Clearing The Fog – The TPP is What Plutocracy Looks Like – 06.07.16

As President Obama completes his final term in office, his administration is working closely with Big Business and Big Finance to sneak the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) through Congress during the lame duck session after the November election. The TPP is an international agreement that was negotiated in secret with the help of hundreds of corporate advisers. If ratified, it will rig the political system even more to benefit multinational corporations at the expense of our sovereignty and our ability to protect our communities and the planet. Bill Waren of Friends of the Earth will join us to discuss the close ties between the financial industry and the office of the US Trade Representative and why it is critical that we stop the TPP. Gillian Locascio of the Washington Fair Trade Coalition will speak with us about how people are organizing to stop the TPP.

Solartopia Green Power and Wellness Hour – 04.07.16

Election theft in SOLARTOPIA is our vital concern as we talk with Bob Koehler, Mimi Kennedy and John Brakey about how the 2016 primaries are being rendered dubious by the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of citizens.

Bob’s recent Commonwonders column calls attention to the 300,000 citizens deprived of their vote in Wisconsin.

Mimi tells us of the struggles in Los Angeles for even a semblance of democracy.

John paints us a beautiful picture of how democracy can work with his narration of an election on an Apache Reservation.

Meanwhile, we confront the realities of a political system dominated by corporate money and the electronic manipulation of our precious right to vote.

If you are concerned about our democracy (or what’s left of it) don’t miss this show.

John Michael Greer – The Suicide of the American Left

Regular readers of this blog know that I generally avoid partisan politics in the essays posted here. There are several reasons for that unpopular habit, but the most important of them is that we don’t actually have partisan politics in today’s America, except in a purely nominal sense. It’s true that politicians by and large group themselves into one of …

Politicians from Both Sides of the Aisle: Corruption Has Destroyed America

Pervasive corruption in modern America has been thoroughly documented. There are some very juicy quotes from high-level insiders about corruption in the USA. Jon Schwarz has rounded up a good collection of recent quotes on corruption from both sides of the aisle: • “Now [the United States is] just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations …