Nancy MacLean and Lisa Graves: How Right-wing Billionaires Fund Anti-Feminism, Homophobia, and Other Attacks on Democracy , Monday 11/22/21 8pm PST, premieres on YouTube 11/19 2pm PST
Archive 14: 2020
Shows
Available from
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According to the New York
Times:
The Koch Brothers “…became
two of the most prominent faces in a new era of megadonors in American politics,
building a political apparatus that, at its peak, rivaled the Republican Party
itself.”
The Kochs and their network
spent hundreds of millions of dollars in support of their particular brand of
conservatism: One of limited government, more lenient immigration policy, free
trade, free markets and limited corporate regulations — all while running Koch
Industries, a conglomerate with annual revenues of $100 billion…”
“Because so much of their network’s money was funneled through an array of
nonprofits, where full disclosure of finances is not required, it is near
impossible to assess the full scope of their operations, but the influence is
vast.” Source: "How David
Koch and His Brother Shaped American Politics" -Aug. 23, 2019
The Koch Brothers as Nancy
MacLean illustrated in her ground breaking book, have tried time and again over
the past half century to ram through their agenda but even with their vast dark
money billions, failed every time because even the most extremist Republican
politicians could never sell it to even their most extremist Republican
constituents. So they have to pass
it using indirect means.
So what are they up to by
supporting religious right anti-feminism and homophobia?
We are going to take a detailed look with two top investigators of the
Koch network.
Part Two of the Belmarsh
Tribunal FStv broadcast.
On October 22nd, the
Progressive International convened the first physical meeting of the Belmarsh
Tribunal in London to put the US on trial for its war crimes — and to demand
justice for Julian Assange.
Julian Assange is once again on
trial in British court where he is fighting efforts to extradite him to the
United States. The hearing considers a U.S. appeal of a January decision by a
British court not to extradite Mr. Assange.
Successive US governments have
shown that they will go to extraordinary lengths to punish Assange for revealing
the crimes of US empire, going so far as to plot his assassination. The
Tribunal, which took place in Westminster in a hall previously used for sittings
of the United Kingdom Parliament and United Nations Security Council, heard
powerful testimony from Ed Snowden, Stella Morris, Selay Ghaffar, Rafael Correa,
Jeremy Corbyn and many others. Democracy Now broadcast 25 minutes of the
Tribunal on Free speech TV last week. We are going to broadcast a more complete
edited for TV version of this important testimony in two parts over the next two
weeks.
Watch the full unedited 2hr
23mn on line: https://youtu.be/E_xxGWAxlGc
Part 2 Testifiers: Moderator:
Srećko Horvat
Selay Ghaffar: Spokesperson for
the Solidarity Party of Afghanistan
Deepa Govindarajan Driver:
Legal observer at Julian Assange's extradition hearings, teaches governance,
compliance, risk management and regulation at U of Reading, UK
Renata Ávila: Guatemalan
lawyer and activist, currently the director of the International Smart Citizen
Foundation, mostly operating in Latin America
Stefania Mauriz: Investigative
journalist currently contributing to the major Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano,
worked with Julian Assange and WikiLeaks since 2009
Rafael Correa: Former President
of Ecuador (2007-2017)
Annie Machon: Intelligence
officer for MI5, who resigned to blow the whistle on incompetence and crimes,
author of Spies, Lies and Whistleblowers: MI5, MI6 and the Shayler Affair
Daniel Ellsberg : Economist,
political activist, and former US military analyst, Pentagon Papers
Whistleblower, latest book- Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
Ben Wizner: Director, American
Civil Liberties Union [ACLU] Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, Lead
attorney of Edward Snowden
Edward Snowden : Leaked highly
classified information revealing that the National Security Agency has numerous
global surveillance programs that illegally spy on the public
Ways you can help:
RSF Reporters Without Borders Free Julian Assange
Petition
https://rsf.org/en/free-assange
Free Julian Assange Call Team
https://www.facebook.com/FreeJulianAssangeCallTeam/
Ways to pitch in:
Julian Assange Legal Fund
https://assangedefense.org
Crowd Justice
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/julianassange/
Julian
Assange & WikiLeaks Public Defense Fund – GoFundMe
https://www.gofundme.com/f/julian-assange-amp-wikileaks-public-defense-fund
Thanks
to Progressive International
On October 22nd, the Progressive
International convened the first physical meeting of the Belmarsh
Tribunal in London to put the US on trial for its war crimes — and
to demand justice for Julian Assange.
