Spying on Democracy

Heidi Boghosian talks about government surveillance, corporate power and public resistance with Robert Scheer. Heidi Boghosian is Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild. Robert Scheer is Editor-in-Chief of Truthdig.

"Heidi Boghosian's Spying on Democracy is the answer to the question, 'if you're not doing anything wrong, why should you care if someone's watching you?'" ~ Michael German, Senior Policy Counsel, ACLU and former FBI agent

Michael German says that "this unrestrained spying is inevitably used to suppress the most essential tools of democracy: the press, political activists, civil rights advocates and conscientious insiders who blow the whistle on corporate malfeasance and government abuse."

Heidi adds, “If the trend is permitted to continue, we will soon live in a society where nothing is confidential, no information is really secure, and our civil liberties are under constant surveillance and control.”
Source: C-Span: Book Discussion on Spying on Democracy

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Music includes William Valenti - Congress For Sale, Willie Nelson - Peaceful Solution, Capitol Steps - Hotel Arizona, Herman's Hermits Parody - I'm Pleading The Fifth I Am, Phillip Glass - Cloudscape

America's Path to Permanent War

The U.S. spends more on the military than the entire rest of the world combined and maintains 300,000 troops abroad in an “empire of bases.” Andrew Bacevich says now is the time to examine the Washington consensus on national security. He argues that national priorities must shift from fixing Afghanistan to fixing Detroit.

With incisive analysis, Bacevich exposes the preconceptions, biases, and habits that underlie this pervasive faith in military might, especially the notion that overwhelming superiority will oblige others to accommodate America's needs and desires, including cheap oil, cheap credit, or cheap consumer goods. Bacevich argues that we must reconsider the principles which shape American policy in the world and acknowledge that fixing Afghanistan should not take precedence over fixing Detroit. As we enter a period when our militarism has become both unaffordable and increasingly dangerous, replacing this Washington consensus is crucial to America's future.

Source: YouTube: Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War

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Music includes David Rovics - Still Waiting For The Change, Capitol Steps - The Sunni Side Of Tikrit, Green Day - 21 Guns, Alex Hickey - You Can't Be Rich (On Shattered Land), Men With Day Jobs - Denial Tango, Capitol Steps - Ain't No Surplus, Alun Parry - All Hail To The Market, David Rovics - Age Of Oil, Jefferson Airplane - Volunteers, Oscar Romero (Movie) - Stop the Repression, Capitol Steps - You Don't Bring Me Flowers, Ali - 2001 Movie, Winston Churchill - Iron Curtain Speech, Jeese Jackson 1-16-1984, Steve Coogan - The Undertaker, Machito & Mario Bauzá - Asia Minor

The Bankers' New Clothes

Anat Admati argues that we can have a safer and healthier banking system without sacrificing any of its benefits, and at essentially no cost to society. Anat seeks to engage the broader public in the debate by cutting through the jargon of banking, clearing the fog of confusion, and presenting the issues in simple and accessible terms.

Anat Admati

Anat Admati is a professor of finance and economics at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. Anat serves on the FDIC Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee. Anat was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of the 100 global thinkers in 2014.
Source: Book TV at Stanford University: Anat Admati, "The Bankers' New Clothes: What's Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It"

"Do the Math" with Bill McKibben and Chris Mooney

From protests against the Keystone XL pipeline to his "Do the Math" tour, to rallying of college students to call for their universities to divest from fossil fuel companies, McKibben now speaks for a mass movement of concerned people.


Bill McKibben is an author and environmentalist. His 1989 book "The End of Nature" is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. Bill is founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement. Bill was the 2013 winner of the Gandhi Prize and the Thomas Merton Prize. Foreign Policy named Bill to their inaugural list of the world's 100 most important global thinkers, and the Boston Globe said Bill was "probably America's most important environmentalist." Bill lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern.
Source:  Point Of Inquiry: Bill McKibben - Do the Math