2014

Peter Dale Scott: The American Deep State (ONE of TWO)

By MariaDecember 30, 20142014

Wall Street, Big Oil and the Attack on U.S. Democracy
Professor Peter Dale Scott is a Canadian-born former diplomat, and retired Professor of Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of many books and articles on state terrorism, surveillance, drug-dealing by the CIA, and political assassinations.
His most recent book, The American Deep State, October 2014 by Rowman & Littlefield, makes a compelling case for a hidden “deep state” that influences and often opposes official U.S. policies. The deep state is a second order of government, behind the public or constitutional state, that has grown considerably stronger since World War II. Peter Dale Scott cites convincing evidence that the deep state is partly institutionalized in non-accountable intelligence [ . . . ]

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Gasland Update (one 29 minute special)

By MariaDecember 24, 20142014

A celebration of the December 2014 ban on Fracking in New York State
This program is also produced with gratitude in memory of Theo Colborn, author of Our Stolen Future. Her research into the risks associated with the chemicals used in fracking played a huge part in that victory. She died, age 87, three days before the ban was announced.
On Wednesday, December 17, 2014, a victory made the news: The state of New York banned fracking for natural gas. After activists demanded that the health effects of fracking be studied, a two year investigation by the state’s own commission confirmed what the movement had been saying all along, that fracking cannot be done safely. The acting Commissioner of Health for [ . . . ]

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Ward Churchill: A Little Matter of Genocide (TWO of TWO)

By MariaDecember 16, 20142014

Holocaust and Denial in the Americas
This talk is based on Ward Churchill’s 1997 book, A Little Matter of Genocides. It is a shattering and deeply disturbing survey of ethnic cleansing in the Americas from 1492 to the present. Churchill compares the treatment of North American Indians to historical instances of genocide by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, Turks against Armenians, as well as Nazis against the Poles and Jews.
This segment on Genocide ends with an extraordinary statement by Ward Churchill on the importance of knowing history: “We got an entire society here that, with its own collaboration, quells certain knowledge that would disrupt its very convenient scenarios of what it wants to be by denying what it has been… And [ . . . ]

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Ward Churchill: A Little Matter of Genocide (ONE of TWO)

By MariaDecember 9, 20142014Native Americans

Holocaust and Denial in the Americas TUC Radio Archives
Now that Thanksgiving is behind us we may be more open to an unflinching look at genocide and denial in America. Churchill compares the treatment of North American Indians to historical instances of genocide by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, Turks against Armenians, as well as Nazis against the Poles and Jews. With one important difference. This genocide is unparalleled in terms of the size of population and in the way it was sustained through time.
In this first of two parts Churchill sets out to prove that the numbers of how many Indians lived North of the Rio Grande were cooked – there appear to have been not one but 15 million Native [ . . . ]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:02 — 19.9MB)

John Trudell: WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A HUMAN BEING (TWO of TWO)

By MariaDecember 2, 20142014

From TUC Radio Archives
The Native American musician, poet and former national chairman of A.I.M., John Trudell, continues his moving, thought provoking spoken word and poetry address. He is opening this part with a surprising new analysis of the practice of voting for the lesser of two evils and continues with thoughts about democracy, technology, and dominance, and the curious construct of god in a human form.
Trudell describes Columbus as one who did not know what a human being is, and tries to activate ancient memories of those who arrived with and after Columbus and their long submerged links to their own tribal ancestry that was erased by the inquisition. Respect and responsibility are the leading values Trudell refers to [ . . . ]

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John Trudell: WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A HUMAN BEING (ONE of TWO)

By MariaNovember 25, 20142014

From TUC Radio Archives
This is a moving, thought provoking spoken word and poetry address by the Native American musician and leader John Trudell. He did not set out to be a writer. His poetic gift developed out of the remarkable, sometimes unbearable circumstances of his life.
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. From 1973 to 1979 her served as national chairman of the American Indian Movement. The government response to A.I.M. was swift Trudell said, “They waged a war against us. They hunted us down. They killed, jailed, destroyed by any means necessary.”
In 1979 that war took a terrible personal toll [ . . . ]

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Helen Caldicott with Stephen Cohen (TWO of TWO) The Ukraine Crisis, Is Nuclear Conflict Likely?

By MariaNovember 18, 20142014

On October 10, 2014, Stephen Cohen, the eminent scholar of Russian Studies from Princeton, gave an extensive interview to Sophie Shevardnadze on RT. (Formerly called Russia Today, this is the Russian cable and satellite TV channel that is aimed at an international audience). This program begins with clips from that interview. Stephen Cohen says we are in a new Cold War with the added danger of a nuclear confrontation. Cohen gives an erudite critique of the current sanctions and the US led NATO expansion Eastward that has destabilized Europe.
In the second part of this program we return to Helen Caldicott’s appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, that was covered in Part ONE of this program. Following [ . . . ]

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Helen Caldicott (ONE of TWO) The Ukraine Crisis, Is Nuclear Conflict Likely?

