Virtually Speaking

While attending the 2014 Netroots Nation conference, Gaius Publius — contributing writer at AmericaBlog and member of the Virtually Speaking Sunday media panel — conducted three interviews under the heading "Five Questions." This year he spoke with House Democrat Keith Ellison; economist Dr. Stephanie Kelton of the MMT school of economics; and Democratic strategist Robert Cruickshank. In this podcast, Gaius talks with Dr. Kelton about: · Her view of the so-called "budget for burnable carbon" and the looming climate crisis. · How to guarantee a minimum wage without a passing minimum-wage law (this answer is striking). · How seeing the film "Roger and Me" changed Kelton's approach to economics. Gauis first published this series of conversations at AmericaBlog.  He provides a fast look at how MMT views money, and what that means for progressive politics.Ste ·

While attending the 2014 Netroots Nation conference, Gaius Publius — contributing writer at AmericaBlog and member of the Virtually Speaking Sunday media panel — conducted three interviews under the heading "Five Questions." This year he spoke with House Democrat Keith Ellison, co-leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus; economist Dr. Stephanie Kelton of the MMT school of economics; and Democratic strategist and activist Robert Cruickshank. In this podcast, Gaius talks with Rep. Ellison about — • Ellisons's view of the so-called "budget for burnable carbon" and the looming climate crisis • How progressives can "win" if Clinton is the nominee in 2016 • What his Muslim faith means to Ellison, a former Catholic Gauis first published this series of conversations at AmericaBlog.  

Historian Rick Perlstein returns to Virtually Speaking to discuss his new book, The Invisible Bridge.  Blogger extraordinaire Digby joins us as guest interviewer.  RIck has described Digby this way: My other favorite political writer, Heather Parton, blogs under the name “Digby.” Daily for over 10 years she's been unleashing a fire hose of brilliance on the fecklessness of the Democrats, the craziness of the Republicans and especially the way that what we now call the “culture wars” has been seared into our national DNA at least since the Civil War. In the acknowledgments to “Nixonland,” I called her the other half of my brain. We're delighted to have them both here tonight.

This is a rerun of Jay Ackroyd's interview with Rick Perlstein, about his monumental tour de force, Nixonland. Rick is one of the nation's leading popular historians, and, until now, the capstone of his career.  He has actually exceeded himself in his latest book, The Invisible Bridge. He will be discussing that book with Digby as our guest host on August 28. 

Richard (RJ) Eskow has a rich history of engagement with public policy making, in the Eastern Europe transition to market economies, in addition to extensive technical work in health care and finance in the US. He recounts his experience being on the inside of policy discussions. This conversation provides an interesting contrast to Joe Sudbay's talk with Gaius Publius, on tactics conducted for an outside game.

The role of intelligence in U.S. domestic and foreign policy, a conversation beween investigative journalist Marcy Wheeler and Jay Ackroyd. One of a series of conversations about surveilllance, national security, NSA, CIA, and Congressional oversight. follow @emptywheel @jayackroyd

June Carbone & Naomi Cahn, authors of Marriage Markets, talk with Jay Ackroyd about the economics of family life, children, marriage, social structure.

Stephanie Kelton, Ph.D. is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She is also Editor-in-Chief of the top-ranked blog New Economic Perspectives.  In this episode, she and  Gaius Publius discuss the basics of Modern Monetary Theory.  Also, at the bottom of the hour, Gaius Publius on the Unpeople of the World.  More information here. Also, help out the show by checking out Audible's free 30 day trial, or visit our virtual bookstore.

Jay and Ian Welsh continue the discussion rerun last week regarding the need to develop a new ideology in the face of the failure of our technocratic centrist elite to  deal with the consequences of the petroleum economy: A powerful ideology is a scary thing. If your ideology isn't strong enough, doesn't create enough fervent belief that people will die for it, then it won't change the world.  But if it does create that level of fervent belief, then it will be misused, so the question is simply: will this do more harm than good? An ideology which leads to us killing a billion or more people with climate change, let me posit, is a bad ideology.  At the end of its run, neo-liberalism will kill more people than Marxist-Leninism did, and will be thought of by our grandchildren as monstrous.  Most of them will no more be able to understand how we submitted to it or even believed in it than we can understand how Hitler or Stalin or PolPot or Mao came to power.  Hyperbole?  Not in the least, because the body count is going to be phenomenal.         

Stuart Zechman discusses the policy framework that underlies the US health care system with Joseph White, Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy at Case Western Reserve University. Professor White is also the author of Competing Solutions: American Health Care Proposals and International Experience.    

Joan McCarter and David Waldman discusses the implications of the Reid Rule, and the future of the filibuster in the Senate. David (KagroX) has been working on this issue for at least 6 years, as reported today by CNN.    

