Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour

Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour - 9.21.23

GREEP #150:  NUCLEAR POWER & PACIFICA RADIO

Our Green Grassroots Emergency Election Protection show begins with a deep dive into the curse of atomic power that continues to plague our planet and species.

We start with MARY BETH BRANGAN and JIM HEDDLE of the Environmental Options Network, who tell us about their spectacular new documentary “The San Onofre Syndrome,” due to be released in Los Angeles on Sunday, October 8, with virtual availability on October 15.

The film documents the magnificent citizens movement that against all odds shut units 2 & 3 at San Onofre, only to see the company and the regulators leave multiple tons of radioactive waste lying on the beach, within mere yards of the high tide line.

LINDA SEELEY of the San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace lays out the hard realities of fighting to shut the two reactors at Diablo Canyon, where a refueling outage will allow major testing to take place….if the regulators are forced to do so.

During this shut-down the safe energy movement will demand testing for embrittlement, pipe cracking, seismic stability, evacuation planning and other safety factors before the plant can re-open.

This huge confrontation will define the future of energy in California.  The reactors are surrounded by 13 earthquake faults and are operated by Pacific Gas & Electric, a criminal operation defined by more than 80 federal manslaughter convictions.

California has more than enough renewable energy to power the state cheaply, cleanly and safely, and has no need whatsoever for this insanely dangerous power source.

Likewise Michigan’s Palisades, where the great KEVIN KAMPS tells us how this dangerous, decrepit atomic jalopy has been shut….and is now insanely being given hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to reopen.

TATANKA BRICCA asks about strategic planning to mount civil disobedience resistance to these nuclear nightmares.

ROBIN HARPER, MYLA RESON and MIMI SPREADBURY chime in with critical California perspectives.

LIBBE HALEVY, author of YES I GLOW IN THE DARK, an up-close-and-personal account of the nightmare at Three Mile Island, connects us with her excellent NUCLEAR HOTSEAT podcast.


We are then honored with the presence of the great JAN GOODMAN, cofounder of the New Day Pacifica organization aimed at saving the treasured network.

MIKE HERSH, MYLA RESON, DAVID SALTMAN and others dig into the utter madhouse of the Pacifica nightmare. 

Saltman asks the all-important question:  “Where’s the dead camel buried?”

WENDI LEDERMAN, STEVE KAISER and LYNN FEINERMAN wrap these two amazing discussions, which we will resume in two weeks, after the Jewish New Year.

No Nukes!  Save Pacifica!!

Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour - 9.14.23

OHIO/WISCONSIN MADNESS MEETS THE RABBI, THE UNIONIST, THE PINE TREE ALLIANCE, THE CONSTITUTION & THE KIDS

 

 

 

Our GREE-GREE #149 starts by commemorating the dual 9/11 catastrophes of 2001’s exploding World Trade Centers and the 1973 CIA murder of Salvador Allende, the duly elected Socialist leader of Chile.  [Robert Reich’s superb piece on this horrible coup is not to be missed].  The combination of these two world-changing crimes marks us with a dual tragedy we still struggle to overcome.

 

With the great NORM STOCKWELL of progressive.org

The Progressive — A voice for peace, social justice, and the common good Championing grassroots progressive politics, civil liberties, human rights, economic justice, a healthy environment, and a reinvigorated democracy. progressive.org

we go down the rabbit hole of the Wisconsin GOP’s latest assault on the state supreme court.  Long-time Wisconsin pol CHUCK CHVALA deepens our understanding of this insane situation, while STEVE CARUSO fills us in on the parallel madness in Ohio.

 

Legendary radio talk host DENNIS BERNSTEIN of KPFA’s Flashpoints Show adds his usual brilliance to the electoral mix.

 

Then LUCY HOCHSCHARTNER of Maine’s Pine Tree Alliance explains that state’s grassroots Montana movement to take over its two much-hated private utilities and create the nation’s first totally statewide public owned electric company.

