Author Archives: Maria

Fukushima, Five Years Later – Arnie Gundersen

By MariaFebruary 24, 20162016

As of February 2016 Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates is on a one month speaking tour of Japan to assess the status of the cleanup. He arrives at a crucial moment. Even though polls show that at least 70% of Japanese do not want the nuclear power plants reopened that were shut down 5 years ago, the Abe government is determined to put many of them back on line and has begun the process. And to make things worse the Japanese government is planning to burn plutonium mixed with uranium in their aging reactors, a practice that has been abandoned in the US due to the high risk.
This program includes a phone report from the ghost towns around Fukushima [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)

Arnie Gundersen: WHAT DID THEY KNOW, WHEN DID THEY KNOW IT?

By MariaFebruary 17, 20162016

TUC Archive UPDATE.
On the 5th anniversary of the Fukushima disaster the new Japanese State Secrets Law enacted in 2014 limits information and threatens journalists with jail time. And even Western media make it appear as if the worst has passed.
Acknowledging the reality of this accident with global consequences at least 100 years into the future is not only frightening for just plain folk but would be economically devastating to the energy corporations. When former nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen was asked by his family in early 2011 where the next nuclear power plant accident would take place he said he was unable to say where but that he was convinced that it would be a Mark I or II General Electric [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)

When the FBI Knocks on the Door – How the peace movement resisted FBI infiltration and accusations of terrorism

By MariaFebruary 10, 20162016

The largest deployment of FBI agents for a political case since the Counterintelligence Programs against the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panthers, the American Indian Movement, and the Young Lords occurred on September 24, 2010. In a joint, national operation the FBI targeted homes and offices of people who had organized rallies against the post 9/11 wars. This time the accusation was “providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations”. In the end this giant and expensive FBI operation did not yield a single charge.
However the 2010 raids and the confiscated materials were used against two prominent activists who were affiliated with the peace movement: the Brown Berets co-founder Carlos Montez, and the Palestinian American Rasmea Odeh, leader [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:59 — 19.9MB)

Bush Radio, Cape Town – South Africa’s First Community Radio Station

By MariaFebruary 3, 20162016

In celebration of World Radio Day and Black History Month 2016
This is a rebroadcast of an interview with Brenda Leonard, one of the founders of Bush Radio. When I met her in May 2009 in San Francisco she was on a US tour of community stations and gave presentations about the iconic, now world famous radio station that came out of the resistance movement against Apartheid.
Denied a license under the old Apartheid regime, Bush Radio went on the air illegally in 1993. Two broadcasters were arrested and the equipment confiscated. After the historic elections of 1994 the first broadcast licenses issued by the Mandela government were specifically for community broadcasters. In August 1995 Bush Radio began licensed broadcasts.
For this [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)

World Radio Day 2016: Live Coverage of the Napa Earthquake in California

By MariaJanuary 27, 20162016

World Radio Day is an international annual celebration of radio, why we love it and why we need it today more than ever. Their February 2016 events are focused on emergency broadcasts. Here is a TUC Radio special documentary for the occasion. (The exact date is February 13)
This is part of the story of a community that has built their station in response to a devastating fire in their own signal area at the Point Reyes Peninsula – determined to be ready for the next emergency. KWMR in Point Reyes Station has been on the air since 1995 with a rich offering of music and public affairs. But – more than most other community radio stations they have built infrastructure, [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)

The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the rise of America’s secret government, Questions and Answers (Part THREE)

By MariaJanuary 20, 20162016

When the US rose to world power after Word War II one man had incomparable influence: Allen Dulles – spokesperson and lawyer for Wall Street and the most powerful corporations, including members of the oil cartels.
Allen Dulles defined and helped build what became known as the secret government – and within that the CIA. David Talbot – in his book “The Devil’s Chessboard” – described how Dulles saw himself and the CIA as above the law, secretly pursuing policies that stood in clear contradiction to presidential or congressional mandates.
Here now is the conclusion – the question and answer period where one issue keeps coming up: How much of the post war secret state has survived – and how in many [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:58 — 19.9MB)

The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the rise of America’s secret government, Part TWO

By MariaJanuary 13, 20162016

This is a conversation between two authors who dedicated their work to revealing the under-cover world of US politics. David Talbot is doing it here in the form of a real life spy thriller – The Devil’s Chessboard – a book that is more intriguing than current fiction. Peter Dale Scott calls the invisible government the Deep State and has written several books defining the term.
In this second part of their conversation Scott and Talbot begin with the aftermath of WWII where the future of war time intelligence services, and the future relations to the USSR and what became the Cold War, are being decided.
President Truman resisted the conversion of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) into the CIA. [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)

The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the rise of America’s secret government, Part ONE

By MariaJanuary 6, 20162016

A conversation between the author, David Talbot, and Deep State analyst Peter Dale Scott.
In Talbot’s extraordinary new book, “The Devil’s Chessboard”, he explores Allen Dulles’ decade as the director of the CIA. With new material and never before heard interviews David Talbot shows that Dulles saw himself as above the law, manipulating and subverting American presidents. Talbot outlines how Allen Dulles pursued his personal interests and those of the wealthy elite he counted as his friends and clients.
In this Part ONE Talbot and Scott cover Dulles’ collusion with Nazi-controlled cartels and German war criminals; and how he targeted foreign leaders for assassination and removed, for example in Iran, nationalist governments not in line with his political aims.
This is [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)

