U.S. National

Our gathering begins with former Google executive AHMED MUSTAFA and a deep dive into the politics of the world’s leading search engine.  

With power and clarity, Ahmed, among other things, issues a stark warning on the challenges being posed to our future by Artificial Intelligence.

JOHN STEINER asks for specifics on Ahmed’s campaign for Congress now navigating the primaries in Silicon Valley.

STEVE CARUSO, ERIC LAZARUS, LYNNE FEINERMAN and CAMILLA REES join the dialog.

TIM JUDSON of the Nuclear Information & Resource Service updates us on the horrendous Senate decision to remove Commissioner Jeff Baran from the Nuclear Regulator Commission, proving beyond any lingering doubt that any member of the NRC who values public safety over private profit will not remain.

MYLA RESON updates us on our YouTube presence and asks for your thumbs up!

MIKE HERSH then introduces us to “local hero” KEN BAWERS, who gives us a very impressive deep dive into the demanding world of Stormwater Control and his battles with the $25 billion Riverine Restoration industry.

JUSTIN LEBLANC and MICHELLE SUTTER get us going with a California bill (AB-83) aimed at keeping foreign money out of our elections.

LYNNE FEINERMAN and LEONA MORGAN describe the HAUL NO campaign against Uranium mining near the Grand Canyon.

VINNIE DE STEFANO updates us on the FREE ASSANGE campaign with a boost from DR. RUTH STRAUSS.

WENDI LEDERMAN tells us the latest about the horrific COP CITY fight in Atlanta with the fate of a major first and the civil rights of a whole city at stake.

MYLA RESON introduces us to the debate over the Chevron Deference Doctrine now facing decimation by the Supreme Court, possibly open the door to an era in which government has no ability to regulate anything.

MARY BUTLER-STONEWALL ESQ. discusses corruption at the EPA.

Then, with an introduction from MIKE HERSH, we take a deep dive into the issue of national heath care with CALCARE proponent PAUL NEWMAN, ACA Godfather JOEL SEGAL and nationally prominent campaigner DR. WILLIAM BRONSTON.  For nearly a full hour we explore the incredibly important labyrinth of public “illness management” and how it’s done better in places like Cuba.

Today, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced it approved licensing for Holtec International’s controversial consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) in southeastern New Mexico’s Lea County, not far from the Texas border. The facility is designed to store high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants across the U.S. But NRC approval notwithstanding, a recently enacted New Mexico State law and multiple federal court challenges may yet block the project.

Holtec’s Bid to Enter the Nuclear Waste Storage Business

The Ron DeSantis led Florida Republicans are working faster than the speed of light in trying to dismantle the inner structure that have sustained Florida’s middle-class society in a liberal democracy. The team is working in almost every aspect of our society in doing so. For example:

A- Gutting public sector labor unions with the exception of those that are tied with law enforcement (pretty clever maneuver since Republicans are going to need those workers to crack the heads of other workers); now in DeSantis’ Florida majority in Labor Unions is defined as 60% of the membership. Florida is a right-to-work state, and nobody is forced to become a labor union member.

B- DeSantis has declared a war on education that includes culture wars against Black history, LGBTQ+ community, and whatever makes white people feel uncomfortable about American history, “woke” people issues, etc. African American history has been banned as an AP course.

C- Women's reproductive choice is being hit with an abortion ban after six weeks of pregnancy and is almost certain to become law.

D- Attacks on LGBTQ community meant to take away their right to exist in dignity.

Today (4/1/23) The Wall Street Journal had as a front-page article on its REVIEW section titled “How Florida Became America’s GOP Hot Spot.” Written by several authors, it is a magnificent gloating piece celebrating GOP electoral accomplishments and becoming one of the major hubs of conservative heavyweights in the nation.

Florida not only has living in it the two top Republican presidential candidates but has also many other luminaries of the conservative world. The article to its credit recognizes that Florida once was one of the nation’s biggest swing states, but that now it is solidly conservative. 

They give credit to the vibrancy and creativity of conservative thinking in the state. I say hogwash. The reason that the Republican Party enjoys such reputation has much to do with the betrayal of Democratic economic principles by the Democratic Party leadership in the last few years. 

The 2024 races for the White House and Congress may be decided Tuesday, April 4, in Wisconsin.

And the Democrats may be set to blow it by spending millions on media buys while ignoring grassroots organizing.

The hotly contested election is for the vacant swing seat on the Wisconsin state Supreme Court.  The outcome could ride on how many voters of youth and color turn out to cast ballots.

And while the Democrats have so far outspent the Republicans on media advertising, their general unwillingness to support grassroots organizing could easily lose the seat….and much more.

That puts this race at Ground Zero in the bitter dispute about where progressive should focus their electoral efforts leading up to 2024—-by sending money and other support to the Democratic Party and its candidates…or by directly supporting grassroots groups focussed on getting out the vote, as they did in creating the “Georgia Miracle” that secured two very unlikely US Senate seats in 2020-2.

The sixteenth-biggest bank in the US has just suddenly and dramatically collapsed and is being bailed out by the federal government.  This may or may not be a precursor for a cascading series of other bank collapses, but with subprime (aka "variable rate") mortgages being more popular now than they have been since 2007, I smell an imminent financial crisis.

This is not the only thing that makes me think about Occupy Wall Street, and the autumn of 2011, especially, but it's one of them.  Witnessing the fizzling-out of another very youthful and multiracial movement that took over the streets throughout the US more recently reminds me a lot of the last time I had that experience, in the wake of Occupy.
 

The high-profile and sudden failure of Silicon Valley Bank, which hid huge losses from its depositors, investors, and regulators, highlights the dangers of corporate fraud for our financial system. It confirms the kind of problems highlighted by a recent study published in the Journal of Financial Economics estimating that only one-third of corporate frauds are detected, with an average of 10% of large publicly traded firms committing securities fraud every year. This means that the true extent of corporate fraud is much larger than what is currently being reported. The study also estimates that corporate fraud destroys 1.6% of equity value each year, which equals to $830 billion in 2021.