Julian Assange is once again on trial in British
court where he is fighting efforts to extradite him to the United
States. The hearing considers a U.S. appeal of a January decision by a
British court not to extradite Mr. Assange.
Successive
US governments have shown that they will go to extraordinary lengths
to punish Assange for revealing the crimes of US empire, going so far
as to plot his assassination.
The Tribunal, which took place in Westminster in
a hall previously used for sittings of the United Kingdom Parliament
and United Nations Security Council, heard powerful testimony from Ed
Snowden, Stella Morris, Selay Ghaffar, Rafael Correa, Jeremy Corbyn
and many others. Democracy
now broadcast 25 minutes of the Tribunal on Free speech TV last week.
We are going to broadcast a more complete edited version of
this important testimony in two parts over the next two weeks.
Watch the full unedited 2hr 23mn on line:
https://youtu.be/E_xxGWAxlGc
Part 1 Testifiers:
Croatian philosopher, author, and political
activist, co-founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement [DiEM25] and
Council member of the Progressive International
Tariq Ali
British political activist, writer, journalist,
historian, filmmaker, original member of The Russell-Sartre
International War Crimes Tribunal 1966
Yanis Varoufakis
Former Greek Minister of Finance, prolific
author, Member of Hellenic Parliament, Co-Founder of DiEM25 and The
Progressive International with Bernie Sanders
Eyal
Weizman
Director of Forensic Architecture and Professor
of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths University, author of
Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation
Apsana Begum
British Labour Party politician serving as the
Member of Parliament for Poplar and Limehouse since 2019
Özlem Demirel
German politician who is currently a serving
representative of the The Left party as a Member of the European
Parliament
John McDonnell
Member of UK Parliament- Labour Party, served as
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2015 to 2020, led the
development of Labour’s economic strategy
Heike Hänsel
Deputy Chairman of DIE LINKE [The Left party] in
the German Parliament
Two decades after the attacks, 70% of the 9/11 families' questions asked of their government remain unanswered. At first, the US government promised answers, then stonewalled. Frustrated to the extreme, 9/11 families question whether the Bush Administration deceived Americans and the whole world about Ground Zero. Ray McGinnis talks about his new bestselling book, "Unanswered Questions: What the September Eleventh Families Asked and the 9/11 Commission Ignored".
Unanswered Questions shows the official story to be incomplete and fallacious. Because the outline for the 9/11 Report was written before the commission began, the families want to confront the evidence and start a new and fair investigation.
Just a few questions the 9/11 Commission ignored:
1) Question to the FAA: Why were these four planes able to evade all radar?
2) Question to President George W. Bush: Who approved the flight of the bin Laden family out of the United States when all commercial flights were grounded… a privilege not available to American families whose loved ones were killed on 9/11?
3) Question to Mayor Giuliani: Why was the World Trade. Center steel removed so quickly, without being .examined, from the scene of mass murder?
4) Question to Mayor Giuliani On 9/11, no aircraft hit WTC 7. Why did the building that is more than a block away fall at 5:20 PM that evening?
Why were the families harassed and neutralized for simply wanting to get at the truth? Why were 9/11 Commissioners so obsequious and deferential toward the families, while ignoring their questions during the investigation?
The 9/11 attacks were
the "New Pearl Harbor" that was used to launch us into a
pointless "forever war" in Afghanistan and an attack on Iraq
-a country which had nothing to do with it, resulting in the
decimation of both countries and the death of over a million people.
And let us not forget the huge loss of civil liberties and treasure in
the United States. As the US finally leaves Afghanistan with its tail
between its legs, it's timely to revisit the farce that was the 9/11
Commission "investigation".
