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The ruling FOG (Forces of Greed) spin news stories in their favor and keep the masses distracted with celebrity gossip and reality shows. Each week on Clearing The Fog, host Margaret Flowers* features guests who are working to expose the truth and offer real solutions to the current crises faced by our nation and the world. Knowledge is power, and with this knowledge you will be empowered to act to shift power to the people and weaken the corporate stranglehold on our lives. This podcast is brought to you each week without advertising.

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*Clearing the FOG was founded by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese in 2012 on We Act Radio. Kevin died in 2020.

Emergency – All in to Save Internet Freedom!

On Monday, May 5 at 11 am ET we will discuss the FCC’s plan to eliminate net neutrality on May 15. FCC chair Tom Wheeler will be deciding on new rules regarding the internet that will allow those who have wealth to have faster service and will leave the rest of us behind with internet service that ranks us between 35th and 40th in the world. The internet will become a pay-to-play entity rather than being treated as a public good – something to which all people should have the same standard of access. We will discuss the upcoming decision at length and what people are doing to stop it. And we will discuss the growing movement to municipalize internet service.

Listen here:

Urgent – All In To Save Internet Freedom with Mary Alice Crim and Christopher Mitchell by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

Internet for the Wealthy on the Way Unless We Stop It by Kevin Zeese

Will New FCC Internet Regulations Strengthen Monopoly Control by Paul Jay

If We Act Now, We Can Stop The FCC’s Horrific Proposal to End Net Neutrality By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

We Know How to Save the Internet: Towns and Cities Across America are doing It by David Morris

Fight for the Future

Save the Internet by Free Press

Community Broadband Networks

 

Guests:

1maryalicecrimMary Alice Crim develops, plans and runs Free Press events, including the National Conference for Media Reform. She is currently building Free Press’ member-engagement program. She also participates in and supports ongoing campaign and policy initiatives through outreach, organizing and public education activities. Mary Alice serves on the board of Northampton Community Television and earned bachelor’s degrees in media studies and Spanish from Southern Connecticut State University. mcrim@freepress.net

 

 

1chrismitchellChristopher Mitchell is the Director of the Telecommunications as Commons Initiative.

Christopher’s work focuses on telecommunications — helping communities ensure the networks upon which they depend are accountable to the community. He is a leading national expert on community broadband networks and speaks at conferences across the United States on the subject, occasionally to directly debate opponents of public ownership.

He was honored as one of the 2012 Top 25 in Public Sector Technology by Government Technology, which honors the top “Doers, Drivers, and Dreamers” in the nation each year. That same year, the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors named ILSR the Broadband Organization of the Year. In 2011, that organization also honored Mitchell for his policy work.

On a day-to-day basis, Mitchell runs MuniNetworks.org, the comprehensive online clearinghouse of information about community broadband. In April, 2012, he published three in-depth case studies of citywide publicly owned gigabit networks, called “Broadband at the Speed of Light.” In April 2011, Mitchell released the Community Broadband Map, a comprehensive map of community owned networks.

His Twitter identity is @communitynets

He earned a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Macalester College.

He is also a professional sports photographer, shooting regularly for the University of Minnesota’s Golden Gophers and other clients in Minnesota. He has also worked as a server administrator, web geek, and in automated quality assurance for software.

In case you are curious, Christopher and Stacy are not related.

He can be contacted at christopher@ilsr.org

 

 

United States Escalates Military and Economic Domination in Asia Pacific

The focus of today’s show is President Obama’s trip to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines to build support for escalation of the US’ military presence and for the TransPacific Partnership (TPP). We are joined by Bernadette Ellorin of BAYAN USA which helped to coordinate protests to US military and economic domination in the region. Protests occurred in the US and in each of the countries that Obama visited. We also discussed a new letter urging Obama to take meaningful action to end nuclear weapons, the launch of our new campaign to clean up abandoned uranium mines, the attack on internet neutrality and recent studies which document that the US is a plutocracy.

Listen here:

United States Escalates Military and Economic Domination in Asia Pacific with Bernadette Ellorin by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

US OUT OF THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION! NO TO THE US “PIVOT” TO ASIA! by BAYANUSA

Peace Movement Should Focus On China by Nile Bowie

Is US Preparing For War Against China? by Kevin Zeese

Open Letter to President Obama: Time to Disarm by Alice Slater

Holding the Silent Killers of Environmental Destruction Accountable by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

Fighting for a Legitimate Democracy, By and For the People by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

Internet for the Wealthy on the Way Unless We Stop It by Kevin Zeese

Senator Wyden Starts Round II As He Pushes TPP Fast Track by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

Bayan USA

Bayan Philippines

Clean Up the Mines!

 

Guest:

Berna NATO May 2012 (1)Bernadette Ellorin is the current Chairperson of the US Chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, or BAYAN USA, an alliance of 18 Filipino-American organizations fighting for genuine sovereignty, peace and democracy in the Philippines as well as the rights and welfare of Filipinos in the US and the diaspora.

The New Health Law and Debt Resistance

We spoke with Dave Johnson who is one of hundreds that joined Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers in being Conscientious Objectors to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). We discuss why we are COs and about building a movement against corporate health care and for a single payer or Medicare for all system. Then we spoke with Mike Andrews from Strike Debt, a project that developed out of Occupy Wall Street. The new expanded version of the Debt Resister’s Operations Manual was just released. This manual is used to teach about debt, how to deal with personal debt and how to organize in your community to challenge it. This show was taped on March 31 to air on April 14.

