Month: December 2024

Wall Street’s Role in Why We Have the Worst and Most Expensive “Healthcare” in the Developed World

We begin with the role of Wall Street in so-called healthcare in the U.S. as focus on UnitedHealthcare has increased since the shooting of its CEO by a 26-year old from a privileged background who is now under arrest. We will look into the UnitedHealth Group which is the country’s fourth largest company after WalMart, Amazon and Apple valued at $560 billion with $281 billion dollars in revenue in 2023. It’s murdered CEO Brian Thompson, a father or 2, received more than 10 million in compensation last year. Joining us is Wendell Potter, who after a long career in the for-profit health industry, as the chief corporate spokesman at CIGNA Corporation and as head of corporate communications at Humana Inc., is now a senior analyst on healthcare at the Center for Public Integrity and the founder of Tarbell.org. The author of Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out On How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans, his latest book is Nation on the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It. We discuss his article at Stat News, “I used to do health insurance company PR. Here’s what I think the backlash is missing.”

How Ukrainian Military Intelligence Helped the Syrian Rebels

Then we assess the role of Ukrainian Military Intelligence in helping the rebels topple the Assad regime and speak with David Ignatius, a prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post who has been covering the Middle East and the CIA for more than twenty-five years. His novels include Agents of Innocence, Body of Lies, and The Increment, and his latest book is Phantom Orbit. We discuss his article at The Washington Post, “Syrian rebels had help from Ukraine in humiliating Russia.”

The Vulnerability of the Kurds to Erdogan’s Murderous Militia in the New Syria

Then finally we go to Erbil in Kurdistan to speak with Wladimir van Wilgenburg, a journalist and political analyst specializing in issues concerning Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey with a particular focus on Kurdish politics. He has covered several major battles against ISIS in northern Syria, and Iraqi Kurdistan and his latest book, based on first-hand research and interviews conducted on the ground in Iraqi Kurdistan and Northern Syria, is The Kurds of Northern Syria: Governance, Diversity and Conflicts. We examine the increased vulnerability of the Kurds and whether they will survive Erdogan’s murderous militia and the new Syria.