Here we (U.S.A.) go again. Remember during Gulf War II , George W. Bush famously used the term Coalition of the Willing when it came to the invasion and occupation of Iraq? According to W's administration, these 48 countries were essential partners in this illegal war. However, countries like Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau and the Solomon Islands didn't (and still don't) have standing armies to help out in the war effort. Now, Barack Obama has gathered his own Coalition of the Willing II , ...
Oct 27, 2014
Anastasia Pantsios published a fantastic article at EcoWatch about Ohio's shameful role at the forefront of the fracking industry. The article is based in part on the U.S. Government Accountability Office report, Drinking Water: Characterization of Injected Fluids Associated with Oil and Gas Production (also known as GAO-14-957R ) that examined the fracking industry in seven states. The good news is that the report documents the horrific conditions now present in Ohio due to the booming fracking...
Oct 13, 2014
In part 3 of our series on the education system in the United States of America, we take a look at the continued influence of Foundations - mainly the ones started and funded by the Carnegie and Rockefeller. We also discuss the Columbia Teachers College and their project, the Lincoln Experimental School. Then we look at the effects of the Progressive Education Associations "Eight-Year Study" and how it started the concept of the segmented school curriculum. And let's not forget the power of unif...
Sep 29, 2014
In this clip show, we take a look at how the Corporate Media (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc.) have used ISIS (or ISIL or IS) as the new international 'boogie man' in order to amp up the feelings of terror on the public and justify more military action in the Middle East. The result is eerily similar to the build up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The rhetoric used in these clip would be hilarious, if the end result wasn't death and destruction. [Click to Listen]...
Sep 14, 2014
In part 2 of our series on the education system in the United States of America, we take a look at how compulsory schooling was legislated into existence and then financed. From 1889 to 1906 William Torrey Harris was the Commissioner of Education for the United States of America. That is an uninterrupted, 17 year stretch in which he shaped the teaching philosophy and legislation of an entire nation. During his tenure there was an average of one high school opened per day. That is a massive educa...
Sep 09, 2014
In the kick off episode for a series on the education system in the United States of America, we take a look at the Prussian education system that was established after that country's devastating defeat at the hands of Napoleon's military in 1806. Decades after that system was up and running, Prussia was a serious force to be reckoned with in Europe. The notoriety of their education system had piqued the interest of an American, elite, Protestant, politician named Horace Mann. So much so, that M...
Aug 25, 2014
Activist Cinema 10 - It's a double feature today as we take a look at two documentary films that compliment each other quite well. The Weather Underground (2002) uses archival footage and interviews to look at the actions taken by the Weather Underground in the late 1960's and early 1970's. A hardcore group of activists committed to the violent overthrow of the US government. The second film is Pickaxe (1999), an on the ground look at the activists who took a stand to protect an old growth fores...
Aug 11, 2014
In our third and final episode in the World Cup 2014: Capitalism, Corruption and Protest series we address the lack of protests in Brazil during the World Cup. We also take an extensive look at the police state tactics of Brazil and what it means for a country to host a "mega event" such as the World Cup or the Olympic Games (for Brazil, this will be in 2016). Surprise, surprise, United States private contractor extraordinaire Academi (formerly Xe and before that Blackwater) helped out with anti...
Jul 09, 2014
In part II of our World Cup 2014 series we take a look at the initial proposal the government of Brazil presented to FIFA and how the reality has shaped up all these years later...here a hint, the budget more than quadrupled. We specifically take a look at the construction at three of the 12 stadiums and the pit corruption, extortion and over billing they have all become. We also touch on similar stadium projects from the World Cup 2010 in South Africa and the preparations for the upcoming World...
Jun 17, 2014
Our introductory episode covering the most watched (and most corrupt) sporting event in the entire world, the FIFA World Cup. We start off looking at why soccer can and is an important sport, especially on the world stage. Then we move into a brief overview of what has been going on in Brazil - both in the streets and within the halls of the Brazilian government at the request of FIFA officials - in the lead up to the World Cup of 2014, focusing on the Confederations Cup of 2013 and the corrupti...
