Friday, September 3, 2010

Labor Day Musical Special (R)

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New World Notes News
Volume 3, Number 36 -- September 3, 2009

This week in New World Notes, radio program #131, September 7:


Labor Day Musical Special

A re-run of last year's show, with updated preface. I'm taking the day off. Featuring (in order of appearance)

David Rovics, The Day the Minimum Wage Workers Went on Strike. A classic celebration of the working class and of strength in solidarity . . . with some very nice banjo picking.

Mad Agnes, Katie. A witty and sharp critique of bourgeois life from the perspective of the long-suffering--and admirable--cleaning lady.

The Foremen, Workin' on an MBA. Comic satire of the cushy life, & boundless self-pity, of the men in the gray flannel suits--set to a tune that recalls a Mississippi chain gang.

Utah Phillips, Moose Turd Pie. Spoken, w/ a little guitar. Utah recalls (with only the slightest hint of exaggeration) the worst job he ever held.

Anne Feeney, Business News / Hallelujah, I'm a Bum! A beautiful rendition of an 1890's song about unemployment (yep: that "18" is correct!); a fine homage to Simon & Garfunkel's 1965 classic, "Silent Night / 6 o'Clock News"; and a good song on its own terms.

John McCutcheon, Doing Our Job. McCutcheon applies Cal Ripken Jr.'s modest remarks upon breaking a major-league record to America's working people generally. A long-overdue celebration of the best of American working-class values.

Base (Workers & Farmers): We Work for all. . . . We feed all.
Level 2 (Corporate fatcats): We eat for you.
Level 3 (Soldiers): We shoot at you.
Level 4 (Clergy): We fool you.
Level 5 (Kings, Presidents, etc.): We Rule you.
Top (Moneybag): Capitalism. Click to enlarge.

Coming soon (dates of WWUH Tuesday broadcast shown):

  • September 14--Food (2): The Big Boys Muscle In

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Lunch: Rockefeller Center (Photo by Charles C. Ebbetts, 1932)


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Saturday, August 28, 2010

The Drive to War Against Iran



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 35 -- August 28, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #130, August 31 & Sept.4:

The Drive to War Against Iran

In brief

The run-up to war on Iran sure looks a lot like the run-up to war on Iraq. For example, our government is demonizing the country's leadership, ensuring that all negotiations fail, and loudly denouncing a nuclear-weapons program that does not exist.

In an interview with Canadian host Brandon Stone, Richmond (Virginia) activist Phil Wilayto lucidly describes and explains the U.S. geopolitical, diplomatic, and military strategies concerning Iran. Also discussed: the real reason the U.S. is determined to crush Iran . . . the insanity of a military strike . . .and the need for peace activists to organize.

Of particular interest is Wilayto's discussion of how the U.S. play-acts at negotiating a diplomatic settlement--while ensuring no settlement is reached and destroying settlements negotiated by third parties (e.g., the Brazil-Turkey deal to enrich Iran's reactor rods). The object of the charade is to persuade people that military attack is the only remaining option. Sounds like a Conspiracy Theory, but Dennis Ross, Obama's chief advisor on Iran, has described this policy in writing.

Top: Phil Wilayto. Bottom: Veteran diplomat Dennis Ross--
a neoconservative, a Zionist, and a longtime advocate for Israel--
is chief White House advisor on Iran. Most photos: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

Thanks to Brandon Stone, co-host of the program "Unusual Sources" on station CFMU-FM in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "Yum-Yum Tree") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

Feedback to kdowst at hotmail period com.
Free weekly NWN email newsletter on request.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. New World Notes' main audio archive is at radio4all.net. Installments beginning with #90 are archived also at The Internet Archive, in a variety of file formats. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.


Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • September 7 -- Labor Day Musical Special
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Saturday, August 21, 2010

Food, Hunger, and Globalized Corporate Agriculture (1)

New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 34 -- August 21, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #129, August 24 & 28:

Food, Hunger, and Globalized
Corporate Agriculture (1)

In brief

The price of food spiked in 2007-2008, greatly increasing hunger--and triggering food riots--worldwide. The riots drew attention to the bizarre system now in place, in which a handful of huge, vertically integrated corporations control food production and distribution globally. They are aided by corrupt transnational institutions such as the World Bank and corrupt national governments.

And financial speculators know that food bubbles can be just as profitable as high-tech bubbles and housing bubbles--even if they involve starving a few dozen million additional people.

