On this episode, Aldous goes over the results of the 2024 Election and where we go from here. Then he takes a special look at the proposals of RFK Jr for how he intends to “improve” our public health systems, and finally we celebrate retaining Tammy Baldwin as the Senior Senator for the State of Wisconsin. All this and more on TMI for Friday, November 08, 2024 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!
Category: Billionaires
OpenAI can’t just rely on ChatGPT subscriptions to pay for everything, so they have other professional offerings, like their “Whisper” AI-powered transcription app. The problem is, like other AI Large Language Modeled apps, Whisper has an alarming amount of “hallucinations” – phrases or sentences it just randomly adds without regard to what it was actually supposed to be transcribing. When applied to medical transcription, or interlanguage interpretation, these too-frequent errors become hazardous.
Then, we look at Paraquat (frequently marketed in the USA as Gramoxone) and the fact that despite being banned in many nations around the world – including the nation that MAKES the most of it – it is still used widely in the USA and Australia. Legal challenges are coming down the pike due to mounting evidence of Paraquat causing Parkinson’s, despite the assurances of the manufacturers that there’s no proof.
Finally, we look at the Washington Post and LA Times’ sudden reversal of planned endorsements of the Harris/Walz ticket. They wouldn’t go so far as to endorse Trump, but clearly they are terrified of what he might do to them if he wins. All this and more on TMI for Friday, November 01, 2024 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!
The re-election campaign of President Joe Biden is all in on “Bidenomics” as the core acheivement of the President’s first four years, and that’s backed up by macro-economic indicators. However, that’s only true because the AVERAGE economic outlook has been imporvaed only by how much STAGGERINGLY better the billionaires are doing – most of the rest of us aren’t feeling it.
Then, we look at how last year’s eruption in Tonga is adding to the human-made climate crisis and how Montana’s courts are agreeing with young climate activists: the state OWES them a better climate future.
Finally, we look at how studies are showing the opposite of the doomsayers’ predictions about medical marijuana – it is LOWERING health insurance premiums in those states that have it! All this and more on TMI for Friday, August 18, 2023 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!
Dave Black, founder of WSUM here in Madison, Wisconsin, and one of the key people who helped get TMI on the airwaves, has died less than one year after his retirement. While we shall spend most of this episode on other topics, I refused to go further without honoring the passing of this dedicated media visionary. Thank you for humoring me.
Then, we talk about the dry facts surrounding the drought the southwest United States has been suffering though, including how it can be considered the worst in recorded history by several measures. Next, we examine how the very framework we use on a daily basis to talk about environmental issues has been corrupted for over 50 years now to shift as much of the blame away from corporate responsibility as possible. Finally, we briefly go over how for the first time, computer modeling has been able to successfully simulate the universe from the Big Bang through to its present state. All this and much more on TMI for Friday, February 18, 2022 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!
From its origins just a few months ago until now, Wordle has become the simple little online game that took over many people’s Facebook newsfeeds and more – just in time for the New York Times to swoop in and buy it from Josh Wardle. Oh, the NYT promises it will remain free… for an introductory period. Mr. Wardle couldn’t rightly turn down the money thrown at him, but wonders why we can’t just have nice free things? Turns out you can – we explain how.
Then, once the domain of governmental achievement, the space race has become the realm of – and plaything of – the hyper-wealthy. These “space lords” all have flowery language to describe their visions of the future, but a quick look at their own past and present shows that we may not enjoy the actual outcomes that result from their designs. We discuss all this and much more on TMI for Friday, February 4, 2022 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!
Right on cue, Senators Sinema and Manchin show President Biden that his supposed ability to know how to get things done in DC is sorely outdated, as his Build Back Better bill gets halted by the latest rotating villains in the Democratic Party. Then, astrophysicists were pretty dang certain they had a firm grasp on how fast the universe was expanding, until new recalculations show the cosmos spreading apart at a rate previously unheard of. Finally, there may be only one Koch brother left alive, but he and his money have been poured into higher education – not a good thing when the goal of these funds is to set up think tanks designed to show that lockdowns, social distancing, masking and more were “a debacle”. All this and more on TMI for Friday, December 24, 2021 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!
On today’s episode, we take you to Germany, where an unprecedented victory was scored by a movement of renters seeking to keep the housing crisis in the city of Berlin under control by forcing the government to claim over 200,000 rental units out of the hands of the landlords who have been mercilessly raising rents well above the renters’ ability to pay.
Then, we examine the Pandora Papers, a revelation that makes 2016’s Panama Papers scandal seem tiny as it documents precisely how the richest of the world keep their money from benefitting anyone but themselves, escaping taxation and even validation of the precise amounts of wealth they possess. All this and more on TMI for Friday, October 8, 2021 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!
Global Warming’s “tipping points” like Fires, Floods, Permafrost Melt, and other catastrophes appear absolutely unstoppable when framed with the oft-asked “what can _I_ do about it?” We show why this is the WRONG framework to use when tackling climate issues.
Then, we further go into how (MMT be damned) possibly one of the most KEY parts of solving the crisis is the taxation of the Billionaire class. Finally, we shed light on how, while it is perfectly good that Gabby Petito got the attention she did when she was “lost”, so many more Native women are lost with barely a mention in even the most local of media. All this and more on TMI with Aldous Tyler for Friday, September 24, 2021 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media.
Three favorite segments from TMI 2020:
You’ve heard how birds and other animals migrate because of climate, but what about people? We look into how the current rise of ocean levels, persistence of horrific wildfires and battering by terrible storms will be shaping where people choose to live – if they CAN choose to.
Then, billionaires get compared to a lot of naturally occurring niches in the ecosystem: predators, sure or parasites, even. However, I make the case that they are far less natural, as they get their outrageous wealth by essentially consuming their fellow human beings. That makes them cannibals.
Finally, we take a look NOT the solar year we call 2020, but the “cosmic year” – or how long it takes us to orbit around the center of our galaxy, and how things weren’t all that different the last time we were in this position, galactically. All this and more on TMI with Aldous Tyler for Friday, August 20, 2021 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media.
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Amazon Billionaires Capitol Building Attack Conspiracy theories COVID-19 Democratic Party disinformation Donald Trump Election Integrity Episode Fascism Freedom of Speech Freedom of the Press George Floyd GOP January 6 Joe Biden Kamala Harris Media misinformation Mitch McConnell Presidential Politics QAnon union Universal Health Care
TMI 04/02/2021 – Amazon Fights Unionization, American Democracy Stressed by 2020 Election
As efforts by the workforce at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama facility to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union ramp up, Amazon has been engaging in dirty tactics to frighten, intimidate and bully their workers out of voting yes. While these tactics are used far too commonly nationwide against unions. Amazon was using their immense power to involve local police, the postal service and more.
Then, we examine how the tumultuous election of 2020 has strained the very structure of democracy here in the United States, and where these weak points can cause future trouble. All this and more on TMI for Friday April 2, 2021 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!