Juan Cole is the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, where he specializes in the Middle East and South Asia. Juan talks with Jay Ackroyd about Egypt, Syria, Lebanon -- including the drought conditions leading to the popular uprising -- and the development of a coherent US foreign policy in the region. Follow @jricole @jayackroyd  

In this 5 min clip, taken from Virtually Speaking Sundays — recorded live on Sept 8, 2013 — Richard — RJ — Eskow speaks with Jay Ackroyd about the quality of insurance under Obamacare. They make the point that deciding against a plan that requires you to pay $10–$15,000 out of pocket in the case of a medical emergency is a rational act. The full program is here.

Lynn Stout joins Jay Ackroyd to discuss her book, The Shareholder Value Myth. The idea that a public corporation has one, and only objective--to maximize shareholder value is such a widely held idea that it's deeply implicit in much current business writing. What else is a corporation to do, but to maximize shareholder value? More at virtuallyspeaking.us

Clipped from a June 27 hour-long conversation with Jay Ackroyd. Listen here http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2013/06/28/david-cay-johnston-virtually-speaking-with-jay-ackroyd

Dan Ellsberg relates a conversation with Henry Kissenger in which he — Ellsberg — describes what happens to people as they become privy to closely held and sensitive government information. The year was 1969 and Kissinger had made his first presentation to the National Security Council. Glenn Greenwald brings it forward in time and reflects on WikiLeaks. Recorded in 2011 with Jay Ackroyd.

American investigative journalist — economics and tax issues — and author David Cay Johnston talks with host Jay Ackroyd about debt peonage and neo feudalism. Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With The Bill, is about hidden subsidies, rigged markets, and corporate socialism. Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich—and Cheat Everybody Else, a New York Times bestselleron the U.S. tax system that won the Investigative Reporters and Editors 2003 Book of the Year award. Temples of Chance: How America Inc. Bought Out Murder Inc. to Win Control of the Casino Business is an account of how the junk-bond kings usurped mob control of the casino industry in the 1980s. Johnston discusses corruption in the industry and the role of the federal and state governments in that corruption. The Fine Print: How Big companies Use "Plain English" to Rob You Blind was released in September 2012.

Economist Dean Baker and Jay Ackroyd discuss the current state of the economics profession. More here: Center for Economic Policy & Research http://www.cepr.net/ Follow @deanbaker13 @jayackroyd @ceprdc

Engaging the surveillance state, good news and bad. Editor, writer & social media consultant Ian Welsh - "The horizon is not so far as we can see, but as far as we can imagine" - comes by to continue his extended conversation with host Jay Ackroyd. Read Ian here  Follow @IWelsh @JayAckroyd More at VirtuallySpeaking.us

Toronto based social media consultant, editor and writer Ian Welsh writes at IanWelsh.com. Formerly the Managing Editor of FireDogLake and the Agonist, his work has also appeared at Huffington Post, Alternet, and Truthout, as well as the now defunct Blogging of the President (BOPNews). In Canada his work has appeared in Pogge.ca and BlogsCanada. Ian and Jay talk about how the events in Boston illuminate the intelligence and military apparatus now operating in the US,  in support of an increasingly oligarchic system of governance throughout much of the OECD. 

Prof. Jay Rosen — Twitter mindcaster extraordinary, NYU J-school Prof and  Studio 20 program Director at NYU, media critic and student of new media — talks with Stuart Zechman about the ideology of the press, the 'church of the savvy,' the David Broder brand and Third Way Democratic constructs about social safety net programs. Jay Ackroyd joins Stuart just before the end of the hour. Follow @JayRosen_NYU @Stuart_Zechman @JayAckroyd Links & more https://virtually-speaking.squarespace.com/virtually-speaking-sundays/2013/3/31/jay-rosen-stuart-zechman-vs-sundays

Recorded April 3. Cosmic Log's Alan Boyle and CalTech astrophysicist George Djorgovski discuss education in cyberspace: the challenges, opportunities and value.   http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/03/17588730-internet-takes-education-to-new-level-will-universities-make-the-grade?lite Djorgovski is Professor of Astronomy; Co-Director of the Center for Advanced Computing Research at Caltech; Director of the Meta-Institute for Computational Astrophysics; a founder of the Virtual Observatory concept; and one-time Chair of the US Nat'l Virtual Observatory Science Definition Team. His e-Scientific interests include definition and development of the universal methodology, tools, and frameworks for data-intensive and computationally-enabled science. His astrophysical interests include digital sky surveys, exploration of observable parameter spaces, formation and early evolution of quasars, galaxies, and other cosmic structures. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cosmology-Class/250886471707052

