In the first half, graduate of Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and director of two non-profits, Les Leopold discussed how Wall Street's casino-like practices which caused the first meltdown are back. He also addressed the increasing disparity between what workers are paid compared to what CEOs earn, and what the disappearing middle class means for the future of the US. One startling statistic he revealed was that in 1970, the average ratio of pay between a top CEO and a typical worker was 45 to 1, but by 2014, the ratio had ballooned to 844 to 1. And since the recovery of the economic crash in 2008, 95% of the new income generated has gone to the top 1% of earners, he reported. The economy has become so stilted now, that the pendulum can't swing back the other way without major changes being made, he suggested.
Additionally, Leopold cited that gains made by the US in reducing childhood poverty in the 1960s and 70s had evaporated, and out of 27 developed nations, America ranked nearly the worst at 26th. Further, when runaway equality starting kicking in by 1980, the US prison population grew at the same time, so that today, "we have the most prisoners in the entire world," percentage wise of any country, he said. "In a sense, the prison system became the new war on poverty," he remarked. "That's where people ended up that didn't have jobs, or had jobs in the underground or illicit economy, or worse."
A recent study done by political scientists showed that of 1,700 pieces of legislation in Congress, special interest groups and the wealthy almost always got their way, and the average person's preferences were ignored unless it fit in with what the elites wanted, Leopold detailed. "We've got to take the government back," and the way to do that is through a positive platform and lots of education, he said. Leopold argues that deregulation of Wall St. is what mostly caused the current wage inequity, with finance workers' incomes going through the roof, while the pay in almost all other fields stagnated.
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In the third hour, author, researcher and expert in Edgar Cayce and ancient wisdom, Wynn Free, talked about voices from other dimensions, and channeled messages he receives from the Ra group. He cautioned that sometimes these voices could say they were from one group, but actually be tricksters misrepresenting themselves. According to the Cayce readings, 10,000 years ago, an Egyptian priest named RaTa did healing miracles, and built the pyramids by levitation, Free recounted. Free also discussed messages he receives from "the Elohim," a soul group in the center of the universe that mostly never existed in physical bodies, yet claimed to create the physical universe.
The last hour of the show featured 'Sound Off' Open Lines.
News guests: Jerome Corsi, Lauren Weinstein, John M. Curtis