Recorded 10/8/21
The Cold War Truth Commission
exposes U.S. illegal and immoral actions in the name of Anti-communism at home
and abroad. And shows how today's pervasive violence and injustice-both at home
and abroad-is intimately tied up to the perpetration of the Cold War. Without
truth about the U.S. Cold War, there can be no true Reconciliation for our
times.
This week, the fifth
installment- The Toxic Legacy of the Cold War, features:
* The Cost of US Militarism in
the US Cold War to Today -
Carley Towne, National Co-Director of CodePink.
* Weaponizing Space in the US
Cold War to Today – Bruce Gagnon, Co-Founder and Chair of the Global Network
Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
* There Was Nothing ‘COLD’
About the Cold War - David
Vine, Author of “United States of War”.
* War Resistance In the
1980’s As Foundation for 1991 Iraq War Resistance
- Kathy Kelly, Peace activist founder of Voices in the Wilderness.
* Combatting the Lies of the US
Cold War Today - David
Swanson, Executive Director of World BEYOND War.
The program hosts are Rachel
Bruhnke of Witness For Peace Southwest and Frank Dorrel of ADDICTED To WAR.
Endorsers: CODEPINK, WORLD
BEYOND WAR, ROOTSACTION, KPFK 90.7 FM Radio, Veterans For Peace, CovertAction
Magazine, Media Freedom Foundation, Project Censored, PeaceWorkers, Global
Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power In Space, School of The Americas
Watch, Harriet Tubman Center For Social Justice, Anti-Racist Action, COVID-19
Global Solidarity Coalition, Women Against Military Madness & ADDICTED To
WAR
Thanks to Witness For Peace
Southwest, CODEPINK & Addicted To War. Recorded March 21st 2021
This is a made for Pirate TV
version of Helen Yaffe’s documentary which premiered Dec 8, 2020.
A lot has changed in the ensuing months.
Although Cuba at first was able to keep virus infections and deaths to
almost nil, infections began to creep up in February and developed into a
significant outbreak, which peaked in late August.
But compared to other countries Cuba’s all out effort to stem the virus
is a grand success. As of Oct. 4,
2021 Cuba’s death per million stands at 669.76 as compared to the US’s
2,106.15. In addition, Cuba has now
developed 3 vaccines and aims to immunize more than 90% of the population by
November including toddlers and will be exporting it’s vaccines and formulas
to other countries. The worst
problem is a shortage of syringes due to the US embargo.
Her latest book is "We Are
Cuba!: How a Revolutionary People Have Survived in a Post-Soviet World".
She is co-author of "Youth
Activism and Solidarity: The Non-stop Picket Against Apartheid
Thanks to DaniFilms and Belly of the Beast Cuba
The Ground Zero Center for
Nonviolent Action sits directly across the fence from the Bangor Trident nuclear
submarine base in Poulsbo, Washington. Every year in early August they host a
weekend of free public events commemorating the anniversaries of the atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Recorded 8/7/21
See Also:
Anointed - by Dan Lin & Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEVpExaY2Fs
John Pilger: The Comming War
with China
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAfeYMONj9E
Statement and poem by Kathy
Jetnil-Kijiner, Climate Summit 2014 - Opening Ceremony
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc_IgE7TBSY
The Cold War Truth Commission
exposes U.S. illegal and immoral actions in the name of Anti-communism at home
and abroad. And shows how today's pervasive violence and injustice-both at home
and abroad-is intimately tied up to the perpetration of the Cold War. Without
truth about the U.S. Cold War, there can be no true Reconciliation for our
times.
* Alexis Green, founder, A.J.G.
Books reading from Mumia Abul-Jamal
*
*
* Richard Moser,
* Mickey Huff cochair of the
history department at Diablo Valley College, current director of Project
Censored, cohost of The Project Censored Show on KPFA, and author of ”United
States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (And What We Can
Do About It)” and
*
The program hosts are Rachel
Bruhnke of Witness For Peace Southwest and Frank Dorrel of ADDICTED To WAR.
