MP3 Downloads - Audio News, Interviews

Need inteviews, audio essays, and news, MP3 style? GP's audio download has real news to turn your player into a brain-expanding truth-machine. Forget the MSM's spin zone; get the truth!

NOTICE — Out of necessity, I have had to divert time to some personal issues. I will return to posting as soon as I can. In the meantime, you may find my list of best news podcasts helpful in hunting down good shows. Monitoring many podcasts with a free RSS reader like FeedDemon makes finding good clips much easier. Thanks for your support. -- Mark

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CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 05.MAR.2015

Democracy Now

Chomsky on Global Hotspots and the War on Terror — Geopolitical analyst Noam Chomsky discusses some of the world thorniest issues. Segments include ... Israel's counterproductive approach to Iran; US support for illegal Israeli occupations; Ukraine and the West's broken promises to Russia; how US strategy created a world full of terrorists; after decades of the US boot on Cuba's throat, restoring ties is least we can do; as Venezuela struggles to fix economy, US should stop trying to undermine its government.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:25:13

GP comment:  Chomsky can only be trusted so far—he rejects even the possibility of a 9/11 insider conspiracy, is in denial about deep-state machinations, and is utterly silent on the problems of the infinite-growth paradigm and the bankster controlled money system. Here, he even says at one point he can't think of any reason not to trust a pronouncement from the Israeli intelligence service. (OMG, are you kidding??) But overall, in this clip, though he stays inside the envelope, he does address numerous important events and concepts, and does so with proper excoriation. Have a listen.

Original Show Pub Date: 02.Mar.2015

CATEGORY:  ANIMAL WELFARE — 05.MAR.2015

Living on Earth

The Federal Animal Killing Program — For more than a century, a US federal program called Wildlife Services has been operating in the shadows. Funded by a combination of private and taxpayer money, it has killed millions of animals. Amy Atwood of the Center for Biological Diversity says the slaughter is done with little oversight or regard for humane practices, and is usually done in service of private business interests rather than ecosystem needs.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   6:45

GP comment:  I feel quite sure that a majority of Americans would oppose such massive routine slaughter of wildlife in the name of private enterprise. Yet we allow it to be done in our names.

Original Show Pub Date: 27.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 05.MAR.2015

Uprising

How Obama and Venezuela's Right Wing and Are Conspiring to Destabilize Venezuela — As most of the world focuses on hot spots like Ukraine and the Middle East, tensions between the US and Venezuela continue to simmer. Miguel Tinker Salas, author of several books on Venezuela, says the US has been engaged in a continual effort to destabilize Venezuela, from the 2002 coup attempt against Hugo Chavez to funding of today's right-wing takeover efforts. He calls the efforts by Western mainstream media to paint Venezuela as a backward, anti-democratic nation are provably wrong, though he admits the government does need to reform in some areas, such as the fuel subsidy that puts gasoline at 1 cent a gallon.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   25:06

GP comment:  Venezuala is guilty not only of taking care of its poor at the expense of its elites but also of fomenting a left shift in other countries in Latin America. They don't play ball with the hegemonic agenda of the US, and that is not acceptable to TPTB.

Original Show Pub Date: 02.Mar.2015

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT — 04.MAR.2015

Sea Change Radio

Louisiana's Disappearing Coastline — With so much focus on the BP oil spill and the havoc it wrought on the Gulf Coast, it’s easy to overlook the broader, more long-term environmental dilemma that serves as the backdrop for that catastrophe: Louisiana’s coastline is shrinking at an alarming rate. Journalist Bob Marshall recounts the history of the region’s struggle to keep dry, and delves into the reasons why human efforts to harness Mother Nature so often have gone awry. In the second part, Marshall focuses on the massive undertaking of reversing a century and a half of policies that have left the Mississippi River Delta region battered. Topics include the dominance of the petroleum industry in the region; the 50 year plan to fix the problem; and how Washington politics have proved to be a barrier to solutions.
Go to page A  |  Download/listen A   30:00
Go to page B  |  Download/listen B   30:00

GP comment:  Once we humans are heavily invested in an approach that turns out to be problematic, good luck implementing a proper solution.

Original Show Pub Date: 03.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  MEDIA — 04.MAR.2015

On The Media

What Radio Can Teach The Internet — Net neutrality is a 21st century concern, but the policy debate that erupted between FCC chairs, the media industry, and citizens echoes an eerily similar fray from 70 years ago, when radio was the dominant medium and just a few corporations were the dominant players. Victor Pickard, author of America's Battle for Media Democracy, reviews the FCC's attitude towards and actions upon radio in that era, and explains today's parallels regarding the FCC and the internet.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   7:10

GP comment:  One important difference is that newspapers were still strong in that era, still doing a reasonable amount of investigative journalism. Today, in terms of finding truthful reporting, the internet is our last best hope, and we'd damn well better protect it from complete control by the propagandists.

Original Show Pub Date: 27.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 04.MAR.2015

Against the Grain

Warfare's Sonic Dimension — In war zones, both combatants and civilians must cope with, and interpret, the sounds of weaponry and military machinery. While often thought of as ancillary to the violence inflicted by bombs and bullets, wartime sounds, argues Martin Daughtry, can become indistinguishable from violence itself; they can enact permanent physical and psychological damage.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   54:51

GP comment:  There are some interesting angles here, but it mostly boils down to "war is loud." And I'm surprised there was no mention of the sound-based crowd-control weapons that have been developed. Finally, if you've never heard it, check out Kate Bush's very on-target Experiment IV.

Original Show Pub Date: 18.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  MEDIA — 02.MAR.2015

On The Media

Internet Decision — "Free and Open" — The FCC has finally voted to reclassify the Internet as a telecom service to "protect the open Internet." Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, discusses this long-awaited triumph for net neutrality, and about the next digital battleground: privacy.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   9:01

GP comment:  Vaidhyanathan lists a plethora of privacy issues and challenges for digital consumers and comments that we are not yet mature enough to handle appealing-but-intrusive offerings. Um, no, if we were mature enough, we would utterly reject such privacy-invading technology.

Original Show Pub Date: 27.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 02.MAR.2015

Keiser Report

Welcome to the Fee-ocracy — Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss our bureaucratic world, from the mountain of derivatives paperwork, which has added nothing to global GDP, to the piles of QE, which have added merely more paper gains to an over-bloated stock market. In the second half, Max interviews David Graeber about his new book, The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy. They talk about the Sovietization of capitalism as more and more paperwork and contracts are required for even the simplest of financial exchanges. Max introduces the concept of a Fee-ocracy, which believes in the ideology of fee-ism, that spinning ever-more contracts and debt will make us all rich, as epitomized by the practice of Quantitative Easing, which is essentially printing paperwork.
Watch  |  Download/listen   25:40

GP comment:  They're reaching a bit on the framing, but it's still a good discussion.

Original Show Pub Date: 24.Feb.2015 ~~ Original story title: Sovietization of capitalism (E723)

CATEGORY:  MUSIC — 02.MAR.2015

Vinyl Experience

Remembering Lesley Gore ... and Romeo and Juliet — DJ Paul Cavalconte honors the passing of '60s pop star Lesley Gore by offering a few tidbits about her career and playing some of her greats: "Maybe I Know," "California Nights" and "It's My Party." Then he explores songs that reference the most infamous star-crossed lovers in history, Romeo And Juliet. Top picks include Dire Straits - "Romeo And Juliet" // The Reflections - "(Just Like) Romeo And Juliet" // Steve Forbert - "Romeo's Tune" // Blue Oyster Cult - "Don't Fear The Reaper" // Peggy Lee - "Fever" // Thin Lizzy - "Romeo And The Lonely Girl."
Go to page  |  Download/listen   56:39

GP comment:  Whaaaaat?? "Don't Fear the Reaper"?? ... Yup. "Romeo and Juliet are together in eternity... We can be like they are... Come on, baby... Don't fear the reaper."

Original Show Pub Date: 20.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 28.FEB.2015

It's Our Money

Bail-In Scenario Puts Deposits at Risk — Ellen Brown and Greg Hunter of USA Watchdog discuss global financial machinations. Topics include how the Swiss banking system is a publicly-owned system and why it survived the recent attack on its peg, as well as whether money-printing done for the public good can work better than money printing done for the banksters' good. Hunter predicts a bank holiday and bail-ins—where depositors hard-cash deposits' will be converted to shares in the bank—will come within Obama's remaining term and that a new war or some sort of false-flag asymmetric attack will likely be paired with the banking ripoff. He says the financial blow-up has not happened yet because TPTB have proven that they are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to keep the system propped up.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   58:43

GP comment:  Hunter sounds like he drinks waaaay to much coffee, but his observations on the money system are apt. We have, however, been hearing about an impending "bank holiday/money reset" event for most of a decade now. Its failure to materialize does not mean it won't eventually happen. But beware of fear promoted by The Powers That Be intentionally leaking misleading info to otherwise good journalists like Hunter.

Original Show Pub Date: 28.Jan.2015 ~~ Original story title: Changes

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT (CLIMATE) — 28.FEB.2015

Resistance Radio

The Guy McPherson Celebrity Roast — More than ten years into a career in the academic ivory tower, Guy McPherson terminated his do-nothing, six-figure arrangement and turned his efforts toward awakening the public about impending catastrophic climate change. McPherson says current science is now showing that enough climate feedback loops have been triggered that we are in a runaway climate-change scenario, where nothing we may try to do can possibly reverse drastic temperature increases. The heating of the planet over the next few decades—unprecedented on a geological time scale—will result in the loss of many species, including humans. His assertions have, of course, come under heavy criticism from many mainstream thinkers as well as some climate scientists. In this clip, Derek Jensen allows McPherson to lay out his basic case, and then starts hurling the zingers that have been voiced by critics, and allows McPherson to respond to the criticisms.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   56:08

GP comment:  The climate situation, as they say in the Hollywood scripts, is complicated. I think McPherson is more right than wrong. Regardless, most climate activists believe in solutions that will never work because of physics or public resistance or the criminality of the planetary leadership. So what's the difference? Be good, do good, and enjoy the ride.

Original Show Pub Date: 15.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  COOL AND COSMIC — 28.FEB.2015

Sirius Disclosure

Pulling Energy From the Vacuum — This clip is from more than a decade ago but has some ideas that are still perfectly relevant. The following is from the description on the YouTube page:  : Thomas Bearden is a leading conceptualist in alternate energy technologies, electromagnetic bio-effects, unified field theory concepts, and other related areas. He holds advanced engineering degrees and, at the time of this interview, was CEO of CTEC; Director of the Association of Distinguished American Scientists; and Fellow Emeritus of the Alpha Foundation's Institute for Advanced Study. Bearden speaks extensively about how it is possible to derive useable energy from within a vacuum without violating any currently known laws of physics. He and others have built electromechanical devices which actually demonstrate this technology. He also explains how certain powers would rather keep this technology from becoming widely known outside of small esoteric circles. Time is running out, however, because Earth does not have enough oil and coal reserves to last even for this generation, and threats from nuclear waste and climate shift add to the danger.
Watch  |  Download/listen   47:30

GP comment:  This is essentially a "free energy" pitch, and Bearden is very convincing. Free energy is indeed an appealing concept, especially if mankind could put such an energy source toward solving knotty issues like nuclear waste, climate change, and peak oil. But the Jevons Paradox is not likely to let that be our path, even if free energy could be brought to reality. So, sorry, I don't think free energy is our savior. The fault, dear Brood-Us, is not in our energy but in ourselves. Thanks to Jane for pointing this video out!

Original Show Pub Date: Unknown

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE, FINANCIAL — 27.FEB.2015

Progressive Commentary Hour

Help from the World Bank—War by Other Means — In this audio from his documentary film "War by Other Means," journalist John Pilger explores the gross lack of success the World Bank has had in achieving its stated mission of relieving global poverty. Indeed, he points out that there is a net flow of money FROM countries with World Bank loans TO the countries that fund the World Bank. Topics include the impact on the poor and the Bank’s corrupt Structural Adjustment programs. He cites the Philippines as a stark example of how Bank policies have gone wrong, where 44% of the country’s national budget has gone towards paying off foreign debt.
Download/listen   54:57

GP comment:  This is good, but Pilger stays safely inside the liberal envelope, decrying third-world debt and World Bank policy while failing to even mention the larger money-as-debt problem, banker control of the global money system, the infinite growth paradigm, or the Deep State and its use of proxy organizations like the World Bank.

Original Show Pub Date: 03.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 27.FEB.2015

Red Ice Radio

How the Israel Lobby Took Control of U.S. Foreign Policy and Public Opinion — Jeff Gates is a former counsel to the US Senate Committee on Finance and has served as an adviser to 35 foreign governments. Gates gives his take on how the influence of the Israeli Lobby on the US Congress has given rise to a systemic criminality in geopolitics. The Israeli Zionist enclave is responsible for expanding organized crime to a global scale behind the facade of a sovereign state, in the process victimizing America and waging an unconventional war against the American public through domination of the “in-between domains” of media, pop culture, politics, think tanks and education. Topics include the distinction between Zionists and Jews; "the embedded consensus"; the simple math of campaign contributions; assets and groomed politicians.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:08:14

GP comment:  Gates is careful to state that his views are not anti-Jewish, that Zionists have no real interest in Judaism, only in wealth and power by any means. But he overstates his case when proposing the Zionists as THE central cause of the global kleptocratic system. Has he never heard of banksters?

Original Show Pub Date: 13.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  CORPORATIONS, LABOR ISSUES — 25.FEB.2015

Uprising

Walmart Moves to Boost Workers (Just) Beyond Minimum Wage — Walmart has made a surprise announcement that it will be raising wages for half-a-million US workers to $9 by this April, and then to $10 by February 2016. To date, Walmart has earned a reputation for paying poverty-level wages to its workers, ensuring that a large percentage of them have to rely on government assistance to survive. But in the past 2 years, union organizers have been working with some Walmart employees to agitate for better wages. Josh Eidelson talks about whether Walmart's move means the company has salvaged its reputation.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   14:43

GP comment:  It's a politically savvy move by Walmart, but you can be sure that it calculated the move based on what would be best for its bottom line.

Original Show Pub Date: 23.Feb.2015 ~~ Original story title: Walmart’s Wage Increase May Not Be Enough to Salvage Its Image

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL, EMPIRE — 25.FEB.2015

USA Watchdog

Lawless Leaders Manipulating the World — Financial expert Catherine Austin Fitts says the world is increasingly being changed by our leaders through criminal behavior. Her observations include: the elites are stealing money from retirement funds and similar asset classes; the trend of trading paper money for real assets is helping the rich get richer in the current inflationary environment; the global-trade agenda is being used to deflate overall wages as commodity prices inflate. She adds that the dollar will be defended with covert ops and military action; its fate depends on the outcome. For the future, she predicts increasing financial and political volatily; more warfare; and more media fearmongering to promote public obedience.
Watch  |  Download/listen   38:45

GP comment:  Sounds like Fitts has moved her scenario of "slow burn" to "somewhat-less-slow-but-very-nasty burn."

Original Show Pub Date: 25.Jan.2015 ~~ Original story title: Lawless Leaders Changing the World - Catherine Austin Fitts

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT (CHEMICALS), HEALTH — 25.FEB.2015

Living on Earth

Plastics and Male Reproduction — A new study in the Journal of Human Reproduction finds that a common chemical used to create flexibility in plastics can affect baby boys' development in the womb. Lead researcher Dr. Shanna Swan talks about the affect that phthalates have on the developing fetus and the threat they may pose to male reproductive health later in life.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   6:14

GP comment:  Hormone disruption affects all of us who live in the toxic soup sold as better living through chemistry. But hormone disruption especially affects development—fetuses, infants, children. It's nearly impossible to rid your life of plastic, but the better you do on that score, the healthier your family will be.

Original Show Pub Date: 20.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  PRIVACY — 23.FEB.2015

Democracy Now

US and British Intelligence Hacked SIM Card Maker to Steal Encryption Keys to Enable Spying on Billions of Cellphones — A new investigation by The Intercept reveals the National Security Agency and its British counterpart, the GCHQ, hacked into the internal computer network of the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world, stealing encryption keys used to protect cellphone privacy. The stolen keys give intelligence agencies the ability to monitor mobile communications without seeking or receiving approval from telecom companies and foreign governments. The report was written by Jeremy Scahill and Josh Begley, based on documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. ACLU technology expert Chris Soghoian explains what's going on and also discusses cell phone apps that can help users protect privacy.
Go to page
Download/listen A   8:55
Download/listen B   14:53

GP comment:  The encryption apps—which apparently are largely designed by the US government and its contract researchers—MAY improve your cell phone security. To my cynical mind, though, it's hard to fathom the government building such apps and not putting a back door in them.

Original Show Pub Date: 20.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  HISTORY — 23.FEB.2015

Democracy Now

Malcolm X Remembered 50 Years After 1965 Assassination — This year marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, one of the most influential political figures of the 20th century. He was shot dead as he spoke before a packed audience at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City on February 21, 1965. Details of his assassination remain disputed to this day. This clip airs highlights from his speeches "By Any Means Necessary" and "The Ballot or the Bullet" and features an interview with journalist Herb Boyd, who along with Malcolm X’s daughter, co-edited The Diary of Malcolm X: El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, 1964.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   20:53

GP comment:  This is not a comprehensive review of the impact Malcolm X had, but there is plenty of worthwhile material here.

Original Show Pub Date: 20.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT, EMPIRE — 23.FEB.2015

Living on Earth

FBI Harassing Keystone XL Activists — In October 2014, the FBI began contacting at least a dozen people who had been involved in protests against fracking and tar sands development, including the Keystone XL pipeline. In some instances, the agents visited—unannounced and uninvited—people at their place of employment, even though the people were not suspected of any crime or involvement in planned crimes. Reporter Becky Kramer and attorney Larry Hildes discuss the FBI's tactics and its history of surveillance against political activists.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   10:21

GP comment:  TPTB go to war with entire countries that threaten their agenda. It should come as no surprise that they don't play nice with eco activists.

Original Show Pub Date: 20.Feb.2015 ~~ Original story title: FBI Questions Keystone XL Activists

CATEGORY:  MUSIC — 23.FEB.2015

The Rock and Roll History Show

"Are You Kidding Me?" Moments at the Grammys — Topics/songs include a review of some of the more ridiculous awards and omissions at the Grammys over the years; the great story of why B.B. King names all of his guitars Lucille; a review of the seminal live-aid concerts; the relationship between the Scorpions' "Wind of Change" and the opening of the Iron Curtain.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   29:56

GP comment:  It's always good to craft ways of remembering not to repeat doing stupid things. Thanks, B.B.

Original Show Pub Date: 25.Jan.2015 ~~ Original story title: A famous guitar, supersonic flight, and the fall of communism

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT, COLLAPSE — 21.FEB.2015

C-Realm Podcast

Yay or Nay? — Intentional Collapse as a Response to Environmental Catastrophe — An extreme position in the environmental movement is that activists should be engaged in deliberately trying to hasten the collapse of the global economic system. Nothing short of complete collapse, they argue, can save the rest of life on earth from human rapaciousness and stupidity. In a debate recorded at the 16th annual Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne, Australia, six thought leaders weighed in on whether there is any sensible reason to advocate the collapse of the global economy. No one said "yes," and one person answered with a clear "no," but the rest gave nuanced answers that cannot be contained within a simple "yay" or "nay."
Go to page  |  Download/listen   58:16

GP comment:  (1) Bravo to KMO for his arrangement of the presentation clips and his voice-over analysis. Very clear, very cogent. (2) We should always keep in mind Heinberg's "burning the furniture" metaphor. We actually are in that phase already—fracking is probably the clearest example of how increasingly unpalatable and long-term-unproductive measures will be taken when short-term needs demand it. If things were to get truly desperate, as they would in a true collapse scenario, then many ordinarily reasonable people will find themselves doing things that today seem patently unreasonable. And they will not just support, but will demand, that leaders take actions to attempt to correct unsolvable problems, regardless of the collateral damage. Collapse may force itself upon us, but it will not be pretty, and we should not seek it. Just work on resilience and disengaging from the corporatist system.

