Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the ousting of Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott by his own Liberal Party (that is in fact the conservative party), in an internal ballot that elected Malcolm Turnbull as its new leader. Frank Stilwell, a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney joins us to discuss the second challenge in seven months to Abbott’s leadership that has been widely lampooned at home and abroad for maladroit slips of the tongue and bone-headed decisions such as awarding the Queen’s husband Prince Phillip an Australian knighthood.  We also discuss the difference that Malcolm Turnbull brings to Australia’s leadership since unlike his predecessor, he believes in global warming which has severely impacted Australia.

Part 2

Then we examine the circumstances surrounding the killing of 12 tourists, eight of whom were from Mexico, by the Egyptian military using an Apache helicopter supplied by the U.S. who have resumed military ties with Egypt’s ruling military junta after a boycott in response to the military coup that overthrew Egypt’s first elected government. Bruce Rutherford, a professor of Political Science and Director of the Middle Eastern Studies and Islamic Civilization Program at Colgate University and author of “Egypt After Mubarak: Liberalism, Islam and Democracy in the Arab World” joins us.

Part 3

Then finally we discuss the deep denial at the top of America’s leadership that has been unable to confront the reality that Pakistan takes our money and kills our troop in Afghanistan. Christine Fair, a former United Nations political officer in Afghanistan who is a professor at Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program joins us to discuss her article at The National Interest “When it Comes to Afghanistan: America Should Ditch Pakistan for Iran” and the possibility that the Iran deal affords the U.S. an opportunity to get right what we’ve gotten wrong in Afghanistan ever since 9/11. 

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with new guidelines issued by the Department of Justice that emphasize the prosecution of individual executives in white-collar crime over going after the corporation. Russell Mokhiber, the editor of the Corporate Crime Reporter and author of “On the Rampage: Corporate Predators and the Destruction of Democracy” joins us to discuss whether these new rules will name and shame corporate criminals and how much they are a response to widespread criticism that the Obama Administration has not put on trial or jailed any senior Wall Street executive responsible for the 2008 crash that cost the economy 13 trillion dollars and wiped out 9 trillion dollars in home equity.

Part 2

Then we examine the politics of Hungary to try to understand why the country is behaving so badly in its treatment of refugees, particularly since after the 1956 Hungarian revolt, the countries that are welcoming refugees fleeing from mistreatment in Hungary today, were the same countries who took in Hungarian refugees fleeing the brutal Soviet crackdown that crushed the 1956 uprising by Hungarians demanding freedom. Charles Gati, a Senior Research Professor of European and Eurasian Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies joins us to discuss Hungary’s own refugee crisis where up to 700,000 Hungarians have been purged by Viktor Orban’s right wing regime which has an even more virulent Neo-Nazi party Jobbik challenging it on the right.

Part 3

Then finally we will speak with Jamie Court, the president of Consumer Watchdog and the author of “The Progressive’s Guide to Raising Hell: How to Win Grassroots Campaigns, Pass Ballot Box Laws and Get the Change You Voted For – A Direct Democracy Toolkit”. He joins us to explain how gangs of oil company lobbyists were able to buy off enough junior Democratic legislators in the California statehouse to scuttle Governor Brown’s and the leadership’s groundbreaking efforts to have petroleum use cut by 50% in vehicles in California by 2030.