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<center xmlns:ug="http://UnwelcomeGuests.net/"><br/>For a text searchable page, try the '''[[Episode Index| ⚡ Episode Index]]'''<br/>
 
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| {{thumbnail |number=746 |title=The Tyranny of The Enemy Images - 1 |subtitle=The Origins of the Phoenix Program|alt=#746 The Tyranny of The Enemy Images - 1 - (The Origins of the Phoenix Program) In our first hour this week, a detailed look at the Phoenix Program, a systematic effort to undermine social cohesion in South Vietnam, to increase support for the US-backed regime. The eventual failure of the program of mass torture and murder, as Douglas Valentine explains, hasn't stopped the CIA from refining and re-applying this model to 21st century USA. In our second hour, we consider the Phoenix program as a symptom of what Marshall Rosenberg refers to as 'enemy images'.}}
 
| {{thumbnail |number=746 |title=The Tyranny of The Enemy Images - 1 |subtitle=The Origins of the Phoenix Program|alt=#746 The Tyranny of The Enemy Images - 1 - (The Origins of the Phoenix Program) In our first hour this week, a detailed look at the Phoenix Program, a systematic effort to undermine social cohesion in South Vietnam, to increase support for the US-backed regime. The eventual failure of the program of mass torture and murder, as Douglas Valentine explains, hasn't stopped the CIA from refining and re-applying this model to 21st century USA. In our second hour, we consider the Phoenix program as a symptom of what Marshall Rosenberg refers to as 'enemy images'.}}
 
| {{thumbnail |number=747 |title=747 - The Tyranny of Enemy Images - 2 |subtitle=The Fools' Choice Of Totalitarianism Or "Terrorism"|alt=#747 747 - The Tyranny of Enemy Images - 2 - (The Fools' Choice Of Totalitarianism Or "Terrorism") This time, we continue the theme from episode 746, which highlighted how "enemy images" reduce people's ability to empathise and to make objective judgements, as opposed to a clear focus on observable reality. We look at a word which since 1979 has become the basis of innumerable laws, but which lacks a legal definition. Professor Reni Broulin describes the findings of his research into the multiple meanings of the word "terrorism", and Robin Upton declares that, like the "war on terror", he will only use such a loaded invoker of enemy images, if at all, inside double quotes.}}
 
| {{thumbnail |number=747 |title=747 - The Tyranny of Enemy Images - 2 |subtitle=The Fools' Choice Of Totalitarianism Or "Terrorism"|alt=#747 747 - The Tyranny of Enemy Images - 2 - (The Fools' Choice Of Totalitarianism Or "Terrorism") This time, we continue the theme from episode 746, which highlighted how "enemy images" reduce people's ability to empathise and to make objective judgements, as opposed to a clear focus on observable reality. We look at a word which since 1979 has become the basis of innumerable laws, but which lacks a legal definition. Professor Reni Broulin describes the findings of his research into the multiple meanings of the word "terrorism", and Robin Upton declares that, like the "war on terror", he will only use such a loaded invoker of enemy images, if at all, inside double quotes.}}
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| {{thumbnail |number=748 |title=The Tyranny of Enemy Images - 3 |subtitle=Pedophilia As A Tool Of The Deep State|alt=#748 The Tyranny of Enemy Images - 3 - (Pedophilia As A Tool Of The Deep State) Continuing our series on 'Enemy Images', we concentrate this time on another label used to promote fear and demonize people - the "pedo-phile" (literally "child lover"). We examine how this image may prove useful to the deep state for blackmail purposes, and reflect on the gradual exposure of pedophile rings populated by senior politicians, judges and those people whose integrity is crucial to the smooth running of modern society. Why do so many investigations appear to founder just before criminal charges are made?}}
 
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Revision as of 07:23, 21 October 2017


For a text searchable page, try the ⚡ Episode Index
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74_ #740 The Words and Deeds of the US Deep State - (Fletcher Prouty, JFK, Vietnam, The Secret Team, Snowden Affair, BBG, The Underground Reich) We expand on episode 739 with a 1993 recording of retired Airforce Colonel Fletcher Prouty speaking on his experience of the Bay of Pigs operation and on the Vietnam war. Prouty's testimony provides insights into how the early CIA covert operations were run and especially how they were coordinated with other branches of the US government. In our second hour Dave Emory examines evidence suggesting that the Edward Snowden Affair is a deep state operation, intended to corral hacktivists to use deep state-backdoored cryptographic software. #741 Solving 9-11 - Part 1 - (A detailed look by Chris Bollyn) This week Chris Bollyn starts reading Solving 9-11, his latest book on the topic, which gives us context by looking at Israel's long record of False Flag attacks. #742 Solving 9-11 - Part 2 - (A detailed look by Chris Bollyn) Chris Bollyn continues to read Solving 9-11, his latest book on the topic. He draws parallels with other events such as 7/7 and the sinking of the MS Estonia, both of which also had coincident terrorist drills that mirrored what actually happened. #743 Abandoning Wage Slavery - (And The Illusion of Social Power) We return to look more closely at a topic which has long been of central importance to the show - the corrupting influence of the modern money system. Specifically, what are the problems of telling people not that if they wish to eat, they must work, but that they must have a paid job. For inspiration we relisten to Ivan Illich from episode #523 in which he predicts an end to social power. In the first hour, Robin expands on what this might mean in the arena of money, using his insights from his 18 years in Bangladesh. In the second year, we hear an adaptation of a film about the global movement towards a universal income, followed up a longer section of the original Illich quote. #744 The Machine Stops - (Three Wise Men on The Implications of Human Stabulation) This episode is a successor show to episode 639, which examined the connections between technology and totalitarianism. Exceptionally, our title piece is an short story so old as to be no longer under copyright! As a counterpoint to this vintage sci-fi, two other interesting thinkers: a 1974 recording of Ivan Illich on the dangers of mechanising food production while a dependent population are stabulated (housed) in sterile concrete, followed by an introduction to the outrageous ideas of the psychonaut John C. Lilly in particular his dystopian vision of the Solid State Entity. #745 The Hall Of Mirrors - (John Taylor Gatto Special) John Taylor Gatto has contributed a lot to this show, perhaps more in terms of episodes than anyone else. Nevertheless, I'm giving another show over to him, since this speech, The Hall Of Mirrors, is such an excellent summary of the predicament of the United States of America - a nation which for generations has been attempting - not without success - to indoctrinate each new generation to greater heights of dependency upon the corporate system. This speech, from about 2009, really pulls it together, and gives a great historical perspective. #746 The Tyranny of The Enemy Images - 1 - (The Origins of the Phoenix Program) In our first hour this week, a detailed look at the Phoenix Program, a systematic effort to undermine social cohesion in South Vietnam, to increase support for the US-backed regime. The eventual failure of the program of mass torture and murder, as Douglas Valentine explains, hasn't stopped the CIA from refining and re-applying this model to 21st century USA. In our second hour, we consider the Phoenix program as a symptom of what Marshall Rosenberg refers to as 'enemy images'. #747 747 - The Tyranny of Enemy Images - 2 - (The Fools' Choice Of Totalitarianism Or "Terrorism") This time, we continue the theme from episode 746, which highlighted how "enemy images" reduce people's ability to empathise and to make objective judgements, as opposed to a clear focus on observable reality. We look at a word which since 1979 has become the basis of innumerable laws, but which lacks a legal definition. Professor Reni Broulin describes the findings of his research into the multiple meanings of the word "terrorism", and Robin Upton declares that, like the "war on terror", he will only use such a loaded invoker of enemy images, if at all, inside double quotes. #748 The Tyranny of Enemy Images - 3 - (Pedophilia As A Tool Of The Deep State) Continuing our series on 'Enemy Images', we concentrate this time on another label used to promote fear and demonize people - the "pedo-phile" (literally "child lover"). We examine how this image may prove useful to the deep state for blackmail purposes, and reflect on the gradual exposure of pedophile rings populated by senior politicians, judges and those people whose integrity is crucial to the smooth running of modern society. Why do so many investigations appear to founder just before criminal charges are made? 74_
73_ #730 The Life Blood of Empire - (Secrets of The Seven Sisters) This week, a look at the stuff of empire, that is, the resource of preeminent importance to understanding geopolitics in the 21st century - petroleum. We adapt a documentary on The Seven Sisters, supplemented with the research of Russ Baker. #731 The Global Oiligarchy - (Secrets of The Seven Sisters 2) This week, we conclude our adaption of The Seven Sisters and supplement it by the research of James Corbett on the influence of the US "Oiligarchs" over the rest of US society. As he notes, the US oil barons were effective in their takeover of other aspects of US society including the money, educational and food supply systems. #732 A Billion Here and A Billion There, Pretty Soon You're Talking Real Money - (Pete Brewton on The Enterprise's Savings & Loan Fraud) We look at a new topic on the show - one of the largest frauds committed in the USA in the 20th Century - and why it is that the looting of hundreds of billions of dollars has for the most part not only gone unpunished but uninvestigated. Our speaker is Pete Brewton, author of "The Mafia, The CIA and George Bush". #733 The Mena Connection - (Laundering Drug Profits and Shipping Guns to Nicaragua) Another episode which illuminates the murky doings of the deep state in the US; we hear the soundtrack from a 1995 film which gives an insider's eye view of "The Enterprise". Terry Reed was a CIA spook whose distaste for drug trafficking lead to him attempt to blow the whistle on what the corporate media - misleadingly - referred to as "Iran-Contra". After outlining the drugs for weapons operation that was run out of Mena, Arkansas - including how the money was laundered through the Arkansas bond market with the help of the Clintons' entourage - the show centers on how the Reeds took flight from a rogue US Justice system which had labeled them as "armed and dangerous" drug traffickers. #734 The Case of The Missing Inquest - (The Implausible Death of Dr. David Kelly) Did you know that Dr. David Kelly is perhaps unique among UK citizens in that his obviously unnatural death has never been the subject of an inquest? The "inquiry" tasked with investigating it did not take testimony under oath, left many questions not unanswered but u_nasked_ (such as why there where no fingerprints on the knife!) and was headed by a hand-picked appointee of war criminal Tony Blair. A solid introduction to the case by Norman Baker MP is followed by a range of other voices that helps explain why the UK government has chosen to sidestep the circumstances of Dr. Kelly's death. #735 Thinking Outside The Bucks - (The Authenticity of A Life Beyond Money) A more personal show than usual, which I hope will prove an appealing contrast to the crimes of the Deep State. We return to a familiar theme of this show, the importance of following our heart, of working for love not money. A range of speakers, some new, some old, combine to challenge our ideas of self, of what it means to be a human, and of what we might achieve if we align our heads and hearts. We conclude with the vision of Chris Larcombe, who realized during his Ph.D in epigenetics that he was more interested in creating a moneyless system of interaction which would allow people, en masse, to better coordinate and help realise one another's dreams. #736 Why 9/11 Is Still The Issue - (Understanding The Institutional Silence on 9/11) We begin with an excellent academic paper on the historical and legal matters surrounding 9/11. Amy Baker Benjamin asks why, given both any abundance of evidence, and ample historical precedent for the use of false flags to initiate wars, has the UN singularly failed to carry out any investigation into the US government's claims surrounding the events of Sep 11th? Any why does >99% of academic scholarship on the topic not tackle substantive issues such as who actually carried out 9/11 and on what grounds? In our second hour, we hear a recent interview with Chris Bollyn which connects more of the 9/11 dots, pointing the finger at Mossad. #737 The War On Obesity - (The Ongoing Global Poisoning) Two powerful and informative speakers with complementary perspectives on the declining health of the US population. First we hear Rebecca Anshell Song on Sexism and the Food and Diet Industry. She highlights the impossibility of the modern targets set for feminine beauty - and the consequences ranging from suicide and despair of affected women to the millions of cosmetic operations carried out in an effort to achieve physically impossible ideals of feminine beauty. Our main speaker is Professor Robert H. Lustig who observes that the "war on obesity", just like the war on drugs and the war on terrorism, is having counterproductive effects and in fact promoting obesity, as well as making large profits for corporations in the process. #738 Technowar in Vietnam - (Misadventures of The Market Model) This week we combine two successive episodes of the classic dissident cable show, Alternative Views. Professor William Gibson describes his 1987 book, which underscores the disastrous results which followed from the US military's enthusiastic embrace of capitalist market ideology, using now all too familiar methods to maximize the army's capacity to "produce" an enemy bodycount. Gibson's comments on the context and conduct of the Vietnam war are incisive and, sadly, still all relevant. #739 The Devil's Chessboard - (The BIS and David Talbot on Allen Dulles) Our main piece this week is an interview with David Talbot on his 2015 book, The Devil's Chessboard, which centers on the early CIA and especially the role of Allen Dulles. The observations made about Dulles correlate pretty closely with what is known about the Deep State in the USA. We conclude with Adam Lebor throwing light on another of history's dark corner's - the Basel based Bank For International Settlements. 73_
72_ #720 The Conspiracy Of Silence - (VIPaedophile, Blackmail and The Deep State) This week, we tackle a new topic on the show, which some have dubbed "VIPaedophile". We hear the sound tracks of a pair of investigative documentaries on organized child sexual abuse. First, "Spies, Lords and Predators" which looks at what it terms "the biggest political scandal Britain has ever faced". Next, we hear an interview with respected investigative film maker, Tim Tate, about the making of The Conspiracy Of Silence, his 1980s ground breaking expose of organized child sex abuse in USA. He tells how, after the film had been, produced, and the rough cut was approved by legal advisors, and even scheduled for broadcast, it was suddenly pulled, and has never aired in USA to this day. One or more of the witnesses who testified in the film were later found dead. After his interview about the film, we hear an adaption of the film itself, which is now available on the internet. #721 Analysing The Mind-numbering Orwellian Contradictions - (Israel, "Anti-semitism", Free Speech and False Flag Terror) Why was the "Je suis Charlie" celebration of free speech event followed by the biggest crackdown on free speech in French history? Kevin Barrett describes it as a "mind-numbering Orwellian contradiction, a lot like what happened after 9-11 when we were told that 'The reason they attacked us was they hate our freedoms' so let's destroy freedoms, let's shred the bill or rights, pass the Patriot Act and lock down the country." We consider the Israeli angle of Islamophobia induced by the "Moslem terrorist" meme promoted by the commercially-controlled media. #722 A Milieu of The European Deep State - (NATO and The Bilderberg) This is the most intense look we've taken at the Bilderberg group since episode 528. In the 5 years since that show was produced, Bilderberg has been much more under the media spotlight. We begin with Charlie Skelton comparing the experience of reporting on the G7 with reporting on the Bilderberg. Next we hear a 2007 summary of the Bilderberg group by Daniel Estulin and some concluding thoughts by Tony Gosling. #723 A US Deep State Event - (The Deep Implications of the 9-11 Money Trail) We continue our study of the deep state with a fresh look at what has emerged about the defining 21st century deep event, the attacks of September 11th. While that date inevitably invokes mental images of fireball and collapsing towers, we look instead at the financial implications. These range from Stratesec director Wirt Dexter Walker's $50,000 insider trade through a range of mid level fraud, up to the hundreds of billions of US Bonds which were due on that date and the trillions of dollars which have gone missing from the Pentagon budget. What does this complex pattern of innumerable financial frauds carried out on that day tell us about the interrelationships of the shadowy cabal of deep state insiders who pulled it off? And what about the technologies which may have been used on that day? #724 Calling a SCAD a SCAD - (State Crimes Against Democracy, Operation Gladio 1) This week we begin an audio adaption of the best film that will ever made on Operation Gladio, Allan Francovich's famous 1992 expose. To introduce it, a 90 minute talk from Lance deHaven-Smith on State Crimes Against Democracy (SCADs) - a term which he thinks we should start using as a prelude to prosecuting those responsible. #725 An Ongoing Deep State Clean Up - (Dennis Hastert, The 1996 COINTELPRO II Directive, Operation Gladio 2) We continue our adaption of Allan Francovich's film about Operation Gladio. However, the majority of this episode is a review of the 1996 New COINTELPRO operation, started under Clinton, which is currently being framed in the US commercial media as the "Denis Hastert case". We sew together 4 recent podcasts from Sibel Edmonds (the US' most classified woman) who has been blowing the whistle on this case for over a decade, and from whom insight is therefore to be expected as to what will happen with this case, and most interestingly, what the controlled media is not informing us about. #726 The Flight From Death - (The Central Importance of Death Anxiety, Operation Gladio 3) In our 15 year history, we have addressed a wide range of topics. It is a rare episode which tackles a new topic, an even rarer one in which we tackle a new topic with such direct relevance to so many earlier shows. Today's show fits that description, examining the theories of cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, that fear of our own mortality is a topic of unparralleled importance - but one that humans psychology encourages us to shy away from rather than. For an example of the dangers of living without due scepticism of "immortality symbols" we conclude with part 3 of our ongoing adaption of Allan Francovich's film about Operation Gladio. #727 The Terrorism-Surveillance Complex - (Diane Roark, Gladio 4) This week,we begin with a talk from the most senior NSA whistleblower you're probably never heard of, Diane Roark, who doesn't mince her words about what the NSA are really spying on. As we hear, the deep state made reprisals against her but were unable to pin anything on her. We conclude the show with the final of our 4 part adaption of Allan Francovich's Operation Gladio. #728 Globalizing The Occupation - (Israel's Service to The Hegemon, Britain's Fusion Intelligence Complex) "You have to treat the public as potential terrorists - not as citizens", says Jeff Halper, describing the logic of the endgame of global capitalism, which he describes in his book as a "Global War Against The People". Pointing to its huge security-industrial-intelligence complex, he looks at Israel as a leader in this new economy. By exploiting the Palestinians as a resource, its research into methods of controlling a subject population has assisted in the development of weapons technologies such as drones and nanobots. In our second hour, we read a paper which looks at social structures and linguistic frames which are being rolled out to support hegemony worldwide by deliberately blurring the distinctions between violent terrorism and non-violent dissent. #729 The Dynamics of Deep State Capture - (The SEC, Bear Stearns, Gary Aguirre) This week, we examine the topic of regulatory capture in the US financial sector. We hear of some smoking guns which are hidden in plain sight - the blindingly obvious leads not properly investigated by the SEC, the FBI, the US Justice Department or any agency of the US government. Our main presentation is a 90 minute piece from lawyer and SEC whistleblower Gary Aguirre is introduced by an outline of the take down of Bear Stearns from DeepCapture.com - which although produced in 2009 has enduring relevance for anyone seeking to better understand the importance of the Deep State in the Financial 'Crisis'. 72_
71_ #710 Facing The Failing Culture Of Control - 3 - (The Simplicity of The Singapore Model) We have another program in our series on the failing culture of control. Last time we looked at the development of nuclear technology as a result of competition between nation states, this time we look instead at the 21st development of social technology to divide and conquer the world's population. Faced with the organized efforts to misdirect their altruistic impulses of the public at large by terrorizing them and implanting false beliefs, 3 speakers voice their iconoclastic and unwavering dissent. #711 Facing The Failing Culture Of Control - 4 - (The Sickening Development of Modern Medicine) We review the infamous Tuskeegee syphilis experiment and its even more murderous offshore equivalent, noting that the US government's apology to those affected did not stop it using "sovereign immunity" to block their class action lawsuit - since the deeds occurred outside of the USA. The lead attorney, Piper Hendricks shares her frustration. We conclude with an interview of Toni Bark, host of "Bought, The Movie" on regulatory capture by big pharma of CDC and the difficulty of assessment of the health risks of vaccines in light of the huge amounts of money involved. #712 Facing The Failing Culture Of Control - 5 - (Deep State Control Freakery You May Have Missed) Our series on the failure of control returns to Unwelcome Guests core topics - trying to make sense of deep events and the shady dealings of deep political insiders. Although we cover a wide range of malfeasance, all the material we cover relates more or less directly to various actions by the Deep State. We hear Sander Hicks on a range of Sep 11th related topics (many of them new to the show), followed by Russ Baker on the Boston Marathon Bombing. We conclude with a recent overview of the deep state from Peter Dale Scott and a short segment from commercially-controlled media noting that even 6 years after the event, no explanation has been forthcoming of the E4B that flew over the White House on the morning of 9/11. #713 The Deep State in Western Europe, 1972-1986 - (The Viscious Cercle Of Anti-Communist Terrorism) This week, a range of materials from scholarly articles to YouTube videos sheds some light on the murky world of post-WW2 deep political intrigue in Europe. The NATO run Operation Gladio is our point of departure, but False Flag terrorism is just the most dramatic of many forms of psychological warfare. In our second hour we look at an even now relatively little known group called "Le Cercle" which appears to have been actively engaged in similarly Machiavellian political manipulation carried out in many of the self-styled "democracies" of Western Europe. #714 Sowing Dragon's Teeth From the Cold War to The JCIT - (The Jerusalem Conference on International Terrorism) Unnoticed and unreported at the time, the July 1979 Jerusalem Conference on International Terrorism was a seminal event in the history of the "War on Terror". Organised by Benjamin Netanyahu, speakers included George H. W. Bush, Brian Crozier and some of his friends from Le Cercle, academics and deep state actors met to discuss and spin the yarn of the "global war on terror". We begin with a speech on the USA's sponsorship and conscious radicalization of terrorist groups by Nafeez Ahmed and read the first half of an article (also from 2006) by Brian Bogart, entitled Sins of Statecraft: The War on Terror Exposed. #715 The Deep Roots of Dragon's Teeth - (Blowing The Whistle on Whistleblower Protection) This week we emphasize the structural roots of the current spate of False Flag terrorism - the unaccountable power of the supranational Deep State. Public 'checks and balances' to stop 'bad apples' will never tackle the problem of a barrel that is itself rotten; laws passed by states seek to hide, not to expose the hidden and therefore unaccountable nexus of self-interest that is the deep state. In our first hour, a debunking of "whistleblower protection". In our second, we continue reading Brian Bogart's, Sins of Statecraft: The War on Terror Exposed. A 20 minute time out to hear from J. Michael Springmann, formerly head of the visa issuing section in the US consulate in Jeddah, who was unceremoniously dismissed after attempting to blow the whistle on the irregular visa issuing practices. #716 The Dark Heart of The Vast Machine - (Secret Society, Secret Justice and The War of Terror) This episode is a thoughtful exploration of the reality of UK democracy, and is liberally seasoned by Robin Upton musing on the Deep State. We begin with Secret Society - a BBC expose of the political process that was made in the 1980s but after being "leaned on" was never broadcast. Next Secret Justice, an essay on the fundamental unaccountability of MI5, claims to the contrary notwithstanding. We conclude our reading of Brian Bogart's Sins of Statecraft: The War on Terror Exposed. #717 One video, Posted On Youtube - (Iran-Contra, Drugs and more Drugs) Wikipedia, that guardian of the WWW official narrative, does not admit that drug trafficking played a part in the bu$ine$$ of Iran-Contra. In our first hour, first hand testimony of flying plane loads of cocaine into USA during that period. We hear how this was connected in a young man's mind to arms dealing, money laundering and his patriotic duty to fight communism - and what transpired after he told his handlers that he wanted out, to live a quiet life in Europe. In our second hour, a vintage episode of Radio Free America centers on the assassination of Barry Seal and its relationship to Iran Contra, revealing that even while 'investigations' were ongoing to cover it up, some commentators had grasped the relevance of the drug smuggling angle. #718 The Increasing Shallowness of The Deep State - (From Libya to Oklahoma, Bombs and more Bombs) This week, material from 15 years back through to 5 days back detail continued deep state malfeasance hidden in plain sight. Did you hear the story of the CIA "bad apple" who sold a planeload of military grade C4 explosive to Libya, together with a course in bombmaking by US Green Berets? Or how the CIA's Inspector General perjured himself to try and cover it up... only to be later granted immunity when the truth emerged? Don't try this at home! Our main piece is James Corbett's review of what has emerged in the last 20 years about the Oklahoma City bombing. We conclude with an open letter by Nafeez Ahmed to "Britain's leading violent extremist" - David Cameron. Why does he ignore the leading researchers (including many in his own government) and surround himself instead with deceitful terror "experts" who have spookily close connections to the arms industry and the deep state? I wonder... #719 The Processes and Logic of The Deep State - (The American Deep State by Peter Dale Scott) Unusually, just a single speaker this week: one two hour interview with the doyen of deep political research, Canadian Professor Peter Dale Scott. He provides not only a lot of details of the evolution of the post WW2 deep state in the USA, but also sketches out its guiding principles, some of the deeper patterns which allow one to understand the superficially confusing and contradictory actions of the US deep state. 71_
70_ #700 Is There No Other Way the World May Live? - (Audiocollage of Dissidents from Dwight Eisenhower To Derrick Jensen) A 2 hour audiocollage of new material which questions 'official' reality. Beginning with fairly broadly understood deceptions such as the War On Terror, Democracy and Economics we look at their philosophical underpinning - the notion that humans live in a dead, machine like, essentially meaningless universe which spontaneously arose out of nothing. What if life and communication are more widely spread than we believe, if human consciousness is just one part of Gaia, a universal consciousness which transcends human attempts to pin it down, a life force more accessible to our hearts than our heads? #701 The Temptation of The Technofix - (The Quest for "New Nature") We hear a group of speakers from a conference on "Techno-Utopianism & the Fate of the Earth" organized last month by the International Forum on Globalization. A range of speakers offer perspectives on humanity's efforts to improve on nature, including critical looks at GM, synthetic biology, nanotechnology and electrosmog. Geoengineering, as we hear, is setting a new precedent - a technology designed not to improve life on earth but to mitigate the effects of older technologies. #702 The Temptation of The Technofix 2 - (Have We Got Too Much Technology) We continue listening in on the October 2014 International Forum on Globalization conference "Techno-Utopianism & the Fate of the Earth". Seven speakers with contrasting styles and material manage to paint a pretty consistent picture of an economically justified technological development unhinged from our truly human values, one that is unsettling and depressing humans in ways beyond out conscious comprehension. #703 Dispatches from Weimar America - (Surveillance and Unchecked Power in USA) This week, a range of speakers contribute complimentary perspectives on life in modern USA. We examine the methods, history, purposes and trace the implications of the mass surveillance state and its accompanying machinery of social domination by perpetuating fear among the US citizenry. How to respond to an amoral government which appears set on establishing a totalitarian state, or of destroying society in the effort? #704 Legal Restrictions as Convenient Fictions - (The Deep State's Consuming Passion for Big Data) This time we hear a pair of talks from 31C3 - the latest Chaos Computer Congress - both by insiders with extensive experience on the subject of mass surveillance. First, NSA expert, James Bamford, on the relationships between the NSA and the big telecom companies. Next we hear Caspar Bowden, on the legal basis for the NSA's mass surveillance program, PRISM. Microsoft summarily dismissed him from his job of 9 years as head of privacy after he raised this issue, and he has spent the last 3 years alerting people to the danger ever since. In essence, he says, the deliberately complex legal regulation of data privacy, which he summarised at the very start of the show - gives Europeans no effective rights against NSA surveillance, whilst affording Americans rights against spying by other nations. Although neither speaker seems to have much idea about the deep state, their talks nevertheless provide useful information. #705 Terrorists against Terror! - (Corporate Media Handling of The Charlie Hebdo Attack) Why has the corporate media laid such emphasis on the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which killed only a tiny fraction of the total of those massacred recently in Nigeria? What of the commercially-controlled media's claim that we need moderate Muslims to condemn the attack? Where were the calls for moderate Christians to condemn the Christian extremists whose illegal war killed over a million Iraqis? What lies behind the simplistic official narratives pushed by corporate media? Dissident BBC reporter, Tony Gosling examines connections between recent terrorist events and sketches out a highly compelling picture of darker forces at work. #706 When Are Terrorists Not Terrorists? - (State sponsored assassination by drones) We focusing on drone technology, looking at the relationship between language and law. A range of speakers explain how the framing of the War On Terror has served the US military's purposes, and notes the US policy of keeping details of its pretexts for state sponsored assassinations by drone as vague as possible. Plausible deniability is only needed if people are in a position where their actions are subject to informed questions. The core of this week's show is made up with a set of speeches from a 2015 meeting about the use of drone warfare, introduced by Bruce Gagnon and augmented by SAS whistleblower, Ben Griffin and a few classic words of Chris Hedges on how war affects its participants. #707 Returning To Earth - (Fungus, Fermentation and Food) This time we leave Deep Politics for a change of pace, and focus instead on earthier matters. Beginning with a reading of Ivan Illich's "Declaration on Soil", we look closely at the source of our food, and the humble and often overlooked organisms without which larger life forms could not live or even digest their food. Philosophy and theory are not forgotten, but this a more practical show than usual, including advice on growing and fermenting food. #708 Facing The Failing Culture of Control - 1 - (Drugs, Addiction and Health In A Sickening Society) We look at a culture obsessed with control, focusing this episode on the level of the individual. Charles Eisenstein briefly contrasts the old story of isolated individuals in competition with the emerging story of ourselves as parts of a larger self. Then we hear Tomi Gomory, co-author of "Mad Science: Psychiatric Coercion, Diagnosis, and Drugs" on the increasing efforts made to control and categorize people by classifying them as "mentally ill". After some thoughts from Ivan Illich on iatrogenesis, we hear Rebecca Tiger, author of "Judging Addicts", on how the public perception of addiction has been managed as part of the "War on Drugs". #709 Facing The Failing Culture Of Control - 2 - (Atoms For Profit) Power "too cheap to meter" offered humanity a whole lot of control, but that hardly describes what the plutonium industry actually delivered. Our continuing examination of the failing culture of control looks an aspect more serious than climate change - the nuclear power/weapons complex. Our first hour focuses on the close connection between the refinement of the technology of murder and the concomitant degradation of the deliberative process of waging war. Our second hour examines the intimate connections between nuclear war and nuclear power and between the privatization of the nuclear weapons establishment and the abandonment of any kind of effective oversight. The disturbing combination of a nuclear complex beyond government control and a commercially-controlled media which refuses to address the issue will be all too familiar to students of Deep Politics. 70_
69_ #690 Paying to Cut, Paying Not to Cut - (The Unbearable Costs of Financialization) Why is paying people to cut down trees like paying them not to cut down trees? Well, do these two apparent opposites actually result in opposite outcomes...? Or do they both, by equating trees with money, turn them into resources, and so effectively put them under the control of rich foreigners, with predictable consequences. In our first hour, Jeff Conant explores 'REDD', the World Bank's forest protection racket for the global south. In our second hour, Max Haiven looks at the extreme and ongoing financialization of the 'developed' world, resulting in a damage to society and personal identities that while difficult to quantify is nevertheless all too real. He recommends we 'rededicate ourselves to moving beyond individualism and this idea that we are all competitive agents by actively building grassroots concrete effort to reclaim the commons by actively building grassroots efforts in the here and now.' #691 Big Drugs, Big Money and Big Guns - (Deep State Operations from Afghanistan to Susurluk) We begin a new series this week, looking at the global drug trade and its key role in funding deep state groups. We begin with an expert on the Asian drug trade, Alfred McCoy. His 2010 talk, "Low-Intensity Conflict in the Drug Wars" focuses on opium production and its relationship to the proxy wars being fought in Afghanistan. We follow the heroin westwards to Turkey with a commentary by Sibel Edmonds who focuses on the nexus of the political and intelligence agency leaders, mobsters and drug traffickers which was brought to light by the "Susurluk scandal". This fateful 1996 car crash lead to the development of the phrase "Deep State" to describe the behind-the-scenes arrangements which were previously hidden from public view. While details of their operations remain unclear, they are increasingly understood to be more important to what really goes on than the for public consumption charade that is electoral politics. #692 The European Deep State Post WW2 - (NATO's Secret Armies from Spain to Turkey and Beyond) This time we focus on a seminal event in the evolution of European deep state groups, the NATO-backed "stay behind network" which first broke the surface in Italy (as Operation Gladio) but which was a factor in most if not all Western European countries after WW2. Daniele Ganser's particular focus is the role of Gladio in Spain. Our second speaker is Sibel Edmonds, whose main focus is the Turkish deep state and its relationship to the War On Terror. #693 Social Destabilization Tactics Post WW2 - (From Operation Phoenix to the War On Terror) A new speaker on the show, Douglas Valentine, outlines the CIA's development of 'Operation Phoenix', which helps explain how the Police State in the USA today has been so rapidly rolled out after 9-11; social destabilization techniques which the CIA tried out in Vietnam and developed in Latin America in the 1970s are being applied in Mexico and increasingly in USA itself. In our second hour, we continue with more from FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds on Gladio Operation B in Turkey, and NATO's links with high level drug trafficking. #694 Social Destabilization Tactics Post 1989 - (The Terrifying Business of the War On Terror) We look this time at the terrifying reality that is "the war on terror", and the effects of that terror on two target populations - US and UK. Our first speaker asks why more US citizens today consider torture acceptable than did during the Bush presidency. Our second speaker, a senior lecturer in Risk and Corporate Security analyses the disproportionate reaction of society to the purported threat of terrorism. We conclude with more from Sibel Edmonds on the global heroin trade, and especially on its close connections with NATO. #695 Lifting The Veil of On-The-Books Funding - (Deep State Media Silence about Drugs for Guns) Two speakers help us examine the off-the-books funding which has routinely funded CIA operations since its inception. We begin with a recording by Emile De Antonio from the classic show of US dissident thought Alternative Views, centered on George H W Bush, but which reviews the history of state assisted drug trafficking and encompasses a bunch of other key deep state operatives. Next it is journalist Craig Unger on his response to Sep 11th, and we conclude with Peter Dale Scott on the early history of the CIA and its related TLAs. He opines that the seized Nazi assets formed the base of a black budget which has always been available for funding off-the-books deep state operations. #696 The Morality Play of Austerity - (Bailing out The Shipwrecked Plutocracy) Three looks at the financial "crisis":- First, Professor Mark Blyth, author of "Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea" looks at the promotion of austerity as a financially necessary measure, uncorrelated to bailouts. Next Les Leopold, another new speaker on the show, author of "How To Make A Million Dollars an Hour - Why Hedge Funds Get Away With Siphoning Off America's Wealth", describes financial chicanery of dubious legality and even less morality. We conclude with a stirring speech by regular speaker, Chris Hedges, who sets the austerity in the context of a dying empire, and assets that the only consistent position for those of conscience is outright rebellion against "the dehumanizing ideology of totalitarianism capitalism". #697 The Estimable Russ Baker - (Boston Bombings and The Family of Secrets) Unusually, we spend both hours on a single speaker, more unusually still, one who is new to this show as a main speaker. Some of Russ Baker's research is however familiar to us via Mark Gorton's Fifty Years of the Deep State. The first 30 minutes is a May 2014 interview about the Boston bombings, the remainder of the show is a 2009 interview by Bonnie Faulkner which centers on his book, "Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years." #698 Once More Unto The Whistle - (Testimony of Scott Bennett) Our whole show is given over to a new whistleblower, Dr. Scott Bennett, formerly of the U.S. Army 11th Psychological Operations Battalion. We hear 2/3 of his testimony, which although not directly related to exposures we've heard on the show, fits a general pattern of Deep State manipulation of lawyers, the justice department and the commercially-controlled media in an effort to obscure its sponsorship of terrorism. Particularly relevant is Bennett's connection to a UBS whistleblower he met while incarcerated, who was later awarded $104M by the US government under whistleblowing legislation. #699 A Country with A Military or A Military with A Country - (Scott Bennett and Sibel Edmonds on The Deep State's War Machine) This show contrasts the perspectives of two whistleblowers on the inside the US War Machine. One, Scott Bennett, from whom we heard last time, blew the whistle in 2014 and offers fresh first hand testimony from the machine designed to serve up an unremitting diet of war and fear, and moving USA rapidly towards a full-on totalitarian police state. The other, Sibel Edmonds, who blew the whistle on false flag terror in the immediate wake of 9-11, shares her acute awareness of the operations of the deep state and explains why she has just published a fictionized account of her discoveries as a whistleblower. 69_
68_ #680 Unlawful Killing - (Secrets of the UK and US Establishments) Our title piece is an adaptation of the banned film, Unlawful Killing, on what the jury decided was the "unlawful killing" of Lady Diana Spencer, who wrote in letter that her husband was planning a car "accident" for her. A legal document to the same effect was hidden for years by the UK's top police officer, who, far from being disciplined, was made a life peer. We conclude with an interview of Sibel Edmonds by Nafeez Ahmed on murky busine$$ of the US establishment surrounding Sep 11th. #681 Leviathan Remixed - (Resistance Audiocollage) Credit to Virtual Renderings' "Ponderings From Within Leviathan" which moved me past the tipping point and inspired me to make the first audiocollage since the start of OWS. Based largely on 2 Virtual Renderings audiocollages, I overlay a range of other material to amplify the start choice that faces us - resist or be complicit in Leviathan's ongoing project of planetary destruction. #682 The Commercially Controlled Media - (Shadow of Liberty) This week, a look at the CCM, the commercially (or corporate) controlled media. We adapt Jean-Phillipe Lemay's Shadows of Liberty, followed by an excerpted speech by Jeremy Scahill on war crimes carried out by the US but unreported in USA by the lartge media corporations. #683 The Standardization of Mind And Body - (DSM-5, Disabilities and Fruit Trees) Last time we looked at how mass communication technologies were shaped into the propaganda tool that big media is today. This time, a look at how the medical profession has responded to similar systemic pressures, gradually refining technologies and public expectations about physical and mental health so as to buttress the status quo. After Jess Martin's talk on 'disability' we hear Gary Greenberg on the DSM-5. We conclude with an alternative perspective from Tony Wright - that modern society, far from being a healthy norm from which any deviation is suspect, is itself a deeply dysfunctional result of millennia long changes in human brain biochemistry. #684 The Supranational Deep State - (Deep Politics and Middle East Oil) Do you find yourself wondering what's really going on, having seen through some one set of lies, whether you are now faced with another, more carefully crafted set of untruths? Two contributors this week take a close look at the murky bu$ine$$ of Deep Politics. We begin with a new speaker, Charlotte Dennett, who suggests that underneath a lot of facades the Middle East oil (and its exploitation by foreign powers) lies at the heart of geopolitics - including both world wars. In our second hour, a compendious 2014 essay by Peter Dale Scott on "The State, the Deep State and the Wall Street Overworld". Scott reveals superficially separate incidents of political malfeasance such as the Safari Club, BCCI and Adnan Khashoggi are in fact all symptoms of a single political malaise that he terms a "Supranational Deep State". #685 The US Deep State, 1963-1981 - (The Coup of '63, The Cabal, Watergate, Ford, Carter) This week, I read the first half of one of the most remarkable essays I have ever come across on the subject of Deep Politics. In our first hour, we read Mark Gorton's compelling 50 years of the deep state which traces a secret thread from the assassination of JFK, through the assassinations of RFK & MLK to Watergate, Ford, Carter and up to the Iran hostages affair. Our first hour concludes with Peter Dale Scott speaking on the US "overworld". In our second hour, a deconstruction of the Ford presidency and the Watergate coup from the inimitable Webster Tarpley. #686 The US Deep State, 1981-2001 - (The Enterprise, Alec Station, The 9/11 Set-up) We continue where we left off last time, reading from Mark Gorton's unparalleled denunciation of the criminal enterprise at work in USA, Fifty Years of the Deep State. We conclude the first hour by briefly reflecting on Noam Chomsky's opinions on 9/11. In our second hour, we hear a talk by Peter Dale Scott at the 10th anniversary hearings on the 9/11 event, in which he examines the conduct of the US government agencies tasked with protecting the country from terrorist attacks. #687 Is 50 Years Enough? - (The JFK assassination and the 9-11 Attacks) This week we conclude Mark Gorton's Fifty Years of the Deep State, which centers on 9/11, though it pursues avenues which we have not explored much on the show before. This is accompanied by veteran Deep Politics researcher, Peter Dale Scott, speaking on the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination. Numerous parallels present themselves between the 9/11 and the JFK assassination, from the set up to the government cover-up commissions that strove in the face of huge evidence to the contrary to forge a shallow political narrative. #688 What Does It Profit A Man? - (Moneyless Living, The Canadian Genocide) We hear two contrasting stories of people who had the courage of their convictions. We start with a reading from 'The Moneyless Manifesto', by Mark Boyle, who has been living without money in the UK for years. Our main speaker this time is a new one on the show, Rev. Kevin Annett, who recounts how he uncovered systematic genocide in Canada and how when he raised this issue he was defrocked by his church. #689 A Tale Of Two Worlds - (Bridges in Myanmar, The Real 911 Suspects) A stark contrast of material for you this week. We begin with an uplifting reading of Toni 'El Suizo' Rüttimann giving the flavour of his latest expedition to Myanmar, in which he built half a dozen bridges of up to 100m in length in a 12 day period. Most of the show is a detailed exposition of old world malfeasance - Kevin Ryan on who he suspects committed the terrorism of Sep 11th - Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and a bunch of lesser known names, some of whom have been quite successful in evading the limelight, but all of whom appear to be covert operatives for the Deep State. 68_
67_ #670 Thinking Clearly About The Vast Machine - (And Resisting The Hopelessness It Perpetuates) This week we look at one aspect of the machine referred to by Graeber in episode 624 - the propaganda that is churned out and which prevents people from clearly facing their dilemma. We begin with a 2009 speech by Sut Jhally on advertising, consumerism and what this has done to the US population. After contributions from Chris Hedges and Robert Jensen, we finish with an optimistic vision by Nafeez Ahmed. #671 The Nuclear Fuel Pool of Damocles - (Fukushima, Chernobyl and PBDEs) This week, a collection of speakers on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (which Wikipedia reports injured 39 and may result in anywhere from 0 to 1000 cancer deaths). We hear testimony that the real figures are many orders of magnitude higher, and that the crisis is far from over, with radiation leaks increasing and a 1,617 ton pool of nuclear fuel suspended 100 foot in the air in a badly damaged building highly vulnerable to any further seismic disturbance. #672 Mainstream or Extreme? - (7-7, Islamophobia and CCM as Establishment Tools) If asked to imagine a terrorist, do you see a mental picture of an Islamic suicide bomber? This episode we examine how the appearance - and quite possibly also the reality - of Islamic terrorism is cultivated by the UK political establishment. A wide variety of voices on this episode centered around the events of July 7th, 2005 explore David Miller's claim that the UK government promotes Islamophobia through the security services. #673 The Language of The Vast Machine - (The Ubiquitous Matrix Of Lies) Similar in spirit to episode 670, we look at what Charles Eisenstein termed "The Ubiquitous Matrix Of Lies". We examine a range of lies spun by the vast machine as part of its efforts to perpetuate hopelessness, including a particularly obvious fraud from this August, a Nurse Nayirah style effort to drum up support for an attack on Syria. We focus loosely on war propaganda in Syria, but use a wide range of examples to illustrate the interwoven, interlocking nature of the matrix of lies while reflect on its implications for those determined to seek truth. #674 Sane Methods but Insane Purposes - (Perspectives On The Crescendo Of Violence) Our title, the self-diagnosis of the Captain Ahab, applies just as fittingly to the US led corporatocracy says Chris Hedges in his allegorical reading of Melville's Moby Dick. A variety of material, including an unread chapter of Charles Eisenstein's Ascent of Humanity and an interview with gift economy pioneers Vic Button and Frank Bowman point the way to a more optimistic end for humanity than that of the Ahab's doomed whaling voyage. #675 What We're Not Being Told - (BIS, CFR, TLC, Scientific Truth) We continue our focus on the vast machine, looking this time not at the lies it tells but truths it leaves unspoken. First we hear Ellen Brown suggesting a BIS-Syria connection. Next for the first time on the show we hear professor and historian Anthony Sutton, who has a lot to say about the murky links between US big busine$$ and the development both of USSR and of Nazi Germany. We conclude with Chris Busby on scientific dishonesty in the area of radiation risk. #676 More of What We're Not Being Told - (Plutopia, Kett's Rebellion, The Bullingdon Club...) Did you know that both Russia and USA have ongoing radioactive disaster sites which have each released four times more radiation into the environment than Chernobyl? In our first hour, a history lesson on the sacrifices made by both super powers in the race to create plutonium. In our second hour Tony Gosling draws on several centuries of hidden history to paint an even larger picture of massive abuses of power by those who wield it in secret. #677 The New Pearl Harbor 1 - (Air Defence, Hijackers and Aircraft) This week, a radio adaptation of part 1 of a new video by Massimo Mazzucco. Short on conjecture, long on key facts, New Pearl Harbor is the best and most up to date general 9/11 video I have yet come across. This first part focuses on the shortcomings of the official conspiracy narrative in the areas of the US air defense, the '19 hijackers' and the airplanes themselves. #678 The New Pearl Harbor 2 - (Amerithrax, The Pentagon and Shanksville) Before we continue our title piece, another 9-11 related piece from 2009. Author/film makers Bob Coen and Eric Nadler describe their researches into Amerithrax and the multi-billion dollar germ "defense" warfare industry. In our second hour, we continue with the New Pearl Harbor on the Pentagon and Shanksville events. We conclude with two 9/11 Commission members calling foul. #679 The New Pearl Harbor 3 - (The Exploding Towers) We conclude Massimo Mazzucco's film, looking this time at the remarkable circumstances surrounding the instantaneous freefall collapse of 3 steel framed skyscrapers (the first such collapses in history, happening largely in freefall as even NIST was forced eventually to admit). 67_
