A Message About Today's Gary Null Show

Dearest listeners:

Unfortunately, if you were listening to WBAI this afternoon, you heard a replay of a prior episode instead of my brand new show for today. If, however, you were tuned in to my own radio stream, The Progressive Radio Network, you were able to hear the correct show. We're sorry for the mix up. For your convenience, you can hear and download the entire episode in the PRN Archives, as well as all of my past episodes, uninterrupted and un-cut. Please enjoy the entire show, embedded below:

THE GARY NULL SHOW - 10/21/11

In lieu of a guest, Gary shares his commentary on student loans, health & wellness, and the state of the economy.

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Science Daily - National Health Care Scorecard: United States Scores 64 out of 100

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111018121836.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 18, 2011) — The U.S. health care system scored 64 out of 100 on key measures of performance, according to the third national scorecard report from the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System, released October 18. The scorecard finds that -- despite pockets of improvement -- the U.S as a whole failed to improve when compared to best performers in this country, and among other nations. The report also finds significant erosion in access to care and affordability of care, as health care costs rose far faster than family incomes.

At the same time, the scorecard highlights some bright spots for the U.S., with notable gains in quality of care in areas that have been the focus of public reporting or collaborative improvement initiatives. For example, 50 percent of adults with high blood pressure had it under control in 2007-2008, compared with only 31 percent in 1999-2000. In addition, hospital quality indicators for treatment of heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia, and prevention of surgical complications, have improved substantially across the country since hospitals began publicly reporting their quality data through a federal website.

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Leslie Carol Botha - Governor Brown Signs Parent’s Worst Nightmare into Law Gives Custody of 12 Year Old's to the State

By Leslie Carol Botha, Vice President Public Relations

October 20, 2011

The fatality of a 14 year old California girl was entered into the VAERS database on August 23, 2011 – 134 days after her death in April. The latest Gardasil victim died of cardiac arrest 14 days after vaccination.  According to VAERS report # 430780 , the adolescent was vaccinated on March 28, had no other life-threatening illnesses, and received no other vaccinations.

The VAERS write up includes this statement: “Found dead in bed in a.m. by family. Pathologist stated cause of death as consistent with cardiac insufficiency, due to cardiac arrhythmia, due to probable early cardiomyopathy. Child Death Review Team felt this death was consistent with a diagnosis of sudden cardiac death.”

The untimely and sad passing of this innocent previously healthy young girl now marks the 4th death post-HPV vaccination in the state of California. Janny Stokvis, VAERS Analyst for SANE Vax Inc. who found the latest VAERS fatality also reports that there have been 1548 adverse injuries* from Gardasil and Cervarix reported in the state.

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Tom Engelhardt - Is the National Security Complex Too Big to Fail?

By Tom Engelhardt

Posted on October 20, 2011, Printed on October 20, 2011
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175456/

Think of Iraq as the AIG of wars -- the only difference being that the bailout there didn’t involve just three payouts.  More than eight years after the Bush administration invaded that country, the bailout is, unbelievably enough, still going.  Even as the U.S. military withdraws, the State Department is planning to spend billions more in taxpayer dollars to field an army of hired-gun contractors to replace it.  Afghanistan?  It could have been the Lehman Brothers of conflicts, but when Barack Obama entered the Oval Office he chose the Citigroup model instead, and surged troops in twice in 2009.  In other words, he double-TARPed that war, and ever since, the bailout money has been flooding in.

Until now -- as the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations make clear -- “too big to fail” has meant only one set of institutions: the plundering financial outfits that played such a role in driving the U.S. economy off a cliff in 2008, looked like they might themselves collapse in a heap of bad deals and indebtedness, and were bailed out by Washington.  Isn’t it finally time to expand the too-big-to-fail category to include the Pentagon, the U.S. Intelligence Community, and more generally the National Security Complex?

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Robert Reich - The Austerity Death-Trap

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Austerity-Death-Trap-by-Robert-Reich-111019-769.html

October 19, 2011

By Robert Reich

Ron Paul's newly-unveiled economic plan -- promising to cut $1 trillion from the federal budget in year one (presumably that means 2013) -- is only slightly more ambitious than what we're hearing from other Republican candidates. They're all calling for major spending cuts starting as soon as possible. 

What are they smoking?

Can we just put ideology aside for a moment and be clear about the facts? Consumer spending (70 percent of the economy) is flat or dropping because consumers are losing their jobs and wages, and don't have the dough. And businesses aren't hiring because they don't have enough customers.

The only way out of this vicious cycle is for the government -- the spender of last resort -- to boost the economy. The regressives are all calling for the opposite.

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Don Lieber - Weather Extremes as the 'New Normal', and the Most Destructive Project on Earth.

October 19, 2011

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Weather-Extremes-as-the-N-by-Don-Lieber-111017-253.html

By Don Lieber

New York, October 15, 2011.   R ecall the events of the past summer and Hurricane Irene:  Remember how it became the 24/7 total focus of everything?

