Sunday, April 6, 2014

Brick TeeVee's Plutocracy Special!


Your Guest List for Sunday's Talking Head News Shows beamed across America by Corporate Media PLUS reports from the best lib/prog media! If you have related STORIES share below! DEBUNK HERE! Throw Bricks! First brick is on us! Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com

btvBRICKbrick_teevee_test.jpgbtvBRICK


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~


ALL LINKS OPEN A NEW WINDOW!!! Click on anything below and be INSTANTLY SMARTER!
PLUTOCRACY SPECIAL Okay MLB Opening Day happened. ESPN/2 broadcast FIVE ENTIRE GAMES. We switched in to Sports Time Ohio (STO) at 10 pm (7 pm Oakland time) for The Tribe's First Game of the Season. This is what we saw.
    "DISH is actively working to sign a deal that delivers FOX-OWNED Sports Time Ohio (STO) to Cleveland Indians fans in time for Opening Day. AT THIS TIME FOX is UNWILLING to restore STO unless DISH agrees to pay a significantly increased market rate INCLUDING charging DISH for THE TIME when DISH costomers were NOT receiving STO. QUITE SIMPLY FOX IS PUNISHING INDIANS FANS who just want to watch home team baseball."
From the CLE PeeDee December 28, 2012 Fox Sports purchases STO for an estimated $230 million; will pay Indians $400 million in rights fees over next 10 years so we knew back then something bad would happen. They directed us to this site fairsatellite.com to "Get the latest news and information on our dispute with SportsTime Ohio, as well as other industry disputes..." However DISH-TV posted THIS later in the week:
    GOOD NEWS! We are pleased to announce that DISH and SportsTime Ohio have reached a multi-year agreement and SportsTime Ohio has been restored.
We cannot find any statement about the terms of this agreement at this time. No word if we'll have to buy an extra "sports package" to get the games though but it seems it may be "baked into the cake" it seems. From Dave Warner at WhatYouPayForSports.com The Fox Sports 1 Plan: Bundle Broadcast Rights Deals, Make Pay TV Customers Foot The Bill ...... You could hear a few rumblings in the background, though, as a few media pundits reminded everyone that their cable bills will go up once Speed Network converts to Fox Sports 1 in August — which is true, of course. A general sports network, especially one with the Fox brand name attached to it, will always command more than a channel focused on a single sport that isn’t football. Even before the announcement, word got out that Fox would be asking pay TV providers for a carriage fee of 90 cents to a dollar per month for Fox Sports 1 – a big jump from the quarter or so per month Speed currently gets from roughly 87 million subscribers. This new national network is more, though, than just a simple money grab. Fox has one reason for thrusting a national sports channel on us now: to consolidate all of its non-NFL sports properties and shift the costs of all those contracts — including that shiny new 12-year, $500 million deal with the reconfigured Big East — to consumers. Those contracts are scattered all over the place, too. NASCAR’s deal is primarily with Speed Network (for now). UFC has a deal with FOX to show fights on Fuel TV, the prime candidate to be re-branded as Fox Sports 2. Fox also has several big college sports contracts and a few key soccer contracts left despite losing the Premier League to NBC Sports Network after this season, and the UEFA Champions League is quality mid-afternoon programming for a general sports network. So let’s add up all the contracts Fox has that could be served by Fox Sports 1 at launch: [chart of yearly rights fees] How will Fox Sports 1 cover those costs? By charging 87 million people $0.90/month for the channel. $0.90 x 12 = $10.80 a year, and $10.80 x 87 million = $939.6 million a year. This is the low estimate, too. At a dollar per month, Fox Sports 1 will pull in $1.04 billion a year from cable viewers. Now here’s the fun part. Fox’s new contract with Major League Baseball, which starts in 2014, will allow Fox to air select baseball games on Fox Sports 1. At some point between now and then, Fox will convert Fuel TV to Fox Sports 2 and ask TV providers for (at the very least) a third of the price of Fox Sports 1, or at least $0.30/month — about twice what Fuel TV currently gets. So lets add baseball to the mix. Also, let’s throw in the Big Ten Championship game, which Fox has shown on its over-the-air broadcast network so far........ As you can see, two national Fox Sports networks should successfully shift the costs of all those sports contracts — including one deal for a game on their over-the-air network — onto every pay TV subscriber in America. What’s more, only the UEFA, Conference USA and Big Ten Championship contracts expire prior to 2020. That gives Fox plenty of time to prove the ratings value of these new channels and push pay TV providers to charge more and get the channels in more homes. Now imagine what these numbers might look like in just 3 years, when both channels have expanded in 90 million homes and have seen subscriber fee increases of just 5% per year ....... That’s $293 million left over after all the rights fees listed above are paid. That’s probably a conservative estimate of what Fox Sports 1 and 2 will actually be getting by 2016, too. ........... Of course, some would look at these numbers and say, hey, this is just good business for Fox. Clearly, having all of these properties on one or two high-value general sports channels, rather than having them spread out over a bunch of cheaper niche channels, should be more profitable for them in the long run. The bundle commands more than the niches. It’s a great strategy. The question for pay TV subscribers, however, is this: how good a value is this for you, if you’re never going to watch any of it? Put another way, what's in YOUR cable/satellite teevee bill? Looks like we'll be stuck with Joe Buck the worst announcer in sports for a good while more. Other than THAT how's been YOUR Opening Week of MLB? We move on to more important things like Occupy protester wounded by Oakland police gets $4.5 million reports SFGATE's Henry K. Lee Oakland agreed to pay an Iraq War veteran $4.5 million to settle a federal lawsuit he filed after a city police officer shot him in the head with a beanbag during an Occupy protest, nearly killing him and leaving him with permanent brain damage, attorneys said Friday. Scott Olsen, 26, was among more than 1,000 demonstrators protesting the police clearing of an Occupy Oakland encampment outside City Hall when he was struck by the beanbag on Oct. 25, 2011. Widely viewed images of him falling in the street and being carried away while bloodied ignited outrage and sparked further protests. The payout is the latest in a series of settlements by the city involving mass protests. ........... At a news conference Friday not far from where he was injured at 14th Street and Broadway, Olsen said he never expected to return from service as a Marine in the Middle East, only to be injured by police in downtown Oakland. ........... Olsen said he is still being treated for his head injury. "I didn't win part of my brain back that's dead," he said. "It's hard. It was a hard recovery process." .......... Rachel Lederman, Olsen's other attorney, said police had been "incapable" of abiding by city crowd-control policies that prohibit deploying weapons such as beanbags into crowds and mandate that officers give protesters a chance to disperse before mass arrests. The fact that police did not try to aid Olsen after he fell has also been criticized. In a report on the events, Thomas Frazier, who was then a city-commissioned consultant, wrote that he found it "unsettling and not believable" that no officer saw Olsen falling down or lying in the street............ Olsen's payout follows several other settlements of lawsuits alleging that police officers used unreasonable force during Oakland protests, with many of the incidents caught on video. In one case, the city paid Army veteran Kayvan Sabeghi $645,000 to settle a suit alleging he was clubbed by police during an Occupy protest on Nov. 2, 2011. The city agreed to pay $1.17 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a dozen protesters who say they were victims of excessive force on the same day Olsen was shot. A separate $1 million payout went to 150 people who accused police of mishandling their arrests during a 2009 protest in Oakland over the BART police shooting of Oscar Grant.

