F29 - Shut Down the Corporations Day of Action

Guest: David Osborn

On January 1, 2012, Occupy Portland put forward a bold call to action to shut down corporations on leap day, Wednesday, February 29, 2012. Occupy Portland is “leaping into action” for a not-to-miss day of civil disobedience to alert the world that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) must stop existing and that we as a society can reclaim our power over government!

Over 50 US cities are joining Portland and even Mexico City is uniting to end ALEC.

Through ALEC, Global Corporations Are Scheming to Rewrite YOUR Rights and Boost THEIR Revenue, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights. These so-called "model bills" reach into almost every area of American life and often directly benefit huge corporations. In ALEC's own words, corporations have "a VOICE and a VOTE" on specific changes to the law that are then proposed in your state. The Center for Media and Democracy on July 13, 2011 issued a report based on documentation received from a whistleblower about the hundreds of bills written of, by and for corporations that have been introduced by legislators who have joined and met with ALEC, out of view of the public.

David Osborn is an instructor at Portland State University where he teaches courses on culture, narrative and social movements. He was been deeply involved in the Occupy Movement and is also active in the Climate Justice Movement with Rising Tide North America.

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W. David Kubiak has a unique, impressive bio, spanning three distinctly different cultures - the US, Japan, and India. For well over a decade, he has focused on the problem posed by giant corporations, their threat to humanity and the Earth. Big problems call for "Big Medicine," a non-profit think tank focused on "the corporate takeover of our countries, cultures and consciousness" which he founded in 2000.

Born in the US, he majored in psychology, philosophy and pre-med studies, and served in the Peace Corps' first South Korea rural health program until 1970. He then moved to Kyoto, Japan where he studied Eastern medical theory, taught media studies, ran underground event spaces, and worked as an activist journalist. He is married, has three children, and divides his time between Kyoto, Kennebunkport, Maine, and Udaipur, Rajasthan.

Besides provocative publicity stunts like attacking Japanese yakuza gangs, running for Kyoto mayor, or winning the Democratic Vice-Presidential contest in the 2000 New Hampshire Primary, he is best known for his metamedical approach to eco-social illls and activism. Inspired by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, James Grier Miller, Ken Reiner and Eastern medical lore, Kubiak has used media, conferencing and electoral politics to publicize memes for "Big Body" (mega-corporate) disease, immuno-activism, industrial anthroculture, and the transformative powers of human attention.

Once described by Whole Earth Review as "one of the most interesting minds on the planet", Kubiak depicts our era as the endgame in an evolutionary contest between sensual human communities and "Big Bodies", vast corporate entities, which he describes as "alive, in charge and out of control." He argues that insights from superorganisms, living systems theory, and immune cell biomimicry may offer more effective remedies than traditional political activity and that downsizing, decentralizing and democratizing "big bodies" across the board are our only hope of regaining democracy, planetary health or evolutionary control.

His recent writings include- The Belittle Big Bodies Banzai: A Year-End OWS Salute and Immune Key to 2012 and The Contract on Corporate America", Green Tea* 2012 Campaign Pledge to the 99% - with a tip of the hat to the '94 GOP and the devious Dr. Newt which includes-

As the once and future sovereign 99% of the United States of America we propose to not just reclaim our government from corporate usurpations, but even more importantly, to rescue our children, communities and natural world from their cancerous growth and inhuman scale.

That is why, in this era of corporate coin-operated politics, we offer instead a self-fulfilling strategy for eco-social transformation that citizens can execute themselves in the next few years.

2012 offers a chance after five decades of corporate encroachment and dominion to finally expose this coup and inspire countless citizens to confront it without fear. This historic change would end the reign of morbidly huge bodies that promote autocratic values, addictive consumption, and the heedless destruction of cultures, communities and ecosystems worldwide. Given our finite living world, any entities striving for endless growth regardless of consequences are quite literally cancerous and must be combated like tumors before they kill our body politic and consume the biosphere. This battle can renew us as a nation that respects basic human rights, social justice and the sanctity of the natural world.

Like Jefferson, Lincoln, the Roosevelts and Eisenhower, our most corporate-leery presidents, we intend to expose these growth-obsessed monsters as humanity's greatest adversary in the battle for justice, democracy and planetary health. Beyond exposure, we offer ways and means:

· To evict their henchmen from our statehouses, captured agencies and public nervous system. · To dissolve or defy the rules that shield them from social justice and ecological redress. · To legally downgrade them from "persons" to "hazardous instruments" with zero political rights. · To swiftly shrink them back in scale and power to an eco-socially harmless size. · To make us all proud again that real human beings with healthy values are back in charge...