Original Show Pub Date: 18.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  MEDIA, EMPIRE — 21.FEB.2015

On The Media

Media Double-Standards on the Use of "Terrorists" and "Terrorism" — In the aftermath of the Chapel Hill shootings of three Muslim students, Western media outlets are coming under criticism for using double-standards when it comes to who gets labeled a terrorist and which acts are deemed terrorism. This clip includes several segments.... The Guardian's David Shariatmadari chronicles the fraught history of the word "terrorism." Journalist Rana Sweis reviews how American media coverage of the Chapel Hill shooting has sparked fierce debate in the Middle East. Scott Shane of The New York Times talks about criticism of the language President Obama uses when describing acts of violent extremism. A new Southern Poverty Law Center study aims to get homegrown terrorism, and especially the threat of so-called lone-wolf American terrorists, back on the agenda.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   35:58

GP comment:  As with all mainstream media reports—albeit from one of the better MSM outlets, in this case—the analysis here is a totally inside the envelope. We get standard framing, subtly slipped in—for instance, we hear that media outlets in Muslin countries are largely controlled by governments but that in the West they are not (when in actuality they are totally controlled by elite interests). And while the biases of media are explored, the use of Western media for propaganda—especially when it comes to the matter of terrorism and terrorists—is completely absent. Nonetheless, the topics presented stimulate useful thought.

Original Show Pub Date: 20.Feb.2015 ~~ Safe Words

CATEGORY:  LABOR RIGHTS, ANIMAL WELFARE — 22.FEB.2015

Food Sleuth Radio

How This Little Piggie Went to Market — Ted Genoways discusses the devolution of the meatpacking industry through the lens of one of the biggest operators, Hormel. Topics include ... increasingly dangerous working conditions related to speeding up the "disassembly line"; the shift in labor force from white middle-class to immigrant lower-class as a way corporations could save money and have less trouble on safety complaints; antibiotic resistance; how companies skirt regulations on barn size; the industry push for ag-gag laws; other back-room political dealings that suit the wishes of the pork industry; water quality issues near hog operations. Genoways' book is The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food.
Go to page
Download/listen A   28:15
Download/listen B   28:15

GP comment:  We all need to do more to get to know our local meat producers/farmers ... and get the industrial meat out of our dinner lineups.

Original Show Pub Date: 15.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT, CORPORATIONS — 22.FEB.2015

Uprising

New Refinery Explosion ... and More Evidence of Oil Companies Not Investing in Safety — A recent explosion at an ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance, California injured four workers, shattered the windows of nearby buildings, and released massive amounts of smoke and ash into the air, prompting the mayor of Torrance to advise residents to "shelter in place, stay indoors, no outdoor activity, turn the air conditioners off, keep the windows closed.” Investigative reporter Antonia Juhasz uses this event as a starting point for the broader discussion about oil companies scrimping on maintenance and safety at refineries and the dangers posed to nearby communities.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   23:36

GP comment:  Don't you just love how corporations are masters of serving the bottom line at all costs? And hmmm, that unit was planned for renovation within a month and just happened to explode now? Can anyone say "insurance fraud"?

Original Show Pub Date: 19.Feb.2015 ~~ Original story title: Oil and Energy Expert Analyses Latest Exxon Refinery Explosion

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT, FINANCIAL — 20.FEB.2015

Radio EcoShock

Want to Fix the Broken System? Think Like a Commoner — One percent of humans control half the world's wealth. This is the result of what author David Bollier calls "the market state"—a tight marriage of billionaires, mega-corporations, and political institutions. A host of problems boil out of this paradigm of power, including unsustainable resource use, rampant pollution as "externalities," and a new economic serfdom. We've been told there is no alternative, but David Bollier says there is, and it's an idea we've been taught to hate: the commons. His most recent book is Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   30:00

GP comment:  It is essential to have viable alternatives to point to when telling the masses cherished concepts like capitalism and the free market simply do not work. But it is also essential to recognize that the 1% (especially the "1% of the 1% of the 1%") were not just lucky beneficiaries of a poorly designed system. They designed and evolved the system to foster acquisition of the wealth and power they now hold. They will not see that system replaced without a fight—the mother of all fights.

Original Show Pub Date: 11.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  NUCLEAR — 20.FEB.2015

Radio EcoShock

Nuclear Extinction Still a Threat — Helen Caldicott warns that with 16,000 nuclear warheads still dotting the planet—mostly owned by the US and Russia—nuclear extinction still looms as a threat. Whether from nuclear winter, direct death from radiation exposure, or cancers due to radiation-mutated cells, a nuclear confrontation is a death sentence for human civilization. She is particularly worried about a US-Russia escalation in Ukraine.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   30:00

GP comment:  Overall, Caldicott gives an apt assessment of the ongoing nuclear-weapons insanity, but on one point, I don't think she is correct: She states that the US-Russia arsenals are the main thing to worry about, that smaller caches of nukes getting loosed would cause "nuclear autumn," killing perhaps a billion people—but not the whole planet. She did not cite a reference, but I suspect she is unintentionally parroting one of those insane studies that says limited use of nuclear weapons is a survivable military strategy. I find that proposition highly dubious—if the radiation releases from Fukushima can make Northern Pacific fish unsafe to eat, what damage would be done by hundreds of exploded nukes distributing their radiation by wind and atmospheric currents?

Original Show Pub Date: 11.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 20.FEB.2015

9-11 Wake-Up Call

Methodical Illusions — Former flight attendant Rebekah Roth talks about some of the flight-related procedural and technical inconsistencies in the official story of 9/11. Topics include ... Flight attendants on supposedly hijacked planes not following standard hijack protocol; the lack of scrambled intercepts; during passenger phone calls to loved ones, lack of background noise consistent with the supposed situations on the planes; lack of plane debris at the Pentagon crash site; eyewitness accounts that a windowless (non-passenger) plane hit the second tower. If passenger planes weren't really what hit the buildings, what did, and where did the passenger planes go? Roth's fictionalized account of these and other issues is found in her new book, Methodical Illusion, recently rated #1 on Amazon for historical fiction.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   30:10

GP comment:  Some of Roth's concerns seem a bit ridiculous, such as a cell phone call supposedly made by a passenger 1 minute before the hijack was known. (Even system clocks can be off by a minute or more.) But overall, she raises important questions and, to my knowledge, is the first flight attendant speaking out in a major way on the obvious problems in the official story of 9/11.

Original Show Pub Date: 11.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 18.FEB.2015

Corbett Report

Is a US-Russia Throw-Down in Ukraine Inevitable? — Geopolitical analyst Rick Rozoff reviews the context of the US/NATO/EU/IMF takeover of Ukraine, why it is taking place, and where it is ultimately leading. Rozoff warns that war is not a potential outcome but is in fact already taking place, and full-scale US/NATO involvement is virtually unstoppable at this point.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   20:36

GP comment:  Rozoff paints a distressingly bleak picture of the backstory on Ukraine, but he misses the most obvious reason why the US is doing what it's doing: it's part of the "encirclement of Russia" strategy, which must be completed before the final "take over Russia" step can happen. Apparently these neocon maniacs took their childhood Risk marathons way too seriously.

Original Show Pub Date: 12.Feb.2015 ~~ Original story title: Rick Rozoff Warns Ukraine War is Inevitable

CATEGORY:  SUSTAINABILITY, COLLAPSE — 18.FEB.2015

Nature Bats Last

The Sixth Stage of Grief—Gallows Humor — Once people go through the other five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance—they may reach the sixth stage, gallows humor. Or so think Guy McPherson and Mike Sliwa, who play a number of clips from well known comedians in that vein, including George Carlin, Louis C.K., Bill Hicks, and Hari Kondabolu. After each clip, McPherson and Sliwa provide commentary about the clip and link the humor to contemporary events.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   58:51

GP comment:  This is worth hearing, but I thought the bit selection and analysis could have been sharper. My top nomination for inclusion of a missing bit would have been Bill Hicks' It's Just a Ride. It's not wildly funny, but it's about the most sagacious, succinctly stated advice I've ever heard.

Original Show Pub Date: 15.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  GARDENING — 18.FEB.2015

Off-the-Grid News

The War On Heirloom Seeds Continues — A number of states have laws or regulations that govern seed-saving operations. The rules are generally meant to apply to commercial seed operations, but in some cases are also being applied to non-profit seed-saving clubs and seed libraries, the burden of which makes such local sustainability efforts unworkable. Neil Thaper, a staff attorney with the Sustainable Economies Law Center, a legal organization working to defend seed saving and heirloom seeds, discusses the issue. Topics include examples of government action against seed libraries; how laws are threatening the future of heirloom seeds; recommendations for avoiding such pitfalls when trading seeds or starting a seed bank.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   21:22

GP comment:  Having spent some time saving seeds myself, I strongly support doing so in a community effort. But I also support participants getting knowledgeable on problems like cross-pollination, viability, storage methods, and other seed-saving hurdles that have nothing to do with government interference.

Original Show Pub Date: 29.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  MUSIC — 18.FEB.2015

Vinyl Experience

I Got the News — As three fabled faces of media are no more—one forced out, one stepped down, one tragically cut short—DJ Paul Cavalconte uses journalism as his theme for this show. Top tracks are ... Steely Dan - "I Got The News" // Rolling Stones - "Yesterday's Papers" // Joe Jackson - "Sunday Papers" // Don Henley - "Dirty Laundry" // Genesis - "Paperlate" // Kinks - "Did You See His Name?" // The Jam - "News Of The World" // Simon & Garfunkel - "Silent Night/7 O'Clock News" ... And, of course, the awesome, incomparable ... Beatles - "A Day In The Life."
Go to page  |  Download/listen   55:42

GP comment:  Like any narrowly targeted theme, plenty of songs are available, but song quality, um, varies. Overall, Cavalconte's playlist is just fine. There numerous other theme-appropriate songs that weren't included in this set, but the only missing track that causes me to wag my finger at the DJ is "Newspapers" by Stan Ridgway.

Original Show Pub Date: 13.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  HISTORY — 17.FEB.2015

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History

Blueprint for Armageddon V — Dan Carlin continues his series on World War I, this time focusing on the period between late 1916 and early 1917. Topics include the politics of peace offerings; the curious case of Rasputin and his influence on the Czar of Russia; how the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 Russia played into WWI events; Germany's attempt to get Mexico to fight on its side; how Germany's submarine warfare was the decisive reason the US entered the war; the innovative solution that solved the problem of submarines sinking ships; the death zone created by the Germans in retreat across France; the disastrous Nivelle Offensive; the horrendous mud at Passchendaele.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   4:29:47

GP comment:  Carlin does another fine job in the series, making facts from a century ago come to life. For that he gets a "4"; but for putting extra effort into bringing us the palpable horror of this war, this clip gets a "5".

Original Show Pub Date: 29.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT — 17.FEB.2015

Living on Earth

James Gustave Speth Calls for a New Environmentalism — NRDC co-founder Gus Speth reflects on the environmental movement both as a previous ‘insider’ and now as a reformer. He says that half a century ago, he and other eco-activists were inspired by the direct-confrontation methods of the civil rights movement and applied similar energy and tactics in the fight to confront environmental issues. But somewhere along the way, as groups like NRDC worked to reform the system, they became part of the system. And now progress on environmental issues has stalled or reversed. In his memoir Angels by the River, Speth calls for deeper challenges to the economic status quo as an approach that can solve problems of the environment, of working people, and of a broken political system.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   14:30

GP comment:  The parasitic, plundering, predatory nature of plutocratic capitalism must be addressed. All other problems exist as a subset of that issue. Whether that can be done by trying to reform a political system that is totally captured and controlled by the benefactors of predatory capitalism is a dubious proposition, but worth trying in the absence of realistic alternatives.

Original Show Pub Date: 13.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 17.FEB.2015

Democracy Now

Pension Funds Doubling-Down on High-Stakes Wall Street Bets — In a desperate attempt to keep current returns high enough to meet future pension obligations, cities and states have been increasingly investing worker pensions in hedge funds, risky equity funds, and other so-called "alternative investments." Many of the investments are being done in secret while politically connected Wall Streets firms earn millions in investment fees from taxpayers and pension holders. Municipal officials in New Jersey, Illinois, Kentucky, and Rhode Island have faced criticism for how their pension funds are being handled. Journalist David Sirota gives specifics.
Watch  |  Download/listen   7:44

GP comment:  I do pity today's pension fund managers, who are stuck between a rock (municipalities that are under-funding pensions) and a hard, crazy place called Wall Street (which offers the illusion of high returns but the reality of financial chicanery). If we don't enforce the rule of law for financial crimes already committed, why should we expect pension ripoffs and other Wall Street double-dealing to stop?

Original Show Pub Date: 13.Feb.2015 ~~ Original story title: As Public Pensions Shift to Risky Wall Street, Local Politicians Rake in Political Cash

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 14.FEB.2015

CounterSpin

Another HSBC Crime in the World of Big-Bank Baloney — HSBC is a recidivist criminal actor, so how exactly is it still the second-biggest commercial bank in the world? The latest scandal is that HSBC's Geneva bank has been helping millionaires and billionaires illegally shelter money from taxation. Journalist James Henry says the most recent HSBC crime wave is really just part of a larger problem of bad banking behavior that get punished by fines but no jail time for the perpetrators.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   11:52

GP comment:  Yep, as long as prosecutors continue the pattern of no jail time for exectives and fines that are less than the haul from the crimes, criminal behavior on Wall Street will continue. As for why we DID see jail time for executives during the S&L crisis 25 years ago, I speculate that part of the reason was that those particular banking executives were not part of the protected circle of elites, and they were running a business type (Savings & Loans) that was draining revenue from another business type—the ELITE'S business type: big banks.

Original Show Pub Date: 13.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  HISTORY, FINANCIAL — 14.FEB.2015

Peak Prosperity

Either We Break the Bankster Alliances or They Will Break Us — Nomi Prins reviews the historical circumstances that led to the formation of the big-bank-controlled Federal Reserve; that is, how the financial foxes were put in charge of the public's hen house. She then explains how many rich US elites in the late 1800s/early 1900s thought that keeping money flowing and not being too draconian helped the masses, which in turn helped the elites maintain the system that provided the wealth. But some bankers were not of a mind to play the game this way, and Louis Brandeis warned: "We must break the Money Trust or the Money Trust will break us." Nomi Prins says we are headed into a new era of high banker mischief, vast income gaps, and reckless behavior among leaders and elites. She says we must take heed of Brandeis' warning and take down the banker-corporate-politician-industrial complex.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   52:45

GP comment:  I have passed on a couple of Prins interviews earlier this year, but here she is starting to step outside the envelope and address the bankster power structure as the criminal enterprise that it truly is.

Original Show Pub Date: 31.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  MEDIA, EMPIRE — 14.FEB.2015

Unwelcome Guests

Terrorists Against Terror! ... Warmongers, Media, and the Charlie Hebdo Attack — Why has the corporate media put such emphasis on the attack on the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, which killed only a tiny fraction of the number killed in the recent massacre in Nigeria, an event largely ignored by the media? What of the commercially-controlled media's claim that we need moderate Muslims to condemn the attack? Where were the calls for moderate Christians to condemn the Christian extremists whose illegal war killed over a million Iraqis? What lies behind the simplistic official narratives pushed by corporate media? Dissident BBC reporter Tony Gosling examines connections between recent terrorist events and sketches out a highly compelling picture of darker forces at work.
Go to page A  |  Download/listen A   59:36
Go to page B  |  Download/listen B   59:36

GP comment:  Gosling and his interviewer occasionally go too far in their ruminations; for instance, I think the idea that financially troubled Charlie Hebdo might have murdered itself as a publicity stunt to avoid going out of business is plain stupid. The attack as a black-op bitch-slap of France for its recent non-compliance with US geopolitical strategies is a much more compelling angle. Broadly speaking, though, most of the ideas presented in the two hours are fairly on-target.

Original Show Pub Date: 24.Jan.2015 ~~ Original story title: Terrorists Against Terror! (Corporate Media Handling of The Charlie Hebdo Attack)

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE, FINANCIAL — 13.FEB.2015

Uprising

Jobs in the US, Change in Greece, and Money in Politics — Economics professor Richard Wolff says that the US continues to increase low-paying jobs and lose better-paying middle-class jobs. He also reminds us that US employments statistics are greatly manipulated. He says that Greece serves as an object lesson for the elites—push too far, and the populace will finally push back. As for money dominating politics, he says the problem afflicts both Democrats and Republicans and their agendas. Wolff says our best bet is to reinvigorate the working class through organization and political action independent of the entreched duopoly parties.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   29:47

GP comment:  The elites keep the left and right of the middle class busy pointing fingers at each other (and, occasionally, at other factors like immigrants and terrorists). But the war never really was between left and right or liberals and conservatives. It's between up and down. And the ups are cleaning our clocks—and our bank accounts.

Original Show Pub Date: 12.Feb.2015 ~~ Original story title: Conversation with Richard Wolff: Jobs Report Reality Check, Greece, and Money in Politics

CATEGORY:  MEDIA, EMPIRE — 13.FEB.2015

Democracy Now

Endless War, Endless War Spin — As Obama talks about a new major cycle of the war on terror—this time against the Islamic State—Norman Solomon of the Institute for Public Accuracy says Obama talks about not being interested in "endless war" but is doing more than any previous president to engage the US in exactly that. Solomon also says Brain Williams' worst lies about war were not his exaggerations of his personal experiences reporting from danger zones but rather his parroting the war propaganda of both the Bush and Obama administrations and his failure to challenge any aspect of the corrupt endless-war agenda. Of course, all the big names in media did the same. Finally, Solomon talks about the case of CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling, who has been persecuted for exposing a dodgy CIA operation to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Watch A  |  Watch B  |  Watch C
Download/listen   17:18

GP comment:  Solomon is very good here. The title of his book gives some indication of his tone: War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.

Original Show Pub Date: 12.Feb.2015 ~~ Original story titles ... Endless War? Obama Sends Congress Expansive Anti-ISIS Measure 6 Months After Bombing Began ~~ Brian Williams Suspended for False Iraq Tale, But Media's Real Scandal is the War Lies Spun Daily ~~ Was Jeffrey Sterling Trial a Gov't Effort to Divide Investigative Journalists & Whistleblowers?

CATEGORY:  MUSIC — 13.FEB.2015

The Rock and Roll History Show

A Poor Old Sot, Family Ties, and Crippling Depression... Yeay! — This deep dive into rock 'n' roll trivia includes ... Why Ian Anderson named one of Jethro Tull's most famous songs after an old diving apparatus; how the popular TV show "Family Ties" resurrected a little-unknown single by Billy Vera and the Beaters and pushed it to #1; the shocking story of how the most depressing song ever written—"Gloomy Sunday"—led to scores of suicides.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   29:56

GP comment:  The "Gloomy Sunday" story is truly shocking. I wish he'd played the Billie Holiday version of the song—Elvis Costello singing a torch song is enough to drive anyone to the window ledge.

Original Show Pub Date: 25.Jan.2015 ~~ Original story title: An Antiquated Diving Apparatus, Family Ties, and Crippling Depression... Yeay!

