Virtually Speaking

Charles Lenchner is a co-founder of Ready for Warren and a consultant for labor, political and nonprofit organizations, tweets as  @clenchner. We will discuss the recent breaks in one of the most corrupt state houses in the land, Albany NY, where long-standing power magnate Sheldon Silver  has been charged with bribery, following the investigations of the Moreland commission.Set up by the Governor Cuomo, the Commission's operations were halted by the governer when his staff was brought under scrutiny. NYT on Silver SIlver is a Democrat who has policy preferences that line up well with most progressives.  How does a progressive, or a liberal, line up when there is corruption in the ranks?   We'll also talk about Zephyr Teachout , Paul Newell (who primaried Silver last election) and Elizabeth Warren as possible remedies to this conundrum.

Adia Benton and Kelly Hills talk about Benton's new book and the spread of and response to Ebola. HIV Exceptionalism: Development through Disease in Sierra Leone an ethnographic account of how HIV exceptionalism -- the idea that HIV/AIDS is an exceptional disease requiring an exceptional response  -- shapes local institutions, cultural and political idioms of development and the lived experiences of HIV-positive individuals. Follow @rocza @ethnography911

SOTU: the Obama Strategy (read Gaius here); GOP Congress's assault on reproductive justice;  Newsweek calling out  "Christians" for trying to make policy based on a seriously faulty reading of their own book. Will non-fundamentalists – religious or not – take them on? Commentary from Sara Robinson & Gaius Publius. Jay Ackroyd Moderates. Follow @SaraRobinson @Gaius_Publius @jayackroyd. The 2015 Virtually Speaking Media Panel: Andrew Jerrell Jones, Avedon Carol, Cliff Schecter, David Dayen, Dave Johnson, David Waldman, digby, Gaius Publius, Joan McCarter, Marcy Wheeler, RJ Eskow, Stuart Zechman with guest appearances by Susie Madrak, Sara Robinson and Spocko.

From Martin Luther King to Eric Holder. Commentary from Susie Madrak Managing editor at Crooks and Liars and Jay Ackroyd. Political satire from Culture of Truth. Susie’s blog is Suburban Guerrilla at susiemadrak.com. Follow @SusieMadrak @JayAckroyd @Bobblespeak From Susie: Holder Limits Asset Seizures Under Federal Program

Tom's new book: The Stronghold: How Republicans Captured Congress but Surrendered the White House is out today, and we're lucky enough to have an interview I recorded with Tom on January 13 .  Follow @schaller67 Thomas F. Schaller is an associate professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Physicist Ainissa Ramirez, co-author of Newton’s Football: The Science Behind America's Game talks wih host Jennifer Ouellette about Newton's Football, life as a science evangelist and Science Underground, her new micro-podcast with journalist partner, Bill Retherford. Follow @AinissaRamirez @JenLucPiquant

Political satire from Culture of Truth, based on the Jan 11 Bobblespeak Translations of Meet the Press and This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

France declares war on terror http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/world/europe/paris-terrorist-attacks.html James Fallows on the military industrial complex http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/12/the-tragedy-of-the-american-military/383516/ NYPD vs the Mayor and the Commissioner.  http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/police-union-quiet-bratton-acknowledged-nypd-slowdown-article-1.2073467 Commentary from Stuart Zechman and Jay Ackroyd. Political satire from Culture of Truth (Bobblespeak Translations)

Marc Abrahams, creator of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and editor of the Annals of Improbable Research returns to talk with Cosmic Log's Alan Boyle. B0yle on strange science. "Last, but not least, there are the Ig Nobel awards. These come with little cash, but much cachet, and reward those research projects that 'first make people laugh, and then make them think'" — Nature Follow @MarcAbrahams @B0yle 

Each week, Culture of Truth offers satirical commentary on the Sunday morning news shows, a segment we call The Most Ridiculous Thing That Happened This Sunday. This week's episode is called "Whte and Black."

NYC, Las Vegas, police shootings. North Korea / SONY. What digby said. Commentary from @digby56 @dcjohnson @jayackroyd http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/when-authorities-get-hysterical-they.html http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/how-many-of-these-police-killings-are.html http://www.digbysblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/is-gop-coming-around-or-just-changing.html North Korea / SONY  https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/12/did_north_korea.html http://www.infowars.com/sony-hack-is-almost-certainly-an-inside-job/ http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30560712 http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/24/no-north-korea-didn-t-hack-sony.html  

The conflicting and conflicted faces of law enforcement; hacking Sony; the Innocence Project. Commentary from Cliff Schecter & Jay Ackroy. Political satire from Culture of Truth. https://www.emptywheel.net/2014/12/19/were-going-to-start-a-war-to-protect-a-negligent-corporations-property/

Collaboration between powerful private and public interests has become the ruling force in the United States, and the OECD. This collaboration operates in conflict, and in oppostion to, the welfare of the general populace.  This conflict and opposition is reflected in recent electoral results, in the formation of populist movements, and in polling data. Stuart Zechman discusses power and powerlessness. 

The Senate Intelligence committee report on the CIA and the use of torture.  See The Intercept for coverage. And then, the continuing story of the role of race in the criminal justice system. Commentary from Andrew Jerrell Jones and Jay Ackroyd. Political satire from Culture of Truth. follow @sluggahjells @bobblespeak @JayAckroyd The 2014 Virtually Speaking Media Panel: Andrew Jerrell Jones, Avedon Carol, Cliff Schecter, David Dayen, Dave Johnson, David Waldman, digby, Gaius Publius, Joan McCarter, Marcy Wheeler, RJ Eskow, Stuart Zechman

Cognitive neuroscientist and author of FLICKER, Your Brain on Movies Jeff Zacks talks with Jennifer Ouellette about the history of cinema and the latest research to explain what happens between your ears when you sit down in the theatre and the lights go out.  Zacks is the Director of The Dynamic Cognition Laboratory in the Psychology Department at Washington University in St. Louis. "Research in the lab explores two main areas - how we perceive and represent temporal structure in everyday activity and how we process spatial relationships between the body and external objects. Research methods combine behavioral experimentation, functional neuroimaging studies, and information technology design." Follow @JenLucPiquant