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June 28 - Why Obama Is Not Standing Up to the Republicans; The Greek Economic and Political Crisis; Bulger Resurfaces the Wars Between Law Enforcement
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We begin by examining why the president is not standing up to the blackmail by the Republican leadership, who are threatening to destroy the full faith and credit of the United States unless they get their way in cutting Social Security and Medicare. Meanwhile, they refuse to even consider raising revenues, let alone taxing the top one percent. The Executive Director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, Robert Johnson, joins us to explain why the president is not standing with the American people. |
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Then, amid strikes and protests, with the Greek parliament poised to make a crucial vote on the austerity measures required by European banks and bond holders to avoid default, we discuss the Greek economic and political crisis with Theofanis Stavrou, a professor of History at the University of Minnesota and the founder and editor of the Journal of Modern Greek Studies. |
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Finally, we look into the wars between law enforcement that are bound to resurface with the trial of alleged mobster, Whitey Bulger, who was just arrested in Santa Monica. Maria Cramer, who covers crime for the Boston Globe, joins us. She was in court today in Boston as Whitey Bulger arrived in an orange jumpsuit to face a Federal Judge at the beginning of this long and painful trial that promises to be embarrassing for the FBI. |
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June 27 - How Will Gaddafi's Arrest Warrant Affect Libya?; Arizona Denies Funds for Qualified Underdog Candidates; The Corporate Assault on Citizen's Rights; Will Democrats Buy into Deficit Hoax and War on Seniors?
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We begin with a discussion of the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Libyan dictator Gadaffi, his son, Saif al-Islam, and his Intelligence Chief, Abdullah al-Sanuss. David Scheffer, who was the first U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, joins us to talk about how this arrest warrant might affect the apparent stalemate in Libya |
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Then we look at the Supreme Court’s latest ruling on campaign finance with Jessica Levinson, who was part of the losing side of the case that the thin conservative majority struck down, invalidating an Arizona law that provided for qualified candidates to get public funds to match excessive spending by wealthy opponents. |
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Then we look at the broader corporate assault on citizen’s rights and the consumer’s ability to sue, with Susan Saladoff, the maker of a new HBO documentary feature film Hot Coffee. She joins us to talk about her film that profiles the incremental erosion of individual rights that the American people are giving away to corporate power in the name of tort reform. |
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Then, finally, we look into the psychology of political message management with Drew Westen, the author of The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in deciding the Fate of the Nation. He argues that the Democrats are about to make a catastrophic mistake if they join the Republicans and buy into the deficit hoax and the war on seniors. |
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June 26 - The Death of Earth's Oceans; Overpopulation and the Future of the Planet; The New Gilded Age and Rise of the 21st Century U.S. Plutocracy
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We begin with the alarming new report on the state of the oceans that cover two-thirds of this planet. Sylvia Earle, the National Geographic’s explorer-in-residence and former chief scientist of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, joins us. We examine this latest warning of a mass extinction and look into ways to reverse the drift towards the death of the Earth’s oceans. |
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Then we examine the main culprit behind the looming mass extinction of the ocean, and by extension, the Earth, and that is overpopulation. The head of the largest grassroots population organization in the U.S., Population Connection, (formerly Zero Population Growth) John Seager, joins us. We look into the future of this planet on which the population has doubled since 1968 and will double again by 2030. |
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Then we have a conversation with labor historian Jefferson Cowie about the new Gilded Age and the rise of the 21st century American plutocracy. He is the author of Stayin’ Alive: The 1970’s and the Last Days of the Working Class. We look into the possibility of another Teddy Roosevelt emerging from America’s political class, locked in the grip of greed, to restore a government of the people, "by the people and for the people." |
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June 23 - Obama's Announcement of a Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan; An Analysis of the Middle East Following the Arab Spring Revolutions; An Update on the Financial Crisis in Europe
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We start off by discussing the president’s announcement yesterday regarding a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, in effect, the un-surge of the extra 30,000 troops Obama deployed. To get an analysis of the beginning of the end of this decade-long, losing war, we are joined by AfPak expert, Christine Fair, who served as a United Nations political officer in Kabul and is a senior fellow in the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. |
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Then we get a broader analysis of the Middle East, shaken by the Arab Spring revolutions, and assess the successes and failures while focusing on the counterrevolutionaries, in particular the contra of contras, Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich, reactionary feudal state that fuels religious medievalism and abhors democracy. Anouar Boukhars, an expert on the Middle East and in particular Morocco, where the Moroccan king is doing exactly what the Saudi King is urging and trying to bribe him not to do, joins us. |
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Then, finally, we have an update on the financial crisis shaking the Eurozone with concerns over Greece defaulting on its stifling debt, and Portugal and Ireland staggering under the weight of their debt. Steven Hill, the author of “Europe’s Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope for an Insecure Age,” joins us from a conference of European leaders in Spain where these issues are being discussed, debated and presumably dealt with. |
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June 21 - Afghanistan Troop Pull-Out(?) in Perspective; Defend Muslims, Defend America; Nuclear Power Now
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The former Vice-Chair of the National Intelligence Council at the CIA who served as CIA Station Chief in Kabul Graham Fuller joins us to discuss the President's address on Afghanistan tomorrow where he is expected to announce the withdrawal of 10,000 troops from a war the American people increasingly see as a lost cause. |
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Azziz Huq who wrote an op-ed in Monday's New York Times "Defend Muslims, Defend America" joins us to discuss the racist paranoia behind the ludicrous rash of bills in State Legislatures banning Sharia Law, following the lead of Oklahoma. In addition to the obvious insult to American core values and a violation of the First Amendment, we examine the consequences of these discriminatory laws in terms of their adverse effect on national security. |
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With two Nebraska nuclear plants threatened by the rising Missouri River, we will look into nulear safety in the U.S. following the recent disasters in Japan and an expose by the AP accusing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of weakening safety rules to keep America's aging reactors operating. The president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Arjun Makhajani joins us. |
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