ChatChat - Claudia Cragg

Claudia Cragg speaks here with Mother Jones' senior editor @MichaelMechanic (Michael Mechanic) who offers a harsh wake-up call for the millions of American dreamers who still believe that winning the lottery—or just simply having obscene wealth—will change their lives for the better. The author ushers readers past the velvet rope to reveal the lifestyles of the ultrawealthy and the ever more expensive ventures they have to indulge in to not only keep themselves amused, but to outdo their wealthy peers. One of the most interesting factoids in this well-researched book is that, according to one study, a person's "self-reported positive emotions improved with rising earnings up to a satiation point at about $65,000 per year. Negative emotions…declined as earnings increased, reaching an inverse satiation point at $95,000." As Mechanic demonstrates throughout this eye-opening book, once the contentment with one's finances ends, the addiction to "extrinsic" goals—e.g., buying mansions, cars, and other luxury goods—leaves less time for the "intrinsic" pursuits that give us real grounding. Mechanic shows how the ultrawealthy make their money and how U.S. tax laws and loopholes allow them to keep building it—but he also provides a cautionary tale about the myriad headaches that unbridled wealth can bring. Mechanic is happy to report that the rich are often bored and miserable—and (surprise!) less compassionate unless they can balance their extrinsic and intrinsic pursuits. Though the text is often a gleeful sendup of the absurd eccentricities of the superrich, the author also spotlights a few billionaires who find genuine spiritual contentment in giving their wealth away. "For an actual rags-to-riches tale," writes the author, "one might turn to Ford Foundation president Darren Walker, who grew up penniless in rural Texas and went on to become an icon in the world of philanthropy." [Kirkus Reviews]

Claudia Cragg (@claudiacragg - all comments, reviews, suggestions welcome) speaks here for @KGNU #ItsTheEconomy with Guyana-born Donnel Baird, founder of BlocPower, This is a startup that markets, finances and installs solar and #green #energyefficiency technology to help houses of worship, non-profits, small businesses and multifamily projects to slash their energy costs. Baird spent three years as a community organizer in Brooklyn and one year as a voter contact director for Obama For America. He managed a national Change to Win/LIUNA campaign to leverage Dept. of Energy energy efficiency financing to create green construction jobs for out of work populations. He partnered with the Washington Interfaith Network to generate a $100m government investment in underserved communities in the District of Columbia. Baird has a B.A. from Duke University and an M.B.A from Columbia Business School.

If you watched Sunday evening's 2021 Oscars and learned of British actor, Daniel Kaluya's, stunning and accolade-winning performance and have not gone on to watch 'Judas And The Black Messiah', maybe you should ask yourself why? If you have, you will have learned that it is an American biographical drama about the betrayal of Fred Hampton (played by Daniel Kaluuya), chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in late-1960s Chicago, at the hands of William O'Neal (played by Lakeith Stanfield), an FBI informant. Watching it may have left you trying to find out more context and so in this podcast we revisit our #KGNU interview with Mary Williams. Mary Luana Williams, author of 'Lost Daughter', is Jane Fonda's adopted daughter. She speaks here for KGNU with Claudia Cragg. Williams grew up with the Black Panther movement in Oakland, CA. In her early teens, she was raped by a pseudo 'theatrical agent' and subsequently adopted by Fonda taking her out of Oakland and the Panther community. She now works extensively with foundations for 'Lost Boys' in Morocco, the Sudan and Tanzania, which she says is in many ways working the same principles she learned from her mother. This conversation does not focus at all on 'celebrity issues', but instead on politics, race and gender and also on her adopted mother's, Ms. Fonda's, gamut of political passions. Ms. Williams has also been making strenuous attempts to re-connect her life through time spent with her extended birth family most of whom have remained in Oakland.

