Summary: Progressive Econ 101! This week on Talking Left, we had so much to cover that we didn't think we'd ever get to it all! In the first hour, we talked about a few news stories that the media missed this week. And, we explained why the McDonald's & Taco Bell lawsuit in Seattle is a bunch of nonsense. The fast food giants are fighting tooth and nail to avoid paying that city's new $15 an hour minimum wage, but claiming that the law violates their First Amendment rights is pretty ridiculous. We went through several reasons why this lawsuit should be thrown out, however you can read an even better breakdown by Ian Millhiser over at Think Progress. Next, we gave our take on the crisis unfolding in Iraq and Syria, and the Republicans who are already trying to drum up another war. In all their criticism this week about President Obama pulling troops out of Iraq, they failed to bring up the fact that al-Maliki refused to sign a Status of Forces Agreement, or the fact that there's not much we can do to help stop Isis. To learn more about how we broke that country, and why there's not much we can do to fix it, check out the following links over at Mother Jones. What the Hell Is Happening in Iraq Right Now? 7 Talking Points You Need For Discussing the Iraq Crisis After that, we talked about something that many of you probably haven't heard since you were in school - the concept of scarcity. This topic came up over the week, when we were discussing the differences in how Progressives and Conservatives deal with issues like health care. Conservatives talk about "death panels" and "doctor shortages," and have no problem with medical prices rising so that only the rich can afford treatment. Progressives want to expand the ACA into Single Payer and guarantee that everyone has the right to see a doctor. Conservatives think that scarce resources mean that you simply pay more or work harder for something, but Progressives want to make sure that important things like healthcare and jobs are not scarce in the first place. We're the richest nation on Earth, and there's a hell of a lot more we can do to fix these problems. In the third hour, we told you about the Defense Department's 'Minerva Research Initiative." Although this story sounds like the stuff of conspiracy theory, Nafeez Ahmed of the Guardian shared the facts about this government program to study "mass civil breakdown." According to Nafeez's research, the DoD is farming out millions of dollars of research to various universities to study the who, what, where, when, and why of revolutions and their start on social media. Whether it's climate change, political unrest, or an economic crash, it appears that government wants to know how to stop these movements before they ever get started. We'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not that's a good thing... In case that last story wasn't frustrating enough, did you know that the NSA is claiming that they are too big to regulate? That's right, according to their own legal filing this week, the spy agency says they are too massive to comply with a court order directing them to maintain evidence in a lawsuit. To discuss that story and more, we spoke with Nadia Kayyali of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, about that lawsuit - and about the NSA's Orwellian facial recognition program. Please be sure to check out the EFF's new Tor program that can help you avoid government spying! Thanks to Rocky Mountain Mike for writing and producing our incredible theme music! Please check out his amazing Sound Cloud! Thanks to We Act Radio - 1480AM WPWC, Netroots Radio, SoFlo Radio, and Radio or Not,- for helping to ensure all listeners have corporate-free, independent radio! And, of course, thanks to you, our listeners, friends, and family - for supporting us through all of our crazy shows, dreams, and political addictions!! You can also follow all of the news about upcoming topics and guests on our Facebook page and on Twitter @Talk
