CD278: All Three UAP Hearings 

The Chief Operating Officer and a board member of the PGA golf tour recently testified to the Senate as part of its investigation into the possible merger between the PGA and LIV golf tours. In this episode, hear a summary of their testimony which was about monopoly powers, labor rights, Saudi Arabian oil money, loyalty to country…. So much more than golf. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links  Contribute monthly or a lump sum via  Support Congressional Dish via  (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank’s online bill pay function to mail contributions to:   Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media!   Background Sources Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes  PGA Tour  2022. Official 2022-23 PGA Tour Media Guide. Saudi Arabia  Public Investment Fund.  February 24, 2021. BBC. LIV Golf   Fergus Bisset. February 1, 2023. Golf Monthly.  Doric Sam. August 1, 2022. Bleacher Report. LIV vs. PGA  Tim Schmitt. February 17, 2023. Golfweek.  PA Media. August 3, 2022. The Guardian.  Mark Schlabach. July 11, 2022. ESPN. Yemen  Ryan Grim. May 18, 2023. The Intercept.  Bruce Riedel. January 27, 2023. Brookings.  Shuaib Almosawa. March 16, 2022. The Intercept. Audio Sources  July 11, 2023 Senate Committee on Homeland Security &amp; Governmental Affairs, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations  Witnesses:   Ron Price, Chief Operating Officer, PGA TOUR   Jimmy Dunne, Board Member, PGA TOUR    2002 HBO  Music  by  (found on  by mevio) Editing  Production Assistance

CD277: PGA LIVs

CD276: The Demise of Dollar Dominance

CD275: Debt Ceiling 2023: Crisis Normalized 

CD274: Norfolk Southern Train Derailment in East Palestine

Maya Kornberg

For this episode, Jen sat down for an interview with fellow Congress nerd Dr. Maya Kornberg. Dr. Kornberg is a Research Fellow for the Brennan Center for Justice's Elections and Government Program and author of Inside Congressional Committees: Function and Dysfunction in the Legislative Process. They talk about how and why the power of committees has shifted over time, how witnesses are selected for hearings, why the hearing archives disappeared, resources for information that Congress has that we don’t have access to, and where we can find hope for improvements in terms of how Congress functions. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links  Contribute monthly or a lump sum via  Support Congressional Dish via  (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank’s online bill pay function to mail contributions to:   Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media!   Relevant Links   Brennan Center for Justice.   House Natural Resources Committee.  Music Presented in This Episode Intro &amp; Exit:  by  (found on  by mevio)

CD273: Inside Congressional Committees with Dr. Maya Kornberg

CD272: What is Taiwan?

CD271: RESTRICTing TikTok

CD270: The Twitter Files

CD269: NDAA 2023/Plan Ecuador

Congressional Dish is a twice-monthly podcast that aims to draw attention to where the American people truly have power: Congress. From the perspective of a fed up taxpayer with no allegiance to any political party, Jennifer Briney will fill you in on the must-know information about what our representatives do AFTER the elections and how their actions can and will affect our day to day lives. Hosted by @JenBriney. Links to information sources available at www.congressionaldish.com

I heard about this from a friend about a year ago and since I everyone I know about it. 2 hr episodes might seem like a a lot but Jennifer as funny and engaging as she is informative.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

it’s freeeeeee

Congressional Dish is a twice-monthly podcast that aims to draw attention to where the American people truly have power: Congress. From the perspective of a fed up taxpayer with no allegiance to any political party, Jennifer Briney will fill you in on the must-know information about what our representatives do AFTER the elections and how their actions can and will affect our day to day lives. Hosted by @JenBriney. Links to information sources available at <a href="http://www.congressionaldish.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.congressionaldish.com</a>

Congressional Dish

The Federal Reserve system: Most Americans know it's important but most Americans don't know exactly what it is. In this episode, discover the controversial and disturbing history of the Federal Reserve and learn how it has allowed bankers and politicians to create money out of nothing, taking value out of your bank accounts for over 100 years.  Executive Producers: Anonymous, Brandon K. Lewis  Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links   to contribute monthly or a lump sum via   to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send  payments to:  Send  payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send  payments to: $CongressionalDish or  Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to:   Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media!    Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes : The Democracies of Elliott Abrams : The Bank Lobbyist Act : Combatting Russia (NDAA 2018) : The World Trade Organization CD Team Members Only ():  Books  by G. Edward Griffin September 2010  by Danielle DiMartino February 2017  by Nomi Prins 2018  by David Dayen May 2016 Articles/Documents  Article:  by Nancy Tengler, USA Today, September 19, 2019. Article:  by Mark Gongloff, Bloomberg Opinion, September 19, 2019. Article:  by Scott Horsley, NPR, September 18, 2019. Article:  by By Craig Torres and Rich Miller, Bloomberg, September 18, 2019. Article:  by Liz McCormick and Alex Harris, Bloomberg, September 17, 2019. Article:  by Drew Disilver, Pew Reserach Center, July 24, 2019. Article:  by Charlie Savage, The Washington Post, June 20, 2019. Article:  by Adele Peters, Fast Company, February 12, 2019. Article:  The Intercept, by David Dayen, February 8, 2019. Article:  by Kathleen Pender, San Francisco Chronicle, January 26, 2019. Article:  by Rebecca Burns and David Dayen, The Intercept, January 1, 2019. Article:  by Andrew Van Dam, Washington Post, November 29, 2018. Info booklet:  By David H. Friedman, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, December 27, 2018 Press Release: , Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve Board, October 31, 2018. Article:  by Richard Florida, CityLab, July 27, 2018. Article:  by Rob Wile, CNN Money, December 19, 2017. Article:  by Binyamin Appelbaum and Kevin Granville, New York Times, Nov. 2, 2017. Article:  by David Dayen, The Intercept, April 19, 2017. Article:  by William R. Emmons, St. Louis Federal Reserve, December 2, 2016 Article:  by Tim McMahon, InflationData.com, March 21, 2013. Article: , Reuters and Bloomberg News, July 26, 2006. Article: , New York Times, February 17, 1995. Article:  by Henry Kissinger, Los Angeles Times, July 18, 1993. Article: , New York Times, December 13, 1913 Article: , New York Times, June 17, 1913  Resources  Congressional Budget Office:  Council on Foriegn Relations:  Council on Foreign Relations:  Council on Foreign Relations:  Council on Foreign Relations:  Federal Reserve:  Federal Reserve Board of Governors:  Federal Reserve FAQ:  Federal Reserve History:  Federal Reserve History:  Investopedia:  Treasury Direct:  Treasury Direct:  Treasury Direct:  U.S. Global Investors:   Sound Clip Sources  June 19, 2019 Reporter: Clarify what you would do if the president tweets or calls you to say he would like to demote you as fed chair? Jerome Powell: I think the law is clear that I have a four year term and I I fully intend to serve it.   March 6, 2019   October 16, 2019 President Donald Trump: Give me zero interest rates right now and you take a look at our numbers. It'd be the greatest economy in the history of the world. Nobody would be able to compete with it. President Donald Trump: And I fully get the whole thing, the Federal Reserve, I get it as well as any president who's ever been here. I get it really well.   January 23, 2018 Joe Biden: I’ll give you one concrete example. I was—not I, it just happened to be that was the assignment I got. I got all the good ones. And so I got Ukraine. And I remember going over, convincing our team and our leaders, convincing them that we should be providing for loan guarantees. And I went over, I guess, the 12th, 13th time to Kiev. I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor, and they didn’t. So they said they were walking out to a press conference. I said, nah, I’m not going to—or, we’re not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You’re not the president. The president said—I said, call him. (Laughter.) I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. (Laughter) He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.   November 2015  Hillary Clinton: So we need to move simultaneously toward a political solution to the civil war that paves the way for a new government with new leadership and to encourage more Syrians to take on ISIS as well. To support them, we should immediately deploy the Special Operations Force President Obama has already authorized, and be prepared to deploy more, as more Syrians get into the fight. We should retool and ramp up our efforts to support and equip viable Syrian opposition units. Our increased support should go hand in hand with increased support from our Arab and European partners, including Special Forces who can contribute to the fight on the ground. We should also work with the coalition and the neighbors to impose no-fly zones that will stop Assad from slaughtering civilians and the opposition from the air. Opposition Forces on the ground, with material support from the coalition, could then help create safe areas for them from the country instead of fleeing toward Europe.   September 18, 2009 Ron Paul: But, there's a moral argument, against the, the Federal Reserve because, we're giving power to a few individuals to create money out of thin air and have, have legal tender laws that says, you must use the paper money. You can't use gold as the constitution tells you you should, but you must use, paper money. And then that gives the central bank the Authority to counterfeit money, and always for good reasons, of course, to maintain a stable economy. Ron Paul: The mandate and the Federal Reserve Act for the Federal Reserve was to maintain the value of the dollar and to have full employment, and maintaining the value of the dollar means stable prices. Well, they fail. They flown, they get an AF. They're destroying the value of the dollar. And we have perpetual increases in cost of living and they say, oh no, it's not all bad inflation. We're only destroying the money at 2% per year. But it's a lot worse than that. But 2% it's evil too. You know, under sun money, your value of your money goes up, costs go down, cost of living goes down and you get more. And that's how we become more prosperous. But they have totally failed in maintaining the value of the dollar, giving us stable prices. Nobody wants to talk about the inflation in Eh, in a medical care. Yes, pricing. People are unhappy because they can't afford it or they can't afford it because their dollar doesn't buy as much. You say, oh no, we don't have inflation. The government says the CPIS only going up 1% - 2%. But the cost of medicine goes up much more rampantly. But, when you create new money, the cost goes up differently for different areas. If everybody's wages went up at the same rate as the money supply would go up, and everybody's cost would go up the same, it would be irrelevant. But it doesn't work that way. Your wages and your income never keep up and certain prices go up faster than others. Some people suffer more than people who get to use the money. First benefit. The people who get the money, use the money last, the average person in the middle class, they use the money and they get stuck. If you're in retirement, you might suffer more than others. But you know, they come up with these figures and they say, oh, prices went up 2% last month. But if you exclude for food and energy, they only went up a half a percent. So it wasn't so bad. But for some people, food and energy crisis go up and it means a whole lot. Ron Paul: And there was a time, you know, the Federal Reserve was required to have gold behind the expansion of money. So they were restrained and as bad as they were in inviting problems, they still had some restraint up until 1971. But even though the Federal Reserve Act gave the power to the Fed to buy corporate debt, they really never did that until just recently. It used to be gold and silver that they used as reserve. And then after 1971, they just used treasury bills, which was bad, but still there was some restraint on that, that depended on the amount of debt that we had. But of course, that gave license to the congress to run up unlimited amount of debt. But today what backs our dollar is derivatives. All the worthless access, the toxic access assets that we were required to buy are now held by the Fed. And we don't know exactly how much and what they have bought. And that, of course, is why we're arguing for the case of auditing the Fed. Ron Paul: The other associations that I talk about in the book are the associations with the Federal Reserve Board chairman. I've had a few of those. And a matter of fact, just for a month or so, when I first went into Congress, Berns was still the chairman. I didn't really get to know him and it was such a short period and he was in poor health. But the one that I got to know the best in our years was Paul Volcker. And, I gave him a little bit of a plus as far as the various members, various chairman that I've met because, he seemed to be more willing to discuss things on a one to one basis. Actually there was one time when we were working on the monetary control act in the early 1980s, which gave a lot more power, regulatory powers, to the Federal Reserve and to monetize debt. And I was arguing one case in the committee, that it was a dangerous thing because the Federal Reserve was given too much power to inflate endlessly and didn't have to have any reserves whatsoever and could take interest rates down to zero or whatever. And, he was disagreeing with me and he says, look, what I'd like you to do is come over and have breakfast with me. And, that wouldn't happen with Bernanke or Greenspan. They didn't do that. So I did. I went over to the Federal Reserve and we had the discussion. He tried to, you know, convince me differently, but I felt like I won the argument with them because as I was leaving, he says, yes, you may be right about this, but he himself, that I may be right on the interpretation of the legislation, but he himself would not inflate. He wants this so that he has the power to restrain monetary authorities rather than to expand monetary powers. But it turns out that yes, I said, you might not want to use these powers to rapidly expand the money supply, but someday somebody else might want to do it. And of course, I make the comment, I think that some day is right here when you see what Bernanke did, you know, within a few months, doubling the monetary base. So, his authority was getting granted back at that time. Ron Paul: He wants to know what a sound currency would look like. I think you could probably go to the period of time in the 19th century when they had sound money and gold coins circulated and certificates should circulate and could circulate. It's the trust factor that would have to be there and you could still have electronic money and whatever. People could measure the value of the currency by something that should always be convertible. You should have a gold coin standard, and that is that you don't have to carry the coins around, but if the government is guaranteeing - which they are supposed to be doing - guaranteeing that any certificate would be convertible into coin, and that's better than a --- standard, that means that if you have $5,000 and you're getting worried about the government, you get to vote against the government saying, look, I want my gold coins in my pocket. And then they then would have to give you the gold coins. Ron Paul: It's a sinister tax is what it really is. Governments: There's enough of a coalition together that wants to see government grow. Whether it's for the welfare reasons here at home, or if it's for the ideas of promoting our goodness around the world. It has nothing to do with protecting oil or anything else, but we need a military presence around the world. But if you had honest money and governments couldn't counterfeit, these ideas would still float around, but they would be forced to pay for it immediately. If we could ever get this whole notion that you shouldn't even allow the government to borrow, and they would have to tax us directly and say, look, if you want to do A, B, and C, we're going to take money from you and we're going to pay for it. This would slow things up. But there's a convenience for those who want big government to have the tax be an inflation tax. That is to vote for all the welfare programs. Vote for all the warfare programs. Don't be a responsible for this, morally responsible or economically responsible. Just pass the programs. And if you find your coalitions, you get reelected. And this is work to, you know, running as Santa Claus is a lot better than running against Santa Claus. And that's been done for many, many years. But that's coming to an end. That's why there's a difference right now because this system is in the process of failing.   March 3, 2009 Senate Budget Committee Witness  Ben Bernanke - Chairman of the Federal Reserve  58:00 Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): I wrote you a letter and I said, hey, who'd you lend the money to? What were the terms of those loans? How can my constituents in Vermont get some of that money? Who makes the decisions? Do you guys sit around in a room? Do you make it? Are there conflicts of interest? So my question to you is, will you tell the American people to whom you lent $2.2 trillion of their dollars? Will you tell us who got that money and what the terms are of those agreements? Ben Bernanke: We explain each of our programs. In terms of the terms, we explained the terms exactly. We explained what the collateral requirements are. We explained… Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): To whom did you explain that? Ben Bernanke: It's on our website. Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): Yeah. Okay. Ben Bernanke: So all that information is available in our commercial paper... Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): And who got the money? Ben Bernanke: Hundreds and hundreds of banks. Any bank or that has access to the U.S. Federal Reserve's discount... Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): Can you tell us who they are? Ben Bernanke: No, because the reason that is counterproductive and will destroy the value of the program is that banks will not come to the… Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): Isn't that too bad? Ben Bernanke: Sorry. Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): In other words, isn't that too bad? They took the money, but they don't want to be public about the fact that they received it.      Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations  ____________ Music Presented in This Episode Intro &amp; Exit:  by  (found on  by mevio)

