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2015 Program Archive
2015 Program Archive
January 18 - Obama's Proposal to Tax the 1% of the 1%; Is China's Anti-Corruption Crusade a Stalinist Purge?; A Third Generation Asymmetrical War Underway in Europe
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We begin with President Obama’s proposals to increase taxes on the wealthy to benefit the middle class which he will outline in Tuesday’s State of the Union address. Joining us is Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist David Cay Johnston, whose reporting has uncovered so many loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code that he has been called the “de facto tax enforcement officer of the United States”. We discuss the details of the president’s proposals and the expected opposition from Republicans who are cutting the IRS’s budget and changing the way the impact of tax cuts on government revenues is measured to disguise the increase in the deficit. |
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Then we look into the anti-corruption crusade launched by China’s President Xi Jinping that looks to many analysts as a Stalinist purge of political rivals rather than a genuine effort to clean up endemic corruption. Andrew Nathan, a Professor of Political Science at Columbia University and the author of “China’s Transition: The Tiananmen Papers”, joins us to discuss what Xi’s endgame might be given the selective nature of the purges underway in China as Xi and his fellow “princelings”, descendents of senior Communist Party founders, continue to enjoy unimaginable power and wealth while crushing any possible threats to their power. |
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Then finally we discuss the recent terrorist attacks in Paris as representing a third generation of asymmetrical war, with the first stage in Afghanistan and Iraq itself, the second stage the London and Madrid bombings, and Paris and Belgium reflecting the third stage. Saskia Sassen, the Co-Chair of The Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University and author of the new book “When Territory Exits Existing Frameworks”, joins us to discuss how cities have become the front lines of conflict and violence stemming from the increased mobility between Europe and theaters of war in the Middle East. |
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January 15 - Improving Cybersecurity and Managing Cyber Insecurity; Saudi Arabia's Policies of Intolerance and Extremism; Why a Second Progressive Era is Emerging
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We begin with the president’s recent call to improve cyber security which he is expected to expand upon in next week’s State of the Union address. Peter Singer, a Strategist and Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation whose latest book is “Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know”, joins us to discuss the gap between military capabilities and civilian defenses made clear by the Sony hack as well as the recurring breaches of large corporations like Target that expose millions of consumers to cyber theft, and the recent rash of cyber attacks on CENTCOM’s twitter account and threats by Anonymous to hack jihadi websites.
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Then we examine the hypocrisy of going to war against the so-called Islamic State because of their brutal beheadings of journalists and now being allied with Saudi Arabia against ISIL, while the ruling feudal Saudi Royal Family carried out 82 beheadings in 2014 alone. Sarah Whitson, the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division, joins us to discuss Saudi Arabia’s policies of intolerance and extremism with the recent public flogging of Raif Badawi, the liberal blogger who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for “going beyond the realm of obedience”, meaning deviating from absolute fealty to the King. We also discuss Sarah’s article at CNN “Saudi Blogger’s Flogging Should Outrage the World”. |
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Then finally we speak with Paul Glastris, the Editor in Chief of the Washington Monthly and a former special assistant and chief speechwriter to President Bill Clinton, about his article at The Washington Monthly “Why a Second Progressive Era is Emerging and How Not to Blow It”. At a time when Republicans control both the Senate and House and are moving aggressively to weaken the government and government programs that serve the American people, we will look into how a counterrevolution to this government now in power of the oligarchy, for the oligarchy and by their servants, might emerge and who might lead it. |
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January 14 - Obama Calls for More Municipal Broadband Networks; How Citizens Can Reassert Control Over the Public Airwaves; The Republican Move to Undermine the Entire U.S. Regulatory System
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We begin with President Obama’s visit today to Cedar Falls, Iowa where he encouraged the building of municipal broadband networks as was done twenty years ago in this small rural city of 40,000 whose residents enjoy one gigabyte per second broadband, the fastest in the country, comparable to households and businesses in South Korea, Japan and France. Christopher Mitchell, the Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance joins us to discuss Obama’s efforts to stop cable and telecomm monopolies from pushing state laws to prevent competition while the cable and phone companies continue to charge more and more for poorer and much slower Internet service than the rest of the industrialized world has. |
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Then we take a broader look at the media landscape with Victor Pickard, a Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of “America’s Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform”. We look back at efforts to maintain the public interest in and influence over, the public airwaves, that has been rolled back since President Reagan ended the FCC’s Fairness Doctrine in 1987 and discuss how citizens can reassert control over the public airwaves to be better informed and educated as opposed to being passive consumers of advertizing and infotainment. |
