Archive 13: 2020
Shows
Available from
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Shows are listed in reverse chronological order:
Bill
Fletcher Jr.: Post-Election Reckoning
The
2020 Presidential election was historic.
What are the factors that we need to look at in determining what our work
should be now and in the future?
This election was about racism, seeking revenge under Trump's "Make
America Great Again."
What does this election tell us about our electoral system, about the
Democratic Party?
Join
us to hear and discuss with political commentator, author and long time leftist
and trade unionist Bill Fletcher, Jr. as we analyze this past election and what
it means for our organizing work and strategy.
We suggest you read "Post-Election Reckoning: New Hypothesis for the
Road Ahead by Carl Davidson and Bill Fletcher, Jr.”
A
noted labor historian, organizer, author, and trade unionist, Bill Fletcher, Jr.
is a Senior Scholar with Institute for Policy Studies, a former senior staff
member with the AFL-CIO, and the executive editor of Global African Worker.
Thanks
to:
Legacy of Equality and Leadership Organization (LELO)
American Federation of Teachers, WA (AFT WA)
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
Covid-19 Community Response Alliance (CRA)
El Comité
MLK
County Labor Council (MLK Labor)
SEIU 1199 NW Health Care Worker’s Union
Recorded 11/13/20
Becoming a Democracy,
Monday 12/14/20 PST, Premiers on Youtube 2pm 12/10
This should be the
last American election that works against the people. Kristin Eberhard,
Director of the Democracy Program at Sightline Institute, has
thoughtfully researched how the US election system is unjust, poorly
designed, or broken, and walks you through 10 big but practical ideas
for making our elections free, fair, and secure. Becoming a Democracy:
How We Can Fix the Electoral College, Gerrymandering, and Our Elections
is a field guide to the most viable upgrades for our elections, so that
America can truly be governed by and for the people.
Kristin Eberhard is Sightline Institute’s director of climate and
democracy policy. She researches, writes about, and speaks about
climate change policy and elections systems and democracy reform, with
particular expertise on Vote By Mail and proportional representation.
Before joining Sightline, Kristin taught courses on climate change and
energy law at Stanford Law School and UCLA School of Law. Kristin
graduated with honors from Stanford University, cum laude from Duke
University School of Law, and earned a Masters of Environmental
Management from Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment.
Eberhard lives in Oregon, an all-Vote By Mail state.
Donate $35 or more to Fix Democracy First & receive a FREE copy of "Becoming a Democracy" by Kristin
Eberhard. Donate here to receive your FREE copy: https://www.fixdemocracyfirst.org/donate-book-fundraiser
Thanks to Fix Democracy First and the Sightline Institute, recorded 12/3/20
Fix Democracy First - https://www.fixdemocracyfirst.org/
Sightline Institute - https://www.sightline.org/
For CUBA, International Concert Against the Blockade
part 1,
Monday 11/30/20 part 2 12/7/20 8pm PST on FStv one time only
Because the Cuban
people had the audacity to rise up and overthrow the murderous US
puppet dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and,
Because the Cuban people defeated the US "Bay of Pigs" invasion and coup attempt in 1961 and,
Because Fidel Castro survived 638 assassination attempts by the CIA and,
Because the Cuban revolution survived a many decades long campaign of
terrorist attacks and covert operations carried out by the CIA known as
Operation Mongoose and,
Most importantly, because the Cuban people steadfastly continue to
provide a shining example to the rest of Latin America and the United
States of a government that takes care of its people as opposed to the
1%, contrary to the neoliberal paradigm imposed on US client states
throughout the region, the US empire, contrary to international law and
the will of the people in the US and the world has maintained a brutal
economic, commercial and financial blockade on Cuba for 80 years.
Sponsored by the Organizing Committee of the International Conference
for the Normalization of Relations between the United States and Cuba,
musicians and poets from Cuba, the United States and Canada joined
together in a historic virtual concert on Nov 13, 2020 to demand the
end of the blockade the total normalization of relations between the
United States and Cuba.
Pirate TV has obtained permission to broadcast this fantastic concert
one time only on Free Speech TV. The concert will be broadcast in two
parts on Nov. 30 and Dec. 7th in the normal Pirate TV time slot. This
is 8pm pst and 11pm est.
This concert kicked off a weekend of workshops and organizing. I have posted the links to the workshops below.
Watch FStv on Direct, Dish, and Link TV as well as many local Public
Access Stations. You can also watch it online at www.freespeech.org.
Work Shops:
Session 1: "After the US Elections: For Normalization" https://www.facebook.com/1380547238836761/videos/378128600199687
Session 2: "Saving Lives Campaign"
https://www.facebook.com/1380547238836761/videos/752223518702346
Session 3: "Let's Build unstoppable international momentum to
#unblockCuba2021"https://www.facebook.com/1380547238836761/videos/688066375177963
Thanks to the Organizing Committee of the International Conference for
the Normalization of Relations between the United States and Cuba
Zarna Joshi: Italians Are White,
Monday 11/16/20 8pm PST on FStv, Premieres 11/12 2pm on YouTube
Because of the ongoing
Black Lives Matter uprisings brought about by seemingly endless police
killings in conjunction with the reign of Donald Trump, white supremacy
in the US is once again in high relief. Deconstructing myths of US
history that we have all been taught or absorbed is suddenly in vogue
and more timely, relevant, and essential than ever. An openly white
supremacist President just got over 70 million votes. When we say
"American exceptionalism" aren't we really talking about "white
American exceptionalism"? Where did this idea that some people are
exceptional come from, anyway? And what is "white"?
Understanding the truth about what we do know and and filling in the
gaping holes of what we don't know about the last 500 years since
Europeans first set foot on this continent is hardly enough to
comprehend how we got here. Most people don't even comprehend that the
United States is an empire.
Ancient Rome set the standard for empires, ours, as well as all empires
since. Not to understand this is not to understand ourselves. As writer
and activist Zarna Joshi wrote, "So many tactics and ideas of
colonization such as building walls, extracting resources, enslaving
natives, destroying the environment, committing genocide, demonizing
indigenous peoples, “civilizing” indigenous peoples,
“saving” indigenous people, using religion to control,
cultural appropriation, institutional rape culture, institutional
pedophilia, legalized looting, infinite growth, wars for more wars,
authoritarian governments, assimilation, whitewashing their own crimes,
portraying themselves as victims, gaslighting real victims, and on and
on — all these tactics come from the Italians and their Roman
ancestors." Join us as we take a deep dive into the awful truth of our
ancient history.
This discussion is based on the article of the same name: https://zarnajoshi.medium.com/italians-are-white-8330a2ee0e7
Recorded 11/9/20.
