Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the escalating tension between the U.S. and North Korea following Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho's assertion that President Trump's comments at the UN that he will "totally destroy" North Korea and his subsequent tweet that the North Korean leadership "won't be around much longer" constitute a declaration of war by the U.S. giving the North Koreans "every right to make counter-measures". Charles Armstrong, a professor of History and Director of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University and author of “Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World” joins us to discuss the nature of the North Korean regime as a mixture of politics and spirituality whose subjects are taught from childhood that they come from the birthplace of civilization and are indoctrinated with the “Juche” self-reliance philosophy, a nationalistic religious cult led by the dynastic Kim family who the North Korean people believe are the royal lineage of Tangun, the mythical founder of Korea 4,500 years ago.

Part 2

Then we get an assessment of the nuclear threat from North Korea following their recent announcement of their intention to shoot a missile with an H-bomb on it to be detonated somewhere over the Pacific. Philip Coyle, who was associate director for national security and international affairs in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Assistant Secretary of Defense and Director of Operational Test and Evaluation in the Department of Defense, joins us. We discuss the likelihood of reckless rhetoric leading to a nuclear exchange in Northeast Asia.

Part 3

Then finally we look into Sunday’s extraordinary display of solidarity and indignation expressed by NFL players and owners in response to Trump’s crude attack on Colin Kaepernick for taking a knee during the national anthem and the president’s contention that the NFL was losing fans because the game was not violent enough. Ben Carrington, a Professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and author of “Race, Sport and Politics” joins us to discuss Trump’s dog whistle to his angry white voters that if the mostly black players in the NFL “want the privilege of making millions of dollars” they “should not be allowed to disrespect our Great American Flag”…if not YOU’RE FIRED”.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the additional sanctions placed on North Korea following Trump’s threat before the UN to “totally destroy” the country. Gilbert Rozman, a Professor of Sociology at Princeton University who specializes in Korea and its neighbors in Northeast Asia, China, Russia and Japan, and is the editor of the Asan Forum, joins us. We  discuss whether Trump’s order to ban ships and planes that have visited North Korea from entering the U.S. for 180 days will have any effect and whether Trump’s praise for President Xi and China’s Central Bank that “Their central bank has told their other banks, that’s a massive banking system, to immediately stop doing business with North Korea” is based on reality or wishful thinking since this is a claim that Chinese authorities have yet to confirm.

Part 2

Then we assess the likelihood that Puerto Rico will get the aid it urgently needs following the devastation from Hurricane Maria which has left the island without water and electricity with the governor estimating that it will take a month or more to get electricity back for the whole island. Charles Venator Santiago, Professor of Latino Politics and Professor of Political Science at the Institute of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at the University of Connecticut joins us to discuss how Puerto Rico’s fate is in the hands of the Republican Congress following a 2016 Federal Law establishing PROMESA, the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act which has imposed austerity to deal with an extended debt and bankruptcy crisis.

Part 3

Then finally, as the Special Counsel Robert Mueller zeroes in on Paul Manafort, we investigate whether Trump’s former campaign manager was a Kremlin asset and an important part of an overall Russian Intelligence operation to manipulate the American election to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump. Anders Aslund, a professor at the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at Georgetown University and a former Swedish diplomat in Moscow who was an economic advisor to the governments of Russia and Ukraine, joins us to discuss the ties between Manafort, the deposed pro-Russian Ukrainian leader Yanukovych and Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs close to Putin.