Mic Check Radio

Do you need any more reasons to be pissed off at banks, part 2?  Previously, we discussed their decades long cozy relationship with drug cartels and the CIA?  The Golden Triangle, Iran-Contra Affair, Mena, Arkansas, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela National Guard, etc.This time we take a look at the recent "settlement" for the third largest bank in the world and their decades long relationship with Mexican and Columbian drug cartels.   [Click to Listen]

After a quick discussion of the role of the national corporate media in shaping our day to day reality of the world around us, we get into the horrific story of 13 Cleveland Police officers shooting 137 rounds at two unarmed citizens after a 20+ minutes car chase - killing both of them. [Click to Listen]

Students are taking matters into their own hands at Cooper Union in NYC.  12 students are occupying the "clock tower" in order to keep the tuition free and oust the current president of the university. [Click to Listen]

As I type this, there are activists sitting in tress stands in Texas trying the best to hold off construction on the Keystone XL pipeline.  Keep up with their actions at the Tar Sands Blockade website.  Also, we take a look at their 10 reasons to oppose the pipeline. [Click to Listen]

Three of the five people arrested in Cleveland this past spring find out how long they will be spending in jail.  The presiding judge in this case keeps a relatively cool head in the face of the US Attorney's office pushing for upwards of 30 years for some of the defendants.  "It doesn't make any sense whatsoever," the judges said in an interview.  He went on to call the tough sentencing sought by the prosecution as "grotesque". [Click to Listen]

Do you need any more reasons to be pissed off at banks?  How about their decades long cozy relationship with drug cartels and the CIA?  The Golden Triangle, Iran-Contra Affair, Mena, Arkansas, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela National Guard (to name just a few from a Wikipedia page). [Click to Listen]

A quick post mortem of the 2012 cluster fuck of an election.  A total of $6 billion spent to elect a corporate candidate.  How Bernie Sanders ran an actual re-election campaign with no TV, radio or direct mail ads.  A possible backlash against Super PAC's and the ridiculous idea of voting being either patriotic or a civic duty. [Click to Listen]

The Occupy movement in NYC has two fascinating off shoots that we take a look at today.  The first is Rolling Jubilee and The Debt Resistors Operation Manual.  Actual financial help for those in need!  The second is the OWS response to Superstorm Sandy, Occupy Sandy, and how organizers are being more effective in their own neighborhood than the Red Cross could ever hope to be.  The show ends with an audio clip from Naomi Klein discussing how Occupy Sandy relates to her ideas on disaster capitalism. [Click to Listen]

In part I, we take a look at who actually votes.  With all the corporate media hype about how important every election cycle is, why are almost half of registered voters staying home on (S)election day?  Also, we get into who works the polls on (S)election day and how there will be no one to work the polls in a few years. [Click to Listen]

Let's say you have picked a candidate for the Presidency of the United States.  After all the primary debates, campaign stops, stump speeches, conventions, ads, mailings, robo-calls, PAC's, Super PAC's, canvassing, the debates (including third party debates), yard signs, billboards and get out the vote campaigns - you have finally chosen someone to vote for.  Great!  But, guess what?  There is a growing chance that your vote just won't count.  I this episode, we take a look at information from a few different sources that expose the problems with using machines to count our votes.  Books by Mark Crispin Miller and Greg Palast as well as the fantastic citizen reporting from Bev Harris at Black Box Voting.  It's all enough to make you say "F**k Voting!". [Click to Listen]

A brief history of 7 court cases that have shaped the current landscape of campaign financing. Emily's List vs FEC, Citizen's United vs FEC, SpeechNOW.org vs FEC, Club for Growth, Commonsense Ten and National Defense PAC. [Click to Listen]

A look into the Commission on Presidential Debates and how they hijacked the presidential debates from the League of Women Voters and turned the whole circus into, well a more boring form of a circus. [Click to Listen]

A brief history of some recent third party candidates as well as some Gallup poll data which indicates that almost half of the country identifies as "Independent" in their political ideology.  Seems like the perfect environment for a massive switch towards a new political paradigm.  The question then should be 'why vote for one of the two corporate candidates?' and not 'why vote third party?'. [Click to Listen]

Just because you are older than a kid, doesn't mean you can't learn from them.  The innocent point of view of kids is unvarnished by corporate media (to a point) and social pressure as well as the natural curiosity about anything and everything. [Click to Listen]

The inconsistencies of law enforcement illustrate how broken the system really is.  Corporations pollute and poison with impunity while activists are arrested for wearing masks in public or sitting in trees. [Click to Listen]

Malcolm X was addressing the upcoming election of 1964 in this clip, but he may as well have been talking about our current situation.  It's depressing how politics never changes. [Click to Listen]

Trying to predict the future by looking at the rising trends in unemployment and underemployment and the growing number of foreclosure filings by the major banks since the February 2012 "settlement" over the Robo-Signing scandal. [Click to Listen]

Greece, Spain and Portugal are (once again) fighting back against austerity measures. [Click to Listen]

The down side of Occupy Wall Street changing the political conversation, it may become a wedge issue.  Also, some words of wisdom from the late, great George Carlin. [Click to Listen]

A reading of the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City (Sept. 29, 2011) as well as one of the biggest accomplishments of the Occupy Movement so far. [Click to Listen]