U.S.- U.K. Trade Pact: Another Corporate Power Grab,
Monday 11/2/20 8pm PST on FStv, Premieres 10/29 2pm on YouTube
Extreme wealth sectors around the globe know that in
order to maintain their grip on power, they need to thwart democracy in
every way possible. They fear
the will of the people. As we
witness a naked right-wing power grab in the US with the last minute
appointment by brute force of a corporatist extremist Supreme Court
Justice and the in-your-face attempts to steal the elections, the Trump
administration and the right-wing Tory government in the UK are rushing
forward with another corporate power grab by negotiating a toxic trade
deal in secret in the midst of a world wide pandemic.
As those of us who took part in the shut down of the
Seattle WTO ministerial 20 years ago know, these trade deals have very
little to do with trade and everything to do with establishing investor
rights. All the while limiting
the rights of the population. They
are blatant attempts to circumvent the constitution and hard won
protections from corporate pillage by going around the government and
rendering democracy meaningless.
As in the WTO and NAFTA, this agreement contains an
Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) court.
This allows foreign investors to sue governments for measures that
harm their profits. Historically,
ISDS has been used by companies to challenge environmental policies,
health regulations and other legal rights.
For instance, a Swedish energy firm sued Germany for introducing
policies designed to curb water pollution and carbon emissions.
A US tobacco giant sued Australia for attempting to introduce
plain-cigarette packaging legislation - a policy designed to protect
public health. A French
multinational sued Egypt for increasing its national minimum wage.
Both British and American administrations are aware that ISDS is
politically toxic. This is why
these agreements are negotiated in secret.
Although we were able to stop the WTO in Seattle and
with the help of world-wide mobilizing, largely blunt multilateral trade
agreement initiatives, elite power sectors have turned to smaller
unilateral agreements negotiated in secret that they hope to slip under
the radar in order to accomplish their agenda.
This week people all over the UK rose up in demonstrations to
expose and stop such a trade pact with the US. Simultaneously, US citizens
who were aware of it were doing the same.
Unless we stop this toxic trade deal, we could face:
- The British National Health Service being opened up permanently to
American healthcare companies. Such
language would make it harder for US citizens to institute Medicare for
All.
- Chlorinated chicken, hormone–laced beef and lower food standards,
which Americans already suffer from.
- Forced deregulation of environmental laws, rights at work and rights to
data privacy.
- New rules that make it impossible to take effective action on the
climate crisis.
- Watered down Internet freedoms and digital privacy rights.
Recorded 10/24/20
Day of action supported by Another Europe is
Possible, Compassion in World Farming, Global Justice Now, Keep Our NHS
Public, Open Rights Group, the Stop Trump Coalition, SumOfUs, Traidcraft
Exchange, War on Want and We Own It.
The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition, Monday
10/12/20 8pm PST on FStv, Premieres 10/8 2pm on YouTube
Debtors have been mocked, scolded and
lied to for decades. We have been told that it is perfectly normal to
go into debt to get medical care, to go to school, or even to pay for
our own incarceration. We’ve been told there is no way to change
an economy that pushes the majority of people into debt while a small
minority hoard wealth and power.
The coronavirus pandemic has revealed that mass indebtedness and
extreme inequality are a political choice. In the early days of the
crisis, elected officials drew up plans to spend trillions of dollars.
The only question was: where would the money go and who would benefit
from the bailout?
The truth is that there has never been a lack of money for things like
housing, education and health care. Millions of people never needed to
be forced into debt for those things in the first place.
Armed with this knowledge, a militant debtors movement has the
potential to rewrite the contract and assure that no one has to
mortgage their future to survive.
Debtors of the World Must Unite.
As isolated individuals, debtors have little influence. But as a bloc,
we can leverage our debts and devise new tactics to challenge the
corporate creditor class and help win reparative, universal public
goods.
Individually, our debts overwhelm us. But together, our debts can make
us powerful. And it works! The debt collective has succeeded in
negotiating away the debt of thousands and crafts landmark legislation.
If you are in debt, you need to join the Debt Collective. And once you
watch this and want to find out more, you can download the book "Can't
Pay Won't Pay" 40% off for a limited time courtesy of Haymarket Books
and the Debt Collective.
Join the Debt Collective: https://debtcollective.org/
Get the book: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1520-can-t-pay-won-t-pay
Speakers:
Astra Taylor is a documentary filmmaker, writer, and political
organizer. She is the director, most recently, of "What Is Democracy?"
and the author of Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When
It’s Gone and the American Book Award winning The People’s
Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age. She is
co-founder of the Debt Collective, a union for debtors, and contributed
the foreword to the group’s new book, Can’t Pay,
Won’t Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition.
Hannah Appel is a Professor of Anthropology and Global Studies at UCLA
and a political organizer. She is the author, most recently, of The
Licit Life of Capitalism: US Oil in Equatorial Guinea, and serves as
the Associate Director of the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and
Democracy, where she leads the Future of Finance research stream. She
is co-founder of the Debt Collective, a union for debtors, and a
writers bloc member for Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay: The Case for
Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition.
Chenjerai Kumanyika is an assistant professor in the Department of
Journalism and Media at Rutgers University who also commits acts of
podcasting and organizing. His research and teaching focus on power,
race , and promotional culture in the cultural and creative industries.
In addition to being a proud Moth storyteller, Chenjerai Co-created and
Co-hosted Gimlet Media’s Peabody award-winning Uncivil podcast
and co-hosts on Scene on Radio’s widely influential seasons on
“Seeing White,” and the history of American democracy. His
writing appears in a variety of scholarly and journalistic outlets.
Chenjerai organizes with 215 People's Alliance, the Media, Inequality,
& Change Center, Philadelphia Debt Collective and continues to
serve on Street Poets' board.
Thanks to Haymarket Books and the Debt Collective. Recorded 9/23/20
Media and Democracy: Time for a Reset, Monday
10/5/20 8pm PST on FStv, Premieres 10/4 2pm on YouTube
In the struggle to
create more democracy, we cannot overlook the powerful influence of
corporate media and the lack of media literacy in general in the United
States.edia literacy in general in the United States. This is a
situation that was always a problem but with the rise of social media,
it is clearly getting worse. A large part of media literacy is basic
critical thinking. Another skill that seems to be on the wane. Join us
and a panel of journalists, media academics, and teachers discuss the
problem and what to do about it.
Panelist Bios:
Dr. John S. Caputo is Professor Emeritus and Walter Ong, S.J. Scholar
and founder of the Master’s Program in Communication and
Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University. He is the author of seven
books, a lecturer and consultant. He is the founding member of the
Northwest Alliance for Responsible Media.
Dr. Denis Muller is a journalist, broadcaster and
academic. He worked as a newspaper journalist for 27 years and is
currently a weekly commentator on media issues for the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation. One of his recent articles is “Media
have helped create a crisis of democracy - now they must play a vital
role in its revival.”
Dr. Carolyn Cunningham is an Associate Professor of
Communication and Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University. She serves
on the Board and co-directs the media literacy center at Gonzaga
(NWARM). She researches areas including girls and video games, women
and leadership, and media literacy. She is currently working on a book
project related to girls and climate change activism.
