May 17 – As the Right Wing Revolution Runs Out of Steam, Where is the Left?; Desperate Stateless Migrants Adrift In Southeast Asia’s Andaman Sea; Republican Tactics to Drive a Wedge Between Hillary and Liberal Democrats

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the looming challenges of income inequality, corruption, global warming, and the big data surveillance state that we face and discuss the absence of a progressive agenda to deal with these challenges as America and most of the developed nations move to the right politically, digging the hole deeper. Richard Parker, who teaches economics and public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, joins us to look into where the likely change will come from as the Reagan/Thatcher right wing revolution runs out of steam leaving the bankrupt political landscape open.

Part 2

Then we look into the humanitarian disaster in Southeast Asia as persecuted Rohingya Muslims flee Burma/Myanmar in rickety boats that are adrift in Andaman Sea after being turned away by Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Juliane Schober, an anthropologist who studies Buddhist practice in Burma/Myanmar, joins us to discuss the unfolding tragedy and the forced statelessness of the Rohingya who are fleeing to neighboring Muslim countries which don’t want to take them in.

Part 3

Then finally we examine tactics Republican political operatives are using to drive a wedge between liberal Democrats and Hillary Clinton with Ken Goldstein, a Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco who is one the country’s premier experts on the use and impact of political advertising. He joins us to assess Hillary’s vulnerabilities and the meltdowns on the Republican side as their leading presidential candidate ties himself in knots trying to explain his position on the Iraq war.