66_ #660 Countering Intelligence 3 - (The Necrophilous Underbelly of Imperialism) This week, we continue our series of radio adaptations of the film, Counter Intelligence. Part 4, Necrophilous, includes a wide range of speakers who help us understand the murderousness nature of US foreign policy. We conclude with a pointer to Unwelcome Guests #116, a classic which questions the US government's story that Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack. #661 Countering Intelligence 4 - (Death Dealing Drones Return Home to Roost) This week, a radio adaptation of Drone Nation, the last part of Scott Noble's Counter Intelligence film, which begins by noting that the under the NDAA, the US president has claimed the power to kill anyone, any time, without notice. It traces the logic back from US drone attacks which trialled the same amorality abroad, but notes that US skies are increasingly populated by drones from the FBI, Police Forces or other government agencies. Next, a talk by Medea Benjamin, author of "Drone Warfare: Killing By Remote Control", followed by a keynote speech from Glenn Greenwald at a Civil Liberties conference. #662 Leaving The Cave of Media Shadows - (Transcending The Paltry Ego and Reminding The People) A philosophical, reflective, show this week mixing analysis, poetry and eyewitness testimony. Author Morris Berman likens most of the US population to prisoners in Plato's Cave, nurse Cathy Breen describes her experience of traveling to Iraq just before the US started bombing in 2003, and Peter Dale Scott discusses and reads his poetry on a lifetime's struggle to resist war. #663 Geoengineering for Fun and Profit - (One Technofix To Rule Them All?) 150 episodes on from our first show on geoengineering, we return to the topic with a pair of recent speeches from academics. In our second hour, an hour long speech by Clive Hamilton, author of "Earthmasters - Playing God with the climate". To set the scene we begin with a recent talk on education by professor Stephen Gough. #664 The Bloodstained Laundry Of Capitalism - (And The Coming Revolt Of The Guards) This week, a trio of angles on capitalism which sharply contradict the idealized world so aggressively pushed by economists and the commercially-controlled media. First, Geoff Bailey introduces the concept of "Accumulation by Dispossession", next David Graeber summarizes some key points from last year's reading, Debt, The First 5000 Years and we conclude with the final chapter of Howard Zinn's People's History Of The United States. #665 Living In An Age Of Political Paralysis - (The World According To Chris Hedges) What to do amidst a vast apparatus designed, as Graeber wrote in episode 624, to "perpetuate hopelessness"? Chris Hedges recommends a path of courageous and unflinching non-violent resistance to the US plutocrats. We hear a 90 minute interview from earlier this week, interspersed with half of a classic Hedges speech, "War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning". #666 The Cancer in Occupy - (What is Violence?) After last week's show on Chris Hedges, this week we hear a discussion about his controversial 2012 Truthdig article in which referred to "Black Bloc anarchists" as "the cancer of the Occupy movement". He debates with Crimethinc on just how violent is it acceptable (or advisable) to be. Along the way we discuss the purpose of occupy and who defines what violence is anyway? #667 Community Successes - (Restoring Our Connection To The Land) A cheerier show this week than last week's look at the issue of violence. A range of voices, old and new inform us of successful local initiatives to reconnect with the land and rebuild community in their neighborhood. #668 Big Oil At Home And Abroad - (How The 7 Sisters Took Us For A Ride) This week, a successor show to episode 664, using 3 documentary films to trace a bigger picture carefully avoided by commercially-controlled media. Firstly, "Secrets Of The 7 Sisters" which retells the recent history of the Middle East focusing on its oil reserves. Secondly, we hear "Taken For A Ride", a 1996 documentary on how the logic of capitalism dictated the destruction of cheap mass transit in the US, in favor of a more resource intensive method:- the automobile. We conclude with the end of "The Secret History of Garbage" on the effect of petrochemical waste on the environment. #669 The Restless Energy of The Hunted Mind - (Information & Social Dysfunction) This week we look at the relationship between stress, technology and the modern worldview's apparent disconnection from reality. We have one new speaker, William Powers, author of Hamlet's Blackberry, and Heather Menzies speaks for a second time after her first appearance three years ago when we first looked explicitly at this area in episode 514. 66_
65_ #650 Fighting Nature To The Last Drop - (Resource Extraction in India and Alberta) Following last week's observations on the destructiveness of the money system in general, we look this week at two specific examples of devastaed communities and ecosystems. Firstly, an account by Arundhati Roy of the oppression of Indian communities by a government determined to extract resources. Secondly, a radio adaptation of 'To The Last Drop', a film about the Athabasca Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada. #651 Deep Green Resistance - (Earth At Risk Conference) A trio of speakers this week, two of them have been regular contributors to the show. We listen in on a conference that happened in California in 2011 entitled Earth At Risk. While they outline contrasting approaches to resistance, the speakers are united in their conviction that the culture of capitalist golobalisation has no mechanism for self-regulation and so Direct Action is necessary to stop its ongoing ecocide. #652 Is Humanity In Its Right Mind? - (The Rise and Rise Of The Left Brain) This week, a remarkable set of ideas by an unknown speaker with a highly unusual credential (a sleep deprivation record of 11 days) whom I first came across only a few days ago. His ideas are such a close fit with many of the others we have heard on the show that I felt I had to share them with you. If they are even partly true, we all need to know about it. #653 The Biopsychosocial Approach - (Understanding The Growth Of Child Development Disorders) Following on from last week, another show on a very important but commercially sidelined scientific backwater. Dr. Gabor Maté combines personal testimony, anecdotal evidence and a lot of scientific research to tell a story of child development very different to the one pedalled by institutions such as the Drug Industry, the criminal justice system or other profiteers of human disfunctionality. Increasing ill health, Maté suggests, is a natural response to an increasingly sick society. #654 State Crimes Against Democracy - (The Secret Government's War Of Terror) Most of the show is an interview with Lance de Haven-Smith, author of 'Conspiracy Theory In America', who coined the term 'State Crime Against Democracy' (SCAD) as a modern replacement of what used to be called a 'high crime'. Both speakers share an exasperation of the apparent credulousness of most of the US public, noting that November 22nd will mark a half century of emerging evidence about John F Kennedy's assassination, which the US government continues to maintain was the work of a 'lone nut'. #655 Unite and Conquer 3 - (Social and Personal Consciousness of Self And Other) A successor show to episode 531, we wonder this week whether a suppressed half of human consciousness knows that we are inseparable from all of the rest of life? We begin with Jill Bolte Taylor's dramatic account of the stroke that shut down the left half of her brain, followed by Elisabet Sahtouris and Willis Harman on new paradigms in science, and author Gish Jen on cultural differences in ideas of the self. #656 Secret Wars Of The CIA - (A Classic Speech by John Stockwell) This week a radio adaptation of the video, 'Secret Wars Of The CIA', by winner of the CIA Medal of Merit winner turned CIA whistleblower, John Stockwell. In this vintage video, before the advent of WWW, an earnest Stockwell gives an overview of CIA activity and cites dozens of books to supporting material by other researchers. #657 Rounding Up The Opposition - (Glyphosate Risks, David versus Monsanto) #658 Countering Intelligence 1 - (CIA's Darker Secrets, Organizing Global Drug Trafficking) The USA has 14 so-called 'intelligence services'. How 'intelligent' are they, what 'services' do they perform for whom? Who decides what they get up to? Who even knows? If killing is wrong, is it any less so if done for money behind pretenses of 'national secrecy'? What about helping pay for such acts, for example, by paying taxes? This week, a radio adaptation of Scott Noble's latest film uncovers more of the dark secrets of the security state, from the destabilisation of the 1975 Australian government to the Nugan Hand Bank and the organization of global drug trafficking. #659 Countering Intelligence 2 - (Gladio, The Strategy of Tension, False Flags) This week we continue our look at the secret state with the help of Scott Noble's latest film, Counter Intelligence on the out of control apparatus of "national security services". The focus this week is on drug trafficking and False Flag operations. We supplement the adaptation with some classic Michael Ruppert on the narco-connection to US politics, Mark Crispin Miller on the phrase "conspiracy theory" and a speaker on the FSB and the Ryazan Apartment bombing of 1999. 65_
64_ #640 The Making of The US Corporate Empire - (The Power Principle 1) This week we devote the whole show to the first part of a radio adaptation of Metanoia's latest film, The Power Principle. Using examples of Iran, Guatemala, Congo, Chile and Greece a wide range of insiders and historians unmask the Cold War as a propaganda cover for the war between the rest of the world and resource hungry US corporations. #641 The Making Of The National Security State - (The Power Principle 2) This episode continues where we left off last time, with a radio adaptation of the remainder of the most recent of Scott Noble's 2012 film, The Power Principle. This half focuses on the sequence of fears used by the ruling elite to keep the 99% submissive and afraid, whether of communists, nuclear war or Muslim fundamentalists. Insiders and other commentators reveal a bigger picture of US Foreign Policy driven by an aggressive and ruthless clique using organisations such as the CIA, the arms industry and big media to exploit and oppress the 99% both at home and abroad. #642 Living a 3-Dimensional Life - (Living Moneyless, Walden #1) A poem by Wendell Berry starts us off on a differently paced, more musical set of episodes this week. As a counter to what Jacques Fresco terms 'base articiality of materialism and mindless consumption' we weave a tapestry of thoughts including those from iconoclastic earthy thinkers including Suelo, the moneyless resident of a Utah desert from whom we heard in episode 600 and the American Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. #643 Living A Higher And More Ethereal Life - (Foreclosures, Monongahela, Walden 2) What would it mean to live 'a higher & more ethereal life' we ask this week in a successor program to last week's show. The quote is from Henry David Thoreau's classic Walden which we keep reading, and which details the shed he built by Walden Pond in 1845 at a cost of $28.12½ (i.e. around $1000 nowadays). Our main presentation is a 2013 interview about Direct Action to resist the US government sponsored armed gangs who are attempting to evict people from their homes. We supplement this with short readings from John Taylor Gatto's Underground History of American Education and from Suelo. #644 Living Here And Now - (Having A Personal Philosophy, Walden 3) A carpe diem show this week which asks "Do you have a personal philosophy?" If you are one of the many people who have not given the matter much thought, Professor William Irvine cautions against accepting the 'default philosophy' of hedonistic consumerism. Now is the time to decide what you stand for and to refuse to stand for anything less! #645 Potemkin Justice - (Whistleblowers & Surveillance in 21st Century USA) A stark contrast with last week's show, we look this week behind the facade of the separation of powers in USA. Do any effective checks remain on how the US government behaves itself? Or is the external threat of massive dissent the only check left to the ongoing rollout of the totalitarian state's surveillance and control grid. #646 Much Is Learned By Being Lazy - (Knowing Who We Are, Life in Monongahela, Walden 4) Another philosophical episode this week, featuring a range of reflections from the wise on what life has taught them, and how (and why) the world has changed since their youth. Our main readings are books by Wendell Berry, John Taylor Gatto and Henry David Thoreau. #647 Making The Universe Your Employer - (Giving Up The Burden Of Money) This week we hear a combination of voices contradict the story of the selfish-maximising skin-encapsulated ego. Aided by Mark Sundeen, we hear from Suelo on how he decided to 'make the universe his employer' and give up money. Then an interview with Charles Eisenstein on stepping into the gift, together with a short speech by Amanda Palmer on connecting with fans and the benefits of giving her music away free. #648 The Monoculture of Modernity - (Reflections on The Many Ways To Live) This week, we hear a variety of alternatives to the ideas and practices of modern materialist monoculture, noting that historically speaking, it has existed only for the blink of an eye. Our main speakers are author academics Jared Diamond and Augustin Fuentes and we hear a compilation of research on spanking put together by Stefan Molyneux. #649 Why Money Will End - (And How To Prepare) This week, a special show featuring a 2-hour made-for-radio commentary on a recent presentation entitled 'Why Money Will End' And What to Do About It. Does a life beyond money have to be unthinkable? Or is it just that a highly funded campaign is trying to make it seem so? What if it was 'bu$ine$$ as usual' that was in reality unthinkable, and there was a more beautiful world of abundance awaiting us, once enough people have the courage to say goodbye to money and its scarcity-inducing story of selfishness and separation?... 64_
63_ #630 The 6th Mass Extinction - (And What To Do About It) Did you know that the earth is currently experiencing the biggest mass extinction in in the last 65 million years? That half the worlds' plants and animals may go extinct in the next 30 years? Or that extinctions are happening at an accelerating pace already around 1000 times the natural rate? #631 The Neglected Genius of John Taylor Gatto - (Extended Childhood and Western Spirituality) This week, exceptionally, we hear two pieces from a single speaker, John Taylor Gatto. He is in poor health having been slow to recover from a stroke last year, so we reflect on his genius with two classic talks: "Bianca, You Animal, Shut Up!" and "The Neglected Genius of American Spirituality". #632 The War On Kids - (The Youth Of Today's Toxic Legacy) Whether in terms of biodiversity, Peak Oil, water shortages or whatever, we've looked many times on this show at the damaged and degraded planet earth that we are leaving for our children. This week we take another angle, looking at the damage done to the very brains and minds of our children. #633 Putting The 'Mental' Back in Environmental - (Food Waste and The Underground Forests of Niger) Is planet earth facing a food crisis? Are there too many people here? Can humanity afford to tackle desertification in the Sahel? Filmmaker Mike Freedman, food activist Tristram Stuart, author Ronald Wright and finally permaculturist and aid worker Tony Rinaudo all contribute their voices to this week's challenge to simplistic and reductionist thinking on such matters. #634 The Coming Apocalypse etc. - (Catastrophism, Zombies, Social Collapse and The Fiscal Cliff) On our last show before December 21st, 2012, we examine the spectre of 'catastrophe'. Does the popularity of undead imagery reveal anything about modern society? We begin by revisiting David Graeber's insights on Tiv mythology at the time of the African slave trade, then examine the underpinning of the modern university and schooling systems as a way to decode the barrage of modern day warnings of the 'Fiscal Cliff'. #635 Apocalypse Postponed - (Perspectives On A Progressive Future) Last week we reflected on whether people's penchant for doomsday predictions and tales of the living dead was connected to their common experience of life under capitalism. This week, given the absence of an apocalyptic Mayan doomsday event, we ask whether a conscious effort to reject such catastrophism is in order, and what a progressive future might look like. #636 Bilking The Afflicted - (Addiction, Drugs & Capitalism) This week we turn our attention to the 'War on Drugs', which as addiction specialist Gabor Maté points out is of course a war on drug users. We start with a hour on "The Science of Drug Politics" by former UK Government Chief Drugs advisor, Professor David Nutt whose testimony clearly suggests that scientific considerations were of minor interest to the politicians he was supposed to advise. Next we hear Dr. Maté who touches on some of the reasons why the War On Drugs may not be failure after all... #637 The Preliminaries Of A Vision - (Of A World We Might Want) This week an invitation to reflect on capitalism in crisis not as an economic but a political phenomenon. We hear two 'bigger picture' talks on the interrelationships between Economics and Politics, one with a European focus, one which concentrates on USA. First Tariq Ali gives us "The Rotten Heart of Europe" summarising the machinations of the political elite in Europe. Next it is Gar Alperovitz, author of "America Beyond Capitalism", on the growth of US movements to decentralize wealth and ownership. #638 Modern Human Self-Enslavement - (Understanding Addiction To The Consumer Treadmill) This week two speakers give us a new angle on why so many people seem addicted to living lives that leave them unfulfilled. Firstly, doctor and addiction specialist Gabor Maté gives a personal reflection on the question "Who We Are When We Are Not Addicted?". After a musical break we hear a radio adaptation of Consumed - The Human Experience, which looks at how marketing is finely tuned to hijacking human evolutionary drives. #639 Grave Reflections on Technology and Freedom - (Three Wise Men on Techno-totalitarianism) This week we hear the voices of three now deceased authors on the topics of technology and Social Control. First a vintage 1962 recording of Aldous Huxley speaking on the prospects for technototalitarianism. Next it's a more relaxed interview with science fiction author Kurt Vonnegut and we conclude with a musical collage of 1970's wisdom from E. F. Schumacher. 63_
62_ #620 Sex And Drugs And Mental Health - (Sex 'Addiction' and Broken Brains) This week we hear three different perspectives on the Mental Health of the US population - and indeed upon the American concept of 'mental health. Is it a matter of fixing broken brains with carefully targeted drugs? Our speakers agree that the US public have been profitably misinformed by professional experts full of ideas about how they should and shouldn't behave. #621 US Capitalism From Start To Finish - (911 As Endgame Of The Capitalist Fundamentalists) As we return to reading David Graeber this week, we look at the origins of capitalism in USA - how the system of self-sufficient slave estates and family farms gave way to one of wage labor. Then we ask, were the events of 11 years ago the cover for a massive financial fraud? We conclude by reflecting on what these angles contribute to our understanding of 'capitalism' and the importance of personally, consciously stepping away from it. #622 Resisting The Military Financial Complex - (Just Say No To Debt Repayment) Our first hour this week is a presentation by Noam Chomsky on the emerging world order in which USA is dominating the world's remaining energy resources in the Middle East and in which this same militancy is being aggressively visited on resistance at home. In our second hour, we look at the anniversary of the occupy movement and the efforts underway to build grassroots resistance to the stranglehold of the predatory elite financiers. #623 Waking Up And Smelling The Kool-Aid - (The Rhetoric and Practice of Finance Capital) This week we accompany our continued reading of David Graeber with Richard Peet on the Rise of Finance Capital. In our second hour, an outspoken Chris Hedges gives his own account of the rise of neoliberalism and reports on the America you won't have heard about on Commercially Controlled media, which he researched for 2 years to write his latest book. #624 The Vast Machine To Perpetuate Hopelessness - (Marxian Class Analysis 1) As we approach the climax of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years, we begin a series of talks by Economics Professor Richard Wolff introducing Marxian class analysis. #625 Jettisoning Accustomed Categories of Thought - (Marxian Class Analysis 2) This week is something of a continuation of last week's show, featuring the second part of economics professor Richard Wolff on Marxian class analysis, and we approach the end of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years. It is an aid to help to rethink what you think you know about economics and politics and possibly jettison some categories of thought which are unhelpful. #626 Where Communism Meets Capitalism - (TPPA, Marxian Class Analysis 3) This week we note some similarities between the so called extreme 'left' and 'right' ends of the political spectrum - when the government claims the ability to unilaterally decide how to run things, the stated ideology often goes by the board anyway. Bryan Gould discusses the confidential 'trade agreement' TPP, noting that it is less about free trade and more about subduing national sovereignty to the multinational corporations who devised it. In our second hour, we continue with Richard Wolff's Marxian class analysis, looking specifically at the 1917 Russian revolution. #627 The Progressive Process of Desocialization - (Marxian Class Analysis 4) This week, two Marxist professors speak on the social impact of capitalism and especially in USA. First, Silvia Federici speaks on 'The Progressive Process of Desocialization', how capitalism breaks down communities and people's human relationships of care. Next it is the turn of Richard Wolff who applies his Marxian class analysis to the US household, noting that more and more adults are rejecting the traditional (feudal) model of domestic exploitation and either living alone or in more egalitarian patterns. #628 Asking Forbidden Questions - (Why Do People Put Up With Capitalism) This week we learn how much effort has been put to making people assume that the virtues of capitalism are beyond question. We hear three Marxian commentators offering their own angles on the development of capitalism in USA, interspersed with a reprise of Noam Chomsky from episode 29 on the elite's determination to control the public mind lest the democratic state serve the wishes of the majority rather than the privilege of the few. #629 Speaking Forbidden Truths - (The Poor Had No Lawyers, Failure of Monetarism) This week we conclude our reading of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years with a focus on the fraud of land 'ownership' and economics. A mix of new and familiar speakers include a reading by Lyn Gerry from episode 90 and a radio adaptation of an Adam Curtis film, The League of Gentlemen. 62_
61_ #610 From Enclosure to Privatization - (Luddism, Magna Carta and Debt in The Middle Ages) This week, we start with Peter Linebaugh on Luddism and the multifaceted enclosure movement in UK. Then, a report on prison privatization in Canada. We conclude by starting chapter 10 of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years on the decline of the Axial age empires and social systems in India and China. #611 Money as Powerlessness - (Economic Parasitism, MMT and More Debt in The Middle Ages) Does money really empower people, or does it trap them in a zero-sum game in which >99% will come out as losers? A two-parter this week on money and debt. In our first hour, two speeches from the first conference on Modern Money Theory in Rimini, Italy. In the second, we continue reading from David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years. #612 From Conquistadors to Opium Wars - (Debt in The Age Of The Great Capitalist Empires) This week a look at the grim consequences of the logic of imperialist exploitation for profit since the Middle Ages. As a specific example of the general principles we read about in Debt, The First 5000 Years we hear Frank Sanello on the Opium Wars between Britain and China. #613 The Economic Disposal of The Worthless - (The Hidden History of Eugenics in USA) This week we examine the history of eugenics in USA. Robert Whitaker tells how WASPish business magnates took up the idea of racial purity and aggressively promoted eugenics, leading directly to forced sterilizations and lobotomies across USA, and indirectly to Nazi Germany's Final Solution. #614 Granting Autonomy to The Logic of Money 1 - (Capitalism, Debt & Banking) We left off our reading of David Graeber with the statement that "The logic of money was granted autonomy. Political and military power were then gradually reorganized around it". This week we look in more detail at what that meant, focusing mainly on the USA in the 19th and 20th centuries. As well as reading more from Debt, The First 5000 Years we hear a few words from Ivan Illich and the first half of a radio adaptation of a video on the Banking Cartels and the US Federal Reserve. #615 Granting Autonomy to The Logic of Money 2 - (Capitalism, Banking and What Could Come Next) This week is a sequel to last week's episode, again combining some hidden history of the bankers in USA with our continued reading of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years. We conclude with the audio of an introductory presentation on Altruistic Economics which Robin Upton gave at the Chaos Computer Congress in Berlin in December 2009. #616 The Secret, Silent Poisoning - (Nuclear Victims in Peace and War) On the anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Japan, we hear how not only the Japanese but also the Marshall Islanders continue to suffer as a result of the US military's determination to assert its nuclear superiority, whatever the cost to human life. Complementing out main focus on Nuclear Weapons, we hear from Chris Busby that the safety of Nuclear Power may be overestimated by a factor of 400. #617 Money, Power and Sociopathy - (Competition, Randroids, Economists) We start the final chapter of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years this week by going beyond the 'bad apples' line at the deeper, systemic truths which underlie the rottenness of finance capital and indeed of the idolization of competition. Gary Weiss speaks on his book, Ayn Rand Nation and entrepreneur and journalist Margaret Heffernan speaks on Money, Power and Competition. #618 The Consolidation of Police State USA - (The Ongoing American Military Coup) This week a 'bigger picture' show, with two hour long pieces which outline the stark contours of the rapidly emerging police state that is the USA of 2012. Our main speakers are Peter Dale Scott, Peter Phillips and Frank Morales. #619 The Financialization of Nature - (And the Nature of Financialization) A range of material for you this week as we return to our continuing reading of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years: Joan Baxter on land grabbing in Africa, William Black on financial control fraud and the soundtrack of a short video on the Financialization of Nature. 61_
60_ #600 Evolution Beyond Money - (Giftivism, Reforming and Quitting Money) This week, a follow up show to last week's one on money. We begin with a talk by Nipun Mehta on 'Designing for Generosity'. Then, an interview with Daniel Suelo, now moneyless since 2000 and his biographer, Mark Sundeen. In our second hour, an audio adaptation of the 2011 money reform film, Money As Debt III. #601 The Psychopathology of Money - (Nick Leeson, The Economics of Happiness) This week we continue examining money, with radio adaptations of 2 films. In our first hour, Adam Curtis' 25 Million Pounds narrates the rise and fall of financial fraudster, Nick Leeson. In our second hour, The Economics of Happiness which recommends relocalization as the urgent solution to economic globalization. #602 Ancient Languages of The Future 1 - (The Piraha, Non-Violent Communication #1) This week we take two very distinct looks at human communication. Firstly we hear half an hour from a recent talk from Professor Daniel Everett on Language, Culture and Being Human. Next psychologist and negotiator Marshall Rosenberg, describes NVC (Non-violent communication). #603 Ancient Languages of The Future 2 - (The Piraha, Non-Violent Communication #2) This week a sequel to last week's show on human communication. We hear the rest of the talk by Professor Daniel Everett on 'Language, Culture and Being Human', with some Q&A. We hear more on NVC from Marshall Rosenberg. #604 Occupy The Past - (Gandhian Non-Violence and Direct Action Movements) This week another show made with the ongoing Occupy movement in mind. Our main feature is author and researcher James Douglass on his book Gandhi and the Unspeakable, and we hear thoughts from Chris Hedges and Barbara Epstien also from earlier this year. #605 The Institutionalized Shadows of Psychopaths - (Brief Histories of the CIA, FBI) In our first hour this week we hear author Tim Weiner on the FBI and the 48 year reign of its founder, J. Edgar Hoover, whom Weiner describes as 'a Machiavelli'. In our second hour, a vintage recording of Alan Francovich speaking about On Company Business, his groundbreaking 1980 film on the CIA. #606 Flight From Meaning 1 - (The Superior Human, Debt in The Axial Age) The first of a two part series, we consider the bigger question of meaning in life. In our first hour we look at a prejudice shared by many people of differing backgrounds and inclinations - the notion that human beings are somehow innately superior to all other life forms - with a radio adaption of the 2012 film The Superior Human. We conclude our second hour by resuming reading from David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years where we left off in episode 597. #607 Flight From Meaning 2 - (Money = Competition = Psychosis) Although in the 'Flight From Meaning' series, a rather traditional show concludes my second year of making Unwelcome Guests. First, a regular speaker, Alfie Kohn, speaking on why he believes that any competition is too much. We conclude with the end of chapter 9 of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years, on the introduction of coinage in India, Greece and China. #608 Flight From Meaning 3 - (Science, Chimpanzees and The Monongahela) I start my third year this week with an unusually open ended love-it-or-hate-it next episode in the 'Flight From Meaning' series, centered on an essay by philosopher Steve Talbott on how biologists contrive to study life itself as if it were merely a lifeless mechanism. We also hear from Jane Goodall about chimpanzee society and read some of Underground History of American Education on John Taylor Gatto's boyhood. #609 Flight From Meaning 4 - (Crazy Like Us, The Instructed Organism, Peace Pilgrim) Three contrasting pieces this week which all hint at the inadequacy of limiting self as the skin-encapsulated ego. Firstly, Ethan Watters on socially defined aspects of madness, including how Glaxo Smith Kline aggressively globalized Western ideas of depression in Japan. Next, I summarize Steve Talbott's essay on problems of the 'man as machine' metaphor. Finally, an hour on Peace Pilgrim, whose 'retirement project' was to walk across USA for over 25 years without using money or asking for food or shelter. 60_
59_ #590 The Power of Healthy Thoughts - (Gut Feeling and The Placebo Effect) This week, two angles on the mind-body connection which challenge the simplistic model of man as machine. First, Marc David speaks on the essential but often overlooked mental aspects of eating. Then we hear Ben Goldacre speaks on the placebo effect. #591 Anima Mundi - (Deeper Aspects of The Ecological Crisis) Is the world a dead machine, which human beings should exploit for their own purposes as they see fit? This week we hear Anima Mundi, a film which rejects modern scientism in favor of an approach more characteristic of traditional cultures. It encourages a 'soulful' approach to the world around us - living with sensitivity, as we would within a living being. #592 The Technology of Reunion - (Freedom Boxes and The Coming War on General Computation) This week we look at the possible future interactions between society and computing technologies. We start with Gary Webb's story of how he used the WWW to circumvent censorship of his revelations of CIA drug dealing. Then we hear Cory Doctorow on corporations increasing interest in limiting the ways in which users use computing devices. In our second hour, Eben Moglen describes his work on 'freedom boxes', to create securely encrypted connections between individuals. #593 Let Your Life Be A Friction - (To Stop The Machine) After a call to action to 'stop the machine', we hear a couple of voices of those whose lives have been a friction to slow it down. Angie Zelter tells of the plowshares destruction of nuclear weapons, and John Stewart on the prevention of airport expansion, while Gwen Schulman reports of how Canadian environmental NGOs are 'partnering' with big mining firms. #594 Occupy 2.0 - (Peer Produced Politics) This week we hear three different perspectives on the ongoing Occupy movement. Firstly, an open letter to the police by occupier Reverend Richard Lang. Then Noam Chomsky on how to broaden Occupy and on its relationship to the US Republicrat kabuki. Finally P2P theorist Michel Bauwens sets Occupy in the context of emerging peer production. We conclude with another reading from chapter 7 of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years. #595 An Antidote To Forgetfulness - (The Great New Zealand Fire Sale) This week we review the wholesale privatization of New Zealand carried out in the 1980s and 90s. We hear a radio adaptation of Alister Barry's 1996 documentary, Someone Else's Country and conclude with a few words from Chapter 7 of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years. #596 Lifting The Lid on The NSA - (Secret Rooms, Infiltration, RAF Menwith Hill) This week we learn more about NSA, which no longer limits its activities to mere intelligence gathering. Whistleblower Mark Klein tells how he broke the NSA's unwarranted wiretapping scandal, Kevin Zeese speaks on a century of political infiltration of US political movements, and about infiltration of Occupy movements and we conclude with researcher Steve Schofield on the NSA's largest base in Europe. #597 The Psychology of Transition - (Undoing Millennia of Social Control) This week three speakers on the ongoing transition. Bruce Schneier begins by speaking about threats to the internet and social change, Robert Jensen speaks on the naturalization of violence against women, Rob Hopkins speaks on transition culture. We conclude by returning to Debt, The First 5000 Years. #598 Incredible Edible - (Local Food, Environmental NGOs, GM Labels) This week we compare the output of the agribusiness industry with locally grown food. In our first hour Pam Warhurst, a founder of the "Incredible Edible" movement, focuses on growing local food as a way to grow community. After pieces on why US doesn't label GM foods and on how large environmental NGOs work with big business, we conclude with news of a 7 acre food forest in Seattle. #599 What Economics Can't Tell You About Money - (Alienation, The Black Magic of Money) This week, a set of sideways looks at money. We begin with an interview of David Hawkes on a range of ideas about the 'magic' of money, its ability to promote materialism and alienate humans from their work. Then, and audio version of Robin Upton's 2011 presentation, "What Economics Can't Tell You About Money", followed by a radio adaptation of the film On Modern Servitude. 59_
58_ #580 The Failed Religion of America - (Debt, Cruelty and Redemption) #581 Unmasking the Genocide of Business As Usual - (The Hidden Worlds of Communism and Hierarchy) The show this week unmasks the moral pretensions of globalized imperialism run amok. Professor Anthony J. Hall speaks on the coming home to roost of USA's history of imperialism and globalization through force of arms. In our second hour, we begin reading A Brief Treatise on the Moral Grounds of Economic Relations, the next chapter of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years, on how the mentality and language of 'exchange' is used both to cloak such predatory hierarchical relations and to obscure our innate drive towards communistic relationships of mutual aid. #582 The Cargo Cult of Money - (Money = Hierarchy = Slavery) This week we keep our focus on the dark sides of the modern money system, hearing from monologuist Mike Daisy on why he considers money is a cargo cult, and Edward Griffin on the founding of the Federal Reserve system. We continue reading from David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years, reaching chapter 6, Games with Sex and Death. #583 Unwelcome Christmas Truths - (From African Slave Traders to Pagan Festivals) This week, a seasonal twist to our look at the dark sides of the modern money system. We hear the documentary Christmas Unwrapped, on the pagan roots of the Christmas festival. We conclude Games with Sex and Death, chapter 6 of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years. #584 Why Occupy - (Rebellion or Slavery?) FCC SAFETY UNKNOWN! Our second episode on the Occupy movement includes two veterans of the show. Firstly, Chris Hedges presents an address entitled "Nonviolent Citizen Resistance to War and Globalization". Secondly we hear a range of voices addressing Occupy Oakland on the need for concerted resistance, including Derrick Jensen. We hear music by David Rovics and Mankana. #585 Institutionalizing Wage Slavery - (Plutocracy, Money and Society) A range of voices on the topic of wage slavery. In our first hour, a Wendell Berry reading, The Ecological Crisis as A Crisis of Character, a short video on fiat money, and A Brief History of Plutocracy by Robin Upton. In hour 2, the soundtrack of a video parable about big government, followed by continued reading of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years. #586 The Iron Triangle - (The Carlyle Group and Ethos) Focusing particularly on the Carlyle group, this episode looks at the US Military-Industrial(-Congressional) Complex. First, we adapt for radio the 2004 video of Dan Briody's Iron Triangle - The Carlyle Group Exposed. Then, we adapt the more wide ranging 2010 documentary, Ethos, which looks at what is really going on in US behind the facade of democracy. #587 Engineering The Stench of Urban Decay - (Inner Cities, Addiction, Olfaction) This show spins a wide range of voices into an exposé of the myth of urban decay. We begin with Steve Macek, then hear Dr. Gabor Maté on his experiences of 'drug addicts' in an inner city neighborhood. Our longest piece is Ivan Illich speaking about water and the sense of smell. #588 Hold On To Your Kids - (Peer Attachment and The Cult of Celebrity) Gabor Maté has advice for parents and anyone seeking to understand the youth of today - on the problems for kids who focus their attention on their peers instead of their parents. Like Alfie Kohn, he urges parents to eschew behavioral methods and instead to value long term relationships with their kids. We supplement his analysis with a radio adaptation of the film Starsuckers, on how the cult of celebrity is exploited for financial gain and political purposes #589 Mad, Bad or Dangerously Frank - (Susan Lindauer and Ian Henshall on 9-11) We feature the second non-Arab American to be indicted under the Patriot Act, CIA insider Susan Lindauer. Is she really, as two US judges decided, mentally unfit to stand trial? Is this related to her being locked up and threatened with indefinite detention without trial? Her perspective in the run up to Sep 11th is a new one to this show, though in implicating the Cheney/Rumsfeld clique, is fairly compatible with other voices that we have heard on the show, and with our second guest, journalist and author, Ian Henshall. 58_
57_ #570 The Fundamental Wrongness of 'Rights' - (Law as Fiction) The show this week looks at the ideas of 'law' and 'rights'. As George Carlin says, if the government can take it away, it isn't a right, it's a privilege. A disturbing but important thought in these days in which governments worldwide are becoming more open about their subservience to expediency. We hear from a range of speakers, and our material ranges from the comic to the deadly serious. #571 Mother Nature Knows Best - (Masanobu Fukuoka, Helen and Scott Nearing) This week we hear about three people who, unimpressed by technological 'progress', quit city life to live successfully off the land - all three of them remained active into their 90's. Although travelling widely, they remained rooted to their homestead farms. In our first hour, Masanobu Fukuoka, who researched no-till farming in Japan for decades before Bill Mollison and David Holmgren coined the word permaculture. In our second hour, an audio adaptation of a film on the life and death of US back-to-the-lander Helen Nearing, and her husband, Scott. #572 Monopoly and Money - (Contradictions of Capitalism) If competition is such a good thing, why is it not tolerated in areas of government or law? Or in the money system, which functions as a highly profitable private business? And what about cartel agreements which align the interests of multi-national corporations firmly against the interests of consumers? Are corporations really competing to bring better products to market more cheaply, or are they competing for control of government to grant them privileges? #573 I Spit in The Face Of The Money God - (Mike Ruppert on The Collapse of The Infinite Growth Paradigm) We devote the whole show this week to a remarkable talk from 2011-09-11 by Michael Ruppert, who back in episode 95 became the first speaker on this show to question the events of Sep 11th. However, in this talk he says that 9/11 belongs to a 'bygone era' and he focuses instead on the urgent need to transition away from a paradigm of infinite growth and fiat currency. #574 Occupy Wall Street Special - (Hip Hop Audiocollage) A special show this week devoted to Occupy Wall Street. How to make a show of interest both to OWS attendees and to those who know next to nothing about it? Inspired by the popularity of episode 536, we give you an audio collage including live radio interviews with participants and local residents, video soundtracks, historic material and quite a lot of music. #575 From Oily Sands to Greasy Palms - (Canada Pushing Tar Sands on Europe, CETA, TILMA, SPP) Focussing on Canada's Tar Sands this week, we examine the murky reality of 'free trade', and interference by the Canadian Government in the European Climate Change legislation. Who makes and enforces these agreements, and who benefits? We look at how the SPP is being revamped for re-introduction after concerted efforts to kill it by citizens' action groups #576 Is 5000 Years Enough? - (Debt, Morality & Fiat Currency) #577 Money = Debt = War - (The Rothschild Formula and The Myth of Barter) #578 Disconnecting the Dots - (9-11 Commission and the Toronto Hearings) #579 Financial Consolidation - (Wars for Profit and More on Primordial Debt) This week we continue our detailed look at money and debt. In our first hour, Edward Griffin speaks on the history of banking in USA. In our second hour, we conclude last week's reading of Primordial Debt, chapter 3 of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years. 57_
56_ #560 Cyberluddism - (Reclaiming Luddism on the Bicentennial) This week we look at the goings on in England which started 200 years ago this November, headed by the mysterious figure of Ned Ludd. Why did the Luddites break certain machines but leave others? Why did central government send more troops to crush Luddism that to fight Napoleon in France? But first, the soundtrack of two videos, Robots vs. Luddites and New Technology Whose Progress?' #561 $100,000,000 to Crack A Lone Nut? - (Amerithrax, Gladio, 7/7 and The Conspiracy against Conspiracies) Focusing on the Anthrax attacks of 2001 in the weeks after Sep 11th, we look at the deep state's policy of blaming its false flag attacks either on nebulous foreign terrorist groups, or, as a fallback, on a domestic 'lone nut'. Mark Crispin Miller speaks on the changing use of the term 'conspiracy theory', researcher Danielle Ganser on NATO's Operation Gladio, ex-UK police researcher Tony Farrell on 7/7, and researchers Meryl Nass and Graeme MacQueen on the 'Amerithrax' attacks. #562 Our Biggest Enemy is Ourselves - (Deschooling Society 1) This week we look at the need to deschool ourselves both as individuals and collectively, by relying more on our own wits and those of our personal contacts and less on the dying impersonal centralised institutions which dominated 20th century developed life. The title is a quote from an extended interview with John Taylor Gatto, which we follow by reading the first chapter of Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society. #563 Extended Childhood and The New World Religion - (Deschooling Society 2-3) This week we pick up with both recordings from last week, focussing on the establishment of what in our second hour, Ivan Illich calls the 'New World Religion', the cult of mass compulsion schooling. As Gatto explains, in the 20th Century, mass compulsion schooling served to create the most essential resource of all for US big business - a stockpile of radically incomplete, childish adults who could be counted on to mass produced and mass consume goods and services according to a schedule imposed by managers. Illich broadens the discussion beyond merely business and adds historical perspective. #564 Choosing A Life of Action - (Deschooling Society 4) The show this week reflects on why, in the face of dire predictions if we do not make big changes to how we live, so many people feel either powerless or even disinterested to try to effect such changes. We continue with last week's Gatto interview, followed by another chapter of Deschooling Society and an essay by Philip Balla. #565 The World Crisis and the Wholeness of Life - (Deschooling Society 5) This week we look at the effect on the direction of Western society of the concerted efforts made to turn as many people as possible into non-thinking automata. In our first hour, a wide ranging and entertaining lecture from a quarter century ago, E. F. Schumacher speaks on "The World Crisis and the Wholeness of Life" in the year before his death. Then the ensuing Q & A, followed by chapter 5 from Illich's Deschooling Society. We conclude with a little from John Taylor Gatto and a retired Brigadier General on one aspect of waste by the US military. #566 If Not for The Man, Then for Whom? - (Deschooling Society 6) This show anticipates a time when most people are not working for the man, but interacting through what Ivan Illich describes as 'Learning Webs'. We start with a US valedictorian, Erica Goldson's bold speech against the school machine, and the conclusion of the John Taylor Gatto interview. Then we read chapter 6 of Deschooling Society, Learning Webs, before concluding with some thoughts on how a decentralised money system might work. #567 Radical Democracy and The Rebirth of Epimethean Man - (Deschooling Society 7) We start this week's show with Professor David McNally on 21st century instances of people rebelling against their would be overlords. Then a set of activists in Spain on how a recent wave of protests against the austerity morphed into an experiment in self-government. Finally, we conclude our reading of radical philosopher Ivan Illich's 1971 book, Deschooling Society, in which he describes the re-conceptualisation needed to break from the counter-productive and dependency producing hierarchical institutions of the 20th century. #568 9/10 Anniversary Special Edition - (Unaccountable Accounts from Powerdown to Standown) This week's show is released 10 years to the day since Rumsfeld announced that the Pentagon could not account for 1/4 of all its spending. like the $2,300,000,000,000 he spoke about, many details from the next day are still unaccounted for, a decade later - including most notably the sudden (though not unexpected) implosion of WTC7. We hear the soundtrack of a new video by AE911 Truth, and testimony from a range of witnesses including Norman Mineta, William Rodriguez, Scott Forbes, a bunch of professional reporters and a couple of enthusiastic amateurs. #569 The Light Within and The Lost Art of Seeing - (Can Technology Make The Handicapped Whole?) This week we introduce a new author, Jacques Lusseyran. As a teenager, although completely blind, he organised some of the most effective French resistance to the Nazi occupation. We begin with a reading of Steve Talbott's Can Technology Make The Handicapped Whole? about techno-fixing human beings, which focuses on Lusseyran. Next, we read one of Lusseyran's essays, The Blind in Society. Finally, an interview with Laura Fogg, author of Travelling Blind -- life lessons from unexpected places, on her experience of helping the blind to navigate. 56_
55_ #550 Between The Lies about Libya - (Vijay Prasad and Ellen Brown) No conclusive answers this week, as we consider possible motivations behind the recent attacks on Libya that underlie the rather overused cover story of humanitarian intervention. As an introduction, we read Ellen Brown's article Libya: All about Oil or All About Banking?. This sets the stage for our main presentation, by Vijay Prashad, a professor of international relations, whose invaluable insights and pieces of history you are unlikely to hear on commercial media. #551 Understanding The Financial 'Crisis' - (The Specter Haunting Europe) The show this week looks at the so-called financial 'crisis' from two different perspectives. Firstly, I give an audio commentary on a presentation I created last year, Understanding the Financial 'Crisis'. Next, Michael Hudson speaks on "The Specter Haunting Europe", detailing the financial goings on in Europe, focussing on the evisceration of the Latvian economy and expanding upon his prediction of a new feudalism and a neo-liberal style fire sale of the European welfare state. #552 Defective By Design & The War on Sharing - (Copyright or Community in the Age of Networks?) This week's entire show is devoted to a recent speech by the pioneer of the free software movement, Richard Stallman. He gives a history of copyright law, and how it has become a tool of corporations to maximize profit by creating scarcity. He explains the technical and legal sides of some recent battles about DRM, and the moral and pragmatic reasons why people should refuse to use proprietary software. #553 US Interventionism, Then & Now - (Noam Chomsky & Tariq Ali) This week we hear a pair of perspectives from earlier this month on US foreign policy, both from seasoned critics of the US Imperial Strategy. Firstly, Tariq Ali reviews the historical record, from the genocidal expansionism of US colonists up this month's exploits in Libya. Secondly, Noam Chomsky speaksin Syracuse, NY on "What Drives US Foreign Policy & What We Can Do To Change It". #554 Homo Miserabilis - (From Primitive Affluence to Developed Poverty) The show this week looks at 'human needs' - a concept so deep as to go largely unquestioned by the ideologues of economics and economic development. We start with a reading from an anthropology professor which challenges ideas of 'primitive' people's poverty, before some of an essay by Illich on "Needs". In our second hour, some easier listening - a radio adaptation of a film on consumerism, Shop Til You Drop. #555 Homo Systematicus - (Machines of Loving Grace and The World of Conspiracio) The week's show features two important thinkers on the idea of the world as system. First, a radio adaptation of episode 2 of the new documentary by Adam Curtis, All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace about the social role and flimsy scientific basis of the idea of an 'ecosystem', followed by a short comment by Curtis on the film's main message. Next, Ivan Illich on the institutionalization of society and the loss of people's personal power in the 1980's when people started to see the world as a system. #556 Redefining Poverty - (Needs and The Spirit Level) This week we challenge traditional ideas about wealth and poverty. Our main piece is by two English professors, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett on their 2009 book, The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. But first, we conclude the Ivan Illich reading from episode 554. #557 The Making of Police State USA - (From The Rosenberg Case to 2010 FBI Raids) This week, a two part show on the US Police State. In our first hour, recordings from last week's meeting of the National Committee to Reopen The Rosenberg Case, including Robert Meeropol's Eulogy to his parents, by whose 1953 killing the US government intensified the red scare. In our second hour, we hear from the Chicago civil liberties community on the September 2010 FBI raids there and subsequent use of grand jury proceedings in an effort to chill dissent. #558 Into Eternity - (Understanding The Ongoing Nuclear Wars) Did you know that the nuclear fallout in Fallujah is worse than in Hiroshima or Nagasaki? Brian Haw did. We start with a few words from the recently departed one man political protest. Then Chris Busby speaks on the dangers of radiation that authorities and the media conspire to cover up, and we hear from Jeff Donn about the real risks and radiation releases in US nuclear power stations. Our title feature, in hour 2, is a radio adaptation of the sombre and philosophical film, Into Eternity, about the Finnish efforts to build the world's first long term nuclear storage facility. #559 Famine, The Fruit of Disconnection - (Jailing Gardeners, Raw Milk, Food Markets & Soil) A show on the 'developed' world's fundamental disconnection from the soil that ultimately sustains us all, with an emphasis on the insanity of modern US food laws. Julian Cribb on the global famines ahead, Ivan Illich on soil and virtue, David Gumpert on why FDA agents went undercover for a year to catch an Amish farmer accused of selling raw milk. Then Frederick Kaufman on global food market profiteering by Goldman Sachs and Patrick Holden from the UK soil association on organic food and use of direct action to escape the market model of food provision. 55_