Sandra Williams is an activist, lecturer, filmmaker,
and entrepreneur, with an extensive background addressing issues of
discrimination, equity, and social justice. She is the Publisher and
Editor of The Black Lens, an independent community publication, based
in Spokane, Washington. Black Lens News - http://blacklensnews.com/
Frank W. Baker is a media literacy education trainer.
He has conducted hundreds of workshops with teachers in 20+ years. In
2019, he was a recipient of a UNESCO Global Media & Information
Literacy award for his lifelong work in media literacy. He operates the
Media Literacy Clearinghouse resource website
[https://frankwbaker.com/mlc/], has authored four books and blogs at
Middleweb.com.
About Fix Democracy First: The mission is to achieve
fair elections and government policies that reflect the will of the
people, not the power of money. The focus is on reforms intended to
strengthen democracy in Washington State and nationally, such as
campaign finance reform, public funding of elections, ranked choice
voting, reversing Citizens United, expanding voting access, and
increasing civic participation. See: FixDemocracyFirst.org
Recorded 9/18/20
Lawrence Lessig: The Strategy of Reform, Monday
9/28/20 8pm PST on FStv, Premieres 9/24 2pm on YouTube
Harvard
Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, a prolific author, tireless democracy
activist, and frequent guest on Pirate TV gave this talk to Fix Democracy
First. In this talk he
outlines his plan for how to fix our broken voting system in the United
States and get money out of politics.
He points out that things may not be as bleak as they may seem as
lots of people are on the same page and lots of progress has already been
made.
About
Lawrence Lessig:
Recorded 9/18/20
Cuban Trained Doctors – Confronting COVID-19, Monday
9/14/20 8pm PST on FStv, Premieres 9/13 1pm on YouTube
Hear from Cuban trained doctors in the
Dr. Agyeiwa Weathers graduated this year from
Dr Emily Brown is a 2017
Moderators Dr. Melissa Barber and Dr. Samira Addrey discuss
Dr. Samira Mifatou Addrey graduated summa cum laude from
the Latin American School of Medicine, class of 2020.
Dr. Melissa Barber is a 2007
Recorded
See Also: https://ifconews.org/
Rev. Osagyefo Sekou and Lisa Fithian: Militant
Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Training
Join us in the park for as we sit in on a militant nonviolent civil disobedience training with Rev. Osagyefo Sekou. You will be needing it soon. We learn how to dodge bullets, tear gas, pepper spray, protect yourself from batons and what to do if you are arrested. After this we go a little deeper into mass resistance theory with a segment from Lisa Fithian’s training session given last November 30th at the WTO Plus 30 event at Seattle Town Hall.
The noted activist, theologian, author, documentary filmmaker, and musician, Rev Osagyefo Sekou is the leader of an awesome R&B Gospel band called Rev. Sekou & the Holy Ghost. He has 3 albums, “The Revolution Has Come”- 2016, "In Times Like These” - 2017, and a new live album, “When We Fight We Win”. Rev. Sekou has written two collections of essays. "Urbansouls: Meditations on Youth, Hip Hop, and Religion" and "Gods, Gays, and Guns: Essays on Religion and the Future of Democracy". He is the author of the forthcoming "Riot Music: Race, Hip Hop and the Meaning of the London Riots 2011".
Rev. Sekou was a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Martin Luther King Education and Research Institute at the time of Michael Brown Jr.’s killing, and traveled to Ferguson in mid-August 2014 on behalf of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (the country’s oldest interfaith peace organization) to organize alongside local and national groups.
Lisa Fithian is an anti-racist organizer who has worked for justice since the 1970s. Using creative, strategic nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience, she has won many battles and trained tens of thousands of activists while participating in a range of movements and mobilizations, including Occupy Wall Street, anti-WTO and corporate globalization protests all over the world, the climate justice movement, and more. Described by Mother Jones as “the nation’s best-known protest consultant,” Fithian has been involved in nearly every major protest event for the past four decades. Recorded 7/29/20
S Brian
Willson: Please Don't Thank Me for My Service, Monday 8/3/20 8pm PST on FStv, Premieres 7/30 8pm
on YouTube
As often stated by the renowned social
critic, Noam Chomsky, the US population is the most highly
indoctrinated on earth. S. Brian Willson joins us from his home in
Nicaragua to discuss current events through the lens of white
exceptionalism and privilege. Recently he wrote: “The "Trump
cult" is really a revelation of the cult of the white exceptionalism
that has permeated our society since the 1600s (City on the Hill).
Trump is a caricature, or avatar for who we really are…”
Born July 4, 1941, the U.S. American Vietnam veteran, author, peace
activist, and trained attorney, became a member of Vietnam Veterans
Against the War and Veterans For Peace after he witnessed massacres of
entire villages by US and South Vietnamese air strikes. This, he says,
caused an “epiphany” which “exploded in my head and
heart, toward suicide ideation…” He came to question
everything he had ever been taught and to explore the depths of
American cultural mythology through the forced unraveling of his own
conditioning. “U.S. policies and practices have been conducted
with such a double standard and in such a self-serving manner, and with
such insensitive and brutal ferocity, as to be virtually beyond
comprehension to most residents within the United States of
America.” As a trained lawyer and writer, he has documented U.S.
imperil foreign policy in nearly two dozen countries.
Willson became famous in 1987 when while engaged in a protest against
the shipping of U.S. weapons to Central America in the context of the
Contra wars, he and other members of a Veterans Peace Action Team
blocked railroad tracks at the Concord, California Naval Weapons
Station. An approaching train did not stop, and struck the veterans.
Willson was hit, ultimately losing both legs below the knee while
suffering a severe skull fracture with loss of his right frontal lobe.
Three days after Willson lost his legs over 10,000 people gathered for
a non-violent protest in his support and against arms shipments to
Central America. For years after the incident, anti-war protesters
maintained a 24-hour-a-day vigil at the weapons depot.
In 1988, a documentary, "The Healing of Brian Willson" was produced by
Idanha Films. In 2016, a documentary, "Paying the Price For Peace: The
Story of S. Brian Willson (and other activists)" was produced and
directed by filmmaker Bo Boudart. He has written three books: “On
Third World Legs”, 1992, “Blood on the Tracks: The Life and
Times of S. Brian Willson” 2011, and “Don't Thank Me For My
Service: My Vietnam Awakening to the Long History of U.S. Lies”
was published in 2018.
Join us for a deep dive into the American psyche that is revealed in
the context of now. This discussion will be broadcast in two parts. The
second part also contains a talk by Willson in Eugene, Oregon 2016 on
the occasion of the “Paying the Price For Peace” film
release.
Both parts are contained in this Youtube post.
Look for S Brian Willson on FaceBook. Recorded 7/23/20
Daniel Newman: UNRIG: How to Fix Our Broken Democracy,
Monday 7/13/20 8pm PST
Despite our immense political divisions, Americans are nearly united in our belief that something is wrong with our government: It works for the wealthy and powerful, but not for anyone else. Fix Democracy First along with the League of Women Voters hosted the book launch of UNRIG: How to Fix Our Broken Democracy where author Daniel Newman, talked about and showed key parts of the graphic novel.
