Full Program

Part 1

We begin with outrage expressed by Secretary of State Kerry at the blatant attempt to sabotage nuclear negotiations with Iran and examine the rise of foreign policy neophytes and ignoramuses such as the author of the letter signed by 47 Republican senators Tom Cotton, and the Republican front-runner for president Scott Walker who claims that Ronald Reagan’s firing of a bunch of air traffic controllers was the “most consequential foreign policy decision of his lifetime.” Michael Cohen, a former chief speechwriter for the U.S. Representative to the U.N. and a columnist at the Boston Globe who has an article at Foreign Policy “State of the Union Buster”, joins us to discuss growing anti-intellectualism in Republican leadership ranks that began with John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as a presidential running mate.

Part 2

Then we speak with Andrew Cockburn, the Washington Editor of Harper’s magazine about his new book “Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins”. We will discuss the increasing reliance of targeted assassination by the White House, the Pentagon and the CIA and the little-know history of the burgeoning drone program that is led by a shadowy eccentric figure as well as the deficiencies and flaws in these high-tech weapons that are making contractors like Northrop Grumman rich with their $300 million Global Hawk drone that Pentagon insiders call “a piece of junk”.

Part 3

Then finally we look into the decision by the ATF to abandon an effort to ban so-called “green tip” bullets that can pierce police protective vests, particularly when fired from handguns that now fire this type of assault rifle ammunition. Daniel Webster, a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health where he serves as the Director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research, joins us to discuss why the White House caved in the face of an NRA campaign that enlisted 291 members of Congress who claim that banning “cop killer” bullets is an assault on the 2^nd Amendment.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with protests at Wisconsin’s capitol in Madison over the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman, on a day that Governor Scott Walker signs a contentious bill he championed into law that makes Wisconsin the 25^th right-to-work state in the U.S. John Nichols The Nation’s Washington correspondent and co-author of “Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media Election Complex is Destroying America”, joins us from Madison to discuss the shooting of 19 year-old Tony Robinson Jr. and the fourth day of protests at the capitol from mostly high school and college students angry at yet another police shooting, as well as the significance of Governor Walker’s union-busting victory to his 2016 presidential run in a crowded field of Republican presidential candidates.

Part 2

Then we examine the unprecedented interference by 47 Republican senators who sent an open letter to the Iranian leadership in an attempt to scuttle the on-going negotiations between President Obama and Iran’s Supreme Leader at a critical stage in the P5+1’s efforts to reach a deal with Iran to curb its nuclear program. Dr. Trita Parsi, the co-founder and president of the National Iranian American Council and author of “A Single Role of the Dice: Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran”, joins us to discuss this latest attempt to sabotage Obama’s foreign policy and the “unusual coalition” of Republican Senators and Iran’s hard-line religious leaders that Obama mocked.

Part 3

Then finally we go to Caracas, Venezuela and speak with David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office of Latin America who has researched Venezuela for the past 22 years and lived there for 12 years. He moderates the blog “Venezuelan politics and human rights” and we discuss today’s announcement from the White House that Venezuela is a threat to America’s national security, which is clearly ridiculous hyperbole from Obama who is throwing a bone to Senator Marco Rubio and the anti-Castro crowd, but in effect, will prove to be a gift to Venezuela’s embattled President Maduro who blames all of his country’s problems on the Yankee imperialists.