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California Department of Energy Episode Florida Joe Biden LNG Media Minimum Wage Transgender Transphobia USA Today Wall Street Journal WSUM

TMI 12/27/2024 – Corporate Media Denies Success of CA’s Minimum Wage Hike, FL Dept of Corrections Uses Conversion Therapy Tactics, Biden Admin Admits LNG Is Equivalent to Coal for Climate Crisis, more

Despite full page ads taken out by lobbying groups in USA Today and complicit articles in the Wall Street Journal decrying the maneuver, the Minimum Wage increase in California for fast food workers appears to have been an unmitigated success. We look at who exactly is behind the spin and why we need to be careful who we listen to when it comes to things that benefit the working class, not the billionaires.

Next, we find that Florida’s Department of Corrections is under fire for employing conversion therapy-like practices on transgender inmates. Trans inmates report being coerced or pressured to conform to their sex assigned at birth, with tactics that include denying access to gender-affirming care, misgendering, and other forms of psychological manipulation likened to conversion therapy.

Finally, Biden’s Department of Energy recently released an updated study evaluating the implications of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. The report states that LNG export expansion would lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions, with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm emphasizing that such expansion is “neither sustainable nor advisable” for the climate. It’s the first time any US Presidential Administration admitted that LNG is NOT good for the climate. All this and more on TMI for Friday, December 27, 2024 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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Brian Thompson Episode George Carlin Immune System Jessica Wildfire Luigi Mangione Michael Moore Sicko The Sentinel Intelligence Vaccination WSUM

TMI 12/20/2024 – George Carlin’s Wisdom and Insight Was NOT Immune to One Critical Flaw: The Immune System, Michael Moore Responds to Being Name-Checked in Luigi Mangione’s Manifesto, more

In this episode, we show that even the most sacred of American cows, George Carlin, had his limitations when it came to the wisdom to be found in his humor. Jessica Wildfire’s piece at The Sentinel Intelligence takes on his famous comedy routine about germs and the immune system, where Carlin proposed that exposing yourself to germs helps your immune system “practice” and become stronger. This fundamental misunderstanding itself infected popular culture and became one of the most dangerous pillars of science-denial to be found in the anti-vaxxer arsenal.

Next, we look at Michael Moore’s response to being namechecked by alleged vigilante Luigi Mangione. Moore answered the question the media had been breathlessly asking him since his name appeared in Mangione’s manifesto: Does Michael Moore condemn murder? Going over his library of work, he cited how his entire career has been about exposing how people’s lives were repeatedly thrown away, destroyed and yes, murdered, by so many things that the American populace takes for granted, including the health care industry in his 2007 film, Sicko.

All this and more on TMI for Friday, December 20, 2024 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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Albertsons Civil RIghts Department of Justice Donald Trump Episode GOP Harmeet Dhillon Health Insurance Kroger LGBTQ+ Project 2025 Tariffs Universal Health Care WSUM

TMI 12/13/2024 – People Think Health Care Has To Be Unaffordable, GOP Officials Push Back on Trump, Dhillon is a Stealth Disaster for Civil Rights AAG, Albertsons Sues Kroger for Failed Merger, more

On this episode of TMI, we explore one of the fundamental misunderstandings about health care in the USA: that the bills we receive are the ACTUAL cost of the care. Going through a number of examples, we see that what is being billed is often ten times the cost OR MORE. Because of this deceptive pricing, many people are genuinely concerned when universal coverage comes up and they ask “HOW will it get paid for”? Taking out the need to profit shrinks the pricing to affordable size.

Next, GOP officials throughout the country are responding to the reality that mass deportations and trade war tariffs would ruin their local businesses, and have begun to push back to stave off disaster for their constituents. Then, we look at the nominee who has flown completely under the media radar who spells BIG trouble for civil rights in the USA: Harmeet Dhillon. Dhillon’s anti-trans litigation history and many other issues make her distinctly abhorrent to hold the office in charge of upholding the civil rights of Americans.

Finally, in what is admittedly a bit of schadenfreude, we look at how the proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons not only failed, but was so spectacularly demolished that Albertsons is suing Kroger over it. All this and more on TMI for Friday, December 13, 2024 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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Act 10 Cognition Detroit Episode Gubernatorial Politics Jacob Frost Jessica Wildfire Media Mike Duggan Scott Walker WSUM

TMI 12/06/2024 – Bad Media Watchdog, No Biscuit!, Act 10 Struck Down in Mighty Win for Unions, Detroit Mayor Duggan Will Run for MI Gov as Independent, more

As the Cure for the Common Media, TMI aims to be an effective media watchdog, holding it to account for distortions and omissions… which means the piece from Jessica Wildfire on how human beings associate the ones giving bad news with badness itself was deeply troubling. We go over it all, showing how human cognition often serves us poorly when the news goes against what we WISH were true, even finding the narrow balancing act that can make truth-telling effective DESPITE the tendency to “shoot the messenger”.

Then, we take a moment to celebrate that Dane County Judge Jacob Frost ruled that a tremendous amount of the union-busting evil that was Scott Walker’s Act 10 went against the Wisconsin State Constitution. Finally, we turn our attention to the upcoming Michigan Gubernatorial race as Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan was declare he will be running, but not as the lifelong Democratic candidate one would expect – he’s running as an independent! We’ll keep our eyes on this to see if he meand to be a Bernie Sanders type (yaaay!) or more of a Joe Manchin (boooo!). All this and more on TMI for Friday, December 06, 2024 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!