Molly Redden at MoJo exposes Hobby Lobby's Hypocrisy: The Company's Retirement Plan Invests in Contraception Manufacturers When Hobby Lobby filed its case against Obamacare's contraception mandate, its retirement plan had more than $73 million invested in funds with stakes in contraception makers.......... Documents filed with the Department of Labor and dated December 2012—three months after the company's owners filed their lawsuit—show that the Hobby Lobby 401(k) employee retirement plan held more than $73 million in mutual funds with investments in companies that produce emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and drugs commonly used in abortions. Hobby Lobby makes large matching contributions to this company-sponsored 401(k). Several of the mutual funds in Hobby Lobby's retirement plan have stock holdings in companies that manufacture the specific drugs and devices that the Green family, which owns Hobby Lobby, is fighting to keep out of Hobby Lobby's health care policies: the emergency contraceptive pills Plan B and Ella, and copper and hormonal intrauterine devices. These companies include Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, which makes Plan B and ParaGard, a copper IUD, and Actavis, which makes a generic version of Plan B and distributes Ella. Other stock holdings in the mutual funds selected by Hobby Lobby include Pfizer, the maker of Cytotec and Prostin E2, which are used to induce abortions; Bayer, which manufactures the hormonal IUDs Skyla and Mirena; AstraZeneca, which has an Indian subsidiary that manufactures Prostodin, Cerviprime, and Partocin, three drugs commonly used in abortions; and Forest Laboratories, which makes Cervidil, a drug used to induce abortions. Several funds in the Hobby Lobby retirement plan also invested in Aetna and Humana, two health insurance companies that cover surgical abortions, abortion drugs, and emergency contraception in many of the health care policies they sell. In a brief filed with the Supreme Court, the Greens object to covering Plan B, Ella, and IUDs because they claim that these products can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in a woman's uterus—a process the Greens consider abortion. But researchers reject the notion that emergency contraceptive pills prevent implantation the implantation of a fertilized egg. Instead, they work by delaying ovulation or making it harder for sperm to swim to the egg. (Copper IUDs, which are also a form of birth control, can prevent implantation.) The Green's contention that the pills cause abortions is a central pillar of their argument for gutting the contraception mandate. Yet, for years, Hobby Lobby's health insurance plans did cover Plan B and Ella. It was only in 2012, when the Greens considered filing a lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act, that they dropped these drugs from the plan. ............ All nine funds—which have assets of $73 million, or three-quarters of the Hobby Lobby retirement plan's total assets—contained holdings that clashed with the Greens' stated religious principles. Hobby Lobby and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the conservative group that provided Hobby Lobby with legal representation, did not respond to questions about these investments or whether Hobby Lobby has changed its retirement plan.............. Them two-faced basturds! For more info see Stephanie Mencimer's post Are You There God? It's Me, Hobby Lobby - Everything you need to know about the high-stakes religious-freedom case that could redefine corporate personhood.

IPCC UN Report on Climate Change: Danielle Demetriou in Yokohama for The Telegraph.co.uk summarizes the new IPCC report: 'No one will be untouched by climate change' No one on the planet will be untouched by the damaging effects of global warming in coming decades, the chairman of the organisation behind the world’s most comprehensive climate change study to date warned on Monday. Flooding, storm surges, droughts and heatwaves are among key risks of global warming that will pose growing threats to humans in the future due to rising temperatures. Violent conflicts, food shortages and infrastructure damage were also forecast to become more prevalent over coming decades, while a growing number of animals and marine species will face increased risk of extinction. The warnings were published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II report on Monday, which was compiled by more than 300 authors from 70 different countries with contributions from thousands of global experts. The report is the first of its kind to examine rising temperatures as a series of comprehensive global risks caused by increasingly perilous levels of carbon dioxide emitted by traffic, power stations and other fossil-fuel burners as well as methane from deforestation and farming. Launching the report in Yokohama, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, said: “Why should the world pay attention to this report? We have assessed impacts as they are happening, impacts on natural and human systems on all continents and oceans. I’d like to emphasise that in view of these impacts and those projected in the future, nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change.” .......... The growing scarcity of freshwater sources and shrinking crop yields would lead to violent conflict, such as civil wars, the report warns, alongside the displacement of numerous communities, referred to as “climate refugees” by Dr Pachauri. “We have reasons to believe that if the world doesn’t do anything [...] and the extent of climate change continues to increase, then the very social stability of human systems could be at stake,” he said. A “large fraction” of animals and marine creatures also faced an increased risk of extinction over the coming decades if global warming continued as projected, according to the report. ................... However, scientists behind the report also stated that by taking immediate steps to reduce carbon emissions over the coming decades, there could be a reduction in potential consequences by the end of the century. “Climate-change adaptation is not an exotic agenda that has never been tried,” said Chris Field, a global ecology director at the Carnegie Institution in Washington and also co-chair of the report, entitled “Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability”. ....... Tim Gore, Oxfam’s head of policy for food and climate change, added: “This report is categorical that climate change has already meant significant declines in net global yields of staple crops like wheat and maize. “Climate change will continue to hit crop harvests hard in the future, at the same time as demand for food is increasing. You don't need to be a climate scientist to know that falling crop yields and rising demand does not add up to a food secure future on this planet.” The same panel of global experts behind the study, which has issued four previous “assessment reports” over the past 25 years, will issue a third volume on April 13 in Berlin, in which it will unveil its strategies for tackling carbon emissions. The latest study is the most in-depth to date, in terms of forecasting the impact of global warming in specific details in addition to emphasising the social consequences in terms of conflicts and displacement. ......... MORE at The Guardian Climate change report: 'The worst is yet to come' – as it happened. The Weather Underground explains 5 Ways Climate Change Will Cause Massive Disruptions For People, Ecosystems Worldwide. NEXT Tim McDonnell, Jeremy Schulman, and James West at MotherJones.com ask If This Terrifying Report Doesn't Wake You Up to the Realities of What We're Doing to This Planet, What Will? Eight reasons you should be worried about the UN's latest climate report. The impacts of climate change are likely to be "severe, pervasive, and irreversible," the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said Sunday night in Yokohama, Japan, as the world's leading climate experts released a new survey of how our planet is likely to change in the near future, and what we can do about it.
Here's what you need to know........
Good Item! AND Katherine Bagley at InsideClimate News tells us Climate Impacts Are Going to Hit the Developing World Hardest, IPCC Says The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world's leading climate science body, declared in a new report that global warming is wreaking havoc "on all continents and across the oceans," with the worst yet to come. But by far the most severe impacts will strike the poorest countries that bear little or no historical responsibility for causing climate change, the report said. "Those countries who have contributed least to the manifestation of this problem are in jeopardy of being the most vulnerable to it," said Gary Yohe, an economist at Wesleyan University and a coordinating lead author of the IPCC report. "The poor, the young, the old and the people who live along the coasts will be hit the hardest." The message of "climate justice" comes through in the 2,500 pages of the IPCC's new report released on Monday in Japan. The hot-button concept frames global warming as an ethical issue and involves developed nations financing poor nations' climate-related losses, damage and adaptation efforts. ................. The report said that by 2100, sea level rise, intense storms, and droughts due to climate change will displace millions of people and threaten food and drinking water supplies across the globe. Crop yields will decline by as much as two percent each decade at a time when demand for food is projected to rise by 14 percent each decade due to population growth. Extreme temperatures will increase heat-related deaths and worsen urban air pollution that causes respiratory illnesses like asthma. Critical fish stocks will migrate to cooler temperatures or disappear altogether, leaving millions of coastal people without food and a source of income. Extreme weather will severely damage infrastructure like electricity, water supply and emergency services. Developing countries, which lack the money to stave off the worst effects, could need as much as $100 billion a year, if not more, from richer nations to offset these climate impacts, the IPCC said. ............... The report marks the first time since the IPCC was created in 1988 that the scientific body has spent significant time addressing how nations can cope with the expected effects of climate change. It details adaptation options for each region of the world, such as increasing the use of stress-tolerant crops in drought-risk Africa, developing coastal flood protection systems in places like Europe, Australasia and North America, and creating new workers' rights to protect employees from extreme heat in parts of Asia. While the need for such policies is undisputed, the question of how much adaptation money developed countries should provide poorer nations as part of securing climate justice has generated much debate and deadlocked climate treaty talks. So in only a matter of hours the bought-n-paid-for Climate Deniers in the Republican-controlled House Passes Bill Requiring Agencies To Put Climate Change On The Back Burner reports Emily Atkin at ClimateProgress Two days after a U.N. report warned of increased famine, war, and poverty from unmitigated carbon emissions, the Republican-led House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill that would require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to focus less on studying climate change, and more on predicting storms. The bill, introduced last June by Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), wouldn’t require NOAA to stop its climate research entirely, but it would require the agency to “prioritize weather-related activities, including the provision of improved weather data, forecasts, and warnings for the protection of life and property and the enhancement of the national economy.” ............. It’s not particularly surprising that Bridenstine would want a smaller government focus on climate change — he has repeatedly said that he believes it does not exist, despite consensus from 97 percent of the scientific community. Specifically, Bridenstine has said temperature increases have coincided more with “solar activity” than the human-driven increase in heat-trapping gases emitted into the atmosphere. .............. Dr. Kevin Trenberth, former head of the Climate Analysis Section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, explains: “It is irresponsible not to mention climate change in stories that presume to say something about why all these storms and tornadoes are happening. The environment in which all of these storms and the tornadoes are occurring has changed from human influences (global warming). Tornadoes come from thunderstorms in a wind shear environment. … The basic driver of thunderstorms is the instability in the atmosphere.” But WAIT! There's MORE! Meanwhile Kate Sheppard at HuffPoAOL finds the U.S. Tries To Stop India's Solar Policy While Pushing Fight Against Climate Change The Obama administration talks a lot about the need to develop renewable energy around the world to curb climate change. But right now, it's trying to kill India's effort to boost its domestic solar industry. The U.S. wants India to back off a policy that would require local sourcing for solar energy technology, and has sought World Trade Organization enforcement action. Representatives from the two nations reportedly met last week to try to settle the trade battle over India's rapidly developing solar industry, but reached no resolution. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in February that India's rules for locally made products for its solar power program "discriminate against U.S. exports" and break WTO rules. "We are determined to stand up for U.S. workers and businesses," he said. The U.S. and India have 60 days from last month's announcement of the enforcement action -- until April 11 -- to resolve the conflict before it goes to the WTO, which can impose sanctions. Last month, India indicated it would block WTO investigations into its trade policies, according to Reuters. ............. Some environmental advocates have criticized U.S. representatives for challenging a policy meant to help develop India's renewable energy. They argue that the WTO action contradicts work by the U.S. and other nations through the United Nations to reach international agreements on cutting emissions and supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy in developing countries like India. Right now, India is "incredibly reliant on coal," said Ilana Solomon, director of the Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Program. "It is imperative for the people of India and our global climate that India begins to transition away from fossil fuels like coal and to renewable energy sources like solar. "We do believe that U.S. has a right to, and should be, fostering its own manufacturing," said Solomon. "But that doesn't mean that the U.S. should be trying to tear down the capacity of other countries to do the same." ............ The U.S. and China have also faced off over solar panels. In 2011, the U.S. accused China of illegally subsidizing solar technology and then "dumping" the cheaper panels in the U.S. market. The U.S. later imposed tariffs on Chinese panels. China initiated WTO consultations over the U.S. tariffs in 2012; the panel convened to examine that case is still working, according to the WTO. China also levied its own tariff on U.S.-made panels last year. India has, so far, resisted pressure from the U.S. "We are ready to explain our position. Our arguments remain the same as those made when the U.S. had complained against the first phase," an Indian official told The Hindu Business Line last week. .......... THIS is a classic example of the multinationals using tools like the WTO framework to override any country's own internal laws. "Stand up for U.S. workers and businesses"? Give us a freakin' break! If all this seems overwhelming we recommend this documentary Call Of Life and you should watch it too. It explains HOW WE GOT HERE and WHERE TO GO from here. Important and timely as the second U.N. study has now been released and it is DIRE. But the Capitalist "growth forever" Class will ignore it as we tumble from crisis to crisis: Flood, drought, hurricanes, earthquakes, famine, the whole disaster package, separately, in all corners of the world, one by one, continually as our population may reach NINE BILLION by mid-century, way passed The Earth's capacity. Watch the film for the full effect.
    All over the world species are becoming extinct at an astonishing rate, from 1000 to 10,000 times faster than normal. The loss of biodiversity has become so severe that scientists are calling it a mass extinction event. "Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction" is the first feature documentary to investigate the growing threat to Earth’s life support systems from this unprecedented loss of biodiversity. Through interviews with leading scientists, psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers, and indigenous and religious leaders, the film explores the causes, the scope, and the potential effects of the mass extinction, but also looks beyond the immediate causes of the crisis to consider how our cultural and economic systems, along with deep-seated psychological and behavioral patterns, have allowed this situation to develop, continue to reinforce it, and even determine our response to it. Call of Life tells the story of a crisis not only in nature, but also in human nature, a crisis more threatening than anything human beings have ever faced before.

