I’m not a sports fan, but I was familiar with the less than honorable practices of FIFA thanks to The Nation‘s Dave Zirin. Almost a year ago, the FIFA™ World Cup was going on down in Rio de Janiero, and Dave Zirin was there to cover it. He wrote a lot about the nature of FIFA and suffice it to say, it didn’t paint a pretty picture. Dave’s coverage begins here. To get to the next piece, just click the link at the end of the article.
When the story of the arrests of some of FIFA’s top officials yesterday, I immediately thought of Dave Zirin. Obviously I wasn’t alone. Since Dave was tied up with lots of media today, I did then next best thing and run the interview we did last June while Dave was in Rio for the World Cup.
Then I let Jon Stewart fill in the blanks!
Howie Klein was back with us today talking politics and music!
On the political front, it was more of our continuing conversation about why Chuck Schumer and Steve Israel are recruiting Republicans to run for Congress as Democrats (examples: Patrick Murphy in FL, Monica Vernon in IA, Kathleen Matthews in MD).
And then he told us about Neil Young’s forthcoming album, The Monsanto Years, due out June 29!
Folk legend, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and environmental activist Neil Young doesn’t pull any punches. He’s made no secret of his unhappiness with agrochemical corporation Monsanto in the past, railing against the billion-dollar GMO business and its corporate affiliates.Young boycotted Starbucks last year because, according to Young, “Starbucks has teamed up with Monsanto to sue Vermont, and stop accurate food labeling.”
Young is taking things a step further now, releasing an entire rock album dedicated to slamming Monsanto. The album is called, fittingly, The Monsanto Years It is a collaboration between Young and Willie Nelson’s sons, Lukas and Micah.
Young recently previewed a clip of one of the songs from the album, “Rock Starbucks,” according to Democracy Now! The lyrics are an unsubtle assault on the ethics of the Seattle coffee giant:
If you don’t like to rock Starbucks, a coffee shop
Well, you better change your station ’cause that ain’t all that we got
Yeah, I want a cup of coffee, but I don’t want a GMO
I like to start my day off without helping Monsanto
Monsanto
Let our farmers grow
What they want to grow
As promised, the Blue America links are here: House races, Senate races, Bernie Sanders for President, Draft Alan Grayson for Senate. Give what you can when you can!
I’ll be back tomorrow with another musical treat from my radio archives for Flashback Friday and we’ll school a climate denier, radio or not!
