If voting were made easier, Donald Trump said, "You'd never have a Republican elected in this country again ..read more

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin240719.mp3   Electronic Intifada (7/15/24) This week on CounterSpin: In March, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories concluded that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide is met.” But as Greg Shupak writes, even as evidence accumulates, denial is becoming socially and journalistically acceptable. Soon after the UN special rapporteur on the right to food asserted that Israel’s forced starvation of Pale ..read more

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin240712.mp3   CNN (6/6/24) This week on CounterSpin: At some point, we will get tired of hearing news reports on “record heat”—because the “records” will continue to be broken,  and “heat” will have stopped meaning what it once may have meant. Media play a role in moving us from questions about where to buy a good air conditioner to what stands in the way of addressing a public health catastrophe? One obstacle is utility companies. In February of last year, we spoke with Shelby Green at Energy an ..read more

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin240705.mp3   University of California Press (2024) This week on CounterSpin: The power of the algorithm is ever clearer in our lives, even if we don’t understand it. You might see it as deciding what you see on social media sites, where maybe they get it wrong: You don’t actually want to see a lot of horror movies, or buy an air fryer; you just clicked on that once. But algorithms don’t only just guess at what you might like to buy; sometimes they’re determining whether you get a job, or keep it. Som ..read more

https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin240628.mp3   Common Dreams (6/10/24) This week on CounterSpin: Headlined “The Cash Monster Was Insatiable,” a 2022 New York Times piece reported insurance companies gaming Medicare Advantage, presented as a “low-cost” alternative to traditional Medicare. One company pressed doctors to add additional illnesses to the records of patients they hadn’t seen for weeks: Dig up enough new diagnoses, and you could win a bottle of champagne. Some companies cherry-picked healthier seniors for enrollment with cynical t ..read more

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin240621.mp3   Chicago Sun-Times (4/8/24) This week on CounterSpin: Donald Trump told a Las Vegas crowd earlier this month that, if elected, the “first thing” he would do would be to end the IRS practice of taxing tips as part of workers’ regular income. “For those hotel workers and people that get tips, you’re going to be very happy,” he said.  Labor advocates were quick to call it out as unserious pandering, particularly in the light of hostility toward efforts to provide those workers a livable ..read more

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin240614.mp3   Rolling Stone (6/10/24) This week on CounterSpin: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote dozens of pages justifying his decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, stating the Constitution does not confer the right to determine whether or when to give birth. None of those pages mention his intention to make the United States “a place of godliness,” or his belief that there can be no compromise on such concerns, because “one side or the other is going to win.” Yet those are thoughts Alito freely expr ..read more

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin240607.mp3   Yahoo (5/31/24) This week on CounterSpin: Surprising no one, Donald Trump and his sycophants responded to his 34-count conviction on charges of lying in business records by claiming that the trial was “rigged,” the judge and jury corrupt, that it was somehow Joe Biden’s doing, and “you know who else was persecuted? Jesus Christ.” Trump publicly calling the judge a “devil,” and Bible-thumping House Speaker Mike Johnson and others showing up at the courthouse in Trump cosplay, were just so ..read more

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin240531.mp3   The Lever (5/23/24) This week on CounterSpin: In 2023, the California legislature passed legislation that said that big corporations doing business in the state have to tell the public, investors, how much pollution they’re emitting throughout their supply chain. It’s knowable information, and people have a right to know it, right? The same way restaurants here in New York City have to tell potential customers how they did on their last health inspection; you can eat there or not, but at ..read more

  https://media.blubrry.com/counterspin/content.blubrry.com/counterspin/CounterSpin240524.mp3   Law enforcement at UCLA looks on as student peace protesters are attacked by a right-wing mob (CNN, 5/16/24). This week on CounterSpin: As an historic catastrophe, the deep and myriad impacts of Israel’s assault on Palestinians will not be fully understood until years from now, if then. That only adds urgency to present-day resistance to the collateral assault—on the ability to witness, to record and to remember. And of course to protest. The violent, state-sponsored attacks on college s ..read more