January 6 – The Press, Enablers of Republican Recklessness?; How the Syria Crisis Will Impact Iraq; The Future of Jobs in an Economy of Profits Without Prosperity

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Part 1	We begin with a discussion on how the Press is already acting as the enabler of the next round of hostage-taking where Republicans threaten to turn the United States into a deadbeat nation in order to exercise their extreme ideology and satisfy their billionaire backers. Eric Boehlert, a senior fellow at Media Matters and author of “Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush” joins us to discuss how the next debt ceiling debacle is already being framed as he-said – she-said and politics as usual.
Part 2	Then we assess today’s speech by the besieged Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad that was a mixture of defiance and delusion devoid of any mention of a diplomatic possibility to end a war that is destroying Syria and has already claimed 60,000 lives. Henri Barkey, a former member of the State Department’s policy planning staff, joins us to discuss the consequences of the collapse of the Assad regime and it’s regional impact, particularly on Iraq. He has an article at The American Interest “Spinoff: The Syria Crisis and the Future of Iraq”.
Part 3	Then finally, following last Friday’s jobs report, we look into the future of jobs as the American economy becomes more and more about profits without prosperity. William Lazonick, the Director of the Center for Industrial Competitiveness joins us to discuss if, how and when full employment will return and his article at the Huffington Post “Robots Don’t Destroy Jobs: Rapacious Corporate Executives Do”.