WZBC 90.3 FM Newton

Mel Goodman: Halting NATO’s Eastward Expansion Would Help Resolve U.S.-Russia Ukraine Crisis; René Rojas: Major Challenges Ahead for Chile’s New Progressive President; Karen Igou and Coby Owens: Occupy Biden Protest Encampment Calls on President to ‘Declare a Climate Emergency’; Bob Nixon: This Week’s Under-reported News Summary.

At FAIR, we say you can change the channel all you want, but you can’t turn on what isn’t there. The loss of an information source—a particular place for debate, for conversation, on issues relevant to you—is incalculable, but very real. We talked about the loss of local journalism, and why we can still be hopeful, with Craig Aaron of the group Free Press.Also on the show: Fashion is always a huge media story, but what goes into it is not. The “fashion” industry is a prime driver of structured exploitation, whether we’re talking about blocked fire exits or a piece-rate system that steals workers’ wages systematically. The Garment Worker Protection Act, passed in California late last year, aims to address some of those harms. ...

In the Summer of 2020, you would have thought that criminal justice and police reform were the most important issues in America. There was even a bipartisan effort in the US Senate to try to find common legislative ground. Oh what a difference a year makes. Crime control has historically trumped the rights of defendants, and why it has been so hard to legally and legislatively limit the power of law enforcement. The dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Law, Erwin Chemerinsky — author of Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights — joins us on this week’s WhoWhatWhy podcast to talk about the legal framework behind criminal justice and police reform, and in addition, to remind us why presidents cannot be above the law. Chemerinsky details the long history of the courts in virtually ignoring the rights of defendants. ...

“The Arctic, an ancient ecosystem, is disappearing before our eyes. The changes seen in the Arctic can have a cascading effect, amplifying warming and further accelerating climate change.” from NOAA's Arctic Report Card 2021. When the Arctic re-emerges from its long sleep in the cold, everything from port cities to global weather are affected. Is anybody watching the big picture there? The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA just issued their 2021 Arctic Report Card. A lead editor of that report is glaciologist Twila Moon. Just a couple of weeks ago, The World Meteorological Organization verified the highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic! In June 2021, the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk experienced an astonishing 100 degrees Fahrenheit. ...

Our feature presentation is an interview of Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, by British journalist Peter Bolton on the Canary Channel in the United Kingdom. (The Canary is a left-leaning UK-based online publication and is generally critical of Israel and is pro-Palestinian in its coverage.) Among the issues thoroughly discussed: why Pappe’s “one democratic state” is right and achievable, especially versus the so-called “two-state solution” advocated by Professor Norman Finkelstein and numerous US politicians. Reference is made to the analogous issue in South Africa. Before that interview, we read an unsettling Mondoweiss article by our former co-host Samer Jaber. He recounts his courageous speaking out and the PA's outrageous punishment of him for doing so. Worse, after his friend suggested to NGO donors to the PA that they postpone their funding until after the legislative elections that Abbas had summarily canceled, his friend was abducted and murdered by PA “security.”

This is a quick summary of a more comprehensive presentation, which we hope to air soon. Abby and her team traveled to Glasgow to attend COP26. Immediately they encountered roadblocks set up to prevent independent reporters from even entering the proceedings, not to mention participate. Somehow, she got in. Fossil fuel companies were welcomed, and they attended in force. The speeches and discussions were laden with nonsense. Outside, protesters were force-marched away to designated protest zones. Banners were censored to zero out their meanings. In other words, COP26 was nothing more than a huge, carefully orchestrated scam.

TWR's guest Charles Lenchner is a veteran peace activist, organizer, and political campaigner. Born in the United States, he grew up in Israel where he became an anti-occupation activist at a young age. In 1987, he was drafted into the Israeli Army and subsequently refused orders and spent time in military prison. More recently he was a co-founder of People for Bernie Sanders and today is part of the RootsAction team that publishes ProgressiveHub. (Swanson also works for RootsAction.) Read articles by Charles Lenchner at https://progressivehub.net/?s=charles+lenchner

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man with homemade explosive devices was arrested early Friday near a Tampa Bay area rally in support of a man being held in connection with last year’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, authorities said. Garrett James Smith, 22, of Oldsmar, was arrested and charged with making and possessing a destructive device and loitering, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a news conference. To mark the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the rally was held Thursday night outside the Pinellas County Jail was in support of Jeremy Brown, a member of the rightwing Oath Keepers group. He was being held on charges of participating in the riot. ...