GOP Now Also Undermining U.S. on International Climate Treaty: KPFK ‘BradCast’

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On this week’s BradCast on KPFK/Pacifica Radio (and many other fine affiliate stations), we talk to physicist, former Clinton Administration official and founding editor of ClimateProgress.org Joe Romm about Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s “immoral” attempt to undermine the U.S. in international climate talk negotiations as the big U.N. treaty summit is set for Paris later this year.

Romm, who served as Chief Science Adviser for last year’s Emmy-award winning Years of Living Dangerously series on Showtime, also breaks a bit of news on The BradCast by confirming that there will be a season two for the groundbreaking environmental documentary series. He promises that “it will be on a cable network that has a far greater reach” than Showtime, though he can’t let us know which one yet.

PLUS: Rand Paul jumps into the 2016 GOP Presidential circus; Ohio’s Republican Gov. John Kasich does the right thing (sort of) in vetoing a new GOP voter-suppression scheme in the state; Jeb Bush appears to have committed a felony in Florida; California’s Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom does the right thing before everybody else (again) in announcing support for full legalization of marijuana in the Golden State; and much more, including Desi Doyen with the latest Green News Report.

Download MP3 or listen online below…
[audio:http://bradblog.com/audio/BradCast_BradFriedman_JoeRomm_OHVoteSuppression_040715.mp3]

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4 Comments on “GOP Now Also Undermining U.S. on International Climate Treaty: KPFK ‘BradCast’

  1. The following affects many rights–voting, civil, privacy, environmental, etc..

    http://markcrispinmiller.com/2015/02/how-the-cia-made-google/

    How the CIA made Google
    by Nafeez Ahmed

    INSURGE INTELLIGENCE, a new crowd-funded investigative journalism project, breaks the exclusive story of how the United States intelligence community funded, nurtured and incubated Google as part of a drive to dominate the world through control of information. Seed-funded by the NSA and CIA, Google was merely the first among a plethora of private sector start-ups co-opted by US intelligence to retain ‘information superiority.’

    The origins of this ingenious strategy trace back to a secret Pentagon-sponsored group, that for the last two decades has functioned as a bridge between the US government and elites across the business, industry, finance, corporate, and media sectors. The group has allowed some of the most powerful special interests in corporate America to systematically circumvent democratic accountability and the rule of law to influence government policies, as well as public opinion in the US and around the world. The results have been catastrophic: NSA mass surveillance, a permanent state of global war, and a new initiative to transform the US military into Skynet.

    link
    https://medium.com/@NafeezAhmed/how-the-cia-made-google-e836451a959e

    How the CIA made Google
    by Nafeez Ahmed
    Inside the secret network behind mass surveillance, endless war, and Skynet—
    part 1
    …………

    https://medium.com/@NafeezAhmed/why-google-made-the-nsa-2a80584c9c1

    Why Google made the NSA
    by Nafeez Ahmed
    Inside the secret network behind mass surveillance, endless war, and Skynet—
    part 2

    On a Wikipedia entry titled ‘Skynet (fictional)’, people using SAIC computers deleted several paragraphs under the ‘Trivia’ section pointing out real-world ‘Skynets’, such as the British military satellite system, and various information technology projects.

    Hagel’s departure paved the way for Pentagon officials linked to the Highlands Forum to consolidate government influence. These officials are embedded in a longstanding shadow network of political, industry, media and corporate officials that sit invisibly behind the seat of government, yet literally write its foreign and domestic national security policies whether the administration is Democrat of Republican, by contributing ‘ideas’ and forging government-industry relationships.

    It is this sort of closed-door networking that has rendered the American vote pointless. Far from protecting the public interest or helping to combat terrorism, the comprehensive monitoring of electronic communications has been systematically abused to empower vested interests in the energy, defense, and IT industries.

    The state of permanent global warfare that has resulted from the Pentagon’s alliances with private contractors and unaccountable harnessing of information expertise, is not making anyone safer, but has spawned a new generation of terrorists in the form of the so-called ‘Islamic State’ — itself a Frankenstein by-product of the putrid combination of Assad’s brutality and longstanding US covert operations in the region. This Frankenstein’s existence is now being cynically exploited by private contractors seeking to profit exponentially from expanding the national security apparatus, at a time when economic volatility has pressured governments to slash defense spending.

