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.

Alternative Visions – Verizon Workers’ Strike and How Corporations Are Destroying US Jobs – 04.15.16

Jack Rasmus discusses the strike of 36,000 communication workers that began this week at Verizon Communications and how it reflects the radical destruction by corporations of decent jobs in the US that has been occurring since the 1990s. Jack calculates 52 million of the total 157 million jobs in the US labor force today are some form of ‘contingent’ or so-called ‘alternative work’ arrangements, paying substandard wages and few if any benefits. The Verizon strike represents worker-union efforts to stop corporate conversion of full time regular jobs to ‘contingent,’ outsourced, contract work. Jack discusses a recent Princeton Univ. study that shows temp and independent contract jobs have risen by 9.4 million just since 2005—i.e. more than the total increase in new jobs (9.1m) over the same period. Full time contingent jobs now total 23.6m, according to the Princeton study. Add to that 26 m more in part time contingent employment, plus another 8.2m unemployed and more than 60 million US workers now earn less than full time wages and virtually no benefits. And more if the ‘Uberization’ of work underway is considered. Median earnings for the 50m barely exceed $30k a year. Jack explains this is at the core of the growing working class discontent in the US that is fueling both the Trump and the Sanders candidacies. Jack speculates on the possibility of a 4-way race for the presidency in this year’s elections. The show concludes with a review of the global economy, including the IMF’s recent lowered forecast, China’s recent GDP stats, and Jack revisiting his prior forecast the US economy would again stagnant and approach zero GDP growth for the first quarter 2016 in stats out in a couple of weeks.

The Suicide-Mass Murder Connection: A Growing Epidemic

The harsh reality of suicide is shrouded in mystery. Unknown to most Americans is the fact that suicide is sharply on the rise, particularly among the middle-aged. Suicide used to be concentrated primarily among the elderly. The dramatic rise in suicide among the middle-aged is a disturbing new trend over the last ten years. See a related article on the changing patterns and …