Listen here:

Objecting to Corporate Health Care and Organizing to End Debt with Dave Johnson and Mike Andres by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

Why I Am A Conscientious Objector to the ACA by Margaret Flowers

Obamacare: The Biggest Insurance Scam in History by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers

Debt Resister’s Operations Manual by Strike Debt

 

Guests:

Dave Johnson is a union carpenter and former Champaign County, IL AFL-CIO Vice President / Political Director / Community Organizer. He is currently Radio Host for the World Labor Hour-WEFT listener supported community radio Station in Champaign IL. webcast LIVE every Saturdayfrom 11am – 12 Noon Central Time at www.weft.org and TV Host of Labor’s World View TV on Urbana Public Television.

Mike Andrews is an editor and writer living in Brooklyn. He has been a member of Strike Debt since its inception.

World Bank ‘Doing Business’ Ranking Fueling Worldwide Revolt

We spoke with Martin Kirk and Anuradha Mittal about the World Bank’s “Doing Business” ranking which encourages countries to lower protections for workers, public health and the environment in order to attract businesses. It allows businesses to move factories and capital to countries with the lowest standards and fuels the race to the bottom. Of particular concern is the rising number of acres being sold to Big Ag which is displacing millions and destroying local food protection. The Rules and Oakland Institute are partnering in a new campaign, “Our Land Our Business” to end land grabs. They seek one million signatures by October. Visit OurLandOurBusiness.org to learn more and take action.

Listen:

New Campaign Targets World Bank to End Global Race to theBottom with Martin Kirk and Anuradha Mittal by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

World Bank protests April 11 to 13

World Bank’s New Agriculture Project Threatens Food Security, Warn Experts

The New Shock Doctrine: ‘Doing Business’ with the World Bank by Dr. Jason Hickel

Our Land, Our Business

Oakland Institute

Guests:

mittalAnuradha Mittal is founder and executive director of the Oakland Institute. Starting 2011, the Institute has unveiled land investment deals in Africa which reveal a disturbing pattern of a lack of transparency, fairness, and accountability. The dynamic relationship between research, advocacy, and international media coverage has resulted in an amazing string of successes and organizing in the U.S. and abroad.

 

 

1martin kirkMartin Kirk is the Global Campaigns Director for /The Rules. He joined The Rules from Oxfam in June 2012, where he had been Head of UK Campaigns. Before Oxfam, Martin was Head of Global Advocacy for Save the Children. A history graduate, Martin has worked extensively across private, public and NGO sector on government relations and engaging the public on global issues.

 

 

 

Transforming Our Cities To Support All Residents

We speak with two guests who are working to transform their cities into places that support their populations rather than exploiting them and pushing them to the edges. Andy Shallal, artist, activist and owner of the Bus Boys and Poets bookstore restaurants is running for mayor in Washington, DC. He advocates for policies that bring greater community engagement and empower communities through education, employment support and affordable housing. Dean John H. Morris, Jr is head of the Department of Urban Planning and Community Development at Sojourner-Douglass College in Baltimore, MD. He is working with the local community to recreate local neighborhoods so they are places that build and sustain homeownership and local businesses through a grass roots democratized economy.

 

Listen here:

Transforming Our Cities for the People who live there with Andy Shallal and John Morris by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles, books and websites:

Andy 4 DC

Transforming Communities from the Bottom Up: S-DC Newsletter

S-DC and the Change4Real Coalition 

Clairvoyance: Reweaving the Fabric of Community for Black Folk by John H. Morris, Jr. and Charles Tildon

 

Guests:

John H. Morris, Jr. is the Dean of the School of Urban Planning and Community Develop at Sojourner-Douglass College, where he has been deeply involved in efforts by residents to revitalize the Oldtown community of East Baltimore. Mr. Morris currently teaches Political Science, Sociology, and Urban Planning at Sojourner-Douglass College.  He has also taught negotiation at the University of Baltimore Law School, constitutional law, contract law, torts, and legal writing at Stevenson University. In 1998, he co-edited, with Charles Tildon, Jr., the book Clairvoyance: Reweaving the Fabric of Community for Black Folk, a visionary exploration of a community configured to work for the benefit of African Americans. He graduated from Yale College and Yale Law School.

Andy Shallal  is an artist, social entrepreneur and the founder of Busboys and Poets and Eatonville Restaurant.

Andy was first introduced to the restaurant business while working at his father’s carry-out in Annandale VA and later while helping his father to manage the business. He opened Skewers, his first restaurant in the district in 1987 and soon followed with Café Luna, Luna Books, Luna Grill and Mimi’s American Bistro. Each one of his businesses earned high praise from customers and critics alike. In 2005, Andy opened Busboys and Poets. Named after Langston Hughes, who worked as a busboy at the Wardman Park Hotel in DC while writing poetry, Busboys and Poets became an instant hit and a center for politics, culture and art to converge and collide. It has been recognized as one of the most diverse and inclusive restaurant in the city. With 4 locations in the Washington metropolitan area, Busboys and Poets has become home for artists and intellectuals including such notables as Howard Zinn, Cornel West, Alice Walker, Harry Belafonte, Amy Goodman and Nikki Giovanni.

