We talked about LGBT rights in Russia with The Nation’s Alec Luhn. Frank Bruni has a great piece on the subject.
As for an American boycott of the Olympics, it would punish athletes who’ve been training and dreaming and sacrificing for years. It might redirect the conversation from how Russia treats gays to whether the United States overreacted. And it would close off the kind of statement that American athletes have a thrilling opportunity to orchestrate. Maybe that statement isn’t a flag but “a visible pin, an armband, a bracelet,” as Greg Louganis, an openly gay diver who won medals for the United States in three Olympics, recently suggested. Maybe it’s something small stitched into the uniforms.
Amazon barely turns a profit, yet it grows by leaps and bounds undercutting Main Street, USA. If it were a nation it would be in violation of the WTC. You simply can’t sell at a loss until your competition goes out of business. Yet, with the deepest of pockets that is exactly what Amazon continues to do. Left with no choice many authors and podcasts do business with Amazon. It’s the devil you know. And we will continue to keep an eye on it.
As we continue to ask our listeners to support this show by making their Amazon purchases through this site, we will also continue to monitor Amazon. Yesterday Amazon announced it would purchase the struggling Washington Post. America needs The Washington Post. Amazon Chief Jeffrey Bezos insists he will leave the day to day operations of the newspaper to people who know how to run a newspaper. If he keeps this promise it could be a positive development.
Nonetheless, Mr. Bezos will now have a microphone as powerful as anyone in Washington and outside the West Wing. Keeping with a lot of his tech industry peers, he brings with him a sort of libertarian bent, having supported gay marriage in the state of Washington and fought higher income taxes on wealthy people.
Paige St. John is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who covers our nation’s prison system.
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Paige St. John was on our show last week. Here’s her terrific article about the hunger strike started up there in Pelican Bay.
Myrtle, from The Great Gatsby, gets her own summer replacement show, Andrew Dice Clay stars in Woody Allen’s latest, Me And The Drone, and Fox News’ Lauren Green gets ripped a new one. Today’s show features Janie Haddad Tompkins, Jeremy S. Kramer, Hal Lublin, Mike McShane and Will Ryan. Also Will Ryan and The Cactus County Cowboys. Our show is written by David Weiss, Will Dixon, Will Ryan, Hal Lublin, Jeremy S. Kramer, and Janie Haddad Tompkins.
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Russia grants political asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden so we discuss relations between Russia and the United States with The Nation Magazine’s Russia correspondent Alec Luhn who talks to us from Moscow. Also June Foray, Paul Dooley, Mark Thompson and Rick Overton.
The G20 summit meeting is scheduled for next month in St. Petersburg, Russia. But now that Edward Snowden has been granted political asylum, President Obama is said to be reconsidering his visit to Russia, especially a planned summit with President Vladimir Putin.
Why did Putin grant asylum to Snowden, and what is the relationship between Snowden and Russia’s secret police?
After nearly 25 years of calm between the two nations, where are the potential flashpoints on the world stage between the United States and Russia?
Also, next year Russia hosts the Winter Olympics while enforcing some of its toughest laws against their LGBT community in recent memory. Much of the world’s LGBT community calls for a boycott on Stolichnaya vodka. Should they also be calling for a boycott of the Winter Olympics? What’s in store for LGBT athletes when they gather next winter to compete in Russia?
We go to Moscow to talk about all this and much more with The Nation Magazine’s Russia correspondent Alec Luhn from Moscow. One note, our conversation was conducted only hours before Russia granted Edward Snowden political asylum.
Guy Nicolucci and David Feldman have written portions of today’s program.
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Robert Smigel has played Donald Trump, Willard Scott, Ronald Reagan and countless others on our radio show.
Robert Smigel is a comedy writing legend from SNL, to Conan and on to all your favorite Adam Sandler movies. He’s also Triumph The Insult Dog Comedian. Here he is hanging out after our show.
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