Bringing Light Into Darkness - News & Analysis: Recent Episodes
Bringing Light Into Darkness - News & Analysis
Does NATO Promote Global Stability or Promote War & Conflict (07/15/24) (Part 2/2) by Bringing Light Into Darkness - News & Analysis
Does NATO Promote Global Stability or Promote War & Conflict (07/15/24) (Part 1/2) by Bringing Light Into Darkness - News & Analysis
“Make the Economy Scream”: Tools of US Foreign Policy on the 50th Anniversary of US 9/11/1973 Coup of Allende & Chilean DemocracyCurrent president, 36-year-old Gabriel Boric of the left-wing Approve Dignity coalition was sworn in as the youngest President in Chilean history on March 11 2022. Some 14 out of 24 ministers in Boric’s cabinet are women. Seven of the cabinet members are in their 30s, and the average age is 42.Chile is one of the most unequal countries in Latin America. One percent of the country’s population owns about a quarter of its wealth. During his election campaign, Boric promised to introduce radical reforms to the current free-market economic model and bring the citizens’ demands raised during the 2019 social outbreak to the halls of government.During his victory speech in December 2021, Boric once again vowed to bury neoliberalism. “If Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism, it would also be its grave,” he said. He also ratified his commitment to reducing the glaring disparities in the country by increasing spending on public services. “We no longer will permit the poor to keep paying the price of Chile’s inequality,” he added.However, the primary focus of the show tonight is to document how all major sectors of the Chilean political and economic system were penetrated by the CIA under the direction of Henry Kissinger, Everything from the funding monies of influence into the Christian Democratic party and other alternatives to Allende’s Popular Unity Party, monies into the police and military, into radio and print media. Monies that sought to control the labor unions and labor movement, through the AFL CIO and CIA collaboration and the 1972 Trucker’s strike all funded by clandestine US CIA government monies; Documents many of them recently declassified explains how our foreign policy was to make sure it was impossible for Allende to govern and to make the economy scream by any and all means necessary. To understand US intervention and the subversion of autonomous civil and military structures of countries throughout the world is to take a giant step in understanding US foreign policy and its complete disregard for international law and basic ethics to respect the autonomy of other nations. Chile provides the prototypical example that we deconstruct tonight.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 9/17/23 pgatos00@gmail.comIf you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
“Make the Economy Scream”: Tools of US Foreign Policy on the 50th Anniversary of US 9/11/1973 Coup of Allende & Chilean DemocracyCurrent president, 36-year-old Gabriel Boric of the left-wing Approve Dignity coalition was sworn in as the youngest President in Chilean history on March 11 2022. Some 14 out of 24 ministers in Boric’s cabinet are women. Seven of the cabinet members are in their 30s, and the average age is 42.Chile is one of the most unequal countries in Latin America. One percent of the country’s population owns about a quarter of its wealth. During his election campaign, Boric promised to introduce radical reforms to the current free-market economic model and bring the citizens’ demands raised during the 2019 social outbreak to the halls of government.During his victory speech in December 2021, Boric once again vowed to bury neoliberalism. “If Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism, it would also be its grave,” he said. He also ratified his commitment to reducing the glaring disparities in the country by increasing spending on public services. “We no longer will permit the poor to keep paying the price of Chile’s inequality,” he added.However, the primary focus of the show tonight is to document how all major sectors of the Chilean political and economic system were penetrated by the CIA under the direction of Henry Kissinger, Everything from the funding monies of influence into the Christian Democratic party and other alternatives to Allende’s Popular Unity Party, monies into the police and military, into radio and print media. Monies that sought to control the labor unions and labor movement, through the AFL CIO and CIA collaboration and the 1972 Trucker’s strike all funded by clandestine US CIA government monies; Documents many of them recently declassified explains how our foreign policy was to make sure it was impossible for Allende to govern and to make the economy scream by any and all means necessary. To understand US intervention and the subversion of autonomous civil and military structures of countries throughout the world is to take a giant step in understanding US foreign policy and its complete disregard for international law and basic ethics to respect the autonomy of other nations. Chile provides the prototypical example that we deconstruct tonight.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 9/17/23 pgatos00@gmail.comIf you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
A 40 Year Employment History of Assessing, Counseling & Educating DWI Offenders in Travis County: What Should we Teach our Kids? Pt IIThis is Part II of a series of BLID shows that actually began two weeks ago on 8/14/28 under the title , A Four Decade Employment History of Assessing, Counseling & Educating Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) and other Alcohol and other Drug (AOD) Offenders in Travis County. In Part I we sought first to first provide a behind the scenes focus on how since the mid-1980s, in its effort to protect public safety, the Travis County criminal justice system evolved its rather comprehensive approach to addressing the DWI problem in Travis County. We discussed new DWI legislation that emerged in the 1980s. We discussed how the county developed an extensive assessment process to identify and separate those offenders who did not have serious problems with drinking from those that had very serious problems with drinking as well as what criteria identified those with different variations of alcohol misuse issues in between those two extremes. We also shared a continuum of education, counseling and treatment recommendation options that paralleled what we called our Chemical Use Misuse Continuum (CUMC). And lastly, we reviewed the case management system that monitored compliance or non-compliance with the court ordered counseling recommendations. Last week due a KOOP Radio work commitment instead of producing part II of our series, we replayed an “opiate Crisis” show from the previous month. Tonight, we return to our original theme and focus which includes the educational and motivational approach and educational content conveyed by court mandated education and counseling programming classes I have been teaching since the 1980s. What motivates clients to listen, participate and learn? What makes the human vessel magical? Why do Women have higher blood alcohol concentrations than men who weigh the same and drink the same amount over the same time period? How is alcohol absorbed into the bloodstream, delivered to the brain and then how is it removed from the body system? We explain & crack the egg on all these issues.We do so because we believe this will be pragmatically valuable to community members to know more about human health issues and the impact of alcohol/drug use and misuse on the magical host, our human brain and body. We do so because through this journey, we believe once you get to know more about yourself as a magical host, within which the drugs you may take realize their effects and change your internal human brain and body functionality in the process if abused, that once you become better informed it will lead to better health related decisions about your alcohol and other drug use choices you make for the future. We can promise you this presentation is presented by someone who is intimately familiar with the science behind its content. Please join us and judge the content for yourself!Siempre fieles, Pgatos 8/28/23 pgatos00@gmail.comIf you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
A 40 Year Employment History of Assessing, Counseling & Educating DWI Offenders in Travis County: What Should we Teach our Kids? Pt IIThis is Part II of a series of BLID shows that actually began two weeks ago on 8/14/28 under the title , A Four Decade Employment History of Assessing, Counseling & Educating Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) and other Alcohol and other Drug (AOD) Offenders in Travis County. In Part I we sought first to first provide a behind the scenes focus on how since the mid-1980s, in its effort to protect public safety, the Travis County criminal justice system evolved its rather comprehensive approach to addressing the DWI problem in Travis County. We discussed new DWI legislation that emerged in the 1980s. We discussed how the county developed an extensive assessment process to identify and separate those offenders who did not have serious problems with drinking from those that had very serious problems with drinking as well as what criteria identified those with different variations of alcohol misuse issues in between those two extremes. We also shared a continuum of education, counseling and treatment recommendation options that paralleled what we called our Chemical Use Misuse Continuum (CUMC). And lastly, we reviewed the case management system that monitored compliance or non-compliance with the court ordered counseling recommendations. Last week due a KOOP Radio work commitment instead of producing part II of our series, we replayed an “opiate Crisis” show from the previous month. Tonight, we return to our original theme and focus which includes the educational and motivational approach and educational content conveyed by court mandated education and counseling programming classes I have been teaching since the 1980s. What motivates clients to listen, participate and learn? What makes the human vessel magical? Why do Women have higher blood alcohol concentrations than men who weigh the same and drink the same amount over the same time period? How is alcohol absorbed into the bloodstream, delivered to the brain and then how is it removed from the body system? We explain & crack the egg on all these issues.We do so because we believe this will be pragmatically valuable to community members to know more about human health issues and the impact of alcohol/drug use and misuse on the magical host, our human brain and body. We do so because through this journey, we believe once you get to know more about yourself as a magical host, within which the drugs you may take realize their effects and change your internal human brain and body functionality in the process if abused, that once you become better informed it will lead to better health related decisions about your alcohol and other drug use choices you make for the future. We can promise you this presentation is presented by someone who is intimately familiar with the science behind its content. Please join us and judge the content for yourself!Siempre fieles, Pgatos 8/28/23 pgatos00@gmail.comIf you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
Extreme Heat Legislation & an Underfunded OSHA: A Broken Federal Worker Safety Regulatory process with Jordan BarabThis week we turn our attention to the plight of and the dangers that workers routinely face as a result of profiteering being the driving force behind our economy rather than worker safety. Again, in service to growing wealth inequality, who is left behind? We begin with a review of coal mining disasters since the turn of the century and the lack of basic safeguards there. We also detail pending legislation connected to lack of worker protections for workers dealing with extreme heat working conditions: “The Asunción Valdivia Heat Stress Injury, Illness, and Fatality Prevention Act” would protect workers against occupational exposure to excessive heat… Currently OSHA has no heat protection standards…We explore a health app created by OSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which is like a kind of the research branch of OSHA if you will. Joining us is special guest Jordan Barab who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor at OSHA from 2009 to 2017. Before that he worked for the House Education and Labor Committee, the Chemical Safety Board, the AFL-CIO, OSHA and AFSCME. He currently produces Confined Space, a newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues.OSHA is the Occupational Safety Health Administration, a US federal agency that has the enormous mandate to ensure the safety and health of 158 million workers in more than 10 million workplaces in our country . OSHA funding is so small and underfunded that if it was to inspect every workplace in the country just once it would take 190 years. Our guest discusses overall worker safety in the context of the current heat wave and recent legislation being promoted to protect workers from extreme temperature working conditions. Meanwhile, every year we have 5,000 workers who die in the workplace; plus many more who die from 'occupational illness’. Our guest takes us on a fascinating exploration of how OSHA, an agency with a huge mandate and very few resources to fulfill that mandate has come under fire due to lack of political will around workplace health and safety. As a result, OSHA does not have the budget it needs to advocate for needed change of laws. Instead, worker safety is further compromised by proposals for a 15% cut in the OSHA budget. Siempre fieles, Pgatos 8/7/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Extreme Heat Legislation & an Underfunded OSHA: A Broken Federal Worker Safety Regulatory process with Jordan BarabThis week we turn our attention to the plight of and the dangers that workers routinely face as a result of profiteering being the driving force behind our economy rather than worker safety. Again, in service to growing wealth inequality, who is left behind? We begin with a review of coal mining disasters since the turn of the century and the lack of basic safeguards there. We also detail pending legislation connected to lack of worker protections for workers dealing with extreme heat working conditions: “The Asunción Valdivia Heat Stress Injury, Illness, and Fatality Prevention Act” would protect workers against occupational exposure to excessive heat… Currently OSHA has no heat protection standards…We explore a health app created by OSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which is like a kind of the research branch of OSHA if you will. Joining us is special guest Jordan Barab who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor at OSHA from 2009 to 2017. Before that he worked for the House Education and Labor Committee, the Chemical Safety Board, the AFL-CIO, OSHA and AFSCME. He currently produces Confined Space, a newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues.OSHA is the Occupational Safety Health Administration, a US federal agency that has the enormous mandate to ensure the safety and health of 158 million workers in more than 10 million workplaces in our country . OSHA funding is so small and underfunded that if it was to inspect every workplace in the country just once it would take 190 years. Our guest discusses overall worker safety in the context of the current heat wave and recent legislation being promoted to protect workers from extreme temperature working conditions. Meanwhile, every year we have 5,000 workers who die in the workplace; plus many more who die from 'occupational illness’. Our guest takes us on a fascinating exploration of how OSHA, an agency with a huge mandate and very few resources to fulfill that mandate has come under fire due to lack of political will around workplace health and safety. As a result, OSHA does not have the budget it needs to advocate for needed change of laws. Instead, worker safety is further compromised by proposals for a 15% cut in the OSHA budget. Siempre fieles, Pgatos 8/7/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Wealth Inequality, Profiteering & Oppression: The Opioid Crisis as a Profiteering Outcome & A Tribute to Sinead O’Connor Tonight, we wanted to talk about the overall arching theme of BLID and that is how wealth inequality is recklessly driving our country and the world to a premature end. Wealth inequality and what we have referred to from time to time, in the service of oppression. But what does oppression mean? For simplification it is just the unfair advantages that some have and have manipulated throughout history to create such unfair wealth accumulation differences. And with such differences comes power that enables it to continue to consolidate and evolve new methods to replicate its advantage, all, while calling it democracy and pursuit of liberty. Yet, It does so in the larger context of prioritizing profiteering over democracy. Whether it is through the promotion if war and conflict as our past two shows focused on, or a broken healthcare system, or as our focus tonight will be, on how our government has enabled pharmaceutical giants to profiteer in such a way that led to the opiate crisis that faces our country today. A crisis we falsely blame on drug cartels.BLID seeks to bring light to the interaction of these two concepts tonight. Wealth inequality and oppression and share yet another dimension of profiteering, that of pharmaceutical giants. Tonight, we start with a well-documented discussion of life expectancy differences among the haves and have-nots if you will. How media and our government have failed to point us to the its real causes and instead blamed it on Covid, the opioid crisis and increased violence of suicide and mental health challenges facing millions. We then circle back to show how unregulated and underregulated Pharma giants paved the way for the opioid crisis that concerns us so much in this moment of our history. We end the show with a dedication to Sinead OConnor because BLID believes she was and is such a beautiful soul… Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/31/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Wealth Inequality, Profiteering & Oppression: The Opioid Crisis as a Profiteering Outcome & A Tribute to Sinead O’Connor Tonight, we wanted to talk about the overall arching theme of BLID and that is how wealth inequality is recklessly driving our country and the world to a premature end. Wealth inequality and what we have referred to from time to time, in the service of oppression. But what does oppression mean? For simplification it is just the unfair advantages that some have and have manipulated throughout history to create such unfair wealth accumulation differences. And with such differences comes power that enables it to continue to consolidate and evolve new methods to replicate its advantage, all, while calling it democracy and pursuit of liberty. Yet, It does so in the larger context of prioritizing profiteering over democracy. Whether it is through the promotion if war and conflict as our past two shows focused on, or a broken healthcare system, or as our focus tonight will be, on how our government has enabled pharmaceutical giants to profiteer in such a way that led to the opiate crisis that faces our country today. A crisis we falsely blame on drug cartels.BLID seeks to bring light to the interaction of these two concepts tonight. Wealth inequality and oppression and share yet another dimension of profiteering, that of pharmaceutical giants. Tonight, we start with a well-documented discussion of life expectancy differences among the haves and have-nots if you will. How media and our government have failed to point us to the its real causes and instead blamed it on Covid, the opioid crisis and increased violence of suicide and mental health challenges facing millions. We then circle back to show how unregulated and underregulated Pharma giants paved the way for the opioid crisis that concerns us so much in this moment of our history. We end the show with a dedication to Sinead OConnor because BLID believes she was and is such a beautiful soul… Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/31/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
The US Foreign Policy is a Bomb: A Joe Biden, Elliot Abrams Bipartisan Foreign Policy Mantra, with Dave DeCamp Sarah Jones in a recent 7/6/23 piece, Why Is the Biden Administration Rewarding Elliott Abrams? Describes Elliot Abrams this way: “In 1981, an American-created military unit in El Salvador raped and murdered its way through several hamlets, including the village of El Mozote. Elliott Abrams, then new to his role as Reagan’s assistant secretary of State for human rights and humanitarian affairs, insisted that news reports had overstated the breadth of the massacre. In remarks to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Abrams dismissed the credibility of the numbers. Guerrillas had twisted the event for their own ends, he argued. We now know this to be false: A U.N. truth commission uncovered evidence of about a thousand murders….”On Monday (7/3/23), CNN reported that the Biden administration had appointed Elliot Abrams to the prestigious United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. The problem here is this guy is not just a war criminal who enabled and defended death squad activity and all sorts of hideous human right s violations under US foreign policy during the 1980s. He is also a convicted perjurer… We share a US foreign policy history most Americans have been insulated from. How could such a monster return again and agin to US government positions of human rights importance? It speaks volumes of our president and our foreign policy. Dave DeCamp a fulltime news editor and writer for Antiwar.com since 2020 joins us to connect the historical dots largely ignored by MSM as we review one of his recent articles on the same.. DeCamp also discusses the overall geopolitical forces at work that are shaping our world and keeping us from making our foreign policy accountable to our democratic aspirations. We end the show with a tribute to Tony Bennett …so please stay tuned… Enjoy Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/24/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
The US Foreign Policy is a Bomb: A Joe Biden, Elliot Abrams Bipartisan Foreign Policy Mantra, with Dave DeCamp Sarah Jones in a recent 7/6/23 piece, Why Is the Biden Administration Rewarding Elliott Abrams? Describes Elliot Abrams this way: “In 1981, an American-created military unit in El Salvador raped and murdered its way through several hamlets, including the village of El Mozote. Elliott Abrams, then new to his role as Reagan’s assistant secretary of State for human rights and humanitarian affairs, insisted that news reports had overstated the breadth of the massacre. In remarks to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Abrams dismissed the credibility of the numbers. Guerrillas had twisted the event for their own ends, he argued. We now know this to be false: A U.N. truth commission uncovered evidence of about a thousand murders….”On Monday (7/3/23), CNN reported that the Biden administration had appointed Elliot Abrams to the prestigious United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. The problem here is this guy is not just a war criminal who enabled and defended death squad activity and all sorts of hideous human right s violations under US foreign policy during the 1980s. He is also a convicted perjurer… We share a US foreign policy history most Americans have been insulated from. How could such a monster return again and agin to US government positions of human rights importance? It speaks volumes of our president and our foreign policy. Dave DeCamp a fulltime news editor and writer for Antiwar.com since 2020 joins us to connect the historical dots largely ignored by MSM as we review one of his recent articles on the same.. DeCamp also discusses the overall geopolitical forces at work that are shaping our world and keeping us from making our foreign policy accountable to our democratic aspirations. We end the show with a tribute to Tony Bennett …so please stay tuned… Enjoy Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/24/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
War is a Racket that lines the Pockets of the Rich while Decimating the Life Quality of millions: What if Profiteering from War was Outlawed? With Lindsay KoshgarionTonight’s show details the endless profiteering that comes from war. Tonight Lindsay Koshgarian from the National Priorities Project returns to BLID to discuss the show focus, surrounding General Smedly Butler’s recognition that War is a Racket (1935) while today the Pentagon budget which is approaching $1T continues to be unaudited and/or improperly audited despite a clear history of corruption documented from Iraq and Afghanistan. The truth behind War, three lessons shared by Major General Smedley Butler are featured. He wrote there are only two things we should go to war and fight for, the defense of the homeland and the Bill of Rights. After retiring from his illustrious military career he suggested three main principles he believed in: (1) being against military involvement abroad and militarism in general ; (2) US military intervention abroad and the profiteering for big business it generated has gone hand in hand; and (3) was his recognition of the separation of US society by wealth disparity between the haves and have nots and it was the haves that started wars while sending the underclass to fight them. They have no skin in the game while being beneficiaries of garnering extreme profiteering from those conflicts.There should be No Profiteering from WarMeanwhile, he Biden White House is opposing an audit of where all the Ukraine monies and armaments go ($115B) ostensibly because we already have auditing in place and to save taxpayer’s money. But the very agencies connected to that existing auditing, the State Department and its USAID institution, were the same entities that John Sopko, former Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction wrote had obstructed his past Afghanistan audit. Referring to the State Department and USAID Sopko writes, “Agency officials now appear to have adopted a premeditated position of obstruction”. War continues to be Racket under Democratic & Republican administrations. Meanwhile our guest details unaccountability connected to Pentagon budget (858B) and spending “Not getting adequate oversight” and describes the Pentagon is the only major federal agency that has failed to pass an audit. For the last five years it has failed the audit and before that it could not even do an audit. In their last audit they were only able to account for 39% of their assets. Privatizing in Iraq of War (i.e. Halliburton etc) led to huge fraud of US taxpayer dollars… Auditing in Afghanistan revealed huge fraud in Afghanistan led by auditing by John Sopko , SIGARMeanwhile, President Biden feigns concern funding to audit the criminal war we are complict in Ukraine is not needed as we sabotage peace options there.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/17/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
War is a Racket that lines the Pockets of the Rich while Decimating the Life Quality of millions: What if Profiteering from War was Outlawed? With Lindsay KoshgarionTonight’s show details the endless profiteering that comes from war. Tonight Lindsay Koshgarian from the National Priorities Project returns to BLID to discuss the show focus, surrounding General Smedly Butler’s recognition that War is a Racket (1935) while today the Pentagon budget which is approaching $1T continues to be unaudited and/or improperly audited despite a clear history of corruption documented from Iraq and Afghanistan. The truth behind War, three lessons shared by Major General Smedley Butler are featured. He wrote there are only two things we should go to war and fight for, the defense of the homeland and the Bill of Rights. After retiring from his illustrious military career he suggested three main principles he believed in: (1) being against military involvement abroad and militarism in general ; (2) US military intervention abroad and the profiteering for big business it generated has gone hand in hand; and (3) was his recognition of the separation of US society by wealth disparity between the haves and have nots and it was the haves that started wars while sending the underclass to fight them. They have no skin in the game while being beneficiaries of garnering extreme profiteering from those conflicts.There should be No Profiteering from WarMeanwhile, he Biden White House is opposing an audit of where all the Ukraine monies and armaments go ($115B) ostensibly because we already have auditing in place and to save taxpayer’s money. But the very agencies connected to that existing auditing, the State Department and its USAID institution, were the same entities that John Sopko, former Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction wrote had obstructed his past Afghanistan audit. Referring to the State Department and USAID Sopko writes, “Agency officials now appear to have adopted a premeditated position of obstruction”. War continues to be Racket under Democratic & Republican administrations. Meanwhile our guest details unaccountability connected to Pentagon budget (858B) and spending “Not getting adequate oversight” and describes the Pentagon is the only major federal agency that has failed to pass an audit. For the last five years it has failed the audit and before that it could not even do an audit. In their last audit they were only able to account for 39% of their assets. Privatizing in Iraq of War (i.e. Halliburton etc) led to huge fraud of US taxpayer dollars… Auditing in Afghanistan revealed huge fraud in Afghanistan led by auditing by John Sopko , SIGARMeanwhile, President Biden feigns concern funding to audit the criminal war we are complict in Ukraine is not needed as we sabotage peace options there.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/17/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Revisiting Russia-US NATO led- Ukraine War through a Geopolitical Lens: with Mike Whitney We are socialized informationally outside our awareness, as six corporations control 90% of the (non-internet) information made available to us. "This meant that 232 media executives were calling the shots for 90% of the informational media made available to us. Information is power and like wealth in our nation and throughout the world, it is grossly and disproportionally owned by an elite few. We are taught and constantly messaged to believe we might not be a perfect nation but we a re the land of the free and primarily seek to bring democracy to other nations of the world. I can remember as an upper middle class kid there was a board game called RISK. And the objective was simple. In order to win you had to wipe everyone else off the map. You had to take over the whole world. In other words, become that unipolar power. RISK is a game of aggression in which if and when I win you lose. I believe a proper reading and understanding of non-revisionist history reveals that the world and the US position in it with its geopolitical motivations since WWII can be seen in the same manner. (5:44) We do not promote democracy rather we promote as imperial powers before us have, empire. However this fact is camouflaged by enormous public relations campaign led by our government leaders and the media that serve them.We replay an excerpt of Amy Goodman interview of General Wesley Clark of March 2007 in which four star general Clark indicates according to his Pentagon sources at the time, the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq: “ So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” -- meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office -- “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.”Mike Whitney investigative journalist joins BLID and brings his geopolitical analysis expertise to the world of war and conflict we find ourselves in the middle of today in Ukraine. We examine what led us to this war and that when you look at the world from a geopolitical model of winner take all (RISK) rather than one in which all nations, not just a select few, deserve their sovereign rights to make choices without fear of reprisal through sanctions or armed conflict, there seems to be some internal logic behind US foreign policy. But is it to promote democracy that drives our geopolitical interests or is it to promote the US as a the world’s hegemon as a unipolar unchallenged economic and military force that essentially rules the world.? Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/10/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Revisiting Russia-US NATO led- Ukraine War through a Geopolitical Lens: with Mike Whitney We are socialized informationally outside our awareness, as six corporations control 90% of the (non-internet) information made available to us. "This meant that 232 media executives were calling the shots for 90% of the informational media made available to us. Information is power and like wealth in our nation and throughout the world, it is grossly and disproportionally owned by an elite few. We are taught and constantly messaged to believe we might not be a perfect nation but we a re the land of the free and primarily seek to bring democracy to other nations of the world. I can remember as an upper middle class kid there was a board game called RISK. And the objective was simple. In order to win you had to wipe everyone else off the map. You had to take over the whole world. In other words, become that unipolar power. RISK is a game of aggression in which if and when I win you lose. I believe a proper reading and understanding of non-revisionist history reveals that the world and the US position in it with its geopolitical motivations since WWII can be seen in the same manner. (5:44) We do not promote democracy rather we promote as imperial powers before us have, empire. However this fact is camouflaged by enormous public relations campaign led by our government leaders and the media that serve them.We replay an excerpt of Amy Goodman interview of General Wesley Clark of March 2007 in which four star general Clark indicates according to his Pentagon sources at the time, the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq: “ So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” -- meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office -- “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.”Mike Whitney investigative journalist joins BLID and brings his geopolitical analysis expertise to the world of war and conflict we find ourselves in the middle of today in Ukraine. We examine what led us to this war and that when you look at the world from a geopolitical model of winner take all (RISK) rather than one in which all nations, not just a select few, deserve their sovereign rights to make choices without fear of reprisal through sanctions or armed conflict, there seems to be some internal logic behind US foreign policy. But is it to promote democracy that drives our geopolitical interests or is it to promote the US as a the world’s hegemon as a unipolar unchallenged economic and military force that essentially rules the world.? Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/10/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Important Ukraine Realities Being Hidden from the US Public on the 4th of July: with Scott Ritter Scott Ritter an American author, pundit, former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer, former United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) weapons inspector working as a weapons inspector for the UNSCOM from 1991 to 1998, which was charged with finding and destroying all weapons of mass destruction and WMD-related manufacturing capabilities in Iraq. He was chief inspector in fourteen of the more than thirty inspection missions in which he participated. He was right about Iraq not having WMDs and he has been closely following the Ukraine-US-NATO-Russian conflict since its inception. Ritter provides important information kept out of main stream news on an array of critical subject matters. Tonight, hear him and Pedro Gatos dialogue and address:(1) On or about June 25th in response to a question of why we demonize Russia for its invasion of Ukraine but do not demonize the US for our invasion of Iraq, John Kerry said "No, no, no, we did not know it was a lie at the time; you know the evidence that was produced, people did not know it was a lie; so no I think you are stretching something and not in a constructive way." Scott Ritter briefed John Kerry before the march to war in Iraq. Did Kerry know that the totality of the case made by the CIA to sustain the argument that Iraq posed a threat was a lie? (2) Ritter explains his experience in War Gaming casualty rates and on what basis, what factors are considered, from which his casualty rate numbers are projected from.(3) US involvement in seeking the demise of Russia did not start with our response to the 2/24/22 Russia invasion of Ukraine. Ritter describes how it begins all the way back in 1990-1991 with the collapse of Soviet Union and a strategic decision made by US to never allow Russia to recover to a level that could ever challenge the US economically, militarily, or politically. Our policy was to help keep Russia down. (4) We address the issue of whether significant neo nazi influence in the Ukraine post coup government was a reality or just a “Russian talking point” following 2014 when CIA worked with Ukrainian nationalists (neo nazis) to overthrow the democratically elected President Yanokovych replacing him with a nationalist government that embraced nazi ideology linked to Stephan Bandera, a Ukrainian nationalist that openly collaborated with Nazi Germany back in the 1940s murdering tens of thousands of Jews, hundreds of thousands of Poles and hundreds of thousands of Russians.(5) How can Zelensky seek peace when US and Europe are pushing for war? Ritter lines up powerful historical facts to suggest that this was not an unprovoked war of Russian aggression nor a war Ukraine can win, but this is a war started by US and Europe whom ignored numerous warnings and crossed many red lines leading to the 2/24/22 Russian invasion they define as a Special Military Operation.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/3/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Important Ukraine Realities Being Hidden from the US Public on the 4th of July: with Scott Ritter Scott Ritter an American author, pundit, former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer, former United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) weapons inspector working as a weapons inspector for the UNSCOM from 1991 to 1998, which was charged with finding and destroying all weapons of mass destruction and WMD-related manufacturing capabilities in Iraq. He was chief inspector in fourteen of the more than thirty inspection missions in which he participated. He was right about Iraq not having WMDs and he has been closely following the Ukraine-US-NATO-Russian conflict since its inception. Ritter provides important information kept out of main stream news on an array of critical subject matters. Tonight, hear him and Pedro Gatos dialogue and address:(1) On or about June 25th in response to a question of why we demonize Russia for its invasion of Ukraine but do not demonize the US for our invasion of Iraq, John Kerry said "No, no, no, we did not know it was a lie at the time; you know the evidence that was produced, people did not know it was a lie; so no I think you are stretching something and not in a constructive way." Scott Ritter briefed John Kerry before the march to war in Iraq. Did Kerry know that the totality of the case made by the CIA to sustain the argument that Iraq posed a threat was a lie? (2) Ritter explains his experience in War Gaming casualty rates and on what basis, what factors are considered, from which his casualty rate numbers are projected from.(3) US involvement in seeking the demise of Russia did not start with our response to the 2/24/22 Russia invasion of Ukraine. Ritter describes how it begins all the way back in 1990-1991 with the collapse of Soviet Union and a strategic decision made by US to never allow Russia to recover to a level that could ever challenge the US economically, militarily, or politically. Our policy was to help keep Russia down. (4) We address the issue of whether significant neo nazi influence in the Ukraine post coup government was a reality or just a “Russian talking point” following 2014 when CIA worked with Ukrainian nationalists (neo nazis) to overthrow the democratically elected President Yanokovych replacing him with a nationalist government that embraced nazi ideology linked to Stephan Bandera, a Ukrainian nationalist that openly collaborated with Nazi Germany back in the 1940s murdering tens of thousands of Jews, hundreds of thousands of Poles and hundreds of thousands of Russians.(5) How can Zelensky seek peace when US and Europe are pushing for war? Ritter lines up powerful historical facts to suggest that this was not an unprovoked war of Russian aggression nor a war Ukraine can win, but this is a war started by US and Europe whom ignored numerous warnings and crossed many red lines leading to the 2/24/22 Russian invasion they define as a Special Military Operation.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 7/3/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Celebrating a Long History of Struggle for LGBTQ Equal Rights: Transforming a Culture that kills to one that Saves, with Bob Dailey Happy Stonewall anniversary and Gay Pride Month!On the 54th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots of June 29 1969 we seek to Bring Light Into Darkness surrounding the history before and after 1969 of LGTBQ rights and their struggle for equal rights and protections under the law. Our special guest is KOOP's own Bob Dailey. Bob provides a truly remarkable history of his journey and our journey as a country through this human rights seeking journey. From the computer science genius and the persecution and prosecution for being gay, of Alan Turing following World War II and his decoding ot the enigma machine through today Bob shares an eloquent hisotry of how far we have come as well as how far we have to go to provide a safe and nurturing environment for all. Along the way Bob shares real life stories as we share disturbing scientific studies revealing alarmingly high suicide rates among our LGBTQ population that make up over 7% of our nation. Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health found that suicide risk was three to six times greater for lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults than for heterosexual adults across every age group and race/ethnicity category.Meanwhile we share the science that claims that "that health and aging had more to do with how society treats us than how well we take care of ourselves" as well as the collaborating findings of the Trevor Project who concludes that LGBTQ youth are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society. We also share the science that suggests growing up in a homophobic culture takes years off your life as it disaffects quality of life in a criminalizing manner. Bob Dailey provides a fascinating and eloquently non-judgmental narrative regarding the challenges and to the question of the impact of growing up gay in a homophobic culture.Please join us as Bob brings light into darkness. Siempre fieles, Pgatos 6/26/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Celebrating a Long History of Struggle for LGBTQ Equal Rights: Transforming a Culture that kills to one that Saves, with Bob Dailey Happy Stonewall anniversary and Gay Pride Month!On the 54th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots of June 29 1969 we seek to Bring Light Into Darkness surrounding the history before and after 1969 of LGTBQ rights and their struggle for equal rights and protections under the law. Our special guest is KOOP's own Bob Dailey. Bob provides a truly remarkable history of his journey and our journey as a country through this human rights seeking journey. From the computer science genius and the persecution and prosecution for being gay, of Alan Turing following World War II and his decoding ot the enigma machine through today Bob shares an eloquent hisotry of how far we have come as well as how far we have to go to provide a safe and nurturing environment for all. Along the way Bob shares real life stories as we share disturbing scientific studies revealing alarmingly high suicide rates among our LGBTQ population that make up over 7% of our nation. Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health found that suicide risk was three to six times greater for lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults than for heterosexual adults across every age group and race/ethnicity category.Meanwhile we share the science that claims that "that health and aging had more to do with how society treats us than how well we take care of ourselves" as well as the collaborating findings of the Trevor Project who concludes that LGBTQ youth are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society. We also share the science that suggests growing up in a homophobic culture takes years off your life as it disaffects quality of life in a criminalizing manner. Bob Dailey provides a fascinating and eloquently non-judgmental narrative regarding the challenges and to the question of the impact of growing up gay in a homophobic culture.Please join us as Bob brings light into darkness. Siempre fieles, Pgatos 6/26/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Elevating Juneteenth with Roscoe Overton Happy Juneteenth!Roscoe Overton details the extensive research project he completed and the discovery along the way that the Overtons were among the first black families to have purchased land in Texas as he shares and connects his generational ancestry from Nashville Tennessee to Austin and central Texas. Roscoe’s research and curiosity began some 70 years ago, with a conversation with his Uncle at age 10 years old We feature also the work of another KOOP Community Organization Member as their executive director, Marva Overton joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to describe the work of the Alliance for African American Health in Central Texas, a nonprofit organization that engages community members to address health issues that disproportionately impact African Americans. Marva describes some of the specific health challenges that disproportionately impact the Austin African American community.Penny Jo Pullus, producer and host of KOOP Radio’s Texchromosome show, co hosts the show tonight and shares her experiences learned through a series of lunch dialogues with Roscoe. Penny Jo leads our discussion with Roscoe over the path his research took him regarding Juneteenth. Roscoe describes the slave colonies that existed and that a hundred years ago the Overtons in Bastrop were already celebrating Juneteenth. Roscoe shares the importance of all KOOP’s Celebration Events of culturally and historically events KOOP celebrates throughout the year and his specific participation in the KOOP Celebration of Juneteenth. Roscoe’s research and curiosity began some 70 years ago, with a conversation with his Uncle at age 10 years old Penny Jo concludes the show by questioning Pedro Gatos on the degree of wealth inequality and why it so important to address and queries the significance and to better describe the importance of race as a social construct. We conclude the show with an invite to join in Roscoe led and Community Council supported quest to create a city wide Elevate Juneteenth Celebration Committee to carry forward issues raised during the show tonight. Please join us as Roscoe brings light into darkness.
Elevating Juneteenth with Roscoe Overton Happy Juneteenth!Roscoe Overton details the extensive research project he completed and the discovery along the way that the Overtons were among the first black families to have purchased land in Texas as he shares and connects his generational ancestry from Nashville Tennessee to Austin and central Texas. Roscoe’s research and curiosity began some 70 years ago, with a conversation with his Uncle at age 10 years old We feature also the work of another KOOP Community Organization Member as their executive director, Marva Overton joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to describe the work of the Alliance for African American Health in Central Texas, a nonprofit organization that engages community members to address health issues that disproportionately impact African Americans. Marva describes some of the specific health challenges that disproportionately impact the Austin African American community.Penny Jo Pullus, producer and host of KOOP Radio’s Texchromosome show, co hosts the show tonight and shares her experiences learned through a series of lunch dialogues with Roscoe. Penny Jo leads our discussion with Roscoe over the path his research took him regarding Juneteenth. Roscoe describes the slave colonies that existed and that a hundred years ago the Overtons in Bastrop were already celebrating Juneteenth. Roscoe shares the importance of all KOOP’s Celebration Events of culturally and historically events KOOP celebrates throughout the year and his specific participation in the KOOP Celebration of Juneteenth. Roscoe’s research and curiosity began some 70 years ago, with a conversation with his Uncle at age 10 years old Penny Jo concludes the show by questioning Pedro Gatos on the degree of wealth inequality and why it so important to address and queries the significance and to better describe the importance of race as a social construct. We conclude the show with an invite to join in Roscoe led and Community Council supported quest to create a city wide Elevate Juneteenth Celebration Committee to carry forward issues raised during the show tonight. Please join us as Roscoe brings light into darkness.
Wealth Inequality, Trade Agreements & How a Progressive Annual Wealth Tax Could Help Promote Economic Democracy Tonight, we feature a January 17, 2023 report by the Institute for Policy Studies entitled, Report: “Extreme Wealth: The Growing Number of People With Extreme Wealth and What an Annual Wealth Tax Could Raise” by Chuck Collins, Omar Ocampo. Joining us on Bringing Light Into Darkness is co author Omar Ocampo. Omar Ocampo is a researcher for the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies. His work focuses on wealth inequality, housing and the politics of Colombia. He is currently in the process of establishing a working group at IPS on Artificial Intelligence and its effects on labor and inequality.Tonight, our show focus is on world wealth inequality, trade agreements that promote it and ways to reverse the destructive direction gross wealth inequality is taking the world. We review the corporate advantages that the Transpacific Partnership Trade (TPP) Agreement that the Obama Administration sought to fast track sought to implement that prioritized and gave corporation profiteering leverage over the will of governments in the countries they operate in, with respect to rules governing behavior. These types of trade agreements have helped to maintain and expand wealth inequality. Our show guest walks us through a solution oriented progressive tax plan that the report he co authored details. Our guest argues that a tax on the ultra-rich would not impact their spending patterns or retirement. Instead, it would be just a slight constraint on their rates of accumulation of wealth. Such a progressive tax rate would raise $580B annually in the US. As of 2022 wealth data they evaluated those at 5m or more would be taxed at 2%, those at 50m or more would be taxed at 3% and those in billionaire class would be taxed at 5%. The result would be not only an annual generation of $580B in the US alone but worldwide it would generate an annual amount of 1.7B that could be used to alleviate worldwide poverty and extreme poverty rates and set in motion a system of economic democracy.Our guest shares that “historically speaking, there is actually a direct correlation between lower tax rates and higher concentrations of wealth which then (further) exasperates wealth inequality”, and that, In the US some “1.5m people own $5m or more and when you add up all that wealth it equals some $28T”. Since 2012 - 2022 the richest 1% have been the beneficiaries of a wealth increase that has been some 19x greater than the bottom 50%.What promotes wealth disparity at the macro level includes trade agreements such as TPP. This helps explain why it was largely negotiated in private by a select few that did not represent majority interests but instead lined up mainly in line with corporate interests. Please join us.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 6/12/23 pgatos00@gmail.comIf you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
Wealth Inequality, Trade Agreements & How a Progressive Annual Wealth Tax Could Help Promote Economic Democracy Tonight, we feature a January 17, 2023 report by the Institute for Policy Studies entitled, Report: “Extreme Wealth: The Growing Number of People With Extreme Wealth and What an Annual Wealth Tax Could Raise” by Chuck Collins, Omar Ocampo. Joining us on Bringing Light Into Darkness is co author Omar Ocampo. Omar Ocampo is a researcher for the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies. His work focuses on wealth inequality, housing and the politics of Colombia. He is currently in the process of establishing a working group at IPS on Artificial Intelligence and its effects on labor and inequality.Tonight, our show focus is on world wealth inequality, trade agreements that promote it and ways to reverse the destructive direction gross wealth inequality is taking the world. We review the corporate advantages that the Transpacific Partnership Trade (TPP) Agreement that the Obama Administration sought to fast track sought to implement that prioritized and gave corporation profiteering leverage over the will of governments in the countries they operate in, with respect to rules governing behavior. These types of trade agreements have helped to maintain and expand wealth inequality. Our show guest walks us through a solution oriented progressive tax plan that the report he co authored details. Our guest argues that a tax on the ultra-rich would not impact their spending patterns or retirement. Instead, it would be just a slight constraint on their rates of accumulation of wealth. Such a progressive tax rate would raise $580B annually in the US. As of 2022 wealth data they evaluated those at 5m or more would be taxed at 2%, those at 50m or more would be taxed at 3% and those in billionaire class would be taxed at 5%. The result would be not only an annual generation of $580B in the US alone but worldwide it would generate an annual amount of 1.7B that could be used to alleviate worldwide poverty and extreme poverty rates and set in motion a system of economic democracy.Our guest shares that “historically speaking, there is actually a direct correlation between lower tax rates and higher concentrations of wealth which then (further) exasperates wealth inequality”, and that, In the US some “1.5m people own $5m or more and when you add up all that wealth it equals some $28T”. Since 2012 - 2022 the richest 1% have been the beneficiaries of a wealth increase that has been some 19x greater than the bottom 50%.What promotes wealth disparity at the macro level includes trade agreements such as TPP. This helps explain why it was largely negotiated in private by a select few that did not represent majority interests but instead lined up mainly in line with corporate interests. Please join us.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 6/12/23 pgatos00@gmail.comIf you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
Where US Militarism & Wealth Inequality Merge A recent 5/14/23 NYT article by Talmon Joseph Smith entitled The Greatest Wealth Transfer in History Is Here, With Familiar (Rich) Winners, indicates that at the end of 2022 the top 1% holds about as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, and is predominantly white. The growing gap between the very rich and everyone else is nothing new. Bernie Sanders in a Guardian article published on March 29, 2021 entitled, The rich-poor gap in America is obscene. So let's fix it – here's how, indicates “the top 1% now own more wealth than the bottom 92%, and the 50 wealthiest Americans own more wealth than the bottom half of American society – 165 million people. While millions of Americans have lost their jobs and incomes during the pandemic, over the past year 650 billionaires have seen their wealth increase by $1.3T. The unfortunate reality is that we are moving rapidly toward an oligarchic form of society, where a handful of billionaires have enormous wealth and power while working families have been struggling in a way we have not seen since the Great Depression. This situation has been exacerbated by the pandemic.” But it has not just been exacerbated by the pandemic. Tonight we feature disturbing findings of the 5/24/23 report from the Institute for Policy Studies, The Warfare State How Funding for Militarism Compromises Our Welfare. Joining Bringing Light Into Darkness is the lead author of the report, Lindsay Koshgarian, who in a fascinating and well informed interview, brings to light the disturbing reality that draws a straight line between excessive military spending and the deteriorating quality of life for our US majority population. Referencing the words and warnings of Dr King’s 4/4/67 speech, our guest suggests that history shows that our government uses violence or the threat of violence to achieve its aims, instead of looking for ways to prevent problems or ways to support and help people strive. Lindsay provides report findings that suggest that proof of the concerns lies in the observation that the US foreign policy driven interests in the rest of the world has been, and still is, guided by a militarism first approach and also by a wealth protecting approach “. We have 750 military installations around the world, a number that dwarfs our adversaries, and that is how we are making our worldwide influence felt warns our guest.While diplomacy and humanitarian aid should be our priority investment if we are trying to avoid war and conflict and seek peaceful resolutions to world problems, we instead find a reverse ratio of 16:1 in dollars invested in militarism compared to government spending in the discretionary budget for diplomacy and humanitarian aid. And the reciprocal effect is essentially a wealth transfer from the lower and middle class to the financial elite, a defunding, if you will, of badly needed quality of life improvements for the majority population of the public sector as an unavoidable side effect from the extreme levels of wealth inequality that are fueled by this military industrial complex. Please join us for this important dialogue and critique of our Warfare heavy National Budget.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 6/5/23 pgatos00@gmail.comIf you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
Where US Militarism & Wealth Inequality Merge A recent 5/14/23 NYT article by Talmon Joseph Smith entitled The Greatest Wealth Transfer in History Is Here, With Familiar (Rich) Winners, indicates that at the end of 2022 the top 1% holds about as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, and is predominantly white. The growing gap between the very rich and everyone else is nothing new. Bernie Sanders in a Guardian article published on March 29, 2021 entitled, The rich-poor gap in America is obscene. So let's fix it – here's how, indicates “the top 1% now own more wealth than the bottom 92%, and the 50 wealthiest Americans own more wealth than the bottom half of American society – 165 million people. While millions of Americans have lost their jobs and incomes during the pandemic, over the past year 650 billionaires have seen their wealth increase by $1.3T. The unfortunate reality is that we are moving rapidly toward an oligarchic form of society, where a handful of billionaires have enormous wealth and power while working families have been struggling in a way we have not seen since the Great Depression. This situation has been exacerbated by the pandemic.” But it has not just been exacerbated by the pandemic. Tonight we feature disturbing findings of the 5/24/23 report from the Institute for Policy Studies, The Warfare State How Funding for Militarism Compromises Our Welfare. Joining Bringing Light Into Darkness is the lead author of the report, Lindsay Koshgarian, who in a fascinating and well informed interview, brings to light the disturbing reality that draws a straight line between excessive military spending and the deteriorating quality of life for our US majority population. Referencing the words and warnings of Dr King’s 4/4/67 speech, our guest suggests that history shows that our government uses violence or the threat of violence to achieve its aims, instead of looking for ways to prevent problems or ways to support and help people strive. Lindsay provides report findings that suggest that proof of the concerns lies in the observation that the US foreign policy driven interests in the rest of the world has been, and still is, guided by a militarism first approach and also by a wealth protecting approach “. We have 750 military installations around the world, a number that dwarfs our adversaries, and that is how we are making our worldwide influence felt warns our guest.While diplomacy and humanitarian aid should be our priority investment if we are trying to avoid war and conflict and seek peaceful resolutions to world problems, we instead find a reverse ratio of 16:1 in dollars invested in militarism compared to government spending in the discretionary budget for diplomacy and humanitarian aid. And the reciprocal effect is essentially a wealth transfer from the lower and middle class to the financial elite, a defunding, if you will, of badly needed quality of life improvements for the majority population of the public sector as an unavoidable side effect from the extreme levels of wealth inequality that are fueled by this military industrial complex. Please join us for this important dialogue and critique of our Warfare heavy National Budget.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 6/5/23 pgatos00@gmail.comIf you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
Memorial Day Reflections from a Vietnam War US Medic Veteran & Seeking Honest Casualty Rates: Release Lira! Part IIOn Memorial Day we share reflections from Alan Pogue a Vietnam Medic and Chaplain assistant on how to honor the memories of the fallen. Alan Pogue co-founder of the Austin Chapter of Veterans for Peace also is on KOOP Radio’s Community Council and describes his experiences in Vietnam including the 1968 Tet Offensive. We also highlight an important development over the last couple of years, namely that while US foreign policy has a long history of promoting war and conflict since post WWII that has promoted and sought to maintain a US unipolar economic and military dominance in the world, we have been sidelined as China and Russia, as proof of an emerging multi polar world, have been instrumental in promoting diplomatic reconciliation between Syria and Turkey, between Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as between Saudi Arabia and Syria. Meanwhile, the Yemen – Saudi Arabia conflict since 2015 is moving towards resolution while the Arab League are welcoming back diplomatic relations with Syria all being brokered by China and or Russia while the US sits on the sideline. We also return to our focus on jailed and unjust jailing of journalist Gonzalo Lira since 5/1 in Ukraine and share words of his father and those of Alexander Mercouris, editor of the Duran. We return to the issue of casualty rates and suggest that the US public is once again being deceived into believing Russia not Ukraine is suffering debilitating fatality rates. We present our contradictory findings in the form of six different estimates in time from August 2022 through May 2023 that are internally consistent with each other and include military as well as non-military political leaders from all sides of the conflict. Additionally, we include evidence to suggest that the fatality numbers we believe to be closest to the truth, and which are completely and diametrically opposed by our government and mainstream media provided numbers, are in fact ones whose integrity YOU should pay attention to and consider as trustworthy. That evidence is cited from a March 2023 posting from the Moon of Alabama which documents the number of shellings a reflection of the artillery advantage that Russia has displayed since the initiation of their Special Operation invasion in February 2022. Those numbers are a staggering 10 to 1 ratio (admitted to by both sides) and the author provides proof that past wars casualty rates generally parallel artillery superiority. We suggest this makes the western claims that Russian losses are multiple times greater than Ukraine’s clearly a deceitful misrepresentation. Please join us tonight as we seek to raise the fog of propaganda and bring light into the darkness our media and government is promoting around the Ukraine war. Again we believe a potential motive to mislead the US public about these casualty rates is that if the US public knew of the truly one-sided carnage taking place, , as the honorable people we are, we would demand an end to the war. A war that continues because we (our US government) are the primary funders of and therefore are primarily responsible for.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 5/29/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Memorial Day Reflections from a Vietnam War US Medic Veteran & Seeking Honest Casualty Rates: Release Lira! Part IIOn Memorial Day we share reflections from Alan Pogue a Vietnam Medic and Chaplain assistant on how to honor the memories of the fallen. Alan Pogue co-founder of the Austin Chapter of Veterans for Peace also is on KOOP Radio’s Community Council and describes his experiences in Vietnam including the 1968 Tet Offensive. We also highlight an important development over the last couple of years, namely that while US foreign policy has a long history of promoting war and conflict since post WWII that has promoted and sought to maintain a US unipolar economic and military dominance in the world, we have been sidelined as China and Russia, as proof of an emerging multi polar world, have been instrumental in promoting diplomatic reconciliation between Syria and Turkey, between Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as between Saudi Arabia and Syria. Meanwhile, the Yemen – Saudi Arabia conflict since 2015 is moving towards resolution while the Arab League are welcoming back diplomatic relations with Syria all being brokered by China and or Russia while the US sits on the sideline. We also return to our focus on jailed and unjust jailing of journalist Gonzalo Lira since 5/1 in Ukraine and share words of his father and those of Alexander Mercouris, editor of the Duran. We return to the issue of casualty rates and suggest that the US public is once again being deceived into believing Russia not Ukraine is suffering debilitating fatality rates. We present our contradictory findings in the form of six different estimates in time from August 2022 through May 2023 that are internally consistent with each other and include military as well as non-military political leaders from all sides of the conflict. Additionally, we include evidence to suggest that the fatality numbers we believe to be closest to the truth, and which are completely and diametrically opposed by our government and mainstream media provided numbers, are in fact ones whose integrity YOU should pay attention to and consider as trustworthy. That evidence is cited from a March 2023 posting from the Moon of Alabama which documents the number of shellings a reflection of the artillery advantage that Russia has displayed since the initiation of their Special Operation invasion in February 2022. Those numbers are a staggering 10 to 1 ratio (admitted to by both sides) and the author provides proof that past wars casualty rates generally parallel artillery superiority. We suggest this makes the western claims that Russian losses are multiple times greater than Ukraine’s clearly a deceitful misrepresentation. Please join us tonight as we seek to raise the fog of propaganda and bring light into the darkness our media and government is promoting around the Ukraine war. Again we believe a potential motive to mislead the US public about these casualty rates is that if the US public knew of the truly one-sided carnage taking place, , as the honorable people we are, we would demand an end to the war. A war that continues because we (our US government) are the primary funders of and therefore are primarily responsible for.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 5/29/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Preventable Misery: The Breadth, Consequences and Harm of Economic Sanctions with Dr. Francisco RodriguezOver the past six decades, there has been significant growth in the use of economic sanctions by Western powers with the overwhelming majority not endorsed by the UN. In 1960 less than 4 percent of countries were subject to sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union, or United Nations in the early 1960s; today, that share has risen to some 29 percent of world GDP and some two billion or more persons. In other words, more than one fourth of countries and nearly a third of the world economy are now subject to sanctions by the UN or Western nations.Joining us tonight is the esteemed economist Dr Francisco Rodriguez, the Rice Family Professor of the Practice of International and Public Affairs at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies. A native of Venezuela, he is also the founder of Oil for Venezuela, a non-profit organization focused on finding solutions to Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis. He received an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. We review the findings of his comprehensive study recently released on 5/4/2023 by the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) entitled The Human Consequences of Economic Sanctions. It reviews the findings of the thirty plus studies that have examined the same subject.Sanctions, especially those not endorsed by the UN Security Council can be seen as a regressive act of economic war. It is an act of war because it is a direct attack on the welfare of an entire population not just those you seek to sanction. They directly attack the economic and nutritional well-being of the majority population through its main mechanism pf cutting off the government from foreign currency.What we will learn in our show tonight is that when foreign currency is drastically reduced it means cutting back on government spending for health care. It means cutting back on government spending on education. It means cutting back on government spending for public services. It means cutting back on government spending for food assistance. It means cutting back on government spending for pensions. And perhaps its most pernicious aspect is that although it hurts everyone, it particularly disproportionately harms the most vulnerable within the sanctioned nation. Think about that. It is not just an act of economic war on a nation, it is regressive in that it disproportionately harms the most vulnerable.Please join us tonight for important insights into how sanctions impact close to one third of the world population, are not supported by a another third of the world yet there is barely a peep of discussion within our mainstream media (MSM).Siempre fieles, Pgatos 5/15/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Preventable Misery: The Breadth, Consequences and Harm of Economic Sanctions with Dr. Francisco RodriguezOver the past six decades, there has been significant growth in the use of economic sanctions by Western powers with the overwhelming majority not endorsed by the UN. In 1960 less than 4 percent of countries were subject to sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union, or United Nations in the early 1960s; today, that share has risen to some 29 percent of world GDP and some two billion or more persons. In other words, more than one fourth of countries and nearly a third of the world economy are now subject to sanctions by the UN or Western nations.Joining us tonight is the esteemed economist Dr Francisco Rodriguez, the Rice Family Professor of the Practice of International and Public Affairs at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies. A native of Venezuela, he is also the founder of Oil for Venezuela, a non-profit organization focused on finding solutions to Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis. He received an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. We review the findings of his comprehensive study recently released on 5/4/2023 by the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) entitled The Human Consequences of Economic Sanctions. It reviews the findings of the thirty plus studies that have examined the same subject.Sanctions, especially those not endorsed by the UN Security Council can be seen as a regressive act of economic war. It is an act of war because it is a direct attack on the welfare of an entire population not just those you seek to sanction. They directly attack the economic and nutritional well-being of the majority population through its main mechanism pf cutting off the government from foreign currency.What we will learn in our show tonight is that when foreign currency is drastically reduced it means cutting back on government spending for health care. It means cutting back on government spending on education. It means cutting back on government spending for public services. It means cutting back on government spending for food assistance. It means cutting back on government spending for pensions. And perhaps its most pernicious aspect is that although it hurts everyone, it particularly disproportionately harms the most vulnerable within the sanctioned nation. Think about that. It is not just an act of economic war on a nation, it is regressive in that it disproportionately harms the most vulnerable.Please join us tonight for important insights into how sanctions impact close to one third of the world population, are not supported by a another third of the world yet there is barely a peep of discussion within our mainstream media (MSM).Siempre fieles, Pgatos 5/15/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Preventable Misery: The Breadth, Consequences and Harm of Economic Sanctions with Dr. Francisco RodriguezOver the past six decades, there has been significant growth in the use of economic sanctions by Western powers with the overwhelming majority not endorsed by the UN. In 1960 less than 4 percent of countries were subject to sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union, or United Nations in the early 1960s; today, that share has risen to some 29 percent of world GDP and some two billion or more persons. In other words, more than one fourth of countries and nearly a third of the world economy are now subject to sanctions by the UN or Western nations.Joining us tonight is the esteemed economist Dr Francisco Rodriguez, the Rice Family Professor of the Practice of International and Public Affairs at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies. A native of Venezuela, he is also the founder of Oil for Venezuela, a non-profit organization focused on finding solutions to Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis. He received an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. We review the findings of his comprehensive study recently released on 5/4/2023 by the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) entitled The Human Consequences of Economic Sanctions. It reviews the findings of the thirty plus studies that have examined the same subject.Sanctions, especially those not endorsed by the UN Security Council can be seen as a regressive act of economic war. It is an act of war because it is a direct attack on the welfare of an entire population not just those you seek to sanction. They directly attack the economic and nutritional well-being of the majority population through its main mechanism pf cutting off the government from foreign currency.What we will learn in our show tonight is that when foreign currency is drastically reduced it means cutting back on government spending for health care. It means cutting back on government spending on education. It means cutting back on government spending for public services. It means cutting back on government spending for food assistance. It means cutting back on government spending for pensions. And perhaps its most pernicious aspect is that although it hurts everyone, it particularly disproportionately harms the most vulnerable within the sanctioned nation. Think about that. It is not just an act of economic war on a nation, it is regressive in that it disproportionately harms the most vulnerable.Please join us tonight for important insights into how sanctions impact close to one third of the world population, are not supported by a another third of the world yet there is barely a peep of discussion within our mainstream media (MSM).Siempre fieles, Pgatos 5/15/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Preventable Misery: The Breadth, Consequences and Harm of Economic Sanctions with Dr. Francisco RodriguezOver the past six decades, there has been significant growth in the use of economic sanctions by Western powers with the overwhelming majority not endorsed by the UN. In 1960 less than 4 percent of countries were subject to sanctions imposed by the United States, European Union, or United Nations in the early 1960s; today, that share has risen to some 29 percent of world GDP and some two billion or more persons. In other words, more than one fourth of countries and nearly a third of the world economy are now subject to sanctions by the UN or Western nations.Joining us tonight is the esteemed economist Dr Francisco Rodriguez, the Rice Family Professor of the Practice of International and Public Affairs at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies. A native of Venezuela, he is also the founder of Oil for Venezuela, a non-profit organization focused on finding solutions to Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis. He received an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. We review the findings of his comprehensive study recently released on 5/4/2023 by the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) entitled The Human Consequences of Economic Sanctions. It reviews the findings of the thirty plus studies that have examined the same subject.Sanctions, especially those not endorsed by the UN Security Council can be seen as a regressive act of economic war. It is an act of war because it is a direct attack on the welfare of an entire population not just those you seek to sanction. They directly attack the economic and nutritional well-being of the majority population through its main mechanism pf cutting off the government from foreign currency.What we will learn in our show tonight is that when foreign currency is drastically reduced it means cutting back on government spending for health care. It means cutting back on government spending on education. It means cutting back on government spending for public services. It means cutting back on government spending for food assistance. It means cutting back on government spending for pensions. And perhaps its most pernicious aspect is that although it hurts everyone, it particularly disproportionately harms the most vulnerable within the sanctioned nation. Think about that. It is not just an act of economic war on a nation, it is regressive in that it disproportionately harms the most vulnerable.Please join us tonight for important insights into how sanctions impact close to one third of the world population, are not supported by a another third of the world yet there is barely a peep of discussion within our mainstream media (MSM).Siempre fieles, Pgatos 5/15/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Challenging US Hegemony: Undermining Diplomacy & the Emergence of China & Russia as Multipolar Powers We describe the informational cocoon created and the liability that constitutes main stream media and the stunting of critical thinking when a small elite of six corporations own 90% of the information made available and unavailable to the US electorate. We review the pattern of deceit in which foreign policy wars of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria were all misrepresented to the US public through lies and deceit and wonder why the US public should not question anything our current government and major medias have to say about the US-NATO-Russia-Ukraine War raging presently.Mike Whitney, investigative journalist, and economic and geopolitical analyst describes the clash of US hegemony with the Chinese economic and foreign aid investment model and how the middle class has fared differently under each model. One a State directed economic model in which the State reigns in and subordinates the economic power of oligarchs to the welfare of the majority middle class and the other in which a small elite class led by oligarchs and which own the vast majority of wealth are the masters of our government and largely dictate laws and norms that are devastating our US middle class. In one model the power dynamics are that of the State keeping in check the oligarch class and in the other the unregulated accumulation of wealth of a small minority led by an aggressive foreign policy that exports wars and conflict has an inordinate power influence on our government and its policies.We describe the irrational and bellicose opposition to rapprochement efforts with Russia that have been driving our foreign policy and critically review the Lavrov 4/24/23 speech that shares a counternarrative of Russia Ukraine War and the promotes the evolution to a multipolarity world and a movement away from the unipolar US hegemonic model. Is allowing missiles to be secured that would be only minutes from striking Moscow a rational national security concern and does it violate ‘the indivisibility of national security concerns’ as protected by the UN Charter? Has a ‘Rules based order’ sought to trump the UN Charter principles that include the sovereign rights of nations? The Lavrov speech basically juxtaposes the UN Charter principles and the double standards of US foreign policy behavior that seems to have compromised the neutrality of the UN itself. The history of the Minsk agreement, codified by the UN and the unilateral violations by the US-West supported Ukraine side and their deceitful betrayal of diplomacy along the way helps frame an understanding of the truth of the Russian-Ukraine conflict. Siempre fieles, Pgatos 5/8/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Challenging US Hegemony: Undermining Diplomacy & the Emergence of China & Russia as Multipolar Powers We describe the informational cocoon created and the liability that constitutes main stream media and the stunting of critical thinking when a small elite of six corporations own 90% of the information made available and unavailable to the US electorate. We review the pattern of deceit in which foreign policy wars of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria were all misrepresented to the US public through lies and deceit and wonder why the US public should not question anything our current government and major medias have to say about the US-NATO-Russia-Ukraine War raging presently.Mike Whitney, investigative journalist, and economic and geopolitical analyst describes the clash of US hegemony with the Chinese economic and foreign aid investment model and how the middle class has fared differently under each model. One a State directed economic model in which the State reigns in and subordinates the economic power of oligarchs to the welfare of the majority middle class and the other in which a small elite class led by oligarchs and which own the vast majority of wealth are the masters of our government and largely dictate laws and norms that are devastating our US middle class. In one model the power dynamics are that of the State keeping in check the oligarch class and in the other the unregulated accumulation of wealth of a small minority led by an aggressive foreign policy that exports wars and conflict has an inordinate power influence on our government and its policies.We describe the irrational and bellicose opposition to rapprochement efforts with Russia that have been driving our foreign policy and critically review the Lavrov 4/24/23 speech that shares a counternarrative of Russia Ukraine War and the promotes the evolution to a multipolarity world and a movement away from the unipolar US hegemonic model. Is allowing missiles to be secured that would be only minutes from striking Moscow a rational national security concern and does it violate ‘the indivisibility of national security concerns’ as protected by the UN Charter? Has a ‘Rules based order’ sought to trump the UN Charter principles that include the sovereign rights of nations? The Lavrov speech basically juxtaposes the UN Charter principles and the double standards of US foreign policy behavior that seems to have compromised the neutrality of the UN itself. The history of the Minsk agreement, codified by the UN and the unilateral violations by the US-West supported Ukraine side and their deceitful betrayal of diplomacy along the way helps frame an understanding of the truth of the Russian-Ukraine conflict. Siempre fieles, Pgatos 5/8/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Ukraine, Nordstream Terrorism, International Law & the Conduct of Nations: with International Law Expert Dr Alfred de Zayas We start from the premise that the US public are decent, hard working people. But they have been insulated from historical realities that have created an elite minority whose activities include the hijacking of our government and the control of information to serve their own minority material interests as beneficiaries of the gross wealth inequality that rules the world today. That if the US public knew the truth of our foreign policy behavior and the false and unsubstantiated premises that underlie it, we would rein in our government and its policies that promote unjust wars and conflicts accordingly.Tonight, International law expert Dr Alfred de Zayas returns to Bringing Light to Darkness. He worked with the United Nations from 1981 to 2003 as a senior lawyer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Chief of Petitions. He earned his juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School, then a doctorate of philosophy in modern history from the University of Göttingen (Germany) From 1 May 2012 to 30 April 2018, Alfred de Zayas served as the first UN Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order.Tonight’s show features how Dr Zayas from an International law perspective embedded and guided by the UN Charter principles, takes us on a fascinating journey that shows us the way back to a world of international stability and amelioration of preventable human misery caused by the great disparities between gross wealth accumulation and the untenable rates of poverty it creates. The answer lies in getting aligned with the UN Charter. Dr Zayas explains that the UN is akin to a world constitution; but it does not have an enforcement mechanism. It depends instead on the cooperation of all states and for citizens to first see through the fog of propaganda in order to then hold their governments accountable to international law. Tonight, we bring light into that darkness with unquestionably one of the world’s most knowledgeable international law experts, Dr Alfred de Zayas.