Endorsers: CODEPINK, WORLD
BEYOND WAR, ROOTSACTION, KPFK 90.7 FM Radio, Veterans For Peace, CovertAction
Magazine, Media Freedom Foundation, Project Censored, PeaceWorkers, Global
Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power In Space, School of The Americas
Watch, Harriet Tubman Center For Social Justice, Anti-Racist Action, COVID-19
Global Solidarity Coalition, Women Against Military Madness & ADDICTED To
WAR
Thanks to Witness For Peace Southwest, CODEPINK & Addicted To War. Recorded March 21st 2021
Five people cited in
Mother’s Day demonstration at Trident nuclear submarine base at Bangor, WA
Mother’s Day in the United
States was first suggested in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe as a day dedicated to
peace. Howe saw the effects on both
sides of the Civil War and realized destruction from warfare goes beyond the
killing of soldiers in battle.
Recorded 5/8/21
Jeff Halper: War Against the
People,
[rebroadcast from 2016]
If anyone needed an
example of the stark difference between reality and propaganda as
represented by corporate media news coverage in the US, one would have a
hard time finding a better one than how they spin the Israel/Palestine
issue. I was abruptly reminded
of this watching Hillary Clinton’s endless spewing of propaganda myths
this evening in the NY debate. It
makes me wonder if inside that beltway bubble they have ever heard of
social media. I suspect this
might backfire on Hillary.
The credibility of the
establishment narrative took a big hit with Israel’s last invasion of
Gaza. While they were
broadcasting the standard BS, social media was awash with pictures of the
horror that was going down as it was happening.
But even though I have been following this issue for a long time,
and consider myself to be better informed than most, Jeff Halper somehow
always manages to change the entire paradigm.
A leading figure in the
Israeli peace movement, co-founder of the Israeli Committee Against House
Demolitions (ICAHD), noted scholar, educator and prolific author, Halper,
starts off by posing the question: “How does Israel get away with it?”
He says the standard assumptions- the Israeli lobby, etc.
“didn’t do it for him”. What
he found exposes a hidden world of military/security relationships.
Technology and systems of surveillance and population control that
Israel peddles to global ruling elites for their militaries, corporations,
security agencies, and police forces in order to make itself essential to
the global capitalist security state system as everyday life becomes
evermore militarized.
This panel of Jewish
and Palestinian journalists addresses the war in Gaza, how it
happened, and the likely outcome for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Also discussed is the domestic impact the war has had
internally inside Israel, including the shocking bouts of vigilante
terrorism against Israeli Palestinians.
As well as what that bodes for future relations between the two
communities.
*Lubna Masarwa,
Middle East Eye bureau chief Israel-Palestine
*Shir Hever, Israeli
journalist/economist, author of The Privatization of Israeli
and The Political Economy of
Israel's Occupation
*Richard Silverstein,
publisher of the progressive Jewish blog Tikun Olam, contributor
to Middle East Eye, Jacobin, and Al Jazeera
Recorded 5/17/21
Cold War Truth Commission part 3: The
Russians are Coming... Again,
The Cold War Truth Commission
exposes U.S. illegal and immoral actions in the name of Anti-communism at home
and abroad. And shows how today's pervasive violence and injustice-both at home
and abroad-is intimately tied up to the perpetration of the Cold War.
*Jeremy Kuzmarov, Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine
*Chris Agee, son of CIA whistleblower Phillip Agee and Publisher & Editor,
CovertAction
Magazine
*Michael Novick activist, journalist, author, editor of Turning The Tide, former
KPFK Board chair and Pacifica
National Board director
Committee member of World Beyond War
*Norman Solomon journalist with ExposeFacts.org, a project of the Institute
Accuracy, author of War Made Easy, and co-founder of RootsAction.org
Endorsers: CODEPINK, WORLD
BEYOND WAR, ROOTSACTION, KPFK 90.7 FM Radio, Veterans For Peace, CovertAction
Magazine, Media Freedom Foundation, Project Censored, PeaceWorkers, Global
Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power In Space, School of The Americas
Watch, Harriet Tubman Center For Social Justice, Anti-Racist Action, COVID-19
Global Solidarity Coalition, Women Against Military Madness & ADDICTED To
WAR
Thanks to Witness For Peace
Southwest, CODEPINK & Addicted To War.
