WZBC 90.3 FM Newton

Classic antiwar anthem.

Marge Baker: More Than 90,000 Deaths & Whistleblower Testimony Confirm Trump’s Catastrophic Failure in Coronavirus Response; David Armiak: Documents Reveal ALEC’s Role in Pushing State Governments to Reopen While the Coronavirus Still Rages; Sylvia Albert: Congressional Action Urged Now to Ensure Mail-In-Ballots are Safe Pandemic Option for 2020 Election; Bob Nixon: This Week’s Under-reported News Summary.

We talk with Diane Ravitch about the latest scheme for rich folks to decide what’s best for schools their own children don’t attend. For example, replacing teacher-led classrooms with computerized "education." These nightmarish ideas are pushed by well-educated "experts" like Bill Gates!

The US military is one of the few institutions that the vast majority of the public praises, but its strategic failures on the battlefield and lack of accountability in its ranks expose an organization that is deeply flawed and out of step with 21st-century needs. This according to Tim Bakken, the first civilian promoted to professor of law in West Point’s history. He eventually blew the whistle on corruption at the military academy and, after the Army retaliated against him, became one of the few federal employees to win a retaliation case against the US military.

New science finds home to billions of humans now living could become uninhabitable due to climate change. Some plants only live within narrow temperature bands. Now we learn, that is generally true of humans as well. But temperatures are changing – this planet is warming. In fact, people living during the next 50 years will see changes greater than any in human history.

"Worried Man Blues" is a folk song in the roots music repertoire. It is catalogued as Roud Folk Song Index No. 4753. Like many folk songs passed by oral tradition, the lyrics vary from version to version, but generally all contain the chorus "It takes a worried man to sing a worried song/It takes a worried man to sing a worried song/I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long."

Today the Palestinian voice you will hear is that of our old friend Mazin Qumsiyeh speaking at the Community Church of Boston. Mazin has a doctorate in Biology, and taught at both Duke and Yale Universities, but is back in Palestine at Bethlehem University where he has founded the Palestine Natural History Museum. Mazin came to Cambridge to speak at the annual Science for Palestine Conference at MIT. Most of us know Mazin as an activist, but he is a passionate scientist who sees the Intersectionality between science, climate change and social justice.

This week we discuss the past and possible future of the U.S. Postal Service, especially as the nation's so-called leaders are reaching to plunder and destroy it. Richard John is author of Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse and recently wrote the Washington Post article “The Founders never intended the U.S. Postal Service to be managed like a business.”

Our guest today is Dr. John Kirk, professor at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, author of Healthcare Without Borders and the world's leading authority on Cuban Medical Internationalism. Cuba is putting human needs ahead of profits in the fight against COVID-19. Dr. Kirk will discuss Cuba's history of medical internationalism and its outreach around the world in the fights against disease and disasters. Dr. Kirk will talk about how Cuba is fighting COVID-19 on the Island, based on providing health care as a right, and how it's developing effective new medications such as Interferon Alpha 2-B in the fight against the coronavirus.

Bob is a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War who returned home with lifetime PTSD and a clear determination to oppose all wars. This is one of our most profound statements, and it should be echoed around the world. We reject the dreary, pompous chauvinism accompanying this holiday for all too long.