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December 4 - Update on the Egyptian Elections; An "Occupy L.A." Organizer Speaks Out; The Pakistanis Fired First
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We begin and go to Cairo for an update on the elections in Egypt with Yasmine El Rashidi, a former Middle East correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and the author of the e-book “The Battle For Egypt”. We discuss the strong showing by the Muslim Brotherhood and the fundamentalist Salafist in the first round of the parliamentary elections and look ahead to the next critical and contentious steps, which are the drafting of a new constitution and the presidential elections. |
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Then we are joined in the studio by Julie Levine who teaches at the USC School of Social Work and has been involved in the “Occupy LA’ movement since its beginning. She discusses the alleged mistreatment and police brutality the occupiers have endured since the police raid and the wider issues of the future direction of the occupy movement and the 99%’s relationship to the corporate state. |
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Then finally Chris Fair joins us to examine what really happened in the recent clash between NATO forces and the Pakistanis in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed. We discuss why President Obama has not apologized to the Pakistanis because they opened fire first on the NATO and Afghan troops across the border and when NATO gave the Pakistani military headquarters the coordinates to return fire, there was no objection. We assess whether the U.S. will again turn a blind eye in order to open up supply routes into Afghanistan or take a firmer stand. |
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| MUSIC: Sun Airway - Waiting On You; My Morning Jacket - The Day is Coming; Dirty Projectors - Rise Above; - Nishta Nishta |
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December 1 - Mobilizing Against Inequality; A Crack in the Brutal Burmese Curtain; Shining a Light on Saudi Repression
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We begin with an analysis of why inequality has gone up so much, with Jared Bernstein who was up until recently the chief Economist and Economic Advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, Executive Director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class and a member of President Obama’s economic team. We discuss the “occupy” movement as a countervailing force against income inequality and the impact that a crash of the Euro will have on our already weak economy and next year’s elections. |
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Then we discuss the apparent opening up of Burma with the Secretary of State’s visit and try to determine both the extent of political reform underway and the broader strategic role that the U.S. is engaged in challenging Chinese influence in a brutalized country emerging from fifty years of oppressive military rule. A specialist on both Burma and Buddhism, Juliane Schober, the Director of the Center for Asian Research at Arizona State University joins us to look through a crack in the wall of repression that has ravaged this resource-rich, strategically important country. |
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Then finally we discuss the just-released report by Amnesty International accusing Saudi Arabia of reacting to the “Arab Spring” by launching a wave of repression. The founder and director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Ali Alyami joins us to examine the arrests in the mainly Shia Muslim restive Eastern province and the fate of those that defy a permanent government ban on protests. |
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| MUSIC: My Morning Jacket - Two Halves; Bright Eyes - Easy/ Lucky/ Free; Fugazi - The Argument; The Clash - Rock The Casbah |
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November 30 - Can the Central Banks Save Europe From Itself; "Why Liberals Should be Rooting For Romney"; "Occupy" Elections
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We begin with some of the world’s biggest central banks announcing they will take coordinated action to stop the European debt crisis from tanking the global economy. The former chief economist for the U.S. Senate Banking and Budget Committees, and now the Director of the Institute For New Economic Thinking, Robert Johnson joins us. As Europe enters a critical 10 day period ending on December 10th after the European Union Summit, by which time the Italian Prime Minister has warned, there will be no more room for error, we will discuss whether Europe can be saved from itself. |
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Then Northeastern University Journalism Professor Dan Kennedy, who writes a weekly column for The Guardian, joins us to discuss his latest article “Why Liberals Should Be Rooting For Romney” which argues that while Obama supporters hope one of the many flawed Republican Presidential contenders get the nomination, they should be careful what they wish for. If the already ailing economy collapses and unemployment soars, then instead of a moderate, pragmatic and results-oriented Romney who is everything today’s Republican Party is not, a Gingrich or a Perry could get elected and America would lose. |
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Then finally George Lakoff joins us. He is the author of “The Political Mind, Moral Politics, Don’t Think Like an Elephant and Whose Freedom?” He argues that the next step for the “occupy” movement is to occupy elections. Just as the Tea Party gained power, he feels the occupy movement can change the nation by engaging in electoral politics, because elections focus attention on public discourse and so far, the 99% versus the 1% has opened a national dialogue that should be built upon. |
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| MUSIC: Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings - Money; Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A Changing; The Shins - Fighting in a Sack; Against Me! - Those Anarcho Punks Are Mysterious |
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November 29 - Will the "Occupy" Message Outlast the Movement; Herman Cain's Latest Bimbo Eruption; This Time It's "Death To England"
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We begin with an update on the “occupy” movement with Russell Mokhiber, the editor of the Corporate Crime Reporter and author of “On the Rampage: Corporate Predators and the Destruction of Democracy”. We discuss whether the closure of some of the occupy sites across America will diffuse the movement’s message about how the one percent have bought most of our politicians, who in turn have sold out the ninety nine percent. |
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Then we look into the latest sex scandal ensnaring Herman Cain’s presidential campaign with a fifth woman coming forth with accusations of a 13 year adulterous affair with the candidate whose exit from the race will benefit Newt Gingrich, a confessed adulterer who has sought redemption from the religious right, the group that dominate the Republican caucus in Iowa. Alternet’s Washington Bureau Chief, Adele Stan joins us. She has been following the Tea Party and their favorite son Herman Cain, who denies the latest charges unequivocally, as he reassesses his campaign. |
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Then finally we examine the apparent repeat of history in Tehran, where this time the British embassy was sacked by so-called students calling it a “den of spies”, this time chanting “death to England”. Dan Brumberg, the author of “Reinventing Khomeini: The Struggle For Reform in Iran” joins us to discuss this violation of International law and assess what the fallout might be as Western powers turn the screws on a paranoid and isolated theocratic regime. |
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| MUSIC: Fugazi - Cashout; Hank Williams - Your Cheating Heart; M. Ward - Headed for a Fall; TV On the Radio - DLZ |
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November 28 - A Climate Deal Slowdown as the Planet Heats Up; Can the White House Stop the Eurozone Crash?; Europe Leads the World's Economy to the Cliff
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We begin with the U.N. Climate Summit just underway in Durban, South Africa where some of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters the U.S., Russia, Japan, Brazil and India are arguing for a delay in implementing a new global regime to curb emissions and slow global warming. Cleo Paskal, the author of “Global Warring: How Environmental, Economic, and Political Crises Will Redraw the World Map” joins us to assess the chances of the smaller nations getting the bigger ones to stop stalling and start dealing with a growing global crisis. |
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Then we talk about an immediate crisis, the Eurozone’s mounting sovereign debt contagion that clearly has the White House worried, with President Obama hosting a summit of European Union leaders to urge them to “act decisively and conclusively”. Sherle Schwenninger, the director of the New America Foundation’s Economic Growth and American Strategy Program joins us to discuss what can and should be done to avert another Lehman Brothers event that will set back U.S. economic recovery and probably sink Obama’s reelection chances in 2012. |
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Then continuing with a further analysis of the looming European financial crisis, we are joined by Dimitri Papadimitriou, who is President of the Levy Economics Institute. We discuss the U.S. Treasury Secretary’s warning that the Europeans must find the political will to create a firewall against a spreading crisis and the just-released forecast by the OECD, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development that warns of an impending recession in Europe and the U.K. unless the European Central Bank takes action. |
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| MUSIC: Dirty Projectors - Cannibal Resource; M. Ward - To Save Me; Chalk Dinosaur - Fairweather; Built To Spill - The Plan |
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