Cassandra Tate: Unsettled Ground,
The seizure of the Whitman
Mission in 1847 by members of the Cayuse tribe along with the murder of Marcus
Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and eleven others was a pivotal moment in Pacific
Northwest history. It provoked such
fear and outrage that it caused an 8 year war, the posting of federal troops to
the area, the recognition of the Northwest as U.S. territory and eventually led
to stripping the natives of much of their land and confining them to
reservations.
Recorded 4/16/21
Bruce Gagnon: Is Russia Truly Our Enemy?,
According to Bruce Gagnon,
Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space,
the corporate oligarchs who rule the United States and now control most NATO
countries would like nothing more than to return the world to the good old days
of the Cold War arms race where they could feast endlessly off the bottomless
pit of cost plus military contracts and lucrative arms deals.
This is a major reason why the government and corporate media has been
bombarding us with a non-stop propaganda barrage of disinformation accusing
Putin and Russia of everything from interfering in US Elections to outright
aggression in Ukraine and Crimea. –The
opposite of the truth. And of course
the US public whom Noam Chomsky once called “the most highly indoctrinated
population on earth”, is buying it, according to recent polls.
Recorded 4/23/21
Cold War Truth Commission part 2: Forbidden
History
The Cold War Truth Commission
exposes U.S. illegal and immoral actions in the name of Anti-communism at home
and abroad. And shows how today's pervasive violence and injustice-both at home
and abroad-is intimately tied up to the perpetration of the Cold War.
Without truth about the U.S.
Cold War, there can be no true Reconciliation for our times.
* Mike Feinstein, Former Green
Party Mayor of Santa Monica, co-host of Green Perspectives, on KPFK, and editor
of "16 Weeks with European Greens", compares his experience of
European democracy with that in the USA.
Thanks to Witness For Peace
Southwest, CODEPINK & Addicted To War
Recorded 3/21/21
More: Covert Action Magazine: Cold War On Trial...
Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknape: Challenging Corporate
Rule
Move to Amend National Director
Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap talks about the origins of the MTA national democracy
movement in the late 90s struggle to save the Redwoods in Northern California
and lays out the history of corporate power in the US.
Recorded 10/1/20
Robert Colón: Are Electric Vehicles the
Answer?
What are the
transportation and social justice implications of electric vehicles?
Electric Vehicles are
touted as a key component to solving our climate crisis. Many consumers
are jumping on the EV bandwagon, and companies like Amazon are building a
fleet to ship goods by electric truck. Likewise, national environmental
organizations are pushing EVs as key to lowering GHG emissions and
transitioning to a green economy.
Cold
War Truth Commission part 1
On March 21st 2021, Witness For
Peace Southwest, CODEPINK & Addicted To War hosted a 10 hour Cold War Truth
Commission. This event featured in-person, pre-recorded testimony, and film
clips on: CIA-backed Global Interventions of The Cold War; McCarthyism and the
crushing of labor and the left in the U.S.; the Cold War Nuclear Legacy;
Hollywood and the Blacklist; the “Red Scare” of the 1930’s; and the
red-baiting of social activists as far back as 1850!
*LA National Lawyers Guild Executive Director and KPFK radio host, Jim Lafferty
on “Why We Need This Truth Commission to Expose ‘Cold War’ Lies”.
*American University professor
Peter Kuznick who Co-authored with Oliver Stone, the 10 part Showtime
*Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg on “The Role of the
Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex in Starting and Maintaining the Cold
War.”
An Ecological Civilization: The
Path We're On
The path toward an ecological
civilization moves us from an uncivilized society based on selfish wealth
accumulation to one that is community-oriented and life-affirming. You’re
invited to join us for a conversation on the ways communities are already
working toward that goal—and how you can be a part of it.
Billionaire or Community Solutions to Climate
Chaos? Monday
3/15/21 8pm PST, Premiers on YouTube 2pm 3/4
JOIN SPEAKERS:
On February 16, one of the
richest men on earth, Bill Gates, released his vision of climate solutions in
his new book, “How
to Avoid a Climate Disaster”. Climate change is one of the crises used by
Gates and his Foundation to justify urgent, technocratic “solutions” for
altering food systems around the world.