54_ #540 Outing School (3) - (Teaching for Money v. Learning for Love) This week we conclude our series on forced schooling, with a range of voices on its inter-relation with commercial organisations, including a radio adaptation of the Canadian film, "Corporations in The Classroom", an interview with Maia Szalivitz on the 'troubled teen' industry, and an interview with Dayna Martin on the emerging 'partnership' style of parenting known as radical unschooling. #541 Outing Prison (1) - (Mass Incarceration is the New Jim Crow) This week we hear author Sasha Abramsky and professors Viviane Saleh-Hanna and Michelle Alexander on the US incarceration industry, or as they call it, the "Prison Industrial Complex". How can a country which used to style itself the "land of the free" lock up far more of its own population than any other country? Why has the US prison population exploded? And what is the connection with racial segregation and Jim Crow? #542 Sanders Speaks Out - (Exposing The Fed's Financial Endgames) The show this week is devoted to a single speaker, Bernie Sanders, independent US Senator for Vermont, whose 8½ hour speech he last December protested the "Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010". We hear extracts of his speech, on the multi-trillion dollars bailouts which he forced the Fed to disclose, the increasing size of already 'too-big-to-fail' banks, increasing inequality in US society and global trade. #543 The Corruption of Money - (The Perverse Power of The Price Tag) This week we look at the psychologically corrupting aspects of money. Our main presentation is a radio adaptation of Robin Upton's presentation "The Corruption of Money", which is accompanied by Beyond Money, a speech by John Taylor Gatto. We also hear words from George Lakoff and Vivien Stern on commodification of justice and morality. #544 Living Arrangements Beyond Nation States - (US Cities, Past, Present & Future) The show this week looks at the past present and future of the US city, against a backdrop of peak oil. We begin with an interview with James Howard Kunstler on the development of urban design in the 20th century. Then Jeff Tomlin speaks on Alive Transportation, Fitness, Safety, Community and Trust. We conclude with Jeff Vail on transitioning away from hierarchies such as nation states towards "scale free self-sufficiency". #545 Linguistic and Cultural Hierarchy - (Reel Bad Arabs and Translation in Wartime) Language is a technology that reflects our thinking on a deep level, yet most of us use it without a thought. Similarly, many people watch commercially produced without a noting how they support an ideological agenda. First this week we adapt Jack Shaheen's film, Reel Bad Arabs on Hollywood's Anti-Arab bias. Next, a few words from John Taylor Gatto on how Henry Ford introduced the metaphor of USA as a 'melting pot' to introduce a complex lecture by Vicente Rafael entitled Translation in Wartime on the connection between translation and imperialism. #546 How The Environmental Movement Died of Success - (And What To Do About It) The show this week looks at the soft underbelly of the corporate system - the growing awareness that it is destroying the planet. First we hear from the ALF/ELF spokesman, Steve Best, who advocates any and all kinds of direct action to defend the earth and prevent its plunder. Then it's a talk from John Stauber on how the environmental movement died as a result of cooptation by big corporations. #547 Outing Prison (2) - (FASD and What is Prison For Anyway?) This week we continue our investigation into the incarceration industry. Firstly, a look at FASD, a congenital brain deficiency caused by mothers who drink excessive alcohol while pregnant. Second, a speech by prison reformer Vivien Stern on how the terrifying reality of the prison system in UK. We conclude with a rebroadcast of a section from Charles Eisenstein on 'life under contract' about the deeper reasons behind the push to incarcerate ever more of the population. #548 What You Don't Know Can Kill You - (Dirty Secrets of The Nuclear Safety Sideshow) An unusually topical show for you this week. We start by adapting an Adam Curtis film on the development of the nuclear industry. Next the scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, Christopher Busby, explains that the nuclear industry relies on a massive underestimation of the health effects of radiation. We conclude with a compilation of recordings on shutting down nuclear power plants from TUC Radio. #549 Human Casualties of The Chemical Civil War - (Homo Toxicus, Poison Fire and Pre-natal Exposure to Toxics) This week's show looks at the health impacts of chemical pollution. At home, profit maximisation is steadily toxifying the environment of North America as corporations hide behind deceitful and outdated legal guidelines. In Nigeria, we see how $hell are blatantly dumping whatever is expedient, using a mixture of lawyers and violence to try to stifle objections. We conclude with a 2005 recording about the damage of pre-natal exposure to environmental toxins. 54_
53_ #530 Exploiting Human Resources - (20th Century Management as an Extractive Industry) This week we hear a radio adaptation of Scott Noble's 2 hour video documentary, Human Resources, supplemented by some remarks of John Taylor Gatto on the history of forced schooling. Human Resources charts the rise of social control by large organisations in the 20th century, focusing on the use of behaviourism and eugenics. It tells how the moneyed elite sidelined ethical concerns as they funded increasingly destructive experiments into the manipulation of individuals and populations. Focusing on USA, we see how initial research results such as the Hawthorn Effect and the frustration-aggression hypothesis paved the way for more destructive research such as MK-ULTRA carried out on citizens by the military and the CIA in the name of 'national security'. #531 Unite and Conquer (2) - (One Global Family) This week we continue our series on the age of reunion. We start with Elisabet Sahtouris speaking on evolutionary leaps which spring from cooperation, the unification of formerly disparate organisms to create new life forms of massively greater complexity. Next Brian Willson recalls his unexpected empathic connection with a faceless victim of US napalm in Vietnam. In our second hour, we hear Jonathan Balcombe, author of Second Nature : The Inner Lives of Animals on the rich inner lives of animals, and why scientists are showing interest in them after ignoring them for so long. We conclude with a moving speech by Anita Burke on the role of unconditional love in changing corporate culture. #532 Hearing the Inner Calling - (Green Gone Wrong and Independent Diplomat) We start a new decade of Unwelcome Guests with a show appropriate to New Year's Resolutions. In our first hour we hear Heather Rogers on her new book, Green Gone Wrong, about why buying 'green' products will never solve the world's ecological crises. Our second hour presents a healthier alternative for resolution material - two individuals who have heard an inner calling and decided to take up an issue, to act upon their convictions in spite of the change to their routine; Charles Eisenstein tells how he came to write Ascent of Humanity, and Carne Ross tells why he quit the UK Diplomatic Service and how he came to start a non-profit diplomatic service for marginalised people groups. #533 The False Flag Formula - (9-99, 7-7, Iraq and Other Fake Bomb Plots) This week we hear a range of voices on False Flag terror attacks by national 'security forces'. After an introduction by James Corbett, an insider's account from 2007 by Annie Machon of why she and David Shayler quit MI5. Next we look at the '9-99' apartment bombings in September 1999 by the Russian FSB, whose director, Putin, was swept to power, and which served as a pretext to attack Chechnya. After reports from Iraq of false flag terror attacks by the occupying forces, sections on the 2009 'underwear bomber' and the '7-7' London bombings of July 7th, 2005. #534 The Lightbulb Conspiracy - (Planned Obsolescence, Bottled Water & other Toxic Junk) Did you know that in Livermore, California a bulb has been lit constantly since 1901 and is still going strong? This week's headline piece is a radio adaptation of The Lightbulb Conspiracy, a film about how the first international cartel not only increased prices but to decreased the lifetime of lightbulbs. We also hear Juliet Schor on overproduction and radio adaptations of Annie Leonard's The Story of Bottled Water, The Story of Cosmetics and The Story of Stuff, plus Heather Rogers' The Hidden Life of Garbage. #535 Peter Dale Scott on The US War Machine - (Deep Politics, COG & the CIA Global Drug Connection) This week we have two contributions by Peter Dale Scott, a long established researcher into what he calls 'deep politics'. We begin with a 30 minute talk on Continuity of Government from the 2010 Santa Cruz Understanding Deep Politics conference, and conclude with a 90 minute interview from 2010-10-16 on the contents of his new book, The American War Machine - Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection, and The Road to Afghanistan, interspersed by 8 minutes of Dwight Eisenhower's valedictory address from half a century ago in which he warns of the military industrial complex. #536 Beyond Hierarchy - (Anarchist Audiocollage) This week we mark a year since Lyn's last new episode by deviating from our usual format. Instead of a few separate speeches, an audio collage of speakers, some with backing music. The most prominent voice is Noam Chomsky's, but he is supported by a couple of dozen others from earlier episodes and other sources. The overarching theme is the need to question the existing reality, especially to shake off the hierarchical institutions and prejudices of the past, and embrace a new spirit of autonomy that respects the individual. #537 From Divided Brains to Divided Societies - (The Neurological and Cultural Roots of Separation) This week we hear two scholars on the profound roots of separation, firstly within the structure of the brain itself, secondly between individuals in modern society. Ian McGilchrist sets the scene in our first hour with The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. In our second hour we replay one of the deepest talks from earlier Unwelcome Guests episodes - The Roots and Ramifications of our Culture of Hierarchy and Control by Marvin Bram. #538 Outing School (1) - (Unmasking the Philanthropy of US Tax-Exempt Foundations) The show this week features two friends from different generations who dish the dirt on the US forced schooling system and the tax-exempt foundations which engineered it. Our main interview is Norman Dodd, chief investigator of the 1953 'Reece Committee' on Tax Exempt Foundations, set in context by a reading from John Taylor Gatto's Underground History of American Education. Next it is Charlotte Iserbyt, ex-senior policy advisor in US Department of Education, followed by the first half of a 2004 Radio Free School interview with John Taylor Gatto. #539 Outing School (2) - (Scientific Management as Religion) This week we continue to examine the details of schooling as a social control mechanism. First, a section from John Taylor Gatto's Underground History of American Education, followed by the conclusion of his Radio Free School interview and an excerpt from a speech on the scientific management of children. In hour 2, Peg Luksik of the Pennyslvania Parents' Commission asks "Who Controls The Children?", focusing on increasingly sophisticated efforts by the schooling system to establish, log and 'correct' US students' attitudes. 53_
52_ #520 Education and Its Discontents - (How Degree-Driven Schooling has Undermined Learning) We examine whether US schools and colleges exist to serve the greater good of society or to serve the greater wealth of CEOs by creating a pliable underclass who can be moulded according to the whims of capital. We recall Lyn Gerry's original mission for the show, and contrast that with the US education system. We start with two episodes of Third Paradigm about college financing, and read from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. In our second hour, we compare Jonathan Kozol's analysis of US schools with the similar, but more radical critique by John Taylor Gatto. #521 Walling Us In and The Illusion of Separation - (No One is Illegal, No Borders) This week, we continue our series on separation, we look at wall building by governments to keep people separate. Is this, as we are told, to keep ordinary citizens safe from terrorism or drug smugglers? In light of the mound of evidence about false flag terror and CIA-sponsored drug smuggling, it seems rational to look for another explanation. In our second hour, Wendy Brown asks whether it could it be to keep us separate and, symbolically, divided, to symbolically perpetuate the illusion of state power? Our first hour starts with a short clip from George Draffan speaking on the introduction of passports and state use of technology to control people. It finishes with a condensed speech by Jaggi Singh on migration and the growing No One Is Illegal resistance movement. #522 Spiritual and Social Separation - (The Left Hand of God and Nature Deficit Disorder) This week a range of voices continue our series on separation. We start with Michael Lerner speaking on his 2006 book, "The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right", about the spiritual disconnection of modern US society, and how this has been both exacerbated and the exploited by an alliance of corporate interests and the 'religious right'. Next a short section of an interview with Bill McKibben. In our second hour, after revisiting the words of Charles Eisenstein, we hear from Richard Louv, about what he terms 'Nature Deficit Disorder'. #523 Ivan Illich and The Collapse of Power - (Nowtopia and Why Money is not Power) This week we take a look at that engimatic modern prophet, Ivan Illich. His writings covered a wide range of areas, from health to technology to economics to church history and way beyond. Robert Hutchinson will give a quick biographical sketch and introduce some of his radical strands of thought, before we focus on a single major prophesy, the sudden collapse of social power, its revelation as a fiction. We link this to the confidence based backing of centralised currency and hear from Marshall Rosenberg, George Draffan and others on related fictions which people internalise as a response to hierarchy. #524 Dispatches from The Chemical Civil War - (DDT, Bhopal and The US Cancer Industry) This week we continue looking at the toxic nature of the human separation from nature; we bring you 3 different pieces about the human engineering of toxic chemicals. First, an adaptation of Adam Curtis' BBC documentary Goodbye Mrs. Ant, on the rise and fall of the pesticide industry as purveyors of miracle cures, and how discovery of the pernicious effects of DDT lead to the growth of ecology and the environmentalist movement. Secondly, a 2009 interview with about the world's most fatal industrial chemical leak, the 1984 disaster in which a pesticide factory exploded in Bhopal. Finally, an interview with Emmanuelle Schick Garcia about her film, The Idiot Cycle, on how multinational chemical companies are both the world's biggest produce carcinogens and are intimately connected with the cancer treatment industry. #525 Cannabis - (Medical Marijuana, Forgetting and the Botany of Desire) Last week's episode looked at how man made toxic chemicals have proved more destructive for humans than initially anticipated. This week, by contrast, we look at the effects of chemicals that occur naturally in plants, and may be more therapeutic than generally recognised. In our first hour, Claudia Little, a medical marijuana activist looks at some of the innumerable therapeutic uses of this plant, with a history of medical use going back several thousands of years. Our second hour features Michael Pollan speaking on the contents of his book Cannabis, Forgetting, and the Botany of Desire, which widens our focus to look at how plants have co-evolved to fulfil useful functions to other life forms. #526 Understanding Economic 'Development' - (Black Power and Confessions of an Economic Hitman) This week we hear three complementary views on the topic of 'economic development'. First, a short article by Helena Norberg-Hodge on the global culture of consumerism. Next, a radio adaptation of the Adam Curtis' 1992 documentary, Black Power. Focusing on Kwame Nkrumah's Volta Dam Project, this tells how the rich West African colony of the Gold Coast because the highly indebted country of Ghana. Finally, former 'economic hit man', John Perkins, tells how he helped corrupt foreign elites to ensnare their countries in debt. #527 The Emerging Field of Epigenetics - (Beyond Genetic Determinism) The show raises more questions than answers. We looks at the emerging science of epigenetics, which studies information which children inherit other than through DNA. This cutting edge science has the potential to tell a new story about evolution, one that is less to do with humans as discrete and separate survival machines controlled by genetic programs, more about our relationships with each other and the world around us. We broadcast a panel discussion from Vancouver 2010 entitled "A Dialogue in Epigenetics - How Does The Environment get under our skin?", accompanied by a related reading from Charles Eisenstein's Ascent of Humanity. #528 The Bilderberg Group - (Conspiracies and The Fiction of Government Power) This week we took a look at the Bilderberg Group, a secret meeting of about 120 hierarchs from Europe and US. Senior members of national governments, multi-national companies, royal families, media corporations and financial institutions have met up annually since its inception in 1954. Little is known of the contents of their meetings, due to strictly enforced privacy - which may finally be weakening, as more leaks are emerging. We hear a range of voices this week, including Tony Gosling and Michael Parenti as well as Daniel Estulin's speech on the Bilderberg group given this year to the European parliament. #529 Unite and Conquer (1) - (The Realization of Unity) This week look at two traditionally no-go areas for reductionist science - morality and spirit. Our opening talk, by Paul Bloom, looks at research into the human moral sense, and presents findings which suggests that children even only a few months old are possessed of some kind of moral sense. We follow this up with a heartfelt talk from peace activist Brian Willson, who describes the need for US culture to break out of its self-imposed box and relate healthily with the world at large. Our major talk, by evolutionary biologist and gift economy activist, Elisabet Sahtouris, is a wide ranging one. She directly challenges reductionist models of evolution, preferring a holistic view, concluding that humanity is undergoing a change akin to the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. 52_
51_ #510 The Race Towards Global Consciousness - (Hitting Rock Bottom & Realizing The Reunion) This week's show includes three speakers' exciting vision of a single, global, interconnected human family. We start with Jeremy Rifkin's uplifting conclusion of last week's Empathic Civilization talk, before an interview with Charles Eisenstein and concluding with a similarly uplifting call to change the human narrative by David Korten. #511 The Deadly Game of Nation States - (The Honor Code of The Professional Killer) Starting from the recent UK Deputy Prime Minister's statement that the Iraq War is illegal, this week's show looks at the business of war both for the state and its paid protagonists, adapting a pair of anti-war films by Gwynne Dyer. #512 Rethinking Climate Wars & Geoengineering - (Murray Bookchin and Gwynne Dyer) This week we take two contrasting views of the issue of climate change. Firstly, a speech by Gwynne Dyer from 2009 entitled "Climate wars". Secondly, a classic from the 1970's by visionary US Ecologist Murray Bookchin, on the need to rethink the human relationship to nature, and the numerical bias in Western science. #513 Producing Killers and Selling Wars - (Why Any Mother's Son will Do) This week's show looks at the manipulation necessary to create wars from 3 different angles, the brainwashing of recruits, the political manipulation of public opinion, and tailoring of Hollywood's depiction of war. #514 Virtual Reality & the Fragmentation of Modern Consciousness - (Is The Internet Making Us Stupid?) Computer technology promises to be make work ever more efficient. But efficient at what? And why? If technology is saving people time, why do they seem to have so little left for what matters? The first hour features a presentation from last month by Nicholas Carr, author of "Is The Internet Making Us Stupid?", introduced by an essay from Steve Talbott, "Multitasking Ourselves to Death". We conclude with a few minutes of history from the great techno-sceptic, Ivan Illich, followed by a speech from Heather Menzies, author of "No Time, Stress, and the Crisis of Modern Life". #515 War on Iran, Again? - (And is Wikileaks a "modified limited hangout"?) As the corporate media starts to spew forth anti-Iran propaganda, the alternative media are full of reports about the coming attack on Iran. This week in our first hour Webster Tarpley discusses why he expects war with Iran, and why he thinks Wikileaks is not what it appears to be. In our second hour, Stephen Kinzer gives a history of the first coup d'état ever organised by the CIA. "Operation Ajax", motivated by the desire to regain control of the nation's huge oil revenues, ousted Iran's elected prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, plunging the country into 25 years of US-backed bloody dictatorship. #516 The Politics and Economics of Food - (How Markets Promote Famine and Subsidize Sickness) This week's show looks at food, focussing specifically on the US food system. In our first hour, we hear from Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food. He speaks of the economic pressures that promote energy intensive agribusiness and the growing backlash and grassroots opposition. He casts doubt on the modern, reductionist approach to understanding food, remarking that "in matters of food, so far, culture, historically has been a more reliable guide to what to eat than science." In our second hour, we hear from Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved, on The Hidden Battle for the World Food System. #517 JFK and The Unspeakable - (Khrushchev, Cuba, World Peace and Martyrdom of JFK/MLK) This week's show is dedicated to James Douglass. His talk centers on the assassination of JFK, and it retells the Kennedy presidency with some of the backstage manipulations from down memory hole. He sets the scene by recounting Thomas Merton's prediction that, if Kennedy could turn towards the good, he would be assassinated by "the unspeakable". We look at Kennedy's close collaboration with his supposed adversary, Khrushchev to avert war, and explore a parallel with WW1. We listen to a section of Kennedy's most important speech, in which he finally stepped over the line by unilaterally announcing a US nuclear test ban treaty, and chronicle how he worked for world peace, until he we assassinated by the US security state. We conclude by looking at the implications for the 21st century, exploring a parallel with Martin Luther King and hear an afterword by Bill Hicks. #518 The Mendacity of Hype - (Psywar and The Truth Emergency) This week, we look at what Peter Phillips of Project Censored terms a "truth emergency", the routine way in which deceitful messages are fabricated and distributed en masse by the corporate media. We start with his presentation to the May 2010 Understanding Deep Politics conference in Santa Cruz. We conclude with an audio adaptation of Scott Noble's effort to combat this tide of misinformation, the video Psywar, about the history of propaganda and psychological war. Focusing on psyops as tools of the class war, Noam Chomsky, Michael Parenti, Howard Zinn and other speakers tell the story of the origins of truth misrepresentation as an industry, and we look at its role in the US military and political establishments. #519 The War on Sex - (Beneath 'Child Protection' to The Deeper Roots of Hierarchy and Separation) This week we begin a series on separation by looking at the furore surrounding sexual abuse of children. We start with, "Kids, Sex and The State" by Judith Levine, detailing officially sanctioned child abuse by the US government. Don't think paedophile priests when you read that, think "war on drugs". We read of a UK council which has banned parents from attending their own children in its parks, a reminder that crime prevention does not equate to concern for children's welfare. In our second hour, Jackson Katz discusses the primary sexual socialization of young US men - increasingly violent and misogynistic pornography. We contrast this with more the more traditional puberty rites of the Ashanti people of Ghana. We conclude with a presentation by Robert Jensen into what the rise of the US pornography industry reveals about the predatory nature of capitalism. 51_
50_ #500 Some Insidious Menace - (Defying Corporate Rule) Last week's ruling by the US Supreme Court that campaign finance laws abridge the first amendment rights of corporations serves to demonstrate why the issue of citizen organizing to bring down corporate rule is a prerequisite to effectively dealing with almost every societal problem because it goes to the core issue of the power to decide how we want to live. #501 Reprise for Howard - (Rebroadcast of Howard Zinn speech from Nov. 2008) This was the last speech I recorded, when Howard Zinn spoke in Binghamton, NY on The Power to Change, a few days after Obama's election. I have heard many of his speeches and this was one of the best. I have dreaded his passing and now it is here. What a loss to the world! On top of it all, my sound card failed and the new one won't arrive til next week, so this is a rebroadcast of an old show which is why it does not mention his passing. It ends with a reading from Susan Rosenthal's book power and powerlessness #502 Is Employment Compatible with a Free Society? - (Rebroadcast) Hi All, My computer repairs are not yet finished but I though this show covered a question that never goes out of style and many recent listeners will have never heard it. The unemployment numbers are a regular feature of reporting and debate these days, which centers around "how to create jobs" but does not address the question of whether we really want a society that requires most to have "jobs" created by other people as opposed to work they do as they deem necessary and desirable. What is the result? One can go to a store and see a whole aisle of vile smelling laundry detergents that are all the same except for the packaging, but no one can "afford" to clean up polluted lands and waterways. #503 Utopia By Necessity - (Rebroadcast) I hope to have my technical issues sorted our by next week. Meanwhile, this is as relevant as when it was first aired 5 years ago, as it deals with restructuring society and economy in a sustainable and many believe, more livable, way #504 Just Cause, Just Laws & Just Wars - (On The Desperate Edge of Now) The first hour is a radio adaptation of "On The Desperate Edge Of Now", the first part of an Adam Curtis series entitled "The Living Dead". It explains how WW2 was recreated by the Nuremburg War Crimes trials as a just war, with clear heroes and villains. Interviews with veterans reveal the psychological cost of taking part in war, and the difficulty of coming to terms with it in a society which left unexamined the difficult questions of why and how the war was fought. The second hour features two speeches from www.bbc5.tv. Firstly a speech given to the Make Wars History conference by retired surgeon turned peace activist, David Halpin, on the reality of war, in which he shares his experiences of Gaza and his exasperation at the stupefaction of most of the British public. It concludes with a presentation by Chris Coverdale in the UK House of Commons to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Preventing war on the legal status of the invasions of Iraq and Afganistan under existing anti-war laws. #505 The Matrix Deconstructed - (Why Strict Fathers teach "Economic Literacy") This week's show attempts to deconstruct the matrix of illusion that surrounds money and economics that is used to disorientate citizens and keep them working hard for their corporate masters. The first part is a speech by cognitive linguist, George Lakoff, entitled "Moral Politics". He explains the nature of metaphor and presents two contrasting approaches to parenthood, the "Strict Father" and the "Nurturing parent" models, linking these to Republican v. Democratic politics in US. I present some information I've uncovered about "economic literacy", and how business leaders used it to promote some of the worldview that Lakoff refers to as the "Strict Father" model. The second hour revisits Lyn Gerry's reading of Richard K. Moore's "Escaping The Matrix" essay from episode #87, deconstructing the economic and political agenda of the 1980's in US/UK and beyond. We conclude with another lively deconstruction, by economist Michael Hudson, likening the FIRE (Finance, Insurance & Real Estate) sector to a parasite that lives on the host of the productive economy. Most obviously, it sucks money from it, less remarked upon, it numbs the brain of the body politic, through control of mass media, to present itself as essential to the health of its prey, the real economy. #506 Wage Slavery & Moral Dumbing Down - (Extrinsic Manipulation versus Internal Motivation) John Taylor Gatto has documented how business interests instituted forced schooling to 'dumb down' active citizens into consumers passive enough to work for the man and accept what they were given by corporations. This show looks at the moral component of dumbing down, the undermining of people's innate altruism and moral sense, making them easily manipulable by money. The first hour starts with a presentation by Alfie Kohn on teaching children to care. He explains how the strict father approach of praising or rewarding kids for being kind to others and punishing them for being selfish undermines children's ability to become nurturers of others, by encouraging them to think only of themselves. It ends with a humorous piece from The Onion about the hypnotic power money has over people. The second hour starts with a song "Don't Let Money Change You" and some remarks of Noam Chomsky from episode 29 on the "Spirit of the Age" (Selfish love of money) from the 1850's. Next is Daniel Pink's review of research into the relationship between motivation and performance, and a section episode 371's adaption of "The Trap" on New Labour's introduction of target culture into UK. It replays "12 Shovels", from episode 183, Lyn Gerry's parallel of capitalism to the sadistic behaviour of Nazi Concentration camp guards, before concluding with a presentation by Barry Schwartz on Moral Values. #507 Breaking Rankism & Violent Male Stereotypes - (Standing up to the Man) This week's show features Jackson Katz' exploration of how Western culture legitimates male violence and domination in institutional power structures. It concludes with an interview with Robert Fuller, who coined the word rankism to talk about abuse of power by those in hierarchies to undermine those beneath them. The first hour begins with some good news from http://indymedia.org.uk, the unanimous exoneration of a team of UK citizens who broke into a factory making weapons destined for Gaza. The jury agreed that they were preventing a greater crime, a principle which, if taken to its logical conclusion, presents a great possibility for change. We adapt Jackson Katz' "Tough Guise - Violence, Media & the Crisis in Masculinity", a video examination of the culture of male violence and mainstream media's contribution to it. It ends with some remarks by Jeremy Rifkin on his new book, "The Empathic Civilization" in which he points to another way of living that to which we will look more closely in a future episode. The second hour concludes Rifkin's remarks, and then features an interview with Robert W. Fuller, on the subject of 'Rankism', a word he coined to describe the abuse, bullying or other disrespect of underlings by those of higher rank. Some listeners may question his naive faith in 'democracy' and 'the market', but still be impressed by his central point that hierarchy as it currently exists equates to a huge dignity deficit. I hope you will be as encouraged as I am that people from all walks of life and political viewpoints are concluding that a big change is coming. #508 Truth & Lies of The Financial "Crisis" - (Peak Oil and Peak Ponzi) The show this week looks at the financial crisis from two angles. Most of it is given over to a talk by Nicole Foss about the implications for expansionary debt-based money of hitting the planet's ecological limits. We conclude with a reading of Michael Hudson's 2009 article, "The Language of Looting", which explains how the term "free market" is now used to mean the opposite of its historical meaning. #509 Gift Economy - (Reconceiving The Market) The show this week looks at the gift economy. We look at a range of reasons to challenge the cynical, capitalist view of the human as 'red in tooth and claw', listening to evidence from speakers including Alfie Kohn, Genevieve Vaughan & Jeremy Rifkin. 50_
49_ #490 The Truth About Gas Drilling - (Witnesses from Susquehanna County, PA Speak) I have said that I am not exaggerating when I say that that hydrofracking shale to extract gas has destroyed the land, air and water wherever it has been done. There are no exceptions It also destroys the character, peace and beauty of the place, as well as in many cases the fabric of community, fracturing long time friendships. Fundamentally it lays waste to a variety of freedoms, as you will hear demonstrated by example on the program this week. Our featured presentation is the stories of three people from Susquehanna County Pennsylvania whose beautiful countryside is being reduced to poison and poison and profit by gas drillers. Each of the people's stories brings out a different aspect. They were interviewed by a several people from the shale shock, coalition a citizens' anti-fracking group based in the Ithaca area, who made the trip to Pennsylvania at the end of October.. The witnesses spoke under condition of anonymity, so they will be introduced by first name only. Why they wished this will become obvious as you hear their stories. #491 How We Live Our Lives - (Excerpts from a dialog with Derrick Jensen, Red Moon Song and UConn Students) The question of how we want to live our lives, both individually and collectively lies at the heart of all the problems we face, and how we solve them, .whether we are talking about preventing the destruction of rural New York by hydrocarbon corporations, of the collapse of the planets biosphere because of people that will not let go of a destructive social system,. In the parlance of Charles Eisenstein, whether we survive and move to an age of reunion, or extinguish ourselves and most everything else clinging to the deck chairs of the age of separation. The question of how we live our life was the topic of a wide ranging discussion between author Derrick Jensen, activist red moon Song and students at the university of Connecticut last month. The discussion lasted for three hours, so I've had to cut a lot out. Full version is at http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/37233 #492 Reality Check - (What will it take to save the biosphere) We continue last weeks thread about getting serious about a total transformation of humans relationship to living on earth with two different flavors of hard core conversation - more Derrick Jensen and Canadian ecologist Bill Rees #493 Deschooling Yourself - (A seminar with Charles Eisenstein) a seminar conducted by Charles Eisenstein, author of the Ascent of Humanity, on deschooling. It deals identifying the ways of thinking and behaving, in other words the social conditioning, inculcated by the schooling process so that we can engage in our mental liberation #494 The Hoax Hoax - ("Take Your Climate Change Denial and Shove it!") the politics, economics, propaganda and reality of climate change and its deniers in the age of stupid #495 Horror Show - (Tales of the Real and the Fictional, all with Consequences) This week on the program for your edification during the holiday season, a collection of tales of horror, some real some fictional. The real tales in are testimonies of people in New York, Pennsylvania and Colorado whose homes and lives have been destroyed so that energy corporations can make profits for their shareholders extracting gas to fuel the orgy of consumption and waste that is proudly called by some our way of life, but that is leading inexorably towards our way of death. Out fictional horror stories are readings of works by Charles Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe and HP Lovecraft #496 Defying Corporations - (The Laws of Feudalism by any other name) Corporate anthropologist Jane Ann Morris on corporate personhood and readings from "Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy" #497 Where did the Money Go? - (Money, Power and Corporate Rule) This week I'm going to begin by reading a more essays from the book Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy. Then a talk by Susan George :Where did the money go?" Are disparities of wealth the cause of political inequality, or the result? #498 Strategies of Control - (Surveillance and Ideology in the Corporate State) This week on the program we'll continue on the topic of understanding corporate rule for the purpose of discovering the foundation of its power and undermining it, using the book Defying corporations, Defining democracy as our reference point. In addition to another reading from the book, I'm going to play you some other material that illuminates the issue in various ways. We'll begin with a panel discussion state surveillance that was held at the Oct 2009 convention of the national lawyers guild in Seattle. The discussion did not mention corporations as such, yet the framework of corporate rule underlies the surveillance of citizens by the state. In advance of every significant official gathering of the powerful whether political conventions, economic summits or trade negotiations an increasing amount of law enforcement personnel and materiel are directed toward thwarting protest and other oppositional activity. This is justified under the rubric of public safety When did you ever see such law enforcement power brought to bear against the violence, and harm perpetrated by the corporate class every single day? #499 The Real Problem, Real Solutions - (Equality, Culture, Food and the Nature of the Economy) Just the facts 49_
48_ #480 The Power of Stories - (9/11, Genocide and Ascent of Humanity #20) This week in our continuing reading from the ascent of humanity by Charles Eisenstein, he will address the power that the stories we tell have over us. He is speaking quite literally and this sounds strange because we are all raised on sayings like sticks and stones .... Language however is the seminal huamn technology that had made all the rest of what we call civilization possibile. The reading will set the stage for some other material that graphically demonstrates the way that stories sre battlefields in the struggle for power. Nothing demonstrates this so clearly as the question of the story of the events of September 11, 2001. As is obvious when we think about it, the story of the purpose of the attacks of that day and who perptrated them has had life changing consequences on the whole world. #481 Authentic Communications and Human Rights - (Ascent of Humanity #21) Charles Eisenstein on language that doesn't lie and Mbanna Kantako on how the concept of human rights transformed his life and broadcasting #482 Delivery from Bondage and the Voices of Reunion - (Ascent of Humanity #22) This week we begin the final chapter, and penultimate reading from Charles Eisenstein's 2006 book - the ascent. of humanity...Accompanying the reading will be several other voices that resonate with ideas brought out in the reading. The stages of birth a key metaphor that Eisenstein will employ in discussing the change of thinking and thence society from the ideology of domination and control to the age of reunion, and of those in society attempting to forestall the process of birth by crawling back into the womb #483 Lies, Remorse and Reunion - (Confronting the History of Separation, Ascent of Humanity #23) Last week. I said we'd finish the series of readings from Charles Eisenstein's book the Ascent of Humanity. Well, it turns out not quite right, because I couldn't make everything fit into the exact one hour and fifty nine minutes this show is required to occupy, no more or less. In the age of reunion, radio shows will get to be whatever length they need to be. and not have to conform to a predetermined clock. Everything we do is subject, even in subtle ways to the machine ideology of mass production and nothing more so than the system of schooling, which which figures prominently in Eisenstein's book, and will be the topic of two interviews in the first hour #485 The Crazy Cousins and all their relations - (Ascent of Humanity #24) conclusion of ascent of humanity #486 Sado-Politics - (The Atavistic Male Gangs Culture of Corporate and Political Leaders) A friend of mine recently told me she saw something on TV that shocked her. It was some sort of event of republican party faithful during which the announcement was made that Chicago has lost its bid to host the Olympics. The people at this event were celebrating this announcement because they saw it as a defeat for Barack Obama who had been speaking on behalf of the city of Chicago as an Olympic venue. Why this shocked me is not because it was petty. I am no saint and have done my share of petty things. What surprised me so much about my friend's story was that the people at this event, who knew they were being broadcast were not ashamed to display their pettiness to world. People used to be embarrassed about things and it seemed to me telling that they weren't. This inspired me to present the material in this weeks show. #487 Water and Gas Don't Mix - (The corporate Theft and Destruction of Water) This week on the program we're going look at the battle to defend the human right and human necessity of access to fresh clean water from corporate privatizers. Whoseover controls your access to water controls you, because you will die without it. So of course this is an important subject for everyone, but it is a critical issue to those of here in New York State fighting an invasion of gas drillers. In order to access the gas contained in shale thousands of feet below, the drillers must use a process patented by Halliburton called fracking that requires the injection billions of gallons of a toxic brew of water, sand and chemicals into the earth to force gas from the shale formations. Blue Gold is a documentary on the subject of water privatization that was released last year based on a book of the same title by Tony Clarke and Maude Barlow. I have adapted it for radio. . For those facing the gas drilling threat, the information in this film adds a whole new dimension. If they pollute the water as well as extract gas, there is a great additional profit opportunity. Selling us the water we once had for free as part of the commons they destroyed #488 Media Culture and Permaculture - (Developing Technologies of Reunion) 3 davids on saving the world #489 With Spade and Hoe and Plough, Stand Up Now! - (Marcellus shale fracking no! Permaculture, yes!) first hour, audio from the video: Chemicals in Natural Gas Operations What you need to know about natural gas production, about the destruction of Colorado by fracking for natural gas from shale, and then reading from Permaculture: princples and Pathways Beyond Sustainability 48_
47_ #470 Deep Revolution - (Ascent of Humanity #10) More and money, property, and the ideology of innate human depravity, and how this determines the sense of self and the concept of morality, and why previous revolutionary thinkers have not gone far enough #471 Breaking the Human - (Ascent of Humanity #11) continuing in Chapter 5 on the mechanisms of social control used to break the spirit to the paltry offerings of the culture of control #472 Life Under Contract - (Ascent of Humanity #12) How the technological program of domination and control plays our in law, medicine, psychiatry and the question of suffering #473 Crushing Certainties - (Ascent of Humanity #13) philosopher, mathematician, linguist and healer Charles Eisenstein has up to this point examined the fundamental ideology underlying both our science and religion, the project of domination and control, why this has led to the myriad problems we face and the general dissatisfaction most people feel with life.This week , we being a new phase of the book that makes clear why our attempts to fix our problems only result in greater ones - the very premises under which we operate, the story that we tell to explain reality, whether scientifically or spiritually is false. #474 Cooperation and the Way of the World - (Ascent of Humanity #14) The latest thinking in the field of biology relegates competition to a minor theme within a cooperative system, in which order emerges organically from complexity #475 Capitalism, Culture and the Technologies of reunion - (Doscher and Ascent of Humanity #15) This week we'll begin chapter seven in Charles Eisenstein's Ascent of Humanity, where in he address the question of despair and optimism, and demurrage currency, a system of money that encourages cooperation and disaccumulation. But first, a remarkable talk from Greenfest 2009: John Doscher on Capitalism as Culture #476 Out of Time and Out of Money - (Doscher and Ascent of Humanity #16) Runaway biosphere destruction, and a money systems that promote cooperation instead of greed #477 Fraud and Restoration - (Views of The Economic 'Crises' and Ascent of Humanity #17) Economic criminals from inside and outside the box #478 From Slaves to Artists - (Ascent of Humanity #18) Continuing in chapter 7 of Ascent of Humanity with a guest commentary by Alex Smith of Radio Ecoshock #479 The Intelligent and Responsible Life - (Disengaging From the Machine - Ascent of Humanity #18) We continue in our reading from Ascent of Humanity and pair that with a 1999 talk by Dakota poet and activist John Trudell that deal with the imposition and disengagement from machine culture as a process of brutalization and stupefaction, and its opposite intelligence and responsibility. This is what real personal responsibility looks like (as opposed to the slave version of that ) 47_
46_ #460 The Age of Reunion - (Beyond Exploitation to an Economy of Solidarity) Last week on the program we heard a documentary that covered a twenty year period during which the remote Himalayan region of Ladakh was subjected to capitalist development in the name of progress that destroyed an ancient culture based on solidarity, and the fragile ecosystem which had previously met the needs of the people. Where there had been a sense of abundance and happiness, there was now typical third world squalor and dispair.On the program this week, we cover the global economic crises as the death throes of the unsustainable rule of money, and how to re build a culture in itsd ashes, based in mutual aid and respect for each other and the land. You can have TARP, or BARF or FART, but business as usual is so, so over, I'll begin by reading you an article by Charles Eisenstein, author of the Ascent of Humanity . He puts the current economic crises at the cusp of a needed and longed for change in the basis of human society, what he calls the age of reunion, the return of the gift economy. We;ll conclude the program with another presentation from the 4 annual oekonux conference, Free Software and Beyond The World of Peer Production held in Manchester, England last month that brought together an international group of people from the free software movement that are exploring the application of peer to peer networks and free collaboration beyond software to society as a whole.. #461 Technology and Control - The Paradise that Never Came - (Ascent of Humanity #1) This week on the show we'll continue to explore visions of human society more congenial to our highest aspirations as well as our most basic needs. In the first hour of the program we'll return to another recording from the 4th Oekonux Conference, on the topic of ending artificial scarcity by applying the philosophy of free software to economic and legal systems. Then a reading from the Ascent of Humanity by Charles Eisenstein dealing with the religion of technology and control, the unifying principle beneath humanities diverse crises. #462 The Master's Tools - (Ascent of Humanity #2) our core myth in western civilization is that the aim of human progress is to dominate nature, whether justified in religious texts or in the secular religion of science and technology. That we would have the outcomes we have is not surprising when one examines the value systems that guide the choices society makes #463 Addiction to Control - (Ascent of Humanity #3) crises are swirling around us, events are unfolding and policies and programs are being hotly debated. The topics such as whether people shall have universal care, or torturers be brought to account, or institutions of an economic system rescued and and what , or wars be continued or ended, and what to do about the destruction of natural world, all these are of the utmost importance. Yet I am frustrated with the nature of the debate, because it is not addressing the way these things are connected, and they are. There is even now in our society more broadly a parallel contest between science and religion, and these are seen as opposites fighting for supremacy, modernity versus morality as characterized by the Abrahamic world view. But Charles Eisentein the author of the the ascent humanity has illuminated the illusory nature of even that difference. Underlying all these things is a world view and program of domination and control, of viewing the human being as separate and and antagonistic to mature in a struggle for survival, cast out of the garden of eden. Eisenstein had begun his book by defining that world view of domination and control that is the central project of what we call civilization. And if we are to devise solutions that truly solve anything, I believe we must go that deep. And therefore, I am going to devote the entire program this week to just reading from his tour de force, the ascent of humanity. And Eisenstein believes we are the cusp of a new era in the history of humanity when we have reached the limits of a very long process of what he calls separation, and that it is now to reunite with an identity long abandoned, not as a a going backwards, but as a sort of, my words, coming full circle..... #464 Naming, Numbering and the Control of Time - (Ascent of Humanity #4) This week, the mental technologies and their role in the Age of Separation #465 In the Image of the Machine - (Ascent of Humanity #5) This week I'm going to devote the entirety to the program again to the reading of Charles Eisenstein's ascent of Humanity. The mark of how lost our society is can be seen in that almost nobody has ever heard of this book, when its contents should be a topic of discussion in every bar and cafe instead of what is being talked about #466 The Ideology of Reduction - (Ascent of Humanity #6) This week I'm going to continue with the reading from Charles Eisenstein's the ascent of humanity, a wide ranging tour de force that examines the ideology that underlies the pathological behavior that has caused the human species to bring a planet that was indeed the garden of eden to the brink of destruction. #467 Reducing Everything to Nothing - (Ascent of Humanity #7) What do science and religion have in common? #468 The Anonymous Power - (Ascent of Humanity #8) Rhis week we get to money, and its fundamental antagonism to community. The role of money is to rake away what we did for ourselves, and sell it back to us, by creating a society in which everyone is dispensable #469 Money and the Age of Prostitution - (Ascent of Humanity #9) In this section, he elaborates on all the things that have been taken from us to be sold back to us for profit, and how we cannot ever solve the destruction of the planet unless the process of commodify our lives ends 46_
45_ #450 Hellhole or Paradise, Who Will Decide? - (Community Rights and the Health Effects of Gas Drilling) On February 11, a community forum on gas drilling was held at the town hall in Spencer, NY sponsored by the citizens energy alliance and shaleshock.org. It featured Dr. Theo Colburn, an expert on the health effects of gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing, and Jack Ossont of Democracy New York, on actions communities can take to save the places they love from corporate predation by using rights based organizing. Dr. Colburn's narrated via cell phone while a powerpoint presentation showing what gas drilling has done to her part of Colorado was screened for the attendees at the Town Hall, . What I can't show you on radio is how hideous these installations are, they look like chemical plants on the outskirts of an industrial wasteland with tanks, pipes, pits and heavy equipment. They want put thousands of these things here - it is the worst kind of terrorism #451 Capitalism and Its Discontents (1) - (The Global Economic 'Crisis' from an Anti-Capitalist Perspective) Excerpts from a series produced for Pacifica radio recorded earlier this month #452 Capitalism and Its Discontents (2) - (The Global Economic 'Crisis' from an Anti-Capitalist Perspective) excerpts from the five part series #453 American Fascism and 9/11 - (Think They're Gone?) Lies told to initiate the invasion of 2 countries resulting in the deaths and maiming of millions of people, the use of the Department of Justice to target political opponents, the creation of enemies lists and the mass surveillance of our electronic communications under the rubric of terrorism prevention, the shoveling of billions in to no-bid war -related contracts for corporate cronies, the kidnapping, indefinite detention, and torture of people, and the attribution of monarchical powers to the presidency - these are the hallmarks of a fascist takeover of the US. None of this would have possible without the enabling act, the events of sept 11, 2001. This week we're going to hear updates on from two of the 9/11 truth movement's top researchers, author Dr, David Ray Griffin, and architect Richard Gage, founder of architects and engineers for 9/11 truth. We'll begin the show with Larry Britt, author of a 2003 article on the 14 characteristics of fascism as he addresses the topic: it can't happen here, or can it? #454 The Wealth Vacuum - (Who Benefits from Financial Crises?) The following is a encapsulation of a prevailing view of the present economic crisis: that, greedy bankers and CEOs and arrogant wall street whiz kids, in the absence of effective regulation, took rash actions that resulted in economic catastrophe that has harmed many innocent people, and that in order to prevent further economic harms, these bad actors must be bailed out, albeit resentfully, to prevent systemic collapse As bad as this picture is, the program this week will present testimony that it is far worse than that. #455 The Market is Naked (1) - (The Right to Eat and Be Visible) The program this week I mean to be part of series to confront the question what is an economy for? Who is our economic system for? Should it be saved or is it fundamentally misguided in that it discounts or destroys the things that matter, and elevates and values the shallow, the cruel and the repugnant. The discourse surrounding this question, even by those who mean well, often takes for granted certain criteria that are not defined or questioned. For example, we hear, in mainstream discussion of concepts like efficiency and productivity without the speakers adding the important question - from whose perspective is something efficient and productive? Productive of what? Banality? Ugly buildings? Mind numbing employment? A poisoned environment? Ignorance ? Poorly made junk? Desperation and fear? Disrespect and contempt? Pettiness and confusion? Lies and propaganda? why are there millions of homeless people when there are millions of empty homes?In what way is such a system efficient? why should any human being have to ask permission of another human being to go to the bathroom? #456 The Market Is Naked (2) - (A Radical Blackfoot on the Market Religion) This week on the program we continue the market is naked series with a look at the discipline of economics itself. Is it a science, as economists claim or is it a religion based on faith in an intangible entity - the market - with the power to transform the actions of innately greedy human beings into a socially beneficial activity? Our speaker this week is a professor of economics, though an unusual one. He does not assert economics is a religion - that's my encapsulation of his presentation. By a religion I mean a belief system used to explain the world ,that is based on premises that must be taken on faith, rather than evidence. The premise in question is the nature of human nature - and whether we have an economic system that responds a reality we can't change, or whether it in fact creates s a reality of greed and predation, by inculcating and rewarding it every step of the way. This is a central question whose answer determines whether we take the attitude of Charlie's co-workers, that this is just the way things are and get a prescription for prozac, or we have the courage to grab hold of the fabric of the matrix and tear it to see what is on the side. #457 Speak From Your Home and Save It! - (Natural Gas Drilling, Health Impact, Economics and The Watershed) The program this week deals with an existential crisis facing New York and Pennsylvania. The information you are about to hear is chilling, from a panel of very well informed people. On March 26, the shaleshock citizens alliance held a forum attended by more than 200 people in Ithaca , New York on NATURAL GAS DRILLING: HEALTH EFFECTS, ECONOMICS AND THE WATERSHED The plan to drill shale gas in the marcellus formation threatens our air, our water and our way of life. The gas industry and the government have lied to the people or kept them in ignorance. The truth must be know before its too late.and the gas drilling industry turns our home into an industrial sacrifice zone -as they have already done in the rural west. Water and air polluted, people and animals sick and dying. farmers livelihoods destroyed #458 Tale of Two Towns - (Transition Towns and Open Source Villages) Seeds of a new energy descent, post capitalist society rooted in the principles and practices of permaculture and the free software movement #459 Ancient Ideas for a New World - (The Meanings of the Commons) Notions like the rule of law, progress, and development are part of what one of our speakers this week calls the given world - the society we have been born into and which is presented to us as a fait accompli. a track with one direction only. But this is by no means the opinion of all, and many are looking towards ancient ideas and practices as guidance towards new future directions. One of those ancient ideas with resurgent power is the concept of the commons, a form of economy brtually stamped out to create the modern world. 45_