President Joe Biden is to declare the massacre of an estimated million or more Armenians under the Ottoman Empire a "genocide", risking a potential fracture with Turkey but fulfilling a campaign pledge. This pledge was to, at long last, use the word to describe the horrendous mass killings after a series of his predecessors stopped short. Two sources have today, Thursday 22nd April, 2020, said that President Biden will make the declaration as part of an official statement this Saturday. There are many people all over the world who have worked solidly towards this moment, towards this recognition of a historical horror. One such is Lou Ureneck, formerly of The Philadelphia Inquirer, who we revisit here with our @KGNU interview. Ureneck was a prime mover behind the movie 'The Promise', set against the background of World War I dealing with the program by The Ottoman Turks to exterminate the Armenians. This was a cinematic project dear to the late Kirk Kerkorian, perhaps best known for his Las Vegas hotel and casino connections and his ownership of MGM, but himself an Armenian for whom the massacre was not just some tale of history.. The events covered in the movie and in his book, 'The Great Fire' @smyrnafire Ureneck explains, constituted the final episode of what he terms "the 20th Century's first #genocide" — the slaughter of three million Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians of the Ottoman Empire. The massacre occurred as warships of the great powers stood by — the United States, Great Britain, France and Italy. The deaths of hundreds of thousands seemed inevitable until a minister, who happened to be an American, staged a bold rescue with the help of a courageous naval officer.

Claudia Cragg @claudiacragg speaks here for @KGNU with Dinah Yessne. A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Yessne's parents were active in the Progressive movement of the 1940s and 50s, earning them the enmity of their neighbors during the "Red Scare" hysteria and causing them to remove both her and her brother from the St. Paul public school system, never to return. Twelve years later, she emerged from the University of Minnesota's law school politically primed by classmates whose parents included the mayor of Minneapolis, the governor of Minnesota, and the son of a president of the United States. 'Politically Defined', Yessne's memoir, examines her binary development in the political hotbed that was the University of Wisconsin in the mid-1960s, where she learned the basics of electoral politics while at the same time demonstrating against the war in Vietnam and capping her political education with tours of Harlem, Milwaukee's freedom schools, and an angrily divided South. From there, her journey continued through six states and the siege of Chicago as a member of Eugene McCarthy's 1968 presidential campaign staff, then through five more states as an organizer for the National Women's Political Caucus. Landing in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom in 1970 (quite by chance), she went on to live a personal and professional life advocating for underrepresented people as a social worker, attorney and lobbyist, and as a much-needed voice in Vermont's contentious civil union election of 2000. Everyday US newspapers offer a glimpse of the work of national leaders on the civic and political stage. What most rarely get to see in detail is the work and workmanship of those closer to the front line, where service delivery happens. Yessne's book goes a long way towards revealing the details and challenges of delivering those same services. Though unknown to all but her immediate circle of friends, family and colleagues, Dinah's life is a lesson in how one ordinary person CAN make things better for many.

Claudia Cragg @claudiacragg speaks here for @KGNU (Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, www.kgnu.org) for #ItsTheEconomy with Chuck Collins, senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies. There, he directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good. Collins latest book is The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions. He has written a number of other books including '99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It', and 'Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality', 'Bringing Wealth Home', and 'Committing to the Common Good'. He has also written numerous reports about billionaire wealth during the pandemic. Discussion in this latest interview for @KGNU focuses on getting the Biden Infrastructure Bill paid for in a way that is also combined with tackling the egregious crisis of inequality in the United States. This is is so serious now, says Collins, that President Joe Biden is declaiming that, "It's time to build our economy from the bottom up and from the middle out, not the top down." In recent speeches promoting his Infrastructure Bill and his American Jobs Plan, President Biden said, "I'm proposing a plan for the nation that rewards work, not just rewards wealth." In admitting that our current system rewards wealth, President Biden revealed what American financial and political elites have known for decades: that we do NOT live in a meritocracy. Instead, we live in a nation where you have to be rich to get richer.

Claudia Cragg @claudiacragg speaks here with @ErikJClarke about the implications for Denver, Colorado and the nation from President Biden's new infrastructure plan to fulfill his campaign promise to "rebuild the backbone of America". The expansive proposal, called the American Jobs Plan, intends to build 20,000 miles of roads and highways and to repair the 10 most economically significant bridges in the country among a sprawling list of other projects that Biden said would confront the climate crisis, curb wealth inequality and strengthen US competitiveness. The measure includes hundreds of billions of dollars to expand access to high-speed broadband; replace lead water pipes, ensuring access to clean drinking water; and upgrade the electric grid, making it more reliable while shifting to new, cleaner energy sources.It also seeks to improve community care facilities for seniors and people with disabilities, modernize schools and retrofit homes and office buildings while dedicating funding to training millions of workers and supporting initiatives that strengthen labor unions. The spending over eight years would generate millions of new jobs, Biden said. To pay for the package, he proposed a substantial increase on corporate taxes that would offset the spending over the course of 15 years. Among the changes, Biden called for a rise in the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% and measures to force multinational corporations to pay more taxes in the US on profits earned abroad. The funding plan would unwind major pieces of Donald Trump's tax-cut law, which lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and was his predecessor's signature legislative achievement.

