Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Can a country change its economic system?

The War Against The Bees

On average, 30 percent of all the honeybee colonies in the U.S. died off over the winter. Some beekeepers and environmentalists are calling for tighter restrictions on the use of a pesticide called neonicotinoids. Europe has ban some uses of these pesticides. But many U.S. farmers and pesticide companies are opposed to any such move here, and the Environmental Protection Agency says it's not yet convinced that this would help bees very much. Reported by Dan Charles.
Source: npr: Bee Deaths May Have Reached A Crisis Point For Crops

Changing Capitalism

Can a country switch between different types of capitalism? The Economist's Britain politics correspondent, Jeremy Cliffe, explores whether the proposals to transform the U.K.'s economy into one more like Germany, Denmark and Sweden is remotely possible?
Source: BBC Radio 4 Analysis: Varieties of Capitalism

Jeremy Cliffe
Martin Miller
Modern Terrorism

Martin Miller is interview by Peter Slen of C-Span about modern terrorism. Martin starts with the French Revolution. Terrorism is part of a violent contest over control of the country between government officials and insurgents. Martin Miller is a professor at Duke University.
Source: C-Span: Book Discussion on The Foundations of Modern Terrorism

Download or Play Bees and Capitalism Part 1
Download or Play Capitalism Part 2
Download or Play Modern Terrorism Part 1
Download or Play Modern Terrorism Part 2


Music includes Graham Nash and James Raymond - Almost Gone, Capitol Steps - Addicted To Oil, Leadbelly - Bourgeois Blues, Capitol Steps - Blagojevich, Graham Nash - We Can Change the World, Compassionate Conservatives - Teach Your Children, Capitol Steps - Do You Fear What I Fear?, Reverend Billy - Beatitudes of Buylessness, Capitol Steps - Shoe Bomb, Tom Lehrer - It Makes A Fellow Proud To Be A Soldier, Ella Fitzgerald - Mack The Knife, Ray Charles - America the Beautiful, Camp Galore - Happy Days Are Here Again, Capitol Steps - Johnnie Cochran's Fairy Tales, Terry Gangstad - My 3 Sons A Bitches, Linda Tillery & the Cultural Heritage Choir - Wayfaring Stranger, Stevie Wonder - I Just Called To Say I Love, The Author - The Title, Inca Flutes - Zona Roya

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Meet The Underground Economy

Alice Goffman
The underground economy is where drug wars and police lockdowns meet urban America. America’s underground economy includes an estimated $2 trillion in off-the-books work and trade. Much of it is in tough neighborhoods where the formal economy is very thin and the hand of the law is very heavy.

Alice Goffman finds an urban economy and culture so shadowed by police and incarceration that it lives “on the run.” Alice Goffman spent six years living in Philadelphia, and her close observations and often harrowing stories reveal the pernicious effects of drug wars and police lockdowns.

"A dramatic record of how race is still a key predictor of whether or not some young Americans will have a chance at a 'pursuit of happiness.'" ~ Los Angeles Review of Books

Alice Goffman, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison talks to Tom Ashbrook. Alice is the author of “On The Run: Fugitive Life In An American City”.
Source: On Point: Life ‘On The Run’ In America's Big Cities

Elizabeth Kolbert on Species Extinction

Elizabeth Kolbert talks to Sasha Weiss about the species extinction that is apparently caused by humanity's activities.
Source: New Yorker's Out Loud: Elizabeth Kolbert on extinction

Download or Play Meet The Underground Economy Part 1
Download or Play Meet The Underground Economy Part 2
Download or Play Meet The Underground Economy Part 3
Download or Play Species Extinction


Music includes Compassionate Conservatives - In The Garden Of Eden, Matisyahu - One Day (New Album Version), FDR 1-20-1937, Dave Puls - The Mother Earth Destruction Blues, Devendra Banhart - Heard Somebody Say (original music video), Hair - Air, David Rovics - Here At The End Of The World, The Kinks - 20th Century Man, Champion Jack Dupree - I'm Going to Write the Governor of Georgia, Annette Hanshaw - Happy Days Are Here Again, Dala Girls - Levi, Hair - Three-Five-Zero-Zero, Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - Concentration Moon, Johnny Paycheck - Take This Job And Shove It, Jimi Hendrix - Castles, Armik - Tango Flamenc

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Andrew Bacevich on Decades of War

Andrew J. Bacevich(l) and his son(r)
After more than six decades of war, Andrew Bacevich evaluates the U.S.' military effort in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Muslim countries. When and how will these wars end? Andy takes us thru the various stages of these wars.