Andy’s businesses employ over 500 employees, nearly half of whom are DC residents, and have received numerous awards and recognitions as places where employees are treated fairly and earn living wages. He is currently working on the minimum wage and sick leave debate in DC and Maryland. This work led him to partner closely with the Restaurant Opportunities Center to establish the first progressive Restaurant Association called RAISE (Restaurants Advancing Industry Standards in Employment). Andy’s restaurants have earned the Gold Seal of Approval from the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), a national restaurant worker and owner association that focuses on sustainable business and employment practices. Busboys and Poets and Eatonville Restaurant are members of the American Sustainable Business Council. They have been at the forefront of environmental stewardship being one of the first businesses in Washington, DC to be 100% wind powered and are on the cutting edge of the local/sustainable food movement. He has received numerous awards including the Mayor’s Arts Award, Employer of the Year from the Employment Justice Center and the Mayor’s Environmental Award, The RAMY Award, The Jefferson Medal for Volunteerism among others.

Andy is an activist and organizer committed to progressive causes in Washington, DC. In 1991, he was heavily involved as an organizer and a precinct supervisor in the Jim Zais campaign for the Ward 2 DC Council. The campaign was one of the closest races in DC history with Jim Zais losing to Jack Evans by 300 votes. That same year, he worked on an initiative to limit campaign contributions to $100 for citywide races and $50 for Ward races. The initiative passed by an overwhelming majority of DC voters only to have it repealed by the City Council soon thereafter.

On the national level, Andy was an organizer and a delegate for Jerry Brown when he ran for president in 1992. Prior to moving to DC, Andy was a member of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee in Fairfax Virginia and worked on several races to elect Democrats to the Board of Supervisors. He became a precinct captain and helped to turn a traditionally Republican precinct into a Democratic one. Additionally, Andy has been heavily involved in schools as PTA President and appointee on the Human Rights Committee for Fairfax County Public Schools for several years. During his tenure as Chairman of the Human Rights Committee, he was instrumental in putting together a comprehensive diversity training program for administrators for the school system and dealt with several issues of human rights violations.

Andy has founded or co-founded several peace and justice organizations and holds leadership positions in numerous others. He is on the board of trustees for the Institute for Policy Studies and the Co-founder of Think Local First DC, a local business association of over 400 local and independent businesses working to make DC’s business scene more unique and vibrant. Last year in response to the living wage debate, he helped found RAISE (Restaurant Advancing Industry Standards in Employment), a business association of owners interested in improving business practices in the restaurant industry. He has served on the boards of several arts and peace organizations including The Anacostia Community Museum, DC Vote and the Washington Peace Center.

As an artist, Andy has done several murals throughout the city and in all of his various restaurants. His latest mural can be seen at the newly renovated Anthony Bowen YMCA near the U Street corridor.

Andy is a graduate of Catholic University of America where he studied pre-med – he later attended Howard University School of Medicine. He became disenchanted with pursuing a medical career, left school after one semester and traveled to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. He worked as a server and later managed several local restaurants until he decided to open his own.

 

Alternative Banks that Serve the Public, not Wall Street

We talk about the efforts in Vermont to create a new economy which includes a public bank that is designed to serve the needs of the public and protects public dollars from the risks of too big to fail banks with Gwendolyn Hallsmith, the new Executive Director of the Public Banking Institute. We also speak with Ellen Brown who has written numerous books and articles on public and postal banking and the big banks. This topic is especially timely given the huge bubble that is inflating on Wall Street at the same time that the world’s biggest economies are scaling back and there are numerous financial crises. Learn how to protect yourself and your community from the next crash.

Listen live here:

Progress Towards Public Banks that Serve Main Street with Gwendolyn Hallsmith and Ellen Brown by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles, books and websites:

15 Vermont Towns Say Yes to Creating a Public State Bank by Shadee Ashtari

Public Banking Institute

Vermonters for a New Economy

Vermonters for a New Economy, Final Bank Study by Ellen Brown

Warren’s Post Office Proposal: Palast Aims at the Wrong Target by Ellen Brown

Bail-out is Out, Bail-in is In: Time for Some Publicly-owned Banks by Ellen Brown

EllenBrown.com

 Ellen Brown for Treasurer

Guests:

1ghGwendolyn Hallsmith is co-founder of Vermonters for a New Economy, and the new executive director of the Public Banking Institute, Hallsmith said: “It is clear that the bank lobby has a lot more traction in the State House than the cities, towns, and the citizens. It has been our contention that the state-chartered banks stand to gain by the legislation [to put public dollars into a state bank], and that their interests and the interests of the large out-of-state banks diverge on this issue.”

According to Vermonters for a New Economy, the bill is encountering fierce opposition, not from ordinary Vermonters, but mostly from lobbyists for big private banks. The group says that when Senate Finance Committee hearings began on March 18, the Finance Committee only invited representatives of big banks to testify concerning the proposal. This led a local paper, the Barre Montpelier Times Argus, to call the bill “politically unpopular” even though a large majority of towns supported it in the town meeting campaign.

A study by Vermonters for a New Economy, the Gund Institute at the University of Vermont, and the Political and Economic Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts states that a public bank would create “over 2,500 jobs” and add hundreds of millions in additional gross state product in the state.

According to the Public Banking Institute, public banks are countercyclical, meaning they are “capable of reducing the negative impact of recessions, because they can make money available for local governments and businesses precisely when private banks decrease lending.”

 

ellenEllen Brown, J.D., developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles. In Web of Debt, she turns those skills to an analysis of the Federal Reserve and “the money trust.” She shows how this private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves, and how we the people can get it back.

In The Public Bank Solution, the 2013 sequel, she traces the evolution of two banking models that have competed historically, public and private; and explores contemporary public banking systems globally.