44_ #440 Living As If the Truth Were True - (Jeremy Scahill on Politics and the Media, Power and Powerlessness #16) "I don't believe it" possible to be neutral. The world is already moving in certain directions. Wars are going on. Children are starving. And to be neutral, to not take a stand in a situation like that is to collaborate with whatever is going on, to allow it to happen." That quote of Howard Zinn began Chapter 13, "Decide Which Side You're On" in Susan Rosenthal's book "Power and Powerlessness," the current section of our ongoing reading. Zinn's quote illustrates the fictition of journalistic objectivity. Journalist and author Jeremy Scahill is clear about what his role as a journalist is - to interrogate power and lay bare the truth, and he is concerned that the alternative media which took such a strong stand during the Bush years exposing the lies and crimes is at risk of becoming what he calls a blue state Fox during the Obama years. He spoke of this and more Dec 2 at the Park Center for Independent Media in Ithaca, New York, and we're going to hear his talk and audience discussion in the show this week. Then we'll conclude with the next installment of "Power and Powerlessness. " #441 Irreconcilable Interests - (Capitalism and the Triple Crisis #1, Power and Powerlessness #17) Capitalism is based on a 17th century assumption, that there exists an endless supply of materials, commodities, and labor that can and should be marshaled to create continual economic growth. It has led to the dangerous destruction of our ecosystem and is on a collision course with climate change because the remedies required to preserve the ecosystem necessitate decreasing as well as different practices of consumption and production. From the ecological perspective less is more, it is prudent and responsible, in fact urgently necessary. From the capitalist point of view, it is a disaster , a severe decrease in economic activity, a reversal of economic growth, a depression. As long as we remain within the system and logic of capitalism, we can neither make human needs a priority, nor take the necessary steps to avert a crisis of mass extinction of our species and most others that is caused by the pollution from our wasteful industrial societies, which are increasing in size each year, driven by the imperatives of growth. Every proposal for dealing with our ecological situation seems to be accepted or rejected based on it's ability to generate profit rather than results. Bottom line, the right wingers are correct - what's good for the environment is bad for profits. Confronting that is a first step in having a real discussion. However, the health of our ecosphere is not negotiable, it is a prerequisite for life itself - to chose capitalism over the ecosphere is to chose death. #442 Crises and Liberation, Common Solutions - (Capitalism and the Triple Crisis #2, Power and Powerlessness #18) Last week I began playing you speakers from a three day Teach-In: Confronting the Global "Triple Crisis" put on by the international forum on globalization the IFG in September. This week we;ll continue with more speakers on the panel addressing Dimensions of the Global Triple Crisis. moderated by IFG founder Jerry Mander. Three presentations will be followed by audience discussion with some of the panelists heard this week and last . Then we'll wrap up the program with the conclusion of chap #443 False Energy Solutions - Follow the Money! - (Capitalism and the Triple Crisis #3) The new administration and Congress that will soon take power have pledged to take a new constructive direction on the issues of climate and energy - but the approaches that were discussed during the campaign and are apparently the front runners among policy makers are largely false solutions. The program this week will devoted to explaining why this is so. We're going to hear a panel pf speakers on energy, including scientists, journalists and activists who spoke at Confronting the triple crisis - a conference held by the International Forum on globalization in last September to consider the relationship between the problems of climate change, energy and the consumer society. In order to bring you the full impact of this powerful panel of speakers - I'm going to put off starting the next chapter of power and powerlessness until next week. #444 From Global Pillage to Global Village - (Capitalism and the Triple Crisis #4, Power and Powerlessness #19) Over the past few weeks I've been airing material from a teach called confronting the triple crises - climate change, peak oil and resource depletion. I'm going to play you more from that teach in , as well as resume reading from the book Power and powerlessness by Susan Rosenthal as we start a new chapter this week .. A theme that will emerge from the teach- in speakers this week is the role of the economic system in both bringing about the crises and impeding solutions to it -why nothing is being done so far that makes a significant difference . #445 Power and Peril, Organizing for Survival - (Power and Powerlessness #20) The economics and politics of planetary survival (and destruction) #446 Saving the Shire - (Home Rule versus Energy Corporations in the Finger Lakes) 6500 feet below the earth of New York's beautiful, rural Finger Lakes region lies a geological formation called the Marcellus shale. Hallibuton has developed a destructive and toxic process called hydrofracking that can extract gas from such formations. Energy corporations have already laid waste to vast areas of Colorado, Wyoming, Texas and Pennsylvania to extract shale gas. Now they have their sights on New York, aided and abetted by corrupt/and or ill informed politicians and bureacrats in Albany who rubber stamped the provisions the corporations wanted. But the people in the Finger Lakes have a different idea of the future that does not involve being and industrial sacrifice zone, and are organizing to stop it. #447 Systemic Change, An Economy of the Commons and Community - (Power and Powerlessness #21) The ultimate goal of power is to be able to create a society you want to live in. This week on the program we're going to focus on solutions, on developing a social system appropriate both to our needs and to our limitations, the ingredients of systemic change will be the topic #448 Using What Works - (Principles and Practices for Systemic Change) A 93 year old man froze to death in his home, not because heat was unavailable, but because money was placed between him and his needs, just as it stands as an obstacle to implement solutions that already exist to the ecosystem crisis. #449 Global Ponzi Scheme - (Systemic Fraud and the Corporate Occupation) A ponzi scheme, or pyramid is one which directs wealth towards the tip by drawing from the base. The more wealth is drawn towards the tip the larger the base from which its drawn must be. As the need for a larger base expands exponentially, there will be a point at which no more greater fools to feed the expansion. The system will collapse, whether it is the investment fund of Bernard Madoff, a pyramid of financial derivatives built on infinitely rising real estate prices, or the very premise at the hear of capitalism, economic growth. In a finite world, nothing can grow forever. It can only grow by taking wealth from somewhere else, or taking it from the future. 44_
43_ #430 Capitalist Endgames and Blame Games - (The Political Economy of Pain - Power and Powerlessness #7) Some listeners have written to ask me to do coverage on the financial crisis to counter the spin and obfuscation being broadcast in the corporate media. In terms of analysis by economists of the administration bailout plan, Democracy Now has been providing excellent coverage to illuminate the power grab, to point out how there is never enough money to provide health carte for the people for example, but always enough to bail out Wall Street. I recommend you listen at democracynow.org if you haven't heard it. One topic of debate is whether the urgency for action is real or a scheme to ram through a sort of financial "Patriot Act. " Many within the financial world have been warning of a financial collapse as a result of the deadly brew credit and leverage cooked up by Wall Street bankers I can tell you that there are many financial analysts who are not fans of the administration and its policies, or the current practices on Wall Street, who do believe that economic system is on the verge of collapse.. but don't believe a 700 billion bailout will solve the problem, as is being claimed . Many within the system have denounced it as an orgy of criminality in terms unusual in the normally staid financial analyst sector The question that isn't part of the official debate within capitalism is the one that mosts interests me - whether this system ought to survive at all, rather than how to save it. or , beyond that how to apply social leverage to an already toppling system, and we'll explore that question in depth this week with author Derrick Jensen. #431 Barbarians at the Gate, Plunder, Pillage and Class War - (Power and Powerlessness #8) Warning of Impending bank meltdown, shutdown and martial law, explanation of the financial fraud, and the election fraud and the plan for class war that led ultimately to this mess #432 Greater Fools and the Capitalist Zero Sum Game - (Power and Powerlessness #9) a web site called market crash describes the capitalist market as follows" In financial markets, the "majority is always wrong". When the investing majority or the crowd is overly bearish, this is the best time to be buying stocks. When the crowd is overly exuberant, this is the time to be selling stocks. The financial markets work in this ironic way because not everyone can win in the market. If it were possible for everyone to win in the markets, this would mean that money is being created from nothing. The creation of money, in this manner, is impossible. Therefore the markets are a zero-sum game. Zero-sum means that for every winner, there is a loser. The winner takes the losers money. Zero-sum games are games where the amount of "winnable goods" is fixed. " the greater fool theory; A theory that states it is possible to make money by buying securities, whether overvalued or not, and later selling them at a profit because there will always be someone (a bigger or greater fool) who is willing to pay the higher price. When acting in accordance with the greater fool theory, an investor buys questionable securities without any regard to their quality, but with the hope of quickly selling them off to another investor (the greater fool), who might also be hoping to flip it quickly. Unfortunately, speculative bubbles always burst eventually, leading to a rapid depreciation in share price due to the selloff. #433 Biodiversity and the Just Society - (Why Human Population Growth is a Legitimate Concern) In the last chapter I read from Susan Rosenthal's "Power and Powerlessness," I felt compelled to respectfully disagree with her assertion that human population growth was not in itself a problem. While I agree with her point that hunger is caused by maldistribution of food resulting from our political economic system, I disagree with assertion that environmentalists who raise the issue of overpopulation a are either witting or unwitting supporters of a racist and genocidal world view. When I say respectfully disagree, I mean it about the respect part. Dr. Rosenthal is not the only eminent, or sincere thinker who has this view. I'm so bothered by this thinking among so many excellent people that I'm devoting the entire show this week to the question of biodiversity which is the issue underlying concerns about human population limits. Readings of "Power and Powerlessness" will resume next week #434 Divide and Rule by Race, Class and Politics - (Power and Powerlessness #10) The 2008 election as an example of Divide and Rule, the topic of this weeks reading #435 Kleptocracy and Crapocracy - Power and markets - (Power and Powerlessness #11) Who should be bailed out" Should General Motors receive the death sentence? and more #436 The Power to Change - (War, Social Justice and the State, Power and Powerlessness #12) On November fourth the American electorate resoundingly repudiated the policies of the Bush years, and sent Barack Obama and his party to office with a mandate for change. How shall change be achieved, and what shall it be? Howard Zinn, with a brand new talk given November 8th in Binghamton, NY that addresses just these questions - change, the power to make it, the role of movements, and the role of the state...it's one of his best, from someone wise, brave and with a long view #437 Bullying 101 - (From the Deep State to the School Yard - Power and Powerlessness #13) The Bush Cheney Republican era has been one of gangster wars, unrestrained corporate greed and criminality, surveillance, repression, lies and torture - all cheered on by a media dominated by bellicose bullies. Some characterize this as aberrant, but it is aberrant only in its excess - it is the ultimate expression of a state based on hierarchies of dominance, that worships competition and power - from the international to the personal. It's institutions break people to its yoke from childhood; its rulers give lip service to democracy but despise it in fact . .From questions of war and peace to schoolyard bullies - the template is the same #438 The Nightmare of Power - (Enemy Combatants and Class War - Power and Powerlessness #14) A remarkable conference took place mid September in Andover, Massachusetts that hasn't gotten the coverage it deserved. It was convened by Lawrence Velvel, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law. Among It's attendees were legal scholars and practitioners of international and human rights law, who gathered and pledged to devise a strategy to, in the words of dean Velvel, to hold high U.S. officials accountable in courts of law and, if guilt is found, to obtain appropriate punishments. I'm going to begin airing presentations from that conference next week. I want to set the stage by reviewing some of the evidence and witnesses that could be presented at some future trial of high level US officials and former officials. We'll do this via a radio adaptation of a powerful new documentary, Torturing Democracy, produced by Sherry Jones of the National Security archive. Some people have been able to view the film on their local PBS stations but most have not - PBS told the filmmakers that no national air date was available until January 20, 2009 - Barack Obama's inauguration day. Following the fim, we'll continue with of serial reading from Dr. Susan Rosewnthal's 2006 book, Power and Powerlessness. #439 War Crimes and Class Power, Holding them accountable - (Power and Powerlessness #15) The Justice Robert Jackson Conference On The Planning For Prosecution Of High Level American War Criminals was held mid September at the Massachusetts School of Law in Andover, convened by its dean, Lawrence Velvel. . As one speaker commented, this conference differed from most in the academic setting in that it proceeded from the conclusion that crimes had been committed and addressed itself toward accountability and deterrence. At the conclusion of the two day event, participants solicited commitments of work towards that goal and formed a steering committee the ongoing work. This week, I'm going to play you the first panel, Crimes Of Torture And Degrading And Abusive Conduct, And Perpetrators and Punishments." featuring three experts in law and piblic policy Josh Dratel, Christopher Pyle and Phillipe Sands In order to put you at the same starting point, that the crimes are a given, last week I played a radio adaptation of a documentary "Torturing Democracy" that showed the evidence as well as those responsible. The panel and audience questions will take about an hour and a half, and we'll conclude with the next installment of the reading from the book power and powerlessness by Susan Rosenthal. 43_
42_ #420 Strategies for Crisis and Opportunity - (Dumping Global Corporate Junk Culture) From food shortages to energy scarcity, from climate change to economic implosion we are beset with a host of situations where crisis can be turned into opportunity . All of these problems we face, result from an economic and political system based on the compulsive over production and consumption of junk and waste in the service of an abstraction, economic growth . This state of affairs need not, and by some accounts cannot ,continue. Our two featured speakers this week will look at where we are and why, and where might go by focusing on two areas -Raj Patel will talk about the food system, and Richard Heinberg will unveil his a idea to create crisis planning for what he calls resilient communities #421 Godless Religion and Bad Religion - (Greg Graffin Receives Humanist Lifetime Achievement Award) The Humanist Chaplaincy has created a lifetime achievement award for cultural contributions of the openly godless . The 2008 recipient was Bad Religion front man and evolutionary biologist Greg Graffin. He speaks, sings and takes questions. #422 Revisiting Roads Not Taken - (Banking, the State and a 21st Century Jeffersonianism) As the American economic edifice implodes, conversations on what is to be done are taking place below the mainstream political radar. Some are looking back to Populism and Jeffersonian ideas from Americas past as guidance for a way forward, synthesizing ideas from the left and right that resonate the 21st century situation #423 Murderous Deception - (Lies from 9/11 to the 'War on Terrorism') Griffin discusses his latest book 9/11 contradictions: an open letter to congress and the press with supporting material from the other speakers #424 Nowtopia and DIY Activism - (Power and Powerlessness #1) The election season is getting underway in earnest and the media, corporate and otherwise will be full of the platforms of parties, the sound bites of candidates, the pundits, pollsters and so on. What won't be on the table is the question of whether we even want the sort of society that the candidates are vying to lead. What won't be on the ballot is the question of the powerless of most people over the fundamental social structures that shape our lives . This week and over the coming weeks and months I'm going to read you a brilliant but little known book that a listener brought to my attention, that takes on those questions. It's called Power and Powerlessness and the author is Susan Rosenthal, a physician and psychotherapist who reached the conclusion after decades of research, observation and activism that social power is necessary for human health. Her book deals with four basic questions: what's going on, how did this happen, why do we put up with it, and what will it take. We'll also hear, in a similar vein, an interview with writer and DIY activist Chris Carlsson about his new book "Newtopia" #425 The Creation of Powerlessness - (Power and Powerlessness #2) Last week I began a reading of a remarkable book, Power and Powerless by Susan Rosenthal. It is a book for people who are fundamentally revolted by this society, and who seek a much more fundamental change in our relationships to one another and the planet than is ever offered or possible within the electoral spectacle of our so called democracy. This is a radical book in that it gets to root questions, such as is our hierarchical repressive society reflective of human nature, why do people put up with the meaningless lives offered by capitalist workplaces and consumer society? The reading is in the second hour. During the course of the book reading that will take many weeks, I'm also playing other material that relates to the ideas in Power and Powerlessness. This week, we'll begin the show with a talk by Boston University sociologist and author Juliet Schor on her 2004 book Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture. This talk was given a ta conference of educators in Vancouver BC in 2005, still totally relevant 3 years later. #426 Compete or Die - (Power and Powerlessness #3) The program begins with a report filed Aug 30, by Ken Avidor from Minneapolis on the eve of the Republican convention, offered as exhibit one for the analysis of Susan Rosenthal in her book Power and Powerlessness, the reading of which will continue in the second hour. The report concluded with a statement from the National Lawyers Guild attorney that the actions of the protesters posed no threat, but that depends on where you stand. He noted that the protesters who had been preventively arrsted where advocating for change and not the Democratic party kind, which is precisely why they were the targets of State repression. They are people with a dangerous idea, the return of human society to its ancient rules of reciprocity and equality, described in our reading last week... ideas that challenge the legitimacy of a State based on the rules of capitalism: seize the surplus and compete or die. . As Susan Rosenthal pointed out in last week's reading, these are rules put in place my humans, which we can, and actually must, change. The deadly nature of capitalist rule number two, compete or die, will be the focus of our reading this week. We'll set the stage with a discussion of what economic historian Webster Tarpley calls the worst financial crisis of human history . #427 Family Values and the Freest Country - (Power and Powerlessness #4) America is the freest country in the world. We're taught it n school, it's echoed in political campaign rhetoric, and repeated by everyday people, very often people who've never been to any other country. If one's life consists of going to work and obeying the orders of your boss, going shopping and paying for your purchases, driving home in a car with all the proper licenses and insurances, to a home on which all the rents, mortgages and taxes are paid, cooking dinner, watching tv and going to bed to do it all again tomorrow - even people in dictatorships are free to live that life. This week oour ongoing reading of power and powerlessness, published in 2006 by Dr. Susan Rosenthal deals how the capitalist system has changed the nature of the family to suit its purposes, and how in spite of the lip service given to family values, families today are buckling under the pressure generated by the drive for profit #428 Rebel and Live! - (Power and Powerlessness #5) This week on the program we're going to read the final chapter in part two of Power and Powerlessness by Susan Rosenthal. This part of the book has examined how a society based on inequality has been created through abandoning the ancient human values of reciprocity and cooperation. This weeks chapter will examine how the stress produced through capitalist competition and dispossession is literally the single largest cause of ill health. Susan Rosenthal, a physician and psychotherapist, then explains how the ill health created by social inequality is capitalized upon as a profit opportunity. This will set us up for the next part of the book in which she asks why we continue to put up with a societal arrangement so disadvantageous to most She's not the only one examining these questions. In a sept 11 interview on the English language version of al jazeera tv, American historian Howard Zinn concluded that nothing short of rebellion in America is necessary to change course..I was unable to find a clip of the original video, but the transcript of the brief interview is circulating on the internet, and I 'll begin the show by reading that to you. We're also going to hear the first part of a talk and discussion in a similar vein with Professor Robert Jensen and a group of activists in Vancouver, that comes to us thanks to Alex Smith of Radio Ecoshock #429 Why Do We Put Up With It? - (The Lies that Bind Us - Power and Powerlessness #6) Last week on the program we heard the first part of talk by Robert Jensen - The Old Future's Gone - Progressive Strategy Amid Cascading Crises given at a gathering of activists in Vancouver last August, This week, we'll broadcast most of the discussion that followed. In our second hour, we'll continue with our serial reading of Power and Powerlessness by Dr Susan Rosenthal, Over the past 5 weeks the readings have examined in details how the society we live was created, and how it has resulted in the domination of the many by the few, to the detriment of most people who are deliberately excluded from the most basic level of decision making. This week, we begin a new section that deals with why we put up with it - the mechanisms of social control. PLEASE EMAIL YOUR QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS FOR SUSAN ROSENTHAL TO ME AT unwelcome@radio4all.net Thanks to those pf you that have already sent some - they are great! 42_
41_ #410 Sacred Cows and Slaughterhouses - (The Individual, the Community and Social Action) This week on the program two provocative talks that address, in different ways, the role of individuals in tackling change that of necessity takes on two of our society's central beliefs - the glorification of work and the sanctity of property #411 Toxic Sludge is Bad For You - (Democracy School Comes Home to Hector) Long time listeners to this show have heard about how the resistance to the spreading of sewage sludge by waste management corporations in rural Pennsylvania gave birth to a local democracy movement where communities have asserted the right to protect their environment and way of life by passing local laws. This process has revealed to many people the level at which supposedly democratic government at the state and federal level is in fact in thrall to corporate interests. The democracy school movement that formed out of this has taught people in communities across the nation how to avoid the hamster wheel of regulatory wrangling and go straight to heart of the matter, protecting the places we live and love. From, Pennsylvania, to New Hampshire to Spokane, Washington, to Arcata, California, communities are organizing and refusing to become corporate sacrifice zones. This week, the fight for democracy comes home, that is to my home, Schuyler county New York, where residents of the town of Hector are organizing to stop the spreading of sewage sludge on our farmland. The show this week is intensely local but I hope it will also prove valuable to all the communities where this show is heard - no matter where you go in America, the struggle for the future is underway. What you're going to hear is a recording of a community meeting held in Hector, NY on May 15, sponsored by CARR - citizens for agricultural and rural responsibility, non-partisan group formed by Town of Hector, NY residents concerned about the health of our families, our community, and the rural land we love. This broadcast is timely because there will be another meeting, Thursday May 22 in Mecklenburg. I'll give details for local folks later in the show. We'll conclude with a talk by Sheldon Rampton, co-author with John Stauber of "Toxic Sludge is Good for You" about the tactics the PR industry uses to try to pass of harmful products like sludge through the manipulation of opinion. #412 American Coup - (Excerpts from "Freedoms at Risk") From a panel from a conference, Freedoms at Risk that was held at New York University in February 08. The topics raised were timely: issues of academic freedom to criticize establishment views from within the academy, as well as in the press and in the media and the integrity of the election process itself. #413 Beyond Bad Apples - (Torture, Professionals and the State) going to go beyond the idea of a few bad apples to examine the relationship between torture, the state and some of the professionals who torture in the name of the state, both recently in terms of the US as well as other times and places #414 Take Back the Media - (National Media Reform Conference 2008) This weekend more than 3000 media activists gathered in Minneapolis for (June 7-9) organized by freepress.net, an organization devoted to dismantling the corporate controlled propaganda machine that now passes for media in the USA #415 Truth Tide Rising - (9/11 Update) New developments in 9/11 research including Guiliani's lies exposed regarding the fall of World Trade Center Building 7 #416 War is Peace, Slavery is freedom, Ignorance is Profit - (America's Orwellian Media) The battle over who owns and controls the mass media, which ideas and information will reach a broad public is central to the question of whether rule by the people can or will exist. the failure of the American mass media to truthfully inform the public is predictable, and was predicted by the people who fought the commercialization of radio in the early 20th century. In a media system based on profits from advertising revenue, the attention of the audience becomes the product sold to the advertiser. The ideal audience is therefore not only large, it is one not in the habit of thinking critically . Critical thinkers will maintain their habits of mind through the commercial breaks, and that's bad for business. Fomenting ignorance and passivity through the manipulation of language was one of the key themes of George Orwell's dystopian novel of a totalitarian society, "1984." Robert Kane Pappas 2006 documentary, Orwell Rolls in his Grave, compares the manipulation of ideas by media in 21st century America to Orwell's totalitarian state. I have adapted it for radio for your listening pleasure this week as we administer an antidote to the propaganda flowing hot and heavy in this election season. Then a reading on the "diamond invention" a decades long advertising campaign to change the culture of courtship to profit DeBeers. #417 The Economics of Oil, Food and Freedom - (What Matters in a Time of Collapse) Everyone seems to be feeling a rising sense of alarm as the prices of food and energy skyrocket and the number of people losing their livelihoods grows. This is made worse by the political leaders and corporate media's failure to tell the truth, or the whole truth about what's on the horizon, or to offer any solution but a modified version of business as usual. This week we'll hear from three people who will address what is happening, and why, and discuss predictions and strategies for the future. One is an American economist, one a Russian emigre who lived through the chaos in the collapsing soviet union and another an Indian activist fighting for an open source food system. #418 Evolved for Anarchy - (Cooperation and Solidarity Are in Our Genes) The two scientists heard in this weeks programs aren't to my knowledge anarchists, nor were they trying to make any point about anarchism specifically. But the import of what they discuss refutes the notion that without god and the state, humanity would descend into an orgy of violence and greed (seems we have that now). In the first hour Oxford zoologist and famous public atheist Richard Dawkins reads from his book The God Delusion on being good without god, the evolutionary roots of our moral sense, remarkably consistent across cultures and ideologies and the role of altruism in evolutionary survival. Dr. Joan Roughgarden, a top evolutionary ecologist from Stanford has called into question Darwins Theory of Sexual Selection, his explanation of sex roles, because it does not explain the wide variation of sex and gender found in nature, which in no way resembles the Victorian family. In short, the dominator society is in no way our destiny. (You already knew that, but now science is in the process of confirming it empirically) Funnily enough, I have the impression that these two scientists have some sort of professional antagonism, but to me, they both seem headed in the same ultimate direction #419 Mordor Comes Calling - (The Gas Drillers Move In on Rural New York) Landmen for gas drilling companies are swarming central new york, trying to talk land owners into signing mineral leases that will allow them to extract natural gas from the marcellus shale, a geological formation covering half of new york state, two thirds of pennsyvania and parts of ohio, west virgina and virginia. Due to the high prices resulting from peak in natural gas and new drilling methods, its extraction can now be profitable. The landmen make all sorts of promises to the owners, but tonight you're going to hear from people from wyoming and colorado who've experienced the reality -their rural communities turned into corporate sacrifice zones. They came east to speak at a community forum in Walton, NY on June 27, "Marcellus Shale - The Impact of Natural Gas Drilling " organized by the catskill mountain keeper http://catskillmountainkeeper.org/. 41_
40_ #400 The Contradictions of Reason and Belief - (Science, Religion, Capital and the State) #401 Declaration of Peace Town Hall - (The Illegal Invasion of Iraq, What They Knew, and When They Knew It) On March 6, members of Rochester, NY Declaration of Peace in collaboration with 45 other local organizations hosted a town hall featuring a panel of speakers: Scott Ritter, a former UN chief weapons inspector and marine corps officer, Elizabeth de la Vega, a former federal prosecutor, and Bryan Casler of Iraq Veterans Against the War . The event was part of broader campaign action by Declaration of Peace to call local members of Congress to account on the illegality of the Iraq invasion and occupation. This week I'm going to play you the event pretty much in its entirety. The participants spoke frankly and I heard a few things I hadn't heard before that contradict congressional claims of ignorance. Though the event's declared purpose was an examination of the legality of the Iraq invasion, it was in my view a historical document of mainstream Americans who set out to use the supposed mechanisms of their democracy to find instead lies and hypocrisy. #402 Prisoners of Oil - (Winter Soldier Testimony #1) Excerpts from Winter Soldier ivaw.org #403 Disposable Patriots - (Winter Soldier Testimony #2) Testimony of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and the context of American militarism #404 Your Honor or Your Money - (9/11 and Winter Soldier Testimony #3) We'll continue this week with selected testimony from the Winter Soldier Hearings as well as placing it in its context of 9/11 and the project of global domination, with 9/11 truth scholar Kevin Barrett and international law and human rights expert Richard Falk. "Dehumanization of the Enemy" was one of the topics of the winter soldier testimony. Dehumanization of the enemy is part of the goal of military training, not accidental or isolated . Military training is designed to remove the recruits' lifelong moral prohibition against homicide, and ultimately, dehumanizing them as well #405 When I Prayed to the President - (The Bottom Line from Beijing to Baghdad Winter Soldier Testimony #4) The final episode of the series based on the testimony from Winter Soldier Iraq and Afganistan, as well as excerpts from the documentary the Tank Man of the crushing of the 1989 uprising in china and the aftermath, because it's easier to see our fau #406 Wild Law and the Rights of Nature - (Earth Jurisprudence for a Planet in Peril #1) Our petrochemical lifestyle has poisoned the air, water, and soil, and now is changing the Earth's climate pattern toward an ecosystem that predates the circumstances under which we and the animals and plants on which we inter depend have evolved. Our agriculture, which made an exponential expansion of human population possible, is based in Earth's temperate zones, which will be drastically reduced as the planet heats up. Much of Earth's arable soil has already been damaged by industrial agriculture. All over the industrialized world, people are gathering to discus and implement projects for sustainability, conservation and relocalization. Individuals trying to change their lifestyles can only go so far - the problems are systemic and require a shift in the widespread practices of industrial societies and the fundamental concepts upon which they are based such as economic growth, globalized production, and the natural world as property and resource. Our laws and courts are not geared to deal with the scale of ecological harm, which once caused often can't be restored within a human timescale. It is irreparable harm People attempting to address our ecological problems find the laws inadequate if not downright hostile. Activists find themselves in jail for trying to stop harmful activity, while the perpetrators receive the protection of the state. Legal practitioners and communities confronted by this legal brick wall are working to establish new law that will conform to our ecological reality, an earth jurisprudence. This week we'll begin a three part series focusing on the theory and action of this movement for the rights of nature under law and how communities are using it to fight corporate destruction. #407 Upside Down Law and the Religion of Property - (Earth Jurisprudence for a Planet in Peril #2) Last week we began a series on an emerging area of law , earth jurisprudence, with talks from a symposium held at the world's first legal institute devoted exclusively to developing a body of law to give rights to nature. As we heard last week, the creatures and features of the natural world are regarded as property under most law. Our laws no more correspond to the reality of the natural world than does the once accepted idea that the sun revolves around the earth. #408 Power, Democracy and Deadly Law - (Earth Jurisprudence for a Planet in Peril #3) This week, we conclude our series on earth jurisprudence, the rights of nature, and the people who are seizing the power to reject corporate rule. #409 Food and Hell and Hope - (The World According to Monsanto) A radio adaptation of "the Wold According to Monsanto:a documentary that Americans won't ever see" by Marie-Monique Robin 40_
39_ #390 Nailing Down the Coffin on the Official Story - (Evidence of Explosive Residue at WTC with Steven Jones) On Dec 15, physicist and 911 truth researcher Steven Jones announced his most recent discovery at a Boston 9i1 truth conference - he has discovered flakes of unreacted thermite, an incendiary, in samples of WTC debris. We're going to bring you an excerpt of that talk where he explains these recent findings by himself and other 911 truth movement scientists and researchers , who are part of the largest open source grassroots criminal investigation in history. Dr. Jones discovery follows on his recent findings of anomalous particles in several samples of dust from the world trade center site. We'll begin the program with a presentation he made last June at a conference in Vancouver, to update you on the investigation leading up to his present revelations, then end with a clip in which he describes the recent discovery. #391 9/11 and the Deep State - (Cheney and the Plan for War and Dictatorship) This week's show will be devoted to two presentations given by professor Peter Dale Scott. His topics are 9/11 in the context of his lifelong research into what he calls deep politics, and the deep state, and the role of 9/11 in wars of empire and wh #392 The War on Democracy - (The CIA, Torture and Terror) A radio adaptation of the John Pilger's film and information on the CIA's MK Ultra program on mind control and scientific torture #393 Inconvenient Truths, Convenient Holocausts - (Capitalist Disasters and the Paradigm Shift) Change seems to be the watchword for the 2008 campaign season, yet the candidates put forward as the leading contenders are put forward exactly because they can be relied upon to create continuity, not change, in the system that has been responsible for c #394 Financial Tsunami, Subprime Democracy - (Why the Financial 'Crisis' is so much more) Capitalism's next economic crisis is upon us, and the news last week was was full of discussions of the fall of the stock market, the weakness of the dollar , the need for fiscal stimulous and so on. Capitalism, in its few hundred years of existence , has undergone continual cycles of crisis, recession, depression, inflation, stagflation. This has been spoken of as a subprime crisis, but its much, more more... #395 Fraud, the 51st Deer and the Middle Class - (Unmasking the inequity of Capitalism) One of the most widely repeated myths in America is that capitalism and the free market are responsible for American prosperity, and its hallmark, the American middle class. We will hear on the program this week that the middle class is not a by product o #396 Toward a Moral Economy - (Why Preserving the Status Quo is Not An Option) A few weeks ago on the show I played for you UK scholar Nafeez Ahmed's tour de force overview of the converging crises now coming to a head in the globalized system of industrial capitalism: climate catastrophe, peak oil, food scarcity and economic dysfunction. In a recent entry on his blog, he summarized the situation: "This global system is hugely destructive of human life. Devoid of the capability to recognize and enact ethical values, it is driven purely by the imperatives of profit, efficiency, growth, and monopoly. Consequently, it is not only destructive of human life; it is destructive of all life, nature, and even itself. It is now generating multiple crises across the world that over the next 10-15 years threaten to converge in an unprecedented and unimaginable way, unless we take drastic action now." The question is how do we take action, what action should we take, what vision guides our action. As A variety of speakers presented on this program have made clear, preserving the status quo is not a workable goal, because it is the status quo that is the source of the problem. Ways forward through this will be the focus of the program this week. #397 Dancing on the Ruins - (Making a Future in Energy Descent America) Kunstler says he wrote The Geography of Nowhere, "Because I believe a lot of people share my feelings about the tragic landscape of highway strips, parking lots, housing tracts, mega-malls, junked cities, and ravaged countryside that makes up the everyday environment where most Americans live and work." Peak oil has insured that this sprawl world has no future. What might it be and how do we rise to meet it? #398 Soma, Suicide, and the Pursuit of Happiness - (Mental Health and American Society) Last week on the program, we focused on the social, and economic ramifications of the American landscape of subburban sprawl through the eyes of James Howard Kunstler. One of Kunstler's theme is that the physical arrangements of suburbia are not only unsustainable but that they both reflect and create a society that purposrts to represent an American Dream but have in fact become a nightmare in many ways and not delivered the happiness it purports to sell. This week, two different examinations of mental health and happiness in America. Our first speaker will be a returning guest, Stepehen Bezruchka, a medical doctor whose studies in public health and clinical experience have led him to social relations, rather than the medical model, as determinants for phsyical and mental health. Then we'll hear a very interesting talk by Matt Wray, a sociologist at the University of Nevada who has been studying suicide in Las Vegas. #399 Free Lunch - (How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You with the Bill) David Cay Johnston is an investigative journalist for The New York Times who has focussed on the subject of taxation. He most recently published book Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With The Bill, is an expose of hidden subsidies, rigged markets, and what has been called corporate socialism. It follows his previous Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Else, which was a a New York Times bestseller. Johnston received the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting "for his penetrating and enterprising reporting that exposed loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code, which was instrumental in bringing about reforms." Priorto joining the New York Times in 1995, he's worked for various major daily papers around the country and studied economics at the university of Chicago and elsewhere. He now lives in Rochester, New York area where he spoke on Februrary 16th at an event sponsored by the Rochester Labor Lyceum, which has presented public talks and debates on topics of labor and social justice since 1897. 39_
38_ #380 Stealing Gifts from the Future - (Capitalism and the Theft Economy) analyzing "the market" from the point of view of ecosocialism and the gift economy #381 Impeachment Now! - (Community Forum from Binghamton. NY) 10/13/07 Teach-In on Impeachment was sponsored by the Broome County Peace Action group, and Broome County NY Veterans for Peace Chapter 90. #382 The Authoritarians - (Why do People Obey?) Last week I devoted the entire show to a forum on the need for the impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney. Our speakers last week gave several reasons, a cure for royal ism, defense of the Constitution or maintaining the rule of law. More important than all those things is to halt the descent into fascism, by asserting a challenge to the authority claimed by the people on the throne and those behind it. Fascism, when the power of the State is used to subjugate the people for the use of corporations, has been a recurring theme from the founding of the US, even before the term was coined by Benito MMussolini. The US constitution is constructed such that it enables it's growth, while movements toward liberty tend to require bloodletting and broken bones among the people inflicted by the forces of law and order. An important question is why are so many citizens of a country that gives so much lip service to freedom, so willing to embrace its opposite? We'll begin the program with a very interesting interview that explores that question, then we'll conclude with the resumption of readings from For-Giving by Genevieve Vaughn, a feminist critique of the essential authoritarian nature and structure of exchange, that is markets. #383 Science Fiction Foreign Policy - (Seymour Hersh on the Bush/Cheney Regime) On Oct 24, 2007 Sy Hersh gave the annual Amnesty International lecture in Dublin. His insights and information are given an added dimension by last week's program on the authoritarian personality #384 Creating and Re-Creating Social Reality - (Beyond the Dominant Paradigm) almost everything about human societies is an invention yet we treat these arbitrary, often absurd, often cruel society arrangements and laws as if they were laws of nature - something inescapable, like gravity, when they could all be changed , swept away #385 The Painful Relief - (Migration, Neoliberalism and Domination) Miguel De La Rosa, of EDUCA in Oaxaca, Mexico on the roots of migration, neoliberalism, and social movements, then Mike Davis and Jutin Chacon on the official disregard of immigrants during the San Diego wildfires, the parallels with what happened during #386 Money, Language, Ecology and the Commons - (Rejecting the Culture of Extinction) This week on the program we'll hear a variety of perspectives highlighting the relationships between ecology, the role of language and the role of money and markets and movements to restore our cultural, economic and environmental commons #387 Unmasking the Market - (The Shock Doctrine and For-Giving reading) There are those who equate markets with freedom, but the regime of markets, and exchange stand in opposition to the values of community. we'll unmask that with Naomi Klein on globalization and the shock doctrine, and reading from For-Giving: A femini #388 NAFTA on Viagra - (The SPP's Corporate Assault Democracy) the Security and prosperity partnership, the SPP, is an executive-level pact between the governments and corporate sectors of Canada, the United States and Mexico, which has never been debated publicly or voted on in any of the three countries. #389 Crimes of Obedience - (The Systemic Roots of Torture) In the book, For Giving: a feminist critique of exchange that I've been reading from over recent weeks, philosopher Genevieve Vaughn has made the case that understanding the dehumanization of women under patriarchy is key to understanding other coercive or exploitative social arrangements based on maintaining authority and privilege by force and violence. Vaughn notes that the privileged ones are distinguished by a mark, in the case of patriarchy, a body part and a gender identity. In the case of other analogous systems of domination and submission, the mark may be skin color, ownership of property, membership in an ideological or ethnic group, or the wearing of special clothes like uniforms and badges. Though I'm going to suspend the reading of Vaughn's book this week on account of time constraints, it nonetheless provides a useful frame for understanding the topic of this week's program, - torture, and why it persists even in societies that officially reject its use. When an incident of torture or brutality by the military or police erupts into public view as a scandal, the official opinion makers repeatedly frame the incident as a result of individual flaws, bad apples. Our speakers this week will will expose the roots of torture as crimes of obedience, conformity to a society where bullies rule. 38_
