May 5 – Turkey’s Megalomaniacal President Grabs More Power; Will the Big Republican Donors Support Trump?; On “Cinco de Mayo,” What Happened to the 43 Students?

On By nusrat_82ght6

Full Program

 LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM  

Part 1

We begin with the sacking of Turkey’s Prime Minister by the country’s power-hungry President Erdogan who is moving to strip immunity for members of parliament under a new anti-terrorism law that appears to be primarily aimed at stifling internal opposition. An expert on Turkey’s domestic and foreign policy, Asli Bali, a professor at the UCLA School of Law who teaches courses on Public International Law, International Human Rights and the Laws of War, joins us. We discuss the recent brawl in the parliament between members of Erdogan’s AKP Party and opposition MP’s and the bombing of Syrian refugees in a camp near the Turkish border which exposes Erdogan’s failed Syria policy while he reignites a civil war with the Kurds.

 Asli Bâli

Part 2

Then we look into how, while Republican politicians and pundits are falling into line behind Donald Trump, some of the big donors have closed their checkbooks as the former presidents Bush 41 and 43 and the last Republican presidential standards bearer Mitt Romney are making it clear they will not support Trump. Libby Watson, a staff writer at the Sunlight Foundation which advocates for open government, joins us to discuss that while the Koch brother are diverting of their funds to State and Congressional races, most of the big donors will eventually come around to support Trump in the general election in this record-breaking $5 billion election season.

 

Part 3

Then finally on the Mexican national holiday of “Cinco de Mayo” we speak with Ryan Devereaux who covers national security for The Intercept about the incident that has roiled Mexico for the last year which he describes in his latest article at The Intercept “Independent Investigator Leave Mexico Without Solving the Case of the 43 Disappeared Students” as “the drop that spilled the glass”. We discuss Mexico’s broken justice system and assess why the government has covered up the disappearance of the students.