Progressive Commentary Hour

Progressive Commentary Hour - Earth Day Special - 04/22/13

Derrick Jensen has become one of the nation’s leading voices of cultural and environmental dissent, who writes on how civilization is devastating the environment and the natural world, and our society’s denial of that fact. In 2008, Utne Reader listed Derrick among the 50 visionaries changing the world. In sharp contrast to environmental optimists who believe working within the corporate system will offset the tenuous planetary balance threatened by climate change, Derrick has advocated for many years a “dismantling of civilization” which can include radical dissent as well as imparting wisdom to our children. “The Derrick Jensen Reader: Writings on Environmental Revolution”  was recently published by Seven Stories with a remarkable collection of his collected writings including his 2 volume best-seller Endgame,” “A Language Older Than Words”, “As The World Burns” and others.  His website is www.DerrickJensen.org Dr. Guy McPherson is a professor emeritus of Natural Resources, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona.  He has specialized in forest resources, energy decline and climate change and their economic consequences, and has also taught at Texas A&M and University of California at Berkeley. Having become disillusioned with the American university environment and education, after attempts to silent his outspokenness views on the human causes of climate change and environmental devastation, Guy abandoned his tenured position as a full professor for ethical reasons of conscience. His story is described in a memoir, “Walking Away from Empire” found on his website   www.GuyMcpherson.com

Progressive Commentary Hour - The plight of the honey bee - 04/15/13

Larissa Walker is the Policy and Campaign Coordinator at the Center for Food Safety in Washington DC, a national non profit public interest and advocacy organization promoting the protection of human health, the environment, and to protect the public from harmful food technologies by promoting organic.  She did her post graduate work on a small organic farm and has been active in agricultural, energy and environmental issues at local and state levels. Larissa is currently a point person for the center in its litigation against the EPA for its negligence in addressing the evidence of neonic pesticides dangers on the nation’s bee population. Dr. Neil Carman is a chemist and biologist who is a scientific member of the Sierra Club’s Genetic Engineering Committee that researchers and assesses the evidence of genetic engineering’s impact upon the environment and animal and plant life. The Sierra Club has also joined forces with the Center for Food Safety in its lawsuit against the EPA t o suspend the use of neonic insecticides. Neil holds a doctorate in botany and has been active in environmental causes in Texas including air quality control. IN 1992 he started to work with the Sierra Club and is now a leading voice on issues of genetic engineering, industrial chemical agricultural practices and the role technology and toxic chemicals have on the environment. www.CenterForFoodSafety.org Steve Ellis is a commercial beekeeper and owner of the Old Mill Honey Company in Barrett, Minnesota. His operation has had over 2300 hives and this year he has witnessed a dramatic decline in his bees. He is among four major beekeepers who are plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the EPA for failing to protect America’s bee population. We are speaking to him while he is on his return trip home after taking his hives to California for pollinating the almond groves.

Progressive Commentary Hour - Conversations With Great Minds - 04/08/13

Chris Hedges is one of our nation’s most insightful cultural critics, social and political activists and authors. For almost 20 years he was a foreign correspondent in war zones and conflicts in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans, having reported for The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor and other news outlets.  While at the Times, Chris received the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for reporting on global terrorism. The same year he received Amnesty International’s Global Award for Human Rights Journalism.  Over the years he has taught at Columbia, Princeton, NYU and the University of Toronto. Among Chris’ many noteworthy books are “American Fascists” (about the fundamental Christian Right), “Empire of Illusion”, and “Death of the Liber. His latest is “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt”  – a  compelling hard look at the most impoverished regions in the US that have become what Chris calls “sacrifice zones” for the benefit of the  powerful and wealthy.

Andrew Harvey is an internationally renowned religious scholar, teacher, and author of over thirty books.  He is the founder of the Institute of Sacred Activism, an international organization dedicated to inspiring people to become more active and vital in challenging our global crises and to commit themselves to peace and sustainability.

Andrew was born in India, studied at Oxford University where he was a fellow at All Soul’s College. Over the years he has taught at Oxford, Cornell, the California Institute for Integral Studies and other institutions.  He is perhaps best known for having explored all the different religions in depth, particularly Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sufism, and interpreting them in a passionate manner while also preserving their essential meaning and significance for our own time.

Andrew has received many awards for his writings including the Benjamin Franklin Award. His most recent book is “Radical Passion: Sacred Love and Wisdom in Action” and before that “The Hope: A Guide To Sacred Activism” which won the Nautilus Silver Award for Social Change.

Progressive Commentary Hour - Deconstructing Obamacare - 04/01/13

Dr. Margaret Flowers is a pediatrician in Maryland who is currently working full time on the reform on America’s health care in favor of a single payer or Medicare for All system.  She is a co-chair of the Maryland chapter of the Physicians for a National Health Program, and one of its advisory board members. The national organization of PNHP now has over 18,000 physician members who support single payer universal health coverage. Margaret also sits on the board of the organization Healthcare Now!  She received media attention after her first arrest during the Senate Finance Committee meeting on healthcare in 2009, and then a second arrest for attempting to deliver a letter to the White House in response to President Obama’s state of the union address.

