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Claims that immigrants take Americans' jobs, are a drain on the American economy, contribute to poverty and inequality, destroy the social fabric, challenge American identity, and contribute to a host of social ills by their very existence are openly discussed and debated at all levels of society. Chomsky dismantles twenty of the most common assumptions and beliefs underlying statements like "I'm not against immigration, only illegal immigration"...
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As the fiftieth anniversary of the first lunar landing approaches, the award winning historian and perennial New York Times bestselling author takes a fresh look at the space program, President John F. Kennedy's inspiring challenge, and America's race to the moon. On May 25, 1961, JFK made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In this engrossing, fast-paced epic, Douglas Brinkley returns to the...
4) Maud's line
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"Eastern Oklahoma, 1928. Eighteen-year-old Maud Nail lives with her rogue father and sensitive brother on one of the allotments parceled out by the U.S. government to the Cherokees when their land was confiscated for Oklahoma's statehood. Maud's days are filled with hard work and simple pleasures, but often marked by violence and tragedy, a fact that she accepts with determined practicality. Her prospects for a better life are slim, but when a newcomer...
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Is big government stifling the American spirit? Just about everyone has a reason to question how the size of our government affects the nation's economic and political structure. Is government intervention in everything from financial policy to health care rewarding the "takers" and not the "makers," stifling innovators, entrepreneurs, and business owners? Or has government done too little to support the growing poor and rapidly shrinking middle class?...
12) A duet for home
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Sixth grader June Yang and her Chinese American family move into a homeless shelter after her father's death. Resident Tyrell, who also is in sixth grade, offers to show June the ropes, since he's lived there for three years and thinks being there is much better than living alone with his unreliable mother. June is devastated to learn she isn't allowed to play her viola, the instrument her father purchased for her from his tip money, but learns that...
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Robert Greenwald's UNMANNED: AMERICA'S DRONE WARS investigates the impact that U.S. drone strikes have across the globe. Focusing on Pakistan, the film challenges official government casualty reporting and exposes the human face of civilian victims, the far-reaching implications for the communities that live under drones, and the potential for fallout if policies are not changed.
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Human Rights Watch has accused the Cuban government of systematic human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary imprisonment, unfair trials, and extrajudicial executions. Cuban law limits freedom of expression, association, assembly, movement, and the press. This episode explores the state of human rights in Cuba. Interviews with U.S. Undersecretary of State Peter Tarnoff, and Edgardo Valdes, a Cuban government official to the UN, highlight the...
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One morning in 1939 residents of southeastern Missouri awoke to a startling sight. More than 1,000 African-American sharecroppers had camped out alongside two state highways, taking a stand against the corrupt planters and marginalizing government decrees that made it impossible for them to ever escape economic disparity. Narrated by Julian Bond, this film tells the story of their labor strike, mixing commentary from former sharecroppers and scholars...
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In 2011, President Obama tested the limits of the executive branch's authority when he ordered a drone strike on Anwar al-Awlaki, an accused terrorist born in New Mexico and living in Yemen. Does the president have constitutional authority as commander in chief of the armed forces to target and kill U.S. citizens abroad, or do such actions violate the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution?
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In this eye-opening documentary, investigative journalist Danny Schechter traces the connection between corporate wrongdoing, the 2007 housing market crash, and the economic catastrophe that followed the crash. From the mysterious collapse of Bear Stearns, an 85-year-old investment firm that went under in a week, to the shadowy world of trillion-dollar hedge funds, Schechter argues that criminal activity on the part of major financial institutions...
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In response to the oil crisis of the 1970s, Brazil created a domestic ethanol industry that is now thriving on all levels-from production to distribution at gas stations to nationwide adoption of flex-fuel cars. As a result, Brazil has become energy self-sufficient as a nation. This program examines what America can learn from Brazil's agri-industrial success and asks: is the system really applicable outside Brazil and to what degree can the rest...