The Federal Reserve system: Most Americans know it's important but most Americans don't know exactly what it is. In this episode, discover the controversial and disturbing history of the Federal Reserve and learn how it has allowed bankers and politicians to create money out of nothing, taking value out of your bank accounts for over 100 years.  Executive Producers: Anonymous, Brandon K. Lewis Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links to contribute monthly or a lump sum via to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send payments to: Send payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send payments to: $CongressionalDish or Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media!   Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes : The Democracies of Elliott Abrams : The Bank Lobbyist Act : Combatting Russia (NDAA 2018) : The World Trade Organization CD Team Members Only (): Books by G. Edward Griffin September 2010 by Danielle DiMartino February 2017 by Nomi Prins 2018 by David Dayen May 2016 Articles/Documents Article: by Nancy Tengler, USA Today, September 19, 2019. Article: by Mark Gongloff, Bloomberg Opinion, September 19, 2019. Article: by Scott Horsley, NPR, September 18, 2019. Article: by By Craig Torres and Rich Miller, Bloomberg, September 18, 2019. Article: by Liz McCormick and Alex Harris, Bloomberg, September 17, 2019. Article: by Drew Disilver, Pew Reserach Center, July 24, 2019. Article: by Charlie Savage, The Washington Post, June 20, 2019. Article: by Adele Peters, Fast Company, February 12, 2019. Article: The Intercept, by David Dayen, February 8, 2019. Article: by Kathleen Pender, San Francisco Chronicle, January 26, 2019. Article: by Rebecca Burns and David Dayen, The Intercept, January 1, 2019. Article: by Andrew Van Dam, Washington Post, November 29, 2018. Info booklet: By David H. Friedman, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, December 27, 2018 Press Release: , Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve Board, October 31, 2018. Article: by Richard Florida, CityLab, July 27, 2018. Article: by Rob Wile, CNN Money, December 19, 2017. Article: by Binyamin Appelbaum and Kevin Granville, New York Times, Nov. 2, 2017. Article: by David Dayen, The Intercept, April 19, 2017. Article: by William R. Emmons, St. Louis Federal Reserve, December 2, 2016 Article: by Tim McMahon, <a href="http://InflationData.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">InflationData.com</a>, March 21, 2013. Article: , Reuters and Bloomberg News, July 26, 2006. Article: , New York Times, February 17, 1995. Article: by Henry Kissinger, Los Angeles Times, July 18, 1993. Article: , New York Times, December 13, 1913 Article: , New York Times, June 17, 1913 Resources Congressional Budget Office: Council on Foriegn Relations: Council on Foreign Relations: Council on Foreign Relations: Council on Foreign Relations: Federal Reserve: Federal Reserve Board of Governors: Federal Reserve FAQ: Federal Reserve History: Federal Reserve History: Investopedia: Treasury Direct: Treasury Direct: Treasury Direct: U.S. Global Investors: Sound Clip Sources June 19, 2019 Reporter: Clarify what you would do if the president tweets or calls you to say he would like to demote you as fed chair? Jerome Powell: I think the law is clear that I have a four year term and I I fully intend to serve it. March 6, 2019 October 16, 2019 President Donald Trump: Give me zero interest rates right now and you take a look at our numbers. It'd be the greatest economy in the history of the world. Nobody would be able to compete with it. President Donald Trump: And I fully get the whole thing, the Federal Reserve, I get it as well as any president who's ever been here. I get it really well. January 23, 2018 Joe Biden: I’ll give you one concrete example. I was—not I, it just happened to be that was the assignment I got. I got all the good ones. And so I got Ukraine. And I remember going over, convincing our team and our leaders, convincing them that we should be providing for loan guarantees. And I went over, I guess, the 12th, 13th time to Kiev. I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor, and they didn’t. So they said they were walking out to a press conference. I said, nah, I’m not going to—or, we’re not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You’re not the president. The president said—I said, call him. (Laughter.) I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. (Laughter) He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time. November 2015 Hillary Clinton: So we need to move simultaneously toward a political solution to the civil war that paves the way for a new government with new leadership and to encourage more Syrians to take on ISIS as well. To support them, we should immediately deploy the Special Operations Force President Obama has already authorized, and be prepared to deploy more, as more Syrians get into the fight. We should retool and ramp up our efforts to support and equip viable Syrian opposition units. Our increased support should go hand in hand with increased support from our Arab and European partners, including Special Forces who can contribute to the fight on the ground. We should also work with the coalition and the neighbors to impose no-fly zones that will stop Assad from slaughtering civilians and the opposition from the air. Opposition Forces on the ground, with material support from the coalition, could then help create safe areas for them from the country instead of fleeing toward Europe. September 18, 2009 Ron Paul: But, there's a moral argument, against the, the Federal Reserve because, we're giving power to a few individuals to create money out of thin air and have, have legal tender laws that says, you must use the paper money. You can't use gold as the constitution tells you you should, but you must use, paper money. And then that gives the central bank the Authority to counterfeit money, and always for good reasons, of course, to maintain a stable economy. Ron Paul: The mandate and the Federal Reserve Act for the Federal Reserve was to maintain the value of the dollar and to have full employment, and maintaining the value of the dollar means stable prices. Well, they fail. They flown, they get an AF. They're destroying the value of the dollar. And we have perpetual increases in cost of living and they say, oh no, it's not all bad inflation. We're only destroying the money at 2% per year. But it's a lot worse than that. But 2% it's evil too. You know, under sun money, your value of your money goes up, costs go down, cost of living goes down and you get more. And that's how we become more prosperous. But they have totally failed in maintaining the value of the dollar, giving us stable prices. Nobody wants to talk about the inflation in Eh, in a medical care. Yes, pricing. People are unhappy because they can't afford it or they can't afford it because their dollar doesn't buy as much. You say, oh no, we don't have inflation. The government says the CPIS only going up 1% - 2%. But the cost of medicine goes up much more rampantly. But, when you create new money, the cost goes up differently for different areas. If everybody's wages went up at the same rate as the money supply would go up, and everybody's cost would go up the same, it would be irrelevant. But it doesn't work that way. Your wages and your income never keep up and certain prices go up faster than others. Some people suffer more than people who get to use the money. First benefit. The people who get the money, use the money last, the average person in the middle class, they use the money and they get stuck. If you're in retirement, you might suffer more than others. But you know, they come up with these figures and they say, oh, prices went up 2% last month. But if you exclude for food and energy, they only went up a half a percent. So it wasn't so bad. But for some people, food and energy crisis go up and it means a whole lot. Ron Paul: And there was a time, you know, the Federal Reserve was required to have gold behind the expansion of money. So they were restrained and as bad as they were in inviting problems, they still had some restraint up until 1971. But even though the Federal Reserve Act gave the power to the Fed to buy corporate debt, they really never did that until just recently. It used to be gold and silver that they used as reserve. And then after 1971, they just used treasury bills, which was bad, but still there was some restraint on that, that depended on the amount of debt that we had. But of course, that gave license to the congress to run up unlimited amount of debt. But today what backs our dollar is derivatives. All the worthless access, the toxic access assets that we were required to buy are now held by the Fed. And we don't know exactly how much and what they have bought. And that, of course, is why we're arguing for the case of auditing the Fed. Ron Paul: The other associations that I talk about in the book are the associations with the Federal Reserve Board chairman. I've had a few of those. And a matter of fact, just for a month or so, when I first went into Congress, Berns was still the chairman. I didn't really get to know him and it was such a short period and he was in poor health. But the one that I got to know the best in our years was Paul Volcker. And, I gave him a little bit of a plus as far as the various members, various chairman that I've met because, he seemed to be more willing to discuss things on a one to one basis. Actually there was one time when we were working on the monetary control act in the early 1980s, which gave a lot more power, regulatory powers, to the Federal Reserve and to monetize debt. And I was arguing one case in the committee, that it was a dangerous thing because the Federal Reserve was given too much power to inflate endlessly and didn't have to have any reserves whatsoever and could take interest rates down to zero or whatever. And, he was disagreeing with me and he says, look, what I'd like you to do is come over and have breakfast with me. And, that wouldn't happen with Bernanke or Greenspan. They didn't do that. So I did. I went over to the Federal Reserve and we had the discussion. He tried to, you know, convince me differently, but I felt like I won the argument with them because as I was leaving, he says, yes, you may be right about this, but he himself, that I may be right on the interpretation of the legislation, but he himself would not inflate. He wants this so that he has the power to restrain monetary authorities rather than to expand monetary powers. But it turns out that yes, I said, you might not want to use these powers to rapidly expand the money supply, but someday somebody else might want to do it. And of course, I make the comment, I think that some day is right here when you see what Bernanke did, you know, within a few months, doubling the monetary base. So, his authority was getting granted back at that time. Ron Paul: He wants to know what a sound currency would look like. I think you could probably go to the period of time in the 19th century when they had sound money and gold coins circulated and certificates should circulate and could circulate. It's the trust factor that would have to be there and you could still have electronic money and whatever. People could measure the value of the currency by something that should always be convertible. You should have a gold coin standard, and that is that you don't have to carry the coins around, but if the government is guaranteeing - which they are supposed to be doing - guaranteeing that any certificate would be convertible into coin, and that's better than a --- standard, that means that if you have $5,000 and you're getting worried about the government, you get to vote against the government saying, look, I want my gold coins in my pocket. And then they then would have to give you the gold coins. Ron Paul: It's a sinister tax is what it really is. Governments: There's enough of a coalition together that wants to see government grow. Whether it's for the welfare reasons here at home, or if it's for the ideas of promoting our goodness around the world. It has nothing to do with protecting oil or anything else, but we need a military presence around the world. But if you had honest money and governments couldn't counterfeit, these ideas would still float around, but they would be forced to pay for it immediately. If we could ever get this whole notion that you shouldn't even allow the government to borrow, and they would have to tax us directly and say, look, if you want to do A, B, and C, we're going to take money from you and we're going to pay for it. This would slow things up. But there's a convenience for those who want big government to have the tax be an inflation tax. That is to vote for all the welfare programs. Vote for all the warfare programs. Don't be a responsible for this, morally responsible or economically responsible. Just pass the programs. And if you find your coalitions, you get reelected. And this is work to, you know, running as Santa Claus is a lot better than running against Santa Claus. And that's been done for many, many years. But that's coming to an end. That's why there's a difference right now because this system is in the process of failing. March 3, 2009 Senate Budget Committee Witness Ben Bernanke - Chairman of the Federal Reserve 58:00 Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): I wrote you a letter and I said, hey, who'd you lend the money to? What were the terms of those loans? How can my constituents in Vermont get some of that money? Who makes the decisions? Do you guys sit around in a room? Do you make it? Are there conflicts of interest? So my question to you is, will you tell the American people to whom you lent $2.2 trillion of their dollars? Will you tell us who got that money and what the terms are of those agreements? Ben Bernanke: We explain each of our programs. In terms of the terms, we explained the terms exactly. We explained what the collateral requirements are. We explained… Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): To whom did you explain that? Ben Bernanke: It's on our website. Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): Yeah. Okay. Ben Bernanke: So all that information is available in our commercial paper... Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): And who got the money? Ben Bernanke: Hundreds and hundreds of banks. Any bank or that has access to the U.S. Federal Reserve's discount... Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): Can you tell us who they are? Ben Bernanke: No, because the reason that is counterproductive and will destroy the value of the program is that banks will not come to the… Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): Isn't that too bad? Ben Bernanke: Sorry. Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT): In other words, isn't that too bad? They took the money, but they don't want to be public about the fact that they received it.     Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations ____________ Music Presented in This Episode Intro &amp; Exit: by (found on by mevio)