In the book Newman, a noted
democracy reform leader and artist George O’Connor expose the
twisted roots of our broken democracy and highlight the heroic efforts
of those unrigging the system to return power to We the People. They
take readers behind the scene- from the sweaty cubicles where senators
dial corporate CEOs for dollars, to lavish retreats where billionaires
boost their favored candidates, to the map rooms where lawmakers scheme
to handpick their voters. Unrig highlights surprising solutions that
limit the influence of big money and redraw the lines of political
power.
In this video, Newman talks about the story of the game-changing fight
to rid George Mason University of corrupting Koch influence tracking
two heroes: former GMU student Samantha (Sam) Parsons, a co-founder of
UnKoch My Campus and its Director of Campaigns, and Professor Bethany
Letiecq, the courageous president of GMU’s AAUP chapter. See
also: Pirate TV- Nancy MacLean: The Origins of Today’s Radical
Right, and her book: Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the
Radical Rights Stealth Plan for America.
AUTHOR: Daniel G. Newman is a national expert on government
accountability and money in politics. He is president and co-founder of
MapLight, a nonpartisan nonprofit that promotes transparency and
political reform. He led a ballot measure campaign establishing public
funding of elections in Berkeley, CA.
SPECIAL GUEST: Estevan Muñoz-Howard is the Program Officer for
Money in Politics Reform at the Piper Fund. He helped to lead the
successful 2015 Honest Elections Seattle campaign—a historic
initiative to implement the Democracy Voucher Program.
Links:
Unrig the Book - https://www.unrigbook.com
Fix Democracy First - https://www.fixdemocracyfirst.org/
Donate $35 for more to Fix Democracy First and receive a FREE copy of
Unrig. Donate here:
https://www.fixdemocracyfirst.org/donate-book-fundraiser
LWV of Seattle-King County - https://www.seattlelwv.org/
The Piper/Proteus Fund - https://www.proteusfund.org/piper
Fix Democracy First is a non-profit in the state of Washington fighting
to improve our Democratic processes. They have been running initiatives
and projects in support of public financing of campaigns, fair
elections, overturning Citizen’s United, protecting voting rights
and other similar efforts for almost two decades and have recently
merged with WAmend and continue to work very closely with allies,
partners, and volunteers towards the common goal of getting money out
of politics.
Recorded 7/7/20
Greg
Palast: How the 2020 Election Was Stolen (and how to steal it back),
Monday 7/6/20 8pm PST
Investigative Journalist Greg Palast has
been on the trail of election thieves since he exposed the theft of the
2000 US presidential election in Florida (Guardian, BBC, The Nation, Harper's). I asked him at the time,
“If the Republicans are rigging all these elections, why
don’t the Democrats expose it?” He said, “Because
they do it too.” Now its 20 years later and nothing has changed.
In his new book, out July14th- “How Trump Stole 2020”, Greg lays out the case that
the Republicans already have the 2020 election in the snatch bag. What
can we do about it? Tune in to my interview and find out. Then buy 20
copies of the book and give it to all your friends!
Here’s what you didn’t know:
“In 2016, no fewer than 5,872,857 ballots were cast—and never counted.
Does it matter? In Detroit, 75,355 ballots were never counted because
of 87 broken scanning machines. And Trump supposedly won Michigan by
10,700 votes — really?
And, no fewer than 1,982.071 legal voters were denied the right to
vote. Told to get the hell out of the polling station. Can you guess
their color?
Add it up. That's at least 7,854,928 legitimate votes and voters tossed out of the count.
So God Bless America. By the way, these numbers are from the raw data supplied to me by the US Elections Assistance Commission.
So: Trump wasn’t elected by voters but by voter-vanishing trickery.
It's official. It's in your face. It's sick. It's unreported.” -Greg Palast
Greg Palast has been called the “most important investigative
reporter of our time — up there with Woodward and
Bernstein” (The Guardian). Palast has broken front-page stories for BBC Television
Newsnight, The Guardian, Nation Magazine and now Rolling Stone
Magazine.
He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Billionaires & Ballot
Bandits, Armed Madhouse, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and the highly acclaimed
Vultures' Picnic, named Book of the Year 2012 on BBC Newsnight
Review.
He also made a documentary: “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: A Tale of Billionaires & Ballot
Bandits”.
See also: www.gregpalast.com and sign up for updates
Recorded 6/27/20
Danny Glover and Ambassador Cabañas: COVID, Cuba and Saving Lives,
Monday 6/29/20
8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
On June 16, 2020, renowned actor,
director, producer, and activist Danny Glover had a one-on-one with
Cuban Ambassador to the US Jose Ramon Cabañas. The US activist
is one of the world-renowned figures who support a worldwide campaign
to grant the Nobel Peace Prize to the Henry Reeve International
Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Situations of Disasters and
Serious Epidemics.
This online discussion was part of the US-Cuba Normalization
Committee's Saving Lives Campaign. At the webinar organized by Cuba
solidarity networks in the United States and Canada, the actor pointed
out that the Caribbean island's response to the Covid-19 pandemic of
sending medical brigades to more than a score of countries, was started
60 years ago.
Due to government incompetence and mismanagement in the United States,
the Corona virus is spiraling out of control and now along with Brazil
has the highest death rate in the world. Cuba on the other hand has
managed to bring the infection rate down to only two new cases as of
this date [June 26]. Glover made note of the work of the Latin American
School of Medicine [ELAN] in Havana, the largest medical school in the
world, which trains doctors for needy countries including the United
States for free.
Cabañas talked about the great challenge posed by the US-imposed
blockade against Cuba, which not only affects the people, but also US
citizens, and highlighted the potentialities of collaboration between
the two countries if that obstacle did not exist. Both Glover and
Cabañas referred to the possibility of building a better future
if the nations work together, and Glover noted the importance that
citizens build the international solidarity necessary to save humankind.
Thanks to the US-Cuba Normalization Committee. Co-sponsors include the
National Network on Cuba, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Minnesota
Cuba Committee, and CODEPINK: Women For Peace
See Also: US-Cuba Normalization Committee www.us-cubanormalization.org/
Rick
Spinrad, PhD: We Are All Scientists,
Monday 6/22/20
8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
Recently,
at the instigation of the Trump White House, hundreds of armed, white
vigilantes turned out to defend their small towns from “Antifa
invasions”. Of course, the busloads of black bloc
“terrorists” never showed up. Duped again, will they ever
learn? These are likely the same ilk that invaded state houses with
their guns to demand an end to the coronavirus shutdown. And they
don’t believe they need to wear masks or socially isolate
-another hoax perpetrated by Trump and his billionaire funders. All the
while the pandemic spirals out of control especially in states
controlled by Republicans, thus ensuring that their economies may never
open again since if they do, they will have to shut right back down
again as the infection rate shoots up. In short: morons –the
Republican base or as Karl Rove famously called them- “useful
idiots.” Republicans couldn’t get elected without them.
