A novel about a false flag terrorist plot to lead the US to war. Sound familiar?

 John Shuck speaks with Philip Kraske about his fifth novel, 11/9 and the Terrorist Who Loved Bonsai Trees. 

"Trudy Schelling arrives at her company in Jersey City, New Jersey, to start her first day of work at Hallerbee Net Research. The date is November 9. Barely through the door, she is grabbed by a man in military garb - one of several in the brownstone townhouse - but fends him off and manages to escape. Twenty minutes later, six terrorists, fleeing their botched job of planting a miniature atomic bomb in the Empire State Building, screech to a halt in front of the same townhouse, three police cars on their tail. The terrorists run inside, and a hostage standoff ensues, the dozen hostages ostensibly being Hallerbee employees.

Pursued through the streets of Manhattan, Trudy knows that the attack is a false-flag operation. In a matter of hours, she is portrayed in the media as the seventh terrorist of the group, and the entire country is baying for her blood. Her only hope is Paul Klippen, a State Department official whose lonely task is to expose the lies about her and stop war between the United States and Iran."

David Ray Griffin says of the novel:

"Most of us who continue to do research on 9/11 focus primarily on the question of what really happened that day. There will eventually be a definitive answer to that question that can be summarized in a few pages. But what is the meaning of 9/11, what are its implications? Philip Kraske's superb thriller, 11/9 and the Terrorist Who Loved Bonsai Trees, as the title implies, holds up a mirror to 9/11, providing a way of understanding this horrendous event. The hilarious book-ending riff of Trudy's comedian boyfriend sums up both the stupidity and the irony of it all. 

-- David Ray Griffin, Author of 9/11 Unmasked"

Bio:

Philip Kraske was born in Detroit, lived his formative years in Ohio and Minnesota, and stayed in America long enough to get in the basic rituals of high school and college. He graduated from the U of Minnesota/Twin Cities with a B.A. in International Relations. He settled permanently in Madrid in the 80s.  

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Plus 9/11 news for September 2019.

Having spent years observing and researching, Taliano explains in detail which western politicians support terror, how humanitarianism is feigned to cover crimes, and why mainstream media is corrupt to the core.

 On The Beloved Community, John Shuck speaks with Mark Taliano, author of Voices from Syria. 

Three years ago, Mark Taliano travelled to Syria in attempt to hear from Syrians what is really happening in their country. Mark writes:

"Between 15 and 23 September 2016, I travelled to war-torn Syria because I sensed years ago that the official narratives being fed to North Americans across TV screens, in newsprint and on the internet were false. The invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya were all based on lies; likewise for Ukraine. All of the post-9/11 wars were sold to Western audiences through a sophisticated network of interlocking governing agencies that disseminate propaganda to both domestic and foreign audiences. But the dirty war on Syria is different. The degree of war propaganda levelled at Syria and contaminating humanity at this moment is likely unprecedented. I had studied and written about Syria for years, so I was not entirely surprised by what I saw. What I felt was a different story. Syria is an ancient land with a proud and forward-looking people. To this ancient and holy land we sent mercenaries, hatred, bloodshed and destruction. We sent strange notions of national exceptionalism and wave upon wave of lies. As a visitor I felt shame, but Syrians welcomed me as one of them. These are their stories; these are their voices."

We will spend the hour with Mark, hearing from his perspective, a perspective quite at odds with the official US government narrative. 

Joining Mark is Rev. Andrew Ashdown, an Anglican priest who has travelled all over Syria.

Ned Rosch of National Jewish Voice for Peace has written a chapter for a new book, Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism: Stories of Personal Transformation and Mustafa Akhwand is founder and Executive Director for Shia Rights Watch.

Portland resident, Ned Rosch has written a chapter for the book, Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism: Stories of Personal Transformation that was released in May 2019. A part of his chapter, “Palestine and My Journey of Self-Discovery” was published in Yes Magazine. The book’s promotion reads: 

“Today Jews face a choice. We can be loyal to the ethical imperatives at the heart of Judaism — love the stranger, pursue justice, and repair the world. Or we can give our unconditional support to the state of Israel. It is a choice between Judaism as a religion and the nationalist ideology of Zionism, which is usurping that religion.” 

Ned Rosch will be sharing his story at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Beaverton, Sunday, August 4th at 9 am.

