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October 6 - Going Inside the GOP to Understand the Shutdown; The Real Motives Behind the Shutdown; A Critique of the Peace Movement's Double Standard
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We begin with “Inside the GOP: a report on focus groups with Evangelical, Tea Party, and Moderate Republicans” which finds that you can not understand the government shutdown unless you understand what is going on inside the GOP. An author of the report, Stanley Greenberg, the former pollster to President Bill Clinton, joins us to explain the contradiction that some polls indicate the Republicans are hurting themselves to the point they may lose the House in 2014, while Senators Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell were overheard saying “we’re gonna win this thing”.
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Then we examine the economic illiteracy underlying the Tea Party base of the GOP who feel it is necessary to take drastic steps to shut down the government in order to get our fiscal house in order, even though the deficit they cite as the reason is going down at record speed. Michael Lind, the Policy Director of the New America Foundation’s Economic Growth Program and author of “Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States” joins us to discuss his latest article at Salon.com “Tea Party Radicalism is Misunderstood: Meet the Newest Right”. |
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Then finally we speak with Danny Postel about his article at The Huffington Post “Mission Accomplished? Syria, the Anti-War Movement, and the Spirit of Internationalism”. He co-edited the new book “The Syria Dilemma” and we discuss his critique that the peace movement is celebrating victory over stopping the bombing of Syria while remaining silent over the continued killing of over 100,000 civilians and the displacement of one third of Syria’s population.
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October 3 - "Has Obama (Inadvertently) Broken The Mold in U.S. Foreign Policy?"; The Host of "Stand Up for Main Street" A Political Comedy Benefit for Public Citizen
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We begin with the president’s challenge to House Speaker Boehner to allow a vote to end the government shutdown and the surreal spectacle of a Republican congressman blaming a park ranger for the government closure. An expert on campaigns, elections and political advertizing Lynn Vavreck, a professor of political science at UCLA and co-author of the new book “The Gamble: Choice and Chance in the 2012 Election”, joins us to discuss the tyranny of the minority as the Tea Party holds the nation hostage while threatening to tank the economy.
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Then we speak with Graham Fuller, the former vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council at the CIA about his article at Global Viewpoint “Has Obama (Inadvertently) Broken the Mould in U.S. Foreign Policy”. We discus the unraveling of American exceptionalism, American unilateralism, America as the world policeman and architect of world order as Obama backs away from the brink of a new war with Syria and opens up a dialogue with Iran. |
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Then finally are joined in the studio by Steve Skrovan, the host of “Stand Up For Main Street – a political comedy benefit for Public Citizen. We discuss his new comedy special “Stand up for Main Street “ – a Political Comedy Benefit for Public Citizen and the inadvertent comedy in the tragedy underway on Capitol Hill.
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October 2 - It's Even Worse Than the Two Washington Insiders First Warned; Averting the Catastrophic Self-Inflicted Wound of Default; Drugs are Cheaper, Purer and More Plentiful as Seizures Increase
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We begin with two Washington insiders who wrote the New York Times bestseller “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism”. Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann were among the first to expose the capture of the Republican Party by extremists and we discuss the threat to the constitution posed by Tea Party radicals who want nothing short of unconditional surrender by Barack Obama of his presidency. |
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Then we speak with Dr. Jacob Hacker, the Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University and the co-author of “Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer – and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class”. We discuss what the business community can do to lean on Republican lawmakers to avert the catastrophic self-inflicted wound of a default that would permanently undermine America’s unique advantage as a haven for global capital. |
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Then finally we look into the latest report on the failed war on drugs published this week in the British Medical Journal. The lead author Daniel Werb, the co-founder of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy, who released the study, joins us to discuss the evidence that drugs have become cheaper, more pure and potent and much more plentiful in the last two decades despite an increase in drug seizures around the world. |
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October 1 - "The Legality of Government by Extortion"; Heading for the Cliff on the Debt Ceiling and Beyond; A Former Insurance Insider on the Launch of the Affordable Care Act
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We begin with an analysis of whether government by extortion is the new normal, given Republican threats to hold the debt ceiling hostage following their shutdown of the government. John Dean, the former Counsel to President Richard Nixon who has a forthcoming article at Justia “The Legality of Government by Extortion”, joins us to discuss the capture of the Republican Party by extremists and whether the endangered species of traditional Republicans will make a comeback.
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Then we speak with Richard Parker who teaches economics and public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government about the motivations behind the apparently suicidal behavior of the Tea Party Congress. We discuss the method to their madness and who is really driving the country further and further to the right and whether we are heading for a possible repeat of the 1937 recession if they up the ante from their shutdown of the government and bring about a government default which will likely trigger a global recession. |
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Then finally we look into the launch of the Affordable Care Act in the midst of a government shutdown with insurance insider Wendell Potter, the former chief corporate spokesman for CIGNA and head of corporate communications at Humana. We discuss the well-funded forces trying to sabotage Obamacare and the growing likelihood that as the American public learns about the Affordable Care Act, the less traction the lies and distortions by its opponents will have. |
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September 30 - The GOP Strategy of Forcing Victory Without Concessions; This Shutdown Will be Worse for Republicans Than 1996; "How Did Conservatives Get This Radical?"
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We begin with the shutdown of the U.S. government which begins at midnight Tuesday and speak with Jonathan Chait, a writer for New York magazine where he has an article “The House GOP’s Legislative Strike”. We discuss the strategy behind the Republican shutdown of government that goes back to a House Republican retreat in Williamsburg where they met after their demoralizing 2012 election defeat and decided to go on strike and force Obama to accede to their demands without offering any him concessions.
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Then we speak with Noam Scheiber a senior editor at The New Republic about his contention that this shutdown of the government will be much worse for the Republicans that the 1996 shutdown that benefited Bill Clinton was for Newt Gingrich. We discuss his article at The New Republic “Countdown to Shutdown” and the last-minute effort by Republicans engaged in government by extortion, to portray themselves as being reasonable while accusing the Democrats of being obstructionists. |
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Then finally we speak with Tom Edsall a professor of journalism at Columbia University and author of “The Age of Austerity” who has an article at The New York Times “How Did Conservatives Get This Radical?” We discuss what is driving the tribalism and xenophobia of the Tea Party radicals as they careen forth in an “all or nothing” putsch to either get their way or shut down the government and ruin the economy. |
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