Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an update on the situation in Egypt on the third anniversary of the revolution that has since been quashed with a return to military rule that has been going on in Egypt since 1952. Samer Shehata, a professor of Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma joins us to discuss what kind of support there is for the military who have successfully divided the liberals and the Islamists and conquered the hope for democracy that was manifested in Tahrir Square three years ago.

Part 2

Then, ahead of the State of the Union address, we look into President Obama’s promise to work with Congress where he can, and his threat to bypass Congress in 2014 where he can’t, promising “we’re not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure we are providing Americans with the kind of help they need. I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone”. Keith Poole, Chair of the Department of Political Science in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia and author of “Political Bubbles: Financial Crises and the Failure of American Democracy” joins us to discuss what the president can do to circumvent an implacably hostile Congress.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Sister Simone Campbell, the Executive Director of Network, a Catholic social justice lobby. We discuss growing income and wealth disparity in the U.S. and the world, which the president is supposed to mention in his upcoming State of the Union, and look into what can be done to restore social justice and economic opportunity in a world where just 85 individuals have wealth equal to the combined wealth of 3.5 billion people, half of the world’s population.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the Geneva 11 talks that began in Montreux, Switzerland amid acrimony and testy exchanges between Syria’s foreign minister and the head of the UN. A specialist on Syria and US and Iranian strategic competition in the Levant, Aram Nerguizian, a senior fellow and chair in strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies joins us to discuss the bitter negotiations underway between the warring parties and the need for the outside parties in this proxy war, Iran and Saudi Arabia to reach some sort of agreement or Modus Vivendi.

Part 2

Then we look into the report just released by Oxfam, “Working For The Few” that finds just 85 people on this planet are as wealthy as half of the world’s population, the poorest 3.5 billion. Rodrique Tremblay, professor emeritus of economics and international finance at the University of Montreal and author of “The New American Empire” and “The Code for Global Ethics: Ten Humanist Principles”, joins us to discuss the impact this report will have on the 2014 World Economic Forum underway in Davos, which last Thursday issued an assessment that income disparity was one of the “Ten Global Risks of Highest Concern in 2014”.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with veteran Senate and House Staffer, Mike Lofgren, the author of “The Party is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless and the Middle Class Got Shafted”. We discuss his article at Truthout “Gates Agonistes” and look into the political agenda behind the release of Robert Gates’s new book “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense at War”, which Mike Lofgren calls “a political PSYOP disguised as a candid, tell-all memoir.”