Brown developed an interest in the developing world and its problems while living abroad for eleven years in Kenya, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. She returned to practicing law when she was asked to join the legal team of a popular Tijuana healer with an innovative cancer therapy, who was targeted by the chemotherapy industry in the 1990s. That experience produced her book Forbidden Medicine, which traces the suppression of natural health treatments to the same corrupting influences  that have captured the money system. Brown’s twelve books include the bestselling Nature’s Pharmacy, co-authored with Dr. Lynne Walker, which has sold 285,000 copies.

Ellen serves as Secretary of the Treasury in the Green Shadow Cabinet and is running for Treasurer in California.

What’s Really Going On In Venezuela

We cut through the propaganda and lies to explain what is happening right now in Venezuela. Joining us for the program are Steve Ellner who has taught at the Universidad de Oriente in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, since 1977. He is author or editor of a number of books on Venezuela, including the forthcoming Latin America’s Radical Left. He recently wrote the piece “Venezuela: Right-wing Provokes Violence in Time-worn Practice,” which states: “Opposition demonstrators have created havoc in the center of Caracas and elsewhere, burning public buildings, using firearms after attacking the house of the governor in the state of Tachira. The announced intention of Leopoldo Lopez, an opposition leader who has organised these protests, is to overthrow the government. He says it publicly.” We have also invited Maria Paez Victor,  a Venezuelan sociologist currently in Toronto.

Listen here:

Due to technical problems, the archived edition of this program is not yet available.

 

Relevant articles and websites:

Venezuela: Violence caused by opposition, not government by Steve Ellner

Venezuela: Right-wing provokes violence in time-worn practice by Steve Ellner

Venezuela Under Attack Again by Maria Paez Victor

What the Wikileaks Cables Say about Leopoldo López by Jake Johnston

Document Evidences Destabilization Plan Against Venezuela by Eva Golinger

Venezuela Beyond the Protests: The Revolution is Here to Stay by Eva Golinger

Who is Responsible for the Violence in Venezuela by Jerome Roos

Maria Paez Victor’s Blog

Venezuelanalysis

Guests:

1steve ellnerSteve Ellner‘s academic interest centers on organised labour and political parties in Latin America and specifically Venezuela where he has lived and taught since 1975. He earned his Ph.D. in Latin American history at the University of New Mexico in 1980. Since 1977 he has taught economic history and political science at the Universidad de Oriente in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela and for a ten year period taught in the graduate school of law and political science of the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He has also been a visiting professor at Georgetown University (2004), Duke University (2005), Universidad de los Andes (Venezuela, 2008) and Universidad de Buenos Aires (2010).

Among his book publications are: Venezuela’s Movimiento al Socialismo: From Guerrilla Defeat to Electoral Politics (Duke University Press, 1988); Organized Labor in Venezuela, l958- l991: Behaviour and Concerns in a Democratic Setting (Scholarly Resources, l993); The Latin American Left: From the Fall of Allende to Perestroika(co-editor, 1993); Rethinking Venezuelan Politics: Class, Polarization and the Chávez Phenomenon. (Lynne Rienner, 2008). He has also published on the op-ed page of the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, as well as the Nation, and is a regular contributor to NACLA: Report on the Americas.

1maria victorMaria Paez Victor is a sociologist, born in Venezuela and educated in Caracas, New York, Mexico City, and Canada. For several years she taught the sociology of health and medicine as well as health and environmental policies at the University of Toronto. Páez Victor has national and international experience in policy analysis and impact assessment, with expertise in the areas of health, environment, and energy.

New Report Documents Press Freedom in US Plummeting

The newest study published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) shows that press freedom in the US is disappearing. The US fell 13 places to number 46 in the world, largely due to mass surveillance and aggressive attacks on whistleblowers and journalists. Delphine Halgand of RSF joins us to speak about the new report. Then Josh Stearns of Free Press who has written about specific attacks on journalists in the US tells us about the newest challenges to press freedom in the US and what we need to do to end them.

Listen here:

New Report Documents Press Freedom in US Plummeting with guests Delphine Halgand and Josh Stearns by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

2014 Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders

US Plummets to #46 in Global Press Freedom Rankings by Josh Stearns

Reporters Without Borders

Free Press

Guests:

1delphine haglandDelphine Hagland has been working as the Director of the Washington DC office for Reporters Without Borders since December 2011. She runs the US activities for the organization and advocates for journalists, bloggers and media rights worldwide. Acting as RWB’s spokesperson in the US, Delphine regularly appears on American (PBS, Democracy Now, Wall Street Journal,…), foreign media (BBC, Al Jazeera, NTN24,…) and lectures at conferences in US universities (Harvard University, UCLA, Yale…) on press freedom violation issues. Previously, she served as Press attaché in charge of outreach at the French Embassy to the US. Since graduating from Sciences Po Paris with an M.A. in Journalism, Delphine has worked as an economics corespondent for various French media (Le Monde, Les Echos, L’Express,…), focusing mainly on international politics and macroeconomic issues.

 

1josh stearnsJosh Stearns directs Free Press’ campaigns on press freedom, public media and media ownership. He develops online and offline strategy, outreach and organizing efforts. Josh has published numerous reports on press freedom, journalism, media consolidation and public media, and speaks regularly about community engagement, activism and the future of journalism. Before joining Free Press, Josh coordinated policy and communications efforts for service-learning and higher education organizations. He holds a B.A. in English from St. Lawrence University and an M.A. in American studies from UMass Amherst.

