Friday, March 15, 2013

Capitalism, Democracy, and Environmental Catastrophe

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New World Notes News
Vol. 6, No.11 -- March 15, 2013

This week in New World Notes, radio program #263, March 19, 2013

Capitalism, Democracy, and Environmental Catastrophe


In brief

Invited to speak on "the future of capitalism," Noam Chomsky first shows that the actual U.S. economic system is very far from real "capitalism." It is essentially socialism-for-corporations. And the political system actually in place is far from "democracy." Chomsky shows why "plutocracy" is the more accurate term.

So Chomsky will discuss not actual capitalism or actual democracy but instead what he calls "really existing capitalist democracy"--the system that actually exists in the United States.

Alas, its future--and that of the planet--seem grim. Chomsky describes how--for the sake of short-term profit--the leaders of the world's most advanced (alleged) capitalist democracy are working hard to bring about environmental catastrophe as rapidly as possible.

In this powerful and moving speech Chomsky again displays his typical clarity, mastery of fact, and deadpan ironic wit.


Notes, credits, & links

Chomsky spoke at Northeastern University, in Boston, on February 25, 2013. Recorded on location by Chuck Rosina.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "spreading chestnut tree") 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. 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. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

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)
  • March 26 -- TBA
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Friday, March 8, 2013

GMOs (3): Health Dangers

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New World Notes News
Vol. 6, No. 10 -- March 8, 2013

This week in New World Notes, radio program #262, March 12, 2013

GMOs (3): Health Dangers


In brief

More from Gary Null's documentary, GMO: Ticking Time Bomb (part 4 & some of part 3). Focus is on the environmental damage and health risks--both of the genetically modified crops themselves and of the potent herbicides that are used to grow them.

Most GMOs are genetically modified in order to survive exposure to toxic herbicides such as Monsanto's "Roundup"--not to increase yield, improve drought resistance, resist blight, or any other arguably-good reason.

This installment includes a prologue by KD and a brief news story about a new GMO labeling bill just introduced in Connecticut.


Notes, credits, & links

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "unisex bathroom") 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. 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. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

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)
  • March 19 -- Noam Chomsky

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Saturday, March 2, 2013

GMOs (2): Corruption

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New World Notes News
Vol. 6, No. 9 -- March 2, 2013

This week in New World Notes, radio program #261, March 5, 2013

GMOs (2): Corruption

Arpad Pusztai

In brief

This week we'll hear more from the video documentary, GMO: Ticking Time Bomb (part 2 & some of part 3). We'll focus on the corrupt politics, corrupt science, and corporate strong-arm tactics--especially by Monsanto Corp.--that got genetically-modified food crops approved and established in the U.S. despite the absence of safety testing.

Includes the stories of (and remarks by) two noted opponents of GM crops: Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser and scientist Arpad Pusztai.

Percy Schmeiser's canola crop was genetically contaminated with patented genes from Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" canola, which grew in a neighboring field. When Schmeiser saved and replanted the seeds from his contaminated crop, Monsanto successfully sued him for patent infringement.

Research in Scotland by biologist Arpad Pusztai indicated that eating genetically modified potatoes damaged the immune system of rats. When Pusztai publicized his findings, he was fired from Aberdeen's prestigious Rowett Research Institute.

Introductory remarks by K.D.

Percy Schmeiser

Notes, credits, & links

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "benign neglect") 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. 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. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

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)
  • March 12 -- GMOs (3): Health Dangers
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Saturday, February 16, 2013

Consumed

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New World Notes News
Vol. 6, Nos. 7-8 -- February 16, 2013

This fortnight in New World Notes, radio programs #259-260, February 19 & 26

C o n s u m e d
in Two Parts

In brief

Consumerism and overconsumption, from the perspective of "evolutionary psychology." This two-part series features the video documentary, Consumed: Inside the Belly of the Beast.

I'm not so sure of the "evolutionary" part of "evolutionary psychology." People act in certain ways, and it's hard to see what is gained by asserting that we act that way because, through natural selection, we evolved to act that way. But there's much more to the movie than this--and the conventional psychology, sociology, and economic history brought to bear here all seem insightful.

