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June 10 - House Republicans Gut Funds For Tax Cheating and Derivatives Enforcement; U.S. Divorcing Pakistan; Mexico's Uprising Against the Return of the PRI
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We begin with the latest and most brazen mendacity displayed by House Republicans who in their latest spending bill are gutting money for IRS and SEC enforcement and for the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission, crippling their ability to regulate derivatives and other toxic swaps. William K Black, the former litigation director for the Federal Home Loan Bank Board who put hundreds of crooked bankers in jail after the Savings and Loan disaster of the 1980’s joins us. |
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Then we go to India to get an update on the U.S’s divorce from Pakistan and the Obama Administration’s efforts to woo Pakistan’s arch rival India. Christine Fair joins us. She is a professor in the Center for Peace and Security studies at Georgetown University and is a leading specialist on India and Pakistan, which she visits often and where she speaks the local languages. |
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Then finally in advance of tonight’s Presidential debate in Mexico we speak with Ioan Grillo a correspondent for Reuters in Mexico City where he has covered Mexican politics since 2001 and is the author of “El Narco: Inside Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency”. We discuss what changes may come if the PRI candidate wins, and how the PRD candidate Lopez Obrador would approach the failed war on drugs. |
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| MUSIC: Doom - Gazillion Ear; Nishta Nishta; Cafe Tacuba |
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June 7 - Why The Unions Failed In Wisconsin; The Impact of Citizens United;The Filmmaker of "Heist: Who Stole The American Dream"
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We begin with an analysis of why the unions failed in Wisconsin with one third of union voters supporting Governor Walker along with nearly half of voters from union households. Les Leopold the Director of the Labor Institute and a strategic consultant to the Blue-Green Alliance of trade unions and environmental organizations joins us to discuss why a lot of working Americans do not support labor at a time of high unemployment and record disparity in wealth and opportunity in America. |
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Then we examine the impact of Citizens United on the Wisconsin vote with a nationally recognized expert on election law and campaign finance regulation. Richard Hasen, the Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine joins us to discuss the unfettered flow of outside money into Wisconsin, and the disparity between the financial clout of corporations and unions. |
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Then finally we speak with the film maker of a new feature documentary “Heist: Who Stole the American Dream”. Francis Causey, an investigative journalist turned citizen activist, was a producer and news editor at CNN, and since 2006 has been making her latest film that goes beyond documentaries such as “Inside Job” and “Too Big To Fail” in providing a long view of what led up to the financial crisis and capture of our economy and politics by the 1%. |
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June 6 - What is the Democrat's Narrative?; A Run In Spain as Greece Goes Broke; Rebuilding the Dream After Wisconsin
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We begin with Amatai Etzioni, a former Senior Advisor to the White House and Director of the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies at George Washington University. We discuss the implications of the victory of money over grassroots organization in Wisconsin and his article at CNN, “U.S. Economy Heading Straight for the Cliff”. |
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Then we further examine the impact of Wisconsin on the central theme of the Presidential race, the economy, and what likely fallout will come from Europe where Spain is facing a run on its banks and Greece it about to go broke in July. Dean Baker, the co-director of the Center For Economic and Policy Research joins us to analyze the state of the economy in an election year and what external factors might slow or reverse recovery. |
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Then finally former Advisor to the Obama White House and the founding president of “Rebuild the Dream”, Van Jones joins us to offer his analysis of the seven point victory of Governor Walker in Wisconsin and how progressives might recover from this demoralizing defeat. Following a successful Republican divide and conquer strategy largely financed by plutocrats that pitted the shrinking middle class against itself, we discuss Van Jones’s latest book “Rebuild the Dream” and how the 99% can reverse the race to the bottom to reclaim the American dream. |
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June 5 - Will a Purple State Turn Red or Blue?; Efforts to Reverse Walker Have Fallen Short; Outside Money Swamps the Recall Race; Labor Reporter Locked Out of Capitol by a Corporate Flack
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We begin with Joel Rogers, a professor of law, political science, public affairs and sociology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he directs the Center on Wisconsin Strategy. We discuss the local dynamics of today's recall race that has taken on national significance. |
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Then to get a sense of how politics have become so intense and polarized in a state that has long been considered to be moderate and centrist, we will speak with the Editor of WisPolitics.com, J.R. Ross. He has covered Wisconsin politics and the statehouse for the last decade. |
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Then we get an update on the record amount of out-of-state money that has poured into this recall race. Bill Lueders, a veteran Wisconsin newspaper editor and reporter who is the money and politics project director at WisconsinWatch.org, joins us. |
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Then finally we speak with a reporter on another subject; that is what happens when a labor journalist tries to interview the CEO of a big corporation at a hearing on Capitol Hill. Mike Elk, who writes for Harper’s Magazine, the American Prospect, the Huffington Post and is a staff writer for In these Times, joins us to tell how his microphone was ripped from him by a staffer for a Republican congressman and how the Communications Director of the Honeywell Corporation locked him in a room in the capitol to prevent him from reporting. |
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June 4 - Pushing Back Against Voter Suppression; G-7 Finance Ministers to Meet on Euro Crisis; Chris Hedges on "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt"
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We begin with an update on the voter suppression activities of Republican governors and legislatures that the Department of Justice is finally pushing back against. Wendy Weiser, who directs the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU discusses efforts underway to re-enfranchise five million eligible voters who have been denied their vote by new Republican laws intended to prevent likely Democratic voters from going to the polls in November. |
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Then we discuss Europe’s emergency meeting of the G -7 Finance Ministers taking place on Tuesday to stop a run on the Spanish banks, which has heightened global concerns about euro zone debt in the already-strained 17-nation European currency arrangement. Amy Verdun, the Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Victoria in Canada and co-editor of the Journal of Common Market Studies, assesses whether this latest crisis meeting will finally address the two-year-long on-going crisis. |
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Then finally Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist and author Chris Hedges discusses his latest book, “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt”. This graphic novel is a searing account of the travels of Hedges and cartoonist Joe Sacco through America’s sacrifice zones, where the poorest, most exploited citizens are victims of the unchecked depredations of big business in a contemporary oligarchic system of masters and serfs. |
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