This installment features a lively discussion of such matters by food-and-agriculture experts Katarina Wahlberg and Raj Patel (recorded in 2008) and a reading of Paul Craig Roberts' recent essay, "Chelsea's Wedding: Let Them Eat Cake."

Top: Church soup kitchen in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City.
Bottom: Somewhere in Africa. Most photos: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

This installment on agriculture is the first of a series. We'll have the next installment (insh'allah) in three weeks.

Thanks to the weekly radio program "Building Bridges," and to producers Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg, for the Wahlberg-Patel dialogue.

I have condensed Paul Craig Roberts' essay. The original is printed here. Thanks to Roberts and to counterpunch.org .

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "What, me worry?") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

Feedback to kdowst at hotmail period com.
Free weekly NWN email newsletter on request.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. New World Notes' main audio archive is at radio4all.net. Installments beginning with #90 are archived also at The Internet Archive, in a variety of file formats. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Bottom: In the background stands the Kansas National Guard Agribusiness
Development Team, shortly before being packed off to Afghanistan. What
the heck?? By now you know I'm not clever enough to make stuff like
this up. Check out the Official Story.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • August 31 -- The U.S. War Against Iran, featuring Phil Wilayto.
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Saturday, August 14, 2010

Class, Health, & Health Care



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 33 -- August 14, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #128, August 17 & 21:

Class, Health, & Health Care

In brief

In this installment, Canadian health-care activist Susan Rosenthal, MD, discusses

  • the horrors of working-class life in England during the Industrial Revolution (ca. 1845)
  • the problems with Canada's "single-payer" health-care system
  • how the profit motive and computers have brought us "assembly-line medicine" and
  • the successful health-care reforms established in Chile, under Allende, in the 1970s

From our telephone conversation of July 2.

Susan Rosenthal and her new book. The "read it now" link doesn't work
here. Try the links at susanrosenthal.com. Most photos: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

Susan Rosenthal's new book--Sick and Sicker: Essays on Class, Health and Health Care--is available in paperback (from her) or as a "Kindle" electronic book from Amazon.com. http://susanrosenthal.com/ .

Part 1 of our conversation, program installment #123, remains available.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "aegis") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

Feedback to kdowst at hotmail period com.
Free weekly NWN email newsletter on request.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. New World Notes' main audio archive is at radio4all.net. Installments beginning with #90 are archived also at The Internet Archive, in a variety of file formats. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Salvador Allende's government introduced sweeping reforms to the
health-care system in Chile in the 1970s--much to the displeasure of
the Chilean Medical Association. What the Chileans did we could do.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • August 24 -- Food, Hunger, and Globalized Agriculture.
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Saturday, August 7, 2010

Cell Phones



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 32 -- August 7, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #127, August 10 & 13:

Cell Phones

In brief

Trying to lighten up a bit, I look at consumer electronics, especially cell phones--and find myself in the midst of a bloodbath in Congo. There rival factions rape, mutilate, and slaughter the citizens, attempting to control the mines that produce minerals our gadgets require--tungsten, tin, tantalum, gold, and coltan. 5+ million have died. Consumers are pressuring electronics manufacturers to monitor their supply chains and to avoid purchasing Congolese "conflict minerals."

Contributors to this installment include Lisa F. Jackson, Nicholas Kristof, John Prendergast, Mac vs. PC, and Janis Joplin.

Top: Soldier or militiaman in Congo, 2008.
Bottom: human-rights crusader John Prendergast. (Yes,
the resemblance is striking.) Most photos: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

Clarification: Coltan is the ore from which the metal tantalum is refined. I didn't understand this when I recorded the program.

www.raisehopeforcongo.org

Passage by Lisa F. Jackson courtesy of Mike McCormick's program, Mind Over Matters. Nicholas Kristof's, "Death by Gadget" appeared in the New York Times "Week in Review" section, June 27, 2010, p. 11.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "counter") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. New World Notes' main audio archive is at radio4all.net. Installments beginning with #90 are archived also at The Internet Archive, in a variety of file formats. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Top: Children, reported to be slaves, mine coltan in Congo.
Bottom: Cell-phone recycling center.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • August 17 -- Dr. Susan Rosenthal, on the causes and cures of North America's bad health-care systems (Part 2).
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Friday, July 23, 2010

War Made Easy

List all installments archived on radio4all.net or archive.org

New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 30-31 -- July 24, 2010

This fortnight in New World Notes, radio programs #125-126, July 27 & August 3:

War Made Easy


In brief

A fine documentary film from 2007--slightly condensed and adapted for radio by yours, truly.