Jun 12, 2014
Activist Cinema Episode 9 - Collapse (2009) was directed by Chris Smith and is essentially a monologue film. There haven't been too many of these kinds of film made, but within this small sub-genre of films, Collapse is one of the best. We choose this film as a nice end cap to the We're So Fucked series of episodes as most of the ideas and sentiments from that series are well represented in this documentary about the late, great Michael C. Ruppert . [Click to Listen]...
Jun 01, 2014
The fourth and final in episode in our We're So Fucked series ( We're So Fucked - We're So Fucked 2: Bringing Down the System - We're So Fucked 3: Don't Do Anything ) ends on a happy note, sort of...We start the discussion with the idea that there are no easy fixes for all of the worlds problems and how personal a choice it is to actually get up everyday, take in air and keep trying to function as a human being on a fucked planet. What do you spend you time working towards? Everybody's answer is...
May 19, 2014
On this episode we discuss the four steps the State has already set up that allow them to kill activists. Step 1: Redefine and/or blur the lines of definitions (ex. Terrorism, Domestic Terrorism, Eco-Terrorism)[ Link ]. Step 2: Create a precedent for killing US civilians [ Link ]. Step 3: Federal authorities are already cool with targeting activists [ Link 1 ] [ Link 2 ]. Step 4: Get pundits on corporate news shows to tell us why this is a great idea. [ Click to Listen ]...
May 04, 2014
On May 26th, 2013 we put out an episode called The FBI Creates Terrorists - which was, itself, a follow up to What is Terrorism ? - and just about one year later...not a single thing seems to have changed. On this weeks episode we take a look at a few specific cases. Farooque Ahmed , Liberty City Seven , James Cromitie , Derrick Shareef and Nicolas Michael Teausant . [Click to Listen]...
Apr 21, 2014
The wonderful folks over at CrimetInc have posted a superb article about how the current Ukrainian Revolution is/was hijacked by the Fascist and Nationalist of that particular country. The example used in this article is specific to Ukraine, but the details will sound familiar to anyone who has read a news story in the past three years about similar uprisings in Spain, Turkey, Tunisia, USA, Venezuela, Brazil, Egypt, etc. If you don't get off the couch and into the street, your ideas will not be ...
Apr 07, 2014
It's that time of year again...the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was re-uped for another year. What devious items were snuck in this year? In the last two years, indefinite military detention of United States citizens ( NDAA 2012 ) and overturning the 63 year old Smith-Mundt Act which prohibited domestic dissemination of government propaganda ( NDAA 2013 ) were just two of the highlights. This year, the war rhetoric is amped up to get the Department of Defense ready for the coming (o...
Mar 10, 2014
This episode follows We're So Fucked and We're So Fucked 2: Bringing Down the System . On today's installment of this sporadic series we look at one of the two options that are laid out before us: Do Something or Don't Do Anything. The later is the focus for this episode. Doing nothing has never been easier or more entertaining (assuming you live in a so-called First World Country). Thousands of TV channels, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Google Play, iTunes, pornography, Soundcloud, YouTube, drugs (bot...
Mar 03, 2014
Activist Cinema Episode 8 - The Square (2013) is an excellent example of a journalistic documentary. It covers the protests in Egypt's Tahrir Square that started in 2011 and stays with several citizens (protestors, activists and lawyers) over a two year period. The ups and downs of seeing two presidents removed from power, violent military crackdowns and counter protests in a very short period of time. It ends with the current (as of fall 2013) 'transitional period' in which the citizens are und...
Feb 24, 2014
As a tangent series to the Activist Cinema episodes we've been doing for awhile now, here is short playlist of fantastic Activist Music - The Punk Rock Edition Vol.1. Transmission - S.T.U.N. Punk Rock Song - Bad Religion Controlled Opposition - Anti Flag Suburban Home - Descendents Lady Liberty - Rancid Jerk of All Trades - Lunachicks Dwindle - Falling Sickness Boredom - S.T.U.N.