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 11.FEB.2015

Uprising

Understanding the Roots of Terrorism—Theirs and Ours — Much of President Obama's record-breaking defense budget proposal will fund proxy wars around the globe. The US is training and arming Sunni tribal groups in Iraq to fight ISIS, and it may soon begin supplying weapons to the Ukrainian military against Russia. Drone strikes continue to take their toll in Yemen and elsewhere. Meanwhile, a jingoistic film called ‘American Sniper’ glorifies killing and demonizes Muslims with virtually no historical context. Chris Hedges says most Americans accept the myth of American rightness and do-goodism while ignoring the obvious parallels in the terrorism practiced by the US and the terrorism practiced by ISIS and their ilk. He says the empire is not only busy abroad but is also quietly pre-positioning suppressive-force capabilities on the home front, in preparation for the inevitable pushback from the masses as their impoverishment worsens.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   27:32

GP comment:  Many excellent points in this one.

Original Show Pub Date: 09.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT (COAL) — 11.FEB.2015

Radio EcoShock

Talking Dirty... About Coal — Coal is a world-class environmental wrecking ball, with impacts affecting climate, mountains, streams, air pollution, food quality, and more. But hey don't worry about that; American jobs are at stake. That's the message coming from the National Center for Policy Analysis, or the NCPA. It's a tax-exempt organization that's been pumping out the big-business message for over 30 years. Here's an example of some recent NCPA coal propaganda: "Increasing US coal exports could be good for the US economy, workers, and the environment..." Really? Coal, good for the environment? Not so fast, mister...
Go to page  |  Download/listen   12:01

GP comment:  Despite all the talk about moving away from coal, the pace is slow and mostly driven by economics, not concern for the environment or climate change.

Original Show Pub Date: 04.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 11.FEB.2015

On The Media

US Withholding Thousands More Photos of Detainee Abuse — The horrific images from Abu Ghraib prison still linger in America's consciousness more than a decade after their release. But there are thousands more photos of detainee abuse and torture—some depicting scenes worse than those in the original release—that the government has long concealed from the public, stating that it feared violent repercussions. The ACLU's Jameel Jaffer says the prospect of violence is a faulty argument for government secrecy about its own misconduct.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   8:21

GP comment:  Sunshine is the best disinfectant.

Original Show Pub Date: 06.Feb.2015 ~~ Original story title: Thousands of Secret Torture Photos

CATEGORY:  FOOD, ANIMAL WELFARE — 11.FEB.2015

Diet Science

Pastured vs. Free-Range vs. Cage-Free vs. Organic Eggs—What's The Difference? — Dee McCaffrey says the problems with conventional eggs range from low-quality feed to inhumane growing conditions. Organic eggs use better feed and have better growing conditions, but access to outdoors is sometimes more theory than practice in large organic operations. She rightly promotes eggs from backyard chickens as the best choice, with eggs from pastured chickens another good way to go.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   10:53

GP comment:  All that is correct. But McCaffrey also asserts that most people who are use pastured hens to raise eggs are also using organic or non-GMO feed. I suspect not even a majority of them do. I agree that pastured eggs are a top priority, but shoppers should also look for the organic or GMO-free labels. "Trust but verify." She also conflates GMO-free with soy-free, which are not at all the same thing. And "cage-free" usually means "in a crowded barn," and there is no rule that cage-free chickens must have access to outdoors. See the Humane Society's How to Read Egg Carton Labels for more info on terms related to eggs. Bawk!

Original Show Pub Date: 19.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  COLLAPSE — 10.FEB.2015

C-Realm Podcast

Twilight's Reach — KMO and John Michael Greer talk about the two novels Greer published last year. The first is Twilight's Last Gleaming, a geo-political thriller where a declining United States and a resurgent China come to the brink of all-out nuclear war. The other novel is Star's Reach: A Novel of the Deindustrial Future, which is set in a world shaped by the exhaustion of fossil fuels, where new social forms have replaced our familiar institutions and where new ways of inhabiting the North American continent have been necessitated by centuries of climate change.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   59:24

GP comment:  I haven't read the books, but it's always interesting to get glimpses of possible future scenarios.

Original Show Pub Date: 04.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 10.FEB.2015

Keiser Report

Zombie Banks Using Negative Interest Rates to Eat Depositors' Money — Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss whether negative savings rates will be applied to retail savers in Europe, where commercial bank customers are already having to pay to park their money. Do banks no longer need to receive deposits or make loans because they are no longer really banks? Then Max interviews filmmaker and author Kerry-anne Mendoza about her new top selling book, Austerity: The Demolition of the Welfare State and the Rise of the Zombie Economy.
Watch A  |  Watch B  |  Download/listen   38:42

GP comment:  The world of banking is getting plain weird. The urgency to keep revenue flowing in spite of the dead weight that should have many of these banks six-feet-under—and the complicity of regulators and central banks—mean there will definitely be another financial crisis in our future.

Original Show Pub Date: 05.Feb.2015 ~~ Original episode titles ... Zombie Banks Eating Human Souls (E715) + Greece, Beware Bureaucrats & Bankers Bearing Bailouts (E716)

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE, PRIVACY, HISTORY — 08.FEB.2015

Unwelcome Guests

Legal Restrictions as Convenient Fictions—The Deep State's Consuming Passion for Big Data — This starts with a pair of talks from 31C3—the latest Chaos Computer Congress—by insiders with extensive experience on the subject of mass surveillance. First, NSA expert James Bamford on the relationships between the NSA and the big telecom companies. Then Caspar Bowden discusses the legal basis for the NSA's mass surveillance program, PRISM, particularly as it affects those in the EU. Microsoft summarily dismissed Bowden from his job as head of privacy after he raised privacy issues related to Microsoft's products and services, and he has spent the last 3 years alerting people to the danger.
Go to page A  |  Download/listen A   1:00:00
Go to page B  |  Download/listen B   1:00:00

GP comment:  I have a great deal of respect for these speakers and what they have to say. But, for whatever the reasons, they asciduously avoid or deny the deep issues of (a) the spies now operating with impunity; and (b) the NSA, CIA, and DIA operating in service of the US imperial operation, not national interests. Host Robin Upton summarizes the problem nicely: "Neither speaker seems to have much idea about the deep state, but their talks nevertheless provide useful information."

Original Show Pub Date: 10.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  MEDIA — 08.FEB.2015

CounterSpin

Will FCC's New Rules Really Protect Net Neutrality? — The head of the FCC has just announced a new rule that will ostensibly protect the openness of the Internet. The approach would reclassify the internet as a public utility, like the phone system. The rules would ban paid prioritization or blocking/throttling of lawful content and services. The commision's vote is still weeks away, but questions remain. The FCC's oversight of industry to date might be described as having been "helpful"; so will this new proposal have teeth and actually maintain an even playing field on the Internet? Craig Aaron of Free Press discusses.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   9:12

GP comment:  Since the FCC is stacked with revolving-door players from industry, it's hard to imagine the regulators are just going to "do the right thing" for the public. I note that Wheeler explicitly procalimed that the new rules would protect mobile broadband users. What about home internet service? is that the loophole that will give industry the fat end of the deal?

Original Show Pub Date: 06.Feb.2015 ~~ Original story title: Craig Aaron on FCC Reclassification

CATEGORY:  AGRICULTURE — 08.FEB.2015

Agroinnovations Podcast

Food Hubs — Erik Hoffner talks about the local food movement, focusing on the exciting development of "food hubs" that are springing up across the country. He describes the opportunities of scale and collaboration food hubs and related innovations are providing for local food entrepreneurs. Also discussed are energy cooperatives, fair trade, and the prospects for sustainable agriculture to replace the industrial model.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   49:36

GP comment:  This is probably going to be of most interest to farmers and small processors, but these are good trends for everyone to be hearing about.

Original Show Pub Date: 19.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  COOL AND COSMIC — 06.FEB.2015

Awakening as One

Armageddon — The War Within — As framed here, Armageddon is not really about a final battle of the world's great armies, it is a process of resolving the internal conflicts in us humans. Though the system run by The Powers That Be is palpably corrupt, we have become so dependent on it, we cannot voluntarily let it go. Simultaneously, most people have lost their way, prioritizing materialism and self-obsessed goals over a peaceful, loving existence. The Armageddon process will break the system, and therefore begin the liberation process. While our time-limited physical form may perish, the inner heart-based eternal self will be renewed.
Watch  |  Download/listen   58:46

GP comment:  This is an interesting merge of Christian end-times philosophy with new-agey consciousness and cosmic awareness. There are a few points where the visuals help put the audio in context, but for the most part, you can get by just listening to the MP3, if that is your wont.

Original Show Pub Date: Unknown

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 06.FEB.2015

The Real World of Money

Andrew Gause: 4 Trillion in Global Debt Coming Due; It's Not Going to Be Pretty — Andrew Gause's topics this time include ... how the bad money chased out the good money; the Greece situation—why the contagion could be huge, but why it will eventually be resolved; the dollar may have a long way to go before it goes south; the Exchange Stabilization Fund—the president's massive slush fund.... that he uses for the benefit of the banksters; give us all your gold, 1934-style; physical possession of precious metals and coins, and possible challenges.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:05:10

GP comment:  The Exchange Stabilization Fund is part of the rigged game on the global exchanges. You wanna go up against that, be my guest.

Original Show Pub Date: 04.Feb.2015

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL, EMPIRE — 06.FEB.2015

Guns and Butter

Is the World Beginning to Rebel Against Wall Street Rule? — Webster Tarpley discusses geopolitics and the current global financial situation. Topics include ... Russia vs. the West; the Charlie Hebdo attacks re-framed as the US disciplining France for not supporting US positions on Russia, Libya, and other stratagems; why Greece's rejection of the European bankster paradigm is very significant; why Switzerland's unpegging of its franc has the banksters wringing their hands.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   59:52

GP comment:  Some of this is a bit speculative, but most of it is very on-target.

Original Show Pub Date: 21.Jan.2015 ~~ Original story title: Russia, Belarus, France, Greece - The World Rebels Against Wall Street Rule, with Webster Griffin Tarpley

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 05.FEB.2015

Democracy Now

Is Ukraine a US-Russia Proxy War? A New Cold War? Will It Go Hot? — The United Nations has raised the death toll from fighting in eastern Ukraine to more than 5,300 people since last April. Another 1.5 million people have been displaced. As fighting intensifies, the Obama administration is now considering directly arming Ukrainian forces against Russian-backed rebels. Washington already supplies non-lethal military equipment to Ukraine, but top officials are reportedly leaning toward sending arms, from rifles to anti-tank weapons. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has accused the West of dragging Russia into a new Cold War—that could turn hot. Stephen Cohen, professor of Russian studies and politics, comments.
Watch  |  Download/listen   27:09

GP comment:  (1) Cohen has a lot of things right here, but how does he manage to not just say 'yes' to the question of whether Russia's response in Ukraine is really about their line in the sand over NATO (US) eastward encroachment? (2) Cohen manages to somehow conclude that when it comes to Ukraine, Obama is either getting bad advice or not paying attention. Um, survey says... third choice: he's a maniac and he's lying. (3) For any progressives who thought the Brookings Institution was a counterbalance to the insanity of the right-wing think tanks, Brookings' hawkish stance on US involvement in Ukraine should make that fallacy obvious.

Original Show Pub Date: 03.Feb.2015 ~~ Original story title: Is Ukraine a Proxy Western-Russia War? U.S. Weighs Arming Kiev as Violence Soars

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT (CLIMATE) — 05.FEB.2015

Biodiversity for a Livable Climate / Radio EcoShock

The Planetary Peril in the IPCC's Lowest-Common-Denominator Science — Thomas Goreau's doctorate is in biogeochemistry. He's an expert in areas such as coral reef science and global climate change. Two of the main points Goreau makes are that the IPCC's window of focus is much too narrow—most of the worst climate effects will be beyond its 100-year window—and its conclusions are so "lowest common denominator" that they are greatly underestimating both the data trends and coming impacts. He also says that the "350" goal is far too high—if we accept even that currently politically unattainable goal, we are doomed to a temperature increase of 17-20 degrees C. Goreau says atmospheric CO2 levels need to be rolled back to 260 ppm. He says the essential solution—mostly ignored by global leaders—is to put carbon back in the soil using practices such as biochar.
Watch  |  Download/listen   24:07

GP comment:  Watch if you can—lots of good graphs. Tip o' the hat to Radio EcoShock for pointing out the Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference videos.

Original Show Pub Date: Nov.2014 ~~ Original title: Thomas Goreau - The Down-to-Earth Solution to Global Warming: How Soil Carbon Sequestration Works

CATEGORY:  ENERGY, PEAK OIL — 05.FEB.2015

Sea Change Radio

The Latest Oil Glut—Once Bitten, Twice Shy — It comes as little surprise that the author of a book entitled Snake Oil: How Fracking's False Promise of Plenty Imperils Our Future is a critic of the natural gas industry and a proponent of peak oil theory. Host Alex Wise reviews the issues with Richard Heinberg of the Post Carbon Institute and gets his perspective on how plunging oil prices will affect the energy and transportation industries; the status of the North American natural gas boom; how the turbulence may alter consumer behavior in the near term; and the need for sound policy to guide us through the long-term challenge of living in a post-carbon world.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   30:00

GP comment:  Heinberg is solid as usual, though if you have heard his other interviews in the last six months, you will not find much new here.

Original Show Pub Date: 27.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  MUSIC — 05.FEB.2015

The Rock and Roll History Show

Rock and Roll Ripoffs—Or Not — Songs and tidbit topics include whether Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters" ripped off Huey Lewis' "I Wanna New Drug" (IMO, no); the more famous case of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" vs. The Chiffons' "He's So Fine" (again, no); the advent of the Motown smash group The Marvellettes; the non-inebriated reference for the Foreigner song "Double Vision".
Go to page  |  Download/listen   30:00

GP comment:  Fun stuff if you're a fan of the music.

Original Show Pub Date: 11.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  HISTORY — 02.FEB.2015

Democracy Now

Vanguard of the Revolution—New Film Chronicles Rise of Black Panthers and FBI War Against Them — A new documentary called The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution tells the history of the Black Panther Party through rare archival footage and interviews with party leaders, rank-and-file members, journalists, and even police and FBI informants. This clip features extended excerpts from the film, as well as interviews with Kathleen Cleaver, who served as communications secretary of the Black Panther Party, and Stanley Nelson, the film's director.
Watch  |  Download/listen   49:25

GP comment:  The Black Panthers were an important movement in American history and remain an important object lesson for those who would engage in the fight against empire.

Original Show Pub Date: 30.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  COOL AND COSMIC — 02.FEB.2015

Legalise Freedom

Transhumanist Man's Scientific Rise to Godhood — Artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, implantable chips, and life extension. These and many other technologies are being promoted as the way for humanity to become something radically different. The transhumanist movement claims that by applying such technologies to our biology, we will become post-human—and that this would be a good thing. But behind this techno-utopian vision lurk the spectres of eugenics, mind control, police state propaganda, the end of privacy, and maybe even the end of the human race itself. Is a new religion for a new age being born, arising from a scientific and increasingly sinister quest for eternal life? Guest Aaron Franz discusses.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:25:36

GP comment:  It feels natural to like gadgets. But we're already seeing the information stream associated with our gadgets used inappropriately, and that is just the beginning of our descent into the control matrix, if the transhumanist vision is anything like out actual future.

Original Show Pub Date: 10.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  FOOD, ORGANICS — 30.JAN.2015

One Radio Network

Keeping Food Clean—Overseeing the Organic Food Industry — Mark Kastel of The Cornucopia Institute talks about agribusiness' constant attempts to weaken the USDA organic standard—and what we can do about it. Topics include ... big companies trying to do organic on-the-cheap; Eden Foods and other food companies using excellent business ethics; the scorecard on the Cornucopia website that lets you research your favorite organic companies; carageenan, yes or no; why Chipotle took pork off the menu in 1/3 of its restaurants; why monocropping hurts soil; long term effects of GMO foods on human health; how buying organic protects you from the worst issues in the food industry.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   59:36

GP comment:  The Cornucopia Institute and the Organic Consumers Association—not to be confused with its evil name-twin the Organic Trade Association—are among the few things that keep the agribusiness juggernaut from crushing the value of the USDA organic standard (which is already a lower standard than it should be!).

Original Show Pub Date: 20.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE, FINANCIAL — 30.JAN.2015

One Radio Network

Powerful Counterforces and Ugly Days Ahead for the American Empire — Geopolitics analyst Jim Willie discusses world events in the context of the monetary wars that continue to unfold. Topics include ... the three major factions who run the world; dollar losing market share; Germany actively looking for credible ways to exit the Euro Zone; global currency reset is real and in motion; large amounts of gold in Russia and China, but not the US; The Vatican has vast assets going back over a thousand years; oil price is all about derivatives, not supply and demand; Putin kicked the Rothschilds out of Russia a few years ago.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   57:39

GP comment:  A lot of what Willie says sounds dead-on. But he's one of those guys who has "deep sources." IMO, such sources are often going to be operating in the mode of using otherwise bona fide analysts like Willie to spread disinformation. In this case, I'm thinking of Willie's discussion of the powerful "Eastern white hats" that are poised to take down the Western black hats and restore peace and ecological balance to the planet. Uh, huh. Sounds like a classic "external savior meme" to me—that is, we who are worried about totalitarianism and might otherwise rise up can relax and feel reassured that heroic forces will save us.

Original Show Pub Date: 26.Jan.2015 ~~ Original Story Title: Jim Willie - The End of the American Empire---Big, Powerful, Nasty & Ugly Days Ahead

CATEGORY:  ENERGY, FINANCIAL, COLLAPSE — 30.JAN.2015

Peak Prosperity

Gail Tverberg: Beginning of the End For Oil Production — Gail "the Actuary" Tverberg discusses the recent sharp down-trend in the price of oil, the unfolding collapse in the shale-oil industry, and why this is ushering in a permanent turndown in oil production. Sees the global economy caught between the Scylla and Charybdis of too-low or too-high oil prices, with central banking games and Wall Street derivatives the highly combustible factors that will light a brush fire that will burn through the companies in the oil industry and eventually blow up the rest of the financial world too.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   44:20

GP comment:  I found this a bit dense and difficult to stay interested in, but there is some good info here.

Original Show Pub Date: 17.Jan.2015 ~~ Original story title: Gail Tverberg: This Is The Beginning Of The End For Oil Production --- Why the shale collapse is ushering in a permanent turndown

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 28.JAN.2015

Unwelcome Guests

Dispatches from Weimar America — This show features various authors and activists talking about state surveillance and unchecked power in the US. First, Mark Crispin Miller discusses Project Censored's "forbidden bookshelf" project, which aims to republish in electronic form books that governments have tried to suppress. Then Alfred McCoy explains the extent of the surveillance systems underway, saying they far exceed the Snowden disclosures. Naomi Wolf explains why the Snowden story may be something other than what we think it is. Heidi Boghosian talks about the death of democracy", followed by Chris Hedges offering a personal reflection on the psychology of the super-rich. Finally, we get a radio adaptation of "The Strange Case of Phillip Marshall," a CIA insider who publicly questioned the official story of 9-11. He and his family then died in what has been officially called a murder-suicide.
Go to page A  |  Download/listen A   1:00:00
Go to page B  |  Download/listen B   1:00:00

GP comment:  Lots of really good stuff here. On the Snowden question, he made the public aware of (at least part of) the illegal government spying on citizens that's been going on. Now, if the public does not rise up and put a stop to it, then those doing the current illegal spying will know they have carte blanche to do whatever they want in the future. Whether they put Snowden up to it because they wanted the question answered or whether Snowden is a legitimate whistleblower is far less important than whether Big Brother gets the green light.

Original Show Pub Date: 27.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  HEALTH — 28.JAN.2015

Life Matters

Anit-Inflammatory Properties of Glycine — Because most of us don't cook bones and cartilage into soup as previous generations did, we're missing essential nutrients, glycine among them. Dr. Joel Brind talks explains why the amino acid glycine is essential to regulating your body's inflammation. He recommends glycine supplementation, and talks about a study that suggests this can also be helpful for those facing type II diabetes.
Watch  |  Download/listen   23:33

GP comment:  Pretty interesting. I've had some success with one specific form of magnesium that include glycine. Now I know why.

