Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the standoff in Oregon between as a self-declared group of armed “patriots” who have occupied government buildings and the FBI who are exercising patience and restraint. Thomas Mockaitis, a Professor of History at DePaul University who has taught counter-terrorism courses as part of the Department of Defense Counter-terrorism Fellowship Program, joins us to discuss his article at The Huffington Post “Stop Calling Terrorists Militiamen” and the double standard of white extremists playing soldiers in the Oregon woods who are at best criminals and at worst domestic terrorists, and Black Lives Matters and Occupy protesters who if armed, would provoke a much more aggressive response from the authorities.

Part 2

Then we speak with revolutionary Iran’s first Ambassador to the United Nations, Mansour Farhang, a professor of international relations at Bennington College, about the growing confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia where on both sides hardliners want to distract the domestic discontent of their restive publics facing economic hardship by stoking nationalist fervor. And following the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric by the Saudis, we will also discuss the abysmal human rights records on both sides with Saudi Arabia having executed 168 people last year while Iran conducted 694 executions of mostly political prisoners.    

Part 3

Then finally we look into the appalling human rights situation in Saudi Arabia where any criticism of the king could result in death and where anti-terrorism laws are used to stifle any dissent and justify capital punishment that usually involves beheading but can include crucifixion. Sarah Whitson, the executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division joins us to discuss the Saudi government’s disregard for human rights while at the same time it spends hundreds of millions on public relations efforts to improve its international image.

Full Program

Part 1

Today we first look into the major foreign policy stories of the year and then examine the top domestic issues. We begin with Roger Morris who served on the Senior Staff of the National Security Council under Presidents Johnson and Nixon and is the author of “Between the Graves: America, Afghanistan and the Politics of Intervention” and “Kindred Rivals: America, Russia and Their Failed Ideals”. We will discuss the paradox that Americans are insecure while the country has the most powerful military in the world and spends over 60% more on defense today than it did during the Cold War.  And we will also assess the likelihood that America could be led by a reckless neophyte whose personality, narcissism and amorality has more in common with ego-driven dictators like Putin and Erdogan than any other American leader in our history.

Part 2

Then we cover the stories that dominated the domestic political arena in 2015 with Chris Parker, a professor of Social Justice and Political Science at the University of Washington who is the principal investigator of the “Multi-State Survey on Race and Politics” and Director of the Center for Survey Research at the University of Washington. He is the author of “Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America” and we discuss how race relations came to dominate the news in 2015 with riots in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, along with police shootings of black men and boys in Cleveland, South Carolina and Chicago that used to happen in the shadows and were routinely covered up but now are seeing the light of day thanks to i-Phone videos and dash-cams on police cars and body-cams on police officers.