The Violence Inherent in the System

Eric Garner, killed by a cop in Staten Island, NY.  John Crawford, killed by a cop in Bevercreek, OH. Michael Brown, killed by a cop in Ferguson, MO.  Tamir Rice, killed by a cop in Cleveland, OH. Is there some sort of racist-cop trend that has cropped up recently around the country or is there a larger issue here?  If we have a half-asses compulsory school system in this country that barely educates the masses, then what happens when a certain portion of those masses become cops?  In this episode we look closely at a recent Department of Justice investigation into the Cleveland Police Departments' 'use of force policies' over the past few years and how the findings within that report apply to most police departments across the country.  What happens when poorly educated, poorly trained people are armed and given military weapon hand-me-downs and told to go police the streets of America?  [Click to Listen]

The Flow of Information (Rebroadcast)

[Rebroadcast: Episode from February 9th, 2013]From push notifications, corporate news channel tickers, billboards, newspaper headlines, blog titles, Facebook updates and twitter posts - the depth of our information diet is getting smaller and less diverse.  In this episode we take a look at alternative ways to expand the mind with in depth information.  From concerts and films to just plain old up all night passionate conversations with friends and family, there is no need to limit ourselves when it comes to the amount and type of information we are putting in our brains. [Click to Listen]

Search: FBI - Spying - US Citizens

FBI - Spying - US Citizen's.  It's a simple set of search terms.  If you search it every six weeks or so you will find no shortage of reasons to be pissed off.  This weeks tale includes an internationally know non-profit organization that is funded by "donations" from the top corporations in the world and how they hosted the current head of the FBI and his speech - Going Dark: Are Technology, Privacy and Public Safety on a Collision Course?  [Hint: it's a trick question] This from a guy who oversees a system called the Digital Collection System Network, which is connected directly into the switches for virtually all of the major network providers.  What does it say about our society when the second reason to monitor everyone, second only to terrorism, is consumerism? Market research, in order to figure out how to more effectively sell us shit we don't need.  [Click to Listen]

Occupy Unmasked (2012)

Activist Cinema 11: We're trying something new with this episode of Activist Cinema...we're discussing a film that I hate.  The term 'Citizen's United' is very familiar to most activists these days, but it's mainly due to the infamous Supreme Court case. 
In the case the court decided:
"that the First Amendment prohibited the government from restricting independent political expenditures by a nonprofit corporation. The principles articulated by the Supreme Court in the case have also been extended to for-profit corporations, labor unions and other associations."
It's a landmark piece of law that has ruined the electoral process in the United States.  However, Citizen's United is more than just a court case, it is a production company for political documentaries.  In 2012, director Stephen K. Bannon teamed up with Andrew Breitbart (two darlings of the Corporate version of the Tea Party) and put together this documentary. 
From the films website:
"The Occupy movement is sinister, violent, and organized with the purpose of destroying the American government. The film also discusses allegations of rape, drug use, and property destruction at the Occupy encampments."
I would suggest refreshing your memory by reading the brief Timeline of Occupy Wall Street over at Wikipedia (click here) before watching this film as the filmmakers go into quite a bit of detail about some of the events that may have faded from your memory.  Then get ready to yell at your TV...a lot. [Click to Listen]

Coalition of the Willing: Take 2

Here we (U.S.A.) go again.  Remember during Gulf War II, George W. Bush famously used the term Coalition of the Willing when it came to the invasion and occupation of Iraq?  According to W's administration, these 48 countries were essential partners in this illegal war.  However, countries like Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau and the Solomon Islands didn't (and still don't) have standing armies to help out in the war effort.  Now, Barack Obama has gathered his own Coalition of the Willing II, this time with the war directed at ISIL.  But what exactly are the new coalition members doing in this vague, new chapter in the War on Terror? [Click to Listen]

At the Forefront of Fracking

Anastasia Pantsios published a fantastic article at EcoWatch about Ohio's shameful role at the forefront of the fracking industry.  The article is based in part on the U.S. Government Accountability Office report, Drinking Water: Characterization of Injected Fluids Associated with Oil and Gas Production (also known as GAO-14-957R) that examined the fracking industry in seven states. The good news is that the report documents the horrific conditions now present in Ohio due to the booming fracking industry.  The bad news is that there is 0 chance that the politicians in Ohio will do anything about this issue.  Why is that?  Because the American Legislative Exchange Council has helped the oil and gas industry pass laws in Ohio that will need repealed before any action can be taken. One law in Ohio classified solution injected into the Earth as a 'trade secret', so no one knows exactly what is seeping into the groundwater.  [Click to Listen]

