Full Program

Part 1

We be begin with the furious backlash from the fossil fuel industry to the leak of a draft of Pope Francis’ encyclical on global warming to be released on Thursday, and look into the incoherent and contradictory responses from Jeb Bush and other Catholic Republican candidates for the presidency. Joining us is Erik Conway, a historian of science and technology employed by the California Institute of Technology and co-author of “Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming”. We discuss whether Republican climate deniers alarmed by the Pope’s moral authority can continue calling global warming a “hoax” as the latest primary entrant Donald Trump does or “flat-Earthers” as Ted Cruz labels those who believe global warming is real.

Part 2

Then we speak with Charles Kurzman, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill about his recent op-ed in The New York Times “The Other Terror Threat”. We discuss last year’s survey by 382 law enforcement agencies in the Police Executive Research Forum that finds the country is facing a growing threat from right wing militias, neo-Nazis and “sovereign citizens” with 74% reporting anti-government extremism as one of the top three threats while 39% listed Al Qaeda or like-minded terrorist organizations as a threat.

Part 3

Then finally we examine the landslide Senate vote of 78 to 21 outlawing torture which is attached to the National Defense Authorization Act that President Obama is threatening to veto. Scott Horton, a professor at Columbia Law School and a contributing editor to Harper’s in legal affairs and national security joins us to discuss why the president is threatening to veto a ban on torture that he has called for.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the eleventh candidate to announce he is running for president in the Republican primaries, Jeb Bush, who made his official entrance promising to “fix” America. Matthew Corrigan, chair and professor of political science at the University of North Florida and author of “Conservative Hurricane” How Jeb Bush Remade Florida” joins us to discuss the very conservative record of the former Florida governor who nevertheless is seen by many Republican primary voters as too liberal. We also look into the emerging rivalry between Bush and his protégée Marco Rubio as Bush’s early dominance in the money race now, thanks to recent stumbles and lackluster campaigning, appears unlikely to deter the growing competition.

Part 2

Then we examine the South African government’s defiance of its own High Court in allowing Sudan’s President Bashir to leave South Africa just hours before the court ruled the government was legally required to arrest Bashir on charges brought by the International Criminal Court of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Katherine Newman, Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and co-author of “After Freedom: The Rise of the Post-Apartheid Generation in Democratic South Africa” joins us to discuss this blow to the ICC in a victory for the African Union led by Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, that bitterly opposes the International Criminal Court and has become a club for African dictators more concerned about protecting Africa’s leaders, than the rights of Africa’s citizens.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Robert Kuttner, the co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect and author of “Debtors’ Prison: The Politics of Austerity Versus Possibility”. We discuss his article at The Huffington Post “The Real Meaning of Obama’s Trade Defeat” and whether the Trans-Pacific Partnership can be revived now that Democrats in Congress rebuked their president and voted it down over concerns the TPP is less of a trade deal and more of a giveaway to America’s corporate elite.