In response, we aim to amplify
the work of social movements organizing in Seattle and around the world for
Climate Justice. To counter top-down, billionaire expertise as the means of
solving our world’s most pressing issues, our panelists will present an
alternative approach centered on Food Sovereignty, with communities leading the
way to a climate just future.
FOR MORE INFO Email CAGJ: contact_us@cagj.org
ABOUT AGRA Watch:
AGRA
Watch is a campaign of Community
Alliance for Global Justice. The mission of AGRA Watch is to challenge the
dominant development ideology pushed by governments, corporations, and
“private” philanthropic actors as they try to expand our corporate-driven,
industrial model of agriculture into Africa. Chief among these “private”
actors are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and their subsidiary, the
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). CAGJ/AGRA Watch are proud to
be a member of Alliance for
Food Sovereignty in Africa.
Thanks to CAGJ and AGRA Watch
Recorded 2/25/21
SPEAKERS:
U.S. Army Capt. James Yee was a Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo who
counseled prisoners and was imprisoned himself for his service.
Andy Worthington is a
historian, investigative journalist, and film director of a documentary focused
on Guantanamo.
Mansoor Adayfi was released in
2016 and resettled in Serbia. He is a talented writer, and his memoir, Don't
Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantanamo, will be published in
August!
BACKGROUND:
During its 19 years of existence the prison has violated international human
rights laws: Holding these individuals w/o charges or giving trails, subjecting
them to severe conditions, including indefinite detention, prolonged solitary
confinement, physical violence and psychological abuse.
A new Amnesty
International report has detailed ongoing human rights violations at Guantánamo
Bay detention facility
Support:
Witness Against Torture
or Kathleen Hernandez: 310.339.177
Recorded 2/21/21
.
Kristin Eberhard:
Becoming a Democracy Round 2, Monday
3/1/21 8pm PST, Premiers on YouTube 2pm 2/25
In this 2nd discussion with
Kristin Eberhard, hosted by Fix Democracy First's Cindy Black, we go a little
deeper into the problems that make US democracy dysfunctional.
This time, we take a look at the federal level and such issues as money
in politics, the filibuster, voter disenfranchisement, gerrymandering, the
undemocratic nature of the Senate, and the two party winner take all system.
Then, on the positive side, we learn about bills pending before Congress
such as HR.1 and HR.4 which, if passed, would go a long way toward fixing many
of the problems. Unbeknownst to
many, there are also lots of other remarkable electoral innovations that were
recently passed all over the country.
Alternatives to Policing - Policing in Cuba,
Monday 2/22/21 8pm PST, Premiers on YouTube 2pm 2/18
The Black Lives Matter movement and the Defund the Police Movement are two of the most dynamic social movements in U.S. history. As these movements continue to force change in our approach to policing and to organizing in the US, we are asked to reimagine a different system that can provide safety for our communities. How can we learn from local and global history and acknowledge that the domestic fight against systemic oppression is, in fact, a global struggle? This discussion aims to connect the struggle for peace and racial justice to a transnational approach through the study case of policing in Cuba. By bringing together black and brown leaders from Cuba, the U.S. and the PNW together, we hope that this dialogue will contribute to connect our activism against militarized violence and broaden the scope of how we think about peace, justice and community safety at home and abroad.
This discussion brings together
the voices of Cuban Ambassador, Yanet Pumariega Pérez; human rights advocate,
attorney and Executive Director of Alliance of Families for Justice (AFJ),
Soffiyah Elijah; and Seattle Black Panther Party co-founder and author, Aaron
Dixon. Cindy Domingo, Chair of US
Women and Cuba Collaboration and Board Chair of LELO/A Legacy of Equality
Leadership and Organizing will be the narrator. Aline Prata, Grad student from
Brazil and Executive Director of the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center,
provides the opening statement.
Vaccine Wars, Monday
2/15/21 8pm PST, Premiers on YouTube 2pm 2/11
The
United States has highest death toll by far both in numbers and per capita
as a result of what can only be called the most deliberately incompetent
response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the world.
But this doesn’t seem to have any effect on the
non-stop propaganda war coming from the White House and the
corporate press on those countries that chose to protect their people
rather than the stock market and the filthy rich.
