Clearing the FOG with co-hosts Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese

This fall, with international treaties like the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) and Paris climate treaty looming, mass actions are taking place to demand an end to the fossil fuel and the rapid transition to clean sustainable energy, trade that doesn't drive a race to the bottom in worker rights and environmental protection and a health care system that includes everyone. As a wave of protests is unfolding in the capital of Vermont, we speak with Jane Palmer, a landowner trying to stop a fracked gas pipeline on her land. These actions are part of Rising Tide North America's campaign, Flood the System. We talk about the mass mobilization being planned in Washington, DC November 14 to 18 to protest treaties like the TPP and the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. And we talk with Anand Saha, a medical student and organizer with Students for a National Health Program which held a national days of actions on October first called #TenOne. Visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Direct download: CTF_10-26.mp3
Category:News Commentary -- posted at: 2:24pm EDT

October 16 was World Food Day. Decades of consolidation of agriculture into large industrial farms and the drive for ever greater profits is destroying family farms, the environment and climate, our health and food safety. Vandana Shiva writes, "“For the planet and people, the costs have been tragically high. 75 per cent of the earth’s biodiversity, soils, water have been destroyed, the climate has been destabilised, farmers have been uprooted, and instead of nourishing us, industrial food has become the biggest cause of disease and ill health.” We speak with Jim Goodman, an organic dairy farmer who started Family Farm Defenders, about the what smaller farms are doing to protect their futures and the integrity of the food system. Then we speak with Diana Reeves, founder and executive director of GMO Free USA, about the growing movement to label foods that contain GMOs and her work to build sustainable and healthy food systems. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Direct download: CTF_10-19.mp3
Category:News Commentary -- posted at: 1:07pm EDT

October 7 marked the 14th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan. The week started off in a tragic way with the US bombing of a Doctors Without Borders (Medecins sans Frontieres, MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. It was the only hospital of its kind serving Northeastern Afghanistan and treated hundreds of patients every week. The Senate held a hearing last week to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. We discuss the hospital bombing and why this may be a violation of international law and we will speak with Kathy Kelly, who travels frequently to Afghanistan, about her impressions of the US' military presence there. We also discuss Columbus/Indigenous Peoples' Day and its impacts on US 'War Culture'. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Direct download: CTF_Columbus_10-12.mp3
Category:News Commentary -- posted at: 4:51pm EDT

We talk with attorney and consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who, along with a team of lawyers and museum experts, recently opened The American Museum of Tort Law in his home town of Winsted, CT. The  first museum of law in the country, focuses on tort law which governs claims made in courts by victims harmed by wrongful actions of corporations or others. Tort law operates of, by and for the people by giving people the power to right injustices and operates because of citizen participation: citizens bring the lawsuit, not the government; and  the outcome of the lawsuit often depends on a verdict reached by a group of ordinary citizens, sitting as jurors, who determine the facts to and apply the law.However, for many reasons, Tort law is under attack. In addition to the new museum, we discuss current issues with Nader, among them whether people will be able to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other corporate rigged trade deals. For more information, visit www.ClearingtheFOGRadio.org.

Direct download: CTF_10-5.mp3
Category:News Commentary -- posted at: 1:47pm EDT

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