As Annie Leonard puts it (in The Story of Stuff), we're trashing the planet, and we're not even having fun. So why can't we stop? Well, maybe we can.

Plus additional reflections by K.D. And, in Part 2, also some commentary by philosopher/economist Charles Eisenstein.

Notes, credits, & links

Adapted to radio by K.D. Thanks to Robin Upton for introducing me to the video. Robin's own radio adaptation of Consumed may be found in installment #634 of his show, Unwelcome Guests, available at www.unwelcomeguests.net .

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "bad influence") 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. 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. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

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)
  • March 5 -- GMOs-2
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Friday, February 8, 2013

GMOs

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New World Notes News
Vol. 6, No. 6 -- February 8, 2013

This week in New World Notes, radio program #258, February 12, 2013

GMOs


First some reflections on the antiGMO: local produce--now but a fond memory here in New England. Then we look at GMOs--genetically-modified plants sold as food.

The show includes TV-news and press coverage on failed GMO labelling bills in California and Connecticut--and on guerilla labellers stalking Connecticut's supermarket aisles. Plus selections from Gary Null's video documentary, GMO: Ticking Time Bomb.

Notes, credits, & links

IMHO, some of GMO: Ticking Time Bomb (Part 1) is best viewed while wearing a tinfoil hat, though much of it seems very sound indeed. Our show rebroadcasts only the latter. The complete video is here.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "very noses") 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. 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. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

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)
  • February 19 & 26 -- Consumed
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Saturday, January 26, 2013

Global Crises and the End of Growth

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New World Notes News
Vol. 6, No. 5-6 -- January 2, 2013

This fortnight in New World Notes, radio programs #256-257, January 29 & February 5

Global Crises and the End of Growth:
A Talk by Richard Heinberg, in Two Parts 

In brief

In Part 1, Richard Heinberg, of the Post Carbon Institute, discusses today's intersecting global crises. These are the end of cheap energy, runaway global debt, and climate change (plus maybe overpopulation).

Then he identifies an underlying cause of all three crises--an economic system that demands and depends on constant, compounding growth.

In Part 2 , Heinberg talks more about the requirement for constant growth in a capitalist economic system. But our finite planet is at or near the limit of growth it can sustain. Can we create an economy and a culture that do not depend on economic growth? Heinberg explores the possibilities.

Notes, credits, & links

Heinberg's talk is titled "Life After Growth: Why the Economy is Shrinking and What to Do About It." He gave it in Chicago on November 2, 2012. It was recorded by Kelly Pierce, of the Chicago Independent Media Center, and previously broadcast on Alex Smith's Radio Ecoshock Show (www.ecoshock.org). Thanks to all concerned.

Richard Heinberg is Senior Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute.

http://richardheinberg.com/

On-air, in Part 1, I incorrectly give the date of Heinberg's speech as November 22, 2012. It was November 2.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "false promises") 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. 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. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

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)
  • February 12 -- GMOs
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Friday, January 18, 2013

MLK vs. the War Machine

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New World Notes News
Vol. 6, No. 3 -- January 18, 2013

This week in New World Notes, radio program #255, January 22, 2013

MLK vs. the War Machine


  • "I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent." -- M.L.K.
By 1967, Martin Luther King had realized he could no longer focus on narrow "civil rights" issues such as voting rights and housing. He had to oppose larger injustices including rampant militarism, the military-industrial-Congressional complex, and a U.S. foreign policy of eternal war.

And a major U.S. war was then raging, in Vietnam.

We rebroadcast large portions of MLK's most important speech against U.S. war and militarism--the portions most obviously relevant to U.S. domestic and foreign policies today.

He spoke at Riverside Church, New York City, on April 4, 1967. His hour-long speech was titled, "Beyond Vietnam--A Time to Break Silence."

King's speech was denounced by the Establishment media. For example, Life Magazine judged it "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi."