Or perhaps it’s because of it.
The chief Boogeyman is China, but also targeted are other socialist
countries like Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, which unbeknownst to most
Americans, have the lowest death rates.
Disinformation is not the only way that the pandemic has been
weaponized for political and economic reasons.
Illegal sanctions, vaccine profiteering, and dose hogging by rich
countries result in only the most privileged benefiting from vaccines.
And, the refusal to protect the most vulnerable acts to target
“unworthy” populations within the US.
Moderators:
Sara Flounders- anti-war organizer, writes for Workers World newspaper,
principal
Margaret Flowers- Host of
Clearing The Fog on WBAI, Medicare for All activist,
Margaret Kimberley- columnist
for Black Agenda Report, member of Stop the
Vijay Prashad- Indian historian, author of over 20 books, exec.dir.
Tricontinental:
Max Blumenthal- Investigative journalist, founder and editor of The
Grayzone,
Thanks to Popular
Resistance and the International Action Center. Recorded 1/26/21
Get Capitalism on a Ventilator-
eBook: bit.ly/CapVentEBook
Dr. Fadhel Kaboub: MMT Insights for the Biden
Administration, Monday
2/8/21 PST, Premiers on YouTube 2pm 2/4
This week we take a
deeper look into how Modern Monetary Theory impacts policy choices for
the incoming Biden administration in an Interview with MMT economist
Fadhel Kaboub. A follow-up to Randy Mandell's recent talk
[https://youtu.be/98WaVJFSMnM], we pose the question: Can the Biden
administration achieve more ambitious and transformative goals?
While most policymakers believe that the federal government's spending
capacity is limited by tax revenues and borrowing capacity, MMT argues
that our spending capacity is much larger than that (but it's not
unlimited). Professor Kaboub explains that the Biden administration can
significantly expand its current spending plans without causing
inflation, but only if we strategically invest in key sectors
(healthcare, housing, energy, transportation, and higher education), if
we tax and regulate abusive market power, tackle corruption, and
enforce the democratic principles of a Government of, by, and for the
People.
Fadhel Kaboub is President of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity and Associate
Professor of economics at Denison University. His research focuses on the Political Economy of
the Middle East and the fiscal and monetary policy dimensions of job creation programs. He is a
widely published author and his recent work has been presented at many prestigious
institutions including the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Law School, Cornell
University, Columbia University, Sorbonne University, and the National University of Singapore.
Some of his recent media commentaries on employment, development, finance, and the
Middle East economies have appeared in the Financial Times, Al-Ahram Weekly, Radio France
Internationale, National Public Radio, New Inquiry, BBC Mundo, Carta Maior, Diwan TV, Saudi
Gazette, Le Quotidien, and La Presse.
Thanks to the Backbone Campaign
Recorded January 1/25/21
See Also:
www.backbonecampaign.org
Reed Lindsay: War On Cuba (Television
Premiere), Monday
2/1/21 PST, Premiers on YouTube 2pm 1/28
Filmed in Cuba, the
“War on Cuba” is a powerful new documentary series unlike any seen
before. It was produced by a
unique collaborative of US and Cuban journalists and documentary
filmmakers called the Belly of the Beast. Formed in early 2020, it is the
only media organization with a permanent presence in Cuba that combines
cinematic video with substantive, high-impact journalism geared toward
filling the void left by media coverage of Cuba and US-Cuba relations.
The film was viewed more
than 400,000 times on the Internet and Belly of the Beast has grown its
social media presence from zero to 30,000 followers in only nine months on
various platforms.
https://bellyofthebeastcuba.com/
https://www.youtube.com/c/BellyofTheBeastCuba/videos
Recorded 1/25/21
Randy Mandell:
Green Economics for a New Era
Conservative politicians always cry bloody
tears about the deficit every time discussions of policies that help the
99% such as a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, free collage tuition, or a
government jobs guarantee, come up. But
for some strange reason, when it’s time to pass $700 billion defense
bills or legislation that subsidizes the filthy rich such as multi
trillion dollar bank and wall street bail outs or massive tax give-aways,
the question of how we are going to pay for it is never mentioned. Why is
that?
