Full Program

Part 1

We be begin with the train wreck in the U.S. Senate where the Patriot Act expired on Sunday night after a special session called by Majority Leader McConnell failed to get any bill passed amid acrimony as Republican senators walked out on Senator Rand Paul’s stand on the Senate floor which McConnell denounced as “a campaign of demagoguery and disinformation”, with John McCain remarking later that Rand Paul “would be the worst candidate we could put forward” for the presidency. Elizabeth Goitein, the co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice joins us to discuss the next domestic spying bill and her article at CNN “The Battle Over the Patriot Act”.  

Part 2

Then we look into the eye-catching cover of the July issue of Vanity Fair magazine that features a glamorous pose of Caitlyn, formerly Bruce Jenner, with a caption “Call me Caitlyn”. Joe Wenke, a writer, social critic and LGBT rights activist and author of the new book “The Human Agenda: Conversations About Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity”, joins us. We discuss how Caitlyn and the Amazon TV series “Transparent” are opening up a conversation of acceptance about the transgender community and the transition that Bruce Jenner is undergoing.  

Part 3

Then finally we get a profile of Senator Lindsey Graham who announced his run for the presidency on Monday in front of the family restaurant and pool hall in Central, South Carolina which he inherited at the age of 22 when both parents died and he was left to bring up his younger sister on his parents Social Security death benefits. Corey Hutchins, who was twice named South Carolina’s journalist of the year and has followed the career of Lindsey Graham, joins us.  

Full Program

Part 1

We be begin with the geopolitical implications of the indictments of 14 top FIFA officials that has Russia’s President accusing the U.S. of meddling outside of its jurisdiction as Putin defends the embattled head of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, who is up for reelection on Friday and is facing calls to resign from world leaders, sponsors and prominent players.  Daniel Treisman, a leading specialist on the politics and economics of post-communist Russia, joins us to discuss the likelihood that as more details about the corruption-riddled soccer organization emerge, that pressure will build to revisit FIFA’s decision to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia.

Part 2

Then we speak with Andrei Markovits, the author of “Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism” and “Gaming the World: How Sports are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture”. He joins us to discuss FIFA’s monopolistic domination of football as it know in most of the world or soccer as it is called in the United States, and whether the Union of European Football Associations, UEFA could break away, since UEFA’s president Michel Platini told a press conference Thursday that he had already called on the FIFA head to resign but Blatter refused, leaving Platini to fume to reporters “I’m disgusted, I’ve had enough, enough is enough.”

Part 3

Then finally we get an assessment of the religious right’s influence in the Republican primaries with Frederick Clarkson, a Senior Fellow at Political Research Associates and the author of “Eternal Hostility: the Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy”.  With presidential candidate Scott Walker belonging to a church whose members speak in tongues and believe the Apocalypse is imminent, and Ted Cruz’s father and campaign surrogate a practicing Dominionist, we discuss the role of theocrats in the presidential primaries