Will War on Drugs Finally End?

The US government answered back to the Bolivian government’s charge that they have actively encouraged drug trafficing. The answer, as you would expect, was a denial.

It was earlier this week that Evo Morales announced that Bolivia was ending its cooperation with the so-called US war on drugs due to certian US agencies’ activities in the country.? He told reporters that his country would handle its own problems and policies when it came to drug trafficing.

Interestingly it was investigative journalist Jeremy Bigwood who uncovered alot of the details on the US government acitivities in Bolivia, specifically evidence about the attempt to buy political and policy influence. There’s a good video of Bigwood’s presentation of this evidence, I recommend you check it out.

Bolivia is certainly not along in its frustration with US agencies and the drug war, and with a new more open-minded administration soon to take power in the US, the question is – will the US finally withdraw from the problem-plagued drug war?

Laying a Presidency to Rest

You don’t really need me to explain or describe the reaction to yesterday’s election here in Europa… so I’ll skip right past it.

Looking to the future yesterday, I was picturing how strange it will be for the world, after so many years of a US administration and an overall image of the United States government as this plotting, bumbling, profit greedy entity.? What I mean is, having the Bush administration was like having this internernational measurement standard; if you wanted to know what was a bad idea or some indicator of a poor government, you would look to the actions of the Bush administration.? Based on this, alot of people created careers and followings for themselves.. entire systems of meaning, I would venture to say.

Take Latin America, presidents of nations such as Venezuela, Bolivia, and Equador, who have long said to their people – we do things contrary to that disfunctional US administration. They’ve experienced wide spread support using such rhetoric, and it is quite understandable that so many citizens looked at these leaders, and comparing them to the Bush group, said – Yes, we choose this guy.

Now with Bush leaving, and what seems like it will be a new kind of government, one more open to international cooperation, sustainable development, and rational thought, aren’t such leaders losing their number one reference point.. their rally cry?

Other comparisons can of course be made, looking at regions like the Middle East and of course the Africa, where it would seem people are, for the first time perhaps ever, excited and eager to work with this new president.. with the US.? Again, pulling the rug out from under a system that over the last decade, had become quite standard.

Still it isn’t only other nations that are entering a strange moment in history, many of us critics and concerned citizens, we’re losing the best evil emperor many of us have ever known. After so many years of not having to think hard about what is a good policy or a bad policy, suddenly we are now put in a position where we will have to look closer and work harder, as a new and potentially better functioning administration takes over power, no more reliably awful president.

This line of reasoning all started while listened to the most recent edition of On the Media, as they interviewed an author about the work of the great Hunter S. Thompson in the book that shaped alot of my journalistic thinking, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail. The author, at one point, explains that when Nixon finally died, Thompson went into a strange kind of celebration, fearing the great task of having to put this president whom he so hated, to sleep once and for all.? For me it seemed he had lost his nemesis, which is not always the bliss you might expect.

bm285 The Election Protection Wiki

With the US election upon us, there are many tools available on the internet where citizens can collectively report and monitor voting irregularities. The election protection wiki is one of these tools and on in this podcast interview Conor Kenny explains what the EPwiki is, why it exists, and what the longterm goal of the site is. We also go into detail of specific voting issues in specific parts of the United States.

epwiki.org

 

bm284 Schools Not Prisons and the Elections

Darrel Rogers joins me to discuss his PAC Schools Not Prisons and issues related to education, criminal justice, and more.

Hungarian Rescue Plan

I must admit I didn’t know Hungary was until recently considered an economic powerhouse of Eastern Europe. My limited time there last week left me with neither the impression that it was an extremely well off country, nor the opposite.? At the same time I did notice plenty of construction projects seemingly left unfinished, and infrastructure (like public transport) that looked like it hadn’t received new investment since the 1980’s.

There was talk among Hungarians and expats that I met about the terrible economy, with many expressing that it hadn’t been that bad in a long time.? But even then it wasn’t obvious to me how bad it really was.

Today I read about the rise and fall of the Hungarian economy, and immediately following that, the plan to pump money into that economy.? Among the reasons for its fall? A government burning through alot of money and taking on alot of debt.? One of the lowest employment rates in Europe.

With the IMF’s 25.1 billion dollar bailout of the Hungarian economy, it isn’t clear – as is so often true with bailouts, if this will turn things around.? The term “tighten their belts” is thrown around alot.? Which begs the question, at a time when so many people are in need of help, where can the government afford to make deep cuts without doing harm to an already wounded citizenry.? Then again, I noticed Hungarians are tough, maybe tightening of the belt is precisely something they would be up for.

bm283 The Case Against Soy

Marianne Betterly started as a concerned citizen in her community, at first working on the topic of air pollution and global warming. Working on that topic would eventually take her to the topic of the amazon and sustainability. One of several topics she has focused on has been soy, specifically the soy agriculture in the amazon; how it works and its side effects.

We talk about how she started getting into this topic, the big companies involved in Soy in the amazon, GMO soy and how it works, who is consuming it, the situation for indiginous people, to eat soy or to not eat soy, etc. Please note that this is only the beginning when it comes to breaking down the very complex topic of soy around the world, in the coming weeks I hope to help answer many of the questions that remain after this program.

betterly.com
mariri.net

Marianne passed on this note after the interview:

I never mentioned biofuels – using soy – another future use of soy.

I also didn’t mention how important the Amazon is to sustaining our air and water…..The Amazon is responsible for a fifth of the total volume of fresh water entering the oceans worldwide. If the deforestation does not slow down/stop we will lose 40% in the next 20 or so years, thereby reducing the fresh water to the world by approximately 10%. This is a global issue – along with the increasing amounts of herbicides/pesticides that are being dumped on crops, soil, into streams and rivers.