Default, Dear Debtors, Is In Our Stars

Reflections on the recent FEC decision that the Stein for President organization misused federal campaign funds in 2916, and their demand that the allegedly "misused" money be returned to the government.

It's a crime to reveal the crimes of the US government, and they're making an example out of Assange, so nobody will ever do what he did again. What could possibly go wrong?

Some considerations on the sometimes dangerous combination of juveniles and firearms, and on how clumsily our society deals with what happens when things go wrong.

A review of a lightly fictionalized memoir about a guerilla theater troupe in San Francisco in 1970, and what happened afterwards. One of the characters in the book is based on me!

A look at why a great many debts, public and private, are unlikely to ever be paid off.

A power elite that has lied to us repeatedly swears that this time, they're really, really telling the truth, and they just don't understand why some people don't believe them. Should we? "It's complicated."

In part two of this podcast, I continue to look at the ways profit-seeking can skew science, and conclude by examining the psychological effects of widespread cell phone usage, including their addictive nature, and play some cool music.

In the first segment of this month's podcast, I admit to all the great things that have only happened because people had cell phones with video cameras and an internet connection, but then go on to note that those who own cell phones are thus also under a level of constant surveillance, even as they record various levels of official misconduct and cute cat antics..

I then look at the ecology of cell phone creation, which is highly polluting, and possibly not sustainable for very long, concluding by getting into the way cell phone regulation and research have been "captured" by the industry that profits from them. This portion concludes with a creepily prescient 80's pop song.

How to listen to, and get some perspective on, your own thoughts...and the daily news.

In 1994, Seymour Hersch wrote extensively about post-Soviet Russia and the influence of both organized crime and the United States in that country. This podcast revisits the article in light of what has happened since, and shows how events then influenced the rises of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, and resulted in Russia's determination to chart a course largely independent of US influence