Bringing Light Into Darkness - News & Analysis

Afghanistan – Revolutionary Past and 40 years Since

We open the show with a compelling letter and indictment of US and UK persecution of and on behalf of Julian Assange by his mother Christine Assange. Our show focus includes the Afghan revolutionary government that took power in 1978 and the democratic reforms it introduced. A government that was largely overthrown with US backing yet we shed crocodile tears that women’s rights have been so compromised over the last 40 years since that overthrow.

Special guest Dr Jack Ryan professor of economic geography for 32 years is now 92 years of age. Dr Ryan was in Afghanistan during the early weeks of the revolutionary government and recently posted an extensive study on Afghanistan entitled Afghanistan: Before and After US Intervention, published on 9/26/21 just one month after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Dr Ryan describes his findings: 3% of population owned 75% of land - most people got their land back. President Carter 7/3/79 secret $500m funding operation began clandestinely, as Operation Cyclone, well before Russian occupation. CIA could not get enough Afghanis to oppose govt, so they enabled Pakistani project of incubating Islamic terrorists in Pakistan madrasas and brought in Wahabbists from Saudi Arabia and other nations which metastasized into the Mujahadeen that attacked us on 9-11

Dr Ryan describes operation Cyclone and the inconvenient fact that the actual emergence of the Taliban came in the vacuum that was created after this civil war that was promoted by the west and the madrassas alluded to earlier. He confirms that it is safe to say that the Taliban and the Mujahadeen were enabled if not an outright creation of our CIA foreign policy in that area. Under Taliban by2001 Opium wiped out but as soon as Us initiates its 2001 attack opium production gets bumped back up. We also discuss that drug money not only provides profiteering but more important is dark money off the books for the CIA to do whatever it wants to without congressional purse strings attached. Afghanistan attack never approved by the United Nations -- it was essentially an illegal war never reported as such by the mainstream media, so therefore most people are simply unaware of this as well as the fact that post US invasion we essentially took over the country and enabled a corrupt government and restarted the opium drug trade.

We also discuss why mercenary armies we train to fight in Syria and Afghanistan and so many others lack a fighting spirit. We bring light to all that darkness and more.

‘Pgatos [email protected] 1/10/2022

When it comes to trying to understand Afghanistan and US foreign policy options, we are presented with an ahistorical false dichotomy between supporting or not supporting the Taliban government. Our show details how our foreign policy is what is responsible for the very dilemma we claim to be morally concerned about. Learn how we largely created the Taliban as well as the Islamic fundamentalist Mujahadeen which generated Osama Bin Laden, ultimately 9-11 and absolute misery for 40 million Afghanis as byproducts of four decades plus of US foreign policy.

When history and its lessons are wiped off the map the map becomes unable to help us understand the truth of Afghanistan. Our guest Basir Bita barely escaped Kabul just a month following the US withdrawal. He lived in Afghanistan the last 18 years and is in daily communication with family and friends. Basir worked for development projects, civil society organizations, and international institutions including USAID, British Development Agency, and the Australian Development Agency and describes the desperate situation that we created in Afghanistan from firsthand knowledge.

Following 20 years of war and occupation and our recent August withdrawal the US froze nearly $10B in assets belonging to the Afghan Central Bank. The IMF and World Bank, where the US exerts great influence, tightened the screws as well as the IMF froze distribution of $450m while the World Bank held back hundreds of millions from the Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund. Meanwhile, Afghan teachers have gone without pay since June and hospitals are closing.

The cost of War to our veterans and Afghanis and the cost to US taxpayers is reviewed as are the Afghan Papers that reveal that we have always known this war is unwinnable and once again have been systematically lied to by our government and the mainstream media. Yet the war has been profitable to some and therefore has persisted. Now, we as US taxpayers should be held accountable for fixing what our foreign policy has broken, but instead current US foreign policy make life even more unlivable for the majority of Afghans. Listen in and learn real US foreign policy outcomes and Afghan history, as Basir also describes the current political environment and a path forward to help alleviate rather than exacerbate one of the greatest humanitarian disasters in the world today. Don’t be Late! If you care….

When it comes to trying to understand Afghanistan and US foreign policy options, we are presented with an ahistorical false dichotomy between supporting or not supporting the Taliban government. Our show details how our foreign policy is what is responsible for the very dilemma we claim to be morally concerned about. Learn how we largely created the Taliban as well as the Islamic fundamentalist Mujahadeen which generated Osama Bin Laden, ultimately 9-11 and absolute misery for 40 million Afghanis as byproducts of four decades plus of US foreign policy.