Taking a Stand to Stop the Security State with Andrew Kreig and Evan Greer

On February 11, thousands of websites will display messages to expose and oppose the national security state in “The Day We Fight Back Against the NSA.” The day was chosen to remember Aaron Swartz who took his life one year ago and the massive day of online action that stopped SOPA and PIPA. Swartz was a pioneer at a very young age in developing systems to share information and demanding that people should have access to information, especially data that was created using public dollars. To get the facts behind the extent of the security state and what people are doing to fight back against it, our guests are Andrew Krieg, author of “Presidential Puppetry: Obama, Romney and their Masters,” and Evan Greer of Fight for the Future.

 

Listen here:

Standing Up to the Security State with Andrew Kreig and Evan Greer by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Watch here:

Video streaming by Ustream

Relevant articles, videos and websites:

Who are the Puppets that Control the Media and Politicians? by Andrew Krieg

Former NSA Execs Warn Americans Against Loss of Political and Privacy Rights by Andrew Kreig

Illegal NSA Spying Hurts Americans in Many Ways by Andrew Kreig

Andrew Krieg

The NSA Video by Demand Progress and Fight for the Future

Fight for the Future

The Day We Fight Back

 

Guests:

1andrewkriegAndrew Krieg  is a Washington, DC-based commentator, drawing on his careers in law, business, journalism and non-profit advocacy. Currently, he is Executive Director of the Justice Integrity Project, created to improve oversight of federal white-collar prosecutions.

As President and CEO of the Wireless Communications Association International from 1996 until 2008, Kreig led its evolution into the premier worldwide advocate for high-capacity wireless services. Such services include tech-enabled efficiencies in community economic development, education, green technology, health care, military preparedness and public safety protections for homeland security. Previously, he authored many bylined news and magazine articles, plus the pioneering 1987 book “Spiked: How Chain Management Corrupted America’s Oldest Newspaper.”

Listed in numerous Who’s Who volumes for more than a dozen years, he has lectured on five continents about communications issues and has been active in civic affairs in Washington. He holds degrees from Yale Law School and University of Chicago School of Law. He was a research fellow in 2009 with both the Information Economy Project at George Mason School of Law and the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University.

His previous employers include the global law firm Latham & Watkins, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf in Massachusetts and the Hartford Courant newspaper in Connecticut.

His book, “Presidential Puppetry: Obama, Romney and Their Masters” available in print or for download at www.presidentialpuppetry.com.

Evan PhotoEvan Greer has been organizing hard-hitting campaigns for over a decade, online and in the streets. She’s currently the campaign manager at Fight for the Future, the viral digital rights organization that was one of the main forces behind the infamous SOPA blackout. Her day job is using the web to get millions to take action and dismantle the NSA’s blanket spying programs. Previously, Evan relentlessly toured the U.S. and Europe for years as a professional musician and workshop facilitator. She’s is now the parent of a 3 year old who has been to more than a dozen countries and countless activist events, protests, and punk shows. Renowned historian Howard Zinn called Greer “an eloquent and energetic writer,” and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello calls her “a heck of a guitarist.” She works to educate and inspire groups to use cutting edge technology, creative tactics, and radical ideas, to effectively agitate for lofty things like justice and liberation.

The State of the Union’s Wealth Divide

Last week, in his State of the Union Speech, President Obama said, “Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by; let alone to get ahead. And too many still aren’t working at all.” Obama was forced to mention wealth inequality because the real disparity that has caused rising poverty and hunger, but his overall message was still one of “if you work hard enough, you can get ahead,” rather than an honest focus on the structural causes of the wealth divide and how to reduce it. To have this conversation, we’ve invited Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report and labor economist Jack Rasmus. We look at the state of the wealth divide, its causes and its remedies.

Listen here:

The State of the Union’s Wealth Divide with Glen Ford and Jack Rasmus by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

State of the Union Speech

American State of the Union: A Festival of Lies by Glen Ford

Free Rider: State of the Union: Awful by Margaret Kimberley

Obama and Friends Discover Inequality by Jack Rasmus

Bernanke’s Biggest Beneficiaries by Jack Rasmus

State of Power: Exposing the Davos Class by Nick Buxton

Black Agenda Report

Jack Rasmus

Guests:

1glenfordGlen Ford – Historic “firsts,” “mosts,” and “onlys” are the hallmarks of Glen Ford’s long career.

The son of famed disc jockey Rudy “The Deuce” Rutherford, the first Black man to host a non-gospel television show in the Deep South – Columbus, Georgia, 1958 – Glen was reading newswire copy on-the-air at age eleven. Glen’s first full-time broadcast news job was at James Brown’s Augusta, Georgia radio station WRDW, in 1970 – where ‘The Godfather of Soul” shortened Glen’s surname to “Ford.”

Glen Ford  worked as a newsperson at four more local stations: in Columbus, Georgia, Atlanta, Baltimore – where he created his first radio syndication, a half-hour weekly news magazine called “Black World Report” – and Washington, DC. In 1974, Ford joined the Mutual Black Network (88 stations), where he served as Capitol Hill, State Department and White House correspondent, and Washington Bureau Chief, while also producing a daily radio commentary. In 1977, Ford co-launched, produced and hosted “America’s Black Forum” (ABF), the first nationally syndicated Black news interview program on commercial television.

ABF made Black broadcast history. For the next four years, the program generated national and international headlines nearly every week. Never before – and never since – had a Black news entity commanded the weekly attention of the news services (AP, UPI, Reuters, Agence France-Presse – even Tass, the Soviet news agency) and the broadcast networks.

