Bringing Light Into Darkness - News & Analysis

Who is the Most Lawless? International Law Expert Critiques all Countries Involved in the Ukraine Crisis & Suggests it did not Start with the Russian Invasion but with the 2014 Coup International law expert Alfredo de Zayas joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss International Law and ongoing events and the context of those events connected to the Ukraine, NATO, US Russian invasion crisis. De Zayas is a law professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and served as a United Nations Independent Expert on International Order 2012-18. The United Nations Charter is described as the ‘world constitution' if you will and the violations thereof by world powers is discussed as well as the concepts of ‘preemptive self-defense' and ‘responsibility to protect' (R2P). Does a country have the right to attack another country and if so when does a country have that right under international law? An inalterable principle of the UN Charter is the prohibition, not only of the use of force but of the threat of the use of force. Our guest discusses its relevance in the context of the current Ukraine war crisis. Another international law issue connected to the fact that sanctions kill and the present world context in which unilateral coercive measures in the form of sanctions in which finds today we find some one third of the world's people under sanctions, yet he only legal sanctions are sanctions imposed by the UN under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. The UN General Assembly has condemned the unilateral sanctions repeatedly. Our guest describes the complicity of the MSM in misleading the US public and the geopolitical forces in the world today and while condemning Russia for its ‘illegal invasion' of Ukraine he also provides evidence to support his claim and belief that in the context of recent history, it is the US not Russia which is guilty of violating more international law than any other country. Don't Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 4/11/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com

Who is the Most Lawless? International Law Expert Critiques all Countries Involved in the Ukraine Crisis & Suggests it did not Start with the Russian Invasion but with the 2014 Coup International law expert Alfredo de Zayas joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss International Law and ongoing events and the context of those events connected to the Ukraine, NATO, US Russian invasion crisis. De Zayas is a law professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and served as a United Nations Independent Expert on International Order 2012-18. The United Nations Charter is described as the ‘world constitution' if you will and the violations thereof by world powers is discussed as well as the concepts of ‘preemptive self-defense' and ‘responsibility to protect' (R2P). Does a country have the right to attack another country and if so when does a country have that right under international law? An inalterable principle of the UN Charter is the prohibition, not only of the use of force but of the threat of the use of force. Our guest discusses its relevance in the context of the current Ukraine war crisis. Another international law issue connected to the fact that sanctions kill and the present world context in which unilateral coercive measures in the form of sanctions in which finds today we find some one third of the world's people under sanctions, yet he only legal sanctions are sanctions imposed by the UN under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. The UN General Assembly has condemned the unilateral sanctions repeatedly. Our guest describes the complicity of the MSM in misleading the US public and the geopolitical forces in the world today and while condemning Russia for its ‘illegal invasion' of Ukraine he also provides evidence to support his claim and belief that in the context of recent history, it is the US not Russia which is guilty of violating more international law than any other country. Don't Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 4/11/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com

Dr Charlie Clements - A Journey of Conscience: The Anniversary of Archbishop Romero Assassination, US enabled Death Squads and War Crimes Remembered Dr Charlie Clements was radicalized into a peace justice activist through the lies he saw and was a part of in Viet Nam. On 3/7/1982 he entered FMLN controlled area on Guazapa Volcano El Salvador to provide medicine to peasant campesinos For Charlie best example of war crimes was symbolized by Archbishop and our US nuns being raped and murdered. They like so many others were accused of being communist because they were working with the poor. US allied slogans included ‘Be Patriotic, kill a Priest!” Meanwhile fraudulent elections were put forth as proof of democracy to the US public by Dick Cheney and others. To support unfairness most often requires repression. A thousand Salvadorans not military operatives but mainly civil society noncombatants per month were being disappeared, tortured and/or killed by US enabled death squads. FMLN broadly supported by the people. That's how they got food, intelligence & hid. Its very hard to defeat a movement supported by the majority population. During govt sweeps whole villages had to move often through government controlled areas. If they were caught worse than death awaited them. Stories of a mother suffocating her child to keep from giving up positions and certain slaughter of all. Therefore, often that was the function of the FMLN to stall or distract army so civilians could flee government sweeps . Imagine: a 1980 NYT picture of a peasant holding up a bolt action rifle from WWI, & shooting at an A-37 fighter jet with a gatling gun on board that is shooting a hundred thousand rounds per minute (the equivalent of putting a bullet in every square foot of a football field every 60 seconds). And the question posed by our government & the MSM war promoting propagandists is: “Where did that peasant get that rifle?” Don't Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 4/3/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com

Dr Charlie Clements - A Journey of Conscience: The Anniversary of Archbishop Romero Assassination, US enabled Death Squads and War Crimes Remembered Dr Charlie Clements was radicalized into a peace justice activist through the lies he saw and was a part of in Viet Nam. On 3/7/1982 he entered FMLN controlled area on Guazapa Volcano El Salvador to provide medicine to peasant campesinos For Charlie best example of war crimes was symbolized by Archbishop and our US nuns being raped and murdered. They like so many others were accused of being communist because they were working with the poor. US allied slogans included ‘Be Patriotic, kill a Priest!” Meanwhile fraudulent elections were put forth as proof of democracy to the US public by Dick Cheney and others. To support unfairness most often requires repression. A thousand Salvadorans not military operatives but mainly civil society noncombatants per month were being disappeared, tortured and/or killed by US enabled death squads. FMLN broadly supported by the people. That's how they got food, intelligence & hid. Its very hard to defeat a movement supported by the majority population. During govt sweeps whole villages had to move often through government controlled areas. If they were caught worse than death awaited them. Stories of a mother suffocating her child to keep from giving up positions and certain slaughter of all. Therefore, often that was the function of the FMLN to stall or distract army so civilians could flee government sweeps . Imagine: a 1980 NYT picture of a peasant holding up a bolt action rifle from WWI, & shooting at an A-37 fighter jet with a gatling gun on board that is shooting a hundred thousand rounds per minute (the equivalent of putting a bullet in every square foot of a football field every 60 seconds). And the question posed by our government & the MSM war promoting propagandists is: “Where did that peasant get that rifle?” Don't Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 4/3/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com

Sect of State John Kerry 9/3/2013 Deceitful Testimony: Are US Government Foreign Policy Misrepresentations the Rule Rather than the Exception? When introducing his new Environmental Czar, Joe Biden described former Secretary of State John Kerry with a number of accolades including “there is no one I trust more.” On 9/3/2013 John Kerry testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was arguing for the authorization of US Military action against the Syrian government because he argued that with absolute certainty the Assad government had gassed his own people on 8/21/2013. Bringing Light Into Darkness challenged the US government claims of certainty and later were vindicated, by among other things a June 2021 finding by rootclaim.org that it was our allies fighting the Assad government and not the Assad government that wit 96 % certainty were the parties responsible for the horrific war crime. This show recounts not one, not two major, but a half dozen falsehoods that John Kerry promoted during his 9/3/13 testimony under oath. This show presents the evidence for this claim and invites you to critically evaluate its merit. Yet Kerry and mainstream media have never publicly taken accountability for these false claims to this day. Think about it the Pentagon Papers proves we were lied to about Vietnam. The Afghan Papers prove we were lied to for 20 years in Afghanistan. You know about the Iraqi lies that took us to war there and we could go on. But tonight, we take a deep dive into government lies followed by no accountability and suggest we be careful in believing everything we think about Russia regarding the Russian invasion based on a long track record of misrepresenting the truth to the good Us public citizenry. So, this week we switch to trying to determine who and what to believe in these informational wars. And in that vein, we visit the integrity, or the lack thereof, of what we are told by our government and what history has consistently revealed. Don't Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 3/28/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X

Sect of State John Kerry 9/3/2013 Deceitful Testimony: Are US Government Foreign Policy Misrepresentations the Rule Rather than the Exception? When introducing his new Environmental Czar, Joe Biden described former Secretary of State John Kerry with a number of accolades including “there is no one I trust more.” On 9/3/2013 John Kerry testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was arguing for the authorization of US Military action against the Syrian government because he argued that with absolute certainty the Assad government had gassed his own people on 8/21/2013. Bringing Light Into Darkness challenged the US government claims of certainty and later were vindicated, by among other things a June 2021 finding by rootclaim.org that it was our allies fighting the Assad government and not the Assad government that wit 96 % certainty were the parties responsible for the horrific war crime. This show recounts not one, not two major, but a half dozen falsehoods that John Kerry promoted during his 9/3/13 testimony under oath. This show presents the evidence for this claim and invites you to critically evaluate its merit. Yet Kerry and mainstream media have never publicly taken accountability for these false claims to this day. Think about it the Pentagon Papers proves we were lied to about Vietnam. The Afghan Papers prove we were lied to for 20 years in Afghanistan. You know about the Iraqi lies that took us to war there and we could go on. But tonight, we take a deep dive into government lies followed by no accountability and suggest we be careful in believing everything we think about Russia regarding the Russian invasion based on a long track record of misrepresenting the truth to the good Us public citizenry. So, this week we switch to trying to determine who and what to believe in these informational wars. And in that vein, we visit the integrity, or the lack thereof, of what we are told by our government and what history has consistently revealed. Don't Be Late! and siempre fieles, Pgatos 3/28/2022 pgatos00@gmail.com If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X

Ukraine, US Foreign Policy ‘Sovereignty Busting' Methods & Iraq War Crimes Sovereignty is the state of being free from the control or power of another. US citizens are profoundly ignorant of the extent that the sovereignty of other nations are routinely violated as a matter of policy, not aberration, by US foreign policy. We explore the methods used therein to undermine said sovereignty, in service of profiteering for big business interests at the direct and inverse impoverishing of majority populations in the countries we intervene in. As a result of this profound ignorance of the means and methods of US foreign policy we are easily manipulated into believing Ukraine sovereignty was violated by Russia rather than the United States long before the 2/24/22 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the limited time we have available tonight BLID shares the profile in two historical examples of how we, through our toolbox of US foreign policy techniques, are masters at ‘sovereignty busting' and how its success is intimately connected to the public relations framing of such interventions by weaponizing the news to reframe these illegal interventions as ‘democracy building'. You will see how the Guatemala coup in 1954 revealed the complicity between how big business owns and ultimately dictates US government policy through its incestuous relationship with those that occupy and run our government. The 1973 Chilean coup lessons are unveiled and reveal how US techniques of penetrating nearly every sector of civil society by US CIA driven monies and interest subverted Chilean sovereignty. We show how the Ukraine subversion was executed by the evolution and influences of US government agencies and agents such as USAID and the NED. The second half of the show features guest Alan Pogue, esteemed photo documentarist and Viet Nam medic and veteran. We juxtapose his eye witnessed US targeting of Iraq water and electrical grids during his four visits to Iraq in the lead up to the US invasion, versus the accusation that Russia is targeting civilians as a matter of policy as we speak. Don't Be Late! Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 3/21/2022