WEBSITE for Articles:  ClearingFOGRadio.org

Physicians for a National Health Program WEBSITE:  www.PNHP.org

Prof. Jerry Friedman is a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst where he has taught since 1984.  He has specialized in economic and labor history as well has the economics of healthcare. In addition to publishing reviews of the economic impact of our current private insurance based healthcare model and the economic benefits of single payer, he has also conducted financial analyses for single payer initiatives in individual states including Maryland, Colorado and Pennsylvania.

His articles can be found on the Dollar and Sense website and Real TV interviews on Youtube

Dr. Michael Huntington is a retired oncologist and the former Medical Director of the Radiation Oncology Department at Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis Oregon where he currently resides. He is a founder of the Oregon Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program  -- that now has over 18,000 member physicians who favor single payer universal health coverage. IN 2009 Dr. Huntington helped create the Mad as Hell Doctors, who toured the US speaking in favor of single payer healthcare  reform before the passing of Obama’s plan. He is currently the president of the Health Care for All Oregon Education Fund.

Mad as Hell Doctors WEBSITE:  www.MadAsHellDoctors.com

Progressive Commentary Hour - 03/25/13

Progressive Commentary Hour - Understanding the New World Order - 03/18/13

Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay is a prominent Canadian economist who is now a professor emeritus at the University of Montreal. In the late 1970s he served as the Minister of Industry and Commerce in the Quebec government. Dr. Tremblay is also the President of the North American Economics and Finance Association and President of the Canadian Economics Society. Dr. Tremblay has authored over 25 books on economics, finance and a variety of global ethical and political issues. His blog on geopolitics is read throughout the world and translated into 8 languages. His most recent book “The Code for Global Ethics: Ten Humanist Principles” addresses the urgent need for a new sense of morals in the face of immense international and global challenges. BOOK: “The Code for Global Ethics: Ten Humanist Principles” WEBSITE & BLOG:  www.TheNewAmericanEmpire.com Dr. Michel Chossudovsky is a professor emeritus at the University of Ottawa in Ontario and has been an economic advisor to many developing countries.  He is the founder of the Center for Research on Globalization at the University of Montreal and founding editor of Global Research.ca.  Prof. Chossudovsky is one of world’s leading visionaries in economic trends associated with free market globalization, having identified over 15 years ago many of the problems in global neoliberal economics that are now frequent in our headlines:  austerity, economic shock therapy, the association between rising poverty, the pillaging of developing nations due to the structural adjustment policies of the US led World Bank, IMF and WTO, and the criminalization of our banking system. He has written several books, most notably “The Globalization of Poverty and The New World Order” AND “Towards a World War 3 Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War” WEBSITE:  www.GlobalResearch.ca

Progressive Commentary Hour - Special on the plight of American children - 03/11/13

Journalist, investigative reporter Nick Bryant has been writing on the plight of disadvantaged children for over a decade. His writings have appeared in professional publications such as the Journal of Professional Ethics, the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, the Journal of Social Distress and the publication of School Health. He is the co-author of “America’s Children:  Triumph of Tragedy” that dealt with the mental health problems of lower socioeconomic children. He is the author of  “The Franklin Scandal: A Story of Powerbrokers, Child Abuse and Betrayal” that exposes a nationwide pedophile ring that pandered children to a cabal of the rich and powerful and the corruption of the Justice Department and law enforcement to crack down on it. It is perhaps one of the most suppressed crime stories in recent American history. WEBSITE:  www.FranklinScandal.com Harvey Schweitzer is an attorney with the firm Schweitzer and Scherr in Maryland, who has handled hundreds of adoption and foster care cases.  He played a leading role in the creation of the Counsel for Child Abuse and Neglect Office at the DC Superior Court and received the National Treasure Award from the Foster and Adoptive Parent Advocacy Center. Mr Schweitzer received his law degree from UCLA and is an adjunct professor at the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University.  He is also the author of “Foster Care Law” which has become a standard text in this field. WEBSITE:  www.SchweitzerLaw.net

Progressive Commentary Hour - HIV Diagnostics and Drug Therapy - 03/04/13

Steve and Cheryl Nagel are the grandparents of Rico Martinez-Nagel, the son of their adopted daughter Lindsey Nagel who was adopted by their daughter Lindsey Nagel from Romania. Although testing negative for HIV in Romania, she tested positive upon arriving in the US.

In December 2012, Lindsey gave birth a son Rico. Refusing to have the child tested for HIV. As will hear from their story. The infant was eventually abducted by the state. It wasn’t for some days later when they found the child was in the hospital, being tube fed and receiving AIDS drugs including AZT

Dr. Andrew Maniotis is the science and biomedical consultant for Cures Within Reach, formerly the Goldman Partnership for Cures, and serves as a consultant for the Office of Medical and Scientific Justice in LA and the National Vaccine Information Center.   Earlier he was an assistant professor of pathology and the director of melanoma and breast cancer research at the University of Illinois Medical School in Chicago. Over the years he has held research associate positions at the University of California at Berkeley (where he received doctorate), Harvard University and Washington University School of Medicine.

