Full Program

Part 1

We begin on this Christmas Eve with a specialist on the Middle East about the likelihood of war and the prospects for peace two thousand and seventeen years after the birth in the holy land of Jesus Christ, the prince of peace. We begin with Robert Baer a former CIA veteran of the Middle East and author of “Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold our Soul for Saudi Crude” who is currently the national security analyst for CNN. He joins us to discuss the activities of the founder of the mercenary army Blackwater, Erik Prince, who along with Oliver North, have revived the idea of an independent “off the books” alternative to the CIA which has found traction in the Oval Office. We  examine the possibility of this mercenary military force that operates out on the Emirates in the Gulf, being used as proxies to start a war with Iran in order to distract the American public from Trump’s domestic difficulties, particularly if he fires the special counsel Robert Mueller which is likely to provoke a massive blowback of public protest.

Part 2

Then on this Christmas Eve we explore further the prospects for peace on earth and good will towards men which appears to be increasingly unlikely in the Trump era given their disdain for diplomacy and the evisceration of the State Department which had contributed to the isolation of the U.S. at the U.N. and unease among allies. David Cortright, Director of Policy Studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame and author of “Civil Society, Peace and Power” and editor of “Peace Policies”, joins us to discuss the urgent need to remove Donald Trump’s hand from the nuclear button.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with childish bluster and thuggish threats coming from the United States’ representative to the U.N. Nikki Haley who is threatening to take the names of those who voted against Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital which left the U.S. alone on the U.N. Security Council 14 to 1 with Haley defiantly vetoing the recent U.N. draft resolution. And now with the U.N. General Assembly taking up a similar vote tomorrow which is likely to isolate the U.S. further from the rest of the world, Donald Trump is now threatening to cut off foreign aid to countries that don’t tow the line and vote his way at the U.N. Joining us is the U.N. correspondent for The Nation, Barbara Crossette, a contributing writer to Pass Blue and the former New York Times Bureau Chief at the U.N.  We discuss the increasing stridency of our parochial and ill-informed diplomat who represents the United States as she appears to be trying to out-Trump Trump with her boorish and ignorant behavior, possibly in the hope he will choose her to be our next Secretary of State.

Part 2

Then we speak with Thomas Frank, a monthly columnist for Harpers and the author of “Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right” who has an article at The Guardian “The fury around Donna Brazile is symptomatic of our times”. He joins us to discuss the amazingly brazen giveaway to the billionaires in the tax bill that is now on its way to the White House. We assess how much longer the Republicans can continue the populist charade that they are the champions of the little guy, when their clear priority is to serve the wishes of their plutocratic masters.  

Part 3

Then finally, with Turkey wanting to imprison the Knicks basketball star Enes Kanter to over four years in prison for insulting the president, we examine whether Turkey’s President Erdogan is going mad or whether he has always been a demented megalomaniac. David Phillips, the Director of the Peace-building and Rights Program at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University and author of “An Uncertain Ally: Turkey Under Erdogan’s Dictatorship” joins us to discuss how Erdogan is dispatching hit men to Germany and other countries to silence his critics.