Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour

COCAINE BY THE TON brought into America with a blind eye from the CIA.  Radio legend DENNIS BERNSTEIN of KPFA’s Flashpoints Show broke many of the key stories around the Iran-Contra Scandal through which the “Just Say No” Reagan regime funneled cash from drug sales to help overthrow the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.  Dennis worked with reporter Gary Webb who also did key reporting on this story, but was then driven to suicide by relentless official attacks on him and his career.

Dennis is also witness to HUGE ON-GOING STREET DEMONSTRATIONS in Berkeley, California, where thousands of young people are marching daily against police violence—and being subjected to still more.  

A veteran broadcaster, Dennis tells us further about the future of community radio.  And as an accomplished poet, he reads to us from his superb SPECIAL ED anthology.  Don’t miss this very special hour with a gifted and important pillar of America’s humanist community.  

A RATEPAYER REVOLT against nuclear power and the nationwide battle for Solartopia are the pure green fires that drive today’s show.  CYNTHIA PAPERMASTER of CODE PINK is organizing a rate withholding campaign in California’s Bay Area meant to force Pacific Gas & Electric to finally shut its two lethal reactors at Diablo Canyon.  Cynthia recently presented Michael Peavey of the California Public Utilities Commission with a “pink slip” for his collusion with the utilities he was hired to regulate.  His actual resignation followed shortly thereafter.

Expert KEVIN KAMPS of BEYOND NUCLEAR tells us about the politics of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the new Republican Congress.  The willingness of regulatory agencies to ignore water quality and public safety issues for the benefit of greedy corporations threatens the health, safety and prosperity of all of us at dying reactors like New Jersey’s Oyster Creek and Davis-Besse in Ohio.  Kevin’s decades of hard campaigning for a Solartopian dawn make him one of American’s leading exerts on what happens next with atomic energy.  Together, Cynthia and Kevin offer a great perspective on what we must now do to rid the Earth of atomic energy.  

DIABLO CANYON!!!  Two huge old NUKES surrounded by earthquake faults, dumping radioactive hot water into the ocean, costing the public money, stalling the Solartopia Age….how do we SHUT THEM DOWN?

We hear from DAMON MOGLEN of FRIENDS OF THE EARTH and LINDA SEELEY of the San Luis Obispo MOTHERS FOR PEACE about the escalating public campaign to free California from all its nukes and render our precious coastline sustainable and clean.

Damon & Linda tell us first about the fantastic public victory in shutting two reactors at SAN ONOFRE between Los Angeles & San Diego, and how we must now proceed to do the same at Diablo.

The Diablo reactors are under legal and regulatory attack for their owners' lies about seismic activity, hot water emissions, economic issues and so much more.  Tune in to these two great expert/activists to find out how we turn this corner in California's march to a non-nuclear Solartopia.  

THE PENTAGON HAS NO CENTRAL ACCOUNTING SYSTEM!!! Ok, so we all know the US military spends ungodly amounts of money on horrific weapons systems that do nobody any good, are destroying the planet and bankrupting us all.

Now comes PETER MATHEWS, author, teacher, radio host extraordinaire to tell us that Reuters has no confirmed there's just NO WAY TO KNOW EXACTLY HOW MUCH THE PENTAGON IS SPENDING.  Repeat:  here is a multi-trillion-dollar operation, meant to "protect" the biggest empire the world has ever seen, and we who are forced to pay for it cannot follow the money.

Hear the whole astounding story from Peter, whose many books and speeches have helped enlighten us all.

Then we're joined by NINA STREICH, organizer of the wonderful Global Peace Film Festival based for more than a decade in Orlando, Florida.  Nina now has important new opportunities to offer in New York City.  Her excellent organization has been among America's leading supporters of independent film-making and now offers new routes to help.  Make sure you hear how as we envision on film and video the many ways to Solartopia….

Veteran pollster RICHARD CHARNIN explains how the "Red Shift" transformation of Democratic voters into Republican victories has changed the nature of our government.  Joined by election protection expert BOB FITRAKIS, we find to our horror that the vote counts have been manipulated in our national elections at least since 1988 by corporate powers determined to maintain an iron grip on our government.

As Fitrakis explains, it's no accident the primary beneficiary of this power grab has been the Bush family, led by "Poppy" Bush, former head of a Central Intelligence Agency that perfected the theft and manipulation of elections throughout the Third World in the Vietnam Era.  With George W. handed stolen elections in 2000 and 2004, the Republican Party has been able to build its control over the American electoral process gradually, with a definitive corner turned in 2012 as they took the US Senate and numerous statehouses around the US.

A long-time Wall Street statistical expert, Charnin confirms the assertions of our previous guests, Greg Palast and Jon Simon about the apparent demise of the US electoral system.