Ukraine, Nordstream Terrorism, International Law & the Conduct of Nations: with International Law Expert Dr Alfred de Zayas We start from the premise that the US public are decent, hard working people. But they have been insulated from historical realities that have created an elite minority whose activities include the hijacking of our government and the control of information to serve their own minority material interests as beneficiaries of the gross wealth inequality that rules the world today. That if the US public knew the truth of our foreign policy behavior and the false and unsubstantiated premises that underlie it, we would rein in our government and its policies that promote unjust wars and conflicts accordingly.Tonight, International law expert Dr Alfred de Zayas returns to Bringing Light to Darkness. He worked with the United Nations from 1981 to 2003 as a senior lawyer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Chief of Petitions. He earned his juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School, then a doctorate of philosophy in modern history from the University of Göttingen (Germany) From 1 May 2012 to 30 April 2018, Alfred de Zayas served as the first UN Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order.Tonight’s show features how Dr Zayas from an International law perspective embedded and guided by the UN Charter principles, takes us on a fascinating journey that shows us the way back to a world of international stability and amelioration of preventable human misery caused by the great disparities between gross wealth accumulation and the untenable rates of poverty it creates. The answer lies in getting aligned with the UN Charter. Dr Zayas explains that the UN is akin to a world constitution; but it does not have an enforcement mechanism. It depends instead on the cooperation of all states and for citizens to first see through the fog of propaganda in order to then hold their governments accountable to international law. Tonight, we bring light into that darkness with unquestionably one of the world’s most knowledgeable international law experts, Dr Alfred de Zayas.
The Morality & Untold History of Whistle Blowing from Vietnam to Ukraine, with 27 year Veteran former CIA Analyst Ray McGovernTonight’s show features the return of 27 CIA analyst Ray McGovern to Bringing Light Into Darkness. Ray was a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, and in the 1980s chaired National Intelligence Estimates and prepared the President's Daily Brief. He received the Intelligence Commendation Medal at his retirement, returning it in 2006 to protest the CIA's involvement in torture. Ray provides a fascinating insight into intelligence and leaks over the years while providing a uniquely informed perspective and informed speculation on the recent leaks regarding Ukraine. Our guest provides a unique perspective and analysis on the past significance of whistle blowing by such actors as Dan Ellsberg and many others and the significance of whistleblowing in revealing how governments lie to their people in order to fix the facts around the policy of taking us into unjust wars and conflicts.We begin the show with four different primary sources that contradict the Ukraine War narrative dominating the Mainstream Media and US government narrative when it comes to army forces lost on both sides of the Russia -Ukraine-NATO conflict and the implication that Russia has conducted this war with little or no regard for civilian life. We compare this narrative to the one’s surrounding Viet Nam with a specific emphasis on the understated Viet Cong Army strength and General Westmoreland request for an additional 206 thousand troops to win this war . Ray McGovern provides a detailed history on government deceit under the LBJ administration when it came to Vietnam and explains it was much more than the deceitful claims made to the American people about the winnability of Viet Nam, and about the winnability of the 20 year War in Afghanistan. Whistleblowing prevented an expansion of the Vietnam War into Laos and Cambodia despite the intentions of the LBJ administration as Ray McGovern reveals from his own experiences. A fascinating history is presented of deceitful intents. If we do not learn from history we allow the path to a premature extinction of our species to gain an unacceptable probability. Please join us tonight, as we consider if we are we being lied to once again, this time regarding the winnability of the Ukraine conflict?
The Morality & Untold History of Whistle Blowing from Vietnam to Ukraine, with 27 year Veteran former CIA Analyst Ray McGovernTonight’s show features the return of 27 CIA analyst Ray McGovern to Bringing Light Into Darkness. Ray was a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, and in the 1980s chaired National Intelligence Estimates and prepared the President's Daily Brief. He received the Intelligence Commendation Medal at his retirement, returning it in 2006 to protest the CIA's involvement in torture. Ray provides a fascinating insight into intelligence and leaks over the years while providing a uniquely informed perspective and informed speculation on the recent leaks regarding Ukraine. Our guest provides a unique perspective and analysis on the past significance of whistle blowing by such actors as Dan Ellsberg and many others and the significance of whistleblowing in revealing how governments lie to their people in order to fix the facts around the policy of taking us into unjust wars and conflicts.We begin the show with four different primary sources that contradict the Ukraine War narrative dominating the Mainstream Media and US government narrative when it comes to army forces lost on both sides of the Russia -Ukraine-NATO conflict and the implication that Russia has conducted this war with little or no regard for civilian life. We compare this narrative to the one’s surrounding Viet Nam with a specific emphasis on the understated Viet Cong Army strength and General Westmoreland request for an additional 206 thousand troops to win this war . Ray McGovern provides a detailed history on government deceit under the LBJ administration when it came to Vietnam and explains it was much more than the deceitful claims made to the American people about the winnability of Viet Nam, and about the winnability of the 20 year War in Afghanistan. Whistleblowing prevented an expansion of the Vietnam War into Laos and Cambodia despite the intentions of the LBJ administration as Ray McGovern reveals from his own experiences. A fascinating history is presented of deceitful intents. If we do not learn from history we allow the path to a premature extinction of our species to gain an unacceptable probability. Please join us tonight, as we consider if we are we being lied to once again, this time regarding the winnability of the Ukraine conflict?
62nd Anniversary of the Bay of Pigs: Lessons on the Nature of US Foreign Policy Misrepresentations to the US Public & a Tribute to Jane FranklinSixty two years ago today on April 17, 1961 US backed forces feigned a Cuban popular uprising and landed at the Bay of Pigs in a military invasion of Cuba with the intent to hide the US hand behind the scenes. Tonight, we reexamine the history surrounding that invasion and classified documents of that time leading up to the invasion that reveal the depths of deception used and those considered to dupe the US public. This history will show that we have a long history of the US government lying to the US public as a matter of policy rather than as simple aberrations.The military history of the Bay of Pigs and the reasons that led to its failure and the first defeat of US imperialism in the western hemisphere are detailed. Research including data accumulated during my 5-6 visits to the Bay of Pigs over a 10-15 year period is shared as are declassified documents since released by our government some 30 or more years later such as Operations Northwoods that reveal the real motivations of our foreign policy that have remained well hidden from public scrutiny.Bringing Light Into Darkness pays homage to a personal friend and mentor of mine that passed away in February. Jane Franklin, author of the historical chronology of US Cuban relations, entitled Cuba and the US Empire, taught me so much about US foreign policy towards Cuba. Jane also opened many doors within Cuba to me which included my personal visits and interviews with the former President of the National Assembly of Cuba, and former Cuban UN Ambassador, the honorable Ricardo Alarcon. President Alarcon opened additional doors for me such as my interviews with the Head of the Center of Immunology and other esteemed scientists.Jane was married to and leaves behind in this world, prolific author and dear friend, Bruce Franklin and a marriage of some 67 years!Thank you, Jane Franklin, for your revolutionary example and mentorship!
Opening the Toolbox of US Interventionist Foreign Policy: How the Internal Affairs of Nicaragua has been Undermined their Democracy Tonight’s show critically deconstructs how US government foreign policy along with its strong influences within the UN and with the aid of an uncritical mainstream media has misrepresented the unfolding political realities of Nicaragua leading up to, during and following the failed 2018 US led coup attempt. Our guest John Perry joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to recount this history. John Perry lives and works in Masaya, Nicaragua, where he has been based since 2003.Since the violent attempt to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua in 2018, which was especially badly felt in Masaya, he has been working in an informal solidarity network linked to both the UK (the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign) and the US (the Alliance for Global Justice). This has including lobbying governments, politicians, and agencies such as Amnesty International.John writes about Nicaragua and also about Honduras, and has been published in The Nation, London Review of Books, Counterpunch, Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), The Grayzone, FAIR, Open Democracy, LA Progressive and elsewhere.Perry provides an informed overview of US-Nicaraguan history since the 1979 July 19th Sandinista revolutionary victory over the US backed Somoza dictatorship. Our guest describes how the US State Department influences has permeated the internal affairs of Nicaragua and part of US foreign policy has included training thousands of Nicaraguans to return to Nicaragua and foment unrest in hopes of overthrowing the Sandinista government led by Daniel Ortega in the hopes of bringing a government to power that would provide a greater return for US western led investment capital.Perry provides a blow by blow historical overview of those attempts and the methods used by US foreign policy and the history that preceded it and how it has been misrepresented by mainstream media and enabled by UN mischaracterizations. We begin the show by detailing the experiences of two Cuban double agents who explain how Cubans paid by monies from the US government were misrepresented in US media as ‘dissidents’ instead of as ‘criminals’ engaging in criminal behavior by taking money from a foreign adversarial government to overthrow their own government. Our guest shares the parallel experiences of Nicaragua in great detail to afford our listeners how destabilization of elected government have been executed in Nicaragua.Please join us tonight for a thought provoking dialogue and historical analysis.
Opening the Toolbox of US Interventionist Foreign Policy: How the Internal Affairs of Nicaragua has been Undermined their Democracy Tonight’s show critically deconstructs how US government foreign policy along with its strong influences within the UN and with the aid of an uncritical mainstream media has misrepresented the unfolding political realities of Nicaragua leading up to, during and following the failed 2018 US led coup attempt. Our guest John Perry joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to recount this history. John Perry lives and works in Masaya, Nicaragua, where he has been based since 2003.Since the violent attempt to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua in 2018, which was especially badly felt in Masaya, he has been working in an informal solidarity network linked to both the UK (the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign) and the US (the Alliance for Global Justice). This has including lobbying governments, politicians, and agencies such as Amnesty International.John writes about Nicaragua and also about Honduras, and has been published in The Nation, London Review of Books, Counterpunch, Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), The Grayzone, FAIR, Open Democracy, LA Progressive and elsewhere.Perry provides an informed overview of US-Nicaraguan history since the 1979 July 19th Sandinista revolutionary victory over the US backed Somoza dictatorship. Our guest describes how the US State Department influences has permeated the internal affairs of Nicaragua and part of US foreign policy has included training thousands of Nicaraguans to return to Nicaragua and foment unrest in hopes of overthrowing the Sandinista government led by Daniel Ortega in the hopes of bringing a government to power that would provide a greater return for US western led investment capital.Perry provides a blow by blow historical overview of those attempts and the methods used by US foreign policy and the history that preceded it and how it has been misrepresented by mainstream media and enabled by UN mischaracterizations. We begin the show by detailing the experiences of two Cuban double agents who explain how Cubans paid by monies from the US government were misrepresented in US media as ‘dissidents’ instead of as ‘criminals’ engaging in criminal behavior by taking money from a foreign adversarial government to overthrow their own government. Our guest shares the parallel experiences of Nicaragua in great detail to afford our listeners how destabilization of elected government have been executed in Nicaragua.Please join us tonight for a thought provoking dialogue and historical analysis.
How the Intersection of Wealth Inequality & Media Information Control is Hijacking our DemocracyExamples of how our media and government work hand in glove to misrepresent facts on the ground if the facts on the ground do not fit the dominant narrative that sustains uncritically the status quo of egregious levels of wealth inequality. The relationship between control of information and gross wealth inequality and its creation of US public ignorance that leads us to unjust wars and conflicts is suggested. Three detailed examples of how our media and government have arrogantly sought to bully those that critical question the absence of evidence or just outright lie or completely revise history to a preferred mainstream dominant narrative are presented tonight on Bringing Light Into Darkness.John Kirby US government National Security expert regarding the 2015 Turkish shootdown of a Russian fighter pilot along the Syrian Turkish border is emblematic of the insulting arrogance of US officials is replayed and discussed. How the UN instead of being a force for equity among nations acts to the advantage of those countries that pay more into it rather than to follow its mandate to equally serve all nations is addressed. An example that suggests that the result of maintaining unfair advantages to powerful nations that often enables unfairness by insulating them from ramifications for internationally illegal activities is also provided.in the form of a recent example of a UN spokesperson defending the US illegal occupation of Syria is provided and discussed. The third example is an eight minute NPR 03/2022 piece still purveys the false image making that suggests Russia was the aggressor in 2008 Georgia Russia War despite OSCE and EU Reports that proved the opposite. The conflict erupted on 7 August 2008, as Georgia shelled the breakaway region of South Ossetia, in an attempt to regain control over it. The mainstream narrative that has since been completely contradicted by these thoroughly documented reports one by the OSCE in the months following the conflict of August 2008 as well as another much more exhaustive EU report published in 2009. It was commissioned by the Council of the European Union, and written by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, with the help of 30 European military, legal and history experts. That NPR some 14 years later continues to promote the fully discredited mainstream narrative that it was Russia and not Georgia that initiated the aggressions of August 2008 and that these investigations also revealed the war crimes of targeting of civilians by Georgia another fact unreported by the NPR 8 minute piece, suggests NPR and mainstream media are not investigative journalists but instead propagandists serving the US foreign policy of demonizing Russia first rather than seeking the truth of matters. That serving and promoting Russiaphobia is not journalism its war promoting propaganda that needs to be corrected to create an truly informed US public electorate is suggested .Please join us tonight for what we hope is a though provoking dialogue and analysis.
How the Intersection of Wealth Inequality & Media Information Control is Hijacking our DemocracyExamples of how our media and government work hand in glove to misrepresent facts on the ground if the facts on the ground do not fit the dominant narrative that sustains uncritically the status quo of egregious levels of wealth inequality. The relationship between control of information and gross wealth inequality and its creation of US public ignorance that leads us to unjust wars and conflicts is suggested. Three detailed examples of how our media and government have arrogantly sought to bully those that critical question the absence of evidence or just outright lie or completely revise history to a preferred mainstream dominant narrative are presented tonight on Bringing Light Into Darkness.John Kirby US government National Security expert regarding the 2015 Turkish shootdown of a Russian fighter pilot along the Syrian Turkish border is emblematic of the insulting arrogance of US officials is replayed and discussed. How the UN instead of being a force for equity among nations acts to the advantage of those countries that pay more into it rather than to follow its mandate to equally serve all nations is addressed. An example that suggests that the result of maintaining unfair advantages to powerful nations that often enables unfairness by insulating them from ramifications for internationally illegal activities is also provided.in the form of a recent example of a UN spokesperson defending the US illegal occupation of Syria is provided and discussed. The third example is an eight minute NPR 03/2022 piece still purveys the false image making that suggests Russia was the aggressor in 2008 Georgia Russia War despite OSCE and EU Reports that proved the opposite. The conflict erupted on 7 August 2008, as Georgia shelled the breakaway region of South Ossetia, in an attempt to regain control over it. The mainstream narrative that has since been completely contradicted by these thoroughly documented reports one by the OSCE in the months following the conflict of August 2008 as well as another much more exhaustive EU report published in 2009. It was commissioned by the Council of the European Union, and written by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, with the help of 30 European military, legal and history experts. That NPR some 14 years later continues to promote the fully discredited mainstream narrative that it was Russia and not Georgia that initiated the aggressions of August 2008 and that these investigations also revealed the war crimes of targeting of civilians by Georgia another fact unreported by the NPR 8 minute piece, suggests NPR and mainstream media are not investigative journalists but instead propagandists serving the US foreign policy of demonizing Russia first rather than seeking the truth of matters. That serving and promoting Russiaphobia is not journalism its war promoting propaganda that needs to be corrected to create an truly informed US public electorate is suggested .Please join us tonight for what we hope is a though provoking dialogue and analysis.
The Intersection of Wealth Inequality Drivers & Systemic Racism An International Women’s Month Tribute to the work of Dr Arline Geronimus with Special Guest Dr Sam Cruz We examine the intersection of egregious levels of wealth Inequality and systemic racism on the last Monday of International Women’s Month. The connected issues we seek to bring to light include the unpaid work of women in generating wealth inequality, highlighting a 2020 OXFAM report which documents how women and girls put in 12.5 billion hours of unpaid labor every day which translates into a labor value of $10.8 Trillion per year. We also call attention and share the state of Yemenese women as a result of US foreign policy. We celebrate the work and analytical findings of Dr Arline T. Geronimus, a Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education and Research Professor in the Population Studies Center at the Institute for Social Research, at the University of Michigan's Population Studies Center where she also is the founding director of the Public Health Demography training program. Dr. Geronimus originated an analytic framework, "weathering" that posits that the health of African Americans is subject to early health deterioration as a consequence of social exclusion; Dr Geronimus has been involved for the past 30 years of studying and measuring how poverty and racism create psychic and physical problem sets that can shorten lives by a decade or more and have a profound deteriorating effect on quality of life of that shortened life. In other words, as a result, they as a class have their constitutional right to pursue happiness, severely compromised.Joining us to critically evaluate and describe the concept of weathering as the largely unrecognized impact of systemic racism is Dr. Samuel Echevarría-Cruz who has served as a Professor of Sociology at Austin Community College (ACC) since 2009 and is currently the Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Instructional Initiatives. Dr Cruz leads us through an enlightening discussion that challenges us to reconsider some false assumptions we may have, based on some implicit biases we have been acculturated to believe. Instead of pathologizing behaviors of those immersed in poverty as a potential or likely cause of their continued poverty, he suggests how Geronomus’ work has shown that poverty creates the conditions in which through ‘survival adaptation’ if you will, leads to the behaviors being scrutinized and falsely critiqued as being irresponsible, such as higher rates of teen pregnancy. That, instead of pathologizing behavioral responses to poverty, by people of color and others that have been disenfranchised by the egregious levels of wealth inequality, that the poverty (the causal effect) must be addressed first. In other words once you successfully address the poverty then and only then will the environment change in a healthy direction and once the environment changes, the (behavioral) responses to the healthier environment changes as any form of adaptation would suggest.Please join us tonight for a fascinating dialogue and analysis with Dr Sam Cruz.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 3/27/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
The Intersection of Wealth Inequality Drivers & Systemic Racism An International Women’s Month Tribute to the work of Dr Arline Geronimus with Special Guest Dr Sam Cruz We examine the intersection of egregious levels of wealth Inequality and systemic racism on the last Monday of International Women’s Month. The connected issues we seek to bring to light include the unpaid work of women in generating wealth inequality, highlighting a 2020 OXFAM report which documents how women and girls put in 12.5 billion hours of unpaid labor every day which translates into a labor value of $10.8 Trillion per year. We also call attention and share the state of Yemenese women as a result of US foreign policy. We celebrate the work and analytical findings of Dr Arline T. Geronimus, a Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education and Research Professor in the Population Studies Center at the Institute for Social Research, at the University of Michigan's Population Studies Center where she also is the founding director of the Public Health Demography training program. Dr. Geronimus originated an analytic framework, "weathering" that posits that the health of African Americans is subject to early health deterioration as a consequence of social exclusion; Dr Geronimus has been involved for the past 30 years of studying and measuring how poverty and racism create psychic and physical problem sets that can shorten lives by a decade or more and have a profound deteriorating effect on quality of life of that shortened life. In other words, as a result, they as a class have their constitutional right to pursue happiness, severely compromised.Joining us to critically evaluate and describe the concept of weathering as the largely unrecognized impact of systemic racism is Dr. Samuel Echevarría-Cruz who has served as a Professor of Sociology at Austin Community College (ACC) since 2009 and is currently the Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Instructional Initiatives. Dr Cruz leads us through an enlightening discussion that challenges us to reconsider some false assumptions we may have, based on some implicit biases we have been acculturated to believe. Instead of pathologizing behaviors of those immersed in poverty as a potential or likely cause of their continued poverty, he suggests how Geronomus’ work has shown that poverty creates the conditions in which through ‘survival adaptation’ if you will, leads to the behaviors being scrutinized and falsely critiqued as being irresponsible, such as higher rates of teen pregnancy. That, instead of pathologizing behavioral responses to poverty, by people of color and others that have been disenfranchised by the egregious levels of wealth inequality, that the poverty (the causal effect) must be addressed first. In other words once you successfully address the poverty then and only then will the environment change in a healthy direction and once the environment changes, the (behavioral) responses to the healthier environment changes as any form of adaptation would suggest.Please join us tonight for a fascinating dialogue and analysis with Dr Sam Cruz.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 3/27/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
International Women’s Month Tribute to my Mom & Acknowledging Joe Biden’s Role in the Iraq Invasion on its 20th AnniversaryA Bringing Light Into Darkness listener sent me the following words to consider on or about the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq: “Two decades ago, the United States invaded Iraq, sending 130,000 US troops into a sovereign country to overthrow its government. Joe Biden, then chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, voted to authorize the war, a decision he came to regret…Biden, now the US president, recently traveled to Warsaw to rally international support for Ukraine’s fight to repel Russian aggression…Biden declared: ‘The idea that over 100,000 forces would invade another country – since world war II, nothing like that has happened’…The president spoke these words on 22 February, within a month of the 20th anniversary of the US military’s opening strike on Baghdad.” Stephen Wertheim The Guardian 17MAR23The author, Stephen Wertheim, went on to write: “The White House did not attempt to correct Biden’s statement. Reporters do not appear to have asked about it. The country’s leading newspapers, the New York Times and Washington Post, ran stories that quoted Biden’s line. Neither of them questioned its veracity or noted its hypocrisy.” I think this article and the full content of our show tonight captures the important realization that we have two political parties that find little to agree on except promoting unjust military conflicts and how the mainstream media, both conservative and liberal are their complicit allies, keeping the US public ignorant of important news worthy considerations“in a broadcast exclusive” on 2/18/20 during Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now news program, a new film, directed by the Center for Economic and Policy Research’s Mark Weisbrot, that exposes Biden’s central role in pushing for an Iraq invasion was presented. It’s called Worth the Price? Joe Biden and the Launch of the Iraq War. The documentary is narrated by Danny Glover. It was released during the Presidential democratic party debates. Mark Weisbrot shared these words with Amy regarding Joe Biden and his role in the March to unjust Iraq War: “You’ve had his vote for the Iraq War, has been brought up. But there’s never been a presentation of what he actually did, which was, he was the most important elected official in this country, after George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, in enabling and allowing and getting the authorization for the war through Congress. That was a huge role in bringing us this war. It wasn’t just a vote for the war. He was the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And, you know, when I was going through this footage, it was amazing, all the things that he did. He argued very strongly for the war. He had a lot of influence.”So, on the 20th anniversary of what can arguably described as the most devastating foreign policy blunder of this century, namely the US Iraq War invasion, BLID presents the sound track of this 20 minute short documentary directed by Mark Weisbrot and narrated by Danny Glover.We also celebrate International Women’s Month with a tribute to my mom Barbara aka Bobby. Siempre fieles, Pgatos 3/20/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
International Women’s Month Tribute to my Mom & Acknowledging Joe Biden’s Role in the Iraq Invasion on its 20th AnniversaryA Bringing Light Into Darkness listener sent me the following words to consider on or about the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq: “Two decades ago, the United States invaded Iraq, sending 130,000 US troops into a sovereign country to overthrow its government. Joe Biden, then chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, voted to authorize the war, a decision he came to regret…Biden, now the US president, recently traveled to Warsaw to rally international support for Ukraine’s fight to repel Russian aggression…Biden declared: ‘The idea that over 100,000 forces would invade another country – since world war II, nothing like that has happened’…The president spoke these words on 22 February, within a month of the 20th anniversary of the US military’s opening strike on Baghdad.” Stephen Wertheim The Guardian 17MAR23The author, Stephen Wertheim, went on to write: “The White House did not attempt to correct Biden’s statement. Reporters do not appear to have asked about it. The country’s leading newspapers, the New York Times and Washington Post, ran stories that quoted Biden’s line. Neither of them questioned its veracity or noted its hypocrisy.” I think this article and the full content of our show tonight captures the important realization that we have two political parties that find little to agree on except promoting unjust military conflicts and how the mainstream media, both conservative and liberal are their complicit allies, keeping the US public ignorant of important news worthy considerations“in a broadcast exclusive” on 2/18/20 during Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now news program, a new film, directed by the Center for Economic and Policy Research’s Mark Weisbrot, that exposes Biden’s central role in pushing for an Iraq invasion was presented. It’s called Worth the Price? Joe Biden and the Launch of the Iraq War. The documentary is narrated by Danny Glover. It was released during the Presidential democratic party debates. Mark Weisbrot shared these words with Amy regarding Joe Biden and his role in the March to unjust Iraq War: “You’ve had his vote for the Iraq War, has been brought up. But there’s never been a presentation of what he actually did, which was, he was the most important elected official in this country, after George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, in enabling and allowing and getting the authorization for the war through Congress. That was a huge role in bringing us this war. It wasn’t just a vote for the war. He was the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And, you know, when I was going through this footage, it was amazing, all the things that he did. He argued very strongly for the war. He had a lot of influence.”So, on the 20th anniversary of what can arguably described as the most devastating foreign policy blunder of this century, namely the US Iraq War invasion, BLID presents the sound track of this 20 minute short documentary directed by Mark Weisbrot and narrated by Danny Glover.We also celebrate International Women’s Month with a tribute to my mom Barbara aka Bobby. Siempre fieles, Pgatos 3/20/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
US Healthcare Profiteering & US Foreign Policy’s Main Driver, Making the World safe for Profiteering with Mike WhitneyPlease join us tonight as we juxtapose our US Healthcare system comparative inadequacies compared to other developed nations, and the role of profiteering in its healthcare delivery inadequacies with the more macro impacts of profiteering on world geopolitics and its promotion of seemingly endless conflict and war. We discuss a history that has been kept from the US public about how profiteering drivers operates and influences world geopolitics behind the scenes. A microcosm example is detailed regarding the neocolonialist exploitation of the African continent that was confronted by Ghaddafi’s Libya policies, part of a larger policy to seek a United States of Africa vision. The profiteering example given is of Europe and France charging the African continent $500m a year for communication satellite access and Africa having some of the highest phone rates in the world, and Ghaddafi largely financing a replacement satellite system to replace Regional African Satellite Communication (RASCAM), established in 1992 by some 45 African nations and the $500m a year rental fees charged by the Europeans led by the French. In December 2007 as an outcome of Libya’s financial aid Africa secured its own satellite system and France and Europe lost their $500m a year cash cow. With the threat of creating a United States of Africa and further reversing the exploitation of the African continent's resources by the neo colonizing west, perhaps and arguably this was the primary driver for seeking to overthrow Gadaffi by US led NATO forces in 2011.Investigative journalist Mike Whitney joins BLID and explains the Russia-Ukraine-US-NATO conflict as an outcome of the geopolitics of the world and the US seeking to make sure its hegemonic position in the world today is not challenged while other countries like Russia and China are seeking a more fair-trade model of multipolarity.The role of profiteering in the world economic dominance, the west led by the US has had since WWII & the increasing challenge of this unipolar economic dominance exerted by the US which is today being challenged by countries like Russia, China and India which refuse to be treated as lesser nations when it comes to economic development and sovereignty rights to co exist is discussed.Whitney also addresses the unfolding military conditions on the ground in Ukraine and recent past month comments made by Colonel Douglas MacGregor on the same, including MacGregor’s claim that western media is and has been completely misleading the US and western public regarding the actualities on the ground in Ukraine.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 3/13/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
US Healthcare Profiteering & US Foreign Policy’s Main Driver, Making the World safe for Profiteering with Mike WhitneyPlease join us tonight as we juxtapose our US Healthcare system comparative inadequacies compared to other developed nations, and the role of profiteering in its healthcare delivery inadequacies with the more macro impacts of profiteering on world geopolitics and its promotion of seemingly endless conflict and war. We discuss a history that has been kept from the US public about how profiteering drivers operates and influences world geopolitics behind the scenes. A microcosm example is detailed regarding the neocolonialist exploitation of the African continent that was confronted by Ghaddafi’s Libya policies, part of a larger policy to seek a United States of Africa vision. The profiteering example given is of Europe and France charging the African continent $500m a year for communication satellite access and Africa having some of the highest phone rates in the world, and Ghaddafi largely financing a replacement satellite system to replace Regional African Satellite Communication (RASCAM), established in 1992 by some 45 African nations and the $500m a year rental fees charged by the Europeans led by the French. In December 2007 as an outcome of Libya’s financial aid Africa secured its own satellite system and France and Europe lost their $500m a year cash cow. With the threat of creating a United States of Africa and further reversing the exploitation of the African continent's resources by the neo colonizing west, perhaps and arguably this was the primary driver for seeking to overthrow Gadaffi by US led NATO forces in 2011.Investigative journalist Mike Whitney joins BLID and explains the Russia-Ukraine-US-NATO conflict as an outcome of the geopolitics of the world and the US seeking to make sure its hegemonic position in the world today is not challenged while other countries like Russia and China are seeking a more fair-trade model of multipolarity.The role of profiteering in the world economic dominance, the west led by the US has had since WWII & the increasing challenge of this unipolar economic dominance exerted by the US which is today being challenged by countries like Russia, China and India which refuse to be treated as lesser nations when it comes to economic development and sovereignty rights to co exist is discussed.Whitney also addresses the unfolding military conditions on the ground in Ukraine and recent past month comments made by Colonel Douglas MacGregor on the same, including MacGregor’s claim that western media is and has been completely misleading the US and western public regarding the actualities on the ground in Ukraine.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 3/13/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
US Foreign Policy, Jeffrey Sachs UN Report & Update/Reality Check Regarding the Unfolding Ukraine-Russia-NATO-US Military ConflictJeffrey Sachs, a Professor at Columbia University and well respected internationally for his high acumen relating to world economics and geopolitics, spoke before the UN Security Council on the 9/26/22 international terrorist act that blew up the Nord Stream pipeline. Sachs highlighted the underreported but huge significance and ramifications of the international terrorist act of war against Germany and Russia and the lack of urgency to demand an investigation to discover who was responsible for it. We feature Sachs full commentary to the UN on 2/21/23 and wonder why is there such relative lack of urgency on behalf of the US to pursue such an inquiry. We also feature an overview of a 2/7/23 interview of Colonel Douglas Macgregor who visits with Stephen Gardner to update us on the Ukraine Russia war and the dire circumstances facing the Ukraine Armed forces on the battlefield in Ukraine. Douglas Macgregor is a decorated combat veteran, the author of five books, a PhD, and a defense and foreign policy consultant. He was commissioned in the Regular Army in 1976 after 1 year at VMI and 4 years at West Point. In 2004, Macgregor retired with the rank of Colonel. In 2020, the President appointed Macgregor to serve as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense, a post he held until the end of the Presidential term. He holds an MA in comparative politics and a PhD in international relations from the University of Virginia and provides a credible counternarrative to the less than truthful dominant narrative being presented once again by our government and major medias to the US public regarding the unfolding the event in Ukraine. In the context of the long-established pattern of the US government misleading the US public into tolerating military conflicts in Viet Nam, Iraq, Libya, Syria and the misinformation around the Georgia-South Ossetia-Russian conflict of 2008, we ask why should we believe the US government and main stream media presentation of the ongoing Ukraine-Us-NATO-Russian war conflict raging in Ukraine. The long list of claims that Russia is losing, Ukraine is winning and just needs more military support to succeed and the overall day to day coverage of the military conflict, is it truth or fiction? The Colonel says point blank on multiple occasions; “No one is telling the truth in the West. Russia is incompetent; Russia is losing; Ukraine is winning and will take back Crimea”; and then provides compelling arguments that argue the opposite. Please join us tonight to learn why MacGregor through his informative military strategic perspective, believes we are being fed lies by our government and media and why we must demand that our government end the war in Ukraine now, which it has the power to do.
US Foreign Policy, Jeffrey Sachs UN Report & Update/Reality Check Regarding the Unfolding Ukraine-Russia-NATO-US Military ConflictJeffrey Sachs, a Professor at Columbia University and well respected internationally for his high acumen relating to world economics and geopolitics, spoke before the UN Security Council on the 9/26/22 international terrorist act that blew up the Nord Stream pipeline. Sachs highlighted the underreported but huge significance and ramifications of the international terrorist act of war against Germany and Russia and the lack of urgency to demand an investigation to discover who was responsible for it. We feature Sachs full commentary to the UN on 2/21/23 and wonder why is there such relative lack of urgency on behalf of the US to pursue such an inquiry. We also feature an overview of a 2/7/23 interview of Colonel Douglas Macgregor who visits with Stephen Gardner to update us on the Ukraine Russia war and the dire circumstances facing the Ukraine Armed forces on the battlefield in Ukraine. Douglas Macgregor is a decorated combat veteran, the author of five books, a PhD, and a defense and foreign policy consultant. He was commissioned in the Regular Army in 1976 after 1 year at VMI and 4 years at West Point. In 2004, Macgregor retired with the rank of Colonel. In 2020, the President appointed Macgregor to serve as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense, a post he held until the end of the Presidential term. He holds an MA in comparative politics and a PhD in international relations from the University of Virginia and provides a credible counternarrative to the less than truthful dominant narrative being presented once again by our government and major medias to the US public regarding the unfolding the event in Ukraine. In the context of the long-established pattern of the US government misleading the US public into tolerating military conflicts in Viet Nam, Iraq, Libya, Syria and the misinformation around the Georgia-South Ossetia-Russian conflict of 2008, we ask why should we believe the US government and main stream media presentation of the ongoing Ukraine-Us-NATO-Russian war conflict raging in Ukraine. The long list of claims that Russia is losing, Ukraine is winning and just needs more military support to succeed and the overall day to day coverage of the military conflict, is it truth or fiction? The Colonel says point blank on multiple occasions; “No one is telling the truth in the West. Russia is incompetent; Russia is losing; Ukraine is winning and will take back Crimea”; and then provides compelling arguments that argue the opposite. Please join us tonight to learn why MacGregor through his informative military strategic perspective, believes we are being fed lies by our government and media and why we must demand that our government end the war in Ukraine now, which it has the power to do.
US Foreign Policy Geopolitical Influences That Americans Never See that Shape World Conflicts with Bryce GreeneBryce Greene is a freelance writer and contributor to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). He currently is based out of Bloomington Indiana and joins Bringing Light not Darkness to discuss two of his investigative journalism articles, one published on 10/7/22 following the blowing up of the Nord Stream Pipeline in September 2022 and entitled US Media’s Intellectual No-Fly-Zone on US Culpability in Nord Stream Attack. And the other published earlier this month on 2/3/23 entitled Facebook Protects Nazis to Protect Ukraine Proxy War. Both articles were published by FAIR progressive media watchdog group that monitors the U.S. news media for inaccuracy, bias, and censorship and advocates for greater diversity of perspectives in news reporting.Our guest brings light to the neo conservative bias of our US government driven foreign policies over both democratic and republican administrations and how behind the scenes through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), various think tanks and the CIA our foreign policy executes these policies. He details the intentions as described in the 2019 Rand Corporation document entitled, "Overextending and Unbalancing Russia." Essentially the report and US policy that apparently followed it included seeking to provoke Russia into armed intervention and among its many options the RAND Report included "extending Russia economically", and specifically suggests a first step would involve stopping Nord Stream 2.The revelations include a number of fact based issues and evidence connected to the Russian US-NATO Ukraine War that our mainstream media narrative has kept us in the dark of. Please join us!Siempre fieles, Pgatos 2/20/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
US Foreign Policy Geopolitical Influences That Americans Never See that Shape World Conflicts with Bryce GreeneBryce Greene is a freelance writer and contributor to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). He currently is based out of Bloomington Indiana and joins Bringing Light not Darkness to discuss two of his investigative journalism articles, one published on 10/7/22 following the blowing up of the Nord Stream Pipeline in September 2022 and entitled US Media’s Intellectual No-Fly-Zone on US Culpability in Nord Stream Attack. And the other published earlier this month on 2/3/23 entitled Facebook Protects Nazis to Protect Ukraine Proxy War. Both articles were published by FAIR progressive media watchdog group that monitors the U.S. news media for inaccuracy, bias, and censorship and advocates for greater diversity of perspectives in news reporting.Our guest brings light to the neo conservative bias of our US government driven foreign policies over both democratic and republican administrations and how behind the scenes through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), various think tanks and the CIA our foreign policy executes these policies. He details the intentions as described in the 2019 Rand Corporation document entitled, "Overextending and Unbalancing Russia." Essentially the report and US policy that apparently followed it included seeking to provoke Russia into armed intervention and among its many options the RAND Report included "extending Russia economically", and specifically suggests a first step would involve stopping Nord Stream 2.The revelations include a number of fact based issues and evidence connected to the Russian US-NATO Ukraine War that our mainstream media narrative has kept us in the dark of. Please join us!Siempre fieles, Pgatos 2/20/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
There is not a US Public Perception that Intl law has been Routinely Violated since WWII because it’s not given proper coverage by MSM: Dr. Alfred de Zayas Presents What Proper Coverage Would Look LikeAlfred de Zayas, Professor of international law and world history at the Geneva School of Diplomacy (J.D., Harvard, Ph.D. Göttingen), a former Secretary & senior lawyer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights & former UN Independent Expert on International Order (2012-18), and author of 12 books Brings Light Into Darkness about what constitutes International law and its violations. He also details the role of media in deceit.International law violations that the US public may not be well vetted in that the US & other countries have historically & currently engage in as a regular matter of business include:1. That Russia violated International (Intl) Law by invading Ukraine while the US violated Intl law by provoking Russia by creating conditions that led to the invasion and by actively promoting war rather than seeking peaceful resolution to the conflict2. That the UN Charter is the only rules based order that we have . And that article 2 paragraph 3 obliges everyone to negotiate in good faith a principle that was egregiously violated by Kiev & the US led west regarding the Minsk Agreements.3. Principle 19 of the UN Charter provides in part that “States must refrain from interfering in matters within the internal jurisdiction of another State. No State may use or encourage the use of economic, political or any other type of measures to coerce another State in order to obtain from it the subordination of the exercise of its sovereign rights and to secure from it advantages of any kind.4. That the General Assembly 2005 Resolution 60/1, paragraph 135 describes the International Law understanding of ‘democracy’ and its violations with the language “democracies share common features, there is no single model of democracy, that it does not belong to any country or region, and reaffirm the necessity of due respect for sovereignty and the right of self-determination.” Attempting to export one’s model of democracy constitutes a violation of the UN principles of the sovereign equality of states and the right of self-determination of peoples.”5. Art. 2(3) of the UN Charter obliges all States to settle disputes by peaceful means. This obligation to negotiate means good faith dialogue with the goal to reach a compromise, a quid pro quo. There is no right to intransigence in the UN Charter. If one party refuses to talk, it is violating article 2(3) and may actually be provoking the other to the use of force. Moreover, this constitutes a potential threat to Intl peace and security for purposes of article 39 of the UN Charter.6. Only the Security Council can impose sanctions under Chapter VII of the Charter. Therefore, States shall refrain from imposing unilateral coercive measures, sanctions and financial blockades on other countries. When unilateral coercive measures cause widespread hunger and death, they may amount to crimes against humanity under article 7 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 2/13/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
There is not a US Public Perception that Intl law has been Routinely Violated since WWII because it’s not given proper coverage by MSM: Dr. Alfred de Zayas Presents What Proper Coverage Would Look LikeAlfred de Zayas, Professor of international law and world history at the Geneva School of Diplomacy (J.D., Harvard, Ph.D. Göttingen), a former Secretary & senior lawyer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights & former UN Independent Expert on International Order (2012-18), and author of 12 books Brings Light Into Darkness about what constitutes International law and its violations. He also details the role of media in deceit.International law violations that the US public may not be well vetted in that the US & other countries have historically & currently engage in as a regular matter of business include:1. That Russia violated International (Intl) Law by invading Ukraine while the US violated Intl law by provoking Russia by creating conditions that led to the invasion and by actively promoting war rather than seeking peaceful resolution to the conflict2. That the UN Charter is the only rules based order that we have . And that article 2 paragraph 3 obliges everyone to negotiate in good faith a principle that was egregiously violated by Kiev & the US led west regarding the Minsk Agreements.3. Principle 19 of the UN Charter provides in part that “States must refrain from interfering in matters within the internal jurisdiction of another State. No State may use or encourage the use of economic, political or any other type of measures to coerce another State in order to obtain from it the subordination of the exercise of its sovereign rights and to secure from it advantages of any kind.4. That the General Assembly 2005 Resolution 60/1, paragraph 135 describes the International Law understanding of ‘democracy’ and its violations with the language “democracies share common features, there is no single model of democracy, that it does not belong to any country or region, and reaffirm the necessity of due respect for sovereignty and the right of self-determination.” Attempting to export one’s model of democracy constitutes a violation of the UN principles of the sovereign equality of states and the right of self-determination of peoples.”5. Art. 2(3) of the UN Charter obliges all States to settle disputes by peaceful means. This obligation to negotiate means good faith dialogue with the goal to reach a compromise, a quid pro quo. There is no right to intransigence in the UN Charter. If one party refuses to talk, it is violating article 2(3) and may actually be provoking the other to the use of force. Moreover, this constitutes a potential threat to Intl peace and security for purposes of article 39 of the UN Charter.6. Only the Security Council can impose sanctions under Chapter VII of the Charter. Therefore, States shall refrain from imposing unilateral coercive measures, sanctions and financial blockades on other countries. When unilateral coercive measures cause widespread hunger and death, they may amount to crimes against humanity under article 7 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 2/13/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
The Case for Medicare for All: How to Stop Multi-Billion Dollar Annual transfers of Wealth from the US public to the Healthcare Industry EliteLast week Les Bernal from Stop Predatory Gambling cited a 2018 Marketwatch report that indicated " Over the next eight years the US public will lose $1T of personal wealth to government sanctioned gambling, 500B of which is coming mainly low income populations" A 2022 nationwide investigation of state lotteries by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of MD confirmed the same, revealing the result is a multibillion-dollar wealth transfer from low-income U.S. communities to powerful multinational companies to the tune of $29 billion lost annually by players in the 45 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that have a lottery.This week we examine another profiteering industry that essentially results in another fraudulent “multibillion dollar transfer from the US public to another elite economic industry sector, namely the US health care industry. We pay more receive less and live shorter lives. Dr. James G. Kahn, emeritus professor of health policy, University of California San Francisco. Leading researcher in the cost and effectiveness of health intervention programs, and in US health care financing reform returns to BLID to explain this phenomena. We review his peer reviewed research article that helps explain why with only 4% of the world's population, the cumulative mortality attributable to COVID-19 in the US through March 14, 2022 was over 973,000 reported deaths in the United States which composes only 4% of the global population yet had 16% of the world’s Covid related deaths. And how this disproportionate toll is magnified when comparing the US to similarly affluent countries and led to over 338 thousand excess deaths from Covid due to broken market driven healthcare system that prioritizes profits over people. Dr Kahn also explains how Medicare Advantage is gamed Other shocking indictments are revealed such as:1. Our healthcare system is so bad that 40% of US public skip or delay or skip treatment due to cost issues.2. Particularly costly has been profiteering among insurance companies participating in the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. By gaming, aka upcoding, Medicare risk codes and the ways in which comparative “benchmarks” are set for expected costs, health care estimates suggest, MA will cost Medicare over $600 billion more in the next 8 years than would have been the case if the same enrollees had remained in traditional Medicare.We Bring Light to the scientific data that suggests, “The cycle is vicious: unchecked greed concentrates wealth, wealth concentrates political power, and political power blocks constraints on greed.”Siempre fieles, Pgatos 2/6/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
The Case for Medicare for All: How to Stop Multi-Billion Dollar Annual transfers of Wealth from the US public to the Healthcare Industry EliteLast week Les Bernal from Stop Predatory Gambling cited a 2018 Marketwatch report that indicated " Over the next eight years the US public will lose $1T of personal wealth to government sanctioned gambling, 500B of which is coming mainly low income populations" A 2022 nationwide investigation of state lotteries by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of MD confirmed the same, revealing the result is a multibillion-dollar wealth transfer from low-income U.S. communities to powerful multinational companies to the tune of $29 billion lost annually by players in the 45 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that have a lottery.This week we examine another profiteering industry that essentially results in another fraudulent “multibillion dollar transfer from the US public to another elite economic industry sector, namely the US health care industry. We pay more receive less and live shorter lives. Dr. James G. Kahn, emeritus professor of health policy, University of California San Francisco. Leading researcher in the cost and effectiveness of health intervention programs, and in US health care financing reform returns to BLID to explain this phenomena. We review his peer reviewed research article that helps explain why with only 4% of the world's population, the cumulative mortality attributable to COVID-19 in the US through March 14, 2022 was over 973,000 reported deaths in the United States which composes only 4% of the global population yet had 16% of the world’s Covid related deaths. And how this disproportionate toll is magnified when comparing the US to similarly affluent countries and led to over 338 thousand excess deaths from Covid due to broken market driven healthcare system that prioritizes profits over people. Dr Kahn also explains how Medicare Advantage is gamed Other shocking indictments are revealed such as:1. Our healthcare system is so bad that 40% of US public skip or delay or skip treatment due to cost issues.2. Particularly costly has been profiteering among insurance companies participating in the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. By gaming, aka upcoding, Medicare risk codes and the ways in which comparative “benchmarks” are set for expected costs, health care estimates suggest, MA will cost Medicare over $600 billion more in the next 8 years than would have been the case if the same enrollees had remained in traditional Medicare.We Bring Light to the scientific data that suggests, “The cycle is vicious: unchecked greed concentrates wealth, wealth concentrates political power, and political power blocks constraints on greed.”Siempre fieles, Pgatos 2/6/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
“Give me a Dollar & I will Give you 65 Cents”: The Lottery as ‘Predatory Gambling’, Another Source of Wealth Transfer from the Poor to the RichWe document 2021 egregious levels of wealth inequality by citing how the combined fortunes of the richest 100 Americans have reached $2.9 trillion, greater than the combined $2.5 trillion wealth of the bottom 50% of the U.S. population, according to data from the Federal Reserve. Despite the pandemic, Fed data show all groups gained wealth last year however despite three relief checks disbursed by the Biden administration, the top 1% did best by far, adding $4 trillion in 2020 bringing their total net worth to almost $39 trillion, more than the bottom 90% of Americans combined.Meanwhile, a 2022 nationwide investigation of state lotteries by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of MD revealed among other things, lotteries now operate in all but five U.S. states & driven by more than a half-billion dollars in annual ad spending, increasingly sophisticated sales strategies, and political pressure to increase revenue, lottery ticket sales have grown from $47 to $82 billion since 2005. In 10 states, lotteries generate more revenue than corporate income taxes.’ The report cited the following. 1. For every one dollar spent on average the purchaser gets about 65 cents back as winnings.2. High school dropouts spent 4x more per year on the lottery than college graduates. Black people spent, on average, nearly five times as much as white people. 3. The result is a multibillion-dollar wealth transfer from low-income U.S. communities to powerful multinational companies as state lotteries transfer wealth out of needy communities to the tune of $29 billion lost annually by players in the 45 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that have a lottery.Joining us is our guest Les Bernal who has been National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling since 2008 He has spoken and written extensively about commercialized gambling, including regional casinos, state lotteries, online gambling, and commercialized sports betting. He has testified before Congress and dozens of state legislatures. He has been cited by more than 600 newspapers and magazines and he further reveals: 1. Over the eight year period of 2018-2026 according to 5/15/2018 MarketWatch Report, the US public will lose $1T of personal wealth to government sanctioned gambling, half of which is coming from state lotteries. 500B coming mainly from lotteries most of which are played by low income populations”2. While half the country has retirement funds i.e. has a home has some assets.. The other half have nothing in savings or assets and here Instead of focusing on how to build wealth for our disenfranchised, you have a government program that targets this group; it is this group that is targeted by lottery interests. Siempre fieles, Pgatos 1/30/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
“Give me a Dollar & I will Give you 65 Cents”: The Lottery as ‘Predatory Gambling’, Another Source of Wealth Transfer from the Poor to the RichWe document 2021 egregious levels of wealth inequality by citing how the combined fortunes of the richest 100 Americans have reached $2.9 trillion, greater than the combined $2.5 trillion wealth of the bottom 50% of the U.S. population, according to data from the Federal Reserve. Despite the pandemic, Fed data show all groups gained wealth last year however despite three relief checks disbursed by the Biden administration, the top 1% did best by far, adding $4 trillion in 2020 bringing their total net worth to almost $39 trillion, more than the bottom 90% of Americans combined.Meanwhile, a 2022 nationwide investigation of state lotteries by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of MD revealed among other things, lotteries now operate in all but five U.S. states & driven by more than a half-billion dollars in annual ad spending, increasingly sophisticated sales strategies, and political pressure to increase revenue, lottery ticket sales have grown from $47 to $82 billion since 2005. In 10 states, lotteries generate more revenue than corporate income taxes.’ The report cited the following. 1. For every one dollar spent on average the purchaser gets about 65 cents back as winnings.2. High school dropouts spent 4x more per year on the lottery than college graduates. Black people spent, on average, nearly five times as much as white people. 3. The result is a multibillion-dollar wealth transfer from low-income U.S. communities to powerful multinational companies as state lotteries transfer wealth out of needy communities to the tune of $29 billion lost annually by players in the 45 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that have a lottery.Joining us is our guest Les Bernal who has been National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling since 2008 He has spoken and written extensively about commercialized gambling, including regional casinos, state lotteries, online gambling, and commercialized sports betting. He has testified before Congress and dozens of state legislatures. He has been cited by more than 600 newspapers and magazines and he further reveals: 1. Over the eight year period of 2018-2026 according to 5/15/2018 MarketWatch Report, the US public will lose $1T of personal wealth to government sanctioned gambling, half of which is coming from state lotteries. 500B coming mainly from lotteries most of which are played by low income populations”2. While half the country has retirement funds i.e. has a home has some assets.. The other half have nothing in savings or assets and here Instead of focusing on how to build wealth for our disenfranchised, you have a government program that targets this group; it is this group that is targeted by lottery interests. Siempre fieles, Pgatos 1/30/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
“Game Over Man”: Gonzalo Lira in Ukraine & Colonel Douglas MacGregor confirm Casualty Numbers BLID Reported in August 2022 that go Unreported in MSM & Hides the Truth from the US PublicTwo interviews on the same day 1/17/23 are excerpted and combined with commentary by Pedro Gatos who seeks to combine three primary sources that confirm casualty numbers that have been unreported by MSM, namely upwards to an 8:1 or higher death rate for Ukrainian soldiers vs Russian losses. Colonel Douglas Macgregor is a decorated combat veteran, the author of four books and a PhD. Macgregor has testified as an expert witness on national security issues before the House Armed Services and House Foreign Relations Committee & is a frequent guest commentator on radio and television. Gonzalo Lira novelist and filmmaker living in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Lira was abducted by the Ukrainian on April 15, 2022,[1][2] and after a massive international outcry Lira was released a week later. Lira reports, based on casualty numbers and active military soldier number strengths, that this war was over some time ago. Why is this not reported? Is it because they destroy the false narratives that Ukraine is winning the war, that Russia is incompetently executing their war with no regard to civilian casualties and other falsehoods promoted by unreliable Ukrainian state sourcing that our US government allows to go unchallenged in order to mislead the US public into supporting this slaughter? Instead BLID has been presenting a dissenting view that has proven light years closer to the truth since the 2014 US led coup ignited this conflict. A dissent that has been getting ridiculed by many based on the wall to wall misleading and outright false claims reported by our MSM that we empirically reveal and call out routinely. MacGregor describes the impact of NATO war weaponry pouring into Ukraine; and describes the perceived end game for Russia in this armed conflict; and the explains why it is a false claim that Ukraine is making sovereign choices. Additionally, he has this and more to share. “We have made this much worse than it could have ever been. And it continues to get worse.” .. in addition to all this military equipment which may prolong but will not alter the ultimate Russian military victory…. We are seeking to existentially eliminate Russia as a world rival power to us… “We made it clear it is not just regime change, it’s humiliate Russia, destroy it , dismember it. Insane! Under those circumstances I am surprised if we get through this without a nuclear exchange.” Meanwhile Lira reports on the impending fall of Bakhmut as a second line of defense and how 15-16 year olds and elderly recruits as evidenced by video data are being forced into military duty and death. Because there are not young US GIs dying in Ukraine we should not care? Lira reports on possible Polish military actions and their alarming huge increase in military recruits and why Russia is done trusting the diplomatic process with the West and what that means for the end game.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 1/23/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
“Game Over Man”: Gonzalo Lira in Ukraine & Colonel Douglas MacGregor confirm Casualty Numbers BLID Reported in August 2022 that go Unreported in MSM & Hides the Truth from the US PublicTwo interviews on the same day 1/17/23 are excerpted and combined with commentary by Pedro Gatos who seeks to combine three primary sources that confirm casualty numbers that have been unreported by MSM, namely upwards to an 8:1 or higher death rate for Ukrainian soldiers vs Russian losses. Colonel Douglas Macgregor is a decorated combat veteran, the author of four books and a PhD. Macgregor has testified as an expert witness on national security issues before the House Armed Services and House Foreign Relations Committee & is a frequent guest commentator on radio and television. Gonzalo Lira novelist and filmmaker living in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Lira was abducted by the Ukrainian on April 15, 2022,[1][2] and after a massive international outcry Lira was released a week later. Lira reports, based on casualty numbers and active military soldier number strengths, that this war was over some time ago. Why is this not reported? Is it because they destroy the false narratives that Ukraine is winning the war, that Russia is incompetently executing their war with no regard to civilian casualties and other falsehoods promoted by unreliable Ukrainian state sourcing that our US government allows to go unchallenged in order to mislead the US public into supporting this slaughter? Instead BLID has been presenting a dissenting view that has proven light years closer to the truth since the 2014 US led coup ignited this conflict. A dissent that has been getting ridiculed by many based on the wall to wall misleading and outright false claims reported by our MSM that we empirically reveal and call out routinely. MacGregor describes the impact of NATO war weaponry pouring into Ukraine; and describes the perceived end game for Russia in this armed conflict; and the explains why it is a false claim that Ukraine is making sovereign choices. Additionally, he has this and more to share. “We have made this much worse than it could have ever been. And it continues to get worse.” .. in addition to all this military equipment which may prolong but will not alter the ultimate Russian military victory…. We are seeking to existentially eliminate Russia as a world rival power to us… “We made it clear it is not just regime change, it’s humiliate Russia, destroy it , dismember it. Insane! Under those circumstances I am surprised if we get through this without a nuclear exchange.” Meanwhile Lira reports on the impending fall of Bakhmut as a second line of defense and how 15-16 year olds and elderly recruits as evidenced by video data are being forced into military duty and death. Because there are not young US GIs dying in Ukraine we should not care? Lira reports on possible Polish military actions and their alarming huge increase in military recruits and why Russia is done trusting the diplomatic process with the West and what that means for the end game.Siempre fieles, Pgatos 1/23/23 pgatos00@gmail.com
Beyond Vietnam Speech in its Entirety: Celebrate MLK by Seeking to Understanding his Ideological Framework of 4/4/1967Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated on 4/4/1968. Exactly one year before on 4/4/1967, he delivered what many of us believe was his most important speech, Beyond Vietnam A Time to Break Silence. According to the PBS documentary MLK: A Call to Conscience (2010), the speech was denounced by 168 newspapers across the country. Dr MLK implored us to study history and then follow our conscience even if takes us to dissent against majority opinion.“Why are you joining the voices of dissent?” “Peace and civil rights don’t mix,” they say. “Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people,” they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment, or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.” MLK understood the malady of our foreign policy with the words that “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — (was) my own government”.“To save the soul of America.” We must understand the impact of our foreign policy forays around the world and “move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history”. This is what we honestly seek to pursue on BLID. It is “the brotherhood of man. This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances”….Therefore, “I speak as a citizen of the world” and DR King implored us to “search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion”, while MLK warns us to not “again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long.” In which we are right and everyone else is so wrong that we need to sanction 1/3 of the world’s population. MLK teaches us not to hate but seek to understand our ‘enemy’ as he describes “the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow”….Are we on “the wrong side of a world revolution”? as MLK warns “the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch antirevolutionaries”What must we do to retake our country? To correct its foreign policy that presently is driven by “a far deeper malady within the American spirit”, “and if we ignore this sobering reality… then have we failed God? This speech is a starting point for deep reflection and pursuit of accountability for our government impact on the world. Please join us tonight to hear this speech in its entirety.
