TB 190830 The Thunderbolt's Greatest Strikes

It’s a fifth Friday this week — meaning it’s time for the Thunderbolt’s Greatest Strikes! We comb the archives for the best of the best of the past. This week we feature the truth & reconciliation process, we describe an exciting alternative educational program, and we reveal how when it comes to activism, we need to play the long game. Apocalyptic rhetoric mixed with dumb jokes. Only on the Thunderbolt!

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Breaking the Blockade: Solidarity with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Back in the USSR shows its solidarity with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela as it faces down the threat of US imperialism.

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#600 -- Labor Day Musical Special (R)

American Labor celebrated in some really good contemporary songs--by Anne Feeney, The Foremen, Mad Agnes, John McCutcheon, Utah Phillips, and David Rovics. See "Credits" for playlist.

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10 Ways We Pretend War Is Not a Crime and How to Change Them

Keynote talk for the West Suburban Faith-Based Peace Coalition at their Peace Essay Contest Awards Presentation on August 27, 2019, the 91st Anniversary of the Kellogg-Briand Pact. The still in force, though much violated international treaty that outlawed war. Bankers, weapons makers, Wall Street investors, pension funds, insurance and investment trusts, Pentagon generals and politicians who will dance for their campaign contributions have worked tirelessly to ignore and undermine the International order of Peace that the Pact portended, and that later Martin Luther King spoke of when he set the stakes in his time, still ours: ".... It is no longer a choice between violence and non-violence in this world, it is non-violence or non-existence. That is where we are today. " The Kellog-Briand Pact remains in force as the Law of the Land, though not enforced. Swanson speaks to its enforcement and undermines the logic used to justify the wholesale lawlessness of the current and past US Administrations. It was Swanson's 2011 book, "When the World Outlawed War", the forgotten story from the 1920s of how people created a treaty to ban all war ", given to Frank Goetz, the Coalitions just past President and Peace Essay Contest coordinator, by peace activist Kathy Kelly, that inspired him to establish the Peace Essay Contest, now in its 7th year.

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The Shortwave Report 08/30/19 Listen Globally!

A weekly 30 minute review of international news and opinion, recorded from a shortwave radio and the internet. With times, frequencies, and websites for listening at home. 3 files- Highest quality broadcast, regular broadcast, and slow-modem streaming. Spanish National Radio, Radio Havana Cuba, and Radio Deutsche-Welle

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Americana Corner

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Manning The Console

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The Taxcast, August 2019: Brexit and threat to public health, accountancy and ethics

In this month's Taxcast: ethics and accountancy - yes they can go together! Plus: as Britain sinks into full crisis-mode over Brexit, we bring you unique analysis on some of the far-reaching consequences for the world, including threats to public health service models. Also – why does the new British government love Freeports so much when they’ve been condemned as centres for money laundering and tax evasion?

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Parliament, Queen or People: who's sovereign in UK's Brexit constitutional battle?

Queen 'didn't debate' Boris Johnson's request to shut down Parliament Jacob Rees-Mogg, Lord President of the Privy Council, said there was "no chat, no debate" in his meeting with the Queen at Balmoral - and nor should there be https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/queen-didnt-debate-boris-johnsons-19027439

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Donald Drumpf Theatre Vol. 137 Mueller Returns

An original radio theatre show each week, with most sounds culled from the previous week, about a fictional, theatrical presidency. Contradictions tell the story, with songs, skits, and clips from political news shows and late-night comedy routines. The definition of "radio theatre" is stretched here, with an updated Dickie Goodman and/or Richard Foreman-meets-mashup style sometimes, and a more straightforward take other weeks. Currently airing on 30 or 40 stations around the world, the network has ordered another 15 episodes, but there are threats of cancellation. Anyone who would like to work on a production, or have their work air in this timeslot, should contact info@wgxc.org.

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Donald Drumpf Theatre Vol. 137 Mueller Returns

An original radio theatre show each week, with most sounds culled from the previous week, about a fictional, theatrical presidency. Contradictions tell the story, with songs, skits, and clips from political news shows and late-night comedy routines. The definition of "radio theatre" is stretched here, with an updated Dickie Goodman and/or Richard Foreman-meets-mashup style sometimes, and a more straightforward take other weeks. Currently airing on 30 or 40 stations around the world, the network has ordered another 15 episodes, but there are threats of cancellation. Anyone who would like to work on a production, or have their work air in this timeslot, should contact info@wgxc.org.

