Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour

ELECTION THEFT & PLASTIC POLLUTION are our Solartopian peaks today as we talk to two of America’s greatest activists.   MIMI KENNEDY, world-renown actress (“MOM”) and Chair of Progressive Democrats of America tells us about major new technology that can guarantee ballot images for hand-counted paper ballots.  It’s a critical breakthrough that might allow us to avoid the kinds of stolen elections that have left us with a true crisis of democracy from which we will struggle to recover.   Then we hear from DIANNA COHEN, founder of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, which is pioneering the global fight to transition away from fossil feed stock and into bio-renewables.  By 2050, she says, there could by weight be more plastic in the oceans than fish.  Her crusade to get rid of this anti-life scourge is epic, fascinating and vital!   Like Mimi, Dianna’s depth of knowledge and commitment are truly awesome.  Don’t miss these interviews.  

CHERNOBYL at 32 is the tragic theme of today’s sojourn in Solartopia.  > > We try to grasp the full meaning of a catastrophe that may have killed more than a million people, has created “zombie forests” that do not decay and has warped the genetic code of humans and other animals for generations to come.> > LINDA PENTZ-GUNTER, PAUL GUNTER and CINDY FOKKERS of BEYOND NUCLEAR dissect the horrendous radioactive landscape that has emerged from Chernobyl’s apocalyptic fallout.> > Among much more, downwind lands are still too radioactive to farm.  Wild as well as domesticated animals are too contaminated to consume.  And even after three decades the possibility of another major catastrophe at the Chernobyl site remains very real.> > These three brilliant, pathbreaking experts make it clear that in the wake of this horrifying disaster, which essentially brought down the Soviet Union, much of Europe has fled the “nuclear option” and gone rapidly to wind and solar.  Most importantly, Germany is on path to shut all its reactors by 2022 and to break into an advanced economy based entirely on renewables.  > > But with still more radioactive nightmares pouring into our air and water at Fukushima, and with things far from over in Ukraine, we can only shudder at what might happen if we fail to shut all reactors before the next Chernobyl hits our planet,  

BLACKOUT IN PUERTO RICO, GLOBAL WARMING WORLDWIDE are on the menu today.Two great activists lead the discussion  JOEL SEGAL of North Carolina tells us the shocking truth about two new grid collapses in Puerto Rico which have caused, among other things, a critical nationwide shortage of pain killers morphine and delaudid.Anti-fracking leader DAVID BRAUN explains how this horrifying gas extraction technique is destroying land and water tables California and elsewhere.  David was instrumental in winning New York’s ban on fracking and hopes to do it again in the Golden State.These are two brilliant, unique expert/activists.  Do not miss this show.

NUKE REACTORS ARE SHUTTING & ELECTIONS ARE BEING STOLEN.We start in Solartopia with legendary activists TIM JUDSON and KEVIN KAMPS telling us about TWENTY (of 100) US nuke reactors on the brink of shut-down and/or being bailed out.  Challenges everywhere are being waged by a wide range of grassroots environmental and consumer organizationsFour reactors in northern Ohio and Pennsylvania will shut if we can stop Donald Trump from handing them an $8 billion bailout.  Four more will shut in New York State if we can defeat Andrew Cuomo’s $7.6 billion bailout in court.  .Three more reactors are being bailed out in Illinois.  At least nine more have near-term shut-down dates, again subject to demands by their owners for outrageous bailouts.  Join us to hear the whole list, and how you can help us win a nuke-free nation.At the half-hour, we talk with JOHN BRAKEY about ELECTION THEFT.Major lawsuits are being waged in Ohio and elsewhere demanding some kind of accountability in our voting process.  John has pioneered the “Brakey Method” of using universally available electronic ballot images as a backup to the voting process.  Unless the electoral process is made transparent to the public, all the big hopes for a counter-balance to the madness in the White House will go nowhere. 