Beyond Vietnam Speech in its Entirety: Celebrate MLK by Seeking to Understanding his Ideological Framework of 4/4/1967Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated on 4/4/1968. Exactly one year before on 4/4/1967, he delivered what many of us believe was his most important speech, Beyond Vietnam A Time to Break Silence. According to the PBS documentary MLK: A Call to Conscience (2010), the speech was denounced by 168 newspapers across the country. Dr MLK implored us to study history and then follow our conscience even if takes us to dissent against majority opinion.“Why are you joining the voices of dissent?” “Peace and civil rights don’t mix,” they say. “Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people,” they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment, or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.” MLK understood the malady of our foreign policy with the words that “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — (was) my own government”.“To save the soul of America.” We must understand the impact of our foreign policy forays around the world and “move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history”. This is what we honestly seek to pursue on BLID. It is “the brotherhood of man. This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances”….Therefore, “I speak as a citizen of the world” and DR King implored us to “search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion”, while MLK warns us to not “again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long.” In which we are right and everyone else is so wrong that we need to sanction 1/3 of the world’s population. MLK teaches us not to hate but seek to understand our ‘enemy’ as he describes “the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow”….Are we on “the wrong side of a world revolution”? as MLK warns “the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch antirevolutionaries”What must we do to retake our country? To correct its foreign policy that presently is driven by “a far deeper malady within the American spirit”, “and if we ignore this sobering reality… then have we failed God? This speech is a starting point for deep reflection and pursuit of accountability for our government impact on the world. Please join us tonight to hear this speech in its entirety.
How Ukraine became a NATO Nation without Becoming a NATO Nation (1/9/22) (Part 2/2) by Bringing Light Into Darkness - News & Analysis
How Ukraine became a NATO Nation without Becoming a NATO Nation!Marcy Winograd, Coordinator of CODE PINK CONGRESS, is a long-time anti-war activist who served as a 2020 DNC delegate to Bernie Sanders, co-founded the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party and ran for Congress as a peace candidate during the US war on Iraq. She also serves on the steering committee of the Peace in Ukraine Coalition, which calls for a ceasefire, diplomacy and an end to weapons shipments to Ukraine joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to help fill in some informational voids and answer some important questions, including:We discuss her recent article Letter to the Left on Ukraine, 12/7/22, she authored in Antiwar.com. Our discussion includes: Our guest shares her opinion that the Russian invasion was wrong but also explains how in 2020 US NATO awarded Ukraine the status of an "Enhanced Opportunity Partner" which meant they could share intelligence, and participate in NATO led military interventions such as Iraq and Afghanistan (and Kosovo) and join in War games which she describes were becoming regular provocations in proximity to the Russian border. In fact as recently as October 2021 it included mock nuclear strikes against who... against Russia. Our guest describes two strategic bilateral agreements signed with Ukraine that made the question of being a formal NATO member moot. The first was on August 31, 2021 when the US Secretary of Defense & the Ukrainian Minister of Defense signed the U.S. – Ukraine Strategic Defense Framework which reaffirmed Ukraine as a de facto NATO partner, “to continue our robust training and exercise program in keeping with Ukraine’s status as a NATO Enhanced Opportunities Partner.” The other strategic agreement signed just two months later was the November 2021 US-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership which committed the US and Ukraine to joint defense and security operations “deepening cooperation in areas such as Black Sea security, cyber defense and intelligence sharing. This breeching of the national security redline for Russia went unreported in the west yet essentially meant that Ukraine was already part of the ever expanding NATO alliance that expanded from 12 nations in 1991 to 30 countries today which does not include a half dozen more of these ‘Enhanced Opportunity (NATO) Partners’. We discuss in depth the development of bilateral military relations that included joint Ukrainian – Western training and interoperability exercises inside Ukraine, yet Ukraine is not a NATO nation?We also discuss important contextual information for our listeners to consider as they decide what to believe within the largely disinformational environment created by our government and mainstream media.
Undercover Greg Ciotti joins Bringing Light Into Darkness host Pedro Gatos to seek the basis of his understandings that has led him to question the dominant narrative that Russia is bad the US is good and US foreign policy only seeks to defend the sovereignty of Ukraine. Pedro has interviewed a large number of military, intelligence, international law and geopolitical foreign policy experts over the last two decades on Bringing Light Into Darkness. What are his findings and why are they so counter to the dominant narrative that is promoted by our mainstream media? Pedro shares his concern that media concentration by just six corporations controls some 90% of the information made available to us through 'news' programming. That, as a result we should be careful not to believe everything we think because it may be unseen forces that teach us how and what to think. In the tradition of Dr MLK Undercover Greg asks Pedro to put himself into Russia's shoes, if you will, and share what was Russia thinking and what are its motivations for and when it invaded Ukraine...
Undercover Greg Ciotti joins Bringing Light Into Darkness host Pedro Gatos to seek the basis of his understandings that has led him to question the dominant narrative that Russia is bad the US is good and US foreign policy only seeks to defend the sovereignty of Ukraine. Pedro has interviewed a large number of military, intelligence, international law and geopolitical foreign policy experts over the last two decades on Bringing Light Into Darkness. What are his findings and why are they so counter to the dominant narrative that is promoted by our mainstream media? Pedro shares his concern that media concentration by just six corporations controls some 90% of the information made available to us through 'news' programming. That, as a result we should be careful not to believe everything we think because it may be unseen forces that teach us how and what to think. In the tradition of Dr MLK Undercover Greg asks Pedro to put himself into Russia's shoes, if you will, and share what was Russia thinking and what are its motivations for and when it invaded Ukraine...
Mike Whitney the distinguished investigative journalist joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to help fill in some informational voids. We review the uncontested remarks made by President Biden and President Zelensky to the American people and also explore what they did not address. How much has the US paid in military expenditures this past year to Ukraine and is it appropriate that four major US defense contractors sponsored a December 2022 event at the Ukraine Embassy in Washington and among others the General & Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley attended? How many Ukrainian military casualties have there been relative to Russian casualties? How many Ukrainian military to civilian deaths have there been? We review the 8/4/22 Amnesty Report which they later apologized for without retracting their findings that Ukraine was using civilian shields that resulted in a significant loss of civilian lives. To what extent did their findings suggest a breach of international law? What do the Ukraine military vs civilian deaths tell us about the Russian execution of their War objectives? How do sanctions as an economic form of warfare impact the rate of preventable worldwide deaths? Does a mother grieve any less for a lost child that dies from sanctions vs war?Is it possible the Russian invasion was following rules of war that prioritizes the safety of civilians and Russian troops instead of seeking to end the conflict with a military victory as soon as possible?We review the recent article in the American Conservative inked by Colonel Douglas MacGregor who has a long experiential history in the European military diplomacy theater and who has been outspoken in a well put together counternarrative that has been given zero coverage by our Mainstream press. In Poland 200,000 reservists will be called up in 2023 to an active status. Meanwhile did you know the US has deployed 30,000 members of the 101st US airborne to Poland and Romania. Additionally Romanian troops are serving in Ukraine as well as reportedly the Royal Marines from the United Kingdom serving in Ukraine along with significant logistical support from US troops indicates a strong NATO presence already on the ground? NATO is not unified in supporting troops on the ground and what parallels are there for the US in Vietnam vs present day Ukraine. Whitney suggests we are a breath away from Russia US war.Are & what are the motivations for a Ukraine initiated false flag?Is there any basis for Russia’s stated concerns that Ukraine may use a dirty bomb?What did Putin demand in December to avoid war?
Mike Whitney the distinguished investigative journalist joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to help fill in some informational voids. We review the uncontested remarks made by President Biden and President Zelensky to the American people and also explore what they did not address. How much has the US paid in military expenditures this past year to Ukraine and is it appropriate that four major US defense contractors sponsored a December 2022 event at the Ukraine Embassy in Washington and among others the General & Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley attended? How many Ukrainian military casualties have there been relative to Russian casualties? How many Ukrainian military to civilian deaths have there been? We review the 8/4/22 Amnesty Report which they later apologized for without retracting their findings that Ukraine was using civilian shields that resulted in a significant loss of civilian lives. To what extent did their findings suggest a breach of international law? What do the Ukraine military vs civilian deaths tell us about the Russian execution of their War objectives? How do sanctions as an economic form of warfare impact the rate of preventable worldwide deaths? Does a mother grieve any less for a lost child that dies from sanctions vs war?Is it possible the Russian invasion was following rules of war that prioritizes the safety of civilians and Russian troops instead of seeking to end the conflict with a military victory as soon as possible?We review the recent article in the American Conservative inked by Colonel Douglas MacGregor who has a long experiential history in the European military diplomacy theater and who has been outspoken in a well put together counternarrative that has been given zero coverage by our Mainstream press. In Poland 200,000 reservists will be called up in 2023 to an active status. Meanwhile did you know the US has deployed 30,000 members of the 101st US airborne to Poland and Romania. Additionally Romanian troops are serving in Ukraine as well as reportedly the Royal Marines from the United Kingdom serving in Ukraine along with significant logistical support from US troops indicates a strong NATO presence already on the ground? NATO is not unified in supporting troops on the ground and what parallels are there for the US in Vietnam vs present day Ukraine. Whitney suggests we are a breath away from Russia US war.Are & what are the motivations for a Ukraine initiated false flag?Is there any basis for Russia’s stated concerns that Ukraine may use a dirty bomb?What did Putin demand in December to avoid war?
Tonight, our guest Scott Ritter returns to Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss a host of themes connected to US foreign policy and the Ukraine-Russia NATO conflict. William Scott Ritter a former US Marine Corps intelligence who served with the UN implementing arms control treaties and with General Norman Schwarzkopf in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. Ritter oversaw the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), as a United Nations weapons inspector, from 1991 to 1998. He famously warned Congress and anyone who paid attention that there was no WMD. This life experience led him to later became a critic of United States foreign policy and challenge many of its public claims including those in Ukraine. Among the issues Ritter weighs in on are connected to the following questions.Did you know that the US illegally occupies Syria and that from the theft, led by the US of Syria’s oil, gas and other minerals, as well as wheat since 2011 it is estimated that Syria has lost $19.8 billion and that the cost of the bombing by the Air Force of the Western coalition has cost Syria another $2.9 billion?Did you know that the US enabled corruption led to a near complete theft of Russian state assets under Boris Yeltsin which plummeted the living standards of the majority population of the Russians in the 1990s and that since Putin took office those living conditions have consistently and significantly improved?Is it possible the source of the hate of the west against Putin is because he has rebuilt Russia in the image that benefits Russia not the American empire and that is why we are so dead set against the guy?Did you know that Ukraine and the US had dozens of biolabs and custody of biological toxins within Ukraine since taking over former soviet facilities in 2005 but have not destroyed the toxins in apparent violation of the Biological Toxin Weapons Convention- which the US is a signatory of?Ritter ends the show with a military update on what to expect this winter in the Ukraine-Russia-NATO War.
Tonight, our guest Scott Ritter returns to Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss a host of themes connected to US foreign policy and the Ukraine-Russia NATO conflict. William Scott Ritter a former US Marine Corps intelligence who served with the UN implementing arms control treaties and with General Norman Schwarzkopf in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. Ritter oversaw the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), as a United Nations weapons inspector, from 1991 to 1998. He famously warned Congress and anyone who paid attention that there was no WMD. This life experience led him to later became a critic of United States foreign policy and challenge many of its public claims including those in Ukraine. Among the issues Ritter weighs in on are connected to the following questions.Did you know that the US illegally occupies Syria and that from the theft, led by the US of Syria’s oil, gas and other minerals, as well as wheat since 2011 it is estimated that Syria has lost $19.8 billion and that the cost of the bombing by the Air Force of the Western coalition has cost Syria another $2.9 billion?Did you know that the US enabled corruption led to a near complete theft of Russian state assets under Boris Yeltsin which plummeted the living standards of the majority population of the Russians in the 1990s and that since Putin took office those living conditions have consistently and significantly improved?Is it possible the source of the hate of the west against Putin is because he has rebuilt Russia in the image that benefits Russia not the American empire and that is why we are so dead set against the guy?Did you know that Ukraine and the US had dozens of biolabs and custody of biological toxins within Ukraine since taking over former soviet facilities in 2005 but have not destroyed the toxins in apparent violation of the Biological Toxin Weapons Convention- which the US is a signatory of?Ritter ends the show with a military update on what to expect this winter in the Ukraine-Russia-NATO War.
Decoupling False ‘Russiagate’ Assumptions from New Russia Demonizing Themes (12/12/22) (Part 2/2) by Bringing Light Into Darkness - News & Analysis
Decoupling False ‘Russiagate’ Assumptions from New Russia Demonizing themes Connected to the Ukraine with Ray McGovern CIA veteran Ray McGovern returns to Bringing Light Into Darkness. In the Sixties Ray served as an infantry/intelligence officer and then became a CIA analyst for the next 27years, which included a focus on US-Russian foreign policy. He is on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) and works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Savior in inner-city Washington. His background reflects a moral authority of sorts on US-Russian foreign policy that is worthy of close scrutiny, particularly in a time in which we are so routinely mislead and confused from the truth on such issues.The Mueller Report culminated a 22-month investigation that cost some $32m and claimed to have established that the Russian government conducted “a sweeping andsystematic” interference campaign in order to elect Trump in 2016. Yet as Aaron Mate details in his 7/23/2019 article in the Nation wrote, the contents of hisreport did not support that allegation. So why did the majority of the public come to believe it? McGovern details the main false pillar of deceit and the depth of dishonesty that created this false image through simply allegations (and indictments) that wentwholly unproven. In other words through smoke and mirrors, this false certainty was created that obfuscated the truth for so many of the US public. In fact, as Mate points out among other things in his stinging critique of the Mueller report, the Mueller investigation resulted in zero indictments for anyone on the Trump campaign for collusion with Russia, or even for anything related to the 2016 election.The main 'false pillar' McGovern details was the false premise that Crowdstrike, had proof that Russia had hacked the DNC, yet instead, under oath the Crowdstrike technical director admitted he had no such proof, an admission that has been kept from the US public by Adam Schiff and the mainstream media for the past five years. Arguably, this was the singular most important false indictment to foment the hate for Russia that our foreign policy leaders and our MSM have nurtured within the US public and reveals who we should really not trust. We also discuss the Minsk Agreement and how Merkel’s recent admission (along with Porochenko’s) reveals what a dishonest diplomatic broker the US and the West continue to be internationally.Ray further describes the false presentation of the ‘on the ground realities’ in the Russia-US-NATO-Ukraine conflict and how he believes it will unfold in the coming months. Believe what you want but we all need to keep an open mind to dissenting information that challenges our point of view and consider the insightful reflections of Ray McGovern, one who worked for the US public the last six decades on both sides US foreign policy analysis, three decades within our government and threedecades critically analyzing it from his humanist perspective.
How does this War end? Examining Propaganda Present & Past that Hide the Geopolitical underpinnings of The Ukraine WarTonight’s show questions elements of a dominant US foreign Policy narrative that we suggest are misleading the majority population here in the US. Once again, our mainstream media is failing its mandate to fully inform. It happened in Viet Nam, in Afghanistan, in Libya and Syria. It is happening in Yemen as another million Yemenese have perished since 2015 and yet again we are in the dark. Is it happening as we speak again here in the Ukraine?Tonight, we acknowledge the many alleged propaganda themes that feed and nurture our acculturated belief that demonizes Russia in the execution of its military policies in the Ukraine. Have we falsely been acculturated to believe with near complete certainty that Russia: 1) as a matter of policy Russia violates international law by using ‘civilian shields’? 2) that Russia not Ukraine was responsible for the Bucha murders of innocents; 3) that Russia not Ukraine was responsible for the public railway missile bombing at Kramatorsk that killed more than 50 Ukrainian civilians including a half dozen or more children? 4) That Russia as a matter of policy indiscriminately kills civilians? 5) That the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear plant is being bombed by Russia not Ukraine? 6) that the Kherson retreat indicates it is Ukraine not Russia that is ‘winning’ this war? 7) that according to UN officials Russia is engaging in a policy strategy of raping Ukrainian women? 8) That the profusion of Ukrainian neo Nazis are simply an empty ‘Russian talking point’? Are these claims true and what impact do they have on our collective perception of the Ukraine crisis? We address the veracity or lack therof, of all these claims that have been driven into our public consciousness by the preponderance of ‘news’ reports filtering into ourbrain without being critically verified. We examine what we argue is the real barometer of how this conflict is unfolding and that is military vs civilian deaths and of Russians vs Ukrainians in Ukraine.Investigative journalist Mike Whitney brings light into darkness surrounding the impact of the war on the EU as well as the geopolitical motivations he suggests aredriving this war and what the endgame might look like.The show ends with a tribute to my mom Bobby (Barbara) Gatos on her 92nd birthday.Please join us tonight. Don’t be Late! Your comments are welcome at pgatos00@gmail.com
How does this War end? Examining Propaganda Present & Past that Hide the Geopolitical underpinnings of The Ukraine WarTonight’s show questions elements of a dominant US foreign Policy narrative that we suggest are misleading the majority population here in the US. Once again, our mainstream media is failing its mandate to fully inform. It happened in Viet Nam, in Afghanistan, in Libya and Syria. It is happening in Yemen as another million Yemenese have perished since 2015 and yet again we are in the dark. Is it happening as we speak again here in the Ukraine?Tonight, we acknowledge the many alleged propaganda themes that feed and nurture our acculturated belief that demonizes Russia in the execution of its military policies in the Ukraine. Have we falsely been acculturated to believe with near complete certainty that Russia: 1) as a matter of policy Russia violates international law by using ‘civilian shields’? 2) that Russia not Ukraine was responsible for the Bucha murders of innocents; 3) that Russia not Ukraine was responsible for the public railway missile bombing at Kramatorsk that killed more than 50 Ukrainian civilians including a half dozen or more children? 4) That Russia as a matter of policy indiscriminately kills civilians? 5) That the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear plant is being bombed by Russia not Ukraine? 6) that the Kherson retreat indicates it is Ukraine not Russia that is ‘winning’ this war? 7) that according to UN officials Russia is engaging in a policy strategy of raping Ukrainian women? 8) That the profusion of Ukrainian neo Nazis are simply an empty ‘Russian talking point’? Are these claims true and what impact do they have on our collective perception of the Ukraine crisis? We address the veracity or lack therof, of all these claims that have been driven into our public consciousness by the preponderance of ‘news’ reports filtering into ourbrain without being critically verified. We examine what we argue is the real barometer of how this conflict is unfolding and that is military vs civilian deaths and of Russians vs Ukrainians in Ukraine.Investigative journalist Mike Whitney brings light into darkness surrounding the impact of the war on the EU as well as the geopolitical motivations he suggests aredriving this war and what the endgame might look like.The show ends with a tribute to my mom Bobby (Barbara) Gatos on her 92nd birthday.Please join us tonight. Don’t be Late! Your comments are welcome at pgatos00@gmail.com
Supporting Women & Fair Trade: ‘Free Trade’ vs ‘Fair Trade’ How the Wealth of Nations is Appropriated through ‘Free Trade’ driven Foreign Policies Tonight’s show unveils an important indictment of the historical methods of accumulation of the gross wealth of Western nations and US Foreign Policy, by pursuing and documenting: 1. What is the difference between Free Trade & Fair Trade and how does it impact majority populations of the world?2. Why is it that the majority population of countries our multinational corporations invest most heavily in, and that within which our foreign policy extends its reach and greatest power, why is the consistent outcome a significant and measurable deterioration of the quality of life for that majority? 3. The following five country profiles Bolivia, Ecuador, Haiti, Libya and Honduras provide evidence of a consistent pattern rather than aberrations of the impact of US foreign policy upon majority populations of the world. 4. We include a special deeper analysis of Honduras and the impact of the US enabled Honduran June 28, 2009 coup by economist Dr Jose Antonio Cordero from the Center of Economic Policy (CEPR) and a previous BLID show which aired shortly following the coup which analyzed the economic performance of the Honduran economy before and after the democratic election of the Zelaya government we helped to remove.Join us tonight as special guest Josefina Castillo – describes how we can support the ‘collective’ vendors of Women & Fair Trade. Josefina BA in Sociology from Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México and has a PhD in Education from the University of Arizona. Josefina has worked as a Popular Educator in Mexico and the US for over 30 years and is the former Director for 12 years of the Austin office of the American Friends Service Committee. Co-founder and current Board Chair of Austin Tan Cerca de la Frontera. She is also a board member of Women on the Border.Learn how supporting democracy means supporting Fair Trade by joining us tonight and learn about the18th annual Women and Fair Trade Festival in Austin, TX this Saturday 12/3/22 sponsored by Austin Tan Cerca de la Frontera. For more information you may go to atcf.org
Supporting Women & Fair Trade: ‘Free Trade’ vs ‘Fair Trade’ How the Wealth of Nations is Appropriated through ‘Free Trade’ driven Foreign Policies Tonight’s show unveils an important indictment of the historical methods of accumulation of the gross wealth of Western nations and US Foreign Policy, by pursuing and documenting: 1. What is the difference between Free Trade & Fair Trade and how does it impact majority populations of the world?2. Why is it that the majority population of countries our multinational corporations invest most heavily in, and that within which our foreign policy extends its reach and greatest power, why is the consistent outcome a significant and measurable deterioration of the quality of life for that majority? 3. The following five country profiles Bolivia, Ecuador, Haiti, Libya and Honduras provide evidence of a consistent pattern rather than aberrations of the impact of US foreign policy upon majority populations of the world. 4. We include a special deeper analysis of Honduras and the impact of the US enabled Honduran June 28, 2009 coup by economist Dr Jose Antonio Cordero from the Center of Economic Policy (CEPR) and a previous BLID show which aired shortly following the coup which analyzed the economic performance of the Honduran economy before and after the democratic election of the Zelaya government we helped to remove.Join us tonight as special guest Josefina Castillo – describes how we can support the ‘collective’ vendors of Women & Fair Trade. Josefina BA in Sociology from Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México and has a PhD in Education from the University of Arizona. Josefina has worked as a Popular Educator in Mexico and the US for over 30 years and is the former Director for 12 years of the Austin office of the American Friends Service Committee. Co-founder and current Board Chair of Austin Tan Cerca de la Frontera. She is also a board member of Women on the Border.Learn how supporting democracy means supporting Fair Trade by joining us tonight and learn about the18th annual Women and Fair Trade Festival in Austin, TX this Saturday 12/3/22 sponsored by Austin Tan Cerca de la Frontera. For more information you may go to atcf.org
Updates from the Front by Scott Ritter: Ukraine, a Sacrificial Lamb of US Foreign Policy, or an Unprovoked Victim of Russian Aggression? Our introduction provides data that support the concerns and claims that as a result of a US enabled 2014 coup not only did the first European government since WWIIcome to power with a cabinet full of neo-Nazi ideologues but that among the half dozen or more cabinet posts awarded to those neo-Nazis were those that included those that oversaw the Ministry of Defense, the Armed forces, law enforcement & national security. Additionally, the position of Prosecutor General of Ukraine who oversees the judicial system was awarded to a neo-Nazi. We provide evidence that suggests that the coup and repression that followed against ethnic Russians in the east and was led by far-right nationalists precipitated the separatist aspirations.Special guest Scott Ritter (former UN Iraq weapons inspector) who unveiled the deceit behind the framing of the US led Iraq invasion in 2003 deconstructs many of the misrepresentations our government & mainstream media is now promoting about the Russian-Ukraine-NATO-US crisis. Among them include is it the US, NATO and Ukraine or is it Russia or are they all in violation of International Law? From 2014 until 2022 why did Russia refuse to recognize and support a separation of Donbass from Ukraine and sought a political solution through the Minsk Agreement? How could that have changed in a manner that is not in violation of international law? Who sabotaged, undermined, and violated the Minsk Agreement that had been signed? How many Russian troops were dedicated to their Special Miliary Operation (SMO)? How many Ukrainian troops and other non-Ukrainian military forces have been dedicated to the military conflict & what was NATO involvement in Ukraine before the SMO? What are the casualty numbers on both sides, civilians & military, & what does that tell us? In a fascinating account, Ritter describes and details how Ukraine and Ukrainian Armed forces are getting decimated.When and how will the additional 300 thousand Russian troops and the additional100 thousand volunteers, a total Russian capability of a 400 thousand strike force, if they are ready as reported by the end of December or early January, how will that change the military theater? The ratios of losses indicate an unsustainable military situation for Ukraine. And it will now only get worse. Is the crime the Russian SMO or the US leading Ukrainians to slaughter, not on behalf of Ukraine’s national interests but in the interests of promoting a foreign policy that seeks to extend western hegemony and continue an unsustainable unipolar dominance over the world’s future? Wedon’t have all the answers, but this show includes important evidence that has been kept from the US public. We seek to bring light to that darkness so good, honestand courageous US public citizens who are interested in pursuing the truth no matter where it takes us, can develop a more informed position to decide what to believe and then rein our government and media as needed. Please join us tonight. Don’t be Late!
Updates from the Front by Scott Ritter: Ukraine, a Sacrificial Lamb of US Foreign Policy, or an Unprovoked Victim of Russian Aggression? Our introduction provides data that support the concerns and claims that as a result of a US enabled 2014 coup not only did the first European government since WWIIcome to power with a cabinet full of neo-Nazi ideologues but that among the half dozen or more cabinet posts awarded to those neo-Nazis were those that included those that oversaw the Ministry of Defense, the Armed forces, law enforcement & national security. Additionally, the position of Prosecutor General of Ukraine who oversees the judicial system was awarded to a neo-Nazi. We provide evidence that suggests that the coup and repression that followed against ethnic Russians in the east and was led by far-right nationalists precipitated the separatist aspirations.Special guest Scott Ritter (former UN Iraq weapons inspector) who unveiled the deceit behind the framing of the US led Iraq invasion in 2003 deconstructs many of the misrepresentations our government & mainstream media is now promoting about the Russian-Ukraine-NATO-US crisis. Among them include is it the US, NATO and Ukraine or is it Russia or are they all in violation of International Law? From 2014 until 2022 why did Russia refuse to recognize and support a separation of Donbass from Ukraine and sought a political solution through the Minsk Agreement? How could that have changed in a manner that is not in violation of international law? Who sabotaged, undermined, and violated the Minsk Agreement that had been signed? How many Russian troops were dedicated to their Special Miliary Operation (SMO)? How many Ukrainian troops and other non-Ukrainian military forces have been dedicated to the military conflict & what was NATO involvement in Ukraine before the SMO? What are the casualty numbers on both sides, civilians & military, & what does that tell us? In a fascinating account, Ritter describes and details how Ukraine and Ukrainian Armed forces are getting decimated.When and how will the additional 300 thousand Russian troops and the additional100 thousand volunteers, a total Russian capability of a 400 thousand strike force, if they are ready as reported by the end of December or early January, how will that change the military theater? The ratios of losses indicate an unsustainable military situation for Ukraine. And it will now only get worse. Is the crime the Russian SMO or the US leading Ukrainians to slaughter, not on behalf of Ukraine’s national interests but in the interests of promoting a foreign policy that seeks to extend western hegemony and continue an unsustainable unipolar dominance over the world’s future? Wedon’t have all the answers, but this show includes important evidence that has been kept from the US public. We seek to bring light to that darkness so good, honestand courageous US public citizens who are interested in pursuing the truth no matter where it takes us, can develop a more informed position to decide what to believe and then rein our government and media as needed. Please join us tonight. Don’t be Late!
Legs of the Chair that Support the Egregious Wealth Disparity that Undermines both our Democracy & Democratic Aspirations Tonight, we blend a number of instructive themes from previous Bringing Light Into Darkness investigative journalistic presentations we have presented over the years. Who benefits from War? Our discussion includes the revolving door of Generals and Pentagon officials that sit on defense contracting boards and are paid handsomely. Many of them also are hired guns if you will, considered military experts, for the major news networks who actively preached opposition to ending the US Afghanistan two-decade war and argue against negotiating a peace settlement in Ukraine as we speak while at the same time are on the payroll of those companies whose sales and the value of their stocks soar as a result of perpetuating war not seeking peace. All of this is hidden from the “news and analysis” consuming US public. Meanwhile President Biden signed into law a spending package that includes a record breaking $782B for the annual US defense budget that a small handful of the largest defense contractors disproportionately benefit from. These defense contractors are identified.According to the 'Cost of Wa'r at Brown University, Pentagon spending for the Afghan War alone has cost over $14T. Over the last two decades $2.5 billion dollars have been spent on lobbying. Meanwhile we cite the source study that estimated in 2011 waste, fraud and abuse totaled $31B- $60B. How does this serve the public interest? We also detail domestically how corporate interests, strengthened by 2010 Citizen’s United Supreme Court decision, exert enormous influence within our country, often outside public knowledge, and how a considerable amount of influence, behind the curtain if you will is exercised by corporate generated legislation, much a direct product by the corporate interest group, the 'American Legislative Exchange Council' (ALEC). We excerpt previous BLID shows one featuring Austin investigative journalist Mary Tuma, that seek to unveil how influential the corporate-state law collaboration nature and profile of ALEC has been and how by its disproportionate influence on our laws again, outside public awareness, undermine our democracy.
Legs of the Chair that Support the Egregious Wealth Disparity that Undermines both our Democracy & Democratic Aspirations Tonight, we blend a number of instructive themes from previous Bringing Light Into Darkness investigative journalistic presentations we have presented over the years. Who benefits from War? Our discussion includes the revolving door of Generals and Pentagon officials that sit on defense contracting boards and are paid handsomely. Many of them also are hired guns if you will, considered military experts, for the major news networks who actively preached opposition to ending the US Afghanistan two-decade war and argue against negotiating a peace settlement in Ukraine as we speak while at the same time are on the payroll of those companies whose sales and the value of their stocks soar as a result of perpetuating war not seeking peace. All of this is hidden from the “news and analysis” consuming US public. Meanwhile President Biden signed into law a spending package that includes a record breaking $782B for the annual US defense budget that a small handful of the largest defense contractors disproportionately benefit from. These defense contractors are identified.According to the 'Cost of Wa'r at Brown University, Pentagon spending for the Afghan War alone has cost over $14T. Over the last two decades $2.5 billion dollars have been spent on lobbying. Meanwhile we cite the source study that estimated in 2011 waste, fraud and abuse totaled $31B- $60B. How does this serve the public interest? We also detail domestically how corporate interests, strengthened by 2010 Citizen’s United Supreme Court decision, exert enormous influence within our country, often outside public knowledge, and how a considerable amount of influence, behind the curtain if you will is exercised by corporate generated legislation, much a direct product by the corporate interest group, the 'American Legislative Exchange Council' (ALEC). We excerpt previous BLID shows one featuring Austin investigative journalist Mary Tuma, that seek to unveil how influential the corporate-state law collaboration nature and profile of ALEC has been and how by its disproportionate influence on our laws again, outside public awareness, undermine our democracy.
The Brazilian Election of Lula & the Return of Regional Integration Tonight, Dr Guillaume Long joins Bringing Light Into Darkness. Guillaume is a senior policy analyst at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) who prior to joining CEPR, held several cabinet positions in the government of Ecuador, under President Rafael Correa, including Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Culture, and Minister of Knowledge and Human Talent. Most recently, he served as Ecuador’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva. Show Outline: BLID addresses and/or explicates the following:1. We document the evidence that points towards the fact US foreign policy influence, consistently puts into power and seeks to keep in power governments and policies that promote greater wealth inequality that harm the quality of life for the majority populations by stunting the 21st century economic development and independence of Latin America economies. We give detailed evidentialry examples.2. During Lula’s earlier 8yr presidency in Brazil he lifted close to 20% or 40 million Brazilians out of poverty, essentially eliminated hunger and provided access to higher education to the poor, in a country today which numbers some 215 million. This too is a government we sought to replace. Why?3. Our guest defines the historical significance and connection of the Monroe Doctrine and Roosevelt Corollary vs Simon Bolivar’s attempts to unify the south and its relevance to the 21st century and the Cold War.4. Our guest acknowledges positive outcomes of the 'pink tide' period regarding improved living conditions for majority populations but also is critical of their lack of focus on promoting diversity in their economies away from one or two main commodities centuries of colonialism and neocolonialism had shaped.5. What is “lawfare” what prompted its evolution into a US foreign policy tool and how is this new US foreign policy intervention method used to continue the US inordinate influence on the governments that come to power in the nations of the south.6. Our guest details how was it executed in Brazil & Ecuador and enabled Bolsanaro to come to power in 2018 following bogus corruption charges against Lulu and a show trial that led to his incarceration for 580 days and speculates on the US role.7. Divide & Rule counterweight was the creation of regional representations in the form of ALBA and UNASUR which was created in 2009. Our guest explains the significance of the potential relaunch of UNASUR following Lula reelection.Please join us!If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm XSiempre fieles, Pgatos 11/7/22 pgatos00@gmail.com
The Brazilian Election of Lula & the Return of Regional Integration Tonight, Dr Guillaume Long joins Bringing Light Into Darkness. Guillaume is a senior policy analyst at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) who prior to joining CEPR, held several cabinet positions in the government of Ecuador, under President Rafael Correa, including Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Culture, and Minister of Knowledge and Human Talent. Most recently, he served as Ecuador’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva. Show Outline: BLID addresses and/or explicates the following:1. We document the evidence that points towards the fact US foreign policy influence, consistently puts into power and seeks to keep in power governments and policies that promote greater wealth inequality that harm the quality of life for the majority populations by stunting the 21st century economic development and independence of Latin America economies. We give detailed evidentialry examples.2. During Lula’s earlier 8yr presidency in Brazil he lifted close to 20% or 40 million Brazilians out of poverty, essentially eliminated hunger and provided access to higher education to the poor, in a country today which numbers some 215 million. This too is a government we sought to replace. Why?3. Our guest defines the historical significance and connection of the Monroe Doctrine and Roosevelt Corollary vs Simon Bolivar’s attempts to unify the south and its relevance to the 21st century and the Cold War.4. Our guest acknowledges positive outcomes of the 'pink tide' period regarding improved living conditions for majority populations but also is critical of their lack of focus on promoting diversity in their economies away from one or two main commodities centuries of colonialism and neocolonialism had shaped.5. What is “lawfare” what prompted its evolution into a US foreign policy tool and how is this new US foreign policy intervention method used to continue the US inordinate influence on the governments that come to power in the nations of the south.6. Our guest details how was it executed in Brazil & Ecuador and enabled Bolsanaro to come to power in 2018 following bogus corruption charges against Lulu and a show trial that led to his incarceration for 580 days and speculates on the US role.7. Divide & Rule counterweight was the creation of regional representations in the form of ALBA and UNASUR which was created in 2009. Our guest explains the significance of the potential relaunch of UNASUR following Lula reelection.Please join us!If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm XSiempre fieles, Pgatos 11/7/22 pgatos00@gmail.com
Being Acculturated to Hate Russia & Why we Should Question Everything our Government & MSM tell us About Ukraine Crisis Tonight, investigative journalist and geopolitical scholar Mike Whitney joins Bringing Light Into Darkness as we examine contradictions in US government and Mainstream Media (MSM) misrepresentations in their framing of the unfolding US-NATO-Russia- Ukraine military crisis Show Outline: BLID addresses and/or explicates the following:1. We show how we are taught and acculturated to hate Russia through one sided xenophobic and at times outright arrogant presentations by US government figures and our MSM uncritical acceptance of those allegations despite the dearth of supporting evidence of those government claims. We document a series of examples. 2. We show how despite US allegations that are proven to be false continue to be believed by a US public that is victimized again and and again by US foreign policy false claims that lead to extended unjust wars and conflicts 3. We discuss how on the one hand we sabotage and undermine Ukraine - Russia Peace talks and then lie to the US public saying all choices about how to move forward in the conflict are sovereign Ukrainian choices. 4. We discuss and suggest the overall geopolitical motivations driving US foreign policy behavior and potential Russian motivations including national security concerns that go nearly completely unreported by our mainstream press.5. We detail press briefings by US government regarding claims by Turkey & the US back in late 2015 and early 2016 surrounding the shootdown of a Russian fighter plane near the Turkish border to give an example of the contempt US government figures have for those that honestly assert a desire for evidentiary proof to support their words.6. We discuss the content of recent articles published by our guest concerning the overall crisis in Ukraine and the logic used to support his assertion that this is a selfish US driven war against Russia and that our concern for Ukraine is therefore a fiction.We invite you tune in tonight to Bringing Light Into Darkness, critically study the show content and presentation and let us know what you think of its representation.If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm XSiempre fieles, Pgatos 10/31/22 pgatos00@gmail.com
Being Acculturated to Hate Russia & Why we Should Question Everything our Government & MSM tell us About Ukraine Crisis Tonight, investigative journalist and geopolitical scholar Mike Whitney joins Bringing Light Into Darkness as we examine contradictions in US government and Mainstream Media (MSM) misrepresentations in their framing of the unfolding US-NATO-Russia- Ukraine military crisis Show Outline: BLID addresses and/or explicates the following:1. We show how we are taught and acculturated to hate Russia through one sided xenophobic and at times outright arrogant presentations by US government figures and our MSM uncritical acceptance of those allegations despite the dearth of supporting evidence of those government claims. We document a series of examples. 2. We show how despite US allegations that are proven to be false continue to be believed by a US public that is victimized again and and again by US foreign policy false claims that lead to extended unjust wars and conflicts 3. We discuss how on the one hand we sabotage and undermine Ukraine - Russia Peace talks and then lie to the US public saying all choices about how to move forward in the conflict are sovereign Ukrainian choices. 4. We discuss and suggest the overall geopolitical motivations driving US foreign policy behavior and potential Russian motivations including national security concerns that go nearly completely unreported by our mainstream press.5. We detail press briefings by US government regarding claims by Turkey & the US back in late 2015 and early 2016 surrounding the shootdown of a Russian fighter plane near the Turkish border to give an example of the contempt US government figures have for those that honestly assert a desire for evidentiary proof to support their words.6. We discuss the content of recent articles published by our guest concerning the overall crisis in Ukraine and the logic used to support his assertion that this is a selfish US driven war against Russia and that our concern for Ukraine is therefore a fiction.We invite you tune in tonight to Bringing Light Into Darkness, critically study the show content and presentation and let us know what you think of its representation.If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm XSiempre fieles, Pgatos 10/31/22 pgatos00@gmail.com
Gaming our Healthcare System by Ripping Off the US Public Tonight, our guest Dr James G. Kahn, emeritus professor of health policy, University of California San Francisco & leading researcher in the cost and effectiveness of health intervention programs, and in US health care financing reform joins Show Outline: our guest addresses and/or explicates the following:1. Medicare, a medical insurance program for people over 65 and younger disabled people and those on dialysis and Medicaid, the government assistance program for low income patients' medical expenses are billed by providers. Rates are based on diagnosis by providers. If providers are not properly supervised they can upcode diagnoses and charge the government for unneeded and/or unprovided services. The result is a fraudulent one in which the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) which funds Medicare & Medicaid and also has the functional authority to monitor the amounts paid from an insurer to a provider has not been doing its job of protecting US taxpayers from profiteering and fraudulent charges resulting in the lining the pockets of insurance companies and providers. 2. According to our guest , as a result he estimates that we are spending in excess of $25B a year in extra payments because CMS has failed to adjust for this overcoding And this money will increase to about $600B over the next ten years in overpayments if CMS is not reformed. Our guest details how because of our incredibly complicated and inefficient system another 600B per year is overpaid to providers and insurance companies 3. The result is an enormous wealth transfer from the public sector, namely our taxpaying dollars, to the wealthy. We have the most egregious levels of wealth inequality of advanced nations to begin with and this is a just another 'legal' mechanism built into a system that defrauds the majority population on behalf of the one tenth of one percent.4. We spend 2x as much than other wealthy nations on our healthcare system yet we are do much worse than our peer countries by every possible metric particularly 'process measures' including: 1) access to care; 2)How likely people are to have a doctor; 3) How quickly can people be seen when they get sick; 4) The rates of people in the US in postponing or skipping medications or healthcare because of financial barriers. As a result of a broken health system that allows profiteering to the health deficits of the majority population our guest [points out that US life expectancy compared to other advanced nations is shameful and has has dropped some 3yrs in the past two years . Our guest was a co author of a 2022 study that found if we had a single payer healthcare sstem like our peer countries we could have saved some 338,000 US lives from Covid alone. Tonight he details how Medicare Advantage is a rip off from US taxpayers.If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm XSiempre fieles, Pgatos 10/24/22 pgatos00@gmail.com
Gaming our Healthcare System by Ripping Off the US Public Tonight, our guest Dr James G. Kahn, emeritus professor of health policy, University of California San Francisco & leading researcher in the cost and effectiveness of health intervention programs, and in US health care financing reform joins Show Outline: our guest addresses and/or explicates the following:1. Medicare, a medical insurance program for people over 65 and younger disabled people and those on dialysis and Medicaid, the government assistance program for low income patients' medical expenses are billed by providers. Rates are based on diagnosis by providers. If providers are not properly supervised they can upcode diagnoses and charge the government for unneeded and/or unprovided services. The result is a fraudulent one in which the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) which funds Medicare & Medicaid and also has the functional authority to monitor the amounts paid from an insurer to a provider has not been doing its job of protecting US taxpayers from profiteering and fraudulent charges resulting in the lining the pockets of insurance companies and providers. 2. According to our guest , as a result he estimates that we are spending in excess of $25B a year in extra payments because CMS has failed to adjust for this overcoding And this money will increase to about $600B over the next ten years in overpayments if CMS is not reformed. Our guest details how because of our incredibly complicated and inefficient system another 600B per year is overpaid to providers and insurance companies 3. The result is an enormous wealth transfer from the public sector, namely our taxpaying dollars, to the wealthy. We have the most egregious levels of wealth inequality of advanced nations to begin with and this is a just another 'legal' mechanism built into a system that defrauds the majority population on behalf of the one tenth of one percent.4. We spend 2x as much than other wealthy nations on our healthcare system yet we are do much worse than our peer countries by every possible metric particularly 'process measures' including: 1) access to care; 2)How likely people are to have a doctor; 3) How quickly can people be seen when they get sick; 4) The rates of people in the US in postponing or skipping medications or healthcare because of financial barriers. As a result of a broken health system that allows profiteering to the health deficits of the majority population our guest [points out that US life expectancy compared to other advanced nations is shameful and has has dropped some 3yrs in the past two years . Our guest was a co author of a 2022 study that found if we had a single payer healthcare sstem like our peer countries we could have saved some 338,000 US lives from Covid alone. Tonight he details how Medicare Advantage is a rip off from US taxpayers.If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm XSiempre fieles, Pgatos 10/24/22 pgatos00@gmail.com
Bringing Light & Lifting the Fog of US Propaganda with Scott RitterTonight, our guest Scott Ritter returns to Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss a host of connected themes regarding historical context and unfolding conditions in the US led Ukraine-Russia NATO conflict. William Scott Ritter a former US Marine Corps intelligence who served with the UN implementing arms control treaties and with General Norman Schwarzkopf in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. Ritter oversaw the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), as a United Nations weapons inspector, from 1991 to 1998. He famously warned Congress and anyone who paid attention that there was no WMD. This life experience led him to later became a critic of United States foreign policy and challenge many of its public claims including those in UkraineShow Outline: Following a short geopolitical contextual introduction our guest addresses and/or explicates the following:1. In addition to current nuclear war threat and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 Ritter shares the 1983 Able Archer NATO nuclear threat that followed Autumn Forge military exercises and how President Reagan addressed it with the INF Treaty of the late 1980s and the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty that followed which protected Europe2. Under Putin the living standards demonstrably improved for the majority Russian population, while previous to Putin the CIA and NATO worked to import Wahabbist Islamic fundamentalism into Chechnya with the design to create a new Afghanistan-like impact that would tear Russia apart as we sought to have other nationalities break away from Russia as well as part of a strategy to dismember Russia. In 1996 we stole an election to have our guy Boris Yeltsin elected.3. Who was provoking who? NATO multiple 2021 military exercises on Russia’s border preceding the Russian invasion and with NATO knowledge, Ukraine’s bad faith in using the 2015 Minsk agreement to buy time to build up their forces – aka“Diplomacy in NATO terms”4. And in 2015 US built permanent training facility in Ukraine following coup to train Ukraine forces to fight in the Donbass5. Nuclear doctrine of Russia and Russia clear warnings of a redline and their good faith effort to pursue diplomatic path that the US rejected. 6. NATO enhanced Opportunity to Promote Inter-operability making Ukraine’s non membership in NATO a myth as they trained Ukraine military to NATO standards7. Focus on ratio of Ukrainian vs Russian military deaths rather than loss of occupied land. Preserving the ability to fight more important than territorial gains.8. Join the pursuit of social justice! Only an informed electorate can successfully pursue our democratic mandate!If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm XSiempre fieles, Pgatos 10/17/22 pgatos00@gmail.com
Bringing Light & Lifting the Fog of US Propaganda with Scott RitterTonight, our guest Scott Ritter returns to Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss a host of connected themes regarding historical context and unfolding conditions in the US led Ukraine-Russia NATO conflict. William Scott Ritter a former US Marine Corps intelligence who served with the UN implementing arms control treaties and with General Norman Schwarzkopf in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. Ritter oversaw the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), as a United Nations weapons inspector, from 1991 to 1998. He famously warned Congress and anyone who paid attention that there was no WMD. This life experience led him to later became a critic of United States foreign policy and challenge many of its public claims including those in UkraineShow Outline: Following a short geopolitical contextual introduction our guest addresses and/or explicates the following:1. In addition to current nuclear war threat and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 Ritter shares the 1983 Able Archer NATO nuclear threat that followed Autumn Forge military exercises and how President Reagan addressed it with the INF Treaty of the late 1980s and the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty that followed which protected Europe2. Under Putin the living standards demonstrably improved for the majority Russian population, while previous to Putin the CIA and NATO worked to import Wahabbist Islamic fundamentalism into Chechnya with the design to create a new Afghanistan-like impact that would tear Russia apart as we sought to have other nationalities break away from Russia as well as part of a strategy to dismember Russia. In 1996 we stole an election to have our guy Boris Yeltsin elected.3. Who was provoking who? NATO multiple 2021 military exercises on Russia’s border preceding the Russian invasion and with NATO knowledge, Ukraine’s bad faith in using the 2015 Minsk agreement to buy time to build up their forces – aka“Diplomacy in NATO terms”4. And in 2015 US built permanent training facility in Ukraine following coup to train Ukraine forces to fight in the Donbass5. Nuclear doctrine of Russia and Russia clear warnings of a redline and their good faith effort to pursue diplomatic path that the US rejected. 6. NATO enhanced Opportunity to Promote Inter-operability making Ukraine’s non membership in NATO a myth as they trained Ukraine military to NATO standards7. Focus on ratio of Ukrainian vs Russian military deaths rather than loss of occupied land. Preserving the ability to fight more important than territorial gains.8. Join the pursuit of social justice! Only an informed electorate can successfully pursue our democratic mandate!If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm XSiempre fieles, Pgatos 10/17/22 pgatos00@gmail.com
Bringing Light & Lifting the Fog of Propaganda with Mike WhitneyTonight, our guest Mike Whitney joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss a host of connected themes regarding unfolding conditions in the US led Ukraine-Russia NATO conflict. Whitney is a renowned geopolitical and social analyst based in Washington State. He initiated his career as an independent citizen-journalist in 2002 with a commitment to honest journalism, social justice, and world peace. Show Outline, what we explicate: Who sabotaged the Peace Process? And….1. Is there an intentional misinterpretation and misrepresentation of Russia/Putin position on nuclear weapon use as claimed by Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov? 2. To get to a more honest understanding of the Russia position we examine the words of an important 9/28/22 article written by Ambassador Antonov. 3. Our main focus is around the geopolitical reality that goes unmentioned in the US mainstream media, namely the US has been precipitously losing its economic ‘unipolar’ economic world dominance over the last few years, and as a result arguably, its foreign policy is increasingly taking on more desperate means to economically attack its major economic competitors, Russia and China and other perceived adversaries to that economic dominance.4. The attack and sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines last week should be seen in this context and we examine the deleterious impact on the EU nations as well as Russia of this infrastructure terrorism as we discuss those likely responsible.5. Searching for a motive: In a world where Germany and Russia are friends and trading partners is there a need for US military bases?, Would there be a need for expensive US made weapons and missile systems? , Would there be a need for NATO? Would transactions no longer have to happen in the dollar?6. In addition to the Antalov article we review a Pepe Escobar article and its revelations that mentions attack attempt by Kiev saboteurs on 9/22/22 on Turkish Stream - pipeline from Turkey to Russia-- and 9/21 naval drones in Crimea; weeks ago there were US helicopters overflying sabotaged pipeline locations; a UK "research" loitering in those same waters since mid September; and NATO tweeting about new unmanned systems at sea on the same day; Whitney questions the curious absence of words words from US intelligence agencies or White House following the explosions despite their close surveillance of the area.Please join us tonight as our guest brings light to a number of important considrations our MSM is tially ignoring. You can request an audio copy of the show by emailing pgatos00@gmail.com to more closely study the show content. Join the pursuit of social justice! Only an informed electorate can successfully pursue our democratic mandate!If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm XSiempre fieles, Pgatos 10/3/22 pgatos00@gmail.com
Bringing Light & Lifting the Fog of Propaganda with Mike WhitneyTonight, our guest Mike Whitney joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss a host of connected themes regarding unfolding conditions in the US led Ukraine-Russia NATO conflict. Whitney is a renowned geopolitical and social analyst based in Washington State. He initiated his career as an independent citizen-journalist in 2002 with a commitment to honest journalism, social justice, and world peace. Show Outline, what we explicate: Who sabotaged the Peace Process? And….1. Is there an intentional misinterpretation and misrepresentation of Russia/Putin position on nuclear weapon use as claimed by Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov? 2. To get to a more honest understanding of the Russia position we examine the words of an important 9/28/22 article written by Ambassador Antonov. 3. Our main focus is around the geopolitical reality that goes unmentioned in the US mainstream media, namely the US has been precipitously losing its economic ‘unipolar’ economic world dominance over the last few years, and as a result arguably, its foreign policy is increasingly taking on more desperate means to economically attack its major economic competitors, Russia and China and other perceived adversaries to that economic dominance.4. The attack and sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines last week should be seen in this context and we examine the deleterious impact on the EU nations as well as Russia of this infrastructure terrorism as we discuss those likely responsible.5. Searching for a motive: In a world where Germany and Russia are friends and trading partners is there a need for US military bases?, Would there be a need for expensive US made weapons and missile systems? , Would there be a need for NATO? Would transactions no longer have to happen in the dollar?6. In addition to the Antalov article we review a Pepe Escobar article and its revelations that mentions attack attempt by Kiev saboteurs on 9/22/22 on Turkish Stream - pipeline from Turkey to Russia-- and 9/21 naval drones in Crimea; weeks ago there were US helicopters overflying sabotaged pipeline locations; a UK "research" loitering in those same waters since mid September; and NATO tweeting about new unmanned systems at sea on the same day; Whitney questions the curious absence of words words from US intelligence agencies or White House following the explosions despite their close surveillance of the area.Please join us tonight as our guest brings light to a number of important considrations our MSM is tially ignoring. You can request an audio copy of the show by emailing pgatos00@gmail.com to more closely study the show content. Join the pursuit of social justice! Only an informed electorate can successfully pursue our democratic mandate!If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm XSiempre fieles, Pgatos 10/3/22 pgatos00@gmail.com
Ukraine Referenda: Seeing through the Fog of Propaganda (9/26/22) (Part 2/2) by Bringing Light Into Darkness - News & Analysis
Ukraine Referenda: Seeing through the Fog of Propaganda: (to air 9//26/22)Tonight, our guest Dan Kovalik joins Bringing Light Into Darkness on the eve of the referenda to join Russia that are being voted on between 9/23 and 9/27/22 in the Ukraine eastern oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Dan Kovalik graduated from Columbia University School of Law in 1993 and is an American human rights, labor rights lawyer and peace activist and teaches International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Show Outline, what we explicate:1. We are told that Russia was unprovoked but invaded Ukraine. We begin the show with an historical context of information omitted or distorted in our mainstream media coverage that Russia arguably claims clearly provoked the Russian invasion, which Russia describes as a ‘special military operation’. We argue that the precipitating event was not the invasion but the February 2014 coup and provide an important timeline of subsequent events accordingly. 2. Our guest an international law expert describes the Minsk Agreement as an agreement that Ukraine agreed to abide to but refused to comply with, as a binding agreement approved by the Security Council of the UN, the governing body of the world and approved by every member including the US. He describes its provisions and how they were violated.3. Donetsk and Luhansk repeatedly asked for Russian protection from the indiscriminate shelling by the Ukrainian Army that by the eve of the 2/24/22 ‘invasion’ had taken the lives of some 14 thousand predominantly Russian speaking eastern Ukrainians. Putin repeatedly rejected the Russian statehood requests and instead pursued the Minsk treaty mandates as a political solution, a pathway, we show, the Ukrainians consistently sabotaged by their violations.4. We provide important historical context to the conditions that led to the breakaway status of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk following the coup. Our guest describes the legal environment around referenda that occurred in Crimea and our pending this week, and compares them to the circumstances around the secession of various republics from the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.5. Kovalik stresses the very right wing and anti-Russia nature of the post-coup government as not only ‘anti country of Russia’, but it was also against its own ethnic Russians. An ethnic cleansing was feared as the coup government outlawed Russian speaking in the schools and post-coup President Poroshenko said “eastern Ukrainians would spend the rest of their lives in bunkers". Repression in the east following the coup was rampant and is described.Please join us tonight or request an audio copy of the show by emailing pgatos00@gmail.com to study the show content. Join the pursuit of social justice! Only an informed electorate can successfully pursue our democratic mandate!