SCOTUS R.A.T.S. UPDATE: John Nichols at The Nation explains how With ‘McCutcheon’ Ruling, An Activist Court Opts for Full-On Plutocracy Any doubts about the determination of an activist United States Supreme Court to rewrite election rules so that the dollar matters more than the vote were removed Wednesday, when McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission was decided in favor of the dollar. The court that in 2010, with its Citizens United v. FEC decision, cleared the way for corporations to spend as freely as they choose to buy elections has now effectively eliminated the ability of the American people and their elected representatives to establish meaningful limits on direct donations by millionaires and billionaires to campaigns.
The Citizens United ruling, coming after many previous judicial assaults on campaign finance rules and regulations, was a disaster for democracy. But it left in place at least some constraints on the campaign donors. Key among these was a limitation on the ability of a wealthy individual to donate more than a total dollar amount of $123,000 total in each two-year election cycle to political candidates and parties. With the ruling in the McCutcheon case—where the court was actively encouraged to intervene on behalf of big-money politics by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky—a 5-4 court majority (signing on to various opinions) has ruled that caps on the total amount of money an individual donor can give to political candidates, parties and political action committees are unconstitutional. In so doing, says U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, says the court has further tipped the balance of power toward those who did not need any more influence over the affairs of state.
"It is far too often the case in Washington that powerful corporate interests, the wealthy, and the well-connected get to write the rules," says Baldwin, "and now the Supreme Court has given them more power to rule the ballot box by creating an uneven playing field where big money matters more than the voice of ordinary citizens.” The think-tank Demos says the high court's ruling has "overturned nearly forty years of campaign finance law," which is certainly true. But the court has done much more than that. By going to the next extreme when it comes to questions of money in politics, the justices who make up the court's activist majority have opted for full-on plutocracy—and it is unimaginable that this week's ruling will be the last assault by the justices who make up that majority upon the underpinnings of democracy. Those justices have made their political intent entirely clear. Chief Justice John Roberts was joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito in a support of an opinion that rejects the notion that limits on the total amount of money that can be given by wealthy donors—such as the billionaire Koch Brothers or casino mogul Sheldon Adelson—are needed to prevent corruption. Justice Clarence Thomas went even further, writing an opinion that all limits on political contributions are unconstitutional. The extreme stance of Thomas—which would overturn the high court’s 1976 Buckley v. Valeo, which upheld basic contribution limits, may signal the next frontier for the court. But the McCutcheon ruling will be more than sufficient for the big-money interests that worried that their ability to buy elections was hindered by what remained of campaign finance law. “What world are the five conservative Supreme Court justices living in?” asked US Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont. “To equate the ability of billionaires to buy elections with ‘freedom of speech’ is totally absurd. The Supreme Court is paving the way toward an oligarchic form of society in which a handful of billionaires like the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson will control our political process.” The decision, while not unexpected considering the court's track record, horrified clean-government and campaign-finance reform activists. ........
See America's Senator tell us how he really feels at DN! Sen. Bernie Sanders: Supreme Court Undermines Democracy by Allowing Billionaires to "Buy Elections". The Nation's Ari Berman chimes in with The Supreme Court’s Ideology: More Money, Less Voting ....... The Court’s conservative majority believes that the First Amendment gives wealthy donors and powerful corporations the carte blanche right to buy an election but that the Fifteenth Amendment does not give Americans the right to vote free of racial discrimination. These are not unrelated issues—the same people, like the Koch brothers, who favor unlimited secret money in US elections are the ones funding the effort to make it harder for people to vote. The net effect is an attempt to concentrate the power of the top 1 percent in the political process and to drown out the voices and votes of everyone else. Consider these stats from Demos on the impact of Citizens United in the 2012 election............ A country that expands the rights of the powerful to dominate the political process but does not protect fundament rights for all citizens doesn’t sound much like a functioning democracy to me. Alexander Reed Kelly at TruthDig.com's A.V booth posted this VIDEO from Moyers & Co. ‘The Fight to Save Our Democracy ... Just Got Harder’ “Two events this week have made the fight to save democracy from big money, already an uphill battle, even harder,” says the introduction to Bill Moyers’ video essay prompted by the recent McCutcheon v. FEC decision. “In Washington, DC the Supreme Court struck down overall contribution limits on how much individual donors can give to candidates, parties and PACs. In New York State’s annual budget, Governor Cuomo and legislators killed a commission investigating political corruption, failed to pass campaign finance reform and gave tax breaks to the rich.” WATCH NOW! And Robert Riech tries to pull it altogether with this analysis of Friday’s Jobs Report and the Supreme Court’s McCutcheon Debacle What does the Supreme Court’s “McCutcheon” decision this week have to do with Friday’s jobs report, showing 192,000 new jobs for March? Connect the dots. More than five years after Wall Street’s near meltdown the number of full-time workers is still less than it was in December 2007, yet the working-age population of the U.S. has increased by 13 million since then. This explains why so many people are still getting nowhere. Unemployment among those 18 to 29 is 11.4 percent, nearly double the national rate. Most companies continue to shed workers, cut wages, and horde their cash because they don’t have enough customers to warrant expansion. Why? The vast middle class and poor don’t have enough purchasing power, as 95 percent of the economy’s gains go to the top 1 percent. That’s why we need to (1) cut taxes on average people (say, exempting the first $15,000 of income from Social Security taxes and making up the shortfall by taking the cap off income subject to it), (2) raise the minimum wage, (3) create jobs by repairing roads, bridges, ports, and much of the rest of our crumbling infrastructure, (4) add teachers and teacher’s aides to now over-crowded classrooms, and (5) create “green” jobs and a new WPA for the long-term unemployed. And pay for much of this by raising taxes on the top, closing tax loopholes for the rich, and ending corporate welfare. But none of this can be done because some wealthy people and big corporations have a strangle-hold on our politics. “McCutcheon” makes that strangle-hold even tighter. Connect the dots and you see how the big-money takeover of our democracy has lead to an economy that’s barely functioning for most Americans.
Our BTV LAST WORD goes to Women Against Military Madness editor Mary Beaudoin Regime Change aka Coup d’état Do we really believe that the U.S. wants democracy for Ukraine, or was this about encircling Russia, increasing Western profits, and attempting to expand NATO? It’s probably safe to say that most Americans wouldn’t really be very receptive to the idea of using their tax money to increase profits for the international financial sector and multi-national corporations—especially when they themselves are experiencing economic insecurity. And control of Ukrainian pipelines through which Russian gas is transported to Europe seems pretty far removed from our lives, as does NATO expansion.
But because we are accustomed to hearing that any protest anywhere is a way to improve the lives of citizens, it’s harder for us to detect underlying profit motives. And so it was last December, when U.S. Undersecretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland brazenly handed out cookies in a gesture of solidarity with regime-change protesters in Maidan, the main square of Ukraine’s capital—this while a democratically elected president sat as the legitimate head of the Ukrainian government (aka “regime” in State Department-speak). Two days later, on December 13, fresh from Kiev, appearing before the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation in Washington against a Chevron logo backdrop, Nuland thanked the people in the room (representatives from mega-corporations like Raytheon, Boeing, Microsoft, Monsanto, and also the Heritage Foundation, Freedom House, and the Brookings Institute) for supporting the brave Ukrainian people support that she said had cost the U.S. $5 billion in developing “democratic institutions” within Ukraine. Then, on February 6, the world had an unusual glimpse into just how democratic when Nuland’s phone conversation with Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt was leaked—in which she appeared to choose who the president of Ukraine should be (which would mean dismantling the current government). The conversation revealed how deeply involved the U.S. State Department was. Nuland also uttered her now famous expletive, expressing exasperation with the EU, the U.S.’s partner in the process, for moving too slowly on installing a new, more western-friendly head of state. She said that the EU should be bypassed and the issue should go straight to the UN to “glue the whole thing together.” This was prior to the February 21 coup d' état in which President Yanukovych, considered by the West to be too close to Russia, was forced to flee the country and proclaim from exile that he was still the legitimate head of state.
Apparently it’s not hard to feel confident about changing yet another country’s government when the groundwork has already been laid from the outside by operating within a country. In Ukraine, as in other old Soviet countries, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and billionaire-funded nongovernmental organizations, infiltration, and propaganda help set the stage—the “soft power,” or co-opting component of what is now called “smart power” in U.S. foreign policy.
Stirring up the disgruntled through these instruments is easier when a country has first been the recipient of western-imposed policies that wreck havoc on its economy. But without an election, it takes a violent element and show of force to actually depose a seated government and enforce “regime change.” And here’s where the height of hypocrisy comes in: NATO has picked off so many old Soviet countries that Russia is now surrounded, but Russia is accused of violating Ukrainian sovereignty by moving its military to its own Black Sea base in the (predominately Russian speaking) Crimean peninsula of Ukraine.
Not long ago Victoria Nuland announced that the U.S. stands with the people of Ukraine as they seek “justice, human dignity, security, and a return to economic health.” (Through IMF-imposed structural adjustments that rob them of these things?)
If our government stopped participating in overthrows and wars, isn’t it likely that we could experience these conditions ourselves, as could the people in other countries whose well-being is such a supposed source of concern?
Much more on these topics below with all our regulars and on Democracy NOW!

NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!
WRUW-FM 91.1 TELETHON!

LIVE FROM CLEVELAND Telethon Spectacular!
THIS THURSDAY at 10 pm et!

We volunteer at WRUW as part of the Tech Crew keeping all the gear at the station in good working order, making upgrades as needed and engineering/producing the longest-running LIVE MUSIC radio show in Cleveland Radio History! We broadcast a different local act every Thursday LIVE from Studio A. This Thursday will be no different: our guest performer will be JOHN ONES & FRIENDS featuring a violinist and a cello player from the Cleveland Institute of Music backing up singer/songwriter John Ones. FULL DISCLOSURE: We were in a band with John in the 90's, an indie-band-before-indie-was-cool called THE CANES that performed on LIVE FROM CLEVELAND. As a special "Premium" during the show we are offering a CD "The Canes" Live From Cleveland from the LFC VAULT along with other CDs from acts that played on our show over the last few months! We also have other "premium" gifts featuring the WRUW logo like beer mugs, shot glasses, caps, t-shirts and more you can peruse at our WRUW Telethon 2014 Donation Page! When you donate please select #61 for Live From Cleveland! I'll be working the phones from 5 pm - 9 pm et this Thursday (plus in-studio for LFC at 10) and will also be helping out Friday at 5 pm et on "Metal Meltdown" and 7 pm et for "Night of the Living Dread" and also on Matthew Night's "ROCK FM" Saturday night 10 pm et! You can friend/follow WRUW on Facebook HERE and also too our LIVE FROM CLEVELAND facebook page with with a HUGE ARCHIVE of band photos and links to their web postings and music samplings! WAY COOL! You can listen to WRUW LIVE STREAMING at our 56K stream OR 128K stream 24/7/365 and ENJOY our 1-week archive of every show at our Program Guide! Pick the day, scroll down to the show and click the 56K link to listen and/or save! FABULOUS! Please call in 216-368-2208 or donate on-line this Thursday for the LIVE FROM CLEVELAND Telethon Spectacular! If you mention "Filthy Rich" and leave an email addy when you donate I'll hook you up with a BONUS SHOW "The Second British Invasion" mp3 I produced! A special premium only available to BTV readers! That's a wrap!
NOTE: Brick TeeVee will be taking next week off while we work the phones for WRUW Telethon!
Stay tuned in and be sure to visit all our regulars!



BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!©

Democracy NOW!