Feb 17, 2014
On this episode we take a closer look at the so called 'Russian Anti-Gay Laws' with the help of a very insightful white paper - Russian Federation Anti Gay Laws: An Analysis and Deconstruction by Brian M. Heiss . Why are these laws getting so much corporate media coverage? Is it all just to remind people to tune into the Winter Olympics and by Coke and Nike products? Is it possibly a distraction story so no one investigates the most expensive and corrupt Winter Olympics in history ? After we dis...
Feb 10, 2014
It's story time on Mic Check Radio this week. While this is a follow up to the We're So Fucked episode from two weeks ago, the bulk of this show is a reading which diagnoses just how fucked we human beings are by the industrial-technological system that we human beings have created...and what some potential options are for dealing with this system. [Click to Listen]...
Feb 03, 2014
As the sports world gears up for the bread and circus spectacle of Super Bowl XLVIII, we take a look at the benefits and importance of sports on a local level-where, unlike the NFL, it isn't ruled by money and corporate sponsorships. Then we take a quick look at what sports fans could be doing with their time, brains and energy instead of "playing" fantasy sports. And finally, at the end of the show, we play some audio from a "news report" on the Legends Football League (aka Lingerie Football Le...
Jan 26, 2014
We (human beings) are quite literally fucked in numerous ways...on this episode we take a look at just a few of the main reasons. Financial collapse, poor food quality, weather, climate, consumerism, garbage, diseases, air pollution, water pollution, industrialization, population growth, and just plain good old fashioned war (traditional, biological, nuclear, etc.). Oh, and solar flares, asteroids, earthquakes and volcanoes. [Click to Listen]...
Jan 20, 2014
A look at some of the great examples of Activist Cinema from 2013: No, 99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film, Fruitvale Station, Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, A Fierce Green Fire, The East, GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, Dallas Buyers Club, Let the Fire Burn, The Ghosts in Our Machine, GMO OMG, A Place at the Table [Click to Listen]...
Jan 13, 2014
Our final installment in the Affluenza series. On this weeks show we finish taking a look at the history of Affluenza [Defined by Wikipedia as "a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more"]. We start with the explosion of TV in the post-WWII economy and work our way thru the introduction of credit cards, presidential campaigns that employ advertisers (1952), the philosophy of retail shopping, the hippie move...
Dec 29, 2013
So, our part II of this series turned out to run so long that we broke it up into two parts. On this weeks show we take a look at the history of Affluenza [Defined by Wikipedia as "a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more"], starting in 1870 with the appearance of the first luxury department stores and end with the madness of the post-WWII economic boom. Are we, as human beings, natural consumers or have ...
Dec 23, 2013
In part I of a two part series, we take a look at the disease know as "affluenza". Defined by Wikipedia affluenza is "a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more". On this episode, we take a look at the way affluenza harms the youngest among us - children. Before they can form a coherent thought or utter a coherent word, advertisers (working with child psychologists) try their hardest to get inside children'...
Dec 16, 2013
Consumers in the United States just spent nearly 60 billion dollars (mostly with credit cards) over the Black Friday weekend on products made with slave labor (in countries with little to no environmental regulations) that will eventually fill up landfills and ruin this planet a little faster. What else could we have spent that money on? [Click to Listen]
Dec 09, 2013
This episode was released on March 16th, 2013: In November of 2012, the University of California at Irvine and Slate.com teamed up to conduct and then publish the findings of a very telling social experiment...how do we (human beings) remember news stories? Over 5,000 people participated in the study and the results provide quite an insight as to how news stories can be manufactured, presented and accepted as true. [Click to Listen]...
Dec 01, 2013
Activist Cinema Episode 6 - What Would Jesus Buy? (2007) is a documentary that follows Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping on their North American tour in the month leading up to Christmas 2005. As we head into the capitalist orgy of Black Friday and the holiday shopping season, this film works as a great antidote to the consumer frenzy that is about to be unleashed. Also, it is available free on YouTube (as of this posting). Rev. Billy and Nehemiah are both currently (11.24.13) facin...
Nov 25, 2013