Ukraine, US Foreign Policy ‘Sovereignty Busting' Methods & Iraq War Crimes Sovereignty is the state of being free from the control or power of another. US citizens are profoundly ignorant of the extent that the sovereignty of other nations are routinely violated as a matter of policy, not aberration, by US foreign policy. We explore the methods used therein to undermine said sovereignty, in service of profiteering for big business interests at the direct and inverse impoverishing of majority populations in the countries we intervene in. As a result of this profound ignorance of the means and methods of US foreign policy we are easily manipulated into believing Ukraine sovereignty was violated by Russia rather than the United States long before the 2/24/22 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the limited time we have available tonight BLID shares the profile in two historical examples of how we, through our toolbox of US foreign policy techniques, are masters at ‘sovereignty busting' and how its success is intimately connected to the public relations framing of such interventions by weaponizing the news to reframe these illegal interventions as ‘democracy building'. You will see how the Guatemala coup in 1954 revealed the complicity between how big business owns and ultimately dictates US government policy through its incestuous relationship with those that occupy and run our government. The 1973 Chilean coup lessons are unveiled and reveal how US techniques of penetrating nearly every sector of civil society by US CIA driven monies and interest subverted Chilean sovereignty. We show how the Ukraine subversion was executed by the evolution and influences of US government agencies and agents such as USAID and the NED. The second half of the show features guest Alan Pogue, esteemed photo documentarist and Viet Nam medic and veteran. We juxtapose his eye witnessed US targeting of Iraq water and electrical grids during his four visits to Iraq in the lead up to the US invasion, versus the accusation that Russia is targeting civilians as a matter of policy as we speak. Don't Be Late! Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 3/21/2022

Celebrating IWD: The Lives they Save & the Wealth they create for Others International Women's Day is celebrated on Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) as homage is paid to women for the oppression, they face in the world well into the 21st century. While wealth inequality & the wealth of colonial powers got a jump start through slavery, today wealth inequality has found surrogate sources to exploit. On IWD we recognize the oppression of women today that help line the pockets of the wealthy. Did you know that as of 2019, the world's 2,153 billionaires, had more wealth than 4.6 billion people. Where does such wealth & wealth inequality come from? According to the pre-pandemic January 2020 Oxfam report the bottom of the economy, women and girls, especially the disenfranchised, are putting in 12.5 billion hours every day of care work for free, and countless more hours for poverty wages. Oxfam calculated that this unpaid work labor of women, adds value to the economy of at least $10.8 trillion annually. Tending to others, cooking, cleaning, and fetching water and firewood are essential daily tasks for the well-being of societies, communities and the functioning of the economy that save untold lives. Special guests, Austin, Texas duo Kristin Davidson and Carolyn Phillips of Hardened & Tempered join BLID to share how their professional life experiences serving the human condition in Oncology caregiving and in Law legally representing the indigent has shaped the messaging of their music. These fascinating talents join TexChromosome's founder and KOOP Community Council (CC) member PJ Pullus on BLID to share their fascinating insights & will be featured at KOOP's CC & Texchromosome Grateful to Get Back weekend event celebrating non-profit work done on behalf of the underserved. Check out this show and come on out to the Peace House Farm at 709 Emerald Wood Drive Austin TX this March 18-19th reconnecting event. For more information go to https://facebook.com/peacehousefarm . TeXchromosome, Magnolia Roads & the KOOP CC are teaming with Peace House Farm to present "Grateful to Get Back”, Music & Art Festival, a 2-day, 2 -stage outdoor showcase event in South Austin on March 18th & 19th. All are welcome! KOOP 's CC will be conducting "The Gratitude Tree" Inviting local non-profits to table, network, & share information about their quarantine successes, silver linings and insights. Please join KOOP Radio & enjoy a day of reconnection, original art & music. https://facebook.com/peacehousefarm Don't Be Late! Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 3/14/2022

Celebrating IWD: The Lives they Save & the Wealth they create for Others International Women's Day is celebrated on Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) as homage is paid to women for the oppression, they face in the world well into the 21st century. While wealth inequality & the wealth of colonial powers got a jump start through slavery, today wealth inequality has found surrogate sources to exploit. On IWD we recognize the oppression of women today that help line the pockets of the wealthy. Did you know that as of 2019, the world's 2,153 billionaires, had more wealth than 4.6 billion people. Where does such wealth & wealth inequality come from? According to the pre-pandemic January 2020 Oxfam report the bottom of the economy, women and girls, especially the disenfranchised, are putting in 12.5 billion hours every day of care work for free, and countless more hours for poverty wages. Oxfam calculated that this unpaid work labor of women, adds value to the economy of at least $10.8 trillion annually. Tending to others, cooking, cleaning, and fetching water and firewood are essential daily tasks for the well-being of societies, communities and the functioning of the economy that save untold lives. Special guests, Austin, Texas duo Kristin Davidson and Carolyn Phillips of Hardened & Tempered join BLID to share how their professional life experiences serving the human condition in Oncology caregiving and in Law legally representing the indigent has shaped the messaging of their music. These fascinating talents join TexChromosome's founder and KOOP Community Council (CC) member PJ Pullus on BLID to share their fascinating insights & will be featured at KOOP's CC & Texchromosome Grateful to Get Back weekend event celebrating non-profit work done on behalf of the underserved. Check out this show and come on out to the Peace House Farm at 709 Emerald Wood Drive Austin TX this March 18-19th reconnecting event. For more information go to https://facebook.com/peacehousefarm . TeXchromosome, Magnolia Roads & the KOOP CC are teaming with Peace House Farm to present "Grateful to Get Back”, Music & Art Festival, a 2-day, 2 -stage outdoor showcase event in South Austin on March 18th & 19th. All are welcome! KOOP 's CC will be conducting "The Gratitude Tree" Inviting local non-profits to table, network, & share information about their quarantine successes, silver linings and insights. Please join KOOP Radio & enjoy a day of reconnection, original art & music. https://facebook.com/peacehousefarm Don't Be Late! Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 3/14/2022

Uniformly Demonizing & Hating Putin Distracts us from Important Questions of Who Provoked Who? & What Motivated Russia to Invade Ukraine? Scott Ritter former Marine intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union, implementing arms control agreements, and served as a Chief Inspector for the United Nations in Iraq and famously warned Iraq had no Ds returns to Bringing Light Into Darkness along with author and activist Dee Knight to discuss and answer the following questions. Is NATO a purely defensive organization or an offensive one? Does NATO pose a threat to Russia? Does Russia have reasonable national security concerns based on US led NATO behavior? If so, do those concerns and the red lines Russia put forward have merit in international law? Have US authorities been aware for some time of Russia's concerns, or have they just become apparent recently? Is Putin a rational actor? Putin has warned that a direct attack on Russia will lead to horrible consequences to any potential aggressor. What does he mean? Does that include anyone who tries to interfere in the Russian Ukraine invasion operation? What does he perceive would constitute an existential threat to Russia? What percentage of Russian conventional forces have been committed to the Ukraine invasion? What is Russia's nuclear weapons use posture? Hungry, Poland and Romania have ‘defensive strike missile systems' that are called Mark 41 Aegis Systems, are they interchangeable with offensive strike systems and does Russia have a valid national security concern that they are so close to their border? Are we/NATO deploying potential nuclear missile systems that can hit Moscow in five minutes flight time? What is the military situation and the kill ratio Russian Army vs Ukraine Army losses one week into the invasion as of 3.3.22? Were there increased attacks on the predominantly Russian speaking areas of the Donbass that the Russians were responding to through their own troop movements to the border areas? Were the Russians responding to NATO and Ukraine Army provocations? Or was the Russian invasion without provocation as was uniformly reported by our MSM? Did the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) paint Russia or the Ukraine government forces as the aggressor in Eastern Ukraine in the lead up to the Russian 2/24/22 invasion? Has the most significant military actions since the invasion been consistent with the Russian desire to protect the Donbass regions and other predominantly Russian speaking areas in the south and southeast. or to take all of Ukraine? Has the Russian or the US actions pointed more or less towards seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict?

Uniformly Demonizing & Hating Putin Distracts us from Important Questions of Who Provoked Who? & What Motivated Russia to Invade Ukraine? Scott Ritter former Marine intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union, implementing arms control agreements, and served as a Chief Inspector for the United Nations in Iraq and famously warned Iraq had no Ds returns to Bringing Light Into Darkness along with author and activist Dee Knight to discuss and answer the following questions. Is NATO a purely defensive organization or an offensive one? Does NATO pose a threat to Russia? Does Russia have reasonable national security concerns based on US led NATO behavior? If so, do those concerns and the red lines Russia put forward have merit in international law? Have US authorities been aware for some time of Russia's concerns, or have they just become apparent recently? Is Putin a rational actor? Putin has warned that a direct attack on Russia will lead to horrible consequences to any potential aggressor. What does he mean? Does that include anyone who tries to interfere in the Russian Ukraine invasion operation? What does he perceive would constitute an existential threat to Russia? What percentage of Russian conventional forces have been committed to the Ukraine invasion? What is Russia's nuclear weapons use posture? Hungry, Poland and Romania have ‘defensive strike missile systems' that are called Mark 41 Aegis Systems, are they interchangeable with offensive strike systems and does Russia have a valid national security concern that they are so close to their border? Are we/NATO deploying potential nuclear missile systems that can hit Moscow in five minutes flight time? What is the military situation and the kill ratio Russian Army vs Ukraine Army losses one week into the invasion as of 3.3.22? Were there increased attacks on the predominantly Russian speaking areas of the Donbass that the Russians were responding to through their own troop movements to the border areas? Were the Russians responding to NATO and Ukraine Army provocations? Or was the Russian invasion without provocation as was uniformly reported by our MSM? Did the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) paint Russia or the Ukraine government forces as the aggressor in Eastern Ukraine in the lead up to the Russian 2/24/22 invasion? Has the most significant military actions since the invasion been consistent with the Russian desire to protect the Donbass regions and other predominantly Russian speaking areas in the south and southeast. or to take all of Ukraine? Has the Russian or the US actions pointed more or less towards seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict?