37_ #370 Breaking Out of the Mudsill Trap - (Beyond the Corporate Order to Society Without the State) This week, we begin the final chapter of John Taylor Gatto's book The Underground History of American Education, as Gatto drives home the point of the argument he's been making throughout the book, that the system of compulsory schooling has not been put in place to sharpen the intellectual skills of children to be equal to the responsibilities of free citizens, but just the opposite, to dumb them down, to be the malleable subjects of a plutocracy. Gatto has showed how this program developed out of union of the racial supremacist ideologies prevalent among 19th century intellectuals and the needs of industrial capitalists for a controllable and profitable workers and consumers. Though the rhetoric of freedom has dominated the the founding and development of the united states, the reality has been an orgy of violence. racism and related ideologies of inferiority and superiority have provided the justification for this oppression of others to people who wished to see themselves as paragons of morality and reason. Gatto has shown that it was the leaders in science and academia that were the purveyors of this bleak vision, a theme that will be echoed in a new three part series to begin this week by the British documentarian Adam Curtis. Long time listeners may remember two of his previous series , the Power of Nightmares and the Century of Self. His new series is called The Trap; What happened to our dreams of freedom? #371 Economists and Psychopaths - (Lost in the Wasteland of Richistan) Part 2 of a radio adaptation of "The Trap: What Happened to our Dream of Freedom" by Adam Curtis, and the installment from The Underground History of American Education" #372 The Failure of Managed Freedom - (Why Ideologies Never Deliver What They Promise) The conclusions of "The Trap" by Adam Curtis and "The Underground History of American Education" by John Taylor Gatto. #373 The Economics and Politics of Sustainability - (2007 New York Green Fest Panel) A panel on democracy, relocalization and an indigenous perspective from the 2007 New York Green Fest, and an experimental energy farm #374 Why the Towers Fell - (Proofs of Demolition by Explosives) speech from University of Manitoba, May 27, 2007 #375 Ecology and Economy - (Permaculture versus the Finance of Mass Destruction) Darren Doherty is one of Australia's top permaculture designers. He specializes in type of work called keyline design. Keyline design is a system which was originally devised to rehumidfy the dry landscapes of Australia and thus speed the creation and regeneration of living topsoils. But as you will hear this week, one of the creators of the keyline system believes that the soil regeneration it performs can remove excess CO2 from the atmosphere and restore the climate balance of the planet . if the system was employed on the planet's farmland. The problem of the destruction of our environment cannot be separated from economics, and economics, as someone has said, is politics. Environmental destruction, whether climate destabilization or the myriad forms of human induced pollution we have been forced to endure result not from technological failures so much as political ones. The politics of power and disempowerment , driven by economic motives is the salient determining factor, according to the research of our first speaker economist James Boyce of the university of Massachusetts A number of independent financial analysts are warming that the US economy is on the verge of a collapse that could bring on a depression like the 1930's or worse. One of the more interesting of these writers is Jim Willie, a Phd statistician and proprietor of goldenjackass.com He describes the purpose of his site as follows: The Golden Jackass website is designed to inform and instruct in the complex ways of gold, currencies, bonds, interest rates, stocks, commodities, futures, derivatives and the world economy, with no respect shown for inept bankers and economists, whose policies and practices contribute toward the slow motion degradation, if not destruction, of the financial world. #376 The "War on Terror" and the Bottom Line - (From the 'Red Scare' to the 'Green Scare') This week on the program two talks that illuminate the extent to which the so-called "war on terrorism," specifically, and the concept of national security generally, is about the bottom line, though that is not how its sold to the general public. You will hear this week how it resembles the cold war in many ways, from red scares at home to wars abroad. At home the target is people whose politics threaten profits, abroad, ditto. A matrix of relationships designed to defend these financial interests involves nearly every influential sector of society, and our speakers will go into detail on who some of they key actors have been, and what laws and policies have resulted. In the first hour, we'll hear from Peter Phillops director of project censored , and in the second hour, Will Potter, a DC based journalist ...with a talk The Green Scare: Eco-Activism in the Age of Terror" #377 The Prison: A Sign of US Democracy? - (Angela Davis on the Abolition of Prison) A talk by Prof Angela Davis, given Sept 18, 2007 at Cornell University. The US imprisons more people than any other nation, more than two million are behind bars now. According to report by the US dept of justice a few years ago, 1 in 37 Americans will find themselves behind bars. The majority of those prisoners are people of color, especially African American men, even in states where they are a tiny minority of the population, and even though many studies have shown that white people break laws as often or more often than people of color. It is estimated that one in 3 black men will be incarcerated at some time in his life. That the US legal system is biased against people of color, and the poor, who are disproportionately people of color, is incontrovertible, and Angela Davis will touch on that in the talk. Then she'll go on beyond to question the institution of prison itself, to pose the idea that imprisonment is bound up with the American conception of democracy in surprising ways, that it plays a role in how freedom is defined in the national psyche. Angela Davis, a former political prisoner herself as well as an internationally known scholar, is one of the foremost activists in the prison abolition movement that questions the very validity and purpose of prison as an institution. #378 Getting to Solutions - (Climate Change and Peak Oil) Climate change and peak oil have a common solution, that brings back community as a primary organizing principle #379 Money and Culture - (Getting to Roots of a Culture of Destruction) An explanation of what money is and how it destroys the environment, a critique of neoliberalism from the indigenous eco-socialist perspective, and a feminist critique of the exchange economy 37_
36_ #360 No Place To Hide - (The Strengths and Weaknesses of Centralized Control) Defeating RFID's, preserving the freedom of the internet, the power of decentralized, anarchic projects, the dark and light side of technology, education and psychology #361 Waking Up and Coming Home - (America's Culture of Denial and Betrayal) Peak Oil and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, War and the Soul, Psychology, School and Social Control #362 Let's Get Empirical - (David Ray Griffin on Debunking 9/11 Debunking) Talk was given May 16, 2007 in Vancouver, BC #363 Plastic Safety Net - (Household Debt in America) A recent study shows more than 80 percent of Americans think household debt is a serious problem. Selected presentations from a conference "Debt Matters" and the financial services industry, and how debt has replaced the vanishing social safet #364 Propaganda and Education - (Mass Production of Workers) In their groundbreaking 1988 book, Manufacturing Consent, professors Ed Herman and Noam Chomsky not only explained, but documented with extensive case studies, how mass media and public opinion are shaped in a democracy. Twenty years later, can their "propaganda model" still be used to explain modern media distortions? That was one of the main questions discussed last month at a conference at the university of Windsor, in Ontario, titled "20 Years of Propaganda?" We'll begin the program with a presentation from that conference by Sut Jhally, who teaches analysis and recognition of propaganda in the media at UMass Amherst, where he heads the Media Education Project. We'll follow that with the next installment of John Taylor Gatto's "Underground History of American Education," his work on the development of compulsory schooling and its social engineering goals, which were not to enlighten but to mold the children of diverse cultures into a population useful to the agenda of corporate controlled mass production and consumption #365 Release From Tutelage - (Pushing Back Against the Corporate State) as we mark the annual celebration clebrationf the first American revolution, a growing number of people have concluded that a second American revolution is long overdue. The 1776 uprising overthrew rule by an aristocracy of blood, and replaced it with an aristocracy of blood money, that has delivered life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness on an inverted sliding scale ever since, by design. It is a design that was meant to frustrate popular rule, to allow a few to divide and conquer the many. Its myths of self reliance and prosperity were based on free land stolen from its original inhabitants. its wealth was built from the labors of the enslaved and exploited. Freedom is possible only when one has the power to escape control, a process that begins in the mind. If not for this mental bondage that creates isolation, passivity, fear and competition for favor, the few could not rule the many. #366 Hang Together or Hang Separately - (Bureaucracy, Tyranny and Surveillance) NSA eavesdropping, RFID, electronic tracking and control, and the bureacracy of creating flunkies #367 Planet in Vincula - (Ending Corporate Rule for a Healthy Planet and Happy People) #368 Beyond Democracy Lite - (Home Rule versus the Corporate State) Tom Linzey of CELDF and Jack and Valerie of Democracy New York talk about latest evolution in the battle in rural Pennsylvania against corporate rights, and the citizens who have been radicalized by the demonstration of sham democracy - Gatto explains how a plan for Democracy lite, known as "elite democracy" was implemented a century ago. The idea, proposed and approved, was the permanent infantilizing of the bulk of population, skimming the cream to become managers for the ruling class. Linzey spoke in Montour Falls, NY 7/17/07 #369 Vectors of Illusion - (How Social Consensus is Managed and for Whom) The schools and the "respectable" media are part of a system of propaganda used to obscure the vastly unequal benefit delivered by the "social contract" and to prevent those with the raw end of deal from realizing their numbers and pot 36_
35_ #350 The New Feudalism - (The Grisly Economics of the Ownership Society) This week on the program we're going to look at what economist Michael Hudson has called the new serfdom, because 90 prcent of the population carries perpetual debt which supports the top ten percent. Politicians and pundits tell people that education is key to economic prosperity, but for many people without means, this is where they fall into the first debt trap. To get an education, they must borrow, and thanks to the colllusion of politicians and bankers, many are trapped in a vicious dowlward spiral. We'll hear about that in our second hour. If they escape that trap, the mortgage on a vastly inflated home price awaits them. In our first hour we'll hear from Dr. Michael Hudson on how financiers use debt to get a free lunch, and how the rest of us are on the menu #351 For The Love of Tyranny - (Bananas, Bad Apples, Death Squads and Empire) What are presnted as isolated news items are actually connected - there is a line that connects Chiquita death squads and their Iraqi counterparts - and that line runs right through the USA, as we will hear on the program this week. CIA and US Military opeartives have created dfeath squads, personally or by proxy in countries as wide ranging as viet nam, el salvador and now Iraq. US pundits have suggested that the violence is an indication of a culture not up to the task of democracy. Let me suggest that it is a characeristic trait of any dominator society, one riddled with social . sexual and economic hierarchies kept in place by violence, as they must be , because the people on the bottom of the hierarchy will no maintain that position voluntarily- and that includes the United States #352 Making and Breaking the Empire - (War, Caste, Class and Capital) Why US Foreign policy remains the same - war, and what it takes to stop #353 Haughty Power - (The Capitol and Das Kapital) The 19th century French social phisopher Pierre Joseph Proudhon, the first to describe himself as an anarchist wrote in his essay What Is Property?, Property, acting by exclusion and encroachment, while population was increasing, has been the life-principle and definitive cause of all revolutions. Religious wars, and wars of conquest, when they have stopped short of the extermination of races, have been only accidental disturbances, soon repaired by the mathematical progression of the life of nations. The downfall and death of societies are due to the power of accumulation possessed by property. Last week's speaker John Marciano quipped that the liberal sees a man sleeping on the street and says the system isn't working, and a radical sees the same thing and says that the system is working. What accounts for such divegent conclusions about the same objective fact. And there are other conclusions as well, such as that the sleeper is lazy, crazy, or addicted to intoxicating substances or that that he is a sinner out of favor with god, or a person with bad karma,in short in some way culpable, and our social system blameless. One's conclusion about the man on the street therefore is based on what one believes about the basic nature of the society we live in, and what governs its dominant processes. #354 Cabbages and Kings - (The Human Ecology of Climate Change) This weekend thousands of communities in all 50 states held events to educate the public on global warming issues and to mobilize the political will to make the social changes this crisis requires. This is my conrribution to that effort. #355 One Dish, One Spoon to Share - (Haudenosaunee Land Stewardship) The Onondaga Nation and Haudenosaunee Confederacy, to which it belongs, existed long before European settlers came to these shores. They had developed a sophisticated culture and governance style which allowed them to live harmoniously with the Earth and with each other. The culture of environmental stewardship practiced by the Haudenosaunee has been supplanted by a culture that views the land as real esate and resource base. The ultimate result of that way of thinking and acting is epitomized by the destruction of Onondaga lake, site of the present city of Syracuse, NY which has in the course of less than 200 years, been turned into a toxic soup containing more than 22 million tons of industrial waste. The corporations responsible have mostly closed thier plants and moved them to other countries, where they continue a similar proces of destruction which is called in mainstream parlance "development." This weekend, Earth Day celebrations were held all over the country, and many of them focussed on the need to address global warming, a result of the same type of industrial activity and thought processes that has laid waste to a beautiful lake in central New York. As millions of Americans are seeing and discussing Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, as well as his recent Congressional testimony, about what should be done to respond to global warming, I would like to pose this question: can these problems be solved using the same mindset, the same cultural values, that created the problem? Gore has attempted to sell his solutions as a great economic opportunity. Earth must be saved, whether it benefits the economy or not. Our culture devalues the land as home, relegating it to a natural resource, just as it denigrates people into a so-called "human resource." Is it any wonder that our culture has transformed a paradise into a prozac popping polluted hellhole of prisoners, wage slaves, and tinpot tyrants? I submit to you that the very reason that the powers -that -be have fought environmentalists with such ferocity, is that they know, that values of earth call us to values different from those upon whih their powers are based. The land rights action of the Onondaga nation has called upon us to take up, with them, stewardship of the land. To that end, they came together with their settler neighbors in a year -long series of dialogs to discuss our common future. Last October, a two day event brought together Haudenosaunee leaders, scientists, lawyers and Syracuse areas residents to address the restoration the land and water of the historic Onondaga nation territory. We'll present a portion of that, begining with a look at the land before the arrival of ther Europeans and the land management practices of the Haudenosaunee, the ancient culture who has called this land home for thousands of years #356 The Lies of Christian Soldiers - (The Mysterious Death of Corporal Pat Tillman) The most relevant testimony of the 4/24 US House oversight comittee on the lies told the US public about the death of former football star turned soldier Pat Tillman, killed by "friendly fire" - and the strange cover-up that might be way more t #357 Culture and Class Power - (The Creation and Maintenance of a Capitalist Culture) Culture is defined as "The accumulated habits, attitudes, and beliefs of a group of people that define for them their general behavior and way of life; the total set of learned activities of a people." If culture is a set of learned activities, how is it taught and learned, by whom and why? John Taylor Gatto's book, the Underground History of American Education, which will return this week in the second hour, documents the institution of compulsory schooling as a program to impose cultural uniformity to create something called Americanism, a mass culture based on an aristocracy of wealth and the submission to the needs of industrial commerce. In the 20th century, due to mass media, especially television, the aristocracy of wealth has had unprecedented ability delibertely create and impose culture - a preocess which came to a head in the 1950's So deliberate was this imposition of culture that it gave rise to a movement that actually called itself a counterculture. It fought not only for rights within this sytem, but challenged the culture vision of Americanism itself. That struggle over culture comtinues to this day, and is playing out on a widening series of battlefields in an increasingly complex society. We'll take a look at a few of its aspects, beginning with a talk by political scientist Michael Parenti on the topic of his latest book, the Culture Struggle. Parenti focusses on the use of culture to maintain class power. We'll then look the alliance of Protestant Christian fundamentalism with empire with Michelle Goldberg, author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism", finishing off as promised, with a reading from the Underground History of American Education. #358 Coming Home to Our Birthright - (Cooperation, Human Nature and Mental De-Colonization) The nation state, is maintained by force and violence, whether carried out by monarchs, presidents, or parliaments, and their cops, courts and armies. laws and customs vary among nations, or are even contested within nations, but what all these nations have in common is a the use of official force to maintain social relationships of unequal power and unequal access to the means for living. Ironically these institutions of force are rationalized as crime prevention, justofied to control human nature which is portrayed as selfish and brutal and prone to cutthroat competition. But do they rather not create a culture of callousness and competition through the hierachies they enforce? #359 Empty As A Way Of Life - (Internal and External Colonization) What is the relationship between compulsory schooling, imperial subjugation, and corporate control? 35_
34_ #340 What's Behind the "War on Terror?" - (The not-for-public-consumption policies of empire) Examination of the previously secret documentary evidence of the actual goals of US and UK planners that are furthered with the pretext of external enemies #341 Disobedience and Solidarity - (When the Empire Makes All the World a Factory) George Bush's announcement earlier this week of an escalation of troop deployment to Iraq sparked protests around the world. Polls showed more than two thirds of Americans, including those in the military, oppose the escalation. This raises a basic question - what if anything legitimizes Bush to take a life and death action that most people here, and in Iraq oppose, and why should soldiers obey Bush's, rather than the people's will. More fundamentally, why should anyone obey orders they oppose. And a related question, why do they? #342 Disinfo and Missed Info - (Propaganda, Media and Society) What do you get when you cross our education system with our media system? The manufacture of consent and the suppression of dissent. Audio from the Media Reform Conference, with an emphasis on propaganda #343 War, Class, and Resistance - (Why Military War Resistance Matters) Testimony from the citizens tribunal on Iraq war crimes in support of Lt. Ehren Watada in Tacoma, WA , with a report on the DC peace protest #344 Blood from a Rock - (The Battles and Bubbles of a Tottering System) It is often said that the "War on Terror" is bankrupting the US economy. What if that's the cart before the horse? #345 Dumbed Down, Buttoned Down or Locked Down - (Throwaway People in the Disposable Culture) #346 Taking Action on Climate... - (...Instead of Wanking to the Dow Jones) Greenhouse gases have hit a new record in the atmosphere and the build-up is accelerating, apparently because of industrial growth in Asia, . China is opening coal-fired power plants at the rate of almost one a week. "Levels are at a new high," said Kim Holmen, research director of the Norwegian Polar Institute which oversees the Zeppelin measuring station on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard about 1,200 km (750 miles) from the North Pole. Concentrations of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas emitted largely by burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars, had risen to 390 parts per million (ppm) from 388 a year ago. 400 parts per million is considered the critical threshhold beyond which warming effects may be beyond the point of no return. At the present rate of increase, we will reach the critical level in five years. Meanwhile, on Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at an all time high. There is actually a relationship between the CO2 numbers and the Dow Jones. Governments are maintaining the Dow Jones numbers which reflect a toxic brew of overproduction and excessive consumption - all fueled by the burning of hydrocarbons, at the expense of focussing on the CO2 numbers and the capacity of the planet to sustain our sort of life form. #347 A Perfect Storm - (Is the Pillar of Capitalism Crumbling?) On March 21, 2007 Iran will no longer officially accept US dollars for any transactions. Iran has entered into discussions with Russia to form a gas cartel. Russia and Iran are the world's number 1 and number 5 gas producers, and they are numbers 1 and 2 in natural gas reserves (holding possibly half of the world's natural gas reserves). The currency moves threaten the US dollar's position as the world's reserve currency, and a cartel would be anathema to US interests in the region. - this is a quote from an article a Feb 24 article "A gathering perfect storm" by David Chapman, who is a director of a Canadian investment fund in precious metals #348 Controlling American Values - (How are values formed and perpetuated? For what purpose?) How are values formed and perpetuated? For what purpose? #349 Reproduction and Social Control - (From Women's Bodies to Children's Minds) Women seeking freedom and dignity have run a gauntlet between church and state, religion and science, all of which have been used in the service of patriarchy and privilege. 34_
33_ #330 In Name Only - (Elections, Education and Corruption in the Corporate Utopia) This election season, corruption in government and in the electoral process are top issues for many voters - anger and disgust over both major party leadership's refusal to end the unconsionable Iraq war and or take appropriate action to respond to the imminent ecological emergency has brought a flood of new contenders into the electoral arena who are challenging business as usual. They face an uphill battle : vote fraud, gerrymandering, corporate influence, media spin - in short a system so manipulated that it is a democracy in name only #331 The Occupation of the USA - (The State, the Military, the School and Social Control) Why do Americans put up with the government we have? We have been "germanized" by design. #332 Teaching Big Lies and Deep Lies - (From the Downing Street Memos to the Prussian Connection) I had planned a different show this week, but after hearing since election day about impeachment being off the table, I am beside myself with outrage. Oh no you don't, not again. Had Reagan, Pappy Bush and their minions been held accountable for their crimes twenty tears ago, we would not have been sadled with six years of a fascist nightmare, featuring the greyer versions of the same cast of characters. The Democrats, who controlled Congress during the Reagan years pulled their punches with the excuse that the American people, that would be us, couldn't stand another disgraced President. What nonsense, it's the power structure that was afraid the system would be revealed to the people for the perpetually rotten thing that it is - what other kind of leadership can an empire have?. #333 Bums Out Now! (1) - (The Case for Impeachment) The human race is at a crossroads brought on by the destruction of our environment. For the sake of survival and for our happiness, we must transform the way we live, and we must do it now. The government of United States, its policies, and its ideology are a large part of the problem, and the Bush Cheney administration is the distilliation, the standard bearer, of everything that is wrong- calculated liars, torturers, serial killers, looters of the national wealth, subverters of national and international sanity through a campaign of fear and violence, contempt for the American people and everybody and everything else but the profits of an elite circle of already wealthy people. It, they, epitomize a way of being in the world that goes back long before their present terms of office. Our politics and economics require deep structural change that will take time. But serious action must happen now . Impeachment is triage, we must stop, quite literally, the bleeding.. This week you'll hear the case for impeachment, with a special emphasis on torture, as part one of a two part series NOTE TO PODDERS: As far as i can tell, about 4500 people podcast this program each week. I know that some of you are outside the US, because you have written. I'm honored that you choose to listen, especially as this program is very much geared to Americans. So, this message is really for US listeners. Folks, you would not be able to hear this program if not for Radio4all. if you appreciate the program, I beg of you, make a donation of 1 dollar a year to help keep this going. There's a donate button at the top right hand corner of the page. Thanks so much #334 Bums Out Now! (2) - (War Profiteers and Blood Money) In this second part of our series on impeachment, we look at the mafia-like nature of the Bush/ Cheney administration. Behind the waving flags and patriotic rhetoric, what we have is a field day for people who'll walk over dead bodies for a dollar - literally. We're going to begin with Robert Greenwald's wonderful video documentary on war profiteering, Iraq for Sale, which I've adapted for radio. It looks under the covers of the privatization of the military. For years, the public has been inundated with rhetoric of the efficiency of private industry. The question that must be asked is efficient for whom? #335 Casting Shadows - (Coal, Industry, School and the State) This week I'll resume reading from John Taylor Gatto's "Underground History of American Education", as we begin a new chapter that chronicles how economic elites deliberately deintellectualized America in order to create a tractable labor force for the industrial revolution that coal was to fuel. This is not speculation or imagination, you will hear evidence from the documentary record that the literate and independent population of mostly family farmers was conmsidered a threat to a new social order that was being installed - one which would put the control the necessities of life in the hands of a relative few captaims of industry and their legions of managers. The children of america were to be deliberately schooled to serve this new system devoted to industrial production. Last week, we heard about Prussia, the first and foremost example of the modern totalitarian garrison state, and how its population was managed and formed to the needs of the rulers of the state through its tripartite school system. We heard how this school system was deliberately recreated in America, through the efforts of certain reformers backed by industrialists . The social philosopher John Dewey defined politics as the shadow cast by big business over society. It's more like a total eclipse. the creation, expansion management and protection of wealth is, as the they say 90 percent of the law. #336 The Politics of Knowing - (Media, Science, Education, War, Capital and the State) Last week on the program we heard how the emerging class of 19th century industrialists and their political and intellectual allies re-imagined prosperity in terms of coal fired mass production culture, how they set out to deliberately reshape society to that end. This was in essence, a war, in that a few leaders would dictate the sacrifice of the lives of many who were unwitting or unwilling, in the name of national success. This historical example allows us to read between the lines of the official policy debate on the US occupation of iraq between the Bush administration, the incoming Congress and the the Iraq Study Group. It also illuminates the meaning of the response of the political and media establishment toward the work of Dr. Les Roberts, our featured speaker this week. The politics are being framed as a contest between bipartisan so-called pragmatists of the study group, versus administration national security hardliners. In fact, both of these groups represent industries with some type of presnt or hoped for economic interest in Iraq. The policy conflict is just political theater. as the study group has merely repackaged the original and still officially unackowledged objectives of the invasion: the control of the future of Iraq and its resources by an amglo american state/corporate alliance. . Dr. Les Roberts is the author of two studies of mortality in Iraq, conducted in 2004 and this year, which were published in the UK medical journal, the Lancet.Though Roberts research takes him all over the world, he was raised in the Syracuse area and now makes his home in Chenanego county. which is part of New York's 24th congressional district. Roberts made an abortive run in the Democratic congressional, primary this year and he addresses the politics of politics as well as the politics of science and of the media. #337 Growing Freedom - (Fighting Corporate Strategies of Control of Food and Ideas) During this holiday season people will eat drink and make merry. What we eat and drink now and throughout the year effects not only our health, and the health of the environment. It also serves to roll back or extend corporate control.of our lives , as you will hear on the program this week In our ongoing readings from John Taylor Gatto's book the Underground History of American Education, he wrote of the deliberate transformation of American society in the 19th century to centralize control over the necessities of life into the hands of a corporate oligarchy. He explained the role compulsory schooling plays: to mentally homogemize the population to serve that system, and how the discovery of hydrocarbon energy motivated this change, as well as financed it. This social reconfiguation was sold in the name of techological progress and prosperity - and its price was stunted potential individually and stunted self-governance societally, and a sociey that is now largely at the mercy of some corporation to furnish, or withhold our most basic needs. It is true that one can decide amongst what is available, but who decides what is available, and how it is distributed? If you can't decide, your actual freedom is very limited indeed. #338 The God Delusion - (Richard Dawkins in Lynchburg, VA) #339 Democracy without Elections - (Beyond Hierarchies of Privilege) Why elections don't result in popular rule, technocracies and entrenched power, and a look at a system designed to create broad-based voluntary participation in running society, without a state. Have you heard of "demarchy"? 33_
32_ #320 Why Do You Stay in Prison When the Door is Open? - (The Market, the Gift, and the Destruction of Thought) Economics is usually spoken about as a subcategory of activity within the politics of society, but I would like to suggest that the economics of our society are the politics of our society - in that they create the type of political structures and institutions we have. Whereas it is usually said that we have a market economy, what we in fact have is a market society, a market government. Everything is shaped by that fact, even people's individual personalities and behavior, through the institutions of the society. The persistent social ills, poverty, war, violence, greed, waste, remain because they are intrinsic to the structure of markets, not aberrations within in it. #321 Dark Ages America - (Modern US and the Fall of Rome) The period of European history following the collapse of the Roman empire has been called the Dark Ages because of its domination by superstition. It is characterized by mass ignorance and hostility to reason and science and a lack of technological development which is, in our culture, synonymous with progress. The Roman empire and its collapse is the metaphor for the social critque put forward by the speaker we're going to hear in the first half of the program, and it has echoes in the deliberate construction of national ignorance that is emerging from our ongoing reading of John Taylor Gatto's book on American education, which will continue in the second half of the program. Our first speaker, Morris Berman, is a scholar and critic of Western cultural and intellectual history. His recent book, Dark Ages America: the final phase of empire, uses a comparison to the fall of Rome to analyze our present society. Bermans presentation is very dark and he mourns for the passing of an America that barely existed, In the question period that follows his talk, his audience challenges him on that point. #322 Deconstructing Deception - (The 9/11 NORAD Tapes and American Schooling) We are about to be subjected to a barrage from the Bush administration on the 5 year anniversary of 9/11 designed to crank up the terror and drum up support for the terror wars, which is slipping badly in the polls, with 60 percent of the American people wishing US troops out of Iraq, not to mention the wishes of the Iraqi people who are nearly unamimous on that . The opening salvos in the media campaign for our hearts and minds has begun. Yesterday, Sept 2, the New York Times carried an article by Jim Dwyer titled 2 U.S. Reports Seek to Counter Conspiracy Theories About 9/11. It begins as follows... Faced with an angry minority of people who believe the Sept. 11 attacks were part of a shadowy and sprawling plot run by Americans, separate reports were published this week by the State Department and a federal science agency insisting that the catastrophes were caused by hijackers who used commercial airliners as weapons. The official narrative of the attacks has been attacked as little more than a cover story by an assortment of radio hosts, academics, amateur filmmakers and others who have spread their arguments on the Internet and cable television in America and abroad. As a motive, they suggest that the Bush administration wanted to use the attacks to justify military action in the Middle East. Most elaborately, they propose that the collapse of the World Trade Center was actually caused by explosive charges secretly planted in the buildings, rather than by the destructive force of the airliners that thundered into the towers and set them ablaze. " further in to the article, dwyer writes "A nationwide poll taken earlier this summer by the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University found that more than a third of those surveyed said the federal government either took part in the attacks or allowed them to happen. And 16 percent said the destruction of the trade center was aided by explosives hidden in the buildings. The survey questioned 1,010 adults by telephone and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points. Details are available " 911truth.org one of the key sites of the 9/11 truth movement cites another national poll conducted by Zogby, in which 42 percent of American adults , believe that the US government and its 9/11 Commission concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence that contradicts their official explanation of the September 11th attacks, saying there has been a cover-up. So, in spite of the damage to American intellect by schooling that John Taylor Gatto has been discussing in his book the underground history of American education - which will contimnue in our second hour - the project of dumbing has not damaged all American noses so much that they fail to distinguish either the smell of manure or a burning Reichstag #323 Profitable Deception - (The Political Economy of 9/11 and the War on Terrorism) According to the US dept of energy ": â #324 Testifying From the Pit - (Ground Zero First Responders Speak Out) Whoever you are, you won't be the same after you hear this. One speaker says, "There are no longer any Red States, and we must tell CNN, Fox and NBC that we know w are the majority" These talks from 9/10/06 at Manhattan Community Church #325 Deadly Profits, Toxic Thinking - (War, the Media, and the Schools) There is very little about our society which is natural, and by that I mean based on some universal and unchangeable principle, as for example, gravity or the length of days relative to latitude and season. Human society is built on ideas at the most basic level - ideas about human nature and intelligence, the natural world and our place in it, what isvaluable. what is right and who is qualified to decide, . When these fundamental assumptions are widely accepted as true, they appear natural, normal, inevitable, not as the arbitrary customs they in fact are. Our social institutions reflect and perpetuate this consensus reality, in large and small ways, and changing our ideas leads to changes in our institutions. That is why people who are determined to maintain a status quo, battle to control the institutional vectors of reality creation : schools, the media and even religion. A prime example of this is the question of the corporation. A corporation is a legal construct that has been attributed personhood under law, and now enjoys more freedom and power than actual persons. The same society that created corporations, is now ruled by them #326 Making Other Arrangements - (Post Peak-oil Prognosis from James Howard Kunstler) What happened during hurricane Katrina demonstrated starkly that the fate of poor people is of little concern to the people who run things in America. Flood victims were left to starve, then shot at when they tried to get food, then given a one way ticket to anywhere while developers moved in to grab their land for future vacation condos. This should be a cautionary tale as to what to expect in the event of an economic meltdown that suddenly brings millions of people into the ranks of the poor who never expected to be in that position, and who, without a paycheck, have no means to fend for themselves in a society where money must be paid to somebody for even the most basic needs - water, food, shelter, Blaming the poverty on personal failures has been all the rage in America since the 1980's, and the myth of self reliance persists in a society where it has been impossible for more than a century - I mean, it's not like you can find a piece of vacant land, build a log cabin, plant some corn, hunt wild game and draw water from the creek - for most people, the only food they've ever seen comes from a grocery store or a restaurant. The captains of industry drove people off the land and into the cities, then into the suburbs. Underwriting this whole process was cheap fossil fuel - now much less cheap and destined to become more expensive. The widening ripples of the rising price of petroleum, the basis of almost everything in this society, means more downsizing, more mergers. fewer jobs, more people with no money to spend who still must live. Based on the events of Katrina, help won't be coming from Washington, . It's time to think about making other arrangements. #327 Witch Hunters and True Believers - (Ideology and Social Control) It seems strange to me that all of a sudden, immigration has been trumpeted as such a big problem that congress feels compelled to use taxpayer money, including the taxes paid by immigrants, to build walls accross the US borders. This in the wake of a group of armed racists calling themselves the minutemen, patrolling the southern border hoping to accost people crossing from Mexico. I call them racists because they aren't patrolling the Canadian border, where presumably only Anglos would bee crossing, and thus that they are motivated not by issues of undocumented immigrastion per se, just the immigration of Latinos, who are fast become a majority culture in the southwest west. Though they target illgal immigration, its important to undersdtand that immigration laws have long the purpose to control the ethic composition and cultural character of the United states. In previous chapters of the reading I've been doing from John Taylor Gatto's Underground History of American Education, he explained how the developers of compulsory state schooling wanted to impose certain cultural values, those of Anglo Saxon protestants, on the children of immigrants, in order to prevent challenges to the exisitng order. Various social movements challenging class power and priviledge were sweeping across Europe in the 19th century, and swept into America with immigrant populations. This exploitation of immigrants when they arrived here only fueled class based social activism such as the labor union movement, And as we will hear in the first hour of the program from our feminist scholar silvia federici, witch hunts, and I mean the original ones against women alleged to be witches, were based in struggles about power, profit and hierarchy as capitalism came into being,. We'll follow that with another reading from John Gatto's underground history of American education, and its development by what he calls true believers as a method of social engineering modeled on Europeans systems designed to preserve class stratification. #328 Indigenous Rights, Melting Ice and Our Common Future - (Wisdom from an Onondaga Faith-keeper and a Zapotec Psychologist) In 1492, in the process of seeking a shortcut to India, Christopher Columbus encountered a continent which was not on his maps - an abundant land inhabited by tens of millions of hospitable people with unsophistivated weapons. In order to legalize the plundering of the lands of their indigenous hosts, the Pope proclaimed the Doctrine of Discovery, a law that said that only Christians could hold title to lands, and this lands inhabited by nonChristians were available for taking. It is well to remember that most of human history's large scale atrocities have been done legally, in other words the perpetrators announced their actions legal under their own laws. The cultural descendants of these treacherous guests propelled forward by the same greed, arrogance, and short term thinking have created a way of life that is destroying our planetary life support systems. After 500 years of emiseration, the remnants of America's indigenous people are rising in our time, demanding that old promises be kept, and offering ancient wisdom to salvage our common future - this week we'll hear from two people who stand in both worlds - Oren Lyons. Onondaga faithkeeper, scholar and internationally known humans rights activist of central New York and Edita Alavez Ruiz, a Zapotec pshychologist from the state of Oaxaca mexico #329 Deconstructing the "Good" Empire - (Underground History of Empire) What does it mean to live in an empire? What is the nature of empire and what must people believe in order to participate in the process of building and maintaining it. How do people come to think certain ways, believe certain things, and how important to maintaining an empire, this empire, are the stories we tell ourselves about our society? These are the topic of the program this week. We'll begin with a new public class series with social historian John Marciano on empire as a way of life, and we'll resume readings from John Taylor Gatto's Underground History of American Education which dovetails nicely with Marciano's presentation. As you will hear, the education Americans receive about the actions and motivations of the American state lays the groundwork for a national state of mind, and this has global consequences. The media takes up where school leaves off, by amplifying the official stories from the centers of power. An example - if you were alive during the Reagan years you would have often heard the phrase "evil empire" used by the administration to describe the USSR. never confronted in the parade of pundits on the corporate media was the implication that there can be a good empire 32_
31_ #310 Turning History Inside Out to Put the Future Right Side Up - (Native Values versus The Promised Land) Try it, you'll like it! #311 Prophets for Our Time - (Why We Must Bring Down "Civilization" Before it Kills Us All) #312 The War for Dominion - (Religious Fanatics versus Planet Earth) last week on the program, we aired a talk by Derek Jensen which I hope you had a chance to hear. If not, I recommend downling show #311 from our archive at unwelcomeguests.org -In his talk Derek posed a series of questions to us as what our threshold of toleration is for ourtages against ourselves and our ecosystem - he posed this as a series of hypothetical acts by an alien invader - poisong the land, air and water, putting dioxin in every mother' breastmilk, extinguishing 90 percent of the large fish in the ocean, to name a few. These listed asaults on the living world, however, are not hypothetical. They are examples of the actual damage done by industrial civilization, what is called "our way of life." He raised the question, how bad does it have to get before people are willing to do something about it? At a time when sweeping change is needed environmentalists are boxed in by a legal , political and economic power structure that is fighting to preserve present privilege at the cost of losing the future. Jensen compared the acquiescense to this power structure with the nazi final solution. He also referred to Robert J Lifton's research on the nazi concentration camp doctors, Lifton,a psychiatrist wanted to understand how it was that so many doctors, respected members of society who were sworn to heal and not harm, justified their participation in death camps. He interviewed many of them after the war and they told him, that they attempted to help make life more bearable for the the prisoners in whatever way they could . Jensen noted what the nazi doctors did not do, which was the only thing that would actually help the victims, which was challenge and destroy the nazi system that was creating the atroticity in the first place. Both Jensen abd the previous weeks speaker Seneca elder and professor John Mohawk targeted the beliefs that that underlie western society, as one's that that encourage, or at least permit widespread environmental destruction- Jensen called this not inhabiting the place we live It seems to me that the failure of the majority to confront and prevent the preventable, whether genocide or ecocide resides in the mind rather than in any obstacle of the physical world. What ideas and ideologies are shaping this society's action's in the world? #313 Freedom Fries - (What's on the menu for the Declaration's 230th Birthday?) July 4, 1776 - after declaring equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness inalienable human rights, insurgent colonists who would not be governed against their will took up arms against King George, who they called a tyrant. They called themselves patriots. king george and his men called them criminals. Though the patriots won their war, they abandoned the ideals of the declaration of july 4th as they set up a nation in which 90 percent of the people in it were slaves - chattel slaves, marital slaves or debt slaves. Since then, many have fought and even died for those inalenable rights, but they have *not* been called patriots. They have been called criminals, and some are rotting in jail right now. On the celebration of the declaration's 230th birthday, we'll present some reportage on the doings of patriots and criminals - you decide which are which. #314 The Green Scare - (The Federal Crusade Against Activists) Conventional wisdom is that there are no political prisoners in the United States. But that's incorrect, there are and there have always been. Every development that was decent and good in this country has required the people to face down the government and its police - the end of slavery, human and civil rights for women and people of color, an improvement of the conditions under which most must labor, to name a few Before any reforms have been enshrined in law or policy, reformers wer beaten, imoprisoned and even killed. It required a critical mass of deliberate and, disobedient citizenry to reject what was then lawful in favor of what was right, thus causing the system to bend so it would not break. It has always taken great courage. And like soldiers, the reformers in the front lines take the most casualities. The strategy of the state is to rout them before reinforcements arrive, to silence them before they can inspire others to join the cause Recent revelations that environmental and antiwar groups top the government's list of domestic threats have elicted responses of puzzlement from many ordinary citizens. But it's not a mistake or foolishness on the part of the state -these movements challenge the arrogance of the powerful to own the natural world and its creatures as chattel, their right to despoil the homes and habitats of others for personal gain, and the production and consumption of endless more that has led us to an impending environmental catastrophe that threatens to end life as we know it on this planet. On the program this week you will hear how the law punishes people who burn down buildings for money with far less severity than those who burn down buildings for love. In the past few months , federal officials have arrested dozens of environmental and animal rights activists in connection with a series of arsons and other militant actions that occurred in several western states in the 1990's . The charges could result in prison sentences of life plus hundres of years, while those who do arson for profit normally receive 5 to ten years in prison. We're going to hear a forum on how the law has been used to suppress social movements in the past, and how it is now being used in what has been termed, the green scare. The forum was held june 26 in New York City and arranged by the Natioanl Lawyers Guild, (nlg.org) which is assisting in the defense of the green scare prisoners #315 Slaphappiness Machines - (Engineering America's Faux Democracy - Part 1) a cbs/new york times poll conducted in 2004 found that , "59% of the American people trust the federal government to do what is right only some of the time," even as 64% responded that "government is pretty much run by a few big interests looking out for themselves. if 64% - almost 2/3, of the people believe that "government is pretty much run by a few big interests looking out for themselves" why haven't they, we, made things change? A simple question without a simple answer, but this week we'll begin a series seeking whatever answers we can find #316 Ephors and Citizens - (Engineering America's Faux Democracy - Part 2) This week we continue our series on social control, with part 2 of the Century of Self, a video documentary by Adam Curtis adapted for radio, on the use of Freud's theories by government and corporations to manage the minds of the American people. Another reading from John Taylor Gatto's "Underground History of Education in America" in the second hour #317 The Policeman in Your Head - (Engineering America's Faux Democracy - Part 3) Thanks to Adam Curtis, David Rovics davidrovics.com #318 Gilded Cage - (Engineering America's Faux Democracy - Part 4) Subverting democracy and maintaining elite control of society through the creation of "consumers" #319 Ecocidal, Homicidal, Mass-Instructed Me! - (Ecology, Hierarchy, Education and Social Control) Over the last month we've heard a series, the Century of Self, about how the consumer culture was created in the 20th century as a strategy to control the supposedly irrational masses, who were to be psychologically manipulated to accentuate trivial selfishness in the guise of self actualization, and offered consumer choicer in lieu of real freedom. The subjugation of societies by rulers is, of course, far older than the 20th century, as are the rationalizations they create to legitimize their rule . They have crushed the intelligence, creativity and dignity of those thety rule through various coercive means, then presented their stunted societies as the natural order of things. As our readings from John Taylor Gatto's "Underground History of American Education" show, we have an education system created to adjust people to that order by breaking their minds and spirits 'til they fit the mold. Human social arrangements have also provided misguided templates for human interaction with the natural world, with now evident consequences. In his groudbreaking 1965 essay "Ecology and Revolutionary Thought," Murray Bookchin wrote:" An anarchist society, far from being a remote ideal, has become a precondition for the practice of ecological principles." He predicted " "If we do not do the impossible, we shall be faced with the unthinkable." 31_