It's powerful medicine, indeed! His voluminous activities, writings, videos, insights can be found on his websites, which include- The Magic Ten Percent and Big Medicine Central.

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Politicians and Corporations Draining California

Thursday, 26 January 2012 Guest: Dan Bacher

California, the golden state, is one of the most diverse, populous states in the country, producing half of the nations fruits, the most vegetables of any other state, with an economy, if it were a nation unto itself, ranking number 8 amongst other nations. Adding Hollywood, Silicon Valley, the black budget high tech industries to the mix, California has a major impact upon thought and culture far beyond its boundaries. The struggle for political control, as well as control over the resources, the water, the minerals, the airwaves, the people, the land of California is fierce. The state's capitol is located in Sacramento, not too far from where gold was discovered in 1848.

Blessed or cursed by the confluence of two rivers, the American and the Sacramento. Sacramento was a major port, developed rapidly, became the seat of the state government, suffered from floods and epidemics. Government remains the largest employer in the city, levees and canals have been built which carry the life giving water to farmers and developments far to the south. The delta which has been a home to countless fish, providing people with recreational opportunities, has also been a major point of contention, as public funds have been lavished on projects, levees, canals, which haven't always served the public interest. Fortunes have been made by those who have been able to control the political processes, the land, the water, the course of development.

Most recently Governor Jerry Brown gave a speech on the "State of the State" which in an Orwellian manner crusaded a massive project which he has been championing called "The Peripheral Canal." While citizens, environmentalists, fishermen have voiced strong opposition to the boondoggle which seems to clearly serve a very few at great public expense, causing untold ecological damage, the project has found some support among other legislators and could slip by if the public is kept in the dark, without any popular means to oppose stealth legislation. Dan Bacher has been a very vocal opponent of the project for sometime, he blogs at FishSniffer.com" ,Sacramento for Democracy and Alternet.organd has tried to warn the people of Sacramento and California about the political machinations taking place to further the enrichment of the few. However, Californians have already lost many battles, against many giant industries, beset by challenges on many fronts, it's hard to say how many Californians know about this project and the damning details which would kill it, if people were informed. Dan Bacher is able to cast much light on one of the darker corners of Californian politics, which mirrors, in many ways, the struggles faced in every state and every nation. His article on the recent turn of events is entitled State of the State: peripheral canal won't 'mend' anything.

Dan Bacher is a committed activist, as well as an avid fisherman.

To learn more about the campaign to stop the project and to restore the Sacramento Delta, see- Restore the Delta. See the new 3 minute video entitled Kill the Canal.

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Guest: Pamm Larry

The Committee for the Right to Know is a grassroots coalition of consumer, public health, environmental organizations, and food companies in California that is seeking the labeling of genetically engineered foods (GMOs).

On November 9, 2011, the coalition submitted the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act to the State Attorney General for title and summary, prior to circulation as an initiative measure for the November 2012 election.

The more you know about GMOs, the more that you would like to see them banned completely, but most people don't really know that much about them and have no idea how prevalent they are in our food. The people in Europe have banned GMOs, but the battle against GMOs has been more torturous in the US.

Pamm Larry is a grandmother from Chico, Ca. She calls herself the Initial Instigator of the California Right To Know Genetically Engineered Food Act. Through on-the-ground, grassroots efforts, there are now 115+ community leaders who share her vision and have committed to getting this on the ballot, then won. They are joined by businesses, organizations, and folks from all over the country who want to know what's in their foods. She is Northern California Director of LabelGMOs.org. The Initiative has been approved and they are waiting for a summary, before they can begin gathering signatures. The Initiative process is still daunting in California and requires tremendous effort and grassroots support. It will also have a huge impact upon the entire nation and the food industry, if it passes. This effort is illustrative of the battle between corporate power and profits, and human and environmental health and well being, the challenge of getting out simple truths about what we put inside our bodies, so that we can safeguard our health, the way we feel, our ability to function and act. It also exposes the failure of government to protect people, the collusion between corporations and the regulatory agencies and how the light, the truth can force change in policies that have tremendous repercussions in our health and throughout the world.

Get inspired. Hear Pamm's story and join this epic struggle. We can trump corporate power.