In the second half of the show, host John Shuck speaks with Mustafa Akhwand, the founder and Executive Director of Shia Rights Watch (SRW), which focuses on the humanitarian rights of Shia Muslims. With a network of over 600 people, Shia Rights Watch plays a critical role in improving the quality of life for all minority populations around the world. Various human rights and peace-keeping organizations have recognized Mr. Akhwand’s human rights advocacy including Freemuslim (Center for De-Radicalization & Extremism Prevention), Amnesty International, Human Rights Education Association, United States Institute of Peace, Adam Center for Defending Rights and Beliefs, and Center for Strategic Studies in Iraq. 

Here is a link to the Camp Speicher Massacre referenced by Mustafa Akhwand during the broadcast.

Film-Maker Massimo Mazzucco Analyzes the Moon Landings in his Film "American Moon"

As the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 approaches, the nagging question remains: Did it really happen? Were the images seen by hundreds of millions on live television actually from the moon or from a NASA simulator? Italian film-maker, Massimo Mazzucco, in one of the most comprehensive films yet about the moon landings, explores all sides of the controversy.  His 2017 film, American Moon looks at the best evidence both for and against the moon landings. Plus the film analyzes for the first time ever the Apollo pictures in detail with commentary from some of the top photographers in the world.  You decide. Was the Apollo Project "the biggest achievement in the history of mankind, or the biggest fakery of all times?"

The film is available on Amazon or to rent or buy on Vimeo.  Watch the trailer here. 

Host John Shuck speaks live with Massimo Mazzucco about his film and takes your calls.

In addition to American Moon, Massimo Mazzucco has produced the following films (from Wikipedia):

The New American Century: a view of America's historical, philosophical, economical and political background.

The Other Dallas - 2008: A documentary on the RFK assassination, also broadcast by Italian TV, that claims the man convicted for the crime -- one Sirhan Bishara Sirhan -- could not have physically killed the US senator.

The Lords of the World - 2009: The UFO history and the military persistent interference, both American and Russian, in what seems to be a much larger issue than one would normally believe.

Cancer: The Forbidden Cures - 2010: All the successful cures against cancer discovered in the last 100 years, and claims that they were suppressed.

The True History of Marijuana - 2011: The True History of Marijuana' digs deep to expose a world-wide conspiracy, led by the petrochemical industry, that has outlawed one of the most useful plants known to mankind.

September 11 - The New Pearl Harbor - 2013: A 5-hour documentary that claims to rebut of the commonly accepted account of 911 and shows the resulting analysis by The National Institute of Standards and Technology, (NIST), to be deeply and fundamentally flawed.

Eve Ensler writes her own apology from her father and Roman Montero uncovers the manifesto of a radical Jesus

In the first half-hour, Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues speaks with John Shuck about her latest book (to be released May 14th), The Apology. 

Like millions of women, Eve Ensler has been waiting much of her lifetime for an apology. Sexually and physically abused by her father, Eve has struggled her whole life from this betrayal, longing for an honest reckoning from a man who is long dead. After years of work as an anti-violence activist, she decided she would wait no longer; an apology could be imagined, by her, for her, to her. The Apology, written by Eve from her father’s point of view in the words she longed to hear, attempts to transform the abuse she suffered with unflinching truthfulness, compassion, and an expansive vision for the future.

In the second half-hour, Roman Montero (Jesus Was a Communist) discusses his latest book, Jesus’s Manifesto: The Sermon on the Plain.  “Many have attempted to dampen the ethical teachings of Jesus by trying to relativize them, or by trying to make them compatible with the wider culture and the dominant ideologies; however, when understood in its historical context, the Sermon’s message was not only incompatible with the wider culture and the dominant ideologies, but it stood in opposition to them.” 

The Beloved Community airs live on KBOO/Portland every second Friday from 9-10 am.

John Shuck speaks with University of Pittsburgh Law Professor, Daniel Kovalik about the war drums beating against Iran. We discuss his myth-dispelling book about Iran, The Plot to Attack Iran: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Iran. 

He is also the author of The Plot to Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Russia, and The Plot to Control the World: How the U.S. Spent Billions to Change the Outcome of Elections Around the World. 

"The world has a lot of questions about the current state of affairs between the United States and Iran…

*How has the US undermined democracy in Iran?*Is Iran really trying to develop nuclear weapons?*How has US waged a terror campaign against Iran for years?*How is it that the US and Israel, rather than Iran, are destabilizing the Middle East?*How has Iran helped the US in the war on terror?