Original Show Pub Date: 14.Apr.2014

CATEGORY:  FOOD, GMOs — 28.JAN.2015

Corbett Report

Food—Can DIY Conquer "OMG!"? — The problems of the industrial food system are obvious: food safety scandals, the death of family farming, food supply insecurity, the revolving door between corporate lobbyists and government regulators, and many more. The solution should be equally obvious: rolling up our sleeves and getting in the garden. James Corbett reviews some of the evidence against the industrial food model and then explores growing your own as a simple, natural solution to one of our most fundamental problems.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   55:38

GP comment:  This is a good primer for those who are relatively new to these issues. If you've been grappling with the issue of industrial food for a while, you probably won't hear much new here. See GP's page for gardening and agriculture audio for additional shows on those topics.

Original Show Pub Date: 14.Jan.2015 ~~ Original story title: Episode 299 -- Solutions: Guerrilla Gardening

CATEGORY:  FUNNY — 28.JAN.2015

Fresh Air

Early On, Comedian John Cleese Says, He Had Good Timing But Little Else — John Cleese co-founded the Monty Python comedy troupe and co-wrote and co-starred in the hilarious TV series Fawlty Towers and iconic Python movies like "Holy Grail" and "Life of Brian." Here he talks about his childhood, education, and his early years in show business, as well as some of the successes that came later. Classic comedy clips pepper the show.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   38:36

GP comment:  Cleese is probably one of the top 10 comedians of all time. But this is still mostly for fans of Cleese, Monty Python, and Fawlty Towers.

Original Show Pub Date: 16.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE, MEDIA — 24.JAN.2015

Democracy Now

Scoring the Fight For Truth—One Loss (Barrett Brown), One Win (Robert MacLean) — Barrett Brown, an activist-journalist has been given a five-year prison term and ordered to pay nearly $900,000 in restitution and fines. His crime? Publishing hacked emails showing bad corporate ethics. Supporters say Brown has been unfairly targeted for investigating the highly secretive world of private intelligence and military contractors. ~~ In July 2003, after being stymied by official channels, federal Air Marshal Robert MacLean revealed to MSNBC that the Department of Homeland Security had decided to stop assigning air marshals to certain long-distance flights in order to save money, despite warnings of a potential plot to hijack US airplanes. Three years later, after admitting to being the story's source, he was fired. Based on this case, the US Supreme Court has upheld 7-2 the right of federal employees to become whistleblowers.
Watch A  |  Watch B  |  Download/listen   22:28

GP comment:  You have to admire Brown's steely sense of humor: After his sentencing on Thursday, Brown released a satirical statement that read, in part: "Good news! The US government decided today that because I did such a good job investigating the cyber-industrial complex, they're now going to send me to investigate the prison-industrial complex."

Original Show Pub Date: 23.Jan.2015 ~~ Original story titles: Barrett Brown Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison After Reporting on Hacked Private Intelligence Firms + In Victory for Gov’t Whistleblowers, Supreme Court Sides with Fired TSA Air Marshal Who Spoke Out

CATEGORY:  FOOD, HEALTH — 24.JAN.2015

Susun Weed

Coffee—A Surprisingly Healthy Brew — Herbalist and alternative health guru Susun Weed talks about the many benefits of coffee. There are a few potential downsides, she says, but for most people, the data overwhelmingly show that coffee and caffeine help reduce risk in just about every major disease category.
Go to page A  |  Download/listen A   31:41
Go to page B  |  Download/listen B   33:58

GP comment:  I was actually surprised there weren't more cautions against coffee consumption here. But I love coffee, so YEAY! I do have to wonder, though, how much of the protective effect is merely counterbalancing other bad habits. Nonetheless, since we are indeed creatures of (bad) habit, carry on with the slurping! Weed does add that while the coffee itself is good, the other things some of us put in it are ... not so much.

Original Show Pub Date: Aug.2013

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE, FINANCIAL — 23.JAN.2015

Legalise Freedom

The Grand Manipulation — Trends forecaster Gerald Celente talks about where things are and where they are going. Topics include ... globally depressed economic activity; wealth concentration; insufficient demand for current production; the bankster takeover; the two different sets of rules for free speech; we're in a permanent War on Terror now, and a more serious global conflict is coming. He thinks the current political parties and leaders are beyond redemption, though he thinks a new, completely unaffiliated party is worth trying. He says four words killed capitalism: Too Big To Fail.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   29:11

GP comment:  Celente has said most of this before, but he's always worth a listen. One point of disagreement: I don't see how a third party makes it when the Republicrat duopoly controls the election rules.

Original Show Pub Date: 16.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT — 23.JAN.2015

Sea Change Radio

Smarter Cities — Many planners agree that a more centralized population is a good thing for long-term environmental responsibility. But as people all over the world continue to flock to urban centers, the challenge of creating sustainable cities becomes more pressing. How can cities be improved to ensure that their billions of residents have energy-efficient transportation, housing, waste-stream management, as well as clean air and water? Ecological urban planner Melanie Nutter walks us through some of the emerging policies and practices to promote smart, sustainable, resilient cities.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   29:00

GP comment:  Nutter has good ideas, and they seem to be fairly successful in San Francisco. But the success largely depends on the target city being highly prosperous in general and green-minded specifically. Many of these programs simply would not sell politically or economically in, say, Atlanta. I'm not saying Atlantans shouldn't get on board with such ideas; just that it's not likely to happen on nearly the same scale as it has in SF.

Original Show Pub Date: 13.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 22.JAN.2015

Democracy Now

Obama's SOTU—Contradictions and Missed Opportunities — Ralph Nader points out some of the many inconsistencies in Obama's State of the Union speech; for instance: Obama stressed civil liberties but was silent on renewal of the odious PATRIOT Act; he said there should be more domestic oil and gas production but also warned of climate change, which would be worsened by that production; Obama stressed workers rights and unions but then emphasized the need to fast track approval of the anti-worker Trans-Pacific Partnership trade act. Nader also criticized Obama for ignoring issues like commercial fraud on Medicare and Medicaid; a DoD audit; and corporate tax evasion.
Watch  |  Download/listen   3:58

GP comment:  And, as Nader points out, Obama—almost unbelievably—talks again about closing down Gitmo, after six years of broken promises on that very issue. No doubt he has a bridge (to tomorrow) he'd like to sell us.

Original Show Pub Date: 21.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  ENERGY — 21.JAN.2015

Radio EcoShock / Legalise Freedom

A "Renewable World" Built on Fossil Fuels is Not a Renewable World — The message for green-energy lovers and haters alike is simple: We can't keep this crazy civilization running just on the sun and wind, let alone on high doses of fossil fuels. When we stop being able to milk the billion year-pile of concentrated solar energy in the form of oil, gas, and coal, something WILL change. Energy expert David Fridley of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and the Post Carbon Institute talks about the energy dilemma, diving deep into the specifics. Topics/points include ... Our energy matrix cannot be renewable until the renewable-energy technologies and sources can replicate themselves. Wind turbines, solar panels, and electric cars are all hobbled by the limitations of fossil fuel inputs for their creation and maintenance as well as by the specialized minerals needed for their creation. He acknowledges the psychology of the American energy consumer as a key problem, referencing former Energy Department Secretary James Schlesinger's axiom that the American people only have two modes: complacency or panic.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:00:00

GP comment:  This is one of the best reviews I've ever heard of the problems we face as demand for energy keeps rising but technology finds itself unable to compensate for the peak in global net energy. Must-listening!

Original Show Pub Date: 14.Jan.2015 ~~ Original story title: Green Dreams - Future or Fantasy?

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 21.JAN.2015

Guns and Butter

The Deep State and the Paris Attacks — Michel Chossudovsky looks at the circumstances and backstory of the Charlie Hebdo attack, with an eye towards poking holes in the official story. Interesting factors include the "suicide" of a French detective a few hours after being debriefed on the attacks; whether the supposed perpetrators were in some way involved with French intelligence agencies; the hypocrisy of the French government decrying attacks on press freedom while engaging in suppression of reporting themselves. Chossudovsky also talks about state-sponsored terrorism by the major Western powers; the larger geopolitical game as it pertains to France and the US; and the new inquisitorial age, where the general public does not question the need to eliminate those labeled "enemy" at any cost, using any means.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   59:52

GP comment:  Chossudovsky reaches a bit on some of his speculations, but there are many points that need consideration here, no matter how odious the implications are.

Original Show Pub Date: 14.Jan.2015 ~~ Original story title: "Who Was Behind the Paris Attacks?" with Michel Chossudovsky

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 21.JAN.2015

Class War Films

Let Your Life Be a Friction to Stop the Machine — The folks behind Class War Films are on a mission to expose, explain, attack, and dismantle the myth of American Exceptionalism and the mask of Predatory Capitalism. In less than half an hour, they do an astonishingly good job of just that, from the false egalitarian vocalizations of the Founding Fathers, through the rise of bankster/corporate hegemony, to today's "global war on terror" and useless mainstream-media parrots and squawkers.
Watch  |  Download/listen   22:51

GP comment:  Try to watch this one—cool graphics. From 2012, but still perfectly relevant.

Original Show Pub Date: 2012

CATEGORY:  HEALTH — 21.JAN.2015

One Radio Network

The Skinny Gut Diet — When it comes to digestive disorders, Brenda Watson has dedicated her career to helping people achieve lasting health through improved digestive function. Topics here include ... doing alimentary detective work; true fermented vegetables vs. canned; solutions for constipation; how gut bacteria can drive weight issues; the importance of gut microbe variety; probiotic recommendations and the "with food" vs. "away from food" question.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:01:58

GP comment:  She's good, but for me, too much time was spent on "fat bacteria." I'm an ectomoprh!

Original Show Pub Date: 13.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE, FINANCIAL — 18.JAN.2015

Off-the-Grid News

Cash, Bank Accounts, Homes ... and the World of Government Seizure — Ten years ago, the Supreme Court declared economic development to be a legitimate reason for a government to eminent-domain and repurpose private property. Since then, many states have passed laws forbidding seizure for that reason, but abusive practices are still happening. Phil Applebaum of the Institute for Justice discusses the case of a small Indiana town where the mayor proposed taking over an entire housing neighborhood for an unspecified future development plan. ~~ In part B, Larry Salzman, also of the Institute for Justice, talks about how banking rules apply to cash deposits. If you run a cash-oriented business and think you're safe from scrutiny or seizure if your deposits are always under the $10,000 threshold for banks having to report deposits, think again.
Go to page A  |  Download/listen A   20:53
Go to page B  |  Download/listen B   23:40

GP comment:  This may not be widely applicable—yet. But it's always good to keep an eye on government overreach.

Original Show Pub Date: 15.Jan.2015 & 09.Jan.2015 ~~ Original story titles: How The IRS Can Secretly Drain Your Bank Account + Why Your Home Isn't Safe From Government Seizure

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT — 18.JAN.2015

Living on Earth

Climate and the Collapse of Western Civilization — Science historians Naomi Oreskes of Harvard and Erik Conway of CalTech have taken current climate science and extrapolated it into an apocalyptic new science fiction book, The Collapse of Western Civilization—A View From the Future. Oreskes discusses how democracy, the free market, and science are all failing to protect our future.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   16:28

GP comment:  This dance doesn't include much climate apocalypso, but Oreskes ably lays out the inside-the-envelope view on climate status and action. In reality, any progress made on transitioning out of fossil fuels will come too slowly to make a difference in our future climate. But it will make a difference in many other environmental areas, so it's still worth doing.

Original Show Pub Date: 16.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  NUCLEAR, ENVIRONMENT — 18.JAN.2015

Fairewinds Energy Education

Debate: Should Nuclear Energy Be Expanded to Help Create a More Sustainable Future? — Given the seriousness of the climate challenge—of the need to get to a zero-carbon future—does nuclear need to play an expanded role in the world's energy matrix? This was the question that Hofstra University posed to a debate panel in late 2014. Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds was among the debaters who discussed the environmental, fiscal, and policy issues pertaining to the expansion of nuclear energy.
Watch  |  Download/listen   1:31:10

GP comment:  Even if one assumed sufficient additional nuclear capacity could be brought online in time to make a difference for climate mitigation—it can't—the answer is still "hell no." Gundersen had a couple of great lines; here is one: Nuclear proponents have faith that humans are smart enough to figure out how to store radioactive nuclear waste for a quarter million years. Alternative energy proponents have faith that humans are smart enough to figure out how to store electricity overnight.

Original Show Pub Date: 20.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  COLLAPSE, EMPIRE — 15.JAN.2015

The Lifeboat Hour

Dmitry Orlov on Collapse, US-Russia, Oil, and What We Can Expect in 2015 — WRT the various stages of collapse, Dmitry Orlov vets the US: (1) financial collapse is "baked in"; (2) commercial collapse is slowly unfolding, with a high real-unemployment rate; (3) political collapse is already happening, at least in terms of loss of democracy; (4) unfolding cultural collapse is reflected in the general lack of community in the US and the smoldering dysfunction between race-based groups. He sees an emerging Asian bloc centered on Russia and China cooperation. Orlov also talks about the large jump in numbers of people paying attention to the truth of what's going on via his blog and other alternatives to mainstream media. Other topics include the energy-money game going on between the US, Europe, and Russia; why Grand Chessboard master Zbigniew Brzezinski is punking US interests for his own agenda; and the (non) likelihood of a major conflict between the US and Russia.
Download/listen   53:28

GP comment:  He clearly gives a pro-Russia slant, but his details seem convincing enough.

Original Show Pub Date: 11.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL, SUSTAINABILITY — 15.JAN.2015

Post Carbon Institute

Economics of the Anthropocene — Joshua Farley discusses how the human dominated epoch—the anthropocene—has evolved an economic model that is unsustainable—it's hitting resource and environmental limits—and he outlines the need to shift the basis of the economy from competitiveness to cooperation.
Watch  |  Download/listen   20:49

GP comment:  A reasonable proposition, but Farley seems hurried and slightly out-of-focus here.

Original Show Pub Date: 09.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE, MEDIA — 13.JAN.2015

Democracy Now

Circus of Hypocrisy—World Leaders Simultaneously March For and Oppose Press Freedom — In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, more than a million people marched in Paris, including more than 40 world leaders. But Jeremy Scahill calls the leaders' attendance a "circus of hypocrisy" since those same leaders have waged their own wars against journalists. He recounts numerous examples ranging from media suppression to whistleblower prosecution to outright murder. ~~ Then Scahill moves on to the broader issue of the actions of Western nations doing more to foster terrorism than to suppress it, again giving plentiful examples of counterproductive strategies and tactics.
Watch A  |  Watch B  |  Download/listen   46:56

GP comment:  Scahill is, as usual, on-target. Sometimes I wonder what more he'd say in a quiet one-on-one conversation over a beer.

Original Show Pub Date: 12.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  MEDIA, HEALTH — 13.JAN.2015

On The Media

Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2014 — Futurist George Dvorsky talks about 2014's "breakthroughs" in science, technology, and culture, some of which seem right out of a sci-fi novel. This year, humanity landed on its first comet, a child was born to a woman with a transplanted womb, a fossilized sea shell forced us to reconsider our conceptions of human culture, and two people achieved silent brain-to-brain communication. Are we finally heading to the brave new Star Trek world?
Go to page  |  Download/listen   12:18

GP comment:  No, we're in total denial about the deep, perhaps unfixable flaws in the human experiment on this planet, so we compensate with increasingly complicated and weird experiments in science.

Original Show Pub Date: 09.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  MEDIA, EMPIRE — 12.JAN.2015

On The Media

Charlie Hebdo and the Muck-a-lot Factory — Charlie Hebdo magazine is notorious for its irreverent satirical cartoons, attacking all sides, particularly those who finger-wag their conservative values. In the wake of the murderous attack on Charlie Hebdo, professor Laurence Grove reviews how French culture has held political cartoons in high regard for centuries. ~~ Then Atlantic correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg argues that the ability of journalists and citizens to mock those in power is essential to liberty and democracy.
Go to page A  |  Download/listen A   8:34
Go to page B  |  Download/listen B   4:39

GP comment:  The attack on Charlie Hebdo employees may certainly be just as it's been reported. But I also note the alignment of other possible interests: a media outlet with long-term enemies within TPTB sphere plus the usefulness of the attack for those who prefer to reinforce, not heal, the divide between the West and Islam.

Original Show Pub Date: 09.Jan.2015 ~~ Original story titles: (1) Monty Python But 50 Times As Rude (2) On 'Je Suis Charlie'

CATEGORY:  ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT — 12.JAN.2015

Radio EcoShock

The Future of Energy—Green Tech or Green Illusions? — Is the whole "green energy" game just an extension of the fossil fuel industry, dressed up in green clothing? In part 1, Ozzie Zehner makes the case that high-tech greening of our civilization is a pipedream. In particular, he targets solar PV as a technology that causes many more problems that it's worth, and is often use as a "green badge of honor" when other, less sexy approaches do far more to reduce energy use and pollution. ~~ In part 2, clean-tech venture capitalist Dan Miller gives his views on alternative energy and provides a counterweight to Ozzie Zehner's dim view of a green-tech future.
Go to page A  |  Download/listen A   1:00:00
Go to page B  |  Download/listen B   1:00:00

GP comment:  Both Zehner and Miller engage in excessively vague statements, and bless Alex Smith for spending time at the end of part 2 to try to make sense of it all. Even as a supporter and heavy user of solar technologies, I'm much more in the Zehner camp on this one, despite the obvious problems with some of his statements. We're headed for a resource cliff at some point because we cannot reign in our desires for more—more energy, more land, more stuff. Green tech cannot cure that.

Original Show Pub Date: 31.Dec.2014 + 07.Jan.2015 ~~ Original story titles: (1) Green Illusions - Ozzie Zehner (2) Green Reality vs. Ozzie Zehner

CATEGORY:  MEDIA, EMPIRE, ENVIRONMENT — 10.JAN.2015

Project Censored

The Most Underreported Stories of 2014 — Project Censored is out with a new addition of their annual "unreported stories" book. On the empire front, their most-underreported stories include "Top Ten US Aid Recipients All Practice Torture"; "WikiLeaks Revelations on Trans-Pacific Partnership Ignored by Corporate Media"; "Corporate Internet Providers Threaten Net Neutrality"; "Bankers Back on Wall Street Despite Major Crimes"; "The Deep State—Government Without the Consent of the Governed"; "US Media Hypocrisy in Covering Ukraine Crisis." On the environmental front, their top underreported stories include "Ocean Acidification Increasing at Unprecedented Rate"; "Lawsuit Challenges Nuclear Power Industry Immunity from Liability in Nuclear Accidents"; "Agribusiness Attempts to Discredit Scientists Who Reveal Herbicide Health Threats."
Download/listen   59:00

GP comment:  This clip includes an interview with Zara Zimbardo, who recently penned "It Is Easier to Imagine the Zombie Apocalypse Than the End of Capitalism." Catchy title, but we need to be more clever in attacking capitalism. It must be continually distinguished from "free enterprise" and "entrepreneurship" and "effort/reward." Capitalism is not about those things; it means "money rules," and no one but the 1% of the 1% really want that.

Original Show Pub Date: 06.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT — 10.JAN.2015

Uprising

Cancer—Environmental Factors and Genetics vs. Plain Ol' Bad Luck — A new study has found that 22 types of cancer are the result of sheer bad luck, blaming the cancers largely on random mistakes in tissue-specific stem cells and stating that the cancers arise in a manner unrelated to genetic or environmental factors. Julia Brody of the Silent Spring Institute offers a countering opinion, noting that a different team looked at exactly the same data and concluded that only 10% of cancers were attributable to random bad luck.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   12:28

GP comment:  This is a pretty tepid report, but the takeaway should be that the defenders of corporations' toxic products and processes now have a study to point to and say, "see, no problem" ... which no doubt was the intention of whoever funded that particular data analysis. As Mark Twain cautioned, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Original Show Pub Date: 07.Jan.2015 ~~ Original story title: The Science of Health: Silent Spring Inst. Cautions Against New Cancer Study

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT — 08.JAN.2015

Unwelcome Guests

The Temptation of The Technofix — In this audio of speeches from the 2014 conference "Techno-Utopianism and the Fate of the Earth," we hear seven speakers who, despite contrasting styles and material, manage to jointly conclude that technological development has become unhinged from our true human values. The speakers, in order, are John Michael Greer, Gar Smith, Mary Reynolds-Thompson, David Ehrenfeld, Lisi Krall, and Stephanie Mills. Topics include technology's history of broken promises; how technology is devastating life; how technology has tamed us, as we use it to (unintentionally) destroy life on earth and ourselves; challenging the idea of "de-extinction" as a solution; the economic evolution of dominion.
Go to page A  |  Download/listen A   1:00:00
Go to page B  |  Download/listen B   1:00:00

GP comment:  This starts out strong, but I found my attention waning in the latter half, where we get heart-felt analyses of how far humans have strayed from the path. That is true, for sure, but I don't think it's fixable—at least it won't be volunteered for—so why keep rehashing it? Ratings: 4 for part A; 2 for part B.

Original Show Pub Date: 13.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  HEALTH — 08.JAN.2015

Progressive Film Hour

For Big Pharma, Money Talks, Science Walks — The film Money Talks: Profits Before Patient Safety exposes the way the pharmaceutical industry has come to dominate medicine. This clip features snippets from the film and interviews with filmmaker Holly Mosher, medical investigative journalist Jeanne Lenzer, and family doctor John Abramson. Topics include ... the deceptive tactics used by big drug companies; the art of using misleading advertising to lure consumers and using attractive drug reps to lure doctors; "trade-secret deaths"—the legal/regulatory trick box that has been created so some types of drug-related patient deaths go unreported; how medical research and knowledge has shifted from public good to private profit; how drug studies are designed to support product sales, not the best medical information.
Download/listen   58:25

GP comment:  We all are well advised to stay away from the products of the pharmaceutical industry as much as possible. Once they get their claws in you, it's a downward spiral of "drugs to cure ills and other drugs to cure side effects."

Original Show Pub Date: 23.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  MEDIA — 06.JAN.2015

Uprising

America's Battle for Media Democracy — Sometime in early 2015, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler is expected to unveil his decision on the crucial issue of net neutrality. Wheeler's earlier proposal for a two-tier system outraged consumers, advocacy organizations, and even some corporations. Media professor Victor Pickard discusses the history of "media in the public interest" going back to the 1940s rise of radio and details the political decisions and turning points that led to our present-day corporate-dominated media system.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   24:44

GP comment:  The historical information here is interesting. But the trend towards concentrated media monopolies that do not operate in the public interest is merely reflective of the increasing alignment of the goals of government, corporations, and elites. Speculation about other reasons—such as a "corporate-libertarian paradigm" or a throwback to the McCarthy era—are just silly.

Original Show Pub Date: 02.Jan.2015

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 06.JAN.2015

Red Ice Radio

World-View Propaganda — Jay Dyer writes on the deeper themes and messages found in our globalist pseudo-culture, illustrating the connections between philosophy, metaphysics, secret societies, Hollywood, psychological warfare and comparative religion. Dyer explains how philosophies can be engineered and used as forms of psyop—a trap of empiricism that ultimately leads to false presuppositions.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   53:42

GP comment:  Dyer does us a service by presenting the concept that a deep, deep level of propaganda is used to shape the world view of the masses, which then makes it easier for the elites to sell specific-issue propaganda that allows them to maintain their wealth and power. But the discussion here is mostly lost in esoteric topics of philosophy. We would have benefited more from a discussion of how the concepts manifest in today's increasingly totalitarian world, where most people are so propagandized they will actively defend a system that exploits them.

Original Show Pub Date: 29.Dec.2014 ~~ Original story title: Dialectic Enlightenment & The Entertainment Industrial Complex

CATEGORY:  ENERGY — 03.JAN.2015

Peak Prosperity

The Shocking Data That Proves Shale Oil Is Massively Over-Hyped — Energy analyst David Hughes discusses his field-by-field study of US shale oil/gas plays. The study finds that tight-oil production from major plays will peak before 2020. Tight oil production from the two top plays, the Bakken and Eagle Ford, will underperform the EIA’s reference case oil recovery by 28% from 2013 to 2040, and more of this production will be front-loaded than the EIA estimates. By 2040, production rates from the Bakken and Eagle Ford will likely be less than a tenth of that projected by the EIA. The overall tight-oil production forecasts by the EIA from plays other than the Bakken and Eagle Ford are in most cases highly optimistic and unlikely to be realized. Hughes observes that on the oil fields, in the battle between technology and geology, geology always wins in the end.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   47:23

GP comment:  This gets a bit down in the weeds, but such data diving is necessary to be able to convincingly refute the rah-rah shale oil hype in the US.

Original Show Pub Date: 13.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 03.JAN.2015

Project Censored

Post-Capitalist Democracy and Independent Media — Hosts Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff spend the hour in conversation with media scholar Robert McChesney. Topics include... the threat to democracy from capitalism in general and corporations in particular; how the Dems and GOP are in lock-step when it comes to militarism and corporate control, as well as on rigging the political system to exclude third-party candidates and ideas; how current policies are slowly clawing back the hard-won middle-class gains of the last century.
Download/listen   59:00

GP comment:  McChesney offers plenty of apt observations, but his overall framing is limited to the issues that might be considered "safe for NPR listeners." For instance, he does not mention at all the problem of the big banks, their control of the money system, and the Ponzi nature of their infinite-growth monetary policy.

Original Show Pub Date: 23.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  RESILIENCE, NUCLEAR — 03.JAN.2015

Fairewinds Energy Education

Solar EMP—Beautiful Skies with Devastating Repercussions — Sometimes the most beautiful natural phenomena can have devastating consequences. When the sun ejects hot charged particles into space, the Northern Lights are created here on Earth. Occasionally, the sun erupts with such huge quantities of particles—a coronoal mass ejection—that electronics and electrical grids can be damaged. Mat Stein and Arnie Gundersen discuss the dangers to our electrical systems and nuclear power plants worldwide from a large coronal mass ejection.
Watch  |  Download/listen   30:50

GP comment:  Stein reviews a number of little-know previous major coronal-mass-ejection events and gives us the math that shows that we are overdue for another one.

Original Show Pub Date: 11.Sep.2014

CATEGORY:  COLLAPSE, RESILIENCE — 31.DEC.2014

Radio EcoShock

The Pitfalls of Getting Resilient — This report features Jan Steinman, who cashed out from his IT gig to start a resilient eco-village as a response to a post-peak oil future and civilizational breakdown. Steinman appears to have pursued the project with a great deal of intelligence and personal energy, yet he's had a hard time finding people with a similar level of commitment. He observes, "Things just aren't bad enough yet." ~~ Also featured is "The Rap Guide to Wilderness" by Baba Brinkman.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:00:00

GP comment:  This is must-listening for anyone who thinks they need to go all-in on getting resilient to isolate themselves from future collapse scenarios. It's just not that easy, regardless of how smart or dedicated you are, even when you start with sizeable financial resources. It is important to get resilient. But if you can, keep one foot in the world run by TPTB while you do it.

Original Show Pub Date: 24.Dec.2014 ~~ Original story title: We Can't All Go Back to the Land (Or We'll Kill What's Left)

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 31.DEC.2014

Moyers and Company

The New Robber Barons — Washington continues to reward wealthy donors and Wall Street at the expense of everyday Americans. Author and historian Steve Fraser says the US political machine has been completely captured by moneyed interests. The situation has plenty of similarities to the robber baron era of a century ago.
Watch  |  Download/listen   25:21

GP comment:  Fraser is quite good, though he misses the fact that part of the reason people are hesitant to rock the boat these days is because they are still benefiting from the safety-net programs and wealth accumulated during the past 70 years. As the pile evaporates and more societal benefits are withdrawn or degraded—and living circumstances get more desperate—the complacency of the masses may change.

Original Show Pub Date: 19.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  HEALTH — 31.DEC.2014

New Tech City

Are Our Screens the Stuff of Nightmares for Good Sleep Patterns? — New research finds that not only are our computers, tablets, and smart phones keeping our brains awake and engaged later and later into the evenings, the emanations from their screens are disrupting healthy sleep patterns, and the impacts are worse than scientists previously suspected.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   14:19

GP comment:  The behavioral problems that lead to bad sleep run the gamut, from what/when we eat and drink to our preference for conscious activities over restorative sleep. The brainwave effects of screens are just one more problem to put on the pile.

Original Show Pub Date: 24.Dec.2014 ~~ Original story title: Screens Really are a Nightmare for Sleep

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 31.DEC.2014

Keiser Report

2014—Year of the Bubbles — Max and Stacy discuss the financial events of 2014 with guest Mitch Feierstein of Planet Ponzi. Topics include ... wealth confiscation via negative interest rates; inflation vs. deflation; the ruble story vs. the yen story vs. the oil story; the diaper generation—those leaders and analysts who are too young to remember the bond crash of the early 1980s and therefore cannot see the bond apocalypse looming before us. Feierstein's predictions for 2015 include QE4, the collapse of GDP, the end of US dollar hegemony, and big moves up in gold and silver prices.
Watch  |  Download/listen   25:04

GP comment:  Negative interest rates are indeed a form of wealth confiscation that people are volunteering for because they recognize that the banksters appear determined to steal whatever planetary wealth isn't already in their coffers. Better to hold on to 99% of your principle and eat some inflation losses than to have the whole amount lost to a bail-in.

Original Show Pub Date: 30.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 30.DEC.2014

Corbett Report

Bail-Ins—Another Global Bankster Coup — Guest Ellen Brown talks with host James Corbett about her article, "The Global Bankers' Coup: Bail-In and the Shadowy Financial Stability Board." Topics include the G20 and their rubber-stamping of the FSB's proposed bail-in rules; what this shadowy body is and how it interlocks with the Bank for International Settlements; and what this means for depositors in the next banking crisis.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   23:13

GP comment:  Two comments: (1) The collapse in oil prices WAS predictable, and the blowback to energy-company stocks and derivatives (and Russia) WAS predictable. In fact, it's pretty obvious that his is just another elite op, and the end game will happen in the financial markets. (2) Brown fails to present credit unions—which are by definition member-owned banks—as a good alternative to the big banks. Perhaps she has a reason, but I'd like to hear it. All that said, this is good listening.

Original Show Pub Date: 23.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  FUN, HISTORY — 30.DEC.2014

Radio Parallax

Tolkien—The Success of Mythic Proportions That Almost Wasn't — Professor Devin Brown discusses his book Tolkien: How an Obscure Oxford Professor Wrote The Hobbit and Became the Most Beloved Author of the Century. Topics include how The Hobbit evolved out of bedtime stories for children; why The Silmarillion failed to interest the publisher even after the success of The Hobbit; the influences of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis on each other's writings and personal philosophies; what Tolkien might have thought of Peter Jackson's movies.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   19:10

GP comment:  Interesting for Tolkien fans.

Original Show Pub Date: 18.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  AGRICULTURE, LABOR ISSUES — 30.DEC.2014

Agroinnovations Podcast

The Farmers Union and the Future of Food — Tom Giessel, honorary historian of the National Farmers Union, talks about the history of the Farmers Union, which was started in the early 20th century by cotton farmers in Texas. Giessel discusses the importance of community organizing and collaboration; the impact of technology on the Farmers Union; and visionary leaders throughout the Union's history. ~~ In Part II, Giessel explains the advantages of small operations unifying under a cooperative structure. He advises listeners to beware of threats to uniform cooperative law, and the further danger of wholesale privatization of cooperative assets. The discussion concludes with a look at the role of commodity groups in the political landscape and the dwindling role of cooperative extension in the face of persistent budget cuts.
Go to page A  |  Download/listen A   38:15
Go to page B  |  Download/listen B   36:59

GP comment:  An important topic, though not the most scintillating of presentations.

Original Show Pub Date: 18.Nov.2014 ~~ Original story titles: History of the Farmer’s Union, The Future of Food and Farming

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL, EMPIRE — 27.DEC.2014

Peak Prosperity

Oil Prices, US-Russia, and the Global Game Of Tetris — In this 2014 wrap-up edition, David Collum and Chris Martenson discuss how energy and fact-free rhetoric have played into the West's maneuvers in Ukraine and against Russia. Other important 2014 trends include the continuing shift of wealth out of the 99% class; the ill health of many state pension funds; routine market manipulation by the bankster class; the shocking size of the ever-expanding credit bubble; how a future false-flag financial event will be used to steal your bank deposits. Collum says we know that the big financial players and their political minions are pathological liars. Our failure as a society is not bothering to prove their crimes... and hang them from the nearest tree.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   59:03

GP comment:  They miss the parallel in how oil price depression was used a generation ago to take down the USSR, but otherwise this is quite good.

Original Show Pub Date: 22.Dec.2014 ~~ Original story title: We're Now Stuck In A Global Game Of Tetris

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL, EMPIRE, SUSTAINABILITY — 27.DEC.2014

KunstlerCast

John Michael Greer's 2014 Review — John Michael Greer comments on how interlocking systems make specific technological tools far more useful—and in some cases, useable at all. He examines the fracking boom as a financial scheme (that will likely blow up big in 2015) and talks about how society is now experiencing the slow breakdown of infrastructure (such as roads) as governments experience chronic cash-flow problems. Greer predicts a continuing slow move towards a highly unequal, totalitarian society that comes to see science as part of the problem because it enables TPTB to control the impoverished populace.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   44:32

GP comment:  Greer's takeaway joke on why he avoids social media: If a potter makes pots, what does Twitter make? Twits!

Original Show Pub Date: 23.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 23.DEC.2014

It's Our Money

Greasing a Collapse—Oil/Gas Industry Debt, Banksters, and Our Crony Government — The recent drop in oil prices may make you feel good at the gas pump, but your dollars at the bank may soon slide right out of your hands to help pay off bankster bets gone bad. Current conditions, circumstances, and collusions suggest possible economic calamity in the not-too-distant future. Ellen Brown speaks with author Michael Snyder, who blogs at “The Coming Economic Collapse,” about the worrying factors, the possible outcomes, and what you should consider doing in the meantime.
Download/listen   57:35

GP comment:  I think the banksters have more control over the system than Snyder gives them credit for, but perfect control is never a sure thing, and he is right to suppose that black swans could be the banksters' undoing. Just remember, though, that "crises" are often manufactured by the banksters. You will know only in hindsight that a crisis was real: If the big banks are still in business after the dust settles, the crisis was likely another con job. The proper metaphor for today's Wall Street is not a casino but rather a rigged numbers game.

Original Show Pub Date: 17.Dec.2014 ~~ Original story title: Greasing a Collapse: Oil Prices and Our Crony Congress

CATEGORY:  SUSTAINABILITY, EMPIRE — 23.DEC.2014

C-Realm Podcast

Pocket Utopias — KMO and author J.P. Harpignies kick the tires on the value of utopian thought and ambition as well as the dangers. KMO and JP agree that the idea of Earth as just the cradle of humanity, a place from which we are meant to leave to establish an interstellar civilization, is a dangerous conceit. Topics include ... the implausibility of deep-space travel by humans; artificial intelligence and cybernetics to extend human lifespans as rather childish goals; eco-villages and "tweaked-up suburbia" as solutions to sustainability; finding the sweet spot between reclusive/epicurean hopelessness and productive activities in the face of overwhelming odds.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   59:54

GP comment:  This is pretty good, though sci-fi fans will appreciate it more.

Original Show Pub Date: 17.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  SPECIES — 23.DEC.2014

NPR

Man's Last-Ditch Effort to Save the Northern White Rhino — A 44-year-old northern white rhino named Angalifu recently died of old age at the San Diego Zoo. Now only five animals remain in this subspecies, all in captivity. Four are females. The lone male lives in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. So it would seem the northern white rhino is doomed to extinction. Poachers are to blame — they've slain thousands of the rhinos to get their horns, which are hawked in Asia as a health tonic. But there may still be a way to bring back this 2-ton creature.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   3:01

GP comment:  The villain in this sad tale is crazy-ass Asians who apparently think nothing of killing an entire animal for one desirable part, all in the name (dubiously) of better longevity and sex.

Original Show Pub Date: 17.Dec.2014 ~~ Original story title: We're Down To 5 Northern White Rhinos: Is It Too Late For Babies?

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 23.DEC.2014

Keiser Report

Shakedown—The Bubonic Plague of Finance — Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the arrival of the "shakedown times" as our deposits and pension funds are now open to confiscation by any Too Big To Fail bank that loses big bets and winds up in "resolution"—something that used to be known as "bankruptcy." ~~ In the second half, Max interviews Karl Denninger about the likely impact of the oil price collapse on credit markets and the rollback of certain Dodd Frank provisions that protected depositors.
Watch  |  Download/listen   25:33

GP comment:  The banksters will not stop, ever, until they have it all—or until they are stopped.

Original Show Pub Date: 18.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  FOOD, HEALTH — 23.DEC.2014

Diet Science

Health Effects of Cinnamon — Cinnamon has been used as medicine since biblical times. Today it is even being studied for possible protection against viruses and diabetes. Dee McCaffrey explores whether small amounts of cinnamon every day can help you be healthier.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   8:20

GP comment:  This report conflates results of studies using high-dose concentrates of cinnamon's essential oils to long-term use of small amounts of cinnamon powder. That's an inappropriate extrapolation. That said, the evidence is strong that cinnamon is a good thing when included in the diet—assuming you tolerate it. My other complaint here is that they do not discuss the different varieties of cinnamon—I know there are at least two—and whether the health effects vary.

Original Show Pub Date: 15.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT — 18.DEC.2014

NPR

New York Moves to Ban Fracking — Officials in New York have announced that the state will ban hydraulic fracturing within its borders. The move follows years of efforts by environmentalists, who cite dangers like earthquakes and potential contamination of New York's renowned pristine water supply.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   3:14

GP comment:  This report is rather superficial but adequately conveys the excellent news that a major state is going to ban this odious practice.

Original Show Pub Date: 18.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL, ENERGY — 18.DEC.2014

KunstlerCast

Chris Martenson on Wall Street Games and Fracking Bombs — Chris Martenson guides us through the swamps of financial lingo so we might all develop a clearer notion of the jargon used in financial sectors of the chatter-sphere. Topics include credit default swaps, derivatives, margin calls, shorting and going long. Martenson also talks about the disinformation that comes out of the Fed; and he explains how the financialization of the fracking-based oil/gas industry could eventually cause a spark that lights off a financial wildfire.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   46:33

GP comment:  A lot of esoteric financial trading techniques are discussed here, but it's important evidence of just how insane the Wall Street games are. If we do not rid ourselves this parasitic "over-layer," we will never solve any of the other problems that plague us.

Original Show Pub Date: 04.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  HEALTH — 18.DEC.2014

One Radio Network

Functional Diagnostic Nutrition for Solving Health Mysteries — Reed Davis talks about his "functional diagnostic nutrition" approach to solving health mysteries. When allopathic doctors fail, this Columbo of health problems steps in and doggedly pursues the solution. Topics include ... things you need to clean up, no matter what problems you're having; getting out of the cycle of ‘trial and error’; choosing a probiotic—the more diverse the friendly flora in the gut, the better; hormones and bone density; the effects of stress on hormones; things to do at home to detoxify daily.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:02:24

GP comment:  Very good. Functional medicine is the only sane approach to chronic health issues.

