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Signs advertizing World Cup Soccer viewing are popping up outside bars and restaurants in fashionable neighborhoods around the US. Brazil is hosting this year’s World Cup, and while that honor once heralded Brazil’s entry into the modern world of progress among developed nations, today it is symbolic of that nation’s stark wealth inequality.

On Monday, police in Sao Paolo fired rounds of ammunition to deter a group of a few hundred protesters who had gathered in solidarity with striking subway workers. The action was just the latest in nearly round-the-clock demonstrations in various cities. Of the 200 million plus population of Brazil, a whopping 75% support protests against the industry associated with the World Cup that has led to their country spending far more on huge stadiums than education or poverty alleviation.

Now, a new book by progressive sports writer Dave Zirin, tears apart the multitude of challenges facing Brazil’s government in the context of the World Cup, but also the Olympics which Brazil will host in 2 years.

GUEST: Dave Zirin, sports editor for the Nation and the author of Game Over: How Politics Has Turned the Sports World Upside Down, host of the weekly Sirius XM show Edge of Sports Radio. His new book is called Brazil’s Dance With The Devil: The World Cup, The Olympics, and The Fight for Democracy