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June 23 - Russia's Role in Snowden's Escape From Extradition to the U.S.; Hong Kong's and Possibly China's Role in Snowden's Exit; Will Unhappy Netroots Nation Activists Support Democrats in the End?
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We begin and go to Moscow where the fugitive from the NSA Edward Snowden is, apparently in transit on his way to Cuba, then on to Ecuador. Moscow-based defense analyst, columnist and journalist Dr. Pavel Felegenhauer joins us to discuss Russia’s role in helping Edward Snowden escape extradition to the U.S. and how this might effect the already frosty relations between Moscow and Washington. |
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Then we go to Hong Kong to speak with Patrick Poon who is the Executive Secretary of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, of which Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo was previously president. We discuss China’s possible role in leaning on the Hong Kong authorities to let Snowden go, a charge made by Senator Feinstein, and how much the Chinese government benefited from the leaks coming from Snowden that they have uses to portray a regime that not only spies on its citizens, but brutally represses them, as a victim of cyber attacks, as opposed to a perpetrator of them as the U.S. charges. |
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Then finally we look into the toll that the public outrage over the revelations of the NSA spying on Americans has taken on President Obama’s poll numbers. Simon Rosenberg, the President and Founder of the New Democratic Network, joins us to discuss the extent of irritation at the president expressed by liberal activists at the Netroots Nation gathering underway and how that might affect Democratic turnout in the 2014 elections. |
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June 20 - Karzai's Latest Meltdown; Obesity is Now a Disease; Punishing 50 Million Americans Who Get a Dollar Fifty per Meal on Food Stamps
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We begin with an analysis of what is behind the latest outburst of indignation from Hamid Karzai who is upset with the U.S. over the Taliban opening an office in Doha, Qatar.Thomas Barfield, the President of the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies and author of “Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History” joins us to discuss the behind-the-scenes wrangling ahead of possible peace talks on Afghanistan’s future.
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Then we examine the implications of a move by the American Medical Association to declare obesity a disease. Dr Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist and a leading expert on childhood obesity and author of “Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity and Disease”, joins us to discuss what this means for future medical treatment of a disease that afflicts one third of America’s adults, that’s 78 million people, and 17% or 12 million of America’s children, driving up medical costs by more than $150 billion a year. |
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Then finally we assess the defeat of the $950 billion farm bill today in the House that was voted down 234 to 195 largely because of the punitive cuts in food stamps that 50 million Americans depend on. Jim Weill, the President of the Food Research and Action Center joins us to discuss the stigmatizing of needy Americans getting a dollar fifty cents per meal by Tea Party Republicans demanding that recipients of food stamps get jobs or have the federal money turned over to state governors to spend at their discretion. |
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June 19 - Obama's Call to Cut Cold War Nukes; What is Behind the Protest Across Brazil? Drones Over America
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We begin with President Obama today at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin where both Presidents Kennedy and Reagan made historic speeches, calling for Russia and the U.S. to reduce their nuclear arsenals by one third. Joseph Cirincione, the President of the Ploughshares Fund and author of “Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons”, joins us to discuss the need for the U.S. to get rid of thousands of these Cold War relics whether or not the Russians reciprocate. |
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Then we speak with Paulo Sotero, the Director of the Brazil Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center and the former Washington correspondent for Estado de Sao Paulo, a leading Brazilian daily newspaper. We discuss the nationwide protests in Brazil that began over police brutality in response to public protests over a rise in bus fares, and have since spread to protests at soccer stadiums being built for next years World Cup where minority voices are making themselves heard about the need for investments in health, education and social services. |
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Then finally we examine the issue of the domestic use of drones that came up in a Senate hearing today where the outgoing head of the FBI said that drones have been used in America against Americans in “a very minimal way” with a very small footprint. Ryan Calo, a Professor of Law at the University of Washington who was the former research director at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University joins us to discuss today’s hearing and his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the domestic use of drones. |
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June 18 - Sectarianism and the Proxy War Over Syria; Will the Repudiation of Hardliners Lead to Less Repression in Iran?; Whistleblowers and Leakers
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We begin with the announcement today from the G8 summit that in spite of their differences over Syria, the U.S. and Russia have come together to back an urgent G8 call for peace talks on Syria in Geneva. Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Professor of Peace and Development at the University of Maryland and author of “The World Through Arab Eyes: Arab Public Opinion and the Reshaping of the Middle East” joins us to discuss the sectarian underpinning of the Saudi-Iranian proxy war in Syria and how Hezbollah’s reputation in the Arab world has been tarnished. |
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Then we hear from veteran foreign correspondent Reese Erlich who is just back from Iran where he covered the elections. We will discuss how much the Supreme Leader was taken by surprise by the last-minute surge of the moderate candidate Hassan Rohani, who won outright, and whether the repudiation of the hard-liners will translate into any improvement in human rights and an easing of the brutal security state-within-a-state run by the Revolutionary Guards under the control of the Supreme Leader. |
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Then finally we get a comparison of the current leaker of secrets Edward Snowden, who on the eve of the G8 summit revealed that Britain’s GCHQ had spied on delegates at the previous G20 conference in London, and an earlier whistleblower Katherine Gun who worked for GCHQ and went public with embarrassing secrets of how the NSA spied on the UN in the run up to the Iraq war. Marcia Mitchell, the author of “The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War: Katherine Gun and the Secret Plot to Sanction the Iraq Invasion” joins us. She has an article at Counterpunch “Spying on the G20 Summit”. |
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June 17 - The Military-Digital Complex and a Monopolized and Commercialized Internet; Obama's Chronicler Jonathan Alter on "The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies"
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We begin with the latest leaks in The Guardian from Edward Snowden on the eve of the G-8 summit in Northern Island, revealing that the British equivalent of the NSA, GCHQ, spied on delegations at a previous G-20 summit put on by the same hosts back in 2009. Media critic and author Robert McChesney, joins us to discuss the continuing spy scandal in the context of a military-digital complex embedded in a commercialized Internet controlled by compliant monopolies who serve the national security state. We also discuss Robert McChesney’s latest book “Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy”.
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Then Jonathan Alter joins us in the studio. He is a columnist for Bloomberg View and an analyst and contributing correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC. One of the foremost chroniclers of the Obama presidency, Alter wrote “The Promise: President Obama, Year One” and he has now revealed the behind-the-scenes drama of the last part of Obama’s first term and his successful reelection in his latest book, just out, “The Center Holds: Obama and his Enemies”. We discuss the book and the latest CNN poll showing Obama’s approval rating is falling as a result of the recent scandals, both real and phony, with a particularly damaging 17 point decline over the past month among a key group of Obama supporters under 30. |
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