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2016 Programs
2016 Program Archive
February 28 - A New Financial Transaction Tax Will Cover One Third of the Sequester; A Veteran Investigative Journalist Takes us Inside the Church of Scientology
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We begin with the Wall Street Trading and Speculators Tax Act introduced today by Senator Tom Harkin that would generate $352 billion in revenues over nine years. Micah Hauptman, the Financial Policy Counsel at Public Citizen joins us to discuss how a tax of 3 cents on every $100 of speculative trading via high speed computers could bring “human” investors back, stabilize markets and reduce predatory trading. |
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Then Lawrence Wright joins us in the studio. He is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of a new book, just out, “Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief”. We discuss this new and incredibly wealthy church that the IRS has designated as a tax-exempt religion, to try to determine its secret belief systems and what it contributes to mankind as a religion. We investigate the brutal and sadistic tactics it employs against its own followers and former members. And while many of its members, who are trapped in secret locations work around the clock for slave wages, the Church’s leader lives the lavish lifestyle of a billionaire, cultivating Scientology’s celebrity front-men Tom Cruise and John Travolta. |
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February 27 - Supreme's Appear Ready to Strike Down Key Part of Voting Rights Act; Whitey Bulger and the Intersection of Crime and Politics; How America's Self-Inflicted Economic Wound is Seen from Abroad
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We begin with today’s Supreme Court arguments over striking down Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that requires nine states with a history of discrimination to seek prior approval from the Justice Department to change their election laws. Elizabeth Wydra, Chief Counsel of the Constitutional Accountability Center, who frequently participates in Supreme Court litigation, joins us. We discuss early indications that Scalia and other conservatives on the court are itching to turn back the clock. |
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Then we speak with veteran crime reporter with the Boston Globe, Shelly Murphy, the author of the new book “Whitey Bulger: America’s Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt that Brought Him to Justice.” We discuss little known aspects of the case such a Bulger’s participation in the CIA’s MKUltra LSD experiments, the extent of corruption and criminal complicity in the FBI that enabled C-4 explosives to be shipped to the IRA, and the most-wanted fugitive’s final capture in Santa Monica. |
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Then finally, we go to London to get a perspective on how America’s impending self-inflicted economic wound is seen from abroad and how the Europeans are reacting to the re-emergence of Berlusconi and political paralysis he brings to the Eurozone’s third largest economy that threatens to unravel modest gains made so far in stabilizing the Euro. Economist Stephany Griffith Jones joins us to discuss the devastating effect austerity has had in Europe. Yet in spite of the warnings, the world’s largest economy is poised to drink the same poison. |
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February 26 - The 83 Billion a Year Subsidy to the Big Banks; How Austerity Reverses Recovery; A Vulture Capitalist gets Preferential Treatment
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We begin with today’s grilling of the Chairman of the Fed by freshman Senator Elizabeth Warren over the extent to which the big banks are too big to fail and whether they deserve an 83 billion dollar subsidy that is about the same as the impending sequester cuts. Jennifer Taub, a professor at the Vermont School of Law and former Associate General Counsel for Fidelity Investments joins us to discuss how the big banks are smashing the little banks, something that Ben Bernanke told Senator Warren he agreed with 100%. |
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Then we speak with economist Richard Wolff about the irony that the politician responsible for the European banks imposing austerity on Italy, has made a comeback as the anti-austerity champion and now threatens to unravel the slow and painful gains Europe has made in stabilizing the Euro. We also discuss a very similar situation here in the United States where the gradual recovery of our economy devastated since 2008 from the Wall Street crash, is likely to be reversed by House Republicans in the next few days. |
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Then finally we examine what is at stake in a Federal Appeals Court case tomorrow in Manhattan where the U.S. Government has joined in the defense of Argentina to prevent vulture capitalists from undoing a settlement between Argentina and its creditors. Eric LeCompte, the director of the Jubilee USA Network joins us to explain how vulture capitalists like Paul Singer, who buy Third World debt for pennies on the dollar, are able to get a Federal judge to give them priority in getting 100% of the debt repaid in full ahead of other lenders and creditors who have agreed to settle for much less. |
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February 25 - Will the Republicans Take Note of Berlusconi's Success With Anti-Austerity?; Cutting Defense to Make the U.S. Stronger; Cuba's Next in Line in 2018
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We begin with the countdown to the sequester that is four days away, and with little hope of a break in the impasse, 85 billion dollars will be automatically cut from a faltering economy, thus reversing economic recovery. James Henry, an economist, lawyer and investigative journalist joins us to discuss what last minute deals could be struck and whether the Republicans will take note of the surprise resurrection of Silvio Berlusconi who ran in the Italian elections as an anti-austerity candidate. |
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Then we look into the extraordinary rise of defense spending during the last decade, increases not seen since the Korean War, and whether this can be slowed or reversed. A former defense and intelligence insider Melvin Goodman, the author of a new book, “National Insecurity: the Cost of American Militarism”, joins us. We discuss whether the Republicans have changed their minds on defense cuts and if cuts could be targeted against useless weapons systems like the most expensive defense contract in history, the F-35 aircraft that is now grounded. |
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Then finally we assess the possibility of new leadership in Cuba with a former analyst with the Cuban government Arturo Lopez Levy. We discuss Sunday’s announcement by Raul Castro that he will step down as Cuba’s President in 2018 after completing a new five year term, and learn about the likely successor, the 52 year old Miguel Diaz-Canel, an electrical engineer. One of eight vice-presidents, he was promoted on Sunday to be the first vice-president. |
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February 24 - Let's Copy the Academy Award Voting System for all Elections; Did a Secret Papal Dossier Led to the Popes Resignation?; Italy's Election Could Lead to Stalemate and a Worsening of the Eurocrisis
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We begin with the Academy Awards ranked choice method of voting as an example of a model for American democracy, in as much as Academy members are able to express their true preferences voting with their hearts and heads. Rob Richie, the executive director of FairVote joins us to discuss how ranked choice or instant runoff voting is being implemented across the country and is being considered for statewide elections. |
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Then we look into the latest scandal in the Vatican that the Italian newspaper La Repubblica claims was the cause of the Pope’s resignation. Francis Kissling, the former president of Catholics for Choice joins us to discuss the alleged secret papal dossier about a network of gay church officials inside the Vatican who were being blackmailed by a male prostitution ring. Francis has an article at The Nation “A New Pope – African, Latin American, Woman, Nice Guy – Will Change Nothing”. |
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Then finally we get an update on today’s elections in Italy where the current Prime Minister is polling in fifth place behind the comedian Beppe Grillo who drew a crowd of half a million in Rome denouncing crooked politicians and bankers. Domenico Lombardi an expert on the ongoing European crisis that could be impacted by a stalemate in Italy with a center-left coalition barely holding on while Berlusconi’s Freedom People party is showing strength as the scandal-plagued ex Prime Minister offered a $5.3 billion gift of his own money to Italian voters while running an anti-austerity campaign against the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. |
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