Clearing The Fog With Co-hosts Margaret Flowers And Kevin Zeese

The focus of today’s show is President Obama’s trip to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines to build support for escalation of the US’ military presence and for the TransPacific Partnership (TPP). We are joined by Bernadette Ellorin of BAYAN USA which helped to coordinate protests to US military and economic domination in the region. Protests occurred in the US and in each of the countries that Obama visited. We also discussed a new letter urging Obama to take meaningful action to end nuclear weapons, the launch of our new campaign to clean up abandoned uranium mines, the attack on internet neutrality and recent studies which document that the US is a plutocracy. For more information, visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We spoke with Martin Kirk and Anuradha Mittal about the World Bank's "Doing Business" ranking which encourages countries to lower protections for workers, public health and the environment in order to attract businesses. It allows businesses to move factories and capital to countries with the lowest standards and fuels the race to the bottom. Of particular concern is the rising number of acres being sold to Big Ag which is displacing millions and destroying local food protection. The Rules and Oakland Institute are partnering in a new campaign, "Our Land Our Business" to end land grabs. They seek one million signatures by October. Visit OurLandOurBusiness.org to learn more and take action. Visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org for more information about the program.

We speak with two guests who are working to transform their cities into places that support their populations rather than exploiting them and pushing them to the edges. Andy Shallal, artist, activist and owner of the Bus Boys and Poets bookstore restaurants is running for mayor in Washington, DC. He advocates for policies that bring greater community engagement and empower communities through education, employment support and affordable housing. Dean John H. Morris, Jr is head of the Department of Urban Planning and Community Development at Sojourner-Douglass College in Baltimore, MD. He is working with the local community to recreate local neighborhoods so they are places that build and sustain homeownership and local businesses through a grass roots democratized economy. For more information, visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We talk about the efforts in Vermont to create a new economy which includes a public bank that is designed to serve the needs of the public and protects public dollars from the risks of too big to fail banks with Gwendolyn Hallsmith, the new Executive Director of the Public Banking Institute. We also speak with Ellen Brown who has written numerous books and articles on public and postal banking and the big banks. This topic is especially timely given the huge bubble that is inflating on Wall Street at the same time that the world's biggest economies are scaling back and there are numerous financial crises. Learn how to protect yourself and your community from the next crash. For more information, visithttp://www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

The newest study published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) shows that press freedom in the US is disappearing. The US fell 13 places to number 46 in the world, largely due to mass surveillance and aggressive attacks on whistleblowers and journalists. Delphine Halgand of RSF joins us to speak about the new report. Then Josh Stearns of Free Press who has written about specific attacks on journalists in the US tells us about the newest challenges to press freedom in the US and what we need to do to end them. For more information, visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

On February 11, thousands of websites will display messages to expose and oppose the national security state in “The Day We Fight Back Against the NSA.” The day was chosen to remember Aaron Swartz who took his life one year ago and the massive day of online action that stopped SOPA and PIPA. Swartz was a pioneer at a very young age in developing systems to share information and demanding that people should have access to information, especially data that was created using public dollars. To get the facts behind the extent of the security state and what people are doing to fight back against it, our guests are Andrew Krieg, author of “Presidential Puppetry: Obama, Romney and their Masters,” and Evan Greer of Fight for the Future. For more information, visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org. 

In his State of the Union Speech, President Obama said, “Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by; let alone to get ahead. And too many still aren’t working at all.” Obama was forced to mention wealth inequality because the real disparity that has caused rising poverty and hunger, but his overall message was still one of “if you work hard enough, you can get ahead,” rather than an honest focus on the structural causes of the wealth divide and how to reduce it. To have this conversation, we’ve invited Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report and labor economist Jack Rasmus. We look at the state of the wealth divide, its causes and its remedies. For more information, see ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We discussed the conference about Syria that is taking place in Montreux, Switzerland. Although the stated goal is peace, the structure of the talks is designed around removal of Assad from power. We will discuss the politics behind the war in Syria with Ajamu Baraka. Baraka writes of the peace talks, “Its main purpose was always to affect their main strategic objective – the removal of President Bashir al-Assad from power and the disappearance of Syria as an independent state.” Baraka calls them “war talks” and states that they are laying the groundwork for an attack on Syria. Alli McCracken of CODEPINK joins us to speak about her recent trip to Geneva with a delegation of women to press for the inclusion of women in the talks. Visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org for more information.

We continue our discussion of building a trans-formative social movement in the United States. On our last program, we looked back at the social movement over the past few years and analyzed it based on the Eight Stages of Successful Social Movements. On this program, speak about the tasks ahead to build consensus and an engaged movement of people pushing for peace, justice and a sustainable way of living. Our guest is David Solnit. For more information, visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We spoke with Ken Butigan about the stages of social transformation, where the US fits in and what the tasks are during this stage. You may be surprised to find out how close we are. Butigan is director of Pace e Bene, a nonprofit organization fostering nonviolent change through education, community and action. He also teaches peace studies at DePaul University and Loyola University in Chicago. He has been involved in numerous ‘people powered’ movements for thirty years. For more information, visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We spoke with James Quilligan, who is presently Managing Director of the Centre for Global Negotiations and Chairman for the Secretariat of Global Commons Trust, which develops innovative means of restoring value—beyond business and government—through people’s social, cultural, intellectual, genetic and natural resource commons. He wrote an in-depth series of articles for Kosmos Journal about the transformation from what he calls the Market State to a Commons-based Economy. In the Market State, all resources, goods and services are monetized and privatized so that they are controlled by a few and kept away from some of the public, and the economy is based on debt. In the Commons-Based Economy, the commons which also includes genes, culture and knowledge, the economy is based on credit and on a trust that manages the resources in a way that is sustainable and regenerative. People have more control over the economy as well. For more information, visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

