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2016 Programs
2016 Program Archive
April 29 - A Messianic Netanyahu?; Growing Dissent in China; "Do Not Ask What Good We Do" and the 9% Congress
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We begin with the latest warning by a senior Israeli intelligence official that the country’s leaders Netanyahu and Barak are intent on a war with Iran. The former head of Shin Bet stated publically that “I do not believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on messianic feelings…I have seen them up close. They are not messiahs, these two, and they are not the people I personally trust to lead Israel into such an event”. Former CIA officer Robert Baer joins us to discuss this latest broadside from Israel’s alarmed intelligence and military leaders. |
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Then we look into the growing dissent in China with the escape of a prominent dissident now believed to be holed up in the US embassy. China Expert Perry Link joins us. He edited the “Tiananmen Papers” that were leaked by a high level Chinese official and led to Perry Link being blacklisted by the Chinese government. We discuss this very public challenge to China’s police state on the eve of Secretary Clinton’s arrival for talks with the Chinese leadership. |
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Then finally we speak with Robert Draper, the author of a news-making new book about the current House of Representatives who are held at a record low level of disrepute, “Do Not Ask What Good We Do”. Among the revelations in the book, is a meeting that took place with Eric Cantor and other Republican leaders on the day of President Obama’s inauguration, where the participants plotted to destroy the newly sworn-in presidency. |
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| MUSIC: Monsters of Folk - His Masters Voice; Dirty Projectors - Spray Paint The Walls; Jose Gonzalez - Slow Moves |
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April 26 - A Mass Murderer Finally Found Guilty; The Washington Post and The For-Profit College Racket; Have Comedians Replaced Journalists?
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We begin the conviction today of former Liberian President Charles Taylor on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Emira Woods, the co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus, who is originally from Liberia, joins us to discuss how this mass murderer, who was sprung from a US prison by the CIA, only to end up as a protégée of Qadaffi’s, running a murderous guns for diamonds racket. was able to delay justice for so long. RETRACTION: Claims in this interview that the CIA sprung Charles Taylor from a US prison are corrected at the top of the April 29 broadcast. |
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Then, as the President barnstorms across the country talking to students about how the Republican Ryan budget wants to double interest rates on student loans, we speak with David Halperin, a senior fellow at Republic Report where he has an exclusive article “Washington Post’s Kaplan and Other For-Profit Colleges Joined ALEC”. We discuss the burgeoning tax-payer-funded for-profit college racket that recruits aspiring minorities and vets into penury with life-long student loan debts, worthless diplomas and no job prospects, all on your dime. |
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Then finally we speak with Steve Skrovan, the organizer of a political comedy event for Public Citizen. He made “An Unreasonable Man”, the documentary on the life of the founder of Public Citizen, Ralph Nader, and we discuss how comedians today provide better news coverage that network TV anchors. KPFK is a media sponsor of this year’s political comedy show “Stand Up For Main Street” hosted by Steve Skrovan at the Writer’s Guild Theatre this Sunday April 29, at 6.30 PM. |
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| MUSIC: The Rolling Stones - Sympathy For The Devil; Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster; Primus - Those Damned Blue Collar Tweekers |
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April 25 - SCOTUS and the Show Me Your Papers State; A South Sudanese on China's Role in the Latest War; Can Mitt Romney Lie His Way to the Presidency?
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We begin with today’s arguments before the Supreme Court on the Arizona Immigration Bill SB 1070. Former Special Policy Council for Immigration-Related Matters in the Civil Rights Division of U.S. Justice Department, Margaret Hu joins us. We discuss the Court’s apparent inclination to uphold controversial parts of the Arizona Law and testimony yesterday before the US Senate by the author of SB 1070. |
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Then we look into what South Sudan sees as a declaration of war by Sudan, with Lako Tongun, a professor of International and Intercultural Studies at Pitzer College. He was born and raised in the world’s newest country, oil-rich South Sudan, already under attack by its northern neighbor. |
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Then finally as Mitt Romney wraps up the Republican Presidential nomination and Newt Gingrich finally drops out of the race, we discuss the Romney campaign’s pivot to the center and its themes of restoring American “greatness” at home and abroad. Ben Adler, who covers conservative politics and the media at The Nation joins us. He has an article at The Nation ”Did Romney Buy the GOP Nomination?” |
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| MUSIC: Jose Gonzalez - Send Someone Away; Digital Mystics - Antiwar Dub; The Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love |
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April 24 - Pentagon/ CIA Turf Wars; The Little-known Turkey/ Armenia Protocols; Preventing Current and Future Genocides
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We begin with the Secretary of Defense’s announcement that the Pentagon is revamping its spy operations to focus on new threats in the Asia/Pacific region such as China. A retired CIA Operations Officer who received the agency’s “Medal of Merit", Gene Coyle joins us to discuss the turf wars between the Pentagon and the CIA, now led by a former General.
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Then on Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day we will examine the almost unreported diplomatic history of the Turkey/Armenia Protocols with a former State Department Advisor involved in the effort to end the denial and division between the two countries. David Phillips, the Director of the Program on Peace-Building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights joins us. |
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Then finally we speak with Scott Horton, a professor at Columbia Law School and a contributing editor at Harpers in Legal Affairs and National Security. We will examine the Obama Administration’s efforts in the new area of human protection with its Atrocity Prevention Board designed to prevent genocides that have previously gone on unabated while the great powers wrung their hands on the sidelines. |
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| MUSIC: The Beatles - Come Together; Major Lazer (Ft. Amber Coffman) - Get Free; Bob Dylan - Chimes of Freedom |
April 23 - The Atrocities Prevention Board Is Not An Afterthought; An Analysis of The French Presidential Election; Could Germany Leave The Eurozone?
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We will begin with the President’s announcement today at the National Holocaust Museum that he was commissioning the first-ever National Intelligence Estimate on mass killings that his newly created Atrocities Prevention Board would not be treating “as an afterthought or a sideline in our foreign policy”. Rachel Gerber, who works on human protection and worked for the UNHCR and was present at the Holocaust Museum, joins us. |
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Then we will look into the results in the first round of French Presidential elections that seem to spell the end for Nicholas Sarkozy. Philipe Marliere joins us. He is a professor of French and European Politics at University College in London who studies the French Socialist Parties, French politics and European Social Democracy. We will discuss the alarming rise of the French right who got one fifth of the vote, largely from young French workers, 30% of whom are unemployed. |
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Then finally as stocks plunged today in Europe and on Wall Street as a result of the French elections and the collapse of the Dutch government, we will revisit the malaise in the Eurozone where the cost of Spanish debt has reached unsustainable levels, austerity has proven to be disastrous, and there is no money for stimulus. The head of the Levy Economics Institute, Dimitri Papadimitriou joins us. |
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| MUSIC: Fionn Regan - Genocide Matinee; Ella Fitzgerald - I Love Paris; Lady Gaga - French Revolution |
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