GUEST: Harvey J Kaye, Professor of Democracy and Justice Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and award-winning author of numerous books, including Thomas Paine and the Promise of America, and his newest book, The Fight for the Four Freedoms: What Made FDR and the Greatest Generation Truly Great, talks about the need to rediscover our radical roots.
Rediscovering our roots doesn't sound that radical unless one begins to understand the revolutionary thought that produced the United States of America.
In a way, our revolution was more a template than permanent way to govern. Try again if things aren't working out says our Declaration of Independence. Your rights come first; discard any rule or government that doesn't live up to your radical expectations.
Harvey Kaye reminds us that positive changes in American history have always harkened back to these ideas. And it is only because most citizens don't quite understand how dangerous these ideas are that the corrupt leaders of today are able to manipulate both parties and most the media to favor the very richest. The Declaration of Independence has one answer to the kleptocracy that we find ourselves ruled by in this century. Get rid of it; it is your right.
GUEST: Alex Beauchamp, Northeast Region Director at Food & Water Watch who has worked on issues related to fracking, factory farms, genetic engineering, and water privatization, talks to us about the Cuomo Tax, the billion dollar giveaway to the nuclear energy industry.
Alex took us through the recent history of nuclear energy in New York State. This latest ripoff of the citizenry has a long history of the very rich determining the very worst and most expensive of energy policies for the rest of us. Nuclear power never really made any sense. Not even the immense problem of nuclear waste was addressed, leaving time bombs where nuclear plants are closed down.
Giving billions more to the nuclear industry so that aged plants can last another 20 years is ludicrous public policy. The giveaway will slow down the transition to renewable energy as well. Incentives for wind and solar will suffer, bringing the specter of global warming ever nearer.
Our political leaders don't care. They just do what the billionaires tell them to. It is an insane system, of course. A failure of our species to adapt, leaving us all vulnerable if not doomed. Too clever by half.
GUEST: Andy Clarno, assistant professor of sociology and African American studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, talks about his new book, Neoliberal Apartheid, Palestine/Israel and South Africa After 1994 that explores racism, capitalism, colonialism, and empire in the early 21st century, with a focus on the relationship between marginalization and securitization.
Sharon, who is from South Africa, helped me with this interview. I hadn't put neoliberal with apartheid, and certainly didn't know the reasons that South Africa remained mired in extreme poverty even after Black Africans had "won their freedom."
The book is a page turner in that it pulls you into aspects of neoliberalism that you hadn't considered. Could it be that all three societies, South Africa, Israel, and the United States will end up with a tiny percentage on the very top, supported and maintained by a huge security force. It is a dystopian vision, but one that we now see emerging in all three countries.
The role of the oppressed in joining and protecting this gross division between the halves and the have nots is another interesting consideration. South African Blacks without jobs join security firms to protect the very rich. Palestinian security forces make up a good deal of the repressive apparatus that keeps an occupied people subservient. Can the US be far behind?
