his father who brought his family from the old Soviet Union to the United States more than forty years ago has an eerie echo today. Despite his assurance to his Dad then, "Don't worry I'll be alright for telling the truth," Vindman last week filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, and two other former White House Aides accusing them of running a coordinated intimidation and retaliation campaign against him. That he alleges has cost him significant financial emotional and reputational harm. Vindman joins us to discuss, and as a former Ukraine analyst on the National Security Council, we also talk to him about the current Russian threat to Ukraine.

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• Alexander Vindman (@AVindman), Retired United States Army Lieutenant Colonel, Author

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Journalist Jonathan Allen on this podcast last March described the fateful moment when Joe Biden, with his campaign on the ropes during the South Carolina primary in 2020, agreed to name an African-American woman to the Supreme Court. It was a commitment made under intense political pressure by house majority WHIP James Clyburn. The most powerful black politician in the state. But it paid off big time. Biden made his pledge, Clyburn endorsed the next morning, and the former Vice-President won a resounding victory in South Carolina putting his campaign on a gliding path to the nomination. And now, Biden's nearly two year old campaign pledge has become newly relevant as Justice Stephen Breyer announced he will be stepping down. Who will Biden actually pick to replace him? And how much difference will it make? Two veteran Supreme Court watches, Dahlia Lithwick of Slate and Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal, join to discuss.

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged this week that any move by Vladimir Putin on Ukraine will be met with clear, swift, and a united response from the United States and its NATO allies. It was one more sign of a looming crisis that has much of the world on edge. The Russians have amassed as many as 100,000 troops on the Ukraine border prompting the US to pull diplomats out of Kiev over fears for their safety. And now, the US has put as many as 8500 troops on alert for possible deployment in support of NATO. Seventy-Seven years after the end of World War II are we really on the verge of another ground war in Europe? Or does Putin have another game plan? Our guest John Sipher, retired from a 28-year career at the CIA with time spent in Moscow and also running the CIA’s Russia operations, gives us his insight as to what we are potentially dealing with.

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John Sipher (@john_sipher), Former CIA Clandestine Service - Now @SpycraftEnt @AtlanticCouncil

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The World Economic Forum is something that takes place every year in Davos, Switzerland. Mark Benioff, Billionaire CEO of cloud computing company Salesforce who frequents this forum, is an evangelist for a concept known as stakeholder capitalism. The notion that corporate executors have an obligation to not just do what's best for its shareholders, the folks who bought the stocks and reaped the dividends, but for all its stakeholders including the company's workers, consumers, suppliers, and more broadly, society at large. It's positioned Benioff as that most admirable of characters at the annual retreat, a progressive CEO committed to ending climate change, promoting diversity, and otherwise making the world a better place. But according to our guest Peter S. Goodman of The New York Times, and author of the book Davos Man, it's all a charade. In addition, our hosts discuss the latest developments into Jan. 6th, the newly discovered Draft Executive Order for the Military to cease election machines, as well as the recent news out of Georgia in regards to the infamous Trump phone call to find him more votes.

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Peter S. Goodman (@petersgoodman), @nytimes global econ corr. Author of DAVOS MAN: How the Billionaires Devoured the World

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Before Watergate brought Carl Bernstein well-deserved fame and fortune, he sharpened his journalistic chops as a copy boy and cub reporter for The Washington Star. It was the Capitol's afternoon newspaper until it was shut down forty-one years ago. And was also The Washington Post's fierce crosstown rival. Bernstein has now written a memoir about his formative days at The Star called Chasing History: A Kid In The Newsroom. It recounts how a kid, who barely graduated high school and never finished college learned how to conduct interviews and craft stories that mattered all while getting a front row seat at some of the biggest events of his time. From the Civil Rights Movement to the assassination of JFK. Bernstein joins to discuss his book and what lessons it has for journalists today.

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Carl Bernstein (@carlbernstein), Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist

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• Pick up Carl Bernstein's new book - Chasing History - Here.

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We are just days away from the one year anniversary of Jan. 6th, that now infamous dark day in the history of the US where our own people attack the US Capitol in order to stop the certification of Joe Biden as the next President. Leading up to that day, a vast amount of wild and ridiculous conspiracies about how the election was stolen and rigged, were spreading quickly without an ounce of evidence to support them. "Stop the Steal" had become the new catchphrase of Trump's supporters, serving as a spring board and call to action by those who had been convinced it was true. How far did it go? Where did those supporters take action? We all witnessed Jan. 6th on our televisions, but what most of us didn't see was what happened on the local level, state by state, county by county. Authors of the book, The Steal: The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped It -- Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague, join us to discuss the lead up to Jan. 6th as well as some of the wildest claims and conspiracies that millions of people still believe to this day.

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The Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers are now central to the investigations into the events of Jan. 6th. More than thirty Proud Boys have been indicted by the Justice Department for the attack on the US Capitol. And just this week, a Federal Judge overseeing many of those cases, upheld the department's position that the defendants can be charged with obstruction of an official proceeding. Meaning, they can be sentenced to lengthy prison terms of up to twenty years. As this situation intensifies, DC's AG Karl Racine is taking another route. He's filed a civil suit against the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers over the events, calling the attack, "a coordinated attack of domestic terrorism." AG Racine joins us to discuss.

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District of Columbia's AG Karl Racine (@AGKarlRacine)

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• Yahoo News Article on Racine's lawsuit filing against Proud Boys / Oath Keepers - Here

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