Full Program

Part 1

Today we focus on Syria’s descent into hell as the civil war becomes a war of attrition with the rebels losing ground and losing support as Jihadis overwhelm their ranks playing into Assad’s hands. We begin with a broadcast of “Background Briefing” from January 6, 2013 as we assess that day’s speech by the besieged Syrian dictator Bashar Assad that was a mixture of defiance and delusion devoid of any mention of a diplomatic possibility to end a war that is destroying Syria and has already claimed 60,000 lives. Henri Barkey, a former member of the State Department’s policy planning staff, joins us to discuss the consequences of a collapse of the Assad regime and its regional impact, particularly on Iraq. He has an article at The American Interest “Spinoff: The Syria Crisis and the Future of Iraq”.

Part 2

Then from September 9, 2013 we speak with award-winning investigative journalist Max Blumenthal who is in Ramallah, Palestine, having just visited the vast Syrian refugee camps in Jordan. We discuss the appalling conditions the traumatized refugees live under and the fate of the many thousands more Syrian refugees just across the border who are prevented from entering Jordan. An opponent of U.S. intervention, Max Blumenthal was repeatedly told by the refugees that they want America to bomb Assad even if it costs them their homes and livelihoods.

Part 3

Then finally from November 19, 2013 we go to Jordan to speak with Nicholas Heras, a Contributing Editor and Analyst with the international affairs journal Fair Observer. We discuss the bombing of the Iranian embassy in Beirut and the war within the war amongst the Syrian rebels where the more secular Free Syrian Army has clashed with the jihadist Al Nusra Front who in turn have clashed with other al Qaeda affiliated groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, turning northern Syria into a patchwork of warring fiefdoms.

Full Program

Part 1

As this year comes to a close, we are looking back on some of the stories that dominated the news in 2013. Today we will focus on the rise and fall of the Tea Party in 2013 and begin with a broadcast of “Background Briefing” from May 16, 2013 when the Tea Party was claiming political victimhood. We analyze the real nature of the Tea Party movement with Chris Parker, the author of a new book “Change They Can’t Believe in: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America”. We discuss his thoroughly researched study of the Tea Party that presents itself as a new revolutionary phenomenon when in fact it is the old reactionary right re-packaged as a grassroots movement. With its funding from billionaires, it is much more the heir to the “Know Nothing Party”, The Ku Klux Klan and the John Birch Society than to those who inspired the American Revolution.

Part 2

Then from October 2, 2013 we speak with two Washington insiders who wrote the New York Times bestseller “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism”. Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann were among the first to expose the capture of the Republican Party by extremists and we discuss the threat to the constitution posed by Tea Party radicals who want nothing short of unconditional surrender by Barack Obama of his presidency.

Part 3

Then finally from October 8, 2013 we look into arguments before the Supreme Court in McCutcheon versus the FEC that could strike down any remaining limits on spending on candidates and parties. Senator Bernie Sanders, who was in the Supreme Court and later spoke on the steps afterwards, joins us to discuss whether the Court will further empower a few billionaires like those behind the Tea Party shutdown, who are radically altering the American political landscape, moving the country further and further to the right.