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The Ominous Parallels - 13

He who thinks not of himself primarily but of his race and of its future is the new patriot--1910. We are turning away from the entrusting of crucial decisions to individuals who are motivated by private interests--1935. We think that the duties of a revolutionary transcend his individual wants That’s why in our collectives we fight individualism at every point--1970. Self-government--the basic principle of this republic--is inexorably being eroded in favor of self-seeking, self-indulgence and just plain aggressive selfishness--1972.

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Transit Workers Unite - Chicago - Speak Out

Transit Workers Unite held a speak out. I interviewed Erik Bassir and Erek Slater outside the break room at the terminus of the CTA Red Line on Howard Street which also is a major transfer point for bus commuters between Chicago and its suburbs. They speak to issues the public normally takes for granted and their campaign to gain worker input into shaping the conditions of their work; they talk about their jobs, the nature of being public service workers and the effects on safety and health caused by the neoliberal management style that has been instituted by the past administration of arch neoliberal mayor Rahm Emanuel.

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David Saunders inside Bristol's XR and Jeremy Rifkin's Third Industrial Revolution

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Jeff Blankfort on G7, Brexit, Lebanon, Israeli Attacks

In my news and commentary I began with references to the appearances of Trump and Boris Johnson at the G7 and the invitation by Macron of Iran foreign minister Zarif to Biarritz. From there I shifted to Israel’s attacks on pro-Iranian forces in Iraq and Syria, on Hezbollah in Beirut and the threat of attacking Houthis on Saudi Arabia’s behalf in Yemen. I provide some background on the origins of Hezbollah and Israel’s conflict with it as well as the Zionist eagerness to have Southern Lebanon, up to and including the Litani River be part of the Jewish Home approved by the League of Nations after WW 1., citing Lebanese president Aoun’s statement to me in 2007 that without Hezbollah, Israel would overrun Lebanon. I go on to describe the preoccupation of the Israeli military and media with Hezbollah since it is still unnerved that Hez has twice humiliated it, the first having forced Israel to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000 after 18 years of occupation, and in 2006, after stopping the IDF from advancing on the ground, leading to the resignation of the IDF Chief of Staff. I follow that with comments about what I saw in Lebanon the year after Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and in 2007, following the 2006 three week war. I quote several passages from an article by Seth Frantzman, the Jerusalem Post’s military analyst, comparing his unconscious dehumanization of Hezbollah in describing Israel’s drone attacks in Beirut with what it would have been if the attacks had been on Israelis. I conclude with comments about the failure of the US to take possession of the Iranian tanker that had been seized by British marines off Gibraltar, that a Gibraltar judge had said no to Washington, allowing the ship to sail and now, I announced the ship had been sold to an unnamed buyer.

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Kenneth Surin on Brexit Boris Suspends UK Parliament

On the morning that British PM Boris Johnson suspended Parliament, with the Queen’s approval, in order to minimize opposition to his No Deal Brexit come October 31st, I spoke with Prof. Kenneth Surin, of Duke University and a Delegate to the British Labour Party about the implications of Johnson’s action and issues, political and economic that are on the table. These include the likelihood of a Labour-led coalition government, following a likely vote of “no-confidence” against Johnson who, Surin reminds us, was not elected by the people, but by the vote of his party. As for the economic fall-out, he suggests that if Johnson is looking for a favorable deal with Trump to pump up the British economy, he is not likely to get it and besides, the UK’s economic relationships with France and Germany are far more important. If Johnson believes he can get one of those countries to offer a better deal than was offered to his predecessor, Theresa May, Surin notes that any new deal would have to be approved by the entire EU and go through Brussels and the best they are likely to offer him is the same as was offered to May. He also points out that the former members of the Commonwealth owe nothing to the UK and are not likely to make deals that are not on their terms. What Johnson has done, Surin says, is unprecedented in British history but is constitutional. He simply has shortened the time to 17 days that the Parliament will have to deal with the issue when it returns of Oct.14. Surin says that Johnson had a choice of a “No deal Brexit,” on October 31, or capitulate and accept the deal the EU had already offered and which May and Parliament had rejected. If he accepted the latter he would quickly be subjected to a “no confidence” vote which he would lose That there is opposition to Brexit from Scotland which wishes to remain in the EU is of no consequence to John says Surin, since Boris is a strong British nationalists with little concern for those areas far away from London. When the similarity of the incompetents and unqualified that Johnson has appointed to his cabinet was compared with a similar cast appointed by Trump, Surin said that, unlike his predecessor, he didn’t want anyone in his cabinet who did not fully support him, unlike what Theresa May had experience with her cabinet. On the well-publicized issue of what will happen at the border between Ireland, a member of the EU and Northern Ireland which is part of the UK, Surin expressed the belief that maintaining the Good Friday agreement between Ireland and Ulster is too important to both sides to let it come apart over this issue. He pointed out that it was the support of Northern Ireland that had put May in power but at this point there are too many contingencies to speculate on the outcome. Finally, the discussion turned to the charges of antisemitism that have been made against Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party for its alleged antisemitism, by Britain’s Jewish establishment and the media. Surin particularly focused on BBC whose program Panorama had produced a hit piece on Corbyn and Labour that featured two British Jews who had been exposed as behind the scenes activists for the Israeli Embassy on a featured expose of the Israel Lobby in the UK by Al Jazeera, one of whom had actually worked there. That BBC did not provide this key information to its viewers. He was unhappy about the mealy mouthed way that Labour had defended itself against the charges made by the two, both former Labour Party employees, describing them simply as disgruntled ex-employees rather than taking them head on. He suggested that Labour needed to have a team ready to respond to the spurious charges of antisemitism which, he admitted, existed, but far less so than in the ranks of Britain’s other parties and that Islamophobia was a far greater problem in the UK.