Two members of our media panel discuss developments of the week, countering the narratives of the traditional media, highlighting issues neglected or misrepresented or otherwise messed with on the Sunday morning broadcasts. This week Cliff Schecter & Gaius Publius • The sequester and benefit cuts: where we stand • Gun legislation and recent action in the Senate • Harry Reid, filibuster reform and progressive senators (the collegiality problem and how to solve it) Plus media satire from Culture of Truth, author of the Bobblespeak Translations. Jay Ackroyd moderates. Cliff Schecter - co-founder and part owner of Washington DC's independent progressive radio station, We Act Radio, 1480AM; nationally syndicated columnist and political commentator - writes for Al Jazeera English and appears weekly on Take Action News w/ David Shuster and The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder. Follow @cliffschecter Gaius Publius — Professional writer of stories, poems, and books on education & technology. Gaius has two political-themed works in process, one fiction and one non-fiction. Frequent writer and Contributing Editor at AMERICAblog.com. Occasional guest on Ring of Fire Radio, The Matt Filipowicz Show and other venues. Follow @Gaius_Publius. Links http://americablog.com/author/gaius-publius http://libertasllc.com/  

Seriously good stuff. An accessible master's class in economics. In this combined and lightly edited rerun of conversations recorded June 2012 and Feb 2013, Jay Ackroyd and Stephanie Kelton, Professor of Economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City discuss Modern Monetary Theory. In a far ranging conversation, they consider the differences between the budgets of households and sovereign states, both domestic and foreign, the platinum coin concept and the nature of fiat currency. Follow @deficitowl @JayAckroyd Read Stephanie at New Economic Perspectives:  http://bit.ly/LFG3bq  http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2013/01/short-history-of-the-debt-ceilinggovernment-shutdowns/

David Cay Johnston is President of Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE), an education organization with 4,200 members. A 13-year veteran of The New York Times, David won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for enterprise reporting that uncovered loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code. He wrote the best selling tax books Perfectly Legal, which won an IRE medal, and Free Lunch. With Jay Ackroyd, David dicusses his latest book, The Fine Print:How Big Companies Use "Plain English" to Rob You Blind Follow @DavidCayJ @JayAckroyd Read http://blogs.reuters.com/david-cay-johnston/

Sam Wang - who has been adding science to electoral predictions since 2004 - and Jay discuss why the "professional pundts" were all over the electoral map while Sam and his fellow poll aggregators were on the nose. Follow @SamWangPhD @Jayackroyd The Princeton Election Consortium provides informed analysis of US national elections by members of the Princeton academic community. http://election.princeton.edu/ http://xkcd.com/1131/ Sam et al in the news: http://bit.ly/SGjyE0    

Jay Rosen and James Fallows discuss the evolution of news media over the last 20 years, or so, focusing on changing narratives on the balance between security and liberty and 4th Amendment protections raised by the Transportation Security Admin (TSA) airport practices; WikiLeaks and the failure of the watchdog press; and 'village' thinking and the effects of 'conventional wisdom.' Both wrote prescient books: respectively, What are Journalists For? and Breaking the News Follow @JamesFallows @JayRosen_NYU @JayAckroyd Recorded Dec 10, 2010 Links • http://pressthink.org/ • http://www.theatlantic.com/james-fallows • http://www.thenation.com/article/156647/tsastroturf-washington-lobbyists-and-koch-funded-libertarians-behind-tsa-scandal?comment_sort=ASC# • http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/05/if-the-tsa-were-running-new-york/39839/ • http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2009/11/more-on-the-undercover-tsa-officers/29981/ • http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2010/12/23/wikileaks-analysis-and-speculative-fiction/

Petroleum engineer Fishgrease (@fishboom)  and economic theorist Stirling Newberry  discuss Bill McKibben's Rolling Stone article - Global Warming's Terrifying New Math: Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe - and that make clear who the real enemy is - on the over valuation of fossil fuel corporations in an environment where CO2 levels must be controlled, and on the role conservation can play in forestalling disaster.    

Former staffer to Congressman Alan Grayson, Matt Stoller is a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and a contributing editor to the financial site Naked Capitalism. He also contributes to Politico, Alternet, Salon, The Nation and Reuters, focusing on the intersection of foreclosures, the financial system, and political corruption. Matt and Jay Ackroyd talk about tensions between liberalism and strong central government.

9 pm eastern | 6 pm pacific |Virtually Speaking with Jay Ackroyd | Jay talks with Matt Stoller about #occupywallst. An American political activist and writer, from 2009-2011, Matt served as Senior Policy Advisor to Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida's eighth Congressional district. As Grayson's financial services legislative aide, he focused on foreclosure fraud, the financial crisis, and the Federal Reserve. 10 pm eastern | 7 pm pacific |Virtually Speaking A-Z: This week in liberalism.  | Stuart Zechmanand Jay Ackroyd| In the search for meaningful ways to express Movement liberalism as a registered Democrat, Stuart reports back from ‘Downtown (NYC) Independent Democrats.'