Black Agenda Report and CPR News: Do Americans Have No Shame?

There are many shameful things about this country but hypocrisy about its history is one of the worst. According to one researcher the United States intervened in elections around the world at least 80 times between 1946 and 2000. If the Russian government did interfere in the 2016 elections it is certainly no worse than than this country.

That was the subject of my latest column in Black Agenda Report. As always I followed up with my weekly Don DeBar conversation.

Black Agenda Report and CPR News: Obama and Clinton Brought Slavery to Libya

Such is the legacy of our first black president. Libya helped African migrants earn a living, but that was before Muammar Gaddafi ended up in Obama and Clinton cross hairs. Now these same people are being enslaved by the jihadists the United States, NATO and gulf monarch Arab states brought to power. Read my Black Agenda Report column here and listen to my weekly conversation with Don DeBar here. Don and I didn't just discuss Libya. Our conversation veered off a bit and we talked about other issues regarding U.S. policy in Africa. Sometimes digression is a good thing.

Goal of U.S. Foreign Policy is to Prolong the War in Syria

I was interviewed by Sputnik news last week as "a member of the Hands Off Syria Coalition." They added an article along with audio presented on April 9th. Read the article here.

Black Agenda Report and CPR News: Trump Joins Democrats in the War Party

In retrospect I see that it was inevitable. Whatever Trump meant by changing a relationship with Russia could not withstand the imperatives of the military industrial complex, the neocons, the deep state and the war party. The war party is an integral part of the duopoly and led by the likes of Hillary Clinton has become a requirement for accepted discourse in the democratic party.

Black Agenda Report features work from three of our team on this issue. Glen Ford, Danny Haiphong and yours truly all weigh in on the dangers that America poses to life on earth. As always I discussed this issue with Don DeBar.

Interview with Radio Sputnik "Goal of U.S. Foreign Policy is to Prolong War in Syria"

Yesterday I was fortunate to speak with Radio Sputnik. I was invited as a member of the Hands Off Syria Coalition coordinating committee. Unfortunately my references to HOSC were edited out but I think the 5 minute long interview sums up my feelings about Syria pretty well.

I don't know if Trump was ever serious about having a different relationship with Russia and eschewing regime change plots. Even if he was, the continuing charges of Russian influence, the congressional hearings and threats of impeachment have had the desired impact. Less than one week after saying that regime change was not a goal in Syria his administration now picks up the Obama mantra "Assad must go." He did not eschew American intervention altogether. The plan was to partition Syria into zones of influence and continue the practice of destroying secular Arab regimes by other means.

Now the U.S. is in direct conflict with Russia. And we are living in very dangerous times.

USA: Arrests made during NYC anti-war protest

We had to protest Trump's attack on Syria. Several hundred people gathered with less than 24 hours notice.

Black Agenda Report and CPR News: When Black Misleaders Act Like Republicans

I'm going to admit I had no idea who was mayor of Baltimore, Maryland. I found out last week but not for a good reason. Catherine Pugh is the mayor and I learned her name after she vetoed a bill that would have raised the minimum wage in that city. It is currently $8.75 per hour and the city council voted to raise it to $15.00 over a five year period.

She did so by parroting a favorite republican talking point which claims that raising the minimum wage will increase unemployment. There is no proof of this. She also pleaded poverty, that is to say that paying municipal workers more money would increase the budget deficit. But Baltimore gives tax breaks to big business and that certainly takes money out of the treasury. She said nothing about changing that drain on public funds.

I could go on, but Pugh is just one of the black misleaders, the people who use the rest of us to become errand boys and girls for the democratic party. They get elected office and other high positions and do absolutely nothing that benefits the masses of black people. They lead us to poverty and to political confusion and we must fight them before we fight anyone else.

You can read my analysis in Black Agenda Report and listen to my weekly interview with Don DeBar. By the way, Pugh's act was so awful that BAR had to do a double beat down. Danny Haiphong also weighed in on this issue.

Vladimir Putin and Climate Change

I respect Vladimir Putin for many reasons. I have defended him from the lies told by imperialist politicians and the corporate media. The war party, which is made up of democrats and republicans, wants regime change in Russia. Simply put, the crumbling empire can't sustain itself without controlling this enormous energy rich country which spans two continents. Russia has been turned into an enemy because it insists on exercising its rights as a sovereign nation. It has also stepped back into the breach and foiled America's regime change plot in Syria. That is one of the reasons it is being condemned daily and blamed for the democratic party's self-inflicted wounds.

Having said all of that, I must say that I was extremely disappointed to read Putin's recent remarks on climate change. In the past he did acknowledge that humans were impacting the climate and correctly called the situation a dangerous crisis. But a few days ago he said that climate change was irreversible and besides not caused by humans and what the hell, a melting arctic will give Russia new economic opportunities.

Of course human CO2 production is responsible for dead coral reefs and blistering heat and methane gas bubbles threatening to explode in Russia itself. But it is also important to point out that the world has reached this point because other world leaders feel as Putin does. They may talk a good game but every so-called climate agreement results in sleight of hand and more global warming.

At Black Agenda Report we have been writing about this hypocrisy for a long time. See here, here and here too. Barack Obama marketed himself as an environmentalist, but he made sure that the Copenhagen and Paris agreements gave rich nations the right to keep spewing fossil fuels. What good is a climate change agreement that allows temperatures to keep rising? The U.S., Russia, Europe, China and India have all managed to give the appearance of lowering CO2 emissions when they have done just the opposite.

I call Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau the Obama Clone because he is also a photogenic errand boy for the 1%. Under Trudeau Canada has failed to meet even the weak emissions reductions targets set by his conservative predecessor. And yes, when Trump announced he was going ahead with the Keystone XL pipeline, the phony progressive Trudeau showed his true colors and called it a good thing.

We may defend or condemn world leaders for particular reasons but in the end few of them make decisions based on the interests of humanity. Those who do are the true revolutionaries.