CD201: WTF is the Federal Reserve?

CD206: Impeachment: The Evidence

CD003: The Free Market vs. US

The United States appears prepared to restart the Cold War and loan at least $1 billion of our tax money to Ukraine through the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Why? In this episode, we look at what we're asking for in Ukraine in return for our generosity. Executive Producer: Anonymous  * For an excellent perspective on the Russian invasion of Crimea, listen to : Poking the Bear and : Cashing the Doomsday Cheque of . The  (IMF) loans struggling countries money but in return the IMF demands that the country change its economic laws to make them much more corporate friendly. As explained in the , there are three economic principles that the free marketeers want their target countries to adhere to:  Governments must remove all rules and regulations standing in the way of the accumulations of profits. Governments should sell off any assets they own that corporations could be running at a profit. Governments should dramatically cut back funding of social programs.  In Ukraine's case, Their elected government - an elected government that had recently  and was recently  because  - was  and it was replaced by an IMF-friendly government, which  with Europe and has promised to enact the "painful" IMF economic reforms. The new government is currently being . "You know that we resumed talks with the IMF, we do understand that these are tough reforms, but these reforms are needed for the Ukrainian state. We are back on track in terms of delivering real reforms in my country. Probably in the near future, next week, or in ten days, Ukraine is to sign the political part of an association agreement with the European Union and we want to be very clear that Ukraine is and will be a part of the Western world." -Interim Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich,  Our government is supporting this new government. Here's my answer to "Why?". Potential Profits in Ukraine The two most promising areas are in energy and agriculture. First, energy. Poor Ukraine has the potential to become filthy rich because of . Ukraine has not one, but two, big shale formations that are mostly unfracked.  Ukraine is completely   , but they have been buying it from Russia. Russia has been giving Ukrainians discounts on their natural gas that  that Ukraine's natural gas company hasn't bothered to start fracking at home. And yes, that's the other thing. Ukraine's natural gas industry is nationalized. Ukraine's natural gas belongs to the state, it belongs to the government, it belongs to the people. In fact, in 2011, Ukrainians passed a law that said that . No exports allowed. What that means for The People is that they will be able to use their own resources for energy - become energy independent, if you will. What that means for multinational fossil fuel corporations is that they  from exporting Ukraine's nationalized natural gas. According to Morgan Williams, President and CEO of the US-Ukraine Business Council, "The new prime minister says " Second, . Ukraine has been nicknamed the "breadbasket of Europe" for centuries and in January,  called Ukraine "one of the world's most promising agriculture commodity producers". The reason is that in 2013, Ukraine had their best year ever for corn. The market is practically drooling over the prospects of getting control of this land.  - the group I think is really calling the shots here - said, "The potential here for agriculture/agribusiness is amazing ... production here could double. The world needs the food Ukraine could produce in the future. Ukraine's agriculture could be a real gold mine." So Ukraine is a country with huge, untapped natural gas reserves, which can be easily transported and sold to Europe since Ukraine already houses  which transport natural gas from Russia to Europe. Ukraine is also a country with fertile land in a time when other "breadbaskets of the world" are either flooded or withering in drought. Add to that Ukraine's educated workforce ripe for corporate slavery and you've got a country that the market would love to take advantage of. This is why Ukraine is a target. This is why we're involved. What Are We Fighting For? According to a , the IMF wants Ukraine to, first and foremost, . The IMF is also adamant that Ukraine needs to e, flexible in the down direction that is. Since the IMF government was installed, Ukraine's currency has fallen 24 percent, making it the . Another goal of the IMF is to "". Ukrainian banks controlled 58% of the Ukrainian banking industry in 2010, .   include the "repeal of burdensome government regulations", "wage and employment restraint", which translates to lower wages and cutting of Ukrainian government jobs, via "reforms and reductions" in the health and education sectors, which make up the bulk of public employment in Ukraine. These new laws are in addition to the new laws the IMF had already gotten from the recently ousted government. Ukraine already reformed their pension system by raising the retirement age for women from 55 to 60, lowered corporate tax rates in 2010, laid off 30,000 public employes in 2011, and privatized Ukraine's 11th largest bank in 2011- selling it to a titanium business tycoon who gobbled up Ukraine's government-owned titanium in  that took place in 2004. Where Are We Now? It appears that the Ukrainians are screwed. The new prime minster said he is prepared to be  and he's enacting the new economic laws, full steam ahead. For our part, in our Congress, the IMF loan money is uncontroversial. Both the  which will go towards the IMF loan. Timeline of Events Winters of 2006 and 2009: Russia and Ukraine waged two "gas wars" when  and by extension the rest of Europe. July 24, 2010:  took effect, which establishes three key principles for the Ukrainian gas market:  Free Consumer Choice of Suppliers Nondiscriminatory Access to Gas Transportation System - due January 1, 2012 Horizontal Unbundling of Gas Sector - separating the gas production and marketing from the "natural monopoly" of transportation, to begin with (privatization is prohibited for transportation infrastructure)  Early 2011: Ukraine halted natural gas exports to Poland's gas company after . Early 2011:  "because Ukraine refused to remove subsidies on household gas supplies." February 2011: Ukraine became a full member of the Energy Community, an organization formed at the initiative of the European Union to extend the EU internal energy market to southeastern Europe and beyond.  of membership of the Energy Community. June 2011:  allows Ukraine's state-oil company to export Ukraine's natural gas. January 2013:  for exploration at Yuzivska in eastern Ukraine Nov. 5, 2013:  to develop the western Olesska field. Nov. 21, 2013: President Viktor Yanukovych  - in the works since 2005 - with the European Union, instead choosing to  - the country that controls their energy supply. February 22, 2014: President Viktor Yanukovych flees to Eastern Ukraine (the Russian side) . February 26, 2014: The government of Ukraine becomes , at least until the election on May 24th. March 21, 2014: Ukraine's interim government signs . March 27, 2014: The  after Ukraine's interim government cuts heating subsidies by 50%, promising to eliminate them all by 2016. Full Videos of Clips Presented in this Episode  March 6, 2014  , Spokesman for the White House National Security Council , Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Treasury  (NY)   March 12, 2014      President Obama and Ukraine's Prime Minister speak to reporters after a meeting at the White House March 12, 2014   Ukrainian interim Prime Minister   #Music Presented in this Episode  by  Intro and Exit music:  by  (found on )

CD067: What Do We Want In Ukraine?

