Progressive Commentary Hour

Hidden Hand… The silent CIA activities and their consequences.

Prof. Melvin Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington DC and an adjunct professor in international relations at Johns Hopkins University.  For 24 years—through the administrations of Johnson to Bush Sr—he had served in the CIA and the Department of State as a Soviet analyst. He was also a professor of international relations at the National War College for 18 years.  Prof Goodman writes frequently for Counterpunch and has written for the NY Times, Harpers, Foreign Policy, Washington Post and other publications.  His seven books have dealt with Soviet studies, Star Wars, the Neoconservative agenda and the CIA.  His last book “National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism” validated Eisenhower’s warnings concerning the dangers of the military industrial complex to the American economy, security and culture. And is forthcoming “Whistleblower at the CIA: The Path of Dissent” has been delayed and obstructed for almost a year by the CIA itself.  Mel’s website is MelvinGoodman.com

 

Gary chats with PRN host Beatty Cohan on the top of LOVE, They duo go over the topics of Why are relationships so challenging? A Valentine's day look at the state of love in the world, and in American culture in particular. How is the lack of love contributing to our culture of fear, resentment and hate, intolerance and social divisions?  And how does the our culture climate politicize relationships and stifle social empathy, kindness and compassion.Our guest is Beatty Cohan -- a psychotherapist for 35 years and  a nationally recognized expert in marriage and relationship therapy and sexual dysfunction counseling. Her work also includes treating early child abuse, sexual assault and substance abuse. Beatty has been a columnist, a public speaker having given hundreds of presentations to national organizations, colleges and universities, a radio talk host, and a resident psychotherapeutic expert for major television networks.

CONVERSATIONS WITH REMARKABLE MINDS

How the US is at war with itself and why this is contributing to the growing authoritarianism in the Trump era

Professor Henry Giroux (Jeer-oh) holds the Global Television Network Chair of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Ontario Canada. He was previously the Waterbury Chair Professor at Penn State University and Director of the Forum in Education and Cultural Studies.  Professor Giroux is a leader in the field of critical and public pedagogy which describes the nature of spectacle in our new media, body politic and corporate education.  He is a prominent advocate of radical democracy, which opposes the powers of neoliberalism, corporatism, and religious fundamentalism that diminishes our sense of civic virtue, free-thought and well being. He has also been named among the top fifty educational thinkers of the modern Period.  Henry has authored many books and the most recently is “America at War with Itself”.  His website is HenryAGiroux.com

Remarkable Mind

The status of the US economy

Dr. Michael Hudson is one of our nation’s finest and most important economists and Wall Street financial analysts. Dr. Paul Craig Robert’s recently called him “the world’s best economist.” He is currently the President of The Institution for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends and was the Chief Economic Policy Advisor for the Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s 2008 presidential campaign. Dr. Hudson has served as an advisor to the White House, State and Defense departments at the Hudson Institute, in addition to the United Nations Institute where he became a specialist in global economics.  He has written many books and important papers and articles, his most publication being “Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy” which goes into great depth in explaining how the polarization of the 1% versus 99% emerged. His website is Michael-Hudson.com

CONVERSATIONS WITH REMARKABLE MINDS

Entering the Era of Trump – a look at his Cabinet, the forces behind it and its threat to the public’s interest

Danny Sheehan is one of our nation’s most important and influential Constitutional and public interest lawyers.  During the past 45 years he has handled such public interest cases as the Pentagon Papers, the Watergate Break In, Iran Contra and the Silkwood murder case.  He has represented victims of he Three Mile Island nuclear disaster and fought against the American Nazi Party on hate crimes. Recently Danny was a leading attorney on behalf of the Native nations at Standing Rock. He is the founder of the Christic Institute and the Romero Institute, the latter being a nonprofit public policy center in Santa Cruz California. Danny has his law degree from Harvard University and later returned to study at the Harvard Divinity School.. He is the author of “The People’s Advocate: The Life and Legal History of America’s Most Fearless Public Defence Lawyer,”   And his websites are DanielPSheehan.com   AND   RomeroInstitute.org

A special look at the corruption and illegal operations of the CIA and its influence upon our elected government.

Douglas Valentine is an independent researcher, investigator, author and consultant in Massachusetts.  There are very few researchers in America who have done the depth of investigation into some of the darker corners of modern American history involving our federal intelligence agencies, mostly notably the CIA, as Douglas. His 1990 book on the secret CIA covert operation known as The Phoenix Project during the Vietnam war is regarded as the definitive study on this subject. His collection of Vietnam documents at the National Security Archive have been used by researchers for a decade. His lager book on the US’s secret war on drgs has received academic awards of excellence.  His most recent book “The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World” is a voluminous account of the history of CIA corruption from its founding to the present, and why we should now consider the agency’s self-interests as contrary to the national and public good. His website is DouglasValentine.com

On Tonight's Progressive Commentary Hour Gary Null gives a long powerful commentary on Yemin and the American perception in the genocide. Gary Null also plays a long audio clip on Confessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins. According to Perkins, he began writing Confessions of an Economic Hit Man in the 1980s, but "threats or bribes always convinced [him] to stop." According to his book, Perkins' function was to convince the political and financial leadership of underdeveloped countries to accept enormous development loans from institutions like the World Bank and USAID. Saddled with debts they could not hope to pay, those countries were forced to acquiesce to political pressure from the United States on a variety of issues. Perkins argues in his book that developing nations were effectively neutralized politically, had their wealth gaps driven wider and economies crippled in the long run. In this capacity Perkins recounts his meetings with some prominent individuals, including Graham Greene and Omar Torrijos. Perkins describes the role of an EHM as follows:

Economic Hit Man (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.

Perkins charges that the proposed conditions for this debt forgiveness require countries to privatise their health, education, electric, water and other public services. Those countries would also have to discontinue subsidies and trade restrictions that support local business, but accept the continued subsidization of certain G8 businesses by the US and other G8 countries, and the erection of trade barriers on imports that threaten G8 industries.

In the book, Perkins repeatedly denies the existence of a "conspiracy." Instead, Perkins carefully discusses the role of corporatocracy.

an in depth conversation about the autism epidemic and the politicalization of vaccines and federal coverup of the facts

 

Attorney Kent Heckenlively.. a founding contributor of Age of Autism, father of an autistic child and author of "Inoculated -- How Science Lost its Soul

Peter and Mickey spend the hour in conversation with author Carol Anderson. 

Her latest book, "White Rage," chronicles the history of white resistance 

and obstruction to African-American equality, from Reconstruction to modern times.

Carol Anderson is Professor of African-American Studies at Emory University in Atlanta. 

Her previous works include "Eyes Off the Prize" and "Bourgeois Radicals."  

CONVERSATION WITH REMARKABLE MINDS

The deterioration of democracy in America, loss of liberties, and how the nation's 25-year trajectory of folly brought us the presidency of Donald Trump

Lewis Lapham is an American legend as an historian, essayist and writer. He is the editor emeritus for Harpers Magazine and founder of Lapham’s Quarterly, a quarterly publication about history and literature. He was the host and author of the PBS series America’s Century and hosts the weekly PBS series Bookmark. He also produced the World in Time radio program on Bloomberg radio. His documentary film The American Ruling Class has received wide attention. Lewis has received many awards including the Thomas Paine Journalism Award and is a member of the American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame.  He has been compared to other great American essayists such as Mark Twain, IF Stone, Mencken, Gore Vidal and others. He has published fourteen books, his  latest being “Age of Folly: America Abandons Its Democracy” – a 25 year adventure in American politics that has brought us the Trump White House.   Lewis’ website is LaphamsQuarterly.org