If COVID19 has shown us anything at all, it must be that growth at any price is not an option going forward. 'Build Back Better' is an opportunity to ensure that growth is of the most productive and valuable kind to ALL members of our society, not just for the all too many CEOs who prize above all the growth of their stock price and their pay packet. This has to change. Claudia Cragg (@claudiacragg on Twitter, comments/suggestions welcome) speaks here with Rob Dietz who brings a fresh perspective to the discussion of economics and environmental sustainability and the SteadyState His diverse background in economics, environmental science and engineering, and conservation biology (plus his work in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors) has given him an unusual ability to connect the dots when it comes to the topic of sustainability. Rob is the author, with Dan O'Neill, of Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources. As past editor of the Daly News, Rob is a devoted advocate for revamping the economy to fit within biophysical limits. He writes with humor, clarity, and a personal touch as he considers the complex set of institutions and activities that make up the economy. Rob continues in his attempts he says to align his personal life with the principles of a steady state economy. He lives with his wife and daughter in a co-housing community striving for development rather than growth.

Claudia Cragg @KGNU speaks here with , author of  Spymaster’s Prism.  In this book, Devine the legendary former CIA spymaster details the unending struggle with Russia and its intelligence agencies as it works against our national security. (.) Devine tells this story through the unique perspective of a seasoned CIA professional who served more than three decades, some at the highest levels of the agency. He uses his gimlet-eyed view to walk us through the fascinating spy cases and covert action activities of Russia, not only through the Cold War past but up to and including its interference in the Trump era. Devine also looks over the horizon to see what lies ahead in this struggle and provides prescriptions for the future. Based on personal experience and exhaustive research, Devine builds a vivid and complex mosaic that illustrates how Russia’s intelligence activities have continued uninterrupted throughout modern history, using fundamentally identical policies and techniques to undermine our democracy. He shows in stark terms how intelligence has been modernized and weaponized through the power of the cyber world. Devine presents his analysis using clear-eyed vision and a repertoire of better-than-fiction spy stories, giving us an objective, riveting, and candid take on U.S.-Russia relations. He offers key lessons from our intelligence successes and failures over the past seventy-five years that will help us determine how to address our current strategic shortfall, emerge ahead of the Russians, and be prepared for what’s to come from any adversary.

Claudia Cragg @claudiacragg speaks here for @ Denver/Boulder/Fort Collins with about this book, '. This is a thorough discussion of how #Trump, #QAnon and others use cult-like mind-control techniques to manipulate and maintain an unwavering support base. How is it that even now, post-election, Trump, with his highly documented failures, lies, anti-social behavior, remains the darling of right wing politics in the US. Hassan breaks it down delving into Trump's early influence of Norman Vincent Peale's "positive thinking", prosperity Christianity, to hisnsymbiotic relationship with Fox News. The combination of such odd bedfellows as the NRA, Christian fundamentalists, Russia and the Catholic Church, who form the basis of Trump's peculiar appeal makes for fascinating, but occasionally frightening listening and reading of the book. Steven A. Hassan, PhD, MA, M.Ed., LMHC, NCC is one of the foremost authorities on cults and mind control. He has been involved in educating the public about mind control, brainwashing, and destructive cults since 1976. He holds a Master's degree in counseling psychology from Cambridge College, is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and a Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC). Steven received a Master's in 2020 from Fielding Graduate University. He later earned a doctorate in the Organizational Development and Change (ODC)program at Fielding’s School of Leadership Studies. Hassan did a TEDxBeaconStreet talk in 2018 entitled: Is Technology Controlling Your Mind? He was a participant in the "Dismantling QAnon" TEDXMidAtlantic program in 2020.