Do you want to know where your food comes from? Well, Congress is in the process of repealing our Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) law because the World Trade Organization says our meat labels are internationally illegal. In this special episode, we take a look at the World Trade Organization: What is it? Where did it come from? How is it possible that it is determining our laws? Executive Producer: Stephen McMahan Executive Producer: Leslie Behan   Please support Congressional Dish:   to contribute with PayPal or Bitcoin; click the PayPal "Make it Monthly" checkbox to create a monthly subscription  to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Mail Contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North #4576 Crestview, FL 32536  Thank you for supporting truly independent media!  Please Support   Upcoming Meet-Ups Orinda, September 2, 2015 6:30pm - 8:00pm:  Orinda Library Auditorium 8:15pm - ?:   The Bills : Country of Origin Labeling Amendments Act of 2015   from the list of items that must have mandatory country of origin labels  from the list of items that must have mandatory country of origin labels.  from the list of items that must have mandatory country of origin labels.  for labeling the country of origin of beef. Passed the House of Representatives  Sponsored by Rep. Michael Conaway of Texas's 11th district    : Voluntary Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) and Trade Enhancement Act of 2015   from the list of items that must have mandatory country of origin labels  from the list of items that must have mandatory country of origin labels.  from the list of items that must have mandatory country of origin labels.  for packers who want to include country of origin labels for beef, pork, or chicken. Has not passed the House of Representatives or the Senate Sponsored by Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota    Information Presented in This Episode Country of Origin Labels  on the country of origin labels  related to the case the United States lost regarding our country of origin labels. Panel Members for the country of origin label WTO case:  Chairman:  of Switzerland  Was a trade negotiator for Switzerland during the Uruguay round and has been a WTO panelist since 1996    of Pakistan  He’s a Senior Executive at   for , the self-proclaimed “world’s largest consulting firm”,   Joao Magalhaes of Portugal  World Trade Organization  has 161 member countries The House of Representatives voted  to create the World Trade Organization on November 29, 1994. The U.S. Senate voted  to create the World Trade Organization on December 1, 1994. The World Trade Organization's creation became law when  on December 8, 1994.  Additional Information  on the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) : Frequently asked questions regarding Greece  wants Greece to sell of their banks, rails, ports, utilities and airports in return for loans. Article: , EurActiv.com, August 19, 2015. Article:  by Drew Desilver, Pew Research Center, October 9, 2014.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at Singapore Management University, November 2012 () Article:  by Josh Eidelson of Bloomberg, July 30, 2015.  Sound Clip Sources Panel Discussion: , C-SPAN, April 15, 1994  Ralph Nader, founder of  James Sheehan, analyst for the   Hearing: , Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, October 18, 1994  Laurence Tribe, Professor at Harvard Law School Ralph Nader, founder of   Panel Discussion: , , April 20, 1994.  Arthur Dunkel  Former Director General of the United Nations Wrote the  in 1991, a 500 page general outline of what became the WTO 3 years later “Retired” from GATT in 1993, became a “trade consultant”, and served on the board of Nestle Was a registered    Alejandro Orfila   of the Organization of American States 1953: Director of Information at the Organization of American States right after it was formed 1962: Created a lobbying firm, specializing in the interests of U.S. firms investing in or trading with Latin America 1964: Political advisor to the Director of the Adela Investment Company, the largest multinational development corporation in Latin America 1975: Became Secretary General of the Organization of American States until 1984   James Callaghan  Former Prime Minister of the UK   Andreas von Agt  Former Prime Minister of the Netherlands    Press Conference: , U.S. Capitol, January 7, 2004  Former Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota Tom Buis, Vice President of the National Farmers Union  Hearing: , House Rules Committee, June 9, 2015.  Rep. Michael Conway of Texas Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York   Music Presented in This Episode   Intro &amp; Exit:  by  (found on  by mevio)

Do you want to know where your food comes from? Well, Congress is in the process of repealing our Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) law because the World Trade Organization says our meat labels are internationally illegal. In this special episode, we take a look at the World Trade Organization: What is it? Where did it come from? How is it possible that it is determining our laws? Executive Producer: Stephen McMahan Executive Producer: Leslie Behan  Please support Congressional Dish: to contribute with PayPal or Bitcoin; click the PayPal "Make it Monthly" checkbox to create a monthly subscription to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Mail Contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North #4576 Crestview, FL 32536 Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Please Support Upcoming Meet-Ups Orinda, September 2, 2015 6:30pm - 8:00pm: Orinda Library Auditorium 8:15pm - ?: The Bills : Country of Origin Labeling Amendments Act of 2015 from the list of items that must have mandatory country of origin labels from the list of items that must have mandatory country of origin labels. from the list of items that must have mandatory country of origin labels. for labeling the country of origin of beef. Passed the House of Representatives Sponsored by Rep. Michael Conaway of Texas's 11th district : Voluntary Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) and Trade Enhancement Act of 2015 from the list of items that must have mandatory country of origin labels from the list of items that must have mandatory country of origin labels. from the list of items that must have mandatory country of origin labels. for packers who want to include country of origin labels for beef, pork, or chicken. Has not passed the House of Representatives or the Senate Sponsored by Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota Information Presented in This Episode Country of Origin Labels on the country of origin labels related to the case the United States lost regarding our country of origin labels. Panel Members for the country of origin label WTO case: Chairman: of Switzerland Was a trade negotiator for Switzerland during the Uruguay round and has been a WTO panelist since 1996 of Pakistan He’s a Senior Executive at for , the self-proclaimed “world’s largest consulting firm”, Joao Magalhaes of Portugal World Trade Organization has 161 member countries The House of Representatives voted to create the World Trade Organization on November 29, 1994. The U.S. Senate voted to create the World Trade Organization on December 1, 1994. The World Trade Organization's creation became law when on December 8, 1994. Additional Information on the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) : Frequently asked questions regarding Greece wants Greece to sell of their banks, rails, ports, utilities and airports in return for loans. Article: , <a href="http://EurActiv.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">EurActiv.com</a>, August 19, 2015. Article: by Drew Desilver, Pew Research Center, October 9, 2014. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at Singapore Management University, November 2012 () Article: by Josh Eidelson of Bloomberg, July 30, 2015. Sound Clip Sources Panel Discussion: , C-SPAN, April 15, 1994 Ralph Nader, founder of James Sheehan, analyst for the Hearing: , Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, October 18, 1994 Laurence Tribe, Professor at Harvard Law School Ralph Nader, founder of Panel Discussion: , , April 20, 1994. Arthur Dunkel Former Director General of the United Nations Wrote the in 1991, a 500 page general outline of what became the WTO 3 years later “Retired” from GATT in 1993, became a “trade consultant”, and served on the board of Nestle Was a registered Alejandro Orfila of the Organization of American States 1953: Director of Information at the Organization of American States right after it was formed 1962: Created a lobbying firm, specializing in the interests of U.S. firms investing in or trading with Latin America 1964: Political advisor to the Director of the Adela Investment Company, the largest multinational development corporation in Latin America 1975: Became Secretary General of the Organization of American States until 1984 James Callaghan Former Prime Minister of the UK Andreas von Agt Former Prime Minister of the Netherlands Press Conference: , U.S. Capitol, January 7, 2004 Former Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota Tom Buis, Vice President of the National Farmers Union Hearing: , House Rules Committee, June 9, 2015. Rep. Michael Conway of Texas Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York Music Presented in This Episode Intro &amp; Exit: by (found on by mevio)

CD102: The World Trade Organization: COOL?

Syria: We're told we're at war to fight ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State but in a Congressional hearing that took place the week before the Paris attacks, State Department officials were talking about a different goal. In this episode, highlights from that House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. What are we really doing in Syria? Executive Producer: Anonymous  Please support Congressional Dish:   to contribute with PayPal or Bitcoin; click the PayPal "Make it Monthly" checkbox to create a monthly subscription  to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Mail Contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North #4576 Crestview, FL 32536  Thank you for supporting truly independent media!  The Syria War For context and background, please listen to , from August 2013.  Audio Sources Hearing: , House Foreign Affairs Committee, November 4, 2015. Video:  YouTube: , PressTV News Video, November 19, 2015.  YouTube:  by   YouTube: ,   Additional Information Syria Map: , June 24, 2015.  Map: , U.S. Department of Energy, updated June 24, 2015.  Article:  by Elena Holodny, Business Insider, September 29, 2015. Map: , Business Insider, September 29, 2015  Article:  by Micah Zenko, The Foreign Policy Group, October 19, 2015. Paris Attacks Article:  by Ian Black, The Guardian, November 14, 2015. Article:  by David Graham, The Atlantic, November 15, 2015.   ISIS Message about Paris Attacks: "Let France and those who walk in its path know that they will remain on the top of the list of targets of the Islamic State, and that the smell of death will never leave their noses as long as they lead the convoy of the Crusader campaign, and dare to curse our Prophet, Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, and are proud of fighting Islam in France and striking the Muslims in the land of the Caliphate with their planes, which did not help them at all in the streets of Paris and its rotten alleys"   Article:  by Alissa Rubin and Anne Barnard, November 15, 2015. Anne Patterson Biography Wikipedia:  Article:  by Josh Rogin and Eli Lake, The Daily Beast, July 10, 2013. Article:  by Juan Forero, New York Times, August 17, 2001. Victoria Nuland Biography Wikipedia:  Essay:  by William Kristol and Robert Kagan, Foreign Affairs Magazine (published by The Council on Foreign Relations), July/August 1996 Issue  Music Presented in This Episode  Intro &amp; Exit:  by  (found on  by mevio)   Cover Art Design by