The film shows how lies and propaganda from the government and the media persuade Americans to support an endless succession of unnecessary wars abroad. It features commentary by Norman Solomon and Sean Penn plus much TV footage from the 1960s through 2007.

The very same propaganda techniques used to get us and keep us mired in the Vietnam War are being used today to support the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan--and to build support for near-future war with Iran.

Part One examines the lies & the propaganda techniques they use to get us into war. Part Two focuses on the propaganda techniques used to maintain public support for an ongoing war . . . and finally to keep the war going long after public opinion has turned against it.

Top: (Clockwise from top:) Master liar and war propagandist Lyndon B.
Johnson; commentator Norman Solomon; famed newscaster Walter
Cronkite, on location, promoting the war in Vietnam.
Bottom: Belgrade, 1999, bombarded by US/NATO air forces. Americans
were told this was in order to protect the Muslims in Bosnia from the
ethnic Serbs in Bosnia. Senior U.S. official Strobe Talbott later admitted
that the real reason was to punish Serbia for attempting to chart an
independent economic course. Serbia had refused to join the World
Trade Organization and the European Union.
Most photos: Click to enlarge.


Notes, credits, & links

The video War Made Easy was produced by the Media Education Foundation. It is online at the Web site of the U.K. organization, Make Wars History.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "Freedom of Information Act") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. New World Notes' main audio archive is at radio4all.net. Installments beginning with #90 are archived also at The Internet Archive, in a variety of file formats. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Bottom: Secretary of State Colin Powell, attempting to convince the
world that Iraq was awash in "weapons of mass destruction." The
foreign news media were skeptical, noting that Powell had presented
almost no real evidence for his claims. The U.S. media were practically
unanimous in praising Powell's "irrefutable," "masterful" presentation.
Remember?

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • August 10 -- Cell Phones

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Friday, July 16, 2010

It's Not Character Flaws: It's Policy



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 29 -- July 17, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #124, July 20:

It's Not Character Flaws:
It's Policy

Baghdad, 2003. All this mayhem because Bush is a dry drunk, and
Dad preferred Jeb? Most photos: Click to enlarge.

In brief

Pundits like to attribute bad government policies to supposed "character flaws" in the Chief Executive.

Bush smashed Iraq because he's a "dry drunk" who feels the need to prove himself to Dad (who always preferred Jeb)--the explanation goes. Not in order to increase U.S. control over the Middle East's countries and oil.

Why did Obama let Wall Street destroy the U.S. economy and then reward it with a gift of a trillion dollars? Why did he let Big Oil destroy the Gulf and our Gulf states? According to Times pundit Frank Rich, because Obama is "too deferential" to the opinons of experts. He's "too trusting" in the advice of his own staff. Character flaws. Not because Obama is a tool and handmaiden of Big Finance and Big Oil (both of which were also Big Campaign Contributors).

First I and then political scientist Michael Parenti argue that Presidents push bad policies in order to further benefit the ruling elite at the expense of the rest of us. I focus on Obama and include a reading from Frank Rich's preposterous op-ed, mentioned above. Parenti (speaking in January 2008) touches on G.W. Bush's economic policies, Iraq war, and ethnic cleansing of New Orleans. He argues that all were deliberate policies--ruthlessly executed and largely successful--not unfortunate results of character flaws.

Goldman Sachs and BP get away with murder because Barack Obama (top,
with Rahm Emanuel) is too deferential, too trusting of the advice of experts.
Or so pontificates New York Times columnist Frank Rich (bottom). The photo
of Obama appears to be the basis of the famous "Hope" campaign poster.


Notes, credits, & links

This week's music: Utah Phillips, NPR Talking Blues; and David Rovics, Before the Oil Wells Ran Dry

Michael Parenti's remarks--recorded January 22, 2008--courtesy of Maria Gilardin and TUC Radio.

Frank Rich's balderdash was from the New York Times "Week in Review" section, Sunday, June 6, 2010, p. 10.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "thumb") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Did FEMA "mismanage" the New Orleans disaster (bottom) owing to
"incompetence"? Michael Parenti has a contrary notion: letting the
poor neighborhoods of New Orleans drown was a ruthless act of
ethnic cleansing, gentrification, urban redevelopment, and
political realignment.

Coming soon (Tuesday broadcast debut dates shown)

  • July 27 and August 3 -- War Made Easy. A 2-part radio adaptation of this video documentary from 2007. Shows the techniques with which our government and our media drum up public support for war in a well-planned campaign of propaganda and lies. The same techniques are used each time. Features commentary by Norman Solomon and Sean Penn, plus much TV footage from the 1960s through 2007.