 

RAY MCCLENDON of Georgia chimes in with his powerful perspective on grassroots organizing.  

 

MYLA RESON and LYNN FEINERMAN add their support to the idea of post-nuclear public power.

 

AARON “GOOD TROUBLE” WAZLAVEK of the Teamsters gives us a much-needed view from organized labor at a time of great push and progress.

 

At the top of the hour we’re honored by the legendary RABBI ART WASKOW, the incredibly articulate spiritual Godfather to a generation of religion-based activists fighting for peace, social justice and environmental survival.  

 

Solar pioneer RON LEONARD contributes his own deep insider understanding of the Solartopian transition we so desperately need to survive.

 

JUSTIN LEBLANC and JOHN STEINER contribute to the electric atmosphere.  So does the great author/attorney MAYA VAN ROSSUM, with her riveting account of the recent landmark victory by young climate activists in Montana aimed at saving the Earth.

 

TATANKA BRICCA, WENDI LEDERMAN and others flow into a truly warm, embracing and enlightening dialog that stretches well into a third hour.

 

Don’t miss this wonderful, uplifting, fun and lovingly comfortable landmark conversation.

Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour - 9.7.23

A MONUMENTAL ORGANIZING MOMENT….& VICTORY IN ECUADOR

 

 

This breakthrough two-hour networking session joins RAY MCCLENDON and ANDREA MILLER of the “Georgia Miracle” with RACHEL COYLE and COURTNEY FLYNN of swing state Ohio, where a major grassroots victory has been won protecting the referendum process.

 

Ray tells us he has now helped form a new multi-state organization to help spread the grassroots tactics and strategies that famously turned two US Senate seats from Georgia into a reshaped majority in the nation’s upper house.

 

Andrea explains some of the key organizing principles that have made her work at the Center for Common Ground so critically important to protecting democracy throughout our nation.  

 

Rachel then explains how the grassroots forces in the Buckeye State beat back a GOP attempt to destroy the referendum process.

 

She’s joined by Courtney Flynn from the Ohio Voter Rights Coalition, which helped turn this seemingly un-winnable fight into a landmark victory for democracy.

 

Joining these great multi-state organizers will hopefully help yield a transcendent campaign operation that will spread from the Ohio/Georgia axis throughout the US in the coming years, especially in the lead-up to 2024.

 

Joining the dialog is VINNIE DESTEFANO of the Julian Assange campaign who is full of brilliant campaign tactics—banner drops and more—usable by grassroots groups throughout the world.

 

JOHN STEINER and WENDI LEDERMAN add to the critical dialog.

 

ERIC LAZARUS joins the great RUSSELL GREENE to fill us in on the major march coming up at the United Nations on September 17.  Russell continues to break barriers with his signature brilliance and perseverance.

 

FOREST BEAUDOIN-FREED and MARK HARRISON contribute to the dialog.

 

MYLA RESON warns that despite his progressive reputation, US Senator SHELDON WHITEHOUSE has been a dangerous advocate of atomic power.

 

For our second hour, we’re joined by Teamster organizer AARON WAZLAVEK who celebrates his union’s hard-won wins and promises to join us again.

 

In our second hour, the great STEVE DONZIGER tells us of the monumental victory of the Ecuadorian people, who’ve become the first national population to vote a ban on oil drilling.  

 

Steve has become a major figure in the progressive movement as a result of Chevon’s attacks against him, and will be feted at a fundraising event in Topanga Canyon, California, headlined by JANE FONDA, JODIE EVANS and others.

 

Steve’s fundraiser host, DOROTHY REIK, fills us in on the big mistake the oil industry has made in taking away attorney Donziger’s law license.  What a travesty!!! 

 

JUSTIN LEBLANC, TATANKA BRICCA, MIMI SPREADBURY, JEFFREY BARKDULL and MARY STONEWALL-DOUGLAS expand the dialog.

 

The great CAMILLA REES punctuates the drama with critical references to the fight to shut the Diablo Canyon nukes.

