Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an attempt to understand the motives and strategies of the splinter group of the Pakistan Taliban who claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday bombing of an amusement park in which over 70 mostly women and children died and 350 were wounded. Shuja Nawaz, a Distinguished Fellow at the South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council and author of “Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its Army, and the Wars Within” joins us to explain that while there is widespread revulsion at the latest atrocity, thousands of pro-Taliban demonstrators have gathered at the parliament in support of the murderer of a governor who was killed for his opposition to the broad blasphemy laws that are used to target Christians for execution.

Part 2

Then we go to Brussels, Belgium to speak with Gilbert Doctorow, an American journalist who is the European Coordinator of the American Committee for East West Accord. He has an article at “Russia Insider” “Why Belgium? The Ugly Truth Behind the Brussels Bombing” and we discuss how the North/South political division in the country between the Dutch-speaking North and the French-speaking South is hampering the government’s ability to identify and combat homegrown terrorism, let alone prevent it.

Part 3

Then finally Paul Sonn, the General Counsel and Program Director at the National Employment Law Project joins us to discuss California’s raise of the minimum wage to $15 an hour and how it might impact the national call for a raise in the Federal minimum wage now to $7.25 an hour to $15 which Bernie Sanders has been championing. We  discuss the likely economic impact of the projected raise for millions of low-wage workers, many of whom are single mothers supporting a family, and look into the politics of raising the minimum wage that has widespread bi-partisan support across the nation. 

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an assessment of the recent AP report based on French and Iraqi intelligence sources that claims 400 daesh or Islamic State fighters have been seeded into the refugee flow in Europe and are now poised to create mayhem. A former radical who was deeply involved in jihadism until he came to see that his extremism was inconsistent with the teachings of the Quran, Mubin Saikh, joins us. He became an undercover counterterrorism operative for the Canadian security intelligence service and is the author of “Undercover Jihadi: Inside the Toronto 18 – al Qaeda Inspired, Homegrown, Terrorism in the West” and we discuss how as daesh is getting pounded in Syria and Iraq and losing territory, it is striking back by employing asymmetrical warfare to attack soft targets in Europe.

Part 2

Then we speak with Peter Dreier, the Distinguished Professor of Politics at Occidental College and author of “The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20^th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame”. We discuss his article at The American Prospect and The Huffington Post “Paul Ryan: The GOP’s Next Presidential Nominee?” and the desperate efforts underway by the Republican “establishment “ to stop Trump as they throw their lot in with a right-wing radical now posing as a centrist Ted Cruz, and we'll look into whether the increasing speculation about a brokered Republican convention could be an opening for a dark horse to emerge in the form of Paul Ryan riding to rescue the GOP from an electoral meltdown in 2016.

Part 3

Then finally we examine the revolution underway in political fundraising that Bernie Sanders has tapped into where a grassroots army of small donors is making up for the billionaires arrayed against the Sanders campaign which has forged a partnership with the non-profit ActBlue who this month announced they had raised more than a billion dollars for Democrats since their launch in 2004. David Karpf, a Professor in the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University and author of “The MoveOn Effect: The Unexpected Transformation of American Political Advocacy”, joins us.