    According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, from 2008 to 2013, the five largest US defense contractors lost 14 percent of their employees, as the winding down of US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan led to lack of business and squeezed revenues. The continuation of the ‘Long War’ triggered by ISIS has, for now, reversed their fortunes. Companies profiting from the new war include many connected to the Highlands Forum, such as Leidos, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, and Boeing. War is, indeed, a racket.

    No more shadows

    Yet in the long-run, the information imperialists have already failed. This investigation is based entirely on open source techniques, made viable largely in the context of the same information revolution that enabled Google. The investigation has been funded entirely by members of the public, through crowd-funding. And the investigation has been published and distributed outside the circuits of traditional media, precisely to make the point that in this new digital age, centralized top-down concentrations of power cannot overcome the power of people, their love of truth and justice, and their desire to share.

    What are the lessons of this irony? Simple, really: The information revolution is inherently decentralized, and decentralizing. It cannot be controlled and co-opted by Big Brother. Efforts to do so will in the end invariably fail, in a way that is ultimately self-defeating.

    The latest mad-cap Pentagon initiative to dominate the world through control of information and information technologies, is not a sign of the all-powerful nature of the shadow network, but rather a symptom of its deluded desperation as it attempts to ward off the acceleration of its hegemonic decline.

    But the decline is well on its way. And this story, like so many before it, is one small sign that the opportunities to mobilize the information revolution for the benefit of all, despite the efforts of power to hide in the shadows, are stronger than ever.
    ………………..

    http://freepress.org/departments/display/19/2012/4719

    Who owns Scytl? George Soros isn’t in the voting machines, but the intelligence community is
    by Gerry Bello
    ………….

    Get CODE RED, and spread the word about it, or give up any chance of salvaging US democracy!

    We Are Live on Kickstarter
    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1805818671/computerized-election-theft-enough-already-lets-st

    To stop election theft before it really is too late, we must come together and make our voices heard. CODE RED can play a major role in that but only if it is widely read. And that is where your support is so important.

    Our Kickstarter Campaign is live–spread the word please!
    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1805818671/computerized-election-theft-enough-already-lets-st
    …….

    http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/26754-computerized-election-theft-and-the-new-american-century

    Election Statistician Richard Charnin at http://richardcharnin.com/

    In the 1968-2012 Presidential elections, the Republicans won the average recorded vote by 48.7-45.8%. The 1968-2012 Recursive National True Vote Model indicates the Democrats won the True Vote by 49.6-45.0% – a 7.5% margin discrepancy.

    In the 1988-2008 elections, the Democrats won the unadjusted state exit poll aggregate by 52-42% – but won the recorded vote by just 48-46%, an 8% margin discrepancy. The state exit poll margin of error was exceeded in 126 of 274 state presidential elections from 1988-2008. The probability of the occurrence is ZERO. Only 14 (5%) would be expected to exceed the MoE at the 95% confidence level. Of the 126 which exceeded the MoE, 123 red-shifted to the Republican. The probability P of that anomaly is ABSOLUTE ZERO (5E-106). That is scientific notation for

    P= .000000000 000000000 000000000 000000000 000000000 000000000 000000000 000000000 000000000 000000000 000005.
    ……….

    Those e-voting, e-scanning, e-tabulating machines are in Primaries also.

    via: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/02/seahawks-coach-pete-carroll-question-911.html

    Why Would Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll Question 9/11?
    Posted on February 1, 2015 by Kevin Ryan at http://digwithin.net/

    In comments: http://www.thelandesreport.com/VotingSecurity.htm
    The Case For Open Voting
    by Lynn Landes

    Making matters worse, our public voting system has been privatized and outsourced to a handful of domestic, foreign, and multi-national corporations, most of whom have close ties to the right wing of the Republican Party. Just two companies, ES&S and Diebold, started by two brothers, Bob and Todd Urosevich, electronically process (using touchscreen machines or optical scanners), 80% of all votes. Their employees are in a perfect position to rig elections nation-wide. And evidence is mounting that elections in America have been computer programmed to prefer conservative candidates of both political parties.

  2. Enjoyed your radio program, Brad. Please ask Joe Romm what ideas he has for nations to fund the enormous efforts to restabilize the growing instability of climate change. Also as a physicist, Romm would better understand the growing dangers of Fukushima, WIPP, and the 400 additional aging nuclear power plants which also need massive money to fund huge and cutting edge engineering efforts to reduce the damage for the generations it will take.