When history and its lessons are wiped off the map the map becomes unable to help us understand the truth of Afghanistan. Our guest Basir Bita barely escaped Kabul just a month following the US withdrawal. He lived in Afghanistan the last 18 years and is in daily communication with family and friends. Basir worked for development projects, civil society organizations, and international institutions including USAID, British Development Agency, and the Australian Development Agency and describes the desperate situation that we created in Afghanistan from firsthand knowledge.

Following 20 years of war and occupation and our recent August withdrawal the US froze nearly $10B in assets belonging to the Afghan Central Bank. The IMF and World Bank, where the US exerts great influence, tightened the screws as well as the IMF froze distribution of $450m while the World Bank held back hundreds of millions from the Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund. Meanwhile, Afghan teachers have gone without pay since June and hospitals are closing.

The cost of War to our veterans and Afghanis and the cost to US taxpayers is reviewed as are the Afghan Papers that reveal that we have always known this war is unwinnable and once again have been systematically lied to by our government and the mainstream media. Yet the war has been profitable to some and therefore has persisted. Now, we as US taxpayers should be held accountable for fixing what our foreign policy has broken, but instead current US foreign policy make life even more unlivable for the majority of Afghans. Listen in and learn real US foreign policy outcomes and Afghan history, as Basir also describes the current political environment and a path forward to help alleviate rather than exacerbate one of the greatest humanitarian disasters in the world today. Don’t be Late! If you care….

Is Russia Being the Aggressor or the Enemy of the Aggressor?

US foreign policy since the turn of the century is reviewed. The reemergence of neo-Nazism in a

European post WWII government is a result of a US enabled coup in Ukraine. Meanwhile our foreign policy outcome completely reversed the fortunes of Libyans and has brought back slavery to Libya post 2011. When you combine preinvasion sanctions with the 2003 US led invasion in Iraq the result of our foreign policy is more than a million Iraqis dead. The Syrian and

Yemen interventions backed by US support has cost additional hundreds of thousands of deaths

and two huge humanitarian disasters leading to millions of refugees. And when you account for

the sanctions that the US has imposed upon more than one-third of the world’s population the

result is the responsibility for killing hundreds of thousands more fellow human beings.

When it came to Syria, Russia said enough is enough. Yet most US citizens believe the world’s

greatest threat to human rights is Russia, and Vladimir Putin rather examining our own foreign

policy outcomes and human rights record throughout the world. What is our geopolitical end

game in the Ukraine that our policies are promoting? What would any leader do if its country’s

national security was being nearly completely compromised?

Join us tonight as special guest Mike Whitney, investigative journalist, and geopolitical analyst, leads our discussion and provides insightful analysis for consideration as we try to seek to honestly sort out propaganda from reasonable understandings based on an honest

interpretation of history. We also examine the real world geopolitical national security interests

that all nations are entitled to and expected to seek out on behalf of their fellow citizens. We

also challenge whether our foreign policy seeks to promote democracy or maintain and expand a false perception that we are the exceptional leader of the world rather than examine our own track record and question if it more closely resembles imperial desires to dominate the world’s economy as the self-declared world’s unipolar power.

Is Russia Being the Aggressor or the Enemy of the Aggressor?

US foreign policy since the turn of the century is reviewed. The reemergence of neo-Nazism in a

European post WWII government is a result of a US enabled coup in Ukraine. Meanwhile our foreign policy outcome completely reversed the fortunes of Libyans and has brought back slavery to Libya post 2011. When you combine preinvasion sanctions with the 2003 US led invasion in Iraq the result of our foreign policy is more than a million Iraqis dead. The Syrian and

Yemen interventions backed by US support has cost additional hundreds of thousands of deaths

and two huge humanitarian disasters leading to millions of refugees. And when you account for

the sanctions that the US has imposed upon more than one-third of the world’s population the

result is the responsibility for killing hundreds of thousands more fellow human beings.

When it came to Syria, Russia said enough is enough. Yet most US citizens believe the world’s

greatest threat to human rights is Russia, and Vladimir Putin rather examining our own foreign

policy outcomes and human rights record throughout the world. What is our geopolitical end

game in the Ukraine that our policies are promoting? What would any leader do if its country’s

national security was being nearly completely compromised?