Closer observation might reveal that most of them don’t believe
in climate change either. In other words, they don’t believe in
science.
If you think the US population has been getting dumber over the past 50
years, you would be right. Although this may be due to a number of
environmental factors, part of it in the US was deliberate and planned.
After the 60’s rebellions, it seems the ruling oligarchy decided
that a well educated middle-class wasn’t in their best interest.
Therefore, I decided to pull out this keynote talk given at the 36th
Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) by Dr. Richard W.
Spinrad. In this talk Dr. Spinrad gives a brief history of science and
science teaching in the US, elaborates on the decreasing role that
science plays in environmental policy decisions in the Trump
administration, and talks about the role of citizens in science.
Dr. Richard W. (Rick) Spinrad is a Professor of Oceanography at Oregon
State University (OSU) and President-Elect of the Marine Technology
Society (MTS). In 2016 he retired as Chief Scientist of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where he was appointed
by President Barack Obama in 2014.
Among his accomplishments, Dr. Spinrad was a co-lead of the White House
Committee that developed the nation’s first set of ocean research
priorities and oversaw the revamping of NOAA’s research
enterprise.
Dr. Spinrad served as the U.S. permanent representative to the United
Nations’ Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission from
2005-2009.
He is the recipient of Presidential Rank Awards from Presidents George W. Bush and Barack H.
Obama.
Recorded at the University of Oregon School of Law 3/1/18 by Pirate TV Contributor Todd Boyle
Bill Fletcher Jr: Race and Labor- A More Just Economy,
Monday 6/15/20
8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
In
this talk, acclaimed labor educator and writer Bill Fletcher Jr.
enlightens us with some little known history of how racism has been
used since Europeans first came to the western world to control the
working class. This analysis illuminates precisely why Capitalism
cannot exist without racism. Contrary to what many may think, the
concept of “white” which did not previously exist was
invented for this purpose, and did not necessarily refer to skin color.
The first Africans were brought over as indentured servants and became
chattel slaves only later as the American caste system evolved.
This explains why organized labor needs to develop a robust counter
narrative to that offered by right-wing populism [which it hasn’t
so far] if it is to make any headway against the divide and rule
strategy of the “owners” [Gore Vidal]. The labor movement
must integrate racial justice into every area of organizing if it
wishes to regain its role as a relevant agent of social and economic
justice.
Bill Fletcher, Jr. became an activist at age 13, participating in the
Black Panther Party and organizing rallies and events. He is Executive
Editor of BlackCommentator.com and a leader of Democratic Socialists of
America. Fletcher is co-founder of the Center for Labor Renewal and is
the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum. He is the co-author
of Solidarity Divided, which analyzes the crisis in organized labor in
the US.
Thanks to the University of Oregon Office of Equity and Inclusion, UO
Portland, UO Labor Education and Research Center, Oregon Tradeswomen,
UO Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, United Academics of the
University of Oregon, and SEIU Local 503
Recorded February 21, 2018 by Pirate TV contributor Todd Boyle
All views are those of the speaker and not necessarily those of the sponsors.
The
Fight to Tax Amazon,
Monday 6/8/20
8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
While
¾ of working class people in Seattle have experienced job loss
since March 13th, exasperating the housing crisis which has people
living in tents and RVs everywhere, the wealth of the world’s
richest man, Amazon founder and chair Jeff Bezos has increased from
$113B to $147B in the same period. That’s $34 Billion in two
months. What’s worse, the housing crisis in Seattle is largely
due to him. Because of the Amazon tech-boom a thousand people per week
were moving in, making an already bad traffic situation impossible and
doubling the cost of housing. This made many long time residents
refugees and many more homeless.
After destroying a perfectly good city, Bezos who never believed in
paying taxes, organized a PR campaign with other large businesses and
hired signature gatherers to stop a small tax passed by the City
Council of a paltry $275 per employee per year. Under pressure
generated by the so-called “jobs tax” propaganda, the
Council retreated from the plan designed to help create affordable
housing and offset some of the damage.
All that is changing. Due to pressures from the COVID-19 pandemic,
voters in metropolitan Portland, Oregon, Seattle’s sister city to
the south just approved an income tax on high-income earners and large
businesses to put money into services for the homeless. Seattle, home
to the richest men in the world may soon do the same. Led by
“militant socialist” [Seattle PI] Councilmember Kshama
Sawant and Councilmember Tammy Morales, a Tax Amazon ballot initiative
and corresponding legislation to fund emergency COVID relief for
workers, as well as a massive expansion of green jobs and social
housing is in the works.
This show is from a Town Hall organized on Zoom May 28th which features
Councilmember Sawant and John Burbank Founder of the Economic
Opportunity Institute and includes several other panelists. It explains
why it’s about time we start taxing the rich.
Read the proposed resolution here: https://tinyurl.com/TAresolution3h.
Edward Mast and Hanna Eady: Letters from Palestine in the Time of the Virus,
Monday 6/1/20
8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
Seattle
based playwrights Edward Mast and Hanna Eady created a play about the
fears and resilience of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank as they
meet the threat of Covid 19.
Presented by Seattle's Dunya Productions, the play features local
Seattle actors and other community members reading from writings, words
and quotations by Palestinians living under the double threat of corona
virus and ongoing Israeli occupation and violence. Due to the Corona
virus, the play was performed live on Zoom May 9, 2020.
This program opens with an interview I did with the playwrights where
we talked about their history in theater and activism for Palestine
followed by the play and commentary by Palestinian-American journalist
Ramzy Baroud.
Dunya Productions, Salaam Cultural Museum and Donkeysaddle Projects are
working with organizers on the ground in Gaza, Jerusalem and the West
Bank to distribute packages of food and necessities to families in dire
need, including families of those in quarantine during the
pandemic.100% of funds donated will directly go towards vital
provisions.
If you would like to donate, go to http://www.scmmedicalmissions.org/food-aid-palestine/
Look for Dunya Productions Seattle on FaceBook or go to dunyaproductionsea.wixsite.com/seattle
Cuba — Ana Silvia Rodriguez Abascal, Charge des Affaires of the Cuban Mission to the UN
Zimbabwe — Omowale Clay, December 12th Movement, long time black liberation activist, targeted by FBI in 1984 political show trial known as NY 8
Nicaragua — Francisco O Campbell, Nicaraguan Ambassador to the U.S.
Syria — Dr. Bashar Ja’afari, Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations
Venezuela — Carlos J. Ron Martinez, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs
Iran - Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Ambassador to the United Nations
Thanks to
The United National Antiwar Coalition
and other members of the
Sanctions
Kill Coalition including:
Vererans for Peace
CODEPINK
US Peace Council
December 12th Movement
Alliance for Global Justice
Intereligious Foundation for Community Organization
/ Pastors for Peace
Popular Risistance
International Action Center
Black Alliance for Peace
For more information
on the Sanctions Kill Coalition: https://sanctionskill.org
Cornel
West: What It Means to Be Human, Monday
5/11/20
8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
This
talk is an edited for Free Speech TV version of the Collins
Distinguished Speakers' Lecture given April 26, 2019 at the University
of Oregon titled "Race Matters...A Timely Discussion on the Fabric of
America.