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Then finally we look into the Regulatory Accountability Act passed Tuesday by the Republican House that modifies the Administrative Procedures Act which has been in existence for 60 years.Sidney Shapiro, the Vice President of the Center for Progressive Reform and Chair of Administrative Law at Wake Forest University, joins us to discuss this effort to undermine the entire U.S. regulatory system over financial and consumer product protections, public and worker health and safety, and environmental protection by making it easy for corporations to challenge and delay new rules by creating some 74 new procedures and requirements meant to gum up the works of government agencies with layers and layers of extra paperwork. |
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January 13 - Police Officers Charged with Murder; The Fall of Putin and Who or What Might Replace Him; Long Hours, No Vacations, Yet When We Are Idle, We Are the Most Creative
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We begin with a different outcome from recent police shootings where instead of a grand jury deciding not to indict, a District Attorney decided to file murder charges. Mike Gallagher, an Investigative Reporter with the Albuquerque Journal where he has the front page lead story today “Officers Charged with Murder”, joins us to discuss the charges filed by Albuquerque District Attorney Kari Brandenberg against two police officers who shot and killed a homeless man for camping illegally in the foothills of Albuquerque last spring in a case captured on a police helmet camera that shocked the nation. We discuss the upcoming preliminary hearing which is likely to grab national attention and whether there is some payback at work since the DA who brought murder charges against the Albuquerque Police is herself the subject of a police investigation into bribery and intimidation of a witness. |
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Then we examine whether the steep drop in oil prices that are likely to continue throughout the year, could lead to the fall of the Putin regime in Russia since the Putin kleptocracy depends on revenues from oil and gas to line the pockets of Putin’s cronies first, then trickle-down in sufficient amounts to the people in order to maintain the peace. David Kotz, a Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, whose latest book is “The Rise and Fall of Neoliberal Capitalism”, joins us to discuss his article at The Nation “Plummeting Oil Prices Could Bring Radical Change to Russia” and what political alternatives might emerge out of the chaos in Russia to challenge Putin. |
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Then finally we look into the diminishing returns and human costs of long working hours in America where there are zero mandatory vacation days compared to 30 in France, in a country whose constitution invokes the concept of the pursuit of happiness. Brigid Shulte, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with The Washington Post and the author of “Overwhelmed; Work, Love and Play when No One has the Time”, joins us to discuss her article at CNN “Leisure is the new productivity” and how neuroscience is discovering that when we are idle, our brains are the most active and we are the most creative. |
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January 12 - How Terrorism "Experts" Keep Getting it Wrong; The Double Standard that Will Give Petraeus a Free Pass for Passing Classified Information to his Mistress; Why the Nigerian Government and Military Can't Combat Boko Haram
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We begin with an analysis of reactions and over-reactions to terrorist attacks that often reward the perpetrators by falling into trap the jihadists set meant to drive a wedge between Muslims and the West. Dr. John Mueller, the Woody Hayes Chair of National Security Studies at Ohio State University and author of “Terror, Security, and Money: Balancing the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Homeland Security”, joins us to discuss the latest atrocities in Paris in terms of how the French might react to their so-called 9/11 and the ability of a handful of misfits to capture and hold the attention of the global media as they run amok on the world stage for days on end.
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Then we look into the increasing unlikelihood that General David Petraeus will be indicted for passing classified information to his mistress, as Senators McCain, Lindsey Graham and Diane Feinstein weigh in on his behalf claiming “he has suffered enough”. Melvin Goodman, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and author of “Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA” joins us to discuss the tabloid nature of the affair that ended Petraeus’s government career and those coming to his defense while the general “suffers” with million dollar consultancies and hundreds of thousands in lecture fees. |
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Then finally we examine the indifference of the Nigerian government and the incompetence of its military facing the growing threat of Boko Harum terrorists who killed thousands of civilians in a northern border town after the Nigerian military garrison had fled. Ambassador John Campbell, a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria and the author of “Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink”, joins us to discuss rampant corruption that might explain why Nigeria’s five billion dollar military budget does not reach its soldiers in the field who are often not paid and are rationed with only 30 bullets to face the well-armed fanatics of Boko Harum. |
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