 

Thank you all for joining us in this monumental dialog.  No Nukes!  And we wish the people of Ecuador success in protecting the beloved Amazon.  

Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour - 8.31.23

WHY NUCLEAR POWER SUCKS!

 

This breakthrough full-hour interview conducted by the legendary activist CAMILLA REES lays out—from bottom to top—why nuclear power has no role to play in saving our Earth from Global Boiling.

 

With your host HARVEY WASSERMAN, Camilla runs us through the full array of atomic issues, from health and safety to the economic, engineering and ecological disarray that has doomed this industry.

 

From the first Chair of the Atomic Energy Commission Lewis Strauss (the “bad guy” in “Oppenheimer”) promising energy “too cheap to meter”…. to the catastrophic $10 billion disaster at VC Summer, nuke power has been an unparalleled failure.

 

While confronting our “Global Boiling” imperative to slash heat and carbon emissions, nuke power makes both significantly worse.  

 

On the other hand, 100% green SOLARTOPIAN energy keeps getting stronger, cheaper, more powerful, more job-creating, more unavoidable.

 

Under Camilla’s erudite questioning, Harvey lays out a comprehensive, irrefutable case for shutting all atomic reactors and moving straight to a 100% sustainable energy future based on wind, solar, batteries, efficiency and more.

 

No nukes, everybody!

Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour - 8.17.23

CATASTROPHE IN MAUI; OHIO / MONTANA VICTORIES; THE NYTIMES AWAKENS TO RENEWABLES

The horrifying disaster in Maui is Mother Nature’s way of telling us that with global boiling, there are no more safe places.

JOHN & MARGO STEINER say where to send our ALOHA IN ACTION support for those in this stricken paradise.

TATANKA BRICCA, MYLA RESON, DOROTHY REIK, JEFFREY BARKDULL and JUSTIN LEBLANC give us their mahalo in a time of tragedy.

@15:40 RACHEL COYLE then reveals the inside story of the HUGE people’s victory over Ohio’s fascist Issue One, meant to erase the public right to democratically amend the Buckeye constitution with a simple majority….enshrined in Ohio law since 1912.

@44:45 WENDI LEDERMAN describes Florida’s strongman/torturer Ron DeSantis’s purges of duly elected public officials, making Florida the place where democracy and freedom go to die.

The great eco-activist RUSSELL GREENE invites us to his September 17 mega-march in New York aiming to end fossil/nuke climate destruction.

PETER FIEKOWSKY explains his mega-engineering approach to decarbonizing the atmosphere.

We explore the critical dynamics surrounding the defining battle at the DIABLO CANYON NUKE, joined by MIMI SPREADBURY, TATANKA BRICCA & MYLA RESON.

Russell explains what’s happening at the climate emergency summit while DOROTHY REIK invites us to her September 9 fundraiser in Topanga for Steve Danziger.

RON LEONARD dissects California’s escalating war against solar while we celebrate a front-piece piece from the NYTIMES finally citing Solartopian inevitability.

We hear also of major advances in solar panels and moving lithium-based batteries to sodium, a MUCH cheaper route to the Solartopia future.

Wendi reminds us of MAYA ROSSUM’s superb GREEN AMENDMENTS book.

And we thank the great JOEL SEGAL for authoring landmark legislation for 100% green energy.

NO NUKES! everybody….see you in Solartopia….

Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour - 8.03.23

IS AN ATOM-POWERED ARMAGEDDON UPON US?


GREEP zoom #146 opens with KPFA's great talk show host DENNIS BERNSTEIN telling us of the astonishing nuclear dangers at Hanford, Washington’s atomic graveyard.  

 

Host of “Flashpoints” at KPFA-Pacifica/Berkeley, Dennis’s brilliant reporting led him to witness some of the real horrors at the devastated Hanford Reservation in Washington state.  

The fallout from the development there of the plutonium bomb that destroyed Nagasaki ruined the lives of thousands of innocent Americans, as Dennis powerfully explains.  