CD108: Regime Change

CD187: Combating China

In July, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill that would allow expiring anthrax vaccines to be given to civilian emergency responders within the United States. The question: Is that vaccine safe? In this episode, we look at the history of the anthrax vaccine and the results of the investigation into the only anthrax attack on the United States: The anthrax laced letters which were mailed to members of the mainstream media and Congress in September and October 2001. Last, an update on the current security of the United States' anthrax supplies. Warning: This episode contains disturbing information. Executive Producer: Brandon Shipley  Please support Congressional Dish:   to contribute with PayPal or Bitcoin; click the PayPal "Make it Monthly" checkbox to create a monthly subscription  to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Mail Contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North #4576 Crestview, FL 32536  Thank you for supporting truly independent media!  The Bill : First Responder Anthrax Preparedness Act Summary: .   for distributing anthrax vaccines that will soon expire to emergency responders who volunteer to accept them.   a program for tracking the vaccines.     a two year pilot program, in at least two states, for distributing the vaccines.   Passed the House of Representatives    Sponsored by  of New York       Additional Reading Anthrax Vaccine   Website: , Emergent BioSolutions.   Article:  by Warren Leary, New York Times, May 7, 1994.   Article:  by Laura Rozen, Salon, October 14, 2001.   Report:  by Barbara Loe Fisher, National Vaccine Information Center, December 2001.   Article:  by Michael Smith, The Telegraph, August 12, 2004.   FDA Document:  by Meryl Nass MD, December 29, 2004.   Report:  by Martin Meyer Weiss, MD, Peter D. Weiss, MD, and Joseph B. Weiss, MD, American Journal of Public Health, November 2007.   Article:  by Diana Washington Valdez, El Paso Times (republished on Military.com), April 21, 2014.   Report:  by Frank Gottron, Congressional Research Service, June 18, 2014.   Report:    Website: , OpenSecrets.org   Website: , OpenSecrets.org   2001 Anthrax Attacks   Article:  by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William J. Broad, New York Times, September 4, 2001.   Article:  by the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal and R. James Woolsey (reprinted by Free Republic), October 17, 2001.   Article:  by Richard Cohen, Washington Post, October 18, 2001.   Article:  by Richard Butler, New York Times, October 18, 2001.   Article:  by Debora MacKenzie, New Scientist, October 24, 2001.   Article:  by Scott Shane and Eric Lichtblau, New York Times, August 6, 2008.   Article:  by Eric Lichtblau, New York Times, August 8, 2008.   Department of Justice Report: , U.S. Department of Justice, February 19, 2010.   Press Release: , U.S. Department of Justice, February 19, 2010.   F.B.I. Document Directory:    Article: , NPR, February 15, 2011.   Article:  by Noah Shachtman, Wired, March 24, 2011.   Article:  by Nicholaus Mills, The Guardian, September 15, 2011.   Article:  by Stephen Engelberg of ProPublica, Greg Gordon of McClatchy, Jim Gilmore and Mike Wiser of PBS Frontline, October 10, 2011.   Article:  by Stephen Engelberg of ProPublica, Greg Gordon of McClatchy, Jim Gilmore and Mike Wiser of PBS Frontline, October 10, 2011.   GAO Report: , Government Accountability Office, December 2014.   Article:  by Rebecca Trager, Scientific American, December 29, 2014.   Article: , CNN, May 23, 2015.   The Patriot Act   Article:  by John Lancaster, The Washington Post, October 3, 2001.   Article:  by Paul Blumenthal, Sunlight Foundation, March 2, 2009.   Live Anthrax Shipments   Article:  by Paul Shinkman, US News &amp; World Report, May 27, 2015.   Article:  by Richard Sisk, Military.com, September 1, 2015.   Audio/Video Sources   Press Conference: , Department of Defense, (broadcast on C-SPAN), June 28, 2002.   Press Conference with Dr. Steven Hatfill: , C-SPAN, August 25, 2002.   United Nations Security Council Meeting: , United Nations Security Council (broadcast on C-SPAN), February 5, 2003.   Hearing: , House Judiciary Committee (broadcast on C-SPAN), September 16, 2008.   Hearing: , Senate Judiciary Committee (broadcast on C-SPAN), September 17, 2008.   YouTube: , uploaded July 7, 2009.   Press Conference: , National Academy of Sciences (broadcast on C-SPAN), February 15, 2011.   Television Episode:  by PBS Frontline, October 11, 2011.   Hearing: , House Energy &amp; Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations (broadcast on C-SPAN), July 28, 2015.    Music Presented in This Episode  Intro &amp; Exit:  by  (found on  by mevio)

In July, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill that would allow expiring anthrax vaccines to be given to civilian emergency responders within the United States. The question: Is that vaccine safe? In this episode, we look at the history of the anthrax vaccine and the results of the investigation into the only anthrax attack on the United States: The anthrax laced letters which were mailed to members of the mainstream media and Congress in September and October 2001. Last, an update on the current security of the United States' anthrax supplies. Warning: This episode contains disturbing information. Executive Producer: Brandon Shipley Please support Congressional Dish: to contribute with PayPal or Bitcoin; click the PayPal "Make it Monthly" checkbox to create a monthly subscription to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Mail Contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North #4576 Crestview, FL 32536 Thank you for supporting truly independent media! The Bill : First Responder Anthrax Preparedness Act Summary: . for distributing anthrax vaccines that will soon expire to emergency responders who volunteer to accept them. a program for tracking the vaccines. a two year pilot program, in at least two states, for distributing the vaccines. Passed the House of Representatives Sponsored by of New York Additional Reading Anthrax Vaccine Website: , Emergent BioSolutions. Article: by Warren Leary, New York Times, May 7, 1994. Article: by Laura Rozen, Salon, October 14, 2001. Report: by Barbara Loe Fisher, National Vaccine Information Center, December 2001. Article: by Michael Smith, The Telegraph, August 12, 2004. FDA Document: by Meryl Nass MD, December 29, 2004. Report: by Martin Meyer Weiss, MD, Peter D. Weiss, MD, and Joseph B. Weiss, MD, American Journal of Public Health, November 2007. Article: by Diana Washington Valdez, El Paso Times (republished on <a href="http://Military.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Military.com</a>), April 21, 2014. Report: by Frank Gottron, Congressional Research Service, June 18, 2014. Report: Website: , <a href="http://OpenSecrets.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">OpenSecrets.org</a> Website: , <a href="http://OpenSecrets.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">OpenSecrets.org</a> 2001 Anthrax Attacks Article: by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William J. Broad, New York Times, September 4, 2001. Article: by the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal and R. James Woolsey (reprinted by Free Republic), October 17, 2001. Article: by Richard Cohen, Washington Post, October 18, 2001. Article: by Richard Butler, New York Times, October 18, 2001. Article: by Debora MacKenzie, New Scientist, October 24, 2001. Article: by Scott Shane and Eric Lichtblau, New York Times, August 6, 2008. Article: by Eric Lichtblau, New York Times, August 8, 2008. Department of Justice Report: , U.S. Department of Justice, February 19, 2010. Press Release: , U.S. Department of Justice, February 19, 2010. F.B.I. Document Directory: Article: , NPR, February 15, 2011. Article: by Noah Shachtman, Wired, March 24, 2011. Article: by Nicholaus Mills, The Guardian, September 15, 2011. Article: by Stephen Engelberg of ProPublica, Greg Gordon of McClatchy, Jim Gilmore and Mike Wiser of PBS Frontline, October 10, 2011. Article: by Stephen Engelberg of ProPublica, Greg Gordon of McClatchy, Jim Gilmore and Mike Wiser of PBS Frontline, October 10, 2011. GAO Report: , Government Accountability Office, December 2014. Article: by Rebecca Trager, Scientific American, December 29, 2014. Article: , CNN, May 23, 2015. The Patriot Act Article: by John Lancaster, The Washington Post, October 3, 2001. Article: by Paul Blumenthal, Sunlight Foundation, March 2, 2009. Live Anthrax Shipments Article: by Paul Shinkman, US News &amp; World Report, May 27, 2015. Article: by Richard Sisk, <a href="http://Military.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Military.com</a>, September 1, 2015. Audio/Video Sources Press Conference: , Department of Defense, (broadcast on C-SPAN), June 28, 2002. Press Conference with Dr. Steven Hatfill: , C-SPAN, August 25, 2002. United Nations Security Council Meeting: , United Nations Security Council (broadcast on C-SPAN), February 5, 2003. Hearing: , House Judiciary Committee (broadcast on C-SPAN), September 16, 2008. Hearing: , Senate Judiciary Committee (broadcast on C-SPAN), September 17, 2008. YouTube: , uploaded July 7, 2009. Press Conference: , National Academy of Sciences (broadcast on C-SPAN), February 15, 2011. Television Episode: by PBS Frontline, October 11, 2011. Hearing: , House Energy &amp; Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations (broadcast on C-SPAN), July 28, 2015. Music Presented in This Episode Intro &amp; Exit: by (found on by mevio)