Andy has been a leading scientific in the Rethinking AIDS community. He has been consulting for the Nagel family and was a consultant for the US heavyweight boxer Tom Morrison when he had tested HIV positive and was prevented from competing… later to find that Morrison was negative.

His website is andrewmaniotis.wordpress.com, where you can several free ebooks on AIDS, Cancer and Vaccines

Dr. David Rasnick is medical researcher specializing in AIDS, cancer, protease inhibitors and clinical diagnostics. He was the first scientist to synthesis peptidyl-fluoromethanes, inhibitors of cysteine proteases used to destroy tissue related to arthritis, cancer and various parasites. In 1978, he helped establish the Diagnostic chemistry group at Abbott Laboratories and was a founder of Enzyme Systems Products and Prototek.  After leaving Khepri Pharmaceuticals as a senior scientist, David, along with his colleague Dr. Peter Duesberg at the University of California at Berkeley, David further developed the aneuploidy theory of cancer, which pertains to chromosomal imbalance.  Over the years he has been a sharp critic of the current dominant AIDS hypothesis, has been a former President of the group Rethinking AIDS and was a member of the Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel of South Africa started by President Thabo Mbeki. WEBSITE:  www.DavidRasnick.com

Celia Farber is a journalist who covered the HIV wars extensively since 1987, in various magazines. Some of these writings are collected in her book: "Serious Adverse Events: An Uncensored History of AIDS" published by Melville House Press, (now Random House) in 2006.

Activist Michael Callen called Farber "..the best AIDS journalist in the world." Her 2006 article for Harper's magazine detailing the totalitarian corruption of HIV/AIDS research was titled "Out of Control: AIDS And The Corruption of Medical Science." The attacks from the AIDS industry were predictable and fierce. In 2008 she was awarded the Semmelweis Clean Hands Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism.

Progressive Commentary Hour - Conversations With Great Minds - 02/25/13

Andrew Harvey is an internationally renowned religious scholar, writer, teacher, and author of over thirty books.  He is the founder of the Institute of Sacred Activism, an international organization dedicated to inspiring people to become more involved in challenging our global crises and to commit themselves to peace and sustainability.

Andrew was born in India, studied at Oxford University where he was a fellow at All Soul’s College, and has taught at Oxford, Cornell, the California Institute for Integral Studies and other institutions over the years.  He is perhaps best known for having explored all the different religions in depth, particularly Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sufism, and interpreting them in a passionate manner that preserves their meaning and significance for our own time.

He received many awards for his writings including the Benjamin Franklin Award. His most recent book is “Radical Passion: Sacred Love and Wisdom in Action” and before that “The Hope: A Guide To Sacred Activism” which won the Nautilus Silver Award for Social Change.

Progressive Commentary Hour - 02/18/13

Paul Levy is a pioneer in the postmodern psycho-spiritual movement. He has an academic background in economics and conducted economic research at Princeton.  Later he was the manager of the C.G. Jung Foundation Book Service, which provided him with the opportunity  toimmerse himself in the psychoanalytics and metaphysics of Carl Jung. For over 25 years he has studied with many accomplished Tibetan and Burmese Buddhist teachers, and been a serious student of Native American and world mythology Paul is the author of a truly groundbreaking and courageous book that explores the deeper psycho-spiritual dynamics behind our global madness and attempts to explain why so many are more willing to deny it rather than challenge it.  The book is “Dispelling Wetiko (Wet-eeko): Breaking the Curse of Evil” His website is www.AwakenInTheDream.com Dr. Carolyn Baker has been an adjunct professor in history and psychology for over 7 years and a psythotherapist in private proactice for 17 years.   She is among the few progressive writers who look at the unfolding of our global crises such as peak oil, the structural cracks in our free market capitalist system, and the US domestic and foreign policies from a psycho-spiritual perspective.   Her articles are frequently posted on the global blog Countercurrents Carolyn has written several books critiquing America’s religious fundamentalist culture and modern education.  Her most recent books Navigating the Coming Chaos: Handbook for Inner Transition”  and before that “Sacred Demise: Walking the Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization’s Collapse” – that together provide a compelling map of the economic, social, climatic and political terrain we are embarking upon and how to remain awake through it. Her website is CarolynBaker.net Dr. Jim Garrison is the co-founder and president of Wisdom University – an innovative university offering masters and doctoral degrees based upon the model of full spectrum transformational learning. As the co-founder and President of the Gorbachev Foundation, he was instrumental in the founding of the State of the World Forum in 1995, which generated a global network of leaders and visionaries from all walks of life to define a template for a more sustainable global civilization.  In 2000, he initiated the launch of the Commission on Globalization that challenged the existing global governance system and gathered leaders together to define viable alternatives. Jim has graduate degrees in religion and theology from Harvard and Cambridge universities. Among his books are “Civilization and the Transformation of Power “and “America as Empire: Global Leader or Rogue Nation”. WEBSITE:  www.WisdomUniversity.org