The entire east coast of the United States was taken in fear by the approaching mega-storm. The news reminded us, relentlessly, of the unmatched power of Mother Nature.

What strikes me now, however, is the complete apathy we display towards the bigger picture regarding our weather. Significant changes in the chemistry of our climate, and key ecosystems, have been established: The NY Times reported in July that some 30% of the global coral reef network is now dead.   Reports proliferate: the oceans are increasingly acidic; forests are drying up; the arctic is melting.    Mother Nature is telling us something.

Yet we are not listening.

While the newscasters repeated, with adolescent incessancy, the obvious message that "HURRICANES ARE DANGEROUS",   not a whisper was uttered about the bigger picture -- the real news:   Climate change has arrived. New and extreme conditions are "normal' and we"are just watching passively.

Noted environmental writer Julia Whitty has documented the dramatic weather patterns well in Mother Jones ("The New Normal: Billion Dollar Disasters" -- click here). Citing data from the National Climatic Center (NCDC), Whitty states that "the U.S. has racked up more mega-expensive natural disasters in 2011 than ever before."

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"You Tube Video" - Occupy Wall Street - Chris Hedges shuts down CBC Kevin O'Leary

Watch the great video right here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAhHPIuTQ5k

UPDATE -- CBC issues apology on 2011-10-18 
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/olearys-nutbar-remark-breach-of-...

CBC: "The watchdog says hundreds of complaints were filed after Mr. O'Leary called the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist "a nutbar" during CBC News Network's The Lang & O'Leary Exchange on Oct. 6. The remark came during a seven-minute segment about the Occupy Wall Street protests unfolding in the United States."
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Occupy Wall Street - Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges shuts down CBC commentator Kevin O'Leary as they discuss Wall Street protests.

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“Andy Coghlan & Debora MacKenzie” - Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world

October 2011 by Andy Coghlan and Debora MacKenzie

The New Scientist

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228354.500-revealed--the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world.html?full=true&print=true

AS PROTESTS against financial power sweep the world this week, science may have confirmed the protesters' worst fears. An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.

The study's assumptions have attracted some criticism, but complex systems analysts contacted by New Scientist say it is a unique effort to untangle control in the global economy. Pushing the analysis further, they say, could help to identify ways of making global capitalism more stable.

The idea that a few bankers control a large chunk of the global economy might not seem like news to New York's Occupy Wall Street movement and protesters elsewhere (see photo). But the study, by a trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is the first to go beyond ideology to empirically identify such a network of power. It combines the mathematics long used to model natural systems with comprehensive corporate data to map ownership among the world's transnational corporations (TNCs).

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“Selena Keegan” - Infant formulas loaded with corn syrup and sugar

by Selena Keegan

http://www.naturalnews.com/033926_infant_formula_corn_syrup.html

(NaturalNews) Top baby formula brands sold in stores contain alarmingly high levels of corn syrup and sugar. In light of rising rates of childhood obesity and diabetes, parents need to read labels carefully to protect their children's health.

Consumption of large quantities of sugar and high fructose corn syrup have been linked to behavioral disorders such as ADD as well as other issues such as anxiety, daytime drowsiness and nighttime insomnia.

Feeding your baby sugar and corn syrup also increases your child's risk for a wide spectrum of other health problems ranging from dental cavities to high triglyceride levels to nutritional deficiencies. Even the mainstream medical establishment warns of the dangers of added sugars.

Warnings issued about sugar consumption for children

The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued warnings about the health dangers of children drinking sugar-sweetened beverages such as sodas, sweetened fruit drinks and sports drinks (http://www.aap.org/obesity/SSB.html).

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"Terra Daily" - Sea levels will continue to rise for 500 years

Terra Daily  

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Sea_levels_will_continue_to_rise_for_500_years_999.html
Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) Oct 18, 2011

Rising sea levels in the coming centuries is perhaps one of the most catastrophic consequences of rising temperatures. Massive economic costs, social consequences and forced migrations could result from global warming.

But how frightening of times are we facing? Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute are part of a team that has calculated the long-term outlook for rising sea levels in relation to the emission of greenhouse gases and pollution of the atmosphere using climate models. The results have been published in the scientific journal Global and Planetary Change.

"Based on the current situation we have projected changes in sea level 500 years into the future. We are not looking at what is happening with the climate, but are focusing exclusively on sea levels", explains Aslak Grinsted, a researcher at the Centre for Ice and Climate, the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen.

Model based on actual measurements
He has developed a model in collaboration with researchers from England and China that is based on what happens with the emission of greenhouse gases and aerosols and the pollution of the atmosphere.

Their model has been adjusted backwards to the actual measurements and was then used to predict the outlook for rising sea levels.

The research group has made calculations for four scenarios:

A pessimistic one, where the emissions continue to increase. This will mean that sea levels will rise 1.1 meters by the year 2100 and will have risen 5.5 meters by the year 2500.

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