The Miseducation of the Masses (Part 3): The System is Born

In part 3 of our series on the education system in the United States of America, we take a look at the continued influence of Foundations - mainly the ones started and funded by the Carnegie and Rockefeller.  We also discuss the Columbia Teachers College and their project, the Lincoln Experimental School.  Then we look at the effects of the Progressive Education Associations "Eight-Year Study" and how it started the concept of the segmented school curriculum.  And let's not forget the power of uniform textbooks - and how Harold Rugg (through the Columbia Teachers College) was so well funded that 5 million of his textbooks were distributed nationwide.  Eventually, in 1952, the Reece Committee started investigating Foundations and their influence on public life.  When their report was published in 1954, it was summarily ignored.  Why was it ignored? Because, a scathing indictment of the power of capitalists in the United States and how they were (and are) warping the public education system for their own benefit wasn't a report those capitalists wanted anyone to know about.  Sound familiar? [Click to Listen]

ISIS Terror Threat Comedy Hour

In this clip show, we take a look at how the Corporate Media (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc.) have used ISIS (or ISIL or IS) as the new international 'boogie man' in order to amp up the feelings of terror on the public and justify more military action in the Middle East.  The result is eerily similar to the build up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.  The rhetoric used in these clip would be hilarious, if the end result wasn't death and destruction. [Click to Listen]

The Miseducation of the Masses (Part 2): Rise of the Foundations!

In part 2 of our series on the education system in the United States of America, we take a look at how compulsory schooling was legislated into existence and then financed.  From 1889 to 1906 William Torrey Harris was the Commissioner of Education for the United States of America.  That is an uninterrupted, 17 year stretch in which he shaped the teaching philosophy and legislation of an entire nation.  During his tenure there was an average of one high school opened per day.  That is a massive education boom.  But, what was his philosophy of education? And, who was helping to subsidize this massive infrastructure of new buildings, textbooks and teacher training?  The noted humanitarians (sarcasm) John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, to name just the two main wealthy white guys we take a look at in this episode.  We wrap up part 2 with some choice quotes from a 1913 Special Commission appointed by the 62nd Congress to investigate the entity know as a "Foundation", both as a business model and the power it wields within society.  Hint: It's not good and it hasn't gotten any better in the 101 years since this report. [Click to Listen]

The Miseducation of the Masses (Part 1)

In the kick off episode for a series on the education system in the United States of America, we take a look at the Prussian education system that was established after that country's devastating defeat at the hands of Napoleon's military in 1806.  Decades after that system was up and running, Prussia was a serious force to be reckoned with in Europe.  The notoriety of their education system had piqued the interest of an American, elite, Protestant, politician named Horace Mann.  So much so, that Mann went to Prussia in 1843 to see how this "Three Tiered System" worked.  Upon his return, Mann (who was Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education at the time) pushed very hard to implement what he had seen in Prussia.  The effects of which are still alive and well in today's compulsory public school system. [Click to Play]

Double Feature: The Weather Underground (2002) / Pickaxe (1999)

Activist Cinema 10 - It's a double feature today as we take a look at two documentary films that compliment each other quite well.  The Weather Underground (2002) uses archival footage and interviews to look at the actions taken by the Weather Underground in the late 1960's and early 1970's.  A hardcore group of activists committed to the violent overthrow of the US government.  The second film is Pickaxe (1999), an on the ground look at the activists who took a stand to protect an old growth forest from logging at Warner Creek in the Willamette National Forest of Oregon, blockading the logging road and repelling the State Police.  A hardcore group of activists committed to non-violent resistance of US government policy. [Click to Listen]

World Cup 2014: Capitalism, Corruption and Protest (Part 3)

In our third and final episode in the World Cup 2014: Capitalism, Corruption and Protest series we address the lack of protests in Brazil during the World Cup.  We also take an extensive look at the police state tactics of Brazil and what it means for a country to host a "mega event" such as the World Cup or the Olympic Games (for Brazil, this will be in 2016).  Surprise, surprise, United States private contractor extraordinaire Academi (formerly Xe and before that Blackwater) helped out with anti-terror training and Israeli security (NICE) firms help install and program an all seeing all spying system called "The Situator".  There is also the matter of how sovereign nations change their laws to suit the profit motives of this massive, massive non-profit known as FIFA.  [Click to Listen]