Join us tonight as special guest Mike Whitney, investigative journalist, and geopolitical analyst, leads our discussion and provides insightful analysis for consideration as we try to seek to honestly sort out propaganda from reasonable understandings based on an honest

interpretation of history. We also examine the real world geopolitical national security interests

that all nations are entitled to and expected to seek out on behalf of their fellow citizens. We

also challenge whether our foreign policy seeks to promote democracy or maintain and expand a false perception that we are the exceptional leader of the world rather than examine our own track record and question if it more closely resembles imperial desires to dominate the world’s economy as the self-declared world’s unipolar power.

Russia – US National Security Interest Double Standards and Aggression Claims

With special guest and author Dr David Gibbs, Professor of History at the University of Arizona. When it comes to US foreign policy concerns about Ukraine and Russian foreign policy all we get is our US government perspective which has a long and documented history of lying and/or misleading the US public into conflict after conflict and war after war. Tonight, our guest leads us through a critical review of US/NATO relations with Russia from a more objective perspective that is sensitive to both Russian and western Europe national security interests.

Instead of descriptions of what we think of Putin and his motivations we start the show off by citing what he has said, and members of his government have said during recent speeches and press conferences that speak to the issue of the Ukraine - Donbass conflict. Russian national security red lines are accordingly revealed such as the red line that NATO would cross if its military infrastructure expanded in Ukraine.

Our guest provides a comprehensive historical context that includes many insights not shared by our mainstream media coverage of this conflict. He also presents and asks us to consider national security and human rights related examples of what arguably are ‘double standards.’ For instance, what would we do, as a matter of declaring red lines, if our geographical boundaries were peppered with Russian military exercises or nuclear or highly offensive Russian missile site locations at close proximity to our border? Or compared to Boris Yeltsin, who we uncritically supported and put into power, what is Putin’s human rights record? Is the double standard simply if the US does it is OK and if Russia or other countries do it, it is not OK?

All of this suggesting do we demonize and justify our profound dislike of Putin because he is not doing what we want him to do at the foreign policy level rather than the motivation we state, which is because of ‘political suppression and human rights violations’ that consistently lack evidence of their veracity? Instead, if the greatest human rights violation is to be subject to nuclear war, arguably is our foreign policies leading us down that path? How do we stop it?

US NATO history and promises in the early 1990s made to Russia not to expand eastward into the former communist states of eastern Europe are delineated and detailed by our guest. He argues that US foreign policy has weaponized human rights through the concept of ‘humanitarian interventions,’ and he explains who has the evidence-based history of meddling in the other’s elections? Don’t be Late!

‘Pgatos [email protected] 12/20/2021

If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X

Russia – US National Security Interest Double Standards and Aggression Claims

With special guest and author Dr David Gibbs, Professor of History at the University of Arizona. When it comes to US foreign policy concerns about Ukraine and Russian foreign policy all we get is our US government perspective which has a long and documented history of lying and/or misleading the US public into conflict after conflict and war after war. Tonight, our guest leads us through a critical review of US/NATO relations with Russia from a more objective perspective that is sensitive to both Russian and western Europe national security interests.

Instead of descriptions of what we think of Putin and his motivations we start the show off by citing what he has said, and members of his government have said during recent speeches and press conferences that speak to the issue of the Ukraine - Donbass conflict. Russian national security red lines are accordingly revealed such as the red line that NATO would cross if its military infrastructure expanded in Ukraine.

Our guest provides a comprehensive historical context that includes many insights not shared by our mainstream media coverage of this conflict. He also presents and asks us to consider national security and human rights related examples of what arguably are ‘double standards.’ For instance, what would we do, as a matter of declaring red lines, if our geographical boundaries were peppered with Russian military exercises or nuclear or highly offensive Russian missile site locations at close proximity to our border? Or compared to Boris Yeltsin, who we uncritically supported and put into power, what is Putin’s human rights record? Is the double standard simply if the US does it is OK and if Russia or other countries do it, it is not OK?

All of this suggesting do we demonize and justify our profound dislike of Putin because he is not doing what we want him to do at the foreign policy level rather than the motivation we state, which is because of ‘political suppression and human rights violations’ that consistently lack evidence of their veracity? Instead, if the greatest human rights violation is to be subject to nuclear war, arguably is our foreign policies leading us down that path? How do we stop it?

US NATO history and promises in the early 1990s made to Russia not to expand eastward into the former communist states of eastern Europe are delineated and detailed by our guest. He argues that US foreign policy has weaponized human rights through the concept of ‘humanitarian interventions,’ and he explains who has the evidence-based history of meddling in the other’s elections? Don’t be Late!

