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2016 Programs
2016 Program Archive
April 23 - The Anti-Terrorism Boondoggle; "The Guantanamo Mess"; Will Immigration Reform be Derailed?
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We begin with the possible motivations behind the bombings in Boston as indications emerge that the terrorists might have acted out of hatred, not of America, but of American Foreign Policy. Dr John Mueller, the author of “Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats and Why We Believe Them” and “Terror, Security, and Money: Balancing the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Homeland Security”, joins us to discuss the trillion dollar anti-terrorism boondoggle that once again failed to stop a terrorist act. |
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Then we look into the push to try the surviving terrorist as an enemy combatant and what is behind the efforts to keep Guantanamo going even though the president has vowed to close it and it has become a symbol of our international disgrace as America’s gulag. Admiral John Hutson, the former Judge Advocate General for the United States Navy, joins us to discuss his article at the Huffington Post “The Guantanamo Mess”. |
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Then finally we examine the fate of immigration reform that could be derailed by Republican calls to halt debate on a bi-partisan immigration reform bill in the Senate until issues relating to national security are answered. Shannon O’Neil, a Senior Fellow for Latin American Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of “Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United States, and the Road Ahead: joins us to discuss President Obama’s upcoming trip to Mexico and why immigration policies have failed so far. |
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April 22 - How the Troubled War-Torn Caucasus Might Have Influenced Tamerlan Tsarnaev; An Earth Day Call to Replace the GDP with the Genuine Progress Indicator
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We begin with an examination of the troubled regions of the Caucasus that the accused Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev visited for six months last year after Russian Intelligence had flagged him and asked the FBI to look into his possible ties to radical Islam. One of the country’s leading experts on Russian/Chechen relations and the Caucasus, Gordon Hahn, joins us to discuss the extent of cooperation between Russian and American Intelligence Services and the history of this troubled war-torn region and how it might have influenced the actions of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. |
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Then on Earth Day we look into how none of the world’s top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they use. We speak with Daphne Wysham, the director of the Genuine Progress Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. She is working on ways to build a more sustainable society by using the Genuine Progress Indicator which Maryland and Vermont have adopted as an alternative metric to the Gross Domestic Product or GDP, to move beyond a system that “simply steals from the future, sells it in the present, and calls it GDP”. |
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April 21 - Blurring the Line Between the Soldier and the Spy; How Cell Phones are Contributing to the Extinction of Our Closest Relatives; The Insiders Who Took on Big Pharma
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We broadcast from the Los Angeles Times Book Festival on the campus of the University of Southern California and we begin with the issue of the day following the bombings in Boston, and the possibility that they may be “blowback” from the “War on Terror". Mark Mazzetti, a national security correspondent for The New York Times and author of the explosive new book “The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth”, joins us. In 2009, he shared a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the intensifying violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Washington's response. And the previous year, he was a Pulitzer finalist for reporting on the CIA's detention and interrogation program
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Then we examine how cell phones are threatening our closest living relatives, the great apes, with Craig Stanford who is the co-director of the Jane Goodall Research Center at USC. His latest book, "Planet Without Apes," is about a tragic extinction that does not have to happen. The four living great apes are all precariously close to disappearing from the Earth, under threats, from forest loss, emerging diseases, and the demand for Coltan in electronic gadgetry. We discuss solutions that can help save the apes' existence on Earth into at least the next century. |
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Then finally we speak with Kathleen Sharp about her book, "Blood Medicine: The Man Who Blew The Whistle on One of the Deadliest Prescription Drugs Ever". We look into the power of big Pharma in a ruthless pursuit of corporate profit at the expense of innocent patients. And the role, or lack thereof, of the Justice Department, whose current head, is a former partner in the law firm who defended the villain in Blood Medicine, Johnson & Johnson. |
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April 18 - The Undemocratic Senate; The Understaffed OSHA and the 4,500 Workplace Deaths Per Year; A Report on How the U.S. Sought Revenge Through Torture
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We begin with the tyranny of the minority in the U.S. Senate who yesterday acted on behalf of a vocal minority, the NRA, that represents one percent of the population, thwarting the will of 90% of Americans. Joining us is Alec McGillis, who writes for The New Republic where he has an article “Did Our Founders’ Lack of Foresight Doom Gun Control? The Tyranny of Small States in the Undemocratic Senate”.
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Then we look into the massive deadly explosion in Texas at a fertilizer plant that was last inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration 28 years ago in 1985 when they found five serious violations and fined West Fertilizer $30. Keith Wrightson, the Worker Safety & Health Advocate at Public Citizen’s Congress Watch Division joins us to discuss the understaffed OSHA whose measly budget of $558 million oversees the workplace deaths of 4,500 Americans per year while hundreds of billions more is spent combating terrorists who since 9/11 have killed 238 Americans, an average of 24 per year. |
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Then finally we examine the new report, “The Task Force on Detainee Treatment” by the bi-partisan Constitution Project that calls upon the nation to avoid the mistake of seeking revenge through human rights violations, as was done after 9/11. Mark Danner, who was a long-time staff writer for The New Yorker and is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books and the author of “Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib and the War on Terror”, joins us. |
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April 17 - How Secure is Our Homeland?; A Watered-down Gun Bill Shot Down in the Senate; Is the New Pope a More Appealing Salesman for the Same Old Product?
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Although the latest bombings in Boston don’t yet appear to have overseas fingerprints, we begin with an analysis of the national security issues that arise out this attack on Americans possibly by other Americans. Heather Hurlburt, the Executive Director of the National Security Network joins us to discuss how secure our homeland is.
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Then we examine the failure of the Senate today to even consider a watered-down bill on expanding background checks on weapons sales and the President’s angry response to what he called a shameful day in the nation’s capitol. Dennis Henigan, the author of “Lethal Logic: Exploding the Myths That Paralyze American Gun Policy” and John Donohue, the author of “Shooting Down the More Guns, Less Crime Hypothesis” join us to discuss how the gun lobby is able to thwart the will of 90% of Americans. |
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Then finally we examine the Vatican’s war against American nuns for promoting "radical feminist themes" that the new pope Francis, who has been warmly received by liberal Catholics, is continuing, reaffirming the hard-line doctrinal crackdown by his predecessor. Kenneth Briggs, who writes for the National Catholic Reporter and is the author of “Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church’s Betrayal of American Nuns,” joins us. |
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