US Wealth Inequality is Driving US Foreign Policy& Media Bias: Ukraine from a RussianPerspective (No Guest- to air 9//19/22)Recently I came across an important 2021 article which speaks to a common theme of Bringing Light Into Darkness, namely the gross levels of wealth inequality we have in the US. According to a 2021 op-ed written by Bernie Sanders and published in the Guardian, over the past 40 years there has been a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class and working families to the very wealthiest people in America. The result in the US has been that:1. 92 million US citizens are uninsured or underinsured, 2. The top 1% now own more wealth than the bottom 92%,3. Poverty in America has become a death sentence as evidenced by low-income Americans now having a life expectancy that is about 15 years lower than thewealthy. 4. during the pandemic, over the past year ending in March 2021, 650 billionaires have seen their wealth increase by $1.3tn.Tonight, we make the connection between US Foreign Policy, Wealth Inequality and how each fuels the other. Therefore, the inescapable conclusion is that the drivingconcern that motivates US foreign policy in the Ukraine is not the welfare of Ukrainians but instead ensuring wealth inequality is maintained and replicates itself to thecontiinued benefit of an elite few and to the direct cost and misery to the majority US citizens and the majority populations of the world.Please join us tonight as the show’s main focus step’s outside our media coverage, to get the Russian perspective of the Ukraine crisis and the Russian Special Military Operation denotation, a perspective that does not make it to our media coverage. We review an 8/12/22 documentary by RT, Inside Russia’s Military Operation that shares their perspective and includes a number of critical insights and perspectives that have been censured if you will by our US MSM coverage of the unfolding events in Ukraine. If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.Malcolm XSiempre fieles,Pgatos 9/19/22 pgatos00@gmail.com
US Wealth Inequality is Driving US Foreign Policy& Media Bias: Ukraine from a RussianPerspective (No Guest- to air 9//19/22)Recently I came across an important 2021 article which speaks to a common theme of Bringing Light Into Darkness, namely the gross levels of wealth inequality we have in the US. According to a 2021 op-ed written by Bernie Sanders and published in the Guardian, over the past 40 years there has been a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class and working families to the very wealthiest people in America. The result in the US has been that:1. 92 million US citizens are uninsured or underinsured, 2. The top 1% now own more wealth than the bottom 92%,3. Poverty in America has become a death sentence as evidenced by low-income Americans now having a life expectancy that is about 15 years lower than thewealthy. 4. during the pandemic, over the past year ending in March 2021, 650 billionaires have seen their wealth increase by $1.3tn.Tonight, we make the connection between US Foreign Policy, Wealth Inequality and how each fuels the other. Therefore, the inescapable conclusion is that the drivingconcern that motivates US foreign policy in the Ukraine is not the welfare of Ukrainians but instead ensuring wealth inequality is maintained and replicates itself to thecontiinued benefit of an elite few and to the direct cost and misery to the majority US citizens and the majority populations of the world.Please join us tonight as the show’s main focus step’s outside our media coverage, to get the Russian perspective of the Ukraine crisis and the Russian Special Military Operation denotation, a perspective that does not make it to our media coverage. We review an 8/12/22 documentary by RT, Inside Russia’s Military Operation that shares their perspective and includes a number of critical insights and perspectives that have been censured if you will by our US MSM coverage of the unfolding events in Ukraine. If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.Malcolm XSiempre fieles,Pgatos 9/19/22 pgatos00@gmail.com
Debunking More Russia – Ukraine Unproven Allegations with Scott RitterScott Ritter former United Nations weapons inspector that correctly challenged the mainstream media narrative that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) well ahead of our illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003. The mainstream media (MSM) lies that took us to the Iraq War have been repeated time and time again and led us to allow our government to promote unjust wars in Libya and Syria in 2011 as well as our indispensable support to the Saudi Arabia 2015 to present holocaust in Yemen. They have also hidden the US direct responsibility for the unjust coup that in 2014 that deposed the democratically elected government of Ukraine and ignited the fuse that led to the present-day Russian invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, unsubstantiated MSM claims continue to transform themselves into hard false beliefs within the collective American psyche that have led to hatred and distrust of Russia such as the false certainties of the Russian Bounty story, and that Russia was responsibility for the 2016 ‘hacking’ of Hillary Clinton and the DNC’s emails, or just last April the horrific murders in Bucha Ukraine earlier this year were at the hands of the Russians not the Ukrainians, to name just a small number of commonly held false beliefs the American people continue to harbor. Tonight, Scott Ritter debunks other Ukraine certainty falsehoods such as that it was Russian that was responsible for the 4/9/2022 Kramatorsk civilian train station bombing in Eastern Ukraine that killed fifty civilians as well as what to believe regarding the regular missile attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and the recent visit of the International Atomic Energy Agency personnel. Ritter also provides an update on the counteroffensive in Kherson that Ukraine has claimed has been widely successful.‘Ideas are more powerful than arms.’ Democracy demands a well-informed electorate. Why do we continue to believe the news accounts from those mainstream media (MSM) sources that have been consistently wrong time after time in the past, without demanding to see the incontrovertible evidence that supports their allegations?Think for yourself and tune in to Bringing Light Into Darkness for an honest investigative weekly evidence-based news and analysis perspective. Don’t be Late!Don’t Be Late! Please join us tonight. siempre fieles, Pgatos 9/5/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
Debunking More Russia – Ukraine Unproven Allegations with Scott RitterScott Ritter former United Nations weapons inspector that correctly challenged the mainstream media narrative that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) well ahead of our illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003. The mainstream media (MSM) lies that took us to the Iraq War have been repeated time and time again and led us to allow our government to promote unjust wars in Libya and Syria in 2011 as well as our indispensable support to the Saudi Arabia 2015 to present holocaust in Yemen. They have also hidden the US direct responsibility for the unjust coup that in 2014 that deposed the democratically elected government of Ukraine and ignited the fuse that led to the present-day Russian invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, unsubstantiated MSM claims continue to transform themselves into hard false beliefs within the collective American psyche that have led to hatred and distrust of Russia such as the false certainties of the Russian Bounty story, and that Russia was responsibility for the 2016 ‘hacking’ of Hillary Clinton and the DNC’s emails, or just last April the horrific murders in Bucha Ukraine earlier this year were at the hands of the Russians not the Ukrainians, to name just a small number of commonly held false beliefs the American people continue to harbor. Tonight, Scott Ritter debunks other Ukraine certainty falsehoods such as that it was Russian that was responsible for the 4/9/2022 Kramatorsk civilian train station bombing in Eastern Ukraine that killed fifty civilians as well as what to believe regarding the regular missile attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and the recent visit of the International Atomic Energy Agency personnel. Ritter also provides an update on the counteroffensive in Kherson that Ukraine has claimed has been widely successful.‘Ideas are more powerful than arms.’ Democracy demands a well-informed electorate. Why do we continue to believe the news accounts from those mainstream media (MSM) sources that have been consistently wrong time after time in the past, without demanding to see the incontrovertible evidence that supports their allegations?Think for yourself and tune in to Bringing Light Into Darkness for an honest investigative weekly evidence-based news and analysis perspective. Don’t be Late!Don’t Be Late! Please join us tonight. siempre fieles, Pgatos 9/5/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
Women in Afghanistan One-Year After the US Military Withdrawal & the US led Economic War that ContinuesAccording to the Costs of War website, between September 2021, and the 2001 US initiation of military actions, about 243,000 have been killed in the Afghanistan/Pakistan warzone with more than 70,000 Afghan and Pakistani civilians are estimated to have died as a direct result of the war. AFollowing this twenty-year war, the U.S. imposed sanctions after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan last August (2021).In early February, 2022 President Joe Biden's administration moved to block $7 billion in frozen assets that Afghanistan's central bank held in New York on top of the $2B European leaders have also frozen. Additional sanctions were levied by the US following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan a year ago this month following the US military withdrawal. As a result, Afghanistan economy faces a total collapse.The Secretary General of the UN Antonio Guterres describes the situation this way. “Some 95% of (Afghanistan) people do not have enough to eat, and 9 million people are at risk of famine. UNICEF estimates that a million severely malnourished children are on the verge of death, without immediate action.” This in a country of just 40 million people. What can we do to take responsibility for what we have largely created?Tonight our special guests Masuda Sultan, an Afghan-American women’s rights activist and author who has been working for over 20 years in support of Afghanistan women and girls in education, vocational training and protection from violence, and Dr Mark Weisbrot, phd in economics and Co-Director of the Center for Economic Policy research in Washington DC, bring Light Into Darkness around the reality facing Afghanistan. Please join us as they describe the conditions in Afghanistan, particularly for women, past and present, the US/West role in affecting those conditions and what we can do to address the problems our foreign policy over the last few decades is largely responsible for creating.Don’t Be Late! Please join us tonight. siempre fieles, Pgatos 8/29/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
Women in Afghanistan One-Year After the US Military Withdrawal & the US led Economic War that ContinuesAccording to the Costs of War website, between September 2021, and the 2001 US initiation of military actions, about 243,000 have been killed in the Afghanistan/Pakistan warzone with more than 70,000 Afghan and Pakistani civilians are estimated to have died as a direct result of the war. AFollowing this twenty-year war, the U.S. imposed sanctions after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan last August (2021).In early February, 2022 President Joe Biden's administration moved to block $7 billion in frozen assets that Afghanistan's central bank held in New York on top of the $2B European leaders have also frozen. Additional sanctions were levied by the US following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan a year ago this month following the US military withdrawal. As a result, Afghanistan economy faces a total collapse.The Secretary General of the UN Antonio Guterres describes the situation this way. “Some 95% of (Afghanistan) people do not have enough to eat, and 9 million people are at risk of famine. UNICEF estimates that a million severely malnourished children are on the verge of death, without immediate action.” This in a country of just 40 million people. What can we do to take responsibility for what we have largely created?Tonight our special guests Masuda Sultan, an Afghan-American women’s rights activist and author who has been working for over 20 years in support of Afghanistan women and girls in education, vocational training and protection from violence, and Dr Mark Weisbrot, phd in economics and Co-Director of the Center for Economic Policy research in Washington DC, bring Light Into Darkness around the reality facing Afghanistan. Please join us as they describe the conditions in Afghanistan, particularly for women, past and present, the US/West role in affecting those conditions and what we can do to address the problems our foreign policy over the last few decades is largely responsible for creating.Don’t Be Late! Please join us tonight. siempre fieles, Pgatos 8/29/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
Julian Assange: If WikiLeaks had Revealed the War Horrors of a US Adversary Would Assange be a Hero and Not a Criminal?Julian Assange Australian born editor, publisher, and activist founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published, along with its mainstream media partners, a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning and they were picked up by news outlets around the world.Prosecutors allege that Assange unlawfully helped former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to steal thousands of classified diplomatic cables and military files, which were published by WikiLeaks in 2010. Assange appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court in June 2012, he took refuge in Ecuador's London embassy, where he remained for seven years until the country revoked his asylum status. Following his removal from the embassy in 2019, Assange he has since been held at a high-security prison in Belmarsh, southeast of London, In 2019 was in that year that U.S. Department of Justice requested his extradition, which had until recently been blocked by the courts.The US media presentation of the Assange case has been prejudicial. Wikileaks revealed civilian deaths, acts of torture and clandestine military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the release of thousands of documents. It also released diplomatic cables that reveal truths about our real foreign policy motives that are in stark contradiction to what the American people are told.Tonight our guest Kevin Gosztola addresses a host of such concerns. Kevin is managing editor for Shadowproof and curates the subscription newsletter, “The Dissenter" (https://thedissenter.org), which covers whistleblowers and the latest in WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's case helps us understand the full ramifications of Julian Assange case and its impact on freedom of the press. Kevin is author of the forthcoming book Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case Against Julian Assange, which will be released in February 2023.Don’t Be Late! Please join us tonight. siempre fieles, Pgatos 8/22/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
Julian Assange: If WikiLeaks had Revealed the War Horrors of a US Adversary Would Assange be a Hero and Not a Criminal?Julian Assange Australian born editor, publisher, and activist founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published, along with its mainstream media partners, a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning and they were picked up by news outlets around the world.Prosecutors allege that Assange unlawfully helped former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to steal thousands of classified diplomatic cables and military files, which were published by WikiLeaks in 2010. Assange appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court in June 2012, he took refuge in Ecuador's London embassy, where he remained for seven years until the country revoked his asylum status. Following his removal from the embassy in 2019, Assange he has since been held at a high-security prison in Belmarsh, southeast of London, In 2019 was in that year that U.S. Department of Justice requested his extradition, which had until recently been blocked by the courts.The US media presentation of the Assange case has been prejudicial. Wikileaks revealed civilian deaths, acts of torture and clandestine military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the release of thousands of documents. It also released diplomatic cables that reveal truths about our real foreign policy motives that are in stark contradiction to what the American people are told.Tonight our guest Kevin Gosztola addresses a host of such concerns. Kevin is managing editor for Shadowproof and curates the subscription newsletter, “The Dissenter" (https://thedissenter.org), which covers whistleblowers and the latest in WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's case helps us understand the full ramifications of Julian Assange case and its impact on freedom of the press. Kevin is author of the forthcoming book Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case Against Julian Assange, which will be released in February 2023.Don’t Be Late! Please join us tonight. siempre fieles, Pgatos 8/22/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
Why Should we Believe the Dominant Narratives of the Russian – Ukraine Military Conflict? (with special guest Scott Ritter)Trying to get at the truth of unfolding events in world news such as Ukraine, is like eating at a buffet. Every position is presented with equal gusto regardless of the fact that all versions cannot possibly be true because so many directly contradict each other. Remember the Russian Bounty story? campaigning for President Joe Biden treated as fact that the US intelligence agencies determined that Russia had paid the Taliban bounties to kill Americans in Afghanistan. Here on Bringing Light Into Darkness we questioned the claim even though it was repeated ad nauseum by the Mainstream Media (MSM) and became a false "fact" accordingly. Yet at the same time, while Biden was a candidate, Pentagon officials would not substantiate that such payments were made. In other words, what most Americans were taught to believe, and did believe, namely that these evil Russians were up to no good once again was unsubstantiated slander. In August 2013, just a few years earlier, John Kerry lied to the American public, claiming with absolute certainty that President Assad of Syria was responsible for the 8/21/2013 sarin gas attack in which he killed hundreds of his own people. BLID pointed out the absence of evidence to support the certainty Kerry was presenting and that therefore denied certainty. We went to war in Iraq, 10 years earlier based on lies that were uncritically accepted and perpetuated by our MSM and that the majority population of our country continued to believe years later. 'Saddam Hussein had WMD'; 'Saddam was harboring al Qaeda'; 'Saddam was responsible for 9-11'; all lies. There are so many other similar examples such as in Viet Nam, and Afghanistan. We bring this up to share that the same misrepresentation and confusion around the truth of the US-NATO vs Russia roles in the Ukraine dominates our news coverage today since and before the February 2022 Russian invasion. Tonight Scott Ritter, former weapons inspector that correctly warned us of the false nature of the (Iraqi) WMDs, returns to BLID to address many of the dominant narratives that have led us astray rather than towards the truth of the unfolding events in the Ukraine that due to our MSM one-sided coverage are difficult to decipher." What are the real ballpark casualty numbers of combatants vs civilians in Ukraine? What is the military situation on the ground and who poses the greatest war criminality threat to the civilian population? What percentage of our military equipment reach Ukrainian forces? What is nature and role of the Wagner Group in the conflict? What are the changing military objectives of Russia in response to sophisticated military equipment being provided by NATO? siempre fieles, Pgatos 8/15/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
Why Should we Believe the Dominant Narratives of the Russian – Ukraine Military Conflict? (with special guest Scott Ritter)Trying to get at the truth of unfolding events in world news such as Ukraine, is like eating at a buffet. Every position is presented with equal gusto regardless of the fact that all versions cannot possibly be true because so many directly contradict each other. Remember the Russian Bounty story? campaigning for President Joe Biden treated as fact that the US intelligence agencies determined that Russia had paid the Taliban bounties to kill Americans in Afghanistan. Here on Bringing Light Into Darkness we questioned the claim even though it was repeated ad nauseum by the Mainstream Media (MSM) and became a false "fact" accordingly. Yet at the same time, while Biden was a candidate, Pentagon officials would not substantiate that such payments were made. In other words, what most Americans were taught to believe, and did believe, namely that these evil Russians were up to no good once again was unsubstantiated slander. In August 2013, just a few years earlier, John Kerry lied to the American public, claiming with absolute certainty that President Assad of Syria was responsible for the 8/21/2013 sarin gas attack in which he killed hundreds of his own people. BLID pointed out the absence of evidence to support the certainty Kerry was presenting and that therefore denied certainty. We went to war in Iraq, 10 years earlier based on lies that were uncritically accepted and perpetuated by our MSM and that the majority population of our country continued to believe years later. 'Saddam Hussein had WMD'; 'Saddam was harboring al Qaeda'; 'Saddam was responsible for 9-11'; all lies. There are so many other similar examples such as in Viet Nam, and Afghanistan. We bring this up to share that the same misrepresentation and confusion around the truth of the US-NATO vs Russia roles in the Ukraine dominates our news coverage today since and before the February 2022 Russian invasion. Tonight Scott Ritter, former weapons inspector that correctly warned us of the false nature of the (Iraqi) WMDs, returns to BLID to address many of the dominant narratives that have led us astray rather than towards the truth of the unfolding events in the Ukraine that due to our MSM one-sided coverage are difficult to decipher." What are the real ballpark casualty numbers of combatants vs civilians in Ukraine? What is the military situation on the ground and who poses the greatest war criminality threat to the civilian population? What percentage of our military equipment reach Ukrainian forces? What is nature and role of the Wagner Group in the conflict? What are the changing military objectives of Russia in response to sophisticated military equipment being provided by NATO? siempre fieles, Pgatos 8/15/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
Was the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal an Honest Diplomatic Effort or a Diplomatic Ploy? Tonight's show explores when is foreign policy diplomacy not diplomacy and further explores if diplomacy can instead be a disingenuous attempt pointed more at seeking to deceive the US public into believing we are making a good faith diplomatic effort when in fact we are not but instead are seeking to appear diplomatic while deceitfully setting up a diplomatic trap in which agreement compliance by the country (Iran) is not possible? The US sanctions close to 1/3 of the world’s population. Before we can get public support to sanction, before we can engage in the affairs of another nation by promoting civil strife or outright military support or a miltary attack, we must convince the average US citizen that our actions are just, that the country whose sovereignty we are compromising, has violated the "rules based international order" . Tonight we will visit US sanctions against Iran over the last few decades or so and we will let you judge if our foreign policy motives have been driven by democratic interests or by something else. Joining us as our guest is Dr Muhammad Sahimi, nuclear engineering expert, professor inChemical Engineering at USC and US-Iranian relations expert, who is an Iranian born US citizen of the past 40 years and shares with us the historical context of US Iranian relations since the 1953 coup.Dr Sahimi analysis includes and overview of the JCPOA, signed by the United States and Iran along with other participating nations (the UK, EU, Germany, Russia, China, and France) in 2015 and formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement offered Tehran billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for agreeing to curb its nuclear program.Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 8/8/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
Was the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal an Honest Diplomatic Effort or a Diplomatic Ploy? Tonight's show explores when is foreign policy diplomacy not diplomacy and further explores if diplomacy can instead be a disingenuous attempt pointed more at seeking to deceive the US public into believing we are making a good faith diplomatic effort when in fact we are not but instead are seeking to appear diplomatic while deceitfully setting up a diplomatic trap in which agreement compliance by the country (Iran) is not possible? The US sanctions close to 1/3 of the world’s population. Before we can get public support to sanction, before we can engage in the affairs of another nation by promoting civil strife or outright military support or a miltary attack, we must convince the average US citizen that our actions are just, that the country whose sovereignty we are compromising, has violated the "rules based international order" . Tonight we will visit US sanctions against Iran over the last few decades or so and we will let you judge if our foreign policy motives have been driven by democratic interests or by something else. Joining us as our guest is Dr Muhammad Sahimi, nuclear engineering expert, professor inChemical Engineering at USC and US-Iranian relations expert, who is an Iranian born US citizen of the past 40 years and shares with us the historical context of US Iranian relations since the 1953 coup.Dr Sahimi analysis includes and overview of the JCPOA, signed by the United States and Iran along with other participating nations (the UK, EU, Germany, Russia, China, and France) in 2015 and formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement offered Tehran billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for agreeing to curb its nuclear program.Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 8/8/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
Cuba: Revolutionary Principles & Behavioral Deeds as a Democratic Barometer On the 69th anniversary of the failed military takeover of the Moncada Military Barracks in the eastern Cuban province of Santiago de Cuba by Fidel Castro and his 26 de Julio revolutionaries, and as we approach Fidel Castro’s 96th birthday, Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) invites listeners to humbly reconsider the pejorative presentation of the Cuban Revolution that our culture has promoted deep into our psyche from a different perspective. A perspective seeped not in words of political prejudice but one measured in revolutionary principles of honesty and integrity. Is there a record of promises made by the Cuban Revolution? Is there a record of whether such promises were kept? What does examples of revolutionary principles look like and what examples of such principles empirically reflect or contradict such a behavioral integrity?How did Fidel define the Revolution and its intentions? Based on more than a half dozen visits to Cuba and personal visits and interviews with government and medical Cuban leaders and workers Pedro Gatos shares and invites you to consider a different way of looking at the Cuban model and US foreign policy toward it, before rushing to judgment.Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 8/1/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
Cuba: Revolutionary Principles & Behavioral Deeds as a Democratic Barometer On the 69th anniversary of the failed military takeover of the Moncada Military Barracks in the eastern Cuban province of Santiago de Cuba by Fidel Castro and his 26 de Julio revolutionaries, and as we approach Fidel Castro’s 96th birthday, Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) invites listeners to humbly reconsider the pejorative presentation of the Cuban Revolution that our culture has promoted deep into our psyche from a different perspective. A perspective seeped not in words of political prejudice but one measured in revolutionary principles of honesty and integrity. Is there a record of promises made by the Cuban Revolution? Is there a record of whether such promises were kept? What does examples of revolutionary principles look like and what examples of such principles empirically reflect or contradict such a behavioral integrity?How did Fidel define the Revolution and its intentions? Based on more than a half dozen visits to Cuba and personal visits and interviews with government and medical Cuban leaders and workers Pedro Gatos shares and invites you to consider a different way of looking at the Cuban model and US foreign policy toward it, before rushing to judgment.Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 8/1/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
Col. Richard Black: Syrian US Foreign Policy Lies & Betrayal of 9-11 Families Pt IIThe lies and misrepresentations of our media abandoning journalistic responsibility of our democracy continues to create US public ignorance and was indispensable to pave the way for the additional unjust US intervention policies our guest continues to share regarding US Syrian foreign policy since 2011, and before. Tonight, in Part II, Colonel Richard Black the former VA lawmaker, Vietnam veteran and legal expert who twice visited Syria and Assad in April 2016 and Sept of 2018, continues to explain why he is "appalled at the indecency of US aggression towards Syria" and provides evidentiary observations from his unique Pentagon Intelligence experience.The legitimacy and the US media blackout of the electoral and constitutional legitimacy of Syrian civil society is revealed. Why has there never been a popular opposition candidate to Assad yet Assad is so popular according to all polling data since 2012? Why is all the news made for US public from “Syrians” outside of Syria? The lawless and illegal occupation of Northeastern Syria by US forces; the successful resistance of Syrian government forces against the military leverage representing 2/3 of the world’s military power; the intentional infliction of hunger and poverty upon Syria and the impact of the US 2019 Caesar Sanctions; Assad gassed his own people in 2013; that ‘Assad started the Syrian conflict’ in 2011 by suppressing demonstrations; the impact the 2015 Russian military air war intervention vs the US air war that began a year earlier played in seeking to neutralize al Qaeda forces; and a detailed account of how US and NATO powers funneled thousands of terrorists from all over the world to fight Assad are all addressed in Part I of II by our guest who challenges common deceits generated by a mainstream press in the service of wealth and power rather right vs wrong.
Col. Richard Black: Syrian US Foreign Policy Lies & Betrayal of 9-11 Families Pt IIThe lies and misrepresentations of our media abandoning journalistic responsibility of our democracy continues to create US public ignorance and was indispensable to pave the way for the additional unjust US intervention policies our guest continues to share regarding US Syrian foreign policy since 2011, and before. Tonight, in Part II, Colonel Richard Black the former VA lawmaker, Vietnam veteran and legal expert who twice visited Syria and Assad in April 2016 and Sept of 2018, continues to explain why he is "appalled at the indecency of US aggression towards Syria" and provides evidentiary observations from his unique Pentagon Intelligence experience.The legitimacy and the US media blackout of the electoral and constitutional legitimacy of Syrian civil society is revealed. Why has there never been a popular opposition candidate to Assad yet Assad is so popular according to all polling data since 2012? Why is all the news made for US public from “Syrians” outside of Syria? The lawless and illegal occupation of Northeastern Syria by US forces; the successful resistance of Syrian government forces against the military leverage representing 2/3 of the world’s military power; the intentional infliction of hunger and poverty upon Syria and the impact of the US 2019 Caesar Sanctions; Assad gassed his own people in 2013; that ‘Assad started the Syrian conflict’ in 2011 by suppressing demonstrations; the impact the 2015 Russian military air war intervention vs the US air war that began a year earlier played in seeking to neutralize al Qaeda forces; and a detailed account of how US and NATO powers funneled thousands of terrorists from all over the world to fight Assad are all addressed in Part I of II by our guest who challenges common deceits generated by a mainstream press in the service of wealth and power rather right vs wrong.
Col. Richard Black on Syrian US Foreign Policy Lies & Betrayal of 9-11 Families The lies and misrepresentations that led us to unjust sanctions and war in Iraq are relatively well known despite the fact they are largely forgotten. They are largely forgotten because of our media complicity in the failure to keep those important lessons in our rearview window. This failure of journalistic responsibility helped pave the way for the additional unjust US intervention policies regarding Libya and Syria in 2011, that just like in the lead up to the criminal 2003 Iraq invasion, the media, through omission and misrepresentations, once again acted as an invaluable co-conspirator, allowing the repeat of criminal US foreign policy outcomes resulting in the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians while displacing and impoverishing countless millions more. all as an outcome of illegally seeking to overthrow the legitimate governments of both nations.Tonight, Colonel Richard Black the former conservative VA lawmaker, Vietnam veteran and legal expert who twice visited Syria and Assad in April 2016 and Sept of 2018, and one of the most credible voices of the counter dominant narrative regarding US foreign policy in Libya and Syria explains why he is "appalled at the indecency of US aggression towards Syria" and provides evidentiary observations from his unique Pentagon Intelligence experience that clearly implicates the US as being indispensable to helping and empowering terrorist organizations in Syria, rather than prioritizing the elimination of those responsible for 9-11. That Assad gassed his own people in 2013; that ‘Assad started the Syrian conflict’ in 2011 by suppressing demonstrations; the impact the 2015 Russian military air war intervention vs the US air war that began a year earlier played in seeking to neutralize al Qaeda forces; and a detailed account of how US and NATO powers funneled thousands of terrorists from all over the world to fight Assad are all addressed in Part I of II by our guest who challenges common deceits generated by a mainstream press in the service of wealth and power rather right vs wrong.
Col. Richard Black on Syrian US Foreign Policy Lies & Betrayal of 9-11 Families The lies and misrepresentations that led us to unjust sanctions and war in Iraq are relatively well known despite the fact they are largely forgotten. They are largely forgotten because of our media complicity in the failure to keep those important lessons in our rearview window. This failure of journalistic responsibility helped pave the way for the additional unjust US intervention policies regarding Libya and Syria in 2011, that just like in the lead up to the criminal 2003 Iraq invasion, the media, through omission and misrepresentations, once again acted as an invaluable co-conspirator, allowing the repeat of criminal US foreign policy outcomes resulting in the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians while displacing and impoverishing countless millions more. all as an outcome of illegally seeking to overthrow the legitimate governments of both nations.Tonight, Colonel Richard Black the former conservative VA lawmaker, Vietnam veteran and legal expert who twice visited Syria and Assad in April 2016 and Sept of 2018, and one of the most credible voices of the counter dominant narrative regarding US foreign policy in Libya and Syria explains why he is "appalled at the indecency of US aggression towards Syria" and provides evidentiary observations from his unique Pentagon Intelligence experience that clearly implicates the US as being indispensable to helping and empowering terrorist organizations in Syria, rather than prioritizing the elimination of those responsible for 9-11. That Assad gassed his own people in 2013; that ‘Assad started the Syrian conflict’ in 2011 by suppressing demonstrations; the impact the 2015 Russian military air war intervention vs the US air war that began a year earlier played in seeking to neutralize al Qaeda forces; and a detailed account of how US and NATO powers funneled thousands of terrorists from all over the world to fight Assad are all addressed in Part I of II by our guest who challenges common deceits generated by a mainstream press in the service of wealth and power rather right vs wrong.
Wealth Inequality & 335,000 Preventable US Covid Related Deaths Caused by our Market Driven Healthcare System (REPLAY from 7/4/22)Tonight, we replay our show from last week that did not broadcast correctly last week due to technical difficulties. The show focus is on how and why our healthcare system, a system that was unmasked by its response to the Covid 19 pandemic, demonstrated an inability, related to other affluent countries, to reasonably protect our US population from the hard edge of the corona virus pandemic.Joining Bringing Light Into Darkness tonight is Dr James G. Kahn, emeritus professor of health policy, University of California San Francisco. Leading researcher in the cost and effectiveness of health intervention programs, and in US health care financing reform. He is the Editor and primary blogger, Health Justice Monitor. A new study (June 2022) co authored by our guest, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, has found that between the beginning of the pandemic until mid-March 2022, universal health care could have saved more than 338,000 US lives from Covid-19. The study also calculated that $105.6 billion could have been saved in health care costs associated with Covid hospitalizations. The study demonstrates that a significant share of Covid mortality in the U.S. is “due to our reliance on a system of market-driven health care.” Our healthcare is underperforming in every measurable except one – profiteering- a result of a health system that prioritizes profits over people, particularly poor people. Skipping and delaying seeking healthcare for financial reasons is a feature of our system while we reveal that other developed nations pay less some 50% less yet their population lives longerMedical debt afflicts 40% of US adults in the US while 25-30 million are uninsured and our number of underinsured is growing each year. This is a problem that that can be fixed as evidenced by dozens of advanced countries that have.
Wealth Inequality & 335,000 Preventable US Covid Related Deaths Caused by our Market Driven Healthcare System (REPLAY from 7/4/22)Tonight, we replay our show from last week that did not broadcast correctly last week due to technical difficulties. The show focus is on how and why our healthcare system, a system that was unmasked by its response to the Covid 19 pandemic, demonstrated an inability, related to other affluent countries, to reasonably protect our US population from the hard edge of the corona virus pandemic.Joining Bringing Light Into Darkness tonight is Dr James G. Kahn, emeritus professor of health policy, University of California San Francisco. Leading researcher in the cost and effectiveness of health intervention programs, and in US health care financing reform. He is the Editor and primary blogger, Health Justice Monitor. A new study (June 2022) co authored by our guest, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, has found that between the beginning of the pandemic until mid-March 2022, universal health care could have saved more than 338,000 US lives from Covid-19. The study also calculated that $105.6 billion could have been saved in health care costs associated with Covid hospitalizations. The study demonstrates that a significant share of Covid mortality in the U.S. is “due to our reliance on a system of market-driven health care.” Our healthcare is underperforming in every measurable except one – profiteering- a result of a health system that prioritizes profits over people, particularly poor people. Skipping and delaying seeking healthcare for financial reasons is a feature of our system while we reveal that other developed nations pay less some 50% less yet their population lives longerMedical debt afflicts 40% of US adults in the US while 25-30 million are uninsured and our number of underinsured is growing each year. This is a problem that that can be fixed as evidenced by dozens of advanced countries that have.
Seeking a Balanced Understanding of the Unfolding Russia-Ukraine CrisisInvestigative journalist Mike Whitney joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to examine and challenge the dominant narrative of unfolding events in Ukraine-As the G-7 meets this week we will get inundated with how the world must stand up against Russian aggression and get a news presentation of unfolding events in the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the context of a complete absence of the Russian perspective. Tonight we review claims made by Putin on 6/17/22 at the 25th St Petersburg International Economic Forum in which he frames the Russian Ukraine NATO crisis within the larger geopolitical context. He argues the US continues to seek to sustain a unipolar world in which all countries are subservient to US led world economic domination in which a reckless maintenance and expansion of wealth inequality is called promoting democracy. Putin claims new centers of power have emerged, and the unipolar world is over as countries are asserting their right to pursue their own economic-social models, and other sovereign choices. The Ukraine coup and subsequent conflict is about the US led NATO attempt to crush the Russian economy with increasing sanctions, but the result has boomeranged, and it is the European countries majority populations which will face huge losses in their quality of life while their 1/10 of 1 percent political and economic elite will remain unscathed as they seek to protect their privilege.We highlight the analysis Whitney presents in his 6/15/22 article, Meet the New Boss; Putin Reoutes Critical Hydrocarbons Eastward Leaving Europe High and Dry. Our guest also provides an update on the military status of the conflict. Dr Nagy 2001 article in the Progressive providing smoking gun evidence of how we targeted Iraq water system in the 1990s’ sanctions along with 1 million dead in Yemen from similar targeting suggests we are ‘projecting’ our immoral behavior onto Russia while we accuse them of civilian targeting without providing proof.
Seeking a Balanced Understanding of the Unfolding Russia-Ukraine CrisisInvestigative journalist Mike Whitney joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to examine and challenge the dominant narrative of unfolding events in Ukraine-As the G-7 meets this week we will get inundated with how the world must stand up against Russian aggression and get a news presentation of unfolding events in the Russia-Ukraine conflict in the context of a complete absence of the Russian perspective. Tonight we review claims made by Putin on 6/17/22 at the 25th St Petersburg International Economic Forum in which he frames the Russian Ukraine NATO crisis within the larger geopolitical context. He argues the US continues to seek to sustain a unipolar world in which all countries are subservient to US led world economic domination in which a reckless maintenance and expansion of wealth inequality is called promoting democracy. Putin claims new centers of power have emerged, and the unipolar world is over as countries are asserting their right to pursue their own economic-social models, and other sovereign choices. The Ukraine coup and subsequent conflict is about the US led NATO attempt to crush the Russian economy with increasing sanctions, but the result has boomeranged, and it is the European countries majority populations which will face huge losses in their quality of life while their 1/10 of 1 percent political and economic elite will remain unscathed as they seek to protect their privilege.We highlight the analysis Whitney presents in his 6/15/22 article, Meet the New Boss; Putin Reoutes Critical Hydrocarbons Eastward Leaving Europe High and Dry. Our guest also provides an update on the military status of the conflict. Dr Nagy 2001 article in the Progressive providing smoking gun evidence of how we targeted Iraq water system in the 1990s’ sanctions along with 1 million dead in Yemen from similar targeting suggests we are ‘projecting’ our immoral behavior onto Russia while we accuse them of civilian targeting without providing proof.
Juneteenth 2022 & the End of Legalized Slavery: But what were the Horrors Therein? Gun violence alone reduces the life expectancy of Black Americans by four years. Gun homicide (mass shootings, so-called “everyday” violence, and police-involved shootings) is a universal American threat. However, Black Americans are 10 times more likely than White Americans to die from it here well into the 21st century,. Meanwhile, Black youth fare even worse. Black children and teens are 14 times more likely to die from gun homicide than their White counterparts. 2018 data suggest an over 5x higher rate of expected incarceration over their lifetime when comparing blacks to whites males and a 6x higher rate for black women born in 2001, vs white women.Lance Cooper lives is a historian and attorney and divides his time between researching about historical events, practicing law, writing fiction, and — most recently — producing a podcast focused on Texas slavey. He is a graduate of Baylor University (BA), the University of North Texas (MA), and Texas Tech University (JD). He has written a number of articles related to law and Texas history in scholarly journals. He is also the author of Let My Soul Fly, a novel for kids and adults about slavery in Texas. Also has a powerful podcast called the ‘Other Side of the Story - Slavery in Texas’. We review and play a potion of his episode exploring a difficult topic -- the physical and emotional brutality faced by enslaved Texans, including the protections white slaveholders were awarded by the Texas 1836 Constitution. Our guest details also the slave economy enforced by colonial powers throughout the hemisphere. And details what it was like to be a slave..
Juneteenth 2022 & the End of Legalized Slavery: But what were the Horrors Therein? Gun violence alone reduces the life expectancy of Black Americans by four years. Gun homicide (mass shootings, so-called “everyday” violence, and police-involved shootings) is a universal American threat. However, Black Americans are 10 times more likely than White Americans to die from it here well into the 21st century,. Meanwhile, Black youth fare even worse. Black children and teens are 14 times more likely to die from gun homicide than their White counterparts. 2018 data suggest an over 5x higher rate of expected incarceration over their lifetime when comparing blacks to whites males and a 6x higher rate for black women born in 2001, vs white women.Lance Cooper lives is a historian and attorney and divides his time between researching about historical events, practicing law, writing fiction, and — most recently — producing a podcast focused on Texas slavey. He is a graduate of Baylor University (BA), the University of North Texas (MA), and Texas Tech University (JD). He has written a number of articles related to law and Texas history in scholarly journals. He is also the author of Let My Soul Fly, a novel for kids and adults about slavery in Texas. Also has a powerful podcast called the ‘Other Side of the Story - Slavery in Texas’. We review and play a potion of his episode exploring a difficult topic -- the physical and emotional brutality faced by enslaved Texans, including the protections white slaveholders were awarded by the Texas 1836 Constitution. Our guest details also the slave economy enforced by colonial powers throughout the hemisphere. And details what it was like to be a slave..
Yemen: A Million Dead in Seven Years of US Supported Saudi led Terror - How Could this Remain Unreported in the US Press for the Entire 7 Years? Dr. Aisha Jumaan MPH, PhD is an epidemiologist with over 30 years of experience in public health, including viral vaccine preventable diseases, cervical and breast cancer research, surveillance, maternal, child health and nutrition, primary health care, and women in development. Aisha is currently working with as an Independent Consultant coordinating health-related projects in Yemen and is our guest tonight as she brings Light into the darkness surrounding the US foreiegn policy of promoting Yemen war crimes. Dr Jumaan details how Yemen is afflicted by two major man-made crises- the targeting of civilian infrastructiore by US supported Saudi aerial bombings and Saudi led US enabled blockade of their economy. The bombings have been targeting Yemen food producing entities as well and have destroyed half of their health facilitiesThe result is the largest cholera outbreak in world history a return of polio and emergence of diptheria. The most vulnerable are the greatest victims children and elderly. Famine and the threat of famine affect millions and all told, since the initiation of Saudi led US backed daily aerial bombings in March 2015, our guest Dr Jamaan estimates a million Yemenese dead! Largely the result of war crimes such as the the purposeful destruction of the water facilities and water systems by the Saudi led war and air strikes and the the blockade on the country as Yemen is affected by two major man-made crises both supported by our taxpaying US dollars. Not a peep of news coverage over the past 7 years. What’s up with that? Join us to find out in this wide ranging interview and dialogue with our guest Dr Aisha Jumaan who is with the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation.
Yemen: A Million Dead in Seven Years of US Supported Saudi led Terror - How Could this Remain Unreported in the US Press for the Entire 7 Years? Dr. Aisha Jumaan MPH, PhD is an epidemiologist with over 30 years of experience in public health, including viral vaccine preventable diseases, cervical and breast cancer research, surveillance, maternal, child health and nutrition, primary health care, and women in development. Aisha is currently working with as an Independent Consultant coordinating health-related projects in Yemen and is our guest tonight as she brings Light into the darkness surrounding the US foreiegn policy of promoting Yemen war crimes. Dr Jumaan details how Yemen is afflicted by two major man-made crises- the targeting of civilian infrastructiore by US supported Saudi aerial bombings and Saudi led US enabled blockade of their economy. The bombings have been targeting Yemen food producing entities as well and have destroyed half of their health facilitiesThe result is the largest cholera outbreak in world history a return of polio and emergence of diptheria. The most vulnerable are the greatest victims children and elderly. Famine and the threat of famine affect millions and all told, since the initiation of Saudi led US backed daily aerial bombings in March 2015, our guest Dr Jamaan estimates a million Yemenese dead! Largely the result of war crimes such as the the purposeful destruction of the water facilities and water systems by the Saudi led war and air strikes and the the blockade on the country as Yemen is affected by two major man-made crises both supported by our taxpaying US dollars. Not a peep of news coverage over the past 7 years. What’s up with that? Join us to find out in this wide ranging interview and dialogue with our guest Dr Aisha Jumaan who is with the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation.
How Double-Standards at the UN Combine with Disproportionate Western Influence in World Lending Agencie to Subvert rather than Promote Democracy Alfred-Maurice de Zayas is a Cuban-born American lawyer and writer, active in the field of human rights and international law joins Bringog Light Intp Drkness to discuss the insights he has developed over the past 40 years of working for the United Nations as an international law expert. Mr. de Zayas has been in the UN system for more than four decades as a senior staff person and attorney with the High Commission on Human Rights including as United Nations Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order (2012–2018)Other UN positions include working as a consultant once he took retirement and also as a rapporteur for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which is the leading United Nations entity in the field of human rights, with a unique mandate to promote and protect all human rights for all people.Please join us tonight as we review his recent article Double-Standards at the UN Human Rights Council, published 5/17/22 in Counterpunch. Mr de Zayas details hpw the UN Human Rights Council essentially serves the interests of the Western developed countries’ elite and in doing so creates a second class status for the rect of the world’s majority populations when it comes to the promotion and protection of human rights. Our guest describes how blackmail and bullying are common practices, and the US has proven that it has sufficient “soft power” to control weaker countries. The leaders of these countries get to join the club if they abandon the illusion of sovereignty and service totheir majority population interests and are rewarded accordingly by being called “democratic”. Learn about the politics that drive UN outcomes and the reality, despite the false image, that only major powers can afford to have their own opinions and to vote accordingly.Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 6/6/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
How Double-Standards at the UN Combine with Disproportionate Western Influence in World Lending Agencie to Subvert rather than Promote Democracy Alfred-Maurice de Zayas is a Cuban-born American lawyer and writer, active in the field of human rights and international law joins Bringog Light Intp Drkness to discuss the insights he has developed over the past 40 years of working for the United Nations as an international law expert. Mr. de Zayas has been in the UN system for more than four decades as a senior staff person and attorney with the High Commission on Human Rights including as United Nations Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order (2012–2018)Other UN positions include working as a consultant once he took retirement and also as a rapporteur for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which is the leading United Nations entity in the field of human rights, with a unique mandate to promote and protect all human rights for all people.Please join us tonight as we review his recent article Double-Standards at the UN Human Rights Council, published 5/17/22 in Counterpunch. Mr de Zayas details hpw the UN Human Rights Council essentially serves the interests of the Western developed countries’ elite and in doing so creates a second class status for the rect of the world’s majority populations when it comes to the promotion and protection of human rights. Our guest describes how blackmail and bullying are common practices, and the US has proven that it has sufficient “soft power” to control weaker countries. The leaders of these countries get to join the club if they abandon the illusion of sovereignty and service totheir majority population interests and are rewarded accordingly by being called “democratic”. Learn about the politics that drive UN outcomes and the reality, despite the false image, that only major powers can afford to have their own opinions and to vote accordingly.Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 6/6/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
The Character of a Nation is Revealed by those that Fight its Battles The anniversary month of the Odessa massacre (5/2/14) of 48 peaceful unarmed protestors, revealed the character of a coup government that came to power with US support . Arguably it was US and western intelligence calling the shots regarding the post Ukraine 2014 coup repression which was led by neo nazi militias led by Azov forces. Burned alive in Odessa Trade Union Building, beaten to death as they tried to escape. This revealed the character of the government we brought to power and which led to the taking up of arms in the south and eastern breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in the Donbass. Yet this event got barely a mention in US mainstream media. In Mariupol in the east as well Ukraine tanks rolled into the city to suppress peaceful protests against the unconstitutional coup that had overthrown their duly elected government. Jeremy Kuzmarov editor of Covert Action Magazine joins BLID to discuss this and other misrepresented 'news' coverage of our US foreign policy outcomes that was marked by the Feb 2014 coup we promoted.Jeremy reviews the content of his 5/13/22 article he published on what was originally presented with absolute certainty as a Russian massacre of hundreds in Bucha but has since shaped up to appear to be another false flag event in early April. However, the unproven massacre by Russian troops in Bucha was used to escalate U.S. military intervention. Mission accomplished.Tonight's show reminds us that the character of a nation lies in the allies that help fight in our foreign policy interventions. Death squads in Central America during the 1960s - 1990s. The Mujaheddin in Afghanistan, al Qaeda like groups leading the fight on behalf of US foreign policy in Syria and now neo nazi groups have been brought to power by our US promoted coup. What appears to be the truth, is not the truth & this time thousands of Ukrainians are paying the ultimate price.Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 5/30/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
The Character of a Nation is Revealed by those that Fight its Battles The anniversary month of the Odessa massacre (5/2/14) of 48 peaceful unarmed protestors, revealed the character of a coup government that came to power with US support . Arguably it was US and western intelligence calling the shots regarding the post Ukraine 2014 coup repression which was led by neo nazi militias led by Azov forces. Burned alive in Odessa Trade Union Building, beaten to death as they tried to escape. This revealed the character of the government we brought to power and which led to the taking up of arms in the south and eastern breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in the Donbass. Yet this event got barely a mention in US mainstream media. In Mariupol in the east as well Ukraine tanks rolled into the city to suppress peaceful protests against the unconstitutional coup that had overthrown their duly elected government. Jeremy Kuzmarov editor of Covert Action Magazine joins BLID to discuss this and other misrepresented 'news' coverage of our US foreign policy outcomes that was marked by the Feb 2014 coup we promoted.Jeremy reviews the content of his 5/13/22 article he published on what was originally presented with absolute certainty as a Russian massacre of hundreds in Bucha but has since shaped up to appear to be another false flag event in early April. However, the unproven massacre by Russian troops in Bucha was used to escalate U.S. military intervention. Mission accomplished.Tonight's show reminds us that the character of a nation lies in the allies that help fight in our foreign policy interventions. Death squads in Central America during the 1960s - 1990s. The Mujaheddin in Afghanistan, al Qaeda like groups leading the fight on behalf of US foreign policy in Syria and now neo nazi groups have been brought to power by our US promoted coup. What appears to be the truth, is not the truth & this time thousands of Ukrainians are paying the ultimate price.Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 5/30/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
Scott Ritter Former UN Weapons Inspector Challenges the One sided Ukraine Narrative Generated by our US government leaders such as Rep Jamie Raskin We live in a great country that affords us the latitude to pursue understandings of our choice. But our choices are increasingly not our own. Are we so thoroughly indoctrinated, mostly outside of our conscious awareness, to adopt a world perspective that rationalizes the oppression we may one day be steamrolled by? One does not have to agree that Russia’s choice to launch its ‘special operation’ into the Ukraine was justified to see the truth that the USA and NATO provoked the invasion. One does not have to agree that the Russian decision to launch its special operation was justified to see that it was the US led coup of 2014 that largely set all these events into motion resulting in installing a government with far right neo Nazi influences throughout the highest levels of Ukraine government and military. William Scott Ritter a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer joins BLID tonight. He served with the UN implementing arms control treaties, with General Norman Schwarzkopf in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, and in Iraq, overseeing the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), as a United Nations weapons inspector, from 1991 to 1998. He famously warned Congress and any one who paid attention that there were no WMD. This life experience led him to later became a critic of United States foreign policy and challenge many of the its public claims including those in UkraineRitter provides shocking insights including the history of how the CIA nurtured neo Nazi interests in service of US foreign policy since WWII rather than seeking to exterminate it. He discusses the current military situation as well as Russia’s interest to avoid an invasion and promote the Minsk Treaty and more. Please join us in our pursuit of getting closer to the truth of the current Ukraine crisis.Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 5/16/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
Scott Ritter Former UN Weapons Inspector Challenges the One sided Ukraine Narrative Generated by our US government leaders such as Rep Jamie Raskin We live in a great country that affords us the latitude to pursue understandings of our choice. But our choices are increasingly not our own. Are we so thoroughly indoctrinated, mostly outside of our conscious awareness, to adopt a world perspective that rationalizes the oppression we may one day be steamrolled by? One does not have to agree that Russia’s choice to launch its ‘special operation’ into the Ukraine was justified to see the truth that the USA and NATO provoked the invasion. One does not have to agree that the Russian decision to launch its special operation was justified to see that it was the US led coup of 2014 that largely set all these events into motion resulting in installing a government with far right neo Nazi influences throughout the highest levels of Ukraine government and military. William Scott Ritter a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer joins BLID tonight. He served with the UN implementing arms control treaties, with General Norman Schwarzkopf in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, and in Iraq, overseeing the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), as a United Nations weapons inspector, from 1991 to 1998. He famously warned Congress and any one who paid attention that there were no WMD. This life experience led him to later became a critic of United States foreign policy and challenge many of the its public claims including those in UkraineRitter provides shocking insights including the history of how the CIA nurtured neo Nazi interests in service of US foreign policy since WWII rather than seeking to exterminate it. He discusses the current military situation as well as Russia’s interest to avoid an invasion and promote the Minsk Treaty and more. Please join us in our pursuit of getting closer to the truth of the current Ukraine crisis.Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 5/16/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
Evidence Continues to Mount that the US Public are being Misled into Demonizing Russia as having no Cause for their 2/24/22 Military Response in the Ukraine; True or False?Dr King taught us to try to see the world through the eyes of our adversaries as well as our friends. International Legal Expert Dan Kovalik and investigative journalist Mike Whitney join Bringing Light Into Darkness to help identify a host of misrepresentations and proof supporting a potentially valid concern that what is being presented to the US public is rationalizing yet another US NATO provoked conflict. Please join us tonight as we lay out the evidence of these claims that suggest the possibility that Ukrainians are being sacrificed for US-NATO geopolitical interests. The result pf which is a catastrophic effect for not just Ukrainians who bear the brunt, but likely for majority populations of Europe.. International law expert Dan Kovalik, author and University of Pittsburg Professor of Human Rights law, rejoins Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss a host of International Law connected issues and specifically address these concerns. Has yet another unjust War been largely provoked by the West led by the US? We will provide shocking insights for you to consider regarding the veracity of these concerns. Insights that get no evening news air time. If the US public does not start questioning instead of ideologically supporting this conflict will it continue a pattern of our foreign policy past? Please join us in our honest pursuit to get at the truth and let us know if we in any way are misrepresenting any truth in the content we wish you to critically examine..Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 5/9/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
Evidence Continues to Mount that the US Public are being Misled into Demonizing Russia as having no Cause for their 2/24/22 Military Response in the Ukraine; True or False?Dr King taught us to try to see the world through the eyes of our adversaries as well as our friends. International Legal Expert Dan Kovalik and investigative journalist Mike Whitney join Bringing Light Into Darkness to help identify a host of misrepresentations and proof supporting a potentially valid concern that what is being presented to the US public is rationalizing yet another US NATO provoked conflict. Please join us tonight as we lay out the evidence of these claims that suggest the possibility that Ukrainians are being sacrificed for US-NATO geopolitical interests. The result pf which is a catastrophic effect for not just Ukrainians who bear the brunt, but likely for majority populations of Europe.. International law expert Dan Kovalik, author and University of Pittsburg Professor of Human Rights law, rejoins Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss a host of International Law connected issues and specifically address these concerns. Has yet another unjust War been largely provoked by the West led by the US? We will provide shocking insights for you to consider regarding the veracity of these concerns. Insights that get no evening news air time. If the US public does not start questioning instead of ideologically supporting this conflict will it continue a pattern of our foreign policy past? Please join us in our honest pursuit to get at the truth and let us know if we in any way are misrepresenting any truth in the content we wish you to critically examine..Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 5/9/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
In 2014 Was Crimea really Invaded and then Illegally Annexed by Russia? Plus, Minsk Treaty Violations, 14 Thousand civilian deaths & Signs of an Impending Ukraine Slaughter in the Donbass all before the Russian Invasion When you hear someone argue that Russia is unfairly being demonized what examples or proof for such an assertion would constitute that a such a claim might have merit? Tonight’s show gives a detailed analysis of a couple of such gross misrepresentations to the American public. Claims that sought to incriminate Russia, make Russia look like the evil aggressor if you will include that Russia aggressively and illegally annexed Crimea following the US February 2014 coup and that before they annexed Crimea thousands of Russian troops illegally invaded the Crimea ahead of that annexation. Two claims made by the US government and that were uncritically accepted and endlessly repeated since our main stream media and government pundits. International law expert Alfredo de Zayas rejoins Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss International Law and specifically address these concerns. Mr. De Zayas is an author, journalist and a law professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and served as a United Nations Independent Expert on International Order 2012-18. We conclude the show with an important update on additional misunderstood and underreported contradictions regarding the Ukraine Russia conflict as geopolitical expert and investigative journalist Mike Whitney brings us up to speed around the betrayal of the Minsk Agreement by the west and the UN as well as the acceleration of bombing attacks some 30-fold by the Ukraine Army in the Donbass just days before the 2/24/22 Russian invasion. Increasingly is evidence emerging that what was presented as an unprovoked invasion by Russia of Ukraine was in fact provoked by Ukraine with the full backing of the US? Please join us in our honest pursuit to get at the truth. Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 5/2/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
In 2014 Was Crimea really Invaded and then Illegally Annexed by Russia? Plus, Minsk Treaty Violations, 14 Thousand civilian deaths & Signs of an Impending Ukraine Slaughter in the Donbass all before the Russian Invasion When you hear someone argue that Russia is unfairly being demonized what examples or proof for such an assertion would constitute that a such a claim might have merit? Tonight’s show gives a detailed analysis of a couple of such gross misrepresentations to the American public. Claims that sought to incriminate Russia, make Russia look like the evil aggressor if you will include that Russia aggressively and illegally annexed Crimea following the US February 2014 coup and that before they annexed Crimea thousands of Russian troops illegally invaded the Crimea ahead of that annexation. Two claims made by the US government and that were uncritically accepted and endlessly repeated since our main stream media and government pundits. International law expert Alfredo de Zayas rejoins Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss International Law and specifically address these concerns. Mr. De Zayas is an author, journalist and a law professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and served as a United Nations Independent Expert on International Order 2012-18. We conclude the show with an important update on additional misunderstood and underreported contradictions regarding the Ukraine Russia conflict as geopolitical expert and investigative journalist Mike Whitney brings us up to speed around the betrayal of the Minsk Agreement by the west and the UN as well as the acceleration of bombing attacks some 30-fold by the Ukraine Army in the Donbass just days before the 2/24/22 Russian invasion. Increasingly is evidence emerging that what was presented as an unprovoked invasion by Russia of Ukraine was in fact provoked by Ukraine with the full backing of the US? Please join us in our honest pursuit to get at the truth. Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 5/2/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
A Systemic Racism Primer Pt II on or about the 157th Anniversary of Lincoln’s Assassination; Plus an Important 4/23/22 Ukraine-NATO-Russia War UpdateIn part II of this Systemic Racism Primer presentation we document how racial differences in income and education are important disparities but institutional racism adds much more damage to the psychological and physical health of African Americans. In addition to the quality of life deficits that arguably constitute a second class standard of living for most African Americans even those with similar education and financial standings live shorter lives. The science based concept of ‘weathering’ is documented to help explain some of the hidden features of the oppression of systemic racism that African American population endure in a cumulative manner throughout their lifetime that results in increased susceptibility to a large number of diseases and in considerably less life expectancy here in the 21st century. We replay a fascinating speech by Dr David R Williams in which he describes how through science ‘racism’ can be measured and quantified just as self esteem can. He shares three scales he developed including the Everyday Discrimination Scale, that captures nine items that captures experiences of discrimination in which the dignity and the respect of second class citizens is chipped away on a daily basis. He goes on to highlight how through language implicit bias is sown resulting in unconscious bias which foments unfair treatment of African Americans even by well-intentioned persons, and how medical care iniquities and other forms of iniquities are generated by institutional biases such as residential segregation. We conclude the show with an important update on the unfolding events in the Ukraine and the pending Russian offensive in southeastern Ukraine with geopolitical expert and investigative journalist Mike Whitney.Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 4/25/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
A Systemic Racism Primer Pt II on or about the 157th Anniversary of Lincoln’s Assassination; Plus an Important 4/23/22 Ukraine-NATO-Russia War UpdateIn part II of this Systemic Racism Primer presentation we document how racial differences in income and education are important disparities but institutional racism adds much more damage to the psychological and physical health of African Americans. In addition to the quality of life deficits that arguably constitute a second class standard of living for most African Americans even those with similar education and financial standings live shorter lives. The science based concept of ‘weathering’ is documented to help explain some of the hidden features of the oppression of systemic racism that African American population endure in a cumulative manner throughout their lifetime that results in increased susceptibility to a large number of diseases and in considerably less life expectancy here in the 21st century. We replay a fascinating speech by Dr David R Williams in which he describes how through science ‘racism’ can be measured and quantified just as self esteem can. He shares three scales he developed including the Everyday Discrimination Scale, that captures nine items that captures experiences of discrimination in which the dignity and the respect of second class citizens is chipped away on a daily basis. He goes on to highlight how through language implicit bias is sown resulting in unconscious bias which foments unfair treatment of African Americans even by well-intentioned persons, and how medical care iniquities and other forms of iniquities are generated by institutional biases such as residential segregation. We conclude the show with an important update on the unfolding events in the Ukraine and the pending Russian offensive in southeastern Ukraine with geopolitical expert and investigative journalist Mike Whitney.Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 4/25/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
A Systemic Racism Primer on or about the 157th Anniversary of Lincoln’s Assassination; Plus an Important 4/16/22 Ukraine-NATO-Russia War UpdateOn the 157th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination we review how the nature of systemic racism has reared its head though our history right up until today. We detail how slavery was followed by Reconstruction which was subverted by Jim Crow period that extended through 1964 and the passage of the Civil Rights Act. We describe how only the means and methods of racism and the subjugation of equal access to financial stability for blacks has been subjugated right up until today with Jim Crow laws transforming into Modern day Forms of Discrimination, which we detail and document empirically.First it was slavery, then post 13th Amendment it became criminalizing black behavior though vagrancy and other subjective ill defined ‘black codes’ that promoted convict leasing into the 1930s. Slavery by another name?We document how the 1935 Social Security Act and the 1944 GI Bill maintained and expanded the great racial wealth divide rather than closing it. We document modern day forms of discrimination including unequal incarceration rates for blacks, environmental racism, redlining, housing discrimination and subprime mortgage rates. The shocking results of which, well into the 21st find African Americans with 1/10th the median wealth of an average white household and live longer life spans if they are incarcerated than if they are free. Listen in to learn all you need to know about the nature of racial injustice and systemic racism right up through 21st century US of A.We conclude the show with an important update on the unfolding events in the Ukraine and the pending Russian offensive in southeastern Ukraine with geopolitical expert and investigative journalist Mike Whitney.
A Systemic Racism Primer on or about the 157th Anniversary of Lincoln’s Assassination; Plus an Important 4/16/22 Ukraine-NATO-Russia War UpdateOn the 157th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination we review how the nature of systemic racism has reared its head though our history right up until today. We detail how slavery was followed by Reconstruction which was subverted by Jim Crow period that extended through 1964 and the passage of the Civil Rights Act. We describe how only the means and methods of racism and the subjugation of equal access to financial stability for blacks has been subjugated right up until today with Jim Crow laws transforming into Modern day Forms of Discrimination, which we detail and document empirically.First it was slavery, then post 13th Amendment it became criminalizing black behavior though vagrancy and other subjective ill defined ‘black codes’ that promoted convict leasing into the 1930s. Slavery by another name?We document how the 1935 Social Security Act and the 1944 GI Bill maintained and expanded the great racial wealth divide rather than closing it. We document modern day forms of discrimination including unequal incarceration rates for blacks, environmental racism, redlining, housing discrimination and subprime mortgage rates. The shocking results of which, well into the 21st find African Americans with 1/10th the median wealth of an average white household and live longer life spans if they are incarcerated than if they are free. Listen in to learn all you need to know about the nature of racial injustice and systemic racism right up through 21st century US of A.We conclude the show with an important update on the unfolding events in the Ukraine and the pending Russian offensive in southeastern Ukraine with geopolitical expert and investigative journalist Mike Whitney.