Original Show Pub Date: 09.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  FUNNY — 18.DEC.2014

Radio Parallax

Classic Comedy Bits — Clip 1 has several classic comedy bits: Abbott and Costello's "Who's On First"; Monty Python's "Argument Clinic"; Tom Lehrer's "Periodic Table"; and a very funny string of jokes from Rodney Dangerfield. With the exception of the lame "Immigrants" bit from National Lampoon Radio Hour, clip 1 is must-listening. ~~ In clip 2, the highlight is George Carlin's unparalleled stream-of-consciousness in "Modern Man," which starts at 2:00. At the other end of the quality spectrum is "Perry Shriner Court Appointed Lawyer," again from National Lampoon Radio Hour, and again lame. But also decent in clip 2 are Stan Freeburg's "Banana Boat Song" bit and Tom Lehrer's acerbic "National Brotherhood Week."
Go to page A  |  Download/listen A   20:56
Go to page B  |  Download/listen B   24:41

GP comment:  "Argument Clinic" is near the top of my Python favs list. And I had forgotten just how brilliant "Who's On First" is.

Original Show Pub Date: 27.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT — 17.DEC.2014

Living on Earth

AGs Driving Environmental Politics at State Level — US Attorneys General are not usually big players in national policy-making, but in recent years that's changed. Democrat AGs have previously teamed with environmental groups to move on issues that were stalled at the national level; now Republican AGs are allying with fossil fuel companies to challenge federal environmental regulations in court. Political scientist Paul Nolette discusses this development.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   13:40

GP comment:  To put this in context, the Republicans are excelling at selling out on environmental issues and the Democrats are excelling at selling out on Wall Street issues. They are Scylla and Charybdis and we are a Greek tragedy.

Original Show Pub Date: 12.Dec.2014 ~~ Original story title: Republican AGs Fight Environmental Regulations

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL, EMPIRE — 17.DEC.2014

Moyers and Company

Democrats Bow Down to Wall Street — Bill Moyers talks to outspoken veteran journalist John R. MacArthur, president and publisher of Harper's Magazine, about the problems with the Obama-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership being negotiated in secret. They also conclude that the Wall Street sellout means working people can no longer count on the Democrats to look out for their interests.
Watch  |  Download/listen   25:25

GP comment:  Just as Republicans are the tool of the oil-industrial-polluter-warfare complex, Democrats are the tool of the Wall Street bankster-parasites. Not that either party really objects to the other's agenda on those terms. Sure—it's fight, fight, fight when it comes to social issues, but when it comes to the bankster-dominated corporatocracy, there is one rule that both parties adhere to without exception: Don't fuck with the money.

Original Show Pub Date: 12.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  AGRICULTURE, CHEMICALS — 17.DEC.2014

Food Sleuth Radio

Pesticides—Beware the Drifter — Attorney Amanda Heyman's job is providing legal counsel for independent farmers and food businesses. Here she discusses the legal aspects of pesticide drift, GMOs, organics, and "natural" labeling.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   28:15

GP comment:  Pesticide drift may sound like a boring technical topic, of limited interest to anyone but farmers. But it affects a wide variety of issues, from air quality for residences around non-organic farms to the integrity of organic foods.

Original Show Pub Date: 20.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT — 16.DEC.2014

Radio EcoShock

Catastrophic Failure of the Planet—Satire or SITREP? — Joseph D'Lacey writes eco-apocalyptic/horror fiction as a way of exploring the way in which the human condition is broken. Here he discusses his fictional post-apocalypse books, which include the Black Dawn series, which extrapolates from our real-life era when corporations are literally sucking the earth dry of its high quality resources; and Meat, where a combination of powerful corporations and organized religion completely control the food supply, with living standards for animal welfare and human rights falling by the wayside. ~~ Then Stanford's Mary Kang explains the data on leaking methane from abandoned gas wells. ~~ A clip from the fictional show "The Newsroom" has an EPA scientist going non-linear, predicting absolute climate doom, with no possibility of escape. Real-life climate scientist Michael Mann gives his take on our climate prospects.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:00:00

GP comment:  Given humans' demonstrated inability to elevate their actions above their parochial interests, I think the "we're screwed" conclusion of the fictional EPA official will prove more likely than the hopium-based "we can still take meaningful action" assertion expressed by Michael Mann. That said, Alex Smith does a nice job at the end mediating the two extremes and adding more scientific—and psychological—context.

Original Show Pub Date: 10.Dec.2014 ~~ Original story title: Eco Horror ... Is "The Newsroom" Climate Doom for Real?

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 15.DEC.2014

CounterSpin

CIA Torture Report Lands with a Dull Thud — Baher Azmy, legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights, discusses the recently released Senate report on CIA torture. Topics include the nature of the torture (worse than has been admitted to by the CIA); the lack of repercussions for those who directed the torture strategy; the US torture activities in light of international treaties; the media response to the report; the general lack of accountability of the CIA to the normal power structures of government.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   9:49

GP comment:  The report on CIA toture is a classic rendition of the "mistakes were made" gambit—criticize past behavior without exacting punishment. What's amazing is the ferocious denunciation of even a no-impact report like this by the pro-torture lunatics and their allies in the mainstream media.

Original Show Pub Date: 12.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  HEALTH — 15.DEC.2014

Fresh Air

Girls Hitting Puberty Earlier, But Why? — Many girls are beginning puberty at an early age, developing breasts and pubic hair sooner than girls of previous generations. Two doctors have written a book called The New Puberty that looks at the percentage of girls who are going through early puberty, the environmental, biological and socioeconomic factors that influence when puberty begins, and whether early puberty is linked with an increased risk of breast cancer. Authors Julianna Deardorff and Louise Greenspan explain.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   35:59

GP comment:  This starts off with an interesting discussion of the science of possible factors in why girls are starting puberty sooner than they used to, but about half-way in it devolves into a generic discussion of parenting topics.

Original Show Pub Date: 02.Dec.2014 ~~ Original story title: How Girls Are Developing Earlier In An Age Of New Puberty

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 15.DEC.2014

Keiser Report

A Debt Meteor is Headed for Planet Earth — Max Keiser explains why negative interest rates are state-sponsored confiscation and how centripetal force is creating the conditions for a financial blow-up. Whereas TPTB think exponential debt growth is a lever with which they can move the economy, Max thinks it's a meteor that will wipe us out. ~~ In the second half, crowdfunding pioneer Simon Dixon of "Bank to the Future" addresses Max's question: Can crowd-funding and crypto-currencies combine with a grassroots movement to rip out the dark heart of the kleptocractic financier class?
Watch  |  Download/listen   25:42

GP comment:  Rip away, please!

Original Show Pub Date: 13.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  HISTORY, INTERNET — 12.DEC.2014

Fresh Air

A Short History of Personal Computers and the Internet — As told by Walter Isaacson, the story of how the digital age came to be involves a cast of more than 40 people, ranging from a 19th century English countess to a WWII codebreaker to California hippies. In his book The Innovators, Isaacson profiles many of those characters, focusing on how their collaborations helped bring us into the digital age.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   38:08

GP comment:  Many familiar names and milestones, but generally well told, with some interesting nooks and crannies.

Original Show Pub Date: 06.Oct.2014 ~~ Original story title: How The Cold War And George Orwell Helped Make The Internet What It Is

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT — 12.DEC.2014

NPR

Sloppy Fracking Practices Result In Large Methane Leaks — Faulty equipment and maintenance procedures in natural gas operations can inadvertently release large quantities of methane, new research reveals. Scientists say most of the problem can be pinned on a relatively small number of "clunker" wells.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   3:19

GP comment:  The report implies that just fixing the low-hanging fruit will eliminate the majority of the methane leaks. That sounds like a "see, things aren't so bad" result, just as one might expect from an industry-funded study. But even if the study's conclusion is correct, and even if the worst of the leaks are fixed, methane is such a potent greenhouse gas that the remainder would still be an issue.

Original Show Pub Date: 09.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 12.DEC.2014

9/11 Wake-Up Call

JFK, the Deep State, and the Darkening Shadow — Author Andrew Kreig talks about the JFK assassination plot as a pivotal point for the shadow government operating in the US—it proved that they could do big things with no consequences.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   29:48

GP comment:  Yes, exactly right. This is why it's the conspiracy refusniks who are the nut-jobs. If the bankster-CIA cabal will kill a president, what won't they do?

Original Show Pub Date: 26.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT, CORPORATIONS — 10.DEC.2014

CounterSpin

30 Years Since Bhopal, Justice May Finally Be Getting Started — It was 30 years ago that a gas leak at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, killed thousands of people and injured tens of thousands more. But if you think of Bhopal as a tragedy from the '80s, you're missing the point: It was a crime and it's far from over. Amitabh Pal of the Progressive talks about the ongoing disaster of Bhopal and the potential progress finally being made to clean up the area and properly compensate victims.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   10:14

GP comment:  It's important to remember that Bhopal was not an unavoidable accident, it was a manifestation of corporate pennypinching on maintenance and upgrades at an industrial facility that handled deadly reagents. It's extremely rare that we put corporate executives or board members on trial for such failures, but that should change. Their personal fortunes are made by reaping the revenue from such operations in good times; their liberty and wealth should be at risk when it goes wrong due to their mismanagement.

Original Show Pub Date: 05.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT, CORPORATIONS — 10.DEC.2014

Democracy Now

The US Role in Illegally Logging Peru's Forests — More than half of Peru is still covered by tropical rainforest—an area the size of Texas—which plays a crucial ecosystem role and is a significant carbon sink. A new report documents how more than 20 US companies have imported millions of dollars in illegal wood from the Peruvian Amazon since 2008. Guest is Julia Urrunaga, Peru programs director for the Environmental Investigation Agency and author of the new report, "The Laundering Machine: How Fraud and Corruption in Peru's Concession System Are Destroying the Future of Its Forests."
Watch  |  Download/listen   6:59

GP comment:  You can see why these logs are coveted—they're huge compared to the re-growth trees available for lumbering in the US. Nonetheless, this is just another example of how most people in the West are fine with not asking too many questions about where wonderful (but illegally sourced) products come from.

Original Show Pub Date: 08.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 10.DEC.2014

Corbett Report

Gladio B and the Battle For Eurasia — Operation Gladio B—the continuation of the old NATO Gladio program—comprises a tangled web of covert operatives, billionaire Imams, drug running, prison breaks, and terror strikes. Its goal: the destabilization of Central Asia and the Caucasus to the advantage of the Western powers, especially the US. In this presentation, James Corbett lifts the lid on Gladio B, discussing the evidence, the key players, and the secret battle for the Eurasian heartland.
Watch  |  Download/listen   50:00

GP comment:  A rather eye-glazing level of detail is necessary to understanding Gladio B, but Corbett does his best to wade through it without getting us lost in the skunkworks.

Original Show Pub Date: 02.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  AGRICULTURE, FOOD, GMOs — 09.DEC.2014

Food Sleuth Radio

The Seed Underground—A Growing Revolution to Save Food — Janisse Ray discusses the threat to seed sovereignty posed by multinationals like Monsanto, which are endeavoring to lock up the food-related profit stream from field to fork by owning the means of production. She explains how activism and seed saving both play a role in the fight.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   28:15

GP comment:  A simple solution would be to pass a constitutional amendment banning patents on life forms. Um, did I say simple?

Original Show Pub Date: 13.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT, CORPORATIONS — 09.DEC.2014

Living on Earth

Coal Baron Indicted in Mine Disaster — In 2010, in one of the deadliest mine accidents in US history, an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Coal mine in West Virginia killed 29 miners. Now Don Blankenship, the CEO of mining company Massey Energy, has been indicted on federal charges, which accuse him of directing company policies that were contrary to mining regulations and laws and that contributed to the disaster. Law professor Patrick McGinley talks about the case.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   6:47

GP comment:  Couldn't have happened to a more bastardy bastard.

Original Show Pub Date: 05.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 09.DEC.2014

It's Our Money

It's Not Nice (for Financial Systems) to Ignore Mother Nature! — Ignoring natural laws and limits puts you at certain peril, even when you’re talking about economies and financial systems. So says Jamie Brown Hansen, an international researcher who studies bio-mimicry to understand how economic sustainability can be derived and adapted from ancient systems of nature. If financial systems (such as capitalism) don’t conform to those laws, they ultimately die.
Download/listen   56:57

GP comment:  Ah, the charming, naive brilliance of the young. The people currently running the financial system don't want it to be stable, efficient, and sustainable. They have fought hard to devise a system of "managed instability" that allows them to profit from both the ups and downs in the seemingly chaotic cycles, which are in fact just meta-manipulations. Don't expect any change in their goals or the system until we take it from them. This point is thankfully addressed here in the excellent epilog by Gwen Halsted of the Public Banking Institute.

Original Show Pub Date: 03.Dec.2014 ~~ Original story title: Better Listen to Your Mother

CATEGORY:  MEDIA — 08.DEC.2014

On The Media

The Con Artists Take the Media — In October 2014, when the news was All Ebola All the Time, you could scarcely avoid the media presence of Sal Pain, the Chief Safety Officer of Bio-Recovery, the company that won the emergency bid from the city of New York to decontaminate the apartment of Dr. Craig Spencer. But BuzzFeed's Investigative Team took a look into Sal Pain's past and discovered he wasn't who he claimed to be. Alex Campbell talks about this and other cases of con artists using the media to help create the illusion of credentials.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   10:43

GP comment:  Yes, the media should better investigate those they give a platform to. But realize that the mainstream media is not there to inform people; they are there to push their buttons. In their world, minor lapses in credibility are unimportant compared to keeping viewers off-balance and engaged.

Original Show Pub Date: 05.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 08.DEC.2014

Peak Prosperity

Dmitry Orlov: Russia's Patience Is Wearing Thin — Having lived in the former USSR before immigrating to the US, Dmitry Orlov has an invaluable perspective on US-Russian geopolitics, as well as the recent wrangling over Ukraine. It's more important than ever to cut through the propaganda to learn what we can about the most feverish geopolitical tensions in recent memory. Topics include ... the amateurishness of Western leadership; attitudes of the masses outside the US; the US leadership facing new rules imposed by reality and the BRICs; as Western anti-Putin propaganda grows, so does Putin's popularity within Russia.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   51:09

GP comment:  Must-listening. Orlov offers a clear-eyed assessment of the game in the Ukraine and the general nonsense the US calls foreign policy.

Original Show Pub Date: 29.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  HISTORY — 08.DEC.2014

Radio Parallax

The JFK Assassination: Cop Inconsistencies and the Oswald Frame — This clip offers numerous tidbits from a recent JFK Assassination symposium, all indicating more troubling inconsistencies in the behavior of police and other officials at and around the scene of the JFK murder. Topics include .... Why rust in barrel of the supposed murder weapon means it was never fired; other ballistics inconsistencies; why the official timeline of the cops hot on the trail of fugitive Oswald does not compute; the oddity of so much background information on Oswald being provided in press releases almost immediately after his arrest.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   14:28

GP comment:  The more evidence like this that we see, the more amazing it is that the conspiracy could have been covered up at the time.

Original Show Pub Date: 20.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  COLLAPSE, HEALTH — 05.DEC.2014

Off-the-Grid News

Could You Survive Without Modern Medicine? — If there were a natural disaster or a grid-down scenario in your area and a family member needed medical attention, would you know what to do? Dr. Joe Alton and his wife Amy Alton—better known as Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy—talk about which techniques we need to know and which supplies we need to keep in stock to stay healthy when help is not on the way. They are the authors of the Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook. Topics include how to get started in putting together a medical kit; whether you should concentrate on natural medicine, traditional medicine, or both; and why you can't trust what the government says when a pandemic hits.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   29:56

GP comment:  Supplies and basic training are a great idea ... though such prepping is easy to put off, I must admit.

Original Show Pub Date: 06.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL, HISTORY — 05.DEC.2014

The Real World of Money

Banksters, Corporations, the CIA, and the Mainstream Media — Andrew Gause's topics this time include... Senator Elizabeth Warren on reinstating Glass Steagall; the deep connections between centralized corporate media, the CIA, and Wall Street banksters; asset-backed Iraqi dinar will never happen; the fascinating story of Continental Bank of Illinois collapse; the origins of the CIA and what they do politically and financially; the three major rules for financial success; the new debt ceiling is $18 trillion bonded debt vs. $87 trillion of unfunded liabilities for US.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:16:55

GP comment:  As usual, Gause offers several excellent insights on how things really work. He is also "sort of correct" on his assertion that if you live debt-free you are not understanding how to use the system to best advantage in the way the elites do. But if you are not an elite who gets inside info, has deep pockets, and employs a team of financial tricksters to help you navigate the currents, then proceed with caution into the Sea of Debt!

Original Show Pub Date: 03.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH — 05.DEC.2014

Sea Change Radio

Tis The Season For A Good Guide — It's that time of year, again: the season of giving ... or at least the season of buying. When you're perusing the shelves, be they virtual or actual, what matters to you? Beyond price, quality, and value, what about knowing how the company that made the product treats its workers, the extent to which production depletes natural resources, and what impact this product has on the environment? Many of us care about these things in the abstract, but it's difficult to put our tenets into practice. If only there were an app. But there is! Dara O'Rourke explains the Good Guide, a website and smart phone app that consumers can use to make informed "green" decisions on what they're buying.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   30:00

GP comment:  Few of us can resist the draw of consumerism, so you might as well ka-ching your purchases in the right direction.

Original Show Pub Date: 02.Dec.2014

CATEGORY:  ENERGY — 04.DEC.2014

Uprising

Michael Klare on Cheap Oil and Geopolitics — With the price of a barrel of crude oil having fallen almost 40 percent compared to its peak in June, filling your gas tank has gotten cheaper. Analyst Michael Klare talks about the impact lower oil prices are having. Topics include the reasons for falling oil prices; the effect on oil producers like Iran, Venezuela, and Russia; the psychology of car buying; boosts to American, Japanese and European economies; Keystone XL; wither peak oil?
Go to page  |  Download/listen   13:18

GP comment:  Yes, we peak oilers were wrong. While we knew the people in charge would be willing to turn the planet into an industrial wasteland to keep the petro-circus going, we didn't realize a majority of the populace would be OK with that. Silly us.

Original Show Pub Date: 03.Dec.2014 ~~ Original story title: What Are Cheaper Oil Prices Really Costing Us?

CATEGORY:  SPECIES, GENETIC ENGINEERING — 04.DEC.2014

Quirks and Quarks

Genetically Modified Chestnuts — A century ago, the American Chestnut was a tremendously important species in the forests of Eastern North America, representing more than a quarter of all forest trees in a swath from Georgia to Ontario. But a fungus introduced on imported Asian chestnut trees turned out to be catastrophic for the American Chestnut, killing billions of trees and essentially wiping out the species by the 1950s. Breeding a blight-resistant tree has proved laborious and difficult, so now a research team has developed a genetically modified American Chestnut that uses a gene from wheat to resist the effects of the fungus. Lead researcher William Powell explains.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   10:08

GP comment:  As GMO applications go, this would seem to be one of the less objectionable ones. But beware anytime a GMO proponent says "this is for the people and for the environment." And Powell's additional assertion that GM technology is more targeted and sensible than standard hybridization is completely specious.

Original Show Pub Date: 22.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT — 03.DEC.2014

Radio EcoShock

The Anthropocene and Techno-Utopia — Environmental journalist Christian Schwagerl discusses some of the concepts of assigning human impact as the dominant force of the current era, now being called "The Anthropocene" by many in scientific circles. Can the planet survive the wave of human modification washing over it? Can WE? ~~ Then we hear excerpts from speeches given by American Green Party founder Charlene Spretnak and author Susan Griffinon on the topic "Techno-Utopianism and the Fate of the Earth."
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:00:00

GP comment:  I once believed in the idea that humanity must be awakened to the dangers of environmental destruction. That's still a worthy goal, but it is a subset of the need to awaken to humanity to the disease of financial parasitism, that we simultaneously are exploited by and are willingly participants in. In the end, the real question is whether the masses are psychologically capable of dealing with either of these problems even if they grasp them.