LINDAY SEELEY of the San Luis Obispo Mothers For Peace then updates us on the latest developments in the grassroots campaign to permanently close Diablo Canyon.

The two reactors on the central California coast 9 miles west of San Luis Obispo pose a profound, mega-lethal death threat to tens of millions throughout California and across the United States.

Seeley and many many others have long been working to finally get those reactor closed.  A critical chance will arise this fall, when Unit One may close for refueling.  

 

GREGG SEMLER informs us of an intriguing new green energy device that harvest electric power from water power systems throughout the world, hopefully letting us fight climate boiling (in part) by flushing our toilets.

We then hear from RACHEL COYLE and JULIE WEINER about the latest election theft dirty tricks playing themselves out—alongside some actual victories---in Ohio and New York.  

Along the way we hear from MYLA RESON, GREG SCHWARTZ, RON LEONARD, MARY DOUGLAS, JUSTIN LeBLANC, JEFFREY BARKDULL, NANCY NIPARKO,  WENDI LEDERMAN, DAVID GURAN, STEVE CARUSO, MIKE HERSH, DOROTHY REIK, et. al.

 

NO NUKES EVERYBODY….SEE YOU IN SOLARTOPIA!

Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour - 7.20.23

NUCLEAR TERROR IN UKRAINE

 

We plunge into the radioactive horror show in Ukraine for our 144th Green Grassroots Election Protection Zoom being rebroadcast during the Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Show on PRN.

 

We are joined by the great MEDEA BENJAMIN of Code Pink who makes the plea for peace and an end to the horrific planet-threatening slaughter in Ukraine.

 

We hear further from DENYS BONDAR, who is now circulating a petition to the United Nations General Assembly to sent peacekeepers to guarantee a demilitarized zone around the six atomic reactors at Zaporizhzhia.

 

These reactors are in various stages of shut-down.  But the nearby spent fuel pools are in danger of losing their coolant.  

 

Exposure of the rods stored therein could result in radioactive fires releasing enough lethal fallout to kill millions of humans an other living things in an apocalyptic event that would dwarf the killing power of Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima and all other catastrophic events in human history.

 

KARL GROSSMAN, TATANKA BRICCA, LYNN FEINERMAN, WENDI LEDERMAN, DOROTHY REIK, MARY DOUGLAS and many others add to the dialog.

 

This terrifying threat to all future life on this planet must be dealt with NOW!!!

 

 

 

In the second hour of the GREEP zoom, which is available via www.electionprotection2024.org, we  hear from JOSH FOX, legendary film maker and anti-fracking activist.  

 

Josh announces his kickstarter fund for his new upcoming documentary on REBEKAH JONES, powerful whistleblower on Ron DeSantis’s fascist insanity in Florida.

 

We are also joined by DAVID BROWN, progressive candidate for the state legislature in Pennsylvania.  

 

David is a musician, an environmentalist and a likely player in the future saving of our planet.  

 

David is also an activist on behalf of the separation of church and state and host of the podcast UnReasonable. 

Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour - 7.13.23

FROM OHIO MADNESS TO JULIAN ASSANGE & UKRAINIAN WEAPONS OF MASS OUTRAGE FEEDING A POTENTIAL NUKE APOCALYPSE

 

 

For our GREEP Zoom #143 at Green Power & Wellness, RACHEL COYLE explains how Ohio is trying to gut the referendum process while facing statewide votes to protect a woman’s right to choose both abortion and marijuana.

 

WENDI LEDERMAN adds in the bad news from Florida, where she is being physically harassed in the course of gathering signatures for a referendum there whose rules have already been rigged.

 

VINNIE DESTEFANO gives us the latest reporting on the murderous case of Julian Assange in contrast to the hand-wringing over Evan Gershkavitz, the Wall Street Journal reporter being held in Russia for reasons barely parallel to whatever Assange has done.

 

MIKE HERSH informs us about a critical petition now circulating from Reps. Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan to finally slash some of the excess money being wasted on the military budget.  

