MicCheck Radio Podcast: Recent Episodes
Mic Check Radio
On this show we take a look at a variety of activist issues, tactics and the politics of being a conscious citizen in a crazy world.
Here we (U.S.A.) go again. Remember during Gulf War II, George W. Bush famously used the term Coalition of the Willing when it came to the invasion and occupation of Iraq? According to W's administration, these 48 countries were essential partners in this illegal war. However, countries like Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau and the Solomon Islands didn't (and still don't) have standing armies to help out in the war effort. Now, Barack Obama has gathered his own Coalition of the Willing II, this time with the war directed at ISIL. But what exactly are the new coalition members doing in this vague, new chapter in the War on Terror?
Anastasia Pantsios published a fantastic article at EcoWatch about Ohio's shameful role at the forefront of the fracking industry. The article is based in part on the U.S. Government Accountability Office report, Drinking Water: Characterization of Injected Fluids Associated with Oil and Gas Production (also known as GAO-14-957R) that examined the fracking industry in seven states. The good news is that the report documents the horrific conditions now present in Ohio due to the booming fracking industry. The bad news is that there is 0 chance that the politicians in Ohio will do anything about this issue. Why is that? Because the American Legislative Exchange Council has helped the oil and gas industry pass laws in Ohio that will need repealed before any action can be taken. One law in Ohio classified solution injected into the Earth as a 'trade secret', so no one knows exactly what is seeping into the groundwater.
In part 3 of our series on the education system in the United States of America, we take a look at the continued influence of Foundations - mainly the ones started and funded by the Carnegie and Rockefeller. We also discuss the Columbia Teachers College and their project, the Lincoln Experimental School. Then we look at the effects of the Progressive Education Associations "Eight-Year Study" and how it started the concept of the segmented school curriculum. And let's not forget the power of uniform textbooks - and how Harold Rugg (through the Columbia Teachers College) was so well funded that 5 million of his textbooks were distributed nationwide. Eventually, in 1952, the Reece Committee started investigating Foundations and their influence on public life. When their report was published in 1954, it was summarily ignored. Why was it ignored? Because, a scathing indictment of the power of capitalists in the United States and how they were (and are) warping the public education system for their own benefit wasn't a report those capitalists wanted anyone to know about. Sound familiar?
In part 2 of our series on the education system in the United States of America, we take a look at how compulsory schooling was legislated into existence and then financed. From 1889 to 1906 William Torrey Harris was the Commissioner of Education for the United States of America. That is an uninterrupted, 17 year stretch in which he shaped the teaching philosophy and legislation of an entire nation. During his tenure there was an average of one high school opened per day. That is a massive education boom. But, what was his philosophy of education? And, who was helping to subsidize this massive infrastructure of new buildings, textbooks and teacher training? The noted humanitarians (sarcasm) John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, to name just the two main wealthy white guys we take a look at in this episode. We wrap up part 2 with some choice quotes from a 1913 Special Commission appointed by the 62nd Congress to investigate the entity know as a "Foundation", both as a business model and the power it wields within society. Hint: It's not good and it hasn't gotten any better in the 101 years since this report.
In the kick off episode for a series on the education system in the United States of America, we take a look at the Prussian education system that was established after that country's devastating defeat at the hands of Napoleon's military in 1806. Decades after that system was up and running, Prussia was a serious force to be reckoned with in Europe. The notoriety of their education system had piqued the interest of an American, elite, Protestant, politician named Horace Mann. So much so, that Mann went to Prussia in 1843 to see how this "Three Tiered System" worked. Upon his return, Mann (who was Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education at the time) pushed very hard to implement what he had seen in Prussia. The effects of which are still alive and well in today's compulsory public school system.
In our third and final episode in the World Cup 2014: Capitalism, Corruption and Protest series we address the lack of protests in Brazil during the World Cup. We also take an extensive look at the police state tactics of Brazil and what it means for a country to host a "mega event" such as the World Cup or the Olympic Games (for Brazil, this will be in 2016). Surprise, surprise, United States private contractor extraordinaire Academi (formerly Xe and before that Blackwater) helped out with anti-terror training and Israeli security (NICE) firms help install and program an all seeing all spying system called "The Situator". There is also the matter of how sovereign nations change their laws to suit the profit motives of this massive, massive non-profit known as FIFA.
In part II of our World Cup 2014 series we take a look at the initial proposal the government of Brazil presented to FIFA and how the reality has shaped up all these years later...here a hint, the budget more than quadrupled. We specifically take a look at the construction at three of the 12 stadiums and the pit corruption, extortion and over billing they have all become. We also touch on similar stadium projects from the World Cup 2010 in South Africa and the preparations for the upcoming World Cup 2022 in Qatar (which has already killed hundreds of workers).
