VE 105 Politics (encore)
James Grundvig – The Militarization of the CDC Zika, Money, Quarantine Power
In yet another end-round play by the Obama Administration, on Friday of Labor Day weekend where hot topics are dumped (Hillary Clinton’s email interview with the FBI) to go die before the next news cycle begins, it was announced that $300 million in “public health emergency” funding was earmarked for Japan’s Takeda to manufacture a new Zika vaccine. No need …
Climate Nexus – 3 Tropical Storms Threaten U.S. for First Time in Recorded History
For the first time in recorded history, three tropical storm systems are threatening the U.S. simultaneously and a fourth could quickly join the ranks. Two back-to-back storms—currently Hurricanes Madeline and Lester—could hit Hawaii’s Big Island this week, while two others are forecast to impact North Carolina and Florida’s Gulf Coast. If either storm makes landfall on the Big Island as …
Climate change already accelerating sea level rise, study finds
BOULDER, Colo. — Greenhouse gases are already having an accelerating effect on sea level rise, but the impact has so far been masked by the cataclysmic 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, according to a new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Satellite observations, which began in 1993, indicate that the rate of sea …
Justin Gardner – Before America Wanted To Eradicate Them, The U.S. Military Was Weaponizing The Zika Mosquito
After months of anticipation, the Zika virus has finally arrived to the continental U.S., with 15 non-travel cases being reported in Florida as of August 2. The virus is carried primarily by a species of mosquito called Aedes aegypti. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued its first-ever warning for within the U.S., urging pregnant women to avoid travel to a Miami …
Dr. Binoy Kampmark – Washington’s Zika Vaccination Ploy
Should you fear receiving the needle from a stranger? Yes. Should you fear receiving it from a person you know all too well as a historical abuser? Even more so. Empires do it, states do it, and even local agencies do it. Let’s all, as it were, vaccinate for all in this perverted paraphrasing of the Cole Porter song, the …
Gail Tverberg – Debt: The Key Factor Connecting Energy and the Economy
There are many who believe that the use of energy is critical to the growth of the economy. In fact, I am among these people. The thing that is not as apparent is that growth in energy consumption is dependent on the growth of debt. Both energy and debt have characteristics that are close to “magic” with respect to the growth …
Matt Taibbi – Why Is the Obama Administration Trying to Keep 11,000 Documents Sealed?
It’s not quite the Panama papers, but one hell of a big pile of carefully guarded secrets may soon be made public. For years now, the federal government has been quietly fighting to keep a lid on an 11,000-document cache of government communications relating to financial policy. The sheer breadth of the effort to keep this material secret may not …
Leid Stories – Election 2016: A Merciful End to ‘Debates,’ But Not to Party Politricks – 03.10.16
Election 2016: A Merciful End to ‘Debates,’ But Not to Party Politricks
A contentious Clinton-Sanders square off in Miami last night, their fourth match up as the remaining Democratic presidential candidates, brought to a close the televised Q&A sessions the party scheduled. A four-way bruiser among the Republican candidates still standing—Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich—takes place tonight, also in Miami, and will be the party’s 12th and final “debate” for the primary season.
How have these events, the primaries held thus far, and the candidates themselves shaped our opinions about the political process, the 2016 presidential election, the direction of the country, and individual choices and actions? Listeners offer their views.
Henry A. Giroux – Poisoned City: Flint and the Specter of Domestic Terrorism
In the current age of free-market frenzy, privatization, commodification and deregulation, Americans are no longer bound by or interested in historical memory, connecting narratives or modes of thinking that allow them to translate private troubles into broader systemic considerations. As Irving Howe once noted, “the rhetoric of apocalypse haunts the air” accompanied by a relentless spectacle that flattens time, disconnects …