Who is the Most Lawless? International Law Expert Critiques all Countries Involved in the Ukraine Crisis & Suggests it did not Start with the Russian Invasion but with the 2014 Coup International law expert Alfredo de Zayas joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss International Law and ongoing events and the context of those events connected to the Ukraine, NATO, US Russian invasion crisis. De Zayas is a law professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and served as a United Nations Independent Expert on International Order 2012-18. The United Nations Charter is described as the ‘world constitution’ if you will and the violations thereof by world powers is discussed as well as the concepts of ‘preemptive self-defense’ and ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P). Does a country have the right to attack another country and if so when does a country have that right under international law? An inalterable principle of the UN Charter is the prohibition, not only of the use of force but of the threat of the use of force. Our guest discusses its relevance in the context of the current Ukraine war crisis. Another international law issue connected to the fact that sanctions kill and the present world context in which unilateral coercive measures in the form of sanctions in which finds today we find some one third of the world’s people under sanctions, yet he only legal sanctions are sanctions imposed by the UN under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. The UN General Assembly has condemned the unilateral sanctions repeatedly. Our guest describes the complicity of the MSM in misleading the US public and the geopolitical forces in the world today and while condemning Russia for its ‘illegal invasion’ of Ukraine he also provides evidence to support his claim and belief that in the context of recent history, it is the US not Russia which is guilty of violating more international law than any other country. Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 4/11/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
Who is the Most Lawless? International Law Expert Critiques all Countries Involved in the Ukraine Crisis & Suggests it did not Start with the Russian Invasion but with the 2014 Coup International law expert Alfredo de Zayas joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss International Law and ongoing events and the context of those events connected to the Ukraine, NATO, US Russian invasion crisis. De Zayas is a law professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and served as a United Nations Independent Expert on International Order 2012-18. The United Nations Charter is described as the ‘world constitution’ if you will and the violations thereof by world powers is discussed as well as the concepts of ‘preemptive self-defense’ and ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P). Does a country have the right to attack another country and if so when does a country have that right under international law? An inalterable principle of the UN Charter is the prohibition, not only of the use of force but of the threat of the use of force. Our guest discusses its relevance in the context of the current Ukraine war crisis. Another international law issue connected to the fact that sanctions kill and the present world context in which unilateral coercive measures in the form of sanctions in which finds today we find some one third of the world’s people under sanctions, yet he only legal sanctions are sanctions imposed by the UN under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. The UN General Assembly has condemned the unilateral sanctions repeatedly. Our guest describes the complicity of the MSM in misleading the US public and the geopolitical forces in the world today and while condemning Russia for its ‘illegal invasion’ of Ukraine he also provides evidence to support his claim and belief that in the context of recent history, it is the US not Russia which is guilty of violating more international law than any other country. Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 4/11/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
Dr Charlie Clements - A Journey of Conscience: The Anniversary of Archbishop Romero Assassination, US enabled Death Squads and War Crimes Remembered Dr Charlie Clements was radicalized into a peace justice activist through the lies he saw and was a part of in Viet Nam. On 3/7/1982 he entered FMLN controlled area on Guazapa Volcano El Salvador to provide medicine to peasant campesinos For Charlie best example of war crimes was symbolized by Archbishop and our US nuns being raped and murdered. They like so many others were accused of being communist because they were working with the poor. US allied slogans included ‘Be Patriotic, kill a Priest!” Meanwhile fraudulent elections were put forth as proof of democracy to the US public by Dick Cheney and others. To support unfairness most often requires repression. A thousand Salvadorans not military operatives but mainly civil society noncombatants per month were being disappeared, tortured and/or killed by US enabled death squads. FMLN broadly supported by the people. That’s how they got food, intelligence & hid. Its very hard to defeat a movement supported by the majority population. During govt sweeps whole villages had to move often through government controlled areas. If they were caught worse than death awaited them. Stories of a mother suffocating her child to keep from giving up positions and certain slaughter of all. Therefore, often that was the function of the FMLN to stall or distract army so civilians could flee government sweeps . Imagine: a 1980 NYT picture of a peasant holding up a bolt action rifle from WWI, & shooting at an A-37 fighter jet with a gatling gun on board that is shooting a hundred thousand rounds per minute (the equivalent of putting a bullet in every square foot of a football field every 60 seconds).
And the question posed by our government & the MSM war promoting propagandists is: “Where did that peasant get that rifle?”
Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 4/3/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
Dr Charlie Clements - A Journey of Conscience: The Anniversary of Archbishop Romero Assassination, US enabled Death Squads and War Crimes Remembered Dr Charlie Clements was radicalized into a peace justice activist through the lies he saw and was a part of in Viet Nam. On 3/7/1982 he entered FMLN controlled area on Guazapa Volcano El Salvador to provide medicine to peasant campesinos For Charlie best example of war crimes was symbolized by Archbishop and our US nuns being raped and murdered. They like so many others were accused of being communist because they were working with the poor. US allied slogans included ‘Be Patriotic, kill a Priest!” Meanwhile fraudulent elections were put forth as proof of democracy to the US public by Dick Cheney and others. To support unfairness most often requires repression. A thousand Salvadorans not military operatives but mainly civil society noncombatants per month were being disappeared, tortured and/or killed by US enabled death squads. FMLN broadly supported by the people. That’s how they got food, intelligence & hid. Its very hard to defeat a movement supported by the majority population. During govt sweeps whole villages had to move often through government controlled areas. If they were caught worse than death awaited them. Stories of a mother suffocating her child to keep from giving up positions and certain slaughter of all. Therefore, often that was the function of the FMLN to stall or distract army so civilians could flee government sweeps . Imagine: a 1980 NYT picture of a peasant holding up a bolt action rifle from WWI, & shooting at an A-37 fighter jet with a gatling gun on board that is shooting a hundred thousand rounds per minute (the equivalent of putting a bullet in every square foot of a football field every 60 seconds).
And the question posed by our government & the MSM war promoting propagandists is: “Where did that peasant get that rifle?”
Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 4/3/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
Sect of State John Kerry 9/3/2013 Deceitful Testimony: Are US Government Foreign Policy Misrepresentations the Rule Rather than the Exception? When introducing his new Environmental Czar, Joe Biden described former Secretary of State John Kerry with a number of accolades including “there is no one I trust more.” On 9/3/2013 John Kerry testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was arguing for the authorization of US Military action against the Syrian government because he argued that with absolute certainty the Assad government had gassed his own people on 8/21/2013. Bringing Light Into Darkness challenged the US government claims of certainty and later were vindicated, by among other things a June 2021 finding by rootclaim.org that it was our allies fighting the Assad government and not the Assad government that wit 96 % certainty were the parties responsible for the horrific war crime. This show recounts not one, not two major, but a half dozen falsehoods that John Kerry promoted during his 9/3/13 testimony under oath. This show presents the evidence for this claim and invites you to critically evaluate its merit. Yet Kerry and mainstream media have never publicly taken accountability for these false claims to this day. Think about it the Pentagon Papers proves we were lied to about Vietnam. The Afghan Papers prove we were lied to for 20 years in Afghanistan. You know about the Iraqi lies that took us to war there and we could go on. But tonight, we take a deep dive into government lies followed by no accountability and suggest we be careful in believing everything we think about Russia regarding the Russian invasion based on a long track record of misrepresenting the truth to the good Us public citizenry. So, this week we switch to trying to determine who and what to believe in these informational wars. And in that vein, we visit the integrity, or the lack thereof, of what we are told by our government and what history has consistently revealed. Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 3/28/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
Sect of State John Kerry 9/3/2013 Deceitful Testimony: Are US Government Foreign Policy Misrepresentations the Rule Rather than the Exception? When introducing his new Environmental Czar, Joe Biden described former Secretary of State John Kerry with a number of accolades including “there is no one I trust more.” On 9/3/2013 John Kerry testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was arguing for the authorization of US Military action against the Syrian government because he argued that with absolute certainty the Assad government had gassed his own people on 8/21/2013. Bringing Light Into Darkness challenged the US government claims of certainty and later were vindicated, by among other things a June 2021 finding by rootclaim.org that it was our allies fighting the Assad government and not the Assad government that wit 96 % certainty were the parties responsible for the horrific war crime. This show recounts not one, not two major, but a half dozen falsehoods that John Kerry promoted during his 9/3/13 testimony under oath. This show presents the evidence for this claim and invites you to critically evaluate its merit. Yet Kerry and mainstream media have never publicly taken accountability for these false claims to this day. Think about it the Pentagon Papers proves we were lied to about Vietnam. The Afghan Papers prove we were lied to for 20 years in Afghanistan. You know about the Iraqi lies that took us to war there and we could go on. But tonight, we take a deep dive into government lies followed by no accountability and suggest we be careful in believing everything we think about Russia regarding the Russian invasion based on a long track record of misrepresenting the truth to the good Us public citizenry. So, this week we switch to trying to determine who and what to believe in these informational wars. And in that vein, we visit the integrity, or the lack thereof, of what we are told by our government and what history has consistently revealed. Don’t Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 3/28/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com
If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
Ukraine, US Foreign Policy ‘Sovereignty Busting’ Methods & Iraq War Crimes Sovereignty is the state of being free from the control or power of another. US citizens are profoundly ignorant of the extent that the sovereignty of other nations are routinely violated as a matter of policy, not aberration, by US foreign policy. We explore the methods used therein to undermine said sovereignty, in service of profiteering for big business interests at the direct and inverse impoverishing of majority populations in the countries we intervene in. As a result of this profound ignorance of the means and methods of US foreign policy we are easily manipulated into believing Ukraine sovereignty was violated by Russia rather than the United States long before the 2/24/22 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the limited time we have available tonight BLID shares the profile in two historical examples of how we, through our toolbox of US foreign policy techniques, are masters at ‘sovereignty busting’ and how its success is intimately connected to the public relations framing of such interventions by weaponizing the news to reframe these illegal interventions as ‘democracy building’. You will see how the Guatemala coup in 1954 revealed the complicity between how big business owns and ultimately dictates US government policy through its incestuous relationship with those that occupy and run our government. The 1973 Chilean coup lessons are unveiled and reveal how US techniques of penetrating nearly every sector of civil society by US CIA driven monies and interest subverted Chilean sovereignty. We show how the Ukraine subversion was executed by the evolution and influences of US government agencies and agents such as USAID and the NED. The second half of the show features guest Alan Pogue, esteemed photo documentarist and Viet Nam medic and veteran. We juxtapose his eye witnessed US targeting of Iraq water and electrical grids during his four visits to Iraq in the lead up to the US invasion, versus the accusation that Russia is targeting civilians as a matter of policy as we speak. Don’t Be Late! Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 3/21/2022
Ukraine, US Foreign Policy ‘Sovereignty Busting’ Methods & Iraq War Crimes Sovereignty is the state of being free from the control or power of another. US citizens are profoundly ignorant of the extent that the sovereignty of other nations are routinely violated as a matter of policy, not aberration, by US foreign policy. We explore the methods used therein to undermine said sovereignty, in service of profiteering for big business interests at the direct and inverse impoverishing of majority populations in the countries we intervene in. As a result of this profound ignorance of the means and methods of US foreign policy we are easily manipulated into believing Ukraine sovereignty was violated by Russia rather than the United States long before the 2/24/22 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the limited time we have available tonight BLID shares the profile in two historical examples of how we, through our toolbox of US foreign policy techniques, are masters at ‘sovereignty busting’ and how its success is intimately connected to the public relations framing of such interventions by weaponizing the news to reframe these illegal interventions as ‘democracy building’. You will see how the Guatemala coup in 1954 revealed the complicity between how big business owns and ultimately dictates US government policy through its incestuous relationship with those that occupy and run our government. The 1973 Chilean coup lessons are unveiled and reveal how US techniques of penetrating nearly every sector of civil society by US CIA driven monies and interest subverted Chilean sovereignty. We show how the Ukraine subversion was executed by the evolution and influences of US government agencies and agents such as USAID and the NED. The second half of the show features guest Alan Pogue, esteemed photo documentarist and Viet Nam medic and veteran. We juxtapose his eye witnessed US targeting of Iraq water and electrical grids during his four visits to Iraq in the lead up to the US invasion, versus the accusation that Russia is targeting civilians as a matter of policy as we speak. Don’t Be Late! Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 3/21/2022
Celebrating IWD: The Lives they Save & the Wealth they create for Others International Women’s Day is celebrated on Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) as homage is paid to women for the oppression, they face in the world well into the 21st century. While wealth inequality & the wealth of colonial powers got a jump start through slavery, today wealth inequality has found surrogate sources to exploit. On IWD we recognize the oppression of women today that help line the pockets of the wealthy. Did you know that as of 2019, the world’s 2,153 billionaires, had more wealth than 4.6 billion people. Where does such wealth & wealth inequality come from? According to the pre-pandemic January 2020 Oxfam report the bottom of the economy, women and girls, especially the disenfranchised, are putting in 12.5 billion hours every day of care work for free, and countless more hours for poverty wages. Oxfam calculated that this unpaid work labor of women, adds value to the economy of at least $10.8 trillion annually. Tending to others, cooking, cleaning, and fetching water and firewood are essential daily tasks for the well-being of societies, communities and the functioning of the economy that save untold lives. Special guests, Austin, Texas duo Kristin Davidson and Carolyn Phillips of Hardened & Tempered join BLID to share how their professional life experiences serving the human condition in Oncology caregiving and in Law legally representing the indigent has shaped the messaging of their music. These fascinating talents join TexChromosome’s founder and KOOP Community Council (CC) member PJ Pullus on BLID to share their fascinating insights & will be featured at KOOP’s CC & Texchromosome Grateful to Get Back weekend event celebrating non-profit work done on behalf of the underserved. Check out this show and come on out to the Peace House Farm at 709 Emerald Wood Drive Austin TX this March 18-19th reconnecting event. For more information go to https://facebook.com/peacehousefarm . TeXchromosome, Magnolia Roads & the KOOP CC are teaming with Peace House Farm to present "Grateful to Get Back”, Music & Art Festival, a 2-day, 2 -stage outdoor showcase event in South Austin on March 18th & 19th. All are welcome! KOOP 's CC will be conducting "The Gratitude Tree" Inviting local non-profits to table, network, & share information about their quarantine successes, silver linings and insights. Please join KOOP Radio & enjoy a day of reconnection, original art & music. https://facebook.com/peacehousefarm Don’t Be Late! Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 3/14/2022
Celebrating IWD: The Lives they Save & the Wealth they create for Others International Women’s Day is celebrated on Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) as homage is paid to women for the oppression, they face in the world well into the 21st century. While wealth inequality & the wealth of colonial powers got a jump start through slavery, today wealth inequality has found surrogate sources to exploit. On IWD we recognize the oppression of women today that help line the pockets of the wealthy. Did you know that as of 2019, the world’s 2,153 billionaires, had more wealth than 4.6 billion people. Where does such wealth & wealth inequality come from? According to the pre-pandemic January 2020 Oxfam report the bottom of the economy, women and girls, especially the disenfranchised, are putting in 12.5 billion hours every day of care work for free, and countless more hours for poverty wages. Oxfam calculated that this unpaid work labor of women, adds value to the economy of at least $10.8 trillion annually. Tending to others, cooking, cleaning, and fetching water and firewood are essential daily tasks for the well-being of societies, communities and the functioning of the economy that save untold lives. Special guests, Austin, Texas duo Kristin Davidson and Carolyn Phillips of Hardened & Tempered join BLID to share how their professional life experiences serving the human condition in Oncology caregiving and in Law legally representing the indigent has shaped the messaging of their music. These fascinating talents join TexChromosome’s founder and KOOP Community Council (CC) member PJ Pullus on BLID to share their fascinating insights & will be featured at KOOP’s CC & Texchromosome Grateful to Get Back weekend event celebrating non-profit work done on behalf of the underserved. Check out this show and come on out to the Peace House Farm at 709 Emerald Wood Drive Austin TX this March 18-19th reconnecting event. For more information go to https://facebook.com/peacehousefarm . TeXchromosome, Magnolia Roads & the KOOP CC are teaming with Peace House Farm to present "Grateful to Get Back”, Music & Art Festival, a 2-day, 2 -stage outdoor showcase event in South Austin on March 18th & 19th. All are welcome! KOOP 's CC will be conducting "The Gratitude Tree" Inviting local non-profits to table, network, & share information about their quarantine successes, silver linings and insights. Please join KOOP Radio & enjoy a day of reconnection, original art & music. https://facebook.com/peacehousefarm Don’t Be Late! Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 3/14/2022
Uniformly Demonizing & Hating Putin Distracts us from Important Questions of Who Provoked Who? & What Motivated Russia to Invade Ukraine? Scott Ritter former Marine intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union, implementing arms control agreements, and served as a Chief Inspector for the United Nations in Iraq and famously warned Iraq had no Ds returns to Bringing Light Into Darkness along with author and activist Dee Knight to discuss and answer the following questions. Is NATO a purely defensive organization or an offensive one? Does NATO pose a threat to Russia? Does Russia have reasonable national security concerns based on US led NATO behavior? If so, do those concerns and the red lines Russia put forward have merit in international law? Have US authorities been aware for some time of Russia’s concerns, or have they just become apparent recently? Is Putin a rational actor? Putin has warned that a direct attack on Russia will lead to horrible consequences to any potential aggressor. What does he mean? Does that include anyone who tries to interfere in the Russian Ukraine invasion operation? What does he perceive would constitute an existential threat to Russia? What percentage of Russian conventional forces have been committed to the Ukraine invasion? What is Russia’s nuclear weapons use posture? Hungry, Poland and Romania have ‘defensive strike missile systems’ that are called Mark 41 Aegis Systems, are they interchangeable with offensive strike systems and does Russia have a valid national security concern that they are so close to their border? Are we/NATO deploying potential nuclear missile systems that can hit Moscow in five minutes flight time? What is the military situation and the kill ratio Russian Army vs Ukraine Army losses one week into the invasion as of 3.3.22? Were there increased attacks on the predominantly Russian speaking areas of the Donbass that the Russians were responding to through their own troop movements to the border areas? Were the Russians responding to NATO and Ukraine Army provocations? Or was the Russian invasion without provocation as was uniformly reported by our MSM? Did the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) paint Russia or the Ukraine government forces as the aggressor in Eastern Ukraine in the lead up to the Russian 2/24/22 invasion? Has the most significant military actions since the invasion been consistent with the Russian desire to protect the Donbass regions and other predominantly Russian speaking areas in the south and southeast. or to take all of Ukraine? Has the Russian or the US actions pointed more or less towards seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict?
Uniformly Demonizing & Hating Putin Distracts us from Important Questions of Who Provoked Who? & What Motivated Russia to Invade Ukraine? Scott Ritter former Marine intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union, implementing arms control agreements, and served as a Chief Inspector for the United Nations in Iraq and famously warned Iraq had no Ds returns to Bringing Light Into Darkness along with author and activist Dee Knight to discuss and answer the following questions. Is NATO a purely defensive organization or an offensive one? Does NATO pose a threat to Russia? Does Russia have reasonable national security concerns based on US led NATO behavior? If so, do those concerns and the red lines Russia put forward have merit in international law? Have US authorities been aware for some time of Russia’s concerns, or have they just become apparent recently? Is Putin a rational actor? Putin has warned that a direct attack on Russia will lead to horrible consequences to any potential aggressor. What does he mean? Does that include anyone who tries to interfere in the Russian Ukraine invasion operation? What does he perceive would constitute an existential threat to Russia? What percentage of Russian conventional forces have been committed to the Ukraine invasion? What is Russia’s nuclear weapons use posture? Hungry, Poland and Romania have ‘defensive strike missile systems’ that are called Mark 41 Aegis Systems, are they interchangeable with offensive strike systems and does Russia have a valid national security concern that they are so close to their border? Are we/NATO deploying potential nuclear missile systems that can hit Moscow in five minutes flight time? What is the military situation and the kill ratio Russian Army vs Ukraine Army losses one week into the invasion as of 3.3.22? Were there increased attacks on the predominantly Russian speaking areas of the Donbass that the Russians were responding to through their own troop movements to the border areas? Were the Russians responding to NATO and Ukraine Army provocations? Or was the Russian invasion without provocation as was uniformly reported by our MSM? Did the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) paint Russia or the Ukraine government forces as the aggressor in Eastern Ukraine in the lead up to the Russian 2/24/22 invasion? Has the most significant military actions since the invasion been consistent with the Russian desire to protect the Donbass regions and other predominantly Russian speaking areas in the south and southeast. or to take all of Ukraine? Has the Russian or the US actions pointed more or less towards seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict?
Mbrshp Drive Show: Ukraine -US Alliance with Neo Nazis - Never Again? The shocking truth of the untold story of how ‘Never Again’ is a lie. We replay portions of 5/17/2021 interview with far right expert Leo Golinken. The mainstream media has minimized and basically denied the Russian claims of the neo nazi reemergence and positioning within post coup Ukraine. This show includes detail the post coup make up of some eight Neo Nazi cabinet positions that we put into power as a result of our February 2014 enabled coup in Ukraine. The show also details the WWII history of the Bandera Nazi sympathizers and how Ukraine has emerged today in the 2 st century as the hub for the world neo Nazi far right interests, all under the tutelage of US protection as we have enabled rather than confronted far right militias such as the Azov militia that were leading the assault on the eastern separatist response to the coup. The shallow and hollow denials of these truths is also reviewed and examined 2/28/22
Mbrshp Drive Show: Ukraine -US Alliance with Neo Nazis - Never Again? The shocking truth of the untold story of how ‘Never Again’ is a lie. We replay portions of 5/17/2021 interview with far right expert Leo Golinken. The mainstream media has minimized and basically denied the Russian claims of the neo nazi reemergence and positioning within post coup Ukraine. This show includes detail the post coup make up of some eight Neo Nazi cabinet positions that we put into power as a result of our February 2014 enabled coup in Ukraine. The show also details the WWII history of the Bandera Nazi sympathizers and how Ukraine has emerged today in the 2 st century as the hub for the world neo Nazi far right interests, all under the tutelage of US protection as we have enabled rather than confronted far right militias such as the Azov militia that were leading the assault on the eastern separatist response to the coup. The shallow and hollow denials of these truths is also reviewed and examined 2/28/22
Guided & Thinking Critically by MLK: We Are all Born with Same Abilities but are They Nourished or Stunted? We are all born with the same abilities at birth. But by race, are we provided with equal opportunity to the economic and psychological environment that nurtures those potentialities or are we subject to an environment that stunts those potentialities? In celebration of Black History Month at KOOP Radio and on the 57th Anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, Special Guest Dr Algernon Austin joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss How Far Are We from Martin Luther King’s Dream of Equality of Opportunity and to recognize Dr King’s prioritizing of economic justice which he indistinguishably connected to his commitment to civil rights and ending racism. Dr Algernon Austin is the Director for Race and Economic Justice at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and he has conducted research and writing on issues of race and racial inequality for over 20 years. His primary focus has been on the intersection of race and the economy. How are we doing at providing equality of opportunity for children by race? We discuss and explain the findings of researchers at DiversityDataKids.org, and their work around their ‘Child Opportunity Index.’ Some 50 years after MLK’s death, they document that 67% of Black children live in ‘Very Low’ or ‘Low Opportunity’ neighborhoods while 65% of white children live in ‘Very High’ or ‘High Opportunity’ neighborhoods. Please join us as Dr Austin leads us in a discussion explicating Dr King’s concern of the connection between race and class as we discuss the central issues connected to economic justice and the growing wealth inequality in our country that is decimating the middle class.
Guided & Thinking Critically by MLK: We Are all Born with Same Abilities but are They Nourished or Stunted? We are all born with the same abilities at birth. But by race, are we provided with equal opportunity to the economic and psychological environment that nurtures those potentialities or are we subject to an environment that stunts those potentialities? In celebration of Black History Month at KOOP Radio and on the 57th Anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, Special Guest Dr Algernon Austin joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss How Far Are We from Martin Luther King’s Dream of Equality of Opportunity and to recognize Dr King’s prioritizing of economic justice which he indistinguishably connected to his commitment to civil rights and ending racism. Dr Algernon Austin is the Director for Race and Economic Justice at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and he has conducted research and writing on issues of race and racial inequality for over 20 years. His primary focus has been on the intersection of race and the economy. How are we doing at providing equality of opportunity for children by race? We discuss and explain the findings of researchers at DiversityDataKids.org, and their work around their ‘Child Opportunity Index.’ Some 50 years after MLK’s death, they document that 67% of Black children live in ‘Very Low’ or ‘Low Opportunity’ neighborhoods while 65% of white children live in ‘Very High’ or ‘High Opportunity’ neighborhoods. Please join us as Dr Austin leads us in a discussion explicating Dr King’s concern of the connection between race and class as we discuss the central issues connected to economic justice and the growing wealth inequality in our country that is decimating the middle class.
Bringing Light into the Geopolitical Context of the Ukraine Crisis & Do all Nations Have the Right to National Security? The US borders areas are secure from foreign enemy and missile attacks. Is Russia an aggressor nation or does it seek the national security it feels it is losing? Investigative journalist Mike Whitney joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to reflect on his recent article What Putin Wants, and a number of other questions as well. What is at play in the geopolitics of US NATO actions in Ukraine and the Russian response? We hear the stated motivations of all the countries involved but are there other more likely motivations that make more sense when we examine the geopolitics and the behavior of all parties past and present? Is our policy to deter or provoke Russia into an attack of Ukraine? If ‘defensive’ missile systems in Poland and Romania are interchangeable with offensive nuclear armed missile systems should Russia be concerned? Would bringing Ukraine into NATO violate any US signed agreements? Do all countries have an inviolable right to seek national security as long as it does not endanger the national security of other countries? What are the parameters and signatories of the Minsk Treaty and who is promoting and who is inhibiting the actualization of the Peace plan? What type of rules-based order prioritizes the rights of some countries over others? What country has routinely broken treaties and broken WTO rules through sanctioning of other countries that do not follow its lead.
Bringing Light into the Geopolitical Context of the Ukraine Crisis & Do all Nations Have the Right to National Security? The US borders areas are secure from foreign enemy and missile attacks. Is Russia an aggressor nation or does it seek the national security it feels it is losing? Investigative journalist Mike Whitney joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to reflect on his recent article What Putin Wants, and a number of other questions as well. What is at play in the geopolitics of US NATO actions in Ukraine and the Russian response? We hear the stated motivations of all the countries involved but are there other more likely motivations that make more sense when we examine the geopolitics and the behavior of all parties past and present? Is our policy to deter or provoke Russia into an attack of Ukraine? If ‘defensive’ missile systems in Poland and Romania are interchangeable with offensive nuclear armed missile systems should Russia be concerned? Would bringing Ukraine into NATO violate any US signed agreements? Do all countries have an inviolable right to seek national security as long as it does not endanger the national security of other countries? What are the parameters and signatories of the Minsk Treaty and who is promoting and who is inhibiting the actualization of the Peace plan? What type of rules-based order prioritizes the rights of some countries over others? What country has routinely broken treaties and broken WTO rules through sanctioning of other countries that do not follow its lead.
Does Russia or the US led NATO have the upper hand in Ukraine Crisis? (with Scott Ritter) Special Guest Scott Ritter joins Bringing Light Into Darkness. Ritter was born into a military family, is a former US Marine Corps Intelligence Officer whose service over a 20-plus-year career included reaching the rank of Major and doing tours of duty in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control agreements, serving on the staff of US Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf during the Gulf War and later as a UN Chief Weapons Inspector with the UN in Iraq from 1991-98. The framing of the Ukraine Russia NATO US crisis in the USA is analyzed and challenged by our guest who as a UN Weapons Inspector in Iraq correctly warned our government and our public that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of Mass Destruction despite the absolute certainty of such claims at the time by US government and our parroting media that has led us to so many unjust Wars. Scott Ritter provides an informed military logistical overview of the major actors in the conflict revealing where the military strengths and weaknesses are. He argues that the demonization of Putin is largely unfounded, but we discuss how it is highly effective in distracting attention from the real but neglected issues at hand. Demonizing leaders of nations we seek to overthrow has traditionally worked in duping the American public into being distracted from the recurring fact that the wars and conflicts our US foreign policy has taken us into again and again are generally unjust wars that are destructive to majority population quality of life living conditions yet are endorsed by the US public because of the omission of key information and contradictions by our mainstream press that midframe reality. Ritter provides a mature overview of Russian state decision making processes and challenges the simplistic notion that this is all about Putin. We review the substance of America’s Putin Psychosis and Russia Moves Toward Checkmate in Ukraine, two of his recent articles published in the last couple of weeks, which includes an overview of the fracturing of the unity of NATO over the persecution of Russia through sanctions and Biden’s recent arrogant claim that we will shutdown Nordstream oil pipeline if Russia executes its invasion of Ukraine. & ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 2/14/2022
Does Russia or the US led NATO have the upper hand in Ukraine Crisis? (with Scott Ritter) Special Guest Scott Ritter joins Bringing Light Into Darkness. Ritter was born into a military family, is a former US Marine Corps Intelligence Officer whose service over a 20-plus-year career included reaching the rank of Major and doing tours of duty in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control agreements, serving on the staff of US Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf during the Gulf War and later as a UN Chief Weapons Inspector with the UN in Iraq from 1991-98. The framing of the Ukraine Russia NATO US crisis in the USA is analyzed and challenged by our guest who as a UN Weapons Inspector in Iraq correctly warned our government and our public that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of Mass Destruction despite the absolute certainty of such claims at the time by US government and our parroting media that has led us to so many unjust Wars. Scott Ritter provides an informed military logistical overview of the major actors in the conflict revealing where the military strengths and weaknesses are. He argues that the demonization of Putin is largely unfounded, but we discuss how it is highly effective in distracting attention from the real but neglected issues at hand. Demonizing leaders of nations we seek to overthrow has traditionally worked in duping the American public into being distracted from the recurring fact that the wars and conflicts our US foreign policy has taken us into again and again are generally unjust wars that are destructive to majority population quality of life living conditions yet are endorsed by the US public because of the omission of key information and contradictions by our mainstream press that midframe reality. Ritter provides a mature overview of Russian state decision making processes and challenges the simplistic notion that this is all about Putin. We review the substance of America’s Putin Psychosis and Russia Moves Toward Checkmate in Ukraine, two of his recent articles published in the last couple of weeks, which includes an overview of the fracturing of the unity of NATO over the persecution of Russia through sanctions and Biden’s recent arrogant claim that we will shutdown Nordstream oil pipeline if Russia executes its invasion of Ukraine. & ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 2/14/2022
Bringing to Light Important Evidence that has been suppressed from US Public Awareness by Mainstream Medias Regarding the Ukaine – NATO – US- Russia Ongoing Crisis We are told that a Russia attack on Ukraine is imminent, and the US is portrayed as simply responding to that imminent attack and is therefore arming Ukraine to the teeth as we move US NATO forces to the European theater. Author and investigative journalist Dee Knight joins Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) as BLID continues its reporting on the Ukraine-NATO-US-Russian crisis. The pre-US led 2014 coup decision by the Ukraine government to seek aid from Russia instead of the EU due to better terms and the US efforts to scuttle the Nordstream pipeline are explored in some depth to provide important context. Important issues that may point to motive that are largely neglected by our mainstream media, or may provide potential US motivations for provoking a Russian invasion into Ukraine are discussed with our guest and include: 1. Does the fact there is an interest to sell more American fracked gas to Europe and supplant the Russian market share provide motive for the US to push Russia towards war in order to provide ‘cause’ for sanctioning the Nordstream oil pipeline project as well as provide a US incentive to accuse Russia of threatening to invade Ukraine? 2. Why have the encouraging talks to end the Civil War between Ukraine, Russia Germany and France that occurred just last week in which an agreement that this conflict is being deescalated by recognizing the autonomy of the eastern part of Ukraine under a federated arrangement but would remain part of Ukraine not being more widely reported? 3. Why does the US public not hear about how in April 2021 NATO backed a Ukrainian offensive in its Civil War against eastern separatists and that is what prompted Russia to move more forces to the border to signal that it would defend its allies? Instead Russia is portrayed as the sole aggressor. 4. Why are reports that Russian border troop reports of 70-90 thousand troops, that have been consistently at that level for the past 8 years, why has that not been reported in the MSM? Please join us tonight! ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 1/31/2022
Bringing to Light Important Evidence that has been suppressed from US Public Awareness by Mainstream Medias Regarding the Ukaine – NATO – US- Russia Ongoing Crisis
We are told that a Russia attack on Ukraine is imminent, and the US is portrayed as simply responding to that imminent attack and is therefore arming Ukraine to the teeth as we move US NATO forces to the European theater. Author and investigative journalist Dee Knight joins Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) as BLID continues its reporting on the Ukraine-NATO-US-Russian crisis. The pre-US led 2014 coup decision by the Ukraine government to seek aid from Russia instead of the EU due to better terms and the US efforts to scuttle the Nordstream pipeline are explored in some depth to provide important context. Important issues that may point to motive that are largely neglected by our mainstream media, or may provide potential US motivations for provoking a Russian invasion into Ukraine are discussed with our guest and include: 1. Does the fact there is an interest to sell more American fracked gas to Europe and supplant the Russian market share provide motive for the US to push Russia towards war in order to provide ‘cause’ for sanctioning the Nordstream oil pipeline project as well as provide a US incentive to accuse Russia of threatening to invade Ukraine? 2. Why have the encouraging talks to end the Civil War between Ukraine, Russia Germany and France that occurred just last week in which an agreement that this conflict is being deescalated by recognizing the autonomy of the eastern part of Ukraine under a federated arrangement but would remain part of Ukraine not being more widely reported? 3. Why does the US public not hear about how in April 2021 NATO backed a Ukrainian offensive in its Civil War against eastern separatists and that is what prompted Russia to move more forces to the border to signal that it would defend its allies? Instead Russia is portrayed as the sole aggressor. 4. Why are reports that Russian border troop reports of 70-90 thousand troops, that have been consistently at that level for the past 8 years, why has that not been reported in the MSM? Please join us tonight! ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 1/31/2022
The Perspective of a Donetsk Separatist vs the Worthiness of the US Govt Narrative We ask everyone to step outside their thinking and emotions about the conflict between the US and NATO and Ukraine government on the one side and ask you to consider what must Russia and the separatist declared republics of Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea on the other side be thinking. We are joined by native Texan and Novorussian Army combat vet since 2014 Russell Bentley who joins BLID from the Donetsk People's Republic formerly Southeast Ukraine. We consider and explicate the following factual elements which all have been practically ignored by US mainstream media. 1. We claim Ukraine is a sovereign nation that is entitled to make independent sovereign choices regarding whether it wants to join NATO or not. However, what is ignored in this framing is that we illegally overthrew their elected government in 2014 and installed a government that is loyal not to Ukrainian majority pop. interests first but to US dictates. 2. That Russia has national security interests and has a right and duty to its citizens to respond to real national security threats. 3. That in Luhansk, Donetsk & Crimea some 80% voted for the President we couped out in 2014 4. That following the US February 2014 coup came an enormous empowering of Neo-Nazi ideologists as government cabinet appointments that for the first time since the end of WWII resulted in a European government being riddled with neo-Nazi sympathizers that moved quickly to outlaw the Russian language, relegated ethnic Russians to second class citizens, and characterized them as "insects" that should be exterminated. 5. That while 6 million jews were ‘exterminated’ by Nazi Germany in WWII the Russians lost more than 4x than number in their decisive WWII role in the defeat of the Nazis and that the coup brought back to the doorstep of the Russian border not only regular NATO exercises but also ‘flag waving’ Neo Nazi forces of the same ilk that killed 25m Russians just a generation ago. 6. That on May 2, 2014, amidst other right wing military attacks, over 40 opponents of the coup regime protesting the coup of just three months earlier were killed in the Odessa Trade Union House when neo-Nazi fascists set fire to the building and prevented the victims from leaving while post-coup ‘police’ looked on. It is suggested that this was a great impetus for the separatist movements in Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea and helped explain the overwhelming margins of victory in their individual voting referendums that were also ignored by our media. Please join us tonight! ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 1/24/2022
The Perspective of a Donetsk Separatist vs the Worthiness of the US Govt Narrative We ask everyone to step outside their thinking and emotions about the conflict between the US and NATO and Ukraine government on the one side and ask you to consider what must Russia and the separatist declared republics of Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea on the other side be thinking. We are joined by native Texan and Novorussian Army combat vet since 2014 Russell Bentley who joins BLID from the Donetsk People's Republic formerly Southeast Ukraine. We consider and explicate the following factual elements which all have been practically ignored by US mainstream media. 1. We claim Ukraine is a sovereign nation that is entitled to make independent sovereign choices regarding whether it wants to join NATO or not. However, what is ignored in this framing is that we illegally overthrew their elected government in 2014 and installed a government that is loyal not to Ukrainian majority pop. interests first but to US dictates. 2. That Russia has national security interests and has a right and duty to its citizens to respond to real national security threats. 3. That in Luhansk, Donetsk & Crimea some 80% voted for the President we couped out in 2014 4. That following the US February 2014 coup came an enormous empowering of Neo-Nazi ideologists as government cabinet appointments that for the first time since the end of WWII resulted in a European government being riddled with neo-Nazi sympathizers that moved quickly to outlaw the Russian language, relegated ethnic Russians to second class citizens, and characterized them as "insects" that should be exterminated. 5. That while 6 million jews were ‘exterminated’ by Nazi Germany in WWII the Russians lost more than 4x than number in their decisive WWII role in the defeat of the Nazis and that the coup brought back to the doorstep of the Russian border not only regular NATO exercises but also ‘flag waving’ Neo Nazi forces of the same ilk that killed 25m Russians just a generation ago. 6. That on May 2, 2014, amidst other right wing military attacks, over 40 opponents of the coup regime protesting the coup of just three months earlier were killed in the Odessa Trade Union House when neo-Nazi fascists set fire to the building and prevented the victims from leaving while post-coup ‘police’ looked on. It is suggested that this was a great impetus for the separatist movements in Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea and helped explain the overwhelming margins of victory in their individual voting referendums that were also ignored by our media. Please join us tonight! ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 1/24/2022
To Celebrate MLK we are not silent: Does US Militarism & Extreme materialism define us as the Greatest Purveyor of Violence in the World Today? Special guests Rev Jim Rigby of St Andrew’s Church here in Austin Texas and Reverend Lloyd Griffom of Wharton Texas join Bringing Light Into Darkness to reflect and to share their interpretation of Dr King’s 4/4/1967 speech, Beyond Vietnam. Dr King declared eternal hostility to poverty, to racism and to militarism yet they all remain huge problems for our world 54 years later. Our guests share the importance of voting rights, the principle of unity and the primacy of taking personal responsibility in life both in pursuit of happiness and pursuing truth and accountability of our government’s prejudice on behalf of the wealthy as ‘extreme materialism’ has given some people much more power than one person one vote. Dr King called out our foreign policy militarism and poverty as indicators that made us the greatest purveyors of violence. Yet few see that this reality continues until today and instead do we project this reality on other countries we claim are our enemies? Dr King implored us to seek and gain the humility to see United States foreign policy through the eyes and experiences of the majority populations in the countries we have intervened in and suggests we must be seen as ‘strange liberators.’ This show is dedicated to the lessons of Dr King that are largely ignored by our cultural despite our celebration of his legacy each year. We ask all to rededicate our focus to humility and the humility of truth, no matter where it takes us…. as it did Dr King. Please join us tonight!
‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 1/17/2022
To Celebrate MLK we are not silent: Does US Militarism & Extreme materialism define us as the Greatest Purveyor of Violence in the World Today? Special guests Rev Jim Rigby of St Andrew’s Church here in Austin Texas and Reverend Lloyd Griffom of Wharton Texas join Bringing Light Into Darkness to reflect and to share their interpretation of Dr King’s 4/4/1967 speech, Beyond Vietnam. Dr King declared eternal hostility to poverty, to racism and to militarism yet they all remain huge problems for our world 54 years later. Our guests share the importance of voting rights, the principle of unity and the primacy of taking personal responsibility in life both in pursuit of happiness and pursuing truth and accountability of our government’s prejudice on behalf of the wealthy as ‘extreme materialism’ has given some people much more power than one person one vote. Dr King called out our foreign policy militarism and poverty as indicators that made us the greatest purveyors of violence. Yet few see that this reality continues until today and instead do we project this reality on other countries we claim are our enemies? Dr King implored us to seek and gain the humility to see United States foreign policy through the eyes and experiences of the majority populations in the countries we have intervened in and suggests we must be seen as ‘strange liberators.’ This show is dedicated to the lessons of Dr King that are largely ignored by our cultural despite our celebration of his legacy each year. We ask all to rededicate our focus to humility and the humility of truth, no matter where it takes us…. as it did Dr King. Please join us tonight!
‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 1/17/2022
Afghanistan – Revolutionary Past and 40 years Since
We open the show with a compelling letter and indictment of US and UK persecution of and on behalf of Julian Assange by his mother Christine Assange. Our show focus includes the Afghan revolutionary government that took power in 1978 and the democratic reforms it introduced. A government that was largely overthrown with US backing yet we shed crocodile tears that women’s rights have been so compromised over the last 40 years since that overthrow. Special guest Dr Jack Ryan professor of economic geography for 32 years is now 92 years of age. Dr Ryan was in Afghanistan during the early weeks of the revolutionary government and recently posted an extensive study on Afghanistan entitled Afghanistan: Before and After US Intervention, published on 9/26/21 just one month after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Dr Ryan describes his findings: 3% of population owned 75% of land - most people got their land back. President Carter 7/3/79 secret $500m funding operation began clandestinely, as Operation Cyclone, well before Russian occupation. CIA could not get enough Afghanis to oppose govt, so they enabled Pakistani project of incubating Islamic terrorists in Pakistan madrasas and brought in Wahabbists from Saudi Arabia and other nations which metastasized into the Mujahadeen that attacked us on 9-11 Dr Ryan describes operation Cyclone and the inconvenient fact that the actual emergence of the Taliban came in the vacuum that was created after this civil war that was promoted by the west and the madrassas alluded to earlier. He confirms that it is safe to say that the Taliban and the Mujahadeen were enabled if not an outright creation of our CIA foreign policy in that area. Under Taliban by2001 Opium wiped out but as soon as Us initiates its 2001 attack opium production gets bumped back up. We also discuss that drug money not only provides profiteering but more important is dark money off the books for the CIA to do whatever it wants to without congressional purse strings attached. Afghanistan attack never approved by the United Nations -- it was essentially an illegal war never reported as such by the mainstream media, so therefore most people are simply unaware of this as well as the fact that post US invasion we essentially took over the country and enabled a corrupt government and restarted the opium drug trade. We also discuss why mercenary armies we train to fight in Syria and Afghanistan and so many others lack a fighting spirit. We bring light to all that darkness and more. ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 1/10/2022
Afghanistan – Revolutionary Past and 40 years Since
We open the show with a compelling letter and indictment of US and UK persecution of and on behalf of Julian Assange by his mother Christine Assange. Our show focus includes the Afghan revolutionary government that took power in 1978 and the democratic reforms it introduced. A government that was largely overthrown with US backing yet we shed crocodile tears that women’s rights have been so compromised over the last 40 years since that overthrow. Special guest Dr Jack Ryan professor of economic geography for 32 years is now 92 years of age. Dr Ryan was in Afghanistan during the early weeks of the revolutionary government and recently posted an extensive study on Afghanistan entitled Afghanistan: Before and After US Intervention, published on 9/26/21 just one month after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Dr Ryan describes his findings: 3% of population owned 75% of land - most people got their land back. President Carter 7/3/79 secret $500m funding operation began clandestinely, as Operation Cyclone, well before Russian occupation. CIA could not get enough Afghanis to oppose govt, so they enabled Pakistani project of incubating Islamic terrorists in Pakistan madrasas and brought in Wahabbists from Saudi Arabia and other nations which metastasized into the Mujahadeen that attacked us on 9-11 Dr Ryan describes operation Cyclone and the inconvenient fact that the actual emergence of the Taliban came in the vacuum that was created after this civil war that was promoted by the west and the madrassas alluded to earlier. He confirms that it is safe to say that the Taliban and the Mujahadeen were enabled if not an outright creation of our CIA foreign policy in that area. Under Taliban by2001 Opium wiped out but as soon as Us initiates its 2001 attack opium production gets bumped back up. We also discuss that drug money not only provides profiteering but more important is dark money off the books for the CIA to do whatever it wants to without congressional purse strings attached. Afghanistan attack never approved by the United Nations -- it was essentially an illegal war never reported as such by the mainstream media, so therefore most people are simply unaware of this as well as the fact that post US invasion we essentially took over the country and enabled a corrupt government and restarted the opium drug trade. We also discuss why mercenary armies we train to fight in Syria and Afghanistan and so many others lack a fighting spirit. We bring light to all that darkness and more. ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 1/10/2022
When it comes to trying to understand Afghanistan and US foreign policy options, we are presented with an ahistorical false dichotomy between supporting or not supporting the Taliban government. Our show details how our foreign policy is what is responsible for the very dilemma we claim to be morally concerned about. Learn how we largely created the Taliban as well as the Islamic fundamentalist Mujahadeen which generated Osama Bin Laden, ultimately 9-11 and absolute misery for 40 million Afghanis as byproducts of four decades plus of US foreign policy. When history and its lessons are wiped off the map the map becomes unable to help us understand the truth of Afghanistan. Our guest Basir Bita barely escaped Kabul just a month following the US withdrawal. He lived in Afghanistan the last 18 years and is in daily communication with family and friends. Basir worked for development projects, civil society organizations, and international institutions including USAID, British Development Agency, and the Australian Development Agency and describes the desperate situation that we created in Afghanistan from firsthand knowledge. Following 20 years of war and occupation and our recent August withdrawal the US froze nearly $10B in assets belonging to the Afghan Central Bank. The IMF and World Bank, where the US exerts great influence, tightened the screws as well as the IMF froze distribution of $450m while the World Bank held back hundreds of millions from the Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund. Meanwhile, Afghan teachers have gone without pay since June and hospitals are closing. The cost of War to our veterans and Afghanis and the cost to US taxpayers is reviewed as are the Afghan Papers that reveal that we have always known this war is unwinnable and once again have been systematically lied to by our government and the mainstream media. Yet the war has been profitable to some and therefore has persisted. Now, we as US taxpayers should be held accountable for fixing what our foreign policy has broken, but instead current US foreign policy make life even more unlivable for the majority of Afghans. Listen in and learn real US foreign policy outcomes and Afghan history, as Basir also describes the current political environment and a path forward to help alleviate rather than exacerbate one of the greatest humanitarian disasters in the world today. Don’t be Late! If you care….
When it comes to trying to understand Afghanistan and US foreign policy options, we are presented with an ahistorical false dichotomy between supporting or not supporting the Taliban government. Our show details how our foreign policy is what is responsible for the very dilemma we claim to be morally concerned about. Learn how we largely created the Taliban as well as the Islamic fundamentalist Mujahadeen which generated Osama Bin Laden, ultimately 9-11 and absolute misery for 40 million Afghanis as byproducts of four decades plus of US foreign policy. When history and its lessons are wiped off the map the map becomes unable to help us understand the truth of Afghanistan. Our guest Basir Bita barely escaped Kabul just a month following the US withdrawal. He lived in Afghanistan the last 18 years and is in daily communication with family and friends. Basir worked for development projects, civil society organizations, and international institutions including USAID, British Development Agency, and the Australian Development Agency and describes the desperate situation that we created in Afghanistan from firsthand knowledge. Following 20 years of war and occupation and our recent August withdrawal the US froze nearly $10B in assets belonging to the Afghan Central Bank. The IMF and World Bank, where the US exerts great influence, tightened the screws as well as the IMF froze distribution of $450m while the World Bank held back hundreds of millions from the Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund. Meanwhile, Afghan teachers have gone without pay since June and hospitals are closing. The cost of War to our veterans and Afghanis and the cost to US taxpayers is reviewed as are the Afghan Papers that reveal that we have always known this war is unwinnable and once again have been systematically lied to by our government and the mainstream media. Yet the war has been profitable to some and therefore has persisted. Now, we as US taxpayers should be held accountable for fixing what our foreign policy has broken, but instead current US foreign policy make life even more unlivable for the majority of Afghans. Listen in and learn real US foreign policy outcomes and Afghan history, as Basir also describes the current political environment and a path forward to help alleviate rather than exacerbate one of the greatest humanitarian disasters in the world today. Don’t be Late! If you care….
Is Russia Being the Aggressor or the Enemy of the Aggressor? US foreign policy since the turn of the century is reviewed. The reemergence of neo-Nazism in a European post WWII government is a result of a US enabled coup in Ukraine. Meanwhile our foreign policy outcome completely reversed the fortunes of Libyans and has brought back slavery to Libya post 2011. When you combine preinvasion sanctions with the 2003 US led invasion in Iraq the result of our foreign policy is more than a million Iraqis dead. The Syrian and Yemen interventions backed by US support has cost additional hundreds of thousands of deaths and two huge humanitarian disasters leading to millions of refugees. And when you account for the sanctions that the US has imposed upon more than one-third of the world’s population the result is the responsibility for killing hundreds of thousands more fellow human beings. When it came to Syria, Russia said enough is enough. Yet most US citizens believe the world’s greatest threat to human rights is Russia, and Vladimir Putin rather examining our own foreign policy outcomes and human rights record throughout the world. What is our geopolitical end game in the Ukraine that our policies are promoting? What would any leader do if its country’s national security was being nearly completely compromised? Join us tonight as special guest Mike Whitney, investigative journalist, and geopolitical analyst, leads our discussion and provides insightful analysis for consideration as we try to seek to honestly sort out propaganda from reasonable understandings based on an honest interpretation of history. We also examine the real world geopolitical national security interests that all nations are entitled to and expected to seek out on behalf of their fellow citizens. We also challenge whether our foreign policy seeks to promote democracy or maintain and expand a false perception that we are the exceptional leader of the world rather than examine our own track record and question if it more closely resembles imperial desires to dominate the world’s economy as the self-declared world’s unipolar power.
Is Russia Being the Aggressor or the Enemy of the Aggressor? US foreign policy since the turn of the century is reviewed. The reemergence of neo-Nazism in a European post WWII government is a result of a US enabled coup in Ukraine. Meanwhile our foreign policy outcome completely reversed the fortunes of Libyans and has brought back slavery to Libya post 2011. When you combine preinvasion sanctions with the 2003 US led invasion in Iraq the result of our foreign policy is more than a million Iraqis dead. The Syrian and Yemen interventions backed by US support has cost additional hundreds of thousands of deaths and two huge humanitarian disasters leading to millions of refugees. And when you account for the sanctions that the US has imposed upon more than one-third of the world’s population the result is the responsibility for killing hundreds of thousands more fellow human beings. When it came to Syria, Russia said enough is enough. Yet most US citizens believe the world’s greatest threat to human rights is Russia, and Vladimir Putin rather examining our own foreign policy outcomes and human rights record throughout the world. What is our geopolitical end game in the Ukraine that our policies are promoting? What would any leader do if its country’s national security was being nearly completely compromised? Join us tonight as special guest Mike Whitney, investigative journalist, and geopolitical analyst, leads our discussion and provides insightful analysis for consideration as we try to seek to honestly sort out propaganda from reasonable understandings based on an honest interpretation of history. We also examine the real world geopolitical national security interests that all nations are entitled to and expected to seek out on behalf of their fellow citizens. We also challenge whether our foreign policy seeks to promote democracy or maintain and expand a false perception that we are the exceptional leader of the world rather than examine our own track record and question if it more closely resembles imperial desires to dominate the world’s economy as the self-declared world’s unipolar power.