Mbrshp Drive Show: Ukraine -US Alliance with Neo Nazis - Never Again? The shocking truth of the untold story of how ‘Never Again' is a lie. We replay portions of 5/17/2021 interview with far right expert Leo Golinken. The mainstream media has minimized and basically denied the Russian claims of the neo nazi reemergence and positioning within post coup Ukraine. This show includes detail the post coup make up of some eight Neo Nazi cabinet positions that we put into power as a result of our February 2014 enabled coup in Ukraine. The show also details the WWII history of the Bandera Nazi sympathizers and how Ukraine has emerged today in the 2 st century as the hub for the world neo Nazi far right interests, all under the tutelage of US protection as we have enabled rather than confronted far right militias such as the Azov militia that were leading the assault on the eastern separatist response to the coup. The shallow and hollow denials of these truths is also reviewed and examined 2/28/22

Mbrshp Drive Show: Ukraine -US Alliance with Neo Nazis - Never Again? The shocking truth of the untold story of how ‘Never Again' is a lie. We replay portions of 5/17/2021 interview with far right expert Leo Golinken. The mainstream media has minimized and basically denied the Russian claims of the neo nazi reemergence and positioning within post coup Ukraine. This show includes detail the post coup make up of some eight Neo Nazi cabinet positions that we put into power as a result of our February 2014 enabled coup in Ukraine. The show also details the WWII history of the Bandera Nazi sympathizers and how Ukraine has emerged today in the 2 st century as the hub for the world neo Nazi far right interests, all under the tutelage of US protection as we have enabled rather than confronted far right militias such as the Azov militia that were leading the assault on the eastern separatist response to the coup. The shallow and hollow denials of these truths is also reviewed and examined 2/28/22

Guided & Thinking Critically by MLK: We Are all Born with Same Abilities but are They Nourished or Stunted? We are all born with the same abilities at birth. But by race, are we provided with equal opportunity to the economic and psychological environment that nurtures those potentialities or are we subject to an environment that stunts those potentialities? In celebration of Black History Month at KOOP Radio and on the 57th Anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, Special Guest Dr Algernon Austin joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss How Far Are We from Martin Luther King's Dream of Equality of Opportunity and to recognize Dr King's prioritizing of economic justice which he indistinguishably connected to his commitment to civil rights and ending racism. Dr Algernon Austin is the Director for Race and Economic Justice at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and he has conducted research and writing on issues of race and racial inequality for over 20 years. His primary focus has been on the intersection of race and the economy. How are we doing at providing equality of opportunity for children by race? We discuss and explain the findings of researchers at DiversityDataKids.org, and their work around their ‘Child Opportunity Index.' Some 50 years after MLK's death, they document that 67% of Black children live in ‘Very Low' or ‘Low Opportunity' neighborhoods while 65% of white children live in ‘Very High' or ‘High Opportunity' neighborhoods. Please join us as Dr Austin leads us in a discussion explicating Dr King's concern of the connection between race and class as we discuss the central issues connected to economic justice and the growing wealth inequality in our country that is decimating the middle class.

Guided & Thinking Critically by MLK: We Are all Born with Same Abilities but are They Nourished or Stunted? We are all born with the same abilities at birth. But by race, are we provided with equal opportunity to the economic and psychological environment that nurtures those potentialities or are we subject to an environment that stunts those potentialities? In celebration of Black History Month at KOOP Radio and on the 57th Anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, Special Guest Dr Algernon Austin joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to discuss How Far Are We from Martin Luther King's Dream of Equality of Opportunity and to recognize Dr King's prioritizing of economic justice which he indistinguishably connected to his commitment to civil rights and ending racism. Dr Algernon Austin is the Director for Race and Economic Justice at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and he has conducted research and writing on issues of race and racial inequality for over 20 years. His primary focus has been on the intersection of race and the economy. How are we doing at providing equality of opportunity for children by race? We discuss and explain the findings of researchers at DiversityDataKids.org, and their work around their ‘Child Opportunity Index.' Some 50 years after MLK's death, they document that 67% of Black children live in ‘Very Low' or ‘Low Opportunity' neighborhoods while 65% of white children live in ‘Very High' or ‘High Opportunity' neighborhoods. Please join us as Dr Austin leads us in a discussion explicating Dr King's concern of the connection between race and class as we discuss the central issues connected to economic justice and the growing wealth inequality in our country that is decimating the middle class.

Bringing Light into the Geopolitical Context of the Ukraine Crisis & Do all Nations Have the Right to National Security? The US borders areas are secure from foreign enemy and missile attacks. Is Russia an aggressor nation or does it seek the national security it feels it is losing? Investigative journalist Mike Whitney joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to reflect on his recent article What Putin Wants, and a number of other questions as well. What is at play in the geopolitics of US NATO actions in Ukraine and the Russian response? We hear the stated motivations of all the countries involved but are there other more likely motivations that make more sense when we examine the geopolitics and the behavior of all parties past and present? Is our policy to deter or provoke Russia into an attack of Ukraine? If ‘defensive' missile systems in Poland and Romania are interchangeable with offensive nuclear armed missile systems should Russia be concerned? Would bringing Ukraine into NATO violate any US signed agreements? Do all countries have an inviolable right to seek national security as long as it does not endanger the national security of other countries? What are the parameters and signatories of the Minsk Treaty and who is promoting and who is inhibiting the actualization of the Peace plan? What type of rules-based order prioritizes the rights of some countries over others? What country has routinely broken treaties and broken WTO rules through sanctioning of other countries that do not follow its lead.

Bringing Light into the Geopolitical Context of the Ukraine Crisis & Do all Nations Have the Right to National Security? The US borders areas are secure from foreign enemy and missile attacks. Is Russia an aggressor nation or does it seek the national security it feels it is losing? Investigative journalist Mike Whitney joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to reflect on his recent article What Putin Wants, and a number of other questions as well. What is at play in the geopolitics of US NATO actions in Ukraine and the Russian response? We hear the stated motivations of all the countries involved but are there other more likely motivations that make more sense when we examine the geopolitics and the behavior of all parties past and present? Is our policy to deter or provoke Russia into an attack of Ukraine? If ‘defensive' missile systems in Poland and Romania are interchangeable with offensive nuclear armed missile systems should Russia be concerned? Would bringing Ukraine into NATO violate any US signed agreements? Do all countries have an inviolable right to seek national security as long as it does not endanger the national security of other countries? What are the parameters and signatories of the Minsk Treaty and who is promoting and who is inhibiting the actualization of the Peace plan? What type of rules-based order prioritizes the rights of some countries over others? What country has routinely broken treaties and broken WTO rules through sanctioning of other countries that do not follow its lead.

Does Russia or the US led NATO have the upper hand in Ukraine Crisis? (with Scott Ritter) Special Guest Scott Ritter joins Bringing Light Into Darkness. Ritter was born into a military family, is a former US Marine Corps Intelligence Officer whose service over a 20-plus-year career included reaching the rank of Major and doing tours of duty in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control agreements, serving on the staff of US Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf during the Gulf War and later as a UN Chief Weapons Inspector with the UN in Iraq from 1991-98. The framing of the Ukraine Russia NATO US crisis in the USA is analyzed and challenged by our guest who as a UN Weapons Inspector in Iraq correctly warned our government and our public that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of Mass Destruction despite the absolute certainty of such claims at the time by US government and our parroting media that has led us to so many unjust Wars. Scott Ritter provides an informed military logistical overview of the major actors in the conflict revealing where the military strengths and weaknesses are. He argues that the demonization of Putin is largely unfounded, but we discuss how it is highly effective in distracting attention from the real but neglected issues at hand. Demonizing leaders of nations we seek to overthrow has traditionally worked in duping the American public into being distracted from the recurring fact that the wars and conflicts our US foreign policy has taken us into again and again are generally unjust wars that are destructive to majority population quality of life living conditions yet are endorsed by the US public because of the omission of key information and contradictions by our mainstream press that midframe reality. Ritter provides a mature overview of Russian state decision making processes and challenges the simplistic notion that this is all about Putin. We review the substance of America's Putin Psychosis and Russia Moves Toward Checkmate in Ukraine, two of his recent articles published in the last couple of weeks, which includes an overview of the fracturing of the unity of NATO over the persecution of Russia through sanctions and Biden's recent arrogant claim that we will shutdown Nordstream oil pipeline if Russia executes its invasion of Ukraine. & ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 2/14/2022

Does Russia or the US led NATO have the upper hand in Ukraine Crisis? (with Scott Ritter) Special Guest Scott Ritter joins Bringing Light Into Darkness. Ritter was born into a military family, is a former US Marine Corps Intelligence Officer whose service over a 20-plus-year career included reaching the rank of Major and doing tours of duty in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control agreements, serving on the staff of US Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf during the Gulf War and later as a UN Chief Weapons Inspector with the UN in Iraq from 1991-98. The framing of the Ukraine Russia NATO US crisis in the USA is analyzed and challenged by our guest who as a UN Weapons Inspector in Iraq correctly warned our government and our public that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of Mass Destruction despite the absolute certainty of such claims at the time by US government and our parroting media that has led us to so many unjust Wars. Scott Ritter provides an informed military logistical overview of the major actors in the conflict revealing where the military strengths and weaknesses are. He argues that the demonization of Putin is largely unfounded, but we discuss how it is highly effective in distracting attention from the real but neglected issues at hand. Demonizing leaders of nations we seek to overthrow has traditionally worked in duping the American public into being distracted from the recurring fact that the wars and conflicts our US foreign policy has taken us into again and again are generally unjust wars that are destructive to majority population quality of life living conditions yet are endorsed by the US public because of the omission of key information and contradictions by our mainstream press that midframe reality. Ritter provides a mature overview of Russian state decision making processes and challenges the simplistic notion that this is all about Putin. We review the substance of America's Putin Psychosis and Russia Moves Toward Checkmate in Ukraine, two of his recent articles published in the last couple of weeks, which includes an overview of the fracturing of the unity of NATO over the persecution of Russia through sanctions and Biden's recent arrogant claim that we will shutdown Nordstream oil pipeline if Russia executes its invasion of Ukraine. & ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 2/14/2022

