FEATURING KARL GROSSMAN – On December 20, 2019 the US military just established a sixth branch, signed into law by President Donald Trump as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. Space Force, which started out as an idea that Trump promoted in the early days of his Presidency, came into being with little to no opposition from both major parties and is the start of US militarization of space. 

Proponents of Space Force say the US has to be militarily supreme in space in order to counteract China and Russia. But at what cost? 

For more information visit www.space4peace.org. Read his two articles for CounterPunch related to this topic HERE and HERE.

Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, and is the author of the book, The Wrong Stuff: The Space’s Program’s Nuclear Threat to Our Planet. Grossman is an associate of the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR).

FEATURING PHILLIS BENNIS – The suspect in the recent stabbing incident in Monsey, New York, who injured 5 people at a rabbi’s home, has been charged with federal hate crimes. Thirty seven year old Grafton Thomas’s web searches includes references to “Hitler,” and “Nazi culture.” He also apparently searched for the phrases, “Why did Hitler hate the Jews,” and “German Jewish Temples near me.” Like the suspects in the earlier Jersey City shooting at a Kosher grocery store, the suspect may have been linked to a controversial group called the Black Hebrew Israelites. 

There has been a notable uptick in anti-Semitic incidents around the country at the same time as a growing crackdown on free speech supporting Palestinian rights. In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, my guest Phyllis Bennis wrote, “I’m Jewish. I fight anti-Semitism and I support Palestinian rights.”

Read Phyllis Bennis’ OpEd Here.

Phyllis Bennis, Member of the National Board of Jewish Voice for Peace, Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, author of numerous books including Understanding Isis and the New Global War on Terror and Ending the US War in Afghanistan. Her new op-ed in the LA Times is called I’m Jewish. I fight anti-Semitism and I support Palestinian rights.

President Donald Trump is facing push back over his retweet of a post that named the alleged whistleblower whose complaint to Congress sparked Trump’s impeachment. A constitutional lawyer named Lawrence Tribe told Salon.com that in outing the whistleblower, “Trump has violated yet another law.” Tribe explained that “The Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act of 1998 (ICWPA) outlaws actions by government officials or agencies that directly or indirectly encourage retaliatory actions against employees who legitimately perform a whistleblower role in the intelligence community, as the whistleblower in this case clearly did regarding a matter of urgent concern, as determined by the Inspector General.” Trump has repeatedly urged the exposing of the whistleblower and even suggested he face the death penalty for daring to file his complaint. 

The New York Times on Sunday published a lengthy exposé entitled, “Behind the Ukraine Aid Freeze: 84 Days of Conflict and Confusion,” The report is based on, “Interviews with dozens of current and former administration officials, congressional aides and others, previously undisclosed emails and documents, and a close reading of thousands of pages of impeachment testimony.” It paints a detailed picture of Trump’s decision to withhold Congressionally mandated military aid to Ukraine as leverage to demand political dirt on his rivals, and how his scheme stopped in its tracks when the whistleblower filed his complaint. Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney emerged as, “a key conduit for transmitting Mr. Trump’s demands for the freeze across the administration.” Additionally, there was much more internal opposition to the Ukraine scheme than previously known and that Defense Secretary Mark Esper, State Secretary Mike Pompeo, and National Security Advisor John Bolton all expressed strong criticism of it.  Another figure, Michael Duffey, an official with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), has also emerged as the point person to the Pentagon instructing them to freeze the military aid and keep quiet about it. Analysts are citing the New York Times’ article as severely weakening Trump’s impeachment defense. 

Meanwhile State Secretary Pompeo is scheduled to visit Ukraine  this Friday to assure the Eastern European country of on-going American commitment to its defenses from Russia. He will be the highest ranking US official to visit Ukraine since the controversial July 25th phone call between Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. And Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly called Trump on Sunday speaking with him for the first time since the July Ukraine call. According to a statement from the Kremlin, “Putin thanked … Trump for the information shared via the special services that helped prevent terrorist acts in Russia… Several matters of mutual interest were discussed. An agreement was made to continue bilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism.” 

The suspect in Sunday’s New York stabbing at a Rabbi’s home apparently has no known ties to hate groups and has a history of me...

FEATURING MICKEY HUFF – A former reality television star is President of the United States and has declared war on the media. The relationship between Presidents and the press has always been fraught with political pitfalls. A free press is enshrined in our constitution, and is intended to be a bulwark against abuses of power, shining a light on wrongdoing and holding politicians’ feet to the fire. 

But today corporate controlled media dominate the journalistic landscape and a handful of media outlets enjoy such a cozy relationship with the White House that they are little more than mouthpieces of propaganda. How did we get here? 

Mickey Huff, director of Project Censored and president of the Media Freedom Foundation. He is also the co-author with Nolan Higdon of the new book United States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America.