 

DAVID SALTMAN explores the dirty realities of cluster munitions, land mines and depleted uranium in Ukraine.

 

MYLA RESON ends our first  hour with the lethal realities of the aerosolization of depleted uranium, leaving a death toll of cancer in its wake.

 

 

IN OUR SECOND HOUR...

 

Abut the failures of Ukraine/Russian diplomacy we hear from TATANKA BRICCA and DOROTHY REIK.

 

Then HOWIE HAWKINS, 2020 Green Party Presidential nominee, and LINDA GUNTER of Beyond Nuclear, alert us to the terrifying nightmare at Zaporizhzhia.

 

The UN General Assembly is now being asked to send peacekeeping forces to protect the six reactors & fuel pools at Zapo as they were used to prevent World War at Suez in 1956.

 

Linda also shows that the International Atomic Energy Agency is promoting atomic power while it allegedly tells the truth about Zapo.

 

Likewise Japan is poised to dump a million tons of irradiated water into the Pacific Ocean with no concept of what it might do to the global ecology.

 

DR. LISA NAGY fills us in on the specter of radioactive phosphorus being melded into the paving of our global highways.

 

RON LEONARD adds in the latest news in the war for renewables, which never ceases to amaze.

Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour - 7.06.23

> UFOs, OLIVER STONE, KIDS’ GREEN SUIT for the PLANET & OUR FUTURE
>
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> Our GREEP Zoom #142 opens with a challenge to Oliver Stone to debate atomic power after his ridiculous pro-nuke propaganda film. Oliver, if you’re there, I’ll debate you anywhere/any time.
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> We will of course deal with the terrible dangers at the Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia reactor site under dire apocalyptic threat being played out before our terrified eyes.
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> MAYA VAN ROSSUM, author of THE GREEN AMENDMENT, tells us about a monumental action in Montana, where a group kids is suing the fossil industry to protect our planet and future. 
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> Maya’s brilliant, inspiring presentation opens a whole new approach to finding a way to survive on this Earth.
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> The great KARL GROSSMAN chimes in on Maya’s great work, as do RUTH STRAUSS and DENNIS BERNSTEIN.     
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> RACHEL COYLE then reports from Ohio on the anti-democratic assault on education, voting rights and an upcoming vote to gut the right to referenda.
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> RAY MCCLENDON of the Georgia NAACP reports on favorable redistricting news from Louisiana, Tennessee and elsewhere due to an unexpected pro-democracy ruling from the US Supreme Court.
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> CAROLINA AMPUDIA gives us a heads-up on the impending UPS strike, which could become the biggest in US history.
>
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> In our second hour, we join RON LEONARD  in dissecting the attack on green power in Texas, despite renewables saving the state from a catastrophic heat wave.
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> TATANKA BRICCA adds analysis from Putin and his integrated fossil fuel/enriched uranium and their high wheeling hammer.
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> He joins WENDI LEDERMAN to further elaborate on the powerful new foothold UFO studies have gained at the Pentagon and the military, especially as we face a climate apocalypse.
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> MYLA RESON, WENDI AND TATANKA then update us on the attempt to save the Pacifica Radio Network from a lack of money prompted by eminently improvable programming.
>
> WE NEED YOUR HELP.  No Nukes….

Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour - 6.22.23

A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE FOR DAN ELLSBERG     

 

 

Our GREEP Zoom #141 devotes the full first hour to the great DAN ELLSBERG.

 

Dan’s incredible life of brilliance and service has us all in awe.

 

Beautiful tributes come from NORMAN STOCKWELL (publisher of Progressive.org), DOROTHY REIK (Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains), DENNIS BERNSTEIN (KPFA’s “Flashpoints”), DR. RUTH STRAUSS, TATANKA BRICCA, WENDI LEDERMAN, ANNA GYORGY and many many more.

 

This is a deeply moving program about a truly great historic figure who will be deeply missed and never forgotten.