November 10 - Israel's Anger at Talks with Iran; Why The P5+1 Talks With Iran Failed; An Update From The UN Climate Talks in Poland

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We begin and go to Israel where Wendy Sherman, the chief U.S. negotiator in the P5+1 talks with Iran that just ended without an agreement, is briefing Israel’s National Security Advisor Yossi Cohen. The former spokesman for Shimon Peres, Gideon Levy, a columnist and member of the editorial board of Ha’aretz, joins us to discuss Prime Minister Netanyahu’s anger at the talks, Secretary of State Kerry’s frustration with Israeli/Palestinian negotiations and the chance of unilateral military action against Iran from Israel.

 

 gideon levy

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Then we discuss the possible reasons why Iran backed away from a deal with the P5+1 that appeared to be close. Vali Nasr, the dean of the John’s Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies joins us to discuss France’s role in demanding more transparency from Iran and whether in ten days time, when talks resume there will a resolution to Iran’s nuclear enrichment ambitions that will satisfy the international community enough to lift sanctions that have severely impacted Iran’s economy.

 vali nasr

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Then finally we discuss the tragic timing of the super-storm that hit the Philippines killing over 10,000 people as the United Nations Climate Talks COP 19 begin on Poland. Jamie Henn, the co-founder with Bill McKibben of 350.org, and Hoda Baraka, the Global Communications Manager for 350.org, join us from Warsaw to discuss whether the devastation from one of the strongest storms every recorded will spur the climate talks to go beyond rhetoric to action.

jamie henn

 

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November 7 - The Impact of News of Arafat's Poisoning on Peace Talks; Cutting the Wrong Deficit; Cutting Food Stamps While Subsidizing Billionaires

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We begin with confirmation from Swiss scientists that PLO leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned by radioactive Polonium and assess what impact this will have on the already shaky peace talks underway between the Israelis and Palestinians. Khaled Elgindy, a Fellow with the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution who was an advisor to the Palestinian leadership from 2004 to 2009, joins us to discuss remarks by Secretary of State Kerry on Israeli TV where he warned of a bleak period ahead if peace is not achieved stating “I mean does Israel want a third Indifada?”

 

 elgindy

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Then we speak with Jared Bernstein the former Chief Economic Advisor to Vice President Biden and a member of President Obama’s economic team. He has an article in Thursday’s New York Times with Dean Baker “Taking Aim at the Wrong Deficit” and we discuss how the exaggerated fears that the sky is falling due to budget deficits, which are in fact going down, are distracting American from a real problem with the trade deficit, which if fixed, would help reduce the budget deficit.

 
 jared bernstein

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Then finally we look into a flagrant and callous hypocrisy and national disgrace as the House debates cutting $40 billion more from the food stamp program that was just cut, while they plan to increase subsidies for billionaire owners of farms and agri-business. We speak with Craig Cox, the Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources at the Environmental Working Group, who have just released a study revealing how billionaires with a collective wealth of $316 billion are receiving millions in tax-payer farm subsidies while poor families with children are having their already inadequate allotment of food stamps cut.

 craig cox

 

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November 6 - A New Report on the Alarming Rise of Global Warming; After Food Stamp Cuts, Now the Unemployed Get Hit; The Supreme Court Avoids the Easy Prayer Decision

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We begin with a just-released report from the World Meteorological Organization that finds the global warming gas CO2 grew more rapidly last year than its average rise over the past decades. Meteorologist Michael Mann, the Director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University and author of “The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars” joins us to discuss the report and his own wars with the just defeated candidate for governor Virginia’s Attorney General Cuccinelli who began a witch hunt against Michael Mann, accusing the climate scientist of fraud.

 michael mann

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Then with the poor being punished by cuts in food stamps, we look into how the unemployed are about to be punished with one point three million Americans losing unemployment insurance at the end of the year according to a new report from The National Employment Law Project. The author of that report, Rebecca Dixon joins us to discuss the chronic Federal underfunding of state’s unemployment programs burdened by extensive backlogs and outdated and unreliable systems which in California alone have delayed payments on 300,000 claims.

rebecca dixon

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Then finally we discuss oral argument in the Supreme Court on an important church versus state case with Eric Segall, a Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law who has an article at The Daily Beast “Supreme Court Prayer Decision in Greece v Galloway Should Be Easy”.

 eric segall

 

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November 5 - A Populist Replaces A Plutocrat in New York City; A Democratic Win in Purple Virginia; The Prospect for Peace in the Congo After Two Decades of Death

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 We begin with the election of a new mayor for New York City, Bill de Blasio, and speak with Hank Sheinkopf a Democratic strategist who has run numerous campaigns in New York City and State as well a many national campaigns. We will discuss whether the election of a left-wing populist to succeed a plutocrat is a harbinger of political change for both New York City and the nation. hank scheinkopf

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Then we look into the results of the race for Governor of Virginia with Ed Kilgore, the Managing Editor of The Democratic Strategist and the principal writer for The Washington Monthly’s Political Animal blog. We discuss the political and psychological value of the Democratic pickup of a Republican governorship and how the winds of change that first favored the Democrats for 2014 because of the unpopular Republican shutdown of the government, seem to have swung back against the Democrats due to the troubled launch of the Affordable Care Act.

ed kilgore

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Then finally, with the rebel group the M23 announcing they are laying down their arms, we assess the future for peace in the Congo that for the past two decades has been mired in the world’s most deadly and intractable conflict that has claimed over six million lives. Maurice Carney, the co-founder and Executive Director of the human rights group, the Friends of the Congo, joins us to provide history and context to this monstrous tragedy of death, plunder and pillage that the world has largely ignored.

 maurice carney

 

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November 4 - Snowden's Manifesto for the Truth; Mental Illness and Easy Access to Assault Weapons; Cruel and Unusual Cuts in Food Stamps

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We begin with Edward Snowden’s open letter published in the German magazine Der Spiegel “A Manifesto for the Truth”, and get an analysis from a 27 year CIA veteran Elizabeth Murray who served as Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East on the National Intelligence Council. We discuss the Snowden letter written in Moscow on Friday which accuses governments of trying to squash debate about mass surveillance “with a never before seen witch hunt”.

 

 elizabeth murray

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Then we revisit the deadly intersection of mental illness and easy access to assault weapons which is the apparent reason behind the shooting at Los Angeles International airport. John Donohue, a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and author of “Shooting Down the More Guns Less Crime Hypothesis” joins us to discuss the irony that the victim was a TSA screener who Americans accept as someone preventing a terrorist attack however remote, but daily acts of gun violence that kill 2000 times more Americans than terrorists are apparently acceptable as the NRA ensures no laws can be enacted to stop mentally ill people from purchasing military-style weapons.

 john donohue

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Then finally we speak with Jim Weill, President of the Food Research and Action Center about the cruel and unusual cuts in food stamp assistance to over 47 million needy Americans with three quarters of the participants in households with children.  We discuss the political momentum against helping the least among us in the name of reducing the deficit, even though the deficit in receding at a record rate and while food stamps are considered one of the most efficient ways to stimulate the economy as every dollar in food stamps generates a dollar seventy in economic activity. 

 jim weill

 

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