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Thursday, July 15, 2010

BP's Disaster in Our Gulf


Click and drag the slider for leak rates above USGS's/PBS's
lowball estimate. On June 2--when I first posted the Leak
Meter--USGS's estimate was only 540,000 gallons/day. USGS
(United States Geological Survey) is an agency of the United
States Government.

Update, June 18: The USGS estimate has been replaced
by a DoE estimate nearly twice as high. June 22: Now nearly
three times as high. Did I forget to mention that the USGS is
a sister agency to the Minerals Management Service? Both
are part of the Department of the Interior.


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Friday, July 9, 2010

Susan Rosenthal. M.D.: Curing Our Sick Health-Care System

In case of a problem with the links, above, try this link to our other archive:
List all installments archived on radio4all.net or archive.org.


New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 28 -- July 11, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #123, July 13:

Susan Rosenthal, M.D.:
Curing Our Sick
Health-Care System


In brief

Dr. Susan Rosenthal is a health-care-reform activist and a practicing physician, based in Ontario. Yep! even Canada is in need of radical health-care reform--to say nothing of us poor slobs south of the border, who can't even get "single-payer."

In a long phone conversation with me on July 2, Susan discussed North America's bad public health, bad heath-care systems, the cause of both, and what we can do to improve things.

Her new book on these subjects is Sick and Sicker: Essays on Class, Health and Health Care.

So that the suspense doesn't get unbearable (and further damage our health), I'll reveal that, in Susan's analysis, the cause of our bad health and bad health care is capitalism. Before you dismiss the idea as socialist propaganda, please listen to Susan's brilliant and cogent argument about why this is the case and how it works.

In this first of two installments we discuss the root cause of much disease--social inequality--the practice of psychiatry, why depression and other disorders are so common (and so poorly treated), and why, each year, for-profit medicine kills 23 times as many Americans as criminal use of firearms.

Top: Dr. Susan Rosenthal. Bottom: This illustration and the next by
David Dees. Dees is so right-wing, he's practically left-wing, if that
makes any sense to you. Most photos: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

This week's music: David Rovics, Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Susan's Sick and Sicker: Essays on Class, Health and Health Care is available in paperback (from her) or as a "Kindle" electronic book from Amazon. For more information, please see http://www.susanrosenthal.com/ .

The second installment based on our interview will probably appear in August.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "table") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive (archive.org). Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.


Coming soon

  • July 20 -- Character Flaws. Don't believe the propaganda that attributes destructive national policies to supposed weakneses or other character flaws of the Chief Executive. Bush didn't invade Iraq because he's a dry drunk who's competing with Dad. Obama isn't letting Big Finance and Big Oil get away with murder because he's "too deferential, too trusting of the advice of experts," as Frank Rich would have you believe. Bad policies are enacted because they profit the powerful. Michael Parenti and I elaborate.

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Thursday, July 1, 2010

The Culture of Celebrity: A Second Look


New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 26 -- July 3, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #122, July 6:

The Culture of Celebrity:
A Second Look

In brief

The corporate media enthusiastically promote "the culture of celebrity." This culture does worse than yield trivial entertainment. It make people more passive and powerless, more inclined to blame only themselves for their misfortunes, less able to organize and fight back against The System. Celebrity Culture is a tool used to pacify the masses. Or so argues journalist-prophet Chris Hedges.

We'll hear more of Hedges' October 14 talk in Winnipeg. This week Hedges focuses on Michael Jackson's career and especially on his funeral-- "a variety show with a coffin." (Other parts of this talk are in New World Notes #115.) I'll add additional specific examples--a few dozen headlines from a popular news-and-entertainment Web site--and some commentary.

Top: American Idol, 2010, Lee DeWyze.
Bottom: Miley Cyrus.
Most photos: Click to enlarge.

Notes, Credits, & Links

This week's music: I read a few dozen celebrity-culture headlines over a "bed" of hit instrumentals by The Ventures. They are, in order: Wipe Out; Pipeline; Walk, Don't Run; and Out of Limits.

Hedges' speech was recorded on October 14, 2009, by Ethan Osland, of Black Mask Winnipeg. Thanks to Ethan and Black Mask for permission to rebroadcast.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "first floor") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

New World Notes is archived at both radio4all.net and The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

Coming Soon -- Tuesday debut date shown:

  • July 13 -- Interview with health-care activist Susan Rosenthal, M.D., on her new book, Sick and Sicker: Essays on Class, Health and Health Care

Top: Michael Jackson. Bottom: Chris Hedges.

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