While still host and co-owner of ABF, Ford in 1979 created “Black Agenda Reports,” which provided five programs each day on Black Women, History, Business, Sports and Entertainment to 66 radio stations. The syndication produced more short-form programming than the two existing Black radio networks, combined.

Ford also produced the McDonald’s-sponsored radio series “Black History Through Music,” aired on 50 stations, nationwide.

In 1987, Ford launched “Rap It Up,” the first nationally syndicated Hip Hop music show, broadcast on 65 radio stations. During its six years of operations, “Rap It Up” allowed Ford to play an important role in the maturation of a new African American musical genre. He organized three national rap music conventions, and wrote the Hip Hop column for Jack The Rapper’s Black radio trade magazine.

Ford co-founded BlackCommentator.com (BC) in 2002. The weekly journal quickly became the most influential Black political site on the Net. In October, 2006, Ford and the entire writing team left BC to launch BlackAgendaReport.com (BAR).

In addition to his broadcast and Internet experience, Glen Ford was national political columnist for Encore American & Worldwide News magazine; founded The Black Commentator and Africana Policies magazines; authored The Big Lie: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of the Grenada Invasion (IOJ, 1985); voiced over 1000 radio commercials (half of which he also produced) and scores of television commercials; and served as reporter and editor for three newspapers (two daily, one weekly).

Ford was a founding member of the Washington chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ); executive board member of the National Alliance of Third World Journalists (NATWJ); media specialist for the National Minority Purchasing Council; and has spoken at scores of colleges and universities.

 

1jackrasmusDr. Jack Rasmus, Ph.D Political Economy, teaches economics and politics at St. Mary’s College in California. He is the author and producer of the various nonfiction and fictional workers, including the books ‘Obama’s Economy: Recovery for the Few‘, Pluto Press, 2012, ‘Epic Recession: Prelude to Global Depression‘, Pluto Press, 2010, and ‘The War at Home: The Corporate Offensive from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush‘, Kyklosproductions, 2006. He has written and produced several stage plays, including ‘Fire on Pier 32‘ and ‘1934‘. Jack is the host of the weekly radio show, Alternative Visions, on the Progressive Radio Network, and a journalist writing on economic, political and labor issues for various magazines, including ‘Z‘ magazine, ‘Against the Current‘, ‘In These Times‘ and others. Before his current roles as author, journalist and radio host, Jack was an economist and market analyst for several global companies 18 years and, for more than a decade, a local union president, vice-president, contract negotiator, and organizer for several labor unions, including the UAW, CWA, SEIU, and HERE. Jack’s website is www.kyklosproductions.com where his published articles, radio-tv interviews, plays and book reviews are available for download. He blogs at jackrasmus.com, where weekly commentaries on US and global economic matters are available. His twitter handle is @drjackrasmus.

Jack is the owner and principal of Kyklos Productions LLC, which produces stage plays, videos, music CDs and books. Kyklos Productions also provides consulting and production services for video and music CD creation.

Jack is also available for keynote and other speaking events on various economic, political, and environmental topics. Jack may be contacted at rasmus@kyklosproductions.com or by calling the Kyklos Productions business line at 925-999-9789.

Syria – Peace Talks or Justification for Regime Change?

We discussed the conference about Syria that is taking place in Montreux, Switzerland. Although the stated goal is peace, the structure of the talks is designed around removal of Assad from power. We will discuss the politics behind the war in Syria with Ajamu Baraka. Baraka writes of the peace talks, “Its main purpose was always to affect their main strategic objective – the removal of President Bashir al-Assad from power and the disappearance of Syria as an independent state.” Baraka calls them “war talks” and states that they are laying the groundwork for an attack on Syria. Alli McCracken of CODEPINK joins us to speak about her recent trip to Geneva with a delegation of women to press for the inclusion of women in the talks.

Listen:

Syria – Peace Talks or Laying the Groundwork for War with Ajamu Baraka and Alli McCracken by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

Syria Peace Conference: The Obama’s Administration Orweillian Subterfuge by Ajamu Baraka

Syria ‘Smoking Gun’ Report Warrants A Careful Read by Dan Murphy

Should Syria’s Future Be Decided By Men With Guns? by Medea Benjamin

AjamuBaraka.org

CODEPINK.org

Guests:

1ajamu barakaAjamu Baraka is a human rights defender whose experience spans three decades of domestic and international education and activism, Ajamu Baraka is a veteran grassroots organizer whose roots are in the Black Liberation Movement and anti-apartheid and Central American solidarity struggles.

An internationally recognized leader of the emerging human rights movement in the U.S., Ajamu has been at the forefront of efforts to apply the international human rights framework to social justice advocacy in the U.S. for more than 25 years. As such, he has provided human rights trainings for grassroots activists across the country, briefings on human rights to the U.S. Congress, and appeared before and provided statements to various United Nations agencies, including the UN Human Rights Commission (precursor to the current UN Human Rights Council).

In 1998, Ajamu was one of 300 human rights defenders from around the world who were brought together at the first International Summit of Human Rights Defenders in Paris to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Baraka also played a pivotal role in bringing a human rights perspective to the preparatory meetings for the World Conference on Racism (WCAR) that took place in Geneva in 2000 and in Santiago, Chile as part of the Latin American Preparatory process, as well as the actual conference that he attended as a delegate in Durban, South Africa in 2001.