"Using recently declassified documents and memos, as well as first-hand experience of the country, critically-acclaimed author Dan Kovalik will change the way you think about Iran, and especially what you think of US interference there. Learn how the United States vilifies its enemies, and accuses them of unspeakable horror to mask its own terrible crimes. Not only does the illuminating and important The Plot to Attack Iran delve into the current incendiary situation, but it also predicts what could happen next, and what needs to be done before it is too late."

Bio:

Daniel Kovalik is Senior Associate General Counsel of the United Steelworkers, AFL-CIO (USW). He has worked for the USW since graduating from Columbia Law School in 1993. While with the USW, he has served as lead counsel on cutting-edge labor law litigation, including the landmark NLRB cases of Lamons Gasket and Specialty Health Care. He has also worked on Alien Tort Claims Act cases against The Coca-Cola Company, Drummond and Occidental Petroleum – cases arising out of egregious human rights abuses in Colombia. The Christian Science Monitor, referring to his work defending Colombian unionists under threat of assassination, recently described Mr. Kovalik as “one of the most prominent defenders of Colombian workers in the United States.” Mr. Kovalik received the David W. Mills Mentoring Fellowship from Stanford University School of Law and was the recipient of the Project Censored Award for his article exposing the unprecedented killing of trade unionists in Colombia. He has written extensively on the issue of international human rights and U.S. foreign policy for the Huffington Post and Counterpunch and has lectured throughout the world on these subjects.

The Beloved Community is broadcast LIVE on the second Friday from 9-10 am PACIFIC on KBOO/Portland, 90.7.

Hugh Turley Returns to Discuss the Death of One of the 20th Century's Most Prolific and Respected Spiritual Writers 

(This episode would have aired Friday March 8th, 2019 but it was International Women's Day and all programming that day was hosted by women. The alternative air date for the March 8th show is Monday, March 18th, at 11:00 am Pacific. The Beloved Community will return to its regular time, every second Friday at 9 am on Friday April 12th at 9 a.m.)

During the first few minutes I offer an update on the cancellation of my interview with Kevin Barrett by management and my appeal to that decision, still in progress after a year.

Hugh Turley returns to the Beloved Community to discuss his work uncovering the mystery of Thomas Merton's death, December 10th, 1968 in Bangkok, Thailand. Thomas Merton was an intellectual, a prolific writer, and spiritual leader in the anti-war movement of the 60s. While biographers have all accepted the official story in some incarnation or another, that he was accidentally killed by a fan, Turley and co-author David Martin, in their book, The Martrydom of Thomas Merton, show that this official story cannot possibly be true. 

Now that this book has been released and official organizations connected with Merton are aware of this work, what is surprising is how so many of those who admire Merton care so little about honestly exploring the truth surrounding his death.  

On a special time, Monday, March 18th at 11 am Pacific, John Shuck speaks live with Hugh Turley about the facts around the death of Thomas Merton and the struggles Turley and Martin have had in communicating their findings to the public. 

From the cover:

Seldom can one predict that a book will have an effect on history, but this is such a work. Merton's many biographers and the American press now say unanimously that he died from accidental electrocution. From a careful examination of the official record, including crime scene photographs that the authors have found that the investigating police in Thailand never saw, and from reading the letters of witnesses, they have discovered that the accidental electrocution conclusion is totally false. The widely repeated story that Merton had taken a shower and was therefore wet when he touched a lethal faulty fan was made up several years after the event and is completely contradicted by the evidence.  Hugh Turley and David Martin identify four individuals as the primary promoters of the false accidental electrocution narrative. Another person, they show, should have been treated as a murder suspect. The most likely suspect in plotting Merton's murder, a man who was a much stronger force for peace than most people realize, they identify as the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States government.  Thomas Merton was the most important Roman Catholic spiritual and anti-warfare-state writer of the 20th century. To date, he has been the subject of 28 biographies and numerous other books. Remarkably, up to now no one has looked critically at the mysterious circumstances surrounding his sudden death in Thailand. From its publication date in the 50th anniversary of his death, into the foreseeable future, this carefully researched work will be the definitive, authoritative book on how Thomas Merton died.

This program aired LIVE on February 8, 2018 on KBOO/Portland.

This is from a press release dated November 26th, 2018 from The Lawyers' Committee for 9/11 Inquiry:

The Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry, a nonprofit public interest organization, announces its receipt of a letter from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in response to the Lawyers’ Committee’s April 10, 2018 Petition and July 30, 2018 Amended Petition demanding that the U.S. Attorney present to a Special Grand Jury extensive evidence of yet-to-be-prosecuted federal crimes relating to the destruction of three World Trade Center Towers on 9/11 (WTC1, WTC2 and WTC7).  The U.S. Attorney, in his November 7, 2018 letter to the Lawyers’ Committee, stated: “We have received and reviewed The Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry, Inc.’s submissions of April 10 and July 30, 2018. We will comply with the provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 3332 as they relate to your submissions.”

