Political Analysis

Hosted by Sandy LeonVest

From the grassroots to Washington and beyond, the realities of politics and power are routinely cloaked in euphemism and evasion. This program goes much deeper than the surface spin to examine what’s really going on — and what’s really at stake — for people and the future of life on this planet.

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Political Analysis - 05/15/12

REPEAT PROGRAM – 3/27/12

Mother Earth News Cover
In this “repeat performance,”  hosts a groundbreaking conversation on how the 99 percent can create a sustainable (and livable) future – even as the nation’s disemboweled “” becomes less accessible to the “living majority.” Tonight’s guests, author and educator Gar Alperovitz and entrepreneur, organic farmer Bryan Welch have very different — but sometimes converging — ideas about how to create such a future.
Bryan Welch is the publisher of the highly successful Mother Earth News, Utne Reader and other publications, and one of the nation’s leading thinkers on what some have dubbed the “new .” His vision of a more just and sustainable world proposes a  that distributes value according to the durability, provenance and sustainability of products — by paying attention to every consequence of a company’s operation.

 

Gar Alperovitz is the Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland and co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative. Among his most recent books are America Beyond Capitalism and (with Lew Daly) Unjust Deserts: How the Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance and Why We Should Take It Back. He believes — as conveyed by the title of one of his books — that we need to move beyond capitalism, in order to pave the way to a vibrant democracy with a sustainable economy that can satisfy human needs — not least of which is the need to control one’s work and life.

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Political Analysis - 05/08/12

Renewable energy, clean electricity. Deutsch: ...

Guest: Al Weinrub, author of “Community Power: Decentralized Renewable Energy in California”

Tonight on Political Analysis, in conversation with energy democracy advocate and author Al Weinrub, whose groundbreaking book, “Community Power: Decentralized Renewable Energy in California” lays out in a concise and accessible way, the ways in which communities can begin NOW to implement local generation of renewables. Al Weinrub’s book is an excellent resource for anyone seeking to understand not only why, in an era of accelerated climate change, we need locally-generated renewable power, but exactly how we can begin building it. 

Al and Sandy also discuss the need for a REAL clean energy movement, as opposed to one that tweaks the 20th century energy paradigm, rather than rebuilding a 21st century energy model from the ground up. To illustrate this, they discus the US “Community Choice Aggregation” (CCA) movement, which, for the most part, is pursuing what’s known as the “procurement” (or corporate-owned) energy model. This model accomplishes its “clean energy goals” with “Renewable Energy Credits” and “clean power” generation far away from the point of use. They discuss how this approach to CCA serves only to greenwash the corporate agenda, while ignoring the needs of the communities CCA is supposed to serve. As an example, they talk about Marin County, California, where its new CCA (Marin Clean Energy) broke away from one mega-utility (PG&E) only to procure its energy from a subsidiary of mega-polluting multinational oil company Shell Oil (Shell Energy North America).
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Political Analysis - 05/01/12

The third in a series of “Conversations for the 21st Century”

In recognition of May Day (International Workers Day) pays tribute to workers all over the world during this third in a series of “Conversations for the 21st Century.” The participants in this conversation, David Swanson and Joshua Frank, are two of the nation’s most eloquent progressive advocates, as well as nationally acclaimed journalists, authors and activists. 

This week’s discussion takes place against the backdrop of deep social unrest — in the US and across the world — and as tens of thousands gather across the nation to demand decent jobs (with a living wage), human rights, healthcare for all, access to affordable education and the end of war. They discuss the significance of the Occupy movements’ May Day demonstrations and General Strike, in the context of the upcoming 2012 presidential elections, including a look at 21st century progressive politics and the importance of pushing for a truly progressive agenda and exercising our constitutionally guaranteed democratic rights outside of the “corporate ballot box.”  
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Political Analysis - 4/24/12

On tonight’s Political Analysis, talks to Labor economist Sylvia Allegretto about the state of the economy … why the “working poor” shouldn’t be poor and SHOULD be earning a living wage. They also discuss the (oxy)moronic concept of a “jobless recovery” and why only Wall Street — not YOUR street or MY street — are “recovering” right now.

At the bottom of the hour, the magnificent Dr. Margaret Flowers, who has advocated passionately for a single-payer system of healthcare in the US, talks to SLV about the desperate need for healthcare equity in the US, and why she is personally arso committed to a universal (single-payer) healthcare system. Dr. Flowers recently joined the Occupy movement, which she views as an important vehicle for spreading the word — and mobilizing activists — around universal care as a human right.


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Political Analysis - 4/10/12

Political Analysis: April 10, 2012
Guest: Retired Army Captain and Iraq war veteran Paul Chappell

Tonight on Political Analysis, talks to US army veteran-turned-peace activist Paul Chappell, whose personal narrative about his decision to “wage peace” and change the (mythological) narrative about war is as compelling as it is passionate.