Headlines Monday, March 31, 2014

Headlines Tuesday, April 01, 2014 Headlines Wednesday, April 02, 2014 Headlines Thursday, April 03, 2014 Headlines Friday, April 04, 2014

GRITtv GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders
»»» FEATURED SHOW Bettina Damiani: What Makes A Good Job? What is a good job? Do tax breaks to self-proclaimed "job creators" actually create jobs and if so, what kind of jobs ? How do we ensure that public money is spent for public good? ........ more!

BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!©
»»» NASCAR on FOX Sprint Cup Series at Texas Motor Speedway 3 pm et
»»» NCAA March Madness Championship! CBS Monday 9 PM (7) Connecticut vs (8) Kentucky
»»» SUNDAY NIGHT BASEBALL on ESPN Giants @ Dodgers at 8 p.m.
»»» MONDAY NIGHT BASEBALL on ESPN Rangers @ Red Sox
»»» NBA on TNT Tuesday Doubleheader! Nets @ Heat 7 pm et then Rockets @ Lakers 9:30 pm et
»»» NBA on TNT Thursday Doubleheader! Spurs @ Mavs 8 pm et then Nuggets @ Warriors 10:30 pm et

BRICK TEEVEE ACTION!©
The 1st Amendment is Our Permit Our permit to occupy is The First Amendment. Quickly sign the following statement which will be delivered to mayors, police chiefs and major media across the country:

    Our permit to occupy public squares and parks is in The First Amendment, which affirms "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." When people across the Middle East occupied public squares, leaders in Washington mostly cheered those protesters and warned Middle Eastern governments not to use force to clear them. Those other societies don’t have a First Amendment. Yet Washington affirmed the universal right to assembly and protest. We do have a First Amendment. The force being used to clear nonviolent protesters from public squares in our country is unacceptable. It must stop.

StrikeDebt.org & RollingJubilee.org! A bailout of the people by the people Rolling Jubilee is a Strike Debt project that buys debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, abolishes it. Together we can liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal. Debt resistance is just the beginning. Join us as we imagine and create a new world based on the common good, not Wall Street profits. ADDENDUM: Naked Capitalism reports Top Tax Expert Confirms Our Doubts About Occupy Wall Street’s Debt Buying/Forgiveness Scheme

STOP the ACHE NEW WEBSITE! AcheAct.org and Appalachian Community HEALTH EMERGENCY Advocating for government action and protection of the public from the health crisis in mountain top removal communities. The A.C.H.E. Act Is Re-Introduced In The 113th Congress!

    Washington, DC – Today a group of U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers introduced the Appalachian Community Health Emergency Act (ACHE Act, H.R. 526) to protect Appalachian families and communities from the nation’s most extreme form of coal mining, mountaintop removal. The Appalachian Community Health Emergency Act’s leading sponsors are Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) and Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), joined by original cosponsors Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD), Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA), Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Rep. Michael Honda (D-CA), Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Rep. Janice Schakowksy (D-IL), Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), and Rep. Jared Polis (DCO).

Community-Wealth.org community-wealth.org a project of the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland Community-Wealth.org brings together, for the first time, information about the broad range of community wealth building activity. Featuring Overview: The Cleveland Model—How the Evergreen Cooperatives are Building Community Wealth Something important is happening in Cleveland. The Democracy Collaborative—the host of C-W.org—in partnership with the Cleveland Foundation, the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, Shorebank Enterprise Cleveland, the City of Cleveland, and the city's major hospitals and universities—is helping to implement a new model of large-scale worker-owned and community-benefiting businesses. The Evergreen Cooperative Initiative is beginning to build serious momentum in one of the cities most dramatically impacted by the nation's decaying economy. Increasingly, this model is being referred to nationally as The Cleveland Model. Initial planning is now underway to assist other cities in Ohio and nationwide to replicate and adapt this innovative approach to economic development, green job creation, and neighborhood stabilization. Find more many resources at Community-Wealth.org!

NET NEUTRALITY! SaveTheInternet.com Declaration of Internet Freedom Tired of fighting bad bills like SOPA, PIPA and CISPA? Want to stand up against those who are trying to control what we do and say online? It's time for something different. A group of more than 1,500 organizations, academics, startup founders and tech innovators has come together to produce a Declaration of Internet Freedom, a set of five principles that put forward a positive vision of the open Internet. Our goal: Get millions of Internet users to sign on to this Declaration. Build political power for Internet users to make sure that we get a seat at the table whenever, and wherever, the future of the Internet is being decided. It's time to stop playing defense and start going on the offensive. The open Internet is central to people’s freedom to communicate, share, advocate and innovate in the 21st century. But powerful interests want to censor free speech, block the sharing of information, hinder innovation and control how Internet users get online. And all too often, people in power are making political decisions behind closed doors about how the Internet should operate — and they're doing this without the involvement of actual Internet users. The result: policies that could close down the open Internet and destroy our freedom to connect. It’s time for us to reclaim the Internet for its users. Take action now and sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom. ACTION! Tell the FCC: Restore Net Neutrality An appeals court just dealt the latest blow to the open Internet. The court struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s Open Internet Order because of the questionable legal framework the agency used when it adopted its Net Neutrality rules in 2010. This ruling means there is no one who can protect us from ISPs that block or discriminate against websites, applications or services. But there’s hope: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler can correct the agency’s past mistakes and truly protect our nation’s communications infrastructure. The agency must take the necessary steps to make broadband networks open, accessible, reliable and affordable for everyone. Tell the FCC to start treating broadband like a communications service, and to restore its Net Neutrality rules. GO NOW TO NET NEUTRALITY IS DEAD at freepress.net NOW.

Stop Media Consolidation! Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is trying to change the agency’s ownership rules to pave the way for Murdoch to get exactly what he wants. Worse, Genachowski and Murdoch are keeping this all very hush-hush, hoping you won't notice. These changes wouldn’t just benefit Murdoch. If the FCC proposal passes, one company could own the major daily newspaper, two TV stations and up to eight radio stations in your town. And that one company could be your Internet provider, too. What is the FCC thinking?!? We can still stop the agency from taking this perilous step — but we have less than a month to do it. By taking action, you’re joining a movement of millions who are working to stop big media from getting even bigger. Please take action today. Click HERE to view our infographic and send a message to the FCC! More info at Another FCC Cave-In: Julius Genachowski’s Media Consolidation Christmas Gift to Murdoch at StopTheCap.com! And Sign Senator Bernie Sanders petition to the FCC Protect Media Diversity: Stop Media Consolidation! NEW!!! NATION ACTION! Stop the Comcast/Time Warner Cable Merger! GO THERE NOW!

CAMPAIGN FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE American Majority Rejects Washington Austerity Consensus – And We Demand Media Coverage by Roger Hickey, President, Campaign for America's Future: No more silent majority. The Campaign for America’s Future is joining with the Center for Economic and Policy Research (whose Co-Director, Dean Baker blogs regularly about economic bias in the media) and with FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) to monitor the media’s coverage and representation of the American Majority views as they go into covering the big deficit fight. But we want to enlist YOU too. Send us accounts of unbalanced coverage in the national media and in your local newspapers and television. Call up reporters, editors, assignment people and tell them when they are under-representing the views of the American Majority. We should have at least half the experts, pundits, quotes and real people represented in their coverage. In a debate as important as the one we are going into, we can’t allow the media to ignore the American Majority. Much more at www.ourfuture.org

MOVE TO AMEND! www.movetoamend.org SIGN HERE NOW! And check out more actions on the Move to Amend Calendar for more! UPDATE! Legalize Democracy Film Premieres on Free Speech TV Jan 21 Move to Amend is thrilled to announce that the premiere of our mini documentary, Legalize Democracy, will be airing on Free Speech TV (FSTV) next week to coincide with the "anniversary" of Citizens United. Legalize Democracy is a 28 minute film by Dennis Trainor, Jr. about the movement to amend -- why it is needed, and how you can get involved. Watch live on our website here. Also visit Rep Alan Grayson's site www.savedemocracy.net GET INVOLVED! And Alan Grayson is BACK in the 113th Congress! Help out at CongressmanWithGuts.com and check out his latest effort DontAttackSyria.com!