**This segment was originally broadcast on August 13, 2019.

FEATURING ALEXANDRA MINNA STERN – The mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, have catapulted into the national consciousness just how deadly the spread of online white nationalism, racist hatred, misogyny, and anti-immigrant sentiment is. President Donald Trump’s scripted speech about denouncing bigotry and white supremacy did little to distance him from the supercharged spread of hate. 

Today we’ll examine the so-called Alt Right and what underpins its dangerous ideology. 

Alexandra Minna Stern, professor of American Culture, History and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan, where she leads the Sterilization and Social Justice Lab. She is the award-winning author of Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America, and Telling Genes: The Story of Genetic Counseling in America. Her new book is called Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate: How the Alt-Right Is Warping the American Imagination.

*This segment was originally broadcast on August 6, 2019.

FEATURING RAMESH SRINIVASAN – The advent of the internet came with visions of a democratic future where things like free speech, democracy, equality, and prosperity would be unleashed from the forces that held them back. 

But today’s economy, increasingly dominated by digital technology, has given rise to the so-called “gig economy” of poorly paid and insecure jobs, disinformation and fake news distorting our elections, and racism and hate spreading. 

Writing in a new book about how we can indeed take back the internet and steer it to live up to its proclaimed ideals is Ramesh Srinivasan. 

Ramesh Srinivasan will be speaking on Thursday November 21 at 7:30 pm at Skylight Books in Los Angeles. 

Ramesh Srinivasan is Professor of Information Studies and Design Media Arts at UCLA. His earlier books are ‘Whose Global Village: Rethinking How Technology Shapes Our World and After the Internet’. His new book is called ‘Beyond the Valley: How Innovators around the World are Overcoming Inequality and Creating the Technologies of Tomorrow‘.

**This segment was originally broadcast on November 18, 2019.

FEATURING DOREEN DODGEN-MAGEE – Digital technology has reshaped societies all over the world. Broadband internet access is now considered a human right. Our smart phones allow us to carry mini computers wherever we go and many of us imagine these conveniences help streamline our busy lives. But more often than not we are spending inordinate amounts of time in front of screens. Worse yet, our children are doing so, encouraged by schools and parents alike.

Some analysts have warned of technology’s negative impact on our society. Today we turn to a psychologist who is not averse to digital devices but who advocates for finding a balance – something I suspect most of us are craving direction on. 

Doreen Dodgen-Magee, a psychologist with over 25 years of experience and author of the new book Deviced: Balancing Life and Technology in a Digital World.

**This segment was originally broadcast on October 24, 2019.

FEATURING TIMOTHY FAUST – The movement for a single-payer healthcare system in the US has been organizing for years but only in the past 2 years has it gained steam after relentless Republican attacks on Obamacare. A majority of House Democrats have now signed onto a bill that would establish a Medicare-for-All system in the US. 

But skepticism still abounds, even within the Democratic Party. Critics consistently insist that a Medicare-for-All system will cost too much without taking into account all the costs – including profits – that the current system eats up. At this critical moment in the fight for healthcare for all Americans we turn to a timely book, Health Justice Now: Single Payer and What Comes Next.

Timothy Faust, writer and journalist with expertise in healthcare and a single payer system. He has written for Splinter News, Jacobin, and Vice and is author of the new book Health Justice Now: Single Payer and What Comes Next.

**This segment was originally broadcast on August 5, 2019.

FEATURING JENNIFER BLOCK – Women’s healthcare has always been problematic in the US. But particularly over the last decade, with increasing attacks on women’s ability to access reproductive healthcare, we have an inordinate amount of political attention being paid to what goes on in women’s bodies below the waist. It’s not just anti-abortionists and the evangelical right that fantasizes about women’s healthcare returning to medieval times. Women’s healthcare providers themselves are to an extent stuck in the past according to a new book. 

Jennifer Block, award winning journalist, she has written for the Washington Post, Newsweek, Reveal and other publications. Her first book Pushed garnered critical acclaim and her newest book is Everything Below The Waist: Why Health Care Needs a Feminist Revolution.

**This segment was originally broadcast on August 2, 2019.

FEATURING CHRIS TYREE – Many Americans are turning away from sugary drinks in an effort to be healthier. They’re choosing instead bottled water. The bottled water market is growing exponentially and offers both convenience and an assurance of cleanliness. But just how clean and pure is bottled water?

A new investigative report on bottled water around the globe may just make you rethink your bottled water habit. Orb Media, in a follow-up to a story from last year called Invisibles: The Plastic Inside Us, examined bottled water from a variety of manufacturers around the world and found disturbing levels of microscopic pieces of plastic – or microplastics – floating in the water. Essentially when you drink bottled water, you’re drinking a bunch of plastic with it.

Read the new report ‘Plus Plastic: Microplastics Found in Global Bottled Water,’ HERE.

Chris Tyree, a journalist with Orb Media. He just wrote the article, Plus Plastic: Microplastics Found in Global Bottled Water. We had had him on our program last year to discuss his earlier piece, Invisibles: The Plastic Inside Us.

**This interview was originally broadcast on March 30, 2018.