Russia – US National Security Interest Double Standards and Aggression Claims
With special guest and author Dr David Gibbs, Professor of History at the University of Arizona. When it comes to US foreign policy concerns about Ukraine and Russian foreign policy all we get is our US government perspective which has a long and documented history of lying and/or misleading the US public into conflict after conflict and war after war. Tonight, our guest leads us through a critical review of US/NATO relations with Russia from a more objective perspective that is sensitive to both Russian and western Europe national security interests. Instead of descriptions of what we think of Putin and his motivations we start the show off by citing what he has said, and members of his government have said during recent speeches and press conferences that speak to the issue of the Ukraine - Donbass conflict. Russian national security red lines are accordingly revealed such as the red line that NATO would cross if its military infrastructure expanded in Ukraine. Our guest provides a comprehensive historical context that includes many insights not shared by our mainstream media coverage of this conflict. He also presents and asks us to consider national security and human rights related examples of what arguably are ‘double standards.’ For instance, what would we do, as a matter of declaring red lines, if our geographical boundaries were peppered with Russian military exercises or nuclear or highly offensive Russian missile site locations at close proximity to our border? Or compared to Boris Yeltsin, who we uncritically supported and put into power, what is Putin’s human rights record? Is the double standard simply if the US does it is OK and if Russia or other countries do it, it is not OK? All of this suggesting do we demonize and justify our profound dislike of Putin because he is not doing what we want him to do at the foreign policy level rather than the motivation we state, which is because of ‘political suppression and human rights violations’ that consistently lack evidence of their veracity? Instead, if the greatest human rights violation is to be subject to nuclear war, arguably is our foreign policies leading us down that path? How do we stop it? US NATO history and promises in the early 1990s made to Russia not to expand eastward into the former communist states of eastern Europe are delineated and detailed by our guest. He argues that US foreign policy has weaponized human rights through the concept of ‘humanitarian interventions,’ and he explains who has the evidence-based history of meddling in the other’s elections? Don’t be Late! ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 12/20/2021 If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
Russia – US National Security Interest Double Standards and Aggression Claims
With special guest and author Dr David Gibbs, Professor of History at the University of Arizona. When it comes to US foreign policy concerns about Ukraine and Russian foreign policy all we get is our US government perspective which has a long and documented history of lying and/or misleading the US public into conflict after conflict and war after war. Tonight, our guest leads us through a critical review of US/NATO relations with Russia from a more objective perspective that is sensitive to both Russian and western Europe national security interests. Instead of descriptions of what we think of Putin and his motivations we start the show off by citing what he has said, and members of his government have said during recent speeches and press conferences that speak to the issue of the Ukraine - Donbass conflict. Russian national security red lines are accordingly revealed such as the red line that NATO would cross if its military infrastructure expanded in Ukraine. Our guest provides a comprehensive historical context that includes many insights not shared by our mainstream media coverage of this conflict. He also presents and asks us to consider national security and human rights related examples of what arguably are ‘double standards.’ For instance, what would we do, as a matter of declaring red lines, if our geographical boundaries were peppered with Russian military exercises or nuclear or highly offensive Russian missile site locations at close proximity to our border? Or compared to Boris Yeltsin, who we uncritically supported and put into power, what is Putin’s human rights record? Is the double standard simply if the US does it is OK and if Russia or other countries do it, it is not OK? All of this suggesting do we demonize and justify our profound dislike of Putin because he is not doing what we want him to do at the foreign policy level rather than the motivation we state, which is because of ‘political suppression and human rights violations’ that consistently lack evidence of their veracity? Instead, if the greatest human rights violation is to be subject to nuclear war, arguably is our foreign policies leading us down that path? How do we stop it? US NATO history and promises in the early 1990s made to Russia not to expand eastward into the former communist states of eastern Europe are delineated and detailed by our guest. He argues that US foreign policy has weaponized human rights through the concept of ‘humanitarian interventions,’ and he explains who has the evidence-based history of meddling in the other’s elections? Don’t be Late! ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 12/20/2021 If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X
Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, Pt IV
This is part IV of a four-part series of shows entitled Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse, and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, with guest host and moderator Patricia Bucko. The focus of tonight’s show is a return to alcohol related issues although we start with some science-based comments on the veracity of whether chronic long term marijuana smoking can cause sterility and, medicinally speaking, its reported effectiveness as a pain medication. Additionally, what you will discover if you tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness this Monday 12/6/21 at 6pm CST at koop.org – 1. What we will cover and explain regarding ethyl alcohol: a. ‘Who’ invented alcohol? b. Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC)- what are the factors involved in determining blood alcohol concentration and are their differences between men and women? c. How fast does the body metabolize alcohol? Are there ways to sober up quickly? Do we really get rid of one drink per hour? d. What is the lethal dose and the dose at which someone may likely slip into a coma when it comes to alcohol and alcohol intake? e. Chemical Dependency (CD) on alcohol and other drugs (AOD) is a multifactorial disorder – what factors are involved that impact the probability I will or will not develop a CD or Substance Abuse Disorder (SUD)? 2. We will define ‘Addictive Culture’ by describing the acculturating influences that a ‘market driven economy’ has on shaping our choices. What is the relationship between a market driven economy and the culture it creates and its impact on our democracy and the health systems and drinking and drugging norms it influences? 3. What is the relationship between our addictive culture and the framing of the opiate crisis? ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 12/6/2021
Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, Pt IV This is part IV of a four-part series of shows entitled Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse, and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, with guest host and moderator Patricia Bucko. The focus of tonight’s show is a return to alcohol related issues although we start with some science-based comments on the veracity of whether chronic long term marijuana smoking can cause sterility and, medicinally speaking, its reported effectiveness as a pain medication. Additionally, what you will discover if you tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness this Monday 12/6/21 at 6pm CST at koop.org – 1. What we will cover and explain regarding ethyl alcohol: a. ‘Who’ invented alcohol? b. Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC)- what are the factors involved in determining blood alcohol concentration and are their differences between men and women? c. How fast does the body metabolize alcohol? Are there ways to sober up quickly? Do we really get rid of one drink per hour? d. What is the lethal dose and the dose at which someone may likely slip into a coma when it comes to alcohol and alcohol intake? e. Chemical Dependency (CD) on alcohol and other drugs (AOD) is a multifactorial disorder – what factors are involved that impact the probability I will or will not develop a CD or Substance Abuse Disorder (SUD)? 2. We will define ‘Addictive Culture’ by describing the acculturating influences that a ‘market driven economy’ has on shaping our choices. What is the relationship between a market driven economy and the culture it creates and its impact on our democracy and the health systems and drinking and drugging norms it influences? 3. What is the relationship between our addictive culture and the framing of the opiate crisis? ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 12/6/2021
Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, Pt III
This is part III of a series of shows entitled Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse, and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body. The focus of tonight’s show is on Marijuana. The title the Bringing Light Into Darkness show tinight is Mary Jane, Separating Fact from Fiction from Uncertainty. What you will discover if you tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness this Monday 11/29/21 at 6pm CST at koop.org – 1. Highlights of an 8hr Marijuana Intervention curriculum that thousands of Travis County clients have completed since it was created by the Pedro Gatos Institute on Addiction, Health & Social Theory in 2012 and which has been updated annually since, in accordance with the changing legal landscape and emerging science around marijuana. 2. What will be covered and explained: a. Legal status in Texas? Can you get a DWI or a DUI (Driving under the Influence) charge in Texas? b. An introduction to the human endocannabinoid system and how Marijuana exerts its effects and how is it different from endogenous and synthetic K-2 like cannabinoids? What is brain cell receptor affinity? c. Are there dangers associated with regular marijuana use? d. Is MJ’s THC potency higher today and does that cause greater mental health risks and dangers? e. MJ and Tobacco and Lung health. Are there carcinogens in MJ smoke? Has MJ been proven to cause cancer, emphysema, COPD and/or bronchitis? f. Are there dangers associated with regular marijuana use such as addiction to MJ and has it been defined in the DSM-V in a way similar to the chemical dependency model we shared during our last BLID show in this series? g. How is, the Chemical Use Misuse Continuum (CUMC) assessment invention consistent with the evolution of substance use disorders as described by the DSM-V? ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/29/2021
Our Addictive Culture: Chemical Use and Misuse Series Part 3 (11/29/21) (Part 1/2) by Bringing Light Into Darkness - News & Analysis
Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, Pt II
This is part II of a series of shows entitled Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse, and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body. What you will discover if you tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness this Monday 1/22/21 at 6pm CST at koop.org – 1. That the Real War on Drugs occurs every time you take a drug whether it is an aspirin, alcohol, marijuana, or a prescription drug. 2. Important insights into brain chemistry, pharmacology, and the ‘Drug Trek’ a drug takes inside the brain and/or body once ingested. 3. The role of the liver and kidneys in the metabolism and excretion phases of drug use. 4. We define the major pharmacological categories of mind-altering drugs. 5. review some of the different drug use modes of administration and the relative speed in which they reach the blood and are then delivered to the brain. 6. we discuss the brain physiology and the magical brain ecology that each one of us has between our ears. 7. we describe how with drug abuse brain cells adapt in a process called neuroadaptation. 8. we share a detailed example of the mode of action cocaine has and how with regular use neuroadaptation occurs and is the basis of physical dependence that will occur with prolonged and recurrent use. 9. basic human brain physiology and its unique capacities relative to all other living creatures’ brains is defined and explains the functionality of what distinguishes the human brain from the brains of all other species that inhabit the wonderous world we are a part of. 10. We close out the show with a short segment on the revolutionary potential of recovery and the primacy of the ‘recovery work ethic’ required, to develop the new and healthy synaptic pathways needed to supplant and replace the well-worn ruts of addictive behaviors and addictive thinking that recovery seeks to overcome. ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/22/2021
Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, Pt II
This is part II of a series of shows entitled Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse, and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body. What you will discover if you tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness this Monday 1/22/21 at 6pm CST at koop.org – 1. That the Real War on Drugs occurs every time you take a drug whether it is an aspirin, alcohol, marijuana, or a prescription drug. 2. Important insights into brain chemistry, pharmacology, and the ‘Drug Trek’ a drug takes inside the brain and/or body once ingested. 3. The role of the liver and kidneys in the metabolism and excretion phases of drug use. 4. We define the major pharmacological categories of mind-altering drugs. 5. review some of the different drug use modes of administration and the relative speed in which they reach the blood and are then delivered to the brain. 6. we discuss the brain physiology and the magical brain ecology that each one of us has between our ears. 7. we describe how with drug abuse brain cells adapt in a process called neuroadaptation. 8. we share a detailed example of the mode of action cocaine has and how with regular use neuroadaptation occurs and is the basis of physical dependence that will occur with prolonged and recurrent use. 9. basic human brain physiology and its unique capacities relative to all other living creatures’ brains is defined and explains the functionality of what distinguishes the human brain from the brains of all other species that inhabit the wonderous world we are a part of. 10. We close out the show with a short segment on the revolutionary potential of recovery and the primacy of the ‘recovery work ethic’ required, to develop the new and healthy synaptic pathways needed to supplant and replace the well-worn ruts of addictive behaviors and addictive thinking that recovery seeks to overcome. ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/22/2021
How We are Blinded from the History of the Oppressive Nature of ‘Free Trade’
Democracy implies equal access to material success where success, as a head of household, is defined as providing a decent quality of life for your family. If you work hard enough measurable success and a decent quality of life will be yours. There is no reason that all families and their head of households cannot provide a viable and fairly comfortable quality of life for its next generation. Tonight’s show juxtaposes ‘Free Trade vs Fair Trade’ and in doing so describes for listeners the backdrop, the world environment if you will that each of us are born into and find ourselves placed, through no volition of our own. It is a roll of the die that I am born into a wealthy or non-wealthy family system which then seals the probability of success or lack of success much more than my own personal responsibility or irresponsibility in pursuit of it. We describe that it is the profitability and privilege that ‘Free Trade’ affords a small minority, and that ‘Fair Trade’ would eliminate such an undeserved and unfair advantage. Yet how is it that our culture promotes so successfully that it is Free Trade that is natural and inevitable, which is a big lie? That instead, because of Free Trade astounding inequality in wealth distribution has a long time ago emerged and reproduced itself in a way that has wrought unnecessary rates of poverty and misery worldwide. Tonight’s show first defines these staggering levels of wealth inequality that make such a dream to provide for your family an unrealizable pipe dream for the majority populations of our country and the world. We briefly but importantly bring to light: the empirical facts and proof: 1. That the concentration of media ownership, inherent in such levels of wealth inequality, that long ago abandoned the representation of ‘free press’ independent of gross influence by outside forces and how it has promoted ‘the abandonment of reason and critical thinking’. And that the inordinate rates of poverty it creates also creates with it significant losses of life expectancy 2. of how such wealth accumulation and the great wealth divide come to be. What enabled such a reality and how did we get there as a human species? We do so by recounting the colonization of the ‘New World’ by European and then burgeoning US imperial domination following the 1823 Monroe Doctrine 3. of how in the evolution of ‘Free Trade’ colonialism evolved into neocolonialism and along the way provided the substrate of ‘oppression’ that built the fortunes of the ‘international power structure’ European and US states off the backs of ‘others.’ 4. Specifically, how Central America in particular, eventually became an appendage of US foreign policy hegemony as it paved the way & provided a cash cow for US multinational interests, while generating the violent environment that remains the real unaddressed stimulus for what we call the ‘immigration crisis’ Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/15/2021
How We are Blinded from the History of the Oppressive Nature of ‘Free Trade’
Democracy implies equal access to material success where success, as a head of household, is defined as providing a decent quality of life for your family. If you work hard enough measurable success and a decent quality of life will be yours. There is no reason that all families and their head of households cannot provide a viable and fairly comfortable quality of life for its next generation. Tonight’s show juxtaposes ‘Free Trade vs Fair Trade’ and in doing so describes for listeners the backdrop, the world environment if you will that each of us are born into and find ourselves placed, through no volition of our own. It is a roll of the die that I am born into a wealthy or non-wealthy family system which then seals the probability of success or lack of success much more than my own personal responsibility or irresponsibility in pursuit of it. We describe that it is the profitability and privilege that ‘Free Trade’ affords a small minority, and that ‘Fair Trade’ would eliminate such an undeserved and unfair advantage. Yet how is it that our culture promotes so successfully that it is Free Trade that is natural and inevitable, which is a big lie? That instead, because of Free Trade astounding inequality in wealth distribution has a long time ago emerged and reproduced itself in a way that has wrought unnecessary rates of poverty and misery worldwide. Tonight’s show first defines these staggering levels of wealth inequality that make such a dream to provide for your family an unrealizable pipe dream for the majority populations of our country and the world. We briefly but importantly bring to light: the empirical facts and proof: 1. That the concentration of media ownership, inherent in such levels of wealth inequality, that long ago abandoned the representation of ‘free press’ independent of gross influence by outside forces and how it has promoted ‘the abandonment of reason and critical thinking’. And that the inordinate rates of poverty it creates also creates with it significant losses of life expectancy 2. of how such wealth accumulation and the great wealth divide come to be. What enabled such a reality and how did we get there as a human species? We do so by recounting the colonization of the ‘New World’ by European and then burgeoning US imperial domination following the 1823 Monroe Doctrine 3. of how in the evolution of ‘Free Trade’ colonialism evolved into neocolonialism and along the way provided the substrate of ‘oppression’ that built the fortunes of the ‘international power structure’ European and US states off the backs of ‘others.’ 4. Specifically, how Central America in particular, eventually became an appendage of US foreign policy hegemony as it paved the way & provided a cash cow for US multinational interests, while generating the violent environment that remains the real unaddressed stimulus for what we call the ‘immigration crisis’ Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/15/2021
Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse & the Magical Host, the Human Brain & Body Pt I
Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) has done a couple of shows over the last 18 years on the air that are connected to addiction and substance/chemical use misuse health issues. However, our interest here is to pivot to a series of shows we will be producing around a topic we feel touches on one of our society's greatest health issues, namely those around drinking and drugging (chemical use) and the potential of developing problematic or chemically dependent substance abuse health issues (chemical misuse). We introduce Patricia Bucko, a college graduate who majored in neuroscience, who joins us as our guest host to initiate and navigate us through a series of BLID shows connected to its theme “Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse & the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body.” Our first show in the series will include: 1. establishing that we have legitimate expertise in these areas 2. assessment recommendation experience of thousands of DWI offenders and other alcohol and other drug (AOD) related offenders, leading to the patent submission and ultimate approval by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) of the assessment invention “A Method for Assessing the Severity of Non-Addictive and Addictive Psychoactive Chemical Relationships” - the case management and referral side of that connected experience 3. The nature and connectedness of ‘addictive culture’ 4. We will present a state-of-the-art Chemical Dependency Model of understanding in order that listeners can develop a high-level understanding “What is ‘Chemical Dependency” and what signs and symptoms help describe the disorder. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/8/2021
Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse & the Magical Host, the Human Brain & Body Pt I
Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) has done a couple of shows over the last 18 years on the air that are connected to addiction and substance/chemical use misuse health issues. However, our interest here is to pivot to a series of shows we will be producing around a topic we feel touches on one of our society's greatest health issues, namely those around drinking and drugging (chemical use) and the potential of developing problematic or chemically dependent substance abuse health issues (chemical misuse). We introduce Patricia Bucko, a college graduate who majored in neuroscience, who joins us as our guest host to initiate and navigate us through a series of BLID shows connected to its theme “Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse & the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body.” Our first show in the series will include: 1. establishing that we have legitimate expertise in these areas 2. assessment recommendation experience of thousands of DWI offenders and other alcohol and other drug (AOD) related offenders, leading to the patent submission and ultimate approval by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) of the assessment invention “A Method for Assessing the Severity of Non-Addictive and Addictive Psychoactive Chemical Relationships” - the case management and referral side of that connected experience 3. The nature and connectedness of ‘addictive culture’ 4. We will present a state-of-the-art Chemical Dependency Model of understanding in order that listeners can develop a high-level understanding “What is ‘Chemical Dependency” and what signs and symptoms help describe the disorder. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/8/2021
The Cost of US Wars vs Their Profits
We are reminded time and time again how we cannot burden future generations with debts for massive social and infrastructure improvement plans. Yet a huge portion of our national debt comes from the cost of war in the form of compensating our troops for psychological and physical injuries since 9/11 ‘War on Terror’ and increasing US Pentagon military expenditures. The fact that we have done more to enable than to defeat terrorism worldwide has been the subject of other shows. Tonight, we examine the portion of the cost of war to the US economy and to our servicemen and women since George Bush declared the Global War of Terrorism (GWOT). Additionally we examine the privatization and concurrent profiteering that the war industry has employed that makes war profitable for an elite few regardless if the war is won or lost therefore creating the incentive as was done in Afghanistan to continue endless wars that destroy lives of millions but because of their profitability go on despite their known ‘unwinnable’ profile. Our guest Jeremy Kuzmarov, historian, professor and Managing Editor of Covert Action Magazine and the author of four books on U.S. foreign policy we discuss the implications of his article "Distancing Acts": Private Mercenaries and the War on Terror in American Foreign Policy", published in The Asia-Pacific Journal, that speaks to how the outsourcing of war and the corruption within its subcontracting has made windfall profits for those that benefit from the horrors of war. He also leads us through a discussion of systemic methods that new forms of colonialism has taken in its quest to sustain the great wealth divide at the direct cost of majority populations throughout the world including our country.. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/1/2021
The Cost of US Wars vs Their Profits
We are reminded time and time again how we cannot burden future generations with debts for massive social and infrastructure improvement plans. Yet a huge portion of our national debt comes from the cost of war in the form of compensating our troops for psychological and physical injuries since 9/11 ‘War on Terror’ and increasing US Pentagon military expenditures. The fact that we have done more to enable than to defeat terrorism worldwide has been the subject of other shows. Tonight, we examine the portion of the cost of war to the US economy and to our servicemen and women since George Bush declared the Global War of Terrorism (GWOT). Additionally we examine the privatization and concurrent profiteering that the war industry has employed that makes war profitable for an elite few regardless if the war is won or lost therefore creating the incentive as was done in Afghanistan to continue endless wars that destroy lives of millions but because of their profitability go on despite their known ‘unwinnable’ profile. Our guest Jeremy Kuzmarov, historian, professor and Managing Editor of Covert Action Magazine and the author of four books on U.S. foreign policy we discuss the implications of his article "Distancing Acts": Private Mercenaries and the War on Terror in American Foreign Policy", published in The Asia-Pacific Journal, that speaks to how the outsourcing of war and the corruption within its subcontracting has made windfall profits for those that benefit from the horrors of war. He also leads us through a discussion of systemic methods that new forms of colonialism has taken in its quest to sustain the great wealth divide at the direct cost of majority populations throughout the world including our country.. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/1/2021
Is US Drone Warfare an Illegal & Immoral Extension of a Bellicose US Foreign Policy that Demands Ethical Accountability?
Our guest Nick Mottern is a Vietnam veteran and has worked as a reporter, researcher, writer, and political organizer over the last 30 years. He manages a website devoted to education and organizing to stop drone warfare and surveillance www.KnowDrones.com. He was director of the 2012 national ‘Know Drones Tour’ and was an organizer of the 2013 April Days of Action and 2014 Spring Days of Action, and he publishes “The Drone Organizers Bulletin”. He provides stunning revelations & concerns. Our show focus includes the immorality of drone warfare, the psychological trauma associated with drone operators, and the US public that is so abstracted from the realities of the victims and communities worldwide that are subject to such attacks. The Afghan War our guest argues would have been over a long time ago if it had not been for drones. The prosecution and inhumane conditions now facing Daniel Hale who despite the presiding judge recommendation resulted in him being sent to a supermax Marion prison. The prison conditions he faces is not commensurate with his ‘crime’. Daniel Hale is a whistleblower who did not put at risk US national security by releasing ‘confidential’ papers. He revealed to the US public: 1. for the first time the “kill chain,” the bureaucratic process by which targets are selected to be summarily executed. 2. information that helped to expose the existence of the secret programs & that drone strikes killed many more innocent people than their supposed “targets”, & 3. that US citizens have been killed extrajudicially by drone strikes in violation of their constitutional rights to a trial. The reason Hale cited for pleading guilty is because the Espionage Act charges prevent a public interest defense. In other words, Hale’s lawyers were barred from arguing that the need of the public to be made aware of the criminal activities of the US government was more important than his obligation not to disclose classified information to anyone. Essentially Hale was forced to plead guilty in order to avoid potentially spending decades in federal prison. Whistleblowers are gagged from explaining their actions. Defense attorneys are barred from uttering the words “whistleblower” or “First Amendment” within earshot of the jury. Since all that matters for sustaining a conviction is that a defendant gave classified information to someone not entitled to receive it, that’s all the jury is allowed to hear. The result is often absolutely no accountability of US foreign policy crimes against humanity. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 10/25/2021
Is US Drone Warfare an Illegal & Immoral Extension of a Bellicose US Foreign Policy that Demands Ethical Accountability?
Our guest Nick Mottern is a Vietnam veteran and has worked as a reporter, researcher, writer, and political organizer over the last 30 years. He manages a website devoted to education and organizing to stop drone warfare and surveillance www.KnowDrones.com. He was director of the 2012 national ‘Know Drones Tour’ and was an organizer of the 2013 April Days of Action and 2014 Spring Days of Action, and he publishes “The Drone Organizers Bulletin”. He provides stunning revelations & concerns. Our show focus includes the immorality of drone warfare, the psychological trauma associated with drone operators, and the US public that is so abstracted from the realities of the victims and communities worldwide that are subject to such attacks. The Afghan War our guest argues would have been over a long time ago if it had not been for drones. The prosecution and inhumane conditions now facing Daniel Hale who despite the presiding judge recommendation resulted in him being sent to a supermax Marion prison. The prison conditions he faces is not commensurate with his ‘crime’. Daniel Hale is a whistleblower who did not put at risk US national security by releasing ‘confidential’ papers. He revealed to the US public: 1. for the first time the “kill chain,” the bureaucratic process by which targets are selected to be summarily executed. 2. information that helped to expose the existence of the secret programs & that drone strikes killed many more innocent people than their supposed “targets”, & 3. that US citizens have been killed extrajudicially by drone strikes in violation of their constitutional rights to a trial. The reason Hale cited for pleading guilty is because the Espionage Act charges prevent a public interest defense. In other words, Hale’s lawyers were barred from arguing that the need of the public to be made aware of the criminal activities of the US government was more important than his obligation not to disclose classified information to anyone. Essentially Hale was forced to plead guilty in order to avoid potentially spending decades in federal prison. Whistleblowers are gagged from explaining their actions. Defense attorneys are barred from uttering the words “whistleblower” or “First Amendment” within earshot of the jury. Since all that matters for sustaining a conviction is that a defendant gave classified information to someone not entitled to receive it, that’s all the jury is allowed to hear. The result is often absolutely no accountability of US foreign policy crimes against humanity. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 10/25/2021
Deconstructing the US Manufactured False Perceptions About US Foreign Policy in Syria & its 10-year Military Conflict
A history of US foreign policy in Syria and our media complicity in generating false US public perceptions surrounding Syria are challenged. Special guest and award-winning investigative journalist Mile Whitney joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to deconstruct the following premises and accusations. 1. The unchallenged premise that Assad started the conflict in 2011 as a result of Assad’s repression of democratic protests ln 2011 and that the US only then got involved in its foreign policy efforts to replace the Syrian government 2. That Assad was gassing his own people in March 2013 at Khan al Assal and again just months later in the August 21, 2013, much more deadly El Ghouta gas attacks that Secretary of State John Kerry claimed with absolute certainty was executed by Assad government. 3. That the Syrian conflict was a civil war between Syrians, and 4. we were supporting moderate rebels within that context 5. that Assad was profoundly unpopular, and the majority Syrian population wished him to be replaced. And only through repression does Assad stay in power. Instead, what we detail, and document is shocking. Namely that the backbone of military resistance to Assad were not Syrians but terrorist foreign fighters organized and armed by US and its Gulf monarchy allies. That we had never prioritized a war on terror but instead have enabled and enlisted terrorists as our allies in the pursuit to overthrow Assad. That the Syrian public knows that and supports Assad. All of this which is documented by polling we share during the show. That we started it, not Assad when it comes to how US foreign policy has been interfering in the internal affairs of Syria decades before the 2011 protests and in contradiction to what President Obama words in his 2015 UN General Assembly speech suggest. Don’t be played any longer when it comes to Syria. Tune in tonight and find out how we have been getting played. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 10/11/2021
Deconstructing the US Manufactured False Perceptions About US Foreign Policy in Syria & its 10-year Military Conflict
A history of US foreign policy in Syria and our media complicity in generating false US public perceptions surrounding Syria are challenged. Special guest and award-winning investigative journalist Mile Whitney joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to deconstruct the following premises and accusations. 1. The unchallenged premise that Assad started the conflict in 2011 as a result of Assad’s repression of democratic protests ln 2011 and that the US only then got involved in its foreign policy efforts to replace the Syrian government 2. That Assad was gassing his own people in March 2013 at Khan al Assal and again just months later in the August 21, 2013, much more deadly El Ghouta gas attacks that Secretary of State John Kerry claimed with absolute certainty was executed by Assad government. 3. That the Syrian conflict was a civil war between Syrians, and 4. we were supporting moderate rebels within that context 5. that Assad was profoundly unpopular, and the majority Syrian population wished him to be replaced. And only through repression does Assad stay in power. Instead, what we detail, and document is shocking. Namely that the backbone of military resistance to Assad were not Syrians but terrorist foreign fighters organized and armed by US and its Gulf monarchy allies. That we had never prioritized a war on terror but instead have enabled and enlisted terrorists as our allies in the pursuit to overthrow Assad. That the Syrian public knows that and supports Assad. All of this which is documented by polling we share during the show. That we started it, not Assad when it comes to how US foreign policy has been interfering in the internal affairs of Syria decades before the 2011 protests and in contradiction to what President Obama words in his 2015 UN General Assembly speech suggest. Don’t be played any longer when it comes to Syria. Tune in tonight and find out how we have been getting played. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 10/11/2021
The Pandora Papers: The Wealth Defense Industry & its Methods to Protect Hide & Expand Wealth Inequality
What type of political economic system during economic downturns produces as its initial and most consistent response, policies that rescue and compensate the losses of its most wealthy 1% while largely neglecting the interests of the 99% which include tens of millions of Americans on the brink of losing their jobs and their homes? Special guest, author, investigative journalist, and Director of Inequality.org Chuck Collins joins Bringing Light Into Darkness tonight to discuss the Pandora Papers and to unveil the hidden wealth system and its techniques of hiding and protecting that wealth from proper taxation. The impact is that the rest of the public picks up that tab. The 'Pandora Papers' are a trove of some 12 million records, revealing and exposing the finances of the world’s wealthy elite. Chuck Collins is author of the book, The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions. Gross wealth inequality arguably is the greatest poison to democracy everywhere and it is one of the most underreported news items within our mainstream media, whose job it seems is to distract attention from this profound unfairness. Our guest shares the fact that 70% or more of US citizens support the concept that the richest should pay their fair share of taxes yet it does not happen. We discuss how such levels of wealth disparity distorts any chance of democracy in such a way that the majority interest and will is overwhelmed and trumped by the power of wealth in such a way that the political system becomes incapable of implementing the will of the majority population. It shows how much the power of wealth can block democratic change. Our guest describes this profoundly undemocratic reality this way, “I think part of the pickle we are in is as wealth concentrates in fewer hands, those wealthy people deploy their power, their wealth and power to rig the rules to get more wealth and power. It becomes kind of a vicious cycle.” This show unveils how wealth translates into power as well as the tools the ‘wealth defense industry’ has at its disposal, and how this hidden wealth system acts against the popular will and best interest of the majority population. This profoundly negative impact on democracy is realized by increasingly blocking opportunities for everyone else. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 10/11/2021
The Pandora Papers: The Wealth Defense Industry & its Methods to Protect Hide & Expand Wealth Inequality
What type of political economic system during economic downturns produces as its initial and most consistent response, policies that rescue and compensate the losses of its most wealthy 1% while largely neglecting the interests of the 99% which include tens of millions of Americans on the brink of losing their jobs and their homes? Special guest, author, investigative journalist, and Director of Inequality.org Chuck Collins joins Bringing Light Into Darkness tonight to discuss the Pandora Papers and to unveil the hidden wealth system and its techniques of hiding and protecting that wealth from proper taxation. The impact is that the rest of the public picks up that tab. The 'Pandora Papers' are a trove of some 12 million records, revealing and exposing the finances of the world’s wealthy elite. Chuck Collins is author of the book, The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions. Gross wealth inequality arguably is the greatest poison to democracy everywhere and it is one of the most underreported news items within our mainstream media, whose job it seems is to distract attention from this profound unfairness. Our guest shares the fact that 70% or more of US citizens support the concept that the richest should pay their fair share of taxes yet it does not happen. We discuss how such levels of wealth disparity distorts any chance of democracy in such a way that the majority interest and will is overwhelmed and trumped by the power of wealth in such a way that the political system becomes incapable of implementing the will of the majority population. It shows how much the power of wealth can block democratic change. Our guest describes this profoundly undemocratic reality this way, “I think part of the pickle we are in is as wealth concentrates in fewer hands, those wealthy people deploy their power, their wealth and power to rig the rules to get more wealth and power. It becomes kind of a vicious cycle.” This show unveils how wealth translates into power as well as the tools the ‘wealth defense industry’ has at its disposal, and how this hidden wealth system acts against the popular will and best interest of the majority population. This profoundly negative impact on democracy is realized by increasingly blocking opportunities for everyone else. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 10/11/2021
Honduran Elections & Human Rights Under US Friendly Governments since 2009 & whether Summit for Democracy is a Summit for Hypocrisy With special guest Simon Elliot with the Center for Policy Research: His research interests include social movements, elections, and US intervention in Latin America. He holds both a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish and an M.P.A from Clark University. Our show focus is on the difference of NPR and Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) as they each cover US foreign policy influences. We suggest that compared to NPR, BLID provides the light that they miss by bringing you historical context that they generally leave out and without which it becomes difficult or impossible to get close to the truth. For instance, they uncritically report this past week promoting the 12/9 & 10th, Summit for Democracy as a virtual summit hosted by the United States to renew democracy at home and confront autocracies abroad and its three themes are defending against authoritarianism, addressing, and fighting corruption, and advancing respect for human rights. BLID suggests one simple question that is never asked regarding measuring the democratic or undemocratic influence our foreign policy projects: “Are you better off now or before our US foreign policy exercised its enormous power to bring its preferred leader to power.” While the Biden administration and the loyal MSM were celebrating the same old bipartisan canard, symbolizing that the US is good and fights evil everywhere, our show tonight explains with empirical documentation the outcomes for the majority populations in a host of countries we have intervened in this century. Haiti, Ecuador, Bolivia, Iraq, Libya, and Honduras. These measurable results in a half dozen nations reveal a hidden truth, that if democracy benefits the majority and our FP consistently disenfranchises the majority and enriches a minority than are we a democracy? Its time to take responsibility for our FP but to do so we must see it, bring light to it. Please join us tonight as our guest Simon Elliot with the Center for Policy Research, who just returned from Honduras after observing their recent elections educates us to the election, human rights, and corruption history in Honduras and US foreign policy influences there since the 2009 US enabled coup until today. All of this in the context of the Summit for Democracy backdrop. After you listen to the show you will know what to believe and what to question regarding the Summit. Don’t be Late!
Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 12/13/2021
Honduran Elections & Human Rights Under US Friendly Governments since 2009 & whether Summit for Democracy is a Summit for Hypocrisy With special guest Simon Elliot with the Center for Policy Research: His research interests include social movements, elections, and US intervention in Latin America. He holds both a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish and an M.P.A from Clark University. Our show focus is on the difference of NPR and Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) as they each cover US foreign policy influences. We suggest that compared to NPR, BLID provides the light that they miss by bringing you historical context that they generally leave out and without which it becomes difficult or impossible to get close to the truth. For instance, they uncritically report this past week promoting the 12/9 & 10th, Summit for Democracy as a virtual summit hosted by the United States to renew democracy at home and confront autocracies abroad and its three themes are defending against authoritarianism, addressing, and fighting corruption, and advancing respect for human rights. BLID suggests one simple question that is never asked regarding measuring the democratic or undemocratic influence our foreign policy projects: “Are you better off now or before our US foreign policy exercised its enormous power to bring its preferred leader to power.” While the Biden administration and the loyal MSM were celebrating the same old bipartisan canard, symbolizing that the US is good and fights evil everywhere, our show tonight explains with empirical documentation the outcomes for the majority populations in a host of countries we have intervened in this century. Haiti, Ecuador, Bolivia, Iraq, Libya, and Honduras. These measurable results in a half dozen nations reveal a hidden truth, that if democracy benefits the majority and our FP consistently disenfranchises the majority and enriches a minority than are we a democracy? Its time to take responsibility for our FP but to do so we must see it, bring light to it. Please join us tonight as our guest Simon Elliot with the Center for Policy Research, who just returned from Honduras after observing their recent elections educates us to the election, human rights, and corruption history in Honduras and US foreign policy influences there since the 2009 US enabled coup until today. All of this in the context of the Summit for Democracy backdrop. After you listen to the show you will know what to believe and what to question regarding the Summit. Don’t be Late!
Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 12/13/2021
Occupy Wall Street 10th Anniversary & the False Reconstruction of IED Iran Demonizing to Falsely Rationalize Soleimani Assassination Special guest, author and award winning investigative journalist Dave Lindorff joins Bringing Light Into Darkness tonight to address the excessive repression and violence that went largely unreported in the suppression of the two month long Occupy Wall Street (OWS) peaceful protests of ten years ago that called out the economic policies of our country and its history which have unfairly benefitted the richest "one percent" at the direct cost to the 99% and have framed the public dialogue to avoid acknowledging and examining this profound contradiction to liberty, democracy and the pursuit of happiness. The contradiction of the US having the most unequal wealth of the advanced OECD nations, along with the highest poverty and child poverty rates is juxtaposed with the fact that we are the wealthiest nation, materially speaking, of the world. We review articles written by our guest on the subject, including his 9/15/2021 piece, 10 Years on — How Occupy Wall Street Ended: Clampdown by Obama that Trump Emulated. We also review the focus of a 2/13/2007 piece he wrote on Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), Iran Charges: Lying White House and Credulous Media by Dave Lindorff (source: opednews.com) and the false image making that sought to portray Iran as their major manufacturers and reason so many Americans were dying and getting severely injured in the Iraq post invasion setting. It also has recently been reconstituted to ‘justify’ the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani in January 2020 rather than considering the argument that it was a result of state terrorism by the US government. We discuss what other motives were more likely responsible for his assassination and let you decide. We review Lindorff’s claim that there was a White House led nationally coordinated campaign to disrupt and crush the Occupy Movement. What type and to what degree was the repression of Occupy Wall Street that resulted in some 7000 arrests? Why did the press fail to report this with accuracy and why and how was many of the press kept from covering OWS repression? When peaceful protest can be so violently repressed, as our guest describes, yet there is no reporting of the techniques used by the Obama administration for us to learn from what does that say about democracy and dissent in the USA?
Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 10/04/2021
Occupy Wall Street 10th Anniversary & the False Reconstruction of IED Iran Demonizing to Falsely Rationalize Soleimani Assassination Special guest, author and award winning investigative journalist Dave Lindorff joins Bringing Light Into Darkness tonight to address the excessive repression and violence that went largely unreported in the suppression of the two month long Occupy Wall Street (OWS) peaceful protests of ten years ago that called out the economic policies of our country and its history which have unfairly benefitted the richest "one percent" at the direct cost to the 99% and have framed the public dialogue to avoid acknowledging and examining this profound contradiction to liberty, democracy and the pursuit of happiness. The contradiction of the US having the most unequal wealth of the advanced OECD nations, along with the highest poverty and child poverty rates is juxtaposed with the fact that we are the wealthiest nation, materially speaking, of the world. We review articles written by our guest on the subject, including his 9/15/2021 piece, 10 Years on — How Occupy Wall Street Ended: Clampdown by Obama that Trump Emulated. We also review the focus of a 2/13/2007 piece he wrote on Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), Iran Charges: Lying White House and Credulous Media by Dave Lindorff (source: opednews.com) and the false image making that sought to portray Iran as their major manufacturers and reason so many Americans were dying and getting severely injured in the Iraq post invasion setting. It also has recently been reconstituted to ‘justify’ the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani in January 2020 rather than considering the argument that it was a result of state terrorism by the US government. We discuss what other motives were more likely responsible for his assassination and let you decide. We review Lindorff’s claim that there was a White House led nationally coordinated campaign to disrupt and crush the Occupy Movement. What type and to what degree was the repression of Occupy Wall Street that resulted in some 7000 arrests? Why did the press fail to report this with accuracy and why and how was many of the press kept from covering OWS repression? When peaceful protest can be so violently repressed, as our guest describes, yet there is no reporting of the techniques used by the Obama administration for us to learn from what does that say about democracy and dissent in the USA?
Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 10/04/2021
The Other 9-11 (1973): The US Assassination of Salvador Allende & Methods revealed within the US Foreign Policy Toolkit of Subversion Chilean born Ricardo Venegas shares his Latin American expertise and experiences growing up in post-coup Chile and the history surrounding the rise of Salvador Allende and the Popular Unity Party despite US foreign policy of destabilizing the democratic will of the Chilean people. Tonight’s show describes how US foreign policy and the techniques it utilized, would forbid the elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende from carrying out the mandates of the collective interests of the majority population. Henry Kissinger led the US foreign policy efforts that led to the overthrow Allende in a 9/11/1973 coup, the goal and mission of which was not to protect democracy but to betray it by instead protecting the interests behind a billion dollars of US investment in Chile. Kissinger oversaw and largely directed a US foreign policy that included “the CIA penetrating virtually every sector of Chilean life throughout the society”. With respect to the subversion and penetration of Chilean labor movement: “In cooperation with and often under cover supplied by the AFL-CIO, the CIA had infiltrated the labor movement…108 leaders of the white-collar trade associations received training in the US from the American Institute of Free Labor Development (AIFLD) an agency that according to former CIA agent Phillip Agee was set up by the AFL-CIO under the control of the CIA.” “Other funds went into support of strikes and demonstrations that plagued the Allende regime”, including, “In 1972 the organizers of the Confederation of Truck Owners strike also receiving CIA money, in order to allow them to pay strike benefits during the 26-day nationwide truck strike,“ that paralyzed the economy. Additionally, “CIA operatives had bought their way into the local press; the country’s largest newspaper El Mercurio, was a regular recipient of CIA funds. Other operatives maintained regular liaison with the Chilean military and police services.” In April 1971 the CIA funded the fascist group, Patria y Libertad which began “stepping up a campaign of sabotaging factory equipment to hobble the economy.” All of the above subversive US invasions of the Chilean civil society are documented by Robert Borosage and John Marks in their 1976 book The CIA File and are all elements of what Brazilian ‘think tank’ head, Dr Glycon de Paiva described in a late 1973 Washington Post interview as, “the recipe exists, and you can bake the cake anytime.” Today we continue to bake and improve the illegal and undemocratic recipe. On some seven different occasions payments that together totaled more than $1m, between 9/8/1970 and 7/6/1971, authorized by the Kissinger led “Committee of 40” to subvert the Chilean electoral process. Monies were authorized in support of opposition candidates to the Popular Unity Party, particularly the Christian Democratic Party. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 9/27/2021
The Other 9-11 (1973): The US Assassination of Salvador Allende & Methods revealed within the US Foreign Policy Toolkit of Subversion Chilean born Ricardo Venegas shares his Latin American expertise and experiences growing up in post-coup Chile and the history surrounding the rise of Salvador Allende and the Popular Unity Party despite US foreign policy of destabilizing the democratic will of the Chilean people. Tonight’s show describes how US foreign policy and the techniques it utilized, would forbid the elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende from carrying out the mandates of the collective interests of the majority population. Henry Kissinger led the US foreign policy efforts that led to the overthrow Allende in a 9/11/1973 coup, the goal and mission of which was not to protect democracy but to betray it by instead protecting the interests behind a billion dollars of US investment in Chile. Kissinger oversaw and largely directed a US foreign policy that included “the CIA penetrating virtually every sector of Chilean life throughout the society”. With respect to the subversion and penetration of Chilean labor movement: “In cooperation with and often under cover supplied by the AFL-CIO, the CIA had infiltrated the labor movement…108 leaders of the white-collar trade associations received training in the US from the American Institute of Free Labor Development (AIFLD) an agency that according to former CIA agent Phillip Agee was set up by the AFL-CIO under the control of the CIA.” “Other funds went into support of strikes and demonstrations that plagued the Allende regime”, including, “In 1972 the organizers of the Confederation of Truck Owners strike also receiving CIA money, in order to allow them to pay strike benefits during the 26-day nationwide truck strike,“ that paralyzed the economy. Additionally, “CIA operatives had bought their way into the local press; the country’s largest newspaper El Mercurio, was a regular recipient of CIA funds. Other operatives maintained regular liaison with the Chilean military and police services.” In April 1971 the CIA funded the fascist group, Patria y Libertad which began “stepping up a campaign of sabotaging factory equipment to hobble the economy.” All of the above subversive US invasions of the Chilean civil society are documented by Robert Borosage and John Marks in their 1976 book The CIA File and are all elements of what Brazilian ‘think tank’ head, Dr Glycon de Paiva described in a late 1973 Washington Post interview as, “the recipe exists, and you can bake the cake anytime.” Today we continue to bake and improve the illegal and undemocratic recipe. On some seven different occasions payments that together totaled more than $1m, between 9/8/1970 and 7/6/1971, authorized by the Kissinger led “Committee of 40” to subvert the Chilean electoral process. Monies were authorized in support of opposition candidates to the Popular Unity Party, particularly the Christian Democratic Party. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 9/27/2021
The Hidden Truths of Gross Wealth Inequality Reveals the Character of a Political Economic System – Membership Drive Pedro Gatos and guest Undercover Greg Ciotti discuss this story that is hidden from the US public and is never pursued by MSM, namely Wealth Inequality as the central theme of this KOOP Membership Drive BLID show. We cite a number of sources including a Oxfam1/20/20 report entitled Time To Care. It focuses on the impact that unpaid and underpaid care work has on the prospects and livelihoods of women and girls across the world and how that’s driving growing inequality. The Oxfam report reveals shocking inequalities. The richest 1% in the world have more than double the wealth of 6.9 billion people. Among that 1% are the world’s 2,153 billionaires, who in 2019 had more wealth than 4.6 billion people. Women and girls put in 12.5 billion hours of unpaid work every day. Women’s unpaid care work has a monetary value of $10.8 trillion a year, and simply taxing an extra 0.5% of the wealth of the richest 1% could help massively. What was the purpose in creating BLID? A passion to address the understanding that nearly all human misery is created by human behavior rather than by natural disasters. Meanwhile gross wealth inequality has created immense human misery. BLID primary focus is on US foreign policy issues and their impact on majority population interests in those countries we intervene in. The darkness is the informational prejudice presented by our MSM which is a connected theme. Namely that the media serve, and as we document in the show are owned by a minority interest. “Why would they be invested in trying to solve the riddle of eliminating ‘human created misery’ when their job is really to obfuscate the important issues we are talking about, including wealth disparity?” Herbert Marcuse described this informational prejudice as a ‘closed universe of discourse’ which essentially disallows dissent form the dominant narratives protecting the wealth disparity and forces responsible for the lion’s share of human misery. Moreover, when you look at since January 2020 when Covid pandemic hit the USA what has transpired? Have the needs of the most vulnerable been protected? No, instead the 600 plus billionaires have seen their wealth climb to some 4.2T a 44% increase in one year. Meanwhile 40 million people filed for unemployment during the pandemic. Business Insider in a separate piece 7/28/20 explained how billionaires got 637B richer during the pandemic. The same transfer of wealth to the richest .01% occurred in the housing bubble burst, the 2007 recession. This is the nature and, by definition, the character of an inhumane system we have been acculturated to defend as a democracy! Pedro shares an important analogy between the emotionally dysfunctional provoking distress buttons in the psyche of both, members of families that have lived within the trauma and distress that is often experienced in families dealing with an untreated chemically dependent family member and a similar irrationality instilled by US government and media driven mantras that lack evidence but through mere repetition of empty allegations teach us to accept them as (false) truths. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 9/20/2021
The Hidden Truths of Gross Wealth Inequality Reveals the Character of a Political Economic System – Membership Drive Pedro Gatos and guest Undercover Greg Ciotti discuss this story that is hidden from the US public and is never pursued by MSM, namely Wealth Inequality as the central theme of this KOOP Membership Drive BLID show. We cite a number of sources including a Oxfam1/20/20 report entitled Time To Care. It focuses on the impact that unpaid and underpaid care work has on the prospects and livelihoods of women and girls across the world and how that’s driving growing inequality. The Oxfam report reveals shocking inequalities. The richest 1% in the world have more than double the wealth of 6.9 billion people. Among that 1% are the world’s 2,153 billionaires, who in 2019 had more wealth than 4.6 billion people. Women and girls put in 12.5 billion hours of unpaid work every day. Women’s unpaid care work has a monetary value of $10.8 trillion a year, and simply taxing an extra 0.5% of the wealth of the richest 1% could help massively. What was the purpose in creating BLID? A passion to address the understanding that nearly all human misery is created by human behavior rather than by natural disasters. Meanwhile gross wealth inequality has created immense human misery. BLID primary focus is on US foreign policy issues and their impact on majority population interests in those countries we intervene in. The darkness is the informational prejudice presented by our MSM which is a connected theme. Namely that the media serve, and as we document in the show are owned by a minority interest. “Why would they be invested in trying to solve the riddle of eliminating ‘human created misery’ when their job is really to obfuscate the important issues we are talking about, including wealth disparity?” Herbert Marcuse described this informational prejudice as a ‘closed universe of discourse’ which essentially disallows dissent form the dominant narratives protecting the wealth disparity and forces responsible for the lion’s share of human misery. Moreover, when you look at since January 2020 when Covid pandemic hit the USA what has transpired? Have the needs of the most vulnerable been protected? No, instead the 600 plus billionaires have seen their wealth climb to some 4.2T a 44% increase in one year. Meanwhile 40 million people filed for unemployment during the pandemic. Business Insider in a separate piece 7/28/20 explained how billionaires got 637B richer during the pandemic. The same transfer of wealth to the richest .01% occurred in the housing bubble burst, the 2007 recession. This is the nature and, by definition, the character of an inhumane system we have been acculturated to defend as a democracy! Pedro shares an important analogy between the emotionally dysfunctional provoking distress buttons in the psyche of both, members of families that have lived within the trauma and distress that is often experienced in families dealing with an untreated chemically dependent family member and a similar irrationality instilled by US government and media driven mantras that lack evidence but through mere repetition of empty allegations teach us to accept them as (false) truths. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 9/20/2021
Our Perception of Julian Assange, WikiLeaks & US Foreign Policy: Are They Connected Misperceptions? Our perceptions of Julian Assange’s character, the importance of WikiLeaks and the character of US foreign policy initiatives by our US government revelations are arguably all misperceptions. Tonight, our BLID show shares the evidence for this suggestion. Our guest is Ray McGovern s a CIA analyst for 27 years during the administrations of JFK to that of George H.W. Bush. Ray’s duties included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President’s Daily Brief, which he briefed one-on-one to President Reagan’s five most senior national security advisers from 1981 to 1985. The narrative that our government has promoted and that our MSM has enabled and that has created the majority perception of the US public is that Assange may be guilty of sexually assaulting two women in Sweden and that he has put our national security at risk through irresponsibly publishing state secrets. But are these facts or fictions? There is a different interpretation of both the character of Julian Assange and his actions as a publisher that suggest he is a victim of slander and that he is being persecuted rather than prosecuted based on quality evidence. Our investigation suggests we have a MSM that has enabled egregious foreign policy crimes by our government that has allowed higher crimes to consistently be committed by our US foreign policy outside of the awareness of the US public. That because of the revelations of the Pentagon Papers and the Afghan Papers and of WikiLeaks/Assange what has been revealed is a consistent pattern of lying to the US public by our government as well as the real impact of our foreign policy as one that is antithetical to democracy and the public good. Could this be the real motive to go after Assange by slandering his character with unsupported charges of sexual violence? Should governments that have a pattern committing war crimes or have a pattern of promoting unjust wars and conflicts that result consistently in undermining the quality of life in the countries that we intervene in, should such a pattern of behavior be allowed to be hidden from public scrutiny & accountability? Who should we really be prosecuting? Is Assange on trial for telling the truth in the interest of revealing said war crimes, which makes his work consistent and indispensable to the public interest to know what our government policy is doing as it is executed in foreign lands? Please join us tonight and judge this show’s content, as our guest Ray McGovern leads us in this inquiry. We feature a five-minute audio clip by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture specific to the sex crime allegations made against Julian Assange.
Our Perception of Julian Assange, WikiLeaks & US Foreign Policy: Are They Connected Misperceptions? Our perceptions of Julian Assange’s character, the importance of WikiLeaks and the character of US foreign policy initiatives by our US government revelations are arguably all misperceptions. Tonight, our BLID show shares the evidence for this suggestion. Our guest is Ray McGovern s a CIA analyst for 27 years during the administrations of JFK to that of George H.W. Bush. Ray’s duties included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President’s Daily Brief, which he briefed one-on-one to President Reagan’s five most senior national security advisers from 1981 to 1985. The narrative that our government has promoted and that our MSM has enabled and that has created the majority perception of the US public is that Assange may be guilty of sexually assaulting two women in Sweden and that he has put our national security at risk through irresponsibly publishing state secrets. But are these facts or fictions? There is a different interpretation of both the character of Julian Assange and his actions as a publisher that suggest he is a victim of slander and that he is being persecuted rather than prosecuted based on quality evidence. Our investigation suggests we have a MSM that has enabled egregious foreign policy crimes by our government that has allowed higher crimes to consistently be committed by our US foreign policy outside of the awareness of the US public. That because of the revelations of the Pentagon Papers and the Afghan Papers and of WikiLeaks/Assange what has been revealed is a consistent pattern of lying to the US public by our government as well as the real impact of our foreign policy as one that is antithetical to democracy and the public good. Could this be the real motive to go after Assange by slandering his character with unsupported charges of sexual violence? Should governments that have a pattern committing war crimes or have a pattern of promoting unjust wars and conflicts that result consistently in undermining the quality of life in the countries that we intervene in, should such a pattern of behavior be allowed to be hidden from public scrutiny & accountability? Who should we really be prosecuting? Is Assange on trial for telling the truth in the interest of revealing said war crimes, which makes his work consistent and indispensable to the public interest to know what our government policy is doing as it is executed in foreign lands? Please join us tonight and judge this show’s content, as our guest Ray McGovern leads us in this inquiry. We feature a five-minute audio clip by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture specific to the sex crime allegations made against Julian Assange.
Means, Methods & Discoveries of BLID Investigative Journalism Tonight’s show we do something a little bit different. While our focus will be on current foreign policy issues and how they impact the world around us in ways we are not generally aware of, we have also woven into the (this) show some reflections on the purpose of the show on what is its intent and methodology. World gross wealth inequality has created tremendous amounts of preventable human misery. Bringing Light into Darkness (BLID) focuses primarily on US and world foreign policy issues, their impact on humanity and the historical factors that created such wealth disparities. The darkness is the informational prejudice that Herbert Marcuse described many years ago as a’ universe of informational discourse without opposition’. That certain information, important and contradictory information is largely kept out of that universe of information that has been made available to US news consumers. That which we do not know we cannot consider. Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) seeks to bring to light exactly that, important ‘pieces of the puzzle’, historically and currently speaking, that are generally ignored, misrepresented, or exaggerated. When Sherlock Holmes was trying to solve a crime, he would often turn to his assistant Watson and say, “Watson we need data, data, data more data Watson!” BLID seeks to provide that data necessary to explain and define the crime, so it can then be corrected. The crime we seek to resolve is why is most human misery in the world created not by natural causes but by human behavior? And a major actor we have empirically discovered to be at the heart of generating so much human misery is US & Western foreign policy outcomes. We are told that our foreign policy promotes democracy, but we have discovered something different. Our method of investigation into the character of our US foreign policy and its interventions worldwide is primarily predicated not on how those interventions impact the few, but instead by examining empirically what impact, what outcomes have these interventions had on the majority population interests of each country we have intervened in. Put simply it is as Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan asked at the debate with Jimmy Carter, on 10/28/1980, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” We use the same measuring stick and present half dozen or more case studies of US foreign policy outcomes accordingly. The outcome is undeniable and in complete contradiction to the mantra that we seek to promote democracy. Please join us tonight and judge this show’s content and help make those accountable who have betrayed our democracy,
Means, Methods & Discoveries of BLID Investigative Journalism Tonight’s show we do something a little bit different. While our focus will be on current foreign policy issues and how they impact the world around us in ways we are not generally aware of, we have also woven into the (this) show some reflections on the purpose of the show on what is its intent and methodology. World gross wealth inequality has created tremendous amounts of preventable human misery. Bringing Light into Darkness (BLID) focuses primarily on US and world foreign policy issues, their impact on humanity and the historical factors that created such wealth disparities. The darkness is the informational prejudice that Herbert Marcuse described many years ago as a’ universe of informational discourse without opposition’. That certain information, important and contradictory information is largely kept out of that universe of information that has been made available to US news consumers. That which we do not know we cannot consider. Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) seeks to bring to light exactly that, important ‘pieces of the puzzle’, historically and currently speaking, that are generally ignored, misrepresented, or exaggerated. When Sherlock Holmes was trying to solve a crime, he would often turn to his assistant Watson and say, “Watson we need data, data, data more data Watson!” BLID seeks to provide that data necessary to explain and define the crime, so it can then be corrected. The crime we seek to resolve is why is most human misery in the world created not by natural causes but by human behavior? And a major actor we have empirically discovered to be at the heart of generating so much human misery is US & Western foreign policy outcomes. We are told that our foreign policy promotes democracy, but we have discovered something different. Our method of investigation into the character of our US foreign policy and its interventions worldwide is primarily predicated not on how those interventions impact the few, but instead by examining empirically what impact, what outcomes have these interventions had on the majority population interests of each country we have intervened in. Put simply it is as Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan asked at the debate with Jimmy Carter, on 10/28/1980, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” We use the same measuring stick and present half dozen or more case studies of US foreign policy outcomes accordingly. The outcome is undeniable and in complete contradiction to the mantra that we seek to promote democracy. Please join us tonight and judge this show’s content and help make those accountable who have betrayed our democracy,
US Foreign Policy & the Deceitful Presentation of our ‘War on Terrorism’ & of Iran in Iraq & Syria as a Prelude to War Bringing Light Into Darkness continues to bring forth the ‘light’ of concrete examples of the fact that what we are told or led to believe about our “adversaries” by our government and the mainstream media which fails us, are so often untruths and misrepresentations. Dr Muhammad Sahimi leads a discussion on the recent misrepresentations surrounding the assassination of General Qatem Soleimani in January 2020 as well as the ‘rationale’ used by the Biden Administration for June 2021 airstrikes. Current considerations regarding Iran’s nuclear behavior in response to US unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA are presented that contradict the MSM led image making that it is Iran that is acting outside of international legal expectations. Is our foreign policy actions towards Iran about provoking a response that would give us an excuse to attack Iran or is it based on reasonable diplomatic expectations from both sides? Was General Soleimani deserving of being assassinated as a war enemy of the United States or was it an act of State Terrorism? Would a closer understanding of the truth reveal Soleimani instead as a national hero of Iran whose military strategic skills were invited to come to Iraq to help Iraq deal with an impending takeover of ISIS as well as help to train Shiite militias from Pakistan and Afghanistan to help fight terrorist forces fighting the Syrian government on behalf of US foreign policy interests ? The history of the creation of the Taliban and the Mujahedin by US has its roots with our relationship with Shah of Iran and their ruthless SAVAK intelligence arm. Is it true we created the very terrorist forces of al qaeda and the Taliban that most Americans believe we are so committed to defeat? What Senate testimony did Hillary Clinton testify to that further confirms the Untied States complicity in the very terrorism we all deplore?
Our well informed and studied guest, Dr. Muhammad Sahimi provides an array of important insights and reminds us why if you want to get much closer to the truth you are well-advised to tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness every Monday night at 6-7pm CST on 91.7 FM in Austin Texas and through koop.org on the worldwide web, if you do not want to be played by our major media again and again. So please, listen in and study the content of our show and join the discussion by emailing the show and tell us what you think.
US Foreign Policy & the Deceitful Presentation of our ‘War on Terrorism’ & of Iran in Iraq & Syria as a Prelude to War Bringing Light Into Darkness continues to bring forth the ‘light’ of concrete examples of the fact that what we are told or led to believe about our “adversaries” by our government and the mainstream media which fails us, are so often untruths and misrepresentations. Dr Muhammad Sahimi leads a discussion on the recent misrepresentations surrounding the assassination of General Qatem Soleimani in January 2020 as well as the ‘rationale’ used by the Biden Administration for June 2021 airstrikes. Current considerations regarding Iran’s nuclear behavior in response to US unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA are presented that contradict the MSM led image making that it is Iran that is acting outside of international legal expectations. Is our foreign policy actions towards Iran about provoking a response that would give us an excuse to attack Iran or is it based on reasonable diplomatic expectations from both sides? Was General Soleimani deserving of being assassinated as a war enemy of the United States or was it an act of State Terrorism? Would a closer understanding of the truth reveal Soleimani instead as a national hero of Iran whose military strategic skills were invited to come to Iraq to help Iraq deal with an impending takeover of ISIS as well as help to train Shiite militias from Pakistan and Afghanistan to help fight terrorist forces fighting the Syrian government on behalf of US foreign policy interests ? The history of the creation of the Taliban and the Mujahedin by US has its roots with our relationship with Shah of Iran and their ruthless SAVAK intelligence arm. Is it true we created the very terrorist forces of al qaeda and the Taliban that most Americans believe we are so committed to defeat? What Senate testimony did Hillary Clinton testify to that further confirms the Untied States complicity in the very terrorism we all deplore?
Our well informed and studied guest, Dr. Muhammad Sahimi provides an array of important insights and reminds us why if you want to get much closer to the truth you are well-advised to tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness every Monday night at 6-7pm CST on 91.7 FM in Austin Texas and through koop.org on the worldwide web, if you do not want to be played by our major media again and again. So please, listen in and study the content of our show and join the discussion by emailing the show and tell us what you think.
The Deceitful Presentation of the Afghan War, Profiteering & the Cost to Afghani Majority Population Pt II of II
We continue our dialogue and interview with former Marine and former employee of the US State Department and Defense Department Matthew Hoh regarding the Afghanistan coverage and false image making our major media have been presenting to the US public. Our news segment begins with an overview of the impact of the Covid pandemic on women throughout the world of $800B in lost income in 2020 as well as 6x increase in famine like conditions since the pandemic began resulting in 11 people dying every minute from hunger, outpacing Covid fatalities’ which are 7 per minute. Meanwhile during the pandemic, we document how ‘global billionaires have seen their wealth some $5.5 trillion dollars during that same 16-month period an increase of more than the 15 years prior to the pandemic. This is the character of the world economy that a small elite class has benefitted from The news segment also details how the Iraq economy was looted through Paul Bremer’s ‘100 orders’, all after the illegitimate invasion and the sanctions that preceded it all resulted in more than a million Iraqi deaths. Our guest was there and compares that form of Iraq pillaging with Afghanistan and the free trade agreements we have promoted or considered that promote greater world inequality while promoting profiteering. Our guest presents the false duality of options between theocratic repressive government led by the Taliban and the kleptocratic regime made up of warlords and drug lords that our US intervention has created. And additionally highlights the complicity of the US and West in that corruption, as well as how the mainstream media place an essential role in generating the profound ignorance around issues we document. Our well informed and studied guest, Matt Hoh provides an array of important insights and reminds us why if you want to get much closer to the truth you are well-advised to tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness every Monday night at 6-7pm CST on 91.7 FM in Austin Texas and through koop.org on the worldwide web, if you do not want to be played by our major media again and again.
The Deceitful Presentation of the Afghan War, Profiteering & the Cost to Afghani Majority Population Pt II of II
We continue our dialogue and interview with former Marine and former employee of the US State Department and Defense Department Matthew Hoh regarding the Afghanistan coverage and false image making our major media have been presenting to the US public. Our news segment begins with an overview of the impact of the Covid pandemic on women throughout the world of $800B in lost income in 2020 as well as 6x increase in famine like conditions since the pandemic began resulting in 11 people dying every minute from hunger, outpacing Covid fatalities’ which are 7 per minute. Meanwhile during the pandemic, we document how ‘global billionaires have seen their wealth some $5.5 trillion dollars during that same 16-month period an increase of more than the 15 years prior to the pandemic. This is the character of the world economy that a small elite class has benefitted from The news segment also details how the Iraq economy was looted through Paul Bremer’s ‘100 orders’, all after the illegitimate invasion and the sanctions that preceded it all resulted in more than a million Iraqi deaths. Our guest was there and compares that form of Iraq pillaging with Afghanistan and the free trade agreements we have promoted or considered that promote greater world inequality while promoting profiteering. Our guest presents the false duality of options between theocratic repressive government led by the Taliban and the kleptocratic regime made up of warlords and drug lords that our US intervention has created. And additionally highlights the complicity of the US and West in that corruption, as well as how the mainstream media place an essential role in generating the profound ignorance around issues we document. Our well informed and studied guest, Matt Hoh provides an array of important insights and reminds us why if you want to get much closer to the truth you are well-advised to tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness every Monday night at 6-7pm CST on 91.7 FM in Austin Texas and through koop.org on the worldwide web, if you do not want to be played by our major media again and again.
The Afghan Papers & the Real Cost of the Afghan War reveal a long Pattern of Govt & Media Lies & omissions: Myth of Women’s Rights Progress; Cost of War- US Casualties, Suicide Rates, Privatizing War & does War as an Economic Windfall explain its Real Motive?
Over $2.2T is the estimated cost of the longest war in US history, the Afghan War. These monies are largely unaccounted for, and we reveal where does it go. The Afghan Papers,12/9/19 Washington Post article At War with the Truth, by Craig Whitlock is reviewed and reveals a concerted effort to intentionally mislead the US public by high government and military officials just as had been done in Vietnam and was done concurrently in Iraq and Libya. A long list of sourced quotes is presented to verify this reality. It is hard to escape the reasonable conclusion that this deceit to promote US foreign policy interventions is the nature of rather than an aberration of our dominant informational sources. Our guest Matthew Hoh served in Iraq and in Afghanistan as a Marine as well as served in our US State Department joins us as we reveal how war makes money for a small elite as we also detail the costs in human suffering to our veterans put in harm’s way. Suicide rates, the privatizing of military operations line the pockets of some while millions have perished in the countries, we have intervened in. Meanwhile, mainstream media push false narratives that we have worked so hard to promote women’s rights and now the Taliban will reverse all of that rather than the truth of history that you will learn if you tune in such as in US supported Afghan government-controlled areas 70-80% of Afghan Women are forcibly married, a majority of which are children. Some 80% of suicides are by women again in government-controlled areas. Yes, in the very rich neighborhoods less that 5% of Afghanistan women’s rights have improved, but it is only there. Yet those are the ones already being trotted out onto mainstream medias such as CNN and NPR to speak about and create this false image that there is this great reversal of women’s rights due to our military withdrawal. Our well informed and studied guest, Matt Hoh provides an array of important insights and reminds us why if you want to get much closer to the truth you are well-advised to tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness every Monday night at 6-7pm CST on 91.7 FM in Austin Texas and through koop.org on the worldwide web, if you do not want to be played by our major media again and again. So please, listen in and study the content of our show and join the discussion by emailing the show and tell us what you think. In pursuit of social justice & Siempre fieles, Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 8/16/2021
The Afghan Papers & the Real Cost of the Afghan War reveal a long Pattern of Govt & Media Lies & omissions: Myth of Women’s Rights Progress; Cost of War- US Casualties, Suicide Rates, Privatizing War & does War as an Economic Windfall explain its Real Motive?