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Sonic Cafe #150/Least Loved Bedtime Stories

Sonic Café with Bedside Story, from Badly Drawn Boy, I’m your host Scott Clark. Hey, welcome, glad you could join us for our 150th episode. Wow another milestone along the way in our journey to bring you eclectic, intelligent radio that’s fun. This time the Sonic Café brings you our Least Loved Bedtime Stories. Listen for classics like The Enchanted Thermos and the Little Train That Died, from the late, great Michael O’Donoghue, of National Lampoon and Saturday Night Live fame. Plus bedtime stories from Tom Waits and Second City TV… all wrapped in a sleepy time music mix pulled from 40 years. Listen for the Bombay Bicycle Club, Steely Dan, Radiohead, Jim Suhler, The Eurythmics and more. Then the Sonic Café presents comedian Tim Hawkins. Tim does a deep dive into the lyrics of all those children’s songs and nursery rhymes that were drilled into our heads when we were kids. Turns out… it some pretty twisted stuff. So ahh pull on your fuzzy slippers, snuggle up next to your radio and join us for Least Loved Bedtime Stories from that little café on the coast …where we count sheep to get to sleep… we’re the Sonic Café.

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Between the Lines for August 28, 2019

World Attempts to Hold Brazilian Pres. Bolsonaro Accountable for Massive Fires in Amazon Rainforest; New Costly & Dangerous Russia-U.S. Nuclear Arms Race Must be Stopped; New Costly & Dangerous Russia-U.S. Nuclear Arms Race Must be Stopped

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Between the Lines for August 28, 2019

Moira Birss, Campaign Director, Finance Program with Amazon Watch; Jeff Carter, Executive Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility; OJ Semans, co-director of the group Four Directions, sponsor of a presidential debate in Iowa

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Cheeze Pleeze # 792

It's another edition of our take on Sesame Street's "Sponsored by the Letter" as our show is brought to you by the Letter G..we still can't tell you how to get to that street though.

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Escalating Attacks on Immigrants and Refugees, with Silky Shah and Mike Ludwig; Andy Zee, Trump's Latest Anti-Semitic Statements

We'll hear from two different people who have been exposing the Trump regime's concentration camps for immigrants, Silky Shah, from Detention Watch Network, and Mike Ludwig, a reporter with Truthout.org. Andy Zee, a co-initiator of RefuseFascism.org, and a participant in the National Revolution Tour, joins us to talk about the historical and present context of Trump's recent remarks about Jewish people.

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P.T. Barnum & Doug Mishler - The Something of Humbug

PT Barnum, sometimes known as the Prince of Humbug, was born in Connecticut in 1810. In many ways, he personified the American character that Frenchman Alexis De Tocqueville described in his book, “Democracy in America.” Barnum delighted in making money and telling the truth, as he saw it. Some truths were told in the political arena, where he was twice a member of the Connecticut legislature and, in the interim, Mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Some of his truths were lies when they were told to other people, like the history of some of his circus performers. Other truths were told in his newspapers. PT Barnum, ‘PT’ as he liked to be called, was best known as the creator of the ‘Best Show On Earth,’ the Barnum and Bailey Circus. I spoke with PT Barnum, personified by Doug Mishler, in the studios of Radio Curious in July of 1996 when this program was originally broadcast. P.T. Barnum recommends “My Toils and Struggles,” the autobiography of PT Barnum. Doug Mishler recommends “The Culture of Complaint,” by Robert Hughes. Originally Broadcast: July 24, 1996

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Jazz Progressions 1920

An eclectic hour of modern jazz.

