Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the Senate vote of 62 to 35 to proceed with the building of the Keystone XL pipeline, bypassing the State Department review process and overriding executive authority. Tyson Slocum, the Director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program joins us to discuss the expected presidential veto and the total misrepresentation of the pipeline as a jobs project that makes us energy independence and lowers gas prices when the real purpose is to reward big oil so that dirty Canadian tar sands oil can be processed in the Texas Gulf refineries then shipped to the world market as refined products, which a 2013 study shows will make gas at the pump more, not less expensive for Americans.

Part 2

Then we speak with the former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission, Trevor Potter, a founding President and General Counsel of the Campaign Legal Center who has represented Stephen Colbert in his efforts to expose the folly of post Citizens United campaign finance laws. We discuss the almost billion dollar war chest the Koch Brothers have raised to buy the 2016 elections, and what can be done to get money out of politics and bring voters back into the Democratic process so corrupted by money that fewer and fewer Americans are voting as more and more money pours into elections.

Part 3

Then finally we discuss the move by Arizona to bring citizenship exams to the classroom with a state law requiring high school students to pass a citizenship exam that immigrants have to take in order to become American citizens. Diana Hess, a professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-author of “The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education”, joins us to discuss the need for civics to be taught and understood in American classrooms and the best ways to engage students in appreciating their democratic rights and exercising their responsibilities as citizens.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with President Obama’s meeting with the new Saudi King Salman along with an huge delegation of high level American officials including the current secretary of state and two former secretaries of state, the current national security adviser and three former national security advisers, as well as Obama’s former 2008 presidential rival John McCain and the current head of the CIA. David Hearst, the Editor of Middle East Eye, who was formerly the chief foreign leader writer of The Guardian, joins us to discuss the apparent healing of the rift between the two countries and a possible payback for Saudi Arabia for lowering the price of oil to hurt Iran, Russia and Venezuela that some analysts suggest is being done at the behest of the U.S.

Part 2

Then we examine the dark and murky political scandal erupting in Argentina with the president dissolving the powerful intelligence agency she is accusing of involvement in the murder of the chief prosecutor who had charged her with covering up Iranian involvement in the 1994 Buenos Aires bombing in exchange for Iranian oil. Haley Cohen, joins us from Buenos Aires, Argentina where she is a correspondent for The Economist covering Argentina and Uruguay, to discuss the shady history of Argentina’s Intelligence Secretariat and its recently-fired former J. Edgar Hoover-like head who wiretapped politicians and journalists, and the sudden flight from the country of the journalist who broke the story of the prosecutor’s death, who claims he feared for his life.

Part 3

Then finally we assess the likely impact of the $889 million the Koch Brothers network is poised to spend in the 2016 elections, which is close to what Obama and Romney each spent in the last presidential election and well over what John Kerry and George W. Bush combined spent in the 2004 campaigns. Kenneth Vogel, the Chief Investigative Reporter for Politico who tracks the confluence of money, politics and influence, joins us to discuss the latest Koch Brothers conclave of millionaires and billionaires at which Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz praised the patriotism of the job creators saying the Kochs have “endured vilification” from the Democrats “with equanimity and grace”.