Bringing to Light Important Evidence that has been suppressed from US Public Awareness by Mainstream Medias Regarding the Ukaine – NATO – US- Russia Ongoing Crisis We are told that a Russia attack on Ukraine is imminent, and the US is portrayed as simply responding to that imminent attack and is therefore arming Ukraine to the teeth as we move US NATO forces to the European theater. Author and investigative journalist Dee Knight joins Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) as BLID continues its reporting on the Ukraine-NATO-US-Russian crisis. The pre-US led 2014 coup decision by the Ukraine government to seek aid from Russia instead of the EU due to better terms and the US efforts to scuttle the Nordstream pipeline are explored in some depth to provide important context. Important issues that may point to motive that are largely neglected by our mainstream media, or may provide potential US motivations for provoking a Russian invasion into Ukraine are discussed with our guest and include: 1. Does the fact there is an interest to sell more American fracked gas to Europe and supplant the Russian market share provide motive for the US to push Russia towards war in order to provide ‘cause' for sanctioning the Nordstream oil pipeline project as well as provide a US incentive to accuse Russia of threatening to invade Ukraine? 2. Why have the encouraging talks to end the Civil War between Ukraine, Russia Germany and France that occurred just last week in which an agreement that this conflict is being deescalated by recognizing the autonomy of the eastern part of Ukraine under a federated arrangement but would remain part of Ukraine not being more widely reported? 3. Why does the US public not hear about how in April 2021 NATO backed a Ukrainian offensive in its Civil War against eastern separatists and that is what prompted Russia to move more forces to the border to signal that it would defend its allies? Instead Russia is portrayed as the sole aggressor. 4. Why are reports that Russian border troop reports of 70-90 thousand troops, that have been consistently at that level for the past 8 years, why has that not been reported in the MSM? Please join us tonight! ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 1/31/2022

Bringing to Light Important Evidence that has been suppressed from US Public Awareness by Mainstream Medias Regarding the Ukaine – NATO – US- Russia Ongoing Crisis We are told that a Russia attack on Ukraine is imminent, and the US is portrayed as simply responding to that imminent attack and is therefore arming Ukraine to the teeth as we move US NATO forces to the European theater. Author and investigative journalist Dee Knight joins Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) as BLID continues its reporting on the Ukraine-NATO-US-Russian crisis. The pre-US led 2014 coup decision by the Ukraine government to seek aid from Russia instead of the EU due to better terms and the US efforts to scuttle the Nordstream pipeline are explored in some depth to provide important context. Important issues that may point to motive that are largely neglected by our mainstream media, or may provide potential US motivations for provoking a Russian invasion into Ukraine are discussed with our guest and include: 1. Does the fact there is an interest to sell more American fracked gas to Europe and supplant the Russian market share provide motive for the US to push Russia towards war in order to provide ‘cause' for sanctioning the Nordstream oil pipeline project as well as provide a US incentive to accuse Russia of threatening to invade Ukraine? 2. Why have the encouraging talks to end the Civil War between Ukraine, Russia Germany and France that occurred just last week in which an agreement that this conflict is being deescalated by recognizing the autonomy of the eastern part of Ukraine under a federated arrangement but would remain part of Ukraine not being more widely reported? 3. Why does the US public not hear about how in April 2021 NATO backed a Ukrainian offensive in its Civil War against eastern separatists and that is what prompted Russia to move more forces to the border to signal that it would defend its allies? Instead Russia is portrayed as the sole aggressor. 4. Why are reports that Russian border troop reports of 70-90 thousand troops, that have been consistently at that level for the past 8 years, why has that not been reported in the MSM? Please join us tonight! ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 1/31/2022

The Perspective of a Donetsk Separatist vs the Worthiness of the US Govt Narrative We ask everyone to step outside their thinking and emotions about the conflict between the US and NATO and Ukraine government on the one side and ask you to consider what must Russia and the separatist declared republics of Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea on the other side be thinking. We are joined by native Texan and Novorussian Army combat vet since 2014 Russell Bentley who joins BLID from the Donetsk People's Republic formerly Southeast Ukraine. We consider and explicate the following factual elements which all have been practically ignored by US mainstream media. 1. We claim Ukraine is a sovereign nation that is entitled to make independent sovereign choices regarding whether it wants to join NATO or not. However, what is ignored in this framing is that we illegally overthrew their elected government in 2014 and installed a government that is loyal not to Ukrainian majority pop. interests first but to US dictates. 2. That Russia has national security interests and has a right and duty to its citizens to respond to real national security threats. 3. That in Luhansk, Donetsk & Crimea some 80% voted for the President we couped out in 2014 4. That following the US February 2014 coup came an enormous empowering of Neo-Nazi ideologists as government cabinet appointments that for the first time since the end of WWII resulted in a European government being riddled with neo-Nazi sympathizers that moved quickly to outlaw the Russian language, relegated ethnic Russians to second class citizens, and characterized them as "insects" that should be exterminated. 5. That while 6 million jews were ‘exterminated' by Nazi Germany in WWII the Russians lost more than 4x than number in their decisive WWII role in the defeat of the Nazis and that the coup brought back to the doorstep of the Russian border not only regular NATO exercises but also ‘flag waving' Neo Nazi forces of the same ilk that killed 25m Russians just a generation ago. 6. That on May 2, 2014, amidst other right wing military attacks, over 40 opponents of the coup regime protesting the coup of just three months earlier were killed in the Odessa Trade Union House when neo-Nazi fascists set fire to the building and prevented the victims from leaving while post-coup ‘police' looked on. It is suggested that this was a great impetus for the separatist movements in Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea and helped explain the overwhelming margins of victory in their individual voting referendums that were also ignored by our media. Please join us tonight! ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 1/24/2022

The Perspective of a Donetsk Separatist vs the Worthiness of the US Govt Narrative We ask everyone to step outside their thinking and emotions about the conflict between the US and NATO and Ukraine government on the one side and ask you to consider what must Russia and the separatist declared republics of Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea on the other side be thinking. We are joined by native Texan and Novorussian Army combat vet since 2014 Russell Bentley who joins BLID from the Donetsk People's Republic formerly Southeast Ukraine. We consider and explicate the following factual elements which all have been practically ignored by US mainstream media. 1. We claim Ukraine is a sovereign nation that is entitled to make independent sovereign choices regarding whether it wants to join NATO or not. However, what is ignored in this framing is that we illegally overthrew their elected government in 2014 and installed a government that is loyal not to Ukrainian majority pop. interests first but to US dictates. 2. That Russia has national security interests and has a right and duty to its citizens to respond to real national security threats. 3. That in Luhansk, Donetsk & Crimea some 80% voted for the President we couped out in 2014 4. That following the US February 2014 coup came an enormous empowering of Neo-Nazi ideologists as government cabinet appointments that for the first time since the end of WWII resulted in a European government being riddled with neo-Nazi sympathizers that moved quickly to outlaw the Russian language, relegated ethnic Russians to second class citizens, and characterized them as "insects" that should be exterminated. 5. That while 6 million jews were ‘exterminated' by Nazi Germany in WWII the Russians lost more than 4x than number in their decisive WWII role in the defeat of the Nazis and that the coup brought back to the doorstep of the Russian border not only regular NATO exercises but also ‘flag waving' Neo Nazi forces of the same ilk that killed 25m Russians just a generation ago. 6. That on May 2, 2014, amidst other right wing military attacks, over 40 opponents of the coup regime protesting the coup of just three months earlier were killed in the Odessa Trade Union House when neo-Nazi fascists set fire to the building and prevented the victims from leaving while post-coup ‘police' looked on. It is suggested that this was a great impetus for the separatist movements in Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea and helped explain the overwhelming margins of victory in their individual voting referendums that were also ignored by our media. Please join us tonight! ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 1/24/2022

To Celebrate MLK we are not silent: Does US Militarism & Extreme materialism define us as the Greatest Purveyor of Violence in the World Today? Special guests Rev Jim Rigby of St Andrew's Church here in Austin Texas and Reverend Lloyd Griffom of Wharton Texas join Bringing Light Into Darkness to reflect and to share their interpretation of Dr King's 4/4/1967 speech, Beyond Vietnam. Dr King declared eternal hostility to poverty, to racism and to militarism yet they all remain huge problems for our world 54 years later. Our guests share the importance of voting rights, the principle of unity and the primacy of taking personal responsibility in life both in pursuit of happiness and pursuing truth and accountability of our government's prejudice on behalf of the wealthy as ‘extreme materialism' has given some people much more power than one person one vote. Dr King called out our foreign policy militarism and poverty as indicators that made us the greatest purveyors of violence. Yet few see that this reality continues until today and instead do we project this reality on other countries we claim are our enemies? Dr King implored us to seek and gain the humility to see United States foreign policy through the eyes and experiences of the majority populations in the countries we have intervened in and suggests we must be seen as ‘strange liberators.' This show is dedicated to the lessons of Dr King that are largely ignored by our cultural despite our celebration of his legacy each year. We ask all to rededicate our focus to humility and the humility of truth, no matter where it takes us…. as it did Dr King. Please join us tonight! ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 1/17/2022

To Celebrate MLK we are not silent: Does US Militarism & Extreme materialism define us as the Greatest Purveyor of Violence in the World Today? Special guests Rev Jim Rigby of St Andrew's Church here in Austin Texas and Reverend Lloyd Griffom of Wharton Texas join Bringing Light Into Darkness to reflect and to share their interpretation of Dr King's 4/4/1967 speech, Beyond Vietnam. Dr King declared eternal hostility to poverty, to racism and to militarism yet they all remain huge problems for our world 54 years later. Our guests share the importance of voting rights, the principle of unity and the primacy of taking personal responsibility in life both in pursuit of happiness and pursuing truth and accountability of our government's prejudice on behalf of the wealthy as ‘extreme materialism' has given some people much more power than one person one vote. Dr King called out our foreign policy militarism and poverty as indicators that made us the greatest purveyors of violence. Yet few see that this reality continues until today and instead do we project this reality on other countries we claim are our enemies? Dr King implored us to seek and gain the humility to see United States foreign policy through the eyes and experiences of the majority populations in the countries we have intervened in and suggests we must be seen as ‘strange liberators.' This show is dedicated to the lessons of Dr King that are largely ignored by our cultural despite our celebration of his legacy each year. We ask all to rededicate our focus to humility and the humility of truth, no matter where it takes us…. as it did Dr King. Please join us tonight! ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 1/17/2022