Ajamu Baraka was the Founding Executive Director of the US Human Rights Network (USHRN) from July 2004 until June 2011. The USHRN was the first domestic human rights formation in the United States explicitly committed to the application of international human rights standards to the U.S. Under Baraka, the Network grew from a core membership of 60 organizations to more than 300 U.S.-based member organizations and 1,500 individual members who worked on the full spectrum of human rights concerns in the U.S.

While at the USHRN, Baraka also ensured that the Network spearheaded efforts to raise human rights abuses taking place in the U.S. with United Nations human rights processes and structures, including the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the UN Human Rights Committee and the UN Human Rights Council, through its Universal Periodic Review process. By coordinating the production of non-governmental reports on human rights and organizing activist delegations to UN sites in Geneva and New York, the Network gave voice to victims of human rights abuses and provided opportunities for activists to engage in direct advocacy. These efforts resulted in specific criticisms of the U.S. human rights record and recommendations for corrective actions.

Baraka has taught political science at various universities and has been a guest lecturer at academic institutions in the U.S. and abroad. A commentator on a number of criminal justice and international human rights issues, Baraka has appeared on and been covered in a wide-range of print, broadcast, and digital media outlets such as CNN, BBC, the Tavis Smiley Show, Telemundo, ABC’s World News Tonight, Black Commentator, the Washington Post and the New York Times. He is also a contributing writer for various publications including Black Commentator, Commondreams, Pambazaka, People of Color Organize and Black Agenda Report.

Baraka is currently an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and is editing a new book on human rights in the U.S. entitled: “The Struggle Must be for Human Rights: Voices from the Field,” scheduled for publication in 2013.

1allimccrackenAlli McCracken is a national organizer with CODEPINK.

Our Tasks in 2014 to Build a Trans-formative Social Movement

We continue our discussion of building a trans-formative social movement in the United States. On our last program, we looked back at the social movement over the past few years and analyzed it based on the Eight Stages of Successful Social Movements. On this program, speak about the tasks ahead to build consensus and an engaged movement of people pushing for peace, justice and a sustainable way of living. Our guest is David Solnit.

Listen here:

Our Tasks in 2014 to Build a Trans-formative Social Movement with David Solnit by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

People Power Document by David Solnit

Globalize Liberation: 5 Stages For Social Movements by George Lakey

People Power: It’s Time to Stop the War Ourselves by Aimee Allison and David Solnit

Guest:

1davidsolnitDavid Solnit is an organizer, writer and puppeteer. As a direct action, global justice and anti-war organizer, he was an organizer in the shutdowns of the WTO in Seattle in 1999 and in San Francisco the day after Iraq was invaded in 2003. He is an arts organizer, puppeteer and a co-founder of Art and Revolution, using culture, art, giant puppets and theater in mass mobilizations, for popular education and as an organizing tool. David is a direct action, strategy and cultural resistance trainer who currently works with Courage to Resist, supporting GI resistance. He also organizes with anti-corporate capitalist, climate justice, anti-war, human rights, and environmental justice groups against the Chevron Oil Corporation, who has both a toxic refinery and corporate headquarters near his home in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Solnit edited Globalize Liberation: How to Uproot the System and Build a Better World. Army veteran Aimee Allison and he co-wrote Army of None: Strategies to Counter Military Recruitment, End War, and Build a Better World (http://www.myspace.com/armyofnonebook). His newest book, co-written with his sister Rebecca Solnit is Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle (AK Press 2008).

How Close is the US to Real Social Transformation?

We spoke with Ken Butigan about the stages of social transformation, where the US fits in and what the tasks are during this stage. You may be surprised to find out how close we are. Butigan is director of Pace e Bene, a nonprofit organization fostering nonviolent change through education, community and action. He also teaches peace studies at DePaul University and Loyola University in Chicago. He has been involved in numerous ‘people powered’ movements for thirty years.

Listen here:

How Close is the US to Real Social Transformation? with Ken Butigan by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

Movement Action Plan: History is a Weapon by Bill Moyer

A New Movement for Nonviolent Change by Ken Butigan

Campaign Nonviolence

Waging Nonviolence

Guest:

1kenbutiganKen Butigan, Ph.D. is an adjunct faculty member of the Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies Program at DePaul University in Chicago and the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University Chicago.

Butigan has worked with numerous social movements for three decades, including movements for a nuclear-free future, an end to homelessness, and freedom for East Timor.  From 1987 to 1990, he was the national coordinator of the Pledge of Resistance, a network of 100,000 people in 400 local groups that organized coordinated nonviolent action for peace in Central America.

In 2006 he was a founder and lead organizer of the Declaration of Peace, a nationwide grassroots campaign endorsed by 800 organizations who participated in 350 public events across the country calling for a concrete plan to end the US war in Iraq.

Since 1990 Butigan has been on the staff of Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service, an organization dedicated to building a more nonviolent culture that has conducted 700 workshops, trainings, retreats or classes for 30,000 people in the US and around the world.

Butigan has written or edited six books, including Pilgrimage through a Burning World: Spiritual Practice and Nonviolent Protest at the Nevada Test Site (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2003).  He writes a weekly column forWaging Nonviolence.

He earned his B.A. at the University of San Diego and M.A. in Theology from the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, California.  He earned his Ph.D. in the Historical and Cultural Studies of Religions at GTU, where he studied nonviolence in five religious traditions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

He previously taught at the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley and directed the Spiritual Life Institute at Saint Martin’s College in Washington State.  For two years he taught religious studies at Barat College of DePaul University (2003-2005). Click here to see all teaching positions.