Additional Resources - The film The Future of Food The film One Man, One Cow One Planet

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Ten Years Too Many- Shut Down Guantanamo - No More Torture

Wednesday, January 11, 2012 will mark the decade long anniversary of the first detainees being jailed at the U.S.-controlled detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The terrible conditions imposed upon detainees at Guantanamo has indelibly enshrined torture as a facet of US policy in violation of international law and universal moral ethics. A broad coalition of groups have called for a national day of action against torture. There are plans to rally and form human chains in Washington DC, as well as San Francisco to pressure President Obama as well as Congress to return to the rule of law and to shut down the detention facility. The National Religious Campaign Against Torture,Amnesty International, Center for Constitutional Rights and Witness Against Torture are organizing the DC rally, which begins at noon in Lafayette Park; the San Francisco rally at noon at the Federal Building at on 7th & Mission is being spearheaded by Cynthia Papermaster ofCodepink with co-sponsoring organizations including Berkeley No More Guantanamos, Witness Against Torture , National Accountability Action Network,War Resister's League-West, World Can't Wait, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, and the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance.

National Religious Campaign Against Torture Director for Program Coordination, John Humphries gives an overview of the national and DC campaigns to end torture. He has more than ten years’ experience as a community organizer in rural Appalachia and in Connecticut. A member of the Hartford Friends Meeting, John has also traveled to Iraq in June 2002 with a Quaker/AFSC delegation, and he has helped organize a statewide interfaith network acting to oppose torture and the war in Iraq.

Cynthia Papermaster, is a 40-year resident of Berkeley, with a BA in Political Science and Master of Library Science degrees from UC Berkeley. She has been very involved as a parent with with PTA, and working on educational issues, as well as a champion of impeachment during the Bush reign; she continues to organize against torture and for accountability with Codepink.

John and Cynthia also mentioned these resources: Website with listings of many solidarity actions taking place nationwide -2012.witnesstorture.org

No More Gitmos - nogitmos.org

Guantanamo, Torture, Accountability & Indefinite Detention: We Are All At Risk Friday, January 6 - 7 pm in the Fellowship Hall ­ 1924 Cedar St. Film Screening "Ending U.S. Sponsored Torture Forever," followed by a discussion led by members of Bay Area Religious Campaign Against Torture about what actions we can take.

Reception and Interfaith Service at 3 pm at New York Ave Presbyterian Church following the  January 11th DC rally and actions, hosted by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture

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REPEAT PROGRAM:  1/20/11

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Dr. David E. Martin is the founder and Chairman of M·CAM Inc., the architect and founder of the Global Innovation Commons and was the founder of Mosaic Technologies, Inc.. The impressive bio on his company's websites states that -

"Dr. Martin... is the author of the international legal framework for the Heritable Knowledge Trust and Heritable Innovation Trust programs. He has pioneered global programs to bring corporate and stock market transparency to multi–national extractive industries and has been instrumental in repatriating value to countries which have been subject to corporate and financial abuses. His work on ethical engagement and stewardship of community and commons–based value interests is at the forefront of global financial innovation. Dr. Martin is a Batten Fellow at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. He has been named Chair of Economic Innovation for the UN–affiliated Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organization and has served as an advisor to numerous Central Banks, global economic forums, the World Bank and International Finance Corporation, and national governments.

"A spokesperson for global financial and intangible asset accountability and quality reform, Dr. Martin has worked closely with the United States Congress and numerous trade and financial regulatory agencies in the United States, Europe, and Asia in advocating and deploying infrastructure to support growing reliance on contract and proprietary rights in business transactions. Under the leadership of Dr. Martin, M·CAM has supported the modernization of banking, intangible asset, tax, and accounting laws through its work with oversight agencies and policy makers."

His novel, Coup d'Twelve: The Enterprise that Bought the Presidency is a fast paced spy thriller that looks at major events of this century, September 11, 2011 and the subsequent financial heists, from the point of view of someone who turned down the opportunity to play a part and profit from the crimes.

Dr. David E. Martin's work has taken him to many countries and he has access and understanding of technologies that many people probably could not dream of or imagine. The main character in his novel is obviously himself and in this interview he fleshes out his own history and details why he wrote the book, and what the early phases of the plot were.

Unfortunately, we did have technical difficulties reaching Dr. Martin in Mexico and the connection was flawed, so some of the words and sound were lost.  He did however, verify that many of the events in the novel were based on his firsthand experiences, including the initial meeting of prospective shareholders where he was invited to join the conspiracy.  In the novel the shareholders come from many different countries and they do not know who is really in control or the mastermind who brought them all together.  There are fewer shareholders at the end of the tale than at the beginning and a couple of key CIA operatives who have coached the CIA Director on his speech are murdered.  David explains at the end of this interview that the US Intelligence apparatus is relatively new, that other intelligence networks have been around for much longer.  He explains that his novel forewarns of a newly emerging alliance between Iran, China and Pakistan, which is visible on the cover of the novel in the image of a slot machine coming up with the flags of those countries, displacing the US and Britain.

My review of his book is posted at Turning Down the Devil's Offer.

His insightful blog is Inverted Alchemy: An Integral Economy. This is Part III of a series..

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