Western crusaders attacking Muslims from a fourteenth-century
manuscript (Bibliothèque Boulogne-s-Mer).
The two sides can be distinguished by their swords and shields.
The bending of rules of war has become the current strategy. Assassination and spying on Americans or others are part of this strategy. Andy claims that the current war is mostly hidden from view. Andy criticizes Washington for wasting resources on unnecessary wars, of being unaware of the problems facing the nation and being unable to respond to these problems.

Andrew J. Bacevich
Andrew J. Bacevich is an American expert on international relations, security studies, American foreign policy, and American diplomatic and military history. Andy graduated from West Point in 1969 and served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. Andy retired from the service with the rank of Colonel in the early 1990s. Andy holds a Ph.D. in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University, and taught at West Point and Johns Hopkins University before joining the faculty at Boston University in 1998.
Source: YouTube: Andrew Bacevich: "A Decade of War"
Download or Play Decades of War Part 1
Download or Play Decades of War Part 2
Download or Play Decades of War Part 3
Download or Play Decades of War Part 4


Music includes Jay Mankita - They Lied, David Rovics - Who Would Jesus Bomb, Tom Neilson - 99, Emma's Revolution - Code PINK, David Rovics - Used To Be A City, Tom Russell - Who's Gonna Build Your Wall, David Rovics - Hang A Flag In The Window, John Prine - Sam Stone, Margaret Mead, David Rovics - Operation Iraqi Liberation, Shamarr Allen & Dee-1 & Paul Sanchez & Bennie of Hot 8 - Sorry Aint Enough No More (bp oil spill song), Dala Girls - Don't Wait, Charlie Parker - Sepian Bounce

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Does State Surveillance Protect Our Freedoms?


Glenn Greenwald (left) and Michael Hayden (right)
Former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz argued that, “Be it resolved state surveillance is a legitimate defence of our freedoms.” Journalist Glenn Greenwald and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian argued against.


“It is the security practitioners, those rarely in the headlines but whose craft and energy quietly break new ground, who keep us safe or put us in peril.” ~ Michael Hayden
“Surveillance equals power. The more you know about someone, the more you can control and manipulate them in all sorts of ways. That is one reason a Surveillance State is so menacing to basic political liberties.” ~ Glenn Greenwald
“The state now is moving much more from reacting to violence to a proactive, preemptive, preventive mode of intelligence gathering.” ~ Alan Dershowitz
“Every other country in the world looked at us as a role model for privacy and freedom. And we dropped the ball.” ~ Alexis Ohanian
The pre-debate results was 33% pro, 46% con, 21% undecided. The post-debate results was 41% pro, 59% con. The team opposed to the resolution won with a 13% vote gain. “Be it resolved state surveillance is a legitimate defence of our freedoms.”

More at Munk Debates: State Surveillance

Source: C-Span: Munk Debate on State Surveillance

Download or Play State Surveillance Part 1
Download or Play State Surveillance Part 2
Download or Play State Surveillance Part 3
Download or Play State Surveillance Part 4


Music includes Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth, 1,000 Paper Cranes - Baghdad Suite, David Rovics - Who Will Tell The People, Capitol Steps - Bye Bye Big Bird, Beastie Boys - In A World Gone Mad..., Miley Cyrus - Wake Up America, All Quiet on the Western Front, Mamborama - Es Solo Musica, Jan Hammer - Miami Vice, Charlie Parker - Embraceable You, Fletcher Henderson - My Pretty Girl