    Because the following advocates a Debt-Free Public/Government Money as the U.S. has done six times in our past with the help of very brave Presidents like Washington, Lincoln and Kennedy, among others, please tell him about The American Monetary Institute at http://www.monetary.org/ .

    We must support and protect all leaders who protect the public, environment, democracy (Brad, Charnin and https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1805818671/computerized-election-theft-enough-already-lets-st ) and a better debt-free monetary system ( http://www.monetary.org/ ).

    See: https://richardcharnin.wordpress.com/2014/12/09/2014-wi-and-fl-governor-election-fraud-adjusting-the-exit-poll-party-id-mix/

    In comments: I surely would love to have Richard Charnin research Colorado Senator Mark Udall’s “loss” in the last election. I think the loss was punishment for his insisting that EPA monitors’ recordings of the New Mexico WIPP radiation impact on surrounding states be returned as public information. See: http://www.netc.com/

    Richard Charnin: I will take a look at it.

    http://www.monetary.org/american-money-scene-5-august-16-2009/2009/08

    Historical experience has taught us what we need to do:

    1. Put the Federal Reserve System into the U.S. Treasury.
    2. Stop the banking system creating any part of the money supply.
    3. Create new money as needed by spending it on public infrastructure, including human infrastructure, e.g. education and health care.

    These 3 elements must all be done together….

    Japan and all countries need to adopt a way to pay for Fukushima, and Climate Change: http://www.monetary.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/HR-2990.pdf

    Professor Kaoru Yamaguchi’s Model of HR 2990
    http://monetary.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/DesignOpenMacro.pdf

    Professor Yamaguchi (Berkeley, Doshisha Universities) shows that Kucinich’s HR 2990 NEED Act:
    (1) Provides the funding for infrastructure repair (which solves the unemployment crisis)
    (2) Pays off the national debt as it comes due
    (3) Does this without inflation! Click here ( http://www.monetary.org/modeling-the-american-monetary-act/2010/12 ) to watch a video of Professor Yamaguchi’s presentation to the 2010 AMI Conference. Wow!

    http://www.monetary.org/how-the-economists-facilitated-the-crisis-and-how-hr-6550-solves-it/2011/06

    Economist Jamie Galbraith in testimony to the Senate Crime subcommittee on May 4th, 2010:

    “I write to you from a disgraced profession. Economic theory, as widely taught since the 1980s, failed miserably to understand the forces behind the financial crisis.”

    With rare exceptions, those in control of the World’s monetary/economic agenda and the theories supporting it have helped bring the world to its knees. Shouldn’t they (and their theories) be held accountable?

    http://www.monetary.org/getting-what-we-need/2014/04

    Getting What We NEED
    By Nick Egnatz

    What do we want?

    Decent lives for ourselves, our families, our friends, our neighbors–for all of us.

    Good jobs that pay a good wage.
    snip
    An end to debt slavery….
    snip

    A clean, sustainable environment–transitioning from energy that pollutes air, water, soil and threatens future human life on earth as we know it to renewable alternatives. With the Fukushima nuclear disaster as an example of the inability to safely contain nuclear energy and waste, we can be assured that nuclear energy and bombs for that matter are anathema to human life and peace of mind.
    snip

    Bringing the voices of peace, anti war, anti nuclear, environmental, Fight for $15, anti foreclosure, labor, debt jubilee, universal basic income, national healthcare, Social Security, Medicare, anti racist, LGBT activists, etc together in one voice, committed to struggle, we can get what we need.

    And what we need is The NEED Act!

    http://www.monetary.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/HR-2990.pdf

    What does The NEED Act do? It is the game changer that makes money available, debt-free, for all of the above goodies or programs that will immensely improve our lives and society. Without it we will continue to roam in the wilderness, never enough money for the things that we want and need.

    The NEED Act

    National Emergency Employment Defense Act, H.R. 2990 in the last Congress, changes who creates and benefits from our money.