"The increase of racist incidents in Baltimore, Ferguson,
Charlottesville and nationwide, alongside movements such as Black Lives
Matter and Standing Rock, has made the need for conversations on race
in the United States today one of continued urgency.
Dr. Cornel West published the book ‘Race Matters’ in 1993
following the Los Angeles riots, which examined the crisis of black
leadership in the United States. “We need to take a critical look
at ‘We the People’ through the lens of these complicated
issues and make connections about the deep questions of quality of life
in this country,” he said.
Cornel West is currently Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy
at Harvard University, with a joint appointment in the Harvard Divinity
School and the Department of African and African American Studies. He
is an ardent political activist, a keen social critic, and a prolific
writer. Author of 20 books, his publications include Race Matters
(1993); The Future of the Race (1996), written with Dr. Henry Louis
Gates, Jr.; and The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto
(2014), written with Tavis Smiley.
Thanks to the Collins Fund
Camera by Pirate TV contributor, Todd Boyle
Recorded
Fadhel Kaboub: Modern Monetary Theory and the
Progressive Agenda
A preeminent scholar on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), economics
professor Fadhel Kaboub explains how a country like the United States can
implement a Green New Deal program without causing inflation or
bankrupting the country. It
illustrates that we can create millions of good paying jobs to build
resilience to climate change, address inequality, and strengthen the
democratic process. Although,
MMT is called a ‘theory’, it is actually a framework for understanding
how governments like the United States that control their own currencies
spend money into existence.
NIck Buccola: The Great Debate- Baldwin, Buckley, and Race in
America, Monday 4/20/20
8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
On February 18, 1965, an
overflowing crowd in Cambridge, England gathered to witness a televised
debate between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil
rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a fierce critic of the
movement and America’s most influential conservative intellectual. The
topic was “the American dream is at the expense of the American
Negro.” Drawing from his book The Fire Is Upon Us, political scientist
Nicholas Buccola brings us the full story of this historic debate,
outlining the radically different paths of Baldwin and Buckley, the
controversies that followed, and how the debate and the decades-long clash
between the men continues to illuminate America’s racial divide today.
Buccola delves into the conversation between these two men as a remarkable
story of race and the American dream—an unforgettable confrontation that
pitted Baldwin’s call for a moral revolution in race relations against
Buckley’s unabashed elitism and implicit commitment to white supremacy.
Sit in for an exploration of this pivotal debate, and follow the deep
roots and lasting legacy of a conflict that continues to haunt our
politics.
Thanks to Town Hall
Seattle & Third Place Books
Recorded 2/20/20
Watch
entire debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFeoS41xe7w
Peggy Orenstein: Boys and Sex
I first became aware
of Peggy Orenstein in 2012 when I taped her talk about her book "Cinderella
Ate My Daughter". This was a
big hit on Free Speech TV. They
played it repeatedly. It also hit
the spot with me as I was raising a young daughter at the time.
As anyone who has raised daughters can’t help but know, Cinderella is
going to eat your daughter and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Your little “princess” is going to get that Barbie house and all the
furnishings or suffer social ostracism. Who
would allow that?
See: Peggy Orenstein: A New Generation of Girlie-Girls:
Continuing on in her investigation of the role of the ubiquitous marketing
machine in shaping our daughters’ identities and futures, her next
best-seller, Girls & Sex broke ground, shattered taboos, and launched
conversations about young women’s right to pleasure and agency in sexual
encounters. As she explains, this
prompted calls from her audience- “What about the boys?”
Recorded 1/20/20
Karen Sherman: After the Genocide, Monday
3/30/20
8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
After a twenty-five-year
career spent fighting for women’s rights around the globe, author Karen
Sherman moved to Rwanda with her three sons to oversee the construction of
a first-of-its-kind women’s opportunity center. Sherman makes her way to
Town Hall to tell the story of valiant women who survived the Rwandan
genocide with insight from her book Brick by Brick: Building Hope and
Opportunity for Women Survivors Everywhere. In conversation with physician
and volunteer Dr. Rosita Van Coevorden, Sherman recounts her year-long
journey to better the lives of women survivors, highlighting the grit and
determination they poured into building lives and raising families despite
the brutal challenges of war, genocide, and inequality. Sherman shares how
the strength of these women helped her confront corrupt officials,
navigate conflict zones, face trauma in her own past, and renew her
commitment to her family. Listen in as Sherman and Van Coevorden delve
into the struggles of women everywhere—striving to balance work and
family, fighting for real options and choices, trying to make their voices
heard.
Recorded 2/20/20
Rob Larson: Bit Tyrants, Monday 3/23/20
8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
If the stories they tell
about themselves are to be believed, all of the tech giants—Apple,
Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon—were built from the ground up
through hard work, a few good ideas, and the entrepreneurial daring to
seize opportunity. But economist and author Rob Larson aims to set the
record straight. With searing wit from his new book Bit Tyrants: The
Political Economy of Silicon Valley, Larson provides an urgent corrective
to this narrative of Silicon Valley corporate benevolence. Larson skewers
the official histories that celebrate the innovative genius of Steve Jobs,
liberal commentators who fall over themselves to laud Bill Gates’
selfless philanthropy, and politicians who will tell us to listen to Mark
Zuckerberg for advice on how to protect our democracy from foreign
influence. Larson provides us with maps to all the shallow graves,
skeleton-filled closets, and invective laced emails Big Tech left behind
on its ascent to power. He offers us the tools to crack the code of the
economic dynamics that allowed these companies to become near-monopolies.
Join Larson for a blistering commentary on Big Tech and a call for digital
socialism that urges us towards a viral movement for online revolution.
Robert Trebor: The Haircut Who Would Be
King, Monday 3/16/20
8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
A movie and TV star, Robert
Trebor reads from his book THE HAIRCUT WHO WOULD BE KING, a satire about
the Donald J. Trump presidency. The
discussion of what compelled him leads into revelations of the actual
history and personality of the Donald, and Trevor's conclusion that
laughter and ridicule may be good medicine in the face of the current
absurdity.
Recorded 2/29/20
Free Speech TV
Schedule:
Two shows alternate throughout the
week:
3/9/20
E.J. Dionne: Can Progressives and Moderates
Unite?
Dennis Kucinich and Joe Dobner: The Fight For Public Power
3/16/20
Robert Trebor: The Haircut Who Would Be King
E.J.
Dionne: Can Progressives and Moderates
Unite?
Check the FStv website for show times.
E.J. Dionne: Can Progressives and Moderates
Unite?, Monday 3/9/20
8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
Broad and principled
opposition to Donald Trump’s presidency has drawn millions of previously
disengaged citizens to the public square and to the ballot boxes.