We’re joined in SOLARTOPIA by the great writer/activist / film critic  ED RAMPELL.    Ed is lead organizer for a major upcoming event celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, to take place at the legendary Will Geer Theater in Topanga Canyon, California this coming July 28.   Ed recently organized a major four-hour event commemorating the Hollywood Blacklist which is now being featured at C-Span.  The link to see this great show is here:   https://www.c-span.org/video/?436033-1/hollywood-blacklist-70th-year-commemoration   We discuss the new film the Young Karl Marx which Ed has reviewed for the Progressive Magazine.      http://progressive.org/dispatches/raoul-peck-on-marx-trump-haiti-and-revolutionary-love-180302/       We also celebrate the announcement by Pacific Gas & Electric that it is dropping its pursuit of a license extension for its two reactors at Diablo Canyon, meaning they will definitively shut by 2025, though we are working harder than ever to get them shut earlier.  

A NEW ERA OF ELECTION PROTECTION comes to Solartopia with three great experts.JOHN BRAKEY has been stumping the nation inspecting voting machines and advocating for paper ballots counted electronically, with a ballot image stored in the machines.  Simultaneously a paper ballot is produced and stored for verification.He’s been joined in advocating this technology by TIM WHITE, long-time election protection advocate.We are also joined by JONATHAN SIMON, author of CODE RED, now in its fourth edition, one of the foundational volumes on the question of how do we protect the sanctity of our elections in the Age of Trump.As unelected fascists take power through the ruses of gerrymandering, the stripping of voter registration rolls, the flipping of electronic vote counts and more, the method of casting, counting and auditing our ballots becomes ever more crucial.  These three experts give us great insight into just how we must do that to survive as a democracy.

FROM THREE MILE ISLAND TO FUKUSHIMA: UP CLOSE & PERSONAL   Amidst the horrors of atomic power and its catastrophic failure, we speak with three powerful women about their devastating personal experiences with nuclear radiation.   Talk-radio/podcast host LIBBE HALEVY was in central Pennsylvania when TMI melted.  Terribly traumatized, she returned to Los Angeles and eventually started her popular and influential NUCLEAR HOTSEAT podcast.   BEVERLY FINDLAY-KANEKO was in Japan when Fukushima exploded.  She and her family still deal with the disaster on an intensely personal basis.   STACY GRIFFITHS was ten years old and living near Three Mile Island when it spewed radiation throughout the region.  She is now surrounded by the dead and dying as the toll of the disaster has escalated over the decades.   This deeply moving exploration into the tangible consequences of our atomic folly is not to be missed.  

RUSSIA and election theft today with heroes of democracy JOHN BRAKEY and CHRIS SAUTTER as we assess the power of the Manchurian Mafia and the dawn of new voting machine technology.This primer on vote fraud and the dawn of verified voting is the new bottom line on our balloting future.Nobody knows more about the nuts and volts of our electoral process than these two guys. Don't miss their genius.

TRUMP and the MAFIA are at center stage as BOB FITRAKIS gives us the inside story. Russian election tampering is the tip of the iceberg of a career totally intertwined with organized crime.Then STEPHEN FRANTZ tells us all about the world killing glyphosate which threatens all life on EarthTwo vital topics with truly great experts.  Don't miss this show!!

The travesty in PUERTO RICO and IMMIGRATION are where we’re at in Solartopia today, as we talk with long-time activist JOEL SEGAL along with immigration attorney JOSUNE AGUIRRE and singer-activist DON ARBOR.   Joel confirms that the death and devastation are continuing in Puerto Rico while Team Trump ignores the humanitarian crisis and uses crisis capitalism to plunder the island.  Suicides are on the rise and substantial portions of the island are still without power, food and water.     Atop the hour we play Don’s anthem EVERYBODY COMES FROM SOMEWHERE to commemorate the obscene idiocy of the Trump attack on the non-crisis of immigration.  And Josune fills us in on the fight over ICE and its attacks on sanctuary cities like Santa Monica and Berkeley.  We also visit the hypocrisy of Trump’s wife’s parents getting green cards, despite being “bad hombres."   Its a tough but necessary hour.  