Over $2.2T is the estimated cost of the longest war in US history, the Afghan War. These monies are largely unaccounted for, and we reveal where does it go. The Afghan Papers,12/9/19 Washington Post article At War with the Truth, by Craig Whitlock is reviewed and reveals a concerted effort to intentionally mislead the US public by high government and military officials just as had been done in Vietnam and was done concurrently in Iraq and Libya. A long list of sourced quotes is presented to verify this reality. It is hard to escape the reasonable conclusion that this deceit to promote US foreign policy interventions is the nature of rather than an aberration of our dominant informational sources. Our guest Matthew Hoh served in Iraq and in Afghanistan as a Marine as well as served in our US State Department joins us as we reveal how war makes money for a small elite as we also detail the costs in human suffering to our veterans put in harm’s way. Suicide rates, the privatizing of military operations line the pockets of some while millions have perished in the countries, we have intervened in. Meanwhile, mainstream media push false narratives that we have worked so hard to promote women’s rights and now the Taliban will reverse all of that rather than the truth of history that you will learn if you tune in such as in US supported Afghan government-controlled areas 70-80% of Afghan Women are forcibly married, a majority of which are children. Some 80% of suicides are by women again in government-controlled areas. Yes, in the very rich neighborhoods less that 5% of Afghanistan women’s rights have improved, but it is only there. Yet those are the ones already being trotted out onto mainstream medias such as CNN and NPR to speak about and create this false image that there is this great reversal of women’s rights due to our military withdrawal. Our well informed and studied guest, Matt Hoh provides an array of important insights and reminds us why if you want to get much closer to the truth you are well-advised to tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness every Monday night at 6-7pm CST on 91.7 FM in Austin Texas and through koop.org on the worldwide web, if you do not want to be played by our major media again and again. So please, listen in and study the content of our show and join the discussion by emailing the show and tell us what you think. In pursuit of social justice & Siempre fieles, Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 8/16/2021
Media coverage abundantly shares issues of scarcity of medicines, shortage of food, blackouts, a rise in Covid cases and deaths and an arguably rigid government response to the economic problems. However, the illegal and immoral blockade and how it has shaped the economic reality is only mentioned without proper understanding of its role in the issues of greater concern. We try to bring balance to understanding the problem by continuing to expose little known facts regarding US micro and macroaggressions against Cuba and the quality of life in Cuba. We review the hundreds of millions of dollars poured into Cuban civil society by CIA surrogates USAID and NED beginning late last century to date, with the primary motivation of overthrowing the Cuban political economic model. A crime of gross sovereignty violation, by any country’s legal standards. All sold to the American public as ‘bringing democracy’ to Cuba (whether they like it or not. We review Max Blumenthal’s recent 7/25/21 article, Cuba’s Cultural Counter Revolution: US Government backed rappers, artists gain fame as catalyst for current unrest. We include an overview history of terrorism including airplane dropping incendiary devices on sugar crops and mills, the introduction of sugar cane smut, blue mold, along with biological attacks on tobacco seedlings, bovine attacks, pig swine with the entire pig population destruction, dengue fever, and other aggressions such as the bombing of a civilian airliner in midflight killing more than 70 souls all through the end of the last century that resulted in more than 3500 Cuban deaths.
Yet, Cuba is put on the US State Department of terrorist nations without ever committing a terrorist offense on US land or taking a single American life.
Last week we had TJ Masters a millennial, who spent his formative years in Florida share comments and questions. This week Greg Ciotti who is old enough to remember as an adolescent the Cuban Missile crisis joins us with comments and questions for Pedro Gatos as we seek in pt. III of our series to Bringing Light into the Darkness to US -Cuba history and relations as well as unfolding current protests.
Listen in and study the content of our show and join the discussion by emailing the show.
In pursuit of social justice & Siempre fieles, tell us what you think! Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com
If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. - Malcolm X
Media coverage abundantly shares issues of scarcity of medicines, shortage of food, blackouts, a rise in Covid cases and deaths and an arguably rigid government response to the economic problems. However, the illegal and immoral blockade and how it has shaped the economic reality is only mentioned without proper understanding of its role in the issues of greater concern. We try to bring balance to understanding the problem by continuing to expose little known facts regarding US micro and macroaggressions against Cuba and the quality of life in Cuba. We review the hundreds of millions of dollars poured into Cuban civil society by CIA surrogates USAID and NED beginning late last century to date, with the primary motivation of overthrowing the Cuban political economic model. A crime of gross sovereignty violation, by any country’s legal standards. All sold to the American public as ‘bringing democracy’ to Cuba (whether they like it or not. We review Max Blumenthal’s recent 7/25/21 article, Cuba’s Cultural Counter Revolution: US Government backed rappers, artists gain fame as catalyst for current unrest. We include an overview history of terrorism including airplane dropping incendiary devices on sugar crops and mills, the introduction of sugar cane smut, blue mold, along with biological attacks on tobacco seedlings, bovine attacks, pig swine with the entire pig population destruction, dengue fever, and other aggressions such as the bombing of a civilian airliner in midflight killing more than 70 souls all through the end of the last century that resulted in more than 3500 Cuban deaths.
Yet, Cuba is put on the US State Department of terrorist nations without ever committing a terrorist offense on US land or taking a single American life.
Last week we had TJ Masters a millennial, who spent his formative years in Florida share comments and questions. This week Greg Ciotti who is old enough to remember as an adolescent the Cuban Missile crisis joins us with comments and questions for Pedro Gatos as we seek in pt. III of our series to Bringing Light into the Darkness to US -Cuba history and relations as well as unfolding current protests.
Listen in and study the content of our show and join the discussion by emailing the show.
In pursuit of social justice & Siempre fieles, tell us what you think! Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com
If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. - Malcolm X
Do not Believe everything you think…. especially when it comes to Cuba and the recent protests. KOOP’s own TJ Masters leads us through a maze of important but largely unaddressed issues in a dialogue and Q and A with host Pedro Gatos. We can promise it is likely you will learn much more about Cuba history and Cuba -US relations than you do presently. We challenge the framing and the mainstream narrative of the unfolding protests in Cuba with data. We try to weave in several themes to help our audience get closer to the truth. One theme are older misconceptions that have been engineered by the same narrative heritage. Did Cuba refuse to provide adequate compensation for nationalized properties? Did Castro enrich himself at the cost to the Cubans he was serving? The framing of Cuba coverage is challenged as overtly bias as it rarely provides comparative analysis with other Caribbean or Latin American nations and the absence of the recognition of what Cuba has provided the developing world through its medical and other internationalist forms of support. Life and death issues such as infant mortality and under age five mortality are ignored as is an honest interpretation of the cost to the Cuban economy of the embargo/blockade which is the environment Cuba has been in since 1960. We ask and answer questions not asked by our MSM such as how many lives would have been saved in the developing world if all countries had the same infant mortality rate as Cuba? How can you separate infant mortality rates, under age five mortality rates, literacy rates educational acumen from a critique of human rights? The sitting president of the US Joe Biden in a 7/12/21 statement implies Cuba is botching their Covid response and the Cuban government is “enriching themselves”. Is this the case? What if we were under unrelenting attack by a larger predatory nation for the past 60 years, would some of our ‘human rights’ be suspended or compromised? What country in 2006 was found to be the only country of the world that met the criteria for sustainable development? What was the criteria? We suggest examining the moral integrity of a nation and its government by its principled or unprincipled behavior. We have been taught that Cuba is unprincipled, but we challenge many of those narratives with information we have been blockaded from. Listen in and study the content of our show and join the discussion by emailing the show.
Do not Believe everything you think…. especially when it comes to Cuba and the recent protests. KOOP’s own TJ Masters leads us through a maze of important but largely unaddressed issues in a dialogue and Q and A with host Pedro Gatos. We can promise it is likely you will learn much more about Cuba history and Cuba -US relations than you do presently. We challenge the framing and the mainstream narrative of the unfolding protests in Cuba with data. We try to weave in several themes to help our audience get closer to the truth. One theme are older misconceptions that have been engineered by the same narrative heritage. Did Cuba refuse to provide adequate compensation for nationalized properties? Did Castro enrich himself at the cost to the Cubans he was serving? The framing of Cuba coverage is challenged as overtly bias as it rarely provides comparative analysis with other Caribbean or Latin American nations and the absence of the recognition of what Cuba has provided the developing world through its medical and other internationalist forms of support. Life and death issues such as infant mortality and under age five mortality are ignored as is an honest interpretation of the cost to the Cuban economy of the embargo/blockade which is the environment Cuba has been in since 1960. We ask and answer questions not asked by our MSM such as how many lives would have been saved in the developing world if all countries had the same infant mortality rate as Cuba? How can you separate infant mortality rates, under age five mortality rates, literacy rates educational acumen from a critique of human rights? The sitting president of the US Joe Biden in a 7/12/21 statement implies Cuba is botching their Covid response and the Cuban government is “enriching themselves”. Is this the case? What if we were under unrelenting attack by a larger predatory nation for the past 60 years, would some of our ‘human rights’ be suspended or compromised? What country in 2006 was found to be the only country of the world that met the criteria for sustainable development? What was the criteria? We suggest examining the moral integrity of a nation and its government by its principled or unprincipled behavior. We have been taught that Cuba is unprincipled, but we challenge many of those narratives with information we have been blockaded from. Listen in and study the content of our show and join the discussion by emailing the show.
Special Guest Jane Franklin esteemed Cuban history expert and author shares declassified data in a succinct overview clearly indicating the deceitful and predatory nature of US foreign policy towards Cuba since shortly after the revolutionary victory of 1959. Jane’s revelations reveal the truth of how US Foreign Policy from the very beginning refused to respect Cuban sovereign choices regarding their political economic model and instead sought to destroy their economy and ability to subsist at any cost and how this policy was created independent of what Cuba did or did not do. In addition to those revelations other empirical memos and notes from close Eisenhower advisors are shared revealing how US policy from the start was to ‘manufacture’ false pretexts and if necessary ‘fabricate’ false pretenses in order to deceive the American public, which to this day falsely believes that Cuba’s human rights record is worthy of sanctions and that the vast majority population of Cuba does not support their government. We speak to the human rights question by presenting Nelson Mandela’s words in several interviews and speech excerpts within a year of two of his release from jail after his 27 years in prison. We provide you a historical overview of apartheid and empirical evidence of who supported and enabled the apartheid scourge by vetoing a dozen or so UN resolutions to sanction apartheid South Africa during its heyday. We juxtapose that behavior with Mandela’s revelations indicating it was Cuba that: 1. was the decisive factor that overthrew apartheid South Africa and. 2. it was Cuba’s selfless principle of internationalism that has been decisive for developing nations in Africa and throughout the world for alleviating massive amounts of human suffering. This show reveals this history in detail, and we ask you to examine these diametrically opposed points of view and have the humility to question if the US government and mainstream media generated public perceptions about Cuba and human rights is closer to the truth than that of Nelson Mandela. Someone is lying. Have we been acculturated to believe falsehood after falsehood when it comes to Cuba? Listen to Mandela’s words and decide who to believe, Nelson Mandela or the government and medias that enabled apartheid?
Special Guest Jane Franklin esteemed Cuban history expert and author shares declassified data in a succinct overview clearly indicating the deceitful and predatory nature of US foreign policy towards Cuba since shortly after the revolutionary victory of 1959. Jane’s revelations reveal the truth of how US Foreign Policy from the very beginning refused to respect Cuban sovereign choices regarding their political economic model and instead sought to destroy their economy and ability to subsist at any cost and how this policy was created independent of what Cuba did or did not do. In addition to those revelations other empirical memos and notes from close Eisenhower advisors are shared revealing how US policy from the start was to ‘manufacture’ false pretexts and if necessary ‘fabricate’ false pretenses in order to deceive the American public, which to this day falsely believes that Cuba’s human rights record is worthy of sanctions and that the vast majority population of Cuba does not support their government. We speak to the human rights question by presenting Nelson Mandela’s words in several interviews and speech excerpts within a year of two of his release from jail after his 27 years in prison. We provide you a historical overview of apartheid and empirical evidence of who supported and enabled the apartheid scourge by vetoing a dozen or so UN resolutions to sanction apartheid South Africa during its heyday. We juxtapose that behavior with Mandela’s revelations indicating it was Cuba that: 1. was the decisive factor that overthrew apartheid South Africa and. 2. it was Cuba’s selfless principle of internationalism that has been decisive for developing nations in Africa and throughout the world for alleviating massive amounts of human suffering. This show reveals this history in detail, and we ask you to examine these diametrically opposed points of view and have the humility to question if the US government and mainstream media generated public perceptions about Cuba and human rights is closer to the truth than that of Nelson Mandela. Someone is lying. Have we been acculturated to believe falsehood after falsehood when it comes to Cuba? Listen to Mandela’s words and decide who to believe, Nelson Mandela or the government and medias that enabled apartheid?
Special Guest Meredith Martin aka ‘Ahmahl’ from New Orleans shares his well-read historical and personal experiences as we reveal the main drivers and features of ‘systemic racism’ post slavery. Systemic Racism is a term that is often stated in our mainstream discourse especially since President Biden gained office. But the focus is overwhelmingly on the individual level discrimination rather than its cumulative overall social outcomes. Tonight, whether you are a racist or not is not our interest and focus. Rather the cumulative effect of systemic racism is the focus of our show tonight. The historical antecedents and the material manifestations of systemic racism that has resulted in the great racial wealth divide is explicated. Rather than educational attainment and greater need for personal responsibility we place the spotlight on and suggest the real primary root cause of the great racial wealth divide, is the pernicious character of the system itself which has exuded systemic racism, albeit in different forms since our country’s founding.We show how. We examine how embedded in laws and regulations throughout our history obstacles to the accumulation of wealth for African Americans has occurred. From slavery to the post Reconstruction Jim Crow era, through modern day forms of discrimination that have continued right up until present day, the result has been the great racial wealth divide, which well into the 21st century (2016), has resulted in a median wealth inequality that is a tenfold difference between black and white families.Jim Crow era black codes and convict leasing stunted the ability of African Americans toaccumulate wealth. The 1935 Social Security Act and the Selective Service Readjustment Act (GI Bill-1944) also had discriminating impacts on African Americans relative to whites in accumulating wealth as well and are detailed in tonight’s show. Finally, documented examples of the multiple forms and reach of systemic racism and their impact throughout housing, education, health and the criminal justice system and incarceration rates round out our presentationWe have been acculturated to believe because we have now had a black president that we are a post-racial nation. We have been acculturated by that same President and others towards blaming the victim for not taking greater personal responsibility for pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. Personal responsibility is an important factor. However, the dominant factor the system itself and its deeply prejudicial advantages it gives to a small elite, is largely ignored, or minimized. A system that denies boots to too many of the people it serves is arguably the real problem. You have to have “boots” before you can pull yourself up “by the bootstraps.”
Special Guest Meredith Martin aka ‘Ahmahl’ from New Orleans shares his well-read historical and personal experiences as we reveal the main drivers and features of ‘systemic racism’ post slavery. Systemic Racism is a term that is often stated in our mainstream discourse especially since President Biden gained office. But the focus is overwhelmingly on the individual level discrimination rather than its cumulative overall social outcomes. Tonight, whether you are a racist or not is not our interest and focus. Rather the cumulative effect of systemic racism is the focus of our show tonight. The historical antecedents and the material manifestations of systemic racism that has resulted in the great racial wealth divide is explicated. Rather than educational attainment and greater need for personal responsibility we place the spotlight on and suggest the real primary root cause of the great racial wealth divide, is the pernicious character of the system itself which has exuded systemic racism, albeit in different forms since our country’s founding.We show how. We examine how embedded in laws and regulations throughout our history obstacles to the accumulation of wealth for African Americans has occurred. From slavery to the post Reconstruction Jim Crow era, through modern day forms of discrimination that have continued right up until present day, the result has been the great racial wealth divide, which well into the 21st century (2016), has resulted in a median wealth inequality that is a tenfold difference between black and white families.Jim Crow era black codes and convict leasing stunted the ability of African Americans toaccumulate wealth. The 1935 Social Security Act and the Selective Service Readjustment Act (GI Bill-1944) also had discriminating impacts on African Americans relative to whites in accumulating wealth as well and are detailed in tonight’s show. Finally, documented examples of the multiple forms and reach of systemic racism and their impact throughout housing, education, health and the criminal justice system and incarceration rates round out our presentationWe have been acculturated to believe because we have now had a black president that we are a post-racial nation. We have been acculturated by that same President and others towards blaming the victim for not taking greater personal responsibility for pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. Personal responsibility is an important factor. However, the dominant factor the system itself and its deeply prejudicial advantages it gives to a small elite, is largely ignored, or minimized. A system that denies boots to too many of the people it serves is arguably the real problem. You have to have “boots” before you can pull yourself up “by the bootstraps.”
Tonight, we continue our examination of mainstream media’s misleading coverage of the Syrian War on its 10th anniversary, as it continues to rage on. We feature the words of former VA State Senator Richard Black, a retired Colonel who served in uniform for 32 years who flew 269 combat missions in Viet Nam as a Marine helicopter pilot. Black shares in a 6/21/2021 speech at the Schiller Institute, concerns of US foreign policy, detailing why he is "appalled at the indecency of US aggression towards Syria" and stressed that the US is implicated in helping and empowering terrorist organization in Syria. The Republican former lawmaker is a legal expert and twice visited Syria and Assad in April 2016 and Sept of 2018, making him one of the most credible voices of the counter dominant narrative that former Secretary of State John Kerry promoted in his half dozen or so major misrepresentations he defiantly argued and defended during his 9/3/13 congressional testimony. Black's speech content was in alignment with Root Claim.org findings, described below, which they argue "are a result of what we believe to be the most impressive independent open-source investigation in history". What follows is a wide-ranging critique by Richard Black & Pedro Gatos of the dominant narrative we have been taughtto believe about Syria its leader Assad and the war that has raged since 2011. We share the most recent findings of root claim.org regarding the 8/21/13 Sarin gas attack in Syria that was blamed on President Assad with complete certainty. Root claim.org seeks to do what we at Bringing light Into Darkness does each week, namely, to separate out the political distortion of facts and conjecture around important events and get to the root of the matter by laying out both sides of opposing viewpoints and examining the veracity of claims that support each position. Root Claim .org did precisely that regarding the 2013 Sarin gas attack in Damascus Syria and as recently as 6/18/21 updated their findings claiming with 96.4% certainty that it was not the Assadgovernment but the US supported opposition that executed the horrific gas attack.We should all be concerned that the false narrative that Kerry and President Obama and his administration loudly promoted and has remained the accepted truth by US majority public opinion has been disproven. We invite you to juxtapose the ‘image making’ created by mainstream media and our government claims, to the documented contradictions BLID brings to you each week for your considerations.
Tonight, we continue our examination of mainstream media’s misleading coverage of the Syrian War on its 10th anniversary, as it continues to rage on. We feature the words of former VA State Senator Richard Black, a retired Colonel who served in uniform for 32 years who flew 269 combat missions in Viet Nam as a Marine helicopter pilot. Black shares in a 6/21/2021 speech at the Schiller Institute, concerns of US foreign policy, detailing why he is "appalled at the indecency of US aggression towards Syria" and stressed that the US is implicated in helping and empowering terrorist organization in Syria. The Republican former lawmaker is a legal expert and twice visited Syria and Assad in April 2016 and Sept of 2018, making him one of the most credible voices of the counter dominant narrative that former Secretary of State John Kerry promoted in his half dozen or so major misrepresentations he defiantly argued and defended during his 9/3/13 congressional testimony. Black's speech content was in alignment with Root Claim.org findings, described below, which they argue "are a result of what we believe to be the most impressive independent open-source investigation in history". What follows is a wide-ranging critique by Richard Black & Pedro Gatos of the dominant narrative we have been taughtto believe about Syria its leader Assad and the war that has raged since 2011. We share the most recent findings of root claim.org regarding the 8/21/13 Sarin gas attack in Syria that was blamed on President Assad with complete certainty. Root claim.org seeks to do what we at Bringing light Into Darkness does each week, namely, to separate out the political distortion of facts and conjecture around important events and get to the root of the matter by laying out both sides of opposing viewpoints and examining the veracity of claims that support each position. Root Claim .org did precisely that regarding the 2013 Sarin gas attack in Damascus Syria and as recently as 6/18/21 updated their findings claiming with 96.4% certainty that it was not the Assadgovernment but the US supported opposition that executed the horrific gas attack.We should all be concerned that the false narrative that Kerry and President Obama and his administration loudly promoted and has remained the accepted truth by US majority public opinion has been disproven. We invite you to juxtapose the ‘image making’ created by mainstream media and our government claims, to the documented contradictions BLID brings to you each week for your considerations.
Independence Day symbolizes worldwide the success of the American revolution and the independence from the tyranny of the British crown. We examine post WWII US foreign policy interventions and discover a disturbing but common theme consistent from Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, Syria, (Yemen) and the result of millions of deaths and tens of millions displaced persons. Yet most American citizens have been indoctrinated to believe the greatest problem facing peace on earth is the aggression or human rights violations of ‘other nations’. On Independence Day weekend we critically examine the integrity of the US stated, ‘war on terror’. We examine the politics and history connecting all these themes with special guest and distinguished investigative journalist Mike Whitney. Please tune in weekly to Bringing Light into Darkness, as this week we seek to examineand bring ‘honest light’ to the increasing threat to promotion of war between the West and Russia. We critically consider whether it is US led NATO provocations or is it ‘Russian aggression’ that bears greater responsibility for pushing the world towards a potential WWIII scenario.We invite you to juxtapose the ‘image making’ created by mainstream media and our government claims, to the documented contradictions BLID brings to you each week for your considerations. Please join us as we seek to get at the truth of manmade generated forms of misery and build understandings towards dismantling different forms of oppression through revealing behaviors and outcomes that are contrary to social justice and fairness yet are routinely absent from mainstream news generated ‘closed universe of discourse’.
Independence Day symbolizes worldwide the success of the American revolution and the independence from the tyranny of the British crown. We examine post WWII US foreign policy interventions and discover a disturbing but common theme consistent from Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, Syria, (Yemen) and the result of millions of deaths and tens of millions displaced persons. Yet most American citizens have been indoctrinated to believe the greatest problem facing peace on earth is the aggression or human rights violations of ‘other nations’. On Independence Day weekend we critically examine the integrity of the US stated, ‘war on terror’. We examine the politics and history connecting all these themes with special guest and distinguished investigative journalist Mike Whitney. Please tune in weekly to Bringing Light into Darkness, as this week we seek to examineand bring ‘honest light’ to the increasing threat to promotion of war between the West and Russia. We critically consider whether it is US led NATO provocations or is it ‘Russian aggression’ that bears greater responsibility for pushing the world towards a potential WWIII scenario.We invite you to juxtapose the ‘image making’ created by mainstream media and our government claims, to the documented contradictions BLID brings to you each week for your considerations. Please join us as we seek to get at the truth of manmade generated forms of misery and build understandings towards dismantling different formsof oppression through revealing behaviors and outcomes that are contrary to social justice and fairness yet are routinely absent from mainstream news generated ‘closed universe of discourse’.
The airing of this show lands on the 52nd anniversary of the Stonewall Riots of June 28, 1969, which is widely recognized to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States. Today Bringing Light into Darkness dedicates this show to overcoming the oppression this form of discrimination continues to generate. We begin the show with a 25-minute excerpt from our May 18, 2020, show with Dr Arline Geronimus that highlights the concept of ‘weathering’ which describes the scientific basis of how poverty all forms of discrimination, including that which our LGBT fellow US citizens continue to endure, is an assault not just on the quality of life but on life expectancy itself. The second half of the show features LMSW licensed therapist Heath Collins and his insights as we explore the disproportionate stress that our LGBT community faces as a result of that discrimination and strategies and resources to help navigate it and minimize its damage. Please tune in weekly to Bringing Light into Darkness, as this week we seek to bring ‘honest light’ to a particularly pernicious form of discrimination what we all need to do our best to mitigate and call out.
The airing of this show lands on the 52nd anniversary of the Stonewall Riots of June 28, 1969, which is widely recognized to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States. Today Bringing Light into Darkness dedicates this show to overcoming the oppression this form of discrimination continues to generate. We begin the show with a 25-minute excerpt from our May 18, 2020, show with Dr Arline Geronimus that highlights the concept of ‘weathering’ which describes the scientific basis of how poverty all forms of discrimination, including that which our LGBT fellow US citizens continue to endure, is an assault not just on the quality of life but on life expectancy itself. The second half of the show features LMSW licensed therapist Heath Collins and his insights as we explore the disproportionate stress that our LGBT community faces as a result of that discrimination and strategies and resources to help navigate it and minimize its damage. Please tune in weekly to Bringing Light into Darkness, as this week we seek to bring ‘honest light’ to a particularly pernicious form of discrimination what we all need to do our best to mitigate and call out.
The airing of this show lands on the 52nd anniversary of the Stonewall Riots of June 28, 1969, which is widely recognized to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States. Today Bringing Light into Darkness dedicates this show to overcoming the oppression this form of discrimination continues to generate. We begin the show with a 25-minute excerpt from our May 18, 2020, show with Dr Arline Geronimus that highlights the concept of ‘weathering’ which describes the scientific basis of how poverty all forms of discrimination, including that which our LGBT fellow US citizens continue to endure, is an assault not just on the quality of life but on life expectancy itself. The second half of the show features LMSW licensed therapist Heath Collins and his insights as we explore the disproportionate stress that our LGBT community faces as a result of that discrimination and strategies and resources to help navigate it and minimize its damage. Please tune in weekly to Bringing Light into Darkness, as this week we seek to bring ‘honest light’ to a particularly pernicious form of discrimination what we all need to do our best to mitigate and call out.
Juneteenth & a History since Slavery to date of Systemic Racism is discussed. Juneteenth became a national holiday on Thursday June 17th, 2021. We dedicate this show to the drastically increasing wealth inequality we have witnessed since the 1980s to date as our democracy has been increasingly compromised accordingly. This show details the significance and degree of this generally unreported attack of the middle and more disenfranchised majority of Americans. We then detail that within that matrix of inequality how the racial wealth divide further aggravates the unfairness in opportunities for African Americans compared to whites. We describe in depth how the methods of oppression have changed but not the outcomes which today find median African American wealth at just 1/10th of that of white family household median wealth. We detail how slavery as an inhibitor of wealth accumulation for blacks was replaced with legalizing the criminalizing of African Americans following Reconstruction through “black codes” and “convict leasing”. As the Jim Crow era morphed into modern day discrimination, we describe how the Social Security Act of 1935 and the 1944 GI Bill also disproportionately benefitted white families over black families in a very significant fashion. We end the show with empirical examples of more modern-day forms of systemic racism that undeniably (unless you are in denial) paint a clear picture of the second-class citizenry status of our African American cohorts as we find ourselves well into the 21st century. They also paint a clear picture revealing the false rationalizing that the primary driver behind wealth inequality is lack of drive or lack of educational pursuit and attainment. It is time to face the truth of our condition and demand the change our constitution and a commitment to fairness demands. The most powerful nation in world history can surely alleviate want and dismantle systemic racism if it decides it, is a real priority. But we must see and understand the problem first. This show reveals the root problems facing our country that are hidden from view by a mainstream media that is part of the problem.
Juneteenth & a History since Slavery to date of Systemic Racism is discussed. Juneteenth became a national holiday on Thursday June 17th, 2021. We dedicate this show to the drastically increasing wealth inequality we have witnessed since the 1980s to date as our democracy has been increasingly compromised accordingly. This show details the significance and degree of this generally unreported attack of the middle and more disenfranchised majority of Americans. We then detail that within that matrix of inequality how the racial wealth divide further aggravates the unfairness in opportunities for African Americans compared to whites. We describe in depth how the methods of oppression have changed but not the outcomes which today find median African American wealth at just 1/10th of that of white family household median wealth. We detail how slavery as an inhibitor of wealth accumulation for blacks was replaced with legalizing the criminalizing of African Americans following Reconstruction through “black codes” and “convict leasing”. As the Jim Crow era morphed into modern day discrimination, we describe how the Social Security Act of 1935 and the 1944 GI Bill also disproportionately benefitted white families over black families in a very significant fashion. We end the show with empirical examples of more modern-day forms of systemic racism that undeniably (unless you are in denial) paint a clear picture of the second-class citizenry status of our African American cohorts as we find ourselves well into the 21st century. They also paint a clear picture revealing the false rationalizing that the primary driver behind wealth inequality is lack of drive or lack of educational pursuit and attainment. It is time to face the truth of our condition and demand the change our constitution and a commitment to fairness demands. The most powerful nation in world history can surely alleviate want and dismantle systemic racism if it decides it, is a real priority. But we must see and understand the problem first. This show reveals the root problems facing our country that are hidden from view by a mainstream media that is part of the problem.
Bringing Light Into Darkness guest Stan Smith - investigative journalist and publisher of the AFGJ Venezuela and ALBA Weekly News for the past seven years, whose primary focus has been on US intervention in Latin America joins us tonight (6/14/21). The focus of the show is on an important but well-hidden dimension of US foreign policy influence on the countries of the world. It is the combination of the dominant role and influence of more than 75% of international trade being negotiated through either the US dollar or Euro, while barely 2% or less is in Chinese currency, and the use of US sanctions as a foreign policy tool to often coerce other countries’ internal policies. As our guest explains, when you combine other US allied countries in NATO and Australia it adds up to more than 90% of all international trade taking place with these currencies. Secondly, what if the US has the power and exerts the power to unilaterally sanction and cutoff 1/3 of the world's population and their governments from the freedom to trade with countries of their choice unless they change their economic policies to suit the United States? Essentially what if we live in a world in which international law is essentially whatever the US decides it is due to the monopoly like power the dominance of the US dollar in the world has? Please join us as our guest Stanfield Smith leads us in an explication of this hidden power that the US has and uses to exert its foreign policy interests throughout the world. We cannot reel in the damages of a foreign policy that we do not see or know. Please tune in weekly to Bringing Light into Darkness, as we seek to bring ‘honest light’ to what we all need to know and see.
Bringing Light Into Darkness guest Stan Smith - investigative journalist and publisher of the AFGJ Venezuela and ALBA Weekly News for the past seven years, whose primary focus has been on US intervention in Latin America joins us tonight (6/14/21). The focus of the show is on an important but well-hidden dimension of US foreign policy influence on the countries of the world. It is the combination of the dominant role and influence of more than 75% of international trade being negotiated through either the US dollar or Euro, while barely 2% or less is in Chinese currency, and the use of US sanctions as a foreign policy tool to often coerce other countries’ internal policies. As our guest explains, when you combine other US allied countries in NATO and Australia it adds up to more than 90% of all international trade taking place with these currencies. Secondly, what if the US has the power and exerts the power to unilaterally sanction and cutoff 1/3 of the world's population and their governments from the freedom to trade with countries of their choice unless they change their economic policies to suit the United States? Essentially what if we live in a world in which international law is essentially whatever the US decides it is due to the monopoly like power the dominance of the US dollar in the world has? Please join us as our guest Stanfield Smith leads us in an explication of this hidden power that the US has and uses to exert its foreign policy interests throughout the world. We cannot reel in the damages of a foreign policy that we do not see or know. Please tune in weekly to Bringing Light into Darkness, as we seek to bring ‘honest light’ to what we all need to know and see.
Bringing Light Into Darkness guest Dan Kovalik - lawyer, author expert on international human right recently returned from a delegation visit to Syria from May 22- May 29, 2021. This period covered the May 26, 2021, reelection of Bashar Assad. The focus of our show is on his 5/31/21 article: Syria's truly been a site for World War, their vote for peace and against foreign interference must be respected -. We decimate several commonly held myths that we have been inculcated to falsely believe by our one-sided mainstream media presentation of Syria and US foreign policy motivations. The following myths are deconstructed through historical fact-based data presented during the show. Myth 1: The Syrian conflict was a Civil War led by “moderate rebels”. Myth 2: Per President Obama, it was “Assad that started it” in 2011 with his brutal suppression of democratic protests that led to US involvement in trying to oust President Bashar Assad form his presidency. Myth 3: Assad is a dictator with minimal public support amongst Syrians. Myth 4: That with absolute Certainty Assad has been gassing his own people. Myth 5: The US Foreign Policy interest in Occupying Syria is to repel ISIS & Al Qaeda Other questions addressed. Is this a US War on Terrorists or a War of Terrorists? If it were not for the intervention by the US led West would there ever have been such a protracted 10 year war that has gone on in Syria and resulted in some 500 thousand deaths? Why and how were terrorists from around the world landing in opposition ranks to the Assad government who have confiscated passports from terrorists and foreign mercenaries from some 84 countries? As MLK said our foreign policy is a reflection of the character of our nation. As US citizens we have a right to the truth, and we all are collectively responsible for the objective outcomes of our US government foreign policy. We cannot reel in the damages of a foreign policy that we do not see or know. Please tune in weekly to Bringing Light into Darkness, and you will know and see.
Bringing Light Into Darkness guest Dan Kovalik - lawyer, author expert on international human right recently returned from a delegation visit to Syria from May 22- May 29, 2021. This period covered the May 26, 2021, reelection of Bashar Assad. The focus of our show is on his 5/31/21 article: Syria's truly been a site for World War, their vote for peace and against foreign interference must be respected -. We decimate several commonly held myths that we have been inculcated to falsely believe by our one-sided mainstream media presentation of Syria and US foreign policy motivations. The following myths are deconstructed through historical fact-based data presented during the show. Myth 1: The Syrian conflict was a Civil War led by “moderate rebels”. Myth 2: Per President Obama, it was “Assad that started it” in 2011 with his brutal suppression of democratic protests that led to US involvement in trying to oust President Bashar Assad form his presidency. Myth 3: Assad is a dictator with minimal public support amongst Syrians. Myth 4: That with absolute Certainty Assad has been gassing his own people. Myth 5: The US Foreign Policy interest in Occupying Syria is to repel ISIS & Al Qaeda Other questions addressed. Is this a US War on Terrorists or a War of Terrorists? If it were not for the intervention by the US led West would there ever have been such a protracted 10 year war that has gone on in Syria and resulted in some 500 thousand deaths? Why and how were terrorists from around the world landing in opposition ranks to the Assad government who have confiscated passports from terrorists and foreign mercenaries from some 84 countries? As MLK said our foreign policy is a reflection of the character of our nation. As US citizens we have a right to the truth, and we all are collectively responsible for the objective outcomes of our US government foreign policy. We cannot reel in the damages of a foreign policy that we do not see or know. Please tune in weekly to Bringing Light into Darkness, and you will know and see.
UN Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan Report on Human Rights on the Impact on Unilateral Coercive Measures on Venezuela following her 2/1- 2/12/21 visit is reviewed. It called for an immediate end to the US and Allied sanctions on Venezuela. The report found that sanctions have resulted in economic and human calamities for the entire population especially the poor and most vulnerable. While billions in Venezuelan assets that could be used for medicine and vaccines remain frozen at foreign banks the report claimed some 2.5 million Venezuelans now face severe food security. With the hardening of the sanctions over the years since 2005, state revenues to Caracas have been slashed by a staggering 99% leaving the country to live on just 1% of its presanction income. The UN rapporteur concluded by urging the US and UK and other allies, to “review and lift targeted sanctions in accordance with principle of international law, the rule of law, human rights and refugee law.” Please join us Monday night 5/31 at 6pm as our guest and investigative journalist Roger Harris brings light into the darkness around the well-hidden history of Venezuela that reveals the predatory nature of US relations with Venezuela and the south. More compelling is the detailed nature of the Venezuelan democracy and electoral process compared to US and other nations of the world that our guest explicates. In addition, the false image making that our government and its obedient mainstream media conduits feed and shape US public opinion around the issue of who is the real president of Venezuela, the US led “alleged” Venezuelan president Juan Guiado or the elected President Nicholas Maduro, is discussed in detail and explained. While surly the government of Venezuela led by its President Nicholas Maduro has made its share of mistakes that have led in part to the economic problems facing Venezuela today, this show brings light to the staggering influence US led foreign policy has had on the resulting consequences for Venezuelans. Our one-sided media coverage results in mistaken US public perceptions around who is most responsible for the Venezuelan economic meltdown. The dialogue between our guest, Board Member of the human rights organization Task Force on the Americas, Roger Harris and host Pedro Gatos provides documentable historical and contemporary insights, combining a macro and micro analysis of a host of Venezuelan related fact vs fiction precepts we may each have, for you to rejudge and reconsider for yourself as desired.
UN Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan Report on Human Rights on the Impact on Unilateral Coercive Measures on Venezuela following her 2/1- 2/12/21 visit is reviewed. It called for an immediate end to the US and Allied sanctions on Venezuela. The report found that sanctions have resulted in economic and human calamities for the entire population especially the poor and most vulnerable. While billions in Venezuelan assets that could be used for medicine and vaccines remain frozen at foreign banks the report claimed some 2.5 million Venezuelans now face severe food security. With the hardening of the sanctions over the years since 2005, state revenues to Caracas have been slashed by a staggering 99% leaving the country to live on just 1% of its presanction income. The UN rapporteur concluded by urging the US and UK and other allies, to “review and lift targeted sanctions in accordance with principle of international law, the rule of law, human rights and refugee law.” Please join us Monday night 5/31 at 6pm as our guest and investigative journalist Roger Harris brings light into the darkness around the well-hidden history of Venezuela that reveals the predatory nature of US relations with Venezuela and the south. More compelling is the detailed nature of the Venezuelan democracy and electoral process compared to US and other nations of the world that our guest explicates. In addition, the false image making that our government and its obedient mainstream media conduits feed and shape US public opinion around the issue of who is the real president of Venezuela, the US led “alleged” Venezuelan president Juan Guiado or the elected President Nicholas Maduro, is discussed in detail and explained. While surly the government of Venezuela led by its President Nicholas Maduro has made its share of mistakes that have led in part to the economic problems facing Venezuela today, this show brings light to the staggering influence US led foreign policy has had on the resulting consequences for Venezuelans. Our one-sided media coverage results in mistaken US public perceptions around who is most responsible for the Venezuelan economic meltdown. The dialogue between our guest, Board Member of the human rights organization Task Force on the Americas, Roger Harris and host Pedro Gatos provides documentable historical and contemporary insights, combining a macro and micro analysis of a host of Venezuelan related fact vs fiction precepts we may each have, for you to rejudge and reconsider for yourself as desired.
On the 96th Birthday of Malcolm X guest Dr William Darity economist and clearly one of our country’s leading authorities on black studies and systemic racism returns to Bringing Light into Darkness to discuss Malcolm X and Nat Turner. Today the average black family has $840k less wealth than the average white family. Systemic racism is a form of oppression within a system that Malcolm X was increasingly beginning to understand is a system not capable of resolving the race nor the gross wealth disparity in the US and throughout the world. Dr Darity shares important similarities and differences between Malcom and Nat Turner and his 1831 rebellion that led to 50+ deaths. Dr Darity suggests they both were willing to embrace violence "for the purposes of challenging a violent social system'. However, Malcolm's image of him being violent is not supported by the facts, which include that he never took a life of another and spoke of violence as an option only as self-defense against the greater violence victimizing blacks. Meanwhile 'Nat Turner built an uprising that was “aimed at a forceful taking of racial justice" that Darity describes can be seen as 'engaging in an act of resistance' against a brutal slave system. We pivot for most of the show about the impact transatlantic slave trade and how the wealth of the colonizing nations of the world are inextricably connected. Featuring St Dominique/Haiti, we document how, since 1492 Columbus discovering Hispaniola, which marked the beginning of enslaving indigenous peoples in the New World, the continued wealth of "advanced" nations was supplemented (from the Spanish and Portuguese to the UK, France & Dutch and ultimately the US domination of the western hemisphere). Our discussion with Dr Darity explains how inequality has been crafted occurring within nations such as the US but also how it has disproportionately harmed predominantly black nations. All these wealth inequalities find their origin in and through the transatlantic slave trade and its ramifications. Dr Darity shares how the economic wealth and disparity in the US from 1776 through and into its industrial revolution at the end of the 19th century was generated largely on the labor of slaves that came to America against their will. The broken promises of land guarantees to blacks following the Civil War and the WWII GI benefits that went almost exclusively to whites with the almost total exclusion of blacks who served our country. All of this on top of slavery that began before the founding of our country have contributed to their wealth inequality today. We appropriate and explain the revolutionary terms that Malcolm ('international powerstructure') and Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana ('neocolonialism") provided those who are interesting in understanding and deconstructing 'oppression'.
On the 96th Birthday of Malcolm X guest Dr William Darity economist and clearly one of our country’s leading authorities on black studies and systemic racism returns to Bringing Light into Darkness to discuss Malcolm X and Nat Turner. Today the average black family has $840k less wealth than the average white family. Systemic racism is a form of oppression within a system that Malcolm X was increasingly beginning to understand is a system not capable of resolving the race nor the gross wealth disparity in the US and throughout the world. Dr Darity shares important similarities and differences between Malcom and Nat Turner and his 1831 rebellion that led to 50+ deaths. Dr Darity suggests they both were willing to embrace violence "for the purposes of challenging a violent social system'. However, Malcolm's image of him being violent is not supported by the facts, which include that he never took a life of another and spoke of violence as an option only as self-defense against the greater violence victimizing blacks. Meanwhile 'Nat Turner built an uprising that was “aimed at a forceful taking of racial justice" that Darity describes can be seen as 'engaging in an act of resistance' against a brutal slave system. We pivot for most of the show about the impact transatlantic slave trade and how the wealth of the colonizing nations of the world are inextricably connected. Featuring St Dominique/Haiti, we document how, since 1492 Columbus discovering Hispaniola, which marked the beginning of enslaving indigenous peoples in the New World, the continued wealth of "advanced" nations was supplemented (from the Spanish and Portuguese to the UK, France & Dutch and ultimately the US domination of the western hemisphere). Our discussion with Dr Darity explains how inequality has been crafted occurring within nations such as the US but also how it has disproportionately harmed predominantly black nations. All these wealth inequalities find their origin in and through the transatlantic slave trade and its ramifications. Dr Darity shares how the economic wealth and disparity in the US from 1776 through and into its industrial revolution at the end of the 19th century was generated largely on the labor of slaves that came to America against their will. The broken promises of land guarantees to blacks following the Civil War and the WWII GI benefits that went almost exclusively to whites with the almost total exclusion of blacks who served our country. All of this on top of slavery that began before the founding of our country have contributed to their wealth inequality today. We appropriate and explain the revolutionary terms that Malcolm ('international powerstructure') and Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana ('neocolonialism") provided those who are interesting in understanding and deconstructing 'oppression'.
Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) guest, investigative journalist Mike Whitney, has a proven record of a very high geopolitical acumen and shares his analysis of unfolding events in Syria and the Ukraine. We start the show with an overview of a presentation by Richard H. Black former Virginia State Senator for 8 years until 2020 and retired colonel Vietnam veteran who served in uniform for thirty-two years. The presentation was given at the March 20-21 (2021) Schiller Institute conference. Why did the distinguished veteran declare “I’m appalled by the indecency of American aggression towards Syria”? He makes and validates the following claims that most of the American public are unaware of; “We’re told that we’re fighting a war on terror, but we’re not;” “We’re closely allied with terrorists like al-Qaida”. These and other claims he backs up from personal knowledge as we shatter the mainstream dominant narrative that US foreign policy was about supporting moderate rebels in Syria. Please join us as Mike Whitney and Pedro Gatos have a wide ranging but focused discourse providing a practical and historically contexed geopolitical overview of the current state of US foreign policy initiatives in Ukraine and Syria, against the backdrop of Russia’s perceived national security interests. The dominant media narrative is that Russia is the ‘aggressor nation”, however examining facts on the ground both past and present suggest a different and important perspective. Our BLID investigations are driven by well researched cross referenced factual claims regarding US foreign policy that for some may lead to uncomfortable discoveries. However, an informed US public cannot be achieved through any other means.
Tonight, we return to what should be front page news but has not even made it to MSM news in any credible manner. Namely the enabling of a return, in 2014, for the first since WWII, of a European government to power that is primarily and substantial Neo Nazi in its constitution. Joining us is author and historian Lev Golinkin who emigrated to the US in 1990 from eastern Ukraine whose writing history expertise includes on the Ukraine crisis, Russia, about how white supremacy affects us and, on the far right and immigrant and refugee identity. The show documents what MSM failed and continues to fail to cover, the US enabled coup and the response of that coup as the main impetus to the creation of the ‘separatists’. We review the author’s latest May 11, 2021 article in the Nation magazine, Secretary Blinken Faces a Big Test in Ukraine where Nazis and their Sympathizers are Glorified and provide documentation of the February 2014 coup being enabled by the US meddling as well as its result of 8-9 cabinet positions being appointed to neo-Nazis. We also document the horrific burning to death murder of 40 plus in Odessa Ukraine on May 2, 2014 and the repression that followed led by neo-Nazi battalions the US failed to defund under Obama despite John Conyers led legislation that passed the House unanimously some six months earlier. We also describe the resulting in US deaths in Florida and the training of US white supremacists in Ukraine by those connected to 2017 Charlottesville racist violence. Additionally, our guest provides a detailed historical overview of the 1.5 million Jews that were slaughtered in western Ukraine along with another 70-100 thousand Poles. This very western part of Ukraine is where the super ultra nationalist organizations come from today; they allied with Hitler back in the day; they welcomed the Nazis with open arms; they started slaughtering Jews in some places before the Nazis got there…these were extraordinarily fascist, anti-Semitic, savage groups. And the main one was called the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). And Stefan Bandera was the leader of one of the factions of it, who is celebrated today in the Ukraine. How could these truths be kept from the American public by our government leaders and the MSM for the past seven years without barely a mention? This is why we suggest tuning in to Bringing Light into Darkness (BLID) should be a primary source of news each week for the US public.
Tonight, we return to what should be front page news but has not even made it to MSM news in any credible manner. Namely the enabling of a return, in 2014, for the first since WWII, of a European government to power that is primarily and substantial Neo Nazi in its constitution. Joining us is author and historian Lev Golinkin who emigrated to the US in 1990 from eastern Ukraine whose writing history expertise includes on the Ukraine crisis, Russia, about how white supremacy affects us and, on the far right and immigrant and refugee identity. The show documents what MSM failed and continues to fail to cover, the US enabled coup and the response of that coup as the main impetus to the creation of the ‘separatists’. We review the author’s latest May 11, 2021 article in the Nation magazine, Secretary Blinken Faces a Big Test in Ukraine where Nazis and their Sympathizers are Glorified and provide documentation of the February 2014 coup being enabled by the US meddling as well as its result of 8-9 cabinet positions being appointed to neo-Nazis. We also document the horrific burning to death murder of 40 plus in Odessa Ukraine on May 2, 2014 and the repression that followed led by neo-Nazi battalions the US failed to defund under Obama despite John Conyers led legislation that passed the House unanimously some six months earlier. We also describe the resulting in US deaths in Florida and the training of US white supremacists in Ukraine by those connected to 2017 Charlottesville racist violence. Additionally, our guest provides a detailed historical overview of the 1.5 million Jews that were slaughtered in western Ukraine along with another 70-100 thousand Poles. This very western part of Ukraine is where the super ultra nationalist organizations come from today; they allied with Hitler back in the day; they welcomed the Nazis with open arms; they started slaughtering Jews in some places before the Nazis got there…these were extraordinarily fascist, anti-Semitic, savage groups. And the main one was called the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). And Stefan Bandera was the leader of one of the factions of it, who is celebrated today in the Ukraine. How could these truths be kept from the American public by our government leaders and the MSM for the past seven years without barely a mention? This is why we suggest tuning in to Bringing Light into Darkness (BLID) should be a primary source of news each week for the US public.
Tonight, we continue our discussion on the pattern of unreliable of intelligence made public to us by our government and the media’s complicity. Dr Theodore Postol MIT physicist and missile expert returns to BLID as our guest. Dr Postol Professor of Science, Technology and National Security Policy at MIT worked as a scientific and policy advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations who commands more ships, more planes and more people under arms than the combined forces of the UK, France and Germany.” Four gas attacks March 19, 2013 March Khan al Assal; August 21, 2013 Damascus/El Ghouta; April 2017 Khan Sheikhon gas; and April 2018 Douma gas attack all blamed on Assad with absolute certainty despite failure to present supporting incontrovertible evidence. In fact, the ‘evidence’ brought to the US public had fatal inconsistencies and physical impossibilities as revealed by our guest, Dr Postol. We excerpt Secretary of State John Kerry’s testimony to the Senate on 9/3/13 regarding such inconsistencies that almost brought us to the brink of war. We also review 9/22/20 testimony and report to the UN Security Council where he details multiple inconsistencies, he discovered within the OPCW report following 2017 gas attack. Repeated intelligence failures (in addition to Iraq 2003) are detailed by Dr Postol. We include important excerpts from Robert Parry past writings suggesting how the US has led the undermining of UN agency heads responsible for assuring quality information to the world at large and the history of US government providing incriminating evidence despite said concerns of revealing means and methods when we have it. Therefore, the absence of such information suggests there is none to support evidence free anonymous intelligence claims that too often are later revealed to be intelligence failures.
Tonight, we continue our discussion on the pattern of unreliable of intelligence made public to us by our government and the media’s complicity. Dr Theodore Postol MIT physicist and missile expert returns to BLID as our guest. Dr Postol Professor of Science, Technology and National Security Policy at MIT worked as a scientific and policy advisor to the Chief of Naval Operations who commands more ships, more planes and more people under arms than the combined forces of the UK, France and Germany.” Four gas attacks March 19, 2013 March Khan al Assal; August 21, 2013 Damascus/El Ghouta; April 2017 Khan Sheikhon gas; and April 2018 Douma gas attack all blamed on Assad with absolute certainty despite failure to present supporting incontrovertible evidence. In fact, the ‘evidence’ brought to the US public had fatal inconsistencies and physical impossibilities as revealed by our guest, Dr Postol. We excerpt Secretary of State John Kerry’s testimony to the Senate on 9/3/13 regarding such inconsistencies that almost brought us to the brink of war. We also review 9/22/20 testimony and report to the UN Security Council where he details multiple inconsistencies, he discovered within the OPCW report following 2017 gas attack. Repeated intelligence failures (in addition to Iraq 2003) are detailed by Dr Postol. We include important excerpts from Robert Parry past writings suggesting how the US has led the undermining of UN agency heads responsible for assuring quality information to the world at large and the history of US government providing incriminating evidence despite said concerns of revealing means and methods when we have it. Therefore, the absence of such information suggests there is none to support evidence free anonymous intelligence claims that too often are later revealed to be intelligence failures.
Dr Alan Macleod returns to Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) to We review his recent April 2021 article, How Bellingcat Launders National Security State Talking Points into the Press . We discuss his analysis of how Bellingcat and think tanks such as the Atlantic Council, which represent NATO interests are presented as independently thinking entities while they hide conflicts of interest manifested in accepting contributions from the governments they supposedly are judging. Meanwhile, MSM fails miserably in revealing this conflict. In addition to their failure to reveal their government and defense contracting funding sourcing, the appearance of different independent sources of information is presented by our MSM that betrays basic principles of investigative journalism, by failing to reveal this common propaganda tactic, essentially allowing same sourcing to be presented as multiple sourcing. Dr Macleud gives the following example: The CIA will reference Bellingcat which arguably often acts as a front for western intelligence. Meanwhile, Bellingcat former employees populate think tanks funded by defense contractors, western governments and Saudi Arabia type Middle Eastern monarchies. And they all reference each other; The CIA will reference Bellingcat. Bellingcat will reference think tank reports and media pundits, including those with former Bellingcat ties, failing to reveal the conflict of interest while reinforcing the false image that multiple sourcing confirms the accusations that are absent of concrete evidence that are being promulgated to the US public. Dr Macleud continues to point out that there is a huge amount of fraternalization of journalists with intelligence analysts to the point where you are unsure as to where one ends and the other begins. So as a consequence in the past we have seen bombshell after bombshell being based on reports and rumors from ‘anonymous intelligence officials’, adopted as certain truths. Our BLID investigations are driven by well researched cross referenced factual claims regarding US foreign policy that for some may lead to uncomfortable discoveries. However, an informed US public cannot be achieved through any other means.
Dr Alan Macleod returns to Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) to We review his recent April 2021 article, How Bellingcat Launders National Security State Talking Points into the Press . We discuss his analysis of how Bellingcat and think tanks such as the Atlantic Council, which represent NATO interests are presented as independently thinking entities while they hide conflicts of interest manifested in accepting contributions from the governments they supposedly are judging. Meanwhile, MSM fails miserably in revealing this conflict. In addition to their failure to reveal their government and defense contracting funding sourcing, the appearance of different independent sources of information is presented by our MSM that betrays basic principles of investigative journalism, by failing to reveal this common propaganda tactic, essentially allowing same sourcing to be presented as multiple sourcing. Dr Macleud gives the following example: The CIA will reference Bellingcat which arguably often acts as a front for western intelligence. Meanwhile, Bellingcat former employees populate think tanks funded by defense contractors, western governments and Saudi Arabia type Middle Eastern monarchies. And they all reference each other; The CIA will reference Bellingcat. Bellingcat will reference think tank reports and media pundits, including those with former Bellingcat ties, failing to reveal the conflict of interest while reinforcing the false image that multiple sourcing confirms the accusations that are absent of concrete evidence that are being promulgated to the US public. Dr Macleud continues to point out that there is a huge amount of fraternalization of journalists with intelligence analysts to the point where you are unsure as to where one ends and the other begins. So as a consequence in the past we have seen bombshell after bombshell being based on reports and rumors from ‘anonymous intelligence officials’, adopted as certain truths. Our BLID investigations are driven by well researched cross referenced factual claims regarding US foreign policy that for some may lead to uncomfortable discoveries. However, an informed US public cannot be achieved through any other means.
Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) guest, investigative journalist Mike Whitney, has a proven record of a very high geopolitical acumen and shares his analysis of unfolding events in Syria and the Ukraine. We start the show with an overview of a presentation by Richard H. Black former Virginia State Senator for 8 years until 2020 and retired colonel Vietnam veteran who served in uniform for thirty-two years. The presentation was given at the March 20-21 (2021) Schiller Institute conference. Why did the distinguished veteran declare “I’m appalled by the indecency of American aggression towards Syria”? He makes and validates the following claims that most of the American public are unaware of; “We’re told that we’re fighting a war on terror, but we’re not;” “We’re closely allied with terrorists like al-Qaida”. These and other claims he backs up from personal knowledge as we shatter the mainstream dominant narrative that US foreign policy was about supporting moderate rebels in Syria. Please join us as Mike Whitney and Pedro Gatos have a wide ranging but focused discourse providing a practical and historically contexed geopolitical overview of the current state of US foreign policy initiatives in Ukraine and Syria, against the backdrop of Russia’s perceived national security interests. The dominant media narrative is that Russia is the ‘aggressor nation”, however examining facts on the ground both past and present suggest a different and important perspective. Our BLID investigations are driven by well researched cross referenced factual claims regarding US foreign policy that for some may lead to uncomfortable discoveries. However, an informed US public cannot be achieved through any other means.
This past week former Attorney General Ramsey Clark passed away. During his tenure as Attorney General of the United States from 1967-1969 under LBJ, he was instrumental in promoting voting rights for African Americans, school desegregation and drafted the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1968, (Fair Housing Act. As the most progressive Attorney General in U.S. history, his world view evolved rapidly as a result of revelations regarding the Vietnam War, and he became one of our greatest antiwar activists. We highlight a speech in which he claims the most powerfully true words that Dr King ever said was that the US “was the greatest purveyor of violence in the world”. He believed that to still be the case right up to his death. We critically examine that and other words of MLK’s Beyond Vietnam speech. In the show’s introduction. The primary focus of the show is a detailed analysis and historical account of and on the 60th anniversary of the April 1961 US Bay of Pigs invasion and defeat, the first defeat in the long history of US invasion interventions in the western hemisphere. The Bay of Pigs history we have been influenced by comes mainly from US foreign policy perspective that is often spoken from the veterans of the invasion force. It often claims it was the failure of promised air support from US that was decisive in the defeat. But what is ignored is that the overwhelming Cuban ‘public opinion’ then as is true today is that the majority population of Cuba supports the Cuban Model. It begs the question with regard to the “Cuban opposition’ to the Cuban government, Without U.S. Funding Would There Be Anything to Fund? We show tonight the reductionist ahistorical representation that the US failed air support argument suggests. I travelled to Cuba a half dozen times and visited the Bay of Pigs 4-5 times during the last 20 years. I befriended Cubans including ones that were present at the Bay of Pigs during the invasion. Researching this subject over the last 20 years or so reveals an amazing story about the Cuban Revolution that we have been indoctrinated to largely be ignorant of. Check out this BLID show tonight for a honest and comprehensive rendition of that history and the war heroes that span form citizen militias to Fidel Castro himself.