Prior to all this sadness we hear from a very jolly "Rev. Billy" on a bus to St. Louis with the "Stopshopping Brigade," bound for a GMO-free thanksgiving at Monsanto Headquarters.  ENJOY YOUR HEALTHY MEAL everyone….

ELECTION THEFT in our own "democratic" United States as the GOP has tightened its grip on the levers of power.  We are joined by my co-conspirator BOB FITRAKIS and by JONATHAN SIMON, author of CODE RED:  COMPUTERIZED ELECTION THEFT & THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY.

We discuss Simon's warning that without hand-counted paper ballots, we have nothing resembling a democracy in this country.  That the "Red Shift" from legitimate voting to an outcome increasingly dominated by Republican "victors" has rendered our electoral system an empty shell.

And that it will take a huge grassroots upheaval to retrieve our right to vote in any meaningful manner.  Fitrakis and Simon point out, for example, that despite overwhelming Democratic majorities both Pennsylvania and Ohio have Congressional delegations totally dominated by Republicans.  And that without meaningful change, it may not be worth voting at all.

Don't miss this in-depth discussion of yet another aspect of our corrupted electoral process, and what to do about it.

HOW THE GOP BOUGHT, RIGGED, STOLE & LYNCHED THE 2014 ELECTION is our terrifying & infuriating topic as we hear from the great GREG PALAST and my co-conspirator BOB FITRAKIS, two of America's leading experts on election protection.

Bob & Greg have both reported on the theft of American elections since George W. Bush did it in 2000.  After a 6-month pre-election investigation, Greg has concluded that at least three US Senate races and at least three governorships were outright stolen this year through the use of Crosscheck, an Orwellian computer-based system employed by the GOP to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of African-American and other voters of color.

As Bob and I have reported extensively from Ohio, the purging of voter rolls and other dirty tricks has solidified GOP control of America's key swing state.  No one concerned about what's left of American democracy should miss this show.

The horrible curse of MIGRAINE HEADACHES is the subject of a brilliant cinematic work-in-progress from SUSANNA STYRON and JACKIE OCHS.  The award-winning director/producer team explores for us the complex, politically-charged world of a neurological disorder that is imperfectly understood and severely challenging for all who encounter it.

Their film, OUT OF MY HEAD, is working its way through Kickstarter, where clips can be seen and a fuller understanding can be reached.  Jackie and Susanna's previous film, 9/12, about some of the interpersonal aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Centers, attracted a powerful audience and won numerous awards.  Count on OUT OF MY HEAD to do the same, and don't miss this riveting Solartopian dialog.

In our second half-hour my long-time co-conspirator BOB FITRAKIS enlightens us on some ugly realities defining yet another bought-rigged-stolen-lynched election.  The corporate GOP has conspired to set the narrative of a Republican victory, and then to make it happen by disenfranchising millions of suspected Democrats while rigging voting machines and blacking out polling places…and that's the least of it.  Brace yourself for the worst as we get to the bottom of how the corporations are killing our democracy.  

PROTECTING THE VOTE and Shutting DIABLO CANYON & NUKE WASTE  light up this hour in Solartopia.

NINA TURNER, Democratic candidate for Ohio Secretary of State, describes the Republican Party's bleak assault on the public's ability to vote, and how Jim Crow is grabbing power with phony charges of voter fraud which essentially does not exist.

Then BILL WALKER of FRIENDS OF THE EARTH updates us on the monumental lawsuit just filed to force DIABLO CANYON to meet earthquake protection specifications.  After an insider report warning that Diablo cannot withstand shaking from the many earthquake faults that surround it, "regulators" changed specifications to allow it to continue to operate.  FOE's lawsuit will be watched worldwide, & especially by millions of downwind Californians whose lives are immediately threatened.

Finally, DIANE D'ARRIGO of the NUCLEAR INFORMATION & RESOURCE SERVICE describes the upcoming (11/10) event honoring the great MICHAEL MARIOTTE, whose decades of activism have made such a difference in the world of atomic energy.  Diane also explains the current state of nuke waste management, including the failure of Yucca Mountain and the disastrous events at NM's Waste Isolation Pilot Project costing millions of dollars and casting a very long shadow on any attempt to deal with atomic power's fiendish residue.  

SHUTTING THE DEVIL'S NUKES with Mothers for Peace veteran LINDA SEELEY gives us a guide to a movement that can save our nation.  Linda has worked in San Luis Obispo, California, for more than thirty years to close the two huge reactors at DIABLO CANYON, half way between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

These aged, deteriorating nukes are surrounded by earthquake faults.  More people have been arrested there than at any other reactor site in the US.  Should they suffer a major accident, their radiation would pour across the entire North American continent.

But now their owner, Pacific Gas & Electric, is uniquely vulnerable.  A powerful grassroots upsurge is moving fast forward to shut them down.  Hear all about it with this great long-time activist.