Journalist E.J. Dionne steps up to Town Hall’s stage to comment on this
inspired and growing activism for social and political change—an
outpouring of engagement which hasn’t been seen since the days of
Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies and the Progressive and Civil
Rights movements. He draws from his book Code Red: How Progressives and
Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country to call for a shared commitment to
decency and a politics focused on freedom, fairness, and the future.
In
conversation with KUOW’s Ross Reynolds, Dionne cautions that if
progressives and moderates are unable or unwilling to overcome their
differences, they could not only enable Trump to prevail again but also
squander an occasion for launching a new era of reform. Offering a
unifying model for furthering progress, Dionne encourages progressives and
moderates to explore common ground and expand the unity that brought about
Democrat victories in the 2018 elections. Breaking through the partisan
noise and cutting against conventional wisdom to provide a realistic look
at political possibilities, Dionne offers us a strategy for progressives
and moderates to think more clearly and accept the responsibilities that
history now imposes on them.
E.J.
Dionne writes about politics in a twice-weekly column for The Washington
Post. He is also a government professor at Georgetown University, a
visiting professor at Harvard University, a senior fellow in governance
studies at the Brookings Institution and a frequent commentator on
politics for NPR and MSNBC.
Ross
Reynolds is the Executive Producer of Community Engagement at KUOW. He
creates community conversations such as the Ask A events, and occasionally
produces arts and news features.
Thanks
to Town Hall Seattle Recorded 2/26/2020
Dennis Kucinich and Joe Dobner: The Fight For Public Power, Monday 3/2/20
8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
De-privatizing Public Utilities
Two counties in Washington State are engaged in a struggle to convert
their private, for-profit energy utilities into public utilities that
would provide cleaner energy, safer infrastructure and be accountable
to the people. Residents in East King County are fed up with Puget
Sound Energy, which provides the dirtiest energy in the state and is
deeply invested in deadly fossil fuels. Native tribes and residents
have united in a fight to stop the construction of PSE’s liquid
natural gas plant in Tacoma and dangerous coal trains traveling from
Montana coalfields. Many people in this area are doing their part by
buying electric cars, but when 56% of their energy comes from coal, it
defeats the purpose. Meanwhile, the publicly owned utilities in the
state provide clean, renewable energy and better service.
Dennis Kucinich, the former mayor, congressman and presidential
candidate visited Washington to support and advise activists on how to
establish their own Public Utility District. They are organizing an
initiative campaign that will take investment firms that put profit
over climate and the public interest out of the loop. Dennis Kucinich
fought successfully to save Cleveland’s public municipal
electrical utility when he was the young mayor in the late 70’s.
He stood firm against the big banks, which threatened to cut off credit
and bankrupt the city if he blocked the sale. The ratepayers responded
by organizing an initiative campaign that stopped the privatization and
the banks duly bankrupted Cleveland. A little known fact is that
Kucinich survived two assassination attempts.
The fight to wrest back control of energy is not going to be easy.
Kucinich noted that PSE reports making between 6.5 to 10 percent
returns on their investments. “ Public utilities are cash cows.
In this case, you’re the ones getting milked,” he quipped.
Kucinich estimated that over the course of about 15 years, preserving
Cleveland's public utility saved Cleveland hundreds of millions of
dollars.
Join us and learn how we can win.
Thanks to East King Co. Public Utility District campaign & Bibi Restaurant. Recorded 2/5/20
Host Linda Boyd Introduction - 0
Sara Papanikolaou --02:04
A founding member of 350 Eastside, identified Puget Sound Energy as a
huge source of greenhouse gas in our own backyard. She said, “it
is utterly unacceptable, in 2020, for our local utility to have 56
percent fossil fuel based power generation. It is unacceptable for our
local utility to continue to build out fracked gas infrastructure that
locks us into decades of emissions and the worst effects of global
warming. PSE's recently built North Seattle Lateral Upgrade Fracked gas
pipeline expansion in South Snohomish County is raising our statewide
greenhouse gas emissions 5% annually.”
Joe Dabner Presentation 9:05
An organizer for EKC-PUD, described the transformation of Puget Sound
Power and Light, which generated power using about 50-50 coal and
hydro-power. After the purchase of the Washington Energy Company, Puget
Sound Power changed its name to Puget Sound Energy, and became heavily
invested in gas plants. Even after increasingly dire IPCC reports on
Global Warming, PSE still intends to continue to burn coal as long as
they can.
Dobner said that since we can’t afford to wait until 2040 to
curtail emissions from burning gas. Since PSE continues to invest in
carbon-based energy, we need to get ourselves out of PSE by forming a
public utility district. Dobner laid out the initiative process and
organizational steps necessary to put the EKC-PUD on the 2020 ballot.
Cong. Dennis Kucinich -35:48
Former U.S. Representative from Ohio, 53rd mayor of Cleveland,
candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United
States in 2004 and 2008
State Rep. Maralyn Chase -1:15:20
The former Washington State Senator talks about how she tried to stop
foreign investors from acquiring PSE and why it is important to get
good commissioners to run PUD’s. She elaborates on how even if
you have a PUD, it can still become a captured agency. This happened in
the case of SNOPUD- Snohomish County Public Utility District.
Thanks to the East King County Public Utilities District Campaign
Josephine Ensign: Catching Homelessness: Stories Matter, Monday
2/24/20
8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
At the beginning of the homelessness
epidemic in the 1980s, Josephine Ensign was a young, white, Southern,
Christian wife, mother, and nurse running a medical clinic for the
homeless in the heart of the South. Through her work and intense
relationships with patients and co-workers, her worldview was shattered
after losing her job, family, and house—and she became homeless
herself. Ensign joins us decades later to tell her story through her
book Catching Homelessness: A Nurse’s Story of Falling Through
the Safety Net. With intense empathy and deep human perspective, she
highlights the ways her experience of being homeless reconstituted her
life with altered views on homelessness and on the healthcare system.
Ensign provides a piercing firsthand look at the homelessness industry,
nursing, and our country’s health care safety net. Join Ensign as
she reflects on how her understanding of homelessness has changed her
work, perspective, and life experiences—and changed her.
Thanks to Town Hall Seattle and the League of Women Voters, recorded 1/26/20
William Wheeler: El Salvador’s World of Violence, Monday
2/17/20 8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
El Salvador is in the news again this
week as armed police and troops stormed the parliament. This came less
than a week after Human Rights Watch issued a scathing report that
found that more than 200 refugees and asylum seekers the United States
has sent back to El Salvador have been killed or seriously abused -
including sexually assaulted and tortured.
To take a closer look at the horror show wrought by three decades of US
foreign policy in Central America is award-winning journalist and
producer William Wheeler, reading from his first book, "State of War:
MS-13 and El Salvador’s World of Violence".