    Presently almost all (97%) of what we use for money is created by private banks when they make loans to us. This money is created out of thin air by these huge banking corporations. They simply make two accounting entries and what is used for money is created. You and I must then pay this money back to them, plus interest, with the sweat of our labor. It is why we the 99% are in the process of all becoming debt slaves. The banking class has no intention of changing this paradigm. Change can only come from all of us banding together in struggle for monetary reform via The NEED Act.
    ….

    http://ecowatch.com/2014/09/30/win-climate-change-fight/

    4 Things We Need to Do to Win the Climate Fight
    Harvey Wasserman

    And to stay functional, we need: net neutrality, corporate accountability, election protection, social justice and peace.
    snip

    ELECTION PROTECTION demands universal hand-counted paper ballots, an end to Jim Crow vote theft and a ban on the corporate billions that poison what’s left of our democracy.
    snip

    But we all know we have no choice but to win.

    And that as we work our newfound power toward joyful agreement, and a peaceful trust in the will of our species to survive, we cannot fail.
    ….

    http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/03/hillary-clintons-presidential-campaign-now-effectively.html

    Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign Is Now Effectively Over
    Posted on March 28, 2015 by Eric Zuesse.

    In comments (repetitious but deadline is near):

    Michael Moore proposes a return to the paper ballot. To help:

    Get CODE RED, and spread the word about it, or give up any chance of salvaging US democracy!

    We Are Live on Kickstarter

    To stop election theft before it really is too late, we must come together and make our voices heard. CODE RED can play a major role in that but only if it is widely read. And that is where your support is so important.

    Our Kickstarter Campaign is live–spread the word please! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1805818671/computerized-election-theft-enough-already-lets-st

    Please donate. Every gift helps and encourages others to participate. If you cannot donate, you may know people who can–please reach out!

    We must reach our goal of $12,000 in 30 days to receive the funds and move forward with our work to educate the public about the very real dangers of secret vote counting on computerized equipment and mobilize our citizens to restore observable vote counting in America.

    Michael Moore advocating a paper ballot:

    Michael Moore for President
    If nominated, I will run. If elected, I will serve.

    via: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Michael-Moore-for-Presiden-by-Michael-Moore-Financial_Michael-Moore_Presidential-Candidates-150327-233.html
    OpEdNews Op Eds 3/27/2015 at 16:29:27
    Michael Moore for President
    By Michael Moore

    original: http://www.thenation.com/article/201169/michael-moore-president
    This article is part of The Nation’s 150th Anniversary Special Issue.Download a free PDF of the issue, with articles by James Baldwin, Barbara Ehrenreich, Toni Morrison, Howard Zinn and many more, here (http://www.thenation.com/sailthru-forms/150-pdf ).

    I’d like to announce, in the pages of this historic issue of this magnificent magazine, the formation of a committee that will study the possibility of an exploratory committee to assess the potential of a Michael Moore candidacy for the presidency of the United States in 2016. In other words, I’m not officially declaring my intention to run. I’m just saying, should I decide to throw my ball cap into the ring, this is what I would propose to do if elected:

    3. If there is a call for war, and if we are to invade another nation, I will declare as commander in chief that the first to be sent into combat must be the conscripted adult offspring of all members of Congress, the president and the president’s cabinet (and then, in order, the children of the CEOs of the Fortune 500, all military contractors and the top media executives). This should reduce the number of wars considerably.

    5. I will forgive all student debt. We’ll go back to a system of work-study, grants, scholarships and minimal, interest-free loans. College in America, as in many other countries, should essentially be free.

    6. I’ll reduce the Pentagon’s budget by 75 percent. That will pay for the above free college and most of my ideas that will follow. We will still have one of the biggest militaries in the world and the ability to blow it up many times over—just not as many times as before.

    7. All Americans will get the same free health plans that members of Congress have access to.

    14. When in doubt, do what the Canadians do: … A return to the paper ballot….

    19. Prisons will not be owned or run by private corporations; they will be run by the public for its own safety. They will no longer be used as places of punishment but rather as training and rehab centers. They will not exist to incarcerate the races or ethnic groups who have no power. Nonviolent people will not be locked up. If they have stolen, they will make restitution. Yes, that means you, corporate criminals.

    20. As Americans, we will seek to be kind—to each other, to the world, and to ourselves. As the president, I will be the first to set that example. I will place education and enlightenment at the top of every agenda, and the elimination of ignorance as my worthy goal. Ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to hate, and hate leads to violence.

    That has been the American equation for too long. The road to its end begins with my election.

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