THE FALL OF NUKE POWER continues as we talk with LINDA SEELEY and PAUL GUNTER on the disintegration of this one-proud industry.Linda, of the MOTHERS FOR PEACE, fills us in on the latest from DIABLO CANYON as speculation runs rampant that the owners will run out of both money and qualified personnel to keep these two cursed reactors operating beyond 2021.Paul, of BEYOND NUCLEAR, updates us on what’s happening in China, and fills us in on the astonishing collapse of the Nuclear Energy Institute.  Two pivotal utilities with major nuclear investments are now in an ugly public battle with the industry’s leading trade organization.We also look at the physical collapse of these aging reactors and hope we can get them shut before they blow up.

IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN YOU THINK   is the great DAVID CAY JOHNSTON’s brilliant NYTimes best-selling investigation of the life and crimes of Donald Trump.Johnston is an impeccable investigator with top-level credentials who has been following Trump for decades.   He’s also a great, uniquely articulate presenter.But his 100% true exposition of Trump’s personal, political and financial history borders on the surreal.  If a novelist were to invent a character this awful, someone so thoroughly defined by outrageous lies, greed and heartlessness, he would not be credible.David takes us through a bare fraction of what he’s uncovered about the Dark Lord currently in the White House.  For pure mind-boggling shock and awe, don’t miss what he has to say.We are also joined by STEVE ROSENFELD of ALTERNET who fills us in on the critical interface between election theft, the Russians who own Trump and how all this plays out in the shadow of Homeland Security and other reports of Russian meddling in our elections.Sadly, there will be much more to come about all of this. 

NUKE POWER SHUTDOWNS are getting us closer to Solartopia.  We join TIM JUDSON and KEVIN KAMPS to explore the growing parade of atomic power plants being closed for reasons of economics, old age and grid limitations in light of the massive influx of renewable energy.Coming from the NUCLEAR INFORMATION & RESOURCE SERVICE & BEYOND NUCLEAR, we explore the situations at DIABLO CANYON in California, at PERRY, DAVIS-BESSE & BEAVER VALLEY in Ohio & Pennsylvania, and at four reactors in upstate New York being bailed out by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.  NIRS has joined a lawsuit to prevent those bailouts which has just gotten favorable news from a state court.We also talk about the extreme danger of nukes being built in CHINA and the horrors of FUKUSHIMA, 3 MILE ISLAND, CHERNOBYL and other catastrophes of the atomic age.With the onrush of renewables, there is hope for a green-powered Earth, and the path is being cleared by these truly great activists.  Don’t miss what they say.

SOLAR TARIFFS & PUERTO RICO concern us today in Solartopia.Trump’s insane, absurd and downright silly duties on solar panels will cost about 23,000 jobs and do nothing to promote domestic manufacturing.  We talk with solar expert SCOTT SKLAR who knows all about it.We then discuss the horror show in Puerto Rico with long-time activist JOEL SEGAL, who’s been working to form a citizens group to help that beleaguered island.  American citizens are still suffering and dying due to Trump’s vile neglect.  The latest outrage is an attempt to privatize the pubic utility there as a move to avoid going solar.  That our country could treat our fellow citizens this way is a crime and a shame.  Joel will tell you what you might do to help. 

MAKING SENSE OF THE SIXTIES in Solartopia.  We talk with 1960s activists FRANCESCO DA VINCI and STEVE SPITZ about the great radical movements of the Vietnam Era 1965-75 and how they changed our world.Francesco is a world-famous photographer whose photos feature some of our greatest celebrities, including Muhammed Ali, Richard Dreyfuss and many others.  Francesco is currently producing a memoir about his life as a Conscientious Objector, for which he faced a five-year prison sentence.Steve was active in anti-war politics at the University of Michigan and was present (along with host Sluggo Wasserman) at the famous 1965 Vietnam Teach-In at Haven Hall in Ann Arbor.  Steve marched at the Pentagon in 1967 and the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1968.Together we explore the importance of the marches for peace, civil rights and social justice, and their immense impact on how we live today.  If you’re at all interested in the roots of American radicalism, don’t miss this show.