Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an analysis of the latest military gains by the Islamic State in Iraq who have taken three towns from Kurdish pesh merga fighters and are now threatening the Mosul Dam, the main supplier of water and electricity for Iraq. Nicholas Heras, an analyst with the Jamestown Foundation and a Contributing Editor and Analyst with the international affairs journal Fair Observer, joins us to discuss the surprising success of I.S. attacks in the north that include the capture of another oil field and the brutal sectarian nature of the I.S. fanatics who are executing the minority Yazidi sect and blowing up Shiite shrines.

Part 2

Then with 50 African heads of state meeting in Washington for the first Africa summit in the U.S., we speak with Aniedi Okure, the Executive Director of the Africa Faith and Justice Network, community of advocates for responsible relations with Africa. He joins us to discuss the three day summit and its focus on business opportunities, with a $1 billion package of business deals organized by the Obama Administration, driven largely by the need to play catch-up to the Chinese who have invested hundreds of billions in Africa, as well as the need to build civil society, good governance and fight corruption in Africa.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Dean Rice, a former congressional policy and legislative aid on energy and national defense and Natalie Manayeva, a research assistant at the University of Tennessee’s Institute for Nuclear Security about their article at CNN, “Is Ukraine About to go Nuclear Again”. We examine the possibility that Ukraine, having given up its weapons to Russia, now needs them to be protected from Russia, and we also look into the role of Belarus, which has good relations with both Ukraine and Russia. But with Belarusians indoctrinated by Russian propaganda while its pro-Russian dictator reconsiders his allegiance to Moscow after witnessing the trampling of Ukrainian sovereignty next door, we will explore that disconnect.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an assessment of the lawsuit against President Obama that the House just voted to proceed on even though the GOP’s charge of executive over-reach concerns the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, a law House Republicans have voted 50 times to repeal. John Woolley, a Professor of Political Science at U.C. Santa Barbara and Gerhard Peters, a Professor of Political Science at Citrus College, both of whom direct the American Presidency Project, join us to discuss the constitutionality of executive orders and how few executive orders President Obama has issued compared to his predecessors.

Part 2

Then we discuss the default by Argentina on its debts that had previously been settled from an earlier default by 93% of Argentina’s creditors. But due to a U.S. Appeals Court ruling in favor of a few speculators known as vulture funds, who bought the debt at pennies on the dollar and insist of full payment, the deal has unraveled and an entire country has been thrown into economic hardship to satisfy the greed of a couple of Wall Street billionaires. Joining us is Mark Weisbrot, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, who along with a hundred economists around the world, have sent a letter to the Congress to mitigate the damage to the international financial system by forcing Argentina into a default. He recently wrote an article for the New York Times, "The Supreme Court Declines to Review Widely Opposed Ruling on Argentine Debt: Why?"

Part 3

Then finally we go to Caracas, Venezuela to speak with Virginia Lopez who covers Latin America and Venezuela for the U.K. Guardian, and discuss the sanctions by the U.S. State Department against 24 high- ranking Venezuelan officials, ostensibly for suppressing anti-government protests that took place months ago. We discuss the more likely prospect that the sanctions are in response to the hero’s welcome afforded a Venezuelan general accused of drug trafficking who the U.S. hoped to extradite from Aruba, until Dutch authorities allowed him to return to Venezuela because of diplomatic immunity.