December 31 - An Analysis of the Foreign Policy Stories That Dominated the Headlines in 2015; The Domestic Issue That Dominated the News in 2015: Race Relations and Police Shootings

Today we first look into the major foreign policy stories of the year and then examine the top domestic issues. We begin with Roger Morris who served on the Senior Staff of the National Security Council under Presidents Johnson and Nixon and is the author of “Between the Graves: America, Afghanistan and the Politics of Intervention” and “Kindred Rivals: America, Russia and Their Failed Ideals”. We will discuss the paradox that Americans are insecure while the country has the most powerful military in the world and spends over 60% more on defense today than it did during the Cold War. And we will also assess the likelihood that America could be led by a reckless neophyte whose personality, narcissism and amorality has more in common with ego-driven dictators like Putin and Erdogan than any other American leader in our history.

Part 2

Then we cover the stories that dominated the domestic political arena in 2015 with Chris Parker, a professor of Social Justice and Political Science at the University of Washington who is the principal investigator of the “Multi-State Survey on Race and Politics” and Director of the Center for Survey Research at the University of Washington. He is the author of “Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America” and we discuss how race relations came to dominate the news in 2015 with riots in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, along with police shootings of black men and boys in Cleveland, South Carolina and Chicago that used to happen in the shadows and were routinely covered up but now are seeing the light of day thanks to i-Phone videos and dash-cams on police cars and body-cams on police officers.