Progressive Commentary Hour – 06.21.16

Guest #1 – Derrick Jensen has become one of the nation’s leading voices of cultural and environmental dissent, who writes about civilization devastating impact upon the environment and the natural world, and our society’s denial of that fact. Utne Reader listed Derrick among the 50 visionaries changing the world. In sharp contrast to environmental optimists who believe working within the corporate system will offset the tenuous planetary balance threatened by climate change, Derrick has advocated for many years a “dismantling of civilization” which can include radical dissent as well as imparting wisdom to our children. Derrick has written many books influential books. His recently released “The Myth of Human Supremacy” may be perhaps be one of his important that goes to heart of the rapid pace in environmental and ecological degradation. He also hosts a weekly radio program, Resistance Radio, on the Progressive Radio Network every Sunday evening at 6:00 pm Eastern time. His website is www.DerrickJensen.org

Guest #2 – Diana Beresford-Kroeger is an Irish-Canadian researcher, scientist and nature mystic who perhaps knows more about trees and forests than anyone in North America. She is an expert botanist and medical biochemist who has written extensively on the molecular biology of trees, their medicinal properties, the social interactions between trees and other life forms in our forests, sustainable forestry, and the traditional wisdom trees hold for healing. Her scientific work has appeared in The American Heart Journal and the Journal of Microscopy. In past she has held science posts at the Canadian Department of Agriculture and the University of Ottawa School of Medicine. Diana’s research gardens outside Ottawa, open to the public, include rare plants from Turkey, Iran, China, and a hundred rare types of trees from the northern forests and other countries, many that are endangered. Her latest book, “The Sweetness of a Simple Life.” And a documentary on Diana’s work across many nations to restore forests, “The Call of the Forest” is scheduled to be released in Fall. More about her work can be found at StuartBernstein.com/DianaBeresford-Kroeger.html

Progressive Commentary Hour – 06.14.16

Abby Martin has rapidly become a leading international voice among young American journalists and television hosts. She currently hosts the weekly investigative news program The Empire Files on the pan-Latin American network Telesur TV English out of Caracas Venezuela. The program features hard hitting investigative history and insights into subjects ignored by mainstream corporate media. Earlier she was the host of Breaking the Set on the Russia Today network, better known as RT. Abby is a founder of the organization Media Roots that supports citizen journalism, and serves on the board of the Media Freedom Foundation which manages Project Censored, which airs on the PRN network; and she also co-directed the film “99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaboration.” The Empire Files series can be viewed at TheEmpireFiles.tv, past Breaking the Set shows can be seen on Youtube, and her personal website as an accomplished visual artist is AbbyMartin.org

Progressive Commentary Hour – 06.07.16

Guest #1 – Kevin Hinchey is a film directory, professor of cinemaphotography and a director of the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust that managers the Wilhelm Reich archives at Harvard University’s Countway Library of medicine. He also operates the Wilhelm Reich museum in Rangeley Maine. Kevin has a masters from NYU’s Graduate Film School and has worked as a screenwriter in Los Angeles and New York City and currently teaches film making and courses about Reich in Connecticut and Massachusetts. His lecture series, TheTrue Story of Government Ordered Bookburning in America, about the destruction of tons of Reich’s works is a warning of scientific totalitarianism. Kevin is currently editing a full featured documentary about the life and thought and research of Wilhelm Reich – the Wilhelm Reich Documentary Film Project. To help fund the project, visit https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/wilhelm-reich-documentary-film-project-edit-phase–7#/

Guest #2 – Professor James (Jim) Strick teaches in the department of earth environment studies at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster Pennsylvania, where is also the Chair of the Program in Science and Technologhy. Dr. Strick was trained in microbiology and has specialized in the history science, the history of biological ideas and experimentation into life. Jim holds degrees SUNY, two masters degrees – one in history from Princeton University and another in environmental sciences from SUNY, and doctorate in history from Princeton. He has published volumes about Darwin, Astrobiology and NASA, the debate about the origins of life and an excellent volume about Wilhelm Reich – Wilhelm Reich Biologist” – published by Harvard Press. He is an advisor of the journal ISIS from the History of Science Society and has published articles in numerous professional journals.

Progressive Commentary Hour – 05.31.16

Charles Ortel is a former Wall Street banker, having been a Managing Director at Dillon Read and Newport Value Partners, and private financial investor. In 2007 he became a whistleblower and was instrumental in bringing down General Electric after revealing GE’s fraudulently overvaluing its stock by many billions of dollars to mislead its investors. For the past fifteen months, Charles has been undertaking a thorough review of the financial records and collaborations and networks of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. His analysis investigated the Foundation’s fundraising practices, its allies and associates, its so-called charitable interests, and its political and corporate connections both in Washington and overseas. He received his BA from Yale and an MBA from Harvard Business School. His weekly blog exposing the Clinton Foundation can be found at CharlesOrtel.com

Progressive Commentary Hour – 05.24.16

Conchita Sarnoff is the executive director of the Alliance to Rescue Victims of Trafficking, a non profit organization based in Washington DC with a mission to increase political and public awareness about human trafficking and child sex trafficking in particular. A large part of the organization’s work is rescue girls between the ages of 6 and 12 in North America. She broke the story in 2010 about billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophilia ring. She has been a contributor to the Financial Times, Latin America Herald Tribune, the Huffington Post, Daily Beast and other publications and has appeared as a television commentator on NBC, Fox, ABC, Russia TV among others. Conchita graduated from Columbia University with a degree in political science and received additional credentials from the Harvard Business School. This month she published her book “Trafficking” – which takes a hard look at the underground of child sex trafficking and highlights the case of Jeffrey Epstein, a close confidante of Bill Clinton. Her websites are ConchitaSarnoff.com and ATRVT.org

Progressive Commentary Hour – 05.17.16

On the “Progressive Commentary Hour,” Gary talks about the European Union and what will happen if the TIPP comes to exist.

