June 28 – SCOTUS Tears Down the Separation of Church and State; The Venezuelan Tragedy Worsens; China’s Rare Earth Monopoly and America’s Blindness

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Part 1

We begin with Monday’s ruling by the Supreme Court in a case that appears innocuous but the 7 to 2 decision could result in a tectonic shift in American life. Elaine Pagels, a Professor of Religion at Princeton University and the author of “Revelations: Vision, Prophesy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation”, joins us to discuss how churches are now eligible for public funds. We assess the warning issued in an impassioned dissent from the bench by Justice Sotomayor that the decision “discounts centuries of history and jeopardizes the government’s ability to remain secular” and how right wing “Christian” fundamentalists cheering the ruling like Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Vice President Pence could use the decision to drive their agenda of promoting religious schools and voucher programs to the extent that, quoting Justice Sotomayor, “leads us to a place where separation of church and state is a constitutional slogan, not a constitutional commitment”.

Part 2

Then we go to Caracas, Venezuela for an update on the helicopter attack on the Supreme Court by a dissident police officer who is a highly-trained agent with the Special Actions Brigade as well as a movie actor and something of an almost-comical action figure proclaiming “peace is coming”. Michael Penfold, a professor of Political Economy and Governance at IESA, a Business and Public Policy School in Caracas and co-author of “Dragon in the Tropics: Venezuela and the Legacy of Hugo Chavez”, joins us to discuss the deadlock between a population opposed to an incompetent government and a government with the power of the military and vigilante “collectivos” behind it.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Victoria Bruce, the author of a new book just out “Sellout: How Washington Gave Away America’s Technological Soul and One Man’s Fight to Bring it Home”. We will discuss her alarming and true story of one citizen’s fight to preserve a U.S. stake in the future of clean energy and the rare earth elements essential to high tech industries and national defense. We will examine why China has a monopoly over rare earth minerals and why the U.S. let it happen.