Original Show Pub Date: 26.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  AGRICULTURE, LABOR ISSUES — 03.DEC.2014

Democracy Now

Food Chains: New Film Tracks How Immokalee Farm Workers Won Fair Wages from Corporate Giants — A new film, Food Chains, documents the groundbreaking partnership between farm workers, Florida tomato farmers, and some of the largest fast-food and grocery chains in the world. Twelve corporations have agreed to join the Fair Food Program, including McDonald’s, Taco Bell and WalMart. Participants agree to pay a premium for the tomatoes in order to support a "penny per pound" bonus that is then paid to the tomato pickers. Soon, the Fair Food label will appear on Florida tomatoes at participating stores. Gerardo Reyes-Chavez, a farm worker and organizer with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, discusses the issue.
Watch  |  Download/listen   9:32

GP comment:  Like all industrial products, modern food corporations do their best to put their "externalities" on the shoulders of others. Farm workers have always gotten more than their share of the unfairness.

Original Show Pub Date: 21.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  HISTORY — 02.DEC.2014

Corbett Report

Films of the New World Order #21 — Tora! Tora! Tora! — Using the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora! as a basis for discussion, investigative author James Perloff and host James Corbett analyze the idea of Pearl Harbor as a false flag event. Topics include ... FDR's insistence that the Pacific Fleet be stationed at Pearl Harbor, despite strong objections from the Navy; the interesting fact that mostly US ships of lesser military value were at Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack; what was known before the attack and who presented it to whom; the smear campaign against the admiral in charge of Pearl Harbor and the attempts to suppress public analysis of what happened there; how the movie paints Pearl Harbor as a tragic accident rather than a devious deception, and the historical revisionist behind that tack.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:06:12

GP comment:  Generally speaking, don't worry about trying to winnow out which things our leaders lie to us about. Just assume they lie about everything, and then we can focus our energies on disrupting the continuum of elite psychopaths rather than arguing about their press releases.

Original Show Pub Date: 14.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  ELITES — 01.DEC.2014

Radio Parallax

Money—Avarice, Politics and Madness — Douglass Everett talks about recent news item that, collectively, show the broken mindset of the elites and the minions that serve them. Topics include ... comments made by Emil Michael, executive at the Uber car-sharing company, suggesting that his team should resort to dirty tactics to protect its image; wealth/poverty trends among the top 0.1% and the bottom 90%; the prices for modern works of art; job growth in the wrong areas; fake drugs for big profits; black loot for white ivory.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   19:43

GP comment:  I usually avoid "news" stories, but Everett does a nice job of stringing these together to show a pattern.

Original Show Pub Date: 20.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT (POLLUTION), SPECIES — 01.DEC.2014

Quirks and Quarks

Lakes Turning to Jelly — The problem of acid rain is often touted as one of the few success stories in controlling pollution, as the industrial emissions that cause it have been cut substantially. But the environmental damage and disruption caused by acid rain still echo in the wilderness. One example discovered is the "jellification" of temperate lakes, where acid rain has reduced calcium content, an essential element for most lake organisms. This has caused some crustaceans at the base of the aquatic food chain—the ones that make their exoskeletons from calcium—to be at a disadvantage, and they're now being displaced by species that have a jelly-like coating. These jelly organisms are inedible to many predators and thus are disruptive to the lakes' ecological balance.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   10:43

GP comment:  And what do geoengineering proponents most often propose to push back global warming? Why, of course, to blast sulfate particles—the most toublesome of the old acid rain pollutants—into the atmosphere.

Original Show Pub Date: 22.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  MUSIC, MEDIA — 01.DEC.2014

NPR

Pandora's New Deal—Different Pay, Different Play — The Internet radio service Pandora made its name by creating personalized stations by having users "like" and "dislike" songs and by tweaking playlists based on the relationships between artists and songs---relationships that have been established through its massive Music Genome Project. But a deal between Pandora and a group of record labels has raised concerns that the company will now start favoring certain songs over others because it can pay a smaller royalty to the musicians behind the favored songs.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   5:15

GP comment:  Payola lives! I personally have never found Pandora very helpful due its simplistic binary rating system. I miss Launchcast!

Original Show Pub Date: 26.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  MUSIC — 26.NOV.2014

A Bowl of Soul

Sing A Happy Song — Tracks include "Sing A Happy Song" by The O'Jays // "Every Day of The Week" by The Students // "So Much Things to Say" by Bob Marley // "Strategy" by Archie Bell and The Drells // plus a few nice R&B Christmas tunes by Lee Rogers, Darlene Love, and Otis Redding.
Download/listen   58:45

GP comment:  Nothing flashy here, but mostly solid.

Original Show Pub Date: 21.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 26.NOV.2014

The Real World of Money

The Inflation Genie Is Out of the Bottle — Andrew Gause explains why the inverted yield curve means that a lot of companies and players are in financial trouble and are trying to borrow furiously to fend off disaster. Meanwhile, the top players (predators) are taking advantage of the weaknesses and are on a buying spree, purchasing all depressed assets and commodities. Gause reviews how the setup for the current harvest started in 2008, explaining who got the Fed-created money, what was done with it then, and what's being done with it now. Other topics this time include ... inflation about to pop; defending yourself against inflation; the Keystone backstory; Baby Boomers continuing to keep their wealth in cash; bail-ins are now official (per the G-20 in Australia this month); ISIS issuing their own gold and silver coin money; Sears' further decline.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   57:49

GP comment:  Remember that when the inflation comes, it's the final phase of the crime. Wall Street banks speculated wildly, reaping vast winnings and getting bailed out on vast losses. Then the Fed made all major financial institutions well again by creating money and parking it in the banks. The final phase is for the printed money to be released, which will unleash inflation, which has the effect of making all us peons pay to fix the imbalance caused by all the money printing, which helped fund the original crime.

Original Show Pub Date: 19.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT — 26.NOV.2014

Radio EcoShock

Healing Green Despair — Todd Wilkinson, author of a new biography of eco-billionaire Ted Turner, talks about Turner's attention to green issues. Is this proof that the wealthy can lead on environmental challenges? ~~ Kathleen Dean Moore comments on green despair, saying we should not wallow in self-loathing or use our own complicity in environmental issues as a reason to excuse the worst offenders—the fossil-fuel companies—when it comes to climate change and other issues. ~~ Writer and owl biologist Tim Fox sees humans as an unstoppable flood. Species that have been able to adapt have prospered; most have not.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:00:00

GP comment:  Working on environmental issues without solving the problem of the central banking-corporate-warfare complex will only get us so far. We've back-slid since the major green successes of the 1970s. Is it coincidental that the central banking-corporate-warfare complex has grown much more powerful in that same timespan?

Original Show Pub Date: 19.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  INTERNET — 24.NOV.2014

New Tech City

What Reading on Screens Does to Our Brains — Paper or screen? There's a battle in your brain. The more you read on screens, the more your brain adapts to the "non-linear" kind of reading we do on computers and phones. Your eyes dart around, you stop half way through a paragraph to check a link or a read a text message. Then, when you go back to good old fashioned paper, it can be harder to concentrate—unless you can develop your 'bi-literate' brain.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   24:00

GP comment:  The screen itself is only part of the problem, and the terse format of web content is only part of the problem. We are, in general, HUGELY distracted in life, and that degrades any function that requires concentration.

Original Show Pub Date: 17.Sep.2014

CATEGORY:  HEALTH, EMPIRE — 24.NOV.2014

Radio Parallax

The Psychopath Inside — When UC Irvine neuroscientist James Fallon was studying the brain scans of known psychopaths alongside the brain scan of a "normal" control—himself—he discovered something fascinating and troubling: the scans showed that he too had the brain structure of a psychopath. This forced Fallon to reevaluate what psychopathy means, both in clinical terms and in practical terms. He talks about his odyssey and the conclusions it led him to.
Go to page A  |  Download/listen A   25:13
Go to page B  |  Download/listen B   22:56

GP comment:  This is insightful and entertaining. I do disagree, though, with one of Fallon's conclusions: He says we need "good psychopaths" as enforcers against the "bad psychopaths." I say, if the psychopathic subset of humans were to disappear altogether, I am quite sure this would be a happier planet.

Original Show Pub Date: 06.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT — 22.NOV.2014

CounterSpin

US/China Climate Deal—Not Built to Last — The White House's climate emissions deal with China has been praised throughout the media as a big step in the right direction. One liberal columnist told readers not to listen to the "yes but" naysayers. But critics of the deal are worth listening to; for one, Daphne Wysham of the Center for Sustainable Economy, who says the goals are timid, the timing is suspect, and the enforcement mechanism is weak.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   9:30

GP comment:  Understand that the hoopla from the corporate media is designed to put the public at ease because "now something is being done." And this may indeed be an improvement on business as usual, at least from the standpoint of general air pollution. But that's not the same as true progress on climate change, so in the end, this is a lot of noise about what will largely turn out to be a stalling tactic.

Original Show Pub Date: 21.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE, MEDIA — 22.NOV.2014

On The Media

A Conversation with George Takei — George Takei has taken his fame as Mr. Sulu on Star Trek and used it as a platform from which to speak about important social issues, including marriage equality and redressment for Japanese-American internment during WWII, which he personally experienced. Here he talks about his personal odyssey, the issues, and the fun he's having in his new late-life career as a social-media darling.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   16:35

GP comment:  Solid guy, fun interview.

Original Show Pub Date: 21.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT — 21.NOV.2014

Sea Change Radio

Digging Deep with Paul Hawken — Paul Hawken is an environmental thought-leader, author, and perhaps best known as the co-founder of the high-end gardening supply chain Smith & Hawken. Hawken talks about the challenge of taking society to the next quantum level in the face of political factionalism and environmental immaturity. Topics include corporate social responsibility; the evolution of the open-source-economy and sharing-economy movements; and how communication technology has transformed global human interaction, holding promise for future green activism.
Go to page A  |  Download/listen A   30:00
Go to page B  |  Download/listen B   30:00

GP comment:  Hawken vacillates between keen insight and delusional hopium. In the end, his conclusion that we need to try hard but also just live in awe of the spectacle is quite apt.

Original Show Pub Date: 11.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE, MEDIA — 21.NOV.2014

Democracy Now

No Debate—Antiwar Voices Absent from Corporate TV News Ahead of U.S. Attacks on Iraq and Syria — An analysis of corporate TV news has found that the public was given almost no debate about whether the United States should go to war in Iraq and Syria. The group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting found that of the more than 200 guests, just six voiced opposition to military action. On the high-profile Sunday talk shows, out of 89 guests, there was just one antiwar voice—Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation. Peter Hart of FAIR discusses the issue.
Watch  |  Download/listen   4:00

GP comment:  Controlling the message is not a new concept, it's just that it has never been done so seamlessly or completely. We are not quite in Orwell's world of 1984 yet, but we are getting there.

Original Show Pub Date: 18.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT — 20.NOV.2014

Radio EcoShock

Stolen Future, Broken Present — David Collings discusses the epochal environmental crisis that is unfolding. Climate change is a centerpiece, but this is a many-faceted problem with no easy solutions. Overcoming the psychology that fathered the problem may not be possible, but it's still worth trying. ~~ Then Martin Persson explains how tropical deforestation is still stripping the planet—to provide products for us, the consumers in rich countries. ~~ Finally, Olli Tammilehto asks whether we can we survive a system that rewards the rich with a license to commit ecocide?
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:00:00

GP comment:  Yep, the problem is one that is internal to the human makeup. It is indeed important that we keep trying to minimize the damage—it will make life more pleasant for longer. But we should always make the basis for discussion facts, not hopium.

Original Show Pub Date: 12.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 20.NOV.2014

Guns and Butter

Voting Machines—Computerized Election Theft — Jonathan Simon explains how Republicans have engaged in vote rigging via electronic voting machines over the last 10 years. Exit polls consistently disagree with election results, and Republicans are winning close races at a much higher rate than statistical probability would allow.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   59:50

GP comment:  Though some important issues are raised, this clip is mostly red meat for blue voters. Election theft started long before electronic voting machines, and while the Republicans may indeed currently have the upper hand in the legerdemain, the Democrats are not without their corrupt ways. Among other things, they sold their soul when they colluded with Republicans to change election rules in a way that de facto excludes valid third-party candidates from the process, ensuring the Democrat-Republican duopoly. And now, as their partner in crimes against democracy executes a doublecross to gain even more advantage, the Democrats cry foul. What nonsense. Any US citizen who still hopes that this mess can be fixed at the ballot box—or that it's "that other party" that is causing all the problems—is not paying attention.

Original Show Pub Date: 12.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 19.NOV.2014

Global Research News Hour

Dismantling the Pro-War Cult—The Myth of the Soldier as Guarantor of Freedom — The myth of the soldier as the guarantor of a nation's security and freedom has become widespread and reinforced in the imaginations of citizens, particularly in America. Unthinking devotion to all things military has largely trumped public concern over the idea of war as an end unto itself or the effect war has on global stability or the amorality of US involvement in particular conflicts . Two US veterans, Stan Goff and Joshua Key , discuss the problem.
Download/listen   59:30

GP comment:  "He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame // His orders come from far away no more // They come from here and there and you and me // And brothers can't you see // This is not the way we put the end to war." -- Donovan, "Universal Soldier"

Original Show Pub Date: 17.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  HEALTH — 19.NOV.2014

One Radio Network

Insights on Hormones, HCG and Getting Back to Good Health — Dr. Jonathan Wright is a "medical detective" who has perused over 50,000 research papers about hormones and other body systems; diet, vitamins, and minerals; botanicals, and other natural substances designed to heal. He specializes in non-drug treatments for chronic health problems. Topics in this show include .... the history of bioidentical hormone use; why many may have gluten issues even though they don't feel it; how HCG can regenerate the nervous system and hormones; uterine fibroid issues; free testosterone and free estrogen; medical uses of lithium at low dose; the osteoporosis-diabetes connection; why compounding pharmacies are endangered.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   59:03

GP comment:  This is a firehose of information. Each individual's ears will find the things that may be relevant to him or her, so put on your slicker and listen up.

Original Show Pub Date: 13.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  HISTORY — 18.NOV.2014

On The Media

Hoover's FBI, the King Suicide Letter, and War on Subversives — The attempts by late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to discredit Martin Luther King Jr. were an ugly and well-documented chapter in American history. Perhaps the most monstrous example was the so-called "suicide letter," which threatened to expose King's sexual activities to the world unless he did "the one thing left" to escape shame. Yale Professor Beverly Gage discusses a recently discovered redaction-free version of the letter. ~~ In 1981, student journalist Seth Rosenfeld began researching the FBI's misconduct in its investigations of 1960s student protests at UC Berkeley. The project blossomed into a 30-year investigative odyssey, resulting in the release of 300,000 FBI documents, which the government spent over $1 million trying to block. Bob talks to Rosenfeld about some of the stunning revelations from his new book, Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power.
Go to page A  |  Download/listen A   8:16
Go to page B  |  Download/listen B   7:51

GP comment:  Rosenfeld states that the FBI is more accountable today. Sure, because many of the heart-of-darkness operations have been migrated to other agencies, known and unknown.

Original Show Pub Date: 14.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE, ENVIRONMENT (CLIMATE) — 18.NOV.2014

Making Contact

This Changes Everything (Or Not) — Naomi Klein argues that while it's too late to stop climate change, we can still take action to save our civilization. But it’s going to take radical steps that will transform the way humans interact with the world. Klein offers her vision of how we can foster a global movement to counter climate change.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   30:00

GP comment:  This is worth listening to because Klein does correctly identify several culprits in the current ecocidal ruling system—the financier class, excessive military spending, corporate hegemony, and the fossil-fuel-friendly political system—as barriers to doing anything real about climate change. But she's got it backwards: The climate crisis is not the threat that will unite people against those elite forces. Instead, uniting the masses to take back power from the elites and reestablish a fair economic system should be the stated political goal. That is Job 1, and trying to superimpose a divisive issue like climate on top of it is brainless.

Original Show Pub Date: 29.Oct.2014

CATEGORY:  FOOD, AGRICULTURE — 17.NOV.2014

Quirks and Quarks

Chicken Big — Chickens raised for meat have quadrupled in weight since the 1950's, thanks to selective breeding. The meatier chickens are also being produced with much less feed, which makes the process of raising and marketing chicken more cost efficient. Martin Zuidhof, Associate Professor of Poultry Systems at the University of Alberta, explains how we got here.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   9:29

GP comment:  This is not a bad thing, but it says nothing about animal welfare in the industry, which is generally appalling.

Original Show Pub Date: 08.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 17.NOV.2014

The Keiser Report

Whistleblower Alayne Fleischmann—JP Morgan's Worst Nightmare — Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the trend in some parts of the world where people are showing just how sick they are of a corrupt elite that holds itself above the law. They also look at the headlines of students in India who believe in the right to cheat, and at innocent people in America who plead guilty to crimes they didn't commit. ~~ In the second half Max interviews Alayne Fleischmann, a JP Morgan whistleblower. They talk about fraud in the mortgage backed securities business, the statute of limitations on wire fraud, and what exactly it is that Jamie Dimon wants.
Watch  |  Download/listen   25:35

GP comment:  As long as the fines—regardless of whether they are "huge" and "record-breaking"—are less than the profit made from the illegal activities, the banksters will continue acting according to the dictum "crime pays."

Original Show Pub Date: 13.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 15.NOV.2014

The Real World of Money

Big Banks Pay Big Fines But Grab Bigger Piles of Loot — Andrew Gause's topics include.... an analysis of large fines for big banks engaged in currency trading scams; commodity prices have remained stable but the dollar has lost value relative to them; more evidence of gold and silver price fixing worldwide; Obama signs a global warming deal that puts dubious science over the health of the US economy; how the banksters may push back against Russia's new SWIFT system; why wouldn't one buy silver at just $15 an ounce?
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:01:19

GP comment:  It's surprising that a smart guy like Gause, who has a very clear vision of reality when it comes to the way the Ponzi money system works, doesn't seem to grasp that the science of global warming can be correct at the same time the proposed solutions are a scam. Anyway, pay attention to him on monetary issues; ignore him on climate science.

Original Show Pub Date: 12.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  COLLAPSE — 15.NOV.2014

On The Media

Steeling Ourselves Against the End of the World — In 1859, a solar storm threw an electromagnetic pulse at Earth so strong, it fried the telegraph system. A whole lot more is on the line now. Rocky Rawlins of the Survivor Library talks about his efforts to make sure we are prepared for getting zapped back to a time before computers and an electric grid. ~~ There are many civilization killing events that can happen other than an EMP. A killer asteroid, for instance. The Last Policeman trilogy imagines what we would all do if we knew the world would end in six months. Author Ben Winters explains.
Go to page A  |  Download/listen A   7:32
Go to page B  |  Download/listen B   11:49

GP comment:  It's insane that the US does not harden the grid. The cost would be about 2% of one year's federal budget.

Original Show Pub Date: 14.Nov.2014 ~~ Original Story Titles: Survivor Library, A Trilogy About the End of the World

CATEGORY:  INTERNET — 15.NOV.2014

Uprising

Obama Presses FCC on Net Neutrality — President Obama has called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to protect the internet as a free and open communications platform by applying an already-existing regulatory classification. FCC chairman Tom Wheeler had previously proposed a set of rules, yet to be voted on, that would create a two-tier system where companies who can afford to pay extra get faster service, leaving non-payers in the slow lane. Craig Aaron of Free Press comments on the coming battle.
Go to page A  |  Download/listen A   18:00

GP comment:  I doubt it will be much of a battle. What Obama SAYS always sounds great; what he actually makes happen rarely is great. In this case, he has already telegraphed the out that will let him say one thing and do another: "the FCC is an independent agency." Well, he's the f'ing president, and on this particular issue, if he really wanted it to happen, I think he could make it happen without blockage FROM HIS OWN APPOINTEE.