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Rupert Read - This Civilization is Finished: So what is to be done? ONE of TWO

Dr. Rupert Read is teaching Philosophy at the University of East Anglia. He is a long time Green Party politician. In October 2018 Read declared himself a supporter of Extinction Rebellion, an environmental direct action group, and became a signatory of their open letters published in The Guardian. Vandana Shiva, Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, Bill McKibben and many more also signed on to that letter in support of Extinction Rebellion. Acting as one of Extinction Rebellion's spokespersons, Rupert Read gave a number of interviews on national news programs and was part of the Extinction Rebellion group invited to meet with the British Environment Secretary to discuss their demands. The following day the UK Parliament declared a "climate change emergency". Rupert Read was also one of over 200 academics to sign an open letter of support for the School strike for climate – a movement where children walk out of schools to demand action on climate change. In this talk Rupert Read explains that the Paris Agreement will fail and that we are facing a societal collapse. He goes through three scenarios.

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India's Unilateral Step Only Deepens Kashmir Crisis

Phil speaks to Shah Ghulam Qadir, the Speaker of Azad Jammu and the Kashmir Assembly, a self-governing region administered by Pakistan, about India's unilateral removal of the special status of the part of the territory of Jammu & Kashmir it occupied. Mr. Qadir notes that the UN Security Council deliberated for a total of 19 minutes last week about India's de facto annexation of the territory, the first time it dealt with the question of Kashmir in decades. The international organization, however, will have to focus on the right of the people of Jammu & Kashmir to self-determination next month, according to the speaker of the assembly, because Pakistani PM Imran Khan will be traveling to New York to address the UN General Assembly in September.

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Broadcast 448

Radio Thrift Shop features a flexible format & is an homage to the "underground" era of broadcasting of the 1960's and 1970's that DJ Frederick grew up with. RTS features a homegrown mix of vinyl records, 78s, 45's, LPs, private press releases, and a variety of cassette tapes and homemade / self released cds. Each broadcast of Radio Thrift Shop features an improvised playlist from DJ Frederick's music library.

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The Gap Has Widened - The Return of the Son of Haberdasher

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit Show - A musical mid-life crisis -- a late-night search for meaning and happiness airs on WRIR LP Monday nights from 9 PM to 11 PM. Stream the show @ www.wrir.org

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What a Waste: Mark Murray Reveals Flaws in Recycling Systems

Many of us concerned with the environment are conscientious about sorting our garbage. Those of us lucky enough to live in cities with curbside recycling feel pretty good that the majority of our garbage is diverted from landfill. Well, before we get too smug about it, perhaps we should take a closer look at where that waste goes after it leaves our hands. For example, did you know that pretty much all paper milk cartons in this country are plastic-lined and therefore end up in landfills? Or that 15% of the paper we ship to China for recycling doesn’t actually get recycled? This week on Sea Change Radio, Mark Murray, the Executive Director of Californians Against Waste, reveals the garbage in our global garbage systems. We discuss what consumers, manufacturers and retailers can do to improve the current system, where gains are being made, and what areas are ripe for improvement.

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China Resists U.S. / U.K. Hybrid War

Phil asks Chris Black, international criminal lawyer, about the protests in Hong Kong being labelled in the MSM a "pro-democracy" movement. Black responds that, under the century-long British occupation of Hong Kong, the inhabitants had no democratic voice in the colonial administration. Black explores the U.S. and U.K.-sponsored protest in H.K. as part of a hybrid U.S. war VS China, which includes Obama's "pivot to Asia" (a massive transfer of U.S. military assets to East Asia), Trump's trade war on China, arms sales to Taiwan (a renegade province of China), sending U.S. warships into the Taiwan Straits, the arrest of Ms. Meng in Canada, and the exclusion of Huawei from Western markets for 5G technology. Black also points out that the protestors' demands to sever H.K. from China have no basis in international law. H.K. was never an independent entity. It was a Chinese town seized by the British. And modern China, Black concludes, will never allow Hong Kong to be removed from its sovereign domain.

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Episode 2019.04. Psychic Numbing Themselves Away from Harmful Truths

Is it delusion or Psychic numbing that is preventing some conservatives from seeing the mounting social problems we are experiencing. That is a question we must answer if we are going to move forward with solving the very social problems that some don’t want to acknowledge exist. We must first start with having conversations with those whom oppose us on an ideological basis, this will require our deep compassion when approaching them, for they have been taught to believe we are tricksters, miscreants and overall bad for the country. In todays podcast episode I talk about the problem facing many well to do people who are trying to speak honestly and earnestly about the issues afflicting this country presently.

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