Blue Planet II wins Must See Moment at The British Academy Television Awards 2018

War Made Easy

ChallengingMedia
Published on Aug 23, 2007

http://www.WarMadeEasyTheMovie.org

Blood and Oil – Featuring Michael Klare

ChallengingMedia
Published on Sep 27, 2007
http://www.bloodandoilmovie.com

Now Available on DVD

Featuring the author of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet; Blood and Oil; and Resource Wars.

“Of course it’s about oil, we can’t really deny that.”

Fmr. CENTCOM Commander General John Abizaid

Synopsis:

The notion that oil motivates America’s military engagements in the Middle East is often disregarded as nonsense or mere conspiracy theory. Blood and Oil, a new documentary based on the critically-acclaimed work of Nation magazine defense correspondent Michael T. Klare, challenges this conventional wisdom to correct the historical record. The film unearths declassified documents and highlights forgotten passages in prominent presidential doctrines to show how concerns about oil have been at the core of American foreign policy for more than 60 years — rendering our contemporary energy and military policies virtually indistinguishable. In the end, Blood and Oil calls for a radical re-thinking of US energy policy, warning that unless we change direction, we stand to be drawn into one oil war after another as the global hunt for diminishing world petroleum supplies accelerates.

Hijacking Catastrophe in 10 parts

ChallengingMedia   Published on Feb 19, 2007
and https://archive.org/details/HijackingCatastrophe

“By helping us understand how fear is being actively cultivated and manipulated by the current administration, Hijacking Catastrophe stands to become an explosive and empowering information weapon in this decisive year in U.S. history.”

Naomi Klein | Author, No Logo

“The Media Education Foundation has been carrying out vitally important work on major issues of the day, in a highly meritorious effort to raise public awareness and understanding, work that is particularly crucial in advance of the coming election, which may well cast a long shadow over the country’s future.”

Noam Chomsky | Professor of Linguistics, MIT

“The next Presidential election will be a watershed mark in our history and the urgency of producing and distributing materials that show exactly what is at stake has never been higher. Hijacking Catastrophe will be a vital tool in the campaign to rescue American democracy from its internal enemies. It will enrage and empower as it enlightens and explains.”

Robert McChesney | Author, Rich Media, Poor Democracy

What it really comes down to is this: Are the American voters going to sit still for this? Are we going to treat our democracy like some sort of spectator sport, like watching the Super Bowl, or are we going to ask a little more of ourselves this time? Are we going to explore the Bush Administration’s claims? Are we going to look at the details of what this administration has actually done?

William Hartung | Senior Fellow, World Policy Institute

The 9/11 terror attacks continue to send shock waves through the American political system. Continuing fears about American vulnerability alternate with images of American military prowess and patriotic bravado in a transformed media landscape charged with emotion and starved for information. The result is that we have had little detailed debate about the radical turn US policy has taken since 9/11.

Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire examines how a radical fringe of the Republican Party has used the trauma of the 9/11 terror attacks to advance a pre-existing agenda to radically transform American foreign policy while rolling back civil liberties and social programs at home.

The documentary places the Bush Administration’s false justifications for war in Iraq within the larger context of a two-decade struggle by neoconservatives to dramatically increase military spending in the wake of the Cold War, and to expand American power globally by means of military force.

At the same time, the documentary argues that the Bush Administration has sold this radical and controversial plan for aggressive American military intervention by deliberately manipulating intelligence, political imagery, and the fears of the American people after 9/11.

Narrated by Julian Bond, Hijacking Catastrophe features interviews with more than twenty prominent political observers, including Pentagon whistleblower Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, who witnessed first-hand how the Bush Administration set up a sophisticated propaganda operation to link the anxieties generated by 9/11 to a pre-existing foreign policy agenda that included a preemptive war on Iraq.

Joining Kwiatkowski in a wide-ranging, accessible, and ultimately empowering analysis of American foreign policy, media manipulation, and their global and domestic implications, are former Chief UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter, former Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams, author Norman Mailer, MIT professor Noam Chomsky, Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin, defense policy analyst William Hartung, author Chalmers Johnson, and Army Special Forces Master Sergeant Stan Goff (Ret.).

At its core, the film places the deceptions of the Bush Administration within the larger frame of questions seldom posed in the mainstream: What, exactly, is the agenda that drove the administration’s pre-war deceptions? How is 9/11 being used to sell this agenda? And what are the stakes for America, Americans, and the world if this agenda succeeds in being fully implemented during a second Bush term?