Original Show Pub Date: 11.Nov.2014 ~~ Original Story Title: Obama Pleasantly Surprises Progressives (For Once), On Net Neutrality

CATEGORY:  ENERGY, PEAK OIL — 14.NOV.2014

C-Realm Podcast

Economists on Oil—Hubris and Substitution — Richard Heinberg offers a good refresher on the basics of peak oil in light of recent trends in petroleum production, particularly the boom in the US. He also discusses the delusions that economists engage in when it comes to matters that are more governed by physics than finance, such as energy and the climate. In particular, he responds to Paul Krugman's recent piece on "climate despair," which claimed that anti-environmentalist right-wingers and anti-capitalist environmentalists are both wrong to think that the world can't have economic growth without increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Heinberg says Krugman either misunderstands or misrepresents the very reports that he cited to support his argument.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:00:00

GP comment:  Alas, Paul Krugman was the last best hope that mainstream economists had just one individual among them who was not an idiot.

Original Show Pub Date: 22.Oct.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE, ENVIRONMENT — 14.NOV.2014

Nature Bats Last

Higher Learning, Higher Debt, and The System — Guy McPherson talks to Karl Klein. Topics include....the inadequacies of IPCC climate reports; illegal asset forfeiture at the hands of local cops; the problem of limitations of rare-earth metals. Much of the conversation centers on how our higher-learning institutions are not training our students correctly at the same time they foster high levels of post-graduation indebtedness. McPherson contrasts his decision to leave academia with Klein's decision to stay within the system.
Download/listen   1:01:57

GP comment:  A decent general discussion

Original Show Pub Date: 04.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 14.NOV.2014

New Tech City

Robots at War — Can replacing human soldiers with robot warriors save lives and make war more humane? The consensus seems to be that the laws of war are not written in computer code, and modern warfare is not ready for killer robots that "decide" without human input.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   25:01

GP comment:  Let's remember that humans already sometimes act inappropriately on kill decisions. And yes, everyone go watch the Terminator movies again.

Original Show Pub Date: 01.Oct.2014

CATEGORY:  AGRICULTURE — 14.NOV.2014

Radio EcoShock

Dealing with Salination in Modern Irrigation Agriculture — Accumulation of salt in soil is a problem that has plagued irrigation agriculture for millennia—and still does today. It's happening all over the world, from Australia's Murray Darling Basin, to America's San Joaquin Valley, to the Indus valley in Pakistan and India. Every day, the world is losing 2,000 hectares—almost 5,000 acres— of valuable farm soil to salt damage because of inept irrigation practices. Manzoor Qadir explains the problem, and the solution.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   15:28

GP comment:  Just as net energy declines as energy exploiters pursue ever-lower-quality resources, so too does "net agriculture" become a problem as we try to grow in soil that is ever-more depleted of nutrients and inundated with salt and pollutants.

Original Show Pub Date: 05.Nov.2014 ~~ Original Story Title: Losing Farm Land the Size of France, Due to Faulty Irrigation

CATEGORY:  ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT (COAL, CLIMATE) — 12.NOV.2014

Radio EcoShock

India's Mega-Coal Plants — Targeted for 4,000 megawatts, the Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) in India is ten times the size of the average coal power plant in the United States. Worse still, we find ourselves in an Orwellian world, where a mega coal plant in India is classified as "environmentally friendly technology"; where electricity customers in Europe can buy credits from a coal plant as a "clean development mechanism"; and where hundreds of millions of US taxpayer dollars help build a dirty coal project. Nicole Ghio of Sierra Club International explains.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   21:55

GP comment:  The project in India is just another example of our collective inability to sacrifice power demand for carbon reductions. It's just not going to happen. Alex Smith plays a brief sidebar at the end of this interview that sums it up perfectly. Listen, and awaken to climate reality.

Original Show Pub Date: 05.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 12.NOV.2014

Time Monk Radio Network

No Struggle, No Progress — Former Blank Panther Larry Pinkney talks about the need for continued struggle against the oppressing elites. The fight, he says, is not one of race or similar characteristic—but rather a challenge of critical thinking so that we may correctly perceive the web of deception, understand the oppressors' tactics, and find common ground with the many who are jointly used and abuse by the elites.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:37:34

GP comment:  Pinkney has the creds to talk this stuff. He's not an overly polished orator, but that seems to give his words more force.

Original Show Pub Date: 07.Oct.2014

CATEGORY:  ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT — 11.NOV.2014

Radio Ecoshock

A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030 — Super-scientist Mark Jacobson from Stanford explains the warming/cooling nuances of soot pollution in the atmosphere. Then he reviews the math on how available technologies can have the world well on the way to running on clean energy by 2030.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   20:00

GP comment:  I found Jacobson's attempts to clarify the effects of various types of particulate pollution on warming and cooling to be rather confused. But his rapid-fire solution list for a clean-energy transition is well worth hearing.

Original Show Pub Date: 05.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  HISTORY — 11.NOV.2014

Radio Parallax

Kennedy Assassination: Two Shots from Different Directions — Josiah Thompson discusses his groundbreaking research on the Zapruder JFK-assassination film. Topics include evidence for two shots from different directions; acoustics evidence; the importance of the on-the-scene observations of grassy knoll witness S.M. Holland and others.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   24:34

GP comment:  Anyone who still thinks Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated JFK is just not paying attention.

Original Show Pub Date: 02.Oct.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT — 10.NOV.2014

Living on Earth

Green Issues in the 2014 Election — Steve Curwood and guests review how environmental candidates and issues fared in the recent US election. Other stories in this show are .... Arsenic Released in Frackwater Spills // Fingerprinting Frackwater // Hyundai and Kia Fined for Misreporting MPG and Greenhouse Gas Emissions // Restoring California’s Giant Kelp Forests // Uprooting an Invasive Ribbon Grass on the Metolius River.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   51:30

GP comment:  Don't expect politicians to lead on green issues. You may be able to drag them to the water, but you'll probably have to throw them in before they drink ... or even think about doing the right thing on keeping our environment clean and adopting a forward-thinking energy policy.

Original Show Pub Date: 07.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 10.NOV.2014

Making Contact

Iraq, Islamic State, Kurdistan, and the Continuing War for Oil — More than a decade after the start of the second Gulf War, the United States has embarked on a bombing campaign targeting Islamic State forces inside Iraq and Syria. But the reasons for the new war keep shifting, from protecting ethnic and religious minorities, to preventing terrorist attacks on the US. As independent producer Reese Erlich reports from Northern Iraq, this latest conflict—and the future of the region—is tightly connected to the oil industry and international politics.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   28:57

GP comment:  What a confused mess over there. It's no wonder most of us Americans tune it out. Still, without the oil under those embattled lands, the continuing US presence would not be what it is.

Original Show Pub Date: 05.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE, ENVIRONMENT — 10.NOV.2014

Radio EcoShock

Solving the Problem of Ecocidal Capitalism — Frank Rotering is quite sure that capitalism is killing the planet. In the past, he has advocated a voluntary shrinkage of the industrial economy as a way to reduce pollution and resource pressures and let the planet come back into balance. But he now realizes that few are willing to join that quest, so he has a new strategy based on converting true conservatives of the capitalist class to a non-ecocidal posture.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   27:39

GP comment:  Rotering is an excellent logician, but he seems blind to the emotional traps that keep people locked into unhelpful mindsets. And don't look to the elites—from either side—to take down the system that made them. The only possible solution I see is a public education campaign that carefully distinguishes a market-based economy from a capitalist economy. Capitalists must be separated from entrepreneurs. The latter must be heralded and promoted; the former must be excoriated and squashed for being the financial parasites that they are.

Original Show Pub Date: 22.Oct.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT (CLIMATE) — 07.NOV.2014

Living on Earth

How Can Harsher Winters Be Related to Arctic Sea Ice Loss? — A new study published in Nature Geoscience found that the likelihood of unusually cold winters in parts of Eurasia doubles as the Arctic warms and sea ice declines. Rutgers University climate researcher Jennifer Francis explains how loss of Arctic sea ice can lead to harsher winters in some regions at the same time it causes warming-related phenomena such as drought or increased heavy rainfall events in other regions.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   8:47

GP comment:  Francis slips in an important fact: Arctic ice melt is in an unstoppable feedback loop. Of course, she then also softballs it at the end by saying we're in trouble if we can't figure out how to reduce greenhouse gases. She should have just stopped at the word "trouble."

Original Show Pub Date: 31.Oct.2014

CATEGORY:  FINANCIAL — 07.NOV.2014

The Keiser Report

Crash, Boom, Pop! — Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the psycho-banker murderers and how that act extends to the larger banking community. Then Max interviews Professor Steve Keen and artist Miguel Guerra about their new crowdfunded graphic novel series Crash, Boom, Pop!, where essential economic principles will be fun to learn. They also discuss the metaphorical godzilla in Japanese central banking that is consuming any debt the population throws at it and where this might lead for the final global debt showdown.
Watch  |  Download/listen   25:00

GP comment:  Most banksters are not murderers in the direct sense, but make no mistake—their actions do result in deaths.

Original Show Pub Date: 04.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE, FINANCIAL — 07.NOV.2014

It's Our Money

Meet the Enemy—The Global Banking Cartel — From a surplus in 1974 to paying $1.1 trillion dollars today to borrow the same money it used to print for free, Canada, like most Western nations, is now controlled by and indebted to the global banking cartel. Paul Hellyer, a former Canadian defense minister, describes a harsh reality: a small number of oligarchic elites are well along in their goal of taking complete control of all economies. Hellyer discusses the increasing threat facing democratic institutions in the age of global finance.
Download/listen   58:04

GP comment:  Hellyer is generally correct in his framing of the problem, though he's a little to quick to believe every little "dark truth" he comes across. (For example, he recounts the story of President Clinton telling a reporter that there is a government within the government that he did not control. An accurate framing, but it's highly unlikely that Clinton actually said it.)

Original Show Pub Date: 05.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 07.NOV.2014

Corbett Report

Ottawa Shooting Generates Push for Larger Security State in Canada — Dan Dicks of PressForTruth.ca talks about the recent shooting in Canadian Parliament. He critiques the government’s eagerness to label this a terrorist act to help justify new “anti-terror” legislation, as well as the Canadian public’s general buy-in to this propaganda. Dicks also acknowledges the difficulty of investigating the machinations of government as they pertain to events like this.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   19:39

GP comment:  This is not "the Canadian 9/11," but Canadian Big Brother enthusiasts are not missing the opportunity to advance their agenda.

Original Show Pub Date: 06.Nov.2014 ~~ Original story title: Dan Dicks on The Ottawa Shooting

CATEGORY:  AGRICULTURE, FOOD, ORGANICS — 07.NOV.2014

Food Chain Radio

Feeding the Billions — As we head to ever-higher population levels, some say only industrial agriculture can feed the masses; others say only sustainable agriculture can get it done in the long run. Guests are John Kempf of Advancing Eco Agriculture and Mischa Popoff of the Heartland Institute. Topics include the divergent courses of ecological and industrial agricultures; whether government should encourage the development of one form of agriculture at the expense of the other; and the battle over the organic standard and small-farmers' rights.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   43:30

GP comment:  Popoff disses organic advocates for shunning genetic engineering and sewage sludge. Really?? There are very good reasons that those two things are not allowed in organic practice. And to praise Bill Clinton's failed effort to promote their inclusion only proves that Clinton was 100% corporatist and no friend of sustainability.

Original Show Pub Date: 25.Oct.2014

CATEGORY:  AGRICULTURE, FINANCIAL — 06.NOV.2014

Post Carbon Institute

Delicious Development—The Powerful Role of Local Food in Job Creation — Michael Shuman, author of Local Dollars, Local Sense, makes the case that local food enterprises are a great way to get the "local economy" ball rolling in any community. He offers numerous examples of successes and explains some of the creative ways people got it done.
Watch  |  Download/listen   27:21

GP comment:  If you want to not only fight TPTB but also make a difference in your community, here's how.

Original Show Pub Date: 02.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  ENERGY, RESILIENCE — 06.NOV.2014

Sierra Club Radio

Off the Grid—And Loving It — Nick Rosen discovered the benefits of living "off the grid" almost by accident. He has since become an advocate for distributed energy and self-sufficiency—and all the other benefits (both personal and ecological) of living without central utility services.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   12:10

GP comment:  Good thoughts here, though many of these concepts can be beneficial without completely cutting one's ties to the grid.

Original Show Pub Date: 18.Oct.2014

CATEGORY:  SUSTAINABILITY, EMPIRE — 06.NOV.2014

C-Realm Podcast

The Great Grab — KMO recently attended the "Techno-Utopianism and the Fate of the Earth" teach-in, where he met and recorded conversations with Anuradha Mittal of the Oakland Institute and Helena Norberg-Hodge of Local Futures/International Society for Ecology and Culture. Mittal explains how agricultural corporations are pulling off an enormous land-grab in Africa and Asia, with the support of the World Bank, and all the time fallaciously portraying their actions in terms sustainable practices and local wealth enhancement. Norberg-Hodge takes on the idea that humans are so selfish and short-sighted that they deserve to go extinct. This attitude plays into the hands of transnational corporations, who are more than happy to see the blame for climate change, inequality, and injustice fall on individual actors and not to the policies that create a marketplace that favors short-term profits over long-term responsibility.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   59:54

GP comment:  I think there is ample evidence that human beings, collectively, DO suck. While most individuals exhibit fine characteristics, we are individually and collectively ignorant and/or delusional about how the planet's environmental and political systems really work. The ruling corporate/elite power structure does indeed deserve much blame for reinforcing the delusions, but a study of history shows clearly that the elites and their ruled, easily manipulated masses have been a co-problem for a long time.

Original Show Pub Date: 29.Oct.2014

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 06.NOV.2014

Democracy Now

Is Filming a Police Officer a "Domestic Threat"? — After years of litigation and, recently, four days of proceedings, Antonio Buehler was found not guilty of "failure to obey a lawful order," which he was charged with after filming two officers arresting a woman. Buehler says he was at a gas station in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day in 2012 when he used his phone to take pictures of a woman being arrested and crying out for help. Buehler’s attempt to document what he felt was apparent police abuse ended with his own arrest. Buehler discusses the case, the broader issues, and the group he has co-founded, Peaceful Streets Project, whose members record police and post the videos online, and train others to do the same.
Watch  |  Download/listen   9:45

GP comment:  Cops are often faced with tough tasks, but honorable behavior should not fear the light of public viewing.

Original Show Pub Date: 29.Oct.2014

CATEGORY:  PRIVACY — 04.NOV.2014

On The Media

The Unseen World of Content Moderation — Even though there is a lot of "offensive" content on the internet, mainstream search sites like Google rarely present any of it in search results. That's because they employ moderators to filter out content like beheading videos, pornography, animal torture, illegal solicitation, and all manner of the unimaginable and unspeakable.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   7:04

GP comment:  It's fine that search sites offer filtering, but they should also offer the option of getting your results unfiltered. It is not a very big step from suppressing off-putting content to suppressing political/activist content.

Original Show Pub Date: 31.Oct.2014

CATEGORY:  ENVIRONMENT (CHEMICALS) — 04.NOV.2014

Living on Earth

Green Groups Sue EPA Over Agent Orange-Related Herbicide — A coalition of environmental groups and farmers is suing the EPA over approval of Dow Chemical’s new GMO crop herbicide, Enlist Duo, a combination of glyphosate and 2,4-D, one of two active ingredients in the notorious Vietnam-era defoliant Agent Orange. The lawsuit alleges inadequate environmental and health assessments by the agency. Bill Freese of the Center for Food Safety discusses the suit and the effects the herbicide is likely to have on weed resistance and pollinators.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   8:35

GP comment:  This case has gotten a lot of press, but the entire pesticide regime is out of control, as a walk down the pesticide aisle in the gardening section of a big-box store will tell you.

Original Show Pub Date: 31.Oct.2014 ~~ Original story title: Agent Orange-Related Herbicide Approved for GMO Crops; EPA Sued

CATEGORY:  INTERNET — 04.NOV.2014

New Tech City / On the Media

The Other Ed Snowdens—Inside the Mind of Two Privacy Whistleblowers — NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was not the only technologist to have defied the government's secrecy mandates. Ladar Levison and William Binney each paid the price for taking a moral stand against the US government, and your digital privacy is better for it.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   10:52

GP comment:  It's good that Binney and others have faith that one day the sleeping, spied-upon masses will finally rise up against domestic surveillance, but I suspect that our addiction to online benefits will trump our willingness to truly do anything about Big Brother.

Original Show Pub Date: 29.Oct.2014

CATEGORY:  GARDENING — 04.NOV.2014

You Bet Your Garden

Turn Fall Leaves into Black Gold — Mike McGrath's topics include .... the harmless but menacing cicada killer; the top strategies for repelling deer; the environmental and psychological effects of urban trees; getting fruit (or not) from a northern avocado plant; why raised-bed gardeners may want a machete; which leaves make the best compost, why you should avoid black walnut leaves, and what else you want to put in there with the leaves.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   52:58

GP comment:  If your city has vacuum/shredder trucks for fall leaves, find out if you can get some delivered or whether you're allowed to load some in your truck at a depot. That's a great free resource if you can nab it.

Original Show Pub Date: 01.Nov.2014

CATEGORY:  NUCLEAR — 02.NOV.2014

Radio EcoShock

Want to Kill Nuclear? Get Solar — Arnie Gundersen updates us on Fukushima-related issues as well as the cozy relationship between the US Nuclear Regulatory Agency and the nuclear power industry, with safety and sensibility being routinely sacrified. Gundersen also says that those who want to hasten the demise of nuclear power should install solar panels, which produce their power during peak-load times. Peak-load times are the only times nuclear power plants make money. Deprive them of that, and (maybe) they will be driven to closure by poor economics.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   37:04

GP comment:  Gundersen mentions solar electric explicitly as a weapon in the fight against nuclear, but solar hot water is also a great technology and is cost effective for homeowners over the lifespan of the system.

Original Show Pub Date: 29.Oct.2014

CATEGORY:  SUSTAINABILITY — 02.NOV.2014

ExtraEnvironmentalist

Degrowth, You, and Your Id — The degrowth movement advocates sustainability via adoption of strategies like voluntary simplicity and convivial activities and through creation of an economic system that is compatible with the biosphere. Here, Hartmut Rosa offers his ideas for subverting the motivations in our own lives which replicate the logic of unsustainable growth.
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:09:26

GP comment:  Just as with Heinberg's Powerdown proposal, Degrowth is a tough sell. But Rosa is quite witty, and this is worth a listen.

Original Show Pub Date: 28.Sep.2014 ~~ Original title: Degrowth 2014 // Part A

CATEGORY:  EMPIRE — 02.NOV.2014

Corbett Report

Exactly How Many Trillions Did the Pentagon Lose? — In this episode of the Questions for Corbett series, analyst James Corbett tackles listener questions, including: Do drills by military, police, and other agencies presage troubling events ahead? With reports of missing funds at the Defense Department quoting different numbers in the trillions, just exactly how much money has been lost down the hole in the middle of the Pentagon? Did Prescott Bush agree to sacrifice his personal goals for assurances that his son (and later, his grandson, too) would be president? More...
Go to page  |  Download/listen   1:03:10

GP comment:  Mostly good analysis. I actually think Corbett is wrong about whether TPTB like inside jokes when they pull their strings. The Anthony Weiner episode must have had them ROTFL when they came up with it.

Original Show Pub Date: 28.Oct.2014