Here is the full video for you to enjoy: BREXIT – The Full Movie. BREXIT, the movie is a feature-length documentary film to inspire as many people as possible to vote to LEAVE the EU in the June 23rd referendum.

Gary plays two great clips from Noam Chosky and Yanis Varoufakis. Here is the info and links for them:

VIDEO: Noam Chomsky on why TIPP is not a trade agreement – “Highly protectionist” and “for the benefit of private powers”

VIDEO: Yanis Varoufakis on Hillary Clinton – Ex-Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis had a few choice things to say about Hillary Clinton. Video from Business Insider.
Lastly on today’s show, Gary talks to the great Greg Palast. Here is a brief bio of Greg:

Greg Palast is a journalist’s journalist whose news breaking stories and investigations have appeared on BBC, the Guardian, Al-Jazeera, now Rolling Stone and others. The Tribune in the UK has called Greg “the most important investigative journalist in our time.” Greg broke the stories of voter theft in Florida districts during the 2000 Bush-Gore election, BP’s corruption over the Deep Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf, the Bush administration’s secret pre-invasion plans to capture Iraq’s oil fields, and US’s attempted coups against Hugo Chavez. He has won many awards including the George Orwell award for Courage in Journalism. He holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago and authored several books including “Billionaires and Ballot Bandits” and “Armed Madhouse” and “Vulture’s Picnic.” He is currently making a new full feature documentary – the Best Democracy Money Can Buy. You can read Greg’s reports at GregPalast.com

Progressive Commentary Hour – 05.10.16

On today’s Progressive Commentary Hour, Gary spoke about these articles and spoke with Dr.Jim Garrison,

The collapse of the middle-class job

Sadistic capitalism: Six urgent matters for humanity in global crisis

Gary went to his guest now and here is his bio:

Dr. Jim Garrison is the founding President of Ubiquity University and the Wisdom School of Graduate Studies, an international school of higher education built upon innovative principles of whole brain and whole system learning. The university operates on four continents with partners in the EU, India, Mexico, South Africa, Russia, Vietnam and others. As the co-founder and President of the Gorbachev Foundation, Jim was instrumental in the founding of the State of the World Forum to lay a template for a more sustainable global civilization. In the late 80s he served as the executive director of the Esalen Institute Soviet-American Exchange, and founded the International Foreign Policy Association in collaboration with Secretary of State George Schultz and Georgian President Edward Shevardnadze. He is the author of “America as Empire: Global Leader or Rogue Power? and “Civilization and the Transformation of Power” Jim has graduate degrees in religion and theology from Harvard and Cambridge universities. His websites are WisdomUniversity.org and UbiquityUniversity.org

This is article Jim Garrison spoke about:

Democracies end when they are too democratic.

Progressive Commentary Hour – 05.03.16

Today on the “Progressive Commentary Hour,” Gary plays a great Video/Audio clip. Listen or if you like, Click on the link below and watch it instead:

VIDEO: How the FBI Sabotaged Black America

DESCRIPTION: Documentary by Gil Noble on the intentional destruction of Black America by the FBI using infiltration, counter-intelligence programs and drugs. From Marcus Garvey to Paul Robeson to Martin Luther King to Malcolm X to Fred Hampton, to the Black Panthers to heroin and crack, the FBI has worked to destroy black people. Includes interview with Darthard Perry, Ex-informer for the FBI.

Progressive Commentary Hour – 04.26.16

Today on the “Progressive Commentary Hour” Gary continues his great series, Conversations With Remarkable Minds.

Tonight from Australia we have John Pilger discussing “The rise of the world’s new ruling elite and the misery left in the wake of their climb to the top.”

First we played this You Tube clip of John from 2009 and then spoke to John for about 30 minutes: Here is John’s bio and a link to the video. Enjoy.

VIDEO: John Pilger – Obama & Empire

BIO:

John Pilger is one of the world’s most renowned investigative journalists and documentary filmmakers. Originally from Australia, John started his career with Reuters and the London Daily Mail, becoming its chief foreign correspondent and reporting from all over the world, notably Vietnam. He is the youngest journalist to receive the UK’s highest Journalist of the Year Award. He has reported on the civil rights movement in the US, marched to Washington following the assassination of Martin Luther King, reported from many war zones including Indonesia, Cambodia and the Middle East and conducted a 4 year investigation into the damage caused by the drug Thalidomide. John’s documentary films include coverage about the catastrophe in Cambodia, the genocide in East Timor, and several about the history of Australia and human rights abuses against Australia’s original Aboriginal population. His books have covered Iraq, Kosovo, and critiques of liberal media. Recently, one of John’s most important books — “The New Rulers of the World” — that exposes the underpinnings and motives of modern imperialism and the global economy has been updated and released. It is regarded by many as one of the most important investigations about postmodern power. John’s website is JohnPilger.com

Progressive Commentary Hour – 04.19.16

Gary spoke for the whole hour with the great Professor, William Robinson. Here is a bio on him:
Prof William Robinson is Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is also the university’s faculty of Latin American Studies and in the Global and International Studies Program. He describes himself as a scholar-activist, who is deeply involved in American domestic and Third World struggles for social justice, popular empowerment of populations and participatory democracy and government. His areas of focus include globalization, transnationalism, political economics, immigration and a variety of sociological issues. William received his graduate degrees from the University of New Mexico, and has published eight books, his latest being “Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity.”

His website is SOC.UCSB.edu/Faculty/Robinson