December 23 – 15 Democratic Senators Join the War Party Against Iran; The American Public Opposes Punishing the Unemployed; Another Showdown Looming on the Korean Peninsula

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with 15 Democratic U.S. Senators signing on to a hardline bill that would scuttle the initiative underway with Iran to curb its nuclear program. Max Blumenthal, an award-winning investigative journalist and author of the new book “Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel” joins us to analyze the influence of Israel in determining U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the lack of an anti-war lobby in Washington to counterbalance the hawks on Capitol Hill bent on closing the door on Obama’s tentative moves towards peace.   

Part 2

Then we speak with Thomas Ferguson, a professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts and a contributing editor to The Nation. We discuss a new poll from the left-leaning Public Policy Polling that indicates Republicans might pay a price for cutting unemployment benefits on December 28 since voters overwhelming support extending benefits, with a majority of fair-minded Americans apparently understanding the unemployed want to work and should not be punished for the economic downturn caused by Wall Street.

Part 3

Then finally we look into the possibility that a new threat of war from North Korea is likely to erupt soon as the new young leader Kim Jong Un, who has just executed his uncle the number two in the regime, moves to assert his dynastic rule over his impoverished nuclear-armed and militarized failed state. Sung Yoon Lee, a Professor of International Affairs at The Fletcher School of International Diplomacy at Tufts University joins us to discuss a new round of nuclear brinkmanship looming on the Korean peninsula.