March 28 - Blowback From Pakistan's Indulgence of Terrorists; Inside Belgium's Divided Politics; The National Implications of California's Raising of the Minimum Wage

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an attempt to understand the motives and strategies of the splinter group of the Pakistan Taliban who claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday bombing of an amusement park in which over 70 mostly women and children died and 350 were wounded. Shuja Nawaz, a Distinguished Fellow at the South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council and author of “Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its Army, and the Wars Within” joins us to explain that while there is widespread revulsion at the latest atrocity, thousands of pro-Taliban demonstrators have gathered at the parliament in support of the murderer of a governor who was killed for his opposition to the broad blasphemy laws that are used to target Christians for execution.

Part 2

Then we go to Brussels, Belgium to speak with Gilbert Doctorow, an American journalist who is the European Coordinator of the American Committee for East West Accord. He has an article at “Russia Insider” “Why Belgium? The Ugly Truth Behind the Brussels Bombing” and we discuss how the North/South political division in the country between the Dutch-speaking North and the French-speaking South is hampering the government’s ability to identify and combat homegrown terrorism, let alone prevent it.

Part 3

Then finally Paul Sonn, the General Counsel and Program Director at the National Employment Law Project joins us to discuss California’s raise of the minimum wage to $15 an hour and how it might impact the national call for a raise in the Federal minimum wage now to $7.25 an hour to $15 which Bernie Sanders has been championing. We  discuss the likely economic impact of the projected raise for millions of low-wage workers, many of whom are single mothers supporting a family, and look into the politics of raising the minimum wage that has widespread bi-partisan support across the nation.