Center Left Radio

On Balance... Love

CLR Show 1793. Air Date January 27, 2023.  It may seem like an abstract exercise, but if you were to measure the sum of all love and all fear held in human souls, the net result would be an excess of love. And this excess is needed for the positive evolution of our species and planet. This won't necessarily prevent painful events from interrupting our path forward. Nor does it prevent us from suppressing the fear that does exists and elevating love in our souls. The future of our planet quite literally depends on it.    

The Right Thing... at the Right Time

CLR Show 1792. Air Date January 24, 2023. Winston Churchill is quoted as saying 'America will always do the right thing...after exhausting all other options.' We appear to be on that path with our Second Amendment suicide pact, and Merritt Garland's apparent fear of indicting Donald Trump. The problem is, doing the right thing after exhausting all other options may not be a viable strategy at this moment in our history. We must do the right things––eliminate virtually all firearms and indict Trump––now, or run the risk of making things worse for having done the right things at the wrong time. 

The (Not So) Supreme Court: The Friday Show

CLR Show 1791. Air Date January 20, 2023. The Supreme Court's internal investigation has failed to turn up the source of the May leak of the Dobbs decision to Politico.  Incredibly, the review was conducted by an employee of the Court, subject to the hire and fire whims of the Justices.  If Roberts was serious about restoring the credibility of the Court, he would have insisted on the FBI or some other professional independent source conducting the review. But that would have upset the ultra-right supporters of Justice Thomas, his wife Ginny and their ilk. The Court, with its 25% approval rating, is a political dung heap and the only way to fix it is to shine the light of day on its numerous shortcomings. With Friday Co-Host David Bach.

A Reason to Hope

CLR Show 1790. Air Date January 17, 2023. An interview with Keith Alexander; born into poverty in Trinidad and Tobago, rising to Sergeant Detective with the local police, emigrating and becoming one of the most successful car salesmen in the United States, and raising a family of remarkably high-achievers. In all, a very successful life and a powerful––and ongoing––story of hope.  

Old Dogs, Old Tricks: The Friday Show

CLR Show 1789. Air Date January 13, 2023.  The clown show debacle that marked the start of the Republican-controlled congress is predictably spilling over into its opening acts.  Merritt Garland has appointed a special prosecutor to lend equivalency to Biden's (clearly accidental) withholding of classified documents and the republicans are overjoyed. The problem, of course, is the two cases are so radically different that Trump's guilt will be made all the more obvious and the case for initiating his prosecution all the more compelling. With Friday Co-Host, David Bach.

And the Winner Is... Fulton County

CLR Show 1788. Air Date January 10, 2023. The Special Grand Jury empaneled by Fulton County Georgia DA, Fannie Willis, has just issued its final report after 8 months of questioning witnesses, and has even requested that the report be made public. Not a good sign for the objects of the investigations. Indictments against Trump, et al, could be issued in as little as a month. The repooplicans will bemoan the unfair treatment of their fearless leader, but will secretly breath a collective sigh of relief.  The question will  inevitably arise: How is it possible little Fulton Country beat the massive Department of Justice to an indictment of America's most bold-faced, unrepentant criminal?  

’A House Divided...’

CLR Show 1787. Air Date January 6, 2023.  On the second anniversary of the January 6th insurrection, the House repooplicans, after 11 breathtakingly embarrassing failures to elect Kevin McCarthy Speaker or to accept his offer to totally emasculate the institution, find themselves with no viable alternative willing to serve as Speaker and, more significantly, with no direction, ideology, sense of purpose, institutional loyalty or recognizable commitment to the Constitution. They will force an era of rule by presidential mandate unprecedented in American history, with all the ensuing conflict and increased national vulnerability that will produce. For now, we can only hope...

Days of Future Past: The Friday Show

CLR Show 1786. Air Date December 30, 2022.  Americans are about to experience a wholesale shift in the nature and performance of the US Congress with republicans taking control. The focus will be on revenge, grievance mongering and pandering to a base that feeds exclusively on silo fed information lacking either substance or credibility. And all of this as we move toward the 2024 presidential election and the impending indictment(s) of Donald.  Perhaps a chorus of 'When Will They Ever Learn' is in order. With Friday Co-Host David Bach.  

Season of Hope? The Friday Show

CLR Show 1785. Air Date December 23, 2022.  Volodymyr Zelenskyy did what no one since Emmanuel Macron has done: Unite the collective members of the House and Senate meeting in joint session to rise for a dozen or more standing ovations.  The reason was the same for both speeches. Members were reminded by an 'outsider' what unifies us as Americans and what, in turn, links us to all of western civilization. It may have lasted for no more than a half hour but, dare we imagine, it was a hopeful sign in an otherwise politically hopeless season. With Friday Co-Host, David Bach.

Dereliction of Duty

CLR Show 1784. Air Date December 20, 2022. The 1/6 Commission has made four criminal referrals to the Justice Department relative to the prosecution of Donald Trump, John Eastman and others. The scope and thoroughness of their investigatory work has been all but unprecedented in American history. And yet as much as a third of the nation still supports Donald––with virtually no basis other than his perpetually and blatantly false claims of grievance.  What will their reaction be when Donald is indicted, tried, convicted and sentenced?  In all likelihood, far less than our worst fears.  But what will the lasting impact be on the functional capacity of our democratic institutions? Might we be galvanized as a nation by the realization that we will have survived the worst challenge to our democratic experiment since the Civil War?