March 15 - The Worst Cyclone in the History of the Pacific; Venezuela Reacts to the U.S. Charge It Is a Threat; Why the Left Drinks the Kremlin's Koolaid

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the worst cyclone or hurricane in the history of the Pacific which struck the island chain of Vanuatu with winds up to 180 miles per hour. Cleo Paskal, a Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, London, and author of “Global Warring: How Environmental, Economic, and Political Crises Will Redraw the World Map”, joins us from the Pacific island of Tonga to discuss the impact of global warming on the tiny island nations of the Pacific, and the roles of regional powers New Zealand and Australia who are coming to the aid of Vanuatu, as well as the growing influence of China in the region.

Part 2

Then we go to Caracas, Venezuela to speak with Antonio Gonzales, the President of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, the largest and oldest non-partisan Latino voter participation organization in the U.S., about the White House’s recent designation of Venezuela as “an extraordinary threat to U.S. national security http://www.chathamhouse.org/about-us/directory/70645, and the rejection of this claim from representatives of the 12 nation South American bloc UNASUR meeting in Ecuador, as well as criticism the U.S. is getting from members of Venezuela’s opposition who oppose Obama’s actions as inappropriate.   

Part 3

Then finally, with Vladimir Putin missing for over 10 days, as rumors are rife of an FSB coup that has “neutralized” him, and speculation swirls that he is attending the birth of a love child in Switzerland, we discuss the extent to which the Left in Europe and the U.S. has been drinking the Kremlin’s Kool Aid, ladled out by Putin’s English-language propaganda network RT. John Feffer, the co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, joins us to discuss his article at The Huffington Post, “The Kremlin’s Kool-Aid”, and why apologists for Putin in the West can’t keep two thoughts in their heads at the same time; one that NATO expansion has backfired and two, that Putin is a gangster.