January 6 – Escalating Rebel-on-Rebel Fighting in Syria; The 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of the War on Poverty; The 60 Minutes Hit Job on Clean Energy

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an analysis of the increasingly intense rebel-on-rebel fighting underway in Syria and how much it is benefiting the Assad regime ahead of an upcoming international peace conference. Nicholas Heras, an analyst at the Washington DC-based think tank The Jamestown Foundation and a Contributing Editor and Analyst with the international affairs journal Fair Observer, joins us to discuss the open warfare against the Al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant by other rebel groups opposed to the abuses of civilians and journalists taken prisoner and publically executed by these Islamic extremists.

Part 2

Then we will speak with award-winning author and Professor of Sociology at Florida State University, Jill Quadagno, on the 50^th Anniversary of President Johnson’s declaration of the war on poverty. She is the author of “The Color of Welfare: How Racism Undermined the War on Poverty” and we will discuss what progress has been made fifty years later, and what remains to be done to end poverty in the richest country on earth.

Part 3

Then finally we will examine Sunday night’s “60 Minutes” hit job on clean energy “The Cleantech Crash” with Joe Romm, the Founding Editor of Climate Progress where he has an article “60 Minutes Hit Job on Clean Energy Ignores the Facts”. He is a former assistant secretary of energy who oversaw $1 billion in R&D for low-carbon technology and we will discuss how much of the Department of Energy’s investments have worked compared to the out-dated and negative examples offered by CBS.