Paul Chappell talks about how his own agonizing experience in Iraq — compounded by a personal history of racism and violence — caused him to undergo a “moral epiphany” that transformed him from a “soldier of war” to a “disciple of peace”  – but only after scathing self-examination and internal reflection on the absurdity, inequities and futility of war.
Paul Chappell served in the military for seven years, before retiring as an army captain. Today he serves as the peace leadership director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, speaking all over the US about nonviolent resistance and “waging peace.” Paul Chappell is the author of “Will War Ever End?,” “The End of War” and “Peaceful Revolution.” He is currently working on his fourth book, “The Art of Waging Peace.”
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Political Analysis - 04/03/12

Against fracking 01

First half hour:

BREAKING NEWS: Tonight, in real time, we hear the heartbreaking story of how a group of working class families, residents of a mobile home park in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania are being evicted from their homes to make way for for a proposed water withdrawal facility in Piatt Township. The facility would pump millions of gallons of water daily from the Susquehanna River to a gas drilling (aka Hydraulic Fracturing or Fracking) facility just north of Jersey Shore. talks to Kevin June, a resident and manager of the mobile home park and hydrofracking activist and community organizer Alex Lotorto, both of whom offer insight into the very personal and poignant stories of the park’s residents, where the fallout from Pennsylvania’s natural gas boom is being felt by an entire community.

Second half hour:

Roots Action Executive Director Aimee Allison updates listeners on the west coast occupy movement, as well as current efforts to tax super-PACs, push Congress to allow states to create a single-payer health care system and a bill currently in the House of Representatives that would speed up the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. Aimee and SLV also discuss yesterday’s (April 2nd) Supreme Court ruling allowing law enforcement authorities – at all levels, federal, state, and local – to legally force anyone they arrest to submit to a strip-search — whether or not there is probable cause for such an egregious violation of personal privacy rights.

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Political Analysis - 03/27/12

Guests: Gar Alperovitz and Bryan Welch

Tonight on Political Analysis, hosts a groundbreaking conversation on how the 99 percent can create a sustainable (and livable) future – even as the nation’s disemboweled “democracy” becomes less accessible to the “living majority.” Tonight’s guests, author and educator Gar Alperovitz and entrepreneur, organic farmer Bryan Welch have very different — but sometimes converging — ideas about how to create such a future.

Bryan Welch is the publisher of the highly successful Mother Earth News, Utne Reader and other publications, and one of the nation’s leading thinkers on what some have dubbed the “new capitalism.” His vision of a more just and sustainable world proposes a capitalism that distributes value according to the durability, provenance and sustainability of products — by paying attention to every consequence of a company’s operation.

Gar Alperovitz is the Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland and co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative. Among his most recent books are America Beyond Capitalism and (with Lew Daly) Unjust Deserts: How the Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance and Why We Should Take It Back. He believes — as conveyed by the title of one of his books — that we need to move beyond capitalism, in order to pave the way to a vibrant democracy with a sustainable economy that can satisfy human needs — not least of which is the need to control one’s work and life.

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[Podcast] Political Analysis - 3/20/12

Guest: Alex Lotorto, community leader, organizer and activist

This week on Political Analysis:

As the nation approaches the 2012 presidential elections, natural gas proponents (including President Obama) say they stand ready to convert pretty much everything to run on gas. And, if you believe the current spin, this particular fossil fuel will make the US not only cleaner and greener, but energy self-sufficient. Not so, says community organizer and activist Alex Lotorto, who explains to Political Analysis host why natural gas will do none of the above. With prices hitting historic lows and the gas industry pumped up by its multi-million dollar PR campaign and Obama’s support, Alex dispels any residual illusions that natural gas is a “clean, green” fossil fuel, and sheds light on a piece of legislation known as the NAT GAS Act. The bill is the industry’s most recent attempt to commit the nation to a future fueled by natural gas.
Alex Lotorto is a lifelong resident of the Upper Delaware River region in Pennsylvania. At the age of 25, Alex has already spent years in the trenches – and on the front lines – voicing his opposition to all forms of natural gas. Alex also serves as one of the Industrial Workers of the World’s youngest union delegates.
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[Podcast] Political Analysis - 03/13/12

Guest: Richard Littlemore, co-editor of DeSmogBlog

This week, Political Analysis host commemorates the one-year anniversary of the nuclear meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, opening the show with newly released audio clips from Scientific American. The clips reveal a chilling sequence of events and interactions that took place between NRC officials and other nuclear principals, as they tried desperately to comprehend what was happening during the first week of the crisis. The show also features SLV’s commentary and audio clips of a press conference held earlier this month to examine what are now being called “criminal errors” made by TEPCO officials at the time of the Fukushima meltdown. The conference, lead by Dr. Eiichi Yamaguchi, chairman of a grass-roots investigatory committee known as the Fukushima Project, was held to mark the one year anniversary of the March 11 nuclear disaster.

During the second half of the program, SLV talks to Richard Littlemore, author, lecturer and co-editor of the website DeSmogBlog. They discuss the climate-denying Heartland Institute’s most recent attempts to embed “climate skepticism” into the public school system.
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[Podcast] Political Analysis 03/06/12

As President Obama continues to hammer on natural gas as a “bridge fuel” (to a “renewable future”), Political Analysis host features a conversation on the subject of “safe hydrofracking.” Daniel J. Weiss, of the Center for American Progress argues that hydraulic fracturing can be made safe with proper regulations in place, while Adrienne Esposito of New York’s Citizens Campaign for the Environment, believes the process is inherently dangerous. She endorses the “precautionary principle” as the only reasonable response to the current push for increased nat gas drilling in the US. 

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