Afghanistan – Revolutionary Past and 40 years Since We open the show with a compelling letter and indictment of US and UK persecution of and on behalf of Julian Assange by his mother Christine Assange. Our show focus includes the Afghan revolutionary government that took power in 1978 and the democratic reforms it introduced. A government that was largely overthrown with US backing yet we shed crocodile tears that women's rights have been so compromised over the last 40 years since that overthrow. Special guest Dr Jack Ryan professor of economic geography for 32 years is now 92 years of age. Dr Ryan was in Afghanistan during the early weeks of the revolutionary government and recently posted an extensive study on Afghanistan entitled Afghanistan: Before and After US Intervention, published on 9/26/21 just one month after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Dr Ryan describes his findings: 3% of population owned 75% of land - most people got their land back. President Carter 7/3/79 secret $500m funding operation began clandestinely, as Operation Cyclone, well before Russian occupation. CIA could not get enough Afghanis to oppose govt, so they enabled Pakistani project of incubating Islamic terrorists in Pakistan madrasas and brought in Wahabbists from Saudi Arabia and other nations which metastasized into the Mujahadeen that attacked us on 9-11 Dr Ryan describes operation Cyclone and the inconvenient fact that the actual emergence of the Taliban came in the vacuum that was created after this civil war that was promoted by the west and the madrassas alluded to earlier. He confirms that it is safe to say that the Taliban and the Mujahadeen were enabled if not an outright creation of our CIA foreign policy in that area. Under Taliban by2001 Opium wiped out but as soon as Us initiates its 2001 attack opium production gets bumped back up. We also discuss that drug money not only provides profiteering but more important is dark money off the books for the CIA to do whatever it wants to without congressional purse strings attached. Afghanistan attack never approved by the United Nations -- it was essentially an illegal war never reported as such by the mainstream media, so therefore most people are simply unaware of this as well as the fact that post US invasion we essentially took over the country and enabled a corrupt government and restarted the opium drug trade. We also discuss why mercenary armies we train to fight in Syria and Afghanistan and so many others lack a fighting spirit. We bring light to all that darkness and more. ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 1/10/2022

Afghanistan – Revolutionary Past and 40 years Since We open the show with a compelling letter and indictment of US and UK persecution of and on behalf of Julian Assange by his mother Christine Assange. Our show focus includes the Afghan revolutionary government that took power in 1978 and the democratic reforms it introduced. A government that was largely overthrown with US backing yet we shed crocodile tears that women's rights have been so compromised over the last 40 years since that overthrow. Special guest Dr Jack Ryan professor of economic geography for 32 years is now 92 years of age. Dr Ryan was in Afghanistan during the early weeks of the revolutionary government and recently posted an extensive study on Afghanistan entitled Afghanistan: Before and After US Intervention, published on 9/26/21 just one month after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Dr Ryan describes his findings: 3% of population owned 75% of land - most people got their land back. President Carter 7/3/79 secret $500m funding operation began clandestinely, as Operation Cyclone, well before Russian occupation. CIA could not get enough Afghanis to oppose govt, so they enabled Pakistani project of incubating Islamic terrorists in Pakistan madrasas and brought in Wahabbists from Saudi Arabia and other nations which metastasized into the Mujahadeen that attacked us on 9-11 Dr Ryan describes operation Cyclone and the inconvenient fact that the actual emergence of the Taliban came in the vacuum that was created after this civil war that was promoted by the west and the madrassas alluded to earlier. He confirms that it is safe to say that the Taliban and the Mujahadeen were enabled if not an outright creation of our CIA foreign policy in that area. Under Taliban by2001 Opium wiped out but as soon as Us initiates its 2001 attack opium production gets bumped back up. We also discuss that drug money not only provides profiteering but more important is dark money off the books for the CIA to do whatever it wants to without congressional purse strings attached. Afghanistan attack never approved by the United Nations -- it was essentially an illegal war never reported as such by the mainstream media, so therefore most people are simply unaware of this as well as the fact that post US invasion we essentially took over the country and enabled a corrupt government and restarted the opium drug trade. We also discuss why mercenary armies we train to fight in Syria and Afghanistan and so many others lack a fighting spirit. We bring light to all that darkness and more. ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 1/10/2022

When it comes to trying to understand Afghanistan and US foreign policy options, we are presented with an ahistorical false dichotomy between supporting or not supporting the Taliban government. Our show details how our foreign policy is what is responsible for the very dilemma we claim to be morally concerned about. Learn how we largely created the Taliban as well as the Islamic fundamentalist Mujahadeen which generated Osama Bin Laden, ultimately 9-11 and absolute misery for 40 million Afghanis as byproducts of four decades plus of US foreign policy. When history and its lessons are wiped off the map the map becomes unable to help us understand the truth of Afghanistan. Our guest Basir Bita barely escaped Kabul just a month following the US withdrawal. He lived in Afghanistan the last 18 years and is in daily communication with family and friends. Basir worked for development projects, civil society organizations, and international institutions including USAID, British Development Agency, and the Australian Development Agency and describes the desperate situation that we created in Afghanistan from firsthand knowledge. Following 20 years of war and occupation and our recent August withdrawal the US froze nearly $10B in assets belonging to the Afghan Central Bank. The IMF and World Bank, where the US exerts great influence, tightened the screws as well as the IMF froze distribution of $450m while the World Bank held back hundreds of millions from the Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund. Meanwhile, Afghan teachers have gone without pay since June and hospitals are closing. The cost of War to our veterans and Afghanis and the cost to US taxpayers is reviewed as are the Afghan Papers that reveal that we have always known this war is unwinnable and once again have been systematically lied to by our government and the mainstream media. Yet the war has been profitable to some and therefore has persisted. Now, we as US taxpayers should be held accountable for fixing what our foreign policy has broken, but instead current US foreign policy make life even more unlivable for the majority of Afghans. Listen in and learn real US foreign policy outcomes and Afghan history, as Basir also describes the current political environment and a path forward to help alleviate rather than exacerbate one of the greatest humanitarian disasters in the world today. Don't be Late! If you care….

When it comes to trying to understand Afghanistan and US foreign policy options, we are presented with an ahistorical false dichotomy between supporting or not supporting the Taliban government. Our show details how our foreign policy is what is responsible for the very dilemma we claim to be morally concerned about. Learn how we largely created the Taliban as well as the Islamic fundamentalist Mujahadeen which generated Osama Bin Laden, ultimately 9-11 and absolute misery for 40 million Afghanis as byproducts of four decades plus of US foreign policy. When history and its lessons are wiped off the map the map becomes unable to help us understand the truth of Afghanistan. Our guest Basir Bita barely escaped Kabul just a month following the US withdrawal. He lived in Afghanistan the last 18 years and is in daily communication with family and friends. Basir worked for development projects, civil society organizations, and international institutions including USAID, British Development Agency, and the Australian Development Agency and describes the desperate situation that we created in Afghanistan from firsthand knowledge. Following 20 years of war and occupation and our recent August withdrawal the US froze nearly $10B in assets belonging to the Afghan Central Bank. The IMF and World Bank, where the US exerts great influence, tightened the screws as well as the IMF froze distribution of $450m while the World Bank held back hundreds of millions from the Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund. Meanwhile, Afghan teachers have gone without pay since June and hospitals are closing. The cost of War to our veterans and Afghanis and the cost to US taxpayers is reviewed as are the Afghan Papers that reveal that we have always known this war is unwinnable and once again have been systematically lied to by our government and the mainstream media. Yet the war has been profitable to some and therefore has persisted. Now, we as US taxpayers should be held accountable for fixing what our foreign policy has broken, but instead current US foreign policy make life even more unlivable for the majority of Afghans. Listen in and learn real US foreign policy outcomes and Afghan history, as Basir also describes the current political environment and a path forward to help alleviate rather than exacerbate one of the greatest humanitarian disasters in the world today. Don't be Late! If you care….

Is Russia Being the Aggressor or the Enemy of the Aggressor? US foreign policy since the turn of the century is reviewed. The reemergence of neo-Nazism in a European post WWII government is a result of a US enabled coup in Ukraine. Meanwhile our foreign policy outcome completely reversed the fortunes of Libyans and has brought back slavery to Libya post 2011. When you combine preinvasion sanctions with the 2003 US led invasion in Iraq the result of our foreign policy is more than a million Iraqis dead. The Syrian and Yemen interventions backed by US support has cost additional hundreds of thousands of deaths and two huge humanitarian disasters leading to millions of refugees. And when you account for the sanctions that the US has imposed upon more than one-third of the world's population the result is the responsibility for killing hundreds of thousands more fellow human beings. When it came to Syria, Russia said enough is enough. Yet most US citizens believe the world's greatest threat to human rights is Russia, and Vladimir Putin rather examining our own foreign policy outcomes and human rights record throughout the world. What is our geopolitical end game in the Ukraine that our policies are promoting? What would any leader do if its country's national security was being nearly completely compromised? Join us tonight as special guest Mike Whitney, investigative journalist, and geopolitical analyst, leads our discussion and provides insightful analysis for consideration as we try to seek to honestly sort out propaganda from reasonable understandings based on an honest interpretation of history. We also examine the real world geopolitical national security interests that all nations are entitled to and expected to seek out on behalf of their fellow citizens. We also challenge whether our foreign policy seeks to promote democracy or maintain and expand a false perception that we are the exceptional leader of the world rather than examine our own track record and question if it more closely resembles imperial desires to dominate the world's economy as the self-declared world's unipolar power.

Is Russia Being the Aggressor or the Enemy of the Aggressor? US foreign policy since the turn of the century is reviewed. The reemergence of neo-Nazism in a European post WWII government is a result of a US enabled coup in Ukraine. Meanwhile our foreign policy outcome completely reversed the fortunes of Libyans and has brought back slavery to Libya post 2011. When you combine preinvasion sanctions with the 2003 US led invasion in Iraq the result of our foreign policy is more than a million Iraqis dead. The Syrian and Yemen interventions backed by US support has cost additional hundreds of thousands of deaths and two huge humanitarian disasters leading to millions of refugees. And when you account for the sanctions that the US has imposed upon more than one-third of the world's population the result is the responsibility for killing hundreds of thousands more fellow human beings. When it came to Syria, Russia said enough is enough. Yet most US citizens believe the world's greatest threat to human rights is Russia, and Vladimir Putin rather examining our own foreign policy outcomes and human rights record throughout the world. What is our geopolitical end game in the Ukraine that our policies are promoting? What would any leader do if its country's national security was being nearly completely compromised? Join us tonight as special guest Mike Whitney, investigative journalist, and geopolitical analyst, leads our discussion and provides insightful analysis for consideration as we try to seek to honestly sort out propaganda from reasonable understandings based on an honest interpretation of history. We also examine the real world geopolitical national security interests that all nations are entitled to and expected to seek out on behalf of their fellow citizens. We also challenge whether our foreign policy seeks to promote democracy or maintain and expand a false perception that we are the exceptional leader of the world rather than examine our own track record and question if it more closely resembles imperial desires to dominate the world's economy as the self-declared world's unipolar power.