REPRESENT.US IT’S TIME TO GET MONEY OUT OF POLITICS SO THE GOVERNMENT CAN REPRESENT US. Represent.Us is a fresh campaign to pass the American Anti-Corruption Act: a law that would overhaul campaign finance, impose strict lobbying and conflict of interest laws, and end secret political money. We are mobilizing millions of Americans — conservatives and progressives, young and old, every issue group fighting K Street, online and offline — to join this campaign. Represent.Us is not just building a movement to pass the Act. The campaign will use hard-hitting accountability tactics to unseat politicians who fail to endorse the Act. If passed, the Act will completely reshape American politics and policy-making and give people a voice. See this Guest Blog at Greenpeace by Executive Director Josh Silver The $6 Billion Auction: Finally, A Plan to Get Money Out of Politics for more information!

SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT See CourageToResist.org and Bradley Manning Support Network From the Bradley Manning Support Network Announcing the "Chelsea Manning Support Network" March 19, 2014. By CMSN. PVT Manning has filed to change her name legally to "Chelsea Elizabeth Manning" and to receive hormone therapy. To show our support in this struggle, we are renaming ourselves to the "Chelsea Manning Support Network." ..... UPDATE! David Coombs: Update on PFC Chelsea Manning March 26, 2014. By attorney David Coombs. Since being retained to represent [Chelsea Manning] on July 16, 2010, I have fought to ensure that she received a fair trial and a just result. Unfortunately, I do not believe that she received either...... AND Update 4/5/14: Today marks the fourth anniversary of the release of Collateral Murder It has been four years since the public became witness to Collateral Murder, the shocking video which exposed the murder of innocent civilians and two Reuters journalists, and which was released by Chelsea Manning and then published by WikiLeaks on April 5, 2010.......

DONATE YOUR OLD CELL PHONES TO T.J. MARTELL FOUNDATION Help save lives. Donate your old & used iPhone, Blackberries, Droid and other phones to help the T.J. Martell Foundations fund life-saving cancer & AIDS research. For more information, go to www.tjmartellfoundation.org

CELLULAR PHONE TASK FORCE EDUCATION, ADVOCACY, SUPPORT at CellPhoneTaskForce.org The Cellular Phone Task Force is dedicated to halting the expansion of wireless technology because it cannot be made safe. We provide: education to the public concerning electromagnetic pollution (electrosmog); advocacy for an electromagnetically cleaner environment; support for individuals disabled by radiation from wireless technology and other sources. WATCH THIS MOVIE at Top Documentary Films Resonance: Beings of Frequency Now we live an an ocean of electromagnetic radiation. It’s all around us now, invisible, but we know it’s there. Every time you lift up your mobile phone you know it’s there. It is very hard to turn the clock back, in fact it is impossible, but we need to be aware of the adverse health effects so that we can have the choice of taking precautions against the exposures. How we could have possibly thought that putting microwaves to our brain was safe. We just don’t fully understand what we’re doing. "Resonance: Beings of Frequency" is the first documentary to investigate the actual mechanisms by which mobile phone technology can cause cancer. The film takes a deeper look at how humanity is reacting to the most profound environmental change the planet has ever seen. Read more HERE!!

B R I C K T E E V E E
brick_teevee_test.jpg
The essential guide for watching government propaganda!
THEY report. YOU throw bricks.©
Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE!
IRAQ: 4,486 US Military Dead as of April 21, 2012
AFGHANISTAN: 2,316 US Military Dead as of April 4, 2014
The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises
MOCKINGBIRD: The Subversion Of The Free Press By The CIA
Who Owns The Media? The 6 Monolithic Corporations That Control Almost Everything We Watch, Hear And Read
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media at informationclearinghouse
60 Words And A War Without End: The Untold Story Of The Most Dangerous Sentence In U.S. History

  • This Week (ABC) Host George Stephanopoulos
    • Fort Hood Shooting: Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, and former Army Vice Chief of Staff Ret. Gen. Peter Chiarelli.
    • Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. on the General Motors recall investigation
    • ROUNDTABLE: ABC News contributor and Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, former House Speaker and CNN “Crossfire” co-host Newt Gingrich, ABC News contributor and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, and Fusion’s “AM Tonight” host Alicia Menendez.


  • Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer
    • House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Tex.)
    • Thomas Friedman of The New York Times and Heidi Cullen of Climate Central about the U.N. report released this week
    • White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer
    • Politico's Todd Purdum, whose new book, AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME, details the behind the scenes battle waged by LBJ for passing the law back in 1964.
    • Politics ROUNDTABLE: CBS News Political Director John Dickerson and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report


  • 60 Minutes (CBS)
    The Fox 'News'-ification of CBS News and '60 Minutes': 'The Cleantech Crash'
    • Coming Up Sunday, April 6 at 7 p.m. ET/PT
    • 60 Minutes returns to the ghost towns of Fukushima
    • Providing healthcare to Appalachia's uninsured working poor
    • Billion-dollar art battle on 60 Minutes


  • Meet the Press (NBC) Host David Gregory
    Microsoft, NBC News Dissolve MSNBC.com Joint Venture NBC is buying Microsoft's 50 percent interest in the MSNBC website for an undisclosed amount. MSNBC.com will be rebranded as NBCNews.com, and readers who logged into MSNBC.com late Sunday were automatically redirected to NBCNews.com. Microsoft is preparing to launch its own news service this fall. Although he declined to provide many details about the operation general manager of MSN.com Bob Visse said the news staff will be about the same size as the roughly 100 people who created original content for the MSNBC.com. "There is no question that we are going to have more flexibility to make our own decisions," said Vivian Schiller, NBC News' chief digital officer. "This is really an amicable breakup. We think competition will make us better." Okay then.
    • Admiral Michael Mullen, Fmr. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
    • A “Meet the Press” debate with the man who brought the case to the court, Shaun McCutcheon, and president of Public Citizen Robert Weissman.
    • Michael Lewis on his new book, "Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt", has sparked controversy by claiming the stock market is ‘rigged.’
    • ROUNDTABLE: Kathleen Parker, Washington Post Columnist; John E. Sununu, Fmr. New Hampshire Senator (R) and Boston Globe Contributor; Fmr. Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. (D-TN); and Steve Case, Fmr. Chairman & CEO of America Online.


  • State of the Union With Candy Crowley (CNN) Sunday at 9 am ET and Noon ET.
    • House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi
    • House Intelligence Committee Republican Chairman Mike Rogers
    • House Intelligence Committee top Democrat Dutch Ruppersberger
    • Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI)
    • Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA)
    • Politics ROUNDTABLE: Penny Lee, Corey Dade and Ross Douthat.


  • HEAD ON RADIO with Bob Kincaid
    HEAD ON
    Headon Radio with Bob Kincaid 6 PM Eastern, 3 PM Pacific, 2300 GMT. Duration: 3 hrs. To be part of Conversation Radio call our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email bob [at] headonradio [dot] com during the show!
    • TITANIC TUESDAY for April Fools Day!! Listen here NOW! Tuesday, April 1st, 2014 (mp3)! Amen to the White Rose Society! Bob's show archives at the White Rose HERE! Keep Bob on the air! Donate to Head On HERE! And join Coal River Mountain Watch at www.crmw.net!


