January 24 - Oxfam's Alarming Report as Trump Joins the Billionaires in Davos; The Golden State Fights Back in Trump's War on California; Grassroots Candidates Versus the Democratic Estabilishment

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with a new report from Oxfam, “Reward Work, Not Wealth”, which coincides with the Davos World Economic Forum that President Trump in attending in Switzerland, the theme of which this year is “Creating a shared future in a fractured world”. Paul O’Brien, the Vice President for Policy and Advocacy at Oxfam America, joins us to assess whether the sudden growth in income inequality across the globe that in a period of one year has created a new billionaire every other day, will be adequately addressed by a group of world leaders and billionaires at this Mar-a-Lago in the Alps. We look into what drives this reversion towards a form of global feudalism where the world’s eight richest people have the same wealth as the poorest 50% of the planet and why this trend of a having a handful of oligarchs sitting on top of a vast global peasantry is accelerating with 82% of the wealth generated last year going to just 1% of the global population, while 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world, saw no increase in their wealth.

Part 2

Then we speak with Peter Schrag, the former editorial page editor of the Sacramento Bee who has written for The Nation for nearly a half century, about his latest article at The Nation “California Shows How to Beat Trump, Now and in November”. We discuss how the Golden State is fighting back in Trump’s war on California as his administration tries to reverse the legalization of marijuana, open up offshore drilling, defund sanctuary cities, round up the undocumented and punish the world’s sixth largest economy by raising taxes on its citizens in a so-called tax reform bill that is not just a gift to the 1% but a petty act of Republican partisanship.  

Part 3

Then finally progressive activist and blogger at DownWith Tyranny.com, Howie Klein, joins us in the studio. A concert promoter, disc jockey, music producer, record label founder, record label executive and professor of music who was President of Reprise Records, he joins us to discuss how California can go a long way towards flipping the House in November by unseating Republican congressmen who sold out their constituents. And we will assess the difference between grassroots candidates running for office and those the Democratic Party establishment favors.