Gar Alperovitz – 6 Ways We’re Already Leading an Economic Revolution

Many years ago, while researching the history of the U.S. decision to use atomic weapons on the people of Japan, I came to understand something: There was something deep at work in the American political and economic system driving it toward relentless expansion and a dangerous, informal imperialism. I began thinking about how to fundamentally change America out of concern …

Nature Bats Last – 02.16.16

This week we visited with Doug Peacock, a prolific writer who lectures regularly about wilderness and veterans issues. He served two tours in Vietnam as a Green Beret medic, trying to preserve life on the edge of the battlefield. He came home an emotional and spiritual wreck. With the publication of Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang in 1975, Peacock became a hero not only to other veterans, but to a nascent contingent of environmentalists. Peacock was the subject of a feature film about grizzlies and Vietnam called Peacock’s War. The film premiered on PBS Nature, and won the grand prizes at the Telluride Mountain film and the Snowbird film festivals. You can read more about Peacock at his website, dougpeacock.net

Brian Bienkowski – Burn Pits: The New ‘Agent Orange’ That the Media Has Failed to Expose

The U.S. media has failed to expose the civilian toll of recent wars by largely ignoring burn pits’ toxic effects on local people, a U.S. researcher argues in a new report, suggesting the burn pits are this generation’s Agent Orange. The coverage gap helps legitimize war and overlooks the undeniable humanitarian impacts, said Eric Bonds, an assistant professor of sociology …

Progressive Commentary Hour – 10.20.15

Dr. Gareth Porter is an award-winning historian, an independent investigative journalist and policy analyst who specializes in US geopolitics and national security issues. During the Vietnam war, he was Dispatch News Services Bureau Chief in Saigon and later a co-director for the Indochina Resource Center. In addition to being a specialist in Vietnamese and Cambodian affairs, he has been reporting on the Middle East, including the chemical gas attacks reported in Syria, for the past decade. His numerous articles can found in Foreign Affairs, Al-Jazeera, Huffington, Counterpunch, Truthout, The Nation and others. For the past 9 years he has been investigating US and Israeli tensions with Iran and US intelligence operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Gareth has an MA in international relations from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in Southeast Asian Studies from Cornell University. He has published five major books dealing with Vietnam and Cambodia. His most recent is “Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare” published last year, which debunks the myths regarding Iran as a nuclear threat.

Prof. Stephen Zunes (Zoo-ness) is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he chairs the program in Middle Eastern Studies. He is recognized as one the country’s leading scholars of U.S. Middle East policy and of strategic nonviolent action, Professor Zunes received his PhD. from Cornell University and previously served on the faculty of Ithaca College, the University of Puget Sound, and Whitman College. He serves as a senior policy analyst for the Foreign Policy in Focus project of the Institute for Policy Studies, an associate editor of Peace Review, a contributing editor of Tikkun, and chair of the academic advisory committee for the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.

Among his publications, the most recent is “Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution” and earlier “Tinderbox: US Foreign Policy and the Roots of Terrorism” co-written with Richard Falk. His website is StephenZunes.org which has over 400 of his articles.

Fossil Fuel Funding Boycott Puts Spotlight on Clinton Campaign – Lauren McCauley

Progressive groups have a challenge for presidential hopefuls: Put your money where your mouth is on the climate, and swear off contributions from fossil fuel companies. To affirm their commitment to taking on the climate crisis and “standing up to the corrupting influence of fossil-fuel companies,” the campaign, launched on Monday by The Nation and 350 Action, is calling on 2016 presidential …

How The Politics of Memory Affects Us All – Sam Osherson Ph.D.

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”  Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun. This year brings a 50th anniversary commemoration of the Vietnam War sponsored by the Pentagon, complete with a website, interactive videos, and a $15 million price tag for taxpayers. Cost overruns are to be expected. Commemoration? Is that quite the right word to describe a war, particularly …