2017

Stephen Zarlenga The American Monetary Act (Part TWO of TWO)

By MariaMay 23, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

Includes excerpts of a 2016 speech by Dennis Kucinich
This is Part TWO of a celebration of the work of an extraordinary man, Stephen Zarlenga, author of the book The Lost Science of Money and founder of the American Monetary Institute. Stephen Zarlenga died on April 25, 2017.
I interviewed Zarlenga in May 2009 when the consequences of the financial crisis of 2007/08 had become obvious and his reform ideas were in demand.
Working with Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Zarlenga helped develop legislative language for a major reform of the Federal Reserve system.
In 2011 Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers introduced HR 2990, the N.E.E.D. Act, that stands for National Emergency Employment Defense.
The organization that Zarlenga built, the American Monetary Institute continues and the annual [ . . . ]

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

Stephen Zarlenga: The American Monetary Act (ONE of TWO)

By MariaMay 16, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

ARCHIVAL Solving the Financial Crisis by Monetary Reform
This program was first produced in May 2009 – then and now it is a celebration of the work of an extraordinary man, Stephen Zarlenga, author of the book The Lost Science of Money and founder of the American Monetary Institute. Stephen Zarlenga died on April 25, 2017.
In 2009 the consequences of the financial crisis of 2007/08 with mortgage fraud and predatory lending had become obvious, both in the misery they caused to ordinary people and in the scale of the financial bailout that the banks and the bankers received.
Many called for better regulation – but a few visionaries asked for fundamental change of the monetary system. Zarlenga was a leading voice among [ . . . ]

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

Noam Chomsky: Racing to the Precipice (TWO of TWO)

By MariaMay 9, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

Noam Chomsky spoke at the MIT Starr Forum on March 23, 2017 to the dual danger we are facing today – nuclear extinction and climate change. In a scathing indictment of the current administration Chomsky explained that we are not just sleepwalking into disaster but are purposefully racing to the precipice.
In this concluding segment Chomsky begins by covering climate science from recent publication, including sea level rise, CO2 emissions exceeding 400 ppm.
Chomsky also remembers his intensely personal experience of the beginning of the nuclear age and explains the Anthropocene as defined by the World Geological Society.
Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he has worked since 1955. And he is the author of [ . . . ]

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

Noam Chomsky: Racing to the Precipice (ONE of TWO)

By MariaMay 2, 20172017, Newest PodcastsIsrael/Palestine

Within days of the public posting in early April 2017 of his one hour speech the downloads for YouTube alone exceeded 100,000. Noam Chomsky spoke with such critical passion and urgency that this talk should have the widest possible distribution – so TUC Radio will carry it as well. It is a combination of a no holds barred critique of the Trump administration on climate change and nuclear danger.
The reason why this March 23 speech has become so popular – I believe – is that it not only brings into focus the looming danger – that can sometimes feel overwhelming – but puts it into context of history, global justice, indigenous rebellion and equity.
Chomsky investigates the reasons for our failure [ . . . ]

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

Israel-Palestine Through the Lens of Settler Colonialism (TWO of TWO) Professor Ilan Pappe

By MariaApril 25, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

Here is the Question and Answer section following a talk by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe (in last week’s radio program). In his presentation at the Press Club in Washington DC on March 24, 2017, he had challenged the audience with his conclusion that peace between Israelis and Palestinians can no longer be achieved by the so-called two state solution. Instead, Pappe said the only resolution comes with one democratic state for Palestinians and Israelis with equal rights for both. And this radio program presents some of Ilan Pappe’s thoughts how this may become a reality.
And for those who do not want to see Palestinian rights discussed TUC offers – again – a disclaimer: “The views and opinions expressed in the [ . . . ]

Podcast (file2): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)

Israel-Palestine Through the Lens of Settler-Colonialism (ONE of TWO) – Professor Ilan Pappe

By MariaApril 18, 20172017, Newest PodcastsIsrael/Palestine

The program begins with a standard disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the following program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this radio station, its staff or board of directors.
I placed the disclaimer because content critical of the Israel/Palestine peace process is frequently criticized. Please give it an airing because the ideas expressed may help explain a situation that has led to decades of pain and bloodshed in the Middle East. And Professor Ilan Pappe is an extraordinary intellectual and historian.
Here is background on him and the organizers:
Ilan Pappe was born in Haifa and educated in Israel. He was a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Haifa (1984–2007) and [ . . . ]

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Richard Grossman – Dismantling Corporations (TWO of TWO)

By MariaApril 11, 20172017, Newest PodcastsCorporate Personhood, Corporations

This segment begins with an intriguing archival speech on the history of corporations that TUC Radio recorded in Washington DC. at the 1996 Teach-In organized by the International Forum on Globalization. The segment ends with two important projects Grossman worked on just before his death: A law to criminalize hydro-fracking and corporations as a class or group.
In the Preface to his 1993 pamphlet, Taking Care of Business, Richard Grossman wrote:
“Corporations cause harm every day. Why do their harms go unchecked? How can they dictate what we produce, how we work, what we eat, drink and breathe? How did a self-governing people let this come to pass? – Corporations were not supposed to reign in the United States.”
Richard died of cancer [ . . . ]

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

Richard Grossman – Dismantling Corporations (ONE of TWO)

