December 12 - 10 Electors Ask For an Intelligence Briefing; Google and Facebook: "A Terrifying Duopoly of Power"; The Recount Results From Wisconsin

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with a letter from 10 electors who are expected to vote in a week’s time to, as the constitution dictates, “elect a president who is constitutionally qualified and fit to serve”, which they sent to the Director of National Intelligence asking for an intelligence briefing on Russia’s meddling in the U.S. presidential election. An expert on the Electoral College, Alexander Keyssar, a Professor of History and Social Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and author of the forthcoming book “Why Do We Still Have The Electoral College?”, joins us to discuss whether, if the evidence of Trump’s collusion with Putin is compelling, enough electors could switch to Hillary Clinton. We examine the constitutional wiggle room that allows so-called “faithless electors” to vote their conscience and perhaps follow the advice of Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers, to prevent a “desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils”.

Part 2

Then with Trump and his spokespeople denying any Russian involvement in the election while leading Republicans call for a bipartisan inquiry into apparent Russian interference, we look into how the truth is a moving target in our politics resulting in he or she who is the best at spinning the truth, winning the argument. Frank Pasquale, Professor of Law at the University of Maryland whose research addresses the challenges posed to information law by rapidly changing technology, joins us. The author of “The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms that Control Money and Information”, will discuss what he calls “a terrifying duopoly of power”, Google and Facebook, and the way Republicans intimidated Facebook into switching their news selection to algorithms which opened the door to fake news. 

Part 3

Then finally we assess the just-announced results of the recount in Wisconsin that confirmed Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in this key swing state by more than 22,000 votes resulting in Trump picking up an extra 131 votes. Matthew Rothschild, the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and the former Editor and Publisher of The Progressive magazine in Madison, Wisconsin, joins us to discuss whether the recount was worth it and how much Governor Scott Walker’s suppression of Democratic votes effected the outcome.