January 15 - Improving Cybersecurity and Managing Cyber Insecurity; Saudi Arabia's Policies of Intolerance and Extremism; Why a Second Progressive Era is Emerging

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the president’s recent call to improve cyber security which he is expected to expand upon in next week’s State of the Union address. Peter Singer, a Strategist and Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation whose latest book is “Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know”, joins us to discuss the gap between military capabilities and civilian defenses made clear by the Sony hack as well as the recurring breaches of large corporations like Target that expose millions of consumers to cyber theft, and the recent rash of cyber attacks on CENTCOM’s twitter account and threats by Anonymous to hack jihadi websites.

Part 2

Then we examine the hypocrisy of going to war against the so-called Islamic State because of their brutal beheadings of journalists and now being allied with Saudi Arabia against ISIL, while the ruling feudal Saudi Royal Family carried out 82 beheadings in 2014 alone. Sarah Whitson, the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division, joins us to discuss Saudi Arabia’s policies of intolerance and extremism with the recent public flogging of Raif Badawi, the liberal blogger who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for “going beyond the realm of obedience”, meaning deviating from absolute fealty to the King. We  also discuss Sarah’s article at CNN “Saudi Blogger’s Flogging Should Outrage the World”.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Paul Glastris, the Editor in Chief of the Washington Monthly and a former special assistant and chief speechwriter to President Bill Clinton, about his article at The Washington Monthly “Why a Second Progressive Era is Emerging and How Not to Blow It”. At a time when Republicans control both the Senate and House and are moving aggressively to weaken the government and government programs that serve the American people, we will look into how a counterrevolution to this government now in power of the oligarchy, for the oligarchy and by their servants, might emerge and who might lead it.