Russia – US National Security Interest Double Standards and Aggression Claims With special guest and author Dr David Gibbs, Professor of History at the University of Arizona. When it comes to US foreign policy concerns about Ukraine and Russian foreign policy all we get is our US government perspective which has a long and documented history of lying and/or misleading the US public into conflict after conflict and war after war. Tonight, our guest leads us through a critical review of US/NATO relations with Russia from a more objective perspective that is sensitive to both Russian and western Europe national security interests. Instead of descriptions of what we think of Putin and his motivations we start the show off by citing what he has said, and members of his government have said during recent speeches and press conferences that speak to the issue of the Ukraine - Donbass conflict. Russian national security red lines are accordingly revealed such as the red line that NATO would cross if its military infrastructure expanded in Ukraine. Our guest provides a comprehensive historical context that includes many insights not shared by our mainstream media coverage of this conflict. He also presents and asks us to consider national security and human rights related examples of what arguably are ‘double standards.' For instance, what would we do, as a matter of declaring red lines, if our geographical boundaries were peppered with Russian military exercises or nuclear or highly offensive Russian missile site locations at close proximity to our border? Or compared to Boris Yeltsin, who we uncritically supported and put into power, what is Putin's human rights record? Is the double standard simply if the US does it is OK and if Russia or other countries do it, it is not OK? All of this suggesting do we demonize and justify our profound dislike of Putin because he is not doing what we want him to do at the foreign policy level rather than the motivation we state, which is because of ‘political suppression and human rights violations' that consistently lack evidence of their veracity? Instead, if the greatest human rights violation is to be subject to nuclear war, arguably is our foreign policies leading us down that path? How do we stop it? US NATO history and promises in the early 1990s made to Russia not to expand eastward into the former communist states of eastern Europe are delineated and detailed by our guest. He argues that US foreign policy has weaponized human rights through the concept of ‘humanitarian interventions,' and he explains who has the evidence-based history of meddling in the other's elections? Don't be Late! ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 12/20/2021 If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X

Russia – US National Security Interest Double Standards and Aggression Claims With special guest and author Dr David Gibbs, Professor of History at the University of Arizona. When it comes to US foreign policy concerns about Ukraine and Russian foreign policy all we get is our US government perspective which has a long and documented history of lying and/or misleading the US public into conflict after conflict and war after war. Tonight, our guest leads us through a critical review of US/NATO relations with Russia from a more objective perspective that is sensitive to both Russian and western Europe national security interests. Instead of descriptions of what we think of Putin and his motivations we start the show off by citing what he has said, and members of his government have said during recent speeches and press conferences that speak to the issue of the Ukraine - Donbass conflict. Russian national security red lines are accordingly revealed such as the red line that NATO would cross if its military infrastructure expanded in Ukraine. Our guest provides a comprehensive historical context that includes many insights not shared by our mainstream media coverage of this conflict. He also presents and asks us to consider national security and human rights related examples of what arguably are ‘double standards.' For instance, what would we do, as a matter of declaring red lines, if our geographical boundaries were peppered with Russian military exercises or nuclear or highly offensive Russian missile site locations at close proximity to our border? Or compared to Boris Yeltsin, who we uncritically supported and put into power, what is Putin's human rights record? Is the double standard simply if the US does it is OK and if Russia or other countries do it, it is not OK? All of this suggesting do we demonize and justify our profound dislike of Putin because he is not doing what we want him to do at the foreign policy level rather than the motivation we state, which is because of ‘political suppression and human rights violations' that consistently lack evidence of their veracity? Instead, if the greatest human rights violation is to be subject to nuclear war, arguably is our foreign policies leading us down that path? How do we stop it? US NATO history and promises in the early 1990s made to Russia not to expand eastward into the former communist states of eastern Europe are delineated and detailed by our guest. He argues that US foreign policy has weaponized human rights through the concept of ‘humanitarian interventions,' and he explains who has the evidence-based history of meddling in the other's elections? Don't be Late! ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 12/20/2021 If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X

Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, Pt IV This is part IV of a four-part series of shows entitled Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse, and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, with guest host and moderator Patricia Bucko. The focus of tonight's show is a return to alcohol related issues although we start with some science-based comments on the veracity of whether chronic long term marijuana smoking can cause sterility and, medicinally speaking, its reported effectiveness as a pain medication. Additionally, what you will discover if you tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness this Monday 12/6/21 at 6pm CST at koop.org – 1. What we will cover and explain regarding ethyl alcohol: a. ‘Who' invented alcohol? b. Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC)- what are the factors involved in determining blood alcohol concentration and are their differences between men and women? c. How fast does the body metabolize alcohol? Are there ways to sober up quickly? Do we really get rid of one drink per hour? d. What is the lethal dose and the dose at which someone may likely slip into a coma when it comes to alcohol and alcohol intake? e. Chemical Dependency (CD) on alcohol and other drugs (AOD) is a multifactorial disorder – what factors are involved that impact the probability I will or will not develop a CD or Substance Abuse Disorder (SUD)? 2. We will define ‘Addictive Culture' by describing the acculturating influences that a ‘market driven economy' has on shaping our choices. What is the relationship between a market driven economy and the culture it creates and its impact on our democracy and the health systems and drinking and drugging norms it influences? 3. What is the relationship between our addictive culture and the framing of the opiate crisis? ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 12/6/2021

Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, Pt IV This is part IV of a four-part series of shows entitled Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse, and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, with guest host and moderator Patricia Bucko. The focus of tonight's show is a return to alcohol related issues although we start with some science-based comments on the veracity of whether chronic long term marijuana smoking can cause sterility and, medicinally speaking, its reported effectiveness as a pain medication. Additionally, what you will discover if you tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness this Monday 12/6/21 at 6pm CST at koop.org – 1. What we will cover and explain regarding ethyl alcohol: a. ‘Who' invented alcohol? b. Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC)- what are the factors involved in determining blood alcohol concentration and are their differences between men and women? c. How fast does the body metabolize alcohol? Are there ways to sober up quickly? Do we really get rid of one drink per hour? d. What is the lethal dose and the dose at which someone may likely slip into a coma when it comes to alcohol and alcohol intake? e. Chemical Dependency (CD) on alcohol and other drugs (AOD) is a multifactorial disorder – what factors are involved that impact the probability I will or will not develop a CD or Substance Abuse Disorder (SUD)? 2. We will define ‘Addictive Culture' by describing the acculturating influences that a ‘market driven economy' has on shaping our choices. What is the relationship between a market driven economy and the culture it creates and its impact on our democracy and the health systems and drinking and drugging norms it influences? 3. What is the relationship between our addictive culture and the framing of the opiate crisis? ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 12/6/2021

Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, Pt III This is part III of a series of shows entitled Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse, and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body. The focus of tonight's show is on Marijuana. The title the Bringing Light Into Darkness show tinight is Mary Jane, Separating Fact from Fiction from Uncertainty. What you will discover if you tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness this Monday 11/29/21 at 6pm CST at koop.org – 1. Highlights of an 8hr Marijuana Intervention curriculum that thousands of Travis County clients have completed since it was created by the Pedro Gatos Institute on Addiction, Health & Social Theory in 2012 and which has been updated annually since, in accordance with the changing legal landscape and emerging science around marijuana. 2. What will be covered and explained: a. Legal status in Texas? Can you get a DWI or a DUI (Driving under the Influence) charge in Texas? b. An introduction to the human endocannabinoid system and how Marijuana exerts its effects and how is it different from endogenous and synthetic K-2 like cannabinoids? What is brain cell receptor affinity? c. Are there dangers associated with regular marijuana use? d. Is MJ's THC potency higher today and does that cause greater mental health risks and dangers? e. MJ and Tobacco and Lung health. Are there carcinogens in MJ smoke? Has MJ been proven to cause cancer, emphysema, COPD and/or bronchitis? f. Are there dangers associated with regular marijuana use such as addiction to MJ and has it been defined in the DSM-V in a way similar to the chemical dependency model we shared during our last BLID show in this series? g. How is, the Chemical Use Misuse Continuum (CUMC) assessment invention consistent with the evolution of substance use disorders as described by the DSM-V? ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/29/2021

Our Addictive Culture: Chemical Use and Misuse Series Part 3 (11/29/21) (Part 1/2) by Bringing Light Into Darkness - News & Analysis

Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, Pt II This is part II of a series of shows entitled Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse, and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body. What you will discover if you tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness this Monday 1/22/21 at 6pm CST at koop.org – 1. That the Real War on Drugs occurs every time you take a drug whether it is an aspirin, alcohol, marijuana, or a prescription drug. 2. Important insights into brain chemistry, pharmacology, and the ‘Drug Trek' a drug takes inside the brain and/or body once ingested. 3. The role of the liver and kidneys in the metabolism and excretion phases of drug use. 4. We define the major pharmacological categories of mind-altering drugs. 5. review some of the different drug use modes of administration and the relative speed in which they reach the blood and are then delivered to the brain. 6. we discuss the brain physiology and the magical brain ecology that each one of us has between our ears. 7. we describe how with drug abuse brain cells adapt in a process called neuroadaptation. 8. we share a detailed example of the mode of action cocaine has and how with regular use neuroadaptation occurs and is the basis of physical dependence that will occur with prolonged and recurrent use. 9. basic human brain physiology and its unique capacities relative to all other living creatures' brains is defined and explains the functionality of what distinguishes the human brain from the brains of all other species that inhabit the wonderous world we are a part of. 10. We close out the show with a short segment on the revolutionary potential of recovery and the primacy of the ‘recovery work ethic' required, to develop the new and healthy synaptic pathways needed to supplant and replace the well-worn ruts of addictive behaviors and addictive thinking that recovery seeks to overcome. ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/22/2021

Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body, Pt II This is part II of a series of shows entitled Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse, and the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body. What you will discover if you tune into Bringing Light Into Darkness this Monday 1/22/21 at 6pm CST at koop.org – 1. That the Real War on Drugs occurs every time you take a drug whether it is an aspirin, alcohol, marijuana, or a prescription drug. 2. Important insights into brain chemistry, pharmacology, and the ‘Drug Trek' a drug takes inside the brain and/or body once ingested. 3. The role of the liver and kidneys in the metabolism and excretion phases of drug use. 4. We define the major pharmacological categories of mind-altering drugs. 5. review some of the different drug use modes of administration and the relative speed in which they reach the blood and are then delivered to the brain. 6. we discuss the brain physiology and the magical brain ecology that each one of us has between our ears. 7. we describe how with drug abuse brain cells adapt in a process called neuroadaptation. 8. we share a detailed example of the mode of action cocaine has and how with regular use neuroadaptation occurs and is the basis of physical dependence that will occur with prolonged and recurrent use. 9. basic human brain physiology and its unique capacities relative to all other living creatures' brains is defined and explains the functionality of what distinguishes the human brain from the brains of all other species that inhabit the wonderous world we are a part of. 10. We close out the show with a short segment on the revolutionary potential of recovery and the primacy of the ‘recovery work ethic' required, to develop the new and healthy synaptic pathways needed to supplant and replace the well-worn ruts of addictive behaviors and addictive thinking that recovery seeks to overcome. ‘Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/22/2021

How We are Blinded from the History of the Oppressive Nature of ‘Free Trade' Democracy implies equal access to material success where success, as a head of household, is defined as providing a decent quality of life for your family. If you work hard enough measurable success and a decent quality of life will be yours. There is no reason that all families and their head of households cannot provide a viable and fairly comfortable quality of life for its next generation. Tonight's show juxtaposes ‘Free Trade vs Fair Trade' and in doing so describes for listeners the backdrop, the world environment if you will that each of us are born into and find ourselves placed, through no volition of our own. It is a roll of the die that I am born into a wealthy or non-wealthy family system which then seals the probability of success or lack of success much more than my own personal responsibility or irresponsibility in pursuit of it. We describe that it is the profitability and privilege that ‘Free Trade' affords a small minority, and that ‘Fair Trade' would eliminate such an undeserved and unfair advantage. Yet how is it that our culture promotes so successfully that it is Free Trade that is natural and inevitable, which is a big lie? That instead, because of Free Trade astounding inequality in wealth distribution has a long time ago emerged and reproduced itself in a way that has wrought unnecessary rates of poverty and misery worldwide. Tonight's show first defines these staggering levels of wealth inequality that make such a dream to provide for your family an unrealizable pipe dream for the majority populations of our country and the world. We briefly but importantly bring to light: the empirical facts and proof: 1. That the concentration of media ownership, inherent in such levels of wealth inequality, that long ago abandoned the representation of ‘free press' independent of gross influence by outside forces and how it has promoted ‘the abandonment of reason and critical thinking'. And that the inordinate rates of poverty it creates also creates with it significant losses of life expectancy 2. of how such wealth accumulation and the great wealth divide come to be. What enabled such a reality and how did we get there as a human species? We do so by recounting the colonization of the ‘New World' by European and then burgeoning US imperial domination following the 1823 Monroe Doctrine 3. of how in the evolution of ‘Free Trade' colonialism evolved into neocolonialism and along the way provided the substrate of ‘oppression' that built the fortunes of the ‘international power structure' European and US states off the backs of ‘others.' 4. Specifically, how Central America in particular, eventually became an appendage of US foreign policy hegemony as it paved the way & provided a cash cow for US multinational interests, while generating the violent environment that remains the real unaddressed stimulus for what we call the ‘immigration crisis' Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/15/2021

How We are Blinded from the History of the Oppressive Nature of ‘Free Trade' Democracy implies equal access to material success where success, as a head of household, is defined as providing a decent quality of life for your family. If you work hard enough measurable success and a decent quality of life will be yours. There is no reason that all families and their head of households cannot provide a viable and fairly comfortable quality of life for its next generation. Tonight's show juxtaposes ‘Free Trade vs Fair Trade' and in doing so describes for listeners the backdrop, the world environment if you will that each of us are born into and find ourselves placed, through no volition of our own. It is a roll of the die that I am born into a wealthy or non-wealthy family system which then seals the probability of success or lack of success much more than my own personal responsibility or irresponsibility in pursuit of it. We describe that it is the profitability and privilege that ‘Free Trade' affords a small minority, and that ‘Fair Trade' would eliminate such an undeserved and unfair advantage. Yet how is it that our culture promotes so successfully that it is Free Trade that is natural and inevitable, which is a big lie? That instead, because of Free Trade astounding inequality in wealth distribution has a long time ago emerged and reproduced itself in a way that has wrought unnecessary rates of poverty and misery worldwide. Tonight's show first defines these staggering levels of wealth inequality that make such a dream to provide for your family an unrealizable pipe dream for the majority populations of our country and the world. We briefly but importantly bring to light: the empirical facts and proof: 1. That the concentration of media ownership, inherent in such levels of wealth inequality, that long ago abandoned the representation of ‘free press' independent of gross influence by outside forces and how it has promoted ‘the abandonment of reason and critical thinking'. And that the inordinate rates of poverty it creates also creates with it significant losses of life expectancy 2. of how such wealth accumulation and the great wealth divide come to be. What enabled such a reality and how did we get there as a human species? We do so by recounting the colonization of the ‘New World' by European and then burgeoning US imperial domination following the 1823 Monroe Doctrine 3. of how in the evolution of ‘Free Trade' colonialism evolved into neocolonialism and along the way provided the substrate of ‘oppression' that built the fortunes of the ‘international power structure' European and US states off the backs of ‘others.' 4. Specifically, how Central America in particular, eventually became an appendage of US foreign policy hegemony as it paved the way & provided a cash cow for US multinational interests, while generating the violent environment that remains the real unaddressed stimulus for what we call the ‘immigration crisis' Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/15/2021

Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse & the Magical Host, the Human Brain & Body Pt I Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) has done a couple of shows over the last 18 years on the air that are connected to addiction and substance/chemical use misuse health issues. However, our interest here is to pivot to a series of shows we will be producing around a topic we feel touches on one of our society's greatest health issues, namely those around drinking and drugging (chemical use) and the potential of developing problematic or chemically dependent substance abuse health issues (chemical misuse). We introduce Patricia Bucko, a college graduate who majored in neuroscience, who joins us as our guest host to initiate and navigate us through a series of BLID shows connected to its theme “Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse & the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body.” Our first show in the series will include: 1. establishing that we have legitimate expertise in these areas 2. assessment recommendation experience of thousands of DWI offenders and other alcohol and other drug (AOD) related offenders, leading to the patent submission and ultimate approval by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) of the assessment invention “A Method for Assessing the Severity of Non-Addictive and Addictive Psychoactive Chemical Relationships” - the case management and referral side of that connected experience 3. The nature and connectedness of ‘addictive culture' 4. We will present a state-of-the-art Chemical Dependency Model of understanding in order that listeners can develop a high-level understanding “What is ‘Chemical Dependency” and what signs and symptoms help describe the disorder. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/8/2021

Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse & the Magical Host, the Human Brain & Body Pt I Bringing Light Into Darkness (BLID) has done a couple of shows over the last 18 years on the air that are connected to addiction and substance/chemical use misuse health issues. However, our interest here is to pivot to a series of shows we will be producing around a topic we feel touches on one of our society's greatest health issues, namely those around drinking and drugging (chemical use) and the potential of developing problematic or chemically dependent substance abuse health issues (chemical misuse). We introduce Patricia Bucko, a college graduate who majored in neuroscience, who joins us as our guest host to initiate and navigate us through a series of BLID shows connected to its theme “Our Addictive Culture, Chemical Use & Misuse & the Magical Host the Human Brain & Body.” Our first show in the series will include: 1. establishing that we have legitimate expertise in these areas 2. assessment recommendation experience of thousands of DWI offenders and other alcohol and other drug (AOD) related offenders, leading to the patent submission and ultimate approval by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) of the assessment invention “A Method for Assessing the Severity of Non-Addictive and Addictive Psychoactive Chemical Relationships” - the case management and referral side of that connected experience 3. The nature and connectedness of ‘addictive culture' 4. We will present a state-of-the-art Chemical Dependency Model of understanding in order that listeners can develop a high-level understanding “What is ‘Chemical Dependency” and what signs and symptoms help describe the disorder. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/8/2021

The Cost of US Wars vs Their Profits We are reminded time and time again how we cannot burden future generations with debts for massive social and infrastructure improvement plans. Yet a huge portion of our national debt comes from the cost of war in the form of compensating our troops for psychological and physical injuries since 9/11 ‘War on Terror' and increasing US Pentagon military expenditures. The fact that we have done more to enable than to defeat terrorism worldwide has been the subject of other shows. Tonight, we examine the portion of the cost of war to the US economy and to our servicemen and women since George Bush declared the Global War of Terrorism (GWOT). Additionally we examine the privatization and concurrent profiteering that the war industry has employed that makes war profitable for an elite few regardless if the war is won or lost therefore creating the incentive as was done in Afghanistan to continue endless wars that destroy lives of millions but because of their profitability go on despite their known ‘unwinnable' profile. Our guest Jeremy Kuzmarov, historian, professor and Managing Editor of Covert Action Magazine and the author of four books on U.S. foreign policy we discuss the implications of his article "Distancing Acts": Private Mercenaries and the War on Terror in American Foreign Policy", published in The Asia-Pacific Journal, that speaks to how the outsourcing of war and the corruption within its subcontracting has made windfall profits for those that benefit from the horrors of war. He also leads us through a discussion of systemic methods that new forms of colonialism has taken in its quest to sustain the great wealth divide at the direct cost of majority populations throughout the world including our country.. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/1/2021