Our introductory episode covering the most watched (and most corrupt) sporting event in the entire world, the FIFA World Cup. We start off looking at why soccer can and is an important sport, especially on the world stage. Then we move into a brief overview of what has been going on in Brazil - both in the streets and within the halls of the Brazilian government at the request of FIFA officials - in the lead up to the World Cup of 2014, focusing on the Confederations Cup of 2013 and the corruption and protests that occurred during that event
The fourth and final in episode in our We're So Fucked series (We're So Fucked - We're So Fucked 2: Bringing Down the System - We're So Fucked 3: Don't Do Anything) ends on a happy note, sort of...We start the discussion with the idea that there are no easy fixes for all of the worlds problems and how personal a choice it is to actually get up everyday, take in air and keep trying to function as a human being on a fucked planet. What do you spend you time working towards? Everybody's answer is different, so we attempt to discuss the big picture issue that can apply to everyone...the potential of the human brain and the wonderful, creative, artistic impulses that reside inside of us all. Especially the youngest human beings among us, kids. Before their brains are taught all that social baggage we adults carry around in our brains, they are (or can be) free to explore, create, question and express themselves in the most spectacular ways imaginable. It might not save all of us humans, but it will help create a fantastic generation to keep the human species experiment going after the collapse of civilization as we know it...that's the 'sort of' happy ending we like here at Mic Check Radio.
This episode follows We're So Fucked and We're So Fucked 2: Bringing Down the System. On today's installment of this sporadic series we look at one of the two options that are laid out before us: Do Something or Don't Do Anything. The later is the focus for this episode. Doing nothing has never been easier or more entertaining (assuming you live in a so-called First World Country). Thousands of TV channels, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Google Play, iTunes, pornography, Soundcloud, YouTube, drugs (both legal and illegal), video games, social media, food and consumer electronics gadgetry that allow for the access of most of the above at the touch of a finger. Why the fuck would a First World human being want to do anything more than passively move thru their life, enjoying the entirety of human created entertainment that is available on small computer that fits in a pocket?
It's story time on Mic Check Radio this week. While this is a follow up to the We're So Fucked episode from two weeks ago, the bulk of this show is a reading which diagnoses just how fucked we human beings are by the industrial-technological system that we human beings have created...and what some potential options are for dealing with this system.
We (human beings) are quite literally fucked in numerous ways...on this episode we take a look at just a few of the main reasons. Financial collapse, poor food quality, weather, climate, consumerism, garbage, diseases, air pollution, water pollution, industrialization, population growth, and just plain good old fashioned war (traditional, biological, nuclear, etc.). Oh, and solar flares, asteroids, earthquakes and volcanoes.
Our final installment in the Affluenza series. On this weeks show we finish taking a look at the history of Affluenza [Defined by Wikipedia as "a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more"]. We start with the explosion of TV in the post-WWII economy and work our way thru the introduction of credit cards, presidential campaigns that employ advertisers (1952), the philosophy of retail shopping, the hippie movement, Jimmy Carter's stunning anti-consumerism speech, the deregulation of the Reagan era and how Microsoft convinced millions of consumers to install active cameras and microphones in living rooms across the country.
So, our part II of this series turned out to run so long that we broke it up into two parts. On this weeks show we take a look at the history of Affluenza [Defined by Wikipedia as "a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more"], starting in 1870 with the appearance of the first luxury department stores and end with the madness of the post-WWII economic boom. Are we, as human beings, natural consumers or have we just been programmed to be obedient shopping slaves? Trick question; it's the latter.
In part I of a two part series, we take a look at the disease know as "affluenza". Defined by Wikipedia affluenza is "a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more". On this episode, we take a look at the way affluenza harms the youngest among us - children. Before they can form a coherent thought or utter a coherent word, advertisers (working with child psychologists) try their hardest to get inside children's heads and make them mindless consumers for life.
We have come to the end (for now) of our Corporate Media series. On this episode we take a look at several examples of the corporate/government hijacking of the public airwaves that have been exposed. After that...the numbers don't lie! Alternative media outlets are growing in numbers and listeners. We examine the Pew Research Centers 2013 State of the Media report and the many reasons it gives us to celebrate. Mainly the low, low, low viewership of the Corporate Media's flagship "news programs".
This week, in our continuing series taking a look at the multiple corporate and government influences on our media, we focus on public relations firms. In this episode we focus on Ketchum, Qorvis and Edelman and their use of video news releases, sponsored content, native ads and paid content slipped right into news programs.
In part three of our Corporate Media series we take a look at the known influence of the CIA's Operation Mockingbird on the media. The New York Times, Time/Life, CBS, NBC, Newsweek, the AP, UPI, Reuters and even all the way down the publishing hierarchy to The Louisville Courier-Journal were actively working with the CIA. And just when you thought it was safe to say that all of this CIA influence of the corporate media was in the past, we have the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 (NDAA) which allows the use of government produced propaganda on the US public (previously made illegal-at least on paper-by the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948).
After World War II, the proven power of propaganda and the TV boom coincided so beautifully that the CIA invented an infrastructure to exploit/manipulate/guide/control the media, and by extension the public. And Operation Mockingbird is just one program that we know about. From just one of the government agencies who are spying on us all. Who knows what craziness lurks in the classified archives at the National Clandestine Service offices?
In the first part of our Corporate Media series we take a quick look at the history of US government's attempts to regulate (and eventually deregulate)the media over the past hundred years. What is the end result of all of these bills and laws that have been passed? The greatest consolidation of corporate media power (also known as: propaganda) the world has ever seen.