Showing posts with label Dowst. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dowst. Show all posts

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.
Catch New World Notes(all times Eastern):



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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.
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):



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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).
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):




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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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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, June 17, 2010

David Ray Griffin on 9/11 and Afghanistan



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 24-25 -- June 19 & 26, 2010

This Fortnight in New World Notes, radio programs #120 & 121, June 22 & 29:

David Ray Griffin
on 9/11 and
Afghanistan


Executive Summary

The distinguished professor of philosophy of science and philosophy of religion (emeritus) David Ray Griffin--one of the leading scholars in the so-called "9/11 Truth" movement--spoke at the University of Hartford on May 7. Two installments of the show will broadcast major portions of Griffin's lucid, fact-filled, carefully reasoned, witty and fascinating speech. He gave it the title, "Is the War in Afghanistan justified by 9/11?"

Griffin is a meticulous and judicious scholar, and his evidence is from reliable sources--much of it from official U.S. Government documents. When he discusses 9/11, Griffin is not advancing his own pet theory of what happened so much as demolishing the Crackpot Conspiracy Theory proffered by the media, the government, and the 9/11 Commission.

* * *

In Part 1 (NWN # 120), Griffin shows that the war in Afghanistan (like the one in Iraq) is based on lies--lies Obama continues to recite. In fact, Bush authorized the invasion 2 months before 9/11 and scheduled it for October.

Griffin then focuses on 9/11, demonstrating that the government has made public no credible evidence that (1) bin Laden was involved or that (2) Muslims hijacked the four planes or that (3) any of the 19 alleged hijackers were on any of the 4 flights.

U.S. Marines in Afghanistan.
Most photos: Click to enlarge.

In Part 2 (NWN #121), Griffin continues to demolish the Official Story of 9/11. He shows that cell-phone calls to passengers' relatives could not have been made from the four flights--as the FBI also has concluded. We know of hijackers only from these faked calls.

We know of boxcutters only from one call--allegedly made on a cell phone by Barbara Olson, on Flight 77, to her husband Ted, a high official in the Bush Administration and reported by Ted. The FBI eventually concluded that no such call was made (and the aircraft did not have seatback phones).

In fact, Griffin argues, no good evidence has been made public that any highjackings occurred, and some evidence indicates that none did. Of the eight pilots, not one entered the "Hijacking-in-Progress" code ("7500") into the plane's transponder.

Dr. David Ray Griffin in West Hartford, May 7, 2010.

Notes, credits, & links

Audio recording and photos of Griffin by Kenneth Dowst.

I have condensed the talk and omitted its final third, which concerns the mysterious collapse of WTC Building 7. (I will probably broadcast this at a future date.) The entire speech including introduction and Q&A--uncut, unedited; 2 hours 16 minutes--is available as a 128 kbps mp3 (128 MB).

Here's a short annotated bibliography of some good online resources on 9/11.

In August 2009, New World Notes broadcast a pair of shows as an intruduction to "9/11 Truth." Their blog entries (Web pages) are here and here. Each page includes links to the recorded audio.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "long-suffering sighs") 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.

Signing books, May 7, 2010

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Thursday, June 10, 2010

Is It Time To Impeach Obama?



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 24 -- June 12, 2010

This Week in New World Notes, radio program #119, June 15:

Is It Time To
Impeach Obama?


In brief

Racist, right-wing crackpots are loudly denouncing Obama. That shouldn't stop Progressives from doing the same--though on different grounds. On every major issue, the difference between the Bush Administration's policies and the Obama Administration's policies is negligible.

In this installment, I critique Andrew Sullivan's brief but preposterous op-ed praising the Administration's Progressive accomplishments. Tissues of lies and distortions don't come much better than this one!

Then journalist David Lindorff describes (to interviewer Michael Slate) the several criminal and/or impeachable offenses the Obama Administration is committing at home. And he explains why Obama's war in Afghanistan consists of war crimes piled atop still more war crimes, according to both international and U.S. Law.

Finally, I read Margaret Kimberley's scathing critique of a new "Presidential power" Obama is asserting: the power to order the assassination of any U.S. citizen he chooses to label a terrorist. No evidence needed, no trial....


We didn't have time to get to Obama's moves to dismantle Social Security (a bipartisan advisory panel on "entitlements" has been established) and to privatize public education (the focus and apparent intent of the "Race to the Top" scheme).