30_ #300 A War Between Nations, a War Within Nations - (Class War, Oil War and the Economy) Webster's dictionary defines economy as: a system of producing, distributing, and consuming wealth. A neutral description of a social construct that is far from neutral. Who decides what wealth is and how it is produced, distributed and consumed? What ideological assumptions underlie this process, and what policies are implemented in its service, by whom, and to what ends? We have heard the term war economy, which suggests that there is also a peace economy. If so, we have never experieciened it, because, as you will hear from several angles on the program this week, the economy we have is in itself a war, a war between nations and a war within nations. #301 Stupefying the Group Mind - (Managing the Class War with PR and TV) #302 Who Are These People? - (The Onondaga Nation Encounters European Settlers) This week, the third installment of the year long collaborative educational project on the Onondaga nation's lawsuit to regain their ancestral lands, guaranteed to them by several treaties made over the centuries, first with European colonial governments and then the newly formed United states. The collabotative deucational project, sponsored by the Onandagas, Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation, and Syracuse University, is bringing together Ononadaga and other Haudenosaunee speakers, academics and community members to understand the history, culture and role that the six nations of Haudensaunee, also known as the Iroquois confederacy, have had on the US, and the effect of theUSon the Haudenosaunee and other indigenous nations. This history has been taught to generations of school children in a heavily biased way - unquestioned were the rights of the so-called founding fathers, pilgrims, colonists, pioneers to what they did - wage a geniocidal land grab perpetrated against innocent people . Manifest destiny, the doctrine used to justify this, was presented , during my education at least, as a positive development leading to American greatness. These programs present, finally, the other side of the story. What you're about to hear is a recording made last Tuesday that contains one of the most amazing teachersI have ever had the privilege to hear, Onandaga Beaver Clan Chief Irving Powless Jr. who seized the time, and after the formal presentation was concluded, led the audience in an exercise to make them understand the meaning of the Onondaga landclaim in a personal way... #303 The Shape of Things to Come - (Preparing for Energy Descent) Understanding and preparing for energy descent - audio from "Fuelling the Future" and a new study confirms benefits of organic farming #304 US Wars and Social Control - (From Regime Change Abroad to the War on Drugs at Home) #305 Designing the Future - (Turning the Energy Crisis into an Opportunity) Using peak oil as an opportunity to create the kind of world we want to live in through decentralization and earth stewardship #306 Does God Love War? - (A Dialog on Religion and the State with Chris Hedges and Hamza Yusuf) A Christian ex-war correspondent and an Islamic Scholar address religion's role in state violence and social conflict (talk is from March 2006) #307 When Lawmaking Becomes Rebellion - (Water Privatization, Democracy School and the Corporate State) Rural america is known for sending its children to the military to fight for a vision of America, one that doesn't quite exist. They believe their government when it tells them they must fight communists in tiny country x or terrorists in impoverished country z. Ironically, these soldiers from rural America have more in common with the insurrectionary third world villagers they're fighting than they realize- both live in places that are being beaten down for the sake of a corporate bottom line somwwhere. Our "defenders of American democracy" find out just how little democracy they have when they try to stop a corporation from ruining their home town . A new populist alliance of long time environmental activists and rural folk in central Pennsylvania has grown out of a struggle to ban toxic agribusiness operations that have targeted the area as the next profit opportunity. This movement is taking a new approach that is spreading across America via a project of public education and organization called democracy schools, that are teaching direct action lawmaking to challenge corporate supremacy and to create rights under law for people and the land #308 What If They Gave A War and Nobody Came - (Getting People Out of the Military and Keeping Them Out) Two workshops on GI war resistance, conscientious objection and counter-recruitment #309 Vicious Cycles - (US Wars and War Crimes From Vietnam to Iraq) If you're a baby boomer, you may recall how we blamed our parents' generation for allowing US politicians, of both parties, then as now, to conduct a criminal and horrific war, based on lies, to satisfy the lust for power and wealth of old men. Now the atrocities are happening on our watch, and despite the 60's generation's efforts to create a new society, - where the old would not use the young, where the rich would not use the poor, as pawns in their in their flesh and blood monoploy games - the same bankrupt ideas and policies still dog our efforts to create a better society. In some cases even the same cast of characters - such as Cheney, Rumsfeld, Negroponte return as a re-occurring nightmare to reenact the Viet Nam war overtly and covertly in many countries under many rationalizations. Our institutions are a travesty and it falls to us as a people to take responsibility and stop a criminal regime. This week on the program, several speakers address strategies for accountability. 30_
29_ #290 Spy Crimes and Misdemeanors - (Excerpts from Conyer's Jan 20 hearings on domestic surveillance and presidential power) "unofficial " hearings were held Jan 20, 2006 in Washington DC in illegal spying by Bush administration on dissenters under the guise of the "war on terror" #291 The Fascist State of the Union - (A Time for Action) In the past week , Bush and his cronies have been touring the country to justify their domestic spying program, bipartisan calls from a despicable Congress to retroactively legalize their crimes are being spun out to us by a craven media, and the Senate gets ready to vote on the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice who favors a national secutity dictatorship. Meanwhile, four beloved people from our community have been carted off to Federal prison for what was, in real terms, a small protest against an illegal and unjust war started by those same officials that has resulted in carnage. This week on the program, you will hear, from a variety of voices, what the actual state of the union is, and hopefully be called to action to change it. #292 The Moral Imperative of Regime Change - (A forum on the Impeachment of the Bush Administration) This week on the program, we will present a forum held last week in Washington DC on the impeachment of the Bush administration. You will hear a discussion that should have been, but was not, taking place on the floor of Congress. A forum that should have been aired on every major media outlet, but was not. The moderater was lawyer Kevin Zeese, an independent candidate for senate and a lead activist with the DC- based peace group Democracy Rising , democracyrising.us, which he founded with Ralph Nader and Virginia Rodino. Panelists were Marcus Raskin of the Institute for Policy Studies, Former diplomat Ann Wright, Former attorney general Ramsey Clark, David Swanson of Afterdowningstreet.org, and Cindy Sheehan of gold star families for peace In addition to the legalistic issues that you will hear raised by panelists and questioners, the most important part of this in my view for citizens such as ourselves is the moral imperative raisid by panelists- we have an obligation to stop a government and power structure which is making on war on the world for the purpose of looting it. Ironically, it was our nation's entry into world war 2 that that tipped the balance against Hitler and liberated the concentration camps. In this present situation, we can expect no rescue from outside, and we are, as a people, complicit with the crimes of our government if we do not stop them, whether or not we are personally suffering from this regime. I mention this because many people in Germany lived quite normally, and even saw improvements in their personal situation under fascism, Such people, even if they were bakers or plumbers, were deemed, in the discourse of the war crimes trials and principles laid down at Nuremburg, to have failed in their obligation to oppose the conduct of their government. Panel was took place last week #293 9/11 and The Physics of Tyranny - (Proof that the WTC Towers Were Brought Down by Controlled Demolitions, an Inside Job) evidence that the 3 three steel skyscrapers that collapsed in New York City on Sept 11, 2001 did so as a result of controlled demolition, that the airplanes crashes provided the cover but were not the cause of the collapses, and that the rigging of the so #294 9/11 and the Role of the Military - (Intimidating the Public, the Congress and the Press) Last week's show on the controlled demolition of the world trade center towers on Sep 11th motivated many listeners to take government involvement in the 9/11 attacks seriously, and to tell others. That the government is lying about 9/11 is easy to prove, but for many people it is either hard to believe or to risky to even talk about. This week we hear a range of speakers on 9/11 and we consider its use as part of a campaign of terror. #295 Stealing Home - (New Orleans Refugees Fight for the Right of Return) The winds have died down and the flood waters receded but the nightmare is far from over for the people of New Orleans, especially the people of the city's 9th ward. After being left to drown on their rooftops, herded into a convention center without food and water, derided as looters when they tried to find their own and prevented from escaping to safety from the flooded city by white cops from the suburbs, they were sent away on buses with one way tickets. Now They're trying to return home in the face of a business and government alliance that wants to exile them forever and turn their neighborhod into an upscale tourist mecca. Meanwhile, thousands of volunteers have answred their cry for help and solidarity with new orleans' perpetually second class citizens #296 The Two Row Wampum - (Onondaga Land Rights and Land Stewardship) The United States government made dozens treaties with native nations, and has broken them all. In the few decades, many of those nations have gone to court to demand enforcement or compensation for these violated treaties. Last year, the Onondaga Nation in Central New York State filed a groundbreaking land claim against the state of New York. Unlike other claims by native nations which sought monetary compensation or casino rights, the Onodaga are asserting their traditional role of earth stewardship to the seventh generation, as laid out in their Great Law of Peace, to heal their ancestral territories that have been devastaed by industrial pollution Onondaga Land Rights & Our Common Future, is a year long series of educational programs sponsored by, Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON) a grassroots organization of Central New Yorkers which recognizes and supports the sovereignty of the traditional government of the Onondaga Nation. This week part one, "The Nation in Our Midst: Onondaga History, Culture and Spirituality, with onandaga leaders Tadadaho Sid Hill and clan mother Audrey Shenandoah. First, we'll begin with an historical overview of the treatment and attitude of the Euopean settler stoward Native Americans with Professor John Marciano from his public class lecture series based on Howard Zinn's Peoples' History of the United States #297 Nuclear Apocalypse and the Democracy Deficit - (Noam Chomsky in Binghamton, NY) Noam Chomsky spoke March 4 at Binghamton university to standing room only audience on the increased threat of nuclear proliferation as a result of US actions and called upon Americans to organize and remedy the deficit of democracy in the united states. #298 The Longest Revolution - (Dismantling Patriarchy and the Native Example) Women's struggle for equality in America, and the influence of the egalitarian Haudenosaunee on 19th century feminist thinkers and activists #299 Sadism and Empire - (From South Dakota to Abu Ghraib) Since the relevations of programmatic sexualized torture at Abu Ghraib and many other US military prisons, a few low level personnel have been given show trials as "bad apples", in order to deflect blame from the commanders and civilian officials such as Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales, who advocated the torture policy and now seek to deny it because it has been exposed. Sadistic torture in the service of American foreign policy. however, is not new. For example, sadistic torture was carried out under American tutelage in Central America in the 1980's by foreign military officers trained at the US School of the Americas, These torture programs, called counter insurgency, were supervised by the CIA. Diana Ortiz, an American nun, is one person who lived to tell of her arrest and torture in Guatemala, which included gang rape and cigarette burns. She reported that her torture sessions were presided over by an American advisor, to whom the Guatemalans deferred. The general american self view is that we are a benevolent culture and that these sadistic acts are aberrations. I would like to suggest that they are too commonly found in American culture to be aberrations, and that they are found in every culture based on hierarchy and rank - the social structure epitomized by the military, as well as by patriarchal theocracies. Most people do not believe, or do not wish to acknowledge that sadism is a perenniel feature of the military and of societies that glorify the military. What do I mean by sadism? Sadism is deriving sexual arousal from the infliction of suffering and humiliation on others. 29_
28_ #280 Work, Hierarchy and Freedom - (Is Employment Consistent With a Free Society?) The words freedom and democracy are often heard as part of the official dialog to describe what our society is and has and what others lack. The meanings of these words are gnerally undefined, and their application to what actually happens in this society is considerd too outre for mainstream political discourse. The unmentioned elephant in the parlor is that our putative American freedoms accrue to indivduals in proportion to their position in an economic hierarchy that dooms most to a life with very little freedom indeed - if freedom means the ability to amply meet one's physical survival needs with dignity so that one may spend one's time and effort in an meaningful and emotionally satisfying way. Is our economic system based on employment compatible with a free society or with self government? #281 Full Spectrum Dominance by Any Means Necessary - (Are the Republicans Planning Another Terrorist Attack on America?) #282 Stolen Elections and Beyond - (Popular Rule and the Capitalist Elite) The obvious question is why don't Democrats challenge the rigged elections? Don't they want to win? Are they just spineless, or do they believe the elections were honest? Consider another possibility, that the party leadership won't challenge them because they have no alternative plan - that can save the profits of Wall Street and Corporate America without having a police state at home and an empire abroad #283 Tools of Oppression and Liberation - (The People v. The State) #284 Restoring What is So Nearly Lost - (Responding to corporate dominance, the evil empire and ecocide) A People's History of the WTO, alarming climate facts, the empire strikes back against earth defenders, and Harold Pinter rips the evil empire a new asshole #285 Post-Soviet Lessons for a Post-American Century - (A Reading of Dmitri Orlov's Essay on Surviving Economic Collapse) This article was published in From The Wilderness www.fromthewilderness.com #286 Toyless in Toil-land - (What would it Take to Get Peace on Earth) The holiday season is a time when peace on earth and good will toward others are spoken about and sung about, then are put aside with the torn wrappings in the garbage can, and the world moves on in its cycle of wars and the space between wars which is called peace but is a quiet that descends when the vanquished are too exhausted to continue struggling against the victor. Religions promise peace but have served as a pretext for wars for millennia. The leaders of nations extoll peace as they make war, or else they extoll war as a means to peace, which really just means victory. Most wars now in progress are not between nations but within them, and most of the armies are in place to fight people in their own nation state. Some say that warmaking is an essential part of human nature - if this is so, then why do people so want peace? Goodwill is a prerequisite for peace, yet our societies are not structured to promote good will - very much the opposite. The good will that is in us is systematically assaulted, callousness and viciousness rewarded. Not officially of course, but in practice. #287 The 500 Year old Wrong Turn - (Making "Small is Beautiful" Beautiful Again) la.soundposse.org #288 Crude Designs on Iraq - (Addressing the questions of gangsterism, atrocity and complicity) #289 Freedom Train - (Histories of the Meaning of "race" and "freedom" in America) Two historians on race, slavery, and freedom in america- in the first hour John Marciano returns with his public discussion group on Zinn's People's History with commentary on the function of race and slavery within empire, then Eric Foner talk 28_
27_ #270 Beyond the Democracy Theme Park - (Democracy School #1) #271 We Are All Refugees - Disaster, Dissent and the Sabotaged Revolution - (Democracy School #2) #272 Who Wields the Constitution Against Whom? - (Democracy School #3) #273 Taking on the Empire - (The Trial of the St Patrick's Day 4 and Doug Dowd on Disenthralling America) First hour, a wrap of last weeks federal conspiracy trail of four Ithaca peace activists, then Prof. Doug Dowd on disenthralling ourselves with the story of America in order to make a decent society #274 Citizen's Tribunal on Iraq from Binghamton, NY #1 - (The Diplomatic analysis) #275 Citizen's Tribunal on Iraq from Binghamton, NY #2 - (High Crimes and War Crimes) #276 9/11 and the Permanent Government - (The broader context of 9/11) John Judge is an independent researcher and lecturer on political assassinations, covert operations, hidden history, and the rise of fascism in America. He has been active since the 1960's opposing war, racism and militarism . Judge is a co-fo #277 Winter Soldiers - (From My Lai to Abu Ghraib and Falluja) Audio excerpts from the 1972 film "Winter Soldiers" a documentary of the VVAW 1971 Winter Soldier Investigation, then a panel of central New York Vets commenting on the film and comparing it to the recent wars #278 Leaving the Empire - (Vermont Secession #1) Audio from the first statewide conference on Vermont secession 10/28/05 - sponsored by Second Vermont Republic - vermontrepublic.org #279 "It is Intolerable.." - (Vermont Secession #2) 27_
26_ #260 The Quality of Life In the USA, Human Need versus Stupidity and Cupidity - (Doug Dowd Lecture Series #5) This week we continue with our twice monthly class series by economist Doug Dowd based on his as yet unpublished recent book - the USA, where we are where we're headed. This week he addresses the indexes for quality of life in America, income, security, education, and housing. But we are going to begin our show with a story centered here in Ithaca that deals with quality of life issues as well - the environment we live in and who has the power, and who does not, to make decisions about how the physical space, in our communities is used. #261 The Lengthening Shadow - (Bush's New Wars on Iran and on America) #262 Fighting From the Bottom - (A Community Forum on Iraq, the Downing Street Memos, the Media & the Future of the American Republic) Several hundred people packed into the Christ Episcopal church in Binghamton last Thursday to hear Hinchey's presentation on the Downing Street Memos and Iraq. When he came to the front to speak, the audience rose to give him an extended standing ov #263 Where We Live - (Green Space, Development, Job Scams and the American Nightmare) #264 Blood Money, The Economics of American Militarism Then and Now - (Doug Dowd Lecture Series #6) #265 9/11 Commission Report One Year Later - (Did the Commission get it right?) Capitol hill briefing sponsored by Cynthis McKinney on the 9/11 cover-up - this hearing not covered by the corporate media7/22 #266 The Big Lies of the Fourth Reich - (9/11 and the Pretexts for Wars of Empire) #267 He Who Goes Extinct With the Most Toys Wins - (Doug Dowd on Capitalism and the Environment) #268 The Dark Tower and the Ivory Tower - (Technology and Techniques of Social Control) #269 Equality and Ideology - (Doug Dowd Lecture Series #8) 26_
25_ #250 Why Everything Looks the Same - (Wealth, Poverty and Global Capitalism) #251 Utopia By Necessity - (Peak Oil, Relocalization and the New Agrarian Movement) #252 A Radical Analysis of US Capitalism and the Society It Created - (Doug Dowd Lecture Series #1)) If you appreciate downloading this show, please help support the A-Infos Radio Project! We need to raise $500 a month to pay for our bandwidth, and the hard drives are getting full too. Thanks! #253 9/11 and the Global Domination Project - (The Case and Motives for Government Complicity) see http://www.911truth.org PLease distribute this information to people who don't know #254 Power, Inequity and the Media - (Doug Dowd Lecture Series (2)) Dowd continues with his class based on his upcoming book The USA: where we are and where we're headed, focusing on hierachy and its life destroying effects, and the intrinsic harm of corporate power and capitalist ideology - then Bernie Sanders on di #255 The Politics of Greed and White Supremacy - (Jean St. Vil on Haiti Fighting Terrorism: Before Napoleon I, Beyond Bush II) Talk was originally givem 4/25/05 #256 The USA - Where we are and Where we are Headed - (Doug Dowd Lecture Series #3) Radical economist Doug Dowd continues his series on the political economy of the US, this time focussing on the financialization of the economy #257 Weapon of Mass Extinction - (Breaking into the Media Silence on Depleted Uranium) #258 The Ponzi Economy, Meeting the Needs of Some by Swindling the Rest - (Doug Dowd Lecture Series #4) Part 4 of the series of lectures by radical economist Doug Dowd on The USA: Where we are and where we're headed and then the motive behind Social Security privatization and why it won't save Wall Street #259 The Downing Street Minutes Hearings - (John Conyers and others) Excerpt of "Downing Street Minutes Hearing"s from 6/16/05 25_
24_ #240 Delusions and Depredations - (The Psychopathic Worship of Destruction, The Corporation #1) Now, in the most elaborate civilization in our species' existence, we are dominated by social institutions that are not only threatening these basic necessities of life, but also doing their best to suppress action to avert calamity. This week, we look at several aspects of this pathological behavior. First, we are very pleased to bring you pert one of a three part radio adaptation of the tour de force documentary, The Corporation. In part one, the corporation as psychopath. Then a report on two former Fox Televison reporters who asking the FCC to revoke FOX's broadcast license for lying to the public, and we conclude with Mark Twain's posthumously published satire on human hypocrisy, Letters from Earth, adapted for radio. #241 Moral Absence Inc. - (Truthseeking in the Corporate Hall of Mirrors, The Corporation #2) Part 2 of the Corporation, a radio adaptation of the film by Achbar, Abbott and Bakan, Ithaca fights for a living wage at Wal-Mart, and another episode of "The Mysterious Stranger" #242 Resisting the Corporate War on the World - (The Corporation #3) There is a war raging everywhere on this planet. It's being waged with bombs and laws and money, by corporate investors and their government allies, in order to rule the world. Some of these warrios call this state of affairs a fight for freedom and some of call it a free market. But millions and millions call it slavery and are rising up in various ways to make a different world. This week we focus on resistance, from local to global. We'll conclude with part 3 of the corporation, and then we'll hear how rural communties can, and are are sucessfully standing up to corporate incursions. But first, our own community is making the news this week. #243 The Incantations of Whiteness - (Ask Black Folks About American Moral Values) Listen! #244 Toward a Market-Free Economy - (Why Markets Do Not and Cannot Meet Our Needs - and What Can) #245 Not Their Soldier - (War Resistance and Class Consciousness Grows in the US Military Community) If you appreciate being able to download this show, then please, please donate what you can to the road that gets it here - The A-Infos Radio Project. The Project needs to raise 500 dollars every month! http://www.radio4all.net/news/030905-update.ph #246 The Contradictions of Empire - (Cracks in the Foundation of American Hegemony) Please support the A-Infos Radio Project! This show depends on it! Thanks! #247 The Human Costs of the Iraq War - (Reports from Iraq) Maura Stephens is a longtime journalist and activist who spent 19 years at Newsweek magazine. Now an independent reporter, as well as an educator and activist, she is a member of the national Iraq Speakers Bureau and editorial and policy adviser to EPIC, the Education for Peacein Iraq Center. She also works with Life for Relief and Development to bring humanitarian aid to the people of Iraq. She is known in the Ithacaarea for her work toward peace, justice, equity, media reform, electoral reform, and citizen engagement in democracy. In this presentation, taped on March 19, 2004, Stephens shared some of the information she has gathered during her research and extensive interviews with Iraqis before the invasion and during the occupation of Iraq. #248 Pens Against the Sword - (Fighting to Tell the Truth About the Empire) Seymour Hersh on the "Chain of Command" , Mark Manning, bearing witness to the atrocities in fallujah, and Robert Jensen on the choice between humanity and empire facing Americans #249 Pulling Back from the Brink - (Taking Responsibility for Climate Change) If you appreciate downloading this program, please support the A-Infos Radio Project. Thanks! 24_
23_ #230 Geopolitics and Moonshine - (Peak Oil and Community Solutions, part 2) The US political and corporate establishment began to address issues of oil scarcity as far back as the mid 20th century, and at every opportunity since then, chose the path of increasing consumption backed by overt militarism and covert neocolonial strategies involving the establishment of dictatorial puppet regimes ready to guard US access to oil, a patterm that continues in the latest round of resource wars in the middle east. In the first hour of the program, the geopolitics of oil, with Pat Murphy, in the second hour we address the possibilites of home grown energy in the form of ethanol with permaculturist David Blume. #231 Permaculture and Human Culture - (Peak Oil and Community Solutions, part 3) This week we continue our series of presentations from the first national conference on peak oil and community solutions held last month in Yellow Springs, Ohio. In the previous weeks' programs, speakers have explained how modern industrial society has been made possible by cheap and plentiful fossil fuel energy, which from this point on will be increasingly expensive and scarce, and how this is likely to impact an economic system which is based on the false assumptions of unlimited natual resources and endless growth. And we have heard how our population, techonolgies, and expectations of bigger and better, are on a collision course with the finite resources of this planet. In this episode we'll focus on sustainable agriculture in the context of sustainable human culture, and examine our assumptions about progress, technology, and social relations in light of our ecological reality. We'll begin with a presentation from the conference on Permaculture, a design system that many believe is the perfect tool for transition to the energy descent society #232 High On the Hog - (Greed, Fraud and the GOP) Computer programmer comes forward to tell how a Republican Congresman comissioned him to rig the vote, the irony of the Ukraine and the open season on Iraq's assets #233 Community, a Renewable Resource - (Peak Oil and Community Solutions, part 4) If you appreciate this program, please support the A-Infos Radio Project without which this program would not be possible. Thanks #234 Global Relocalization - (Taking Control of How We Live Where We Live) If you appreciate this program, please donate to the A-Infos Radio Project that makes the spreading of this information possible Read about way to contribute here http://www.radio4all.net/donate.php #235 Hacking The Matrix - (The Power of Nightmares #1) Thanks to the folks who donated. If you like this program, and haven't donated yet, please support the A-Infos Radio project! http://www.radio4all.net/donate.php #236 If We Have Information... - (The Anatomy of the Politics of Fear, The Power of Nightmares #2) This week we'll take another swing at the lies that maintain the politics of fear that mask the policies of empire. In the first hour, The Power of Nightmares continues, and then we'll uncover the cover-up on 9/11 with David Ray Griffin and Dennis Bernstein. #237 Leaving The land of Cockayne - (The Motives and Methods of the US Government, The Power of Nightmares #3) This week, the final episode of the Power of Nightmares: the Rise of the Politics of Fear, and then, the real story of the assasination of Dr. Martin Luther King - a plot to destroy a growing popular movement orchestrated by the FBI with the collaboratio #238 Speaking Merikkan - (Deconstructing the Imperial Newsspeak with Noam Chomsky) What does Bush mean by "democracy?" Who is the real enemy? What are "special interests?" IN this 1986 talk on "The Right Turn" Chomsky explores the ongoing efforts of American elites to suppress actual democratic participation at home and abroad. This talk focusses on American foreign policy from Vietnam to the Reagan years, and from this we can be quite clear as to the actual nature of the Bush agenda, what "Liberty" will look like. #239 The Military-Monetary System - (From Imperial Wars, to Covert Coups to Spatial Deconcentration in Urban America) What does the US invasion of Iraq, the kidnapping of a popular Haitian president by US commandos and homelessness in New York City have to do with one another? Thay are part of the military-monetary system 23_
22_ #220 Motive, Means and Opportunity - (New Evidence of Bush Administration Complicity in 9/11) The Bush/Cheney administration declared Sept 11 as "patriot day," but a growing international citizen movement has called this the "summer of truth" - the point at which the true role of the Bush/Cheney administration in the events of 911 will finally be told. These 911 truth activists are no longer a small group crying in the wind. Last week on the program, we covered a new Zogby poll which revealed that half (49.3%) of New York City residents and 41% of New York citizens overall say that some of our leaders "knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act," Tonight on the program we're going to present some critical new information one of the most suspicious aspects of the of the government response to the hijacked planes, that is their lack of response, its failure to send the the airforce in pursuit of the hijacked planes which has been the routine practice for the past 35 years. #221 Profits and Pretexts - (9/11, Peak Oil and Endless War) What is peak oil, and how does it relate to 9/11 as a pretext for US invasion of Iraq? It won't be the first time that US leaders have staged a violent incident in order to start a war with economic objectives, as Richard Sanders explains. #222 I Kill Therefore I Am - (Deception, Self-Deception and the Quest for Empire) #223 The Omission Commission (1) - (9/11 Citizen's Commission Hearings, NYC 2004-09-09) PLease burn this to a CD and drop it on anyone with a Bush/Cheney sign in their front yard #224 The Omission Commission (2) - (Dick Cheney's smoking gun) Testimony from the 911 Citizen's Comission Hearings , New York City 9/9/04 If the mass media played this stuff, it would change the world. Copy this, pass it on! #225 God Bless Democracy, Inc. - (Christian Fascism and Corporate Rule) In the words of journalist Catherine Yurica : "Americans and the main-stream media have been very slow in catching on to the fact that we are in a war #226 Corporate Media, Corporate Rule - (America's Captive Audience) This week on the program we'll focus on how the corporate media system is undermining the conditions necessary for democratic governemce, and we'll hear frank talk from two public officials who have joined forces with, scholars, journalists and citizens in the media democracy movement to do something about it. We'll begin with a forum on media consolidation that took place last week at Ithaca College. Among the particpants were dissident FCC commissioner Michael Copps and Ithaca's member of Conmgress Maurice Hinchey who has introduced a bill that if passed would take steps to diversify media ownership and reinstitute the fairness doctrine. Then an interview with John Buchanan, author of Fixing America: Breaking the Stranglehold of Corporate Rule, Big Media and the Religious Right. #227 Making Monsters - (The Ugly realities of Wars and Warriors) Updates on 9-11, government covers up its possession WTC jetliners' flight recorders, citizens file unprecedented complaint demanding criminal investigation by New York Attorney General into 9/11, and frank talk about war and atrocities from those wh #228 Powerdown, the Counter-Apocalypse - (The Need to Take Matters into Our Own Hands) We are in a fix, caught between a hammer of ecological and economic meltdown and a well organized group of Christian fascists and their neocon allies determined to impose biblical rule in America while making war on the world for its remaining resources. First on the program, American historian and man of letters, Gore Vidal, on the recent election and the theocratic assault on the American state, Then we turn to the other juggernaut on our horizon, the collapse of industrial civilation as a result of energy depletion and the choices we face, as explained by ecologist Richard Heinberg in his recent book Powerdown: options and actions for a post carbon world. #229 Cooperate or Die - Beyond Resource Wars - (Peak Oil and Community Solutions, part 1) Last week 200 participants and presenters from across the country gathered in Yellow Springs, Ohio for the first US conference on peak oil and community solutions. The focus of the conference was organizing, learning, teaching and implementing the social and technological changes needed to make the transition to a sustainable low energy society, and to take this initiative at the grassroots level, especially necessary becausae our so called leaders are not realistically or humanely addressing this impending crisis. This week, and for the next several weeks, we'll bring you presentations from the conference including general and specific ideas on cooperative living, ecological practices, and relocalization of the economy as necessary and even inherently desirable adaptations for the future of human society The conference was organized by Community Service, a group based in Yellow Springs o wIt founded in 1949 by Arthur Morgan as an educational institution focused on the ideas and practices of small community and which has been a pioneer in the intentional community and cohousing movements. And to fonish off the show, the suppressed history of a planned fascist coup in America 22_
21_ #210 American Icons - (A look at some of the national mythologies, and realities, in the Land of the Free) Myths and realities of Americas leaders, wars, and free market #211 The Weather Report From Hell - (Climate Change and the War Machine) The realities and politics of dealing with climate change, and the role of US military experiments in catastrophic weather events #212 Conspiracy Reality - (Understanding the Tools Used to Perpetuate Lies) George Bush's Rape rooms, beyond labels that block inquiry, how to get beyond the media blockade on challenges to the "official story" #213 Some Dare Call It Treason - (9/11: New Pearl Harbor. Reichstag Redux, or "Intelligence Failure"?) What Democracy Now wouldn't let you hear, plus material from Phase 2 (Toronto) of the Citizens Inquiry into the Unanswered Questions of 9/11 #214 Demanding The Possible - (Confronting the Corporate World Order Locally and Globally) see notes #215 The Oil We Eat - (Agriculture and Energy Descent) The Program begins with a reading of an article "The Oil We Eat: Following the Food Chain Back to Iraq" which makes the connection between agriculture, empire and the origin of wealth. Then David Holmgren, co-founder of the Permaculture movement, and what this system of environmental design has to offer to a post-petroleum world #216 The New Radicalism - (Towards A World Where Many Worlds Are Possible) In the first hour, direct action organizer David Solnit on his new book "Globalizing Liberation," which is compilationn of essays on the new radicalism, a movement bringing together many movements that is offering an alternative to the world order of market capitalism. In the second hour, a documentary on how people are revivng a very old tradition of direct democracy in America, the town meeting, in an effort to make their voicse heard on the issues they care about #217 Mom, Apple Pie and Jack Boots - (Constitutional Rights Aren't Rights If You Can't Use Them) Do you have a right of free speech if the only way you can use it is in ways that don't offend the government? Do you have a right to assemble freely to demonstrate your disapproval of government policies if you're only allowed to do this in such way that it has no impact? This week on the program we'll look at the extent to which our constitutional rights are actually respected - the freedom to speak, to hold views and freely associate with others, to demonstrate , to be protected from cruel and unusal punishment and to have one's person or belongings safe from arbitrary search and seizure by agents of the state. These are the American freedoms that we are told are being protected by the endless war. We'll report on new developments in the court case of four teenage peace activsts in Ithaca, then Abu Ghraib, USA. In our second hour a lesson on your rights and how to protect them while protesting, speciallu geared to listeners headed to New York to protest the Republican Convention #218 B@lm in Gilead - (The Struggle for America) The Republican Nationmal Convention gets underway tomorrow in New York City but the Republicans are truly unwelcome guests there, recent polls show that 80 percent of New York City residents don't want them , and that 60 percent or so of those polled approve of the anti-RNC demonstrations. Hundreds of thousands have already turned out to protest against the Bush agenda. First on the program, a look at parts of that agenda that remain unspoken, theocratic dictatorship, and the general climate of secrecy and lies that characterize the Bush white house - veteran radio journalist Larry Bensky spoke with NYU Media scholar and author Mark Crispin Miller and former Nixon White Counsel John Dean In the second hour, Anarchism 101. In the lead up to the convention the mainstram press has dutifully reported hysterical statements by New York City authorities of fearsome anarchists invading the city and they announced that the NYPD had dispatched teams of officers throughout the nation to perform round the clock surveillance on 56 anarchist organizers. What is anarchism? Should you be afraid, or should you join up? #219 9/11, the CIA and the Big Lie - (War, Globalization and Government Complicity) A new Zogby poll found hat half of New York residents believe that "that some of our leaders knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act," Featured in tonights program P 21_
20_ #200 Now Or Never - (Fighting the Corporate War Machine in Your Own Backyard) Deadloced Jury In Peace Ativists Delony Trial, Damacio Lopez IDUST, how a pro-golfer became an activist, and how to be a radical professional and subvert the system from the inside #201 Assailing the Hierarchy As If Your Life Depended On It - (It Does!) Yesterday was earth day and today women marched in Washington DC to protest the right wing government's attempt to roll back hard won gains under law. This election season, pollsters ask voters which issue they consider of top importance: the economy, the war, the environment and so on. But the degradation of our bioshpere, a economy of " haves" and "have nots" and resource wars under the guise of high flow ideologies or bogus threats are are part and parcel of a civilization based on hierarchy and commodification. Our featured dpeaker tonight environmentalist and author Derrick Jensen argues that this "civilization" cannot save the envronment or itself, and must be brought down. Also on our program tonight, we conclude our readings from the book Discplined Minds by Jeff Schmidt...but first a brief report from Isreal and Palestine from Grace Ritterr , an Iithaca resident with a peace delegation that was present for the releace of Israeli anti-nuclear activist and whistleblower Mordecai Vanunnu earlier the week. #202 May Day Special Broadcast - (Haymarket Martyrs Drama) Broadcast of "Inqusitions" a new radio drama by Greg Guma on the Haymarket martyts #203 International Inquiry into the 9/11 Cover Up (1) - (Presentation from San Francisco March 28-28, 2004) #204 International Inquiry into the 9/11 Cover Up (2) - (Presentation from San Francisco March 24-28, 2004) #205 International Inquiry into the 9/11 Cover Up (3) - (Presentation from San Francisco March 28-28, 2004) #206 Dwindling Oil and 9/11 - (Part 4 of the International Inquiry on 911's Unanswered Questions) This week we continue with presentations by independent investigators at the international inquiey on 911. held in San Francisco in March. This week will place 9/11 in context of the planet's dwindling oil resources and the closed door decisions about how to deal with the phenomenon of peak oil that have apparently already been made by the Ameican power elites - to defend corporate capitalism at any cost, even if that means species extinction. This places 9/11 in a high stakes context that may change the way you look at the issue of 9/11's unanswered questions. #207 9/11 as a False Flag Operation - (Part 5 of the International Inquiry into the Unanswered Questions of 9/11) From the 2/04 San Francisco Conference, on the history of "False Flag" operations by the US government, and placing the 9/11 arracks in that context. A false flag op is a violent covert action sone with the intention of placing the blame for the #208 911 Pound Gorillas in the Parlor - (Part 6 of the International Inquiry into the Unanswered Questions of 9/11) The strange case of the collapsing buildings, the intrigues of the Pakistani ISI, and a media that sees no evil #209 The Coming of the Post-Carbon Age - (Cornucopianism, Resources Wars and the Low-Energy Future) What is peak oil? What does it mean? What does it have to do with endless war? How will it bring about the end of capitalism? Can industrial society survive or is the "party" over? 20_
19_ #190 The New Robber Barons and the American Future - (Steven Brouwer, Green Party Debate and Disciplined Minds) #191 The Occupation of Iraq: Present and Future - (Town Hall with Rahul Mahajan and Scott Ritter) This is a 2 hour edit of the 2/5/04 Town Hall in West Hartford, Conn Mahajan was recently in Iraq and reports that reconstruction is a sham, and Ritter calls for the immediate withdrawal of US soldiers. Both make clear that there were no "intellige #192 Beyond the Shell Game to Real Choices - (Examinations and Elections as Cooling Out Exercises) It's election season again and politicians are promising good jobs for all and that no child will be left behind. Even if these candidates are sincere, which can not be assumed, what people hear being promised can't be delivered, because the very structure of this society is designed to leave most everyone behind, and to relegate us to lives in which we have no real say about how society will operate. We are forced to perform a lifetime of tedious work for somebody else's benefit and accept limited choices, mostly in the realm of consumption options. Even the consumer with the much vaunted 500 tv channels has had no say in what those 500 channels broadcast, but may only choose from what someone else has decided to make available. The role laid out for most people is to follow orders and not cause trouble. Tonight, we resume our reading from discilpned minds, a critical look at salaried professionals and the soul battering sytem that shapes their lives by Jeff Schmidt, which will exmine the techniques the educational system uses to quietly reconcile people with their limited opportunity for a fullfilling life while perpetuating the myth of endless possibility. But we'll begin the program from the opposite direction, how to approach the creation of a society where everyone really does get to make the decisions that effect our lives, instead of living as factotums in a hierarchy that serves the agenda of a few at the top. Mark Lance, an anarchist philospher and activist on the facuty of Georgetown university argues that in order to create a society of equals we must learn how to recreate ourselves - and that we must, in the here and now, not only protest what is oppressive, but strive to create institutions fit for free people. #193 Subordinating Minds - (Academia, Media, Ideology and the Corporate State) Another perspective on the removal of Howard Stern: Bush, Clear Channel and the FCC, Anarchy class fights University of Colorado, an analysis of what's left out of Henry Louis Gates PBS documentary on the status of Black people in America and another reading from Disciplined Minds on subordination #194 The Importance of Resistance - (Resisting War and Brainwashing) Tariq Ali, author Bush In Babylon and The Clash of Fundamentalisms, speaks on the meaning of the Iraqui resistance and the importance of the American peace movement to the rest of the world, and we begin the next part of Disciplined Minds on "Resist #195 The Cult of Militarism - (Apocalyptic Violence and Resisting Totalism) #196 Deja Vu All Over Again - (Reclaiming Histories of Resistance) #197 A Feast for the Insubordinate - (Dissecting and Resisting the Ideologies of Domination) #198 Know Where You Stand and Stand There! - (The St. Patrick's Day Four and Civil Resistance) Next Tuesday, April 6, the trial of 4 peace activists from the Ithaca Catholic Worker community will begin at the Tompkins County Courthouse on Tioga steet at 9 am. The activists, known as the Saint Patrick's Day Four are facing felony charges which carry a maximum four year sentence. In March 27th, the defendants learned that their chance to defend themselves has been curtailed. Judge M. John Sherman ruled in a written decision that the four will be limited in their assertion of the defenses of necessity and international law. In his ruling, Judge Sherman prohibited any expert witnesses or documentary evidence relating to necessity or international law, but said that the defendants could speak to these matters in their personal testimony. He found that there was "no applicability of [international law] in the present case" and that "the proffered proof does not demonstrate the type of true emergency envisioned by the [necessity] statute." Tonight on the program, you will hear the voices of the activists, speakers on international law, documentaty of evidence of the criminality of the war on Iraq, the choice that citizens must make between law and conscience and the duty of citizens to engage in civil resistance and we'll conclude the program with another reading from Disciplined Minds by Jeff Schmidt also on the question of maintaing one's values in the face of a coercive herarchy. #199 War, Class Interest, and American Law - (St. Patrick's Day Four and The Importance of History) The week, the felony trial of the st patricks day four , pacificsts of the ithaca catholic worker community who poured blood at the military recruiting center in Lansing NY on March 17, 2003, as part of nationwide efforts by americans to prevent the invasion of iraq by the US government. As we repotred last week, Tompkims County judge John Sherman barred the defense from bringing expert witnesses to testify on international law . One of the witnesses who was barred from testifying was historian Howard Zinn, but you'll hear him on the program tonight discussing how a knowledge of history is essential if citizens want to get to the truth behind the patriotic rhetoric of presidents bent on war rulers to send their citizens to kill and die. 19_
18_ #180 Commerce and The Subjugation of Thought in America (2) - (Systemic corruption in this society where profit is paramount) Tonight we're going to explore the failure of American journalism in greater depth, with a full length speech by media scholar Robert McChesney who will lay out the structural forces that are responsible and that indicate the level of fundamental change needed to transform the role of the press to o ne useful to a democratic society. And, we'll continue reading from Discplined Minds by Jeff Schmidt about the social role of professionals' work - this week taking at look at how funding overtly and covertly directs and limits scientific research, Much like journalists - what is studied, explored or spoken about has much to do with the interests of those who have the money, rather than the needs of society as a whole or the personal interests of scientists themselves. #181 Potemkin Nation - (The Illusion of US Post Peak Oil Prosperity) The American Heritage® Dictionary : Fourth Edition. 2000. defines the term Potemkin village as: NOUN: Something that appears elaborate and impressive but in actual fact lacks substance: In 1787, when Catherine the Great visited the Ukraine and the Crimea, Prince Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin , a Russian army officer, statesman, and her lover, decided to put up elaborate cardboard houses apparently full of splendor in the villages Catherine was shown. While this setup depicted an illusion of prosperity, the real condition of the village was hidden behind this facade. Tonight, travels in a Potemkin nation . Some of the sights on our tour: deadly zombie shoppers, the prospects for suburbia when the oil runs out, and uncovering the truth about 911, and ending with another reading from "Disciplined Minds" #182 Enforcing the Hierarchy By Every Means Available - (Media, Militarism and the Myth of Opportunity) There is struggle taking place everywhere on this planet to maintain a social hierarchy that gives some everything they desire by robbing from others the chance to live dignified and fullfilling lives, or even to live at all. This battle has many fronts and its outcome touches all our lives. Yet it is taboo to examine its workings, and illegimate to question its rightness. #183 Twelve Shovels - (The Fascist Heart of Capitalism) #184 Spells, Counterspells and Viruses of the Mind - (Perception and the Social Consensus) Social systems are maintained by a social consensus, the stories that people believe to be true about the society, its leaders, and themselves as members of the society. Even the most repressive government must have the willing cooperation of enough of the people to wield the guns and clubs and man the prisons and torture chambers on behalf of the state against the others in the society Nazi propagandists deliberately employed a technique they called The Big Lie. They said, the bigger the lie the easier it is to present it repetitively , and have it be widely believed. . Central to most religion is submission to the will of an omnipotent god whose ways must not questioned. Tyrannical government follows a similar paradigm. There is an ancient relationship between religion and monarchy in fact - kings were said to hold their power by divine right, and in some cases claimed they themselves were gods. Are those struggling for a truly free and democratic society battling some human predisposition to subordination? #185 Even a Monkey Can Wave a Flag - (Cannibalizing America to Boost the Bottom Line) How corporations are paying scholars to undermine the powerof juries, a call to action against oligarchy from Scott Ritter, the death of Horatio Alger and reading fron Discplined Minds on the how idealistic young people are broken to the yolk of corpora #186 Narrowing the spectrum - (the manufacture of the corporate drone) Ecologist critical of biotech enied tenure at UC Berkey, David Rees on his cartoon "Get Your War On" and Disciplined Minds #187 Seeing What's Rendered Invisible - (Breaking out of the Ideological Cattle Chute) #188 The Power to Interpret - (The Velvet Glove on the Iron Fist) Last week on the program we played a talk by Stan Goff in which he spoke about social struggles as issues of power, and he defined power as both the power to interpret and the power to master. This power to interpret, define what is normal, what is good, what is legitimate -- to set the standards agsint wihich ideas and actions are referenced is also the terrain of communications media and education. "Disciplined Minds" by Jeff Schmid, the book that I've been reading weekly imstallments from from since last october, also deals with process of setting standards that determine which people will be credentialed as professionals, and thus play leading roles in society. The type of people granted these influential roles , what values they hold and to what ends and for whose benefit their work is performed has an impact on everyone in society This week we're going to delve more deeply into these parallels, with an in-depth imterview with Stan Goff that amplifies on the issues raised in his talk, and another reading from Discplined Minds that examines in detail how the tests that gatekeep entry into professions are structured to pass through aspirants whose values and future conduct in the firld are unlikely to question the domination of society by corporate hierarchies, and the maintance of those hierarchies by militarism and imperialim. #189 Evil, Inc. - (Percy Schmeiser v. Monsanto) Sorry about the delay - both my computer and I have been sick! 18_
