Hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh started today in the US Senate. The hearings should take up most of the week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hopes to get Kavanaugh confirmed well before November's midterm elections. Where are we with the vote? US President Donald Trump told us he would nominate potential justices who would overturn Rowe v. Wade, and that's what he's doing. Trump went to the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation and got their lists of conservative justices likely to overturn Rowe and affirmative action because that's what his so-called evangelical base and ultra-right supporters want. That's how Kavanaugh's name got to Trump.
Finally, if this is not a show hearing, why did Sen. Chuck Schumer reach an agreement last Tuesday with McConnell to fast-track the confirmations of 15 Trump-nominated judicial picks? Seven federal district court judges were confirmed that day.
There's been a lot of discussion about Russian hacking and our election. I've been saying for a long time: it's not about the Kremlin, it's about Kobach; it's not about Russians, it's about the Republicans. Now, Greg Palast and Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. are challenging Kris Kobach and Interstate Crosscheck in court. For insight into this, we'll turn to Palast, who has been called the "most important investigative reporter of our time — up there with Woodward and Bernstein" by The Guardian. He and Rev. Jackson are on a mission to fight back and change election processes that are, as usual, victim to the contrivances of the far-right branch of the GOP and the co-partisans in Congress that vote with them.
According to my last guest, Dr. Ajamu Baraka, the Women's March on the Pentagon, scheduled for October 20 and 21, "is an important part of ‘Anti-war Autumn'" activities. "We've got to put the so-called ‘New Wave' Democrats on notice that we're not going to allow them to get elected without clearly stating where they stand on US militarism." As we look at this so-called progressive/Democratic Blue Wave that is supposed to be looming on the horizon, discussion of — and direct action on — war, peace and the military industrial complex is not at the forefront. What's going on?
GUESTS:
Leslie Proll — Civil rights lawyer. Advisor to NAACP on Judicial Nominations. Former NAACP LDF Policy Director & former Alabama Director of the US Department of Transportation.
Greg Palast — Author and award-winning investigative reporter featured in The Guardian, Nation Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine, BBC and other high profile media outlets.
Dr. Ajamu Baraka — Internationally recognized activist, author and contributor the Black Agenda Report. He was also the Green Party's nominee for vice president of the United States in the 2016 election.
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