October 1 - Putin Plunges Into a Proxy War While a Wary Obama Looks On; A Possible Palace Coup Underway in Saudi Arabia?; Who Funded the Tea Party and Are They Getting Their Money's Worth

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the second day of Russian airstrikes in Syria that are not targeting the Islamic State as Putin promised, but are bombing other rebel fighters who are enemies of the Islamic State. Jeremy Shapiro, a fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy and the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brooking Institution joins us. He previously was a member of the State Department’s policy planning staff on the Levant and we discuss how the Russians now appear to be plunging into a proxy war while the U.S. is licking its wounds from its failed interventions in prior proxy wars, as Obama shows reluctant to repeat past mistakes.

Part 2

Then we examine a possible palace coup underway in Saudi Arabia and speak with David Hearst, the Editor of Middle East Eye, where a letter from an unnamed grandson of the late king has just been published that blames the current King and his young son, who is effectively running the kingdom, for endangering the monarchy’s survival warning; “we will not be able to stop the draining of money, the political adolescence, the military risks,and the methods of decision making, even if that implied changing the king himself”.

Part 3

Then finally we look into who funded the Tea Party and are they getting their money’s worth as the so-called “Freedom Caucus” in the House threatens another government shutdown in December with one of their own, Kevin McCarthy, poised to take over as Speaker of the House from John Boehner who quit because he was tired of the endless battles with the fractious and nihilistic Tea Party Caucus. Thomas Ferguson, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, who conducted research into who funded the Tea Party, joins us.