17_ #170 The WTO and a World at the Crossroads - (A People's History of the WTO) #171 Deadly Delicacies - (Food, and Health and the Ag Factory) Who benefits from the current sytem of food production. Not us. #172 The Corporate Theft of Water (1) - (Recordings from "The Water of Life - Perils and Promise on the 21st Century") A conference dealing with protecting water as a common resource was held in the Hudson Valley Sept 4-6. 2003. In this program Robert Kemmedy Jr of River Keeper talks about fighting corporate water polluters in the courts, and Tony Clarke of the Polaris In #173 The Corporate Theft of Water (2) - (Recordings from "The Water of Life - Perils and Promise in the 21st Century") A conference dealing with protecting water as a common resource was held in the Hudson Valley Sept 4-6. 2003. In this program Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva and "water doctor" John Todd on sustainable water #174 A Political Problem... - (Money and Politics as barriers to saving the environment) Our environmental problems are ultimately political problems. Climate change and large scale contamination of air, water and soil were known about, and discussed in great depth 30 years ago. In the past three decades we could have fundamentally transforme #175 Undisciplining Minds (1) - (The Roots and Ramifications of our Culture of Hierarchy and Control) From November 19 through the 21st, opponents of corporate globalization will converge in Miami to confront a ministerial on the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the FTAA, that would extend NAFTA to the entire hemisphere. "Another world is possible" is a motto used by many of the people opposing these various treaties,. that in effect are creating a new world government openly based on the priorities of corporate investment. But the phrase "another world is possible" does not refer only to government or economic policies, nor only to political and economic systems. It also encompasses the values that underlie those systems. But what causes us as a society to form and hold the values we have, that make the current world possible? What habits of mind determine that we will even for example, draw a distinction between economics and politics? Our mental structures that underlie our values and institutions must be addressed if we want to to make possible another society which is truly egalitarian, creative and democratic. This will be the subject of the first hour of the program and will start off our series on the roots and ramifications of our culture of hierarchy and control. In our second hour we'll hear about opening paths to a moral economy... #176 Undisciplining Minds (2) - (The Roots and Ramifications of our Culture of Hierarchy and Control) Tonight we continue our series into the mental conditioning that underlies and perpetuates the type of society we have, one in whih most people are frustrated and depressed- in spite of being repreatedly told that this is the best of all possible worlds. In a speech given by Professor Noam Chomsky at the University of Illinois in September, he noted the extent to which absurd statements and transparent lies uttered by George Bush and other top officials went largely unchallenged by intellectuals, as well as the media. This highly educated class of people were somehow able to repeat, as well as discuss these farcically false offical claims without even a snicker. This ability to subordinate one's intelligence and creativity to reflect the values and serve the needs of the small group at the top of the social pyramid is the special skill that marks the professional in our society, according to Jeff Schmidt, who has written an amazing book "Discplined Minds. a critical lok at salaried professionals and the soul battering system that shapes their lives." In our second hour, we begin a series of readings from the book which w'll illuminates the indoctrination that shapes the class of people who are the lynch pin of this society We'll begin the program, though with a look at another vector of social control directed at those at the bottom of the pyramid - the criminal justice system - and the mindset that has made the United States number one in jailing its citizens. #177 When Freedom Means Slavery - (Maintaining the system by any means necessary) In the first hour Canadian author and journalist Naomi Klein will illuminate George Bush's statement that resisting Iraqi's "don't want freedom", by drawing parallels between the looting of Argentina under a "free market" regime that led to its collpase and the corporate fire sale that is behind the war and so-called reconstruction in Iraq. In our second hour of the program we continue with the reading ftom "Disciplined Minds" by Jeff Scmidt, on the unacknowledged political nature of professional work and the training process that leads to a professioanl class accepting of ideological subordination to ruling elites. #178 Work and Ideology - (Professionals Liars in Iraq and US) Work is the area where where most of us have our greatest impact on society, and where society has its greatest impact on us. Mostly, the world of work has been structured so that most of the people who do it have little to say about what gets done or why. Yet, everything about work, the distrubution of the wealth that the work generates, who has work and who doesn't, the whole framework of what is called "the economy" - all of this exists as a result of human decisions. The system of labor and management, production and consumption, money and investment and markets are a human creation and are enforced and perpetuated by people, whether willlingly or at the direction of others. The world of work we experience is a political creation and an ideology underlies, and is expressed through even in the most menial labor. In our second hour , we'll focus on the ideological disclpine inherent in professional work and how that perpetuates the present system, as our series of readings from Jeff Scmidt's book "Disciplined Minds" continues. In our first hour, we'll hear about working people in Iraq fighting to form unions in their allegedly liberated country, growing poverty in America, and from a former Pentagon worker who is speaking out about the administrations' series of lies about Iraq, who is behind them, and what purpose they serve. #179 Commerce and The Subjugation of Thought in America (1) - (Systemic corruption in this society where profit is paramount) In our first hour of the program tonight, we'll hear media scholoar Robert Media scholar Robert McChesney and PBS journalist BIll Moyers speaking at the national conference on media reform. In hour 2r, more readings from "Disciplined Minds" 17_
16_ #160 The Great Debate - (Biotech, Hunger and Poorwashing) Global South activists debate biotech advocates in front of a live audience during the mini ministerial on agriculture and biotechnology in sacramento Thanks kvmr ! #161 Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness - (Alienating the "Unalienable") This week a range of new visions of the "American Way of Life" in the context of ecological and economic realities, past and present. First Richard Heinberg on the coming tidal wave of Peak Oil, then Jeff Gates, author of Democracy at Risk, Rescuing Main St. from Wall St. - A Populist's Vision for the 21st Century, Michael Leibowitz giving a Marxian perspective, and finally Bill Moyers on the need to stand up and oppose inequity in USA. #162 Full Spectrum Hypocrisy - (The Drug War as a long-time tool of American Empire) The war on drugs is the prototype for the endless war, providing an expansion in dictatorial powers for government under the cover of a carefully cultivated popular hysteria , a formula that has been repeated in the war on terrorism. Drug prohibition has the effect of keeping the prices of drugs high so those who do traffic in them may derive maximum financial benefit. On the program tonight you'll hear an explanation for why there are as many drugs for sale as ever, in spite of billions of taxpayer dollars spent on this endless war,. In our first hour, you'll hear allegations that highly placed officials in the US government are engaged in drug trafficking in order to generate an off the books stream of cash which has been used to fund a variety of assassinations and covert wars on every continent in order to further the process of corporate globalization. This is not a new story, it's just a suppressed story that remains a relatvant as ever, especially to those it continues to victimize. As a result of the eruption of the Iran Contra scandal in the late 1980's , persistent stories surfaced that covert operatives in the Reagan Bush administration were openly colaborating with drug traffickers. Community leaders were asserting that the crack epidemic raging in their cities was the reult of intentional importation of drugs by the same US government that was then arresting the people they'd hooked Journalists who took on the story, most notably Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News, had their careers destroyed. . Earlier, The Chrisitic Intstititue, a public interest law firm, tried to sue various high placed Reagan.Bush officials for their role in drug and gun running to fund illegal wars in Central America, But, they were never allowed to bring their case to trial. Instead, they were fined more than a million dollars for filing a "frivilous suit" which put the small non-profit group out of business. Many of the people named in that suit, or subsequently indicted as a result of a relatively feeble congressional invistagtion, are once again top jobs in the current administration. Tonight we're going to hear about one of them, deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, now , Colin Powell's #2 man. Meanwhile, about half of Americas 2 million prisoners are in jail because of charges relating in some way to the drug war - most of these prisoners of the drug war are poor and black or brown. Theri lives and their families lives have been ruined . As you will hear in our final hour, the corruption of the drug war trickles down in little ways even to Auburn, NY, were these drug prisoners esentially become slaves, with no means of redress against predatory prison guards... #163 Closing the Door and Widening the Gap - (Rigged Elections and Predatory Lenders) Free and fair elections are the basis for America's claim to democracy. Our electoral process is manipulated in a variety of ways that result in a government that arguably fails to reflect the needs of most of us. Reformers who seek to redress this state of affairs hang their hopes on somehow being able to wrest elections back from the corporate money stream. Now, even the slender hope of changing the country's direction through the ballot box could be extinguished by the machine that records your vote, or more to the point, doesn't record your vote. During the tense months of wrangling that follwed the 2000 elextion, the corporate press steered clear of the allegations that election fraud was committed by the Bush campaign and focussed instead on the mechanics of voting equipment, hanging chads and pregnant chads. Congress, taking a cue from the press, instead of focussing on the misconduct of officails from the lowest level to the people on the top court, decided to foreveer vanquish the hanging chad by drafting a piece of legislation called The Help America Vote Act, HAVA that would fund the installation of high- tech touch screen voting machines across the nation. These machines are touted as cost effective and labor saving, as well as being a boon to blind people or those who would prefer a ballot in a language other than English. But computer scientists are raising the alarm that these voting machines' most salient feature is the ease with which elections could be rigged and the difficulity of detecting tamperingr before or after the fact. In the first hout computer scientist Barbara Simons explains the dangers of computerised voting. In the second hour Smithy looks at the mortgage industy's exploitation of the poor, with another edition of the Wuzards of Money #164 What They Knew and When They Knew It with Doug Rokke - (Blowing the Whistle on DU - the US' Weapon of Mass Destruction) Major Rokke is an expert on the subject of depleted uranium and Gulf War Syndrome. Tonight's talk will include information that the US military knows and has known the health and environmental hazards of depleted uranium since the 1940's, is collaborating with the nuclear power industry to keep the public in the dark, has a written a directive to leave radioactive shrapnel in wounded soldiers in order to study them, as well as performed experiments on the unwitting US population with chemical and biological weapons, and that they basically don't give a damn about the fate of the average soldier once they've served their purpose. #165 Enforcing Silence - (The Law, The Courts and America's New Political Prisoners) Law enforcement and the courts team up to hand out harsh sentences to discourage political dissent #166 Beyond "The Axis of Evil" - (Clarifying the History of US Intervention in Korea) This week on the show we deconstruct the myth of the US as defender of democracy worldwide, by asking why the US had any interest in the communism looking at the events of the Korean peninsular. In our first hour, we hear from Brian Willson, who starts by telling the story of how he was radicalized by discovering the US military's genocidal agenda of bombing villages in Vietnam. He then offers a new perspective on the Korean peninsular and movingly calls for the US population to wake up out of their trance and see what is really happening in the world. Our second hour, Han S. Park, a professor of international relations, on the history of the North Korean regime. #167 Paying For Empire - (A look at the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex) The US has maintains a vast global military empire with bases in more than 120 countries, This empire is maintained in concert with a few dozen very large private corporations whose income comes almost exclusively from military contracts. This state of affairs has wide reaching impact on our domestic policies and arrangements that are seldom examined or even acknowledged. The the collective deep pocket that pays the bill for this military-industrial complex, that is the average American taxpayer, has little idea what is being spent or how its being used. The military and its bottom line are above criticism - both political parties in Congress fall over themselves to fling the taxpayers money at what is euphemistically called 'defense'. Tonight, our main presentation will be a in in-depth look at the dollars costs of the US military machine. But first a couple of things directed at the question of why we in an ostensible democracy allow the government to throw our money at a bloated military while it denies us the things that would make our lives easier. #168 The Colony Within - (How Neoliberal Economics and Neoconservative Politics Are Turning the US into a Banana Republic) the myths and realities of of low wage work, how the war on terrorism has become a war on labor unions. and a wakeup call to Americans by Truthout.org' founder William Rivers Pitt #169 Beyond the Bullshit - (9/11 and US Global Domination) As the second anniversary of the Sept 11 suicide bombing attacks approaches, those events of 2001 continue to be put forward as a justification for the actions of the government by the Bush administration and their captive press. We are being fed a steady diet of propaganda with the goal of keeping us fearful and distracting us from the real story. But truth will out , and tonight on the program we're going to bear down on the geopolitical agenda that lies behind the war on terrorism, and the attacks of 9-11-2001.. We'll hear from a former member of Tony Blair's cabinet who has publicly denounced the war on terrorism as" bogus", an independent researcher who has documented the deception and inconsistencies of the 911 official story and a former US special forces officer who will explain the workings of a brutal foreign policy based on the bottom line that is able to persist because of systematic deception. 16_
15_ #150 Biodisaster - (Contaminating the Ecosphere to Make a Buck) When the first Earth Day was celebrated 33 years ago, the problems of polluted air, soil and water, pesticide contamination, nuclear waste and ozone depletion were already serious . In the intervening years, citizens have fought corporate lobbies to pressure government to take steps to deal with environmental contamination, with mixed success. Corporations have struggled to escape environmental laws. This motivation has contributed to the creation of the World Trade Organization and related trade treaties, that allowed them to either shift manufacturing to countries where environmental protections are absent, as well as to use WTO provisions to challenge the local laws. The latest take the money and run scheme has been the development of the biotechnology industry, where many of the corporations involved in the most deadly chemical pollution in the past have morphed into today's" gene giants." As in the past, the rush to profit has resulted in the dissemination of products into the environment with little consideration or knowledge of the consequences on human or planetary health. Next month, the biotech industry will hold its annual trade conference in St Louis, which is also the home of Monsanto, one of the most aggressive marketers of genetically modified products. A counter conference, Biodevastation, will also be in St Louis to challenge the industry, as it has for the past several years. (www.biodev.org) #151 Media Ventriloquism - (San Francisco public hearings on the FCC and Media Consolidation, part 1) Held 4/26 at San Francisco city hall and organized by Media Alliance www.media-alliance.org This segment focuses on the role of media consolidation on news and civic discourse #152 Wealth, Class and the Problem with Capitalism - (In Argentina and US) Though politicians are the leaders of record in our society, the people who make the decisions that have the most impact on most people's lives are those who dominate the economic, rather than political realm. They tend to control, rather than be controlled by political leaders, and thus the same solutions, that don't really work for most of us are implemented and reimplemented. Why ? Because these solutions do work for the small group of people that determine the economic life of the nation and the world. We'll begin by looking at our own nation and region, then shift to a discussion of Argentina, which presents both the worst case scenario of where we are headed, as well as innovative solutions that could be implemented if we demanded them #153 Treatment and Mistreatment - (The Economics and Politics of Women's Healthcare) The politics and economics of the health care industry have resulted in a variety of drugs and procedures that actually do more harm than good. This is especially true in the area of health care for women. In the first 90 min of the program, we're going to hear a talk by John Lee, MD.a physician who pioneered the use of natural hormones for the treatment of osteoporosis and other conditions that affect women from midlife onward. Then we'll conclude the program, with a talk by Canadian feminist psychotherapist Dr. Bonnie Burstow, on the risimg use of electrock, especially on women, and it's roots in fascism. #154 The Opposite of Freedom - (America's internal war between capitalism and democracy) It seems that the less freedom we have, the more clamorous and repetitive the official voices become in telling us that we live in the freest country in the world. This assertion is adamantly defended by people who apparently know little about what happens elsewhere. The fact is that the freedoms available to average citizens are roughly equivalent in any of the so-called first world democracies, and the freedoms available are insufficient. many of those nations, however, have governments that provide their populations with benefits not enjoyed here - such as free health care, a minimum of four weeks vacation each year, or proportional representation in elections which fosters the existence of multiple political parties instead of two both dominated by corporations - and even these basic benefits are under corporate attack on a global level through the vehicle of so-called free trade treaties. None of these so-called democracies provide equal freedom to all their citizens. While these freedoms exist on paper, the reality is that they must be purchased and the extent to which one can meaningfully experience these freedoms is related to one's financial position. The economics of the market is the de facto governmental structure that determines how free one actually is - and sets the limits on the amount of freedom and dignity available to an individual. #155 Jaded Glory - (Ex-soldiers Speak Out Against The War Machine) When the people of nations understand the actual reasons that motivate their rulers to send them to war, there will be fewer wars and little need to create national holidays to commemorate all the people who died, more often than not senselessly, while fighting them. #156 Uncovering 9/11 - (A panel discussion with Peter Dale Scott, Mike Ruppert and Other Independent Investigators) The Bush administration seems determined that no information will reach the public regarding what they knew, and how they responded to the attacks of Sept 11, 2001. Why? It's hard to imagine a benign reason for such secrecy, whether it be concealment of incompetence or error, or a cover up of a more sinister nature. One thing is certain, unanswered questions and glaring inconsistencies in the official story remain. Finding the truth is more than an academic exercise as the events of that day have been used to justify the largest expansion of invasive government at home as well as invasions abroad, in US history. #157 The Grand Strategy - (How to resist the would-be masters of the universe) This week, Noam Chomsky analyzes the Bush administrations policies and plans in the historical context of domination by capitalist elites using the power of the state to push their agenda. The present situation is not qualitatively different from other administrations, just quantitatively in its naked greed and aggression. In an extended question and answer session, Chomsky tells concerned audience members that there is no substitute for patient grassroots organizing when combating such powerful and omnipresent foes. #158 Leverage - (Corporations and Social Policy) This history of the rise of corporate influence with Tom Hartmann hour 1 The Wizards of money on how oil companies block solutions to climate change in hour 2 #159 The WTO, Biotechnology and Agri-Imperialism - (The Economics and Politics of Hunger) This week, we look at the politics of hunger. Why, given that enough food is produced to feed 9 billion people sufficiently, are so many people going hungry? The big lie of the agribusiness industry is that they are interested in tackling hunger. The market system itself reveals this. Markets are only interested in meeting the needs of those who have money. We begin with an interview of Luke Anderson about the international meeting in Sacramento about food trade policies such as pushing genetic engineering and privatisation of water on the nations of the south. 15_
14_ #140 Sojourners in the Wasteland of the Free - (Teaching and Learning things that matter) What matters? What makes a good life? Do our central social institutions help us or hinder us in achieving it? Tonight on the program wisdom from veteran educators John Taylor Gatto and Colman McCarthy on teaching, learning and peacemaking, then some inf #141 Abolishing Corporate Personhood - (Origins of Impact Corporate Persons) The power of corporations to control or manipulate every aspect of our lives has led a growing number of people to identify the legal rights of corporations as one of the key obstacles to a democratic society. Tonight, we'll look what is called cor #142 Misreporting the Middle East - (Ask Whatever You Like About 9/11 Except Why - a lecture by Robert Fisk) Fisk is a foreing correspondent for the London Independent who has covered the Middle East for almost 30 years. He spoke the night after Colin Powell's slide show at the UN on 2/5/2003 #143 Hold Your Nose... - (Election Fraud and Political Corruption in the US) US Diplotmat Resigns in Disgust, Greg Palast on the stolen US presidency and the Bush family's corrupt practices, Bev Harris on 21st century election fraud with computerized vote machines and a call to action to end the whole rotten mess #144 Truth is Our Weapon - (Lies, Murder, Social Control and the Press) The drive to war, the attack on civil liberties in the name of security, the banality and disinformation and commericalism of the corporate controlled media - all are part of a system that social dissenters in the 1960's termed the Establishment. Comprising this Establishment are the conjoined economic and political instutions that serve to maintain control of most of the people, both in the nation and abroad, for the benefit of those in power. Though this present administration is the most obviously fascist we have seen, and I don't use the word casually or with hyperbole, it is only an eggregious example of what has been business as ususal. In the first hour we're going to hear a talk by William Pepper, an attornrey who investigated and unearthed the real facts of the assamoination of Martin Luther King. You will hear how King's organizing efforts among the poor made him any enemey of the State, how his death was ordered at high levels of government, carried out by organized crime, and covered up through the use of a fall guy and a docile press. Then we'll hear from Peter Phillips, the director of Project Censored about how the press is complicit in keeping the workings of the Establishment hidden from view, and he will touch on the assault mounted against some of the reporters who actually tried to bring these dirty sectrets to light. This may be hard to hear for those of us who wish to believe the best about our country. Or it may pass without comment, such as the recent security council bugging operation by the government, to those who consider themselves sophisticated and maintain a cynical and world-weary posture. But the fact is that every aspect of human society is the result of human choices, and we can choose something different, and attain it if we are determined to end compliance with the way things are, and insist that things become as we dream and desire that they ought to be. Truth is our weapon. #145 Dwindling Oil and the Human Future - (The Implications of Peak Oil) Cheap and abundant energy from oil is the foundation of modern technological civilization as well as essential to the neoliberal economic vision which is based on globalized production and consumption and the moving of resources and manufactured goods thousands of miles from point of production to point of sale. But world oil resources are finite, and as we will hear in great detail tonight, will begin to decline in the next few decades. This is widely acknowledged inside the oil industry, but is receiving no open attention in the public policy realm. Yet the implications of dwindling oil and soaring prices are staggering. for more on this series The End of the Age of Oil produced by Kellia Ramares see: www.rise4news.net #146 Escalating Resistance to War and the Bush Agenda - (From St. Patrick's Day Four to Fragging) In spite of passionate opposition by people here and abroad, as well as by the majority of foreign governments, the Bush administration unleashed an attack that has already led to many, many deaths, which are being reported by the foreign, but not American, media. The prevailing US media message is, that now that war has begun, Americans should cease opposition. But.this is impossible for those of us digusted and outraged by a war of agression, by war generally, or by the totality of the actions and policies of the government of the United States. Many people feel that democracy has failed, and that America and the world are in crisis. Tonight on the program the subject is war resistance, both among civilians and members of the US military #147 The Giftie Gae Us: Middle Eastern Scholars on the New World Order - (Analyzing US Foreign Policy) Americans who believe Bush when he says that US forces have been sent to Iraq to liberate the people there are no doubt surprised that Iraqi's are putting up a fierce resistance, outgunned though they are. Many people in this country may be naive about the motivations of the powerful men who control the fates of nations, but the peoples of the middle east are not. They have been subjected to several centuries of invasion and colonization by outsiders claiming to be liberating them when their real interest was liberating their land and resouces. Tonight we're going to hear from two middle eastern scholars who will analyze US foreign policy, the war on terrorism and the invasion of Iraq from the perspective of those who have been on the receiving end of the west's tender and liberatory mercies. #148 Public Justifications and Hidden Motivations - (Behind the US Government Lies on the Iraq War) Featuring a 3/27/2003 speech by former weapons inspector Scott Ritter in Ithaca, NY, a poem by Los Angeles poet Steve Connel, and an article on the dollar v euro battle behind the war by Australian writer Geoffrey Heard #149 Battle Plans of the Empire - (The Project for the New American Century and Global Domination) The Unite States has become a fascist country and the American people don't realise it - this is what overseas audience members told Bruce Gagnon, who we're going to hear in the second hour of the show. . There is a history of fascist collaboration in the United States, especially among the so-called captains of industry and the military. IBM provided the technology that enabled Hitler to identify Jews and others slated for the" final solution", and IBM's designers had to know what their products were being used for in order to create the customized services Hitler required. Car maker Henry Ford was an open fascist sympathizer and Prescott Bush, the grandfather of George W, had business ties with the Naz's. The Italisn fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, was praised in the American press and had many admireres among American business leaders. And, as you will hear tonight, Nazi scientists and military officers were brought to America after world war two to develop and head the US missile program,, the space program and the CIA. The wars against Iraq and Afghanistan were planned long before 9/11 and are part of a larger strategy to enforce corporate globalization at gunpoint. Tonight in our first hour you're going to hear readings from a document which is a blueprint detailing how this can be militarily accomplished, a study by the project for a new American century released in the year 2000, commissioned by a group of people who now hold high government offices. 14_
13_ #130 Army Of Dreamers - (Understanding the Resistance to Corporate Rule) Even now,three years after the protests in Seattle that brought the issue of corporate globalization in to the open in the US, most people who don't use alternative news sources have little idea of the anit-globalization movement's goals. Corporate media, because of its ownership and reliance on adverstising has little incentive to discuss the issues outside of the offical definitions that describe the WTO and related institutions as being about free trade and investment. For decades, mainstream political rheotic has equated capitalism, called the free market, with democracy. The anit-globalization movement offers the view that global capitalism is antagonisitic to democracy and that structures such as the WTO are attempting to formally institutionalize capitalism as a defacto world government in which only corporations and their owners have the rights of citizens. In the first hour of the program tonight , Canadian journalist Naomi Klein will speak on "Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Globalization Debate". IN the second Hour, Wizards of money follows the path of gifts that will be given this holiday season ... from China to the US Pacific Coast docks to the retail giant Wal-Mart. #131 Scott Ritter: Democracy or Empire? - (Why Americans Must Oppose The Bush Administration's Unilateralism) Former Chief Weapons Inspector and US Marine Corps officer Scott Ritter denounces US imperialism - yes, he actually uses the word imperialialism and rejects the equating of patriotism with obedience. He spoke 12/3/02 in Binghamton, NY #132 Who Benefits? - (The American Government as Criminal Enterprise) Depleted Uranium sickness, terrorism, swindling and 9-11 - a pattern of disregard for the general welfare .Now, even members of the usually obedient American mainstream are asking questions and demanding answers #133 Health and Wealth Holiday Variety Show - (Limiting Corporate Rights and Smithy on The Drug Industry) Though wishes for peace, health and happiness are everywhere during each December holiday season, for many people it's the most depressing time of the year - when we notice how little peace, health or happiness is in our lives.. And this holiday season in America is even grimmer than usual. Tonight, we hope we can add a little sardonic laughter to your life as we look at some aspects of the relationship of health and wealth. Our first guest is a doctor who has been looking at some surprising studies about how greed, inequality and lack of community actually damages our health and shortens our lives here in the United States . We'll also hear about a small town in western Pennyslvania that decided to draw the line on corporate rights to protect the public health , and in our second hour Wizards of Money will take a hard look at the pharmaceutical industry and why its failing make a positive impact on health nationally and internationally. And, to spice up the mix, some satire from the Christmas Coup Comeddy Players #134 Endless War and Social Control - (What the War on Drugs Teaches us about the War on Terrorism) Though many commentators have lamented the use of the Sept 11 bombings as a cover for squashing domestic dissent, this tactic began in earnest thirty years ago with another perpetual war: the war on drugs. Tonight a forum on Race, Class and the War on Drugs that lays bare its intentions and effects, then and now - the rolling back of hard won rights by those at the bottom of society, the suppression of political movements that threaten the rule of wealth and the diversion of taxpayers dollars into a an industry of social control. #135 Spirit, Freedom and the State - (Peter Lamborn Wilson on Spiritual Anarchism) #136 High Crimes - (The Case for Impeachment of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft) Ftancis Boyle, professor of international law discusses impeachable actions by US administration and volunteers his legal services to any member of Congress willing to file articles of impeachment (with Kellia Ramares) and Nafeez Ahmed, author of "Th #137 Time for Choices - (Energy, Sustainability and the Human Future) This weekend, more than half a million people in America marched aginst the Bush Administration's Iraq war plans. Evident in the speeches made at demonstrations in Washington, San Francisco and dozens of other cities and towns across the nation was an understanding that the motivations for the Bush war had more to do with controlling access to, and the price o,f fossil fuel energy than some concern about weapons of mass destruction or lack of democracy in Iraq. The governments of every industrialized nation but ours are attempting to grapple with the reduction of greenhouse gases that have already caused climate change and damage to the ozone layer of the planet. But there is another aspect that has not been widely discussed, though it is known to the oil company executives of the Bush administration who meet behind closed doors to formulate US enegy policy: It is that is world supplies of fossil fuel are dwindling rapidly. at the same time that world demand for energy to power industrial development is increasing What we have come to take for granted as the features of modern civiliation exist because of energy, processes and material derived from fossil fuel. As we're going to hear tonight in the first hour of the program, some who have been studying the problem think that decades would be necessary to create an infrastructure that would maintain even some semblance of our present standard of technological sophistication. Without the availability of cheap and potent energy, the conrinually increasing growth needed to maintain profitable globalized corporate markets will be impossible. The system is therefore both ecologically and economically unsustainable. Given this situation, the administrations drive to war, the expenditure of billions on weapons manufacturing and the creation of new powers to surveil and control the domestic population becomes dangerously irresponsible as well as sinister. In the second hour we'll take a look at problem solving from the bottom up: the formation of a new electricity cooperative that givest residents of the Finger Lakes the ability to lower costs and support the expansion of sustainable energy production, and a group involved in a multi year international effort to develop an alternative vision to the present plan of global corporate control. #138 Surveillance and Social Control - (2002 CityState forums from Australia) Excerpts from the 2002 CityState forums from Australia #139 The Citizen's Debate on Iraq - (Talk of War and Peace in Rural New York State) A debate is raging among the American people on the issue of the Bush administration's drive toward an invasion of iraq, and our communities in Central New York are a part of it. This citizen debate is addressing aspects of the issue beyond the narrow framework of the official discussion - beyond the simple pro and con, beyond the does he or doesn't he have weapons of mass destruction. The citizen debate is addressing context: the ethics of modern warfare itself, and the motives underlying the public justifications for war by government officials. Tonight, we'll hear what someof our neighbors are thinking. 13_
12_ #120 The Monster in the Mirror - (The War on Terrorism and US Imperial History) The history of the US as an imperial power, and how that releates to the "War on Terrorism" #121 "Justice for All" Remix - (Post 9/11 Hate Crimes) America has had a split personality from its beginnings; a group of people who came to these shores seeking freedom of religion and association waged a campaign of genocide against the original inhabitants in order to take their land for themselves. They had a revolution in the name of freedom while keeping millions of others as slaves. While immigration was encouraged in order to expand the borders of new country, the new Americans were disdained and ill treated on the basis of the race and ethnicity. After years of civil rights struggles by people of color in this country, racial profiling is still the norm in law enforcement practice, and it has, under the so-called war on drugs, resulted in a prison population where racial minorities are make up the majority, even though, percentage wise, white people break laws as often as people of color. The aftermath of last years terrorist attacks has brought this ugly current of institutionalized racism in American life raging to the surface, and the Bush administration has led the way by its policies that target immigrants, people of middle eastern origin and those who follow the religion of Islam. If this seems reasonable to you because the terrorist attacks were perpetrated by Islamic Middle Eastern foreign nationals, consider this. In the wake of the Oklahoma city bombing, a terrorist act perpetrated by white Christian American citizens who had served in the US military, white soldiers were not rounded up on mass for questioning nor set upon in the streets and beaten. Neighbors did not seriously call police to report a group of white people gathering at the house next door. If when substituting the word white for middle eastern, these actions suddenly sound preposterous, whereas they seemed like prudent precautions when directed at non-whites, you will have demonstrated institutionalized racism at work Tonight we're going to devote the program to excerpts from a remarkable hearing. On Sept 21 in Seattle, a panel of city, state and federal governmental officials heard testimony from members of ethnic and religious minority groups who have been the victims of hate crimes and discrimination in the aftermath of Sept. 11 This panel was a civil society initiative organized by Hate Free Zone, a coalition of over a hundred community groups. The entire event was almost three hours long, and we've had to edit the some of the material out. In order to keep all of the heartfelt and compelling testimony, we had to cut the response of the official panelists to questions posed by the moderator, which followed the actual testimony. Thank you to Jonathan Lawson of the Seattle Independent media center for providing us with this disturbing and inspiring material that demonstrates the best and worst in American culture. #122 Empire America - (No War but the Class War) "Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar." Those words from Roman emperor Julius Ceasar on the connection between wars of conquest and domestic tyranny .We Americans stand at a turning point - the question before us is whether we insist on being the people of a democracy or acquiesce to being the subjects of an empire. #123 Don't Tread On Me - (Electoral Politics and The Green Party) Steven Hill of the center for Voting and Democracy talks about how the electoral system rigs in elections in favor of the Replublicrats, legally - and then an extended conversation with Mark Dunau, an organic farmer running for Congress as a Green #124 Hidden History: Planning Wars for Pax Americana - (The Hidden Wars of Desert Storm) Radio adaptation of video doc "The Hidden Wars of Desert Storm" and "9/11 and Future Wars" a recent lecture by John Judge #125 Waging Peace - (Scott Ritter inciting War Resistance) Former UNSCOM weapons inspector Scott Ritter with a blistering speech on the need for militancy to stop Bush's war, and an open letter telling troops to resist service in Iraq #126 Marketing War - (The War of Words and The Fire This Time) According to a study released last week by the Paris based NGO, Reporters Without Borders, "The United States ranks number 17 for press freedom." Out of 139 countries surveyed, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and the Netherlands tied for the top spot. They were followed by Canada, Ireland, Germany Portugal, Sweden, and Denmark. The U.S. received its relatively low ranking in part due to arrests of reporters for failing to reveal their sources or, since the September 11 terrorist attacks, for crossing security lines at some official buildings. In the past year, the administration of George W. Bush has also pressed media outlets not to run unedited videos or transcripts of al-Qaeda leaders, while military commanders in Afghanistan have restricted the movements of reporters there and, in at least one case, threatened a newspaper correspondent, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). " But direct government repression of the press is not the greatest threat to a free press that Americans face. The principle and practice of a free press that can allow the citizenry to scrutinize government's performance is most frequently undermined by press outlets themselves that uncritically channel the highly managed pronouncements of officialdom. These media outlets frequently have close ties to interests that profit from official policy, and they actively participate in shaping public opinion through their editorial choices, all the while claiming to be objective. Tonight on the program, we'll explore the propaganda methods being used to create public support for war. We'll begin with part one of a documentary series from Radio Netherlands, the War of Words. Then, The Fire this time, a documentary from the UK on the 1991 gulf war and Iraq sanctions, that was produced by 2 British journalists in response to media self-censorship there. #127 Unfit to Print - (Mechanisms of self-censorship in media and the academy) News media manipulates what becomes an issue and what doesn't both by what and how it covers ideas and events and by what it omits from its coverage. Who decides what is news and why? We'll continue with our Radio Netherlands series on propaganda by looking at what gets left out of the news and hear from an alternative media reporter on how self-censorship has crept into that milieu. Also, a recent forum with Professor Noam Chomsky that presents the issue of terrorism from a perspective almost never presented in establishment media outlets. #128 The Theater of War - (State Strategies to Create Positive Images of War) A war zone is euphemistically called a theater, but war itself is now being presented as a sort of theatrical spectacle for the majority of the American population who will not be anywhere near it. The approach to war, the entire for-public-consumption presentation of US governance looks more and more like a cliche hollywood production: the tough talking politicians standing up for freedom, the waving flags, the smiling soldiers. The entire presdiential spectacle is tightly scripted and closely managed by teams of professionals, and the news media, which should be pulling aside the veil to expose the lies and manipulation, is actively a part of creating the illusion. The dismembered limbs and smell of burning flesh in faraway lands will not reach us via our TV screens - thus the angry twisted men who return from military servic to become snipers, murders or demented street people will not be understood for what they are - people who snap after being turned into killing machines, participating in atrocities that they can never put out of their minds - all for a patriotic fantasy that they realize is a big lie only after it's too late. Tonight we continue our exploration of the crafting and telling of that big lie. First, part three of the Radio Netherlands series on propaganda with a look at the role of war reporting, then some on the public relations campaigns used to manipulate public sentiment towards Iraq. We'll conclude with a talk by Michael Parenti, Rambo and the Swarthy Hordes on the use of the entermainment media to influence American political perceptions. #129 Locking and Loading for a War on You - (Urban Warrior and The Criminalization of Dissent) The Militarization of law enforcement and the criminalization of dissent 12_
11_ #110 USA Patriot Act: An Assault on Activism - (Green Party Panel discussion) We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it... Those words from the declaration of independence of July 4 1776 called for an uprising against a tyrannical government. this more than 200 year old call to revolution will be celebrated in a few days with more patriotic fervor than ususal. The very officials leading the patriotic cheerleading will be the ones that put into place the USA patriot Act, that makes a modern person echoing Thomas Jefferson's historic call to action a terrorist. Tonight. we're going to hear a panel discussion titled Liberty versus security, on the subject of the so-called USA Patriot Act that many regard as legislation that officially initated a government as oppressive, if not more so, than the one that inspired the 1776 declaration #111 Patriotism and Hypocrisy - (Michael Parenti) Patriotism (n): Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first. (Ambrose Bierce) HL Mencken defined the word Patriotism as follows: Patriotism, though it is based upon the natural and indeed instinctive love of home, has been elevated in the modern world into an unparalleled congeries of imbecilities. What it demands of the individual citizen, as a practical matter, is that he yield not only his judgement but also his property and even his life to whatever gang of scheming politicians happen to be in power. The essence of his virtue as a patriot is that he ask no questions, once the band is set to playing. Samuel Johnson's saying that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels has some truth in it, but not nearly enough. Patriotism, in truth, is the great nursery of scoundrels, and its annual output is probably greater than that of even religion. Its chief glories are the demagogue, the military bully, and the spreaders of libels and false history. Its philosophy rests firmly on the doctrine that the end justifies the means--that any blow, whether above or below the belt, is fair against dissenters from its wholesale denial of plain facts. (H.L. Mencken) #112 Rough Trade - (The Geopolitics of Oil, War and "Free" Trade) Hour 1 - The peak in world oil production may come as early as next year; oil supplies will steadily decline. What are the present and future impacts of this w Richard Heinerg, author of Oil, War and Terrorism Second Hour - Wizards of money on the Geb #113 Ex-Marines Against a New Iraq War - (Scott Ritter speaks out) Scott Ritter, former Marine and Weapons Inspector in Iraq and Jeff Paterson, former marine who refused to fight in the 1991 war against Iraq speak out against the current US Goverment war plans re: Iraq #114 Someone's Problem, Someone's Profit - (Cheney, Halliburton, Enron and other nasties) #115 Democratizing Decisions - (Parecon and Consensus Decision Making) consensus decision making and democratic economics #116 Fooling Most of the People Most of the Time - (Illusions of American Popular Rule) Tonight on the program we're going to look behind some American illusions. The 9-11 attack has been compared with Pearl harbor and that comparison may be more apt than many think. In the firsy hour, an interview with the author of a book that documents that the so-called surprise attack was anything but; it was deliberately provoked in order to gain public support for war, and US leaders deliberately sacrificed the lives of several thousand in order to fuel public outrage. In the second hour of the program, we'll take a look at the mechanics of elections, and the means whereby those in power rig the outcome through pefectly legal methods, and then we'll take a look at the national labor relations act of 1935 - which purports to help workers, but many say, actually serves to limit the ability of workers to organize and challenge the wage system. #117 Breaking the Cycle of Revenge - (Israelis and Palestinians Seeking Paths to Peaceful Coexistence) for more than 50 years, Israelis and Palestinians have been at war for control over the land each calls home. Religion, geopolitics and history feed into a conflict that grows more desperate and lethal as the years pass. Within each society, a small but growing number of people are becoming convinced that they must take atand to de-escalate the violence in order to make peaceful coexistence between their peope's possible. To do so, they have had to oppose both their governments and the general sentiment in their societies, especially in the case of of our first and featured speaker, Dani Vos, an Israeli soldier who is one of the founders of what has been called the Refusenik movement. Vos is among a group of about 500 Israeli soldiers who have refused to participate in maintaining the increasingly bloody occupation of Palestinian territories that has been in effect since the end of the 1967 war #118 American Reichstag - (9/11 as the Bush administration's pretext for fascism in the US) 9-11 analyzed a as a latter day "Reichstag Fire". In 1933, the German parliament was burned down, most likely by the Nazis and used as a pretext to for dictatorship and repression and the imposition of the Nazi agenda on the world. #119 A Land Grab By Any Other Name - (The 'War on Drugs' and 'War on Terror' in Colombia) An examination of the actions and policies of the US government in Latin America can shed light on the real goals of the Bush Administration' s " war on terrorism." The" war on terrorism" is merely a new name for decades-old policies that have brought misery and murder to every country south of the US border. Long before Sept 11, 2001, the US government has been engaged in bringing to power and maintaining tyrannical regimes in Latin America. The justifications have evolved to match the rhetoric of the times: anti-communism, the war on drugs and now the war on terrorism or the ever-popular excuse, "promotion of democracy". Tonight on the program we'll contrast the rhetoric with the reality - that what is at issue in Latin America, as well other parts of the world, including the middle east, is the ability to control the natural and human resources of other nations in a manner that will be profitable to American mutinational corporations and capitalists. Key among these resources is of course, oil. In the first hour, radio and print journalist and author Bill Weinberg will focus on what looks like Americas's new Vietnam, Colombia, as well as the fight of indigenous people in neighboring countries to protect their land and resources from being stolen by IMF supported privatization and development. In the second hour we'll hear what it feels like to be to be the grist for the imperial mill, from two Latin Americans, a small farmer in Colombia and a famous Chilean man of letters. 11_
10_ #100 The Long Theft - (Global Trade, Seattle '99 and the FTAA) The proposed treaty misleadingly named the Free Trade area of the Americas, the FTAA, has little to do with trade and is part of an ongoing process to create of a social order where absolutely nothing is free: every necessity and pleasure of life, and all functions of society will be operated for the profit of a small group of multinational corporate investors. In a sort of Orwellian Newspeak, advocates of the process claim that it is the solution to poverty and inequality, and that it will increase prosperity for "everyone." The reality on all counts, as you will hear tonight, is just the opposite.So-called FREE TRADE is the culmination a process of enclosure of public space that one of our speakers on the program tonight, historian Ian Boal, has called "the long theft." In our first hour, we're going to hear a panel of seven speakers who will discuss the threat posed by the FTAA.-- and the negative effects of its predecessor treaties on the workers, family farmers, women and ecosystems of the nations where these treaties have been implemented. In our second hour, Ian Boal will discuss a new book, the Battle of Seattle, which chronicles the ideas, history and social movements against corporate globalization #101 Daring to Say No - (Citizens Challenge the War on Drugs and the American Gulag) A growing number of voices from across the political spectrum are daring to say that the drug war does not reduce drug use. ThatcChoosing to wage a 'war' on drugs stimulates a violent, underground economy, an economy which would collapse if drug prohibition ended. And that this decades long war on drugs is not making our countrysafer, simply less free. In the first hour of our program, a documentary by Curt Scroell focusing on highlights from a drug policy conference held earlier this month at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Then in our second hour, a community forum : NYS Prisons, Inside and Out, which was held earlier this month in Ithaca as part of a New York interfaith prison pilgrimmage.. #102 The House Edge - (Paul Hellyer and Smithy on Global Finance) a dissection of the hidden misdeeds and machinations in the casino of capitalism #103 Reclaiming the Anti-War Origins of Mothers' Day - (The 1870 Proclamation) if all mothers said no to war, we can create a just world for the future. Here is Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation written in 1870: "Arise then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or tears! "Say firmly: 'We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have taught them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.' "From the bosom of the devastated earth, a voice goes up with our own. It says, 'Disarm, disarm!' The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar but of God. "In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace." #104 Development as Class War - (Ecology, Equity and Resisting Capitalism) The institutions that are driving the worldwide neoliberal economic agenda speak of their activities as "development" designed to increase "prosperity" through "economic growth." The well-groomed proponents of these activities speak of their plans and projects in modulated tones of civility in the conference rooms of elegant hotels, while leaving in their wake a worldwide trail of misery, blood, and pollution. The way for this development is opened by coercion, and is meeting increasing and often desperate resistance from millions suffering under these tender ministrations. A growing number of critics, mostly silenced from the mainstream venues of discourse, are articluating an understanding of this development model as global gangsterism. In our first hour of the program we'll hearfgrom Wolfgang Sachs, who will speak on this in the context of "Ecology and Equity: from rio 1992 to Johannesburg 2002" In our second houm Blake, an anticapitalist activist with CLAC in Montreal, will speak on the G8 summit planned for this summer in Canada and the G8's role in this global class war #105 Poverty and Profit - (Homelessness and Smithy on Predatory Lending) The belief that poverty is a result of the personal failings of an individual or group has been fostered by politicians who have repeatedly framed the debate, and ensuing legislation in terms of so-called personal responsibility . This has been echoed by corporate media outlets so relentlessly that a sizeable number of Americans have been convinced that single teen mothers and alleged welfare queens are the source of the econimc diffiulties faced by so many hardworking Americans. What is scrupulously avoided is direct the relationship between some people's increase wealth and other people's fall into poverty, a relationship that exposes recent so-called economic booms as a transfer of wealth from a large group with little money into the hands of a small already affluent group. To explain this dynamic would shatter the myths about the economic system, and those myths are used to manipulate the electorate into accepting the situation. Tonight on the program we'll look at some of the aspects of poverty in America. In the first hour, we'll focus on homelessness, a phenomenon caused by the uneven "economic boom" and in our second hour Wizards of Money returns to discuss the growing tide of bankruptcies and the role of the credit industry in this trend. #106 Rebel Media versus the American Corporate State - (Voices from The Front Lines) We'll look at corporate media and government collaboration, and its impact on society through the eyes of several people on the front lines of the fight for real free press in America. #107 Another World is Possible - (Teach-in from the SGJ WEF conference) Panelists address the visions and values of the type of world they'd like to see, in contrast to the vision put forth by the WEF #108 From the Pinkertons to the Patriot Act - (Law and Repression in the US) 1st of three part series on the context of the so-called USA Patriot Act News reports and even official statements of high ranking officials in several countries have confired that warnings of the 9-11 attack were given to the US government by several intelligence agencies including those of Russia, Israel Egyt and Peru. The Israeli Prime Mnister and the Russian president have gone on record about directing that warnings be delivered. FBI agents have also gone on record as receiving these warnings and attempting to pass them on to disinterested superiors. In spite of this relatively large body of people who were aware that an attack involving the hijacking of aircraft was planned, less than two dozen men were able to hijack four airliners armed only with razor knives. Not even the most minimal directive to increase airport security measures was issued. But after the horse was out of the barn, a flurry of actively activity erupted in short order. While that activity, war abroad and increase of government and police powers at home, is purportedly in response to the attacks the current facts as well as historical precedent shows that the particular nature of the responses are ones that further an ongoing agenda of social control that maintains and increases the wealth and power of those who already possess it. Our next three programs will look at the so-called USA Patriot Act, both in terms of its features and implications for Americans insisting on democracy and resisting capitalism, as well as people around the globe desiring to control their own destinies. www.radio4all.org/unwelcome #109 Case Studies in Political Repression - (Judi Bari, Daryl Cherney, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti) Tonight on the program we'll continue our series on political repression in America with a look at two historical examples: one from the recent past and another from the early part of the 20th century: the cases of Judi Bari and Daryl Cherney of Ear 10_