The Cost of US Wars vs Their Profits We are reminded time and time again how we cannot burden future generations with debts for massive social and infrastructure improvement plans. Yet a huge portion of our national debt comes from the cost of war in the form of compensating our troops for psychological and physical injuries since 9/11 ‘War on Terror' and increasing US Pentagon military expenditures. The fact that we have done more to enable than to defeat terrorism worldwide has been the subject of other shows. Tonight, we examine the portion of the cost of war to the US economy and to our servicemen and women since George Bush declared the Global War of Terrorism (GWOT). Additionally we examine the privatization and concurrent profiteering that the war industry has employed that makes war profitable for an elite few regardless if the war is won or lost therefore creating the incentive as was done in Afghanistan to continue endless wars that destroy lives of millions but because of their profitability go on despite their known ‘unwinnable' profile. Our guest Jeremy Kuzmarov, historian, professor and Managing Editor of Covert Action Magazine and the author of four books on U.S. foreign policy we discuss the implications of his article "Distancing Acts": Private Mercenaries and the War on Terror in American Foreign Policy", published in The Asia-Pacific Journal, that speaks to how the outsourcing of war and the corruption within its subcontracting has made windfall profits for those that benefit from the horrors of war. He also leads us through a discussion of systemic methods that new forms of colonialism has taken in its quest to sustain the great wealth divide at the direct cost of majority populations throughout the world including our country.. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 11/1/2021

Is US Drone Warfare an Illegal & Immoral Extension of a Bellicose US Foreign Policy that Demands Ethical Accountability? Our guest Nick Mottern is a Vietnam veteran and has worked as a reporter, researcher, writer, and political organizer over the last 30 years. He manages a website devoted to education and organizing to stop drone warfare and surveillance www.KnowDrones.com. He was director of the 2012 national ‘Know Drones Tour' and was an organizer of the 2013 April Days of Action and 2014 Spring Days of Action, and he publishes “The Drone Organizers Bulletin”. He provides stunning revelations & concerns. Our show focus includes the immorality of drone warfare, the psychological trauma associated with drone operators, and the US public that is so abstracted from the realities of the victims and communities worldwide that are subject to such attacks. The Afghan War our guest argues would have been over a long time ago if it had not been for drones. The prosecution and inhumane conditions now facing Daniel Hale who despite the presiding judge recommendation resulted in him being sent to a supermax Marion prison. The prison conditions he faces is not commensurate with his ‘crime'. Daniel Hale is a whistleblower who did not put at risk US national security by releasing ‘confidential' papers. He revealed to the US public: 1. for the first time the “kill chain,” the bureaucratic process by which targets are selected to be summarily executed. 2. information that helped to expose the existence of the secret programs & that drone strikes killed many more innocent people than their supposed “targets”, & 3. that US citizens have been killed extrajudicially by drone strikes in violation of their constitutional rights to a trial. The reason Hale cited for pleading guilty is because the Espionage Act charges prevent a public interest defense. In other words, Hale's lawyers were barred from arguing that the need of the public to be made aware of the criminal activities of the US government was more important than his obligation not to disclose classified information to anyone. Essentially Hale was forced to plead guilty in order to avoid potentially spending decades in federal prison. Whistleblowers are gagged from explaining their actions. Defense attorneys are barred from uttering the words “whistleblower” or “First Amendment” within earshot of the jury. Since all that matters for sustaining a conviction is that a defendant gave classified information to someone not entitled to receive it, that's all the jury is allowed to hear. The result is often absolutely no accountability of US foreign policy crimes against humanity. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 10/25/2021

Is US Drone Warfare an Illegal & Immoral Extension of a Bellicose US Foreign Policy that Demands Ethical Accountability? Our guest Nick Mottern is a Vietnam veteran and has worked as a reporter, researcher, writer, and political organizer over the last 30 years. He manages a website devoted to education and organizing to stop drone warfare and surveillance www.KnowDrones.com. He was director of the 2012 national ‘Know Drones Tour' and was an organizer of the 2013 April Days of Action and 2014 Spring Days of Action, and he publishes “The Drone Organizers Bulletin”. He provides stunning revelations & concerns. Our show focus includes the immorality of drone warfare, the psychological trauma associated with drone operators, and the US public that is so abstracted from the realities of the victims and communities worldwide that are subject to such attacks. The Afghan War our guest argues would have been over a long time ago if it had not been for drones. The prosecution and inhumane conditions now facing Daniel Hale who despite the presiding judge recommendation resulted in him being sent to a supermax Marion prison. The prison conditions he faces is not commensurate with his ‘crime'. Daniel Hale is a whistleblower who did not put at risk US national security by releasing ‘confidential' papers. He revealed to the US public: 1. for the first time the “kill chain,” the bureaucratic process by which targets are selected to be summarily executed. 2. information that helped to expose the existence of the secret programs & that drone strikes killed many more innocent people than their supposed “targets”, & 3. that US citizens have been killed extrajudicially by drone strikes in violation of their constitutional rights to a trial. The reason Hale cited for pleading guilty is because the Espionage Act charges prevent a public interest defense. In other words, Hale's lawyers were barred from arguing that the need of the public to be made aware of the criminal activities of the US government was more important than his obligation not to disclose classified information to anyone. Essentially Hale was forced to plead guilty in order to avoid potentially spending decades in federal prison. Whistleblowers are gagged from explaining their actions. Defense attorneys are barred from uttering the words “whistleblower” or “First Amendment” within earshot of the jury. Since all that matters for sustaining a conviction is that a defendant gave classified information to someone not entitled to receive it, that's all the jury is allowed to hear. The result is often absolutely no accountability of US foreign policy crimes against humanity. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 10/25/2021

Deconstructing the US Manufactured False Perceptions About US Foreign Policy in Syria & its 10-year Military Conflict A history of US foreign policy in Syria and our media complicity in generating false US public perceptions surrounding Syria are challenged. Special guest and award-winning investigative journalist Mile Whitney joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to deconstruct the following premises and accusations. 1. The unchallenged premise that Assad started the conflict in 2011 as a result of Assad's repression of democratic protests ln 2011 and that the US only then got involved in its foreign policy efforts to replace the Syrian government 2. That Assad was gassing his own people in March 2013 at Khan al Assal and again just months later in the August 21, 2013, much more deadly El Ghouta gas attacks that Secretary of State John Kerry claimed with absolute certainty was executed by Assad government. 3. That the Syrian conflict was a civil war between Syrians, and 4. we were supporting moderate rebels within that context 5. that Assad was profoundly unpopular, and the majority Syrian population wished him to be replaced. And only through repression does Assad stay in power. Instead, what we detail, and document is shocking. Namely that the backbone of military resistance to Assad were not Syrians but terrorist foreign fighters organized and armed by US and its Gulf monarchy allies. That we had never prioritized a war on terror but instead have enabled and enlisted terrorists as our allies in the pursuit to overthrow Assad. That the Syrian public knows that and supports Assad. All of this which is documented by polling we share during the show. That we started it, not Assad when it comes to how US foreign policy has been interfering in the internal affairs of Syria decades before the 2011 protests and in contradiction to what President Obama words in his 2015 UN General Assembly speech suggest. Don't be played any longer when it comes to Syria. Tune in tonight and find out how we have been getting played. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 10/11/2021

Deconstructing the US Manufactured False Perceptions About US Foreign Policy in Syria & its 10-year Military Conflict A history of US foreign policy in Syria and our media complicity in generating false US public perceptions surrounding Syria are challenged. Special guest and award-winning investigative journalist Mile Whitney joins Bringing Light Into Darkness to deconstruct the following premises and accusations. 1. The unchallenged premise that Assad started the conflict in 2011 as a result of Assad's repression of democratic protests ln 2011 and that the US only then got involved in its foreign policy efforts to replace the Syrian government 2. That Assad was gassing his own people in March 2013 at Khan al Assal and again just months later in the August 21, 2013, much more deadly El Ghouta gas attacks that Secretary of State John Kerry claimed with absolute certainty was executed by Assad government. 3. That the Syrian conflict was a civil war between Syrians, and 4. we were supporting moderate rebels within that context 5. that Assad was profoundly unpopular, and the majority Syrian population wished him to be replaced. And only through repression does Assad stay in power. Instead, what we detail, and document is shocking. Namely that the backbone of military resistance to Assad were not Syrians but terrorist foreign fighters organized and armed by US and its Gulf monarchy allies. That we had never prioritized a war on terror but instead have enabled and enlisted terrorists as our allies in the pursuit to overthrow Assad. That the Syrian public knows that and supports Assad. All of this which is documented by polling we share during the show. That we started it, not Assad when it comes to how US foreign policy has been interfering in the internal affairs of Syria decades before the 2011 protests and in contradiction to what President Obama words in his 2015 UN General Assembly speech suggest. Don't be played any longer when it comes to Syria. Tune in tonight and find out how we have been getting played. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 10/11/2021

The Pandora Papers: The Wealth Defense Industry & its Methods to Protect Hide & Expand Wealth Inequality What type of political economic system during economic downturns produces as its initial and most consistent response, policies that rescue and compensate the losses of its most wealthy 1% while largely neglecting the interests of the 99% which include tens of millions of Americans on the brink of losing their jobs and their homes? Special guest, author, investigative journalist, and Director of Inequality.org Chuck Collins joins Bringing Light Into Darkness tonight to discuss the Pandora Papers and to unveil the hidden wealth system and its techniques of hiding and protecting that wealth from proper taxation. The impact is that the rest of the public picks up that tab. The 'Pandora Papers' are a trove of some 12 million records, revealing and exposing the finances of the world's wealthy elite. Chuck Collins is author of the book, The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions. Gross wealth inequality arguably is the greatest poison to democracy everywhere and it is one of the most underreported news items within our mainstream media, whose job it seems is to distract attention from this profound unfairness. Our guest shares the fact that 70% or more of US citizens support the concept that the richest should pay their fair share of taxes yet it does not happen. We discuss how such levels of wealth disparity distorts any chance of democracy in such a way that the majority interest and will is overwhelmed and trumped by the power of wealth in such a way that the political system becomes incapable of implementing the will of the majority population. It shows how much the power of wealth can block democratic change. Our guest describes this profoundly undemocratic reality this way, “I think part of the pickle we are in is as wealth concentrates in fewer hands, those wealthy people deploy their power, their wealth and power to rig the rules to get more wealth and power. It becomes kind of a vicious cycle.” This show unveils how wealth translates into power as well as the tools the ‘wealth defense industry' has at its disposal, and how this hidden wealth system acts against the popular will and best interest of the majority population. This profoundly negative impact on democracy is realized by increasingly blocking opportunities for everyone else. Pgatos pgatos00@gmail.com 10/11/2021