INTERVIEWS INCLUDE

Tariq Ali | Benjamin Barber | Medea Benjamin | Noam Chomsky | Kevin Danaher | Mark Danner | Shadia Drury | Michael Dyson | Daniel Ellsberg | Michael Franti | Stan Goff | William Hartung

Robert Jensen | Chalmers Johnson | Jackson Katz | Michael T. Klare | Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski (Ret.) | Norman Mailer | Zia Mian | Mark Crispin Miller | Scott Ritter | Vandana Shiva | Norman Solomon | Greg Speeter | Fernando Suarez del Solar | Immanuel Wallerstein | Jody Williams | Max Wolff

Directed by Sut Jhally & Jeremy Earp

NOVA & The Struggle for the Control of Science in the Public Mind — “ Major Funding is Provided by…” who? | EV & N 277 | CCTV

http://ecoethics.net/2014-ENVRE120/20180513-EV&N-277-Link.html

https://www.cctvcambridge.org/node/563115

https://www.cctvcambridge.org/user/3723/history

YouTube link

For lack of funding, laboratory equipment and textbooks, science education in high school depends on programs like the PBS program, NOVA, to effectively communicate science to teen audiences. . These programs are influenced by their funders, David H. Koch & Draper Labs.  Viewers are easily misled into thinking that there are technical and engineering solutions for complex ecological problems.  Funders are not “selling” any particular product, but rather they are underwriting an overall attitude and a predisposition that encourages viewers to think that the “problem” of global climate change can be solved through the clever planning of engineers.

When schools are underfunded and science teachers are unable to undertake serious science instruction at the high school level, the students are often left with no awareness of the limitations of science and engineering in approaching complex ecological problems.  They can easily fall victim to the corporate-sponsored story-lines of programs like those offered in the NOVA public broadcasting series.

Teachers in Revolt: Meet the Educators in Kentucky & Oklahoma Walking Out over School Funding

Democracy Now!

Published on Apr 4, 2018

https://democracynow.org – Schools across Oklahoma are closed today for a third day as teachers continue their strike demanding more funding for education and increased pay. Oklahoma’s public education budget has been slashed more than any other state since the start of the recession in 2008, and its teachers are among the lowest paid in the nation. Scores of teachers are planning to begin a 123-mile protest march today from Tulsa to Oklahoma City. Meanwhile, thousands of teachers continue to protest in Kentucky, demanding a reversal to a provision in a recently passed bill about sewage treatment that gutted their pension benefits. On Monday, every school in the state was closed either due to spring break or in anticipation of a massive rally in the capital of Frankfort, where teachers filled the rotunda of the Kentucky state Capitol, chanting “Fund our schools!” This year’s wave of teacher rebellions began in West Virginia, where teachers won a 5 percent pay raise after a historic strike. We speak to four guests: Oklahoma teacher Andrea Thomas, Kentucky state lawmaker Attica Scott, retired Kentucky teacher Mikey McCoy and labor journalist Mike Elk.

“People Have Just Had Enough”: West Virginia Teachers Continue Historic Stri ke into Eighth Day

Democracy Now!

Published on Mar 5, 2018

https://democracynow.org – Schools across West Virginia are closed for an eighth day, as more than 20,000 teachers and 13,000 school staffers remain on strike demanding higher wages and better healthcare. The strike, which began on February 22, has shut down every public school in the state. Teachers are demanding a 5 percent raise and a cap on spiraling healthcare costs. For more, we speak with Jay O’Neal, a middle school teacher and a union activist in Charleston, West Virginia. And we speak with Mike Elk, senior labor reporter at Payday Report. His most recent piece is titled “West Virginia Teachers’ Strike Fever Starting to Spread to Other States.”

Thousands Strike In Oklahoma For Teacher Raises | NBC Nightly News

NBC News

Published on Apr 2, 2018

Teachers haven’t received raises in a decade in Oklahoma, which ranks 47th in per pupil spending — nearly $3,000 below the national average

Arizona Joins Red State Revolt: Teachers’ Strike Reaches Day Five

Democracy Now!

Published on May 2, 2018

https://democracynow.org – Schools are closed for a fifth day in Arizona, as thousands of teachers continue to strike demanding better funding for education. Crowds of striking teachers dressed in red T-shirts have rallied at the state Capitol this week and last to demand a 20 percent pay raise for educators and decreased class sizes, among other demands. The strike began Thursday, with teachers protesting the $1 billion funding cuts to education in the state since the 2008 recession. The teachers’ strikes in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Arizona have been described by some as a “red-state revolt.” In 2016, Donald Trump won all four states. The Arizona Legislature is expected to vote on a budget today, which organizers say will now include additional funding for education. If the budget passes, teachers say they will return to class tomorrow. We speak to Noah Karvelis, an elementary and middle school music teacher in Phoenix and one of the leaders of #RedForEd and Arizona Educators United. He helped start the teachers’ protests in Arizona.

Thousands of teachers on strike in Oklahoma, Kentucky

RT America

Published on Apr 2, 2018

Public schools in Oklahoma and Kentucky were forced to close as educators walked out demanding better working conditions. Teacher salaries in Oklahoma and Kentucky are among the lowest in the country, ranking 26th and 49th, far below the national average. RT America’s Dan Cohen reports.