The Torch – 06.04.17

James S. Henry is a leading economist, attorney and investigative journalist who has written extensively about global issues. James served as Chief Economist at the international consultancy firm McKinsey & Co. As an investigative journalist his work has appeared in numerous publications like Forbes, The Nation and The New York Times. He was the lead researcher of the recently released …

The Torch – 04.16.17

Khaled Sayed is an award-winning documentary director, who worked as a lawyer in Egypt before he moved to the United States, where he studied Multimedia production at San Francisco State University. Khaled Sayed Filmmaker Egypt: The Story Behind the Revolution Filmed primarily in Egypt in March of 2011, soon after the January revolution, this film introduces you to Egyptians who lived …

The Torch – 04.09.17

Mike Roselle is an environmental activist and one of the co-founders of the radical environmental organization Earth First!, as well as of Rainforest Action Network, the Ruckus Society, and Climate Ground Zero. He has spent over thirty years fighting back against big business, negligent management and the lawless actions of the government itself for the safety and preservation the earth. …

The Torch – 03.19.17

Jeff Ruch is Executive Director of Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility – PEER. Prior to that Jeff was the Policy Director and
a staff attorney at the Government Accountability Project representing
whistleblowers from both the public and private sector. PEER advocated
against the political manipulation science, defending whistleblowers,
protecting public health and shielding scientists from interference in
the public sector.
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Ruthie Epstein is deputy advocacy director at the New York Civil
Liberties Union. She lobbied for reforms to the criminal justice and
immigration systems, as well as coordinating the organization’s
response to the 2014 Central American refugee crisis at the southern
border. From 2005 to 2013, she worked at Human Rights First in New
York City, advocating for protections in the U.S. refugee and asylum
systems.

The Torch – 03.12.17

Sunsara  Taylor She is an organizer with Refuse Fascism, which described its objective as “Stop Trump/Pence Fascism”.  As a representative of the group, she spoke at the 2017 Women’s March on Washington, protested outside Trump Tower and tweeted video of protesters burning the United States flag,[12] and later drew media attention after comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler during an …

The Torch – 02.26.17

Opening; Welcome to The Torch, shining a blazing light of truth on the
murky waters of modern American politics. Comments are welcome Tweet
me @(at)pderienzo The issues today, What is Fascism and is President
Donal Trump a fascist, a harbinger of fascism or something different
altogether. Out guests this afternoon are distinguished historian at
Columbia University and author, among many books, of “The Anatomy of
Fascism.”What is fascism? By focusing on the concrete: what the fascists did,
rather than what they said, the esteemed historian Robert O. Paxton
answers this question for the first time. From the first violent
uniformed bands beating up “enemies of the state,” through Mussolini’s
rise to power, to Germany’s fascist radicalization in World War II,
Paxton shows clearly why fascists came to power in some countries and
not others, and explores whether fascism could exist outside the
early-twentieth-century European setting in which it emerged.