The Presidential election in Honduras took place on November 24. Since the US was involved in the 2009 coup that removed President Manuel Zelaya, Hondurans have lived under a brutal regime in which political activists are harassed and murdered. This year, Zelaya’ wife, Xiomara Castro, ran as the new LIBRE party candidate. The official report is that she came in second, but widespread fraud and repression in the election makes this result questionable and there have been large protests to demand a recount. To discuss this, we will be joined by Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research who writes regularly about Latin America and Chuck Kauffman of the Alliance for Global Justice who was a member of a large delegation of election observers present for this election. For more information, visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

On this week’s show, we hear firsthand about the conditions in Palestine from Ellen Davidson and Tarak Kauff. They and four other Veterans Peace Team members traveled in Palestine for three weeks in November to witness the conditions there and stand in solidarity with the people during their weekly protests. Kauff, who leads the Veterans for Peace Action Network, created the Veterans Peace Team after the Occupy Movement started in order to provide assistance to nonviolent protests. Peace Team members will stand between police and nonviolent protesters upon request. In addition to being a peace team member, Davidson who has traveled to Palestine before is a photographer and blogger. She chronicled the trip on StopTheseWars.org. Davidson and Kauff share what they learned and experienced on their trip. For more information, visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We spoke about the state of dissent in the United States with Bruce Levine, practicing psychologist who connects the dots between society, politics, culture and mental health. He is also a social commentator and author of Get Up, Stand Up as well as other books. Levine writes about the mental health profession’s increasing trend to treat healthy challenges to authority and a dysfunctional society as abnormal. Psychologists in the US also do not recognize alternative worldviews such as anarchism and so attempt to coerce youth into adopting what are considered to be cultural norms within a hierarchical framework. Levine also writes about the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on the mental health profession and even the new DSM-V. For more information, visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

We spoke with two cultural activists who use arts and culture to educate and empower people to take action in their communities. This follows our conversation last week in which author Rivera Sun described how her novels tell the story of social transformation and educate her readers about nonviolent resistance. Bill Moyer of the Backbone Campaign teaches “Artful Activism” in his community and facilitates direct action training camps throughout the nation. He lectures in nonviolent strategy and tactics. Moyers says, “Our role, as change makers, social movement activists, organizers, and cultural workers is to change the social/political/economic variables and expand the scope of what is politically possible in tune with our principles and aspirations. Simultaneously, we must make politically toxic the world view that we oppose, lessening its appeal, reducing its claim in the territory of the politically possible.” His area of expertise is “Spectacle Actions.” Mic Crenshaw uses Hip Hop to expand the public dia

We live in a time of transition. There is a greater understanding of the interconnections between living beings and the planet. And there is a greater understanding that the current way of life and political system do not function for the majority of people. A nonviolent culture of resistance is growing and alternative systems that are more peaceful, just and sustainable are being created. We explore this transition with Rivera Sun, author of the newly-released book The Dandelion Insurrection. Sun tells the story of building a nonviolent movement to overcome a plutocracy within a highly militarized state. Her novel is both inspiring and instructive. We then spoke with Stephanie Van Hook and Michael Nagler of the Metta Center for Nonviolence. They provide tools and training for nonviolent skills and coordinate the Shanti Sena Network of Peace Teams.

We spoke with Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK and author of Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control. Medea has been a relentless activist to stop the use of drones to terrorize communities and kill civilians. She traveled to Pakistan and Yemen to speak with the families of drone victims and recently attended the briefing in Congress in which family members told their stories. Medea exposed that funds for victims of drones are actually going to US-based NGOs. She is organizing the upcoming drone conference. We also spoke with Naureen Shah of Amnesty International about a new study on drone attacks in Pakistan and David Swanson of War Is a Crime about the legality of drone warfare and whether it should be banned. Visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org for more information.

We discuss the growing effort to stop the rigged corporate trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). This deal affects every issue we care about from food safety to the cost of medicines to jobs and wages, protection of the environment, internet freedom and more. The TPP gives corporations more power to sue governments, even down to the local level, and to challenge court decisions if laws that protect workers, consumers and the environment interfere with profits. David Newby of the Wisconsin Fair Trade Coalition and Ruth Caplan of the Alliance for Democracy will speak about communities that are passing resolutions to declare themselves “TPP Free Zones.” And Arthur Stamoulis of Citizens Trade Campaign will tell us about an international day of action on Dec. 3 and what else is being done to stop the TPP. For more information, visit ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

In this program we speak about the newest phase of the health law, the Affordable Care Act. The health insurance exchanges are open and starting in January most people will be required to have health insurance or pay a penalty. There’s one problem: having health insurance in the United States does not mean that people will have access to or be able to afford the health care they need. Under the ACA, billions in public dollars are being spent to set up insurance markets, advertise them and sell their products. But, most people will only be able to afford, even with subsidies, the lowest tier insurances that require high payments up front before they cover care and that have very restricted networks of providers. The struggle for a real health care system, national Medicare for all, continues. Sergio Espana of the Maryland Health Care is a Human Right campaign and Russell Mokhiber of Single Payer Action talk about their work and what it will take to get real health care for everyone. For more information, visit

We discuss the situation at Fukushima nuclear power plant and the urgent crises that it faces after the disaster in 2011. In addition to the ongoing problem with contaminated water that is leaking into the Pacific Ocean, Japan plans to start removing damaged spent fuel rods next month. Nuclear experts warn that this must be done perfectly to avoid another release of massive amounts of radiation. Harvey Wasserman describes the process, what dangers we face and what needs to be done about it. For more information, see ClearingtheFOGRadio.org and to sign the petition calling for international intervention, visit PopularResistance.org. The petition will be hand delivered to the United Nations in November.