World Cup 2014: Capitalism, Corruption and Protest (Part 2)

In part II of our World Cup 2014 series we take a look at the initial proposal the government of Brazil presented to FIFA and how the reality has shaped up all these years later...here a hint, the budget more than quadrupled. We specifically take a look at the construction at three of the 12 stadiums and the pit corruption, extortion and over billing they have all become.  We also touch on similar stadium projects from the World Cup 2010 in South Africa and the preparations for the upcoming World Cup 2022 in Qatar (which has already killed hundreds of workers).  [Click to Listen]

World Cup 2014: Capitalism, Corruption and Protest (Part 1)

Our introductory episode covering the most watched (and most corrupt) sporting event in the entire world, the FIFA World Cup.  We start off looking at why soccer can and is an important sport, especially on the world stage.  Then we move into a brief overview of what has been going on in Brazil - both in the streets and within the halls of the Brazilian government at the request of FIFA officials - in the lead up to the World Cup of 2014, focusing on the Confederations Cup of 2013 and the corruption and protests that occurred during that event.  [Click to Listen]

Collapse (2009)

Activist Cinema Episode 9 - Collapse (2009) was directed by Chris Smith and is essentially a monologue film.  There haven't been too many of these kinds of film made, but within this small sub-genre of films, Collapse is one of the best.  We choose this film as a nice end cap to the We're So Fucked series of episodes as most of the ideas and sentiments from that series are well represented in this documentary about the late, great Michael C. Ruppert. [Click to Listen]

We're So F**ked 4: Do Anything

The fourth and final in episode in our We're So Fucked series  (We're So Fucked - We're So Fucked 2: Bringing Down the System - We're So Fucked 3: Don't Do Anything) ends on a happy note, sort of...We start the discussion with the idea that there are no easy fixes for all of the worlds problems and how personal a choice it is to actually get up everyday, take in air and keep trying to function as a human being on a fucked planet.  What do you spend you time working towards?  Everybody's answer is different, so we attempt to discuss the big picture issue that can apply to everyone...the potential of the human brain and the wonderful, creative, artistic impulses that reside inside of us all.  Especially the youngest human beings among us, kids.  Before their brains are taught all that social baggage we adults carry around in our brains, they are (or can be) free to explore, create, question and express themselves in the most spectacular ways imaginable.  It might not save all of us humans, but it will help create a fantastic generation to keep the human species experiment going after the collapse of civilization as we know it...that's the 'sort of' happy ending we like here at Mic Check Radio.[Click to Listen]

How the State Will Kill Activists

On this episode we discuss the four steps the State has already set up that allow them to kill activists.  Step 1: Redefine and/or blur the lines of definitions (ex. Terrorism, Domestic Terrorism, Eco-Terrorism)[Link].
Step 2: Create a precedent for killing US civilians [Link].
Step 3: Federal authorities are already cool with targeting activists [Link 1] [Link 2].
Step 4: Get pundits on corporate news shows to tell us why this is a great idea.
[Click to Listen]

FBI...Still Creating Terrorists

On May 26th, 2013 we put out an episode called The FBI Creates Terrorists - which was, itself, a follow up to What is Terrorism? - and just about one year later...not a single thing seems to have changed.  On this weeks episode we take a look at a few specific cases.  Farooque Ahmed, Liberty City Seven, James Cromitie, Derrick Shareef and Nicolas Michael Teausant. [Click to Listen]

Hijacking Social Movements

The wonderful folks over at CrimetInc have posted a superb article about how the current Ukrainian Revolution is/was hijacked by the Fascist and Nationalist of that particular country.  The example used in this article is specific to Ukraine, but the details will sound familiar to anyone who has read a news story in the past three years about similar uprisings in Spain, Turkey, Tunisia, USA, Venezuela, Brazil, Egypt, etc.  If you don't get off the couch and into the street, your ideas will not be heard -  and you never know what ideas will be presented in your absence. [Click to Listen]

NDAA 2014

It's that time of year again...the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was re-uped for another year.  What devious items were snuck in this year?  In the last two years, indefinite military detention of United States citizens (NDAA 2012) and overturning the 63 year old Smith-Mundt Act which prohibited domestic dissemination of government propaganda (NDAA 2013) were just two of the highlights.  This year, the war rhetoric is amped up to get the Department of Defense ready for the coming (or currently raging) cyber war by not only creating another government database for storing digital information, but laying out the rules for selling and exchanging that information with other governments and individuals all over the world. [Click to Listen]