Lisa Fithian: Collective Decision Making, Monday
1/18/21 PST, Premiers on YouTube 2pm 1/16
So we’ve heard repeated ad
nauseam all our lives that the United States is the “world’s greatest
democracy” or the “gold standard” of democracies.
But, how democratic is it? In
spite of this constant refrain, it is increasingly clear that compared to other
modern democracies, the US electoral system is the laughing stock of the world.
The US majority rule/winner
take all system doesn’t even succeed in creating majority rule.
Even if it did, how many people actually believe that it creates
democracy or “rule by the people”?
We know that so-called "representative democracy" doesn't
represent us. Granted, the US
political system is about as corrupt as can be, but a winner take all system at
best only represents the faction that wins the most votes.
So as activists and organizers
who think outside the box, there must be better group decision-making structures
than mimicking the government. If
you were going to organize a direct action movement say, like Extinction
Rebellion, what would be the most efficient way to organize it in order to come
to the best decisions, make sure everybody’s voices are heard, keep everyone
highly motivated and promote the greatest cohesion?
Humans use various forms of
consensus decision making all the time and have been doing it for eons.
There is a surprising amount of knowledge and experience with this within
the peace and justice movement. Mother
Jones described Lisa Fithian as “the nation’s best-known protest
consultant”. She might be the
person we would want to ask.
Lisa Fithian is the author of,
“Shut It Down: Stories from a Fierce, Loving Resistance”.
Thanks to Extinction Rebellion
Kentucky - XR National Restructuring Working Group. https://www.facebook.com/XRebelKY/
Recorded 11/18/20
The
Venezuelan Election, a blow to US Imperialism, Monday
1/11/21 PST, Premiers on YouTube 2pm 1/7
If you listen to the US
administration and the lapdog corporate press, Venezuela is a failed state and
President Nicholas Madero, who was elected by overwhelming margins is a
dictator. And what’s more, Juan
Guaidó a man with no power or popular support whom most Venezuelans have
scarcely heard of, is the legitimate president!
Well, if you can swallow that, I guess you could swallow that the US, a
country where the people voted one way and someone else who didn’t win the
popular vote was installed as president twice in the last 20 years somehow has a
right to criticize other country’s electoral systems.
Especially when their elections pass muster with international election
observers and ours don’t.
Vijay Prashad- Indian
historian, author of over 20 books, executive-director of Tricontinental:
Institute for Social Research, Chief Editor of LeftWord Books, his most recent
book is ‘Washington Bullets’.
Thanks to the United National
Antiwar Coalition
https://www.unacpeace.org/
Recorded 12/21/20
Shirley Ann Higuchi: Setsuko's Secret
, Monday 1/4/21 PST, Premiers on YouTube 2pm 12/31
Author
Shirley Ann Higuchi, J.D., chair of the Heart Mountain Wyoming
Foundation, uncovers her family’s past and embarks on a
transformational journey as she learns about the Japanese American
incarceration during World War II and what happened to her family and
those of other former incarcerees, a story that she tells in her book,
Setsuko's Secret: Heart Mountain and the Legacy of the Japanese
American Incarceration. This story involves the founding of a museum at
the Heart Mountain site, and an annual pilgrimage.
Shirley Ann Higuchi and the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation were also
the instigators of the lawsuit and public outcry which halted the sale
and dispersal of the Allen Hendershott Eaton collection (of art created
by Japanese Americans during their incarceration). She is joined by
Darrell Kunitomi and Aura Newlin, who are also descendants of former
incarcerees at Heart Mountain. They discuss the book, the
multigenerational effects of trauma and the incarceration’s
relevance to contemporary issues of racism and identity in America. Tom
Ikeda, Founding Executive Director of Densho based in Seattle,
Washington will moderate the discussion.
This program is presented in partnership with Densho and the Heart
Mountain Wyoming Foundation. The Seattle Chapter of the Japanese
American Citizens League and Puyallup Valley Chapter of the Japanese
American Citizens League are sponsors of the program.
Thanks to Elliott Bay Books and Seattle Public Library
Recorded 11/22/20