Thanks to Elliott Bay Bookstore, recorded 1/21/20
Diane Ravitch with Jesse Hagopian: The Fight to Save America’s Public Schools, Monday
2/10/20 8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
According to Diane Ravitch, citizens
across America are successfully fighting to stop corporations from
privatizing our nation’s public schools. Ravitch joins us with
insight from her book Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance To
Privatization And The Fight To Save America’s Public Schools. She
highlights how parents, teachers, activists, bloggers, religious
leaders, and others are stepping forward to fight against the
disruption of one of America’s most fundamental public
institutions. Ravitch identifies corporate interests, political voices,
and economic disruptors who believe America’s schools should be
run like businesses, modeling the structure of our schools on a gig
economy in which students are treated like customers or products and
teachers are incentivized with threats and bonuses. Join Ravitch to
learn about the nationwide story of brave individuals who, spurred on
by the power of ideas and passion, are fighting back to successfully
keep their public schools alive.
Diane Ravitch is a research professor of education at New York
University and the author of eleven books, including The Language
Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn and Reign of
Error: The Hoax Of The Privatization Movement And The Danger To
America’s Public Schools.
Jesse Hagopian teaches Ethnic Studies and is the co-adviser to the
Black Student Union at Garfield High School. He is an editor for the
social justice periodical Rethinking Schools and is the co-editor of
the book Teaching for Black Lives.
Thanks to Town Hall Seattle, recorded 2/4/20
Robert Frank: Putting Peer Pressure to Work to Save the Planet, Monday
2/3/20 8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
Psychologists have long understood that
social environments profoundly shape our behavior, sometimes for the
better, often for the worse. But social influence is a two-way
street—our environments are themselves products of our behavior.
Author Robert Frank joins us with insight from his book Under the
Influence: Putting Peer Pressure to Work, identifying ways to unlock
the latent power of social context—perhaps even on a level that
could save the planet.
Frank draws our attention to the threat of a changing climate,
asserting that robust measures to curb greenhouse gases could help us
curtail droughts, flooding, wildfires, and famines. He draws our
attention to new research that shows how the strongest predictor of our
willingness to support climate-friendly policies, install solar panels,
or buy an electric car is the number of people we know who have already
done so. Frank explains how altering our social context could help us
redirect trillions of dollars annually in support of carbon-free energy
sources, all without requiring painful sacrifices from anyone. Join
Frank to learn how fostering more supportive social environments could
lead individuals everywhere to make choices that benefit everyone.
Robert H. Frank is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics at Cornell
University, where he has taught since 1972 and where he currently holds
a joint appointment in the department of economics and the Johnson
Graduate School of Management. He has published on a variety of
subjects, including price and wage discrimination, public utility
pricing, the measurement of unemployment spell lengths, and the
distributional consequences of direct foreign investment.
Thanks to Town Hall Seattle and Third Place Books
Recorded 1/20/20
Samuel Woolley: The Reality Game, Monday 1/20/20 8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
Despite Samuel Woolley’s warnings
as early as 2013, the problem of online disinformation stormed our
political process in 2016 and has only worsened since. Woolley shares
urgent perspectives from his book The Reality Game: How the Next Wave
of Technology Will Break the Truth. He cautions that technology may
soon play an even deeper role in the rise of disinformation—with
human-like automated voice systems, machine learning,
“deepfake” AI-edited videos and images, interactive memes,
virtual reality, and more. Information literacy is an essential
ingredient in a healthy democracy, and Woolley shows how the breakneck
rate of technological change is making it nearly impossible. Woolley
argues for a new culture of invention, one built around accountability
and transparency. Sit in for a treatise on preventing technological
manipulation in our future, and a call for us to use our new tools not
to control people but to empower them.
Samuel Woolley is a writer and researcher with a focus on emerging
media technologies, propaganda and politics. He is an assistant
professor in the School of Journalism at the Moody College of
Communication at the University of Texas-Austin. Woolley’s work
looks at how automation, algorithms and AI are leveraged for both
democracy and control.
Thanks to Town Hall Seattle and Elliott Bay Books. Recorded 1/9/20
Michael Lerner: A Political Manifesto to Heal the World, Monday 1/13/20 8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
Many liberals and progressives yearn for
coherent alternatives to capitalism, but previous visions of socialism
do not necessarily account for anything beyond material benefits.
Social theorist and psychotherapist Rabbi Michael Lerner talks about
his strategy for a new socialism built on love, kindness, and
compassion for one another. Drawing from his book “Revolutionary
Love”, Lerner proposes a method to replace what he terms the
“capitalist globalization of selfishness” with a
globalization of generosity, prophetic empathy, and environmental
sanity.
Lerner challenges liberal and progressive forces to move
beyond politics and build a movement that can reverse the environmental
destructiveness and social injustice caused by wanton pursuit of
profit. Revisiting the hidden injuries of class, Lerner shows that much
of the suffering in our society- including most of its addictions and
the growing embrace of right-wing nationalism and reactionary versions
of fundamentalism- is driven by frustrated needs for community, love,
respect, and connection to a higher purpose in life. Yet these needs
are too often missing from liberal discourse. Lerner contends that even
if progressive programs are smartly constructed, they cannot be
achieved unless they speak to the heart and address the pain so many
people experience. Join Lerner to explore his idea of a “Caring
Society” and develop the courage to stop listening to those who
tell us that fundamental social transformation is unrealistic.
Rabbi Michael Lerner is the editor of Tikkun magazine. He is
the author of eleven books, including two national bestsellers,
“Jewish Renewal” and “The Left Hand of God: Taking
Back Our Country from the Religious Right”. Lerner, who has PhDs
in philosophy and social and clinical psychology, was chosen for the
2019 Humanitarian Award by the International Association of Sufism. He
has also received Morehouse College’s King-Gandhi Award for his
work for peace and nonviolence.
Thanks to Town Hall Seattle & University Book Store. Recorded 12/12/19
Joshua Douglas: How to Take Back Our Elections, Monday
1/6/20 8pm, Thurs. 1pm, Sat. Morning 12am on SCM
In contrast to the anxiety surrounding
our voting system, with stories about voter suppression and
manipulation, there are actually quite a few positive initiatives
toward voting rights reform. Professor Joshua A. Douglas, an expert on
our electoral system, examines these encouraging developments in this
talk discussing his new book "Vote for Us: How to Take Back Our
Elections and Change the Future of Voting". We learn how regular
Americans are working to take back their democracy, one community at a
time.
Told through the narratives of those working on positive voting rights
reforms, Douglas gives examples of citizen activists expanding voter
eligibility, easing voter registration rules, making voting more
convenient, enhancing accessibility at the polls, providing voters with
more choices, finding ways to comply with voter ID rules, giving
redistricting back to the voters, pushing back on big money through
local and state efforts, using journalism to make the system more
accountable, and improving civics education. At the end of his book,
Professor Douglas includes an appendix that lists organizations all
over the country working on these efforts.
Professor Douglas gives anyone fed up with our current political
environment the ideas and tools necessary to affect change in their own
communities.
Thanks to the League of Women Voters WA, Fix Democracy First & Third Place Books. Recorded 7/2/19