What does this mean? Will the crimes of 9/11 finally be prosecuted? 

David Meiswinkle and Barbara Honegger of The Lawyers' Committee for 9/11 Inquiry, and Richard Gage AIA, of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth speak with John Shuck about this development.

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Bios:

David R. Meiswinkle, Esq. is a criminal defense attorney, retired police officer of 23 years, and former U.S. Army veteran. David founded the New Brunswick Taxpayers and Tenants Association and the New Brunswick Reporter, a community newspaper. His activism and articles outlining municipal corruption brought federal authorities into New Brunswick New Jersey which led to major criminal investigations,and arrests, indictments and convictions of prominent local politicians. He is the president of The Lawyers' Committee for 9/11 Inquiry.

Barbara Honegger, M.S. has served as White House Policy Analyst and Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, Director of the Attorney General’s Law Review at the Dept. of Justice, and for more than a decade was the Senior Military Affairs Journalist at the Naval Postgraduate School, the premiere science, technology and national security affairs graduate research university of the Department of Defense. Barbara is an officer and board member of The Lawyers' Committee for 9/11 Inquiry.

Richard Gage, AIA became interested in researching the destruction of the WTC high-rises after hearing the startling conclusions of a reluctant 9/11 researcher, David Ray Griffin, on the radio in 2006, which launched his own unyielding quest for the truth about 9/11. AE911Truth now numbers more than 3,000 architects and engineers demanding a new investigation into the destruction of all three World Trade Center high-rise buildings on 9/11.

This is the final episode of Progressive Spirit. I say my goodbyes after seven years of weekly programs that always have been available for free to the public. 

In this final episode, I speak with professor emeritus Fred Provenza of Utah State University. We talk about nutrition, our bodies, the falsness of factory farming and the nutrition industry, and the importance of love on this unique journey to Earth.

Pretty much what Progressive Spirit has always been about…

Thanks for listening!

BIO:

Fred Provenza is originally from Colorado where he worked on a ranch near Salida while earning a B.S. Degree in Wildlife Biology from Colorado State University. Upon receiving a B.S. degree in 1973 he became ranch manager. In total, he and his wife Sue spent 7 years working on the ranch.He and Sue left the ranch in Colorado in 1975 so he could work as a research assistant and technician at Utah State University, where he earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Range Science. He was a faculty member in the Department of Range Science from 1982 to 2009. He is currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University.

For the past 30 years, his group has produced ground-breaking research that laid the foundations for what is now known as behavior-based management of landscapes. That work inspired researchers in disciplines as diverse as chemical ecology, ruminant nutrition, human nutrition and biopsychology, animal welfare, landscape restoration ecology, wildlife damage management, pasture and rangeland science and management, and rural sociology and eco-development. Along with colleagues and graduate students, he has been author or co-author of 250 publications in peer-reviewed journals and books, and he has been an invited speaker at over 325 international meetings.

Their efforts led to the formation in 2001 of an international network of scientists and land managers from five continents. That consortium, known as BEHAVE (Behavioral Education for Human, Animal, Vegetation and Ecosystem Management http://www.behave.net), is committed to integrating behavioral principles and processes with local knowledge to enhance ecological, economic and social values of rural and urban communities and landscapes.They seek to inspire and enable people to understand behavior, ours and other creatures, to fashion environmentally friendly solutions that reconcile differences of opinion about how to manage landscapes. In this process, everyone involved is a student attempting to better understand behavior at all levels from genes to landscapes and to use understanding of behavior to help people learn to appreciate that our differences are our collective strength in sustaining communities and landscapes that integrate diverse ecological, economic and social values and services.

Notre Dame history professor discusses the secular effects of the Reformation.

Martin Luther may very well turn over in his grave if he was able to see what happened to what he started 500 years ago. The Reformation. Studying its effects is not just for religious people. According to Notre Dame Professor of European History, Brad Gregory, the very way we conceive of private and public spheres today was an ironic result of the effects of the Reformation Era and its wars.  

Professor Brad Gregory has won numerous awards for his books. He is the author of Salvation at stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europeand The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society.

In 2017 for the 500thanniversary of the Reformation he published Rebel in the Ranks: Martin Luther, the Reformation, and the Conflicts that Continue to Shape Our World.