Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an analysis of the state of American democracy and the durability of our democratic institutions which are under attack by President Trump. Added to this, the traditional checks and balances provided by the constitution’s separation of powers no longer function because the Republicans in Congress are enabling Trump rather than curbing his abuse of power. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, both Professors of Government at Harvard University, join us to discuss their new book “How Democracies Die” and their article at the New York Times “How Wobbly is Our Democracy?” We examine how durable our democracy is with rising political polarization in America that is racial and cultural and assess the global retreat of democracy and the rise of authoritarian regimes as democracies in Turkey, The Philippines, Hungary and Poland are under attack from the right while democracy in Venezuela and Bolivia is under attack from the left.    

Part 2

Then we speak with Ambassador Steven Pifer, who was U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs and special assistant to the president and senior director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia on the National Security Council. We discuss the demonstrations today across Russia against the lack of choice in the upcoming elections and Putin’s latest move to silence the pro-democracy campaigner Aleksei Navalny.

Part 3

Then finally we look into the latest Taliban atrocity in Afghanistan with a suicide bomber using an ambulance as a bomb killing 95 civilians, this following a recent slaughter at a hotel in Kabul and the murder of Save the Children aid workers in Jalalabad. Christine Fair, a former U.N. Political Officer in Afghanistan who is a Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor in the Security Studies Program within Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, joins us. We discuss her latest article at The Atlantic “Pakistan Will Try to Make Trump Pay” and the ramped-up attacks on Afghanistan’s divided government which threatens to render America’s investment is our longest war futile.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with a new report from Oxfam, “Reward Work, Not Wealth”, which coincides with the Davos World Economic Forum that President Trump in attending in Switzerland, the theme of which this year is “Creating a shared future in a fractured world”. Paul O’Brien, the Vice President for Policy and Advocacy at Oxfam America, joins us to assess whether the sudden growth in income inequality across the globe that in a period of one year has created a new billionaire every other day, will be adequately addressed by a group of world leaders and billionaires at this Mar-a-Lago in the Alps. We look into what drives this reversion towards a form of global feudalism where the world’s eight richest people have the same wealth as the poorest 50% of the planet and why this trend of a having a handful of oligarchs sitting on top of a vast global peasantry is accelerating with 82% of the wealth generated last year going to just 1% of the global population, while 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world, saw no increase in their wealth.

Part 2

Then we speak with Peter Schrag, the former editorial page editor of the Sacramento Bee who has written for The Nation for nearly a half century, about his latest article at The Nation “California Shows How to Beat Trump, Now and in November”. We discuss how the Golden State is fighting back in Trump’s war on California as his administration tries to reverse the legalization of marijuana, open up offshore drilling, defund sanctuary cities, round up the undocumented and punish the world’s sixth largest economy by raising taxes on its citizens in a so-called tax reform bill that is not just a gift to the 1% but a petty act of Republican partisanship.  

Part 3

Then finally progressive activist and blogger at DownWith Tyranny.com, Howie Klein, joins us in the studio. A concert promoter, disc jockey, music producer, record label founder, record label executive and professor of music who was President of Reprise Records, he joins us to discuss how California can go a long way towards flipping the House in November by unseating Republican congressmen who sold out their constituents. And we will assess the difference between grassroots candidates running for office and those the Democratic Party establishment favors.