  • YOUR GREEN NEWS REPORT With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen!
    desi-n-bradKochFundForScience
    The Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen: 6 minutes of green news, politics, analysis & snarky comment! BOOKMARK greennews.bradblog.com NOW!
    'Green News Report' - April 3, 2014 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Startlingly blunt U.N. climate report warns window of opportunity to act on climate change is closing; The Billionaire Koch Brothers are environmental freedom fighters --- according to the Koch Brothers; Texas breaks wind --- wind records, that is; PLUS: Exxon Mobil agrees 'the risk of climate change is clear' but says 'F#@K you, World! We're Exxon Mobil!'... All that and more in today's Green News Report! IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links at site): 'Killer smog' in the UK; Supreme Court's campaign finance ruling is bad for Greens, good for Kochs; EPA failed to warn of cancer risk in research studies; 1/4 of Europe's bumblebees face extinction; Plowing under native US grasslands has consequences; Citigroup says 'age of renewables' has begun ... PLUS: All the positive and helpful things in the IPCC report no one will talk about ... and much, MUCH more! ...
    • BRADCAST! Reproductive Rights & Campaign Finance Law:
    KFPK 'BradCast'
    Katie Klabusich says she's being 'targeted' by Eric Scheidler's anti-choice group. They both join Brad. PLUS: Ian Millhiser on McCutcheon
    • BRADCAST SPECIAL with ConsortiumNews.com's Robert Parry! U.S. Media's 'Lost' Ukraine Narrative Investigative reporter Robert Parry joins Brad to discuss what the U.S. media is failing to tell you about the crisis in Iraq Syria Ukraine; PLUS MUCH MORE...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! SCOTUS 'MCCUTCHEON' RULING TRASHES EVEN MORE CAMPAIGN FINANCE LIMITS 'Free speech' for the super rich wins again at the Roberts Supreme Court...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! 'A New Kind of Liberty' for the Kochs and Anyone Else Who Can Afford to Buy It Have the rightwing judicial activists on the Supreme Court made you feel freer yet?...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! FCC Rolls Back Corporate Consolidation of TV Stations Under its new chairman, the federal agency finally takes one small step to fulfill their mandate of assuring the public airwaves are actually used in the public interest...
    • BRADBLOG UPDATE! Judge to NC Repubs: Turn Over Docs! Court rules GOP legislators must reveal docs relating to passage of state's new 'voter suppression' law. Email may show attempted discrimination, national collusion...


  • The Peter B. Collins Show PODCAST!
    pbc show
    Listen at PeterBCollins.com!
    The Peter B. Collins Show covers American news and politics from the Left Coast. Veteran talk radio personality Peter B. Collins, based in San Francisco, delivers fresh interviews, commentary and analysis on a range of important topics, with views and voices you don’t often find in the corporate media.
    Holiday Break and Website Changes
      To my valued listeners: We are making some changes to the website and our terms, effective in January. We will continue to offer free podcasts–my new daily news and commentary. Our in-depth interviews will be available for $1 per episode, or to subscribers who pay $5 per month or more. Loyal listeners who simply can’t afford it should send an email to peter@peterbcollins.com, as we will be offering a limited number of scholarships to our friends who are hurting during these tough times. More information will be posted as we complete the revisions. I’m grateful to each of you for listening and supporting this work, and hope that the new model will enable us to keep it going well into the future. All the best, -pbc
    • Peter B Collins, Truthout | Op-Ed An Insider's View of the Progressive Talk Radio Devolution
    • PBC News & Comment 1 Apr 2014 PBC News & Comment: Senate Report Says CIA Lied About Torture New leaks say Senate “review” of torture says CIA lied to Congress; Jason Leopold notes report will affect Guantanamo trials….
    • PBC News & Comment 2 Apr 2014 PBC News & Comment: Supreme Court Ruling Enables the Rich to Dominate Campaigns In another 5-4 ruling for plutocrats, Supreme Court lifts aggregate limit on campaign contributions; protests planned in 140 cities…
    • PBC News & Comment 4 Apr 2014 PBC News & Comment: Facts Don’t Matter, Dick Cheney Just Wants to Bomb Iran! At secret confab hosted by Zionist casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, Dick Cheney lusts for a strike on Iran–to cheers…..
    • PBC Standard Podcast April 1, 2014 Live TV Interview With Gareth Porter! Thursday, April 3 at 6pm PDT, 9pm EDT, journalist/historian Gareth Porter will be my guest for a live TV interview. We’ll talk about his important new book, Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare. This one hour special will air live on Marin cable channel 26 and will be streamed live here. The audio from the interview will be posted here as a podcast within a few days.
    • PBC Standard Podcast March 28, 2014 Journalist Roger Shuler Recounts His 5 Months in Alabama Jail


  • Ring of Fire Radio
    rofheader
    Find us at http://ringoffireradio.com and http://goleft.tv/ hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder
    Ring of Fire Radio - GoLeft TV - Robert F. Kennedy, Mike Papantonio, Sam Seder - Politics, Commentary, and News.
    This Weekend on Ring of Fire Radio! April 4, 2014 Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts Sunday nights at 8 pm Eastern.
    • Salon.com contributing writer David Dayen will be here to tell us about Wells Fargo’s mortgage fraud handbook.
    • Dave Hawkins from the NRDC will tell us what the new IPCC climate change report means for the future of the planet.
    • And documentary film director Patrick Lovell will be here to talk about his new film Waking Up The American Dream.
    • NEW! This Week on Ring of Fire on Free Speech TV! April 5, 2014 Sundays at NOON!
    »» Farron Cousins, executive editor of The Trial Lawyer Magazine and contributing writer for DeSmogBlog.com, will be filling in for Mike Papantonio this week.
    »» Howard Nations will explain what’s really behind Republican Racism.
    »» Mike Burg will tell us about the newly uncovered Wells Fargo mortgage fraud handbook.
    »» And Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder are going to discuss some of the best stories from independent progressive media from the last week – stories that the traditional, corporate-controlled media never talk about.
    Ring of Fire’s Weekly Rewind Posted on March 15, 2014 by Joshua De Leon - Ring of Fire’s top stories from the past week.
    • VIDEO! THE HISTORY OF CORPORATE CORRUPTION & FRAUD with Robert Kennedy Jr & Mike Papantonio “Call us if you have a personal story about Fraud on Taxpayers or False Claims for Payment made by Corportations at 1-866-389-FIRE (3473) or contact us by email at info@ringoffireradio.com if you have evidence of fraud that robbed taxpayer dollars. If our government is paying too much due to fraud by a corporation, Ring of Fire wants to do a story on it.” Also see Papantonio & Kennedy on Corporate Corruption and Fraud — Pt. 1/4
    Ring of Fire’s Weekly Rewind Posted on March 29, 2014 by Joshua De Leon
    • VIDEO! Papantonio: Corporations Are The New Government – Get Used To It (VIDEO) Mike Papantonio talks with Thom Hartmann about the ever-expanding corporate data mining that is eroding our privacy every time we log onto the Internet.
    • VIDEO! Papantonio: Too Late To Prosecute Bush Admin For Torture Crimes? (VIDEO) On Thursday, the Senate voted to release the records of the CIA’s torture programs, and how they did absolutely nothing to help prevent terrorism around the globe. Mike Papantonio tells Thom Hartmann why this report was held for so long.
    • VIDEO! Papantonio: The Motives Behind The War on Voting (VIDEO) Republicans are trying to block access to the voting booths again this year, but there’s more to the story than just voter suppression. Ring of Fire’s Mike Papantonio explains the motives behind the war on voting with Mike Burg.
    • Join our blog at www.ringoffireradio.com. You can now SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST by clicking on the "Podcast" tab at the top of the Ring of Fire blog. Please help support progressive radio by signing up! Ring of Fire Radio Ring of Fire, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder: Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts 7-10 et Sunday evenings on Chicago's Progressive Talk WCPT AM & FM and 4 pm et on Sirius/XM 167 featuring The PAP Attack! "We’ll bring you the stories that the mainstream media didn’t feel like reporting this week."


  • Majority Report with Sam Seder Streaming LIVE weekdays 12 NOON et @ Majority.fm!

    • MONDAY 3/31/14 Janeane Garofalo: The Majority Report’s Ten Year Anniversary
    • TUESDAY 4/1/14 April Fools: MR Goes Right Wing
    • WEDNESDAY 4/2/14 Jake Rosenfeld: What Unions No Longer Do & Josh Orton: The McCutcheon Disaster
    • THURSDAY 4/3/14 Henry Giroux: Zombie Politics
    • FRIDAY 4/4/14 Casual Friday: Cliff Schecter & Isabel Gillies
    • MORE Podcast Interviews at majorityfm.libsyn.com!
    • SPECIAL THIS MONDAY! Special start time 11:30 am et as Majority Report celebrates TEN YEARS with Special Guest and former co-host Janeane Garofalo!