CD105: Anthrax

We've transitioned! The 115th Congress is finally over and the 116th has begun. In this episode, get the details on the last acts of the 115th Congress, including the play by play of the shutdown drama, and learn about the new rules written by Democrats that will govern the 116th House of Representatives.  Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links   to contribute monthly or a lump sum via   to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send  payments to:  Send  payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send  payments to: $CongressionalDish or  Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to:   Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media!  Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes  CD186:    House Rules    : Gives delegates and resident commissioners (the representatives of D.C. and the territories) the ability to vote in Congress, but only if they are not casting the deciding vote. If they are the deciding votes, the vote will be re-taken.   : Renames the following committees  “Committee on Oversight and Government Reform” will be the “Committee on Oversight and Reform” “Committee on Education and the Workforce” will be the “Committee on Education and Labor”    : The chairmen of the oversight committees need to create and submit their oversight plans to the Committee on Oversight and Reform by March 1, 2019, and then coordinate those plans with other committees for submission to the full House by April 15, 2019.   : Removes the term limit of four out of six consecutive Congresses for members of the Committee on the Budget and removes the term limit for Chairmen of any committee barring them from serving as Chairman for more than three consecutive Congresses.   : Changes the 3 day rule for mark-up notices to clarify that it means 3 calendar days excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays.   : Criminal trial evidence and transcripts will be used as evidence in House ethics investigations   : Between March 1 of the first year and September 30 of the second year of the Congress, the sponsor of a bill with 290 co-sponsors can put their bill on the calendar where it will remain until it is either reported by committee or voted on in the full House.   : Text of bills must be available for "72 hours”   : Removes the requirement for a supermajority vote to increase taxes   : PAYGO procedures for the 116th   : Starting on January 1, 2020, members of the House of Representatives will not be allowed to “serve as an officer or director of any public company”   : A suspension of the debt ceiling will be automatically included and passed along with the budget resolution.   : Registered lobbyists will not be granted access to the Congressional gym   : Limited the Committee on Agriculture to six subcommittees and the Committee on Financial Services to seven subcommittees   : No bill can get a vote on the House floor unless it has been passed by a committee. Excepts include continuing resolutions and emergency bills.   : Requires members of the House to pay for discrimination settlements for offenses they personally committed   : Creates a commission called the House Democracy Partnership, which will be funded with $52,000 available between January 3, 2019 and March 31, 2019. The commission will be managed but the Committee on Foreign Affairs.   : Creates an Office of Diversity and Inclusion   : Creates an Office of the Whistleblower Ombudsman   : Creates a Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, which will have 15 members, 6 appointed by the Minority Leader, and which will have no power to create or change legislation and will not have subpoena power. “The sole authority of the Select Committee shall be to investigate, study, make findings, and develop recommendations on policies, strategies, and innovations to achieve substantial and permanent reductions in pollution and other activities that contribute to the climate crisis.”   : Creates a Committee on the Modernization of Congress   : Authorizes the Speaker of the House to use the General Counsel of the House of Representatives to defend the Affordable Are Act in Federal court.    Bills/Laws    Became law on New Year's Eve 2018      S.2322 -    Final Vote Results:   H.R.6061 -     Public Law 109-13 -   Additional Reading   Tweet: , Jan 9, 2019.   Article:  by Eminy Birnbaum, The Hill, January 9, 2019.   Article:  by Paul M. Krawszak, Roll Call, January 8, 2019.   Article:  by John Bowden, The Hill, January 8, 2019.   Article:  by Susannah Luthi, Modern Healthcare, January 7, 2019.   Article:  by Lindsey McPherson, Roll Call, January 2, 2019.   Report: , Puerto Rico Report, January 2, 2019.   Tweet: , December 21, 2018.   Article:  by Tara Golshan, Vox, December 21, 2017.   Report: , U.S. Government Accountability Office, February 16, 2017.   Article:  by Scott Bronstein, Curt Devin and Drew Griffin, CNN Politics, February 16, 2017.   Report:  by Michael John Garcia, Congressional Research Service, January 27, 2017.   Article:  by Miriam Valverde, Politifact, August 29, 2016.   Article:  by Stephanie Simon, The Wall Street Journal, February 4, 2009.   Article:  by Randal C. Archibold, The New York Times, April 2, 2008.   Report:  by Jonathan Weisman, The Washington Post, September 30, 2006.    Sound Clip Sources Video:  The Majority Report with Sam Seder, YouTube, January 8, 2019. Rep. Ro Khanna: “People hear the word PAYGO, they tune out. They think it’s some inside baseball technical jargon related to Congress. Let me tell you: It is a very important issue. It would be unilateral disarmament for House Democrats to adopt PAYGO. The Republicans never did. They passed massive tax cuts for the 1% and they didn’t have any spending cuts to pay for those tax cuts. They never do.” Rep. Ro Khanna: "Now that House Democrats are in charge, some folks want us to limit our policies by adopting PAYGO. Here’s what it would mean: If we have PAYGO, then to do something like Medicare for All, to do something like expanding social security, to do something like a bold infrastructure plan or a Green New Deal would require us to negotiate against ourselves. We would require cuts in programs that many of us value and like. We shouldn’t do that. The Republicans didn’t govern that way.” Rep. Ro Khanna: “Paygo would be a terrible policy" House Session: , House of Representatives, January 3, 2019. Hearing: , House of Representatives,YouTube, December 21, 2018. News Story: , Fox Business Network, December 18, 2018.  Resources   Congress.gov:    Congressional Record:    Obama White House Archives:    Roll Call: [A Congressional Glossary        Vote Results: , December 20, 2018.    Community Suggestions See Community Suggestions .  Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations   Music Presented in This Episode Intro &amp; Exit:  by  (found on  by mevio)

We've transitioned! The 115th Congress is finally over and the 116th has begun. In this episode, get the details on the last acts of the 115th Congress, including the play by play of the shutdown drama, and learn about the new rules written by Democrats that will govern the 116th House of Representatives. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links to contribute monthly or a lump sum via to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Send payments to: Send payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send payments to: $CongressionalDish or Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD186: House Rules : Gives delegates and resident commissioners (the representatives of D.C. and the territories) the ability to vote in Congress, but only if they are not casting the deciding vote. If they are the deciding votes, the vote will be re-taken. : Renames the following committees “Committee on Oversight and Government Reform” will be the “Committee on Oversight and Reform” “Committee on Education and the Workforce” will be the “Committee on Education and Labor” : The chairmen of the oversight committees need to create and submit their oversight plans to the Committee on Oversight and Reform by March 1, 2019, and then coordinate those plans with other committees for submission to the full House by April 15, 2019. : Removes the term limit of four out of six consecutive Congresses for members of the Committee on the Budget and removes the term limit for Chairmen of any committee barring them from serving as Chairman for more than three consecutive Congresses. : Changes the 3 day rule for mark-up notices to clarify that it means 3 calendar days excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays. : Criminal trial evidence and transcripts will be used as evidence in House ethics investigations : Between March 1 of the first year and September 30 of the second year of the Congress, the sponsor of a bill with 290 co-sponsors can put their bill on the calendar where it will remain until it is either reported by committee or voted on in the full House. : Text of bills must be available for "72 hours” : Removes the requirement for a supermajority vote to increase taxes : PAYGO procedures for the 116th : Starting on January 1, 2020, members of the House of Representatives will not be allowed to “serve as an officer or director of any public company” : A suspension of the debt ceiling will be automatically included and passed along with the budget resolution. : Registered lobbyists will not be granted access to the Congressional gym : Limited the Committee on Agriculture to six subcommittees and the Committee on Financial Services to seven subcommittees : No bill can get a vote on the House floor unless it has been passed by a committee. Excepts include continuing resolutions and emergency bills. : Requires members of the House to pay for discrimination settlements for offenses they personally committed : Creates a commission called the House Democracy Partnership, which will be funded with $52,000 available between January 3, 2019 and March 31, 2019. The commission will be managed but the Committee on Foreign Affairs. : Creates an Office of Diversity and Inclusion : Creates an Office of the Whistleblower Ombudsman : Creates a Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, which will have 15 members, 6 appointed by the Minority Leader, and which will have no power to create or change legislation and will not have subpoena power. “The sole authority of the Select Committee shall be to investigate, study, make findings, and develop recommendations on policies, strategies, and innovations to achieve substantial and permanent reductions in pollution and other activities that contribute to the climate crisis.” : Creates a Committee on the Modernization of Congress : Authorizes the Speaker of the House to use the General Counsel of the House of Representatives to defend the Affordable Are Act in Federal court. Bills/Laws Became law on New Year's Eve 2018 S.2322 - Final Vote Results: H.R.6061 - Public Law 109-13 - Additional Reading Tweet: , Jan 9, 2019. Article: by Eminy Birnbaum, The Hill, January 9, 2019. Article: by Paul M. Krawszak, Roll Call, January 8, 2019. Article: by John Bowden, The Hill, January 8, 2019. Article: by Susannah Luthi, Modern Healthcare, January 7, 2019. Article: by Lindsey McPherson, Roll Call, January 2, 2019. Report: , Puerto Rico Report, January 2, 2019. Tweet: , December 21, 2018. Article: by Tara Golshan, Vox, December 21, 2017. Report: , U.S. Government Accountability Office, February 16, 2017. Article: by Scott Bronstein, Curt Devin and Drew Griffin, CNN Politics, February 16, 2017. Report: by Michael John Garcia, Congressional Research Service, January 27, 2017. Article: by Miriam Valverde, Politifact, August 29, 2016. Article: by Stephanie Simon, The Wall Street Journal, February 4, 2009. Article: by Randal C. Archibold, The New York Times, April 2, 2008. Report: by Jonathan Weisman, The Washington Post, September 30, 2006. Sound Clip Sources Video: The Majority Report with Sam Seder, YouTube, January 8, 2019. Rep. Ro Khanna: “People hear the word PAYGO, they tune out. They think it’s some inside baseball technical jargon related to Congress. Let me tell you: It is a very important issue. It would be unilateral disarmament for House Democrats to adopt PAYGO. The Republicans never did. They passed massive tax cuts for the 1% and they didn’t have any spending cuts to pay for those tax cuts. They never do.” Rep. Ro Khanna: "Now that House Democrats are in charge, some folks want us to limit our policies by adopting PAYGO. Here’s what it would mean: If we have PAYGO, then to do something like Medicare for All, to do something like expanding social security, to do something like a bold infrastructure plan or a Green New Deal would require us to negotiate against ourselves. We would require cuts in programs that many of us value and like. We shouldn’t do that. The Republicans didn’t govern that way.” Rep. Ro Khanna: “Paygo would be a terrible policy" House Session: , House of Representatives, January 3, 2019. Hearing: , House of Representatives,YouTube, December 21, 2018. News Story: , Fox Business Network, December 18, 2018. Resources <a href="http://Congress.gov" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Congress.gov</a>: Congressional Record: Obama White House Archives: Roll Call: [A Congressional Glossary Vote Results: , December 20, 2018. Community Suggestions See Community Suggestions . Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations Music Presented in This Episode Intro &amp; Exit: by (found on by mevio)

CD188: Welcome to the 116th Congress

Elliott Abrams

CD191: The “Democracies” Of Elliott Abrams

While the U.S. Congress remained on vacation, British Parliament was called back to debate a pending attack on Syria. We also look at some facts about Syria that suggest we might be getting into a Shock Doctrine type of situation.  Links to Information in This Episode Intro Music:  by  (found on ) Song:  by  (found on ) Buy  by Naomi Klein (Amazon)   of the British Parliament debate on August 29, 2013  of the Syrian chemical attack on August 20, 2013 Obama Administration says an attack  According to the British, there have been   of the random Syrian Assad supporter The twelve things about Syria the Assad supporter wanted Americans to know:        There is a , and in the Middle East in general Syria must share its water with neighbors:  Syria has oil reserves     Assad's  intends for Syria to become a transportation hub for fossil fuels   Syria, Iraq, and Iran signed a $10 billion deal for a natural gas pipeline that would export Iranian natural gas out of Damascus () : President Obama announces that Assad must resign The United States sanctions on Iran    around the world on behalf of the American monopoly patent holders  in their humanitarian missions    Strengthening the monetary policy framework and the financial sector 29. Notwithstanding the progress in activating monetary policy in the past two years, Syria's monetary policy framework remains rudimentary and in need of major strengthening to allow the central bank to use indirect instruments of monetary control to operate effectively in a financial system that will increasingly become market-based. Indirect instruments will strengthen the price mechanism in the financial sector, ensuring a more efficient allocation of financial resources and a proper pricing of financial risks. 30. Progress toward this medium-term goal should start by having the central bank gain full control of existing direct instruments. The central bank should have the right to decide on credit ceilings and credit policies of banks with a view to ensuring a pace of credit and monetary expansion consistent with maintaining price stability while fostering economic activity and employment. Banks have to abide by all prudential regulations. Beyond this, the role and responsibilities of the central bank and the ministry of finance in exercising oversight on the banks should be clearly defined. While the government could play a lead role in choosing the board and the management of public banks, the CBS should have the authority to evaluate and approve banks' policies, and procedures related to the credit and investment. 31. Furthermore, the CBS should have operational independence and the institutional capacity to exercise effective banking supervision. Indeed, in the absence of effective banking supervision, the strong credit growth and the rapid opening of the banking system could endanger the soundness of the financial sector. Therefore, the mission urges the authorities to: give the central bank power to: (i) address noncompliance, as well as safety and soundness concerns it may have for certain banks, and (ii) to ensure that fit and proper criteria are met in appointing senior staff in public and private banks and that credit policies are consistent with safe and sound best practices; allocate adequate resources to continue to build capacity for banking supervision; and complete the banking supervision framework including a licensing manual to ensure prudent and transparent licensing policy.  (Another article )   "Rebels"  after Qaddafi was removed from power The Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran is

CD041: Why Attack Syria?