By MariaNovember 11, 20142014

On October 8, 2014, the life long antinuclear campaigner and author Helen Caldicott addressed the National Press Club Newsmakers in Washington, DC. She said that the United States and Russia are dangerously close to stumbling into a war over Ukraine that could go nuclear and kill millions of people in a single day.
Over the last eight months, since Russia annexed Crimea in response to the Western-orchestrated coup in Kiev, there have been almost 40 incidents involving Western and Russian air and naval forces. That’s according to a report issued by the London-based, European Leadership Network on November 10, 2014. The report said that “to perpetuate a volatile standoff between a nuclear armed state and a nuclear armed alliance is risky [ . . . ]

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Naomi Klein: This Changes Everything (TWO of TWO)

By MariaNovember 5, 20142014

This is a fact filled complex and thoughtful question and answer period after Naomi Klein’s talk (in Part ONE of this program) on her most recent book: This Changes Everything.
She addresses questions about the XL pipeline, fracking, nuclear power, geoengineering, capitalism and democracy and organizing. Including the question what it is about capitalism that may want us keep the system in place and how her engagement with climate change first began.
Naomi Klein spoke on October 17, 2014 in Santa Rosa, CA. The North Bay Organizing Project, a coalition of 18 labor, immigrant rights, faith based, union, Living Wage, education, and environmental organizations, organized the event.

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Naomi Klein: This Changes Everything (ONE of TWO)

By MariaOctober 28, 20142014

On her web site Naomi Klein says: Forget everything you think you know about global warming. The really inconvenient truth is that it’s not about carbon—it’s about capitalism. The convenient truth is that we can seize this existential crisis to transform our failed economic system and build something radically better.  
On October 17, 2014, in a small town in Northern California a grassroots coalition almost filled the 1,000 people capacity Veterans Building to hear Naomi Klein speak about her 2014 book, This Changes Everything.
The North Bay Organizing Project is a coalition of 18 labor, immigrant rights, faith based, union, Living Wage, education, and environmental organizations.
The Canadian writer Naomi Klein first received world-wide attention with her book: No Logo, [ . . . ]

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Vandana Shiva: Genetically Engineered Food and the Militarization of Agriculture (TWO of TWO)

By MariaOctober 21, 20142014GMOs, Organic Farming

REPEAT of The only recording of the 9/10/13 talk at IONS
We owe Vandana Shiva a huge debt of gratitude for having been one of the first to explain that modern trade agreements are no longer just about setting tariffs at the borders but rather increasingly global bills of rights that give corporations power over national laws and regulations, all in the name of maximizing their profits.
In this wide ranging Question and Answer exchange she explains the so-called investor – state suits before unaccountable trade tribunals where corporations can sue governments when they feel that their profits are being curtailed by state laws to protect health, safety, labor, the environment or other so-called obstacles to trade.
Shiva gives an update on the [ . . . ]

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Vandana Shiva: Genetically Engineered Food and the Militarization of Agriculture (ONE of TWO)

By MariaOctober 14, 20142014GMOs, Organic Farming

Rebroadcast of the only recording of the 9/10/13 talk at IONS
Dr. Vandana Shiva, trained in Physics with a dissertation on Quantum Theory; born in Dehradun, India, the daughter of a forest conservator and a farmer, is one of the great ecologists of our time. She has written over 20 books, including Water Wars: Pollution, Profits, and Privatization; Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge; Monocultures of the Mind; and The Violence of the Green Revolution.
Vandana Shiva has challenged for decades GMO corporations such as Monsanto, large hydro dam builders, and governments, including her own, on issues of agriculture, genetic engineering, deforestation, abuses of science and technology, and globalization. She has started a movement from her birthplace in the foothills of [ . . . ]

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Shut Down the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant (TWO of TWO)

By MariaOctober 8, 20142014

Given what we know today about earthquakes and Tsunamis the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, roughly half way between San Francisco and Los Angeles, would NOT be built and licensed. Why, after Fukushima, Diablo Canyon continues to operate – and why it should be shut down – is being discussed in this program in a conversation between Harvey Wasserman, Rochelle Becker and David Lochbaum.
In last week’s program they covered seismic problems. On that evidence alone, they say, the plant needs to shut down. However there is more. In this part you will hear David Lochbaum make the case that Diablo Canyon has never complied with fire safety standards. And you will find out [ . . . ]

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Shut Down the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant (ONE of TWO)

By MariaOctober 1, 20142014

Harvey Wasserman, Rochelle Becker and David Lochbaum
The former Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspector for the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, Dr. Michael Peck, wrote a statement held secret by the NRC until recently that seismic, tsunami and fire issues at the plant are so serious that Diablo Canyon needs to shut down until they are fixed. The NRC and the owner, Pacific Gas and Electric, disagree in their September 10, 2014, statements. Mark Satorius, the NRC’s executive director for operations said that there were no immediate seismic issues at Diablo Canyon, located on the ocean near San Luis Obispo, California.
Harvey Wasserman discusses with two anti nuclear experts, Rochelle Becker and David Lochbaum, why the plant is operating today. [ . . . ]

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Professor David Keith – A Case for Climate Engineering (TWO of TWO)

By MariaSeptember 23, 20142014

This is the second half of an hour with Harvard Climate Scientist David Keith, author of the book A Case for Climate Engineering. He says global warming and CO2 pollution have become so severe that dramatic measures have to be applied by 2020. He is suggesting spraying particles from airplanes into the stratosphere to create a haze that will cool the planets by reducing solar radiation.
He denies that spraying from airplanes has already begun and warns that this form of Solar Radiation Management, SRM, has the power to suddenly change the earth’s climate. The impacts – he says – will be different from country to country and North to South and can lead to war when some countries engineer the [ . . . ]

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