Notes, credits, & links

This week's song: Bruce Cockburn, Call It Democracy

Thanks to The Michael Slate Show for the good interview with Lindorff (April 14, 2010), from which I rebroadcast excerpts.

Margaret Kimberley's "Obama's Murder Inc" is from Black Agenda Report, February 9, 2010.

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

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.

Top: Native-born U.S. citizen Anwar al Awlaki. Obama has ordered
his assassination--the 5th and 14th Amendments be damned!--and at
least one (unsuccessful) attempt was made.


Coming Soon -- Tuesday debut dates shown:

  • June 22 & 29 -- David Ray Griffin on 9/11 and the War in Afghanistan -- recorded live in West Hartford, April 7, 2010

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):




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Friday, May 21, 2010

Bruce Gagnon on Endless War and the Economy



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 21 -- May 23, 2010

This Fortnight in New World Notes, radio programs #116-117, May 25 & June 1:

Bruce Gagnon on
Endless War and
the Economy


In brief

Anti-war and anti-nuke activist Bruce Gagnon (pronounced GAG-non) explains how militarism and endless war are detroying the American economy and the lives of Americans.

In Part 1 (NWN #116), he discusses his radicalization during his own military service . . . and the connections among our crumbling infrastructure, increasing unemployment, decreasing educational opportunities for working-class kids, the increasing militarization of our society, the export of weapons (our #1 export), aggressive U.S. foreign policy, corporate globalization, our ruling elites' desire to control the world's oil supply, . . . and the wisdom of Progressives' forming alliances with the "Tea-partiers."

In Part 2, (NWN #117), Gagnon discusses the destabilization of the world by (a) the globalization and expansion of NATO and (b) the US's encircling Russia and China with "missile defense" installations. He discusses the increasing dependence of public universities on funding from the Pentagon (in exchange for secret war research); ... the joint support by Republicans and Democrats alike for "free-market" capitalism, oligarchy, and military empire; ... how spending on peaceful projects creates many more jobs than "defense" spending; ... and why his nickname for Obama is "The Magician."

Top: Gagnon in 2004. Bottom: Aegis-class destroyer USS Oscar
Austin leaves the Bath (Maine) Iron Works. Balloons for the kiddies
of Gagnon's home town. Maine's principal exports appear to be
Aegis destroyers and potatoes. Most graphics: Click to enlarge.


Notes and credits

No song on #116 (apart from a bit of Little Stevie Wonder on the "outro"). #117's song: David Rovics, After the Revolution

Recorded live at Saint James Church, West Hartford, Connecticut, by moi, on April 16, 2010. Bruce's talk was sponsored by the West Hartford Citizens for Peace and Justice (http://www.westhartfordpeace.org/ ).

#117 includes only one question from the very good Q&A. The entire Q&A (34 minutes--uncut & unedited) will be uploaded as a separate file along with #117 (link at the top of this page).

Bruce Gagnon is Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.

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.

To send feedback, you can post a Comment to this page or else email kdowst at hotmail period com.

Free weekly NWN email newsletter on request.

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: Aegis-class destroyer Decatur touches off an SM-3 "missile defense"
missile. Bottom: Why "we" are in Afghanistan. The red curve shows the
desired oil and gas pipeline from the Caspian Basin to the Sea of Arabia.
A shorter route through Iran seems to have been Not An Option.


Coming Soon -- Tuesday debut dates shown:

  • June 2 -- Civil-liberties activist Paul Siegel on Gay Rights As a First-Amendment Issue.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

Bruce Gagnon in South Korea, 2009. I'm not sure what "UFG" stands for,
but it almost certainly involves more US military/naval bases in that
small & oppressed country. When will the U.S. government withdraw
its troops from Iraq? Hell, after 57 years, it still hasn't withdrawn them
from Korea!
Postscript, May 24: A friend, knowledgeable about Korea, sent a
newspaper story on UFG. It stands for Ulji Freedom Guardian. It's a
joint training program for South Korean and "allied" (U.S. and/or NATO)
troops. Officially, they're training to defend South Korea from invasion
from the North. Skeptics believe that they're actually training to invade
North Korea. In either case, UFG is further destabilizing a region that had
little stability to begin with.


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