Friday, January 26, 2018

CHRIS HEDGES & Co.

CHRIS HEDGES & Co.

(Truthdig.org)

"Are we in an era of new McCarthyism? Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges and fellow journalism experts discussed media and the Foreign Agents Registration Act during a recent panel hosted by the Columbia Journalism School and the Harriman Institute.

Hedges was joined by Maria Snegovaya, a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University; Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation; and Jeffrey Trimble, deputy director of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors. The discussion was moderated by Steve Coll, dean of the Columbia Journalism School."

Thursday, January 25, 2018

ARE VOTING RIGHTS WRONG?

ARE VOTING RIGHTS WRONG?

(The Big Picture with Holland Cooke)

"Holland Cooke talks about the systemic suppression of voter rights with Florida Rights Restoration Coalition’s Executive Director Desmond Meade and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP’s Vice President Marty Puckett. Then Holland talks with Jacobs Media’s President Fred Jacobs about baby boomers, the most consequential generation."

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR

RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR

(Ralph Nader Radio Hour - Jan 6, 2018)

"Ralph talks to legendary progressive lawyer and former U.S. Attorney General,Ramsey Clark, about the conflicts in the Middle East.  And we continue our discussion about the difference between “progressives” and “liberals” and why the distinction is important.  Plus more listener questions!"

Monday, January 8, 2018

THOM HARTMANN

THOM HARTMANN

(Alternet.org)

"Once we reject America’s new self-appointed royalty, with their billionaire and corporate money fouling our system, our elected officials can restore protections for working people – and we can once again see our wages begin to rise like they did for 40 straight years before the advent of Reaganism. 

Only then can we bring back rules to keep the oligarch’s poisonous money out of our political system, and begin to break up their control of American business and media so that small- and medium-sized businesses, unions, and local media can once again thrive. And, with them, we can return to something resembling a democracy."

Thursday, January 4, 2018

LESS VOTES FAVORS RIGHT WING

LESS VOTES FAVORS RIGHT WING

The United States of America should enact mandatory voting laws, and incorporate ranked choice into election results. If we could rank our votes by first, second, and third choice, we wouldn't have that choice-of-evils bullshit that makes third parties impossible. Our representitives like to talk about democracy, but they hate doing anything to encourage it.

Individuals and foreign nations don't cheat on U.S. election days, the slime balls who manage elections do. 
Surprise! You're no longer registered to vote.
(Think Progress.org)

(Greg Palast.com)

"They’d sent letters, for example, to soldiers at their home addresses, where they were legally  registered, while they served overseas.   When the letters came back to the RNC as "addressee not home," the "caged" letters were used as evidence that the soldier didn’t exist.

"Caging" soldiers, caging any voter, is a crime.  But in this case, those who committed the crime, the Bush campaign, were also in charge of prosecuting the crime. They didn’t. So Doster is running Moore’s Senate campaign instead of breaking rocks in a chain gang."

THE BIG PICTURE WITH HOLLAND COOKE

THE BIG PICTURE WITH HOLLAND COOKE

Everyone! Before you read any further I must request that you take off your shoes.

We consume constantly and pay with plastic cards with little data chips in them. Are these chips supposed to make me feel better or safer? We live in a Data Age. Too bad all this information doesn't make us smarter.

We've become addicted to computers, big ones and little ones, spending our days jumping through hoops for them. We stare at screens trying to do every little thing they ask, we insert when they tell us, we wait, we remove, we do what we're told. We stare into screens until we walk out in front of a bus or off a cliff.

Our TVs are computers now, they know when and what we watch. We shop online revealing even more of the what, when, why and how of our daily lives. Our voice activated boob tubes and convenience gadgets listen for words of command and are forever connected to the Internet.

Question: Alexa, are you attractive?

Answer: Sometimes. But sometimes I'm an overweight CIA agent suffering from extraordinary flatulence.

The GPS in our phones and cars knows exactly where we are and where we've been. They made it EZ to pay tolls, and even easier to track your travels.

Don't even get me started on social media, the voluntary disgorging of the minutia of our lives.

Using your thumb print to activate a touch screen saves you a lot of time and thought, you don't have to remember a password, and they won't have to take you down town to get your finger prints.

"But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."
- George Orwell (1984)

* * * * *

(The Big Picture with Holland Cooke on RT America)

"Smile for the camera. The Department of Homeland Security started scanning travellers’ faces leaving the country at major airports. The new policy leaves more questions about privacy and invasiveness than a sense of security for Holland’s panel on The Big Picture. Mike Papantonio, host of America’s Lawyer on RT America and legal analyst Lionel square off on the issue. Then, actor Stephen Baldwin comes on the show to talk about his new RT series, The Great American Pilgrimage. And finally, RT America’s guests and personalities alike tell you what they think the media gave too much – and too little – attention to in 2017. They also propose their own ideas for New Year’s resolutions to the President."

* * * * *

Moby & The Void Pacific Choir - Are You Lost In The World Like Me? (Official Video)
(Steve Cutss video on YouTube.com)

"...but these days it's all secrecy; no privacy."
-The Rolling Stones (Fingerprint File)

QUESTION MORE IN 2018!

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

2017 IN REVIEW

2017 IN REVIEW

(Redacted Tonight)

RALPH NADER

RALPH NADER

(Chris Hedges & Ralph Nader at TruthDig.com)

"Nader said he feared that the population was so effectively anesthetized by mass culture that it might not rise up against the elites. “The U.S. has developed a society with an almost indeterminate absorptive capacity for injustice, abuse and degradation,” Nader said. “There is no civic education in the schools. They don’t know what the Constitution is. They don’t know what the law of torts is. They don’t know where the town hall is. They’re living in virtual reality, swinging between big screen TV and their cellphones. They’re wallowing in text messages."

P.S.

Listener Questions and Year End Jokes!
(Ralph Nader Radio Hour)

"To wrap up a year filled with anxiety, Ralph answers a bunch of your questions and then David and Steve try out some jokes.  As usual, Ralph gets the last laugh."

CRAPPY XMAS (WAR FOREVER)

CRAPPY XMAS (WAR FOREVER)

War is over, if you want it.
War is over now.
— John Lennon and Yoko Ono, “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”

(Maj. Danny Sjursen at TruthDig.com)

"As a veteran of two failed wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, I resonate to Lennon’s Vietnam-era ballad ever more sadly with each passing year. The hard truth—one I’ve finally accepted—is that today’s wars may never end, because ultimately, the American people don’t want it. At least not badly enough. U.S. ground combat in Vietnam tragically dragged on for nearly a decade, but it did finally end. While they may not have been the chief trigger for peace, millions of citizens took to the streets in a massive popular outcry to end the war. My parents’ generation at least tried, but mine could hardly care less. This national disgrace of apathy has many causes, but one is paramount: the decision to end the draft."