In Memory of John Trudell: What it Means to be a Human Being (TWO of TWO)

By MariaDecember 30, 20152015

Archives: His 2001 talk in support of the U’wa of Columbia
A combination of poetry and thoughts about history, democracy, intelligence, responsibility and our common future.
The many remembrances that were written about John Trudell after his passing on December 8, 2015, showed the extraordinary width and depth of his engagement. Most know of his music and poetry, or of the films that he participated in. Not everybody knew that up to 1979 writing and performing was not even a thought or plan or dream of his.
In the ten years prior to 1979 Trudell had participated in the Indians of All Tribes occupation of Alcatraz Island that began in 1969 . From 1973 to 1979, he served as national chairman of A.I.M., [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)

In Memory of John Trudell: What it Means to be a Human Being

By MariaDecember 23, 20152015

Archives: His 2001 talk in support of the U’wa of Columbia
When John Trudell died on December 8, 2015, many were at a loss how to explain in a few words what he meant to them: Santee Sioux poet, philosopher, musician and warrior came to mind and the commercial media added his roles in films and the films made about him.
TUC: Trudell grew up on and around the Santee Sioux reservation near Omaha, Nebraska. In 1969 he participated in the Indians of All Tribes occupation of Alcatraz Island . From 1973 to 1979, he served as national chairman of A.I.M., the American Indian Movement. The government response to A.I.M. was swift Trudell said, “They waged war against us. They hunted us [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:01 — 19.9MB)

Vandana Shiva: Soil Not Oil (TWO of TWO)

By MariaDecember 16, 20152015

This is the conclusion of the keynote speech by the Indian physicist, ecologist, seed collector, author and founder of many vibrant organizations, Vandana Shiva.
She made a moving appeal to commit ourselves – whatever is the land on which our lives depend – to restore the soils that have been depleted and poisoned by industrial agriculture. Such action, she says, doesn’t just address the climate crisis it addresses the health crisis that comes from eating industrial food, the water crisis, the desertification, biodiversity, and extinction crisis. Most of all it allows us to reclaim earth democracy, and have an active role to truly deserve the citizenship of the beautiful planet.
Shiva is the author of many books, among them: Earth Democracy, [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)

Vandana Shiva: Soil Not Oil (ONE of TWO)

By MariaDecember 9, 20152015GMOs, Organic Farming

This is the keynote speech by the Indian physicist, ecologist, seed collector, anti GMO and Monsanto campaigner, teacher of organic agriculture, author and founder of many vibrant organizations. In a life spanning local action and international politics, academic teaching and gardening alongside her rural neighbors Vandana Shiva has become an inspiration to many.
Her books include: Stolen Harvest, Earth Democracy, Biopiracy, the plunder of nature and knowledge, Water Wars, and Soil Not Oil. This book, first published in 2007, has become influential beyond it’s initial success because it addresses the most urgent issue of our time: Climate change.
As we are becoming more aware that industrial agriculture is a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions that bring about climate change – Vandana [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:01 — 19.9MB)

James G. Anderson – Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at Harvard

By MariaDecember 2, 20152015

Interview on Climate Change
Professor James Anderson did much of the research resolving the mystery of which industrial chemicals destroyed the ozone layer over Antarctica. The urgent need to deal with deadly UV radiation led to the signing of the Montreal Protocol in 1989.
Now, almost 30 years later, Anderson is doing ozone research again. This time over the continental US. Harvard Magazine said as early as 2012 that Atmospheric Chemists report a serious and wholly unexpected risk of ozone loss over the United States in summer. And Anderson explains how climate change is a factor in this new phenomenon.
He also answers basic questions about the interconnectedness of climate systems, the fallacy of global average temperatures, how living and teaching [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)

Our Renewable Future – With Richard Heinberg (TWO of TWO)

By MariaNovember 24, 20152015

How to get there from here
In part ONE of this program Heinberg gave an analysis of fossil fuel supply and climate risk. Here now is his three level plan for the transition to renewable energy. He is touching on food production, transportation, housing, manufacturing, steel and cement construction mining, the internet and much more. He calls this the economic transformation for the remainder of our life time.
Richard Heinberg is Senior Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute and has written extensively on energy, economic, and ecological issues. He has been quoted and interviewed by Reuters, AP, and Time magazine, and on television in the US, Canada, Australia and by Al-Jazeera. Heinberg has also appeared in many film and television documentaries, [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:59 — 19.9MB)

Our Renewable Future – With Richard Heinberg (ONE of TWO)

By MariaNovember 18, 20152015

On a cool November Sunday the hall of the Little Lake Grange in Willits, CA, filled with members and supporters of WELL – Willits Economic Localization.
11 years earlier many of them had come to hear Richard Heinberg after reading his book The Party’s Over: Oil, War & the Fate of Industrial Societies. The 2004 Canadian documentary, The End of Suburbia, featured an interview with Heinberg and became an inspiration here as well as for the emerging international Transition Town movement.
Arguing that modern life as we know it will end as oil reserves begin running out and climate change does not allow us to burn the rest, the Transition Town Movement focuses on the interrelated issues of energy and economy and [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)