CD160: Equifax Breach

CD178: Election Insecurity

It's law! The USA Freedom Act, which reauthorizes and privatizes portions of the Patriot Act, is being called a victory for privacy... but it's not. In this episode, find out all the details of the bill that was signed into law just hours after this episode was recorded, including how it continues bulk data collection and lets the most powerful men in the United States get away with breaking the law. Executive Producer: Brandon K. Lewis  Please support Congressional Dish:   to contribute with PayPal or Bitcoin; click the PayPal "Make it Monthly" checkbox to create a monthly subscription  to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Mail Contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North #4576 Crestview, FL 32536  Thank you for supporting truly independent media!  : USA Freedom Act of 2015 : FISA business records reforms  The government will need to provide  for the data being collected  , unless that telecom is under investigation The term can't be a ", including the United States, a city, a county, a State, a zip code, or an area code" The term must be something that  The government will have  after the bill is signed into law   Limits ongoing phone call record collection to  unless extended Orders the telecoms  the order from the government to turn over call records  if he/she informs a judge and applies for the warrant within 7 days.  , nothing collected under the Attorney General's emergency power will be admissible in court, "except with the approval of the Attorney General if the information indicates a threat of death or serious bodily harm to any person."  will be in charge of determining if the standards above are met.    a clause that lets a  a protest from a company fighting a FISA order  to any company that hands over information under a FISA order or an emergency order from the Attorney General  for "expenses incurred" producing the information or assisting the government with FISA or emergency orders  will not include the contents of the call, the person's name, address or financial information, or the cell phone's GPS location. The bill expressly says that , as authorized in by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978  : FISA pen register and trap and trace device reform   for the use of tracing devices installed to track phone numbers dialed in monitor Internet communications.  : FISA acquisitions targeting person outside the United States reforms   can be waived if the government fixes whatever illegal thing they were doing, which  Within 180 days after enactment, FISA court judges will pick at least five people  - "friends of the court" - to .   for the amicus curiae participation.  if the amicus curiae's participation is appropriate   The Director of National Intelligence  "to the greatest extent practicable" any FISA court decision that includes "a significant construction or interpretation of any provision of law"  The decision, order, or opinion can be released to the public  The Director of National Intelligence  to make FISA decisions, orders, and opinions public as long as they say it's "necessary to protect the national security of the United States or properly classified intelligence sources or methods".    : National Security Letter reform  Letters served by the FBI to telecoms that allow the FBI to secretly demand data. There is a gag order on anyone who receives these letters, guaranteeing that the public is not told and that there is no judicial review.   if the order "specifically identifies a person, entity, telephone number, or account as the basis for a request". There , preventing companies from telling anyone that the FBI is requesting the information, as long as the order also has a notification of the telecoms  and if the :  "A danger to the national security of the United States" "Interference with a criminal, counterterrorism or counterintelligence investigation" "Interference with diplomatic relations" (new) "Danger to the life or physical safety of any person"    : FISA transparency and reporting requirements  Orders the government to submit a bunch of new reports to Congress Allows companies served with National Security Letters to  approximately how many NSLs they've received  They can only report the number of FISA orders and NSLs subject to a gag order  They can only report the number of FISA orders and NSLs not subject to a gag order . They can report twice a year on the total number of orders, directives, and NSLs served   These reports are only allowed to cover NSLs    Once a year, they can report on the total number of orders, directives, and NSLs they were required to comply with to the    The FISA court, if their ruling , will have to submit their decision or denial of disclosure petition to Congress within 45 days  : Enhanced national security provisions  Emergency monitoring of a person outside the United States is  Extends PATRIOT Act and Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 provisions .  : Safety of Maritime Navigation and Nuclear Terrorism Conventions Implementation   of people suspected of trying to harm a United States ship Gives a  to a person who  with intent to damage people or property or .   Sound Clip Sources  : House Judiciary Committee Markup of H.R. 2048 from April 28, 2015 : May 20, 2015 : May 31, 2015, Part 1 : May 31, 2015, Part 2 : President George W. Bush speaks at Kansas State University, January 23, 2006. : President Barack Obama on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, August 6, 2013. : Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lies to Congress, March 12, 2013. : HBO, October 5, 2014   Information Presented in This Episode USA Freedom Act  Article:  by Ellen Nakashima and Mike DeBonis, Washington Post, May 11, 2015. Article:  by Jennifer Steinhauer, New York Times, May 13, 2015. Article:  by Associated Press, April 30, 2015. Article:  by Thomas Fox-Brewster, Forbes, May 14, 2015. Article:  by Spencer Ackerman and Sabrina Siddiqui, The Guardian, May 13, 2015.  Patriot Act Expiring Provisions  Legal Summary:  by Mary DeRosa, American Bar Association. Legal Summary:  by Mary DeRosa, American Bar Association. Legal Summary:  by Mary DeRosa, American Bar Association.  NSA Surveillance System  Article:  by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, New York Times, December 16, 2005. Article:  by James Bamford, Wired, March 15, 2012. Article:  by Aliya Sternstein, Defense One, July 25, 2013. Article:  by Barton Gellman, Julie Tate, and Ashkan Soltani, Washington Post, July 5, 2014. Editorial:  by John Napier Tye, Washington Post, July 18, 2014.   Podcast Appearance  : Effective NON-Marketing Ways to Grow Your Podcast - Interview with Jen Briney  Music Presented in This Episode  Intro &amp; Exit:  by  (found on  by mevio)  by Rhythm, Rhyme, and Results  by  (found on  by mevio)

CD098: USA Freedom Act: Privatization of the Patriot Act

Jack Abramoff

In this special 100th episode of Congressional Dish, Jen interviews , the most famous lobbyist in the world. After spending 3.5 years in prison, Jack has been speaking out against the systemic corruption he participated in during his time in Washington D.C. and in this episode, he tells us Washington's secrets. Jack Abramoff's book:   Please support Congressional Dish:   to contribute with PayPal or Bitcoin; click the PayPal "Make it Monthly" checkbox to create a monthly subscription  to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Mail Contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North #4576 Crestview, FL 32536  Thank you for supporting truly independent media!  Information Presented in This Episode Fact Check:  by Steve Contorno OpenSecrets.org:  August 18th Meet Up:  7pm:  website 8:30pm:    Jen's Recent Appearances   July 7, 2015 episode:   July 1, 2015 episode:   : The Mike Herrera Hour  Music Presented in This Episode  Intro &amp; Exit:  by  (found on  by mevio)  by  (found on  by mevio)

In this special 100th episode of Congressional Dish, Jen interviews , the most famous lobbyist in the world. After spending 3.5 years in prison, Jack has been speaking out against the systemic corruption he participated in during his time in Washington D.C. and in this episode, he tells us Washington's secrets. Jack Abramoff's book: Please support Congressional Dish: to contribute with PayPal or Bitcoin; click the PayPal "Make it Monthly" checkbox to create a monthly subscription to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Mail Contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North #4576 Crestview, FL 32536 Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Information Presented in This Episode Fact Check: by Steve Contorno <a href="http://OpenSecrets.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">OpenSecrets.org</a>: August 18th Meet Up: 7pm: website 8:30pm: Jen's Recent Appearances July 7, 2015 episode: July 1, 2015 episode: : The Mike Herrera Hour Music Presented in This Episode Intro &amp; Exit: by (found on by mevio) by (found on by mevio)

