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July 14 - Was Tamarod Used by the Military as a Pretext for a Coup in Egypt?; The Saudi Monarchy's Motives in Undermining Egyptian Democracy; The Prosecution's Failures in the Trayvon Martin Trial
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We begin with an assessment of the political crisis in Egypt from a political insider who knows many of the important players involved in what is widely described as a military coup. Dr. Mona Makram-Ebeid, who recently resigned from the Shura Council in support of the Tamarod (rebellion) movement joins us to discuss the opposition movement that galvanized around a rejection of the Morsi Muslim Brotherhood government and the extent to which Tamarod might have been used as a pretext by the military and old guard to seize power. |
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Then we examine the role of Saudi Arabia in undermining the Morsi government through political and economic sabotage, while conversely rewarding the new government with $8 billion in aid as gasoline suddenly becomes available and the Mubarak-era police force reappears to police the streets. Toby Jones, a professor of history at Rutgers University and author of “Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia” joins us to discuss the ruling Saudi monarch’s motives in undermining Egypt’s democratic progress. |
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Then finally we address the legal questions surrounding the failure of the prosecution in the Trayvon Martin case with Kenneth Nunn, a Professor of Law at the University of Florida and the Associate Director of the Center for Children and Families in Gainesville, Florida. We discuss the failure of not having an African American on the jury, not allowing the issue of race to enter the trial, and inadequate jury instructions explaining all of the legal landscape surrounding the “Stand Your Ground Law”, particularly the prohibition against an armed citizen being the aggressor. |
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July 11 - Is Edward Snowden in a Former KGB Dacha?; Public Opinion Shifts Dramatically in Snowden's Favor; Piety and Profits for Governor Perry and his Sister; A "Christian Nation" Under President Sarah Palin!
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We begin and go to Moscow to speak with Simon Shuster who covers Russia for TIME magazine, Reuters and the Associated Press and has an article at TIME “Snowden in Moscow: What Russian Authorities Might be Doing With the NSA Whistleblower”. We discuss the widely held belief among Russian intelligence sources that since his arrival in Moscow three weeks ago, Snowden has been held in a former KGB dacha or country home. |  |
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Then we look into a new poll by Quinnipiac that finds a massive shift in public opinion against government surveillance following the revelations by Edward Snowden. Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac polls joins us to discuss the change from 2010 when by a 63 to 25 margin the public felt the government was not doing enough in restricting civil liberties in the name of anti-terrorism, to today where the public feels the government is going too far by a margin of 45 to 40. |
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Then we get an update on Texas Governor Perry and his sister Milla Perry Jones who is a lobbyist for United Surgical Partners that runs hospitals and surgical centers co-owned by doctors. Her clients are poised to make a windfall when the Texas Senate passes a restrictive anti-abortion bill tomorrow effectively shutting down the state’s abortion clinics and forcing women to go to the much more expensive surgical centers governor Perry’s sister represents. Veteran Texas political reporter James Moore the author of “Adios Mofo: Why Rick Perry will Make America miss George W Bush” joins us to discuss the Perry family’s double blessing of piety and profits. |
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Then finally we speak with Frederic Rich, the author of a new book, just out, “Christian Nation” that portrays an America that the Christian Right envisions, one that would have come to pass had John McCain become president in 2008 and died shortly thereafter making Sarah Palin President of the United States. We discuss this very plausible scenario of a Christian fascist takeover of America that is not unlike what is now underway in Texas and North Carolina. |
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July 10 - Texas Republicans Escalate Their War on Women; The Growing Hunger Strikes in California's Prisons; The 2013 Failed States Index
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We begin with the continuing drama in the Texas legislature where, following a dramatic filibuster by Senator Wendy Davis, the Republicans are now pushing through their restrictive abortion bill again and this time they forcibly removed a citizen who was testifying, Sarah Slamen, who joins us to discuss what she was about to say before State Troopers carried her out of the Texas Senate chamber. |  |
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Then we examine the growing hunger strike in California’s 33 prisons which are under a federal court order to reduce their overcrowded population by 10,000 which Governor Brown is resisting as he extends a three year deal with a private prison contractor Correctional Corporation of America, to house 8,200 inmates out of state. Paige St. John, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter with the Los Angeles joins us to discuss the 30,000 prisoners now on a hunger strike that coincides with Ramadan, and the standoff between the governor and the Federal Courts over California’s overcrowded prisons. |  |
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Finally, Patricia Taft, the Director of the Transnational Threats Program at the Fund For Peace joins us to discuss their new report just released, the 2013 Failed States Index that ranks the world’s 178 states from the worst like Somalia, with a “Very High Alert” status; to Chad, Yemen, Afghanistan, Haiti, Central African Republic, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Cote d’Ivoire, Pakistan, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Nigeria with a “High Alert” status; all the way on to the Scandinavian countries that receive an extremely low instability rating. |  |
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July 9 - Is Venezuela Laying Out the Red Carpet for Snowden?; Media Proxy Wars in Egypt; Bringing the War "Home" to Hezbollah
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We begin with the possibility that Venezuela will be laying out the red carpet for Edward Snowden and go to Caracas, Venezuela to speak with David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office of Latin America who has taught at the Universidad Central de Venezuela and the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello. We discuss the likely impact of Venezuela taking in Snowden at a time when there were signs of improvement in relations between the U.S. and the Maduro government. |  |
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Then we speak with an expert on the Arab media, Marwan Kraidy, a professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and author of “Arab Television Industries”. With Al Jazeera banned from press conferences by Egyptian journalists and the Saudi’s Al Arabiya the mouthpiece for Egypt’s Salafist Al Nour party, we discuss the outside influence of rival Saudi-backed and Qatari-backed TV networks in shaping and covering the coup underway in Egypt. |
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Then finally, following today’s car bombing in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut, we look into the possibility of the proxy war next door in Syria spreading into Lebanon, in retaliation to Hezbollah’s brigades joining in the Syrian civil war. Beirut-based freelance writer and editor Emily Dische-Becker joins us to discuss whether the Free Syrian Army is making good on its threat to bring the war “home” to Hezbollah. |
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July 8 - Is Saudi Arabia Behind the Coup in Egypt?; Petitioning the Supreme Court to Stop Spying on Americans; Deregulating the $700 Trillion Derivatives Market
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We begin with the capture of the counterrevolution against the Morsi government by the Egyptian army and the Mubarak era police, which appears to have been financed and encouraged by the Saudi Arabian monarchy determined to sabotage Egypt’s democratic experiment for fear it will spread to their autocratic kingdom. Islamic scholar Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl, the author of “The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists”, joins us to discuss the growing death toll of young Egyptians and his article in Monday’s New York Times, “The Perils of a People’s Coup”. |  |
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Then we speak with Marc Rotenberg, the President and Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, EPIC, who today petitioned the Supreme Court to stop the NSA’s spying on American citizens arguing that the FISA court had exceeded its authority under section 215 of the Patriot Act. We discuss EPIC’s petition to the highest court that directly challenges the NSA's authority to sweep up domestic communications. |  |
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Finally, we will examine the latest effort to kill the Dodd-Frank financial reforms that resulted from the 2008 crash. Dennis Kelleher, the President of Better Markets, a nonprofit that promotes the public interest in the U.S. and global financial markets, joins us to discuss the House bill derisively know as the “London Whale Loophole Act” that would eviscerate regulation over the 700 trillion dollar derivatives market. |  |
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