‘Pgatos [email protected] 12/20/2021

If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X

Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, Pt IV

This is part IV of a four-part series of shows entitled Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse, and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, with guest host and moderator Patricia Bucko. The focus of tonight’s show is a return to alcohol related issues although we start with some science-based comments on the veracity of whether chronic long term marijuana smoking can cause sterility and, medicinally speaking, its reported effectiveness as a pain medication.

Additionally, what you will discover if you tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness this Monday 12/6/21 at 6pm CST at koop.org –

1. What we will cover and explain regarding ethyl alcohol:

a. ‘Who’ invented alcohol?

b. Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC)- what are the factors involved in determining blood alcohol concentration and are their differences between men and women?

c. How fast does the body metabolize alcohol? Are there ways to sober up quickly? Do we really get rid of one drink per hour?

d. What is the lethal dose and the dose at which someone may likely slip into a coma when it comes to alcohol and alcohol intake?

e. Chemical Dependency (CD) on alcohol and other drugs (AOD) is a multifactorial disorder – what factors are involved that impact the probability I will or will not develop a CD or Substance Abuse Disorder (SUD)?

2. We will define ‘Addictive Culture’ by describing the acculturating influences that a ‘market driven economy’ has on shaping our choices. What is the relationship between a market driven economy and the culture it creates and its impact on our democracy and the health systems and drinking and drugging norms it influences?

3. What is the relationship between our addictive culture and the framing of the opiate crisis?

‘Pgatos [email protected] 12/6/2021

Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, Pt IV

This is part IV of a four-part series of shows entitled Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse, and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, with guest host and moderator Patricia Bucko. The focus of tonight’s show is a return to alcohol related issues although we start with some science-based comments on the veracity of whether chronic long term marijuana smoking can cause sterility and, medicinally speaking, its reported effectiveness as a pain medication.

Additionally, what you will discover if you tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness this Monday 12/6/21 at 6pm CST at koop.org –

1. What we will cover and explain regarding ethyl alcohol:

a. ‘Who’ invented alcohol?

b. Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC)- what are the factors involved in determining blood alcohol concentration and are their differences between men and women?

c. How fast does the body metabolize alcohol? Are there ways to sober up quickly? Do we really get rid of one drink per hour?

d. What is the lethal dose and the dose at which someone may likely slip into a coma when it comes to alcohol and alcohol intake?

e. Chemical Dependency (CD) on alcohol and other drugs (AOD) is a multifactorial disorder – what factors are involved that impact the probability I will or will not develop a CD or Substance Abuse Disorder (SUD)?

2. We will define ‘Addictive Culture’ by describing the acculturating influences that a ‘market driven economy’ has on shaping our choices. What is the relationship between a market driven economy and the culture it creates and its impact on our democracy and the health systems and drinking and drugging norms it influences?

3. What is the relationship between our addictive culture and the framing of the opiate crisis?

‘Pgatos [email protected] 12/6/2021

Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, Pt III

This is part III of a series of shows entitled Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse, and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body. The focus of tonight’s show is on Marijuana. The title the Bringing Light Into Darkness show tinight is Mary Jane, Separating Fact from Fiction from Uncertainty.

What you will discover if you tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness this Monday 11/29/21 at 6pm CST at koop.org –

1. Highlights of an 8hr Marijuana Intervention curriculum that thousands of Travis County clients have completed since it was created by the Pedro Gatos Institute on Addiction, Health & Social Theory in 2012 and which has been updated annually since, in accordance with the changing legal landscape and emerging science around marijuana.

2. What will be covered and explained:

a. Legal status in Texas? Can you get a DWI or a DUI (Driving under the Influence) charge in Texas?

b. An introduction to the human endocannabinoid system and how Marijuana exerts its effects and how is it different from endogenous and synthetic K-2 like cannabinoids? What is brain cell receptor affinity?

c. Are there dangers associated with regular marijuana use?

d. Is MJ’s THC potency higher today and does that cause greater mental health risks and dangers?

e. MJ and Tobacco and Lung health. Are there carcinogens in MJ smoke? Has MJ been proven to cause cancer, emphysema, COPD and/or bronchitis?

f. Are there dangers associated with regular marijuana use such as addiction to MJ and has it been defined in the DSM-V in a way similar to the chemical dependency model we shared during our last BLID show in this series?

g. How is, the Chemical Use Misuse Continuum (CUMC) assessment invention consistent with the evolution of substance use disorders as described by the DSM-V?

‘Pgatos [email protected] 11/29/2021