  • KEISER REPORT Podcasts and more @ MaxKeiser.com!
    maxheaderhiyall
    "HI Y'ALL! Tell the people! Tell the people!"
    WHO IS MAX KEISER? Max Keiser is a financial expert, Prediction Markets analyst, inventor and filmmaker. He is the creator of the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) the first Prediction Market. Max Keiser co-hosts "The Truth About Markets" on ResonanceFM 104.4 in London. He also produces and presents documentary films covering markets and finance for Al Jazeera’s "People & Power" series. Max Keiser started his career on Wall Street in 1983. He is the creator of KarmaBanque a site that enables activists to challenge corporate power.
    • VISIT PirateMyFilm.com!!! Crowd Funding for Pirates!
    • MaxKeiserTV on YouTube! MaxKeiserTV
    KEISER REPORT ON FACEBOOK STACY SUMMARY: For once and for all, here are our real Facebook pages, the other ones are fake. But if you feel like chatting to the fake ones, by all means, go ahead.
    »» Max Keiser
    »» Keiser Report
    »» Stacey Herbert
    Assange: How cryptography is a key weapon in the fight against empire states by maxkeiser - READ What began as a means of retaining individual freedom can now be used by smaller states to fend off the ambitions of larger ones (guardian.co.uk)
    It’s Not Just the Stock Market That’s Rigged: the Entire Status Quo Is Rigged by Charles Hugh Smith - One has to wonder why we are dodging this truth about what we’ve become: a nation that turns a blind eye to skimmers, scammers and legal looting. As in the story of the Emperor’s new clothes, the onlooker who declares the obvious– in this case, that the stock market is rigged–shatters the consensus lie.In the current saga, author Michael Lewis plays the role of the truth-telling boy, and everyone who went along with the fiction that the Emperor’s high-frequency trading finery was resplendent is revealed as credulous, complicit or worse. Read more HERE .......
    Conspiracy Fact – How the U.S. Government Covertly Invented a “Cuban Twitter” to Create Revolution Submitted by Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg - It appears the U.S. government is doing its best to ensure that nobody anywhere in any corner of planet earth will ever trust American technology again (or U.S. aid for that matter). This process of distrust first really got going with the Edward Snowden revelations, which demonstrated that essentially all major U.S. tech firms are mere wards of the state with little to no privacy protections, and absolutely zero backbone. This story of the U.S. government covertly creating a “Cuban Twitter” called ZunZuneo in order to overthrow the regime there has enormous long-term ramifications on many, many levels, which I will address throughout this post. Incredible story…Read more HERE.
    • VIDEO! Thanks Jim Rickards for 9/11 ‘Terror Trading’ reveal in “Death of Money.” Now watch ‘Terror Trading’ documentary for the whole story. by maxkeiser
    Pakistan refuses to sell its gold as per IMF demands by Stacy Herbert - Read Pakistan refuses to part with $2.7 billion worth of gold for national security reasons Pakistan has refused to sell gold worth $2.7 billion, citing national security reasons, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pushes Islamabad to convert the precious metal into cash to build foreign currency reserves, revealed the global lender’s report on Friday. According to the report, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) holds over 2 million troy ounces of monetary gold, having $2.7 billion value at market rate. It is not counted in gross international reserves as it is not deemed to be liquid by the SBP, says the IMF. The IMF and Pakistan authorities discussed what steps would be needed to make gold more liquid, the report adds. “However, the (Pakistani) authorities stressed that they have no plans to sell gold and preferred existing arrangements for gold holdings for national security reasons.” .....
    • VIDEO! Fraud is the only path for US business by Stacy Herbert
    • KEISER REPORT [KR582] Keiser Report: Bitcoin Fight Night We discuss putting the entire economy into a plastic bag and towing it across the flood of Central Bank liquidity. In the second half, Max interviews Matt O’Connor, the promoter for the first ever bitcoin championship fight to be held at the O2 Indigo Arena on 5th April. When Matt brings along one of his fighters who is fighting on behalf of the bankers, things don’t go so well between him and Max Keiser!
    • KEISER REPORT [KR583] Keiser Report: Force Feeding by Central Banking We discuss the nil-by-mouthing, drip- and force-feeding of global central banking which has led to a foie gras rally in the markets, overvalued by 50-70 percent. In the second half, Max interviews Jim Rickards about his new book, ‘The Death of Money.’ In this first of two parts, they focus on the insider trading on 9/11 and the mutually-assured financial destruction as the nuclear weapon of our day.
    • KEISER REPORT [KR584] Keiser Report: Institutionalized Stealing We discuss high frequency fraud, picking prices and then filling in the trades to get to that price. In the second half, is the second half of Max’s interview with Jim Rickards about his new book, The Death of Money. In this second half, they talk more about mutually assured financial destruction, the US dollar and the danger of insolvency.
    • THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-1309] The Truth About Markets – 15 March 2014 Download show HERE (mp3)
    • Donate to ResonanceFM here!


  • The Scott Horton Radio Show
    scotthorton
    Scott Horton is host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles and KUCR 88.3 in Riverside, and the Scott Horton Show on No Agenda Radio. (You can listen live Monday through Friday from 3-5 PM Eastern HERE.) Plenty of archives too!
    • Scott Horton Radio Show Progress Report: All right, yall, welcome back to the show to the inaugural Scott Horton Show progress report! It’s been an eventful year since the show and I (amicably) parted ways with Antiwar.com, so I thought I would highlight just a few of the show’s important milestones, as well as preview some of the exciting projects to look for in the near future. ........ The show on Pacifica KPFK 90.7 FM in L.A., still called Antiwar Radio, has now moved to join their Sunday morning public affairs line up (8:30 am pt), and remains the largest source of listeners, with 15,000-20,000 people tuning in weekly. The future: Liberty Express Radio is growing and bringing me along for the ride. The great Charles Goyette hooked me up with Alan Butler and the Liberty Express earlier this year, and what has been the daily replay there from 3-5 eastern time has become my best listened-to show. And now they’re adding my friend Tom Woods to the lineup from 2-3 PM. That does it. I’m making the switch! Starting Monday, October 14, the live show is moving to 3-5 PM Eastern time on LibertyExpressRadio.com, as well as NoAgenda and my own stream.......
    • Scott Horton Radio Show 03/31/14 Gareth Porter: This is the tenth part in a series of interviews on Porter’s new book Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare. This installment is about the “fake war crisis” brought on by Israel’s apparent preparations for an attack on Iran in recent years; the US-Israel good cop, bad cop ruse; punching holes in Israel’s propaganda with the statements of their own government officials; and deciphering the real US policy on Iran.
    • Scott Horton Radio Show 04/01/14 Greg Mitchell: Greg Mitchell, author of Atomic Cover-up, discusses his 3-part series (part 1, part 2, part 3) on the long-suppressed film footage shot in the immediate aftermath of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings; President Truman’s censorship of an MGM film on the subject; the questionable justifications for dropping the bomb on Japan; and Greg’s offer of cooperation to documentary filmmakers who want to showcase the now-declassified material.
    • Scott Horton Radio Show 04/04/14 Eric Margolis: Syndicated columnist Eric Margolis discusses the decidedly undemocratic Afghan national elections; the CIA-friendly drug dealers and warlords running for president; the Taliban’s exclusion from the political process; and why the new government will probably “invite” US forces to stay indefinitely.
    • Scott Horton Radio Show 04/04/14 Marcy Wheeler: Blogger Marcy Wheeler discusses the Senate Intelligence Committee’s vote to release the CIA torture report; the long list of CIA lies about its torture program, with more to follow; and why the media takes government officials at their word instead of delving deeply into the documents to find the truth.
    • Visit his blog Stress. See ScottHorton.org for archives! Send emails to Scott at scotthorton.org to help Scott keep his podcast going!
    • Older interviews at Antiwar Radio!


  • fauxnews
    • Rep Michael McCaul (R-TX), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee
    • Sen Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee
    • former CIA and NSA Director, Gen Michael Hayden


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Brick TeeVee - THEY report. YOU throw bricks. ©

We're here because you're there. ©

First brick is on us! brick Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE!

FAIR USE: Regarding postings which may contain material published online by various sources: This site may present material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We present such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is presented without charge to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. See: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

1 comment:

Blogger said...

Did you know that that you can make money by locking premium pages of your blog or website?
To start you need to join AdWorkMedia and add their content locking plugin.