This past week former Attorney General Ramsey Clark passed away. During his tenure as Attorney General of the United States from 1967-1969 under LBJ, he was instrumental in promoting voting rights for African Americans, school desegregation and drafted the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1968, (Fair Housing Act. As the most progressive Attorney General in U.S. history, his world view evolved rapidly as a result of revelations regarding the Vietnam War, and he became one of our greatest antiwar activists. We highlight a speech in which he claims the most powerfully true words that Dr King ever said was that the US “was the greatest purveyor of violence in the world”. He believed that to still be the case right up to his death. We critically examine that and other words of MLK’s Beyond Vietnam speech. In the show’s introduction. The primary focus of the show is a detailed analysis and historical account of and on the 60th anniversary of the April 1961 US Bay of Pigs invasion and defeat, the first defeat in the long history of US invasion interventions in the western hemisphere. The Bay of Pigs history we have been influenced by comes mainly from US foreign policy perspective that is often spoken from the veterans of the invasion force. It often claims it was the failure of promised air support from US that was decisive in the defeat. But what is ignored is that the overwhelming Cuban ‘public opinion’ then as is true today is that the majority population of Cuba supports the Cuban Model. It begs the question with regard to the “Cuban opposition’ to the Cuban government, Without U.S. Funding Would There Be Anything to Fund? We show tonight the reductionist ahistorical representation that the US failed air support argument suggests. I travelled to Cuba a half dozen times and visited the Bay of Pigs 4-5 times during the last 20 years. I befriended Cubans including ones that were present at the Bay of Pigs during the invasion. Researching this subject over the last 20 years or so reveals an amazing story about the Cuban Revolution that we have been indoctrinated to largely be ignorant of. Check out this BLID show tonight for a honest and comprehensive rendition of that history and the war heroes that span form citizen militias to Fidel Castro himself.
With special guests Andres Arauz & Guillaume Long (from archived BLID shows). ‘Lawfare’ is defined as an Evolutionary tool in the US foreign policy toolbox of techniques used to subvert the prioritizing of the majority population’s quality of life to the interests of multinational corporate investment needs. Special guests are featured from previously aired shows as 4/11/21/election results for the President of Ecuador are being finalized. Andres Arauz who in February received the greatest share of votes, but was just shy of avoiding a runoff, was interviewed on KOOP Radio back on 10/14/19. Economist, Andres Arauz was a Senior Research Fellow Center for Economic Research (CEPR) and a former Minister of Knowledge of Ecuador and a former Central Bank General Director during Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa's administration. Guillaume Long, interviewed on BLID back on 8/10/20 held several cabinet positions in the government of Ecuador, including Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Culture, Minister of Knowledge and Human Talent, and most recently, serving as Ecuador’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva under both President Correa and the Lenin Moreno Admin before resigning in protest. Andres was on BLID during the midst of great unrest and brutal repression of that dissent and now is poised to become Ecuador’s new president. Guillaume describes the term lawfare which has been utilized successfully to circumvent the voting preferences of the majority people by eliminating their favored candidates from eligibility through ‘lawfare’. This show provides a historically contexted and indices documented overview of the majority population’s quality of life improvements or quality of life compromises as they are connected to governments favored or disliked by Washington.
With special guests Andres Arauz & Guillaume Long (from archived BLID shows). ‘Lawfare’ is defined as an Evolutionary tool in the US foreign policy toolbox of techniques used to subvert the prioritizing of the majority population’s quality of life to the interests of multinational corporate investment needs. Special guests are featured from previously aired shows as 4/11/21/election results for the President of Ecuador are being finalized. Andres Arauz who in February received the greatest share of votes, but was just shy of avoiding a runoff, was interviewed on KOOP Radio back on 10/14/19. Economist, Andres Arauz was a Senior Research Fellow Center for Economic Research (CEPR) and a former Minister of Knowledge of Ecuador and a former Central Bank General Director during Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa's administration. Guillaume Long, interviewed on BLID back on 8/10/20 held several cabinet positions in the government of Ecuador, including Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Culture, Minister of Knowledge and Human Talent, and most recently, serving as Ecuador’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva under both President Correa and the Lenin Moreno Admin before resigning in protest. Andres was on BLID during the midst of great unrest and brutal repression of that dissent and now is poised to become Ecuador’s new president. Guillaume describes the term lawfare which has been utilized successfully to circumvent the voting preferences of the majority people by eliminating their favored candidates from eligibility through ‘lawfare’. This show provides a historically contexted and indices documented overview of the majority population’s quality of life improvements or quality of life compromises as they are connected to governments favored or disliked by Washington.
With special guest, Matt Hoh who brings nearly twelve years of frontline experience with America’s wars overseas with the United States Marine Corps, Department of Defense and State Department. He has been a Senior Fellow with the Center for International Policy since 2010. In 2009, Matthew resigned in protest from his post in Afghanistan with the State Department over the American escalation of the war. Citing sources close to the Taliban, Afghanistan’s Tolo News reported that the Biden administration has asked the Taliban to agree to a continued US presence in Afghanistan for three or six months past May 1st deadline agreed to 14 months ago. In a sensational presentation and wide-ranging interview and dialogue, Matthew shares his remarkably informed perspective on Afghanistan, including his suggestion that we are creating the circumstances in which the only option is violence. We discuss the concern that this too often continues to be the outcome of US foreign policy as indicated by the result of our ‘War on Terror’ which has resulted in an explosion of State Department Listed Terror Groups and terrorist membership from 2001 until today. Our guest shares the depth of corruption of the government in Kabul by citing ‘Transparency International’ which rates them as one of the most corrupt governments in the world and further cites the results of UN reports which claim that roughly one third of all prisoners of Afghanistan are tortured by the security forces (police, the army, and the intel services) of Afghanistan, forces that we train. A compelling body of information is presented that suggest that there is no moral justification for US Afghan foreign policy to date and in fact he details how it has been instead incredibly counterproductive. His personal experience in dealing with Taliban members provides another level of credibility. Although he is no fan of the Taliban, he knows them. Unlike the US who has a history once again of lying about our involvement in foreign policy theaters, in Afghanistan, he doubts the Taliban will renege on promises made. In fact, they have abided by the agreement the last year or more to not attack and kill US and NATO forces. “These groups they mean what they say and do what they say” The show also covers the historical context since the 1970s in Afghanistan identifying the real government types that historically provided the best and most promising material and human rights advances for women and all Afghans.
With special guest, Matt Hoh who brings nearly twelve years of frontline experience with America’s wars overseas with the United States Marine Corps, Department of Defense and State Department. He has been a Senior Fellow with the Center for International Policy since 2010. In 2009, Matthew resigned in protest from his post in Afghanistan with the State Department over the American escalation of the war. Citing sources close to the Taliban, Afghanistan’s Tolo News reported that the Biden administration has asked the Taliban to agree to a continued US presence in Afghanistan for three or six months past May 1st deadline agreed to 14 months ago. In a sensational presentation and wide-ranging interview and dialogue, Matthew shares his remarkably informed perspective on Afghanistan, including his suggestion that we are creating the circumstances in which the only option is violence. We discuss the concern that this too often continues to be the outcome of US foreign policy as indicated by the result of our ‘War on Terror’ which has resulted in an explosion of State Department Listed Terror Groups and terrorist membership from 2001 until today. Our guest shares the depth of corruption of the government in Kabul by citing ‘Transparency International’ which rates them as one of the most corrupt governments in the world and further cites the results of UN reports which claim that roughly one third of all prisoners of Afghanistan are tortured by the security forces (police, the army, and the intel services) of Afghanistan, forces that we train. A compelling body of information is presented that suggest that there is no moral justification for US Afghan foreign policy to date and in fact he details how it has been instead incredibly counterproductive. His personal experience in dealing with Taliban members provides another level of credibility. Although he is no fan of the Taliban, he knows them. Unlike the US who has a history once again of lying about our involvement in foreign policy theaters, in Afghanistan, he doubts the Taliban will renege on promises made. In fact, they have abided by the agreement the last year or more to not attack and kill US and NATO forces. “These groups they mean what they say and do what they say” The show also covers the historical context since the 1970s in Afghanistan identifying the real government types that historically provided the best and most promising material and human rights advances for women and all Afghans.
With special guest, TX Senator Sarah Eckhardt and KOOP’s own, PJ Pullus, Lynn Cowles & Reshmi Chowdhury. This show is part of a four-show combination this week in celebration of the last week of International Women’s Month (IWM. We begin with Reflections of Community Outreach (ROCO) on Monday 3/29 followed by this BLID show at 6pm the same day. We are followed by Civil Rights & Wrong show focus on Tuesday 3/30 at 6pm and this collage of four shows that continue our KOOP IWM celebration ends with In Touch Interviews on 3/31/21 at 2:30pm. The show introduction details the $10T (not billon!) of unpaid labor by women of the world contribute that augment the criminal wealth inequality divide produced by the predatory nature of the world economic system that the US and EU dominate through institutions such as the world Health Organization (WTO). We document how claims that pharmaceutical companies take significant risks and largely finance the science behind the Covid 19 vaccination development and production is completely misleading and false. It is within this context that we then transition from the macro world level and how women significantly insulate the majority population from the hard edges of a profoundly undemocratic ‘profit over people’ priority, to the local US and Travis County level with our honorable women activist guests. It is a great honor for BLID to present Texas Senator Eckhardt who reminds us that ‘the world may be unfair, but it is not inherently cruel’, and shares the three greatest things that are getting collectively rolled back here in the US, women’s reproductive health rights, public education, and free and welcoming access to vote. PJ Pullus who led KOOP’s efforts to bring the music of women together just one year ago as the Covid experience was beginning; Lynn Cowles who personifies dedicated activism and reveals the experiences of the disenfranchised in our community; And Reshmi Choudhury who shares the impact of the recent Atlanta horrific murders as part of the important insights she shares into the specific nature of racism that our Asian American population are subject to as well as the strengths they have brought to the fabric of our US culture.
With special guest, TX Senator Sarah Eckhardt and KOOP’s own, PJ Pullus, Lynn Cowles & Reshmi Chowdhury. This show is part of a four-show combination this week in celebration of the last week of International Women’s Month (IWM. We begin with Reflections of Community Outreach (ROCO) on Monday 3/29 followed by this BLID show at 6pm the same day. We are followed by Civil Rights & Wrong show focus on Tuesday 3/30 at 6pm and this collage of four shows that continue our KOOP IWM celebration ends with In Touch Interviews on 3/31/21 at 2:30pm. The show introduction details the $10T (not billon!) of unpaid labor by women of the world contribute that augment the criminal wealth inequality divide produced by the predatory nature of the world economic system that the US and EU dominate through institutions such as the world Health Organization (WTO). We document how claims that pharmaceutical companies take significant risks and largely finance the science behind the Covid 19 vaccination development and production is completely misleading and false. It is within this context that we then transition from the macro world level and how women significantly insulate the majority population from the hard edges of a profoundly undemocratic ‘profit over people’ priority, to the local US and Travis County level with our honorable women activist guests. It is a great honor for BLID to present Texas Senator Eckhardt who reminds us that ‘the world may be unfair, but it is not inherently cruel’, and shares the three greatest things that are getting collectively rolled back here in the US, women’s reproductive health rights, public education, and free and welcoming access to vote. PJ Pullus who led KOOP’s efforts to bring the music of women together just one year ago as the Covid experience was beginning; Lynn Cowles who personifies dedicated activism and reveals the experiences of the disenfranchised in our community; And Reshmi Choudhury who shares the impact of the recent Atlanta horrific murders as part of the important insights she shares into the specific nature of racism that our Asian American population are subject to as well as the strengths they have brought to the fabric of our US culture.
With special guest, editor, and investigative journalist Jeremy Kuzmarov. In 2015 Russia enacted laws requiring NGOs financed by outside nations and are seeking to influence the internal politics of Russia to register as ‘foreign agents. This included the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) which outraged US government and NED officials. Investigative journalist Robert Parry accurately described the NED as “a U.S. government-funded organization created in 1983 to do what the Central Intelligence Agency previously had done in financing organizations inside target countries to advance U.S. policy interests and, if needed, help in ‘regime change’.” The US government was outraged despite Russia essentially mimicking the same law, The Foreign Agent Registration Act, that we passed in our own country in 1938. In 1991, the Washington Post essentially validated what Parry was claiming regarding the purposes of the NED, as it quoted one of the founders of the NED Allen Weinstein as saying “a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” Tonight, we are joined by the managing editor of Covert Magazine as we examine the covert manner and outcome in which the American public has been conditioned informationally to be receptive to anti-Russian disposition. Our focus is on the alleged poisoning of Alexei Navalny and the rush to judgment that the Russians did it. We review the evidence to date as well as in light of the recent 21st century multiple scenarios in which the US government and the US media has repeatedly come up empty after making claims of certainty that Russia or another US ‘adversary’ had committed egregious acts. We review our guest, Jeremy Kuzmarov’s recent article Russian Opposition Leader Alexey Navalny a Key Prop in a Psychological Warfare Operation Designed to Bring Down Vladimir Putin? We provide a much fuller and more fully documented and therefore healthier contextual information base to our listeners. It is called investigative journalism rather than ‘promoting a narrative’. in order that our listeners can make a more well-informed estimation regarding what to believe. Who benefits? Who has a higher motive? What is the evidence that is brought forth? Is due process honored or discarded? Where does the preponderance of circumstantial evidence point? Learning how to not be played…. Again, and again!
With special guest, editor, and investigative journalist Jeremy Kuzmarov. In 2015 Russia enacted laws requiring NGOs financed by outside nations and are seeking to influence the internal politics of Russia to register as ‘foreign agents. This included the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) which outraged US government and NED officials. Investigative journalist Robert Parry accurately described the NED as “a U.S. government-funded organization created in 1983 to do what the Central Intelligence Agency previously had done in financing organizations inside target countries to advance U.S. policy interests and, if needed, help in ‘regime change’.” The US government was outraged despite Russia essentially mimicking the same law, The Foreign Agent Registration Act, that we passed in our own country in 1938. In 1991, the Washington Post essentially validated what Parry was claiming regarding the purposes of the NED, as it quoted one of the founders of the NED Allen Weinstein as saying “a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” Tonight, we are joined by the managing editor of Covert Magazine as we examine the covert manner and outcome in which the American public has been conditioned informationally to be receptive to anti-Russian disposition. Our focus is on the alleged poisoning of Alexei Navalny and the rush to judgment that the Russians did it. We review the evidence to date as well as in light of the recent 21st century multiple scenarios in which the US government and the US media has repeatedly come up empty after making claims of certainty that Russia or another US ‘adversary’ had committed egregious acts. We review our guest, Jeremy Kuzmarov’s recent article Russian Opposition Leader Alexey Navalny a Key Prop in a Psychological Warfare Operation Designed to Bring Down Vladimir Putin? We provide a much fuller and more fully documented and therefore healthier contextual information base to our listeners. It is called investigative journalism rather than ‘promoting a narrative’. in order that our listeners can make a more well-informed estimation regarding what to believe. Who benefits? Who has a higher motive? What is the evidence that is brought forth? Is due process honored or discarded? Where does the preponderance of circumstantial evidence point? Learning how to not be played…. Again, and again!
There is something wrong with the US foreign policy being predicated on the expectation that other countries should put US foreign policy desires ahead of their own interests. And if they fail to, and there is noncompliance, sanctions, foreign intervention or outright facilitation of conflict and war by the most powerful country and its allies on the planet too often, follows. Our guest the esteemed human rights activist who has practiced civil disobedience and its consequences for the last several decades shares why she and others are willing to get arrested and jailed in order to fight back against the negative outcomes that have taken so many civilian men, women and children lives. Ms. Kelley traveled to Iraq 17 times beginning in or about 1990 and also has frequented Afghanistan among other places where US foreign policy results have impacted so negatively so many lives. She is part of a larger group of patriots who are loyal to ethical tradition that says no to “unjust laws” no to “unjust wars” and no to “unjust sanctions” as she reveals the outcomes, they create from eyewitness accounts. Our particular focus is on her Iraq experiences and lessons learned but not covered by our ‘mainstream media’ including NPR. From intentionally targeting sanitation, water systems and other infrastructure and then denying chlorinators and other supplies to address the basic civilian needs over a ten-year period during the sanction period following 1990 -1991 Desert Storm, up until the 2003 US invasion. A scenario being repeated in Yemen as well as in the 2011 Libya invasion. Ms. Kelly also responds to the takeover of the Iraqi economy by the Coalitional Provisional Authority led by Paul Bremer and the profiteering mainly by US corporate interests. If US public knew of these tragic consequences, they would not have tolerated it. ‘Trust but verify’ demands responsibility and accountability by an informed electorate. Please join us tonight as we seek to help contribute to building such an informed US public.
There is something wrong with the US foreign policy being predicated on the expectation that other countries should put US foreign policy desires ahead of their own interests. And if they fail to, and there is noncompliance, sanctions, foreign intervention or outright facilitation of conflict and war by the most powerful country and its allies on the planet too often, follows. Our guest the esteemed human rights activist who has practiced civil disobedience and its consequences for the last several decades shares why she and others are willing to get arrested and jailed in order to fight back against the negative outcomes that have taken so many civilian men, women and children lives. Ms. Kelley traveled to Iraq 17 times beginning in or about 1990 and also has frequented Afghanistan among other places where US foreign policy results have impacted so negatively so many lives. She is part of a larger group of patriots who are loyal to ethical tradition that says no to “unjust laws” no to “unjust wars” and no to “unjust sanctions” as she reveals the outcomes, they create from eyewitness accounts. Our particular focus is on her Iraq experiences and lessons learned but not covered by our ‘mainstream media’ including NPR. From intentionally targeting sanitation, water systems and other infrastructure and then denying chlorinators and other supplies to address the basic civilian needs over a ten-year period during the sanction period following 1990 -1991 Desert Storm, up until the 2003 US invasion. A scenario being repeated in Yemen as well as in the 2011 Libya invasion. Ms. Kelly also responds to the takeover of the Iraqi economy by the Coalitional Provisional Authority led by Paul Bremer and the profiteering mainly by US corporate interests. If US public knew of these tragic consequences, they would not have tolerated it. ‘Trust but verify’ demands responsibility and accountability by an informed electorate. Please join us tonight as we seek to help contribute to building such an informed US public.
In our final Black History & State of Black America celebration show, the 6th in our series of conscious raising shows around systemic racism & oppression, we continue our 2011 Libya US led NATO criminal overthrow of the Libyan government and its outcome featuring the distinguished research findings of Dr Alan Kuperman of the University of Texas. Dr Kuperman’s research findings brought light into the darkness of the false claims that led us to unjust NATO invasion of Libya ten years ago by contradicting the false ‘humanitarian intervention’ narrative that the US Obama government and mainstream media successfully promoted. Instead, our foreign policy intervention resulted in the opposite, another humanitarian disaster, highlighted by a return of slavery and the enabling of al Qaeda. Dr Kuperman documented ahead of the 2011 US led NATO overthrow of the Libyan government that “In fact the uprising from the first day as armed, militant and led by veterans of al Qaeda in northeastern Libya.” … “the uprising was led, initiated, spearheaded by al Qaeda veterans.” And that Gaddafi’s Libyan airstrikes specifically targeted these insurgents and NOT civilians. Last week before ending our show with a Libya focus, we detailed the false narrative promoted by the Hill Knowlton PR firm as an important component of misleading the US public to support the 1st Gulf War against Iraq. We also shared the false narrative promoted by the US government and swallowed whole without dissent by mainstream media (MSM) that lead us to the unjust 2003 invasion in Iraq. It is in that context that we examine the US government and MSM misrepresentations that led to the unjust overthrow of the Libyan government in 2011. If we do not become historically literate to the truths of our past interventions than we are much more likely to be played like chumps again today and tomorrow. Please join us tonight as we continue, this time through the research of Dr Alan Kuperman, to bring light into the darkness of the deceit our government and mainstream media so routinely have concocted that preceded our histories of US foreign policy intervention in order to reduce its opposition. ‘Trust but verify’ demands responsibility and accountability by an informed electorate. Please join us tonight as we seek to help contribute to building such an informed US public.
In our final Black History & State of Black America celebration show, the 6th in our series of conscious raising shows around systemic racism & oppression, we continue our 2011 Libya US led NATO criminal overthrow of the Libyan government and its outcome featuring the distinguished research findings of Dr Alan Kuperman of the University of Texas. Dr Kuperman’s research findings brought light into the darkness of the false claims that led us to unjust NATO invasion of Libya ten years ago by contradicting the false ‘humanitarian intervention’ narrative that the US Obama government and mainstream media successfully promoted. Instead, our foreign policy intervention resulted in the opposite, another humanitarian disaster, highlighted by a return of slavery and the enabling of al Qaeda. Dr Kuperman documented ahead of the 2011 US led NATO overthrow of the Libyan government that “In fact the uprising from the first day as armed, militant and led by veterans of al Qaeda in northeastern Libya.” … “the uprising was led, initiated, spearheaded by al Qaeda veterans.” And that Gaddafi’s Libyan airstrikes specifically targeted these insurgents and NOT civilians. Last week before ending our show with a Libya focus, we detailed the false narrative promoted by the Hill Knowlton PR firm as an important component of misleading the US public to support the 1st Gulf War against Iraq. We also shared the false narrative promoted by the US government and swallowed whole without dissent by mainstream media (MSM) that lead us to the unjust 2003 invasion in Iraq. It is in that context that we examine the US government and MSM misrepresentations that led to the unjust overthrow of the Libyan government in 2011. If we do not become historically literate to the truths of our past interventions than we are much more likely to be played like chumps again today and tomorrow. Please join us tonight as we continue, this time through the research of Dr Alan Kuperman, to bring light into the darkness of the deceit our government and mainstream media so routinely have concocted that preceded our histories of US foreign policy intervention in order to reduce its opposition. ‘Trust but verify’ demands responsibility and accountability by an informed electorate. Please join us tonight as we seek to help contribute to building such an informed US public.
The convergence of wealth inequality and Media consolidation is explicated as the greatest risk to democracy. The degree of media consolidation is shocking and has led to the absence of so much of the dissenting evidence needed to form informed understandings regarding our collective foreign policy impact on the world stage. Without that we are unable of holding our government accountable and responsible for carrying out the will and interests of the majority population and instead become unconscious victims of the will and economic interests of the elite few. This show not only details the degree of media consolidation but also documents the methods and results of creating a misinformed electorate with clear examples and documentation. From the 1st Gulf War and before until today examples abound on how deceitfully misrepresentations were presented to the American public. “In 1983, the US media was controlled by 50 companies. There were nine companies ruling in the 1990s, and by 2020 the number shrank to six — AT&T, which bought Time Warner, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), Comcast, Disney, News Corp, and Viacom. This means that a huge amount of media companies are connected.” Those that own the overwhelming disproportionate wealth, also own the media, and therefore own the purveyors of ideas from epoch to epoch. As Herbert Marcuse described back in the 1970s in his book One Dimensional Man, a closed universe of discourse is created that shapes and creates false truths, and false history with the result that things people often believe but which in fact are false or grossly misleading. How we have been misled into conflict after conflict by control of information and the distorted presentation of false narratives is detailed with hard evidentiary examples. When foreign policy and public relations firms work hand in glove, we are advertised into supporting unjust interventions and wars. The last 25% of the show shifts to an introduction to the Libyan invasion of 2011 and the false propaganda that was connected to that war crime, which will be further explicated next week.
The convergence of wealth inequality and Media consolidation is explicated as the greatest risk to democracy. The degree of media consolidation is shocking and has led to the absence of so much of the dissenting evidence needed to form informed understandings regarding our collective foreign policy impact on the world stage. Without that we are unable of holding our government accountable and responsible for carrying out the will and interests of the majority population and instead become unconscious victims of the will and economic interests of the elite few. This show not only details the degree of media consolidation but also documents the methods and results of creating a misinformed electorate with clear examples and documentation. From the 1st Gulf War and before until today examples abound on how deceitfully misrepresentations were presented to the American public. “In 1983, the US media was controlled by 50 companies. There were nine companies ruling in the 1990s, and by 2020 the number shrank to six — AT&T, which bought Time Warner, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), Comcast, Disney, News Corp, and Viacom. This means that a huge amount of media companies are connected.” Those that own the overwhelming disproportionate wealth, also own the media, and therefore own the purveyors of ideas from epoch to epoch. As Herbert Marcuse described back in the 1970s in his book One Dimensional Man, a closed universe of discourse is created that shapes and creates false truths, and false history with the result that things people often believe but which in fact are false or grossly misleading. How we have been misled into conflict after conflict by control of information and the distorted presentation of false narratives is detailed with hard evidentiary examples. When foreign policy and public relations firms work hand in glove, we are advertised into supporting unjust interventions and wars. The last 25% of the show shifts to an introduction to the Libyan invasion of 2011 and the false propaganda that was connected to that war crime, which will be further explicated next week.
We continue our Black History & State of Black America series of conscious raising shows around systemic racism & oppression. This week we speak with two activists Amanda Jasso and Kellee Coleman, who work with the City of Austin Equity Office. They share the challenges, by race and gender, that particularly are faced by women of color, at the local level regarding inequities posed by systemic oppression. Rather than complaining, they share the adaptive strategies women of color blazed in Austin Texas, in order to ‘normalize self-care’ and the care of their born and unborn children. Recognizing oppression and realizing it is not only about adapting to challenges and obstacles they place in the way to equality but recognizing that they are ‘systems’ ‘that are built to do what they are supposed to do’, maintain and expand the inequities that some benefit from while the majority to different degrees, some based on race and gender, are left to struggle with. Additional insights are provided such as the clarity in defining different types of ways oppression is manifested, however what is ‘not nearly as clear is how we experience white privilege’. Change is measured in incremental advances which hopefully will snowball into structural change. Oppression alienates us from our humanity, but we are inspired by how our guests minimize those impacts by the choices they make and teach us to make. We highlight the heroic role of Women in Austin in the context of their role throughout the world in mitigating the effects of poverty which is defined by Oxfam as “the worst form of violence perpetrated with the consent of society”. Insightful and empirically documented findings are reviewed of the Oxfam, Jan 2020 Report entitled, Unpaid and Underpaid Care Work and the Global Inequality Crisis: Even It Up. They include and document that ‘Economic inequality is out of control’; “The monetary value of UNPAID CARE WORK globally for women aged 15 or older is at least $10.8 trillion annually”; “at the bottom of the economy, women and girls, especially women and girls living in poverty and from marginalized groups, are putting in 12.5 billion hours every day of (essential) care work for free, and countless more for poverty wages” and “Oxfam has calculated that this work adds value to the economy of at least $10.8 trillion annually.” What makes women so heroic is the lives that they save every day in the face of the oppression they disproportionately are encumbered by.
We continue our Black History & State of Black America series of conscious raising shows around systemic racism & oppression. This week we speak with two activists Amanda Jasso and Kellee Coleman, who work with the City of Austin Equity Office. They share the challenges, by race and gender, that particularly are faced by women of color, at the local level regarding inequities posed by systemic oppression. Rather than complaining, they share the adaptive strategies women of color blazed in Austin Texas, in order to ‘normalize self-care’ and the care of their born and unborn children. Recognizing oppression and realizing it is not only about adapting to challenges and obstacles they place in the way to equality but recognizing that they are ‘systems’ ‘that are built to do what they are supposed to do’, maintain and expand the inequities that some benefit from while the majority to different degrees, some based on race and gender, are left to struggle with. Additional insights are provided such as the clarity in defining different types of ways oppression is manifested, however what is ‘not nearly as clear is how we experience white privilege’. Change is measured in incremental advances which hopefully will snowball into structural change. Oppression alienates us from our humanity, but we are inspired by how our guests minimize those impacts by the choices they make and teach us to make. We highlight the heroic role of Women in Austin in the context of their role throughout the world in mitigating the effects of poverty which is defined by Oxfam as “the worst form of violence perpetrated with the consent of society”. Insightful and empirically documented findings are reviewed of the Oxfam, Jan 2020 Report entitled, Unpaid and Underpaid Care Work and the Global Inequality Crisis: Even It Up. They include and document that ‘Economic inequality is out of control’; “The monetary value of UNPAID CARE WORK globally for women aged 15 or older is at least $10.8 trillion annually”; “at the bottom of the economy, women and girls, especially women and girls living in poverty and from marginalized groups, are putting in 12.5 billion hours every day of (essential) care work for free, and countless more for poverty wages” and “Oxfam has calculated that this work adds value to the economy of at least $10.8 trillion annually.” What makes women so heroic is the lives that they save every day in the face of the oppression they disproportionately are encumbered by.
Last week we detailed how slavery period, the Jim Crow period, interrupted by a short decade long Reconstruction period, was followed by Modern Day Discrimination that that continues to manifest its inequality today. We defined it as three connected eras that used different means and methods to ensure the second-class status of black lives’, hence the nature of systemic racism. This week we shift our attention to the documentation of how Black airmen responsible for the most dangerous positions within the US WWII Air Force missions, namely as fighter pilots incurred a two front War. One against Nazi Germany and the second against the longest war in US History, the War of Racism. Special Guest Charles Chenier is featured form a 2007 BLID exclusive interview. One of the last Tuskegee Airmen still alive at the time gives a chilling and insightful vision of segregation and mistreatment of some of our real American Heroes the Tuskegee Airmen. Mr. Chenier also reveals how we fed German Nazi prisoners better than our own black airmen and gives us insights into the nature of the advanced German air force capabilities faced in WWII. The show includes a history of how the ‘New Deal’s’ Social Security program and the post War GI Bill program disproportionately benefitted whites over blacks with the effect of furthering the great racial wealth divide during the Jim Crow era and right up through the 1970s. A history unreported to the US public. Please join us as we seek to honor Black History Month by continuing to pursue our goal of deconstructing ‘systemic racism’ by revealing its different manifestations throughout our colonial and post-independence history right up until today.
Last week we detailed how slavery period, the Jim Crow period, interrupted by a short decade long Reconstruction period, was followed by Modern Day Discrimination that that continues to manifest its inequality today. We defined it as three connected eras that used different means and methods to ensure the second-class status of black lives’, hence the nature of systemic racism. This week we shift our attention to the documentation of how Black airmen responsible for the most dangerous positions within the US WWII Air Force missions, namely as fighter pilots incurred a two front War. One against Nazi Germany and the second against the longest war in US History, the War of Racism. Special Guest Charles Chenier is featured form a 2007 BLID exclusive interview. One of the last Tuskegee Airmen still alive at the time gives a chilling and insightful vision of segregation and mistreatment of some of our real American Heroes the Tuskegee Airmen. Mr. Chenier also reveals how we fed German Nazi prisoners better than our own black airmen and gives us insights into the nature of the advanced German air force capabilities faced in WWII. The show includes a history of how the ‘New Deal’s’ Social Security program and the post War GI Bill program disproportionately benefitted whites over blacks with the effect of furthering the great racial wealth divide during the Jim Crow era and right up through the 1970s. A history unreported to the US public. Please join us as we seek to honor Black History Month by continuing to pursue our goal of deconstructing ‘systemic racism’ by revealing its different manifestations throughout our colonial and post-independence history right up until today.
The show focus is on the impact of systemic racism on Black History and the State of Black America relative to White America. Three different periods of US history, ‘slavery’, ‘Jim Crow’ and ‘Modern Day Discrimination’ utilizing different means and methods to subject African Americans to second class status are presented as systemic racism. Examples are documented and described and presented as a 2021 State of Black America snapshot. We examine the shocking findings of the January 25, 2021 Oxfam Report entitled The Inequality Virus. The COVID-19 Virus and its economic impact on billionaires compared to the majority interests of US citizens as well as the world’s majority clearly reveals the nature a failed economic system or what MLK referred to as the ‘edifice that needs restructuring’. We believe this is what he meant when he described the economic system focus need for a ‘radical change in values’ ‘from a ‘thing oriented’ focus to a people oriented’ one. Please join us as we kick off Black History Month by critically applying MLK’s work to modern day USA and systemic racism. You cannot celebrate the true calling and legacy of MLK, we believe without staying focused on his greatest concerns.
The show focus is on the impact of systemic racism on Black History and the State of Black America relative to White America. Three different periods of US history, ‘slavery’, ‘Jim Crow’ and ‘Modern Day Discrimination’ utilizing different means and methods to subject African Americans to second class status are presented as systemic racism. Examples are documented and described and presented as a 2021 State of Black America snapshot. We examine the shocking findings of the January 25, 2021 Oxfam Report entitled The Inequality Virus. The COVID-19 Virus and its economic impact on billionaires compared to the majority interests of US citizens as well as the world’s majority clearly reveals the nature a failed economic system or what MLK referred to as the ‘edifice that needs restructuring’. We believe this is what he meant when he described the economic system focus need for a ‘radical change in values’ ‘from a ‘thing oriented’ focus to a people oriented’ one. Please join us as we kick off Black History Month by critically applying MLK’s work to modern day USA and systemic racism. You cannot celebrate the true calling and legacy of MLK, we believe without staying focused on his greatest concerns.
Dr King converged the spiritual critique with the economic and foreign policy missteps that is driving our world towards a premature and perhaps irreversible crisis oHof survival of our species. He called out our arrogance as a nation and violent foreign policy within the paradigm of racism and gross economic inequalities. Special guest Reverend Jim Rigby Pastor of St Andrew’ Presbyterian joins Pedro Gatos and leads a far-ranging discussion that highlights MLK words from his Beyond Vietnam 4/4/1967 speech and applies them to the deteriorating spiritual and material conditions more and more of our human species are being subject to. Many answers lie in the legacy of Dr MLK lessons he left behind many of which were most well developed and expressed in the Beyond Vietnam speech. You cannot celebrate the true calling and legacy of MLK, we believe without staying focused on his greatest concerns.
Dr King converged the spiritual critique with the economic and foreign policy missteps that is driving our world towards a premature and perhaps irreversible crisis oHof survival of our species. He called out our arrogance as a nation and violent foreign policy within the paradigm of racism and gross economic inequalities. Special guest Reverend Jim Rigby Pastor of St Andrew’ Presbyterian joins Pedro Gatos and leads a far-ranging discussion that highlights MLK words from his Beyond Vietnam 4/4/1967 speech and applies them to the deteriorating spiritual and material conditions more and more of our human species are being subject to. Many answers lie in the legacy of Dr MLK lessons he left behind many of which were most well developed and expressed in the Beyond Vietnam speech. You cannot celebrate the true calling and legacy of MLK, we believe without staying focused on his greatest concerns.
We believe we honor Dr. Martin Luther King every week on BLID by our weekly US Foreign Policy inquiries that MLK questioned, such as his concerns from studying US Vietnam intervention. Through the lens of MLK the framing of our foreign policy makes sense as driven by the ‘great triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism’.
Tonight’s show is about terrorism, state sponsored terrorism, harboring terrorists and the United States' list of state sponsored terrorist nations. Who makes those ‘war on terrorism’ determinations? What is the integrity of the information made available to the US public in making those judgements, as well as shaping public understandings of the motives behind other US foreign policy interventions as well? We juxtapose the evidence provided - or lack thereof - claiming terrorist enabling behavior on part of Cuba recently made by the Trump administration with the primary focus of Cuban foreign policy according to Cuba and based on documented empirical historical Cuban government actions, vs our own policies, what we have done in the name of US Foreign Policy based on our own history of documented empirical actions.
How does Cuba compare versus the US regarding the claim of giving safe harbor to terrorists? Using case study of US foreign policy impact on El Salvador and its Civil War that ended in the 1990s, we reveal what US media ignored, namely the enabling of those responsible for death squads and terrorism given safe refuge in the US.
We discuss the image making of US mainstream media in shaping our perception of Cuba as an authoritative nation. We give examples of pejorative methods being used to create false images that Cuba is so oppressive that Cubans aspire to leave Cuba at a much higher rate than other Caribbean countries. Is there valid criticism of Cuban government suppression of political non-violent dissent and political imprisonment? Do these claims have merit or are they overstated? What should we anticipate as a Biden foreign policy change towards Cuba? Will it be positive, and will it create a reciprocal appreciation for the other’s sovereignty? If people understood how our Foreign Policy impact vs Cuba impact on majority populations was substantially different regarding ‘quality of life’ outcomes, would Cuba be perceived differently?
All these questions are addressed. Enjoy!
We believe we honor Dr. Martin Luther King every week on BLID by our weekly US Foreign Policy inquiries that MLK questioned, such as his concerns from studying US Vietnam intervention. Through the lens of MLK the framing of our foreign policy makes sense as driven by the ‘great triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism’.
Tonight’s show is about terrorism, state sponsored terrorism, harboring terrorists and the United States' list of state sponsored terrorist nations. Who makes those ‘war on terrorism’ determinations? What is the integrity of the information made available to the US public in making those judgements, as well as shaping public understandings of the motives behind other US foreign policy interventions as well? We juxtapose the evidence provided - or lack thereof - claiming terrorist enabling behavior on part of Cuba recently made by the Trump administration with the primary focus of Cuban foreign policy according to Cuba and based on documented empirical historical Cuban government actions, vs our own policies, what we have done in the name of US Foreign Policy based on our own history of documented empirical actions.
How does Cuba compare versus the US regarding the claim of giving safe harbor to terrorists? Using case study of US foreign policy impact on El Salvador and its Civil War that ended in the 1990s, we reveal what US media ignored, namely the enabling of those responsible for death squads and terrorism given safe refuge in the US.
We discuss the image making of US mainstream media in shaping our perception of Cuba as an authoritative nation. We give examples of pejorative methods being used to create false images that Cuba is so oppressive that Cubans aspire to leave Cuba at a much higher rate than other Caribbean countries. Is there valid criticism of Cuban government suppression of political non-violent dissent and political imprisonment? Do these claims have merit or are they overstated? What should we anticipate as a Biden foreign policy change towards Cuba? Will it be positive, and will it create a reciprocal appreciation for the other’s sovereignty? If people understood how our Foreign Policy impact vs Cuba impact on majority populations was substantially different regarding ‘quality of life’ outcomes, would Cuba be perceived differently?
All these questions are addressed. Enjoy!
This episode’s show is on when medical care conflicts with Pharma corporate bottom lines, as a form of oppression. Oxycontin, Corporate Criminal Law and the Public Welfare, with guest and attorney, Kirsten Mayer who explains recent Supreme Court decisions that paved the way for prosecution of executives who were removed from the activity of the criminal behavior (i.e. the misbranding and its results of an explosion of opiate misuse that led to addiction and 500k deaths over the next two decades). As a consequence the prosecution of Purdue Frederick in 2007 along with "its top three executives, pleaded guilty as individuals to misbranding charges, a criminal violation and agreed to pay a total of US$34.5 million in fines as part of a $634m judgment.""
It is a story that as we speak today (11/2/20) has resulted in 500,000 deaths, twice the amount of the COVID 19 pandemic (albeit over a longer period of time). When 'corporate profits' dwarf the well-being of the majority population with respect to which is the greater priority. The majority lose and they lose badly.
On this episode, we discuss Purdue Frederick’s role in the Opioid epidemic sweeping our nation over the last 25 years and includes substantial portions of an older show (4/17/2008) featuring Attorney Kirsten Mayer. The $634m judgment appears to be significant...until you examine what the GAO noticed: That in 2001 alone, Purdue generated $1.3B in sales.
This judgment was followed by others, then most recently in October 2020, Purdue Pharma agreed to plead guilty to three criminal charges and pay $8.3B in fines and damages. The company admitted to bribing doctors to unnecessarily prescribe OxyContin and to lying to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) about controls on sales of the painkiller. It also paid illegal kickbacks to a health records company to promote opioid prescribing to physicians according to a 10/20/20 Guardian article.
“Purdue deeply regrets and accepts responsibility for the misconduct,” said the chairman of its board, Steve Miller. Meanwhile, the Sackler family reportedly received some $10B in payments over the years.
This show includes excerpts from a 2008 BLID show on the lottery and weaves in current 2020 analysis confirming and authenticating the 2008 show content and conclusions.
Please, join us Monday nights at 6pm CST at KOOP.org. Enjoy!
This episode’s show is on when medical care conflicts with Pharma corporate bottom lines, as a form of oppression. Oxycontin, Corporate Criminal Law and the Public Welfare, with guest and attorney, Kirsten Mayer who explains recent Supreme Court decisions that paved the way for prosecution of executives who were removed from the activity of the criminal behavior (i.e. the misbranding and its results of an explosion of opiate misuse that led to addiction and 500k deaths over the next two decades). As a consequence the prosecution of Purdue Frederick in 2007 along with "its top three executives, pleaded guilty as individuals to misbranding charges, a criminal violation and agreed to pay a total of US$34.5 million in fines as part of a $634m judgment.""
It is a story that as we speak today (11/2/20) has resulted in 500,000 deaths, twice the amount of the COVID 19 pandemic (albeit over a longer period of time). When 'corporate profits' dwarf the well-being of the majority population with respect to which is the greater priority. The majority lose and they lose badly.
On this episode, we discuss Purdue Frederick’s role in the Opioid epidemic sweeping our nation over the last 25 years and includes substantial portions of an older show (4/17/2008) featuring Attorney Kirsten Mayer. The $634m judgment appears to be significant...until you examine what the GAO noticed: That in 2001 alone, Purdue generated $1.3B in sales.
This judgment was followed by others, then most recently in October 2020, Purdue Pharma agreed to plead guilty to three criminal charges and pay $8.3B in fines and damages. The company admitted to bribing doctors to unnecessarily prescribe OxyContin and to lying to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) about controls on sales of the painkiller. It also paid illegal kickbacks to a health records company to promote opioid prescribing to physicians according to a 10/20/20 Guardian article.
“Purdue deeply regrets and accepts responsibility for the misconduct,” said the chairman of its board, Steve Miller. Meanwhile, the Sackler family reportedly received some $10B in payments over the years.
This show includes excerpts from a 2008 BLID show on the lottery and weaves in current 2020 analysis confirming and authenticating the 2008 show content and conclusions.
Please, join us Monday nights at 6pm CST at KOOP.org. Enjoy!
This episode's focus is to ‘Bring Light Into Darkness’ around what the US public should know about the cost of war. Over the last couple of shows we have focused on - among other things - the developing cabinet of President-Elect Joe Biden and the foreign policy history of Joe Biden along with those cabinet members he has already selected or is reportedly considering. The disturbing finding is that it all points to a bellicose foreign policy, similar to that of President Obama’s administration, as well as President George W. Bush before him and even in excess to Donald Trump’s foreign policy and broken promises of deescalating our military forces abroad.
This episode’s show shifts focus from personalities to objective outcomes of the past history of US militarism, and we are delighted to have a great American authority as our guest: Author and professor David Vine. We are excited to be presenting the articulate and compassionate dialogue that Professor Vine shared as our guest, on Christmas eve, that we are sharing for the first time during our broadcast tonight.
Professor Vine presents a compelling account of the ‘Cost of War’ - not just for our servicemen and women and their families or the financial costs as a nation as well - but also for the world populations impacted negatively by unjust interventions promoted by our foreign policy.
Enjoy!
This episode's focus is to ‘Bring Light Into Darkness’ around what the US public should know about the cost of war. Over the last couple of shows we have focused on - among other things - the developing cabinet of President-Elect Joe Biden and the foreign policy history of Joe Biden along with those cabinet members he has already selected or is reportedly considering. The disturbing finding is that it all points to a bellicose foreign policy, similar to that of President Obama’s administration, as well as President George W. Bush before him and even in excess to Donald Trump’s foreign policy and broken promises of deescalating our military forces abroad.
This episode’s show shifts focus from personalities to objective outcomes of the past history of US militarism, and we are delighted to have a great American authority as our guest: Author and professor David Vine. We are excited to be presenting the articulate and compassionate dialogue that Professor Vine shared as our guest, on Christmas eve, that we are sharing for the first time during our broadcast tonight.
Professor Vine presents a compelling account of the ‘Cost of War’ - not just for our servicemen and women and their families or the financial costs as a nation as well - but also for the world populations impacted negatively by unjust interventions promoted by our foreign policy.
Enjoy!
This episode's focus includes a continuation of our examination of President Elect Joe Biden’s cabinet. We examine Samantha Power and her likely United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Director appointment and what to expect based on her well documented foreign policy positions under the Obama administration, particularly her humanitarian intervention rationalizations for US intervention in Libya, Syria, and Yemen.
Dan Kovalik, a lawyer, professor, and author of “No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using ‘Humanitarian Intervention’ to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests,” to discuss. Our guest leads a dialogue on US intervention history and its evolution in techniques while its motives have remained unchanged, driven by elite financial interests of US/western economic interests at the direct cost and inverse proportion of measurable misery that we document as well. Why is the consistent reality that we partner, arm, train and/or logistically support and/or otherwise enable military dictatorships, and governments with horrendous human rights outcomes for their majority populations? We document this reality and remind our listeners of the death squads and al-Qaeda like jihadist terrorists that we have consistently been enabling, but rarely if ever get reported by our mainstream press has the result enabling an ahistorical public consciousness in our citizenry. This absence of honest historically contextualized reporting seems devoted to Out of sight Out of Mind perspective that drives our media coverage, thus its complicity in promoting a long history of unjust interventions and their results, results which our guest does an outstanding job of detailing for us, particularly in Libya, Yemen, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.
Accountability starts with honest and thorough analysis of history. Enjoy!
This episode's focus includes a continuation of our examination of President Elect Joe Biden’s cabinet. We examine Samantha Power and her likely United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Director appointment and what to expect based on her well documented foreign policy positions under the Obama administration, particularly her humanitarian intervention rationalizations for US intervention in Libya, Syria, and Yemen.
Dan Kovalik, a lawyer,professor, and author of “No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using ‘Humanitarian Intervention’ to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests,” to discuss. Our guest leads a dialogue on US intervention history and its evolution in techniques while its motives have remained unchanged, driven by elite financial interests of US/western economic interests at the direct cost and inverse proportion of measurable misery that we document as well. Why is the consistent reality that we partner, arm, train and/or logistically support and/or otherwise enable military dictatorships, and governments with horrendous human rights outcomes for their majority populations? We document this reality and remind our listeners of the death squads and al-Qaeda like jihadist terrorists that we have consistently been enabling, but rarely if ever get reported by our mainstream press has the result enabling an ahistorical public consciousness in our citizenry. This absence of honest historically contextualized reporting seems devoted to Out of sight Out of Mind perspective that drives our media coverage, thus its complicity in promoting a long history of unjust interventions and their results, results which our guest does an outstanding job of detailing for us, particularly in Libya, Yemen, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.
Accountability starts with honest and thorough analysis of history. Enjoy!
Host Pedro Gatos is joined by S Brian Wilson, a former commander of a USAF combat security unit in Vietnam who has been a justice activist for 50 years.
The two focus on the Nicaragua example, with special attention paid to the evolution of the different means and methods of illegal violations of international law in the US foreign policy’s toolbox of promoting sovereignty violations within third countries.
Host Pedro Gatos is joined by S Brian Wilson, a former commander of a USAF combat security unit in Vietnam who has been a justice activist for 50 years.
The two focus on the Nicaragua example, with special attention paid to the evolution of the different means and methods of illegal violations of international law in the US foreign policy’s toolbox of promoting sovereignty violations within third countries.
Host Pedro Gatos is joined by Nan McCurdy, editor of NICA Notes.
The two zero in on and detail yet another case study of US foreign policy seeking to override the democratic will and best interests of another majority population’s interest, in this case, Nicaragua.
They discuss why Nicaragua was identified and called out by the US White House as one (along with Cuba and Venezuela), of the ‘troika of tyranny’ nations. Meanwhile, going unreported, at the same time the US was promoting yet another unpopular and illegal coup, this time in 2018 Nicaragua.
Host Pedro Gatos is joined by Nan McCurdy, editor of NICA Notes.
The two zero in on and detail yet another case study of US foreign policy seeking to override the democratic will and best interests of another majority population’s interest, in this case, Nicaragua.
They discuss why Nicaragua was identified and called out by the US White House as one (along with Cuba and Venezuela), of the ‘troika of tyranny’ nations. Meanwhile, going unreported, at the same time the US was promoting yet another unpopular and illegal coup, this time in 2018 Nicaragua.
Host Pedro Gatos is joined by Dr. H Bruce Franklin, an American cultural historian, scholar, and author of 19 books.
The two discuss the provocative article, "Which Side Are You On?" by Bruce Franklin, recently published in Counterpunch on 8/21/20. Dr Franklin provides a compelling historical context that describes how the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were undermined by the post- Reconstruction Supreme Court, which legalized both the ‘re-enslavement’ and the disenfranchisement of a substantial proportion of our Black US citizenry.
Host Pedro Gatos is joined by Dr. H Bruce Franklin, an American cultural historian, scholar, and author of 19 books.
The two discuss the provocative article, "Which Side Are You On?" by Bruce Franklin, recently published in Counterpunch on 8/21/20. Dr Franklin provides a compelling historical context that describes how the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were undermined by the post- Reconstruction Supreme Court, which legalized both the ‘re-enslavement’ and the disenfranchisement of a substantial proportion of our Black US citizenry.
Host Pedro Gatos is joined by Alan McLeod, Staff Writer for Mint Print News.
The two focus on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and the disturbing reality of the US & UK complicity in creating a crisis in a country of 30 million people, in which nearly a quarter of a million people have been killed directly by fighting and indirectly through lack of access to food, health services, and infrastructure.
Host Pedro Gatos is joined by Alan McLeod, Staff Writer for Mint Print News.
The two focus on the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and the disturbing reality of the US & UK complicity in creating a crisis in a country of 30 million people, in which nearly a quarter of a million people have been killed directly by fighting and indirectly through lack of access to food, health services, and infrastructure.
Host Pedro Gatos is joined by special guest Michael Gray, former Sunday Business Editor at The New York Post.
The two discuss how the greatest transfer of wealth in our nation’s history occurred under the Obama administration and likely will be superseded by Trump.
Host Pedro Gatos is joined by special guest Michael Gray, former Sunday Business Editor at The New York Post.
The two discuss how the greatest transfer of wealth in our nation’s history occurred under the Obama administration and likely will be superseded by Trump.
Guillaume Long is a senior policy analyst at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, D.C.
He joins host Pedro Gatos to discuss the practice of lawfare - the undermining democracy through the judicialization of politics in the form of ‘judicial persecution’.
Guillaume Long is a senior policy analyst at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, D.C.
He joins host Pedro Gatos to discuss the practice of lawfare - the undermining democracy through the judicialization of politics in the form of ‘judicial persecution’.
Host Pedro Gatos is joined by special guest Glen Ford, editor of Black Agenda Report, a news organization providing perspective from the black left.
The two discuss how the Covid-19 epidemic has proved "beyond all rational doubt that decades of bipartisan privatization and austerity have destroyed the U.S. “public” health care system".
Host Pedro Gatos is joined by special guest Glen Ford, editor of Black Agenda Report, a news organization providing perspective from the black left.
The two discuss how the Covid-19 epidemic has proved "beyond all rational doubt that decades of bipartisan privatization and austerity have destroyed the U.S. “public” health care system".
Journalist and human-rights activist Ray McGovern served as chief of the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch during his 27 years as a CIA analyst. He joins host Pedro Gatos to discuss the mainstream media's deceitful persecution of Russia.
In this framework, we continue our study of the medias' allegations of "false certainties".
Journalist and human-rights activist Ray McGovern served as chief of the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch during his 27 years as a CIA analyst. He joins host Pedro Gatos to discuss the mainstream media's deceitful persecution of Russia.
In this framework, we continue our study of the medias' allegations of "false certainties".
The second half of this show deconstructs the deceitful misrepresentations led by Secretary of State John Kerry on 9/3/2013 in Congressional testimony following the 8/21/2013 ‘crossing of the redline’ Syria’s Assad government was accused of again with near-complete certainty.
Writer Alexander Mercouris joins host Pedro Gatos to discuss the the Sergei Skirpal poisoning in Salisbury UK on March 4, 2018, and the subsequent punitive measures against Russia with "certainty" of Russian responsibility.
Special guest and veteran Matthew Hoh, a senior fellow with the Center for International Policy, joins host Pedro Gatos to analyze the recent claims of Russian bounties on American soldiers.
Hoh provides a rich historical basis to better understand the geopolitics of today and the role our foreign policy plays regarding the threat to our species survival
Special guest and veteran Matthew Hoh, a senior fellow with the Center for International Policy, joins host Pedro Gatos to analyze the recent claims of Russian bounties on American soldiers.
Hoh provides a rich historical basis to better understand the geopolitics of today and the role our foreign policy plays regarding the threat to our species survival
Special guest Dr Arline T. Geronimus joins host Pedro Gatos to discuss her 30 years of research studying and measuring how poverty and racism create mental and physical problems that can shorten lives by a decade or more.
Special guest Dr Arline T. Geronimus joins host Pedro Gatos to discuss her 30 years of research studying and measuring how poverty and racism create mental and physical problems that can shorten lives by a decade or more.
Dr. William Darity again joins host Pedro Gatos. They discuss systemic racism in the criminal justice system, the history of ACORN, and the argument for a federal job's guarantee.
Dr. William Darity again joins host Pedro Gatos. They discuss systemic racism in the criminal justice system, the history of ACORN, and the argument for a federal job's guarantee.
Special guest: Dr William Darity Jr is the Samuel Dubois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African American Studies, and Economics at Duke University.
He joins host Pedro Gatos to discuss the history and legitimacy of the proposal for reparations for Black Americans.
Special guest: Dr William Darity Jr is the Samuel Dubois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African American Studies, and Economics at Duke University.
He joins host Pedro Gatos to discuss the history and legitimacy of the proposal for reparations for Black Americans.
Dr William Darity Jr is the Samuel Dubois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African American Studies, and Economics at Duke University joins host Pedro Gatos.
In Part II, Dr. Darity addresses common myths that are mistakenly promoted to describe the ‘why’ behind the profound inequalities described in Part I of the show,
Dr. William Darity Jr is the Samuel Dubois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African American Studies, and Economics at Duke University joins host Pedro Gatos.
They discuss the volume and degree of injustices that continue to face blacks and other people of color in our country well into the 21st century.
Part I of the show details the inequities, largely driven by wealth inequality in our country, that impact people of color disproportionately.
27-year CIA Veteran Ray McGovern returns to Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss recent and past Russiagate revelations. Ray speaks about his friend Julian Assange, jailed for revealing war crimes, and questions the demonization of Russia.
The second half of the show focuses on disassembling the major misrepresentations by our government and media regarding Russiagate.
27-year CIA Veteran Ray McGovern returns to Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss recent and past Russiagate revelations. Ray speaks about his friend Julian Assange, jailed for revealing war crimes, and questions the demonization of Russia.
The second half of the show focuses on disassembling the major misrepresentations by our government and media regarding Russiagate.
Guest Mike Whitney joins host Pedro Gatos to discuss how Washington's rationale and justification for occupying the Syrian Arab Republic have shifted and changed drastically multiple times over.
Guest Mike Whitney joins host Pedro Gatos to discuss how Washington's rationale and justification for occupying the Syrian Arab Republic have shifted and changed drastically multiple times over.
One preexisting condition that is not properly appreciated when we look at the health and health disparities of our nation is simple to identify with one simple question and with little doubt. And that is, Are you Black?
On the eve of the 95th birthday of Malcolm X, host Pedro Gatos dedicates this show to the State of Black America pre-Covid-19 and to the greater health vulnerabilities that impoverished marginal populations face as a consequence of the profoundly unfair access to success our country provides to the haves and have-nots.
One preexisting condition that is not properly appreciated when we look at the health and health disparities of our nation is simple to identify with one simple question and with little doubt. And that is, Are you Black?
On the eve of the 95th birthday of Malcolm X, host Pedro Gatos dedicates this show to the State of Black America pre-Covid-19 and to the greater health vulnerabilities that impoverished marginal populations face as a consequence of the profoundly unfair access to success our country provides to the haves and have-nots.
Host Pedro Gatos examines the life and teaching perspective of Nelson Mandela, particularly on the Cuban issue. We provide a short bio and describe in some detail what apartheid meant to South Africans and the southern cone of Africa that was terrorized by the South African army.
We detail the numerous UN vetoes US and the west exercised which sustained the period of apartheid for 46 years.
We also share the primary role the US played in the arrest and imprisonment for 27 years of Nelson Mandela.
Host Pedro Gatos examines the life and teaching perspective of Nelson Mandela, particularly on the Cuban issue. We provide a short bio and describe in some detail what apartheid meant to South Africans and the southern cone of Africa that was terrorized by the South African army.
We detail the numerous UN vetoes US and the west exercised which sustained the period of apartheid for 46 years.
We also share the primary role the US played in the arrest and imprisonment for 27 years of Nelson Mandela.
Host Pedro Gatos continues to highlight the World Health Organization 4/27/20 Panel Remarks and provides insights regarding the COVID-19 response and its connection to aggravating access to other vaccines where progress has been promising.
We weave into the WHO 4/27/20 dialogue several connected themes that bring light to the larger problem facing majority populations throughout the world but particularly focus on the US reality.
Host Pedro Gatos highlights the World Health Organization 4/27/20 Panel Remarks and provides insights regarding the COVID-19 response and its connection to aggravating access to other vaccines where progress has been promising.
We weave into the WHO 4/27/20 dialogue several connected themes that bring light to the larger problem facing majority populations throughout the world but particularly focus on the US reality.
Host Pedro Gatos continues his interview with the intimate confidant and friend of MLK and eminent Civil Rights icon Reverend Joseph Lowery, recently deceased.
Host Pedro Gatos shares an interview with the intimate confidant and friend of MLK and eminent Civil Rights icon Reverend Joseph Lowery, recently deceased.
The interview covers the history around the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965, the repentance of George Wallace, and an overall theological analysis that drove the Civil Rights movement led by Dr. King and the SCLC, with one of the greatest civil rights leaders of our time. Covering myriad issues relevant to today and into the future.... as well as the revolutionary potential of theology& guiding principles as Reverend Lowery and Dr. King interpreted and worked endlessly to actualize them right here on earth.
Pedro Gatos speaks with special guest Melinda St. Louis, the Director of Public Citizen’s Medicare for All Campaign.
Pedro Gatos speaks with special guest Melinda St. Louis, the Director of Public Citizen’s Medicare for All Campaign.
Host Pedro Gatos and his guest Dr. Sahimi emphasize the effects of the holocaust against the Yemenese. Dr. Sahimi addresses the question of whether Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism – is this accurate or overstated?
Dr. Sahimi details the long history of the rocky relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran, specifically, how Iran’s victimization by Saudi Arabia has enabled terrorism on its territory. We discuss the proven capabilities of the Houthis including the August 2019 attack on Saudi Arabia using 10 drones against the Shaybah oil fields in South-East Saudi Arabia.
Host Pedro Gatos highlights contemporary context of the 9/14/19 drone and missile attacks. Dr. Sahimi recounts the Joint Nuclear agreement, the US's unilateral withdrawal, and the intensified sanctions under President Trump.
Chernier reflects on his service years and the post-WWII era and how bad it was for blacks, especially prisoners of war.
Chenier describes the dangerous and on the fly tactics of fighter pilots, the most dangerous job in the skies of WWII. The degree of dangerousness is documented through lost planes and captured pilots.
This segment captures the Tuskegee Airmen history and the history of the NAACP leading the fight against barriers to inhibit the eligibility of African-Americans to become WWII pilots. In particular, we highlight the actual WWII experience of Charles Chenier and his fellow Tuskegee airmen and their combat experience.