By MariaApril 4, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

Ralph Nader called Richard Grossman the preeminent historian of corporations. In his writings and teaching Grossman warned us that unchecked corporate power would lead to the destruction of democracy. He said that the American revolution was fought less against the King but “against the crown corporations, the Hudsons Bay and East India Corporations.” And he believed that it is time to remember that fight and assert sovereignty of the people over corporations and the corporate state.
In this speech Grossman provocatively calls for dismantling “the thousand largest corporations off the face of the earth.”
Richard Grossman’s research showed him that in the original intent of American revolutionaries corporations did not have rights, they only had privileges, and only those that we the [ . . . ]

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

Feminist Theology and Women in the Muslim World (TWO of TWO) Archive

By MariaMarch 28, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

Special for International Women’s Month
This is the conclusion of Dr. Riffat Hassan’s extraordinary feminist lecture on the story of Adam and Eve, a story that forms the basis for the oppression of women in Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Plus my interview with her about her radical re-interpretation of the significance of Eve’s acceptance of the apple.
Dr. Riffat Hassan is a Muslim theologian from Pakistan who opposes the Islamic view of the inferiority of women. She says that since anti women legislation and custom are enacted in the name of theology, it is necessary to study the Koran and critique the source.
In the original text, says Hassan, women are neither inferior nor sinful. Adam is not a man’s name – it [ . . . ]

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

Feminist Theology and Women in the Muslim World (ONE of TWO) Archive

By MariaMarch 21, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

Special for International Women’s Month
Dr. Riffat Hassan is a Muslim theologian from Pakistan who opposes the Islamic view of the inferiority of women. She says that since anti women legislation and custom are enacted in the name of theology, it is necessary to study the Koran and investigate the source. This required courage since challenging traditional interpretation of the Koran can be a capital offense. On the other hand we are all familiar with the claim that Islam has given women more rights than any other religious tradition. And Riffat Hassan decided to deal with that contradiction.
Riffat Hassan began her quest in 1984 when her feminist friends in Pakistan asked her to help define the theological argument for women’s liberation. [ . . . ]

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

Prof. Jim White: Sea level rise and the melting of sea ice and glaciers (TWO of TWO)

By MariaMarch 15, 20172017, Newest PodcastsArctic

Dr. Jim White turns his attention to ice. The accelerated melting of the Arctic sea ice and the ice caps of Greenland and Antarctica.
Concentrations of carbon dioxide – after water vapor the most important greenhouse gas – are measured in parts per million. The organization 350 dot org expresses in its name that – to be safe from catastrophic climate change – we should not go over 350 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere. However in late 2016 the measurements at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, went over 400 ppm for the first time in modern history. (And on March 9, 2017 the reading was 405 ppm)
When a visionary scientist, Charles Keeling, began daily readings for CO2 concentration from Mauna Loa in [ . . . ]

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

Prof. Jim White – How to respond to climate change deniers (ONE of TWO)

By MariaMarch 8, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

When the Weather and Climate Summit was established in 1985 the goal was to bring together weather-casters and meteorologists from the U.S. and Canada with scientists and researchers. Their annual summit of 2017 was held in Breckenridge, Colorado, from January 8 to 12. One of the many topics at the summit was to prepare for the incoming Trump administration that was to include outspoken climate change deniers.
Dr. Jim White teaches at the University of Colorado. He specializes in Global change, paleoclimate dynamics, and the human impact on climate.
In a very entertaining and easy to understand way he addressed the five topics climate change deniers most often bring up:
2. How can we insignificant humans change the climate?
3. How can something like [ . . . ]

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Michael Parenti: Theocracy VS. Democracy – The Political Uses of Religion

By MariaMarch 1, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

One 29 minute program (no Part TWO)
Michael Parenti says that democracy can’t survive under religious rule – whatever that religion may be. Parenti’s warning in this archival recording is as timely and urgently expressed as it was when this speech was first given on April 12, 1987, during the second term of the Reagan administration.
This talk is also very funny. Parenti explains how God may be considered as a “founding father” and why Woody Allen calls him an underachiever. It is easy to extend this timeless analysis to the present circumstances.
With roots in a working class Italian district of New York City and a Ph.D. in political science from Yale Michael Parenti has become an internationally known writer and lecturer. [ . . . ]

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Michael Parenti: Fascism, The False Revolution, TWO of TWO

By MariaFebruary 22, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

The overwhelming response from those who heard part ONE of this program was disbelief – how can an analysis made in 1995 be so relevant for 2017!
In this conclusion Parenti addresses: How western capitalist states have cooperated with Fascism as they saw Fascists as bulwark against communism. He reminds us that US corporations such as Dupont, Ford, GM, ITT, had factories in fascist Germany and after the war collected money from the US tax payers for damages incurred in Allied bombing raids.
Parenti says that we might do well to stop thinking of Fascism as either or condition. To insist that you don’t have Fascism until every vestige of constitutional government is destroyed and the jackboot is on our necks is [ . . . ]

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Michael Parenti: Fascism, The False Revolution, ONE of TWO

By MariaFebruary 15, 20172017, Newest Podcasts

A talk given by the political analyst and author Michael Parenti in 1995 sounds almost as if it was given in 2017 in the context of European and US elections. In his 50 plus years of lecturing at major universities Parenti returned to the important connection between capitalism and fascism many times. Actually over 32,000 times if you believe the search engines.
Fascism, as Mussolini said “..should be more properly called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.” And history, as told by Michael Parenti, shows that in all fascist societies, be it Italy, Germany, Japan, Spain, and into the present, corporate power increased. And that gain in power such as tax cuts, deregulation, subsidies for extraction [ . . . ]

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