Full Program

Part 1

Part 2

Then we look into how the Saudis are offering young anti-government protesters who have been arrested a ticket out of jail if they go to Syria to fight in a “jihad” against the Assad regime. Freelance journalist Reece Erlich, who has written an article at GlobalPost, “Saudi Youth Fighting against Assad Regime in Syria”, joins us to explain the duplicity of the Saudi government in outsourcing the arming of Syrian rebels to wealthy Saudis who procure arms for the most radical fighters like the al-Nusra front.

Part 3

Then finally we examine the reversal of democracy in Thailand, Venezuela, the Philippines, Taiwan and Russia with Joshua Kurlantzick, the author of a new book “Democracy in Retreat: The Revolt of the Middle Class and the Worldwide Decline of Representative Government”. He is a fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations and is a former columnist for Time, and a correspondent for The New Republic, The American Prospect and Mother Jones.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the nationwide FBI sting Wednesday that netted the mayor of Charlotte North Carolina, a New York State Assemblyman and a California State Senator Leland Yee. Dan Walters, a political columnist for the Sacramento Bee and co-author of “The Third House: Lobbyists, Money and Power in Sacramento” joins us to discuss the political consequences for the Democrats in California from the arrest of a prominent California lawmaker, who had championed an assault weapons ban, and his political consultant, who were brokering an arms deal for Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, a leader of the Triad criminal gang in San Francisco involved in gun-running, murder-for-hire and liquor smuggling.

Part 2

Then we speak with Dr. Sheila Carapico who was recently the Chair of the Political Science Department at the American University in Cairo about the announcement by Egypt’s military chief General Sisi that he is resigning in order to run for president. She joins us to discuss the consolidation of the military’s grip on Egypt with the army taking charge of billions of dollars of development aid from the Saudis and the Gulf states, and the broader strategic alignment of the Egyptian military and the Saudis aimed at confronting Iran and stamping out political Islam, in particular the Muslim Brotherhood.

Part 3

Then finally we get an assessment of the meeting between President Obama and Pope Francis from Christopher Hale, a senior fellow at Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good in Washington D.C. He helped lead national Catholic outreach for President Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012 and we discuss whether some of the new Pope’s tremendous popularity will rub off on Obama and whether the Catholic Bishops who opposed Obama on the Affordable Care act will turn their condemnation towards prominent Republicans like John Boehner and Paul Ryan who oppose immigration reform which the bishops will highlight when they celebrate mass at the Mexican border on April 1 to commemorate the 6,000 immigrants who have died trying to get into the United States.