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July 8 - How Corporations Hide Political Donations; Infrastructure as a National Security Priority; More Scrutiny of Religion Needed
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We begin with the New York Times investigation into tax-exempt 501C-4’s, designated for “social welfare” by the IRS, that are being used by some of America’s biggest corporations to shield voters and shareholders from knowing about corporate donations to political campaigns and candidates. Bruce Cain, a professor of Political Science at Stanford University who was up until recently the Executive Director of the University of California’s Washington Center, joins us. |
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Then we look into the massive power failures in the east, with citizens sweltering in the dark for over a week without electricity to cool them and refrigerate food. A leading authority on the production, management and delivery of energy to large populations, David Freeman, the former head of the TVA, New York Power and the LA DWP, joins us to discuss the growing vulnerability of the grid to increasingly destructive weather from climate change, and what can be done to prevent future failures. |
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Then finally we discuss the separation of church and state, and the extent to which religious groups have it both ways, enjoying tax-exempt status while demanding access to the public square and a greater voice in politics, while at the same time insisting their theological doctrines be kept secret and off-limits from enquiry by the press. Steven Pizzo, a Pulitzer-prize nominated investigative journalist joins us. He has an article at the Smirking Chimp, “Cultist? Crazy? or Both?” |
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| MUSIC: Kurt Vile - Puppet To The Man; Boards of Canada - Energy Warning; Modest Mouse - Classy Plastic Lumber; John Lennon - God |
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July 5 - Lessons Not Learned From Fukushima; Can Money Buy Ohio the Key Swing State?; PRI Buys Vote Then Cheats Voters
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We begin with today’s release of a Japanese Government inquiry into the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns which concludes that the disasters were man-made. A long-time nuclear industry insider, Arnie Gundersen joins us to discuss how instead of learning from the Japanese disasters, the U.S. nuclear industry had the head of the NRC forced out for trying to increase safety measures in U.S. nuclear power plants with identical reactors and similar vulnerability to earthquakes and tsunamis. |
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Then we look into the politics of the critical swing state Ohio, which President Obama visited today, along with surrogates for Mitt Romney; Tim Pawlenty and Bobby Jindal. An expert on election law and civil rights, Daniel Tokaji, a professor of Law at Ohio State University, joins us to discuss the unprecedented attention and money pouring into Ohio, a state with a recent history of voting irregularities. |
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Then finally we go to Mexico City for an update on the disputed election recount of last Sunday’s vote. Tim Johnson, the Mexico City Bureau Chief for McClatchy Newspapers joins us to discuss mounting evidence of flagrant vote-buying by the PRI, whose candidate Pena Nieto won in part thanks to gift cards that were redeemed at grocery chains now with empty shelves and lots of unhappy customers who found the gift cards were only worth a fraction of what the PRI had promised them for their vote. |
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| MUSIC: Gil Scott Heron - Shut Um Down; Radiohead - Electioneering (cover); Modest Mouse - Ohio; Molotovs - Gimmie The Power |
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July 4 - The Founder's Rhetoric and Today's Results; Pursuing Happiness and Popping Pills
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Today on the fourth of July we examine the enduring gulf between the lofty rhetoric of the founding father Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence and the reality of today where our American democracy is looking more and more like a plutocracy controlled by venal and selfish oligarchs. Allan Lichtman, a professor of History at American University and author of “White Protestant Nation” joins us to analyze how much the founders were committed to participatory democracy and how much they wanted to protect property rights of the elite and deliberately make a system less responsive to the have-nots.
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Then we look further into the not-so-evident truth that all men are created equal, and explore the notion of the pursuit of happiness. Stephan Schwartz, a Senior Fellow at the Samueli Institute and editor of the daily web publication Schwartzreport.net joins us to discuss the extent to which we have successfully pursued happiness given our growing inequality and disparity in wealth, our global record of having the most people incarcerated, the developed world’s most expensive healthcare system that produces the worst results, an epidemic of obesity and a frayed social safety net under attack from billionaires and their political hirelings, who along with the media, are managing to persuade a lot of Americans that their happiness and well-being will be improved if they get less government services for their taxes, while giving the billionaire job creators more tax breaks. |
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| MUSIC: MC5 - American Ruse; Primus - American Life; Ray Charles - America The Beautiful; Shabazz Palaces - Free Press and Curl |
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July 3 - Sabre Rattling In The Gulf; Global Warming and Record Fires, Floods and Heat; Liberal Mormons Step UP
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We begin with reports today that the United States is adding military forces to the Persian Gulf just as Iran has announced missile tests. The former Senior Advisor to the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Obama Administration Vali Nasr joins us to discuss both Pakistan’s opening of supply routes into Afghanistan and the increased deployment of U.S. naval and air forces in the Gulf. |
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Then we look into the connection between global warming and record heat spells in the East and wild fires in the West with Michael Oppenheimer, professor of Geosciences and International Affairs at Princeton University and a long-time participant in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. As extreme weather events become more frequent and destructive, we discuss the growing urgency to deal with the reality of climate change. |
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Then finally Troy Williams, the Executive Producer of RadioActive, a progressive talk show on KRCL – FM in Salt Lake City, joins us. He has an article at Salon.com “Romney Boosts Liberal Mormons” and we discuss the growing divide between the conservative hierarchy of the Church of Latter-day Saints and younger more liberal Mormons who embrace gay rights and the Mormon Moment brought about by the presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney who they feel is aligned with the conservative past, not the future of the faith. |
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| MUSIC: Stiff Little Fingers - No More of That; Xavier Rudd - Messages; Dirty Projectors - Cannibal Resources; Book of Mormon - All American Prophet |
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July 2 - Hidden Threats Inside the Healthcare Ruling; More Banking Scandals to Come; Voters Riot in Oaxaca; A Report From an Election Observor in Mexico
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We begin with an analysis of the recent landmark Supreme Court decision on healthcare with Aziz Huq, a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. While liberals are celebrating the Robert’s ruling, he argues in an article at The Nation, “In the Healthcare Decision, A Hidden Threat”, that there are idiosyncratic libertarian ideals inserted in the law that could explode into much larger and more harmful doctrines. |
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Then we go to London to investigate a series of banking scandals involving muni-bond bid-rigging that enabled bankers and traders to rob the public to create bonuses for themselves. Economist Stephany Griffith Jones, the Financial Markets Program Director at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University, joins us to discuss the latest financial scandal that may be the tip of another iceberg the titans of Wall Street are heading for. |
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Then we go to Oaxaca, Mexico to speak with Fabien Tepper, an independent journalist who witnessed massive protests in the town square yesterday, when students and workers, who wanted to vote for the PRD candidate Lopez Obrador, were denied ballots. |
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Then finally we speak with an official observer who is monitoring the Mexican elections, Pamela Starr, the Director of the US-Mexico Network at USC and a former professor of Latin American political economy at the private university ITAM in Mexico City. She has an article at ForeignAffairs.com “What Mexico’s Election Means for the War on Drugs”. |
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| MUSIC: Modest Mouse - I've Got It All (Most); Radiohead - Dollars and Cents; The Shins - Saint Simon; El Tri - Abuso De Autoridad |
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