June 23 - GOP Ties to the Racist Organization that Inspired Dylann Roof; The President Gets Trade Promotion Authority Through the Senate; The Dominican Republic Threatens to Deport Haitians Born in the Country

Full Program

Part 1

We be begin with the white-supremacist group which made donations to Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Rick Santorum and Scott Walker and according to the Dylann Roof’s manifesto, inspired the AME church shooter’s new-found racism.  James Corcoran, professor in the Department of Communications at Simmons College and author of “Bitter Harvest: The Birth of Paramilitary Terrorism in the Heartland” and co-author with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Morris Dees of “Gathering Storm: America’s Militia Threat”, joins us to discuss how the Council of Conservative Citizens shed the robes of the KKK and began wearing suits and ties and courted Republican politicians who so far have escaped responsibility for the GOP’s pervasive use of coded racist dog-whistle politics used to win back the Senate for the Republicans in 2014.

Part 2

Then we speak to a former U.S. Trade Negotiator in the Clinton Administration, Ira Shapiro who spent 12 years in the U.S. Senate as Counsel to the Majority Leader. We will discuss the Senate’s narrow passage of Trade Promotion Authority for President Obama to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership without the worker’s assistance program the TAA, Trade Adjustment Assistance.  We  try to find out why the president went against 80% to 90% of his own party and had to side with the Republicans to get fast-track approval for the TPP.  

Part 3

Then finally we look into the possible humanitarian catastrophe if the Dominican Republic goes ahead with its plan to evict hundreds of thousands of Haitians born in the country who have been denied citizenship rights since birth. Brian Concannon, the Executive Director and Founder of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, joins us to discuss the fate of these stateless people who, if deported, will only add to Haiti’s many problems.