9_ #90 Through a Glass Darkly - (America through the Lens of Race) Land takings, "Dr. King Speaks to us in Wartime, environemntal racism, race issues in education in Ithaca #91 Neoliberalism Unravels: A Tale of Two Countries - ("We are all Argentina") #92 Dimming The Lamp - (Anti-Immigrant Legislation in the US and Canada) #93 Meet the New Boss Same as the Old Boss - (Ward Churchill on Colonialism and Globalization) #94 Environmental Justice - (Resisting Pollution from Lois Gibbs of Love Canal) Lois Gibbs and Ken Geiser talk about the grassroots environmental justice movement #95 Truth and Lies of 9/11 with Mike Ruppert - (And Evidence of CIA Drug Dealing) Is the war on terrorism a response to the Sept 11 attacks, or is it part of larger and long planned attempt to gain and keep control of Central Asia and its wealth in order to shore up a US economy teetering on the brink of collapse? What do drugs and oil have to do with it? Mike Ruppert has been publicly critical of the offical story presented by the government in the wake of the 9-11 attacks. Ruppert is a former narcotics detective from the Los Angeles POlice Department who was forced out in 1978 after he attempted to expose what he'd learned of the Central Intelligence Agency's role in drug trafficking. He is the publisher of From the Wilderness Newsletter which focuses on reporting on the role of drug money in the us economy, and covert government operations that maintain control of that cash flow on behalf of US economic interests. Tonight we're going to hear most of the sound track of "The Truth and Lies of 9-11" a more than two-hour video based on a lecture Ruppert gave at Portland State university last November. Ruppert has offered 1000 dollars to anyone who can impeach the authenticity of his sources. He presents a series of facts to support the theories he advances. You decide to what extent he's made his case... for more info see Ruppert's website www.copvcia.com #96 Homeland Insecurity - (Two Meltdowns Waiting to Happen) Since September 11, safety and security has been on the minds of many people as well as on the lips of government officials. An office of homeland security has been established whose most notable acts appear to be the harasment of people who express criticism of the Bush Administration and rounding up immigrants based on their race. Also, sealing the borders from dangerous individuals like John Clarke, an anti-poverty activist from Toronto, who was denied permission to give a speech in Michigan this month. In an e-mail detailing his interrogation by US officials Clarke said he was asked whether he was an anarchist or socialist, and whether he knew the whereabouts of Osama bin Ladin. The supposedly security consious government seems to be facilitating two disasters waiting to happen: the continuancre of indefensible and intrinsically deadly nuclear reactors which would cause tems of millions of deaths if breached due to a terrorist attack, and a financial system that eerily resembles the period just preceding the Great Depression of the 1930. In our first hour of the program, we'll hear from anti-nuclear activist Harvey Wasserman about how to shut down nuclear plants such as Indian POint near New York City that is putting 20 million people at risk, including us. Then, in our second hour, Wizards of Money with Smithy returns with an analysis of the effect that the dismantling of banking regulations put in place after the 1930's depression may have on our not to distant future. #97 All-American Censorship - (Emerging Fascist Control of the US Media) FCC Chair Michael Powell is only the latest of a decades long line of government officials who have spoken out of both sides of their mouths about government regulation of the broadcast spectrum. The argument they have made is that the free market will provide broadcasting that best serves the public interest by giving the poeple what they want. At the same time, these government boosters of so-called deregulation have in no way suggested giving up the government's power to decide who gets to use the broadcast spectrum, and who doesn't. We are all aware of totalitarian nations with their government media, or of stories of journalists jailed or executed for critical reporting. American censorship takes a softer, more hidden form - most media is controlled by people who are benefitting from the present government policies - no accident because as media makers, they have been instrumental in shaping the public consensus. the owners of the press are free to say what they want, but most of us are not free to be owners. AS a result of a recent supreme court decision lifting the ban enforced by the FCC on one owner dominating the various information streams available to a community, most of us could soon have less access to real information than a resident of Stalin's Russia or Hitler's Germany. This process is already well underway, as we'll hear tonight, even in two areas believed to be havens for diverse ideas: book publishing and public broadcasting... #98 Oil, Repression and Resistance - (Globalization and the School for Assassins) When examining the US governments actions and alliances, it becomes plain that neither civilization nor sadism are it issue. Natural resources and corporate profits are the issue, and hno amount of sadism is too much where protecting those profits are at stake. Tonight a look at oil, repression an d resistance. We'll begin with a documemntary from St Cloud, Minnesota on what has come to be called the School for Assasins funded by taxpayer dollars and located at a US Army installation at fort benning georgia... #99 US Foreign Policy and Palestine - (Fingerlakes Green Party Panel) Report from Palestine with Audrey Stewart and Grace Ritter, panel on US foreign policy with 4 speakers sponsored by Fingerlakes Green Party 9_
8_ #80 Biotechnology and Corporate Globalization - (And report from WTO) The biotechnology industry recently launched a 50 million dollar ad campaign designed to portray the genetic modification of food as motivated by , and necessary to, ending world hunger. Though individuals involved in the development of biotechnology may well have such motives, the reality is that the world already produces more than enough food to feed every person on the planet. Tonight we're going to look at biotechnology, its claims and its context: the economic and political structures of global capitalism and the profit motive In the first hour of the program, a presentation by British anti-biotech activist and author Luke Anderson. In our second hour, a report on the recent meeting of the World Trade Organigation in Qatar by Canadian anti-corporate globalization activist Maude Barlow, and an analysis of the system of global capitalism from one of its opponents, British political scientist Alex Callinicos. #81 Economic Democracy and Human Rights - (Smithy on Democratizing Money) Many of the situations that most impact our lives result from decicion making by people outside the official political process, in a realm where most of us don't even have a nominal say. Tonight we're going to look at grassroots efforts to create economic democracy IN the first hour, a new edition of the Wizards of Money with Smithy on democratizing the monetary system, in the second hour a speech on economic human rights by Cheri Honkala, founder of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union #82 Participatory Economics - (Michael Albert on Parecon) Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel are the creators of particpatory economics, called parecon for short. They debuted their theory in the early 90's and have continued to develop and refine it iver the course of four books and numerous dialogs with critics. The lecture and discussion in this progeam was recorded last month at the third annual New England Anarchist Bookfair. The speaker is Michael Albert, who some of you may know as the editor of Z Magaine, #83 Profit Versus Nature - (Threats to the Environment and Smithy on The Water Cycle) As we'll hear tonight, markets can't solve our envionmental problems because they are the primary culprits. Rather than working to restore abundance, political and corporate leaders are scrambling to corner the market on precious life-sustaining resources and using law and war to do so. In the first hour, two scientists who will discuss the threat to the food supply, health and the environment posed by policies designed to promote the expansion of corporate power. In out second hour, a new edition of Wizards of Money linking the creation of money with the destruction of the planet's water cycle. #84 The Costs and Benefits of War - (Latin America and War Tax Resistance) The so-called war on terrorism didn't start afterSseptember 11. It has been going on for more than fifty years. It has had many names: the cold war, the Vietnam war, the drug war," humanitarian intervention" or, "police actions". The war on Afganistan would have happened even without the September 11 attacks, the bluepeints for the invasion already existed. It just would have been packaged differently for us. War is always packaged in high moral terms, good and evil, defending democracy, protecting human rights - but it is best understood in terms of costs and benefits: who pays the costs and who benefits. Tonight on unwelcome guests, a look at the connection between money and war. In our first hour journalist Bill Weinberg explains the wars presently being conducted in Latin America in context of the wars in western Asia and their connection to oil . In our second hour, an interview with 2 war tax resisters, who are criminals in the eyes of the state because they refuse to kill or pay for killing. #85 Iraq: Blood for Oil Redux - (Halliday and Chomsky) The Bush administration has declared 2002 another year of war, and plans to mount attacks on more oil producing nations under the rubric of combatting terrorism . High on the list of possible enemies is Iraq, where the current president's father's administration, followed by the Clinton administration, pursued a similar course. we'll explore US policy toward Iraq, bith its stated and unstated motivations. First, a talk by former UN sanctions administrator in Iraq, Dennis Halliday who resigned his post in protest against the conditions imposed on the Iraqi people following the 1991 war. Then , Fred Wilcox of ithaca College will comment on his agreements and diagreements with Halliday's analysis. We'll conclude with an excerpt of a talk by professor Noam Chomsky analyzing the credibility of US government justifications for the decade long war against IRAQ. #86 The Law of the Land: Might Makes Right - (Chomsky and Parenti) Politicians routinely campaign on being" tough on crime" and demand that citizens take" personal responsibility". Paens to the so-called rule of law as a bulwark against tyranny are a staple of mianstream political thetoric of both parties. To what extent does this rhetoric reflect the reality of the conduct of our nation towards other nations, or the government towards citizens? As we will hear tonight on the program, in actual practice obedience to laws is only for the poor and the weak - might makes right,. For the first 90 minutes of the program we'll hear a recent speech by Professor Noam Chomsky on the US governments selective adherence to international laws concerning human rights and war crimes. Then we'll take a look at the function of laws of inside our borders with a talk by Christiam Parenti focussing om the history of federal crime legislation as a means of social control of poor and working people. #87 The Red Pill - (Consensus Illusion and World Domination) A recent science fiction movie called the Matrix is set in a future world where humanity lies sleeping in a drug-induced collective illusion, connected to a monstrous machine that's sucking the life out of them while they dream that they are free people living out real lives. The hero of the film begins to wake and see through the illusion, and, he finds others who are also waking. He is told that he may return to his fairly pleasant dreams by taking a blue pill, or take a red pill and face the unvarnished truth. Tonight's program will address our collective social illusions and make the case we are in fact already the sleeping subjects of a totalitarian one-world government that views our lives much the way that we view batteries in a flashlight - use them while they work, trash them when expended. First, a reading of "Escaping the Matrix" by Richard K. Moore of cyberjournal.org. Then an interview with John Stauber of PR Watch on how public relations techniques have been used to propagandize war and push harmful corporate products. We conclude with a talk by Professor of Philosophy John McMurtry of the U. of Guelph on the one-world government by tyranny. #88 Cracks in the Edifice of Lies - (Plowshares Activism and Smithy on Enron) #89 Deadly Game: Your Life, Their Profits - (WEF and Smithy on Sweatshops) The World Economic Forum, according to its website, is a member-based institution comprised of the heads of the 1,000 most powerful corporations in the world. Essentially, its goal is to homogemize economic and governmental systems worldwide in a manner that benefits corporations and their investors - the process known as globalization. The WEF claims it is working to benefit humanity by creating prosperity through this system. The reality is that most of humanity has suffered greatly as a result of the WEF's agenda, while a small group of investors, corporate leaders and their political allies have accrued enormous wealth. They have done this through the smoke and mirrors process known as free trade, which is neither free nor trade. It's a process of moving production to subsidiarys or contractors located in a country where the workers are paid slave wages and kept from rebelling by a government that gets a cut of the action. These products are them shipped back to the US and called "trade." Meanwhile, these corporations leave in their wake destroyed lives and poisioned land as they hop from country to country for their next quick buck. This coming week, the World Economic Forum will meet at the swanky Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City to gorge themselves on delicious food and fine wines, pat themselves on the back and plan how to do more of the same. Our so-called democratically elected leaders, far from putting a stop to this corporate rampage will be there, on bended knee, offering them more US taxpayer dollars robbed from hardworking people, offering them US troops to keep their victims suppressed all over the world, offering them the protection of the New York City police which stands ready to beat the living daylights of the protestors that are converging on New York City to confront them. If this description of events seems exagerated, its only because you haven't heard stories like the one you're about to hear next on your evening news... 8_
7_ #70 Howard Zinn on Social Disengagement - (The Social Role of The Intellectual) Features a talk by historian Howard Zinn. It's a sort of combined Labor Day and back to school specia. Zinn will critiques the social role of intellectual workers, teachers, journalists and scholars, and lampoons the notions of objectivity and disengagement so often held up as ideals for intellectual workers. This posture of disengagement has social consequences, which he encourages his audience to consider. #71 Political Prisoners - (Two Voices From Inside The US Gulags) #72 Antidote to Jingoism - (Terrorism, National Insecurity, Militarism and US) In our first hour, we will attempt to bring some understanding as to reasons for our national insecurity ,by examining what terrorism is and what causes it. The late Pakistani intellectual and humanitarian Eqbal Ahmed will speak on "Terrorism, theirs and ours" I strongly encourage you to tape this speech and make copies for everyone you know. In our second hour, analysis of the media coverage, and perspectives from the alternative press. #73 Predators - (The Rush to War and Smithy on Predatory Lending) featuring another edition of the Wizards of Money on predatory lending practices and how they target low income seniors.Also excerpts from a teach-in on Dubya's new war, and how predatory religious fanaticism and racism have played, and are playin #74 Class War: America's Old War - (Fighting for a Living Wage, against Gentrification and Eviction) The fight for a living wage, public housing residents fight gentrification and eviction #75 War, Profits and Empire - (From Rome to Washington) #76 Three-Flag Monte - (What is the War on Terrorism actually accomplishing?) #77 Economic Terrorism - (IMF Under The Spotlight) #78 War, Corporate Power and Democracy - (Stan Goff, William Blum and POCLAD) the connections between corporate power and us military activity abroad, and the role corporations have played and are playing in subverting any semblance of democratic freedoms and self-governance at home. #79 Tim Wise on a Nation Divided - (Institutionalized Racism in American Society) Anti--Racist activist Tim Wise speaks on the system of institionalized white supremacy, how it works, and how it must not be a part of any movement for a democratic society 7_
6_ #60 Mutual Aid: Principles and Practice - (from Free Software to Social Centers) #2 in our series on anarchism - #61 GM Conference Report - (Anarchism and Destruction of Family Farms) #62 Working Stiffs: From the Docks to the Farm - (Organizing Resistance) Farmworkers in New York State, The Charleston 5, Harvard Living Wage Campaign #63 Resistance in the Heartland - (from the PTA to the Family Farm) Corporatization of public education and destruction of the family farm by biotech corporations #64 Fight to Win! OCAP takes on the Provincial Government of Ontario - (This is what democracy sounds like!) reach OCAP at www.ocap.ca #65 The Petro-Chemical Carpetbaggers - (Chemical Industry Money Subverting Science) The fight to stop oil and gas drilling in the Fingerlakes National Forest, and a panel on how chemical industry money is subverting scientific research, regulatory agencies and public health and safety #66 A Question of Values - (Saving the Fingerlakes and Wizards Of Money#1) The battle to save the Fingerlakes National Forest is not only about preserving the beauty of its 16000 acres. It is, on another level a battle about local control versus Federal policies, an affrimation of rural life over industrialization, a definition of democracy that includes a communities right to self-determination and a recognition of a shared system of values , that places quality of life and environment above profits and markets - an understanding that there are some riches that money can't buy, but that the quest for money can destroy. In the first hour of the program, we're going air an extended discussion we had with four local people who are working to stop a plan to drill for oil and gas in the Fingerlakes National Forest . WE'll hear their campaign is faring, how they have mobilized to use the democratic process and the conflicting values that the struggle has brought into focus.In the second hour we'll bring you the first installment of our new series, the Wixaeds of Money - an explanation of the workings of the monetary system that underlies global capitalism and has given rise to entities such as the International monetary Fund, the World Bank ,the WTO whose actions have resulted in a worldwide resuistance movement which raises many of the same issues that have come up in our community in the course of the battle to save the Fingerlakes National Forest #67 ABC's of US Nuclear Weapons Program - (Underneath 6 Decades of Propaganda) Thanks to Mike McCormick of Mind over Matters - see all his great stuff elsewhere on this site #68 Playing High Stakes Poker on the Titanic - (Fossil Fuel, Government Corruption and Global Warming) Mountaintop removal coal mining the culprit in deadly West Virginia floods, fresh water supplies dwindle as capitalists plot, and the union of concerned scientists discuss their clean energy program that *ought* to be the national energy plan. #69 The Mechanisms of Inequality - (Privatization, Speculation and the Attack on Democracy) program focusses on the mechanisms and institutions that are consolidating wealth in fewer and fewer hands, and how these are at the same time working to circumscribe and roll back democratic rights and processes. First, a talk given in Norton, Massachusetts last May by Professor Noam Chomsky , one of his best to date. Following that, our second edition of the The Wizards of Money, with an analysis of how global financial institutions work to socialize the risks and privatize the profits by gambling with the taxpayers money. 6_
5_ #50 US Military: Fighting for Oil - (Howard Zinn on The Myth of Cold War plus A Look at Ecuador) The myths and realities of US military intervention past and present, and its connection to multinational oil interests. For the first ninety minutes, a talk by Historian Howard Zinn on the myth of the cold war. Then, we'll take a look at Ecudaor, where the poor are fighting back agaisnt the looting of their country by transmational corporations and banks. #51 The Non-answer Men - (How Corporations and Government suppress solutions to Environmental Problems) In our first hour, we'll look at global warming with journalist Ross Gelbspan, and then hear from British scientist Mark Purdy, whose research indicates that mad cow disease is related to environmental toxicity. Then, we'll look at the contamination of milk and other animal products by genetically engineered hormones, and the fight to stop the plantings of genetically modified crops in New York. We'll conclude with a talk on environemtal justice, and the politics of pollution by Robert Bullard, Professor of Sociology and Environmental Justice at Clark Atlanta University. #52 Teach-In on the FTAA - (From Vancouver, British Columbia) Excerpts from a teach-in on the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the FTAA, that was held late last month by the mobilization for global justice in Vancouver, British Columbia. The FTAA has been described as "NAFTA on steroids." #53 Class Struggle and Democracy - (A Personal Talk from Howard Zinn) Themain part of this program is a talk by people's historian Howard Zinn on the relationship of stuggle and democracy #54 FTAA Report Back - (Interviews with Quebec Anarchists) In the first hour, a collection if streets sounds, reports and interviews about the actions and police repression in Quebec City; Hour 2 is an interview with Nicolas, a QC anachist organizer with CASA #55 Race, Dissent, and Repression - (A Palestinian Peace Activist and An Anarchist Organizer) Interview with CLAC organizer Jaggi Singh from prison, speech by Hananah Shwari on Palestinian oppression and Israeli colonialism. Readings. #56 Guns and Briefcases - The Unholy Alliance - (Resisting Water Privatization in Bolivia and SOA) In rhe first hour, people resisting water privatization in Bolivia, the fight to close a US military School for assasins and indigenous people's word wide resistence to globalization. We will be presenting a recent speech by Haudenosaunee Chief Oren Lyons in the second hour of the program #57 A Canadian Perspective on Free Trade - (Free Thought Area of the Airwaves and Michael Chossudovsky) Tonight we're going look at some of the issues surrounding so-called "free trade" from a Canadian perspective. In the first hour, part of series of radio documentaries, Free Thought Area of the Airwaves, produced at CKLN, in Toronto. Then, a talk by Canadian economist Michel Chussodofsky from the Univerrsity of Ottawa that addresses the real purpose of so-called free trade agreements - the abridgement of democracy and the increase of corporate control of society. #58 Criminal Injustice - (The Death Penalty and Dissent in America) Robert Meeropol speaks about the new movement to abolish the death penalty, Mumia speaks out: his attorney Elliott Grossman reveals what happened on the night that a Philly cop was killed, Seattle sherrif fired for WTO-related brutality reinstated, fast food workers who spit in cops' orders increasing, story of Quebec man crippled by rubber bullet #59 Anarchism and the Government of the Future - (Chomsky Talk plus Direct Action and Biotech Criminals) Noam Chomsky on Anarchism and the government of the future. Tim Ream on forest defense, direct action, and anarchism. Reports on biotech corporate criminals. 5_
4_ #40 Schools Reconsidered - (Computers and Big Corporations in Schools) A look at schools and education from a variety of perspectives, environemntal, political, and social. In our first hour, we're featuring an interview with pioneer educator Jonathan Kozol, and an alarming report on how toxics in the environment may be #41 Anatomy of a Sacrifice Zone (1) - (Death by Waste Incinerator) The entire program is devoted to airing the first 4 parts of a 5 part documentary by Coyote Nation Press, "Anatomy of a Sacrifice Zone" about a rural town poisoned by a waste incinerator that it did not want #42 Anatomy of a Sacrifice Zone (2) - (Death by Waste Incinerator) first , conclusion with the final half hour of the documentary we aired last week, Anatomy of a sacrifice zone, about how people and environment of the small rural town of Oxford in New jersey is being poisoned by a waste incinerator that they didn' #43 Capitalism and Repression - (Unholy Alliance: State and Corporate Repression) Government as a tool of wealthy and powerful interests is nothing new; rather it is the primary reason that governments exist. If you don't believe that consider this simple fact: corporations and plutocrats have caused the death and emmiseration of millions of people, yet how many CEO's are there on death row or in the burgroning prisons of America? Law enforcement agencies have most often been used against political dissidents, and as we will hear tonight, the FBI was created to suppress radical movements that challenged the plutocracy. And nothing has changed. Tonight, we will devote most of the program to a talk by activist and scholar Ward churchill on the history of political repression against movements of equality and freedom in the United States, Then, a report on a miner's strike in Ontario, where we can see in a current context, the same historical dymanics that Churchill discusses, and, also, what it takes to defeat this unholy alliance of corporate and state power. And to close, the facts behind that swindle called electricity deregulation, which is now plaging California, and could be coming to your state soon. #44 The Colony Within - (Racism and The Prison Industrial Complex) First, a talk by anti-racist activist Michael Novick on the philosphical issues underlying community organizing. In the second hour a talk by Professor Angeles Davis on the impacts of the prison industrial complex and the death penalty on a free society, #45 Privatization and Inequality - (Economic Apartheid in America) Ithaca College forum on private prisons, water privatization and an interview with Chuck Collins, author of "Economic Apartheid in America" #46 Can't fight Citibank? - (Direct Action and The Anti-FTAA Demonstrations) Protest action against Citibank for funding deforestation projects. Talk in Ithaca NY by CLAC and CASA members about the Anti-FTAA demonstrations ocurring in Quebec City, Canada in April. #47 Women in Action - (Judi Bari and Others) featuring contemporary women active in a variety of areas: environment, labor, democracy and in the defense of non-patriarchal, earth centered religious practice. #48 Masters of Space - (Militarizing Space for World Domination) speakers are SUNY journalism professor Karl Grossman, David Parnas , a former defense department scientist, and a soldier turned peace activist Bruce Gagnon. The evidence they present comes from government documents, conferences and defense contractor trade publications. It is chilling stuff, because it makes quite clear that the purpose of the so-called national missle defense program, also known as Star Wars is not to defend democracy, BUT to eradicate it. There is an evil empire. #49 Views on Organized Resistance - (Michael Albert and Ward Churchill) What options and actions are open to us, given that our nominally democratic government is in thrall to corporate power?. In the first hour of the program, we'll hear two speakers on the subject of mass protest. In our second hour, we'll address 4_
3_ #30 Casualties of the Drug War - (Our rights, Our lives) Tonight we're first going to hear about the policy implications of the drug war and the role played by the CIA. Bruderhof Radio interviewd former DEA undercover agent Mike Levine, who is now devoting his life to exposing how fraudulent the drug war is. Then we'll hear a panel which took place in Ithaca last May on reforming the Rockefeller drug laws, and how these laws have ruined the lives of tens of thousands of New Yorkers. #31 NAB and Media Democracy - (Don't Let Them NAB Our Airwaves: Microradio Fights Back) Report back from the demonstrations in San Francisco against the National Association of Broadcasters. Includes sounds from the street and highlights from presentations and teach-ins about the NAB and Free Radio. #32 Nader Rally - (Howard, Zinn, Michael Moore etc.) Nader Rally in Boston with Howard, Zinn, Michael Moore more #33 Poverty and Empire - (A Republic Against Caesar) Poverty and Empire - Michael Parenti speaks on "A Republic Against Caesar" a comparative history between ancient Rome and the modern US - Galen Tyler of the KWRU on organizing the poor and the Poor People's World Summit #34 The Unfree Press - (Robert McChesney and Amy Goodman talk) Professor Robert MCChesney, speaking on Rich Media, Poor Democracy. Then a report of the efforts to neutralize the last remaining independent radio network, Pacifica Radio, and a talk by Democracy Now host Amy Goodman on the state of journalism today. #35 Genetically Engineer This! - (Big Money, Bad Science #1) Forum on Biotechnology "Big Money, Bad Science" in Vancouver, BC Nov 10, 2000 #36 Biotech and the Brave New World - (Big Money, Bad Science #2) Scientists and ethicists discuss the precautionary principle, designer babies, medical ethics and neo-eugenics with respect to genetic engineering. Features music by Sieze the Day www.siezetheday.org #37 Sowing the Seeds of Empowerment - (Biotech panel and Private Prisons Protest) Hour 1 Big Money Bad Science Panel on Biotechnlogy "Sowing the Seeds of Empowerment- Citizens' actions in response to globalization." Panelists: Lindsay Keenan: manages GM Free Task Force, for Greenpeace UK Denny Henke: founded the Memphis Social Ecology Project and is a spokesperson for GenetiX Alert, a direct action oriented anti-GMO network Cathleen Kneen: founding member of the Mission Farmers' Market and the editor of BC Organic Grower, the quarterly magazine of the Certified Organic Associations of BC. Hour 2 Students at Ithaca College Protest Sodexho Marriott and Private Prisons Talk Show host sues Cornell university over freedom of information on it's biotech filed experiments #38 Biotechnology - (Biotech Propaganda and Religion and Politics) in our first hour, we conclude our series on biotechnology with an examination of the tactics and propaganda mechanisms being used by the biotech industry to push their products on an unwilling or unknowing public. In the second hour, we'll take a look at the relationship of religion and politics... Thanks to Vancouver IMC, The Jolly Roger Comedy Troupe of San francisco Liberation radio and to GWBush.com for material used in this program #39 FTAA - (And the Arctic Wildlife Refuge under threat) A new presidential administration is about to be imposed. It began with a stolen election and is likely to proceed like a gang rape, with ourselves and our environment as the victims, unless we fight back. Now that the GW Bush's cabinet has been made visible, it is clear that American might will be brought to bear on behalf of certain special interests, the oil industry chief among them. One of their special targets is the Artic Wildlife refuge, which they hope to turn into an oilfield. First in the program tonight, a documentary on that special place now under threat. Then. we'll look at another devasrating project that will be sure to get lots of attention - the Free trade Area of the Americas, the extension of Nafta's profits over people program to the entire western hemisphere. 3_
2_ #20 Tactics of Resistance and Repression - (Discussion on non-violence and Property Destruction, Police Brutality) Since the WTO protests in Seattle, the issue of property destruction as a protest tactic has been in the national spotlight. police departments and other officials have issued a variety of statements, and engaged in survellance and raids on actvist premises under the guise of suppressing the potential for property destruction. In our first hour, we broadcast a roundtable discussion on nonviolence and property destruction, originally broadcast on public access TV in Eugene, Oregon, in reference to recent actions of sabotage against biotech labs in New York, Maine and California. (for more on "midnight gardening" see Biotech Action Network) Then a report on police brutality against anti-biotech activists in Minneapolis, an interview with Matt Ruben of the R2K network about upcoming protests at the Republican Convention, and essay by Dave Neal of Anarchy for Anybody, Starving the Advertisers. #21 Crime Pays - (Profits and Social Control) In our first hour, a special one hour documentary by Bruderfof Radio which features the members of New York's only masters degree program behind bars, and hear their perspective on the issues of rehabilitation versus punishment. In our second hour, Chris Sturr will analyze some recent articles on the subject of the rural prison boom, and the crucial points that are ususally left out the public debate. To wind up todays program, Dr. Michael Parenti will speak on Lazy Law and Social Control. Plus reports from the demonstrations in Phiadelpha at the Republican National Convention #22 The Greatest Threat is a Notion - (A personal presentation from Michael Parenti, striking students and Jello Biafra) At the recent demonstrations in Philadelphia, a protester held a sign, which read: "The Greatest Threat to Democracy is the Notion that it has Already Been Achieved". On this week's program we'll hear from a number of people grappling with politcal myths and realities in America. In an unusually personal presentation, Michael Parenti, talks about his journey from street gang kid to activist intellectual, and about his book "Land of Idols". A striking Bell Atlantic worker from Geneva, talks about the reasons for the strike; protesters in solidarity with the jailed activists in Philadelphia, demonstrate in Ithaca; and former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra talks about activism, American political realities, and the anti-globalization movement. #23 Double Dipping into Misery - (Crack, the CIA and the Prison Industrial Complex) Two panel discussions from the People's Convention in Los Angeles. The first is on Crack and the CIA, and deals with drug trafficking by the CIA, and its connection to Wall Street and corporate finance. Then, fitting in the other piece of the puzzle... #24 Speaking the Unspeakable: Capitalism Ain't Democracy! - (Labor's Radical Roots) A Latin American bishop once commented, "when I feed the poor I am called a saint. When I ask why are they poor, I'm called a communist." Discussions that address the core issues of democratization of wealth and power are off limits in the corporate and government controlled media. Movements that have addressed the issue of class power have been ruthlessly repressed or coopted. Chief among these is the labor movement, which originally had the goal of realizing worker ownership, rather than the watered down present demands of a "fair wage." While a good wage is better than a bad wage, workers face an endless uphill battle, and union membership has declined under the onslaught. Tonight we're going to look at labor's radical beginnings, and the how government has ultimately worked against the interests of working people, then and now. We begin with an essay, "Speaking the Unspeakable" which puts in context the media blackout on the message of the pro-democracy/anti-globalization movement. Then, we begin the first of a series of readings on the repression of the radical labor movement in America. Also, news on a prisoners' union in Missouri, Mexican workers fighting for independent unions in the maquiladoras, and unemployed who are organizing. And, Bruderhof Radio covers two recent reports on child wage slavery in agriculture. #25 Labor Day Special - ("Our" government, the Bosses' Best Friend) We start with a note of appreciation from the rich. Then, Michael Parenti speaks on Welfare for the Wealthy, documenting who government really benefits. Then we continue with our reading on the history of repression of the radical labor movement in America. In our second hour, Howard Zinn talks about the need for a working class citizens economic bill of rights - and them some reports on dramatic new developments locally, nationally and internationally on the Frankenfood front. #26 Nader Rally - (Plus labor history and commentary by Mumia-Abu Jamal) We have a report on the popular revolt against profiteering utilities companies in California, a speech by Ralph Nader which was delivered to 10,000 supporters in Portland, Oregon last month, another installment of the history of the radical labor movement in America, and a new commentary by Mumia-Abu Jamal. #27 The National Security State: A Legacy of Repression - (Repression of Labor from US to Colombia) What do radical labor unionists at the previous turn of the century have to do with Colombian agricultural workers at the turn of the milennium? The repression of the former by US State power has enabled the expansion of a global empire, that has impoverished billions in the name of profits for a few, and turned paradises into toxic wastelands in the quest for a quick buck. Tonight we're going to conclude our series of readings in the history of the repression of the radical labor movement in America, whose goal was to end the empire of greed. Then, we'll conclude with an interview with a Colombian human rights worker on how this same globalized empire has reduced workers to poverty and poisoned the nations best farmland to grow flowers for export. #28 Free Radio - (Kevin Keyser's video documentary) The main body of the program is a radio adaption of Kevin Keyser's video documentary "Free Radio" #29 Propaganda and Control of the Public Mind - (Noam Chomsky and Ed Herman on Media Coverage of the Nader Campaign) A look at the use of propaganda to control public opinion in the United States. Featuring Noam Chomsky speaking on propaganda and control of the public mind, and an analysis of the media coverage of the Nader campaign by Ed Herman -- co-author with Noam Chomsky of Manufacturing Consent. 2_
1_ #10 The Global Casino - (Teach-in on Global Capitalism) A special 2 hour teach-in from the International Forum on Globalization, on how international finance works, and the role of Wall Street money managers and the US Treasury department in setting the agenda. #11 Patriotism as Militarism - (Nuclear Pollution in US and WW2 reconsidered) We continue the lecture series with Dr. Michael Parenti. with "Superpatriotism" about how patriotism is used to manipulate people into becoming cannon fodder for the war machine, and who benefits. In the second hour, we take a look at a couple of shameful examples of the above. First, an interview with jay Truman of Downwinders, a group striving to get the government to help the hundreds of thousands of people irradiated as a result of the US nuclear weapons program. Then, a different historical look at World War II by Michael Parenti - the US and the Allies could have nipped Nazism in the bud, but didn't because their real enemy was the Soviet Union. #12 Corporate Bias and Censorship in the News Media - (Michael Parenti, Toxic Dreams and RBGH) We continue the lecture series with Dr. Michael Parenti with "The Hidden Ideology of the News Media". In the second hour, we look at two cases where business interests and profit motive have resulted in the suppression of news stories about health risks to the community. Cara Ben-Yaakov, talks about how the Ithaca Times censored her story "Toxic Dreams" which revealed that Ithaca officials are planning to build a shopping center on the site of a toxic waste dump that already threatens the health of residents of a mobile home park, as well as the health of Cayuga Lake itself. Then, an interview with Steve Wilson and Jane Akre, two reporters who are suing Fox TV after they were fired several years ago for refusing to report false information about the health risks of Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone. #13 Biotechnology - (Battle Royale of the 21st Century) This week's program is devoted to biotechnology. Policy analyst Kristen Dawkins is our featured lecturer. Her talk is entitled "Biotechnology: Battle Royale of the 21st Century" which discusses the global economic and political context of the push for genetically modified foods. Also, a new German study shows modified plant genes can cross the species barrier. Seed companies are moving their facilities to avoid GM conamination. The New York State legislature will hold hearings this summer on a bill to ban the planting of GM crops for five years. And Eric Bradshaw of Ground Score, a Rochester area environmental newspaper, talks about the protests scheduled for the Cornell campus this weekend against GM and a campaign to get Wegmans and Tops to remove or label products containing GM foodstuffs. Info about protests and actions is available on the Ground Score website. You can download a flyer for the June 16-17 protest at Cornell in .pdf, as well as a fabulous informational booklet (also in .pdf), which you can then print and distribute. Anti-Biotech activist group, the Rochester Fishberries, can be reached at 716-461-1071 or by e-mail for more info on the labelling campaign at Wegman's and Tops markets. #14 Cognitive Dissonance - (Fantasy versus the Reality of Global Capitalism) Are the politicians and corporate heads who are pushing the neoliberal global agenda evil, greedy sociopaths, or delusional and out of touch with reality, or what? You'll probably ask yourself that same question when you hear the material in tonight's program. In our first hour, we'll look at some of the worldviews held by the proponents of the New World Order - Journalist Naomi Klein will talk about "brand cocoons" "corporate soul" "cool hunting" and why this has spurred a student movement against global capitalism. Then we'll hear excerpts from a member of the trilateral commission analyze what he calls the "backlash against gobalization" and last, a report on a federal intelligence network aimed at anti-globalization activists. In our second hour, we'll present 2 documentaries on the effect of the WTO in Central America, and these make it pretty clear why so many are fighting globalization with such energy and committment. Anti-Biotech activist group, the Rochester Fishberries, can be reached at 716-461-1071 or by e-mail for more info on the labelling campaign at Wegman's and Tops markets - or at www.groundscore.org #15 Razing the Countryside - (Fighting City Hall and Urbanisation) While the image of rural life becomes a subject for Disney theme parks - real rural communities are becoming depopulated, denuded garbage dumps - not by accident, but as the direct result of corporate dictated government policy. We're goimg to look at two facets of this -- First, Al Krebbs, editor of the AgBiz Tiller, will talk about the assault on the family farm by agribusiness interests and the role that global trade agreeements play. Then. we'll present a special report from the mountains of west Virginia, where coal companies are literally levelling mountains, burying waterways and poisoning wells in order to maximize their profits, while poverty in those communnities deepens. And, a commentary by Michael Parenti on why we must fight city hall. Anti-Biotech activist group, the Rochester Fishberries, can be reached at 716-461-1071 or by e-mail Info is available on the Ground Score website on the July pickets in favor of labelling foods containing GMO's at Wegman's and Tops markets. #16 Land of the Free? - (Mumia on Prisons, Parenti on Human Nature and Prisoners' Writings) The program begins with Mumia Abu Jamal's commencement address to the university of California at Santa Cruz, which highlights the 2 million Americans now in jail. Then, Michael Parenti speaks on Human Nature and Politics, how theories of human nature are used to justify hierarchy and domination. Then, we hear voices from behind prison walls, with readings of the winning entries of PEN's annual prison writing context -- and Mumia closes the program wth a commentary on Texas and the death penalty. Anti-Biotech activist group, the Rochester Fishberries, can be reached at 716-461-1071 or by e-mail Info is available on the Ground Score website on the July pickets in favor of labelling foods containing GMO's at Wegman's and Tops markets. #17 Biotechnology and Food - (Vandana Shiva et al on Frankenfoods, Biodiversity and Biopiracy) In the first hour, we present excerpts from a symposium on biotechnology and food organized by the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Onondaga County. The panelists were Dr. Margaret Smith, a plant breeder on the Cornell faculty, Dorothy Wrase Hares, a nutritionist; Jane Andrews, a spokesperson for Wegman's grocery stores, Lou and Merby Lego, organic farmers and Tony DelPlato of the Ithaca Area Safe Food Campaign. In the second hour internationally acclaimed activist and scholar Vandana Shiva speaks on biodiversity and biopiracy (intellectual property rights for life patents) Resources on biotech: Ithaca Area Safe Food Campaign; PO Box 634, Ithaca, NY 14851 Organic Consumers Association International Center For Biotechnology Assessment (lists bioengineered crops) Union of Concerned Scientists Anti-Biotech activist group, the Rochester Fishberries, can be reached at 716-461-1071 or by e-mail Info is available on the Ground Score website on the July pickets in favor of labelling foods containing GMO's at Wegman's and Tops markets. #18 Slavery, New World Order Style - (Sweatshops and the Prison-Industrial Complex) Global capitalism is turning the whole world into factories with fences; Charles Kernigan of the National Labor Committee talks about the sweatshops run by Wal-Mart, Disney, Nike, and others, and the colusion of governments with multi-nationals to perpetuate a slave-labor force. And a documentary by Bruderhof Radio on the transformation of rual America into a land of prisons. As people impoverished by globalization try to "improve" their economies by wooing prison funding to thier towns. ****** Anti-Biotech activist group, the Rochester Fishberries, can be reached at 716-461-1071 or by e-mail Info is available on the Ground Score website on the July pickets in favor of labelling foods containing GMO's at Wegman's and Tops markets. #19 Class War - (Chomsky, Parenti and Operation Garden Plot) Professor Noam Chomsky speaks on "Class War" in the first hour. In the second hour, some examples of class war mechanisms by the corporate state against the citizen: excerpts from an article on Operation Garden Plot, a plan to use the military to crack doen on dissent in America, e-watch, corporations track critics on the web, and the Battle of Wellfleet, a small town is forced to accept cellular transmissions towers after courts rule their ordinanaces violate "corporate civil rights." Then, Michael Parenti speaks on "Who Governs?" a detailed analysis of how elites dominate government policy and offices. **** Anti-Biotech activist group, the Rochester Fishberries, can be reached at 716-461-1071 or by e-mail Info is available on the Ground Score website on the July pickets in favor of labelling foods containing GMO's at Wegman's and Tops markets. 1_
0_ #1 Delusions of Modern Economics & The Free Market - (Women's Day Edition) Women's Day edition - with feminist economist Marilyn Waring on how current economic measurements don't count unwaged work mostly done by women, Elaine Bernard on Sweatshops, Labor organizing and Solidarity, and the women prisoners of the Drug War. #2 Globalization and Genetic Engineering - (Globalization, the New Imperialism: WTO threat to democracy) The first of our 17 part lecture series with Dr. Michael Parenti. His talk this week "Globalization, the New Imperialism: WTO threat to democracy". In the second hour, Brian Tokar from Northeast Resistance Against Genetic Engineering (NERAGE). #3 The Costs of Empire and the IMF - (Chossudovsky and Parenti on The Costs of Empire at Home and Abroad) Part 2 of our 17 part lecture series with Dr. Michael Parenti. His talk this week "The Costs of Empire at Home and Abroad". In the second hour, we hear economist Michel Chossudovsky. #4 The Sword and the Dollar - (Sweatshops and Genocide in Central America) We continue the lecture series with Dr. Michael Parenti. His talk this week "The Sword and the Dollar" how American military might is used to secure cheap labor and materials in the third world for US multinationals. In the second hour listen to Fernando Terran talk about the condition of sweatshop workers. #5 You Can't make a Silk Purse out Of a Sow's Ear - (A look at structure and how it affects democracy) We continue the lecture series with Dr. Michael Parenti. His talk this week "Executive Power and Democratic Needs" - the role of the presidency in furthering state power. In the second hour, Office Depot's anti-union policies, Juliette Beck of Global Exchange on the April 16-17 protests against the World Bank and IMF in Washington, DC; FreeNet, a new system devised to subvert government and corporate censorship of the internet; and an interview with Dr. David C. Korton, author of "When Corporations Rule the World" and "The Post Corporate World, Life After Capitalism" #6 Created Unequal - (Law, Money and Mumia Abu-Jamal) The first hour continues our lecture series with Michael Parenti. First, some real history on the Founding Fathers - how they created a Constitution designed to protect the rich while appearing offering sufficient concessions to the poor to secure their support. Then "Justice for Sale", which explains how slanted the US legal process is against blacks and the poor. In the second hour, we focus on the case of longtime inmate of death row, political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal. After the background to his arrest, we listen to some of his commentaries, and play a documentary from Bruderhof Radio. #7 Report Back from A16 - (The A16 IMF/World Bank Demonstrations in Washington, D.C.) This weeks program is a radio documentary of the A16 IMF/World Bank Demonstrations in Washington, D.C. #8 Slavery by Any Other Name - (Migrant Farmworkers) May 1 is International Workers Day, and we start with a brief history of May Day, and its origins in the struggle for the 8 hour workday. We continue the lecture series with Dr. Michael Parenti. with "Racism and the Ideology of Slavery" to provide some context on the migrant farmworker system, which was modeled on chattel slavery. In the second hour, we focus on farmwork specifically. Chris Sturr talks about the legal situation and working conditions of farmworkers in New York state, and we have a report from a rally in Albany by farmworkers as part of the now annual "Farmworkers Advocacy Day." Labor historian Clete Daniel talks on the history of the farmworker system, and its creation by California agribusiness in the mid-1800's, and how it was consciously designed to replicate the slavery while technically not being legally conisdered "slavery." #9 Technology and the Corporatization of Culture - (Corporate Monoculture and Academic Freedom) We continue the lecture series with Dr. Michael Parenti. with "Corporate Monoculture and Academic Freedom" about how corporate trustees autocratically determine what ideas are acceptable in our educational institutions. In the second hour, we take a look at the impact of technology in enabling global corporate control, and its role in propangandizing the values of corporate capitalism. Jerry Mander of the International Forum on Globalization, and public interest attorney Andy Kimbrell are the speakers. 0_
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