November 2 – Demonstrations Against South Africa’s Corrupt President; Making Sense of the Swing in the Polls; Record Spending by Drug Companies to Kill Measure Bernie Sanders Supports

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the release of a report into corruption in South Africa that President Zuma had tried to block which has sparked widespread outrage with thousands of protesters taking to the streets and marching on Zuma’s offices in Pretoria. Katherine Newman, Provost and Vice Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Massachussets Amherst and the author “After Freedom: The Rise of the Post-Apartheid Generation in Democratic South Africa” joins us to discuss the growing movement to have Zuma step down. We examine Zuma’s relationship with the wealthy Gupta family and his lavish spending of government funds to upgrade his rural home and whether Zuma will become a liability to the ruling ANC Party which is losing its popularity as it faces national elections in 2019.

Part 2

Then we speak with David Redlawsk, Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware and author of “The Positive Case for Negative Campaigning”. He joins us to discuss the sudden swing in the polls slowing Hillary Clinton’s momentum and reversing Trump's downward slide to where the latest Washington Post/ABC poll has Trump ahead nationally by one point. We look into how national polls compare to polls in critical swing states and whether FBI Director James Comey's letter is a sufficient explanation for the sudden reversal of Hillary Clinton's fortune and if other factors are at play.

Part 3

Then finally we examine the record spending of $126 million by the drug industry to kill Proposition 61 on the California ballot which Senator Bernie Sanders is campaigning in support of saying it would be “a real blow against this greedy industry that will reverberate all over America”. Jamie Court, the President of Consumer Watchdog, a consumer group that has been fighting corrupt corporations and crooked politicians since 1985 and author of “The Progressive’s Guide to Raising Hell: How to Win Grassroots Campaigns, Pass Ballot Box Laws and Get the Change You Voted For – A Direct Democracy Toolkit”, joins us. We discuss the outside corporate money pouring into California’s election and whether the ballot initiative process itself that was meant to empower the people, has been coopted by the moneyed interests.