Notes, credits, & links

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "boiler room") 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. 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. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

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.
Above: With Malcolm X, March 1964. Below: Delivering
"Beyond Vietnam" at Riverside Church, April 4, 1967

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • January 29 & February 5 -- Richard Heinberg on Global Crises and the End of Growth
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Saturday, January 12, 2013

Jobs

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New World Notes News
Vol. 6, No. 2 -- January 12, 2013

This week in New World Notes, radio program #254, January 15, 2013

Jobs


Which is worse: a job where your bosses are idiots, you don't have a prayer of success, it's 110 degrees, sex is a distant memory, once in awhile people shoot at you, and the nearest bottle of beer is 100 miles away? ... Or unemployment?

That's a close call. Listen and decide for yourself.

This week we look at jobs, unemployment, and federal policies that affect the economy. We start with a good short movie by Progressive economists ECON 4. They say that the country's budget deficit is not an important economic problem. The main economic problem is widespread unemployment, and increased government spending should be part of the cure. Politicians of both parties are lying.

Then we hear about a really bad job--in both senses of the term. KD reviews a scathing and very funny book, full of first-hand details of how the State Department botched Iraq reconstruction--written by a foreign service officer on the scene who helped botch it. (We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, by Peter Van Buren, Metropolitan Books, 2011)

Below: Former General Motors (Fisher Body) factory, Detroit

Notes, credits, & links

econ4.org

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "Executive Dining Room") 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. 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. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

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.
Above: More lies from the State Department?
Pictured are Peter Van Buren and (below) his book.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • January 22 -- MLK vs. the War Machine
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Saturday, January 5, 2013

Glenn Greenwald on Civil Liberties

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New World Notes News
Vol. 6, No. 1 -- January 5, 2013

This week in New World Notes, radio program #253, January 8, 2013

Glenn Greenwald
on Civil Liberties


A rousing talk by investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald.

Greenwald explains what "civil liberties" are and why they're worth fighting for. Then he describes the government's systematic destruction of Americans' civil liberties since 9-11-2001. He shows how they got away with it, what the consequences are (all of them bad), and how the people can fight back.

Recorded live in New Britain, Connecticut, on December 8, 2012.

Above: Glenn Greenwald

Notes, credits, & links

Many thanks to John Schwenk, who recorded the speech on location.

Greenwald spoke at a conference on civil liberties--"An Injury to One Is an Injury to All"--organized by the Connecticut Coalition to Stop Indefinite Detention.

I snipped out a small amount of the speech to fit our timeslot.

Glenn Greenwald practiced civil-rights and Constitutional law. He is currently a columnist for The Guardian (London).

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "imprimatur") 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. 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. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

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)
  • January 15 -- Jobs
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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Saturday, December 29, 2012

Crime Potpourri

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New World Notes News
Vol. 5, No. 52 -- December 29, 2012

This week in New World Notes, radio program #252, January 1, 2013

Crime Potpourri


We look at crime at several levels: retail (the Newtown murders), wholesale (the entertainment industry), bigger wholesale (the financial system), and factory-direct (the Federal Government).

Segments include
  • KD's reflections on the Newtown murders and why the proposed new gun-control laws have zero relevance
  • a new David Rovics song on the Entertainment Biz
  • a short movie by Econ4 on the government-assisted crimes of Wall Street
  • a good essay by Paul Craig Roberts on Hugo Chavez vs. the Washington DC gang
Above: Paul Craig Roberts. Below: David Rovics.

Notes, credits, & links

* Note to broadcast stations: UNbleeped version of the show's audio includes the song lyric, "It's the rich who line their pockets while the rest of us get screwed." The BLEEPed version bleeps out "screwed."

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "Boardwalk") 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. 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. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

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.

Above: Top Citicorp directors at work. Below: Scene from the Nuremberg II Trials. Social anthropologist Elliott Leyton correctly notes that--while "retail" mass-murderers get all the publicity--the biggest mass-murderers are national governments.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • January 8 -- TBA
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net
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