We're So F**ked 3: Don't Do Anything

This episode follows We're So Fucked and We're So Fucked 2: Bringing Down the System.  On today's installment of this sporadic series we look at one of the two options that are laid out before us: Do Something or Don't Do Anything.  The later is the focus for this episode.  Doing nothing has never been easier or more entertaining (assuming you live in a so-called First World Country).  Thousands of TV channels, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Google Play, iTunes, pornography, Soundcloud, YouTube, drugs (both legal and illegal), video games, social media, food and consumer electronics gadgetry that allow for the access of  most of the above at the touch of a finger.  Why the fuck would a First World human being want to do anything more than passively move thru their life, enjoying the entirety of human created entertainment that is available on small computer that fits in a pocket? [Click to Listen]

The Square (2013)

Activist Cinema Episode 8 - The Square (2013) is an excellent example of a journalistic documentary.  It covers the protests in Egypt's Tahrir Square that started in 2011 and stays with several citizens (protestors, activists and lawyers) over a two year period.  The ups and downs of seeing two presidents removed from power, violent military crackdowns and counter protests in a very short period of time.  It ends with the current (as of fall 2013) 'transitional period' in which the citizens are under military rule and all their victories are now under threat. [Click to Listen]

Activist Music - Punk Rock 1

As a tangent series to the Activist Cinema episodes we've been doing for awhile now, here is short playlist of fantastic Activist Music - The Punk Rock Edition Vol.1.

Transmission - S.T.U.N.
Punk Rock Song - Bad Religion
Controlled Opposition - Anti Flag
Suburban Home - Descendents
Lady Liberty - Rancid
Jerk of All Trades - Lunachicks
Dwindle - Falling Sickness
Boredom - S.T.U.N.

Russian Federation Homophobia and the Sochi Winter Olympic

On this episode we take a closer look at the so called 'Russian Anti-Gay Laws' with the help of a very insightful white paper - Russian Federation Anti Gay Laws: An Analysis and Deconstruction by Brian M. Heiss.  Why are these laws getting so much corporate media coverage?  Is it all just to remind people to tune into the Winter Olympics and by Coke and Nike products?  Is it possibly a distraction story so no one investigates the most expensive and corrupt Winter Olympics in history?  After we discuss these cynical questions, we take a quick look around the Middle East and Africa to see if there are any other countries whose anti-gay laws could stand some scrutiny by our oh-so-concerned corporate media.  And while we're looking into anti-gay laws and anti-gay hate crime statistics, it's always a good idea to check in here at home and see how the United States is faring.  (Hint: it's no better than Russia.  In fact, it's a lot worse in some areas). [Click to Listen]

We're So F**ked 2: Bringing Down the System

It's story time on Mic Check Radio this week.  While this is a follow up to the We're So Fucked episode from two weeks ago, the bulk of this show is a reading which diagnoses just how fucked we human beings are by the industrial-technological system that we human beings have created...and what some potential options are for dealing with this system. [Click to Listen]

Local Sports, Fantasy Leagues and Lingerie Football

As the sports world gears up for the bread and circus spectacle of Super Bowl XLVIII, we take a look at the benefits and importance of sports on a local level-where, unlike the NFL, it isn't ruled by money and corporate sponsorships.  Then we take a quick look at what sports fans could be doing with their time, brains and energy instead of "playing" fantasy sports.  And finally, at the end of the show, we play some audio from a "news report" on the Legends Football League (aka Lingerie Football League) and how the corporate media once again asks all the wrong questions. [Click to Listen]

We're So F**ked

We (human beings) are quite literally fucked in numerous ways...on this episode we take a look at just a few of the main reasons.  Financial collapse, poor food quality, weather, climate, consumerism, garbage, diseases, air pollution, water pollution, industrialization, population growth, and just plain good old fashioned war (traditional, biological, nuclear, etc.). Oh, and solar flares, asteroids, earthquakes and volcanoes. [Click to Listen]

2013 Activist Cinema

A look at some of the great examples of Activist Cinema from 2013:
No,
99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film,
Fruitvale Station,
Free Angela and All Political Prisoners,
A Fierce Green Fire,
The East,
GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling,
Dallas Buyers Club,
Let the Fire Burn,
The Ghosts in Our Machine,
GMO OMG,
A Place at the Table
[Click to Listen]