CD100: Intro to Lobbying with Jack Abramoff

CD175: State of War 

Iran sanctions are signed into law, a gas pipeline gets fast tracked through a NYC park, the Buffett Rule is (sort of) passed, a "War on Coal" is not really waged, and more from this week in Congress...   *Signed into law* Sanctions = Shut down trade in and out of Iran. People can’t get what they need, they get mad at their government, the government needs to do what we want them to do in order to make the sanctions go away and get their people to back off. What do we want them to do? Stop developing nuclear weapons (if they actually are – hasn’t been proven). Stop human rights abuses. Open their oil industry to the “free market”  Exxon Mobil, BP and others were  after we took over the country  History of Iran Pre 1951- Iran’s oil was owned by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, now known as BP. 1951- Iran nationalized their oil industry. 1953- CIA, with lots of help from the British, overthrew the democratically elected government, installing the Shah. Oil companies were allowed back in and helped themselves to 50% of the oil profits. 1979- Iranians overthrew the Shah (the dictator installed by the US) and installed the Islamic Republic, who were not US-approved and are still in power today. The Islamic Republic nationalized the banking system and imposed controls on imports and exports, reversing the Shah’s free trade policies. They also re-nationalized the oil industry. Current sanctions take aim at that nationalized oil company… Prohibits any country or company from: 1) Helping Iran develop their oil. 2) Helping Iran construct, maintain, or repair their refineries. 3) Helping Iran construct port facilities, railways, or roads that will be used to deliver their oil. Prevents shipping companies from transporting any oil products to or from Iran. Prevents insurance companies from insuring the National Iranian Oil Company or the National Iranian Tanker Company. Section 312: Orders a report in 45 days listing the reasons that the National Iranian Oil Company and the National Iranian Tanker Company are “agents” of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (their military).      Turns the Iranian oil companies into military targets.      Orders a report on whether sanctions on Iran’s natural gas could be applied as they are to oil.  Gives the Secretary of State 180 days to create a report to address Iran’s “growing hostile presence and activity” in the Western Hemisphere. Report needs to include a plan “ensuring energy supplies from the Western Hemisphere that are free from the influence of any foreign government that would attempt to manipulate or disrupt global energy markets.” Report needs to describe the terrain, population, ports, airports, borders, media outlets, financial centers, foreign embassies, charities, religious and cultural centers, and income-generating activities in the Western Hemisphere utilized by Iran. Listed countries of concern are Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Argentina, and Brazil. Four of the countries on the list have already nationalized their oil:          (happening right now)      The other 2 may be on the list because:       – President Ortega was the President the Contras were trying to overthrow. Iran-Contra scandal is when Reagan’s CIA sold weapons to Iran and gave the money to the Contras… to beat President Ortega… who is President again. President Ortega has an alliance with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.  – just elected a friendly government but also has found huge amounts of offshore oil since 2007. They might have more than us.      Passed by the House, now moves into the Senate.  *Signed into law*       Gives money to states to change their processes for licensing veterans with medical experience in combat. Money only given to states with a shortage in medical technicians $1 million over four years = $250,000 per year = $5,000 per year per state.      Passed the House, moves into the Senate.   Establishes rules for dividing the assets of dead soldiers both with and without a known next of kin. Let’s the government provide caskets and urns for dead soldiers who don’t have family to pay for them. Gives Bush Wars veterans a spot for remembrance at Arlington National Cemetery.  Passed the House, moves into the Senate.  [caption id="attachment_36" align="aligncenter" width="625"] The proposed Rockaway natural gas pipeline (Source: Williams)[/caption]  Written for the Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company (Transco). Tells the Secretary of Interior that he can feel free to give them a permit good for 10 years.  Passed the Senate; it's on it’s way to President’s desk.* *Whoopsie: the bill actually went back to the House. (11/13/2012)  Buffett Rule = rich people should pay a tax rate at least as high as their secretaries. The name of the bill is a trick; the bill adds a donation box to tax return forms. It doesn’t change tax rates at all. Passed the House, moves into the Senate.  No increase in funding through 2014. Can sell “extra” FEMA trailers to states. Provides money to modernize the “public alert and warning system”      We must conduct tests every 3 years. Communications industry will not be forced to participate.      Passed House, moves into the Senate.  Eliminates all public funding of political conventions, effective next year (2013). D’s and R’s each got $18 million this year. Currently, only D’s and R’s get public money. No other political parties are eligible. Will result in more private control over political parties. Passed the House, moves into the Senate.  Package of 5 bills; 4 out of the 5 bills in this package have already passed the House in 2011-2012 but failed in the Senate. TITLE I: Secretary of the Interior can’t issue any new regulations between now and 2014 that would:  “Adversely impact employment in coal mines in the United States”. Reduce the amount of money the government (Federal or State) receives from coal mining. Reduce the amount of coal available for US use or for exporting for profit. Protect any land from coal mining. Regulate privately-owned coal.  TITLE II: No Greenhouse Gas Regulation Under the Clean Air Act “The [EPA] Administrator may not, under this Act, promulgate any regulation concerning, take action relating to, or take into consideration the emission of a greenhouse gas to address climate change”  Repeals the mandatory reporting of greenhouse gas emissions Prevents states (like ) from adopting mileage standards that are stricter than the Federal standards  TITLE III: Eliminates regulations for the benefit of businesses.      Creates a committee, headed by the Secretary of Commerce, that will analyze how environmental regulations affect business. Eliminates some air quality rules for industrial equipment, makes the EPA start over on them, and prevents them from taking effect in under 6 years When making the regulations, the EPA must consider costs to companies and must choose the option that is “least burdensome” to those companies      TITLE IV: Gives states control of regulating coal ash.      Companies found in violation of regulations will have 8-10 years to make those changes. The deadline can be extended.      TITLE V: EPA must analyze the impact of their regulations on “employment levels and economic activity, including estimated job losses and decreased economic activity”    Numbers will be rigged    “Any offsetting job gains that result from the hypothetical creation of new jobs through new technologies or government employment may not be used in the job loss calculation." “Any offsetting economic activity that results from the hypothetical creation of new economic activity through new technologies or government employment may not be used in the economic activity calculation.” Prevents EPA from over-riding water quality standards of the states.  Also, prevents EPA from over-riding water quality standards of the states.  McKinley Amendment prohibits the EPA from retroactively invalidating permits after they have been issued. Passed the House, moves into the Senate (where its failure is guaranteed). Vacation Time Congress returned from their 5 week summer vacation last Monday, September 10th. On Friday, September 21st, they left for their 7 week election vacation. They will return to work on Tuesday, November 13th.

CD002: Iran Sanctions, the Buffett Rule, & a “War on Coal”

Cara Santa Maria

joins Jen to discuss a House of Representatives passed bill which creates a national system for labeling genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and prohibits states from enacting their own GMO labeling laws.    Follow Cara on Twitter:  Like Cara on Facebook:   Please support Congressional Dish:   to contribute with PayPal or Bitcoin; click the PayPal "Make it Monthly" checkbox to create a monthly subscription  to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Mail Contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North #4576 Crestview, FL 32536  Thank you for supporting truly independent media!  The Bill : Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015   the Federal government to require labels for genetically modified plants if the government determines there is a difference in nutrition, allergic reactions, or to protect public health.  the sale of non-regulated genetically modified plants unless the Secretary of Heath and Human Services certifies that the food is safe for humans and animals.  the Secretary of Agriculture to publish a list of and information discovered about each non-regulated genetically modified plant that has been approved for sale on a public website.   to imported food    "non-regulated genetically engineered plant" as one contains genetic material from a different species or has been modified through DNA altering techniques.  States from creating or continuing "any requirement" that is different from the regulations created by this bill.  private companies to certify whether genetically modified plants are present in food products.  a voluntary program for labeling genetically modified foods.  , the seed must not be genetically modified and the crop must be separated during growth, harvesting, storage, and transportation. For livestock, the food fed to the livestock must not have contained any genetically modified products. The labels  that Non-GMO foods are safer or better than GMO foods.    Anyone who uses the Non-GMO label on GMO foods will be . Each day the violation occurs will be considered a separate violation.   Passed the House of Representatives    Sponsored by  of Kansas          Sound Clip Sources Hearing: , House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, June 18, 2015. Witnesses:  : President and CEO Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals : Director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Biotechnology Project  YouTube:  from Jimmy Kimmel Live, October 9, 2014.   Additional Information Joe Rogan Experience #655 with GMO scientist Kevin Folta      Upcoming Meet-Up  Hang out with Jen at the   Music Presented in This Episode  Intro &amp; Exit:  by  (found on  by mevio)   Cover Art Design by

CD109: Know Your GMO with Cara Santa Maria

Need drugs? The Trans-Pacific Partnership is an international treaty that Congress needs to approve. In this episode, find out how the TPP would affect your access to medicine. Would this treaty provide you access to life-saving drugs or would it provide the pharmaceutical industry excessive profits?    Please support Congressional Dish:   to contribute with PayPal or Bitcoin; click the PayPal "Make it Monthly" checkbox to create a monthly subscription  to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Mail Contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North #4576 Crestview, FL 32536  Thank you for supporting truly independent media!  Trans-Pacific Partnership Text  , Office of the US Trade Representative, November 5, 2015.   Congress did not stand when President Obama told them to pass the TPP  Hearing Highlighted in this Episode , House Ways and Means Committee (Democrats), December 8, 2015.        VP of Global Innovation Policy,  Previously worked at the  stock market, where he created the , which keeps companies up to date on their stock prices, and the  Founder of , a high-tech services firm, and , an investment firm.      Senior VP for International Affairs, Biotechnology Industry Organization Former Vice President of International Government Relations at  Former Deputy Vice President of International Affairs for       Director of Policy and Analysis,  Former Special Advisor to  Former Human Rights Advisor for the World Health Organization Former laywer at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich &amp; Rosati      Director,  Global Access to Medicines Program      Highlights   : Forces all TPP countries to "ratify or accede to" six international treaties if they haven't done so already   : Trademark protections will be valid for 10 years   : Patents will be available for "new uses of a known product, new methods of using a known product, and new processes of using a known product."  Exclusions:  Countries can individually exclude surgical methods for the treatment of animals or humans, plants, animals, and biological processes for producing plants and animals from patentability      : Patents for biologics will be for a minimum of five years   : Copyright terms for performances or phonograms will be the life of the author plus 70 years. If the producer is a company, the copyright protecton will last for 70 years.    Sound Clip Sources   Hearing: , Senate Committee on Veteran's Affairs, May 12, 2015.   YouTube:  by      Additional Reading   Article:  by Vicki Needham, The Hill, November 5, 2015.   Article:  by Kevin Granville, New York Times, October 5, 2015.   Article:  by Dennis Wagner of the Arizona Republic (re-posted on USA Today), June 21, 2015.   Report:  by Ian Fergusson, Mark McMinimy, and Brock Williams, Congressional Research Service, March 20, 2015.   Article:  by Amarendra Bhushan, CEO World Magazine, August 27, 2014.   Article:  by Felix Salon, Reuters, December 11, 2009.    Music Presented in This Episode  Intro &amp; Exit:  by  (found on  by mevio)   Cover Art Design by

CD115: Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Access to Medicine

Matt Marr

C-SPAN is much more fun with friends! In this special episode, Matt Marr, comedian and host of the Dear Mattie Show, joins Jen at The Comedy Store to discuss three bills that have passed the U.S. House of Representatives. Lots of laughs in this one!  Please Support Congressional Dish   to contribute using credit card, debit card, PayPal, or Bitcoin  to support Congressional Dish for each episode via Patreon Mail Contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North #4576 Crestview, FL 32536  Thank you for supporting truly independent media!  Matt's Podcast and Social Media   Follow Matt on  Follow Matt on    Bills  Full Title: "Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment Act of 2017"   unless all scientific information used to justify it is published online and can be reproduced.  the EPA spending on this new requirement to $1 million per year out of the money they already have  Passed the House on March 29, 2017 by a vote of  Written by      the EPA Administrator and the States from requiring permits to discharge pesticides into waterways if the pesticide is authorized for sale.  Passed the House on  by a vote of  Written by    Written by  of Texas's 22nd district Passed the House on July 18, 2017 by a vote of   Additional Reading  Article:  by Sarah Kaplan, The Washington Post, November 13, 2017. Article:  by Chris Mooney, The Washington Post, November 13, 2017. Blog:  by Guus Velders, Scientific American, November 2, 2017. Article:  by Craig Welch, National Geographic, September 20, 2017. Article:  by Jeff Goodell, Rolling Stone, July 27,2017. Article:  by Rong-Gong Lin II, LA Times, March 1, 2017. Interview:  by Lauren Kelley, Rolling Stone, February 14, 2016. Article:  by Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone, February 11, 2016. Article:  by Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone, September 24, 2014. Report: , MACC, Winter 2010.   References  Dear Mattie Show:  Demographic Info:  Website:  Data:  Research:  Video:  Weather Records:    Visual References   - Summer   - Winter   - Annual    Sound Clip Sources House Session: , May 24, 2017  Cover Art Design by Only Child Imaginations   Music Presented in This Episode  Intro &amp; Exit:  by  (found on  by mevio)

CD162: Dishing with Matt Marr

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