December 8 - An Insult to American Workers: Trump's Choice of Labor Secretary; A Third General in Trump's Administration?; How to Get Rid of the Electoral College

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with another case of putting Dracula in charge of the blood-bank with Donald Trump’s nomination of Andrew Puzder, the CEO of the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. fast food chains, who is a relentless foe of raising the minimum wage and paying workers overtime yet will be heading up the Department of Labor tasked with enforcing workplace safety and wage laws on behalf of American workers. Fred Rotondaro, a member of the Patriotic Millionaires who was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress working on poverty and inequality, joins us to discuss how this nomination will put the brakes on a raise in the minimum wage and overtime pay since Puzder has made it clear he thinks giving a worker a fancy job title helps them more than paying them a living wage. Puzder also believes that food stamps discourage poor people from working and machines are better than humans because “They’re always polite, they always upsell, they never take vacations, they never show up late, and there’s never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex, or race discrimination case”.

Part 2

Then we speak with David Schanzer, Professor of the Practice and Director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke University.  He was staff director of the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security and we will discuss Trump’s nomination for Secretary of Homeland Security, General John Kelly, who will be the third general nominated to a top position in Trump’s Administration with General David Petraeus a possible fourth. We will examine how a military mindset might adjust to civilian challenges in an agency that will oversee the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Part 3

Then finally we examine efforts to abolish the antiquated Electoral College that twice in recent years has resulted in the loser of the popular vote winning the presidency. A Pulitzer Prize-winning expert on the Founding Fathers and the Constitution, Jack Rakove, a Professor of History and American Studies at Stanford University and author of “Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America”, joins us to discuss his testimony this week before the House Judiciary Committee on the future of the Electoral College.