Butigan lives in Chicago with his spouse Cynthia and their daughter.

Moving from a Market State to a Commons-Based Economy

We spoke with James Quilligan, who is presently Managing Director of the Centre for Global Negotiations and Chairman for the Secretariat of Global Commons Trust, which develops innovative means of restoring value—beyond business and government—through people’s social, cultural, intellectual, genetic and natural resource commons. He wrote an in-depth series of articles for Kosmos Journal about the transformation from what he calls the Market State to a Commons-based Economy. In the Market State, all resources, goods and services are monetized and privatized so that they are controlled by a few and kept away from some of the public, and the economy is based on debt. In the Commons-Based Economy, the commons which also includes genes, culture and knowledge, the economy is based on credit and on a trust that manages the resources in a way that is sustainable and regenerative. People have more control over the economy as well.

Listen here:

Moving from the Market State to a Commons-Based Economy with James Quilligan by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

Toward a Common Theory of Value, Part I: Common Being by James Bernard Quilligan

Toward a Common Theory of Value, Part II: Common Trust by James Bernard Quilligan

Toward a Common Theory of Value, Part III: Common Knowing by James Bernard Quilligan

Toward a Common Theory of Value, Part IV: Common Need by James Bernard Quilligan

Toward a Common Theory of Value, Part V: Common Development by James Bernard Quilligan

Kosmos Journal

Guest:

jamesquilliganJames Bernard Quilligan has been an analyst and administrator in the field of international development since 1975.  He has served as policy advisor and writer for many international politicians and leaders, including Pierre Trudeau, François Mitterand, Edward Heath, Julius Nyerere, Olof Palme, Willy Brandt, Jimmy Carter, and Tony Blair.  He is currently on leave of absence as an international speechwriter for His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan of Jordan.

Quilligan was a policy advisor and press secretary for the Brandt Commission (1978-1984) and the co-founder and policy development director of the Coalition for the Global Commons (2007-2008). He is presently Managing Director of the Centre for Global Negotiations and Chairman for the Secretariat of Global Commons Trust, which develops innovative means of restoring value—beyond business and government—through people’s social, cultural, intellectual, genetic and natural resource commons. He is also collaborating with Prince El Hassan and many United Nations agencies on global commons issues.

Quilligan has been an economic consultant for government agencies in Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Tanzania, Kuwait, India, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Canada, and the United States.  In addition, he has served as an advisor for several United Nations programs and international development organizations.

Election Fraud in the Honduras. Another Coup?

The Presidential election in Honduras took place on November 24. Since the US was involved in the 2009 coup that removed President Manuel Zelaya, Hondurans have lived under a brutal regime in which political activists are harassed and murdered. This year, Zelaya’ wife, Xiomara Castro, ran as the new LIBRE party candidate. The official report is that she came in second, but widespread fraud and repression in the election makes this result questionable and there have been large protests to demand a recount. To discuss this, we will be joined by Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research who writes regularly about Latin America and Chuck Kauffman of the Alliance for Global Justice who was a member of a large delegation of election observers present for this election.

Listen here:

Election Fraud in Honduras with Mark Weisbrot and Chuck Kaufman by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud

Relevant articles and websites:

Why the World Should Care about the Recent Hondura’s Election by Mark Weisbrot

Honduras: America’s Great Foreign Policy Disgrace by Mark Weisbrot

Preliminary Report of the Honduras Solidarity Network regarding the Elections of 2013 by HSN/AJG Delegation

Honduras: The Struggle for Democracy, Human Rights and the Environment by Mark Sullivan and Rick Sterling

Center for Economic and Policy Research

Alliance for Global Justice

Guests:

1markweisbrotMark Weisbrot co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, D.C. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan. He has written numerous research papers on economic policy, especially on Latin America and international economic policy. He is also co-author, with Dean Baker, of Social Security: The Phony Crisis (University of Chicago Press, 2000).

He writes a weekly column for The Guardian Unlimited (U.K.), and a regular column on economic and policy issues that is distributed to over 550 newspapers by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. His opinion pieces have appeared in the New York TimesWashington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and almost every major U.S. newspaper, as well as for Brazil’s largest newspaper, Folha de Sao Paulo. He appears regularly on national and local television and radio programs. He is also president of Just Foreign Policy.

1chuckkaufmanChuck Kaufman is National Co-Coordinator of the Alliance for Global Justice. He has been a leader of the Central and Latin America solidarity movements since joining the staff of the Nicaragua Network in 1987. He gave up his successful advertising business out of disgust at Congress’ cowardice during the Iran-Contra scandal. He went on his first coffee picking brigade to Nicaragua that same year. Chuck has been in the front ranks of the movements to support the right of people in Latin America and the Caribbean to dignity, sovereignty, and self-determination. He has led delegations to Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti and Honduras.

Chuck has written and spoken often about US democracy manipulation programs through the National Endowment for Democracy and US Agency for International Development as well as what he calls the need to look to the Abolition Movement as our inspiration to change the culture of US militarism. He is a board member of the Latin America Solidarity Coalition and a leader of the LASC’s effort to build a stronger movement to oppose US militarism and the militarization of relations with Latin America. He was a founder of the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition and has spoken at most of the major Washington, DC anti-war demonstrations. He is a board member of the Honduras Solidarity Network and a founder of the Venezuela Solidarity Network. He has a B.A. in Government and Politics from George Mason University. His first political activism was as a high school student in 1969 when he organized student walk-out in four county high schools in his native Indiana.

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Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.