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2016 Programs
2016 Program Archive
November 11 - Will the Republican House Go to the Mat for Millionaires and Billionaires?; The Author of a Report Commissioned by the CIA on Climate Change; The End of the Reagan Era
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We begin with the president throwing down the gauntlet on extending middle-class tax cuts and speak with the Washington editor of Alternet, Adele Stan. We discuss the coming battle over the so-called “fiscal cliff” and how long the Republican House will be able to hold up a deal as they fight to preserve tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. |
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Then we examine the report on climate change commissioned by the CIA that was released on Friday by the National Research Council. The lead author of that report John Steinbruner joins us to discuss the unparallel strains that climate disruption will place on the U.S. military and intelligence agencies in the coming years, not to mention the human and environmental cost as our endangered planet convulses with more frequent and unpredictable crises caused by global warming. |
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Then finally we speak with Michael Lind, the author of “Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States”. We discuss our economic future that may soon be held hostage by another Tea Party tantrum, or whether a more adult consensus and compromise can be reached in Washington. Michael Lind has an article at Salon.com “The Final Defeat of Backlash Politics”. |
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| MUSIC: The Beatles - You Never Give Me Your Money; Midnight Oil - Beds are Burning; Ella Fitzgerald - Heat Wave; Das Racist - Sit Down Man |
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November 8 - Obama's Ambitious Dreams; Wall Street's Big Losing Bet; Adios to the White Protestant Nation
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We begin with the president’s ambitious second term agenda to reduce the deficit, reform the tax code, fix immigration and free us from foreign oil. Ed Kilgore, the author of the Washington Monthly’s Political Animal blog joins us to discuss what is possible, doable and likely to be achieved with a gridlocked government largely unchanged by the recent six billion dollar election. |
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Then we look into how Wall Street will deal with Obama’s second term, given their big losing bet on Romney. Jeff Connoughton, the author of “The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins” joins us. He previously worked on Wall Street and as Special Assistant to then-Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Joe Biden, and we assess what can be done to clear the backlog of judicial appointments blocked by the Republicans. |
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Then finally we speak with Allan Lichtman the distinguished Professor of History at American University who has correctly predicted the outcome of all presidential elections since 1984, including last Tuesday’s. He is the author of “White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement” and we examine the changing electorate, since Romney won six out of every ten white votes but still lost. |
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| MUSIC: Van Morrison - Brand New Day; Manaka - We are the Many; David Bowie - Changes; Bob Dylan - The Times they are a-Changin' |
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November 7 - Harry Reid Ready to Dance but Fight for Filibuster Reform; The Coming Showdown over the "Fiscal Cliff"; Is the Religious Right on the Wane and Secular, Liberal America on the Rise?
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We begin with the U.S. Senate where the Democrats increased their majority and Majority Leader Harry Reid pledged today that he will change the Senate rules, which he said have been abused. A long-time senior Senate staffer Ira Shapiro, joins us. He is the author of “The Last Great Senate: Courage and Statesmanship in Times of Crisis” and we examine how the filibuster can be reformed and how the newly re-elected president can fast track the huge backlog of judicial appointments that have been blocked by the Republican minority. |
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Then we look at the House that remains in Republican hands, although some of the more incendiary Tea Party firebrands have lost their seats. Mike Lofgren, who spent 28 years working as a senior Republican staffer, the last 16 as a senior analyst on the House and Senate Budget Committees, joins us. The author of “The Party is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class got Shafted”, we discuss the coming showdown over the so-called “fiscal cliff” and next February’s raising of the debt ceiling. |
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Then finally, with the election of a lesbian to the U.S. Senate, gay marriage passing in Maine and Maryland, and marijuana legalized in Colorado and Washington State, the country apparently did not heed Paul Ryan’s warning that Obama was “putting America on a dangerous path that compromises Judeo-Christian Western civilization values”. The author of “When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God”, Tanya Luhrmann joins us. She is both a psychologist and an anthropologist, and we discuss how much yesterday’s election was a watershed with the apparent waning of the religious right and the possible emergence of a secular, liberal majority in America. |
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| MUSIC: Tom Petty - Won't Back Down; Gnarls Barkley - Crazy; The Shins - Fighting in a Sack; Plastic Ono Band - God |
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November 6 - A Dark Money Dump in California; The Progressive Dilemma; Paul Ryan's Judeo-Christian Dog Whistle
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We begin with the last-minute influx of dark money to support a venal and misleading so-called “political reform“ proposition on the California ballot. Derek Cressman, the Vice President for State Operations for Common Cause joins us to discuss efforts to prevent anonymous billionaires from buying the election with eleven million dollars that has been laundered through a series of fronts that appears to have the fingerprints of Karl Rove and the Koch brothers. |
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Then we speak with Matthew Rothschild, the Editor of The Progressive magazine, published in Madison Wisconsin, where President Obama and Bruce Springsteen held a final campaign rally yesterday. We discuss the division and dilemma amongst progressives who want to voice their opposition to the president’s policies without helping elect a reactionary representative of the one percent who is beholden to Tea Party extremists. |
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Then finally we try to interpret Paul Ryan’s charge that President Obama is putting America “on a dangerous path that compromises Judeo-Christian Western Civilization values”. Sarah Posner, Senior Editor at Religion Dispatches joins us to discuss last-minute attempts to whip up religious fervor amongst Christian fundamentalists to vote against their nemesis, the Anti-Christ Barack Hussein Obama. |
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| MUSIC: The Beatles - Money (That's What I Want); Flaming Lips - Waitin' for a Superman; Sonic Youth - Do You Believe in Rapture |
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November 5 - America Ferrera on the Youth and Latino Vote; Is the Electoral College just as Dysfunctional as our Elections?; Does Mainstream Media Make this Election Appear More of a Competition than it is?
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We begin with an update on how much of the youth and Latino vote will show up at the polls tomorrow. America Ferrera, the star of the ABC comedy series “Ugly Betty” joins us. She has just completed filming a movie on the life of Cesar Chavez and has teamed up with the national youth empowerment organization Voto Latino with a media and grassroots campaign America4America.org, to get out the youth and Latino vote. |
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Then we speak with Robert Alexander, Professor of Political Science at Ohio Northern University who is writing a book examining the Electoral College. We assess what the likely reaction might be to the possibility that Obama will win in the Electoral College but not in the popular vote. We also discuss voting irregularities in the key state of Ohio, and the disturbing reality that not only are elections open to manipulation, the Electoral College itself could be influenced in the contentious month following a close the election, before the Electoral College votes in December. |
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Then finally we look into whether this race is the toss-up that the mainstream press are claiming it is, or whether as some analysts believe, Obama will win handily, at least in the Electoral College. The former director of political advocacy and communication for MoveOn.org, Ilyse Hogue joins us to discuss the polls and her article at CNN, “GOP Push to Suppress Vote Threatens Democracy”. |
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| MUSIC: MGMT - The Youth; Bruce Springsteen - Land of Hope and Dreams; Tokyo Police Club - Your English is Good; Tom English - Democrats Are Stupid When They Don't Vote, and Republicans Are Stupid When They Do! |
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